Carol Wincenc and More Set for PREformances with Allison Charney, 12/14 at JCC Manhattan

JCC Manhattan presents the fall season finale of PREformances with Allison Charney on Monday, December 14th at 12:30pm. In this unique concert series, you will hear celebrated classical musicians just before their performances on the world's most prestigious stages removing traditional barriers between performer and audience.

Monday's concert will feature "Queen of the Flute" and Grammy nominee, Carol Wincenc, along with cellist Wilhelmina Smith and pianists Pam Goldberg, Len Horovitz and Craig Ketter for an afternoon of works by Schubert, Debussy, Strauss, Alfred Casella and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Funds raised through patron support of the PREformances program will support both The Basser Center at the University of Pennsylvania and special programs at The JCC in Manhattan that promote early detection of cancer and care for those living with breast and ovarian cancer.

Located on 76th Street and Amsterdam, JCC Manhattan is a vibrant non-profit community center on the Upper West Side. The cornerstone of progressive programming in Manhattan, the JCC serves over 55,000 people annually through 1,200 programs each season that educate, inspire, and transform participants' minds, bodies, and spirits. Since its inception, the JCC has been committed to serving the community by offering programs and services that reach beyond neighborhood boundaries. Programs at the JCC reach people at all stages of their lives, and serve the entire family and community.

About PREformances with Allison Charney:

Opera singer Allison Charney lost her cell phone in a cab. The JCC of Manhattan Executive Director Rabbi Joy Levitt found it. Upon their meeting, a brand new model for a concert series, PREformances with Allison Charney, was born.

PREformances with Allison Charney is truly unique in the vast landscape of NYC musical offerings, as it affords professional classical musicians of the highest caliber* an opportunity to try out something they are preparing to perform somewhere big, in front of an audience who understands that they are seeing a not-quite- finished product. The performers benefit from the slightly pumped up pressure that any public performance brings, without any worry of a possible review, along with an extra chance to hone their performances in this day of massive budget cuts in the arts which severely limits opportunities for ample rehearsal time. Simultaneously, the audience benefits from an up-close-and-personal, barrier-breaking opportunity to get inside the head of a top-notch performer...see what they think about, what their challenges may be, all while hearing the best classical concerts in New York City.

PREformances with Allison Charney maintains its highly accessible concerts with extremely low single ticket prices. However, entering its seventh season, PREformances with Allison Charney will also continue its vastly successful and profoundly impactful charitable relationship with the Basser Center through its fundraising arm: Friends of PREformances.

Inspired by the incredible philanthropy of Mindy and Jon Gray, whose 25 million dollar gift launched the Basser Center at the University of Pennsylvania, PREformances with Allison Charney will be able to help promote awareness and education at the JCC about breast and ovarian cancers, which coincidentally impact women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, thousands of whom walk through the doors of the JCC annually, at a rate of 1 in 44, or 10 times that of the normal population. All gifts starting at $100 include a season subscription for two to PREformances with Allison Charney with many more perks available at higher levels of patronage, including tickets to exclusive concerts in Manhattan's finest private homes.

Begun in the most ordinary circumstances, PREformances with Allison Charney is now blossoming into a most extraordinary program -- one that not only creates beautiful music but could also save lives of countless women at risk.

About the Artists:

Allison Charney, Soprano - Soprano Allison Charney's operatic career began in earnest following the national finals of the Metropolitan Opera Competition with her debut at the New York City Opera as Musetta in LA BOHE?ME. She went on to sing most of Puccini's leading soprano roles in opera companies throughout the country, including the title roles in MADAMA BUTTERFLY, TOSCA and SUOR ANGELICA, Mimi in LA BOHE?ME and Liu? in TURANDOT, earning a reputation for her "vocal agility, lush sound and dramatic portrayals" of the lirico-spinto roles in her wide ranging repertoire. Ms. Charney has experienced enormous success with her Mozart interpretations as well, including both Susanna and the Countess in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in DON GIOVANNI, Pamina in DIE ZAUBERFLO?TE and Sandrina in the rarely-heard LA FINTA GIARDINIERA. She wowed both audience and critics all over the United States with her tour-de-force portrayals of all three heroines in Offenbach's TALES OF HOFFMANN. Her versatility has also led her to sing roles as varied as Rosalinde in DIE FLEDERMAUS, Micae?la in CARMEN, Nedda in PAGLIACCI, Santuzza in CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA and the title roles in MARTHA, LA TRAVIATA, JENUFA and THE MERRY WIDOW. Ms. Charney's career has brought her to opera companies across the United States, including the New York City Opera, Atlanta Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Utah Opera, Nashville Opera, Opera Memphis, Annapolis Opera, Opera Theater of Connecticut, New Rochelle Opera, Opera Illinois, OperaDelaware, Utah Festival Opera, DiCapo Opera Theater, Tampa Opera, Opera Idaho, Syracuse Opera, Washington Summer Opera Festival, Colorado Opera Festival and Mississippi Opera. Concert highlights have included performances at Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and as a featured soloist with the esteemed Philadelphia Orchestra. Ms. Charney sang her first performance of Samuel Barber's KNOXVILLE: SUMMER OF 1915 along with the world premiere of Kim D Sherman's newly- orchestrated, INVOCATION, under the baton of JoAnn Falletta, and will sing Beethoven's dramatic concert aria, AH PERFIDO, in a concert conducted by New York Philharmonic Music Director, Alan Gilbert. Continuing her commitment to performing music of our times, Ms. Charney premiered Moshe Knoll's PSALM 133 with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, in a concert that also featured Kim D. Sherman's oratorio (composed for Ms. Charney) SONGBIRD AND THE EAGLE in the spring of 2014, after which she performed in the Rite of Summer Music Festival on Governors Island and made her debut with the Boston Pops under the baton of Alan Gilbert. Ms. Charney is featured in the newly-released, first recording of the Pulitzer Prize nominated oratorio CHOOSE LIFE, by composer Mona Lyn Reese and can be heard in a CD of American songs with pianist, Benjamin Loeb, on the DSC Label. Ms. Charney is a founding member of the ARK trio, who is scheduled to release their first recording in the spring of 2016. Ms. Charney is an active recitalist and master teacher and is the founder and curator of the concert series, PREformances with Allison Charney housed at the JCC Manhattan. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude with highest honors, in Special Concentrations from Harvard University, she went on to earn two graduate degrees in music from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Ms. Charney now lives in New York City with her husband, Adam Epstein and their two sons, Evan and Oliver.

