Jan

19

Tobias Picker & Mikael Karlsson: Chamber Works Tobias Picker & Mikael Karlsson: Chamber Works

with Rob Stephenson, Patricia Schuman, soprano, Yegor Shevtsov, piano, Lance Suzuki, flute, Aaron Likness, piano, The Fidelio String Quartet, Miki-Sophia Cloud, violin, Caitlin Lynch, viola, Jia Kim, cello & Joshua Weilerstein, violin

Sun January 19th, 2014

5:00PM

Main Space

Minimum Age: All Ages

Doors Open: 4:00PM

Show Time: 5:00PM

Event Ticket: $20

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free for members
event description event description

Kicking off the celebrations of much beloved composer Tobias Picker’s 60th birthday year and Mika’s 10th year as a sought-after composer working in New York and all over the world, here is a concert of two friends who have been working together since 2005 – the year Mika started representing Tobias.
 
Day Comes Apart is a song cycle (text by Rob Stephenson) of dark love songs with a title that refers to the overwhelming mosaic that makes up any day of existence.
 
The piano quintet, Live Oaks (2011) is perhaps Tobias’ most profound work in a canon of chamber music spanning 40 years.
 

Nasty Fucker, a piece for flutes and electronics, is non-thematic, but you may use its title as you please in your day-to-day life for added spice.
 
With a lineup of some of the best performers in the field, this concert is about the armor you use and the war you fight to stay gloriously afloat and independent.
 
Come meet your kin – those who fight the same battles you do on a daily basis.  As the last phrase of Day Comes Apart goes: “Without your ears, these will not be songs”.
 
PROGRAM:
Day Comes Apart
song cycle
Composer: Mikael Karlsson
Lyricist: Rob Stephenson
Soprano: Patricia Schuman
Pianist: Yegor Shevtsov
 
Live Oaks
piano quintet
Composer: Tobias Picker
Pianist: Aaron Likness
Strings: Fidelio String Quartet
 
Nasty Fucker
solo piece for flutes and electronics
flutes: Lance Suzuki
electronics: Mikael Karlsson
 
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TABLE SEATING POLICY
Table seating for all seated shows is reserved exclusively for ticket holders who purchase “Table Seating” tickets. By purchasing a “Table Seating” ticket you agree to also purchase a minimum of two food and/or beverage items per person. Table seating is first come, first seated. Please arrive early for the best choice of available seats. Seating begins when doors open. Tables are communal so you may be seated with other patrons. We do not take table reservations.
 
A standing room area is available by the bar for all guests who purchase “Standing Room” tickets. Food and beverage can be purchased at the bar but there is no minimum purchase required in this area.
 
All tickets sales are final. No refund or credits.

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Tobias Picker & Mikael Karlsson: Chamber Works

Tobias Picker, described by BBC Music Magazine as “displaying a distinctively soulful style that is one of the glories of the current musical scene,” has had works commissioned and performed by the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic and the Helsinki Philharmonic. His first opera, Emmeline, saw its premiere at the Santa Fe Opera in 1996, and his fourth opera, An American Tragedy, was commissioned by and premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2005. His adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox was commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Opera, and his Thérèse Raquin was commissioned by The Dallas Opera, San Diego Opera, and Opera de Montreal.

 
Mr. Picker has received numerous awards and prizes, including a Charles Ives Scholarship as well as a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and was elected in 2012 to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has served as composer-in-residence of the Houston Symphony, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Pacific Music Festival. Picker’s symphonic music has been commissioned and performed by the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Picker’s first ballet, Awakenings, was toured across the UK at the hands of the Rambert Dance Company throughout the 2010/11 season. Dolores Claiborne, Picker’s fifth opera, premiered at San Francisco Opera on September 15, 2013. Tobias Picker is currently the Artistic Director of The Opera San Antonio at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. Tobias Picker’s music is published exclusively by Schott Music.
 

Tobias Picker official site

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Mr. Karlsson, born in Sweden in 1975, is a composer of classical music that spans tonal, conventional music to the avant-garde – complex concert music to pop or incidental music – from soundtracks to solo works for leading soloists of contemporary classical music in the US, including flutist McArthur Genius Award recipient Claire Chase, clarinetist and Mostly Mozart Festival soloist clarinetist Joshua Rubin, Abigail Fischer, Rebekah Heller, and Smoke Jazz Club and legendary Cotton Club jazz singer fixture Annette St. John).
 

