Imani Winds
Saturday, October 17, 2009
8:00 p.m.
Howard Niblock, professor of music at Lawrence
From an LU News Article
“Classical music has been stubbornly resistant to an increasingly multicultural world. Imani Winds represents nothing less than the future of the once-quaint notion of the wind quintet.” — The Washington Post
"Imani Winds has established itself as more than a wind quintet. Since 1997, the Grammy-nominated ensemble has taken a unique path, carving out a distinct presence in the classical music world with its dynamic playing, culturally poignant programming, genre-blurring collaborations, and inspirational outreach programs. With two member composers and a deep commitment to commissioning new work, the group is enriching the traditional wind quintet repertoire while meaningfully bridging European, American, African, and Latin American traditions.
Ebène String Quartet
Friday, February 5, 2010
8:00 p.m.
“Interpreters of rare understanding and communicative flair” — The Strad
The Ebène String Quartet is distinguished by its open-mindedness and versatility, displaying equal facility in the classical repertoire and contemporary music. In addition, the quartet performs jazz concerts in renowned jazz venues to complement its other activities.
Considered one of the finest quartets of its generation, its activities include participation in a Haydn cycle at London’s Wigmore Hall, with the Emerson, Hagen, and Arcanto Quartets in 2008-09. They will also celebrate the Haydn year at Brussel’s Palais des Beaux-Arts and will perform in such other venues as Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Rotterdam’s De Doelen, Zurich’s Tonhalle, Vienna’s Musikverein, the City of London Festival, Gstaad’s Menuhin Festival, along with many other venues in Europe, the United States, and Japan.
Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor, and Warren Jones, piano
Friday, April 9, 2010
8:00 p.m.
“Anthony Dean Griffey, a tenor of generous proportions both vocally and physically, brought good-natured humor and peerless diction to the title role, giving the production the warmth and central focal point it might otherwise have lost.” — Opera News
Grammy© Award-winning American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey has captured critical and popular acclaim on opera, concert, and recital stages worldwide. The combination of his beautiful and powerful lyric tenor voice, along with his gift for exceptional communication and excellent musicianship have earned him the highest praise. He has been hailed for possessing both “presence and a tenor that is pure, sweet, and clarion” (The Los Angeles Times), and for having a voice that is “both full-bodied and sweet-toned” (The New York Times).
In February of 2009, Griffey’s critically acclaimed tenor won him two Grammy Awards, Best Classical Album and Best Opera Recording of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny with James Conlon, Patti LuPone, and Audra McDonald.
Simone Dinnerstein, piano
Friday, April 30, 2010
8:00 p.m.
“…an artist of small gestures, intimate ideas, little insinuations, and graceful sleights of hand. She can make the modern grand piano, a machine-age beast, sound as tentative and delicate as a simple reed flute, piped on by a solitary shepherd.” — The Washington Post
American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has fast been gaining international attention since making a triumphant New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2005, performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Recent and upcoming performances include Dinnerstein’s recital debuts at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival, the Stuttgart Bach Festival, the Aspen and Ravinia festivals, and in Cologne, Paris, London, Copenhagen, Vilnius, Bremen, Rome, and Lisbon.
Other debut performances include the Dresden Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Kristjan Järvi’s Absolute Ensemble, the Baltimore Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra. Last year she performed on the People’s Symphony series at Town Hall and on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series in New York. This year she will perform her third recital at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In July 2009, she will debut with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.
