Press Release | Camerata Notturna

CAMERATA NOTTURNA DEBUT CONCERT
DECEMBER 9, 2006

A dynamic new chamber orchestra in a program featuring the New York premiere of Chen Yi's Romance and Dance for Two Violins and Strings and the world premiere of Adam B. Silverman's Peterborough Elegy.

Under the baton of Maestro Jonathan Yates, the Camerata Notturna will present its first performance at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Saturday, December 9th at 8:00 p.m. The Camerata Notturna is a newly formed string ensemble comprised of an accomplished mix of professional and amateur players. The amateur members enjoy successful careers in fields ranging from medicine and academia to finance and law; many have graduated from conservatories such as Curtis and Juilliard and have won prizes in national and international competitions. The professional members include leading freelancers, educators, and chamber musicians in the New York metropolitan area.

Maestro Yates has earned high praise as a solo pianist, chamber musician, and conductor for his musicianship, intellect and the remarkable variety of his musical endeavors. He made his professional orchestral conducting debut at 23 leading the National Symphony Orchestra in a Millennium Stages Concert, and previously served as Apprentice Conductor of the Chicago Youth Symphony, and as Music Director of the Harvard University Bach Society Orchestra. He holds a Masters in Music from the Juilliard School in conducting, where he studied with Otto Werner-Mueller and James DePreist, and received the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship. As the former pianist of the Amelia Piano Trio, he waspresented in Carnegie Hall by Isaac Stern and was a finalist for the Walter F. Naumburg Chamber Music Prize.

The Camerata Notturna will perform the New York premiere of Chen Yi's Romance and Dance for Two Violins and Strings, along with the world premiere of Adam Silverman's Peterborough Elegy. Colin Jacobsen and Jonathan Gandelsman will be the two violin soloists in the Chen. Mr. Jacobsen will also be performing Haydn's Violin Concerto no. 1 in C.

Mr. Jacobsen, a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, made his New York solo debut with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic at the age of fourteen in a performance that the New York Times praised as "impressively accomplished . . . sounding as if he were born to the instrument and its sweet, lyrical possibilities." Mr. Jacobsen recently appeared as soloist in a critically acclaimed performance of the Brahms Double Concerto with the New York Philharmonic and Yo-Yo Ma.

Mr. Gandelsman has appeared as a soloist throughout the world with such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, and Shlomo Mintz, and orchestras orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Deutsche Oper Orchester, the Wiener Symphoniker, and The Wild Ginger Philharmonic. Both Mr. Jacobsen and Mr. Gandelsman are touring members of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project.

Adam Silverman's works have been commissioned and performed by The New York City Opera, Eighth Blackbird, The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, The Brooklyn Symphony, The Amelia Piano Trio, The Corigliano Quartet, and the Yale Philharmonic, among others. A co-founder and director of the Minimum Security Composer's Collective, Silverman studied composition at Yale (DMA, 2003) and the Vienna Musikhochschule, with Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, Ned Rorem, Kurt Schwertsik, and Evan Ziporyn.

Chen Yi is one of today's most sought-after composers, hailed for her ability to integrate Chinese melodies and modes with Western harmonies and counterpoint. Among the organizations and soloists who have commissioned her works are the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the LA Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Seattle Symphony, Yo-Yo Ma, Yehudi Menuhin, and Evelyn Glennie. Ms. Yi is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Lili Boulanger Award, a Grammy Award, the 2001 ASCAP Concert Music Award, and the 2002 Elise Stoeger Award from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

The Camerata Notturna concert will begin at 8:00 PM at Church of the Good Shepherd, 152 West 66th Street. Tickets are $15, $10 for students and seniors. For further ticket information, please call Steve Cho at (646) 784-4106, or email him at scho@post.harvard.edu. Additional general information may be found at the orchestra's website, http://www.camerata-notturna.org.

PROGRAM
W.A. Mozart - Adagio and Fugue, K. 546
Adam Silverman - Peterborough Elegy (2006)
F.J. Haydn - Violin Concerto no. 1 in C, Hob. VIIa:1
Chen Yi - Romance and Dance for Two Violins and Strings (1998)
Edvard Grieg - Holberg Suite, op. 40