Palaver Strings_2024-25_Biographies.pdf

What exactly is “classical” music? Join Palaver Strings for an engaging presentation exploring string music by Bach, Mozart, and Haydn, as well as groundbreaking voices of the modern age. This 45-minute workshop introduces the sounds of the string instrument family (violin, viola, cello, and bass), as well as the diverse voices, eras, and styles under the classical umbrella, with an emphasis on music by women and composers of color. This presentation is designed for grades K-8, with no prior musical experience required.

Outside The Bachs (Grades K-8)

Designed for school orchestra students, this workshop puts Palaver Strings musicians side by side with students, introducing the fundamentals of chamber music and conductorless ensemble playing. We also introduce the concept of improvisation and spontaneity as tools for creative musical expression. This 60-minute workshop is designed for grades 4-12, with some prior string instrument study required. Repertoire will be chosen in consultation with the school’s orchestra director/string teacher and tailored to the age and experience of the students.&nbsp;

SideXSide (Grades 4-12)

Hear the classic story of Ferdinand the Bull with a full string orchestra and narrator! With music by Alan Ridout and text by Munro Leaf, Ferdinand the Bull tells the story of a young bull who feels different from others, and eventually learns to accept himself for who he truly is. This 10-15 minute performance is designed for students age 5-10, with no prior music experience required. Palaver Strings or the host organization may provide a narrator.

Ferdinand The Bull (Ages 5-10)

Join Palaver Strings for an engaging and hands-on experience that empowers students to unleash their creativity! Guided by experienced musicians, participants will explore music through interactive activities such as instrument-making and painting to live music.&nbsp; This multi-sensory approach encourages students to explore and experiment freely. These 45-60 minute workshops can be customized according to age group, with no prior musical experience required. Additional costs for materials may apply, depending on the activities involved.

Touching Sound

Music and emotion are inextricably linked; music evokes a wide range of emotions in listeners, from happiness to sadness to excitement to calm. Join Palaver Strings in an interactive concert of music and emotion through active listening, musical expression, movement, and mindfulness.This 45-minute presentation is designed for students ages 5-9. No prior musical experience is required.

Harmony of the Heart (Ages 5-9)

Creative collaboration brings together people from different backgrounds, skills, and experiences. This 60-minute workshop/performance features Palaver Strings and collaborating artists, and includes a short performance and discussion of musical style, cultural values, power dynamics, and strategies for equitable collaboration across cultures, genres, and artistic disciplines. Examples of collaborating artists include Kinan Azmeh (clarinet/composer/improviser), Heather Stewart (modern dance), Chris Pattishall (jazz pianist), and Lauren Stevens (traditional Wabanaki song). This presentation is designed for students age 8 and up, with no prior musical experience required. Note that this workshop is dependent on the availability of collaborators, must be booked at least one year in advance, and that additional costs for guest artists may apply. &nbsp; &nbsp;

Come Together: Palaver and Friends (Ages 8+)

Palaver Strings—Photos for Public Download.zip

Palaver Strings

Port City explores tango music throughout the genre’s history, and features bandoneon visionary Heyni Solera as soloists and composers. Palaver will perform danceable classics alongside contemporary tango-inspired compositions. We will also welcome powerhouse dancers Phi Lee Lam and Carla Marano to join us for a full tanda, or series of tango dances. This performance will celebrate tango’s ongoing evolution and the powerful interplay between music and dance.

Port City ft. Heyni Solera

Serenades explores the serenade through a broad lens, across genres, eras, and styles in a changing world. At its heart is Josef Suk’s Serenade for Strings. We juxtapose this Romantic classic with Carlos Simon’s Between Worlds, a meditative work inspired by visual artist Bill Traylor, whose life and work spanned the end of slavery through the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. In our arrangement, different string parts “serenade” one another antiphonally across the ensemble. Ravel’s Troi Chansons, written at the outbreak of World War I, reflects on loss of life, innocence, and continuity in a changing world. Our arrangement of Laurie Anderson’s O Superman, fused with the third movement of Bach’s A Minor Violin Sonata, explores human relationships with machines and with one another. The program concludes with modern-day “moonlit serenades” by Glen Miller and Laura Mvula. Serenades is a musical call for a new and brighter world.

Serenade

This program explores the African-American experience in classical music, through the eyes of Black composers. It begins with the “blues” movement of Ravel’s Violin Sonata No. 2, arranged for string orchestra and solo violin, and continues with our arrangement of Julia Perry’s Prelude for Piano, a nuanced, neoclassic gem full of anticipation and reflection. At the heart of the program is Clarence White’s Bandana Sketches, a four-movement arrangement of Negro Spirituals. We conclude with the lush romantic string writing of Adolphus Hailstork and William Grant Still, linked by themes of spirituality, meditation, and familial bonds. The Apple of their Eyes encapsulates the beauty and resilience of the African-American experience, and celebrates the richness and depth of Black classical music.

The Apple of their Eyes

Sinfonia Fantastica addresses themes of gender, power, fear, and desire through the medium of chamber music. Sinfonica Fantastica, a world premiere by Palaver’s own Teagan Farran, is a response to Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, retold from the perspective of the pursued woman. It draws on themes from the original Berlioz as well as Farran’s deep knowledge of tango idioms, relating them to Paris’s role in globalizing and exoticizing tangoian tastes during Berlioz’s time. Sinfonica Fantastica turns the Romantic fascination with the exotic and the masculine hero on its head. Our program continues with Nina Shekhar’s Above the Fray, which takes Bach’s famous cello prelude and transforms, degrades, and reshapes it. Llyllyth’s Canary Resuscitator is an ambient chorale-like piece that refers to the use of canaries in coal mines to warn of gas leaks. She compares the canary to the US trans population, especially around issues of healthcare and wellness, and her piece is intended both as a response to and a respite from the political turmoil surrounding trans rights.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Sinfonia Fantastica

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This 3-day residency will explore the expressive potential of collaborative music-making, storytelling, and protest through song, and how themes of hope and justice can connect us with each other. The project will celebrate the release of the&nbsp;Change is Gonna Come&nbsp;album while working closely with local&nbsp;community members to write their own stories through the lens of Palaver's Lifesongs Project. Presenters can choose which community, and which members within that community, would benefit most from participating in the Lifesongs songwriting workshop.&nbsp; Examples of communities could include: an LGBTQ group, an Osher lifelong learning group, an Alateen group, a group of inmates pursuing higher education degrees, etc.&nbsp;After a day of songwriting followed by a day of revision/demoing, Palaver and the community songwriters will offer a culminating public performance of the songs, as well as the process-sharing discussion.&nbsp;Day 1:&nbsp;Lifesongs songwriting workshop. Palaver musicians will work with 3-5 members of the community of your choice to write songs about their life stories or issues that are important to them.Day 2:&nbsp; Lifesongs songwriting revision session and creation of take-home demo recordings. Palaver musicians and participating community members will finish the songs and record demo recordings for the community member's&nbsp;personal use.Day 3:&nbsp;Lifesongs live performance and process-sharing session with public audience, followed by a culminating&nbsp;Change is Gonna Come&nbsp;performance by Palaver Strings and Nicholas Phan&nbsp;A Change is Gonna ComeFeaturing Grammy-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan and Palaver Strings,&nbsp;A Change is Gonna Come&nbsp;explores our country’s rich legacy of protest songs. Repertoire includes traditional songs of protest and music inspired by social movements and historical events, including Nico Muhly’s Stranger, Akenya Seymour’s Fear the Lamb, and the premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s Protest Songs. Spanning genres, eras, and movements, A Change Is Gonna Come confronts our past and present and celebrates protest as one of our most precious rights. Read more about the album release <a href="https://www.arielartists.com/news/palaver-strings-announce-3rd-album:-'a-change-is-gonna-come'" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.&nbsp;RepertoireNico Muhly – Stranger Roberta Slavitt, Alfred Hayes, Malvina Reynolds, arr. Domenic Salerni – Freedom is a Constant Struggle/I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill/It Isn't Nice Harry Burleigh/ Langston Hughes, arr. Ian Gottlieb – Lovely, Dark and Lonely One Abel Meeropol/Billie Holiday, arr. Jonathan Bingham – Strange Fruit Akenya Seymour – Fear the Lamb Bob Dylan, arr. Domenic Salerni – Blowin’ in the Wind Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, arr. Domenic Salerni – Fiddle and the Drum/Where Have all the Flowers Gone/What Are You Fighting For? Errollyn Wallen – Protest Songs (Project Commission) Sam Cooke, arr. Domenic Salerni – A Change is Gonna Come&nbsp;Reviews“Here’s an entertaining collection of protest songs, old and new. Having them sung by a tenor and string orchestra is a risky prospect on paper; you worry that the originals will be sanitised beyond recognition. Nicholas Phan and Palaver strings avoid the trap: Domenic Salerni’s arrangements are never saccharine.” – Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk

featuring Palaver Strings and Nicholas Phan

A Change is Gonna Come Performance and Lifesongs Project

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Benedict Kloeckner_2021-22 Biographies.pdf

