Reflections Series International 2014-2015
Gil Morgenstern, violinist and artistic director
“Coupled Perceptions”
featuring pianist Rieko Aizawa and
choreography by dancers Anna Schön,
Hadar Ahuvia, and James “J-Floats” Fable
Tom Patrick, choreographic advisor
Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 7:30pm
Avenues: The World School
259 Tenth Avenue | NYC
Tickets: $40 General Admission, $20 Students at
www.coupled-perceptions.eventbrite.com
Information: www.reflectionsseries.com
“brilliant artist”—New York Times
“illuminating annual series”—New York Magazine
NEW YORK, NY — On Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 7:30pm, violinist and artistic director Gil Morgenstern’s acclaimed Reflections Series International will present its third concert of the 2014-2015 season, “Coupled Perceptions,” at Avenues: The World School (259 Tenth Ave.). The program, featuring Morgenstern with pianist Rieko Aizawa, will include dance choreographed and performed by Anna Schön, Hadar Ahuvia, and “flexer-glider” James “J-Floats” Fable, with choreographic advisor Tom Patrick, former dancer and current Archival Supervisor for the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
The evening will investigate how adding another artistic discipline to music alters our experience as audience members and asks the questions: “Do we hear or listen to the work differently? Can the whole be greater than the sum of its parts? Are we able to absorb all the information bombarding our brains?” Morgenstern, Rieko, Schön, Ahuvia, and Fable will explore these questions through music and dance. Over the course of the program the musical works will be performed as originally written, giving the audience the opportunity to become familiar with them, and reinterpreted with original choreography, giving the audience the opportunity to experience them as completely different works.
The concert’s program will include selections from the Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas by J. S. Bach, The Stream Flows by Bright Sheng, Sonata for Violin and Piano by Claude Debussy, selections from Ballet for a Lonely Violinist Suite by Leta Auerbach, and selections from Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, arranged by Jascha Heifetz.
This is Reflections’ second season at Avenues, presenting four engaging concerts throughout the school year. The relationship between Reflections and Avenues is particularly appropriate as both seek to integrate learning across subject areas in a globally aware setting. The Avenues New York campus, adjacent to New York’s High Line Park, is the perfect venue for Reflections’ sophisticated but relaxed performances. After Reflections Series International’s tremendously successful inaugural season at Avenues: The World School, Gil Morgenstern has been named Artist-in-Residence for Interdisciplinary Studies beginning with the 2014-2015 season. This unique yearlong residency, during which Morgenstern will work with students and faculty of all academic subjects, is a key part of the school’s mission to “graduate students who are artists no matter their field.”
Reflections Series International presents solo and chamber music along with works of different artistic disciplines, engaging its audiences in combinations of music, text and images. Through its unique contextualization of historical artistic styles and events of their time period, its innovative programming entertains and enlightens the 21st century audience. Using both existing and original works, and with the collaboration of a superb ensemble of creative and performing artists representing all art forms, Reflections programs present works that both reflect upon one another and invite the audience to reflect anew on universal themes.
The 2014-2015 season includes four engaging concerts. The final concert of the season will include:
NATURE’S BOUNTY
Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 7:30pm
Gil Morgenstern, violin and artistic director
Harumi Rhodes, violin
Kathryn Lockwood, viola
Inbal Segev, cello
Yousif Sheronick, percussion
The final program in the 2014-2015 Reflections Series International season will present music and text inspired by personal encounters with both natural and man-made landscapes, immortalizing them through works of unparalleled beauty and drama. This artistic journey, from flowing crystalline streams in China to the haunting terrain of the Middle East to the wide open prairies of the American Great Plains, includes music by Aaron Copland, Antonin Dvořák, Zhou Long, and Riad El-Soumbati, along with text from the works of Mary Shelly, Naguib Mahfouz, and Gaetano Cipolla.
About Gil Morgenstern
Acclaimed for his artistry and technical brilliance, violinist Gil Morgenstern is devoted to exploring and expanding the possibilities for inventive classical music programming. His vision is to present the audience with a more complete concert experience, meticulously curated from start to finish, by organically integrating music with other artistic disciplines in innovative and unexpected ways. The New York Times describes Mr. Morgenstern as a, “brilliant and musically curious artist.”
