THE MUSICIANS CLUB OF NEW YORK
Presents

AN ALL WOMEN COMPOSERS CONCERT

Produced by
THE AVIVA PLAYERS

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Alla Borzova       Elizabeth Cherry     Brian Hunter       Bill Schimmel     Mara Waldman

 

 
Monday, December 17th, 2012 at 7:30 PM

Liederkranz Concert Hall
6 East 87th Street
New York City

 
PROGRAM

Romance Op. 5 #3................................................................Clara Schumann
Romance Op. 11 #2                                                                                        

Fantasy on 'Adamant'..............................................................Mara Waldman

Blue Ribbon Rag..................................................................May Aufderheide
Dusty Rag                                                                                                        
Mara Waldman, piano

My Papa's Waltz................................................Alison Tung/Theodore Roethke
The Lake Isle of Innisfree...............................................Alison Tung/Y.B. Yeats
Brian Hunter, tenor, Mara Waldman, piano

From the Chamber Opera, Lady of the Castle
I Don't Remember My Childhood.........................Mira J. Spektor (music & lyrics)

From the Folk Opera, Giovanni the Fearless
Turn Around....................................................Mira J. Spektor/Carolyn Balducci
Elizabeth Cherry, soprano, Mara Waldman, piano

From the Chamber Opera, Villa Diodati
Indian Serenade................................................Mira J. Spektor/Percy Shelley
Brian Hunter, tenor, Mara Waldman, piano
When We Two Parted............................................Mira J. Spektor/Lord Byron
Elizabeth Cherry, soprano, Mara Waldman, piano
There Is No Heaven But My Love........................Mira J. Spektor/Colette Inez
Elizabeth Cherry, soprano, Brian Hunter, tenor, Mara Waldman, piano

From the ballet, When Reason Sleeps and Wakes: Goya Images
Fandango...................................................................................Alla Borzova
Alla Borzova, piano

Pinsk and Blue...........................................................................Alla Borzova
William Schimell, accordion, Alla Borzova, piano

 

THE AVIVA PLAYERS

The Aviva Players were founded in 1975 by Artistic Director Mira J Spektor, and over the past 37 years have regularly performed and presented women composers of the 12th to 21st centuries. Dr Dorothy Indenbaum and Carolyn Balducci are its Associate Directors.

CAROLYN BALDUCCI, Dramatist & Lyricist

Carolyn Balducci's publications and productions include novels, biographies, poetry, original plays, reviews and translations of classical & contemporary comedies Member, Dramatists' Guild, Aviva Players, BMI and LPTW. Distinctions include a special commendation from S.I.A.E. for the dissemination of Italian Drama in America.

ALLA BORZOVA, Composer, Piano

Alla Borzova began piano studies and composing at the age of six. She holds D.M.A in Composition from the Moscow Conservatory, where she studied with Alexander Pirumov. She has pursued additional doctoral studies at CUNY Graduate School with David Del Tredici.  Her music was also championed by John Corigliano. Borzova has taught at Hunter and Lehman Colleges of the City University of New York and, in addition to composing, maintains an active career as a pianist, conductor, organist, and singer (soprano). In addition to many individual performers, her compositions have been commissioned and presented in the U.S., Russia and Belarus, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (Leonard Slatkin), Cabrillo Festival Orchestra (Marin Alsop), Cassatt String Quartet, Cutting Edge concert series, Da Capo Chamber Players, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Dale Warland Singers, New Amsterdam Singers, Central City Chorus, The New York Concert Singers, Gregg Smith Singers, National Symphony Orchestra of Belarus (Alexander Anissimov), Symphony Orchestra and Choirs of Belarusian Radio and Television (Anatoly Lapunov). Two all-Borzova compact disks include recent release of the composer’s orchestral music: cantata Songs for Lada and To The New World (“American Classics”, Naxos 2012, Slatkin/Detroit Symphony); and “Pinsk & Blue” (Albany Records 2007), which includes the title piece we are hearing tonight.

ELIZABETH CHERRY, Soprano

Off-Broadway: The Fantasticks (Luisa) Sullivan St. Playhouse, Out Of The Ruins (Student/Persephone) Ensemble Studio Theatre. Regional/NY Theatre: Villa Diodati (Mary Shelley) NYMTF, A Christmas Carol (Belle/Fred’s wife) Alabama Shakespeare Festival, West Side Story (Maria) Human Race Theatre Company/Dayton Ballet, Carnival (Lili) Rockwell Productions, The Fantasticks (Luisa) Dorset Theatre Festival, Butley (Miss Heaseman) Centenary Stage Company. Film: Two Weeks Notice (Masseuse), The Nanny Diaries (Linda).

BRIAN HUNTER, Tenor

As a performer, Brian Hunter performs one of the most extensive international repertoires from opera to concert to pop to cabaret to Irish Tenor. As an impresario, Brian has presented world-class programs in all of New York's top venues, as well as many of the top cruise lines. He is the president of the Musicians Club of New York, an organization dedicated to the promotion of classical music (www.musiciansclubofny.org).