Benedict Kloeckner—Photos for Public Download.zip

Benedict Kloeckner

Inspired by Bach explores the influence of Johann Sebastian Bach, a major influence to many composers, through two of the most beautiful cello sonatas of the repertoire. Mendelssohn is known for being a great advocate of Bach’s music, and in his vibrant, virtuous Cello Sonata, it is especially clear in the slow third movement, which touches the listener as a slow Bach-style chorale and quotes parts of Bach’s chromatic Fantasy and Fugue. It is not known how familiar Beethoven was with Bach’s work, however in his magnificent Cello Sonata, he quotes Bach’s Johannes Passion “es ist vollbracht.” Beethoven’s Cello Sonata then became its own inspiration for many composers, who attempt to echo its perfect instrumental balance and compositorial genius.&nbsp;

Inspired by Bach

Forgotten Romance is a program of works by three great Romantic pianists and composers who didn’t write very much chamber music, but had a particular love for the cello. Sergei Rachmaninov wrote his Cello Sonata after a long personal and artistic crisis, in which he had to fight back his way to mental health and artistic creativity. His Cello Sonata is a journey of the soul –from darkness, struggle, and despair to blazing joy and glory Following a similar journey, Chopin’s Cello Sonata was one of his last works, a complex masterpiece full of poetry, virtuosity, and intensity. The program opens with Liszt’s beautiful and lyrical Romance oubliée and his famous Dream of Love, conveying the composer’s great emotional depth in what&nbsp; Frederic Delius calls “an outburst of the soul.”&nbsp;

Forgotten Romance

Robert Schumann’s works for violoncello and piano have accompanied and inspired me ever sinceI started playing the cello. It was our wish to combine works by Schumann with 20th century compositions that shared his spirit of innovation, his love for the music of the past (in particular that of Johann Sebastian Bach) and his efforts to achieve a simplicity of expression&nbsp; a “folk style” that, in its approachability and highest artistic standard, appealed to the public’s interest back then.Schumann’s music is characterized by poetry, sensibility, and sincerity; they are also indispensable elements for Dmitri Shostakovich and Bohuslav Martinů, even if these contrasted sharply with external conditions –perhaps to even counter the disorders of the world with something deeply intimate and human. In keeping with the spirit of Leonard Bernstein,&nbsp; I wish to do justice to the relevance of this music. “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

Between Nostalgia and Revolution

Legendary cellist Pablo Casals once said that Johann Sebastian Bach’s 6 Suites for Violoncello “is the quintessence of Bach’s music, and Bach himself the quintessence of all music itself.” Casals made these works famous as one of mankind’s great achievements. They are inspired by fashionable court dances of the time and some musicologists also suspect a connection to biblical stories from the New Testament. Experiencing the complete cycle in one (or optional two) evenings is both an adventure for the listener and a challenge for the interpreter, with both facing some of the most virtuosic, emotionally deep, and musically genius art ever made.

A Dancing Miracle

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Danae Doerken_2023-24_Biographies.pdf

Danae offers a 45-60 minute school visit where she gives students an insight into the world of classical music. The engagement includes playing and speaking segments, where Danae presents some pieces, talks about the composers, the piano as an instrument and answers any questions that the students might have. She frequently runs this project at her festival, Molyvos International Music Festival, in Greece and also in Germany with the established "Rhapsody in School" project.

Music Key (K-12)

Danae offers open master classes to students of all levels. Danae will work one-on-one with students to focus on a piece of their choice.

Master Classes (Ages 12 and Up)

Danae Doerken—Photos for Public Download.zip

Danae Doerken

Homer’s epos of Odysseus and his journey from Troy back home is a tale as old as time that stands for the greatness of human endurance, strength and ingenuity. The mindset of never giving up and overcoming all adversity and even godly obstacles is the basis of this mythical story, but its message is relatable to the most current of events.&nbsp;Turkish composer Fazil Say’s “Black Earth” (composed in 2007) is based on a famous Turkish song titled “Kara Toprak” and marks the beginning of this Odyssey, symbolizing the cycle of life and the fact that we are all equal. One of the most famous obstacles that Odysseus has to overcome on his journey are the Sirens, mythical creatures that, with their beautiful voices, lure sailors to their islands and subsequently to their doom. Claude Debussy brought these creatures to life in his Nocturne “Sirènes”, the last of 3 Nocturnes composed between 1892-1899. Originally written for orchestra, today’s arrangement for piano solo was made by Gustave Samazeuilh. The “Waltz of Lost Dreams” by Manos Hatzidakis (composed in 1983) is a famous Greek song that awakes feelings of hopefulness amidst difficult circumstances. The final work of the program is Felix Mendelssohn’s Fantasy op. 28 (composed in 1834), also titled “Scottish Sonata”. The piece was strongly influenced by his travels through Scotland and, once again, depicts how we are transformed through internal and external journeys. Let us all embark on this Odyssey together and, in pursuit of Ithaca, cherish every moment - easy and difficult - in order to realize that the journey itself&nbsp;is&nbsp;the destination.

ODYSSEY

Apollo, the God standing for music poetry, order and logic and Dionysus, the God standing for chaos, wine and excess are polar opposites. They both guard the oracle of Delphi and in Greek mythology we are taught that, in order to make a balanced decision, it is important to always ask both these Gods for advice. In this program for piano for 4 hans, we want to explore the world of these two intriguing figures and in the end, come to the realization that we all carry parts of both Apollo and Dionysus inside of us.

Apollo & Dionysus

This program combines works that were inspired by sounds and melodies the composers heard as well as images the composers saw. Schumann’s Forest Scenes are short musical depictions of nine settings he experienced when walking through the forest, while Schubert’s Fantasy Op. 15 is based on his own famous song “Der Wanderer” that speaks about trying to find happiness. Claude Debussy’s impressionist music is an accurate description of three images through sound, while Bartòk’s Romanian Folk Dances were influenced by folk tunes that he heard on the street. The program ends with two famous works by Liszt, his Love Dream No. 3 and his Rigoletto-Paraphrase, which is composed around four different melodies that stand for four different characters from his own opera “Rigoletto” that sing together in harmonious unity.

Songs and Images

East and West embodies Danae Dörken’s feeling that our diversity is what ultimately brings us together and gives us enormous strength. All of the works in this program share the commonality of being heavily influenced by folk music traditions of different countries around the world. The folkloristic character of these compositions highlights the individual elements of each culture that render the pieces unique and underscore the necessity for them to be loved and remembered forever.Chopin’s Polonaise in C-sharp minor embeds the melancholy of the tunes of polish folk music, while Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances feature the unusual rhythms of the Transylvanian peasant polka. Schubert’s 12 Ländler reflect the melodies of alpine folk dances, while Danza ritual del fuego by de Falla is reminiscent of guitar performers that can be heard in village squares in Spain. Grieg’s inspiration for Wedding Day at Troldhaugen came from the mighty chords that characterise Norwegian folklore and Manolis Kalomiris’ compositions are influenced by Greek folk music. At first glance, the Huit Nocturnes by the French neoclassical composer Francis Poulenc might seem a little out of place, but while this composition is not directly influenced by folk music, the simplistic elegance of the Nocturnes render them ideal counterparts to the remaining pieces on the program.

