Sylvan Winds Presents WINDS OF CHANGE In Chelsea, Today

The Sylvan Winds announce the second concert of the 2016-17 Season celebrating music, culture, and history. Performing in historic and notable New York City buildings and performance venues, the ensemble creates imaginative and informative programs that complement the environs of each space.

Winds of Change is presented on Thursday, February 16 at 7:30 PM. It will take place at The Cell Theatre, 338 West 23rd Street. The show will feature The Sylvan Winds: Svjetlana Kabalin, flute; Kathy Halvorson, oboe; Nuno Antunes, clarinet; Gina Cuffari, bassoon; Zohar Schondorf, horn.

Program

Schwartz (1936-2016) Rows Garden (1995)

Ott (b.1975) Variable Winds (2015)

Oteri (b.1964) circles mostly in wood (2002)

Julia Wolfe (b. 1958) on seven star shoes (1985)

Patterson (b. 1970) Wind Quintet "Klesmeshugeh" (2000/2003-04)

Program subject to change.

This concert is made possible, in part, with support from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Tickets: $25, $20 seniors/students

Available at www.thecelltheatre.org or at the door

This concert is part of the February 2017 Composers Now Festival celebrating living composers, the diversity of their voices and the significance of their musical contributions to our society. During the month of February, the Festival brings together dozens of performances presented by venues, ensembles, orchestras, opera companies, dance companies and many other innovative events throughout New York City. Experience the sounds and get to know the creators behind the music. From jazz to indie, from classical to electronic and beyond, join us on a sonic journey through the landscape of the arts of our time. Composers will be in attendance, interacting with audiences. Composers Now is a project partner of The Fund for the City of New York. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Cheswatyr Foundation, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the Newburgh Institute For The Arts and Ideas, ASCAP, BMI, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.

Schwartz (1936-2016) Born in New York City, Mr. Schwartz studied composition with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson at Columbia University. He held the Robert K. Beckwith Professor of Music at Bowdoin College, where he first taught in 1964. Schwartz's music has been performed by such leading ensembles as the Minnesota Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, ALEA III (Boston), Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, New York Chamber Soloists, Atlanta Virtuosi, Tremont Quartet, Esbjerg Ensemble (Denmark), Lontano (UK), and Spectrum (UK). Major festivals and new music series include the Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), "Music of the Americas" series (London), Berkshire Festival (Tanglewood), "Music in Our Time" (New York), De Ijsbreker (Amsterdam, Netherlands), the York and Bath Festivals (Britain), and European Music Week (UNESCO Centre, Paris). Honors and awards include a Dutch Gaudeamus Prize, two Rockefeller Foundation residencies at Bellagio, Italy, three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, an NEA Consortium commission, and a McKim Fund commission from the Library of Congress.

Daniel Ott (b. 1975) is a 2013 recipient of the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has received commissions from the National Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet's Choreographic Institute, the Chiara Quartet, and Bargemusic, among others, and has been honored multiple times by the ASCAP Foundation. His music has been set to dance by some of the world's leading choreographers, including Larry Keigwin, Benjamin Millepied, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon. Ott's music has been heard all over the world, most notably at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Sadler's Wells, the Musée du Louvre, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva in Mexico. He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, and currently serves on the faculty of both Juilliard and Fordham University, where he is Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition.

Frank J. Oteri (b. 1964) has been a crusader for new ideas and breaking down barriers both in his own music and as a writer and speaker about the music of others. His compositions, which reconcile minimalism and serialism and frequently explore microtonality, have been performed in venues ranging from Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall to Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum and have been recorded by pianist Guy Livingston, PRISM Quartet, and the Los Angeles Electric 8. MACHUNAS, his Fluxus "performance oratorio in four colors," was premiered in Lithuania in 2005. Recent commissions include works for the Central City Chorus, the Cheah Chan Duo, and the Young People's Chorus of New York City. Oteri is also the Composer Advocate for New Music USA and Co-Editor of its web magazine NewMusicBox.org. In 2016, he was elected to the Executive Committee of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). In 2007, Oteri was the recipient of ASCAP's Victor Herbert Award. For more information, visit fjoteri.com

Julia Wolfe (b. 1958) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Anthracite Fields, Ms. Wolfe is a co-founder and co-artistic director of New York's legendary music collective Bang on a Can, and an NYU Steinhardt School composition faculty member. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Yale, and Princeton, and was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for her work Steel Hammer. Drawing inspiration from folk, classical, and rock genres, her music brings a modern sensibility, where classical forms are recharged by the repetitive patterns of minimalism and the driving energy of rock. She has written a major body of work for strings, with commissions from such prestigious ensembles as the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet, and the Orchestre National de France, and with US premieres at the Spoleto and Cabrillo Festivals. In theatre she won an Obie award for Ridge Theater's Jennie Richie, worked in film, and has created the city-wide spectacle Traveling Music with architects Diller Scofidio+Renfro in Bordeaux, France, filling streets of the old city with 100 musicians walking and riding in pedi-cabs. Her music has been heard at BAM, the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, Settembre Musica (Italy), Theatre de la Ville (Paris), Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and has been recorded on Cantaloupe, Teldec, Point/Universal, Sony Classical, and Argo/Decca. Her music is published by Red Poppy Music and is distributed worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc.

Robert Paterson (b. 1970) has been called a 'modern day master', and his music is loved for its elegance, wit, structural integrity, and wonderful sense of color. Named The Composer of The Year by the Classical Recording Foundation with a performance and celebration at Carnegie's Weill Hall in 2011, his music has been on the Grammy ballot yearly and was named 'Best Music of 2012' on National Public Radio. His works have been played by the Louisville Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Austin Symphony, Vermont Symphony, BargeMusic, and the Albany Symphony Dogs of Desire, among others. Paterson's choral works were recorded by Musica Sacra and maestro Kent Tritle, with a world premiere performance at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. This season's highlights include The Nashville Opera world premiere of Three Way in January in Nashville and then at BAM in June. The NY premiere of his opera, The Whole Truth with a libretto by Mark Campbell, sold out in January 2016 in NYC. Other premieres include Shine for the American Brass Quintet, Moon Music for the Claremont Trio, and Graffiti Canons for the Volti Choir of San Francisco. Notable awards include the winner of the Utah Arts Festival, the Copland Award, ASCAP Young Composer Awards, a three year Music Alive! grant from the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA, and yearly ASCAP awards. Fellowships include Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the Aspen Music Festival. Paterson holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Indiana University (MM), and Cornell University (DMA). He gives master classes at colleges and universities, most recently at the Curtis Institute of Music, NYU, and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

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CHANGE OF DATE: The final performance by the SYLVAN WINDS this season will take place on Sunday, May 7, 2017 at 3:00 PM at The Basilica of the Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, with a program by Italian composers (including a contemporary of Da Ponte who was a member of the parish) with works by Cambini, Gualdo da Vandero, Ghedini, Rota, Zannoni, and Respighi.

Hailed by The New York Times for "venturesome programming and stylishness of performance," the Sylvan Winds has performed throughout the United States and abroad. The ensemble has established a reputation as one of the city's most versatile chamber music ensembles and has received many honors, including an invitation to perform at the New York Governor's Arts Awards. Dedicated to exploring the entire body of literature for wind instruments, the ensemble has consistently earned audience and critical acclaim.