Sewanee Summer Music Festival

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Justin O’Dell will be unable to participate in the Sewanee Summer Music Festival this year. In his place, the SSMF is pleased to announce the appointment of Ramon Wodkowski as the 2012 Artist-Faculty in Clarinet.

Having settled in London (UK), American clarinetist Ramon Wodkowski enjoys a diverse musical career as an orchestral player, chamber musician and mouthpiece craftsman.

Ramon has performed with orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and as guest principal of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, English National Ballet and City of London Sinfonia. He has worked under conductors including Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Oliver Knussen, Heinz Holliger and Semyon Bychkov, at venues including the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms), the Salzburg Mozarteum, Barbican Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

For more information about Ramon’s mouthpieces, clients and endorsements, please visit www.ramonwodkowski.com, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/WodkowskiMpc

So Percussion

They will be joining us in Sewanee from July 10-12 where they will perform a concert, conduct master classes, work with ensembles, and share their wealth of knowledge and experience with our students!

ERIC BEACH
JOSH QUILLEN 
ADAM SLIWINSKI 
JASON TREUTING

Since 1999, So Percussion has been creating music that explores all the extremes of emotion and musical possibility. Called an “experimental powerhouse” by the Village Voice, “astonishing and entrancing” by Billboard Magazine, and “brilliant” by the New York Times, the Brooklyn-based quartet’s innovative work with today’s most exciting composers and their own original music has quickly helped them forge a unique and diverse career.

Excitement about composers like John Cage, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis – as well as the sheer fun of playing together – inspired the members of So to begin performing together while students at the Yale School of Music. A blind call to David Lang, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and co-founder of New York’s Bang on a Can, yielded their first commissioned piece, the so-called laws of nature. So’s recording of Lang’s work became the cornerstone of their self-titled debut album on Cantaloupe Music (the record label from the founders of Bang on a Can). Since this debut, this relationship has blossomed into a growing catalogue of exciting releases: Steve Reich’s masterpiece Drumming; So member Jason Treuting’s amid the noise; Treasure State, a collaboration with the electronic duo Matmos; and Paul Lansky’s Threads. The group’s seventh release on Cantaloupe, due out in the fall of 2011, features Steve Mackey’s It is Time, written especially for the group. Also, slated for a fall 2011 release is So’s recording of Steve Reich’s Mallet Quartet (written in 2009 for So and three other groups) on Nonesuch Records.

So’s ongoing body of original work has resulted in exciting new projects such as the site-specific Music For Trains in Southern Vermont and Imaginary City, a fully-staged sonic meditation on urban soundscapes commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music for the Next Wave Festival 2009 in consortium with five other venues. So’s next theatrical project where (we) live is slated to premiere in fall of 2012.

So Percussion is increasingly involved in mentoring young artists. Starting in the fall of 2011, its members will be co-directors of a new percussion department at the Bard College-Conservatory of Music. This top-flight undergraduate program enrolls each student in a double-degree (Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts) course in the Conservatory and Bard College, and exposes them to both traditional western conservatory training and a variety of world traditions. The summer of 2009 saw the creation of the annual So Percussion Summer Institute on the campus of Princeton University. The Institute is an intensive two-week chamber music seminar for college-age percussionists featuring the four members of So as faculty in rehearsal, performance, and discussion of contemporary music for students from around the world.

So Percussion has performed their unusual and exciting music all over the United States, with concerts at the Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Stanford Lively Arts, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and many others. In addition, recent tours to the United Kingdom, Russia, Australia, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the Ukraine have brought them international acclaim.

With an audience comprised of “both kinds of blue hair… elderly matron here, arty punk there” (as the Boston Globe described it), So Percussion makes a rare and wonderful breed of music that both compels instantly and offers rewards for engaged listening.

So would like to thank Pearl/Adams Instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth drumsticks, Remo drumheads, Black Swamp Accessories, and Estey organs for their sponsorship.

http://sopercussion.com

The New York-based chamber orchestra, The Knights, will perform on the Sewanee Performing Arts Series, April 14, 2012.  The orchestra includes the members of Brooklyn Rider, SSMF 2011 guest artists in residence.  Brothers Colin and Eric Jacobsen, are co-artistic directors.  Eric serves as the group’s conductor while Colin and violinist Johnny Gandelsman share concertmaster duties.

The Knights are an orchestra of friends from a broad spectrum of the New York music world who cultivate collaborative music making and creatively engage audiences in the shared joy of musical performance. Led by an open-minded spirit of camaraderie and exploration, they expand the orchestral concert experience with programs that encompass their roots in the Classical tradition and their passion for musical discovery.

Follow the exciting work of the Knights on their website, and if you live nearby, mark the date on your calendar!

