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Genre-Bending Blend of Bluegrass, Jazz & Classical – Tessa Lark & Michael Thurber – Saturday, May 12, 2018 — 7 PM

TESSA LARK & MICHAEL THURBER bring a genre-bending blend of bluegrass, jazz, classical, and original works to life in high-energy performances built on audience interaction, and a fun, welcoming stage presence. Lark & Thurber met as alumni of NPR’s From the Top, and have grown their duo collaboration out of the unique musical variety show series “Thurber Theatre,” which Michael regularly hosts at beloved New York City nightclub Joe’s Pub. Building on the massive success of these intimate and varied musical evenings at Joe’s Pub, Lark and Thurber now offer their signature sound and charisma to venues across North America.

Michael Thurber enjoys a reputation as one of the most versatile young musical talents currently active in New York City. Whether playing bass on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, composing music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, co-founding the smash YouTube channel CDZA, or hosting his “Thurber Theater” variety show at Joe’s Pub, Thurber’s musical voice defies genre and category.

NEW REVieW — OCTOBER 2017  Tessa Lark earns consistent praise from critics and audiences alike for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility, captivating interpretations, and multi-genre programming and performance. Tessa Lark received an outstanding review  for her Tessa Lark Cleveland Chamber Orchetra Review 102717.

In the classical music world, Tessa has earned many of the top competition prizes available to young artists including, among many others: a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Silver Medal in the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and a first-place finish in the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition.

In their respective careers thus far, Tessa and Michael have had the privilege of collaborating with some of the world’s leading musicians in a wide variety of genres — to name just a few: Mitsuko Uchida, Itzhak Perlman, and Mark O’Connor (Tessa), and Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, and Cee Lo Green (Michael).

Lark and Thurber both gained their first musical training at Midwestern institutions; with Michael attending The Interlochen Arts Academy and Tessa participating in the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s Starling Preparatory String Project. Tessa went on to study with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory, and recently earned her Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, while Michael also studied at Juilliard.

Brooklyn Rider at Hudson Hall/Hudson Opera House May 7 @ 5 PM

BROOKLYN RIDER
Sunday, May 7, 2017 @ 5pm, Reception Follows
Tickets  //  $40 premium section, $25 general admission  

Johnny Gandelsman, violin
Colin Jacobsen, violin
Nicholas Cords, viola
Michael Nicolas, cello

 

HUDSON HALL // CLASSICS SEASON OPENER 

Hudson Hall at the Hudson Opera House and Classics on Hudson present ‘post-classical’ string quartet Brooklyn Rider.  We are thrilled to open the inaugural performance season in the newly restored, 1855 upstairs performance hall, the oldest surviving theatre in New York State.

PROGRAM

Philip Glass // String Quartet No. 3 ‘Mishima’
Leoš Janáček // String Quartet No. 1 ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’
Colin Jacobson (Brooklyn Rider’s own)  //  ‘BTT’
Beethoven  //   Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95, ‘Serioso’

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AS HOT AS HUDSON // ON THE CUTTING EDGE

A ‘post-classical’ string quartet with “dazzling fingers-in-every-pie versatility” (Los Angeles Times), Brooklyn Rider’s eclectic repertoire and gripping performance style continues to attract legions of fans and draw rave reviews from classical, world, and rock critics alike.

WITH GRATITUDE

Hudson Hall and Classics on Hudson express our considerable gratitude for the financial assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Hudson River Bank and Trust Foundation, The T. Backer Fund, and our generous individual supporters.

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BROOKLYN RIDER:  TOURS //  COLLABORATIONS  // RECORDINGS

Brooklyn Rider latest release is So Many Things with Anne Sofie von Otter on Naïve Records, which includes music by Colin Jacobsen, Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, Björk, Kate Bush and Elvis Costello, among others. Their tour together included stops at Carnegie Hall and the Opernhaus Zurich.

After performances at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in July, the quartet embarked on a tour the U.S. with choreographer Brian Brooks and former New York City Ballet prima ballerina Wendy Whelan, performing Some of a Thousand Words. Using music from a diverse array of composers, the series of duets and solos featuring Brooks and Whelan foregrounds the live music of the quartet as a dynamic creative component.

Other recent recordings include 2016’s The Fiction Issue with music by Gabriel Kahane, 2013’s A Walking Fire on Mercury Classics and The Impostor with Béla Fleck on Deutsche Grammophon/Mercury Classics, plus 2011’s much-praised Brooklyn Rider Plays Philip Glass on the composer’s Orange Mountain Music label. “…four classical musicians performing with the energy of young rock stars jamming on their guitars, a Beethoven-goes-indie foray into making classical music accessible but also celebrating why it was good in the first place.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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Hailed as “the future of chamber music” (Strings Magazine), Brooklyn Rider offers eclectic repertoire in gripping performances that continue to attract legions of fans and draw rave reviews from classical, world, and rock critics alike. The group celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2014 with the groundbreaking multi-disciplinary project Brooklyn Rider Almanac, for which it recorded and toured 15 commissioned works, each inspired by a different artistic muse.

