The North/South Chamber Orchestra to Kick Off 42nd Season Next Week

The North/South Chamber Orchestra under the direction Max Lifchitz kicks off its 42nd season on Tuesday January 11, 2022, with an event highlighting vocal and instrumental music by Robert Martin.

The virtual event will be livestreamed from St. John's in The Village. It will start at 8 PM (ET) and end around 9:15 PM. It may be accessed by going to https://youtu.be/DVJ4phdCWJI

Distinguished performers for the evening include soprano Sandra Moon; harpist Susan Jolles; flutist Lisa Hansen; violinist Arthur Moeller; violists Colin Brooke and Yumi Oshima; guitarists Jordan Dodson and Dan Lippel; as well as cellist Michael Haas.

While oblivious of recent stylistic trends, Martin's music is both energizing and thought-provoking. While rooted in traditional formal schemes, it sounds distinctively personal and modern. A retrospective, the concert will feature works written over a period of 50 years, from the 1970's until the second decade of the 21st century.

Canadian music reviewer Mike Strizic commented that "Martin shows an undeniable respect for tradition and a clear concision when it comes to compositional force. [He] appears to firmly grasp the summative nature of his work...for that I applaud him." Ivan Koval wrote in the Kiev Music Gazette, "Martin is an undiscovered treasure. He may be the only American composer who understands the musical aesthetics of Eastern Europe. Often his solid musical forms, with their feeling of inevitability, sound as if a modern Haydn or Mozart constructed them."

After completing his studies at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Martin was awarded the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1976. With the help of a Fulbright Scholarship, he traveled throughout Eastern Europe and studied composition in Vienna before returning to New York in 1980. At that time Martin turned his attention to Wall Street, rising to the position of Senior Vice President in investment banking at a leading firm, and serving as financial advisor to the City of New York. As the 1999 recipient of the Japan-U.S. Creative Artist Fellowship in music composition, he spent several months traveling throughout Asia. The Theodore Presser Company publishes his music.

The North/South Chamber Orchestra's album featuring several compositions by Martin inspired by paintings of the Abstract Expressionist master Arshile Gorky is available for streaming via YouTube @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VIfAQ3e61A&list=OLAK5uy_kV8D24x7vXjZAhkLq8tuJ2bsLBPB6ezo0

The event is 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 Zethus Fund, the Music Performance Trust Fund, and many generous individual donors is gratefully acknowledged.