Clarinet Virtuoso Julian Milkis in Opening 2010/11 Season Concert

Hosted by Solomon Volkov.

Night Prayers
Saturday October 2, 2010 at 8pm

Join Ensemble du Monde in celebrating the opening of its 2010/11 Season on Saturday October 2, 2010 8pm at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufmann Center for the Arts.

This first concert of the year, entitled Night Prayers, the orchestra, led by its Music Director Marlon Daniel features clarinet virtuoso Julian Milkis and guest host renowned musicologist and author, Solomon Volkov.

This concert is highlighted by the American Premiere of composers Giya Kancheli sublime new work Night Prayers for Clarinet, Strings and Tape performed by it's world premiere performer and dedicatee Julian Milkis.

Giya Kanceheli
Born in Tbilisi on 10 August 1935, Giya Kancheli is Georgia's most distinguished living composer and a leading figure in the world of contemporary music. Kancheli/s scores, deeply spiritual in nature, are filled with haunting aural images, varied colors and textures, sharp contrasts and shattering climaxes. His music draws inspiration from Georgian folklore and sings with a heartfelt, yet refined emotion; it is conceived dramaturgically with a strong linear flow and an expansive sense of musical time.

He is one of the greatest living composers of our day in the world alongside such composers as Arvo Pärt, Gyorgy Ligeti, Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, by John Corigliano, Oliver Knussen, Hans Werner Henze, Tan Dun, etc. and by some in the music world is consider a genius.

A new work by Giya Kancheli always hails a major event in the classical music world.

NIGHT PRAYERS
Marlon Daniel, conductor
Julian Milkis, clarinet
Solomon Volkov, host

SCHOECK Sommernacht, Op. 58
MENDELSSOHN Andante for Clarinet and Orchestra
KANCHELI Night Prayers for Clarinet, Strings and Tape (American Premiere)
MOZART Concerto for Clarinet in A Major, K. 622

MERKIN CONCERT HALL 129 West 67th Street NYC
Tickets $50 VIP seating with Meet-the Artist Reception / $40 general admission/
$20 Seniors and Students

Box office: 212.501.3330 or http://www.kaufman-center.org

LIMITED TIME OFFER - VIP invite, please click here

Julian MILKIS, clarinet "… simply the best clarinetist in the world!" Nezavisimaya Gazeta - Moscow

Hailed as one of the world’s greatest living clarinetist, Julian Milkis, the only student of Benny Goodman, has been described as a dazzling soloist, chamber musician and jazz clarinetist. His unique interpretations and captivating sound have earned him critical acclaim throughout the world.

He has performed on some of the most prestigious stages in the world such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Salle Pleyel, Salle Gaveau, The Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Roy Thomson Hall Weston Recital Hall and The Taipei National Concert Hall and with orchestras that include Toronto Symphony, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, State Symphony Orchestra of Russia, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, L’Orchestre Nationale de Lyon and Edmonton Symphony, to name few to name a few.

Milkis has had the honor of working with iconic music masters such as Valeri Afanasiev, Yuri Bashmet, Misha Maisky, Alexander Kniazev, Gerard Causse, Dick Hayman, the Borodin String Quartet, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Giya Kancheli and Olivier Messiaen.

Currently, he is a recording artist for Melodiya, Warner Classics Lontano, Suoni e Colori and Sony/CEAUX music labels and is a Yamaha sponsored artist.

MARLON DANIEL, Music Director and Conductor

          "…a natural and enormous talent." Chicago Sun Times

One of the most dynamic conductors of his generation, conductor Marlon Daniel has been described as "a natural and enormous talent" (Chicago Sun-Times) and his artistry has been hailed as "fabulous and exceptional" (Pravda – Moscow). The winner of the 2009 John and Mary Virginia Foncannon Conducting Award, he has performed in some of the most prestigious venues in Europe and the United States that range from Carnegie Hall to the Rudolfinum in Prague and several international music festivals. He has also appeared alongside several internationally renowned artists that have included Deborah Voigt, Julian Milkis, Kalin Ivanov, Koh Gabriel Kameda and Magali Léger to name a few.

