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THE ORIGINALITY OF GREATNESS

Tenri Cultural Institute
New York, NY

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Saturday Dec 16, 2017 7:30 PM - Saturday Dec 16, 2017 10:00 PM | $15.00 - $150.00

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THE ORIGINALITY OF GREATNESS

The Originality of Greatness

Celebrating Elliott Carter

109 Years Since His Birth

Charles Neidich - Clarinet // Ayako Oshima - Clarinet // Fred Sherry - Cello // Lucy Shelton -Soprano // Mohamed Shams - Piano // Alexi Kenney - Violin

Charles Neidich (U.S.A.) Hailed by the New Yorker as "a master of his instrument and beyond a clarinetist Charles Neidich has been described as one of the most mesmerizing musicians performing before the public today. He regularly appears as soloist and as collaborator in chamber music programs with leading ensembles including the Saint Louis Symphony, Minneapolis Symphony, I Musici di Montreal, Tafelmusik, Handel/Haydn Society, Royal Philharmonic, Deutsches Philharmonic, MDR Symphony, Yomiuri Symphony, National Symphony of Taiwan, and the Juilliard, Guarneri, Brentano, American, Mendelssohn, Carmina, Colorado, and Cavani String Quartets. He is currently a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet and a member emeritus of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Charles Neidich has performed throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States, and is a sought after participant at many summer festivals such as the Marlboro and Sarasota festivals in the USA, the Orford and Domaines Forget festivals in Canada, BBC Proms in England, Festival Consonances and Pontivy in France, Corsi Internazionali di Perfezionamento in Italy, Kuhmo, Crusell Week, Turku, and Korsholm festivals in Finland, the Apeldoorn Festival in Holland, Music from Moritzburg in Germany, the Kirishima and Lilia summer festivals in Japan, and the Beijing Festival in China.

When Charles Neidich began studying clarinet with his father, Irving Neidich at the age of 7, he had already started piano lessons with his mother, Litsa Gania Neidich. He continued studying both instruments, but the clarinet gradually won out, and he went at the age of 17 to continue studying with the noted clarinet teacher, Leon Russianoff. After 4 years at Yale University where he majored in Anthropology, Charles Neidich went to the Moscow State Conservatory as the first recipient of a Fulbright grant to study in the Soviet Union. He studied in Moscow for 3 years as a student of the clarinetist, Boris Dikov, and the pianist, Kirill Vinogradov.

Known as a leading exponent of period instrument performance practice (he is the founder of the noted period instrument wind ensemble, Mozzafiato) Charles Neidich was one of the first soloists to improvise cadenzas and ornament classical concertos. He has performed his restoration of the Mozart Concerto throughout the world both on modern and period instruments. Mr. Neidich has been influential in restoring original versions of works and bringing them before the public. A list of the clarinet classics he has restored to their original form includes works as diverse as the previously mentioned Mozart Concerto, Concerti of Weber and Copland, the Soireestucke of Robert Schumann and the Andante and Allegro of Ernest Chausson. Mr. Neidich is also an ardent exponent of new music and has premiered works by Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Edison Denisov, Helmut Lachenmann, William Schuman, Ralph Shapey, Joan Tower, Katia Tchemberdji, Vasilii Lobanov and others. He has championed John Corigliano's Concerto, performing it throughout the United States notably with the Syracuse and Jacksonville Symphonies in performances many have called definitive. His recordings are available on the sony Classical, Sony Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Hyperion, and Bridge labels. For Aaron Copland's centennial, he released the world premiere recording of his reconstruction of the original version of Copland's Clarinet Concerto with I Musici di Montreal for the Chandos label.