Mr. Karlsson works exclusively with major, celebrated ensembles such as the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE); Alarm Will Sound; American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME); and music for the most elite dance companies of our time, including Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT); the Royal Swedish Ballet; the National Norwegian Ballet).
 

Mr. Karlsson is also a prolific composer for television, movies and major video games (Battlefield Bad Company I and II – Electronic Arts).
 

He has scored approximately a dozen films out of which three, directed by legendary art house directors Barbara Hammer and Bruce LaBruce, have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
 

A frequent collaborator, Mr. Karlsson has worked with pop artists Lykke Li, Kleerup, Taken By Trees and Alicia Keys, director Bruce LaBruce, the International Contemporary Ensemble, flutist Claire Chase, choreographer Alexander Ekman, singer Mariam Wallentin, avant-garde performance group Black Sun Productions, violinist / performance artist Amadéus Leopold, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), dance company Nederlands Dans Theater 2 (NDT2), conductor Alan Pierson, the Mivos Quartet, bass trombonist David Taylor, mezzo sopranos Rebecca Ringle (Met Opera) and Rose Sullivan (Met Opera), soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra (Met Opera), pianists Othon Mataragas, Cory Smythe, Yegor Shevtsov and Jacob Greenberg, cellist Wolfram Koessel, choreographers Benoit-Swan Pouffer, Donald Sales and Darrell Grand Moultrie, photographers Francois Rousseau and Niklas Alexandersson, The Royal Swedish Opera & Ballet, NYC’s Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Swedish State Television, Swedish Film Industry, Idyll (film production company) and diamond purveyor Harry Winston to name a few.
 

In 2014 he will be working with tenor Timur Bekbosunov , Pipa player and singer Min Xiao Fen and ICE bassoonist Rebekah Heller. He will be finishing his first opera, “Decoration” for its January 2015 premiere. He is currently finalizing the score for a 70 piece orchestra for Alexander Ekman’s full evening ballet “A Swan Lake” at the Norwegian National Ballet (premiere: April 26 2014, Oslo Opera House). In 2015 he will write the score for Alexander Ekman’s full evening ballet “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” at the Royal Swedish Opera and Ballet.
 

He has released 12 albums to date and his music is frequently programmed and licensed by major television series such as CSI Miami; Melrose Place, Ringers and BBC’s Misfits, and film productions including The Conservatory and History Lessons. His collaboration with singer Mariam Wallentin – the song cycle “The Spirit & The Cloud” will be released as an album, featuring the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, in the spring of 2014.
 

Mikael Karlsson official site

Rob Stephenson

Rob Stephenson is the author of the novel Passes Through (Fiction Collective 2). His drawings have been exhibited at Intersection For The Arts in San Francisco, The Headlands Center for the Arts, The Katona Museum, and the Wexler Center For The Arts. His film, music, and video projects have been presented at Cinematheque and The Lab (Co-Lab) in San Francisco, The Eye Music Festival in Seoul, Korea, The & NOW Festival, Galapagos, Dixon Place and The Stone, The Oracle Club, and Klavierhaus.

Patricia Schuman, soprano

Miss Schuman has performed on the world’s leading opera and concert stages, making her debuts at the Metropolitan Opera with James Levine as Donna Elvira, at The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden as Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito, at Teatro alla Scala with Claudio Abbado in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims, with Riccardo Muti as Ilia in Idomeneo and with in Vienna with Nikolaus Harnencourt, as Sifare in Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto. She has sung leading roles at festivals such as Salzburg, Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence, Glimmerglass, and Pesaro and concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the Vienna Philharmonic, among others.
 
At Glimmerglass, she appeared in a world premiere by Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner, entitled A Blizzard in Marblehead Neck as Carlotta O’Neill, and in John Musto’s Later the Same Evening, as Estelle Ogelthorpe. At the Metropolitan Opera, she created the role of The Commander in Philip Glass’ opera The Voyage. In Houston, she sang and recorded the title role in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. This spring she will premiere a new choral cantata by composer Sarah Meneely-Kyder with a libretto by Sheila Garvey, entitled Letter from Italy, singing the role of Delia.
 
Since having twins, Miss Schuman has concentrated on recital and concert work, performing solo and chamber music work at universities and on concert series.
 
This summer, Miss Schuman and pianist, Terry Eder, will be performing a Pavilion Concert at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival. Next season she will appear with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in Mozart’s Requiem and in recital at the Music and More Series.
 
Schuman can be heard on recording in Handel’s Messiah (Koch), Florencia en el Amazonas (Albany), Tancredi (Sony), Bertoni’s Veni Creator (Erato), and Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach (Nonesuch). She can be seen on DVD in the title role of L’incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi.
 
