The program will feature music by composers from Europe and the Americas including two works written especially for the occasion.
Hailed by the NY Times as a “real star,” violinist Renee Jolles has performed at prestigious festivals including Marlboro, Cape May, Norfolk, Taos and Composers Forum of the East. She tours and records with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has appeared as soloist with among others, the Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey and The Cape May Festival Orchestra.
One of today’s foremost harpist , Susan Jolles was a founding member of the Naumburg award-winning Jubal Trio. She has performed and recorded with world-renown artists and ensembles including Dawn Upshaw, Bert Lucarelli, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra and the New York Chamber Symphony. An advocate of new music, she has premiered works by Luciano Berio, Elliot Carter, George Crumb and Charles Wuorinen.
The American Record Guide recently referred to Max Lifchitz as “one of America’s finest exponents of contemporary piano music.” The winner of the 1976 Gaudemus Competition for Performers of 20th century music, Mr. Lifchitz not only directs North/South Consonance’s prestigious concert series bur he has appeared on concert stages throughout the US, Latin America and Europe
The program will open with the premiere of Rewind for violin and harp by Kenneth Froelich, a young composer based in California, The music attempts to mimic the continuous acceleration of a cassette tape rewinding. Beginning very slow and uneven, musical ideas emerge from an otherwise static, yet unstable, opening.
Also on the program will be a performance of Sacred Sisters, a three-movement work written for the Jolles Duo by Victoria Bond. The first woman to be awarded a doctorate in conducting from The Juilliard School, Ms. Bond has appeared at the helm of the Albany, Houston, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Honolulu and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, to name but a few. A prolific composer, Ms. Bond has written numerous works for young audiences including works for Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath. Sacred Sisters was inspired by the stories of Esther, Ruth and Judith, three biblical women who defied the conventions of their day to save their people.
The Jolles Duo will also premiere Yellow Ribbons No. 45, a recently completed work by Max Lifchitz. This is the latest installment in a series of compositions written as homage to the former American hostages in Iran. Mr. Lifchitz views these works as a celebration of the political and artistic freedoms so often taken for granted in the West.
After intermission, violinist Renee Jolles and pianist Max Lifchitz will honor composer Elizabeth Bell on the occasion of her upcoming 80th birthday with a performance of her epic four-movement work L’Neiges d’Antan (The Snows of Yesteryears)
The program will close with a performance by Susan Jolles and Max Lifchitz of the rarely heard Sonata for Harp and Piano by Carlos Salzedo (1851-1961). Perhaps the most influential harpist of modern times, Salzedo came to this country in 1909 to perform with the Metropiltan Opera Orchestra at the invitation of Arturo Toscanini. Salzedo taught at the Curtis Institute of Music and also at the Harp Colony he founded in Camden, ME. Written in 1922, the single-movement Sonata for Harp and Piano employs many of the special effects Salzedo pioneered in his instrument. Perhaps one of the under-appreciated masterworks of the 20th century, the work demands the utmost in technical virtuosity from both performers.
The living composers will be on hand to introduce their works and meet with the audience during intermission and after the concert. All participants in the event are available to the press for interviews and may be contacted through our office by e-mail at
North/South Consonance’s 2007-08 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. For further information about its activities, including concerts and recordings, please visit http://www.northsouthmusic.org/
