Read the New York Times review of our New York debut concert at Symphony Space as part of the Composers Now Festival.

This review appeared in the Broad Street Review about our “Mahler 100 / Schoenberg 60″ project.

Some of us don’t appear in the shot, but the ensemble members are Mimi Stillman, flute, Paul Demers, clarinet, Marc Rovetti, violin, Yumi Kendall, Charles Abramovic, piano.

We’re excited for our “Mahler 100 / Schoenberg 60″ project concerts! Please join us Friday, February 3 at 8:00pm at Haverford College and Sunday, February 5 at 3:00pm at Trinity Center for Urban Life, Philadelphia. This program includes Gustav Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A Minor and the world premiere of Shulamit Ran’s Moon Songs: A Song Cycle in Four Acts for Soprano, Flute (doubling Piccolo), Cello, and Piano in addition to the Schoenberg. Dolce Suono Ensemble will give its New York debut at Symphony Space on Monday, February 6 at 7:30pm. The program includes 7 of our commissioned works.

Join us on Monday to hear the entire piece. Our concert, “Dolce Suono Ensemble Commissions and Premieres,” is part of the city-wide Composers Now Festival and features seven of our recent commissioned works. Our star-studded cast also includes composers Richard Danielpour, David Ludwig, Steven Mackey, Stratis Minakakis, Shulamit Ran, Steven Stucky and baritone Randall Scarlata.

DSE artists: Mimi Stillman, flute – Paul Demers, clarinet – Marc Rovetti, violin – Yumi Kendall, cello – Charles Abramovic, piano – Gabriel Globus Hoenich, percussion

Here’s a video clip from our rehearsal tonight. Randall Scarlata and Dolce Suono Ensemble play the opening of David Ludwig’s Ewigkeit, which we commissioned for our “Mahler 100 / Schoenberg 60″ project and premiered last season. We’re preparing to give the New York premiere at Symphony Space on Monday, February 6, 2012 at 7:30pm. Ewigkeit (Eternity) is a song setting of a poem from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the collection of German folk poetry to which Mahler turned for inspiration throughout his life.

 We’re excited about the concert “Dolce Suono Commissions and Premieres,” part of the Composers Now Festival. Please join us! Lucy Shelton, soprano and Randall Scarlata, baritone, join Dolce Suono Ensemble in works by Shulamit Ran, Steven Stucky, Steven Mackey, Richard Danielpour, Fang Man, and Stratis Minakakis.

Masterman is one of my favorite schools to visit, and it’s one of Dolce Suono Ensemble’s oldest educational outreach partnerships. The music director there, Kim Kelter Neu, is very talented, dedicated, and successful, as her middle and high school music students are some of the most knowledgeable and sophisticated my colleagues and I have encountered.

Gabe and I had fun performing music from Jewish and Latin traditions, as well as excerpts from Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire.

Mimi and Gabe performing for the students

Gabe brought student volunteers up to play percussion instruments as part of an exercise in which the class learns about creating rhythmic patterns.

Mimi and Gabe with students after the session

Premiere performances will take place:

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 8:00pm – Marshall Auditorium, Roberts Hall, Haverford College, PA

Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 3:00pm – Trinity Center for Urban Life, Philadelphia

Monday, February 6, 2012 at 7:30pm – Symphony Space, New York City

This past Sunday, December 4, Dolce Suono Ensemble gave an exciting concert featuring Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, which was the centerpiece of our first Holiday Family Concert. We co-presented Menotti’s Christmas opera with Choral Arts Philadelphia, conducted by Matthew Glandorf, and First Baptist Church, with music director and organist Alan Morrison. The program also included Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols, in which DSE accompanied the chorus, and music from the Jewish tradition: two trio sonatas by the Judeo-Baroque composer Salamone Rossi and a set of Traditional Jewish Songs.

We were pleased to do the Philadelphia revival of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, a work with strong historic ties to Philadelphia, during the composer’s centennial year and the 60th anniversary of the opera. First Baptist Church was the first venue where the work was performed live after the live television broadcasts, which premiered in 1951. It was also personally thrilling to be reunited with my friends and fellow Curtis alumni Alan Morrison and Matthew Glandorf, who presented the most recent Philadelphia performances in the 1990s, in which I performed as flutist.