On Sunday, November 20, 2011, five SSMF faculty will join forces to perform the beautiful Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 114, D. 667, “Trout”, at Louisiana State University. The members of the ensemble include Lin He, violin; Hillary Herndon, viola, Paul York, cello, and Sidney King, bass. Also on the program is Schubert’s magnificent work, the Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D. 821, performed by violist Hillary Herndon and pianist Kevin Class (SSMF 2011 guest artist.)

To our faculty colleagues: break a leg!

On Oct. 1, 2011, clarinetist Justin O’Dell and violinist (and SSMF Director) Katherine Lehman joined Gwendolyn Burgett Thrasher, marimba, to perform Kevin Puts, “And Legions will Rise” at the eighth annual Clarinet Spectacular on the campus of Michigan State University. SSMF alumni and students of O’Dell, Devin Langham, Jennifer Tinburg and Michelle Lewandowski offered enthusiastic support from the audience!

The work, which was performed on the Faculty Chamber Music Series this past July, was composed in the summer of 2001, and is about the power in all of us to transcend during times of tragedy and personal crisis. Puts says, “While I was writing it, I kept imagining one of those war scenes in blockbuster films, with masses of troops made ready before a great battle. I think we have forces like this inside of us, ready to do battle when we are at our lowest moments.”

Bruce Dinkins’ Band Carries On

With great sadness, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival announces the death of Maestro Bruce Dinkins, who conducted the Cumberland Orchestra and taught clarinet at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival for 27 years. Thousands of people have been shaped by Bruce’s extraordinary career as a musician and an educator, and we will deeply miss him as a colleague and friend.  Our hearts go out to his wife Hildy and their children, Jordan and Adam.  The 2011 Season of the Festival was dedicated to his memory, and we will announce additional ways to honor his memory during the upcoming year.

Bruce Dinkins served as conductor and director of bands at James Bowie High School in Austin, Texas, since 2001, during which time he added a significant list of accomplishments to the band’s accolades. They earned the “Sweepstakes” award from the University Interscholastic League in concert and marching every year since he arrived. The Bowie Band was the Grand National Champion at the Smokey Mountain Music Festival, the National Adjudicators Invitational, the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona National Band Championship in Phoenix, and among the top twelve bands at the Bands of America Grand Nationals competition in Indianapolis. They also carry the elite honor of being a recipient of the coveted Sudler Shield awarded by the John Philip Sousa Foundation.

An educator for more than 30 years, Dinkins’ groups have been heard at the Southern Division Music Educators National Conference, the Southern Regional College Band Directors Association/National Band Association conference, the Bands of America National Concert Band Festival in Chicago and Indianapolis, and invitational music festivals at the University of Kentucky, the University of Florida, the University of Southern Mississippi, the University of South Florida and the University of South Carolina. In 2000, his band performed at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and he had the distinction of being the only four time recipient of the honor band award for the National Adjudicators Invitational Festivals.

Dinkins attended the University of Tampa, the New England Conservatory, the Juilliard School, the Florida State University, and the Harvard University. Before joining the faculty at Bowie High School, he was a member of the faculties at Irmo High School in South Carolina, North Gwinnett High School, Emory University, Georgia State University in Georgia, and Florida Community College in Jacksonville. He has performed with the Atlanta Chamber Orchestra, the Macon Symphony Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony and the Florida Orchestra. His orchestra conducting experience included Conductor/Music Director of the Memphis Youth Symphony, the South Carolina Youth Philharmonic and twenty seven years as Conductor of the Cumberland Orchestra at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival.

He was a member of the Phi Beta Mu American Bandmasters Association, and Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society.

Beginning in June 2012, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival will offer a Saxophone Studio, an intensive program of chamber music, private study, and various classes on saxophone playing and repertoire.  Taught by acclaimed faculty artist Amy Griffiths, the program will run from June 23 until July 8 and is limited to eight students.

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Program: An intensive program of chamber music, private study, and various classes on saxophone playing and repertoire.

Size: Maximum of 8 students*

Dates: June 23-July 8

Daily schedule:

9am-11am: saxophone quartet rehearsals/coachings
11am-12pm: individual practice/lessons
1pm-3pm: masterclasses
3pm-5pm: classes based on student interest, including repertoire class (listening/discussion), beginning jazz study (style and improvisation) or large saxophone ensemble
evenings: SSMF student and faculty concerts/individual practice

Read more about Saxophone Studio.

Amy Griffiths’ bio

* The Saxophone Studio will be offered in the summer of 2012 provided that a minimum number of qualified applicants are enrolled in the program.

Congratulations to our 2011 SSMF Concerto Competition winners, and to all finalists who performed with the Festival Orchestra on July 21.

