Rutgers In New York 2005
Rutgers in New York
Isaac Stern Auditorium
Carnegie Hall
154 West 57th Street
Wednesday, March 2, 2005, 8:00 p.m.
Meet the Artists
Carlensha Grady
Carlensha Grady made her 2004 Opera at Rutgers debut in the role of Juliet in Roméo et Juliette. In 2005, she returned as Violetta in La Traviata. In 2003 she performed in scenes as Leila from The Pearl Fishers, Anne from A Little Night Music and Anna Maurrant from Street Scene. Other partial roles have included Butterfly (Madam Butterfly), Antonia (The Tales of Hoffman), and Nellie (Summer and Smoke). Ms. Grady also appears regularly in recitals and concerts in the central Jersey area.
Formerly studying with Willis C. Patterson and George Shirley, she earned a BM in Voice Performance with high honors from The University of Michigan. She is currently the recipient of a full tuition scholarship at Rutgers, where she is pursuing a Masters Degree under the vocal instruction of Judith Nicosia.
Susan Starr
Ms. Starr is one of America's most celebrated pianists. Since her triumph in Moscow's Tchaikovsky Competition, she has played to standing ovations in recital and with the world's most distinguished orchestras and conductors. Audiences throughout the world have been enthralled by her artistry. Her active international career has taken her on extensive tours of the Soviet Union, Far East, South America and Europe. Well-known for her recordings for RCA and Orion Master, she has been acclaimed by The New York Times as "a star of the first magnitude."
Kynan Johns
Australian conductor Kynan Johns made his professional conducting debut in 1997 with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and since then has conducted all the major symphony orchestras and opera companies in Australia and New Zealand. In 2000, Johns made his European debut with the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra in the famed Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Having worked with such esteemed conductors as Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel and Jorma Panula, Johns is a regular guest conductor throughout Europe, Israel, Asia and Australasia. Recent highlights have included concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. In 2002, Johns took second prize in the esteemed Dimtris Mitropoulos competition and was a finalist in the prestigious Maazel/ Vilar conducting competition at Carnegie Hall. In April of 2005 Johns will continue his association with Maestro Maazel as Assistant Conductor for the world premiere of Maazel’s Opera 1984 (based on the George Orwell classic) at Covent Garden, London. Johns joined the faculty at Rutgers University in July 2003.
Patrick Gardner
Patrick Gardner’s performances have been acclaimed by New York audiences, critics and an international roster of composers whose orchestral and choral works he has conducted. In addition to his duties as director of choral activities at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, where he conducts the Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir and the Rutgers Glee Club, Mr. Gardner is also the director of the Riverside Choral Society. This coming season Mr. Gardner will prepare Riverside Choral Society for a performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony with Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and the NJPAC in April and a performance of Handel’s L’Allegro which will be presented with choreography by the Mark Morris Dance Company at Lincoln Center this August. Active in premiering new music, he has won the praise of such notable composers as William Bolcom, Lukas Foss, John Harbison, Leslie Bassett and William Albright.
Rutgers Symphony Orchestra
One of the elite orchestras in New Jersey, the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra is an ensemble of 70-75 players enrolled in the undergraduate and graduate music programs at Mason Gross School of the Arts. The orchestra performs an ambitious concert series that includes three fall and two spring concerts at the university, in addition to a major opera production in February. For the past several years it has also performed in New York City, and in fall 1999 there was a gala performance at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. In spring 2001 the orchestra performed during a sold-out performance in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center as a part of the Rutgers in New York series. Recent highlights under the baton of Maestro Kynan Johns include critically praised performances of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and a CD recording for Naxos (to be released in 2006) of Nicholas Flagello’s Concerto Sinfonico for saxophone quartet and orchestra.
Rutgers Kirkpatrick Choir
The Rutgers Kirkpatrick Choir is the most advanced choir at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and is composed of around 50 students. In fulfilling its mission to educate professional musicians through performance, the Kirkpatrick Choir performs a significant repertory of major choral orchestral masterworks, baroque music accompanied by period instruments, and important works of the 20 and 21st century. Noted for their high level of performance in challenging contemporary works, the Kirkpatrick Choir was approached by the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music to record several CD’s of important 20th century works, including Miriam Gideon’s Sacred Service, which will be released as part of the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music’s comprehensive multiyear recording series on Naxos American Classics series. Their Naxos release of Samuel Adler’s Five Sephardic Songs is available in stores now.
Rutgers Glee Club
The Rutgers University Glee Club is one of the oldest and most distinguished men’s choruses in the United States. Tracing its roots back to 1872, the Rutgers Glee Club has been among the nation’s premier collegiate choirs for over a hundred and thirty years. Significant honors, recent concerts, and outstanding recordings under Patrick Gardner reflect the ensemble’s current high level of recognition for the superior quality of its choral sound and its imaginative programming of new music by significant composers. The performance of major choral/orchestral works for men’s ensemble has been a significant part of the Rutgers Glee Club recent activities. In 2000 the Glee Club joined with the Philadelphia Singers to perform Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle. The Rutgers Glee Club complements such major undertakings with presentations of a repertory ranging form traditional college songs through 19th century masterworks for men’s chorus.
Riverside Choral Society
The Riverside Choral Society, celebrating its 24th season, is a vital presence in the cultural life of New York City. Under the baton of director Patrick Gardner, the group has performed major works by Beethoven, Bruckner, Brahms, Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Britten, Pärt, Fauré, Orff, Stravinsky, Berlioz, and many others. In April RCS will join the Kirov Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for a performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony under the direction of Valery Gergiev. In August RCS and the Orchestra of St.Luke’s will perform Handel’s L’Allegro at Lincoln Center, accompanying the choreography of the Mark Morris Dance Company. Last summer the RCS returned to the Mostly Mozart Festival to perform the Mozart Requiem with the MMF Orchestra, with whom the RCS performed Haydn’s Creation the previous year. In 2002 RCS performed Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy at Alice Tully Hall with London’s Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The group made its Lincoln Center debut in August 1998 in the Festival’s presentation of Mozart’s Idomeneo.
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