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January 2009 Hot News
31 January 2009
Clarinetist
Michael Norsworthy
Featured in Japan-USA Musical Perspectives Concerts with Four World Premieres in
New York on January 31 and upcoming in Boston on February 7, 2009
New York City USA
Clarinetist Michael Norsworthy
was featured in the first of 2 concerts
presented by Japan-USA Musical Perspectives on Saturday, January 31 – 4
PM at the Tenri Cultural Institute, 43a West 13th Street (between 5th and 6th
Ave) in New York, and upcoming on Saturday, February 7 – 8 PM at
Fenway Center at Northeastern University, 77 St. Stephen Street in Boston,
Massachusetts.
The January 31
concert repertoire included Christopher Bailey’s SL III for clarinet, cello
and piano, Lyudmila German’s 6 Miniatures for
clarinet and cello, Miyuki Ito’s Darwin’s Dream for clarinet and cello, Hiroya
Miura’s Shore for bass clarinet solo (World Premiere – written
for Michael Norsworthy) and Ronald Bruce Smith’s Something Suspicious (Small)
for bass clarinet and live electronics. Other performers included
clarinetist Meighan Stoops, cellist Dave Eggar and pianist Augustus Arnone.
A
dedicated and persuasive champion of the music of our own time, Michael Norsworthy has given premieres of over 80 works in collaboration with
composers Harrison Birtwistle, Elliott Carter, Chris Dench, Pozzi Escot, Brian
Ferneyhough, Michael Finnissy, Lukas Foss, Hans Werner Henze, Magnus Lindberg,
Ralph Shapey and Marc Anthony Turnage, among others.
As soloist, Michael Norsworthy
has performed an extensive repertoire of concerti, ranging from Mozart to
Ferneyhough, with the Aspen
Contemporary Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, NEC Contemporary Ensemble,
Pottstown Symphony, Soria Chamber Players, Southern Illinois Symphony and
Symphony Pro Musica, while audiences have heard his numerous recitals in New
York , Boston, Cambridge, Chicago and St. Louis.
Conductors he has worked with include Boulez, DePriest, Knussen, Levine, Muti,
Robertson, Ozawa, Tilson Thomas and many others. Michael
Norsworthy plays on
Buffet Clarinets and mouthpieces by Kalmen
Opperman. Mr Norsworthy is a WKA Artist VIP
25 January 2009
Performance of
Pietro Bottesini, Adagio and Variations for flute , C clarinet and strings with
Valle Camonica Orchestra in Milano, Italy, with Luigi
Magistrelli, C
Clarinet and Elena Cecconi Flute Soloists, Silvio
Maggioni, conductor
Milan, Italy
Acclaimed Soloist Luigi
Magistrelli, Professor at the Milan Conservatory, and proactive Clarinetist in
being involved with many Clarinet Competitions in Italy including the
Mercandante and Viano Competitions, along with Flutist Elena Cecconi, performed
the above rarely heard work for Flute, Clarinet and Orchestra. Many
unknown works like this have been played here and several other places in Europe
to bring attention to their worth and repertoire expansion. It is to their
credit in bringing these kind of works to the forefront. The previous day,
24 January, Mr Magistrelli performed the Mozart Grand Partita K361 and the
Dvorak Serenade with the Haydn Wind Ensemble along with his sister Laura,
another star clarinetist. Many times, early works are performed on period
instruments in which Magistrelli has a large collection that is used for
performance. He frequently performs with Karl Leister, Retired Emeritus
from the Berlin Philharmonic and has several Chamber Music recordings released.
Luigi Magistrelli is a WKA Artist VIP.
24 January 2009
Ocala
Symphony Orchestra 18th Annual Young Artist Competition with winners Violinist
David Song, Conductor Dr James Plondke, and Jennifer Suzanne MaClay, Freshman at
the University of Florida
Ochoa, Florida USA
The 18th Young
Artists Competition held with this Orchestra gave honors to two winners, one a
WKA member and Freshman at the University of Florida under Professor Mitchell
Estrin, one of the most important Artist Teachers in the United States and well
aligned with the New York Philharmonic as a touring player for the last 20
years. Jenny MaClay has been a rapid developing up and coming player with
an example setting quality having studied with solid teachers, and achieving
notoriety as a soloist winner in many earlier young artist competitions in the
Southeast United States. What is vitally important for any young
player is the drive and constant awareness and follow-up of pursuing
opportunities leading to a cumulative success, and Ms MacClay has achieved that,
in attending diligently Clarinet workshops, Symposiums, ClarinetFests, and
achieving the distinction of attending the Buffet Clarinet Academy at younger
age as a High School student against the competition to enroll by college
students much older than her. More information with a Press Release from
the University of Florida below.