East and West

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Paragon Ragtime Orchestra_2023-24_Biographies.pdf

The Orchestra also creates customized programs for special events, centennials, celebrations, and holidays. With over 20,000 historic scores covering every musical style popular from the Civil War era to the Jazz Age, and with acclaimed American-music expert—and showman—Rick Benjamin in charge, we have the power and experience to custom-build programs especially for your venue, event, or theme. Your imagination is the only limit! Our client list over 30 years ranges from billion-dollar entertainment conglomerates to major performing arts centers and museums to small not-for-profit groups (and everything in-between).

Special Events & Customized Programs

The PRO also offers condensed 50 minute versions of all of the above programs for young audiences in schools; we have different versions of each designed for specific age levels: kindergarten–grade 2, grades 3–5, middle school, and high school students.

Educational Programs for Schools

Paragon Ragtime Orchestra–Photos for Public Download.zip

Paragon Ragtime Orchestra

Note: Paragon has one of the world’s largest libraries of historic American orchestral music, and the particular pieces played on each of Paragon’s concert programs are subject to change to reflect this unique resource.Travel back to the early 1900s as modern life begins: America falls in love with electricity and automobiles, flying machines take to the sky, and vaudeville creates American idols. A two-hour concert program of approximately 15 pieces played from historic orchestrations drawn from the Orchestra’s legendary 22,000 title collection. Joplin’s music takes center stage, but all performances are one of a kind as conductor and pianist Rick Benjamin shares his score discoveries with the audience – and the Orchestra – in a voyage of discovery tracing the roots of American music. This is PRO’s most popular program – critically acclaimed across 48 U.S. states and seven countries. Composers represented on this program include Scott Joplin, Joseph F. Lamb, James Scott, George Botsford, May Aufderheide, and Kerry Mills.

Scott Joplin and the Original Kings of Ragtime

For over a century, the name George M. Cohan has conjured the rollicking magic that is Broadway. And this legend is real: as America’s beloved tunesmith and original “Song &amp; Dance Man,” he was the father of modern musical theater. You’re a Grand Old Rag is a two-hour concert program of approximately a dozen songs and pieces by Cohan, played from the showman’s rediscovered original 1900s Broadway orchestrations. Based on the Orchestra’s BILLBOARD-charted “Top Classical Album” of the same name, this celebration of early American musical theater stars modern-day Broadway song &amp; dance man, Colin Pritchard. This exciting PRO program offers a stirring look at George M’s amazing life and music – “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “H-a-rr-i-gan,” “The Yankee Doodle Boy,” “Over There!,” and all the rest. You’re A Grand Old Rag is a tap-dancing bravura performance that brings audiences to their feet!

You're a Grand Old Rag: George M. Cohan's Broadway

Note: Paragon has one of the world’s largest libraries of historic American orchestral music, and the particular pieces played on each of Paragon’s concert programs are subject to change to reflect this unique resource.Meet Me at the Fair! is a two-hour spectacular musical celebration of the world’s fairs, including the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Musical “exhibits” rotate, but works by Offenbach, Joplin, Moses-Tobani, and Sousa are the core attraction, performed by Rick Benjamin and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, the official orchestra and conductor of the U.S. Pavilion of the 1992 World’s Fair. Music played a key role in the success of all these international festivals, launching both hit songs and the illustrious careers of many American musicians (including Scott Joplin and Sousa). This new PRO program reunites stirring world’s fair hits with the continuous projections of magnificent fairground images. There is audience participation (on “Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis”), and as a finale, the Orchestra accompanies the Moving Picture Travelogue – historic world’s fair films by Thomas Edison &amp; company. All is propelled forward with evocative narration by conductor Rick Benjamin.

Meet Me at the Fair!: Music from the Great World's Fairs

Note: Paragon has one of the world’s largest libraries of historic American orchestral music, and the particular pieces played on each of Paragon’s concert programs are subject to change to reflect this unique resource.Touring annually in November and December, ’Round the Christmas Tree is Paragon Ragtime Orchestra’s stylish and warm-hearted tribute to America’s Holiday musical traditions. This colorful program features favorite selections from the theaters, ballrooms, grand mansions, and humble hearthsides of the Victorian era. Familiar Christmas songs and carols are heard from their original 19th century scores, along with novelties—including a ragtime version of the Nutcracker Suite!—and sparkling instrumental and vocal soloists. As a finale, the Orchestra accompanies a screening of one of the world’s first Christmas movies, a 1905 Thomas Edison production. ’Round the Christmas Tree is a unique event that will delight and cheer your audiences well into the New Year.

'Round the Christmas Tree

With more than 700 screenings across 48 States and 7 countries, PRO is one of the world’s foremost silent film accompanists. From Hollywood (American Cinematheque) to Chicago (Ravinia Festival) to New York (Lincoln Center), PRO leads the way in designing, producing, and performing silent film programs for contemporary audiences. Paragon also has one of the world’s finest collections of more than 900 original film scores (c. 1898-1928), adding unmatched historical depth and interest to its screenings.&nbsp;The Clown PrincesOur most popular two-hour silent film program of featuring a “variety pack” of three short, complete comedies, one each by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, accompanied by their original 1910s/20s orchestral scores. See&nbsp;<a href="https://paragonragtime.com/programs-and-bookings/film-programs/">here</a>&nbsp;for the current list of films.&nbsp;Chaplin – A Dog’s Life (New Program!)&nbsp;A two-hour silent film program of Charlie Chaplin’s 1918 featurette&nbsp;A Dog’s Life, with Rick Benjamin’s new reconstruction of the original score. The big city adventures of the Tramp, with his trusty “thoroughbred mongrel,” scraps. Charming!&nbsp;Fairbanks – The Mark of ZorroA two-hour silent film program of the original&nbsp;Zorro, Hollywood’s very first action-adventure movie! Douglas Fairbanks thrills audiences with swordplay, romance, and just a bit of comedy. Features the spectacular original Spanish flavored 1920 orchestral score.&nbsp;Keaton – The GeneralA two-hour silent film program of Buster Keaton’s 1927 masterpiece&nbsp;The General, a “story of love, laughs, and locomotives,” is a Civil War railroad epic inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase. World famous, and rightly so, featuring the original 1927 orchestral score.&nbsp;Chaplin – The KidA two-hour silent film program of Chaplin’s first full-length feature,&nbsp;The Kid. The Tramp adopts an abandoned child, and the two set off on a series of adventures. Sweet and funny, with touches of high drama featuring the original 1921 orchestral score.&nbsp;&nbsp;Keaton – Steamboat Bill, Jr.A two-hour silent film program of Keaton’s late-era,&nbsp;Steamboat Bill, Jr.&nbsp;features Keaton as the hapless son of a Mississippi riverboat captain trying to learn the family business. Extremely funny, with a fantastic cyclone finale! Features the original 1928 orchestral score.

