The North/South Chamber Orchestra Kicks Off Its 45th Consecutive Season

The North/South Chamber Orchestra will kicks off its 45th consecutive season on Monday, January 13, 2025, performing four recent works by composers from Australia, Mexico, and the US.

The free-admission concert will start at 7 PM and end around 8:20 PM. It will be held at the intimate and acoustically superior auditorium of Christ & St Stephen's Church (120 West 69th St - between Broadway and Columbus) on Manhattan's Upper West Side. First come, first served. No registration or tickets are required.

Wearing a mask while in the auditorium is optional but strongly encouraged.

The program will introduce to the New York City public compositions by Ed Cionek, Dan Cooper, Leandro Espinosa-Garay, and Paul Stanhope. Conductor Max Lifchitz will lead the ensemble.

North/South Consonance's concert activities are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support from the BMI Foundation, the Music Performance Trust Fund, the Zethus Fund, and numerous generous individual donors is gratefully acknowledged.

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS and THEIR MUSIC

Ed Cionek was born in Upstate New York and trained at the University of Michigan. Based in New York City, his works have been performed throughout the country and abroad. Cionek's This Restless Earth expresses hope for better stewardship of our planet. The work, dedicated to the late Francis Fortier, was premiered at the 2023 Bar Harbor Music Festival in Maine.

Born and raised in Manhattan, Dan Cooper holds degrees from Columbia and Princeton Universities. The press has described his works as "full of instrumental virtuosity and sly humor" (Fanfare) and "invigoratingly eclectic to the max" (Strings Magazine). Written while Cooper was touring in Italy with Ute Lemper, Soca was inspired by the lively, characteristic rhythm of Trinidadian Soca Music and Jamaican Dub.

Active as conductor and composer, Mexican-born Leandro Espinosa-Garay studied at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. His many honors include a commission from the Vatican for a mass dedicated to H. H. Pope Benedict XVI. His Divertimento for strings premiered at Mexico City's International Forum for New Music before being taken up by the Eastern Oregon Symphony Orchestra.

Based in Sydney, Paul Stanhope is a leading figure among emerging Australian composers. His works have been performed in the UK, Europe, and numerous Asia-Pacific countries. On the faculty of the Sidney Conservatory, his compositions have earned prestigious awards, including the Charles Mackerras Scholarship from the Guildhall School and Japan's Toru Takemitsu prize. The Australian Chamber Symphony commissioned Stanhope's Giving Ground as a companion piece to La Folia, the popular work by the Italian baroque master Francesco Geminiani. The work's musical language juxtaposes baroque mannerisms with contemporary coloristic effects inherent in the strings.

MEET THE PERFORMERS

A dynamic figure in America's musical life, Max Lifchitz was born in México City and has lived in New York since 1966. Active as composer, pianist, and conductor, Lifchitz was awarded first prize in the 1976 International Gaudeamus Competition for Performers of Twentieth Century Music held in Holland. The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "a stunning, ultra-sensitive pianist" while The New York Times praised Mr. Lifchitz for his "clean, measured and sensitive performances." The American Record Guide remarked that "Mr. Lifchitz is as good on the podium as he is behind the piano."

The North/South Chamber Orchestra performs a yearly series of concerts at various New York City auditoriums. For the complete North/South concert series schedule, please visit www.northsouthmusic.org.