MusicaNova to Host 'Triple Header' Performance This Month

MusicaNova Orchestra begins the New Year with a bang, presenting events in each of its three concert series in a two-week span, January 10 - 24th at venues around the Valley. Performances include a high-energy, all-American band on January 10 in a collaborative concert in Scottsdale; two Valley virtuosos in recital on January 16 in a Young Artist Concert in south Phoenix; and the MusicaNova Orchestra performing works from modern American composers on January 24 in the Phoenix Central Arts District.

Tickets for all concerts are available at the MusicaNova website at www.musicanovaaz.com and at the door.

Music Director Warren Cohen summarized it all, saying: "The offerings this month reflect the depth of MusicaNova's commitment to seeking out new and interesting paths for a musical organization of the 21st century, a path of flexibility and diversity while maintaining the highest artistic standards."

Sunday January 10 at 3 PM
THE JUNE APPLE BAND
Scottsdale Presbyterian Church at Hayden and Osborn Roads.
Free admission, donations are accepted.

The June Apple Band:
James "JT" Taylor- (Hammered Dulcimer, Steel Pan, Melodica, Percussion, Vocals) Lauren Marovich- (Guitar, Octave Mandolin, Ukulele, Mountain Dulcimer, Vocals) Ben Roberts - (Violin, Fiddle, Vocals)
Join MusicaNova friends, the multi-talented June Apple Band, as they perform a rousing afternoon of American folk, jazz, rock, country and bluegrass. Their song list, from Ashokan Farewell, Changes in Attitudes, Eleanor Rigby, Jamaica Farewell to Mozambique, Shenandoah and You're Gonna Get Whats' Coming will have you jumping, singing along, and dancing in the aisles!

Saturday January 16 at 4 PM
YOUNG ARTISTS CONCERT
Alex Mayer, oboe
Jessica Zhang, piano
Arizona Piano Company
4134 East Wood Street, Phoenix.
Tickets: $15 adults, $10 seniors and students

The Young Artists Concert features versatile oboist Alex Mayer, 14, with experience ranging from all-state bands and musical theater orchestras to the Phoenix Youth Symphony, and the sublimely expressive national award-winning pianist Jessica Zhang, 13, who made her solo orchestral debut with MusicaNova in 2013.

Tickets: $20 adults, $15 seniors and students. Youth under 18 are free when accompanied by a paying adult

MusicaNova performs an afternoon of "American Originals" featuring the young sensation, pianist Samuel Xu of Chandler. Xu joins the Orchestra to perform George Gershwin's Concerto in F, the first follow-up to his Rhapsody in Blue, melding jazz and popular music into a traditional classical form. The concert also includes the jazz and dance-influenced composer Robert Ward's Invocation and Toccata, an homage to the Big Bands of the 1950s. Symphony No. 2 by Ned Rorem, one of America's most distinguished living composers, will have its first American performance in nearly 60 years. Finally, a special treat will be the world premiere of Seven Miniatures for Orchestra by MusicaNova Composition Fellow Jon Lin Chua, from the graduate school of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY.

"The distinctly American character of this program is unmistakable in the humor, jazz, and popular music influences, and the distinctively American melodies and harmonies," said Cohen. "Listening to it opens up the country before your eyes and ears. The composers themselves are an expression of the American melting pot, with the urban Jewish sound world of Gershwin, the midwestern expansiveness of Ward, the patrician Yankee coolness of Rorem, and the eclecticism of our Composition Fellow, Singapore-born Composition Fellow Jon Lin Chua."

Tickets and information about MusicaNova Orchestra and its programs are available at www.musicanovaaz.com or by calling 480-585-4485.

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