new music

Tag: new music

Lawrence Artist/New Music series concert features cellist Joshua Roman, JACK Quartet

Joshua Roman
Joshua Roman

Celebrated cellist Joshua Roman shares the Lawrence Memorial Chapel stage with the JACK Quartet Saturday, April 21 at 8 p.m. in a combined Lawrence University Artist Series and New Music Series concert.

Tickets for the performance, at $25-30 for adults, $20-25 for seniors, $18-20 for students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Internationally celebrated for his wide-ranging performances, Roman has earned critical acclaim for his ability to communicate the essence of music in visionary ways. In 2006 at the age of 22, he was named principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, becoming the youngest principal player in the symphony’s history. He also serves as artistic director of Town Music in Seattle, where he showcases his own eclectic music influences and promotes newly commissioned works.

Horacio Contreras, who teaches cello in the Lawrence conservatory of music, calls Roman “a world-class cellist and a socially engaged artist.”

“Joshua Roman is an excellent model of some of the directions a dynamic music career can take,” said Contreras, who also studied with one of Roman’s main cello mentors, Richard Aaron. “He is always collaborating with living composers and artists, having premiered and commissioned works by some of the most relevant composers of today.”

Jack Quartet
The JACK Quartet

Founded in 2005 and based in New York City, the JACK Quartet — violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards and cellist Jay Campbell — was hailed as “superheroes of the new music world” by the Boston Globe. They have performed to critical acclaim domestically at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center as well as internationally at London’s Wigmore Hall and Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival.

The JACK Quartet has been recognized with the Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA’s Trailblazer Award and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.”  Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Virtuoso percussionist Colin Currie performs at Lawrence March 30

Embracing new music at its highest level, Scotland native Colin Currie brings his dynamic percussion talents to the Lawrence Memorial Chapel Friday, March 30 at 8 p.m. in the third concert of Lawrence University’s 2017-18 Artist Series.

Tickets for the performance, at $25-30 for adults, $20-25 for seniors, $18-20 for students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Colin Curie with mallets
Percussion virtuoso Colin Currie performs March 30 in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

A percussion virtuoso, Currie has established himself as the soloist of choice for many of today’s foremost composers, especially the innovative Stephen Reich, the father of minimalism.  He has had the honor of performing premieres of works by nearly 20 contemporary composers.

Music professor Dane Richeson, who directs Lawrence’s percussion studio, calls Currie “one of the leading percussion soloists in the world.”

“Colin has truly championed the expansion of new compositions for contemporary percussion soloist and ensemble,” said Richeson. “Colin, along with Evelyn Glennie, are the most widely known and successful solo percussion artists in the world of contemporary music. It’s exciting and an honor to have him perform at Lawrence.”

Growing up, Currie played principal timpani and percussion with both the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and the European Union Youth Orchestra. He has been recognized with the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award in 2000 and its Instrumentalist Award in 2015, was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist between 2003-2005 and received a Bortletti Buitoni Trust Award, which honors performers of exceptional quality and musicianship, in 2005.

Currie launched his own eponymous record label last fall and released its first recording, Steve Reich’s “Drumming,” earlier this month.

He has held an appointment as a visiting professor of solo percussion at London’s Royal Academy of Music, is an Artist-in-Association at London’s Southbank Centre and is in the final year of a three-year Artist-in-Residence appointment with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.”  Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

 

Lawrence Artist Series welcomes Elias String Quartet

The internationally acclaimed London-based Elias String Quartet brings its reputation for performing with “exuberance and fire” to the Lawrence Memorial Chapel Friday, Feb. 3 in the second concert of Lawrence University’s 2016-17 Artist Series.

Tickets, at $25-30 for adults, $20-25 for seniors, $18-20 for students, are available online through the Lawrence Box Office or by calling 920-832-6749.A photo of London-based Elias String Quartet sitting on the couch.

Hailed as one of the leading ensembles of their generation, Elias will feature Beethoven’s “String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95,” Kurtág’s “Moments musicaux for string quartet, Op. 44” and Mendelssohn’s “String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13” in its Lawrence performance.

A product of Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music in England, the quartet has evolved from student group to professional ensemble, earning raves for its artistic excellence after bursting on the scene in 1998. Since then, they have performed around the world, collaborating with many of the best musicians in the world’s most revered venues.

In 2015, the quartet — violinists Sara Bitlloch and Donald Grant, violist Martin Saving and cellist Marie Bitlloch, Sara’s sister — finished its ground-breaking Beethoven Project, which saw it record and perform the composer’s complete set of works for string quartet.

In its review of a recent performance, The Sunday Times of London raved “The players are individually brilliant, but their interplay is profound” while the Philadelphia Inquiring called their playing “intoxicating.”

Passionate about playing new music, Elias has premiered works by contemporary composers Sally Beamish and Colin Matthews of the UK, Matthew Hindson from Australia and American Timo Andres. In addition to the Beethoven project, their discography includes Mendelssohn and Britten as well as an album of French harp music and Schumann and Dvorak piano quintets with Jonathan Biss.

Remaining performers on this year’s Artist Series line-up include Mnozil Brass, March 29,  and Roomful of Teeth, April 7.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.”  Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.