JULY 30, 2019 @ 7:00 PM
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Anna Clyne, (1980), Prince of Clouds, (2012)
2 Violin soloists, Jesse Mills & Krista Bennion Feeney
Florence Price, (1887-1953), Songs, (1930’s & 40’s)
Soprano– Jasmine Muhammad –
INTERMISSION
Samuel Barber, (1910-81), Adagio for Strings, (1936) –
Aaron Copland, (1900-90), Appalachian Spring, (1943-44) –
Conductor: Tito Muñoz
Soloists: Jesse Mills & Krista Bennion Feeney – for Anna Clyne piece
Jasmine Muhammad – for Florence Price songs
**The performance of Orchestra of St. Luke’s has been made possible by a generous grant from the Hess & Helyn Kline Foundation**
WQXR HOST: Jeff Spurgeon
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) began in 1974 as a group of virtuoso musicians performing chamber music concerts at Greenwich Village’s Church of St. Luke in the Fields. Today, the Orchestra performs at New York’s major concert venues across diverse musical styles and genres and has collaborated with artists ranging from Renée Fleming and Joshua Bell to Bono and Metallica. The Orchestra has participated in 118 recordings, four of which have won Grammy Awards, has commissioned more than 50 new works, and has given more than 175 world, U.S., and New York City premieres. In the fall of 2018, internationally celebrated expert in 18th-Century music, Bernard Labadie, will join the Orchestra as Principal Conductor, continuing the Orchestra’s long tradition of working with proponents of historical performance practice.OSL’s signature programming includes a subscription series presented by Carnegie Hall; an annual multi-week collaboration with Paul Taylor American Modern Dance at Lincoln Center; an annual summer residency at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts; and a chamber music festival featuring appearances at The Morgan Library & Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center. Nearly half of OSL’s performances each year are presented free of charge through its education and community programs. These include the five-borough Music in Color concert tour championing composers of color; the Free School Concert series of orchestral and cross-genre programs reaching over 10,000 New York City public school students annually; and a range of creative family programs and concerts. Additionally, OSL provides free instrumental coaching and presents student performances though its Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s and its Mentorship Program for Pre-Professional Musicians.OSL built and operates The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City’s only rehearsal, recording, education, and performance space expressly dedicated to classical music. The Center serves more than 500 ensembles and more than 30,000 musicians each year and is an indispensable resource for classical music performance and production in the city. More than 170 studio recordings have been produced at The DiMenna Center since it opened in 2011.
SOLOISTS
TITO MUÑOZ is internationally recognized as one of the most gifted and versatile conductors on the podium today Tito Muñoz recently renewed his post as Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony for a second term. He has appeared with many of the most prominent orchestras in North America, including those of Atlanta, Boston and Cleveland, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and also maintains a strong international conducting presence, leading among others the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Sao Paolo State Symphony, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, and Sydney Symphony. As a proponent of new music Tito champions many composers of our time through expanded programming, commissions, premieres, and recordings, including Mauricio Sotelo, Michael Hersch, Adam Schoenberg, and Dai Fujikura.
JASMINE MUHAMMAD is a versatile vocalist, bridging the genre gap at every turn.
Most recently, she appeared as Hattie in Pittsburgh Opera’s world premiere of The Summer King. During her successful three year tenure as a Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist, Jasmine appeared as Rodelinda in Handel’s Rodelinda and Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen (2015); the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida, First Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Eliza in Muhly’s Dark Sisters and Mimi in the student matinee of Puccini’s La Boheme (2013-2014). In the 2012 season, she appeared as Countess Ceprano in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Elisetta in Il matrimoniosegreto. Other operatic performances include Woman in a Hat and Duchess in The Ghosts of Versailles with Manhattan School of Music Opera Studio and First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance. In Summer 2012, Ms. Muhammad joined the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel under the direction of Joan Dornemann.
Ms. Muhammad has sung background vocals for John Legend with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On” Tribute. She has also performed with Warren Haynes on the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration Tour for four years. Most recently, Ms. Muhammad was awarded a 2015-2016 Sullivan Foundation Award and placed first in the 2015 Harlem Opera Theatre Vocal Competition. Ms. Muhammad is a 2014-2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council District winner and received Encouragement Awards from Metropolitan Opera National Council District Level competitions in 2015-2016, 2013-2014 and 2012-2013. She also received a Commendation for Excellence from the 2014 Mildred Miller International Voice Competition.
Ms. Muhammad holds a master’s degree in voice from Manhattan School of Music and a bachelor’s degree in voice from the Chicago College of Performing Arts.