A violinist with a long history of performing in the world’s great concert halls, Mr. Morgenstern’s career has taken him to international venues including Wigmore Hall, London; Cultural Center Concert Hall, Hong Kong; the American Academy, Rome; Salone dei Cinquecento, Florence; El Teatro Sucre, Quito; Arts Centre and State Theatre, Melbourne, Australia. He has also toured the U.S. extensively, performing in recital and as guest soloist with many leading orchestras including the symphonies of St. Louis, Baltimore, Louisville, Indianapolis, Denver, Milwaukee, New Jersey and North Carolina. The New York Times has hailed his playing as “a perfect demonstration of supreme ability;” “a rare poet of the violin” reported The South China Morning Post; “Morgenstern played a program that tested every part of a violinist’s equipment and he did it all beautifully,” wrote The Washington Post.
Mr. Morgenstern has also shared the stage with such eminent musicians as Philippe Entremont, Lynn Harrell, André-Michel Schub, Jeffrey Kahane, Sharon Isbin, and Heinz Holliger, and has collaborated with United States Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, and performance artist Laurie Anderson.
Mr. Morgenstern’s discography includes works by Beethoven, Fauré, Copland, Ravel, Kodaly, Sessions and the award-winning American composer George Tsontakis. His latest recording, 20th Century Duos for Violin and Cello, was the No. 1 classical CD for over a month on eMusic, the largest online store for independent music in the world, and was one of the top ten best selling classical music albums on Amazon.com. Of the CD The New York Times raved, “the music is terrific and the performances compelling on this surprisingly exciting and excellently engineered recording.” Mr. Morgenstern records for the MMC, Engine Company and Koch International Classics labels, and can regularly be heard on National Public Radio and classical music radio stations across the country.
Highlights of Mr. Morgenstern’s recent seasons include interdisciplinary performances with the Juilliard Dance Company at Lincoln Center and the Brooklyn Ballet; the premieres of staged versions of The Epic of Gilgamesh, Venus and Adonis with Claire Bloom and John Neville, and Samuel Beckett at 100 at New York City’s 92nd Street Y and at Harvard University. Mr. Morgenstern’s performance in the Nine Circles Chamber Theatre production of When Samson Met Delilah toured Holland to rave reviews and his recent appearance in Toronto was broadcast throughout Canada on CBC. He also appeared as violin soloist in U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky’s translation of Dante’s Inferno, which toured the country and was broadcast on PBS and NPR, for which it received a Peabody nomination. Mr. Morgenstern continues to tour the United States and Europe, and his highly acclaimed Reflections Series has recently been presented in London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Milan and Venice. Mr. Morgenstern lives in New York City. For more information, visit www.gilmorgenstern.com.
About Rieko Aizawa
Praised by The New York Times for her “impressive musicality, a crisp touch and expressive phrasing”, Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa made her début at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Schneider. She has since established her own unique musical voice; she has performed at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and among others.
The youngest-ever participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, Rieko has performed as guest with such string quartets as the Guarneri and Orion quartets. She is a founding member of the Horszowski Trio and of the prize-winning Duo Prism, and she is artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival. Rieko is a graduate of the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School. She was the last pupil of Mieczyslaw Horszowski and she also studied with Seymour Lipkin and Peter Serkin.
About Anna Schön
A native from the Bronx, Anna Schön received her BA from Barnard College in European History and Dance. She currently dances for The Metropolitan Opera, the Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group, Rebecca Lazier, Caitlin Trainor, Susan Vencl, and The Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company (DGDC). Schön has previously worked with Aszure Barton and Artists, The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Mark Dendy, Jennifer Muller/The Works, and zoe|juniper.
About Hadar Ahuvia
Hadar Ahuvia grew up in Israel and Florida, trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and earned a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. Past and current collaborations include work with Stuart Shugg, Tatyana Tenenbaum, Kathy Westwater, Anna Sperber, Molly Poerstel, Jon Kinzel, Sara Rudner, and Jill Sigman. Ahuvia has presented work at DTW/NYLA (2011-2012 Fresh Track Artist), EMPAC, The Chocolate Factory’s Throw, CPR, Dixon Place, Aunts, Catch 59, and at the Eastport Art Center, Maine.
About James “J-Floats” Fable
James “J-Floats” Fable started dancing in his junior year at Edward R. Murrow High School, after seeing a friend performing a wave. He has participated in several dance competitions, including Boogie Nation and Kings of New York and was the winner of Second Annual Street Dance Competition, Back to the Streets Vol. 2 in 2013. He plans to continue climbing the ranks in the competitive dance world and hopes that he will bring a unique flavor to his field. J-Floats is currently a student at the College of Staten Island.
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