Mr. Neidich has turned his attention in a serious way to conducting, and has appeared with the Avanti chamber Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Helsinki, at the Båstad Festival in Sweden, the Kirishima Festival in Japan, with the New World and the San Diego Symphonies (in a triple role of conductor, soloist, and composer), and in Bulgaria with the Plovdiv State Philharmonic. Very active in education, Charles Neidich is on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Queens College of the City University of New York, the Manhattan School, and the Mannes College of Music, and has held visiting positions at the Sibelius Academy in Finland, the Yale School of Music, and Michigan State University. He is in demand for master classes around the world and for innovative lecture concerts he has devised such as "Old is New: how playing old music on period instruments is like playing new music on modern instruments," and "Craft and Drama: how understanding how Brahms composed makes for a more compelling performance."

With his wife, Ayako Oshima, he has published a book on the basics of clarinet technique for the Japanese publisher, TOA Ongaku inc. Last Spring, Charles Neidich was the recipient of the William Schuman Award given by the Juilliard School for outstanding performance and scholarship.

Ayako Oshima, winner of numerous international competition including the 55th Japan Music Competition in Tokyo, the Winds and Percussion Competition in Japan, and the 17th International Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade, where she also received the Golden Harp award given to the favorite of the audience and critics, is one of the most popular clarinet soloists in Japan.

She performs on a regular basis both in recital and in concerto appearances with orchestra, highlights of which have included performances in Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, Tanuma, at the Casals Hall, Keoi Hall, and Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, and with the Hiroshima and Osaka Symphonies. She is quite active in chamber music festivals. Festivals at which Ms. Oshima has appeared include Kuhmo Festival in Finland, the Festival Consonances in France, the Sarasota Summer Music Festival, and in Japan the Mt. Fuji, Lilia International Chamber Music Festivals, and the Kirishima International Music Festival where in addition to performing and teaching she has produced innovative multimedia concerts for children on themes such as the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and George Gershwin, two centuries of music in Vienna, and music in Paris and the international Exposition of 1899, combining live performance, spoken text and computer generated slides and images.

Ayako Oshima has recorded for Toshiba EMI, Victor Japan, Naxos, and with Mozzafiato for Sony Vivarte. She has recently recorded Songs of Japan for the Aurora label and her most recent recording Bel Canto music for two clarinets will be released in September.

In addition to her performing career, she maintains a high profile as a teacher and is on the faculties of the State University of New York at Purchase, the Juilliard School, and Hartt College. She has kept her connection with the Toho School and gives regular master classes there. She has also served on the juries of both the Japan Music Competition and the Japan Winds and Percussion International Competition. She has founded and is the Director of the Kita Karuizawa Music Seminar which attracts clarinet students from all over Asia. With her husband, Charles Neidich, she has written a book on the fundamentals of clarinet technique for the publisher, Toa Ongaku Inc. and writes a monthly column on music and the clarinet for Pipers Magazine.

A Pioneer and a visionary in the music world, cellist FRED SHERRY has introduced audiences on five continents and all fifty United States to the music of our time through his close association with todays composers. Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Steven Mackey, David Rakowski, Somei Satoh, Charles Wuorinen and John Zorn have written concertos for Sherry which he has performed with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Municipal Orchestra of Buenos Aires, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, New World Symphony and RAI Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale. Mr. Sherry has premiered solo and chamber works dedicated to him by Milton Babbitt, Derek Bermel, Jason Eckardt, Lukas Foss, Oliver Knussen, Peter Lieberson, Donald Martino and Toru Takemitsu among others.

He has been a member of the Group for Contemporary Music, Luciano Berios Juilliard Ensemble, the Galimir String Quartet and a close collaborator with jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. Mr. Sherry was a founding member of Speculum Musicae and Tashi. He has been a guest at festivals including the Aldeburgh Festival, Casals Festival, Tanglewood, Spoleto, Scotia Festival of Music, Toru Takemitsus Music Today, Chamber Music Northwest, OK Mozart, Ravinia and the Mostly Mozart Festival. He has been an active performer with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since the 1970s and was the Artistic Director from 1988 to 1992. Mr. Sherry is a member of the cello faculty of the Juilliard School, the Mannes College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.