University of Florida Clarinet Studio |
305 MUB
PO Box 117900
Gainesville, FL 32611 |
Contact: Professor Mitchell Estrin
Phone: (352) 273-3177
Email: mestrin@ufl.edu |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
5 P.M. EDT, January 24, 2009
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University of Florida Clarinet Student Wins Competition
OCALA, FL, JANUARY 24, 2009 - Jenny
Maclay, a first-year student of Professor Mitchell Estrin in the University of
Florida Clarinet Studio, won the Junior Division of the Ocala Symphony Orchestra
18th Annual Young Artist Competition. Ms. Maclay received a $1000 first prize
award and will perform as soloist with the Ocala Symphony Orchestra at concerts
to be presented at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Auditorium on Saturday, April 4,
2009 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 3:00 PM. She will perform the
Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, Opus 74, by Carl Maria von Weber.
Ms. Maclay is a graduate
of Sparkman High School, Class of 2008, in Huntsville, Alabama. She was the
only North American high school student selected to participate in the inaugural
year of the Buffet Crampon USA Summer Clarinet Academy. She has appeared as
soloist with the Huntsville Symphony and is currently a member of the University
of Florida Wind Symphony, Symphony Orchestra and Clarinet Ensemble.
-End-
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Performance of Debussy Rhapsody in Kansas City ClarinetFest
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20 January 2009
Anthony McGill, Solo Clarinetist in the
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York, performs premiere a new Chamber work
along with Gabriela Montero, Pianist, Yo Yo Ma, Cellist, Iztek Perlman,
Violinist, written by John Williams for the Presidential
Inauguration of Barack Obama
Washington, DC USA
A dream
of incredible measure took place on this nationally historic day marking a new
direction for the United States and solid recognition of the accomplished
diversity of its citizens, and being honored on the highest terms in performing
for the new President Barack Obama immediately before his swearing in as
President of the United States on worldwide broadcast. Anthony McGill,
Solo Clarinetist in the Metropolitan Opera in New York, faculty at the Peabody
Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, and a WKA Artist VIP, performed a world
premiere of a new work to be specifically played for this important occasion
“Air and Quiet Gifts” written by John Williams with Artist luminaries as Yo Yo
Ma, Cellist, Iztek Perlman, Violinist, and Gabriela Montero, Pianist for an
audience of over 2 million who came to this event. More information is
below to grasp the significance of this memorable life-lasting event.
At noon today, Inauguration Day, the precise moment
when the Constitution stipulates that a transfer of
power to a new president is to occur, Barack Obama
had not yet taken the oath of office. Instead, he
was listening attentively to the performance of a
new piece that the composer John Williams had been
asked to write for the ceremony.
So President Obama’s administration was ushered
in with a new chamber music work by a living
American composer. Classical singers have performed
for inaugurations in recent decades. But to have a
new instrumental piece played was most unusual,
something that should gratify classical music
lovers.
The cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who was asked by the
inauguration committee to organize the performance,
invited three illustrious colleagues to join him:
the renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman; the superb
young clarinetist Anthony McGill, a principal player
in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (and among the
few black artists to hold a principal chair in a
major orchestra); and the fiery Venezuelan-American
pianist Gabriele Montero. The intrepid performers
had to cope with performing outdoors in temperatures
hovering in the mid-20s. Ms. Montero, especially,
looked to be freezing and wore woolen gloves with
the fingers removed. But they all managed remarkably
well.
And Mr. Williams came through with a stylish and
appealing four-minute work, “Air and Simple Gifts.”
In high-minded contemporary-music circles Mr.
Williams, the most successful film music composer in
history, has endured much condescension for his work
in Hollywood. But the best of his film scores are
skillfully, artfully and even subtly composed. And
he is a comprehensive musician who knows how to
write for all orchestral instruments.
He got the mood right, I thought, in this
contemplative occasional piece. President Obama, it
turns out, has a fondness for the music of Aaron
Copland. So Mr. Williams fashioned a work that
evokes the melancholic, calmly affirming,
harmonically open-hearted world of Copland.
The piece begins with a lacy, quietly searching
melody for violin, soon accompanied by consoling
modal piano chords. The cello joins in with a
pensive melodic line that responds to the violin,
while the piano gradually prods the music forward
with undulant riffs.
Soon the clarinet enters, playing the first two
phrases of “Simple Gifts,” the Shaker hymn tune that
Copland wove into his beloved ballet score
“Appalachian Spring,” using the melody as the theme
for an elaborate set of variations. Though Mr.
Williams riffs Copland variations closely, his
treatment of the tune is distinct enough to come
across as something genuine and personal. There is a
jazzy episode, with pungent piano chords and
flourishes for snappy clarinet. Then the instruments
break into a burst of agitated, jubilant
counterpoint, with the piano playing Bachian
passages of busy 16th notes.
Eventually the piece turns calm again, and the
music becomes reflective, with wide-spaced harmonies
and quizzical, halting melodic lines does not end
decisively but settles down and takes stock, for
now. Befitting the occasion, it seemed like music of
possibilities, with more to come.
Anthony McGill, a principal clarinetist for the Met
orchestra.
He is Anthony McGill, a clarinetist who joined the
violinist
Itzhak Perlman, the cellist
Yo-Yo Ma and the pianist Gabriela Montero. They
played a piece composed for the occasion by
John Williams, perhaps best known for his film
scores and pops conducting.
