Sylvan Winds to Open Season with LADIES FIRST! in February

This concert is part of the February 2020 Composers Now Festival celebrating living composers, the diversity of their voices and the significance of their musical contributions to our society. During the month of February, the Festival brings together dozens of performances presented by venues, ensembles, orchestras, opera companies, dance companies and many other innovative events throughout New York City. Experience the sounds and get to know the creators behind the music. From jazz to indie, from classical to electronic and beyond, join us on a sonic journey through the landscape of the arts of our time. Composers will be in attendance, interacting with audiences. Composers Now is a project partner of The Fund for the City of New York. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the BNY Mellon Wealth Management, the Cheswatyr Foundation, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, Michael and Phyllis Minard, the Newburgh Institute For The Arts and Ideas, ASCAP, BMI, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and The Witherspoon Fund.

Jordyn Gallinek (b. October 18, 1995 / Guildford, Surrey, ENGLAND) Jordyn Gallinek is an American composer and educator based in New York. Her works have been performed in the United States and Asia, notably by the Juilliard Orchestra, Oregon Wind Quintet, and Cassatt String Quartet. She was the winner of the 2018-19 Juilliard Orchestra's Composition Competition, the 2018 Texas A&M Chamber Music Symposium's Composition Competition, and she was awarded Composer Fellowships at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Seal Bay Festival, and Aspen Music Festival. She is currently pursuing her Master's in Composition at the Juilliard School as a student of Robert Beaser, having graduated from NYU with a BM in Composition and an MA in Music Education. Her previous teachers include Christopher Rouse, Norman Dello Joio, and Joseph Church.

Jessica Meyer (b. April 19, 1974 / Babylon NY) With playing that is "fierce and lyrical" and works that are "other-worldly" (The Strad) and "evocative" (The New York Times), Jessica Meyer is a versatile composer and violist whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility and emotional clarity. Works have been premiered by Grammy-winning vocal ensembles Roomful of Teeth and Vox Clamantis, the American Brass Quintet, PUBLIQuartet, NOVUS NY of Trinity Wall Street, A Far Cry, Lorelei Ensemble, the Nu Deco Ensemble in Miami, and the Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School. This spring she will be the Composer in Residence at the Spoleto Festival and upcoming premieres include a work for the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and a concerto for herself with the League of Composers Orchestra in Miller Theatre. This performance of If Only I will be a New York première!

Valerie Coleman (September 3, 1970 / Louisville KY) Hailed as one of the top women composers in classical music, Ms. Coleman is among the world's most performed composers living today. She began her music studies at the age of 11; by the age of 14, she had written three symphonies and won several local and state performance competitions. She is the founder, creator, and former flutist of the Grammy® nominated Imani Winds, one of the world's premier chamber music ensembles, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Performance, Chamber Music, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Miami. Coleman has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, American Composers Orchestra, The Library of Congress, the Collegiate Band Directors National Association, Chamber Music Northwest, Virginia Tech University, Virginia Commonwealth University, National Flute Association, West Michigan Flute Society, Orchestra 2001, The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Flute/Clarinet Duos Consortium, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Interlochen Arts Academy to name a few.

Julia Wolfe (b. December 18, 1958 / Philadelphia PA) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Anthracite Fields, Ms. Wolfe is a co-founder and co-artistic director of New York's legendary music collective Bang on a Can, and an NYU Steinhardt School composition faculty member. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Yale, and Princeton, and was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for her work Steel Hammer. The 2019 world premiere of Fire in my mouth, a large-scale work for orchestra and women's chorus, by the New York Philharmonic with The Crossing and the Young People's Chorus of New York City, received extensive acclaim. The premiere was recorded live and is released on Decca Gold. Drawing inspiration from folk, classical, and rock genres, her music brings a modern sensibility, where classical forms are recharged by the repetitive patterns of minimalism and the driving energy of rock. She has written a major body of work for strings, with commissions from such prestigious ensembles as the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet, and the Orchestre National de France, and with US premieres at the Spoleto and Cabrillo Festivals. In theatre she won an Obie award for Ridge Theater's Jennie Richie, worked in film, and has created the city-wide spectacle Traveling Music with architects Diller Scofidio+Renfro in Bordeaux, France, filling streets of the old city with 100 musicians walking and riding in pedi-cabs. Her music has been heard at BAM, the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, Settembre Musica (Italy), Theatre de la Ville (Paris), Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and has been recorded on Cantaloupe, Teldec, Point/Universal, Sony Classical, and Argo/Decca. Her music is published by Red Poppy Music and is distributed worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc.

Amanda Harberg (b. February 25, 1973 / Philadelphia PA) Amanda's works have been presented at leading institutions including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Bargemusic. Her music has been recognized by awards such as a Fulbright Hays fellowship, Juilliard's Peter Mennin prize, both New Jersey and New York State Council on the Arts fellowships, a MacDowell Colony summer residency, and a Newly Published Music award from the National Flute Association. She has been commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, the Grand Rapids Symphony, Albany Symphony's Dogs of Desire, the New York Youth Symphony's First Music Program, and the Dorian Quintet, among many other projects. Her upcoming Piccolo Concerto will be premiered at the 2020 National Flute Convention's Gala Concerto Concert in Dallas TX, by Philadelphia Orchestra piccoloist Erica Peel.

Additional performances by the SYLVAN WINDS this season will take place on Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 2:00 PM at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue at 30 West 68th Street in a L'Chaim program featuring Israeli works by Tzvi Avni and Jan Radzynski along with other works by Pavel Haas and Gene Kavadlo. Our final Dia de la Madre program will take place in the courtyard of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library on Broadway between 155th and 156th Streets, on Sunday, May 17, 2020 with works by Gomes, Silva, Alonso, Rodrigo, and Marquez.

Hailed by The New York Times for "venturesome programming and stylishness of performance," the Sylvan Winds has performed throughout the United States and abroad. The ensemble has established a reputation as one of the city's most versatile chamber music ensembles and has received many honors, including an invitation to perform at the New York Governor's Arts Awards. Dedicated to exploring the entire body of literature for wind instruments, the ensemble has consistently earned audience and critical acclaim.

Ladies First!

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020 at 8:00 PM

The Cell Theatre, 338 West 23rd Street

The Sylvan Winds

Svjetlana Kabalin, flute; Kathy Halvorson, oboe; Nuno Antunes, clarinet;

Gina Cuffari, bassoon; Zohar Schondorf, horn

Program

Jordyn Gallinek (b. 1995) Carnival Lost (2017)

Jessica Meyer (b. 1974)* If Only I (2018)

Valerie Coleman (b. 1970) Red Clay & Mississippi Delta (2009)

Julia Wolfe (b. 1958) on seven-star-shoes (1986)

Amanda Harberg (b. 1973) Suite for Wind Quintet (2017)

Program subject to change.

*NYC première

This concert is made possible, in part, with support from the New York State Council on the Arts & the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Tickets: $25, $20 seniors/students, $10 children (5-17)

Tickets available at https://www.sylvanwinds.com/events/ or at the door

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