This season's first NYCC concert is tomorrow, Tuesday Tuesday, October 19, 2010 @ 8pm
Saint Peters Church at Citigroup Center
Lexington & 54th Street
$20 suggested donation, payable at the door
Please join us as we enjoy these compositions!
Richard Brooks Impressions, Two Songs on poems of Oscar Wilde, for high voice and piano
Don Hagar Four Songs Old and New, for tenor and piano
Martin Halpern The Testament of Koheleth, for baritone and piano
Debra Kaye Finding Accord, for piano trio
Eugene McBride Chancy, for violin and cello
Christopher Montgomery Grasping the Present, for cello
Frank Retzel Three Songs of Seamus Heaney, for soprano and piano
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Our next SUNDAY SALON is Sunday, October 24, at 2:00 pm, at Eugene McBride's apartment in the Manhattan Plaza, 484 W. 43rd St., apt. 14M. (Thanks to Gene for hosting the event!)
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RICHARD D. RUSSELL will have three pieces performed on October 24, 2010 at the Bell and Barter Theater in Rockaway, NJ: A Poe Fantasia (which has been presented by the NYCC in the past) and two premieres: Eldorado and Annabel Lee for voice and piano trio. Details are at inmidairproductions.wordpress.com. All of the day's pieces will have a theme tied in with Edgar Allan Poe, including the premiere of a mini-opera, The Tell Tale Heart by Robert W. Butts. The concert starts at 3pm, and tickets are available for $15 by emailing your total tickets desired to: seasonal.sunday.salons@gmail.com. Tickets at the door are $25, so save $10 by registering early! A wine and cheese reception is included in the ticket's cost.
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Two new chamber operas by MARTIN HALPERN, The Sacrificed and The Sacrificer, will have world premiere productions at the New York New Church, 114 East 35th Street, Manhattan, on October 28, 29 and 30, 2010. All performances start at 8 PM.
Freely based on Euripides' plays Alcestis and Iphigenia in Tauris, the operas explore the theme of human sacrifice in contrasting ways. In the first, it is presented as a virtuous and noble act for the common good; in the second, as an expression of religious fanaticism resembling present-day terrorist practices.
Featured in the cast of The Sacrificed are soprano Nancy Loesch as Alcestis, tenor Aram Tchobanian as her husband Admetus, and baritone Jim Trainor as Charon, ferryman of the dead to Hades. In The Sacrificer, soprano Judith Barnes is featured as Iphigenia, baritone Jim Trainor as King Thoas, tenor Blake Friedman as Orestes, and mezzo-soprano Shirley Perkins as the goddess Artemis. The pianist for both operas is Earl Buys.
Stage direction is by Sonya Baehr, and music direction by the composer.
Tickets, at $20, can be reserved online at www.theatermania.com or by calling Theater Mania at 212-352-3101.
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The New York Composers Circle is proud to announce the winner of its fourth annual Composers' Competition: SCOTT D. MILLER, for his composition "Polychrome Stride," for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. The work will be performed at the NYCC's fourth and final concert of the season, at 7:30 P.M. on Saturday, June 4th, 2011, at the Symphony Space Thalia, Broadway and 95th St.
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TAMARA CASHOUR's previously announced engagement of November 14 has been canceled, but she writes that she will participate as a reader in Truman State University's upcoming: Composing Women: Truman State University's 16th Annual Womens and Gender Studies Conference, held in Kirksville, MO from October 27-30. Tamara's paper is entitled: A Feminist Aesthetic Platform for Opera: Deconstructing Poulenc-Cocteau's THE HUMAN VOICE. The paper will detail Tamara's deconstructionist production of the sung monodrama LA VOIX HUMAINE, which she produced at NYC's Wings Theatre in conjunction with her M.A. studies at NYU in opera production/feminist avant-garde theatre techniques. Scenes from the production will also be shown in conjunction with the reading. Tamara's work in deconstructionist staging techniques will form the basis for her new opera company: OperAVANT, Inc.; an inaugural concert is scheduled for November 21st @ 5 p.m. as part of the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church's THE ROBINSON HOUR (New Hyde Park, Long Island); more info in a later IN THE LOOP.
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EUGENE MARLOW, NYCC Membership Director, is pleased to announce the release of "Celebrations: The Heritage Ensemble Interprets Festive Melodies from the Hebraic Songbook" (© 2010 MEII Enterprises; RT 48 minutes), the latest contemporary world music album from his Heritage Ensemble.
The Heritage Ensemble is dedicated to the concert performance of liturgical and folksong Hebraic melodies in various jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian styles, with a touch of classicism for good measure. There are nine tracks: four from the Chanukah festival, two from Purim. An original composition, "Yotvata"--a mixture of classical and jazz--celebrates the creation of the leading dairy kibbutz in Israel. An eighth track, "Halleluyah," from the liturgy, is a solo piano arrangement. A unique feature of "Celebrations" is a ninth track narrated by Dr. Marlow that describes The Heritage Ensemble's history, repertoire, and philosophy. Musical clips from the current album and a forthcoming CD (to be released in Spring 2011) underscore Marlow's comments. The musicians: multi-Grammy nominee drummer Bobby Sanabria, who also serves as album co-producer, along with Dr. Eugene Marlow, the Ensemble's founder, arranger, leader, and keyboardist. Other performers include Nuyorican percussionist Cristian Rivera, NEA performance grantee saxophonist Michael Hashim, and acoustic/electric bassist Frank Wagner. This is the second album from The Heritage Ensemble--the sixth from composer/arranger Eugene Marlow. The group's first album was "Making the Music Our Own" (© 2006 MEII Enterprises). Of this CD, Isaiah Sheffer, Artistic Director Emeritus, Symphony Space (New York City), said: "Gene Marlow's 'Making the Music Our Own' is a remarkable musical achievement--traditional liturgical melodies meet up with a contemporary jazz sensibility, and are rediscovered in a new musical and spiritual light!" All of Marlow's albums are available at cdbaby.com.