Mr. McGill, 29, was plucked from the ranks of the
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, where he is one of two
principal clarinetists, by Mr. Ma, who was asked to help
organize the performance.
“It’s the most wonderful opportunity, obviously, I’ve
ever gotten in my life,” Mr. McGill said at a breakfast
interview in an Upper West Side cafe near his home a
week before the inauguration. “It’s just great to be
part of something like this, as a person, as an
American, as a musician.”
He continued, “If my life as a musician is about
reaching out to people, being able to communicate music
to the world and to people on my small scale — my
clarinet playing — this is obviously such a gift.”
A month after receiving the invitation, Mr. McGill
still seemed a little stunned. “I thought they were
going to say, ‘Sorry,’ ” he said. Even when he saw his
name on the news release, “I was like, ‘That’s crazy.’ ”
Mr. McGill is not a world-famous soloist like Mr.
Perlman or Mr. Ma; the Met is only his second job, which
he took four years ago after a stint as the associate
principal and E flat clarinetist in the Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra. But he has quietly come to be
recognized among colleagues for his sensitive playing
and refined musicianship.
Those qualities stood out for Mr. Ma eight years ago,
when he and Mr. McGill played Messiaen’s “Quatuor Pour
la Fin du Temps” (“Quartet for the End of Time”) in
Japan. “I was so struck just by his artistry,” Mr. Ma
said in a telephone interview. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh,
I really want to play with him again.’ ”
Mr. Ma said he recalled that sentiment when the
organizers of the inauguration asked him and Mr. Perlman
to put together an ensemble.
He noted that the group consisted of the same
instrumentation as the Messiaen piece. The Williams
work, however, “will be more like ‘Quartet for the Next
Four Minutes,’ ” he said.
The piece evokes the music of Copland, who is said to
be a favorite of Mr. Obama’s. “We wanted something that
could reference America, the president-elect’s fondness
for Copland, something that’s both uplifting and solemn,
that traverses time but is also quintessentially
American,” Mr. Ma said.
The musicians began rehearsing on Tuesday. They were
not just thinking about the notes, but also about how to
keep warm during the inauguration. Long underwear and
hand warmers were on the agenda.
Mr. McGill is a product of the Merit Music School, a
30-year-old community program established to fill the
gap in music education in Chicago schools. He attributes
much of his success to that program.
His father is a retired deputy fire commissioner; his
mother recently found a new career as an actress after
retiring as an art teacher. His older brother, Demarre,
now the principal flutist of the San Diego Symphony, was
an important influence and role model, he said.
Anthony McGill attended the Whitney M. Young Magnet
High School,
Michelle Obama’s alma mater, and finished high
school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen,
Mich. He moved on to the elite Curtis Institute of Music
in Philadelphia for his bachelor’s degree, immediately
winning the job in Cincinnati after graduation.
The McGills are among the few principal wind players
in a major orchestra who are African-American, a
distinction noteworthy in a field with far fewer people
of color than other areas of American life.
Mr. McGill said that he recognized and valued the
contribution of older African-Americans who integrated
American orchestras. After encountering Norman Johns, a
member of the Cincinnati cello section who is also
African-American, Mr. McGill said, “I looked in Norman’s
eyes when I walked in, and I could see how proud he was
of me.” But like other African-American musicians of his
generation, he does not wake up every day and think
about his role. “If you’re a musician, you play music,”
he said.
After the breakfast interview, Mr. McGill headed to
Lincoln Center for a rehearsal with the center’s
Chamber Music Society. The group plunged into the
sextet for piano and winds by Poulenc, to be performed
in concert at the Rose Studio in Manhattan later that
week.
Mr. McGill played sitting back in his seat. He moved
his upper body in sympathy with the angular, jerky
rhythms, adding unexpected dynamic inflections and
blending or deftly emerging when his part called for it.
He watched his colleagues when they had solos, at one
point rubbing the floor with his foot to signify praise
for a passage by Peter Kolkay, the bassoonist.
Though Mr. McGill did not guide the rehearsal, he did
speak out occasionally. He also took some good-natured
ribbing about his next gig. Stephen Taylor, the group’s
oboist, chanted, “You’re getting ready for the
inauguration!” to a march tempo and told him that once
on the inaugural stage, “You have to take requests.”
4 January 2009
Effortless Clarinet Ensemble
Concert with World Premiere performed 4 January at St Thomas University, Richard
Nunemaker, Director
Houston, Texas USA
This concert is the 3rd annual one held with Richard Nunemaker, recently retired
Bass Clarinetist in the Houston Symphony and Director and Professor at the
University of St Thomas in Houston with an elaborately high powered Clarinet
Studio with outstanding students and professionals from this area. As the
galleried programs indicate, the program had a long range of standard literature
and a World Premiere of a Nonette by composer from Houston Reynaldo Ochoa, who
conducted his work as the finale to the concert. What is
important to the Clarinet Community is the emergence of such talent through
these studio concerts which bring credit to all involved, and spreads the good
of the performance for all to take notice.
Copyright © 1999 WKA-Clarinet.org. All rights reserved.
Revised: February 10, 2009