Tim Fain violin w/Eugenia Zukerman flute & Roman Rabinovich piano, May 20, 7 PM

First Loves and Fresh Ink — the second concert in Classics on Hudson’s 2017 season at the restored 1885 landmark Hudson Hall at the historic Hudson Opera House

 Works by —  Glass, Kreisler, Franck, Tchaikovsky,
and Bach

Tickets
$40 premium section, $25 general admission

Saturday, May 20, 2017 at 7pm

Tim Fain, violin
Eugenia Zukerman, flute
Roman Rabinovich, piano

Hudson Hall at the historic Hudson Opera House
327 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534
(518) 822-1438

First Loves and Fresh Ink brings together violin masterpieces from Fain’s most recent album, First Loves (VIA), alongside works by Philip Glass and some of Fain’s own arrangements. The program includes J.S. Bach’s Trio Sonata in G Major, Praeludium and Allegro by Fritz Kreisler, and Cesar Franck’s Sonata for violin and piano, as well as Arches by Kevin Puts and Fain’s remix of Tchaikovsky’s ballet classic, Swan Lake.

“Violinist Tim Fain plays like a virtuoso and thinks like a cinematographer.” – Vanity Fair

 “Roman Rabinovich is an artist of the highest caliber; a pianist with complete technical command, a prodigious memory and a highly individual personality at the piano” – Palm Beach Arts Paper

 “Zukerman’s musicianship is consummate, her taste immaculate, and her stage presence a sheer pleasure!”— The New York Times

 

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Avery Fisher Career Grant-winning violinist Tim Fain can be seen on screen and heard on the Grammy nominated soundtrack to the film Black Swan. He can also be heard on the soundtrack to Moonlight, and gave “voice” to the violin of the lead actor in the hit film 12 Years
a Slave,
 as he did with Richard Gere’s violin in the film Bee Season. Recipient of the Young Concert Artists International Award, he has appeared internationally as soloist with the world’s major symphony orchestras. He has also toured with Musicians from Marlboro, and as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and around the globe in a duo-recital program with Philip Glass. His multi-media solo evening Portals premiered to sold-out audiences on both coasts and continues to travel worldwide. He has collaborated with an eclectic array of artists from Pinchas Zukerman and Mitsuko Uchida, the Mark Morris Dance Group and New York City Ballet, to Iggy Pop, Rob Thomas (Matchbox 20), and Bryce Dessner (The National), and has performed for the Dali Lama. His discography includes River of Light, (Naxos), and Philip Glass: The Concerto Project IV with the Hague Philharmonic, Tim Fain Plays Philip Glass (Orange Mountain Music), and First Loves (VIA).

Tim Fain performs on a violin made by Francesco Gobetti, Venice 1717, the “Möller”, on extended loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

Praised by The New York Times for his “uncommon sensitivity and feeling”, the eloquent young pianist Roman Rabinovich is the winner of the 2008 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Israel in such prestigious venues as Wigmore Hall in London, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, Carnagie’s Zankel Hall, as well as the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Cité de la Musique in Paris and the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. This concert marks Rabinovich’s return to the Hudson Opera House, having performed there in 2015 as part of the Classics on Hudson season. Born in 1985 in Taskent, Uzbekistan, he began his piano studies at the age of six with his mother, Mira. In 1994, he and his parents immigrate to Israel where he studied with Irena Vishnevitsky, and later with processor Arie Vardi at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. He is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Seymour Lipkin and obtained his Master’s Degree at the Juilliard School where he studied with Robert McDonald. Mr. Rabinovich also excels as a gifted artist and often combines his concerts with exhibitions of his paintings.

Eugenia Zukerman, the Artistic Director of Classics on Hudson and the Music Director of Clarion Concerts in Columbia County’s Leaf Peeper Concerts, has been hailed by the press as “one of the finest flutists of our time.” Artistic Director of the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival from 1998 through 2010, Ms. Zukerman was instrumental in bringing the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony to the festival for extended residencies each summer. A recipient of the Young Concert Artists International Award, she is renowned worldwide as a recitalist and soloist.  Eugenia also continues with a dramatic schedule as a writer, artistic director, television journalist, educator and internet entrepreneur. A Massachusetts native, Ms. Zukerman makes her home in New York City and in upstate New York where she shares a small farm with her husband, broadcaster Richard Novik, two horses, two dogs, and a cat named Lulu.

 Our Supporters

The 2016-2017 season of Classics on Hudson is supported, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, by the Hudson River Bank and Trust Foundation, the T. Backer Fund, and by generous members of the community.

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ABOUT CLASSICS ON HUDSON

Celebrating its third season, and led by Artistic Director Eugenia Zukerman, Classics on Hudson seeks to enrich the cultural life of the greater Hudson community by presenting concerts that span the classics to the contemporary, performed by internationally celebrated artists. Classics on Hudson serves to promote understanding and enjoyment of music through educational and concert experiences for audiences of all ages.