Patricia Schuman official site

Yegor Shevtsov, piano

Pianist Yegor Shevtsov enjoys a multi-faceted career as a solo performer, chamber musician, recording artist, collaborator and educator. His performances have been singled out for their “Mozartean elegance,” “perfect clarity” (New York Times), “superb musicianship” (Miami Herald) and “deeply examined view of any given piece” (Philadelphia Inquirer). His recent notable engagements have included appearances as a concerto soloist at Symphony Space (New York), Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Japan), the National Theater in Taipei (Taiwan), and Auditorio de Ciudad de León (Spain). In the 2012-2013 season, Yegor Shevtsov has performed across the United States at Ojai Festival (California), Present Music Season Finale in Milwaukee (WI), Rockport Chamber Music Festival (MA), as well as ShapeShifter Lab, Roulette and Barbès (New York). His most recent recording, …avec un frisson, an album of late piano music of Debussy and Boulez, was released on New Focus Recordings (FCR132) in August 2013.
 
Yegor Shevtsov’s most significant artistic associations have been with Mark Morris, a world-renowned choreographer; Red Light New Music, a ground-breaking contemporary music collective; New World Symphony, America’s orchestral academy founded by Michael Tilson Thomas; American Ballet Theatre, one of the world’s premier ballet companies; Mischa Bouvier, an award-winning baritone; avant-garde composers Reiko Fueting, Yoav Gal, Andrew Noble and Scott Wollschleger. He has also appeared in concert with members of many renowned ensembles, such as the American String Quartet, Mivos Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Bang on a Can, red fish blue fish, Alarm Will Sound, Argento Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble and Manhattan Sinfonietta, among others. Among the composers who have heard Yegor Shevtsov perform their works are Pierre Boulez, John Luther Adams, Elliott Carter, Charles Wuorinen, Steve Reich and George Crumb.
 
More information on Yegor Shevtsov official site

Lance Suzuki, flute

Praised for his “gorgeous flute tone” by the New York Times, flutist Lance Suzuki has also been noted for his “captivating” (NY Concert Review) and “compelling” (NY Times) performances. As a chamber musician and soloist, he has appeared at such venues as the Marlboro Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum, the 92nd St. Y, Bargemusic, Bard Summerscape, and live on NPR’s Performance Today. He has premiered new works with the Metropolis, Argento, and East Coast Contemporary ensembles, and in Carnegie Hall workshops led by Dawn Upshaw. He also performs with ensembles such as the Mark Morris Dance Group, the Hawaii Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra. More information and sound clips at www.LanceSuzuki.com.

Aaron Likness, piano

Pianist Aaron Likness has been hailed for his “superb clarity” and “effortless elegance” in repertoire from Bach to Boulez. An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music, Likness has worked with such leading composers as Hanspeter Kyburz, Christian Wolff, Salvatore Sciarrino, and Tristan Murail, and collaborates regularly with composers of the new generation. Recent performances include appearances with Callithumpian Consort, Sound Icon, and members of the Boston Symphony. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, he currently resides in New York, where he is a DMA candidate at CUNY Graduate Center. His principal teachers have been Thomas Otten, Stephen Drury, and Ursula Oppens.

The Fidelio String Quartet

The Fidelio String Quartet (Caitlin Lynch, Jia Kim, Miki-Sophia Cloud, and Rebecca Anderson) was founded in 2013 by four musicians with a deep passion for the quartet repertoire and a tenacious commitment to sharing music as an exciting, healing and empowering force.
 
This year, the FSQ launches several projects in New York – a recital series at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, a music-as-healing project centered on sharing Beethoven’s “Heiliger Dankgesang” with guests of the Bowery Mission, and “Fidelio on Tap,” a series in the city’s bars and cafes that presents great music in a fresh and approachable setting.
 
When not performing together, the Fidelios maintain exciting careers, performing with ensembles such as A Far Cry, The American Contemporary Music Ensemble, The Cleveland Orchestra, and Eighth Blackbird and collaborating with celebrated artists including Itzhak Perlman, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, members of the Tokyo, Juilliard and Cleveland Quartets, Andre Watts, Questlove, and Ben Folds.
 