Silent Film

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Note: Paragon has one of the world’s largest libraries of historic American orchestral music, and the particular pieces played on each of Paragon’s concert programs are subject to change to reflect this unique resource.Meet Me at the Fair! is a two-hour spectacular musical celebration of the world’s fairs, including the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Musical “exhibits” rotate, but works by Offenbach, Joplin, Moses-Tobani, and Sousa are the core attraction, performed by Rick Benjamin and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, the official orchestra and conductor of the U.S. Pavilion of the 1992 World’s Fair. Music played a key role in the success of all these international festivals, launching both hit songs and the illustrious careers of many American musicians (including Scott Joplin and Sousa). This new PRO program reunites stirring world’s fair hits with the continuous projections of magnificent fairground images. There is audience participation (on “Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis”), and as a finale, the Orchestra accompanies the Moving Picture Travelogue – historic world’s fair films by Thomas Edison &amp; company. All is propelled forward with evocative narration by conductor Rick Benjamin.&nbsp;Repertoire – curated by Rick Benjamin using original historic orchestra scores from his Collection“unheard since ____" piecesCentennial Hymn - John Knowles Paine (1839-1906)Telephone Galop - Theodore Moses-Tobani (1855-1933)Hail Columbia: Fantasie Brilliante (Op. 184) - Theodore Moses-Tobani (1855-1933)World's Columbian Exposition Waltz - Adelaide Marcelia Glück (1863-1934)Scherzo (orchestral version) - Edward McDowell (1860-1908)The Official Panama-Pacific March - Harry L. Alford (1875-1939)Rediscovered by and exclusively performed by Paragon&nbsp;Swing Along! (orchestral concert version) - Will Marion Cook (1869-1944)Rarely performed but not “lost”La Nuit et L'Amour - Augusta Holmès (1847-1903)The Official St. Louis World's Fair March (excerpt) - Frank Van Der Stucken (1858-1929) FilmThe"Meet Me at the Fair!" performance includes actual moving pictures from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco, 1915) by the Edison, Biograph, and Keystone film companies, featuring 1915 fair music by Sousa, Saint-Saëns, and Louis Hirsch.&nbsp;BiographyParagon came into being as the result of Rick Benjamin's 1985 discovery of thousands of historic orchestra scores once belonging to Victor recording star Arthur Pryor. Since then, Rick has discovered or been gifted thousands more historic scores, making him custodian of the world's largest library of scores from this turn-of-the-20th-century era.

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ZOFO_ 2024-25_Biographies.pdf

In this interactive and fun 45-minute program, children and young adults ages 12–18 are introduced to the history of the piano duet—from its inception to its future.What were people doing for entertainment before there were LPs, CDs, or iTunes? Why was playing piano duets was so hot? What does English composer Gustav Holst have to do with Star Wars? Wait—these sounds came from a piano?What happens when you break the territorial boundaries of one-piano-four-hands playing?How can you prevent fights between the two players? How can we help give birth to new piano duets?&nbsp;Excerpts from the following works are played during the presentation:<ul><li>BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5, arranged for piano duet</li><li>SCHUBERT: Fantasy in F minor</li><li>GUSTAV HOLST: The Planets, arranged for piano duet</li><li>ALLEN SHAWN: Hard-Edged</li><li>URMAS SISASK: The Milky Way</li><li>TOMOHIRO MORIYAMA: Let’s Play a Duet! (video)</li><li>GABRIELA LENA FRANK: Karnavalito from Sonata Serrana No.1</li></ul>

One-Piano-Four-Hands: The Original iTunes

ZOFO—Photos for Public Download.zip

ZOFO

Phantasma, phantom, fantasy, fantastic! In this program we explore the world of wonder and imagination. In Casella’s Pupazzetti and Stravinsky’s three movements of Petrushka puppets are coming to life and, unfortunately, experience spurned love and jealousy. Sounds appear as Fata Morganas in Synaesthesia, written by ZOFO’s own Keisuke Nakagoshi. We pay a visit to hybrid creatures of Roman and Greek mythology in both Debussy’s Prélude à l’après–midi d’un faune and Pavkovic’s Chimaera. Originally composed for player piano, the latter is brought to musical life with beautiful melodic lines, accompanied and interrupted by voices of mechanical wildness. The program closes with Dukas’ sparkling L’Apprenti Sorcier, based on Goethe’s ballade “Der Zauberlehrling” and featured in the Disney film “Fantasia” (1940).

Phantasma: The Dark Side of Fairytales

&nbsp;Echoes of Gamelan explores the influence of gamelan music on Western composers, as well as how our music perception changes depending on the context. Colin McPhee’s transcriptions of Balinese ceremonial music are interwoven with pieces by Godowsky, Debussy, and Holst. This juxtaposition prompts us to listen to each piece from outside the Western tradition and to experience compositional time differently. Debussy heard gamelan music for the first time at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. This exposure made a huge impact on his development and by extension on many composers to come. Brian Baumbusch’s Penrose Prologue, commissioned by ZOFO, is inspired by gamelan heterophony. The program closes with pieces by Balinese composers Putu Septa and Ni Nyoman Srayamurtikanti. Putu Septa’s piece Social Cohesion is written for ZOFO while Srayamurtikanti’s piece Speech Delay was originally written for Balinese shadow-puppet theater instruments and transcribed for ZOFO by Brian Baumbusch. Just as Debussy did with Western classical music more than a hundred years ago, Putu Septa and Srayamurtikanti are exploring the outer reaches of traditional gamelan music.

Echoes of Gamelan

ZOFORBIT takes the listener on a voyage through outer space. Estonian composer Urmas Sisask’s The Spiral Symphony sets the mood with otherworldly sounds, featuring innovative inside–piano techniques that evoke a sense of the cosmos. The short movements serve as a sonic spaceship to transport the audience from one planet or star to another. Starting on Mars, the Bringer of War, the journey continues to tour Gustav Holst’s The Planets and pays visits to the stars Alpha Centauri and Beta Cygni as musically envisioned by George Crumb in his one–piano–four–hands masterpiece, Celestial Mechanics. David Lang’s gravity gives the impression of falling without ever landing. Before taking off for infinity, we alight on a planet for the last time—Venus, the Bringer of Peace.

ZOFOrbit: A Space Odyssey

Mind Meld brings together stunning duet works by four noted 20th century composers and pianists who knew each other, learned from each other, and sometimes shared the bench. As young students at Harvard, Leonard Bernstein and Harold Shapero teamed up as a piano duo before Bernstein’s career exploded. Shapero wrote his Sonata for the two of them. Stravinsky read through the one–piano–four–hand score of his Rite of Spring together with Debussy in the home of their friend Louis Laloy, before any orchestra had touched the work. Debussy later wrote to Stravinsky about the Rite of Springas a “beautiful nightmare.” Released by Sono Luminus in 2012, ZOFO’s album Mind Meld was nominated for Grammy Awards in the categories of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance and Producer of the Year, Classical. The album and live performance program continue to attract positive critical attention around the world.

Mind Meld: Composers Share the Bench

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The ZOFOMOMA live concert experience unfolds as an aurally and visually stunning walking tour through a virtual museum of modern art. Against an ever-changing backdrop of contemporary paintings, 15 new ZOFO-commissioned compositions are revealed throughout the 72-minute continuous performance. Composer Terry Riley praised the performance, saying, “It is just what the world needs now.”In a nod to Mussorgsky, this 21st century “Pictures at an Exhibition” leads viewers and listeners from one gallery to the next accompanied by a re-imagined Promenade Theme by ZOFO’s Keisuke Nakagoshi. For this cutting-edge project ZOFO solicited new works from top composers around the globe, and requested each to select a painting representative of his or her culture as a springboard to the creative process. The result is a rich tapestry of sights and sounds reflecting the cultural, musical and artistic diversity of our world community.&nbsp;PROGRAMIntroductionGilles Silvestrini: Le bassin d'ArgenteuilPromenade 1Carl Vine: The Arrival of Implacable GiftsPromenade 2Avner Dorman: Dancing with the Torah at Mount MeronPromenade 3Pawel Mykietyn: SM34Promenade 4Franghiz Ali-Zadeh: Spring Morning in BakuPromenade 5Lei Liang: Will you come to my dream? (Detail from Landscapes)Promenade 6Jonathan Russell: Untitled SkeletonPromenade 7I Wayan Gde Yudane: Street SolacePromenade 8Kenji Oh: Sacred Chichibu Peaks at Spring DawnPromenade 9Cécile Marti : Wendung&nbsp;Promenade 10Sahba Aminikia : Inspector’s Scrutiny&nbsp;Promenade 11Gabriel Prokofiev : Untitled Etching 3&nbsp;Promenade 12Samuel Adams : Night Sea (for Agnes)Promenade 13Pablo Ortiz : Paisaje&nbsp;Promenade 14 for SaraKeyla Orozco : Viajeros&nbsp;&nbsp;Introduction and Promenades: Keisuke Nakagoshi,&nbsp;inspired by Modest Mussorgsky&nbsp;This project has been made possible through generous funding and support from the Van Dyke Family Foundation.

