NOVEMBER 18, 2011 - STRING ORCHESTRA CONCERTGraduate student James Hsia conducts the University String Orchestra on music from Henry Purcell's Abdelazar.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Roberta Crawford and Michael Salmirs are the founding members and artistic directors of the Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble. Their Ensemble completed its 20th anniversary season to a standing ovation this past June. Highlights of last season included the premiere a piano quartet commissioned by the ensemble and composed by award-winning composer Diego Vega as well as a very successful benefit concert for Amnesty International. The Ensemble opens its Fall season with an appearance on Expressions, WSKG's live broadcast series. As Co-Directors of Music Studios, Crawford and Salmirs, presented a series of music intensives for talented young string and keyboard players in July and August. Roberta was also a faculty member for the Graduate Summer Studies at Ithaca College. In July, in collaboration with cellist Elzabeth Simkin, Michael Salmirs performed a recital featuring works by Schumann, Debussy, and Prokofiev in Ithaca College's Hockett Recital Hall. They both look forward to a busy season of teaching and performances throughout the region.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Title: Walls of Glass, text by William Shakespeare
Christian Martin is a senior at Binghamton University in Binghampton, New York and he plans to pursue a masters and doctorate degrees in music theory and composition upon graduation. Prior to college, he attended the Arizona School for the Arts and was a member of the Phoenix Boys Choir and performed in the All-Regionals and All-State choirs in high school. Walls of Glass is dedicated to Mr. Martin's grandmother, Madelyn Marshall, as she was the inspiration behind his choice of text and setting of the music.
http://www.ndsu.edu/finearts/music/fissinger/recipients.html
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Madrigal Choir of Binghamton, the select chamber choral ensemble founded by Anne Boyer Cotten in 1978, has announced the selection of Dr. Bruce Borton as the next Artistic Director.
Selected after a 20-month search process, Dr. Borton brings a great deal of experience to the podium. He's Director of Choral activities at Binghamton University, where he's taught since 1988. For ten years prior to that, he was conducting assistant to the legendary Robert Shaw with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus. No stranger to the Madrigal Choir, Dr. Borton has sung with the group, led the singers as a guest conductor, and has served on the board of directors.
Anne Cotten didn't set out to lead a choir for 33 years. She and some friends just gathered around her dining room table to sing music they liked. After a while, they were saying "Hey, we're pretty good, we should perform!". Under Anne's leadership, the choir has premiered a new work by Alice Parker, commissioned and premiered a new piece by British composer Barry Seaman, and performed over 200 concerts in the Greater Binghamton area and beyond, including Anne's signature concert "Ceremony and Celebration for Twelfth Night." With her retirement from Broome Community College's Department of Fine and Media Arts, Anne will move to Arizona, closer to family.
Planning is underway for the 2011-2012 season, which should be announced by August.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Binghamton University Music Department is proud to announce that a Music Alum Pamela Starr and a former faculty member David Brackett were on the 2011 AMS Ballot to be voted on as Secretary and Director-at-Large, respectively, to serve on the National Board.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Thomas Goodheart will be teaching voice lessons and master classes at the following Music Festivals this summer:
-Westchester Summer Vocal Institute, an opera program for aspiring professionals at Sarah Lawerence College
-Queens Summer Vocal Institute at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College in Flushing, N.Y.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Margaret Reitz, will be accompanying at a International Spanish Music Festival in Madrid, Spain, recording a CD at Bennett Studio's in Englewood, New Jersey with the Glickman Ensemble, playing a concert at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Gettysburg, PA and performing a concert at The Mount in Lenox, Mass in August.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In May, Stephen Stalker will be at Western Connecticut State University working with the Prometheus Ensemble and Kerry Walker, flutist, recording music for flute and strings by several prominent American composers from the early 20th Century including, Charles Griffes, Arthur Foote, Roy Harris and Amy Beach. In June, he’ll be coaching string quartets at the Kent Music Festival at Colgate University, organized by the Manhattan String Quartet and in August, Stephen Stalker and Hakan Hromek will be performing a variety of cello music at the Self Discovery Wellness Arts Center in Montrose, PA.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Amanda Chmela performed this past weekend with a new company, Poly Opera accompanied by members of the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra. The program was tilted, "Mostly Mozart" and featured scenes from Magic Flute, Cosi fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, L'Elisir D'Amore, Don Giovanni and Die Fledermaus. She has a recital at the Phelps Mansion this Saturday, May 21st at 3pm featuring Ben Pfeil, bass and Pej Reitz, piano. In June, she will be attending the Voice Foundation's Voice Symposium Conference in Philadelphia and in July will attend the Somatic Voicework(TM) Level III Training/Certification in Winchester, VA
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sarah Chandler will be subbing in the Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra for their production of Cherubini's "Medea".
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Daniel Fabricius will be serving as the Percussion Instructor for the Summer Music Academy Intermediate Division Camp at Ithaca College on July 24-30, 2011. For details, visit www.ithaca.edu/music/prepdivision/academy. Fabricius will also once again serve on the faculty at the Binghamton High School Percussion Camp on August 2-4, 2011.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Robert Smith will be traveling the country trying out all of the various topline euphoniums in anticipation of making a purchase of a new instrument. Destinations will include New Jersey, Baltimore, Raleigh-Durham, Detroit and possibly San Diego.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Timothy Perry, Director of the University Orchestras, guest conducted the season finale concerts for the Binghamton Community Orchestra on April 7 and the Catskill Symphony Orchestra on April 30th. As a result of research last summer in Monte Carlo, clarinetist Dr. Perry gave the American premiere of the orchestral version of Paul Jeanjean's 'Andantino and Scherzo brillante' (Deux Pièces) with the BU Orchestra on February 23rd. He returns to lead the BU orchestra in the New York Premiere of Roman Maciejewski's Requiem on May 8th.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
On Dec. 26th April Lucas, Music Department Saxophone Instructor, began a 12 day concert tour of China with The New Sousa Band, performing nine concerts under the direction of Keith Brion. The Band was invited to China after a performance at the Mid- West Band and Orchestra Festival in Chicago in Dec. of 2010. Fifty two band members began their tour in Shanghai at the Shanghai Centre Theater, traveling to the Yinchuan Grand Arts Hall, on to Chengdu and Yaan where they did a live TV broadcast at the Yaan Basketball Stadium with two Chinese singers as their guests. In Kunming they performed four concerts at the Yunnan Grand Theater and taped another TV show. After touring Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, the Band performed a concert at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. The last concert followed a marvelous tour of the Great Wall. "The Night of Sousa" was presented at China National Army Band Hall in Beijing with 400 Chinese Army Band Members present in the audience. The Band was received with open arms, flowers and greetings at airports, and police escorts to concert halls! Playing as many as 7 encores, the Band entertained the Chinese audiences with flare and amazing musicianship. The group arrived home on January 6th, 2011, exhausted and newly educated in Chinese culture! The tour of a lifetime! The New Sousa Band tours nationally and internationally on a regular basis. They can be heard on Delos Recordings.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
