 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
Tiny Tots
Pops October 11, 2008 The Contours, guest artist The road to a Motown recording contract wasn’t an easy one for The Contours. Berry Gordy wasn’t very impressed following a three-song audition in 1959 and sent them packing. Hubert Johnson, one of the original members of the group, spoke with his cousin the legendary Jackie Wilson for advice. Wilson asked the group to perform some of their material for him and once he was satisfied, Wilson called his old friend Berry Gordy back at the Motown office. The very next day, The Contours had a seven-year contract with the Gordy label. In the summer of 1962, The Contours hit the jackpot when the group recorded Gordy’s song “Do You Love Me”. “Do You Love Me” became The Contours biggest hit as well as Motown’s fastest climbing hit of all time reaching #2 in the nation within two weeks of its release and garnering The Contours their first gold record. The ensuing years brought forth such Contours’ hits as “Shake Sherrie”, “Can You Do It”, “Can You Jerk Like Me”, and “Just A Little Misunderstanding.” Much of the resurgence in The Contours popularity has come from the Academy Award winning film “Dirty Dancing”. Their hit “Do You Love Me” was featured in the film and became so popular that it gave birth to an international tour entitled “The Dirty Dancing Tour” starring The Contours. Motown Records was quick to capitalize on The Contours new popularity by reissuing their original version of “Do You Love Me”. The move paid great dividends for everyone as “Do You Love Me” climbed to #11 on the national charts, making the song one of the few recordings in history to hit the top 20 in two different decades.
Nicholas Kendall performs the Youngstown premiere of Spontaneous Combustion with YSO October 18, 2008. Nicholas Kendall, violinist Nicholas Kendall won First Prize in the 2002 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In 1995, Mr. Kendall appeared with the National Symphony orchestra as winner of their Young Soloist Competition and the following year he won the Saint Louis Symphony Youngstown Artist Competition. As a chamber musician, Nicholas Kendall has played in a quartet performance in Carnegie Hall as part of the 2001 Isaac Stern Chamber Music Seminar, at the Los Angeles Chamber Music Festival and participated as a guest artist with the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra tour, at the Encore Summer Music Festival in Cleveland and the Marlboro Music Festival. He is a member of the Dryden String Quartet. Following a tradition set by his grandfather, John Kendall, who was the first string teacher in the US to pioneer the Suzuki method, Mr. Kendall is an enthusiastic participant in outreach performances including recitals, master classes and workshops. Nicholas Kendall maintains a strong interest in communicating by way of other musical instruments and genres including performances as a percussionist and in concerts and outreach activities as a member of Time For Three. Christopher Brubeck, jazz trombonist and son of the legendary jazz artist Dave Brubeck, has contributed to the growing repertoire of new concertos for violin and orchestra. His new work Spontaneous Combustion is tailored to the talents of the phenomenal young violinist Nicholas Kendall. The work is the outgrowth of a three day session of Brubeck and Kendall jamming together. Bristling with jazzy energy, the concerto was an immediate hit with the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra audience when it was performed in October 2007 with conductor Randall Craig Fleischer. Spontaneous Combustion is in three movements in part inspired by the myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mankind along with the gifts of music and medicine. The last movement includes a drum solo for Nicholas Kendall. Masterworks Concert November 15, 2008 Ignat Solzhenitsyn, pianist and guest conductor Mr. Solzhenitsyn joins the YSO to perform Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with Randall Craig Fleischer conducting and then mounts the podium to conduct the orchestra in Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 6. Ignat Solzhenitsyn is Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and has appeared as guest conductor with many US orchestras as well as many of the major orchestras in Russia. In recent seasons, his extensive touring schedule in the United States and Europe has included concerto performances with numerous major orchestras and collaborations with many distinguished conductors. In addition to his recital appearances in the Untied States at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, St. Paul’s Ordway Theatre, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, Mr. Solzhenitsyn has also given recitals in Europe and the Far East. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Solzhenitsyn has collaborated with the Emerson, Borodin, Brentano, St. Petersburg and Lydian String Quartets and in four-hand recital with Mitsuko Uchida. He has frequently appeared at international festivals. A winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Igant Solzhenitsyn was recently appointed to the piano faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. Pops Concert December 6, 2008 Leahy, guest artists Leahy is the Canadian powerhouse of eight musical brothers and sisters who mystify audiences when ever they play. The band is a whirlwind triple-treat of fiddle-driven music, dance and vocals augmented by keyboards and percussion. Their music combines the influence of their Irish and Scottish roots. The Leahy Clan grew up in Lakefield, Ontario. Ancestor Michael Leahy settle there in 1825 from Ireland and brought with him a deep family musical tradition. Each of the Leahy children learned to play fiddle from their father, while their mother, a champion step-dancer born and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, taught them to sing, dance and play piano. The family has performed throughout Canada, the United States and The Leahy CD went Platinum in Canada and reached number four on the Billboard World Music Charts in 1997. In 1998 Leahy toured world-wide with Shania Twain and appeared in tow of her television specials. Elizabeth Schulze, guest conductor Ms. Schulze is currently the Music Director of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra. She has held the positions of Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, Music Director and Conductor of the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra is Wisconsin. In recent seasons, she has also been a conducting assistant and cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic. Ms. Schulze has also performed as guest conductor with numerous American orchestras and opera companies. A strong advocate of music education, Ms. Schulze has led the American Composer’s Orchestra in several educational and family concerts in Carnegie Hall and throughout the five boroughs of New York City. While at the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Orchestra, her innovative approach to educational programming led to interactive broadcasts of educational concerts to classrooms throughout Iowa.