WILLIAM SCHIMMEL, Accordion

William Schimmel is a virtuoso accordionist, author, philosopher and composer. He is one of the principle architects of the tango revival in America, the resurgence of the accordion and the philosophy of Musical Reality (composition with pre-existing music). He received his diploma from the Neupauer Conservatory of Music and his BM, MS and DMA degrees from the Juilliard School. He has taught at the Juilliard School, Brooklyn College CUNY, Upsala College, New School University, Neupauer Conservatory (dean) and has lectured on accordion-related subjects at Princeton, Columbia, Brandeis, University of Missouri, Duke University, Manhattan School of Music, the Graduate Center CUNY, Santa Clara University, The Janacek Conservatory in Ostrava, Czech Republic and at Microsoft. He has performed with virtually every major symphony orchestra in America (and the Kirov ) including a longstanding relationship with the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as virtually every chamber music group in New York including Ensemble Sospeso and the Odeon Jazz Ensemble. Pop star colleagues range from Sting to Tom Waits. He is founder of the Tango Project, which, in addition to his hit recordings with them, has appeared in Scent of a Woman (Grammy nomination, number 1 on the Billboard Classical Charts), and many films that he both scored and performed and a series of films for the Nature. Dr. Schimmel is also an authority of the music of Kurt Weill. He now heads the Neupauer Conservatory Order of the Shield program, a private studies program for gifted students on a graduate and post graduate level. Dr. Schimmel, and his wife, choreographer, director, filmmaker Micki Goodman co-founded and co- directs the Institute for Private Studies, a pluralistic think-tank. Their son, Michael, is an accordionist and visual artist – and a Special Olympics gold medal winner.

MIRA J. SPEKTOR, Composer

Composer/ poet/ lyricist Mira J. Spektor is, since 1975, the Founder & Artistic Director of The Aviva Players.  Ms. Spektor graduated Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied with Norman Dello Joio, then at Mannes & Juilliard. Her memberships include BMI, Dramatist Guild & the League of Professional Theater Women. Her musicals &  chamber operas include: The Housewive's Cantata (lyrics by June Siegel), Lady of the Castle (based on an Israeli play by Lea Goldberg), The Passion of Lizzie Borden (on poems by Ruth Whitman), Villa Diodati (with lyrics by Colette Inez, Bryon, Shelley & Spektor), it received an award in the NYMTF 2008, and was recently filmed by Bank Street Films for 2013 release. Her latest is a new folk opera, Giovanni the Fearless (to Carolyn Balducci's libretto). She has also written many English, French & German recital and cabaret songs, frequently heard in the US & Europe.  She has recorded on Westminster, Concert Hall, Guilde International du Disque, Original Cast Records, Capstone and AirPlay, as well as music scores for feature films and PBS-TV.  

Her book of poems, The Road To November, and her CDs are at: www.BookHampton.com. Email: mirajspektor@earthlink.net; web: www.miraspektor.com; www.theavivaplayers.com.

ALISON HEYDT TUNG, Composer

Alison Heydt Tung graduated from Wheaton College in Norton, MA, and received a Master's Degree in Modern English Literature from Queen Mary College, University of London. The year that her oldest child went off to college and her youngest could cross the street by himself, she used  the free time to resume piano lessons and to revisit some of the poetry she had encountered as a student and as a High School teacher. She is grateful to Howard Cass for suggesting that she give art songs a try, and to Louis Rosen for unraveling a few of the mysteries of music theory. Her songs have been performed at All Souls Unitarian Church; the Fabbri Mansion on East 95th Street; the Library and Environmental Center in Cold Spring Harbor, NY, and as part of Music In Chelsea's "American Song and Music” program.

MARA WALDMAN, Piano, Composer, Music Director

Mara Waldman is a distinguished pianist, conductor and composer. She won the National Piano Recording Competition with her recording of the Third Piano Sonata of Norman Dello Joio (a past president of the Musicians Club of New York), and the New York Chopin Foundation Competition. She is in frequent demand as a soloist and ensemble player. As a conductor, reaching the finals in the San Diego Opera Young Conductors Competition led to subsequent study with Zubin Mehta and Max Rudolf under the New York Philharmonic and Exxon Young Conductors Program, studies at the Goldovsky Opera Institute and private study with Vincent LaSelva and George Schick. She has conducted numerous operas to critical acclaim at the Bel Canto Opera, where she also edited and revived Louis Spohr’s Zemiere und Azor, as assistant conductor with the New York City Opera and the several productions for the NewoperafestivaldiRoma. As a composer, Ms. Waldman has produced works from opera to chamber ensemble to art song to solo piano work. She has served as Composer in Resident for the Golden Fleece Composers Theatre, and is the Music Director of Encompass President of Joy in Singing.

Dorothy Indenbaum speaks on Clara Schuman and May Aufderheide, followed by Mara Waldman, piano, performing May Aufderheide's "Blue Ribbon Rag" and "Dusty Rag." 


Alison Tung: "The Lake Isle of Innisfree"


Alla Borzova: Fandango from "When Reason Sleeps and Wakes: Goya Images" followed by "Pinsk and Blue."