The Fidelio String Quartet official site

Miki-Sophia Cloud, violin

New York-based violinist, Miki-Sophia Cloud, enjoys a rich musical life as a recitalist, chamber musician, orchestra-leader, and arts advocate. Recent performance highlights include a European debut in Graz, Austria, duos with Ani and Ida Kavafian at Lincoln Center, and Schnittke’s “Moz-Art a la Haydn” at Boston’s Gardner Museum. Ms. Cloud is a founding member of the Fidelio String Quartet and first violinist of the North Country Chamber Players. As an artist member of Boston’s self-conducted chamber orchestra, A Far Cry, her leadership as concertmaster and soloist have been acclaimed by the New York Times and Boston Globe. Cloud is among the leaders of a new generation of musicians dedicated to creating and running their own organizations, engaging with the public in fresh and creative ways. She was recently appointed the artistic director of the White Mountains Music Festival, and her innovative approach to programming has been lauded by the Boston Globe and the Boston Music Intelligencer. An alumna of Harvard College, Vienna Music University, and Yale School of Music, Cloud is currently a doctoral candidate at New England Conservatory.

Caitlin Lynch, viola

A dedicated ambassador for chamber and orchestral music and an avid educator, Ms. Lynch has performed in fourteen countries on five continents. As a chamber musician, Ms. Lynch has had the honor of collaborating with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, Juilliard, and Cavani Quartets, and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. While on the orchestral front, Ms. Lynch has held principal positions ranging from the Charlotte Symphony and CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, to the orchestras of The Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and has performed regularly with the Cleveland Orchestra.
 
Passionate about music education, Ms. Lynch has taught in the public schools of Harlem as a Morse Fellow at The Juilliard School, traveled to South America to coach Ecuador’s Sinfonia por la Vida, and taught students with Williams’ Syndrome at the Berkshire Hills Music Academy. Ms. Lynch is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received a Bachelor of Music and an Artist Diploma, as well as The Juilliard School, where she earned a Master of Music.

Jia Kim, cello

Cellist Jia Kim began her cello studies at the age of eleven in Korea, where she won first place in the National Symphony Orchestra Competition. A graduate of the Juilliard School, where she earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees studying with Joel Krosnick, Ms. Kim’s formative years were spent as a full scholarship student at the Colburn School in California and the Perlman Music Program in New York, where she studied with Ronald Leonard. Since then, Ms. Kim has been invited to perform with Itzhak Perlman in numerous chamber music collaborations throughout the years, appearing with him in Israel, throughout North and South America, and on his most recent album, “Eternal Echoes.” An active chamber musician, Ms. Kim is one of the founding members of the Fidelio String Quartet and the Tristan Piano Quartet, which made their debut in New York’s Alice Tully Hall last winter. Along with performing, Ms.Kim is a dedicated educator — with teaching studios in White Plains and New York City, and recent teaching artist residencies at the University of Hawaii and The College of William and Mary. Ms. Kim performs on a 2005 Mario Miralles Cello, through a generous loan from the Maestro Foundation.

Joshua Weilerstein, violin

Making his subscription debut with the New York Philharmonic this year, Joshua Weilerstein also enters his third season as the orchestra’s Assistant Conductor. In 2009 Mr. Weilerstein, then twenty-one years old, was unanimously named the winner of the 2009 Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen, Denmark. His first-prize honors included a series of engagements with major Scandinavian orchestras, the first of which was the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in June 2009, marking Mr. Weilerstein’s professional conducting debut.
 
During the 2013-14 season, Mr. Weilerstein makes several debuts in the US with the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Fort Worth, and New Mexico (Albuquerque). He also returns to the Florida Orchestra (Tampa). In Europe, he debuts with the Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique, Salzburg Mozarteumorchester, and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. He also will return to the BBC Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and Northern Sinfonia, among others.
 
Born into a musical family, Mr. Weilerstein decided to enter the music profession after a life-changing experience during a youth orchestra tour of South and Central America. He studied at the New England Conservatory, from which he received his dual Master of Music degrees in orchestral conducting with Hugh Wolff and in violin with Lucy Chapman in 2011. He spent the summers of 2009 and 2010 studying with David Zinman and Robert Spano at the Aspen Music Festival, where he was awarded the Robert J. Harth and Aspen Conducting Prizes, its most distinguished honors.
 
In 2007 the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (SBSO) engaged Mr. Weilerstein as a violin soloist. Shortly after this appearance, the SBSO asked him to join the first violin section for the orchestra’s 2007 American tour with Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, making Mr. Weilerstein the ensemble’s first non-Venezuelan guest member. In January 2010 he made his guest conducting debut with the SBSO. Since then, he has rapidly become one of the most sought-after young conductors in the world. Recent engagements include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, to name but a few.
 
When not studying scores, Mr. Weilerstein spends his spare time practicing the violin and exploring New York City.

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