DCINY Announces Inaugural
Concert
New Concert Production Company Schedules First Concert at Carnegie
Hall on January 21, 2008, in Commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day
October 19, 2007
Press Contact:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
New York...Iris
Derke, General Director, and Jonathan Griffith, Artistic Director
and Principal Conductor, co-founders of
Distinguished Concerts International New York, have announced DCINY's
first concert season in New York, beginning on January 21, 2008, at Carnegie
Hall.
Distinguished
Concerts International New York provides opportunities for choral,
instrumental, jazz, and chamber ensembles, as well as conductors and soloists,
to perform at such venues as Carnegie Hall/Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage,
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher
Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Town Hall in New York City. Musicians and
singers coming to New York are offered support and incentives in meeting
performance standards, optional master classes and seminars, and the freedom to
make their own travel and hotel arrangements.
In celebration of
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on January 21, 2008, at 8 p.m., DCINY presents its
inaugural concert featuring Jonathan Griffith conducting the Distinguished
Concerts Orchestra International, soloists, and singers from Australia, the UK,
and South Africa; and Hawaii, New York, North Carolina, and Ohio performing
Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace and Requiem. (A complete
list of 2008 season concerts follows this announcement).
Dr. Karl Jenkins, OBE, was raised in Penclawdd, Gower, Wales. He was
educated at Gowerton Grammar School before reading music at the University of
Wales, Cardiff. He then commenced postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of
Music, London. Recent commissions include works for the Royal Ballet, BBC Proms
in the Park, the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, Bryn Terfel, Leslie Garret,
Evelyn Glennie, and The Armed Man; A Mass
For Peace, commissioned by the Royal Armouries and premiered at the Royal
Albert Hall, London. Over 100 performances of this work have taken place in the
UK in the past 18 months, while the CD, featuring the National Youth Choir of
Great Britain and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, has gained Gold Disc
status in the UK. In recent years, he has been made both a Fellow and an
Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, where a room has been named in his
honor, and has been awarded fellowships at Cardiff University, the Royal Welsh
College of Music & Drama, Trinity College Carmarthen, and Swansea Institute.
He was awarded an OBE, by Her Majesty The Queen, in the 2005 New Years Honors
List; and a Doctor of Music by the University of Wales in 2006.
Iris
Derke,
musician, manager, and administrator, has enjoyed a diverse career as a
performer and producer of the arts for more than 15 years. As the co-founder of
Distinguished Concerts International New York, she now adds another important
capability to her growing resume - business director. In her capacities as
manager and producer, she has worked with individuals and choral and
instrumental ensembles across the globe, from New York and throughout the U.S.,
to the Middle East and Europe. She has facilitated successful performances by
talented choral and instrumental ensembles as well as noted soloists, composers,
and guest conductors at Carnegie Hall and at numerous other venues. She has
worked on concerts featuring the music of such contemporary composers as Morten
Lauridsen, John Rutter, Bob Chilcott, Frank Ticheli, and John Mackey. Noted
conductors she has worked with have included H. Robert Reynolds, Lukas Foss,
Benjamin Zander, and Dr. Timothy Seelig, among others. She has also assisted in
coordinating national wind ensemble and national youth symphony orchestra
performances. An active flautist in the New York area, she made her Carnegie
Hall performance debut at Weill Recital Hall in 1994, and has also made solo
appearances in France, Poland, and across the U.S. She can be heard on numerous
studio recordings for film, television, and educational music software. A
native of Santa Monica, California, Ms. Derke received her B.A. from UCLA, her
M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music, and an ARCM (Associate of the Royal
College of Music) from the Royal College of Music in London, England.
Dr. Jonathan Griffith, the co-founder of
Distinguished Concerts International New York, is an active conductor,
educator, lecturer, and consultant. His many conducting credits in this country
and abroad include the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Salt Lake City; Manhattan
Philharmonic and New England Symphonic Ensemble, both in performances at
Carnegie Hall; The European Symphony Orchestra, Spain; Bohuslava Martinů
Philharmonia and Philharmonia Chorus, Virtuosi Pregensis Chamber Orchestra,
Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, and Dvořák Chamber Orchestra, Czech Republic;
Bialystok State Philharmonic, Poland; and several regional orchestras and
choruses in the U.S. As the conductor of the World Premiere of Earnestine
Rodgers Robinson's The
Nativity in Carnegie Hall, he was featured in an interview which
aired on National Public Radio's Morning
Edition. He also appeared in two recent documentaries about Ms.
