New York Repertory Orchestra FREE Winter Concert: Two Premieres and Janáček's Taras Bulba!

Jan. 6, 2011 - PRLog -- Leoš Janáček's powerful symphonic rhapsody, Taras Bulba, is the major work on a program that also includes the NY Premiere of the exciting Concertino for Piano and Orchestra by Estonian composer Eduard Tubin. Virtuoso pianist Yoojin Oh is the soloist. The concert also features the World Premiere (and NYRO commission) of a major work by young New York composer Raphael Fusco...his ebullient Sinfonia Drammatica!

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Date: Saturday, February 12, 2011
Time: 8:00pm
Place: Church of St. Mary the Virgin (145 West 46th Street - between 6th & 7th Avenues)
Admission: FREE

More info: www.nyro.org

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Here's the complete program:

Raphael Fusco: Sinfonia Drammatica (World Premiere/NYRO Commission)
Eduard Tubin: Concertino for Piano and Orchestra - Yoojin Oh, piano (NY Premiere)
Leoš Janáček: Taras Bulba

David Leibowitz, conductor

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The NYRO Season continues with the wonderful music of Czech composer Leoš Janáček. His symphonic rhapsody, Taras Bulba, is based on Gogol's historical novel of the same name and recounts the story of the Cossack leader, Taras Bulba, and his two sons Andrei and Ostap, as they set out on an epic journey to fight for their homeland. Janáček's moving music focuses on the deaths (heroic and otherwise) of the father and his sons. This is one of Janáček's most memorable, and haunting, compositions.

Estonian composer Eduard Tubin is long overdue for recognition in this country! His cycle of nine symphonies (several of which have been given their NY Premieres by NYRO in past seasons) deserves to enter the repertoire alongside the music of Sibelius and Nielsen. HIs Concertino for Piano and Orchestra is a cheerful, rhythmic work that shows the composer at his most outgoing! Our soloist, the critically-acclaimed pianist Yoojin Oh, will bring out both the charm and the fireworks in this extraordinary work.

And finally, NYC composer Raphael Fusco has written his first symphony, Sinfonia Drammatica, especially for NYRO, and we're thrilled to bring you this wonderful new work!  Full of bustling energy and good cheer, this is a major work by a new musical voice!

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More about our soloist:

Following her debut concert performing Rachmaninov second piano concerto with the Seoul Philharmonic at the age of 16, Yoojin Oh has toured throughout Europe, America and her native Korea.

Hailed by the press as “adroit and technically accomplished,” “a real talent, expressing music with simplicity and conviction,” Ms. Oh was featured as a guest soloist with Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Bronx, University of Alaska Sinfonia Orchestra, New York Sinfonietta, Seoul Philharmonic, Inchon philharmonic, and the Jeunesse Ensemble Orchestra. She has also appeared at major venues such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, Yamaha Concert Salon, Sejong Cultural Center (Korea), Hoahm Art Hall (Korea), and Olivier Messiaen Hall (France).

Ms. Oh’s performances have been broadcast live for Bronxnet Television, TV36-Communities on Cable (NJ), and WXXI Radio (Rochester, NY) and her frequent chamber music collaborations have received acclaimed reviews such as “exquisitely rewarding rarity, a model of clarity” (the Anchorage Daily News), “well-polished, a performance of exceptional blending and dovetailing, striking for its unity” (New York Concert Review).

As an active contemporary music performer, Ms. Oh is a founding member of Soundclock, a contemporary music ensemble specializing in new and innovative music. She has premiered works by composers such as Toshi Ichiyanagi, Samuel Adler, Elias Tanenbaum, Nils Vigeland, Richard Sussman, Geon Yong Lee, and Eun Kyung Kim.

Highlights for her 2010-11 season include performances with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Affetti Music Festival (Alaska), and the All Seasons Chamber Players. In 2011, her CD recording of W.A. Mozart's Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 414 (in Mozart's own arrangement for piano quintet) will be released on the Keuka Label.