Fred Sherry created the series Bach Cantata Sundays at St. Anns Church and conceived and directed the acclaimed Arnold Schoenberg: Conservative Radical series at Merkin Concert Hall. He was the creator and director of A Great Day in New York, the groundbreaking festival featuring 52 living composers presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Merkin Concert Hall. Sherry played an important role in the White Pine Pictures documentary Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould.

In the vast scope of his recording career, Fred Sherry has been a soloist and sideman on hundreds of commercial and esoteric recordings on RCA, Columbia, Vanguard, CRI, Albany, Bridge, ECM, New World, Arabesque, Delos, Vox, Koch and Naxos. Mr. Sherrys longstanding collaboration with Robert Craft has produced recordings of major works by Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Webern, including Sherrys performance of the Schoenberg Cello Concerto. The Fred Sherry String Quartet recordings of the Schoenberg String Quartet Concerto and the String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 were both nominated for a Grammy.

Sherrys book 25 Bach Duets from the Cantatas was released by Boosey & Hawkes in July 2011. It will be followed by the long-awaited treatise on contemporary string techniques.

Winner of two Walter W. Naumburg Awards - as chamber musician and solo recitalist - soprano Lucy Shelton continues to enjoy an international career bringing her dramatic vocalism and brilliant interpretive skills to repertoire of all periods. An esteemed exponent of 20th- and 21st- Century repertory, she has worked closely with todays composers and premiered over 100 works. Notable among these are song cycles by Elliott Carter, Oliver Knussen, Louis Karchin and James Yannatos; chamber works by Carter, Joseph Schwantner, Mario Davidovsky, Stephen Albert, Lewis Spratlan, Charles Wuorinen, Gabriella Lena Frank, Bruce Adolphe, Alexander Goehr, Poul Ruders, Anne Le Baron and Thomas Flaherty; orchestral works by Knussen, Albert, Schwantner, David Del Tredici, Gerard Grisey, Ezra Laderman, Sally Beamish, Virko Baley and Ned Rorem; and an opera by Robert Zuidam. In recent seasons, Shelton has premiered works written for her by Shulamit Ran, Dan Visconti, Frank Stemper, Kathleen Ginther, Tamar Muskal and Fang Man.

An avid chamber musician, she has been a guest artist with ensembles such as the Emerson, Brentano, Enso, Mendelssohn, Chiara and Guarnieri string quartets, the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, 21st Century Consort, Speculum Musicae, Da Capo Chamber Players, Sospeso, New York New Music Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, Da Camera of Houston, eighth blackbird, Dolce Suono Ensemble, the Ensemble Moderne, Nash Ensemble, Klangform Wien, Schoenberg-Asko, and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Shelton has participated in numerous festivals including those of Aspen, Santa Fe, Ojai, Tanglewood, Chamber Music Northwest, BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Caen, Kuhmo, Togo and Salzburg. In the fall of 2013, she is honored to begin a three-year term as a Board Member of Chamber Music America.

Shelton has appeared with major orchestras worldwide including Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, Cologne, Denver, Edinburgh, Helsinki, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Minnesota, Munich, New York, Paris, St. Louis, Stockholm, Sydney and Tokyo under leading conductors such as Marin Alsop, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Reinbert De Leeuw, Charles Dutoit, Alan Gilbert, Oliver Knussen, Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Helmuth Rilling, Mstislav Rostropovich, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin and Robert Spano.

Highlights of recent seasons include Sheltons 2010 Grammy Nomination (with the Enso Quartet) for the Naxos release of Ginasteras string quartets, her Zankel Hall debut with the Met Chamber Orchestra and Maestro James Levine in Carters A Mirror On Which To Dwell, multiple performances of a staged Pierrot Lunaire in collaboration with eighth blackbird (most recently at the Ojai Festival, and in Austin Texas) and, in celebration of the works centenary, concert versions with 10 different ensembles worldwide. Shelton also coordinated two intense 8-day residencies at the University of Oregon (Eugene) and Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), where she coached composers and singers in The Art of Unaccompanied Song.