ZOFOMOMA

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There are hundreds of concertos for one piano, dozens for two pianos, but how many people can name a one-piano four-hands concerto?Here’s a brand-new addition to the almost nonexistent repertoire: Argentinian-born American composer Pablo Ortiz will write a piano duet (one-piano four-hands) concerto for ZOFO and chamber orchestra. Instead of using piano benches the pianists will sit on Cajóns, changing quickly between playing these Latin-American box percussion instruments and the keyboard.Length: 15 minutesInstrumentation: Version 1: One-piano four-hands and Chamber Orchestra (Strings only). The pianists will each sit on a Cajón. They will play on the Cajóns as well as on the keyboard. Version 2: One-piano four-hands and string quintet (2 violins, viola, cello, double bass). The pianists will each sit on a Cajón. They will play on the Cajóns as well as on the keyboard.

Pablo Ortiz Piano Duet Concerto

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Australian composer Carl Vine has written two piano solo concertos and a concerto for two pianos. Now ZOFO commissions him for a concerto for piano duet (one-piano four-hands) and full orchestra – a combination that is very attractive, but extremely rare.“When we came across Carl Vine’s Sonata for Piano Four Hands a few years ago, we were immediately enthralled by his music. We were attracted to the richness and depth of expression, the overflow of ideas, the carefully crafted score, so artfully and smartly composed for four hands — a masterwork, inspiring us and demanding that we give our very best. Now, a few years later, we are very excited to have the opportunity to commission Carl Vine for a piano duet concerto. It will be an invaluable addition to the almost non-existent list of piano duet concertos and will be cherished by generations of piano duos.” — ZOFO“I am overwhelmed by the artistic unity and performance perfection of ZOFO. They play with a single, massively inventive mind, and I want to create music for this mystical four-armed animal that will turn the piano into the acoustic embodiment of the twenty-fingered orchestra.” – Carl VineLength:&nbsp;22-23 minutesInstrumentation:&nbsp; One piano four hands and an orchestra, 2.2.2.2-4.2.3.1-timp, 2pc, harp, and strings.

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Carl Vine Piano Duet Concerto

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Chemistry for Gamelan and Piano is a new intercultural music collaboration between one of Bali's most exciting contemporary gamelan ensembles, Nata Swara, performing under the direction of Balinese composer and virtuoso performer Putu Septa, who performs alongside the scorching and internationally renowned piano-four-hands duo ZOFO, featuring Swiss pianist Eva-Maria Zimmerman and Japanese pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi, all of whom have been gathered together by composer and musical envoy, Brian Baumbusch. Their music showcases the thrilling potential of bringing brilliant minds and hands together to draw from disparate cultural reservoirs in order to concoct a new musical idiom that is both accessible and inconspicuously complex. Nata Swara and Baumbusch began working together in 2021, when Baumbusch donated two sets of "American Gamelan" instruments that he had designed and built over the course of a decade to Putu Septa and Nata Swara; this was the first instance of a set of "gamelan" instruments built outside of Indonesia being sent to Indonesia for local musicians to develop new repertoire and performance practices. Building on this relationship, Baumbusch then began to work with ZOFO to develop a repertoire that could combine the musical forces of Nata Swara with the kaleidoscopic tapestry of piano-four-hands into a new music that draws from traditional Balinese temple music and 20th century American minimalism alike. This project offers presenters a rare and luscious musical repertoire paired with enriching and deeply informed educational presentations offered by Baumbusch, Septa, and ZOFO by way of masterclasses, lectures, gamelan workshops, and concert talks.&nbsp; &nbsp;REPERTOIRE&nbsp;<ul><li>Kendang Tunggal (Balinese paired drumming demonstration with Putu Septa and Baumbusch)</li><li>Gender Wayang performance (2 Balinese musicians playing on a pair of interlocking metallophones)</li><li>Prisms for Gene Davis by Brian Baumbusch (full group, meaning piano four-hands, two balinese drummers, and Baumbusch on percussion)</li><li>Balinese Ceremonial Music transcribed by Colin McPhee for two pianos, arranged for one-piano four hands by Eva-Maria Zimmermann (ZOFO)</li><li>Speech Delay for Gender Wayang by Ni Nyoman Srayamurtikanti (Balinese shadow-puppet theater instruments), arranged for one-piano four hands by Brian Baumbusch (ZOFO)</li><li>New piece for ZOFO by Putu Septa (ZOFO)</li><li>Tombeau&nbsp;(Piano-four-hands and two Balinese gender-wayang interlocking metallophones)</li><li>Penrose&nbsp;by Brian Baumbusch (Nata Swara and ZOFO)</li><li>Penrose Prologue by Brian Baumbusch,&nbsp;10 minute&nbsp;excerpt for one-piano four hands only (ZOFO)</li></ul>&nbsp;EDUCATIONAL ENGAGEMENTMaster ClassZOFO offers their chamber music workshop/master class on piano-4-hands repertoire.Lecture/WorkshopThe Balinese musicians, in conjunction with Brian Baumbusch, offers a 1-2 hour lecture/workshop on Balinese music that includes a demonstration on Balinese instruments. This workshop could be spread across several days wherein the participants could learn to play a full (simple) piece from the gamelan repertoire. This offering features a short demonstration from the Balinese musicians on how Balinese musical structure works, particularly the aspect of duo-interconnectivity and rhythmic interlocking, which is central to Balinese musical structure and also has an interesting parallel with the piano-four-hands world.&nbsp;Global Music CompositionBrian Baumbusch offers a lecture, demonstration, or master class on composition, or if appealing to be more specific, “global music composition” where students will learn how to compose music that caters to intercultural collaboration, and talk about some experiences as well as considerations regarding effective collaborations with musicians from other parts of the globe, particularly centered on his experiences in Bali.Pre-Concert TalkThe concert itself offers a pre-concert talk where the audience will learn more about the form of the music on the program, as well as hear about the process of how these musicians found a way to collaborate while coming from disparate traditions and geographical regions.&nbsp;&nbsp;BIOGRAPHIESZOFO<a href="https://www.arielartists.com/artists/zofo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Find more information about ZOFO here.</a>Brian BaumbuschComposer, instrument designer, and musicologist Brian Baumbusch’s work, while innovative within the global contemporary music community, is deeply in dialogue with cross-cultural exchanges. Baumbusch’s compositional work is centered on developing alternative acoustics paradigms through the creation of new instruments and tuning systems, and originating new performance practices that feature computer-assisted live performance and recording projects in order to achieve performances of inconspicuously complex polytempo music. Between 2007 and 2010, Baumbusch was deeply engaged in ethnomusicological field work centered on Argentine-Quechua folklore music. From 2012 to the present, Baumbusch has collaborated with several of Bali’s leading performing ensembles, and his works have premiered at the Bali Arts Festival. At the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, Baumbusch began creating new compositions that performers could collaborate on remotely by recording in isolation to individualized click tracks in order to cooperatively create complex polytempo structures. These include the symphonic length Isotropes, recorded by roughly 150 musicians between 2020 and 2021, and the evening length Polytempo Music, designed as a VR experience where the listener can interact with the music in a real-time spatial audio environment. Baumbusch resides in Alameda, CA. and teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz.Putu SeptaI Putu Adi Septa Suweca Putra (Putu Septa) is a contemporary Balinese composer and performer, and the founder and artistic director of Nata Swara, an art community and performing ensemble located inside Padangtegal Village in Ubud, Bali. Septa actively composes diverse styles of music that connect local and international musicians with both traditional and newly designed instruments. As a performer, Septa is a senior member of Gamelan Salukat, led by Balinese composer Dewa Alit. As a musician and a gamelan teacher, Septa is engaged in artistic cultural activities with many diverse communities. As a teenager, Septa founded a children’s gamelan club for children aged 5-12 in his village. Many of those young students have matured to become part of his ensemble Nata Swara, and several of them have gone on to join Gamelan Salukat. His compositions include instrumental music with diverse instrumentations involving both Indonesian and global instruments, collaborations with dance choreographers, music for film, and experimental electronic music, among others. His devotion to traditional gamelan music started from childhood, when he drew inspiration from his grandfather, I Ketut Genjet, who’s role as a musical leader in his community was an inspiration to Septa. Septa regularly performs and tours with Gamelan Salukat, Gamelan Yuganada, and Shangrila. He holds a degree in music composition from ISI Denpasar, and resides in Ubud, Bali.Nata SwaraNata Swara is an art community that focuses on the explorations of traditional and contemporary gamelan music. The repertoire commissioned and performed by Nata Swara offers young gamelan musicians and composers the opportunity to explore new musical directions at the highest caliber. Nata Swara was established in 2011, in Padangtegal village, Ubud, Bali, which still serves as its home base. Nata Swara performs on a variety of different sets of gamelan instruments, including Gamelan Sada Sancaya, a large orchestra of extended range bronze instruments designed by Putu Septa; two sets of instruments created by American composer Brian Baumbusch; and a newly developed instrument set consisting of a varied collection of Balinese kendang drums called Kendang Briuk, of which Nata Swara has commissioned several new works for. Nata Swara actively engages in deepening the well of repertoire of both traditional and contemporary gamelan music, while collaborating with musicians and composers from within Bali and abroad.&nbsp;Ni Nyoman SrayamurtikantiSrayamurtikanti is a stage name of Ni Nyoman Srayamurtikanti. She is a musician and a composer based in Balinese traditional music (Balinese Gamelan). Sraya’s works often concern gamelan instrumental, innovative, vocal, and experimental music on Balinese gamelan. Sraya’s arts are developed by exploring the possibilities of composing and playing gamelan, musician’s movement, and space responses. She currently performed her compositions “Empowerment” at the SouthEast Asian Music Symposium (Bangkok, Thailand), “Nuutsih” at Pekan Komponis Indonesia (Jakarta, Indonesia), “Speech Delay” at Music Gamelan Creative Competition (Bali) and The Northern California Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology (NCCSEM), “Himpit” at Rocky Mountain Gamelan Bali Festival (Denver, Colorado-USA), “To Reckon through Complexities” Collaboration with Gabi Motuba (South Africa) at Mutual Mentorship of Musicians (New York, USA), “Just Us” Collaboration with Aine Nakamura at Center for New Music (San Francisco, California-USA), etc. Sraya is a Gamelan Guest Artist Bali Teacher at Gamelan Sekar Jaya based in Berkeley, California (2022-2024) and a Guest Artist Teacher/Instructor at Gamelan Bali Class at the University of California, Berkeley.

