Max Lifchitz Up Close Will Be Streamed by North/South Consonance Next Week

On Sunday evening February 13, 2022, members of the North/South Chamber Orchestra come together to perform three recent chamber works by the ensemble's founder Max Lifchitz.

The livestream event will start at 7 PM (EST) and will originate from the National Opera Center in New York.

It may be accessed by going to https://www.youtube.com/user/NatOperaCenterLIVE

Born in Mexico City to Jewish-Russian parents, Lifchitz has resided in New York City since 1966. Active as pianist, conductor and composer, he has appeared on stages throughout Europe, Latin America and the US. In 1980, he founded the North/South Chamber Orchestra to perform and promote the music by composers from the Americas representing a wide spectrum of aesthetic points of view.

The evening concert will open with the first performance of a revised and expanded Mosaico Latinoamericano (Latin-American Mosaic) for flute and piano. The work is based on folk melodies and rhythms from around the Caribbean and Latin America. Three new movements have been added to the existing two penned a few years ago. The listener will encounter a Mexican Huapango, a mournful Andean Yaravi, a lively Dominican merengue and sophisticated tango rhythms from South America. Flutist Lisa Hansen, accompanied by the composer at the piano, will display her virtuosic skills on the regular flute, as well as the alto flute and the piccolo.

The concert will continue with a song-cycle for voice and piano inspired by a sonnet from the 17th century Mexican icon Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Rosa Divina (Divine Rose) is a parable explaining how transitory and deceiving physical beauty is when compared with the beauty that emanates from the inner soul. Soprano Celia Castro who premiered the work in the US as part of the 2018 Latin American Culture Week, will be the featured vocalist for this occasion.

To close the concert, violinist Arthur Moeller and cellist Amy Kang will join Mr. Lifchitz for the first performance of Beethoven's Moods. Written to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Viennese master, the premiere of the work originally scheduled last year had to be pushed back given pandemic consideration. Following the four-movement format of the classical piano trio, the title of each of the movements of the new work is: Pathetique Beethoven; Beethoven Vacationing in the Caribbean; Beethoven on ZOOM with Charles Ives and Philip Glass, and Beethoven Quarreling with the Immortal Beloved.

North/South Consonance's 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 and the Music Performance Trust Funds as well as gifts from many generous individuals are also gratefully acknowledged.

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