We were delighted by the enthusiastic response from the packed house. After the concert, it was touching to hear so many people talk about their memories of seeing Amahl broadcast on TV while they were growing up, and what a profound love they have for this opera. They expressed their wish that Amahl become an annual tradition!
A hearty congratulations to the wonderful cast of Amahl:

Troy Larsen……………..Amahl
Rebecca Carr…………..The Mother
Siddhartha Misra………Kaspar
Brian Ming Chu………..Melchior
Reginald Pindell………..Balthasar
Chris Hodges…………..Page

Dancers: Lisa Lovelace and Gretchen Studlien-Webb
Choreographers: Lisa Lovelace and Melinda Tatum Kaiser

Choral Arts Philadelphia sounded fantastic as the Shepherds and in the Vaughan Williams, and Matthew Glandorf did a tremendous job as conductor and choral director.

Bernard Kunkel was Choral Arts Philadelphia Accompanist and Off Stage Choral Conductor. Terrific costumer Val Starr outfitted the cast.
Dolce Suono Ensemble artists in this concert:
Mimi Stillman, flute
Geoffrey Deemer and Samuel Nemec, oboes
Doris Hall-Gulati, clarinet
Michelle Rosen, bassoon
Shelley Showers, horn
Marc Rovetti and William Polk, violins
Che-Hung Chen, viola
Yumi Kendall, cello
Rob Kesselman, bass
Alan Morrison, piano (and lighting)
Gabriel Globus-Hoenich, percussion

Here are photos from the show.

 

We are honored that Daniel Kutner, Consul-General of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States, attended and gave a welcome.
The outpouring of audience comments has been very gratifying.

Here are some quotes from concertgoers:
“I was totally “blown away” by the meaning and magnitude of “A Place and a Name: Remembering the Holocaust.” The texts and music as expressed in masterful performances by Lucy Shelton and the Dolce Suono Ensemble brought the depth and horror of that time to life. No one in that audience could ever forget that memorable concert experience and the tragedy for which it stood.” – N. H.

“What a wonderful and very special concert that was today. Very meaningful and emotional. The finale, Shulamit Ran’s O the Chimneys was dramatic, powerful and chilling.” – W. L.
“The concert was a monument. Lucy Shelton, like Dolce Suono Ensemble, makes the audience understand the music and the ideas. Dolce Suono Ensemble’s varied program of Holocaust compositions blended their brand of interpretation and artistry into a meaningful and personal experience.” – M. L.
“Honestly, we we overwhelmed by the emotion and passion displayed by the artists. Each artist perfectly supported the other in a most professional manner. We can not imagine a more perfect performance. Thank you for the opportunity to experience this.” – H. B.

“We want to thank you very much for the wonderful performance you presented yesterday. We were thrilled with the pieces, especially the last piece that brought us right into the death camps. Shulamit Ran is a marvelous composer.” – M. B.

And some photos

Our friend Shulamit Ran, who serves as DSE’s Composer-in-Residence and Artistic Co-Curator during the 2011-2012 season, will be flying in from Rome for rehearsals and the concert. This fall, she is Fromm Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. We’re honored she’ll be with us for three different projects during the season, including the premiere of her commissioned work in February in Philadelphia and New York.

Our program includes music by composers who were murdered by the Nazis – Gideon Klein, Viktor Ullmann, and Ilse Weber (who were imprisoned at the Terezin concentration camp) and the Dutch composer Leo Smit; André Previn and Tzvi Avni, who were refugees from the Nazis as children; and Shulamit Ran’s O the Chimneys, her settings of poetry by Nelly Sachs for voice and ensemble.
For tickets, visit http://www.dolcesuono.com/

Here we are after rehearsing Shulamit’s piece.

Lucy and Yumi share a funny moment during rehearsal of Viktor Ullmann’s Herbst Lied for voice, violin, viola, and cello.