This weekend: @[100057996013792:2048:Mimi Stillman] plays music by @[100056202085826:2048:Zhou Tian, composer] with the @[100063545561737:2048:Allentown Symphony Orchestra]! Also on the program: William Grant Still’s “Ennanga” for harp and strings and Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. Show them some love, Lehigh Valley!
Tag: Mimi Stillman
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Mimi Stillman Premieres Zhou Tian Flute Concerto
Wow! Here’s Mimi Stillman with “The President’s Own” United States Marine Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of a new flute concerto by Zhou Tian, composer. I’ve had the privilege to interview and record with Mimi a number of times over the years, and I know Zhou from having interviewed him for the Trenton Times and on the air during my days at WPRB. Both such personable and talented people! Definitely also do check out Zhou’s Grammy-nominated Concerto for Orchestra, recorded by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It’s a knockout! Mimi has many other wonderful videos posted on her page. Follow her! And congratulations to both.
World premiere of Zhou’s Flute Concerto
Live performance of his Concerto for Orchestra, with the Basque National Orchestra
PHOTO: Zhou, Mimi, and the U.S. Marine Band’s Col. Jason K. Fettig
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Dolce Suono Ensemble Plays Higdon & More
Artistic director Mimi Stillman named her Dolce Suono Ensemble after a passage in Dante’s “Divine Comedy” that reads “…in voce mista al dolce suono” (“…the words blending with the sweet sound”).
There will be sweet sounds aplenty on today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, which will come your way from the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, PA. On the program will be music by Jean Sibelius, Philippe Gaubert, Antonin Dvořák, Claude Debussy, and Leonard Bernstein, with two works by Philadelphia composers: Andrea Clearfield’s “Spirit Island” and Jennifer Higdon’s “American Canvas.”
“American Canvas” falls into three movements, each named for a different visual artist – Georgia O’Keefe, Jackson Pollock, and Andrew Wyeth. The Brandywine Museum, of course, houses an extensive collection of canvases painted by three generations of the Wyeth family.
“American Canvas” was composed on a commission from the Dolce Suono Ensemble with grants from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia and the William Penn Foundation. The Dolce Suono Trio consists of flutist and artistic director Mimi Stillman, pianist Charles Abramovic, and cellist Nathan Vickery. Stillman will introduce each of the pieces from the Brandywine stage.
Dolce Suono’s next concert will explore the musical tastes of the Founding Fathers and the musical culture of Philadelphia around the founding of our nation. The ensemble will present “Music in the Second Capital” this Sunday at 3 p.m. at Old Pine St Presbyterian Church, 412 Pine Street, Philadelphia. For more information, look online at dolcesuono.com/events.
Following today’s Noontime Concert, stick around for a complete recording of the “Messa da Requiem” by Giuseppe Verdi, as we celebrate the Italian master’s 204th birthday. There will be sweet sounds aplenty, this Tuesday, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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Mimi Stillman Plays Mozart on The Classical Network
Flutist Mimi Stillman will be my guest this afternoon, for today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, as we present a program of “Mozart Woodwind Masterpieces.”
Stillman will join members of her Dolce Suono Ensemble to perform the Flute Quartet in D major, K. 285. Then Ricardo Morales – Clarinetist, principal clarinetist of The Philadelphia Orchestra, will join the ensemble for the Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581. On the second half of the program, Charles Abramovic will be at the keyboard for a special arrangement of the Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat major, K. 452. Stick around – there might even be an encore or two. The concert was recorded on March 21 at Trinity Center for Urban Life in Philadelphia.
Next Tuesday, May 9, Dolce Suono will convene for a special memorial concert for Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Stucky. The program will include a Philadelphia premiere by the late composer; DSE commissions of works from Stucky, Fang Man, and Zhou Tian; and world premiere performances of pieces by DSE Young Composers Competition winners, performed by baritone Randall Scarlata. That concert will take place at the Curtis Institute of Music’s Gould Hall at Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street, in Philadelphia. You can learn more at http://www.dolcesuono.com.
Later this afternoon, we’ll enjoy the unabashedly epic Symphony No. 2 by Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén. Yesterday was the anniversary of Alfvén’s birth, and – what with all the May Day revelry – we really didn’t get to do him justice, beyond a brief festive polonaise. Alfvén composed his Second Symphony at the age of 26. The work traces an at times intense trajectory from youthful high spirits to solemn grandeur, concluding with a powerful chorale-prelude and fugue in D minor. While “absolute” in form, the composer confided that everything he ever wrote contains a hidden program. The symphony was influenced by two near-death experiences, from which the composer emerged stronger than before.
There will be much strength to be derived from our music today, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTOS: Ricardo Morales (left); Mimi Stillman and Charles Abramovic
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Cabin Fever Escape Latin American Music
Snowbound? Already suffering the terrors of cabin fever?
Tune in to The Classical Network for today’s Noontime Concert and be transported, as I am joined by Mimi Stillman, flutist and artistic director of the Dolce Suono Ensemble. Mimi will be our tour guide for a conflation of two concerts in DSE’s ongoing “The Americas Project/Música en tus Manos,” explorations of chamber music of Latin America and the United States.
The program will feature music from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and the U.S., with a work by Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield. We’ll also take a musical journey to Hawaii with the world premiere of Michael-Thomas Fumai’s “Manookian Murals,” a DSE commission. Each movement was inspired by a mural of artist Arman Tateos Manookian (1904-1931) Painter of Hawaii. We’ll hear “Red Sails,” “The Arrival of Captain Cook,” “Hawaiian Boy and Girl,” and “Flight of the Flamingos.”
“Música en tus Manos” (literally, “Music in Your Hands”) brings DSE together with partner organizations for engagement initiatives with Philadelphia’s Latino community. You can learn more about the project, as well as DSE’s upcoming concerts in Bryn Mawr (on March 17) and Philadelphia (on March 21, with Philadelphia Orchestra principal clarinetist Ricardo Morales) at dolcesuono.com.
Put away your snow blower and mix up the margaritas and Mai Tais. We’re headed to warmer climes on today’s Noontime Concert, with Mimi Stillman and the Dolce Suono Ensemble, beginning at 12:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
IMAGE: Arman Manookian’s “Hawaiian Boy and Girl”
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