[ Composer's Voice ]
Composer's Voice Concert

October 09, 2011
Jan Hus Church
351 East 74th Street
New York
,
New York
10021-3798
Special Encore Presentations of Fifteen Minutes of Fame by Kenji Haba and Zentripetal

Program:

Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Kenji Haba
1. Salim Dada

2. Joseph Eidson

3. Ashley John Long

4. Douglas DaSilva

5. Iman Habibi

6. Chia-Yu Hsu

7. Justin Breame

8. Thomas Flippin

9. Chris Vaisvil

10. John Thompson

11. Jay C. Batzner

12. Richard Pressley

13. Dai Fujikura

14. Stavros Hoplaros

15. Oswaldo Torres Ortiz

Kenji Haba, guitar
Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Zentripetal
1. Jay C. Batzner

2. Ken Paoli

3. Alex Chilvers

4. Russwll Podgorsek

5. Hye Kyung Lee

6. Joshua Backes

7. Bob Seibert

8. John Melcher

9. David Morneau

10. David Bohn

11. John Michael Hunt

12. Paul Lombardi

13. Ronald Keith Parks

14. Malina Rauschenfels

15. Sam Pender-Bayne

Zentripetal
Lynn Bechtold, violin
Jennifer DeVore, cello
From Memory to History
Douglas DaSilva

Midori Witkoski, viola
Window 1 Window 2 Window 3 Window 4 from Seventeen Windows
David Wolfson

David Wolfson, piano

Performers

Lynn Bechtold

Violinist Lynn Bechtold has appeared in recital throughout the U.S., Canada, Holland, and Switzerland. An advocate of contemporary music, she has worked with composers such as Gloria Coates, George Crumb, John Harbison, and Morton Subotnick, and has premiered works on the Princeton Composers' Series and Composers Concordance. In 2001, she gave the premiere of "Violynn," a work for violin and electronics written for her by Alvin Lucier. As a member of the Lumina String Quartet, the East Village Opera Company (rock/opera band), the SEM Ensemble, and the New York Symphonic Ensemble, among others, Ms. Bechtold has performed around the world. Other programs have been with the Absolute Ensemble, North/South Consonance, Parsons Dance, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Vermont Symphony, and the VOX Opera Readings. In addition, she has performed with singers such as Boyz II Men, Sheryl Crow, Roberta Flack, Smokey Robinson, J-Pop band SMAP, and Donna Summer. She has performed at venues such as Alice Tully Hall, the Blue Note, the Frick Museum, the Harvard Club, Joe's Pub, the Kosciuszko Foundation, Merkin Hall, St John the Divine, and Zankel Hall. Ms. Bechtold received her Master's Degree from the Mannes College of Music where she was a student of Felix Galimir. She received a double-degree in Violin and English from the New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University in Boston. In addition, she likes to compose works for strings and electronics. She is on the faculty of Greenwich House Music School in NYC, and the Norwalk Youth Symphony.

Jennifer DeVore

Cellist Jennifer DeVore received her BA in Art History from Harvard University before earning her Masters degree from the New England Conservatory, where her teachers were Colin Carr and Laurence Lesser. An active chamber musician and soloist, she has appeared at Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Zankel Hall and Weill Hall and at the Musicorda, Yellow Barn and Spoleto festivals. Groups she has played with include the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Pi, the Jose Limon Dance Company, and the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra. She is also a member of the Harrisburg Symphony. As a member of the Lumina String Quartet, Ms. DeVore has toured Russia and the Ukraine. Travel with other chamber groups has included concerts throughout Southeast Asia, Europe, Israel and Costa Rica. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. DeVore has worked closely with composers John Cage, Ornette Coleman, and John Zorn, has premiered many solo and chamber works, played in the Bang-On-A-Can Marathon and on WNYC's "New Sounds," and has recorded pieces by Cage and Xenakis, as well as pieces by many American composers. Her diverse interests have led to recordings and performances with artists such as Il Divo, DJ Spooky, East Village Opera Company, Josh Groban, Laura Brannigan, Suzanne Vega, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and many independent bands in New York. Television appearances include spots on Good Morning America, Live with Regis and Kelly, and the CW11 Morning Show. She teaches at the Packer Institute in Brooklyn and privately.