YSO Masterworks January 24, 2009 Wendy Warner, cellist Wendy Warner has become one of the leading cellist in the world with concerts from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Boston’s Symphony Hall, from Paris’ Salle Pleyel to Berlin’s Philharmonie. She has toured North America with the National Symphony Orchestra, Mstislav Rostropovich conducting and the Moscow Virtuosi, Vladimir Spivakov conducting. Recent seasons have seen highly successful performances with many of the world’s finest orchestras and conductors. Wendy Warner was first brought to the attention of the world stage in 1990 when she was awarded First Prize in the Fourth International Rostropovich Competition in Paris. Her musical career began at age six under the tutelage of Nell Novak until she joined Rostropovich at the Curtis Institute of Music from which she graduated. An accomplished pianist as well, she studied with Emilio del Rosario at The Music Center. In the lulls between national and international tours, Wendy Warner teaches at Roosevelt University and the String Academy of Wisconsin at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin. Youngstown Symphony Orchestra performs first commission by Gregory Perchel Gregory Prechel, composer Composer, arranger and orchestrator Gregory Prechel is well suited to write the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra’s first commission. Mr. Prechel received his composition and orchestration training at California State University Long Beach, and has studied privately with well-known Hollywood orchestrator Albert Harris and award-winning television and film composer Alf Clausen. Gregory Prechel has composed, arranged and orchestrated over sixty works for symphony orchestras, provided music for Disney feature films Spymate, The Lion King and Air Buddies and composed for documentaries including the film Monganga set in the Congo using authentic African instruments with symphony orchestra. Mr. Prechel has composed, conducted, arranged, worked as recording consultant or orchestrated for television shows including The Simpsons, American Idol and Futurama among others. Mr. Prechel has also composed, arranged and orchestrated for the Walt Disney Company Theme parks, working on numerous projects including arrangements for Christina Aguilera and LeAnn Rimes for Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary. YSO Pops Concert Symphonic Valentine February 14, 2009 Monica Mancini, vocalist Monica Mancini was praised by a critic for having a voice that is the “glamorous vocal equivalent to diamond flashing.” Daughter of film composer Henry Mancini, who dies in 1994, and Ginny O’Connor, a studio singer and former Mel-Tone, Monica Mancini has enjoyed a successful singing career playing sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Though Ms. Mancini only began pursuing a solo singing career after her father’s death, she officially began her studio singing career as a child, performing in her father’s chorus on soundtracks, records, films and jingles. She has sung on the scores of such films as Armageddon and Edward Scissorhands and collaborated with such composers as Oscar-nominated Jorge Calandrelli, who wrote music for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and multi-Grammy and Emmy winner Patrick Williams YSO Masterworks Concert February 21, 2009 Carol Wincenc, flutist One of today’s international stars of the flute, Carol Wincenc has appeared as soloist with major orchestras and at music festivals around the world and has premiered works written for her by many of today’s prominent composers. A first prize winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Solo Flute Competition, Ms. Wincenc has appeared at all the major New York concert halls including Lincoln Center’s “Great Performers” Series. In great demand as a chamber musician, Ms. Wincenc has collaborated with the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo and Cleveland String Quartets and performed with such distinguished colleagues as Emanual Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman and Bella Davidovich. As a champion of contemporary works, she has premiered and recorded Rouse’s Flute Concerto with the Detroit Symphony and Henryk Gorecki’s Concerto Cantata with the Chicago Symphony. She is presently professor of flute at The Juilliard School of Music in New York City. YSO Masterworks Concert March 7, 2009 Zhou Yi, pipaist Award winning Zhou Yi is the best known young pipa (lute) artist in the world. As a child prodigy, she began musical studies at the age of five and gave her first public recital at six. At age eight, Zhou Yi won first prize at the Shanghai Spring Music Festival and at twelve was received the Outstanding Performance Award at the Art Cup International Chinese traditional instruments contest. After graduating form Sanghai Conservatory of Music, Zhou Yi moved to the United States and has performed in concert halls and at music schools across the country and at the Spoleto Festival’s premiere performance of Monkey: Journey to the West. As soloist, Zhou Yi has toured Japan, Germany and Austria and collaborated with Damon Albarn and director Chen Shi-Zheng. Zhou Yi is co-founder of the Ba Ban Chinese Music Society of New York. She also plays the qin (zither), liuqin (high pitched lute), ruan (alto lute), sanxian (three stringed lute) as well as the Western piano. YSO Pops Concert Legendary Broadway Musicals April 4, 2009 Melissa Errico, vocalist Melissa Errico is one of Broadway’s most cherished leading ladies, as well as a blossoming recording artist. Melissa was nominated for the Beast Leading Actress Tony Award for her work in Michel Legrand’s Amour, and has been recognized with the Lucille Lortel Award, five Drama Desk nominations, two Helen Hayes Awards, for Outer Critics Award nominations and three Drama League Honors. When still a teenager, she starred as Cosette in Les Miserables, followed by Kitty in Anna Karenina and Eliza Doolittle in the Broadway revival of My Fair Lady. Since then, she has been seen on Broadway, television and film including CBS Central Park West and the movies Frequency and Life Or Something Like It.
