Archived News and Events

Darleen Mitchell's "Antiphonal Dreams" for euphonium and marimba will be performed by director of percussion studies, Dr. Joseph Van Hassel, marimba, and Dr. Joanna Ross Hersey, euphonium.

Dr. Joanna Ross Hersey, faculty tuba / euphonium recital; with Dr. Joseph Van Hassel, marimba

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2016 - 7:30 PM

University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Moore Hall Auditorium
Pembroke, NC

Joseph Van Hassel, percussionist

Joseph Van Hassel is a North Carolina-based percussionist specializing in orchestral and chamber music. Performance highlights include Carnegie Hall, the Cincinnati MusicNow Festival, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the International Tuba Euphonium Conference, and the Hindemith Center in Switzerland. He has performed with numerous orchestras and big bands throughout the USA, and on tour with the 2008 Juniper Chamber Music Festival. A versatile artist in many genres, Joseph has performed or recorded with the Percussion Group Cincinnati, Roland Vazquez, Bernard Woma, and the Ethos Percussion Group. He has worked with numerous composers in the performance of their music, including Steve Reich, Joseph Schwantner, William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon, Elliot Cole, and John Corigliano. Active in the performance of new repertoire, Joseph has individually commissioned and premiered works by many composers, and is especially noted for his close working relationships with David Macbride, Stuart Saunders Smith, and Dan VanHassel. He can be heard on recordings for the Innova, Mode, Equilibrium, nobrow.sounds, and Ohio Percussion record labels, and his solo CD of percussion commissions is available on Soundset Recordings. He is published in Percussive Notes, and his compositions are published by Media Press and PerMus.

Concert 1: December 6, 2016

New York Composers Circle season begins
Saint Peters Church, 54th Street and Lexington Avenue

Jos Bevi, Trio No. 4 Al Borde del Abismo
Dana Dimitri Richardson, Variations on Parang-Sae
Raoul Pleskow, Quartet for clarinet, violin, cello and piano
Robert Cohen, Calders Circus
Susan J. Fischer, Twilight
Madelyn Byrne, Rain, Sea and Sky
David Mecionis, Obstinate Duet
Hubert Howe, Inharmonic Fantasy No. 5
Tania Len, Axon
Richard Brooks - Troubles for saxophone and piano

Additional 2017 NYCC concerts upcoming will be Feb. 21 and April 18th

Brian Schober's opera/monodrama White Witch will be performed at Roulette in Brooklyn on December 8 at 8 p.m. as part of the World Music/Interpretations Series. This work was premiered two years ago at Symphony Space. Based on a libretto by Joan Ross Sorkin, White Witch presents a story of voodoo, murder, and revenge, scored for soprano and percussion. Based on the 19th century Jamaican legend of Annie Palmer, a white woman notoriously known as The White Witch of Rose Hall.

If you did not catch it then, or would like to see it again, this is your chance! The title role will be sung by Blythe Gaissert with percussion accompaniment by Jared Soldiviero.

Roulette is located at 509 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn and is convenient to many transit lines. Tickets are $20 general and $15 members, students and seniors. Venue information here.

Flora Konzert 01 - part of the Grzenich Orchester Kln's Chamber Concert series for this season - will present Ein Stelldichein, (A Rendezvous) a work by Karl Weigl for voice with strings, with poetry by Richard Dehmel. Also on the program will be Schoenberg's Verklrte Nacht (poetry also by Richard Dehmel) and Streichsextett No. 2 in G major by Brahms.

The 2016 Atlanta Music Festival will be November 14-18, 2016. Comprising several events devoted to advancing relations among the races through the arts, the Festival will culminate in a gala concert featuring opera star Jessye Norman at Glenn Memorial Auditorium on the Emory University campus, Friday, November 18, 7:00 PM. Tickets are $25 and $18.

Excerpts from the opera Frederick Douglass, by Dorothy Rudd Moore will be performed, as well as the string quartet GRACE by T.J. Anderson, originally composed for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane and Company, in 1994.

Having conquered the stages of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Opera as well as the great houses of Europe, and won five Grammy awards, the National Medal of Arts, France's Lgion d'honneur, as well as 40 honorary doctorates, Jessye Norman is one of the greatest and most celebrated classical singers of our time. Also featured in the concert are Pultizer Prize winning civil rights scholar Taylor Branch, Atlanta tenor Timothy Miller, the Morehouse and Spelman College Glee Clubs, and the Meridian Chorale. Dwight Andrews is artistic director and Steven Darsey is music director.

The final work of the evening will be an anthem arranged by the renowned composer Adolphus Hailstork. Scored for choirs, soloists, and orchestra, it will conclude with the audience joining the performers in singing words inspired by President Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union": "We will be each other's keeper there, in a land where all are free; where equality and justice rule, we will write our destiny."

Jessica Usherwood to present first voice faculty recital at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessese on Oct. 23, with pianist Bernadette Lo. American songs by Andre Previn, Gwyneth Walker, Lori Laitman, Ricky Ian Gordan, and H. Leslie Adams. Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016 at Guery Auditorium. Free and open to the public.

