Concert Archives

Attention US Military Veterans and Active Servicemen and Women:

DCINY would like to offer you and your family COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS for our upcoming Memorial Day concert on Monday, May 25, 2015 at 7:00pm at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

**Sign up here: http://bit.ly/1HgWr04 **

Cultural Exhibit opens at 6:15pm. 

Performance at 7:00pm. 

Tickets are FREE. Available for pickup at box office, starting at 6:00pm on the day of performance. Lincoln Center Box office is located on 1941 Broadway, at 65th Street. 

For the occasion of the Independance Day of Kazakhstan and the candidature of Kazakhstan to the Security Council for 2017-2018.​

Deborah Popham, Soprano
Ben Harris, Piano 

Music by Reynaldo Hahn:
À Chloris
Quand je fus pris au pavilion
L’Énamourée
Dans la nuit

Music by Ottorino Respighi; Text by Antonio Rubino:
Deità silvane, P. 107
I. I fauni
II. Musica in horto
III. Egle
IV. Acqua

Music by Sergei Rachmaninov:
Ne poj krasavica, pri mne, Op. 4, No. 4 (Text by Alexander Pushkin)
Na smert’ chizhika, Op. 21, No. 8 (Text by Vasily Zhukovsky)
Vesenniye vodi, Op. 14, No. 11 (Text by Fyodor Tioutchev)

Music by Ben Moore:
So Free am I
I. Mutta (Text by Indian Buddhist nuns, trans. by Uma Chakravarti and Kumkum Roy)
II. Interlude (Text by Amy Lowell)
III. Orinda Upon Little Hector Philips (Text by Katherine Philips)
IV. Nervous Prostration (Text by Anna Wickham)
VI. The Poem as Mask: Orpheus (Text by Muriel Rukeyser)
VII. Mettika (Text by Indian Buddhist nuns, trans. by Uma Chakravarti and Kumkum Roy)

Music by Richard Hundley:
Sweet Suffolk Owl (Text is Anon. 1619)

Music by Samuel Barber:
The Monk and His Cat, Op. 29, No. 8 (Text is Anon. 8th or 9th Century, translated by W.H. Auden)

Music by Irving Fine:
The Frog and the Snake (Text by Gertrude Norman)

Music by Lee Hoiby:
The Serpent (Text by Theodore Roethke)

 

Martin High School Chorale, directed by Kay Owens
Martin Wind Symphony, directed by Brad McCann
Martin High School Symphony Orchestra, directed by Michael Stringer

If Thursday’s concert of high-school age chamber musicians is any indication, the state of classical chamber music is very healthy in Southern California (and, I hope, elsewhere!). A large array of dedicated students, all excellently coached, performed a wide variety of repertoire with skill ranging from good to very good to “wow.”

For me, the two “wow” moments occurred in the last two works on the program. First, an astonishingly mature string quartet who performed the first movement of Grieg’s rarely heard String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27. The players (Jason Corbin, Alisa Luera, David Noble, and Jonathan Kim) created a fierce, plush, ensemble sound that would be the envy of many a mature professional group; they breathed and phrased perfectly together; and they managed to make Grieg’s somewhat rambling structure sound inevitable and musically coherent and compelling.

The other “wow” moment was provided by a piano four-hand team playing the duet transcription of Ravel’s La Valse made by Ravel’s friend Lucien Garban. This team (Nicholas Mendez and Yoko Rosenbaum) played with all the flair and assurance of a professional piano duo, fabulously unified. Their comprehension of this difficult score was superb; the only quality lacking was a bit more freedom and Viennese upbeat. Nevertheless, a definite “wow.”

Other highlights included: a fleet, precise rendition of the final movement of Beethoven’s First Piano Trio; cellist William Ellzey’s excellent communication skill in the first movement of Brahms’ Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano; Martinů’s Sonata for Flute, Violin and Piano; the first movement of Schoenfield’s Café Music; Raymond Newell’s cello in the Brahms Second Cello Sonata.

Sometimes the age of the participants showed an inability to inhabit fully the emotional message of the selected repertoire. However, the fact that they are playing such difficult material with technical fluency is in itself a thing to behold (and support).

I wish I had had these opportunities when I was a young student. I salute you all, and your fine teachers, coaches, and schools.

Military Wives Choir Sing in New York (UK)
In support of MWCF

Featuring Distinguished Concerts Orchestra and Distinguished Concerts Singers International

Featuring Distinguished Concerts Orchestra and Distinguished Concerts Singers International
Jonathan Griffith, DCINY Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
Sir Karl Jenkins, DCINY Composer-in-Residence