Winners of the 2011 Jacqueline Avent Scholarship awards are:

1st Prize, and a full scholarship to SSMF 2012,
Sarah Koop, clarinet
Manevich, Concerto for Clarinet

2nd Prize, and a $2400 scholarship to SSMF 2012,
Allison Nicotera, bassoon
Mozart, Concerto in B-flat Major, K. 191

3rd Prize, and a $1500 scholarship to SSMF 2012,
Elizabeth Chippeaux, piano
Ravel, Piano Concerto in G Major

And congratulations to our other finalists for their outstanding performances:

Zach Bridges, tuba
Vaughn-Williams, Concerto for Bass Tuba

Alexander Kollias, clarinet
Mozart, Concerto in A Major K. 622

Robert Hill, horn
Gliere, Concerto for Horn

Please join us in congratulating these finalists on their outstanding achievement.

The competition was broadcast live on WUTS 91.3 FM in Sewanee (radio/web) and streamed live (video) on the front page of the SSMF website: http://www.sewaneemusicfestival.org.

[PRESS RELEASE]

A New Era Begins for the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra

Music Director Donato Cabrera Takes the Podium as 2011-12 Season is Announced

GREEN BAY, WISC. (June 9, 2011) – The Board of Directors of the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra announced today that it has chosen Donato Cabrera as its new Music Director designate after a two year-long search. Chosen from a group of nearly 200 applications, Cabrera was one of four finalists who conducted concerts during the GBSO’s 2010/11 season. In addition, each candidate spent a week in Green Bay meeting with schools, community leaders, and rehearsing with the Orchestra.

Cabrera and GBSO Executive Director Michael Stefiuk unveiled the details for 2011-2012 concert programming today, which marks the Orchestra’s 98th year and Cabrera’s inaugural season as its tenth music director. He has signed a four-year contract which will extend beyond the GBSO’s 100th anniversary season.

“This is an exciting time in the GBSO’s history,” says Bill Guc, GBSO board president. “Our search for a new music director has taken the better part of two years and has been a rewarding process for everyone involved. Donato brings a renewed sense of enthusiasm and musical possibilities to the Orchestra. He’ll make a great addition to the GBSO family and to the Green Bay cultural scene.”

The GBSO Music Director Search Committee was chaired by board member Jean Vande Hey and was comprised of nine individuals – four GBSO musicians, three board members, and two community leaders. Other members of the search committee included Billie Kress, Joe Seroogy, Susan Rosin, Mike Ross, Michael Keelan, Bruce Atwell, Mike Hennessy, James Dean and Executive Director Michael Stefiuk.

It was the unanimous decision of the Search Committee to choose Cabrera. “Maestro Cabrera brings to us every qualification we were looking for,” said Vande Hey. “He is a brilliant performer and thinker of music. He cares about students and is an electrifying teacher with a talent for communicating and encouraging. Donato is the ideal music director for the future of the GBSO, and we are thrilled to welcome him!”

Cabrera joined the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) conducting staff in 2009 and will continue in his current role. As Bruno Walter Resident Conductor Chair, he works closely with SFS Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and leads the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra as Wattis Foundation Music Director.

In December 2009, he made his debut with the San Francisco Ballet, conducting performances of The Nutcracker and is one of few conductors who have conducted performances at all three San Francisco institutions: The Orchestra, Opera, and Ballet.

Cabrera made his South American debut in 2008, conducting Madame Butterfly with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción in Chile, and he returns yearly to conduct symphonic and operatic repertoire.

From 2005 to 2008, he was Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Opera, participating in the world premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic and conducting performances of Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, Tannhäuser, and The Magic Flute. Cabrera has also assisted in productions at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 2002, he was a Herbert von Karajan conducting fellow at the Salzburg Festival and has also served as an assistant conductor at the Ravinia, Spoleto (Italy), and Aspen Music Festivals, and the Music Academy of the West.

Cabrera is dedicated to music education and community outreach and has worked with members of the young artist programs of the San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Portland Opera. He was also a frequent conductor of Young People’s Concerts with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

A champion of new music, Cabrera was a co-founder and music director of the New York-based American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), and has led that ensemble in works of John Adams, Jacob Druckman, Donald Martino, Frederic Rzewski, and Elliott Carter. This spring, he leads the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players in performances of works by Du Yun, Ronald Bruce Smith, and Brian Current.

“Within minutes of beginning the first rehearsal with the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, I knew that a very special relationship was being forged between us,” commented Cabrera. “It is with great excitement that I accept the position of Music Director for the GBSO as it approaches the one-hundredth year of its existence, and I look forward to sharing our artistic vision and musical collaboration with the citizens of Green Bay and beyond!” For more information, visit www.donatocabrera.com.