Kenji Haba

Kenji Haba is a guitarist who is exclusively sensitive to timbres in appreciating and expressing the beauty of guitar. Haba believes that the guitar is the perfect instrument to express his musical ideas because of its beautiful tones and its countless timbres. Recently, he has been focusing on impressionistic music, especially that of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Toru Takemitsu.

His Eastern and Western cultural experiences influenced his musical perception and directed him to a unique artistry. He was born in rural Japan in a town called Mino-City. In his childhood he had already taken to music, but it was not until he moved to the USA that he realized that the guitar was his calling. In 2001, he moved to America to study Business, and worked for an accounting firm in New York. One night he was turning his radio dial and stopped when he heard the sound of the master guitarist, Andre Segovia. At once, he fell in love with the sound of the classical guitar and realized he needed to pursue its artistry. He began intensive self-study, and in 2006, Haba began studying classical guitar under renowned guitarist, Kevin R. Gallagher and Oren Fader. With his passion driving his learning ability, after one year of studying, he was accepted into the Manhattan School of Music in Master of Music, and there worked with Mark Delpriora.

Kenji Haba has brought many performances at concert halls and venues, including Goins Recital Hall (Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee), Greenfield Hall (Manhattan School of Music, New York City), The Mannes Concert Hall, (Mannes College of Music, New York City), etc.

Haba has been selected to perform in masterclasses for such renowned guitarists as Oscar Ghiglia, Bruce Holzman, Fabio Zanon, Jason Vieaux, Thomas Kirchhoff, and Eden Stell Guitar Duo. In addition, Haba has participated in numerous music festivals, including New York Guitar Seminars and the Tennessee State University Classical Guitar Seminar.

Midori Witkoski

Midori Witkoski's passion for playing contemporary works has led her to premiere many new works at the Manhattan School of Music, where she recently graduated with a Bachelors degree in Viola Performance. She has worked and been coached by Lawrence Dutton, Daniel Avshalomov, Peter Winograd, and Wolfram Koessel. She currently coaches with contemporary violinist Curtis Macomber.

Composers

David Wolfson

David Wolfson is an eclectic, versatile composer of songs, concert music and music for theatre. The New York Times called his work "musically inventive" & "theatrically forceful." He has written art songs, theatre songs, comedy songs, pop songs and songs for bigheaded- costumed-character amusement parks shows; he has composed incidental music for plays and done sound design for Macy's display windows. Please visit www.davidwolfsonmusic.net !

15 Minutes of Fame Composers

15 one-minute selections for Zentripetal

Program Notes

Support from the Puffin Foundation "...continuing the dialogue between art and the lives of ordinary people."

Vox Novus is a collective of composers, musicians, and music enthusiasts collaborating together to create, produce, promote, and enjoy the new music of today. Our members are from a variety of composers committed to the creation and dissemination of new music. Their music is of a variety of styles, aesthetics, and ideologies. Vox Novus produces and promotes new music. They are dedicated to contemporary music, the musicians who perform, and the composers that write the music of today. Their mission is to cultivate a music community and make their work available to the greater public.

Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and musicals and takes children's versions out to special-needs and at-risk children free of charge.

Presenters:

Remarkable Theater Brigade

Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and musicals and takes children's versions out to special-needs and at-risk children free of charge.

Remarkable Theater Brigade creates and produces new works including operas, orchestral pieces, ballets, musicals, and electro-acoustic works and co-produces the Composer's Voice Concert Series concerts. Remarkable Theater Brigade was founded in 2002 by Christian McLeer, Monica Harte, and Dan Jeselsohn.

Jan Hus Church

This is the place you were welcome, long before you arrived!
www.janhus.org

Vox Novus

Vox Novus promotes contemporary music and its creators through concerts, recordings, publications, broadcasts, and online publicity. Vox Novus believes strongly in the intrinsic value of contemporary music, recognizing it as a force in the advancement of culture and art. Our goal is to keep music alive by strengthening the connection between composer and audience, providing greater exposure to new music.

Funding by

Puffin Foundation

Funding also provided by the Puffin Foundation, "...continuing the dialogue between art and lives of ordinary people."