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NEIGHBORHOOD CLASSICS
Simone Dinnerstein, Artistic Director
James Matheson, Artistic Director at P.S. 142
Face the Music
Music by ensemble members Sam Mellins, Jonah Murphy,
and Owen Carter, plus Vijay Iyer’s Three Fragments
Friday, April 25, 2014 at 7:30pm
P.S. 142’s Auditorium | 100 Attorney St. | NYC
Tickets: $15 at www.neighborhoodclassics.com or at the door.
All ticket sales benefit P.S. 142.
Face the Music: www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/facethemusic
New York, NY– Neighborhood Classics presents teenage new music sensations Face the Music in concert on Friday, April 25, 2014 at 7pm, at P.S. 142 on the Lower East Side (100 Attorney Street). The program will include music by three of the ensemble’s own members – Sam Mellins’ Sax Quartet; Jonah Murphy’s Allegro for mixed ensemble and Owen Carter’s Sequester for chamber orchestra – plus Vijay Iyer’s Three Fragments. The performance will be hosted by James Matheson, composer and Neighborhood Classics Artistic Director at P.S. 142. All ticket sales for this one-hour, family-friendly concert benefit P.S. 142.
Called “a force in the new music world” by The New York Times, Kaufman Music Center’s Face the Music is the country’s only ensemble for 18-and-under that is solely devoted to the music of living composers. In the space of nine years Face the Music has grown from an after-school club of eight kids to a massive group of over 170 students from all over the tri-state area who convene every week to write, rehearse and perform music together. The ensemble advances Kaufman Music Center’s commitment to contemporary music and provides unparalleled performance and education experiences for the next generation of musical leaders.
About Neighborhood Classics:
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein founded the Neighborhood Classics series in 2009 at P.S. 321, the school that her son attended and where her husband teaches, and expanded the series to P.S. 142 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 2010. Neighborhood Classics builds relationships at a local level between neighborhoods and musicians.
These one-hour, family-friendly performances, which are hosted by Dinnerstein or composer and P.S.142 Artistic Director James Matheson, are open to the public and raise funds for the schools. The musicians performing donate their time and talent to the program, and the concerts are organized and administered by parent volunteers and faculty members.
In addition to evening concerts, Neighborhood Classics stages all-school happenings – last year, these included a “Bach Invasion” and a “Renaissance Revolution” at P.S. 321 – which immerse the school in music, with dozens of musicians performing in all of the school’s classrooms throughout the day.
“This concert series is about bringing communities together around music,” Dinnerstein explains. “It is a way for students, parents, teachers and neighbors to gather in a familiar and comfortable setting to listen to great music.” All of the performances take place in the evenings and on weekends, so that families may attend together.
Neighborhood Classics has already raised enough funds to bring back the fourth grade band program at P.S. 142. At P.S. 321, proceeds benefit the school’s PTA, which helps to fund art, chess, band, and chorus programs. Since 2009, the top-tier musicians that have been presented by Neighborhood Classics include pianist Simone Dinnerstein, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, cellist Maya Beiser, pianist Pablo Ziegler, cellist Zuill Bailey, pianist Valentina Lisitsa, harpist Bridget Kibbey, violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Wendy Sutter, Face the Music (a teenage new music group), lutist Paul O’Dette, cellist Clive Greensmith, Cypress String Quartet, Chiara String Quartet, and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME). For more information, visit www.neighborhoodclassics.com.
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