Pro Musica
The eighth season of the two-part PRO
MUSICA concert series celebrating the music of living composers and new music
of the 20th and 21st centuries begins with a series first – a matinee concert
entitled "27 Birds and Canis Lupus: Lamentation."
Musicians
Laurent Estoppey,
saxophones
William Neil,
piano and digital acoustics
Robert Nathanson,
guitar
Program
William Neil: Canis Lupus: Lamentation
Marilyn Shrude: Face of the Moon
Navid Bargrizan: Pictures at the Micro-Exhibition
William Neil: 27 Birds
About the Artists
Laurent Estoppey,
Swiss saxophonist and composer. devotes himself mostly to contemporary music
and arts. Nominated in 2016 for the Herb Alpert Music Awards, he has premiered
nearly 200 compositions by living composers. Estoppey divides his performance
time between written and improvisatory music, touring throughout Europe, North
and South America, and South Africa, and working with such international
conductors as James Levine, Marek Janowski, Christian Zacharias, Kazuki Yamada,
Neeme Järvi, Diego Matheuz and Heinz Holliger. He is a member and artistic director
of Switzerland-based ensemBle baBel and COLLAPSS (music, dance, poetry, and
visual arts in Greensboro, NC) and has collaborated on many interdisciplinary
projects with musicians such as Christian Marclay, Elliot Sharp, Ikue Mori,
Eugene Chadbourne and Nick Didkovsky. Discography includes more than twenty
recordings featuring on Claves Records, Aussenraum Records, Insubordinations
(CH), Thödol (F), Out and Gone and NOVA (USA). As a composer, Estoppey works in
various settings and contexts, including concerts, sound installations and
video art works. His pieces have been performed in festivals and conferences
such as SCL, SEAMUS, NASA, and the World Saxophone Congress. As an educator,
Estoppey is regularly invited to lead improvisation workshops for musicians of
all levels and all instruments, as well as master classes in saxophone,
improvisation and contemporary music. He is a reference artist for Italian
saxophone maker Rampone-Cazzani, a D’Addario Performing Artist and a Rovner
Ambassador.
William Neil, award-winning
composer and concert producer, was the first composer-in-residence with the
Lyric Opera of Chicago, the first residency of its kind with a major American
opera company. His opera, The Guilt of
Lillian Sloan, was premiered by Lyric in June of 1986. Neil has composed
for celebrated musicians including John Bruce Yeh and Chicago Pro Musica,
guitarist Michael Lorimer and soprano Barbara Ann Martin, and has produced
award-winning concerts at the New Music Chicago Spring Festival. His Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra,
commissioned by the Abelson Foundation, was premiered in Prague by the Czech
National Symphony, conducted by Paul Freeman, has been recorded and released on
the New Albany label. Neil’s numerous honors include the Rome Prize, the
Charles Ives Award, grants from the National Endowment of the Arts and the
Illinois Arts Council, fellowships from the Fulbright Commission and the
American Symphony Orchestra League, and awards from ASCAP and BMI. In 2008, he
served as the McKnight Visiting Composer with the American Composers Forum for
the city of Winona, MN. Recent premieres for Neil include his piano trio, Notte dei Cristalli by Trio Malipieroat
at the Teatro alla Specola in Padova; Symphony No. 1 (Sinfonia delle Gioie) in October of 2016 by the La Crosse
Symphony Orchestra, directed by Alexander Platt; Out of Darkness Into Light by the Pro Musica Ensemble at the
Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, NC, in March of 2017; Nocturne No. 1, Prelude
No. 3, and Tango No. 2 by Italian pianist Giacomo dalla Libera at Morely
College in London; and Concerto for Piccolo Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra by
clarinetist Fàtima Boix Cantó and the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra
in Santa Barbara, CA. Recently, he has produced sound design for the In Tandem
Theatre Company production of Beast on the Moon and The Glass Menagerie in
Milwaukee, WI.
Robert Nathanson, classical and baroque guitarist, is an
active recitalist and orchestral soloist, now focusing mostly as an ensemble
performer giving concerts throughout the United States, as well as performances
in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Slovenia, and Canada. He
has been performing as part of the Ryoanji Duo (guitar and saxophone) and the
North Carolina Guitar Quartet since 1992, and as part of Duo Sureño (guitar and
soprano) since 1999. A champion of new
music, Nathanson has commissioned, premiered, and recorded works by David
Kechley, William Neil, Jing Jing Luo, Ernesto García de León, Leo Brouwer, John
Anthony Lennon, Ernesto Cordero, Marilyn Shrude, Andrew York and others. He has hosted several New Music Festivals
inviting composers and performers to the campus of University of North Carolina
Wilmington, where he is professor of music, to perform, record and conduct
master classes. Since 2010 he has been
the artistic director for Pro Musica, a concert series celebrating the music of
living composers sponsored by and performed at the Cameron Art Museum in
Wilmington, NC. In March 2016, Innova Records released the CD, Sea of Stones: new guitar and saxophone
music by David Kechley, with Nathanson serving as both performer and
producer. He has also released Images, a CD of all new music for guitar
and saxophone, and At the Edge of the
Body’s Night, a CD of new music for soprano, saxophone and guitar. In July 2018, Robert, along with his duo
partner, soprano Nancy King, released Waking
the Sparrows, a new CD of all recently commissioned music on the Ravello
recording label: duosureño.com
Tickets
Purchase seats on CAM’s website, by
phone and at CAM’s Visitor Services desk. Program seat purchase includes
admission to CAM’s exhibition: "Recovery in Flight: Sculptures of Grainger
McKoy" on view through March 10, 2019.
CAM Members and students: $12.00,
Non-Members: $17.00, UNCW students with valid ID: Free.
Location and phone
Cameron Art Museum: Weyerhaeuser
Reception Hall
3201 South 17th Street
Wilmington, North Carolina 28412
Phone: 910.395.5999
For ticket purchase, directions and
more, please visit:
www.cameronartmuseum.org
For
more information about the artists:
William Neil, composer, piano
(http://williamneil.net)
Robert Nathanson, guitar
(https://uncw.edu/music/faculty/nathansonr)
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Tickets and more information
Purchase seats on CAM’s website, by phone and at CAM’s Visitor Services desk. 910.395.5999
CAM members and students: $10.00
Non-members: $15.00
UNCW students with valid ID
Free.
Cameron Art Museum (Weyerhaeuser
Reception Hall)
3201 S 17th St, Wilmington, NC
28412
________________________________________________________________
For more information or to join the Department of Music email list, contact us
or call 910-962-3415