The North/South Chamber Orchestra Continues its 45th Season with

The North/South Chamber Orchestra will continue its 45th season on Thursday evening, March 27, 2025, with a free-admission concert featuring engaging and accessible works by Anna Cazurra from Barcelona and Stefania de Kenessey from New York.

The evening will feature soloists including vocalist Anna Tonna, narrator Diana Solomon-Glover, as well as pianists Donna Weng Friedman and Alvar Rubio-Comino, with Max Lifchitz directing the orchestra.

The in-person event will begin at 8 PM and conclude around 9:30 PM. It will take place at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, located at 450 West 37th Street, New York, NY 10018.

As there are limited seats available, those wishing to attend should email to reserve a spot.

Anna Cazurra has been commissioned by prestigious musical institutions in Spain and Europe. Guided by Spanish composer Josep Soler, she earned degrees in composition and in music pedagogy at the Universitat de Barcelona. Her postmodern aesthetic features strong tonal foundations, enriched by her fascination with diverse folkloric traditions. The program will feature three of her recent works: "Atlantida," "Gran Tango," and the song cycle "Tensho."

"Atlantida," for piano and strings, blends the Hispanic-Arabian heritage brought to America by Spanish explorers with contributions from native Amerindian traditions, creating a personal and stylized composition. "Gran Tango," also for piano and strings, conveys a sense of sensuality that transcends mere technical perfection or synchronization, capturing the essence of an intensely lived romantic moment. Barcelona-based pianist Alvar Rubio-Comino will be the soloist for both works. He has performed extensively across Spain and Europe and is a member of the staff at the Castello Conservatory in Spain.

Cazurra's song cycle, "Tensho," will be heard for the first time as a work for voice and strings. Based on poetry by Catalan poet Carlos Duarte, "Tensho" means "the arrival of a new era" in Japanese. Each of the five-song cycle explores various feelings about nature, touching on themes related to the sky, the sun, autumn, and the countryside. Distinguished mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna will sin the poems in their original Catalan. Tonna is renowned for her advocacy of music by Hispanic and Latin American composers and is in high demand as a performer in the tri-state y area as well as throughout Spain and Europe.

The New York Times has described Stefania de Kenessey's music as "bright and full of accessible melodies, with influences from theater music and early rock." A graduate of Yale and Princeton Universities, her works have been performed across the United States and internationally. Committed to promoting equality for women composers and musicians, Ms. de Kenessey was the founding president of the International Alliance for Women in Music.

Her piece "Microvids" consists of a collection of 19 miniatures, inspired by poems written by the composer for piano and strings. Created during the pandemic, the title pays homage to Bartók's Mikrokosmos, which the composer fondly remembers from childhood. However, the music is reimagined for contemporary audiences, featuring short pieces that are rhythmically compelling, tuneful, and emotionally uplifting. Pianist Donna Weng Friedman will be the soloist for this work, while Diana Solomon-Glover will narrate the poems that inspired it.

Founded in 1980, North/South Consonance, Inc. is dedicated to promoting music by composers from the Americas and around the world. Its activities are supported in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as grants from the Music Performance Fund, the BMI Foundation, and the generosity of numerous individual donors.

For further programming information please visit the North/South Consonance website @ https://www.northsouthmusic.org/.