Skidmore to present Carnegie Hall Premieres Feb. 10

Program to include music and dance on Ladd Concert Hall stage 

Click here for the Times Union advance by Joseph Dalton.

Skidmore College will present Carnegie Hall Premieres: A Concert by Ensemble ACJW at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, in the Arthur Zankel Music Center's Ladd Concert Hall. A pre-performance discussion will begin at 7 p.m.

Admission is $7 general public, $5 seniors, and free for the Skidmore community. For advance reservations click  here  or call the Zankel box office (518) 580-8381 for more information.

The performance is sponsored by Skidmore's Music Department in collaboration with the college's Office of the Dean of Special Programs.

Ensemble ACJW, a collection of young music professionals, will conclude its ninth Skidmore residency with a concert featuringStravinsky's Histoire du soldat and the New York premiere of a new work by members of the composers' collective Sleeping Giant, including Andrew Norman, Christopher Cerrone, Jacob Cooper, and Robert Honstein.

Sleeping Giant, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Ensemble ACJW to write a companion piece to Histoire du soldat, compiled individual responses to Stravinsky's seminal work. The joint composition reveals each composer's unique style, as well as individual interpretations and memories triggered by the piece.

The Stravinsky piece will contain a dance element choreographed by Skidmore dance Professor Rub n Graciani with Skidmore student narrators and dancers. It is a miniature theater piece intended to be read, played, and danced. Histoire du soldat, with its jazzy inflections and short, self-contained musical numbers, pointed the way toward Stravinsky's streamlined neoclassical style of the 1920s and '30s. At the same time, C. F. Ramuz's libretto?featuring a hapless soldier who sells his soul (in the form of his violin) to the devil?harks back to the Russian folk tales that had inspired many of the composer's earlier works. Unusually, there is no singing in the piece?the instrumental numbers provide both a musical framework and accompaniment for the spoken narration and dialogue.

The musicians participating in this residency include Paul Won Jin Cho, clarinet; Shelley Monroe Huang, bassoon; Nathan Botts, trumpet; Richard Harris, trombone; Keats Dieffenbacj, violin; Brian Ellingsen, bass; David Skidmore, percussion (alum); and Stephen Dunn, trombone.

Musicians of Ensemble ACJW are fellows of The Academy?a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute, in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The two-year program provides the finest young musicians with performance opportunities at both Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School, advanced musical training, intensive teaching instruction, and the skills necessary for careers combining musical excellence with education, community engagement, and advocacy.

Academy fellows work in partnership with a specific New York City public school music teachers in a variety of grade levels in areas such as interactive performance, instrumental teaching, creative learning projects, and general music knowledge, depending on the specific needs of each school. A partnership with Skidmore College that began in 2007 brings performances and educational events to the Saratoga Springs community. This year's residency includes dorm "informances," small impromptu performances across the campus, a jam session with Skidmore Jazz Ensemble students that will blend the classical strings of ACJW with the complexity of jazz, and educational events in Saratoga-area schools, including presentations at the Division Street Elementary School and the Saratoga Independent School, as well as Skidmore classes.