ABOUT HUDSON HALL

Hudson Hall is a cultural beacon in the Hudson Valley, offering a dynamic year-round schedule of music, theater, dance, literature, workshops for youth and adults, as well as family programs and large-scale community events such as Winter Walk. Located in an historic landmark that houses New York State’s oldest surviving theater, Hudson Hall reopens following a yearlong historic restoration with an inaugural season beginning in spring 2017. The newly restored Hudson Hall reflects Hudson’s rich history in a modern facility that welcomes residents and visitors from throughout our local community, across the nation, and around the globe.

Pianist Christopher O’Riley & Cellist Matt Haimovitz, Friday June 2, 7 PM

Friday, June 2, 2017 at 7 pm
Tickets: $40 premium section, $25 general admission

Hudson Hall at the historic Hudson Opera House
327 Warren St.
Hudson, NY 12534
(518) 822 1438

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“If any artists were destined to collaborate, it was surely this pair.” – The New York Times

Known to millions as the host of NPR’s From the Top, Christopher O’Riley is also an accomplished pianist who frequently works with Grammy-award winning cellist Matt Haimovitz. Haimovitz and O’Riley perform a preview of their upcoming all-Russian album, TROIKA, featuring sonatas by Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich.

PROGRAM

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)
Sonata for Cello and Piano. Op.40

Allegro non troppo
Allegro
Larg0
Allegro

Sergei Prokofiev (1891 – 1953)
Sonata for cello & pia no, Op.119

Andante grave
Moderato
Allegro ma non troppo

INTERMISSION

Sergey Vasilyevich Rachmaninov (1873 – 1943)
Sonata in G Minor for Cello & Piano, Op.19

Lento – Allegro moderato
Allegro scherzando
Andante
Allegro mosso

Additionalselectionsto be announced from thstage.

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ARTISTS

Christopher O’Riley  //   Acclaimed for his engaging and deeply committed performances, the pianist Christopher O’Riley is known to millions as the host of NPR’s From the Top.  Now in his fifteenth year on air, O’Riley introduces the next generation of classical-music stars to almost a million listeners each week.  He performs around the world and has garnered widespread praise for his untiring efforts to reach new audiences.

Christopher O’Riley has performed as a soloist with virtually all of the major American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, and San Francisco Symphony.  In addition, O’Riley has performed recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Australia.

Living by the Duke Ellington adage “There are only two kinds of music, good music and bad,” O’Riley – a proponent of the former in all of its guises – has received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and an equally coveted four-star review from Rolling Stone magazine.  O’Riley strives to introduce new audiences to classical music with an almost missionary zeal by performing piano arrangements of music by Radiohead, Elliott Smith, Pink Floyd, and Nirvana alongside traditional classical repertoire.  He has collaborated for many years with the flutist Sir James Galway and cellists Matt Haimovitz and Carter Brey.

A prolific recording artist, O’Riley has recorded the music of Beethoven, Stravinsky, Scriabin, Liszt, Ravel, Gershwin, Debussy, and John Adams for Sony Classical, Oxingale Records, RCA Red Seal, Decca, and Harmonia Mundi.

Christopher O’Riley splits his time between Los Angeles and rural Ohio.  Visit him online at www.christopheroriley.com, and From the Top at www.fromthetop.org.

Matt Haimovitz //  Israeli-born American cellist Matt Haimovitz has evolved from a prodigy to one of the most dynamic young musicians on the classical music scene. As a child, Haimovitz was introduced through Itzhak Perlman to cellist Leonard Rose, who was amazed by the young artist’s ability and helped foster his education. Haimovitz played his first concert at Carnegie Hall at the age of 13 and accepted his first major honor, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, at that time. In 1990 Haimovitz made his debut recording for Deutsche Grammophon, and for most of the decade his career trajectory followed the usual course one would expect for a classical artist, playing the concert hall circuit and teaching.

Around 2000, Haimovitz faced up to the growing realization that the audiences he was playing for did not seem to bring around very many of the people his age. He diagnosed this condition to concert halls themselves, and henceforward resolved to meet the desired audience where they felt comfortable, in the ordinary coffeehouses, bars, and nightclubs where young people hang out. This loosening of the collar as it applies to one’s place of venue also opened up his music, and in 2003, Haimovitz launched his “Anthem” tour, playing the works of living American composers in 50 different states. His recordings, mostly on Oxingale, such as Lemons Descending and Anthem, also serve to expose young listeners to music from their own time. Response to Haimovitz’s about-face in terms of performance spaces and repertoire may be mixed coming from critics, but audiences are pleased, and are attending, which is what Haimovitz wants. Haimovitz’s efforts in bringing classical music to people who would normally be scared off by the formality of it all was recognized by the American Music Center, which presented him its Trailblazer Award in 2005. In 2007, he released the album Vinyl Cello, and a year later was nominated for a Juno Award. In 2012 Haimovitz performed the premier of Glass’ Cello Concerto No. 2 “Naqoyqatsi” and released shuffle.play.listen with Christopher O’Riley. Haimovitz teaches at McGill University in Montreal (Bio credit: Allmusic.com)