ZOFO | Brian Baumbusch |  Putu Septa & Nata Swara 

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Chemistry for Gamelan & Piano

one piano, four hands

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Akropolis Reed Quintet_ 2024-25_Biographies.pdf

Winner of the 2015 Fischoff Educator Award, Akropolis has engaged more than 40,000 youth during its 13-year history, including an annual, yearlong residency at three high schools in their home Detroit community. As an independent nonprofit they have received grants from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, and many individuals nationwide to support their educational programming, which comprises a noteworthy portion of their activity.&nbsp;Akropolis delivers fast-paced and informative workshops, including its “The Best Story” presentation for elementary schools, featuring a musical reenactment of the Eileen Spinelli children’s book. At the middle and high school level, Akropolis gives performances, coachings, Q&amp;A's, and offers a side-by-side band concerto by Peter Terry.&nbsp;“I am in awe of your genius in this educational arena and excited for all the young lives that you will impact and change because you are first and foremost extraordinary artists who are bringing that excellence and meticulous preparation and execution to the educational arena.”-Kathy Soroka, Allegheny RiverStone Center for Arts Education

K-12 Education

Akropolis believes that "quality" in classical music comes not only from the technical competency of the performers, but of the relevance an artist creates within their community. To do this, Akropolis engages their communities nationwide through experiences informed by the communities they serve. This includes collaborating with community members on new musical works, including&nbsp;so much more, featuring interviews with local business owners, and&nbsp;Sprocket, featuring a rideable percussion bike created by scrap metal artist, Juan Martinez. They commissioned new work from Detroit poet Marsha Music, and in their travels have performed with guest percussionists in several communities.&nbsp;Akropolis has performed at dozens of workplaces during its Detroit Workplace Concert Series, including hospitals, factories, tech companies, and more. They have performed in juvenile&nbsp;detention centers, homeless shelters, development centers, and senior care centers. They have given dozens of outdoor performances at parks and other pop-up locations, including grocery stores and farmers markets. They have given house concerts, backyard concerts, and concerts on river walks and bike paths.&nbsp; &nbsp;Each concert is custom-designed with community input and shaped to reflect the vibrancy of the community.&nbsp;

Community Engagement

Based on Akropolis' 8 year of experience teaching and entrepreneurship and career development, including courses at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance and the Michigan State University College of Music, Akropolis created&nbsp;<a href="https://akropolisquintet.org/mastermind/">Akropolis Mastermind</a>&nbsp;in 2019 and since then have engaged 22 early career artists and over 80 participants&nbsp;in this weeklong career development workshop.&nbsp;Please visit&nbsp;<a href="http://akropolisquintet.org/mastermind">akropolisquintet.org/mastermind</a>&nbsp;to read the testimonials from these participants' experiences.&nbsp;At the university level, Akropolis provides customized workshops derived from their Mastermind, including sessions on health and sustainability, marketing/branding, financial planning, project development, and more.&nbsp;Akropolis also delivers inspiring master classes, reads and premieres works by student composers, and has even collaborated with college students in performance.&nbsp;

Akropolis Mastermind (University)

