Spring 2009

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Seating is limited. Reservations are required.
To reserve: visit www.gc.cuny.edu/events and click the icon next to the program listing, or call 212-817-8215. Unclaimed reservations will be available to a standby line at the concerts on a first-come, first-served basis.

Elebash Recital Hall
The Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), New York City

Thursdays 1:00–2:00 PM

Music in Midtown is a series of free lunchtime concerts spotlighting the highly regarded musical performance program at the CUNY Graduate Center. Presented in the warm, intimate, acoustically rich Elebash Recital Hall, performances feature the music program’s renowned faculty, outstanding professional musicians selected from among the program’s doctoral students, and noted guest artists. Some concerts are followed by a master class, which the public is invited to observe.

Presented by the Graduate Center’s Doctoral Program in Musical Arts Performance.
To be notified of future music programs:
212-817-8607 or phd-dmaconcert@gc.cuny.edu.

February 19
Chamber Music on Fifth

Traverso for flute and piano (1987).........................Chester Biscardi (b. 1948)
Roberta Michel, flute; Mirna Lekic, piano

Chansons Madécasses (1926)....................................Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
"Songs of Madagascar," text by Evariste Parny
Roz Woll, mezzo soprano; Bonnie McAlvin, flute;
Julia Biber, cello; Aleksandra Sarest, piano

String Quartet No. 8 in E Minor op. 59 no. 2...............Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
The Elebash String Quartet
Olivier Fluchaire, violin; Heesun Shin, violin; Ji Hyun Son, viola; Marta Bedkowska, cello

These ten gifted and accomplished performers came from all over the world to pursue their D.M.A. degrees in the music performance program at the Graduate Center and study with the program's renowned teaching artists. They earned their master's degrees from prestigious music institutions including Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College The New School for Music, McGill University, and SUNY-Purchase. Individually, their professional experience includes participation in notable chamber music festivals in the United States and abroad, and appearances as soloists and as symphonic players in orchestras around the world, among them the Aspen Chamber Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, the United Europe Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia del Teatro della Scala, Opera da Camera di Milano, Orchestra Stabile Gaetano Donizetti, Polish Sinfonietta, Fryderyk Chopin Music University Symphony Orchestra, and the Seoul Philharmonic. Their excellence has been recognized in important competitions and the grants and fellowships awarded them. These fine performers are also currently serving on the music faculty at CUNY colleges and elsewhere.

March 5
Imani Winds

Valerie Coleman, flute
Torin Spellam-Diaz, oboe
Mariam Adam, clarinet
Jeff Scott, French horn
Monica Ellis, bassoon

Music in Midtown presents Imani Winds in collaboration with the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series, as part of Carnegie Hall's citywide festival Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy curated by internationally renowned soprano Jessye Norman.
The Neighborhood Concert Series is a program of The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall.

Sneak Preview of Five Chairs and a Table...................Daniel Bernard Roumain (b. 1971)

The Imani Winds is in the midst of its Legacy Commissioning Project, an ambitious five-year endeavor in the Grammy-nominated quintet's second decade of music making. Daniel Bernard Roumain's new piece, Five Chairs and a Table, portrays a brief history of African and African-American song and struggle and includes brief musical portraits dedicated to Jessye Norman, South African singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba (1932–2008), the folk singer Odetta (1930–2008), and the daughters of Barack and Michelle Obama, Malia and Sasha. With this work, Roumain aimed to nudge the boundaries of the traditional woodwind quintet and "illuminate those obvious, yet elusive, opportunities for all of us to sit next to one another in communion." The sneak preview includes a discussion of the new work and the commissioning process. This concert is cosponsored by Carnegie Hall, which commissioned the Roumain composition as part of its festival Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy which runs from March 4 to 23. The official premiere will be presented during Expression: A Panel Discussion on March 8 in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. For more information, visit www.carnegiehall.org/honor.

March 19
American Spirituals with Roy Jennings

Roy Jennings, piano
Nadine Earl Carey, soprano
Terry Cook, bass baritone
Yvonne Hatchett, contralto
Camilla Johnson, soprano
H. Roz Woll, mezzo soprano

This program features a new perspective on some traditional favorites by composer and pianist Roy Jennings.

