North/South Consonance, Inc Continues Season with Julia Heinen & Richard Kravchak, 6/7

North/South Consonance, Inc continues its 37th consecutive season of free-admission concerts on Tuesday evening June 7. Clarinetist Julia Heinen and oboist Richard Kravchak will join conductor Max Lifchitz and the North/South Chamber Orchestra to perform for the first time in New York recent works by Jose Luis Gomez, Daniel Kessner, Max Lifchitz and Marilyn Ziffrin. Ziffrin is celebrating her 90th birthday this season. The concert will take place at the auditorium of Christ & St Stephen's Church (120 West 69th Street) on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The free-admission event will start at 8 PM and end around 9:30 PM. The auditorium is ADA accessible. No tickets or reservations needed.

The composers will introduce their works prior to being performed and will also meet with the public after the concert. Composers and performers are available for interviews and media events and may be contacted through our office at <ns.concerts@att.net>.

Since its inception in 1980, the North/South Chamber Orchestra has brought to the attention of the New York City public over 1,000 works by composers hailing from the Americas and elsewhere representing a wide spectrum of aesthetic views. Its activities are made possible in part, with 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 Women's Philharmonic Advocacy and the Music Performance Trust Funds. Contributions by numerous individual donors are also gratefully acknowledged.

José Luis Gómez Aleixandre (b. 1989; Valencia, Spain) attended the Sibelius Academy in Finland where he studied composition and conducting. His instrumental and choral works have earned prizes at international competitions and have been performed throughout Spain, Finland. Poland and Italy. He resides in Bern, Switzerlnad where he conduts the Wind Orchestras from the Musikgesellschaft Toffen and Ferebalm. His work Reflections -- an intense and virtuosic concertino for clarinet and strings in four sections -- depicts the commotion and isolation of every-day life in the modern megalopolises.

Daniel Kessner (b. 1946; Los Angeles) studied with the late Henri Lazarof at the University of California, Los Angeles. His many awards include the Queen Marie-José International Composition Prize (Geneva, 1972) and the Netherlands Opera Foundation/Holland Festival Prize (Amsterdam, 1980). Also active as flutist and conductor, he has taught and performed in Germany and Portugal as a Senior Fullbright Scholar. Written in 2013 at the request of Richard Kravchak, Kessner's Oboe Concerto is a technically demanding work in three movements. Its post-modern musical writing showcases the lyrical qualities of the oboe while incorporating subtle elements of jazz and improvisation.
Max Lifchitz (b. 1948; Mexico City) was awarded first prize in the 1976 International Gaudeamus Competition for Performers of Twentieth Century Music held in Holland. Robert Commanday, writing for The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "a composer of brilliant imagination and a stunning, ultra-sensitive pianist." The New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn praised Mr. Lifchitz for his "clean, measured and sensitive performances" while Anthony Tommasini remarked that he "conducted a strong performance." His Yellow Ribbons No. 48 is a three movement work scored for oboe, clarinet and strings. It belongs to an ongoing series of compositions written as homage to the former American hostages in Iran. These compositions represent a personal way of celebrating the artistic and political freedom so often taken for granted in the West. The performance of the work will honor the victims of the recent tragic events in San Bernandino, California and Brussles, Belgium.

Marilyn J. Ziffrin (b. 1926; Moline, IL) studied at the University of Wisconsin and Columbia University's Teachers College. The recipient of the '09 Lotte Jacobi Living Treasure New Hampshire Governor Art Award, Ziffrin has received commissions from among others, the New Hampshire Music Festival, the American Guild of Organists, the Hope College Concert Choir and the Concord Chorale. Her song cycle Haiku garnered the 1972 Delius Composition Award. Ziffrin's musical language has been described by the press "as having a peculiarly American sound: lean, direct, tonal and sometimes jazzy." Completed in 2015, her three movement work Strings is both lyrical and fresh, with plenty of heart-felt harmonies and lively rhythms. Being heard for the very first time anywhere, the performance of Strings will honor the composer on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

Clarinetist Julia Heinen has been hailed by the press as "a sensation ... absolutely brilliant.... someone who plays with intensity, conviction and impressive virtuosity." Originally from Minnesota, she resides in Los Angeles, where she recently completed her 21st year as professor of music at California State University, Northridge. She has appeared on concert stages throughout France, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic and El Salvador. Heinen is a Buffet Crampon and D'Addario Performing Artist and performes exclusively on Buffet Crampon RC Prestige clarinets and D'Addario Reserve reeds.

The press has stated that oboist Richard Kravchak's playing "revealed a real beauty of tone, not monolithic, but always changing in color and intensity. He makes even the most difficult lines seem almost effortless." Trained at Eastman, Juilliard and Florida State, Kravchak has premiered over 100 compositions especially written for him. He has appeared as a soloist with ensembles as diverse as The Dubuque Symphony, The University of Hawaii Wind Ensemble, The Carson Symphony, Banda Espinia de Portugal and the Orquesta Symphonica de El Salvador. He serves as the founding Director and Professor of Oboe at the School of Music and Theatre at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

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