Akropolis Reed Quintet—Photos for Public Download.zip

Akropolis Reed Quintet

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<h3>&nbsp;</h3><h2>The 2025-26 Season will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States.&nbsp;</h2><h3>This is your golden opportunity to feature programs and projects that celebrate and commemorate&nbsp;America's&nbsp;past, present, and future.&nbsp;</h3><hr><h3>Join us in a grand celebration of innovation with the <a href="https://www.arielartists.com/artists/paragon-ragtime-orchestra" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paragon Ragtime Orchestra</a>, bringing to life the marvels of the Great World's Fairs. Experience the power of protest music with <a href="https://www.arielartists.com/artists/palaver-strings" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Palaver Strings</a>, a tribute to our nation's history of social movements and historical events. Witness the classical and jazz worlds collide with the <a href="https://www.arielartists.com/artists/akropolis-reed-quintet" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Akropolis Reed Quintet</a>, centered around the American identity and the strands that form our collective identity.&nbsp;</h3><figure class="image"><a href="https://www.arielartists.com/projects" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2024_05_07_at_14_20_43_6bcc27cf02.png"></a></figure><h3>&nbsp;</h3>For more information on our artists&nbsp;and their availability, please contact&nbsp;<a href="mailto: oni@arielartists.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oni Buchanan</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h2>Meet Me At The Fair! | Music From the Great World's Fairs</h2><hr><h3>“. . . an important American treasure . . . not just a pleasure to hear but for many a true revelation."</h3>– The Wall Street Journal<figure class="image"><a href="https://www.arielartists.com/projects/meet-me-at-the-fair!:-music-from-the-great-world's-fairs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/7fac78ea_5954_0613_3a6d_de29e5ac70f7_80ae3c7967.png"></a></figure>Meet Me at the Fair!&nbsp;is a two-hour spectacular musical celebration of the world’s fairs, including the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, the&nbsp;1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair), the&nbsp;1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Musical “exhibits” rotate, but works by Offenbach, Joplin, Moses-Tobani, and Sousa are the core attraction, performed by Rick Benjamin and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, the official orchestra and conductor of the U.S. Pavilion of the 1992 World’s Fair.<a href="https://www.arielartists.com/projects/meet-me-at-the-fair!:-music-from-the-great-world's-fairs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Learn more about Meet Me At The Fair! HERE</a>&nbsp;<h3>Paragon Ragtime Orchestra&nbsp;</h3>Now enjoying its 40th season, the <a href="https://www.arielartists.com/artists/paragon-ragtime-orchestra">Paragon Ragtime Orchestra</a> is the world's only year-round, professional ensemble recreating the sounds of early musical theater, "silent" cinema, and vintage dance in America.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h2>A Change Is Gonna Come</h2><hr><h3>“It has been the greatest privilege to compose for Nicholas Phan and Palaver Strings. I am delighted that my new work,&nbsp;Protest Songs, is included on this important album.”&nbsp;</h3>– Errollyn Wallen,&nbsp;Award-Winning Composer &amp; Performer<figure class="image"><a href="https://www.arielartists.com/news/palaver-strings-announce-3rd-album:-'a-change-is-gonna-come'" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/Palaver_Strings_Album_Cover_3000x3000px_300dpi_V05_020424_1_1d227feaaf.jpg"></a></figure>Three-time Grammy-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan,&nbsp;joins Palaver Strings, a musician-led string ensemble based in Portland, Maine, and jazz vocalist Farayi Malek.<a href="https://www.arielartists.com/news/palaver-strings-announce-3rd-album:-'a-change-is-gonna-come'" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A Change Is Gonna Come</a>&nbsp;provokes conversation, confronts the past and present, and celebrates the act of protest as one of humanity’s most precious rights.&nbsp;Repertoire on the album - spanning&nbsp;genres, eras, and movements -&nbsp;&nbsp;includes traditional songs of protest and music inspired by social movements and historical events, including the world premiere recording of a new commission by&nbsp;Errollyn Wallen&nbsp;titled&nbsp;Protest Songs, sung by Phan. Eight of the thirteen tracks on the album are heard in arrangements by&nbsp;Attacca Quartet’s Domenic Salerni.<a href="https://www.arielartists.com/news/palaver-strings-announce-3rd-album:-'a-change-is-gonna-come'" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read more about the new album HERE</a>&nbsp;<h3>Performance and Lifesongs Project</h3><hr>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><a href="https://www.arielartists.com/projects/a-change-is-gonna-come-performance-and-lifesongs-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/b330939d_ba9e_2abf_20d4_df40dfdc2ece_a9d0d00868.png"></a></figure>This 3-day residency explores collaborative music-making, storytelling, and protest through song, emphasizing themes of hope and justice to foster connection. It celebrates the release of the A Change Is Gonna Come album and involves local community members in writing their own stories with Palaver's Lifesongs Project.&nbsp;Following a day of songwriting and revision/demoing, Palaver and the community songwriters present a culminating public performance and process-sharing discussion.&nbsp;Palaver Strings, alongside Nicholas Phan and Farayi Malek, will come&nbsp;together to perform A Change Is Gonna Come at the&nbsp;Tanglewood Learning&nbsp;Institute&nbsp;performance series, TLI Presents, later this fall.<a href="https://www.arielartists.com/projects/a-change-is-gonna-come-performance-and-lifesongs-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Learn more about the project HERE</a>&nbsp;<h3>Palaver Strings</h3><a href="https://www.arielartists.com/artists/palaver-strings">Palaver Strings</a>&nbsp;is a musician-led ensemble and nonprofit organization based in Portland, ME. Palaver has made its mark as a forward-thinking ensemble with innovative performances and a community music school.<h2>&nbsp;</h2><h2> Are We Dreaming The Same Dream?&nbsp;</h2><hr><h3>"Brilliant writing, exquisitely performed, and ingeniously conceived!"</h3>– Jennifer Higdon, Pulitzer Prize &amp; Grammy Award-Winning Composer<figure class="image"><a href="https://www.arielartists.com/news/akropolis-reed-quintet-announce-6th-album-'are-we-dreaming-the-same-dream'" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/2024_BST_Akropolis_Dream_1500x1500_cover_1_e86450d616.jpg"></a></figure>For their 6th album, the&nbsp;Akropolis Reed Quintet joins forces with Grammy-nominated composer and jazz pianist Pascal Le Boeuf and celebrated drummer Christian Euman.&nbsp;Are We Dreaming The Same Dream?&nbsp;is an examination of what Ralph Ellison calls “the unity of American experience.” With a hybrid ensemble comprised of Akropolis Reed Quintet, pianist/composer Pascal Le Boeuf, and drummer Christian Euman, Le Boeuf deconstructs the fabric of his American experience by recognizing the strands of his musical DNA—Geri Allen, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, and Leonard Bernstein. What are the strands that form our collective identity, and are we dreaming the same dream?<a href="https://www.brightshiny.ninja/press/are-we-dreaming-the-same-dream" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read more about the new album HERE</a>&nbsp;<h3>Live In Concert Experience</h3><hr>&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-align-left"><a href="https://www.arielartists.com/projects/are-we-dreaming-the-same-dream" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/awdtsd_78dd561bf5.jpeg"></a></figure>Are We Dreaming The Same Dream?&nbsp;is an electrifying concert experience where the classical and jazz worlds collide.&nbsp;Giving themselves complete musical freedom, the powerhouse septet deliver a program of epic proportions, blurring the lines between classical, jazz, and contemporary music.&nbsp;The complete septet came together for the Akropolis's&nbsp;debut on Michigan's esteemed&nbsp;University Musical Society (UMS)&nbsp;performance series last fall.<a href="https://www.brightshiny.ninja/press/are-we-dreaming-the-same-dream" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Learn more about Are We Dreaming The Same Dream? live in concert HERE</a>&nbsp;<h3>Akropolis Reed Quintet</h3>Founded in 2009, the Billboard charting, 7-time national prize winning <a href="https://www.arielartists.com/artists/akropolis-reed-quintet">Akropolis Reed Quintet</a> is “a sonically daring ensemble who specializes in performing new works with charisma and integrity” (BBC Music Magazine).&nbsp;&nbsp;For more information on our artists&nbsp;and their availability, please contact&nbsp;<a href="mailto: oni@arielartists.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oni Buchanan</a>.&nbsp;

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“Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?” is an electrifying concert experience blurring the lines between classical, jazz, and contemporary music as the “pure gold” Akropolis Reed Quintet joins forces with the Grammy-nominated composer and jazz pianist Pascal Le Boeuf and celebrated drummer Christian Euman.A septet never seen before in the history of both classical and jazz music, their fearless approach to creating new sounds and socially engaged art begs us all to answer the question: Are we dreaming the same American dream? Giving themselves complete musical freedom, the 7 musicians created a large-scale piece of music not possible in any other setting, flush with immense technicality and requiring perfect ensemble cohesiveness.Concert Repertoire Pascal Le Boeuf – Are We Dreaming the Same Dream? (full septet) 50-60′ George Gershwin arr. Raaf Hekkema – An American in Paris (Akropolis) 18′ Geri Allen arr. Le Boeuf – “RTG” (full septet) 5′ Charles Mingus arr. Le Boeuf – “Self-Portrait in Three Colors” (full septet) 7′Watch a sample right here: <a href="https://youtu.be/ImKbAiTnjtE?t=1393" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://youtu.be/ImKbAiTnjtE?t=1393</a>Composed by Le Boeuf, the composition draws upon a careful selection of his musical “ancestors”—Geri Allen, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, and Leonard Bernstein—each of whom have historically represented a variety of perspectives concerning the unity of the American experience.&nbsp;As author Ralph Ellison observed, “the most agonizing mystery sponsored by the democratic ideal is that of our unity-in-diversity, our oneness in manyness.”Ellison also described a “unity of American experience beyond all considerations of class, of race, of religion.” More than a half-century later, have we realized this ideal of what it means to be American? Le Boeuf’s concert-length composition asks: Are we really dreaming the same American dream, or is our consumer culture overshadowing our own sense of belonging?BiographiesEach artist on stage is a powerhouse in their field. Founded in 2009, the Billboard charting, 7-time national prize winning Akropolis Reed Quintet makes music with “infallible musicality and huge vitality” (Fanfare Magazine). Winner of 7 national chamber music prizes including the 2014 Fischoff Gold Medal, Akropolis has premiered and commissioned over 150 works by living artists and composers. Pascal Le Boeuf is a Grammy-nominated composer, pianist, and producer described as "sleek, new" and "hyper-fluent" by the New York Times. He is widely recognized for his polyrhythmic approach to chamber music and hybridization of disparate idioms. Christian Euman, one of Revive Magazine's "six drummers you should know about," has toured with Jacob Collier, Kurt Elling, Billy Childs, Walter Smith III, and Geoff Keezer, among others. He attended the Thelonious Monk Institute where he studied and performed with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Chris Potter, Jimmy Heath, and Stefon Harris.

