NYSCA awards grant to Harlem Chamber Players & ChamberMusicNY

The Harlem Chamber Playercropped-logo_cmny1.gif     October 21, 2015New York, New York:The Harlem Chamber Players and ChamberMusicNY are pleased to announce that the New York State Council on the Arts has awarded a grant for the commissioning of composer Jeffrey Scott’s A Hug For Harlem.The work-in-progress is based on selected literary works of Harlem Renaissance writers Wallace Thurman, Countee Cullen and Zora Neale Thurston. Terrance McKnight will perform as the Orator in the composition. Also scheduled on the concert are Stravinsky’s Concerto In E-flat (Dumbarton Oaks), Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium) with violin soloist Ashley Horne, and Copland’s original 13-instrument ballet version of Appalachian Spring. Ariel Rudiakov from the Danbury Symphony conducts the evening. The free concert is on Thursday, April 21, 2016, 7:30pm, Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center 129 West 67th St., New York, NY 10036. Tickets will be available in 2016.A native of Queens, NY, Jeff Scott started the French horn at age 14, receiving an anonymous gift scholarship to go to the Brooklyn College Preparatory Division. An even greater gift came from his first teacher, Carolyn Clark, who taught the young Mr. Scott for free during his high school years, giving him the opportunity to study music when resources were not available. He received his bachelor's degree from Manhattan School of Music (studying with David Jolley), and master's degree from SUNY at Stony Brook (studying with William Purvis). He later continued his horn studies with Scott Brubaker and the late Jerome Ashby. Mr. Scott's performance credits are many and varied. They include The Lion King orchestra (on Broadway, New York) 1997-2005, and the 1994 revival of Showboat 1994-1997. He has been a member of the Alvin Ailey and Dance Theater of Harlem orchestras since 1995 and has performed numerous times under the direction of Wynton Marsalis with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Mr. Scott is also the French hornist in the internationally acclaimed wind quintet Imani Winds.Mr. Scott has also experienced good fortune as a studio musician. He can be heard on movie soundtracks scored by Terrence Blanchard, Tan Dun and on commercial recordings with notable artists such as Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Chris Brubeck, Chico O'Farill, Robin Eubanks, Freddy Cole and Jimmy Heath, among others. Additionally, he has toured with artists such as Barbra Streisand and the late Luther Vandross.Mr. Scott's arranging and composing credits are many, and include scoring the off-Broadway production of Becoming Something, The Canada Lee Story, the staged production of Josephine Baker: A Life of Le Jazz Hot!, and many original works for solo winds as well as wind, brass and jazz ensembles. His works are published by International Opus, Trevco Music, To The Fore Music and self-published at Music by The Breadman.Mr. Scott has been on the horn faculty of the music department at Montclair State University (New Jersey) since 2002.NYSCA-Logo-Green

