The North/South Chamber Orchestra Will Perform 'Shan Shui/Mountain Water' This Week

The North/South Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Max Lifchitz will continue its 44th consecutive season on Friday evening, February 23 performing a free admission concert performing four works new to New York by composers from Argentina and the US.

Featured will be recent works by Silvina Milstein, Eugene O'Brien, Miguel Rosas-Cobian and William Schimmel.

Accordionist Denise Koncelik will appear as soloist.

The in-person event will start at 8 PM and will conclude around 9:15 PM.

The concert will be held at the acoustically superior DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 West 37th St; New York, NY 10018).

Biographies

Silvina Milstein began her musical education in her native Buenos Aires. Upon immigrating to Britain after the Argentinian military coup of 1976 she attended Glasgow and Cambridge Universities, where her mentors included Judith Weir and Alexander Goehr. In addition to receiving commissions from leading ensembles and the BBC, Milstein has also been active as a scholar and lecturer, and served as Professor of Music at King's College London.  In the preface to her score Shan Shui, Milstein explains: "The shan shui (mountain - water) style of Chinese painting goes against the common definition of what a painting is, it refutes color, light and shadow and personal brush work. Shan shui painting is not an open window for the viewer's eye, it is an object for the viewer's mind, it is more like a vehicle of philosophy."

Eugene O'Brien has been singled-out by the press as a composer of “extraordinary talent and imagination.”  He has received awards and fellowships from, among others, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Rome Prize, BMI, ASCAP, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Fulbright, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His music has been performed throughout the US and Europe. Written under a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation, O'Brien's Elegy to the Spanish Republic was inspired by Robert Motherwell's series of paintings of the same title. The work makes brief references to music written during the Spanish Civil War by composers who experienced it first hand: the Catalan Roberto Gerhard, the Mexican Silvestre Revueltas and Arkansas-born composer Conlon Nancarrow, who fought in Spain for the Republic as a volunteer in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion.

A Buenos Aires native, Miguel Rosas-Cobian studied and worked throughout the American continent and was involved in what is loosely termed fusion music before relocating to London in 1979. His works are regularly performed and broadcast internationally, and he has been the recipient of prizes and awards. He has composed music for experimental films, dance and theater, which stems from a deep held belief in multimedia, collaborative and interdisciplinary projects. The composer writes that After Brancusi  "belongs to the 'Art Music Folio' which is a set of works that rather than illustrating, musicalizing a particular work from the artist named on the title of the piece, works within the concepts and notions of the respective artist. I used three of Brancusi's sculptures as point of departure, following Brancusi's main concept which was to get to ‘the essence of things'. The three sculptures that inspired me provide the title to each section, The Kiss, Sleeping Head & Bird in Space respectively."

William Schimmel trained at The Juilliard School, where his mentors included Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions. A virtuoso accordionist, Schimmel is well-known for his many recordings with the Tango Project and for his work in numerous popular movies and television series including Sesame Street, Scent of a Woman and Sex and the City. Keyboard Magazine cited him as “the figure who has done the most to promote the accordion in mainstream art forms including classical, jazz, rock, world music and avant-garde." Concerning his recently completed work, Schimmel writes: "Black Swan is a single-movement composition for accordion and ensemble written to mark North/South Consonance.'s 44th season of advocating on behalf of the music by living composers. Black swans are a symbol of beauty, mystery and transformation. The music is built around the three-note descending motive introduced at the opening. This melodic idea is combined with elements of Argentinean Tango and Portuguese Fado as the music unfolds. The writing for the solo instrument provides the performer with ample opportunity for technical display."

Denise Koncelik has performed on accordion at Carnegie Hall with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra, Off-Broadway in the Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof and on Broadway in The Last Boy, in concert at the Bruno Walter Auditorium, Symphony Space, Joe's Pub, and le poisson rouge. She is a recipient of the Neupauer Conservatory Order of the Shield. Dr. Koncelik is bass accordionist and resident arranger for NYC's all female Main Squeeze Orchestra.

Max Lifchitz is active as composer, pianist, and conductor. He 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, “Mr. Lifchitz is as good on the podium as he is behind the piano.”

Active since 1980, North/South Consonance, Inc. is devoted to the promotion of music by composers from the Americas and the world. 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 Music Performance Fund, the BMI Foundation and the generosity of numerous individual donors.

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