| For Immediate Release – (New York, May 10, 2016) — The Chelsea Symphony is proud to announce the final concert series of its tenth anniversary season, to take place on Saturday, June 4 at 8:00 PM and Sunday, June 5 at 2:00 PM at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street, New York, NY.
Titled “Doorways,” the series ushers listeners over the threshold and into three unique musical worlds. Both concerts include Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony, while the June 4 performance also features Michael Daugherty’s Fire and Blood, and the June 5 concert presents the NYC premiere of Toru Takemitsu’s piece for viola and orchestra, A String Around Autumn. Violist Rick Quantz is soloist on the Takemitsu, violinist Rebekah Butler is soloist for the Daugherty, and TCS Co-Artistic Directors Mark Seto and Matthew Aubin conduct.
Takemitsu’s A String Around Autumn, often called a concerto but referred to by the composer as an “imaginary landscape,” draws on both the composer’s Japanese heritage through its inspiration, a poem by Makoto Ooka, as well as French influences as it was commissioned by the 1989 Festival d’Automne à Paris in honor of the bicentennial celebration of the French Revolution.
Daugherty’s Fire and Blood, meanwhile, is based on a mural by Mexican artist Diego Rivera created during the time he spent with partner Frida Kahlo in Detroit. Said the composer of Rivera’s mural Detroit Industry: “In my ears, I heard the wonderful symphony which came from his factories where metals were shaped into tools for men’s service. It was a new music, waiting for the composer…to give it communicable form.” From the volcanoes of Rivera’s youth to the syncopated rhythms of the Ford assembly line, Daugherty pulls in the painter’s colors, inspirations, and concepts, translating them into three movements of aural energy.
The so-called “Titan,” Mahler’s First Symphony eschews boundaries, offering a monumental example of the composer’s belief that a symphony should be “a world unto itself,” veering from funeral marches to the klezmer bands and ländler folk dances of Mahler’s native Austria, spring in bloom to sailing ships, and hell to paradise (as the composer indicated in early program notes).
CONCERT INFORMATION
Website: http://chelseasymphony.org/concert/doorways
Tickets: Free-$50 at Eventbrite http://thechelseasymphony.eventbrite.com
Press tickets: Contact [email protected]
PROGRAM
Michael Daugherty: Fire and Blood (Rebekah Butler, violin; Saturday 6/4 only)
Toru Takemitsu: A String Around Autumn (NYC premiere) (Rick Quantz, viola; Sunday, 6/5 only)
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D Major
Conductors: Mark Seto, Matthew Aubin
ABOUT THE CHELSEA SYMPHONY
The Chelsea Symphony, hailed as an “enterprising group of young musicians” by Time Out, upends the traditional hierarchy of the classical orchestra: members rotate as featured soloists, conductors, and composers. The self-governing ensemble aims to be a cultural focus for Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and to present vibrant concerts of inspiring symphonic music both old and new. In recent years, The Chelsea Symphony has expanded its reach with performances at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Bargemusic, the United Palace Theatre, New York Fashion Week, the DiMenna Center, and Merkin Concert Hall. In December 2014, The Chelsea Symphony performed at Alice Tully Hall for the premiere of the Amazon Original Series Mozart in the Jungle. Musicians from the orchestra can also be seen in seasons 1 and 2 of the critically acclaimed series.
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