The arrangements include Deep River, Round About the Mountain, Oh Freedom, Take Me to the Water, Balm in Gilead, Hush Hush, I Want Jesus To Walk with Me, He Had a Dream, Let Us Break Bread Together, and Ride Up in the Chariot.

Jennings, who has served as organist at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, has been reworking the genre of the American spiritual, employing an astounding harmonic palette that transforms these familiar works. Mr. Jennings is the artistic director of Arch Angel, a production company using performance, education, and publishing to promote African-American concert music.

Jennings's works, along with some familiar favorites in the genre, will be performed by an impressive array of renowned artists.

April 2
Mari Kimura, violin

Works for violin and recorded sounds or interactive electronics. The composers will be present.

One Becomes Two......................................................Steve Antosca (b. 1955)
Rendezvous IV for violin and live electronics...........Steve Everett (b. 1953)
Perdirome II...............................................................Tolga Yayalar (b. 1973)
Kyrielle........................................................................Alice Shields (b. 1942)
Phantom......................................................................Mari Kimura (b. 1962)

Mari Kimura is widely admired for her revolutionary bowing technique called "Subharmonics" and for her solo performances of diverse programs including her works with interactive computer music; and she has been hailed by the New York Times as "a virtuso playing at the edge," and by All Music Guide as the "plugged-in Paganini for the digital age." She has won numerous awards both in her native Japan and the United States and has been invited to international festivals around the world. Last summer, in performance with the Tokyo Symphony at Suntory Hall, she gave the world premiere of Schemes, for violin and orchestra, written for her by Jean-Claude Risset, with her own cadenza. She recently released Polytopia (Bridge Records), her highly acclaimed album for solo violin and electronics. Her numerous radio and TV appearances include CNN's Headline News, NY1 News, NHK radio in Japan, and WNYC-FM's "Around New York." Ms. Kimura holds a doctorate in performance from Juilliard, and gives lectures in universities and conservatories throughout the world.

This special concert is part of the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival.

April 30
Orion String Quartet

Daniel Phillips, violin
Todd Phillips, violin
Steven Tenenbom, viola
Timothy Eddy, cello

Italian Serenade......................................................Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)
Astral Quartet (2008)*.............................................David Dzubay (b.1964)
*New York City premiere
Quartet in D Major op. 44 no. 1................................Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)

The Orion String Quartet is one of the most sought-after ensembles in the United States. Since its inception, the Quartet has been consistently praised for the fresh perspective and individuality it brings to performances, offering diverse programs that juxtapose classic works of the standard quartet literature with masterworks by living composers. They remain on the cutting edge of programming with their wide-ranging commissions from composers Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Peter Lieberson, Marc Neikrug, and Wynton Marsalis, and enjoy a creative partnership with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

The Orion serves as Quartet-in-Residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and New York's Mannes College of Music and is the Resident Quartet at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

"A noisy standing ovation is nothing rare, and these players certainly deserved theirs after the stellar performance. But silence can be an even better indicator of a powerful performance... after the Adagio in the Mendelssohn, the musicians managed to seduce the rustling, coughing, whispering audience into utterly silent awe."              — The New York Times, 2007

May 14
Manhattan String Quartet

Eric Lewis, violin
Calvin Wiersma, violin
John Dexter, viola
Chris Finckel, cello

String Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 130................................Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

Described by The Boston Globe as "a national treasure," the Manhattan String Quartet has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico and South America. After a series of concerts in Moscow and Leningrad in the fall of 1985, the MSQ became the first American classical ensemble to give a full tour of the Soviet Union under that era's new cultural agreement. The first sold-out series of performances in 1986 was followed by an equally successful tour in 1989. The MSQ also had the honor of hosting the Taneyev String Quartet for its United States debut in 1987.

The group has been Quartet-in-Residence at Colgate University for the past sixteen years, and has also held similar posts at the Manhattan School of Music, Cornell University, Grinnell College, Western Connecticut State University, the Chamber Music Institute in Racine, Wisconsin, and Michigan's Interlochen National Music Camp (for twenty-one summers). The Quartet's teaching activities also include its own annual Kent Music String Quartet Conference in June, and annual European conferences focusing on major works in the string quartet repertoire hosted in the cities where these pieces were composed.

Presented by the Graduate Center’s Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) music performance program