New York Scandia Symphony to perform Nielsen and Sibelius on 150th Anniversary of their births

The New York Scandia Symphony, under the baton of Music Director Dorrit Matson, presents “NIELSEN and SIBELIUS 150 Anniversary”, celebrating renowned Scandinavian composers Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius on the 150th anniversary of their births (1865).  The event is part of the many tributes that are being held around the world to honor two of Scandinavia’s greatest composers.

The performance will be held Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 8 PM at Symphony Space/Peter Norton Theater,  2537 Broadway (at 95th Street). Tickets:  $20; $15 for students & seniors. Reservations: 212-864-5400 or   www.symphonyspace.org.

“The Scandia Symphony is simply one of the nation’s most adventurous orchestras.” Lucid Culture

PROGRAM

Carl Nielsen

Overture to Maskerade

Flute Concerto

Lisa Hansen, flute

1) Allegro Moderato

2) Allegretto

Jean Sibelius

At the Castle Gate from Pelleas and Melisande

Finlandia

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERS

CARL NIELSEN (June 9, 1865 – October 3, 1931), in his introduction to his fourth symphony, wrote that “Music is life and like it inextinguishable,” and his brilliant compositions have since substantiated this postulate. Nielsen was born, one of twelve children, on  the island of Funen. At the age of six, he was handed a violin, and his career as Denmark’s greatest composer was launched. Though his family was poor, Nielsen was able to learn violin and piano, and later he learned how to play brass instruments, which led to a job as a bugler in the 16th Battalion at nearby Odense. Nielsen wrote six symphonies as well as instrumental concerts and chamber music.  He rose to prominence with his First Symphony, after it was played in Berlin in 1896 with great success. Nielsen continued as a violinist at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen and then took a post teaching at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen and worked there until his death. His Flute concerto, premiered in Paris in 1926, represents the composer’s late style.

JEAN SIBELIUS (December 8, 1865 – September 20, 1957) studied at the Finnish Normal School, the first Finnish-speaking school in Russian-held Finland. Although intended for a legal career, he soon abandoned his law studies at Helsinki and devoted himself entirely to music, composing much chamber and instrumental music.  He continued his studies in Berlin and Vienna, and on his return to Finland, a performance of his first large-scale orchestral work, the Kullervo Symphony (1892), created something of a sensation. This, and further works – The Swan of Tuonela, En Saga, and Finlandia, to name just a few, established him as Finland’s leading composer. After World War I he published his greatest works, Symphony No. 5, No. 6 and No. 7, and Tapiola, but then lapsed into the long silence of his last years. Although his inspiration is intimately connected with the Scandinavian landscape, it is not primarily as a nature poet that he is remembered, but rather for his remarkable mastery of symphonic form.

LISA HANSEN is soloist on the Centaur CD of New York Scandia Symphony performing Nielsen’s Flute Concerto, a recording that was a “Best of the Year” selection by Fanfare, which described her playing as “brilliant, vital, idiomatic, vigorous, propulsive, gorgeous…This is the most enjoyable performance of the work known to me, either live or recorded.”  Indeed, the Nielsen Concerto is one of Ms. Hansen’s most beloved pieces, having first learned it as a teenager. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Ms. Hansen was principal flute chair of the Mexico City Philharmonic, and has concertized extensively in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe.   Numerous composers have written specially for her and she has premiered works by John Corigliano, Max Lifchitz, William Mayer, and others. Ms. Hansen is founder of the chamber ensemble Serenata, and is also Flute Professor at Kean University.

DORRIT MATSON,  Music Director/Conductor, received her performance degree in conducting at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and a Master’s Degree in Musicology from the University of Copenhagen. Her Master’s Degree in Conducting was completed at the University of Miami, Florida. Acclaimed for her performances of Scandinavian music, Ms. Matson also commands a vast repertory of European and American masterworks in a continually expanding schedule of performances in concert and theater. Among an elite handful of women conductors, the Copenhagen native has inspired both critics and audiences alike with her devotion to both rarely and frequently performed works by Grieg, Nielsen, and Sibelius, and less well known music by Schierbeck, Larsson, Alven, Hartman, and Crusell.

NEW YORK SCANDIA SYMPHONY, established in 1988 by music director Dorrit Matson, has educated and delighted audiences for 26 years with imaginative and creative programming of classical, contemporary, and romantic Scandinavian music by both established and lesser known composers. The Symphony has performed in many venues around NYC, including for 18 years at NY’s beautiful landmark, Trinity Church, in lower Manhattan.   They have appeared numerous times on NPR’s “Performance Today,” as well as other radio broadcasts and have recorded several highly praised CDs of music by Bernhardt Crusell, Lars-Erik Larsson, and Carl Nielsen.

LEARN more at www.nyscandia.org

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