Robinson and her music - "Hidden Treasure," shown this past summer in
the Hoboken International Film Festival,
and "Sounds of a Miracle," which premiered at the
Rhode Island International Film Festival and was selected for the Los Angeles
Shorts Festival, a festival of short films. Jonathan Griffith made his Carnegie
Hall conducting debut in 1989. His 45-plus Carnegie Hall appearances span the
major works of the classical repertoire and include the U.S. premieres of
Taneyev's Upon Reading a
Psalm, Czech composer Milo Bok's Missa Solemnis, Luigi Boccherini's Villancicos, and Eugčne
Goossens' re-orchestration of Handel's Messiah;
as well as numerous world premieres, including Eric Funk's Pamelia, Seymour
Bernstein's Song of Nature, and Robert Convery's The Unknown Region and I Have a Dream. This past
summer, he conducted his ensemble, the Jonathan
Griffith Singers, in performances of Verdi's Requiem at two historic
venues in Italy - the Church of Santa Marie Sopra Minerva in Rome and the
Cathedral Duomo in Pisa, the latter which was celebrating the 20th anniversary
of its designation as an international historic landmark. Of the Pisa concert,
a reviewer for Il Tirreno
said, "The Mass' performance received great acclaim resulting in an
extended standing ovation. Those attending the concert found the Duomo's unique
architecture and beautiful lighting added to the concert, thus giving it a
magical spiritual quality." He has served as chorus master for the Utah
and Portland Opera companies; founded the Kansas City Chorale and the Jonathan
Griffith Singers; and was a member of the faculties of the Conservatory of
Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City; Wichita State University;
Marylhurst University and Warner Pacific College, both in Portland, Oregon. A
native of St. Louis, he received his B.M.E. from the University of Kansas, an
M.M.E. from Wichita State University, and his D.M.A. in Conducting from the
University of Missouri-Kansas City.
For information about performing on DCINY's
series or about purchasing tickets to scheduled concerts, e-mail
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
, call 212.707.8566 or 877.MYDCINY (toll free),
or visit our website at www.DCINY.org.
Distinguished
Concerts International New York Winter-Spring
2008 Season
Monday, January 21,
2008, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall/Isaac Stern Auditorium
Jonathan Griffith conducts
Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man: A Mass for
Peace and Requiem. Karl Jenkins will be in residence for rehearsals and the
performance.
Sunday, March 16, 2008,
8:30 p.m., Carnegie Hall/Isaac Stern Auditorium
Guest Conductor Richard
Nickerson leads choirs in Schubert Mass No.2 in G major, D.167
Guest Conductor Rick Weymuth leads Haydn's Missa Sancti Nicolai
Sunday, March 23, 2008,
8:30 p.m., Carnegie Hall/Isaac Stern Auditorium
Three Middle School
Instrumental Groups: Greg Rochford,
Chaparral Middle School; Susan Willmering, South Pointe Middle School; Ami Custodia, Suzanne Middle
School
Saturday, March 29,
2008, 8:30 p.m., Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
DCINY Artist Series: Brian
Cheney, tenor
Wednesday, April 23,
2008, 8 p.m., Town Hall
Jazz at Town Hall: The Next
GenerationJazz stars Jon Faddis and
Justin Dicioccio work with four College and High School Big Bands
Monday, May 5, 2008,
7:30 p.m. Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
DCINY Artist Series: The Aeros
Quintet
May 26, 2008, 8 p.m.
Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center
Guest Conductors Janet Galván
and Francisco Núńez lead a
multi-cultural event with Treble and SATB choirs.
Saturday, June 14, 2008,
8PM, Isaac Stern
Guest Conductor Timothy Powell
leads his Wedding Mass
Guest Conductor Gardar Cortes
leads Orff's Carmina burana
Sunday, June 29, 2008,
8:30 p.m., Carnegie Hall/Isaac Stern
Auditorium
Darren Dailey conducts a
children's choir event, including Jim Papoulis' Oye; Bach's Cantata 140, Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns Die Stimme:
"Mein Freund Ist Mein!" and "Domine Deus" from Mass in G; Nick Page's
A Sandberg Set: Baby Song of the Four
Winds, Was ever a Dream a Drum?, and
Stars, Songs, Faces; Rollo Dilworth's Trilogy of Dreams: The Dreamkeeper, Dreams, I Dream a World
Guest Conductor Hank Dahlman
leads Mozart's Vesperae solennes de
confessor, K.339 ("Solemn Vespers")
# # #
|
