Newman & Oltman Perform At Mannes School Of Music, November 10

The celebrated Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo will perform works by renowned Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, Aaron Copland, and John Zorn on Sunday, November 10 at 8:00pm.

The program, The New School at 100, includes Brouwer's El Libro de los Series Imaginarios/The Book of Imaginary Beings, his arrangements of Paul McCartney's Fool on the Hill and She's Leaving Home, Copland's Long Time Ago, Simple Gifts and The Dodger, and Zorn's Midsummer Moons. El Libro was commissioned for and dedicated to Mannes Ensemble-in-Residence, Michael Newman and Laura Oltman who performed its New York premiere in June. The recently recorded work will be released on the Musical Heritage label later this year. The concert celebrates the 80th Anniversary Year of Leo Brouwer and is a featured event in the 2019 Latin American Culture Week in New York City. Special guests include Mezzo-Soprano Perri di Christina and guitarists Phil Goldenberg and Eric Vanderzee, Mannes students. The performance will be held at the Glass Box Theatre at Arnold Hall Mannes School of Music. Admission is free.

Hailed as a "revelation to hear" by The Washington Post, the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo's phenomenal musicianship places them solidly at the top of their field. Their innovative programming, matchless technique and ensemble precision, combined with their commitment to expanding the repertoire for guitar duo, make them a chamber ensemble of world renown.

Newman and Oltman's concert tours have taken them to world cultural capitals and premiere venues across five continents, the Caribbean, and South Pacific. In addition to their international engagements, they have performed at Carnegie Hall, aboard the Queen Elizabeth II, Caramoor, and Mohawk Trail Concerts. The Duo has demonstrated extraordinary stylistic breadth in their collaborations with such diverse artists as composer/conductor Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, fiddler Eileen Ivers, pianist Clarice Assad, violinist Tim Fain, and the ETHEL, Calder, and Turtle Island string quartets.

Performance highlights include the world premiere of Concierto Buenos Aires composed for the Duo by Nuevo Tango Master Daniel Binelli with l'Orchestre de l'Opéra de Reims in France. Following on the success of the concerto's French debut, the Duo "charmed the Ferguson audience with phenomenal musicianship" (Gazette Journal) when they performed it with the Virginia Symphony. This summer Michael and Laura returned to teach and perform at the Lanciano International Guitar Seminar in Abruzzo, Italy where they are co-artistic directors. They also performed as guest artists and master class presenters at the Camino Artes Guitar Workshop in Palencia, Spain and at the Festival de Violäo in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Most recently, the Duo performed a return engagement at the Grand Canyon Music Festival.

Through their groundbreaking new music-commissioning program, Newman & Oltman have built a unique repertoire of works for two guitars by composers such as Paul Moravec, Augusta Read Thomas, Lowell liebermann, Dušan Bogdanovic, Arthur Kampela and Roberto Sierra. Fanfare Magazine hailed the Duo's latest CD, Music from Raritan River as "top notch" and "a winner all around." The recording features a collection of world premieres commissioned by the Duo over the past decade. Their artistry has also been captured on nearly a dozen other acclaimed recordings and has been recognized by grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America and ASCAP.

In addition to founding and serving as artistic directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes, Michael Newman and Laura Oltman have served as ensemble-in-residence at Mannes College of Music since 1987. They are also founders and artistic directors of the Raritan River Music Festival which will mark its 30th season this year.

For more information and hi-res images of the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo, visit www.guitarduo.com

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