MSM News:HIGHLIGHTS: The Robert Mann String Quartet Institute; The 2016 Charles Mingus High School Competition and Festival; and Mahler Symphony No. 8: MSM Symphony, Symphonic Chorus, and Women’s Chorus at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine
January 2016
The Robert Mann String Quartet Institute: Jan. 7–10:
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Master Classes at 2 p.m., Jan. 7 & 8, (Miller Recital Hall, 2 p.m.)
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Screening of Speak the Music: Robert Mann and the Mysteries of Chamber Music by Academy Award-winning director Allan Miller at 7 p.m. Jan. 8, (Miller Recital Hall)
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Final Concert at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 10, (Greenfield Hall – free of charge, no tickets required)
Manhattan School of Music (MSM) hosts the fifth annual Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, featuring four of North America’s most promising young string quartets and special guests – personally chosen by Mr. Mann – taking part in master classes taught by Mr. Mann, and receiving intensive coaching from a faculty that includes MSM Dean of Instrumental Performance David Geber, MSM faculty member Nicholas Mann, members of the American String Quartet (MSM Quartet in Residence), and the Tokyo String Quartet’s Kazuhide Isomura.
The Sunday, Jan. 10 public performance in MSM’s Greenfield Hall will showcase the week’s accomplishments in a concert featuring all of the participating quartets.
American String Quartet: Jan. 18:
Peter Winograd and Laurie Carney, violin; Daniel Avshalomov, viola; Wolfram Koessel, cello. Guest artists: Nicolas Mann, violin and Alan Stepansky, cello. (Borden Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.)
Join respected MSM Quartet in Residence the American String Quartet for a performance of MENDELSSOHN Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80, no 6; TSONTAKIS Quartet No. 7.5 (“Maverick”); and BRAHMS String Sextet in B Major, Op. 18 (with guest violinist Nicolas Mann and guest cellist Alan Stepansky).
MSM Symphonic Chorus with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Jan. 22–24:
Winter Festival: Symphonie Fantastique, featuring the MSM Symphonic Chorus inBerlioz’sLélio. Jacques Lacombe, Conductor.
MSM takes a three-venue tour of New Jersey, led by Jacques Lacombe, the renowned Canadian Music Director of New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, who conducts the Shakespeare-inspired 2016 Winter Festival, which opens with a pair of linked Berlioz scores that pulse with dramatic tension.
An obsessive love turns demonic in his Symphonie Fantastique, which vividly conjures the Witches’ Sabbath from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Its sequel, Lélio – featuring the MSM Symphonic Choir, directed by Kent Tritle – boasts a turn with Jacques Lacombe at the piano and a finale inspired by the Bard’s The Tempest.
Jan. 22: New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, NJ. 8 pm. (For tickets: njpac.org or 888.466.5722)
Jan. 23: State Theatre, NJ. 8 p.m. (For tickets: statetheatrenj.org or 732.246.7469)
Jan. 24: Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJ. 3 pm. (For tickets: mayoarts.org or 973.539.8008)
Recital: Catherine Malfitano (BM ’71), Soprano, Jan. 29:
Celebrated soprano, opera director, and MSM faculty member Catherine Malfitano performs with Eric Sedgwick on piano. (Miller Rehearsal Hall, 7:30 p.m.)
The recital will include works by Hanns Eisler, Kurt Weill, Eric Satie, Francis Poulenc, William Bolcom, George Gershwin, and Harold Arlen.
Feb. 2016
MSM Chamber Sinfonia, Feb. 5
Featuring George Manahan (BM ’73, MM ’76), conductor; Timothy Cho (MM ’16), conductor; and Fangyue He (PS ’15), violin. (Borden Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.)
MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides, Op.25 (Fingal’s Cave)
DVORAK Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53 (B. 108)
STRAVINKSY Jeu de cartes
2016 Charles Mingus High School Competition and Festival, Feb. 12–14:
Masterclasses, workshops, and jam sessions culminating in the annual competition and a final concert at the Jazz Standard with the Mingus Big Band. (Times and locations TBA)
The music and legacy of Charles Mingus is celebrated Feb. 12 and Feb. 14, when the MSM Jazz Arts Program collaborates with Let My Children Hear Music/The Charles Mingus Institute for the Seventh Annual Charles Mingus High School Competition and Festival.
Sue Mingus and Justin DiCioccio (MM ’71), Associate Dean of Jazz Arts at MSM, are the festival’s co-producers.
MSM Symphony, Symphonic Chorus, and Women’s Chorus with the Oratorio Society of New York, Feb. 25:
Mahler Symphony No. 8 in E-Flat Major. Kent Tritle, conductor; Sara Murphy, mezzo-soprano; Adam Lau, bass; plus MSM student soloists TBA. (Cathedral of St. John the Divine,7:30 p.m.)
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine provides the spectacular setting for three choirs (two from MSM), the MSM Symphony, and special guests performing one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire.
Mahler Symphony No. 8 in E-Flat Major is also known as “Symphony of a Thousand” because it requires such huge instrumental and vocal forces; the last of Mahler’s works premiered in his lifetime, it debuted in Munich in September 1910. (For tickets: stjohndivine.org or 866.811.4111)
MSM Concert Jazz Band, Feb. 26:
Jazz Student Composers’ Big Band Concert. (Borden Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.)
Exciting new compositions by MSM masters and graduate students, performed by the MSM Concert Jazz Band and conducted by Justin DiCioccio (MM ’71), Associate Dean of Jazz Arts at MSM. (No tickets required)
For inquiries about performances at Manhattan School of Music, please contact Caryn Freitag, Communications and Public Relations Associate, at cfreitag@msmnyc.edu.
