February 16, 2011, Wednesday - Performance And Discussion With Gabriela Lena Frank And Nilo Cruz at Open Book

Time: 7:00pm
 
Location: Target Performance Hall, Open Book, 1011 Washington Avenue South

Free Admission

In collaboration with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Loft presents a performance and discussion with composer Gabriela Lena Frank and poet and playwright Nilo Cruz, the first Latino recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Cosponsored with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Award-winning composer Gabriela Lena Frank and playwright Nilo Cruz join musicians of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for a special discussion and performance event at the Loft Literary Center. In anticipation of the SPCO’s forthcoming world premiere performances of Frank and Cruz’s song cycle La centinela y la paloma, the composer and playwright will discuss their work and unique collaboration. The evening will feature readings from Cruz’s work and performances of Frank’s music by members of the SPCO.

Identity has always been at the center of Gabriela Lena Frank’s music. Born in Berkeley, California, to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Frank explores her multicultural heritage most ardently through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Frank is something of a musical anthropologist. She has traveled extensively throughout South America and her pieces reflect and refract her studies of Latin-American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own. She writes challenging idiomatic parts for solo instrumentalists, vocalists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras.

Nilo Cruz, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for drama, came to the United States on a Freedom Flight shortly before his tenth birthday; he grew up in Miami and attended Miami-Dade Community College's Wolfson Campus. Later, Cruz earned an MFA in playwriting at Brown University and has since held teaching posts at Yale University, New York University, Brown University, and the University of Iowa. Cruz won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Anna in the Tropics, becoming the first Latino so honored. For the same work he also won the American Theatre Critics' Association/Steinberg New Play Award. Other honors include the Alton Jones Award, Kesselring Prize, AT&T Award, Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, Rockefeller Grant, and Theatre Communications Group Artist in Residence Grant.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, now in its 52nd season, is the nation’s only full-time professional chamber orchestra and is widely regarded as one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. In collaboration with five artistic partners—Roberto Abbado, Edo de Waart, Dawn Upshaw, Christian Zacharias and Thomas Zehetmair—the thirty-four virtuoso musicians present more than 130 concerts and educational programs each year and are regularly heard on public radio’s Performance Today, which reaches 1.5 million listeners each week on 243 stations, and SymphonyCast, reaching 480,000 listeners each week on 125 stations nationwide. The SPCO has released 67 recordings, commissioned 127 new works, and performed the world premiere of 49 additional compositions. The SPCO has earned the distinction of 15 ASCAP awards for adventurous programming. Renowned for its artistic excellence and remarkable versatility of musical styles, the SPCO tours nationally and internationally, including performances in premier venues in Europe, Asia and South America. Launched in 1995, the SPCO’s award-winning CONNECT education program reaches 6,000 students and teachers annually in 16 Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools. For more information, visit www.thespco.org

Sunmi Chang began her study of the violin at the age of seven with Professor Nam-Yun Kim in her native South Korea, where she won several national competitions before going to England to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School (YMS) in 1995. While at the YMS, she performed regularly in concert halls including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Albert Hall and the Purcell Room, as well as at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Sunmi continued her studies at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin with Professor Eberhard Feltz. In 2006 she won the Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition at the Yale School of Music, and has performed the Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale. In the summer of 2008, as part of the cultural prelude to the Olympics, she performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Yale Philharmonia in Asia. She earned her master of music and artist diploma degrees from Yale under Peter Oundjian and Ani Kavafian. Sunmi has performed with renowned artists such as Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, Ani Kavafian, Marcy Rosen, and Edward Arron. She is the laureate of the 2007 International Markneukirchen Violin Competition in Germany and the 2007 International Sion Valais Violin Competition in Switzerland.

Elsa Nilsson joined The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 1977. Prior to her appointment with the SPCO, she served as concertmaster of the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, and was a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Pittsburgh Chamber Players. Nilsson has appeared as soloist many times with the SPCO. Also active on the Twin Cities chamber music scene, she has appeared with the Minneapolis Artists Ensemble, Ensemble Capriccio, and the Musical Offering. Between SPCO seasons, she has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra and at the Grand Teton Festival in Wyoming, and the Symphony Orchestra of the Pacific in British Columbia. Nilsson graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Paul Makanowitzky, Jaime Laredo and Ivan Galamian. She served as Galamian’s assistant at Curtis for three years and at the Meadowmount School for four years.

Winner of the Stradivarius International Violin Competition, Yoonshin Song has earned many prestigious prizes throughout her career, including prizes in the Young Concert Artists International Competition in New York, Lipizer International Violin Competition in Italy, Henry Marteau International Violin Competition in Germany, Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poland and Ima Hogg International Competition in Houston. In her native South Korea, Song has won virtually all the major national competitions. Most recently, Song received the David G. Whitecomb Foundation Award and gave a recital in Germantown, New York, which was well received by critics and audience members.

David Huckaby joined The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra at the start of the 2009-2010 season. A recent graduate of The Juilliard School, where he received a master’s degree studying with Joel Krosnick, David has performed live on National Public Radio’s From the Top young artists program and has also performed chamber music on the television program. He has toured in Italy and France playing with the North Carolina International Music Program Chamber Orchestra and in China as principal of the Juilliard Orchestra. An advocate of contemporary music, David has often worked with new music groups including the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Axiom Ensemble, and the Callithumpian Consort. From turntable concertos in Carnegie Hall to string quartets in local bars, he is continually searching for new and interesting ways to connect with audiences. David has studied with Richard Aaron, Andres Diaz, and Martha Gerschefski, received his bachelor’s degree studying with Paul Katz, and a graduate diploma studying with Laurence Lesser, both at the New England Conservatory. He has also participated in the Aspen Music Festival and the Orford Arts Center in Quebec. Once the cello goes in the case, David enjoys reading and watching movies. Always interested in trying new things, his project for this winter is finally learning how to ski!