Akropolis Reed Quintet | Pascal Le Boeuf | Christian Euman

Are We Dreaming the Same Dream

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America250 | Commemorate this historic milestone

<h2>Palaver Strings joins forces with three-time Grammy-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan and celebrated jazz vocalist Farayi Malek.</h2><hr><h3>Release Date: May 24, 2024 &nbsp; &nbsp;| &nbsp;&nbsp;PRE-ORDER VINYL &nbsp;<a href="https://www.palaverstrings.org/shop/p/palaver-strings-change-vinyl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">HERE</a></h3>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><a href="https://www.palaverstrings.org/shop/p/palaver-strings-change-vinyl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/Palaver_Strings_Album_Cover_3000x3000px_300dpi_V05_020424_041bfcabfe.jpg"></a></figure>&nbsp;<h3>“In an age where it seems like most tech algorithms' primary goal is to provoke anger in order to keep us scrolling on our phones, this program feels important. Music is unique as a form of protest, because, as these songs demonstrate, it has the power to win hearts and minds. Hope for lasting change lies in that special power of song, as does hope for healing and consensus building in this increasingly fractured and fraught time.” - Nicholas Phan</h3>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;A Change Is Gonna Come&nbsp;provokes conversation, confronts the past and present, and celebrates the act of protest as one of humanity’s most precious rights.&nbsp;Repertoire on the album - spanning&nbsp;genres, eras, and movements -&nbsp;&nbsp;includes traditional songs of protest and music inspired by social movements and historical events, including a new commission by Errollyn Wallen titled&nbsp;Protest Songs, sung by Phan. Eight of the thirteen tracks on the album are heard in arrangements by Attacca Quartet’s Domenic Salerni.To celebrate the album's release, Palaver Strings and Nicholas Phan have launched a 3-day residency project and performance that explores collaborative music-making, storytelling, and protest through song by involving local community members in writing their own stories with Palaver's Lifesongs Project.&nbsp;Click <a href="https://www.arielartists.com/projects/a-change-is-gonna-come-performance-and-lifesongs-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a> to read more about this collaborative performance experience.&nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h3>FIRST &nbsp;SINGLE &nbsp;OUT! &nbsp; LISTEN &nbsp;TO &nbsp;JONI &nbsp;MITCHELL'S &nbsp;‘Fiddle and the Drum’&nbsp;</h3><h3>ON <a href="https://music.apple.com/us/album/fiddle-and-the-drum-arr-for-voice-chamber-ensemble/1733461477?i=1733461482" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">APPLE</a> AND <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2vaAgbmLAwJiYe1IoVDrn6?si=62114f53101741a7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SPOTIFY</a> NOW!&nbsp;</h3>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><a href="https://youtu.be/CTxk7n7OKGE?feature=shared" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/Screen_Shot_2024_04_11_at_11_09_58_AM_cb77c8b9a7.png"></a></figure>&nbsp;<h3>Note from Palaver Strings:</h3>"This album has been in the works for several years, and we are thrilled to finally release it into the world. The constant barrage of racial inequalities, environmental degradation, political instability, and war we are confronted with every time we tune into current events can easily leave us feeling overwhelmed and hopeless. Protest is a fundamentally hopeful act, which is why it feels particularly important to revisit and reimagine these classic protest songs through a contemporary lens, as both an act of protest, and as a way to imagine a better world."&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h3>“It has been the greatest privilege to compose for Nicholas Phan and Palaver Strings. I am delighted that my new work,&nbsp;Protest Songs, is included on this important album.”&nbsp;</h3><h3>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; - Errollyn Wallen</h3>&nbsp;The centerpiece of A Change Is Gonna Come is the world premiere recording of Errollyn Wallen’s “Protest Songs”, commissioned for this project in 2021. An award-winning, Belize-born British composer and performer, Wallen herself wrote the text for the first movement, setting the second to a text by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an abolitionist and one of the first Black poets published in the United States.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h2>'A CHANGE IS GONNA COME' VINYL RELEASE</h2>A Change is Gonna Come will be available for purchase on glorious double-vinyl on July 1st, 2024.&nbsp;Pre-Order yours <a href="https://www.palaverstrings.org/shop/p/palaver-strings-change-vinyl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a> to make sure you get yours first.&nbsp;All pre-orders will be shipped the day of the release.&nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h2>Biographies</h2>&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:75%;"><a href="https://www.palaverstrings.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/Palaver_PC_Christina_Wnek_54fc8d4f02.jpg"></a></figure>&nbsp;Palaver Strings&nbsp;is a musician-led string ensemble and nonprofit organization based in Portland, ME, whose mission is to strengthen and inspire community, engage new audiences, address social justice issues, and amplify underrepresented voices through classical music. through music. Each year, Palaver presents over 40 live performances featuring diverse musical programming, cross-genre projects, and community collaborations. Equally committed to education, Palaver offers music instruction to over 325 students per year through the Palaver Music Center in Portland, ME.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:75%;"><a href="http://www.nicholas-phan.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/Nicholas_Phan_B_and_W_52fd1cd22b.jpg"></a></figure>&nbsp;American tenor Nicholas Phan is esteemed for his diverse repertoire spanning 500 years, performing globally with top orchestras and opera companies. He's acclaimed as a curator, serving as the artistic director of the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago and creating programs for WFMT and WQXR. Phan has curated projects for various institutions and served as vocal artist-in-residence at San Francisco Performances. A Grammy-nominated recording artist, he's the first Asian-descended nominee in the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category's history.&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:75%;"><a href="https://www.farayimalek.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/Najee_Visuals_03_368d675b32.jpeg"></a></figure>&nbsp;Farayi Malek is a jazz vocalist, composer, and educator, teaching at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory.&nbsp;A highly sought-after performer, Farayi is a member of Danilo Pérez’s Global Messengers, performing and recording at festivals and venues around the world.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h2>Palaver Strings' 2025-26 Program Offerings</h2>&nbsp;<h3>Port City ft. Heyni Solera</h3>Pétalo SelserOsvaldo GolijovCarlos Di SarliAnselmo Aieta,&nbsp;Osvaldo PuglieseHeyni Solera,&nbsp;Julián Peralta,&nbsp;Mariano MoresDiego SchissiAstor Piazzolla<h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Serenade</h3>Carlos SimonMaurice RavelLaurie Anderson/ J.S. BachJosef SukLaura MvulaGlenn Miller<h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Apple of Their Eyes</h3>Maurice RavelJulia PerryClarence White Adolphus Hailstork&nbsp;William Grant Still&nbsp;<h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Sinfonia Fantastica</h3>Florence PriceNina ShekharXenia St. Charles Iris LlyllythTeagan Faran&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://d2k153re4i383a.cloudfront.net/Palaver_May2023_027_1_dbf2510a07.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;

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America250 | Commemorate this historic milestone

Palaver Strings Announce 3rd Album: 'A Change Is Gonna Come'

Akropolis Reed Quintet Announce 6th Album, 'Are We Dreaming The Same Dream?'

Palaver Strings Joins Ariel Artists Roster

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