He has received numerous prizes and awards including the Mabel Henderson Memorial Grant for Foreign Experience, a Rose Hanus Fellowship, an Honorary Key to the City of Chicago for Outstanding Musical Achievement bestowed by the late Mayor Harold Washington and most recently the 2008 ‘Voice of the Artist' Award from the United Nations in recognition of his charitable work of bringing awareness to the crisis in Darfur. Most recently he was the recipient of the 2010 Dove Award from National Association of Women for the Arts for Outstanding Artistic Contributions to Cultural and Humanitarian Causes.

Educated in both the United States and Europe, he has received degrees from some of the most prestigious institutions in the world including Manhattan School of Music, Le Conservatoire Américain (France), Centro de Estudios Musicales Isaac Albéniz (Spain) and both the Prague Academy and Conservatory, where he received his formative training in conducting whilst serving as Associate Conductor of the Praga Sinfonietta. His musical development has been shaped by the influence of Arkady Aronov, Jirí Belohlávek, Dmitri Bashkirov, Gaby Casadesus, Alexander Edelmann, Vladimir Feltsman, Richard Goode, Tomáš Koutník, Lev Natochenny, Miriam Nemcová, Larry Rachleff, Jerome Rose, Louis Salemno, Kirk Trevor, František Vajnar, Oxana Yablonskaya and Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic as winner of the James and Lola Faust Fellowship.

One of the foremost exponents of Music by composers of African descent, Maestro Daniel is Music Director and Conductor of Ensemble du Monde (chamber orchestra), Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Saint-Georges International Festival in Guadeloupe and Principal Conductor of the Festival of African and African American Music (fesaam.org), where he collaborates with some of the most prolific Black composers of today in their world premiere new works.

ENSEMBLE DU MONDE
 Praised in 2010 as " … the future of classical music on stage" by Time OUT, Ensemble du Monde is one of the most dynamic and innovative chamber orchestras on the classical music scene today. Founded in New York City in 2000 and named to reflect the diversity of its members, the group performs throughout the New York area, the United States and abroad.
 

In 2000 the ensemble was selected by Daimler Chrysler and Mercedes Benz to perform at the world première inauguration of their new MAYBACH Car, an event that received worldwide multimedia press coverage. A Lincoln Center début followed in 2002 and in 2004 the ensemble made its Carnegie Hall début, which included renowned soprano, Deborah Voigt and the New York City Gay Men's Chorus. Frequent radio broadcast have included Radio Free Europe where selections from the ensemble's popular 'Baroquen Promises' Series at Tenri Cultural Institute of New York were broadcast internationally. In 2007 the ensemble performed the music for the live world premiere performance of the "Save the Goldfish" episode of the Nickelodeon television channel's EMMY Award winning 'Wonder Pets’ show at New York's Javits Center.

Led by its Music Director and Conductor, Marlon Daniel, the ensemble performs music from the Baroque era to the Avant-Garde in addition to the standard Classical repertoire. It frequently plays overlooked masterpieces and world premières. Programs are usually thematic in nature and based on the concept of presenting a variety great music not limited by cultural, musical or stylistic boundaries. To encompass this vast repertoire the orchestra expands and contracts, which allows the group maximum "flexibility" to perform as a small chamber group or a full-scale symphony orchestra.

The orchestra currently resides at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Center in New York, where it performs a series of innovative concerts throughout the year, and serves as Ensemble-in-Residence for the Saint-Georges International Festival in Guadeloupe.

SOLOMON VOLKOV, host
Solomon Volkov is the award-winning author of several notable books about Russian culture, including St. Petersburg: A Cultural History and Shostakovich and Stalin, published worldwide. After moving to the US from the Soviet Union, he became a cultural commentator at the Voice of America and then Radio Liberty broadcasting to the USSR (and later, Russia), discussing contemporary artistic developments in his former homeland. He lives in New York City with his wife, Marianna, a pianist and photographer.

He is best known for Testimony, which was published in 1979 following his emigration from the Soviet Union in 1976. He claimed that the book was the memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich, as related to himself.

Volkov is also a friend of Giya Kancheli and a great admirer of the composer’s works and joins Ensemble du Monde especially because of the performance Kancheli's Night Prayers for Clarinet, Strings and Tape and will make commentary on the work as spoken on to him by the composer.

Photo credits:
Ensemble du Monde: Benoît Gomez
Marlon Daniel: Bob Estramera / Colorworks
Julian Milkis: David James