ChamberMusicNY Announces Launch of its 2016-17 SeasonPremiere Performances and an Invitation to Journey “Toward the Sea”For Immediate Release: July 29, 2016, New York: ChamberMusicNY, a non-profit presenter of live chamber music, is pleased to announce their 2016-17 season, consisting of eclectic and extraordinary artists, New York premieres, and thrilling, experimental performances.The fourth season begins with Opening Night at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the NYPL for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, Dorothy and Louis B. Cullman Center on Saturday October 22, 2016, with flautist Catherine Gregory and harpist Mélanie Genin performing their unique homage to one of the greatest American novels, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.“Toward the Sea” begins as soon as the audience enters, immediately immersed in an interactive pre-show. This leads seamlessly to the continuous performance, which intertwines passages from the novel, images, ambient sounds, and of course, musical works selected from the nineteenth and twentieth century. The anchor piece, Toward the Sea, meditates on the themes of the sea, voyage and the rumination of the soul.The full program includes:Pearls Of The Sea, for bass flute and harp (2005) Eve de Castro RobinsonTaheke for flute and harp, (2003) Gareth Farr The Song Of The Lark, for flute and harp, (1989) Charles Rochester YoungAprès un rêve, (1878) Gabriel Fauré Toward The Sea III for alto flute and harp (1989) Toru TakemitsuOn Thursday, April 27, 2017, ChamberMusicNY and American Modern Ensemble return to Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center for “Voice Of America,” a program of select arias from the sexy opera Three Way by composer Robert Paterson and librettist David Cote; plus more vocal music by Robert Beaser, David Conte, Dan Welcher, Keith Fitch and Robert Paterson.This concert also features the New York Premiere of In Real Life, by Robert Paterson, featuring soprano Marnie Breckenridge, who previously amazed the audience in last season's AME concertChamberMusicNY closes the season on Saturday, April 29, 2017, with a return to Bruno Walter Auditorium and a lively, raucous performance by the exciting flute and piano ensemble RighteousGIRLS, who engage audiences with their charged music and effects for a night of fun.As RighteousGIRLS, New York-based flutist Gina Izzo and pianist Erika Dohi “rattle speakers and expectations with stop-time razzle, vocal (flute-talk) and electronic (phaser) effects” (NYC Jazz Record) while continually expanding their creative reach by bringing 21st-century music to new audiences and commissioning works that root themselves in classical idioms and drawing from other genres.About ChamberMusicNY:Established new-music ensembles, world premiere commissions, and New York’s emerging classical performers are all part of the excitement of a ChamberMusicNY concert. From the organization’s Britten Centenary marathon in 2013 to this season’s six concert series, ChamberMusicNY presents small ensembles in New York’s premier halls… free.ChamberMusicNY distributes free tickets to audiences that may be unfamiliar with live chamber music as well as those who cannot afford to attend often prohibitively expensive NYC-area concerts. This programming is made possible with the help of community programs including Goddard Riverside Community Center, USO-Metropolitan NY, Third Street Music School Settlement, Greenwich House, the YM-YWHA of Washington Heights/Inwood, Fountain House, JCC Manhattan and others.More information is available at http://chambermusicny.org.###
NYSCA awards grant to Harlem Chamber Players & ChamberMusicNY
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.