Debbie Gravitte, vocalist Debbie Gravitte’s varied career has taken her from the Broadway stage to the Symphony Hall and points between. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, along with a Drama Desk Award Nomination and New York Showstopper Award. Ms. Gravitte made her Broadway debut in the original cast of They’re Playing Our Song and has appeared in Broadway productions of Perfectly Frank (Drama Desk Award nomination), Blues In The Night, Ain’t Broadway Grand, Zorba, Chicago and Les Miserables. She has also appeared in the Encore Series productions of The Boys From Syracuse, Tenderloin and Carnival at New York’s City Center. Ms. Gravitte has performed her nightclub act and sung with symphony orchestras worldwide. Doug LaBrecque, vocalist Doug LaBrecque thrilled theatre audiences as The Phantom and Raoul in the Harold Prince production of The Phantom of the Opera. In addition, Mr. LaBrecque has starred on Broadway as Ravenal in the Hal Prince revival of Showboat, a role he also performed in Canada and Chicago. He was featured in Oscar Hammerstein's 100th Birthday Celebration on Broadway and toured nationally with Les Miserables. Regionally, Mr. LaBrecque has performed leading roles in Candide, A Chorus Line, Man of LaMancha among others. He was featured in the world premiere of a Wonderful Life by Sheldon Harnick and Joe Raposo and starred in the premiere revival of Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s Love Life.
Mr. LaBrecque regularly performs with symphony orchestras world wide.
Rock Fusion September 12, 2009 Rob Evan, vocalist Mr. Evan starred in the original Broadway cast of Jekyll & Hyde, playing the title roles for three years and over 600 performances. His rendition of “This Is The Moment” has been performed at numerous events including the 2001 Inaugural Gala for President George W. Bush, the Millennium Independence Day US Navel Revue aboard the USS JFK for President Clinton and the Millennium World Forum Conference with speaker Mikhail Gorbachev. Rob Evan has also starred on Broadway in Disney’s Tarzan playing the role of Kerchak, as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, Orin Scrivello D.D.S. in Little Shop of Horrors and Count von Krolock in Dance of the Vampires.
Off-Broadway, Mr. Evan created the roles of the Dancin’ Kid in Johnny Guitar and the hero Miles Hendon in The Prince and the Pauper.
As a vocalist and recording artist, Rob Evan is a member of the platinum selling rock band, Trans-Siberian Orchestra and is also lead vocalist for Jim Steinman’s The Dream Engine. Tracy Silverman, violinist Lauded by the BBC as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin”, Juilliard graduate Tracy Silverman has redefined the instrument with his instantly recognizable trademark sound. His groundbreaking work with the 6-string electric violin has forever transformed violin playing, much as Hendrix redefined the electric guitar. Silverman has recorded with a virtual who’s who of the new music, jazz and rock world. As first violinist with the innovative Turtle Island String Quartet, Silverman has toured internationally. Tracy Silverman has recorded and performed with John Adams, Terry Riley, Zakir Hussain, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Jim Brickman, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Guster, Big and Rich, Rachel Barton Pine, Tuck and Patty, Linda Ronstadt, Eliot Fisk, Billy Taylor, Bob Geldof and as a soloist with major orchestras. An international touring artist, Silverman has performed at major concert venues from Sao Paulo to Vienna, from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl. His many appearances on national radio and television include NPR’s “Performance Today, “A Prairie Home Companion and CBS New Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. Mr. Silverman has long been a favorite instructor at Mark O’Connor’s annual fiddle camp.
|
|
||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
 |
|
||||
 |
|
||||