Carol Wincec, Flutist (pictured, top left) - Hailed "Queen of the Flute" (New York Magazine) at the outset of her, now, brilliant 40 year career, flutist Carol Wincenc was First Prize Winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Solo Flute Competition, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the National Flute Association and the Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Music from the National Society of Arts and Letters. She has appeared as soloist with such ensembles as the Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit and London Symphonies, the BBC, Warsaw and Buffalo Philharmonics, the Saint Paul, Los Angeles and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras. She has performed in the Mostly Mozart Festival and music festivals in Aldeburgh, Budapest, Frankfurt, Santa Fe, Spoleto, Music at Menlo, Aspen, Yale/Norfolk and Marlboro. The muse of today's most prominant composers, Ms. Wincenc has premiered numerous works written for her by luminaries Christopher Rouse, Henryk Gorecki, Lukas Foss, Jake Heggie, Yuko Uebayashi and Joan Tower. In great demand as a chamber musician, Ms. Wincenc has collaborated with the Emerson, Tokyo, Gruarneri, Juilliard and Escher string quartets, and performed with Jessye Norman, Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma. A Grammy nominee, she has recorded for Telarc, Nonesuch, London/Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Telarc (Diapason D'Or Award), Music Masters (Recording of Special Merit with Andras Schiff) and Naxos (Grammophone Magazine "Pick of the Month with Buffalo Philharmonic). Ms. Wincenc created and directed a series of International Flute Festivals at the Ordway Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, featuring such diverse artists as Jean-Pierre Rampal, Herbie Mann, Steven Kujala and the American Indian flutist, R. Carlos Nakai. She is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet and a founding member of Les Amis Trio with New York Philharmonic principals Nancy Allen and Cynthia Phelps. Ms. Wincenc is currently on the faculties of The Juilliard School and Stonybrook University having mentored and graduated countless rising, flute stars commanding Principal Flute positions in major symphony orchestras and university professorships. She is renowned for her popular series of etudes and flute classics, the "Carol Wincenc 21st Century Flute" published by Lauren Keiser/Hal Leonard Music Publishers. For more, visit www.carolwincenc.com or go to www.facebook.com/carolwincencflute.

Wilhelmina Smith, Cellist - Cellist Wilhelmina Smith has been awarded a 2015-2016 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Performing Musicians administered by MacPhail Center for Music. She made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra while a student at the Curtis Institute of Music and in 1997 was a prizewinner in the Leonard Rose International Cello Competition. She has gone on to solo with orchestras including the Orquesta Millenium of Guatemala and the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia and has performed recitals across the US and Japan. A strong supporter of new music, she has worked frequently with composers such as Esa- Pekka Salonen, with whom she collaborated to performed his cello concerto, Mania, and gave the American premiere of his solo cello work, Knock, Breathe, Shine. As a chamber musician, Ms. Smith has performed with Paul Tortelier, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Dawn Upshaw, Benita Valente and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Brentano, Miami, Borromeo and Galimir String Quartets in venues across the US and Europe. She has been a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, and is a founding member of Music from Copland House. In 2005, she formed the Variation String Trio with violinist Jennifer Koh and violist Hsin-Yun Huang, a group that has performed across the US and Europe. She is founder and Artistic Director of Salt Bay Chamberfest on the coast of Maine. Ms. Smith's solo CD of sonatas by Britten and Schnittke with pianist Thomas Sauer was released on the Arabesque label in 2006. Her recordings of chamber music include the complete chamber works of Aaron Copland, works by Sebastian Currier, John Musto and Aaron Jay Kernis. She has performed frequently with pop musician Sting and can be heard on recent recordings for both Sting and Bruce Springsteen. She currently lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her husband Mark Mandarano and children August and Giovanna.