Over the years Shelton has participated in various composers birthday and memorial celebrations as follows: Elliott Carters 100th in Turin, Italy and New York; Oliver Knussen's 50th in London; Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' 70th in Turin, Italy; James Primosch's 50th in Philadelphia; both George Perle's and Milton Babbitt's 90th in Princeton and New York, followed in a few years by their memorials. In May 2013 Shelton sang Elliott Carters What Are Years for his memorial tribute concert held at Juilliard.

Sheltons extensive discography is on the Deutsche Grammophon, Koch International, Nonesuch, NMC, Bridge, Albany and Innova labels and includes works by Carter, Knussen, Stravinsky, Messiaen, Wuorinen, Del Tredici, Adolphe, Rands, Ginastera, Kim, Le Baron, Baley, Ung and Schwantner.

A native of California, Sheltons primary mentor was mezzo-soprano Jan De Gaetani. Ms. Shelton taught at the Third Street Settlement School in Manhattan, Eastman School, New England Conservatory, Cleveland Institute and the Britten-Pears School. She joined the resident artist faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center in 1996 and in the fall of 2007 she was appointed to the Manhattan School of Musics Contemporary Performance Faculty. Shelton teaches privately in her New York City studio.

In recognition of her contribution to the field of contemporary music, Shelton has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Pomona College (2003) and the Boston Conservatory (2013).

The recipient of a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, violinist Alexi Kenney has been named "a talent to watch" by the New York Times, which also noted his "architect's eye for structure and space and a tone that ranges from the achingly fragile to full-bodied robustness. His win at the 2013 Concert Artists Guild Competition at the age of nineteen led to a critically acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut recital at Weill Hall.

Highlights of Alexi's 2017-18 season include debuts with the Detroit, Columbus, California, and Amarillo symphonies, return engagements with the Santa Fe Symphony and the Las Vegas Philharmonic, and recitals with pianist Renana Gutman on Carnegie Hall's 'Distinctive Debuts' series, at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., and at Lee University (TN) and the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University (CA). Alexi has appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Portland, Riverside, Santa Fe, and Tulare County symphonies, the Staatstheater Orchestra of Cottbus, Germany, and A Far Cry, and in recital at Caramoor, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Jordan Hall in Boston, and at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. He has been profiled by Strings magazine and the New York Times, written for The Strad, and has been featured on Performance Today, WQXR-NYs Young Artists Showcase, WFMT-Chicago, and NPRs From the Top.

Chamber music continues to be a main focus of Alexis life, touring with Musicians from Marlboro and Musicians from Ravinias Steans Institute and regularly performing at festivals including ChamberFest Cleveland, Festival Napa Valley, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove (UK), Ravinia, and Yellow Barn. He has collaborated with artists including Pamela Frank, Miriam Fried, Steven Isserlis, Kim Kashkashian, Gidon Kremer, and Christian Tetzlaff and is a new member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS 2 program beginning in the 2018-19 season.

Born in Palo Alto, California in 1994, Alexi holds a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he is currently completing his Artist Diploma as a student of Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried. Previous teachers include Wei He, Jenny Rudin, and Natasha Fong.

Mohamed Shams, hailed as a Deeply impressive pianist of tremendous flair and intellectual strength and a Spectacular pianist by Herald Scotlands Critic Michael Tumelty. Robert (Bob) Sherman has featured Mr. Shamss selective recordings on New Yorks top classical radio station WQXR for three times through McGraw-Hill Young artist Showcase presents.

Mr. Shams began his piano studies at the Conservatoire of Music at the Academy of the Arts in Cairo, Egypt, at the age of seven, graduating with distinction in 2004. In 2000 and 2002 he won first prize at the Brevard Music Festival competition (USA), which led to an invitation to play with their orchestra, the Transylvania Symphony, in 2003, and a Fulbright grant to study for one year in Washington DC with Marilyn Neeley.