The Rodland viola/organ duo - Carol Rodland, viola; Catherine Rodland, organ will give a recital in Finney Chapel at Oberlin College, on June 11, 2016, as part of the American Viola Society Festival 2016. Included in the performance will be their commissioned works, Ballast by David Liptak, and Concertpiece by John Weaver.

On September 6th, Composer-Pianist Steven Christopher Sacco will release a new recording of his Sonata for Trombone and Piano, featuring the composer as pianist with trombonist Michael Powell. The track is now available for pre-release on iTunes, Amazon.com, YouTube, and CD Baby. Short excerpt:

The Sonata for Trombone and Piano was composed in 2007 for the great American trombonist Michael Powell. The piece is in three movements: Elegy I, Elegy II and Fantasy, which are linked together consecutively in the digital download file. The Sonata is the final work in a series of pieces for brass that began with Quintet (2003), followed by Elegy for 12 Brass Instruments (2004), Sonatina for Two Trumpets and Piano (2005), and Sonata for Bass Trombone and Piano (2006).

The music is fundamentally lyrical, with a strong sense of harmonic progression and form. Each movement uses simple forms, clean lines, and exact rhythms. Often the rhythmic complexity is attributed to the use of polyrhythms and broken tuplets. This can make the notation appear difficult at times, but the sound is true. This insures that the lines sing as they should.

Since 1983 Michael Powell has been a member of the celebrated American Brass Quintet. In New York City he performs and records regularly with the Orchestra of St. Lukes, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Little Orchestra Society. Mr. Powell has performed as soloist with the Orchestra of St. Lukes, Kansas City Philharmonic, the Aspen Music Festival, and the New Hampshire Music Festival. He also records for radio, television, and cinema, and has appeared on over sixty recordings as trombonist. Mr. Powell has commissioned, premiered, and recorded trombone works by Eric Ewazen, Robert Martin, Steven Sacco, and David Sampson. He is on the faculties of The Juilliard School, SUNY at Stony Brook, and the Aspen Music School.

The American composer Steven Sacco was born in Brooklyn, New York. His work is performed internationally by some of todays leading soloists and ensembles. Critics praise him for writing absorbing, poetic and passionate music that easily engages the sympathies and attention of a concert audience. Highlights from past performances include: American Brass Quintet, Aspen Summer Music Festival, Australian Brass Quintet, Czech Nonet, Deal Summer Music Festival (UK), Juliana Gondek, Steven Isserlis, The Juilliard School, Speculum Musicae, Tanglewood Summer Music Festival, The United States Army Band Pershings Own, among others. Sacco teaches composition at Mannes in New York City. He holds a doctorate from Columbia University, a M.F.A. from Princeton University, and a bachelors degree from The Juilliard School. Audio recordings of his work are available on the Summit and Navona labels. His music is published by American Composers Edition (BMI) and Hickman Music Editions.

Best price purchase here

IN/TER\SECT gives New Yorkers the rare opportunity to experience some of the best players in jazz and classical music, all under one bill. This Friday, Ethan Iverson (set begins at 9pm) will perform Hall Overton's Piano Sonata No. 1 among many other works. With five ensembles each night -- including internationally renowned veterans such as Chris Potter, Andy Akiho, Dan Tepfer and Ethan Iverson, as well as many of NYC's most talented and exciting up-and-coming artists. The three-evening series features standards and new works, including commissions and world premieres, and is produced with Chamber Music America and curated by composer and saxophonist Patrick Zimmerli.

Bryant Park is situated behind the New York Public Library in midtown Manhattan, between 40th and 42nd Streets & Fifth and Sixth Avenues.Subway B, D, F, or M train to 42nd Street/Bryant Park or the 7 train to 5th Avenue.

Program:

Heliotrope Bouquet (1907) Scott Joplin
Little Joe From Chicago (1939) Mary Lou Williams
Carolina Shout (1918) James P. Johnson

The 50th Season of the Bar Harbor Music Festival will take place from July 3-31 in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Wednesday, July 13 at 8:00 p.m.
33rd Annual "NEW COMPOSERS" CONCERT
"Summer Sounds"
NORTH/SOUTH CONSONANCE DUO
CLAUDIA SCHAER, VIOLINIST
MAX LIFCHITZ, PIANIST

Music by Luciano Berio, Augusta Read Thomas, Muhly, Max Lifchitz, Daria Semegen, and Edmund Cionek (world premiere).
Music for Solo Violin by Daria Semegen will be performed by Claudia Schaer.
Bar Harbor Congregational Church, 29 Mount Desert Street
The audience is cordially invited to a reception following the concert at the Argosy Gallery II, 6 Mount Desert Street, to meet the Artists and Composers.

Saturday, July 23 at 8:00 p.m.
MARGARET MILLS, PIANIST
JEFFREY ELLENBERGER, VIOLINIST
ROBERT TENNEN, CELLIST
Music by Ruth Schonthal, Miriam Gideon, Charles Griffes, Charles Ives, and Amy Beach.

Pianist Margaret Mills will perform "Of Shadows Numberless" by Miriam Gideon, based on Keats' Ode To A Nightingale.

Bar Harbor Congregational Church, 29 Mount Desert Street