Pam Goldberg, Pianist - Acknowledged by many to have created the blueprint for places like Le Poisson Rouge and SubCulture, Pam Goldberg is a unique combination of professional pianist and entrepreneur. Having concertized in New York in numerous venues both as soloist & chamber musician, she went on to establish a new and novel environment for both performer and audience - radically different from the concert halls. The first was Classical Cafe, under the auspices of the 92nd Street Y & the latest is The Rite of Summer Music Festival on Governors Island, the first of its kind, entering its 6th season next summer. Pam served on the faculty of The Diller-Quaile School of Music for 10 years and now teaches privately in New York. She has recorded two CDs - one of solo works by Mozart & Schumann and the other, Mozart violin sonatas with violinist, Christine Sohn. She lives in New York City with her husband, Jeff and two sons, Max and Henry.

Len Horovitz, Pianist - Len Horovitz has appeared in solo recitals, chamber concerts and with orchestras at New York's CARNEGIE HALL, ALICE TULLY HALL and TOWN HALL. He has accompanied renowned METROPOLITAN OPERA Sopranos Carol Vaness and Korliss Uecker as well as METROPOLITAN ORCHESTRA Principals Julie Landsman (French horn) and Jerry Grossman (cello). He performs regularly with the New York Piano Society and was a finalist in the Van Cliburn "Professional-Amateur" Competition. Reviews described his "perfect voicing and projection and an arresting sense of drama." Dr. Horovitz is a board-certified Internist and Pulmonologist in private practice in New York City. He is listed among Castle-Connolly's and New York Magazine's "Best Doctors," and was named Who's Who "Pulmonary Professional of the Year." He has been on staff at Lenox Hill Hospital for over thirty years, and he appears as a medical commentator on national and local news. Len Horovitz has been performing as a pianist since childhood - although he was born with three thumbs. His parents were told: "He'll never play the piano." For more, visit www.lenhorovitz.com.

Craig Ketter, Pianist - Critically acclaimed for "transporting the listeners to extraordinary heights" and "into a world beyond time and space," pianist Craig Ketter is known for playing with powerhouse sonority combined with long-lined, dulcet lyricism. Mr. Ketter has performed as soloist with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Sacramento Philharmonic, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Mobile Symphony, the South Orange Symphony, the Raleigh Symphony, the Garden State Philharmonic, the Durham Symphony, the Rocky Ridge Music Festival Orchestra, and the American Festival for the Arts Orchestra. His solo concerts have taken him to Mexico, Argentina, Barbados, France, Germany, Japan, and across the United States and Canada.

Complementing his solo performances with collaborative ventures, Mr. Ketter regularly joins forces with international singers and chamber groups. Venues include NPR's Performance Today series, CBS Sunday Morning, Sirius Satellite Radio, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, La Huaca, Atlapa in Panama City, the Savannah Music Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine, "Music in the Mountains" in Colorado, and The Marilyn Horne Foundation. Musicians he has collaborated with include flutist Eugenia Zukerman, clarinetists Stephen Williamson, Ricardo Morales and Jon Manasse, cellists Robert deMaine and Eric Bartlett, violinists Kelly Hall-Tompkins and Roy Malan, and singers Deborah Voigt, Margaret Jane Wray, Cynthia Lawrence, Samuel Ramey, Paul Plishka, Ben Heppner, Cliff Forbis, and Robert White. He has also performed with the esteemed actress Claire Bloom.

Craig Ketter began piano studies at the age of seven, giving his first solo recital at the age of ten. Shortly thereafter, he began to win top prizes in numerous competitions including the Young Keyboard Artists Association International Piano Competition, the North Carolina Symphony Young Artists Competition, and the Kingsville International Piano Competition. He later won first prizes in the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition, the Richardson Awards National Piano Competition and the South Orange Symphony of New Jersey Young Artists Competition. He was also awarded the Saunderson Award at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Los Angeles, California with the Meliora Winds.

Craig Ketter received his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Nelita True and Barry Snyder, where he also taught as Mr. Snyder's assistant. He continued post- graduate studies with Yoheved Kaplinsky of the Juilliard School. Complementing his performing with teaching, Mr. Ketter has presented master classes throughout the United States and Argentina, and has served as a guest professor and adjudicator in several institutions and venues. He has been a faculty member of the Rocky Ridge Music Festival in Colorado and has served as Chair of the Piano Faculty at the American Festival for the Arts in Houston, Texas. He is currently on the faculty of New Jersey City University. Mr. Ketter currently resides in the New York area with his wife, Canadian soprano Valerie Gonzalez, and his two sons, Isaac and Daniel.

IF YOU GO:

Jewish Community Center in Manhattan
The Samuel Priest Rose Building
334 Amsterdam Avenue at West 76th Street, NY
(646) 505-5708
Subway: 1/2/3 to 72nd St.; Bus: M7 or M11 to West 75th Street Admission: $15; $10 Members; $5 for Ages 62+
www.jccmanhattan.org/preformances