In 2008, he enrolled on full scholarship in the Masters Programat the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Dr. Marc Silverman, Lawrence Dutton (Emerson Quartet) and Sylvia Rosenberg (MSM, Juilliard School). In April 2011, he won first prize in the Schools Mieczyslaw Munz scholarship competition, and in May, the Schools Harold Bauer Award for a graduating student in recognition of outstanding accomplishment, cooperation and promise.

Enrolled in 2011 on full scholarship in the Master of Music program at the Royal Conservatoire of Music, Glasgow, Scotland, Shams studied with professors Aaron Shorr and Steven Osborne. He graduated from the Conservatoire in 2013. At the RCS, he won the Jock Holden Memorial Mozart Prize, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Competition, the Bamber/Galloway Competition and the Tony and Tania Webster Prize for Russian Music. He was the recipient of the Governors Prize, and the David Knox Memorial prize for outstanding achievement at RCS.

As a soloist, Shams has performed with a number of orchestras, among which the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the Egyptian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the London Chamber Players, and the Repertory Symphony (USA). At the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, August 2007, he performed the composers Concerto no. 3 in the Beethovensaal under the baton of Peter Gulke. In March 2008, he performed the Mozart piano Concerto no. 9 at the Cairo Opera House with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Enrique Batiz. In March 2011 he played Leonard Bernsteins Symphony no. 2, The Age of Anxiety with the Manhattan School of Music Symphony, Philippe Entremont conducting, and in November 2011 he gave the opening recital celebrating the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt for the International Music Center at the historic Manasterly Palace, Cairo. While in Scotland, he played the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 2 with the RCS Orchestra in 2012, and the same year made a guest appearance, on a Scottish tour - Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow - (playing Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue) with the Royal National Scottish Orchestra. In December 2013, he performed the Prokofiev Concerto # 3 with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Nader Abbassi, at the New Cairo Opera House., In October 2014, Shams gave a recital in Washington D.C. at the invitation of the S&R Foundation. In January 2015, he is scheduled to appear with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, playing Beethovens 4th piano concerto.

In 2010 Shams was a semi-finalist at the Scottish International Piano Competition in Glasgow, winning the prestigious Bryden Thomson prize and a one-year scholarship extended to two at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Glasgow, Scotland. In July 2011, he joined the faculty of the International Music Academy in Pilzen, the Czech Republic. He has participated in master classes by world-famous pianists including Sergie Dorensky, Nikolai Petrov, Idil Biret, Ramzi Yassa, Gyorgy Sandor and Nikolay Demidenko. In 2013, he was a second prize winner of the Intercollegiate Beethoven Piano Competition in London.
Shams was the featured artist on New Yorks classical music radio station, WQXR, on the McGraw-Hill Companies Young Artists Showcase, hosted by Robert (Bob) Sherman in September 2012, and twice again in October 2014.
Upon the nomination of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Scotland, Shams was awarded the Silver Medal by the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

In addition to his performances as a solo recitalist, Shams has participated in numerous chamber music concerts in Europe and the USA. He is a member of Chamber Music America. He is also an accomplished accompanist.
Mohamed Shams made his Carnegie Hall debut on April 15, 2015, with a solo recital in Weill Recital Hall. Debut with Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Hartt Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut (USA).

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Tenri Cultural Institute (View)
43A West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011
United States

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Owner: WA CONCERT SERIES

On BPT Since: Nov 30, 2016

Michinori Fukui

www.waconcertseries.com

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Name Withheld

Stockholm Sweden

Dec 16, 2017 3:27 PM

Miranda A.

Centerport, NY United States

Dec 16, 2017 1:10 PM

Name Withheld

Calgary, AB Canada

Dec 16, 2017 9:47 AM

Louis K.

Short Hills, NJ United States

Dec 16, 2017 7:52 AM

Eli L.

Columbia, MO United States

Dec 14, 2017 3:43 PM

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