Tania León joins panel for Opening Night concert

Tania LeónNew York, NY September 11, 2015ChamberMusicNY is pleased to announce that composer Tania León has joined the post-concert panel discussion as a moderator for our opening night concert Saturday September 26. The concert is co-presented by the award-winning ensemble PUBLIQuartet, and is the annual showcase of the composition competition PUBLIQ Access. Free tickets are available via this link for Will Call at the concert.Ms. León, (b. Havana, Cuba) is highly regarded as a composer and conductor and recognized for her accomplishments as an educator and advisor to arts organizations. She has been profiled on ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, Univision, Telemundo, and independent films.León's opera Scourge of Hyacinths, based on a play by Wole Soyinka with staging and design by Robert Wilson, received over 20 performances throughout Europe and Mexico. Commissioned by Hans Werner Henze and the city of Munich for the Fourth Munich Biennale, it took home the coveted BMW Prize. The aria "Oh Yemanja" ("Mother's Prayer") was recorded by Dawn Upshaw on her Nonesuch CD, "The World So Wide."Commissions include works for Ursula Oppens and the Cassatt Quartet, Nestor Torres, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Koussevitzky Foundation, Fest der Kontinente (Hamburg, Germany), Cincinnati Symphony, National Endowment for the Arts, NDR Sinfonie Orchester, American Composers Orchestra, The Library of Congress, Ensemble Modern, The Los Angeles Master Chorale, and The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, among others.Her works have been performed by such orchestras as the Gewaundhausorchester, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the China National Symphony, and the NDR Orchestra. She has collaborated with authors and directors including John Ashbury, Margaret Atwood, Rita Dove, Jamaica Kincaid, Mark Lamos, Julie Taymor, and Derek Walcott.León has appeared as guest conductor with the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of Marseille, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Asturias, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota, the Gewaundhausorchester, Chamber Orchestra of Geneve, Switzerland, the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra, Mexico, Symphony Orchestra of Johannesburg, and the WaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, South Africa, as well as the Orquesta de la Comunidad y Coro de Madrid, and the New York Philharmonic, among others.She has lectured at Harvard University and at the prestigious Mosse Lecture series at the University of Humboldt in Berlin and was the Andrew Mellon Foundation's Distinguished Scholar at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa. León was also Visiting Professor at Yale University, Guest Composer/Conductor at the Hamburg Musikschule, Germany and the Beijing Central Conservatory, China.A founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, León instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series, co-founded the Sonidos de las Américas festivals with the American Composers Orchestra, and is the founder of Composers Now festival in New York City. She also served as Latin American Advisor to the American Composers Orchestra and New Music Advisor to the New York Philharmonic.León has also received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Colgate University, Oberlin, and SUNY Purchase College, and has served as U.S. Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain. A Professor at Brooklyn College since 1985 and at the Graduate Center of CUNY, she was named Distinguished Professor of the City University of New York in 2006. In 2010 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.Her honors include the New York Governor's Lifetime Achievement Award, Symphony Space's Access to the Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and the Fromm, Koussevitzky, and Guggenheim Fellowships. In 2012 she received both a Grammy nomination (for "Best Contemporary Classical Composition") and a Latin Grammy nomination (for "Best Classical Contemporary Composition") and in 2013 she was the recipient of the prestigious 2013 ASCAP Victor Herbert Award.

Bob Sherman to introduce SHUFFLE Oct 3

Bob ShermanNew York, NY August 31, 2015:ChamberMusicNY and SHUFFLE Concert are pleased to announce that Robert Sherman, award-winning broadcaster and writer, will introduce ChamberMusicNY’s October 3 concert of SHUFFLE at Merkin Concert Hall.Mr. Sherman recently celebrated his 59th anniversary with WQXR. Formerly Program Director and later Senior Consultant, he continues to produce and host The McGraw Hill Financial’s Young Artists Showcase -- now in its 38th year on the station -- and since their inception, has hosted the Lincoln Center presentations of the annual the Avery Fisher Career Grants. His popular and award-winning folk series Woody's Children, which began on WQXR is 1969, is now heard on WFUV.For more than forty years, Bob was a music critic and columnist for The New York Times and for nearly twenty served on the faculty of The Juilliard School. A concert narrator with such esteemed ensembles as Canadian Brass, the United States Military Academy (West Point) Band and the Greenwich Symphony, he sits on the Advisory boards of many cultural organizations, also serving them variously as competition judge, pre-concert lecturer, panel moderator and fundraising emcee.Co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Classical Music and two best-selling books with Victor Borge, he also joined with his brother, Alexander Sherman, to compile a pictorial history of their celebrated mother, pianist Nadia Reisenberg.Additional information about the concert can be found at  http://chambermusicny.org/concerts/

CMNY joins TD Bank's Affinity Program

We’re proud to announce a new partner in our fundraising efforts. ChamberMusicNY has joined TD Bank’s Affinity Membership Program, which provides our organization the opportunity to earn annual cash contributions. We’re thrilled with the ease of participating in this program and that there is no cost to our organization or our members. For additional information, visit your local TD Bank Store.Join TD Bank’s Affinity Program; Use code ChamberMusicNY AG085.Open a new checking account; YOU get $25 and ChamberMusicNY gets $50!Already have a TD checking account? Link to our Affinity Code: ChamberMusicNY AG085 and CMNY gets $10!

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ChamberMusicNY Announces Premiere Season Concerts

ChamberMusicNY, a nonprofit presenting organization, has announced that its premiere season will be devoted to celebrating the centenary of noted 20th century composer Benjamin Britten. In four concerts, ChamberMusicNY (CMNY) will present Britten’s complete published string quartets, with the final concert acting as a mini-marathon event: a three-hour, two-intermission performance of all seven quartets.

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