Ms. Oh received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree as a fellowship student at Manhattan School of Music where she also earned her Master of Music degree. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Seoul National University. Her most influential teachers include Zenon Fishbein, Fiorella Canin, and Solomon Mikowsky. She currently serves on the faculties at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, as well as Fordham University at Lincoln Center.

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More about Music Director David Leibowitz:

"Music Director David Leibowitz...is not only an excellent conductor, but also an inspiring leader."  -- New York Concert Review, October 2010

Celebrated for his innovative programming and exciting performances, conductor David Leibowitz has achieved international acclaim for his work on the concert, opera, and ballet stage.

Mr. Leibowitz is the Music Director/Conductor and founder of the award-winning New York Repertory Orchestra NYRO. Some recent highlights of his tenure there have been a fully staged production of Mozart’s "Abduction from the Seraglio" and a landmark performance of Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 3. As an avid fan and champion of today’s music he has both commissioned and performed local and world premieres by some of today’s most important composers; such as Eduard Tubin, Harold Farberman, Paul Moravec, Stephen Dembski, John Schwabe, Salvador Brotons, William Dickerson, and Terry Pender.

Since 2004 Mr. Leibowitz has held the post of Principal Conductor with the Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra (NY) and is the Orchestra Director at City College of New York. Recently, he directed the orchestra of the Siena (Italy) Summer Music program and from 2003-2007 was on the conducting staff of the Rome Festival Opera (Italy), leading opera, ballet, and concert performances. He is also on the staff of the International Opera Institute at the Maud Powell Music Festival Maud Powell Music Festival. (IL). Recent operatic highlights include performances of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni, and Le nozze di Figaro, Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore, Bizet’s Carmen, and Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, all to critical acclaim.

Throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe he has directed such ensembles as the Pleven Philharmonic (Bulgaria), the Orchester Pro Arte (Vienna), the Masterplayers Orchestra (Switzerland), the Orquestra Sinfonico de la Ciudad de Mexico, the Bach Festival Orchestra (Princeton, NJ), and the Brooklyn Opera and Dance Theater. Critics hailed his performances with the Pleven Philharmonic as “passionate and exciting.”

In the New York City area, he has conducted the Greenwich Village Orchestra, Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, Centre Symphony Orchestra, Sound Symphony Orchestra, and Music at St. Paul’s (Columbia University). He has been invited back to those ensembles and venues repeatedly. Mr. Leibowitz conducted the Third Street Philharmonia at the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York City from 2003-2005 and he has worked as a conductor and coach with many student and youth orchestras, including the Maud Powell Music Festival Orchestra, the Brooklyn College Orchestra, and the Gemini Youth Orchestra.

Mr. Leibowitz received his MA from the City University of New York’s Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. His main studies were in performance, musicology, and composition and he was awarded a teaching fellowship and was named a Presidential Scholar of the University. He has continued his conducting studies with, among others, Herbert Blomstedt, Carlo Maria Giulini, and Jacques-Louis Monod.

Mr. Leibowitz was a finalist in the International Masterplayers’ Conducting Competition in Lugano, Switzerland in 1986 and was recently given the “Gift to the City” award from the Omega Ensemble of New York for his ongoing contributions to the musical life of New York City.

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The award-winning New York Repertory Orchestra, NYC's leading all-volunteer orchestra, is composed of talented professional and amateur musicians and presents a series of free concerts each season. Founded in 1991, NYRO strives for exciting performances, provocative programs and the highest artistic level. These qualities have become the hallmarks of this exceptional ensemble.

In 2002, NYRO was invited by Columbia University to perform the Brahms Requiem in a memorial concert for 9/11 as a participant in the Columbia Remembers program. In addition to its regular season at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, NYRO has participated in the Music at St. Paul’s series at Columbia University and at the Music Festival of the Hamptons. NYRO has performed in the Chinese New Year Global Gala at Radio City Music Hall, broadcast worldwide by NTD Television and was recently given the Omega Ensemble of New York's "Gift to the City" award for ongoing contributions to the musical life of New York.