NORTH/SOUTH CONSONANCE Inc. will present its final concert of the current season on Sunday afternoon June 17, 2007 The concert will start at 3 PM and will take place at Christ & St. Stephen's Church (120 West 69th St, NYC) on Manhattan's West Side. Admission is free (no tickets necessary).
The program will feature two compositions involving narration: Max Lifchitz's The Blood Orange and Igor Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat.
Lifchitz's The Blood Orange a setting of a text by New York City writer Kathleen Masterson.Written for the actress Norma Fire - seen on the popular TV show Law & Order - the narrative with music relates the story of Ms. Fire's parents who emigrated to this country before the Holocaust, and of their relatives who did not. The violinist Claudia Schaer will perform with Ms. Fire, along with Mr. Lifchitz on piano. The work was first performed last June in its orchestral version. This will be the first New York performance of the trio version.
Stravinsky's masterpiece The Soldier's Tale was writen at the end of World War I. It relates the story of a soldier who runs into the devil while walking home from the war front. The poor lad trades his soul for an old violin and music lessons. This work is being performed to mark the 125th anniversary of the birth of the composer. Indeed, it is being performed on June 17, the day Stravinsky was born in 1882 in a town near St Petersburg, Russia.
Michael Philip Davis will narrate Stravinsky's music drama. He will debut his own English adaptation of the original French text by the Swiss writer C.F. Ramuz. Active as a leading operatic tenor, Michael Philip Davis is now a much sought-after director having produced The Tragedy of Carmen at the TodiMusicFest in Portsmouth, VA as well as Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. He recently completed the DVD Regina Resnik Presents Colors of the Diaspora, a panorama of Jewish classical song, which he co-wrote and in which he appears as tenor soloist.
Members of The North/South Consonance Ensemble performing on June 17 will include: Claudia Schaer, violin; Lisa Stokes Chin, double bass; Richard Goldsmith, clarinet; Gilbert Dejean; bassoon; Jason Bitonti, trumpet; David Chamberlain, trombone; Frank Cassara, percussion; and Max Lifchitz, conductor.
NORTH/SOUTH CONSONANCE's 27th consecutive season is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support for these free admission events comes from the Music Performance Funds from the American Federation of Musicians (Local 802) and from numerous individual donors.
To learn more about the recordings and concert activities sponsored by North/South Consonance, Inc please visit http://www.northsouthmusic.org