KRISTA BENNION FEENEY has enjoyed an unusually varied career much in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, music director, and concertmaster. Krista has been a member of the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble (serving for eight years as director of chamber music) and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s since 1983, where she performs frequently in the roles of concertmaster and violin soloist. She is currently involved in rediscovering and reviving a musical sound world from the past as the founding first violinist of the Serenade Orchestra and Quartet, playing music of the late-18th and early-19th centuries on historic instruments with original instrumental configurations. From 1999-2006, she was the music director of the unconducted New Century Chamber Orchestra based in San Francisco.
She has made several solo appearances with the San Francisco Symphony (making her debut in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in e minor at age 15), with the St. Louis Symphony, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of SolTierraLuna (a concerto written for her by Terry Riley), the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and at the Kennedy Center, in addition to several historic instrument ensembles.
Highlights of the 2016-2017 season included performances of Lou Harrison’s Suite for Violin and American Gamelan, in which The New York Times review stated “…the violinist Krista Bennion Feeney spun out beguiling figurations and subtle melodic twists…” and Nardini’s e minor violin concerto and Paganini’s La Campanella on historic violin with the American Classical Orchestra. Of her performance in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, she was described by The Times as “…the superb violin soloist…”
She is the founding first violinist of the DNA Quintet, Loma Mar Quartet, and Ridge String Quartet (1979-1991), which, along with pianist Rudolf Firkusny, won the Diapason d’Or and a Grammy Award nomination in 1992 for its RCA recording of Dvorak’s Piano Quintets. The DNA Quintet, comprised of the Loma Mar Quartet with the addition of bassist John Feeney, has released world-premiere recordings of string quartets and quintets of Domenico Dragonetti on historic instruments to critical and popular acclaim, bringing this uniquely beautiful music to light after being hidden for more than 165 years in the British Library. The Loma Mar Quartet has also recorded original works written for the ensemble by Paul McCartney for EMI, and its members were recently featured as soloists in Arnold Schoenberg’s Concerto for Quartet and Orchestra with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s for Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance performances. Krista studied violin with Anthony Doheny, then Isadore Tinkleman and Stuart Canin at the San Francisco Conservatory, working later at the Curtis Institute with Jaime Laredo, Felix Galimer and Mischa Schneider.
In May 2014, The Times praised Krista’s playing of a violin sonata by Jean-Marie Leclair saying: “Her deep notes were rich and melancholy … there was a tender exuberance in both tumbles of notes and sustained phrases … a dramatic interplay of ferocity and light slyness.”
JESSE MILLS Two-time Grammy nominated violinist Jesse Mills enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention.
Since his concerto debut at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, Mr. Mills has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has been a soloist with the Phoenix Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the Green Bay Symphony, Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, the Denver Philharmonic, the Teatro Argentino Orchestra (in Buenos Aires, Argentina), and the Aspen Music Festival’s Sinfonia Orchestra.
As a chamber musician Jesse Mills has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada, including concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Boston’s Gardener Museum, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival. He has also appeared at prestigious venues in Europe, such as the Barbican Centre of London, La Cité de la Musique in Paris, Amsterdam’s Royal Carré Theatre, Teatro Arcimboldi in Milan, and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. Mills is co-founder of Horszowski Trio and Duo Prism, a violin-piano duo with Rieko Aizawa, which earned 1st Prize at the Zinetti International Competition in Italy in 2006. With Ms. Aizawa, Mills became co-artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado in 2010.
Mills is also known as a pioneer of contemporary works, a renowned improvisational artist, as well as a composer. He earned Grammy nominations for his performances of Arnold Schoenberg’s music, released by NAXOS in 2005 and 2010. He can also be heard on the Koch, Centaur, Tzadik, Max Jazz and Verve labels for various compositions of Webern, Schoenberg, Zorn, Wuorinen, and others. As a member of the FLUX Quartet from 2001-2003, Mills performed music composed during the last 50 years, in addition to frequent world premieres. As a composer and arranger, Mills has been commissioned by venues including Columbia University’s Miller Theater, the Chamber Music Northwest festival in Portland, OR and the Bargemusic in NYC.
Jesse Mills began violin studies at the age of three. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School in 2001. He studied with Dorothy DeLay, Robert Mann and Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Mills lives in New York City, and he is on the faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College and at New York University. In 2010 the Third Street Music School Settlement in NYC honored him with the ‘Rising Star Award’ for musical achievement.