Music/Words, an interdisciplinary series founded and curated by NYC-based pianist Inna Faliks, begins its third season on Sunday, November 21, at 6pm with a performance featuring Faliks at the piano along with readings by poets Sandra Beasley and Oni Buchanan at New York’s Cornelia Street Café. The varied program will include Chaconne by composer Sofia Gubaidulina, two Liszt Etudes, the short work Cathedral Waterfall (from the Etudes) by Augusta Read Thomas and Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit (featured on Faliks’ recent CD release, Sound of Verse on MSR Records). The Cornelia Street Café is located at 29 Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, NYC. Tickets are $20 and are available by calling 212-989-9319.

Music/Words celebrates links between poetry and music by presenting collaborations between exciting solo performers and acclaimed contemporary poets in the form of a live recital/reading. Inna Faliks created the series in order to foster a chance for poets and musicians to work together and inspire each other, as well as to allow different audiences to come together for these musical-literary events. New published and unpublished works are read alongside performances of music old and new and connected by content, intuition, and inspiration. According to Faliks, “I pair performers together based on their personalities and styles, and encourage them to choose the poems and music in varied ways that are strongly and intuitively connected.”

In past seasons, Music/Words has featured collaborations between acclaimed poets such as Jesse Ball, Deborah Landau and Mark Levine, and musicians such as Wendy Warner, Leon Livshin and Angelina Gadeliya, at performance spaces such as Le Poisson Rouge and Cornelia Street Café. WFMT Radio in Chicago featured Music/Words in regular live broadcasts throughout the month of April 2010. This season, each concert of Music/Words (four concerts, in a variety of venues) represents a different element – fire, earth, water, or air. The other three concerts will be held on March 4 (featuring Vadim Neselovskyi, jazz pianist, and Inna Faliks); April 8 (featuring Sharan Leventhal, violin); and the season finale, in May, (Inna Faliks, poet TBA).

Called “A delight to hear” and “riveting” by Phil Greenfield of the Baltimore Sun, Inna Faliks played her debut with the Chicago Symphony at age 15, and performs regularly at major venues in US and abroad. A winner of many international competitions including the 2005 International Pro Musicis Award, Ms. Faliks has recently performed at Carnegie Hall, Paris’s Salle Cortot, The Metropolitan Museum, Bargemusic, a recital tour of Russia, and in multiple TV and radio broadcasts worldwide. Her CD, Sound of Verse, has been enthusiastically reviewed this year by Gramophone, American Record Guide and other press. Recent festival appearances include Verbier, Taos, and Brevard. A champion of both contemporary and classical music, Ms. Faliks performed the NY and LA premieres of “13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg” – variations by contemporary composers on Bach’s Aria. Her former teachers include Ann Schein, Gil Kalish, Leon Fleisher and Boris Petrushansky.

Oni Buchanan is the author of Spring, a Poetry Honors winner of the 2009 Massachusetts Book Awards and selected by Mark Doty for the 2007 National Poetry Series. Her first poetry book, What Animal, was published in 2003 by the University of Georgia Press. Oni is also a concert pianist.

Sandra Beasley is the author of I Was the Jukebox, winner of the 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize, selected by Joy Harjo and published by W. W. Norton. Her first collection, Theories of Falling, won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize. Her nonfiction has been featured in the Washington Post Magazine and she is working on Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, forthcoming from Crown. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Brooklyn, New York-based early music ensemble BaroQue Across the River will perform “Elegance & Extravagance: Cantatas and Solos from France & Italy” on December 3-4, 2010 in New York City. The December 3 concert will be held at 7:30pm at Brooklyn Friends Meeting House, 110 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn (718.643.4608); The December 4, 8:00pm concert will be held at Tenri Cultural Institute, 43A West 13th Street, in Manhattan (914.633.0758). Tickets are $20.00 (suggested donation) at door for both concerts.

Two rival styles dominated European music in the late 17th – early 18th Century — the delicate and demure French style favored elegant melodies in contrast to the more passionate, virtuosic and extravagant style of Italian music. In “Elegance & Extravagance: Cantatas and Solos from France & Italy” BaroQue Across the River offers selections of this exuberant contrast with music by Rameau, Clérambault, Scarlatti, Couperin, and Vivaldi.

BaroQue Across the River is dedicated to bringing unique programming of 18th century masterpieces to a 21st century audience, performing on original instruments in historic settings around the greater Metropolitan area as well as touring. The ensemble consists of founder/director Kathleen McDonald, flute; Michèle Eaton, soprano; Lisa Terry, violoncello and viola da gamba; and Jennifer Griesbach, harpsichord. Concert venues have included museums, historical societies, mansions, churches, colleges, and early music concert series. Since 2003, they have partnered with the Brooklyn Historical Society offering public concerts in conjunction with their exhibits and celebrations. They were among a select group of artists chosen as New York’s finest early music ensembles performing at the New York Times Center, as part of GEMS Early Music/Early Season series.  They have performed for ARTEK’s Midtown Concert Series, Mount Vernon Museum, the Bruce Museum, Music on the Heights at the famed Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, The Wyckoff House Museum, Akwaaba Mansion, Lefferts House in Prospect Park and Brooklyn Borough Hall. In addition to returning for a concert on the Midtown Concert Series, the group’s 2010-11 season will include concerts at Brooklyn’s Quaker Meeting House, Tenri Cultural Institute, and the Fullerton Friends of Music series in Los Angeles, California, in celebration of Early Music America’s 25th Anniversary.

OTHER UPCOMING CONCERTS:

February 2, 2011, 1:15pm: Midtown Concerts
“The French Cantata: Love, Longing & Triumph!”
East 88th Street and Lexington Ave, New York City.

February 27, 2011, 3:30pm: Fullerton Friends of Music, LA, CA
“The French Cantata: Love, Longing & Triumph!”
For Early Music America’s 25th Anniversary.

May 1, 2011, 3:00pm: Brooklyn Historical Society – Program TBA

Pianist Isabelle O’Connell and Flutronix (flutists Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull) will perform as part of Music at First on Friday, November 5th, 2010 at 7:30pm. This new music series is held at First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, located at 124 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights. Tickets are $10 at the door. Contact [email protected] for more info. Directions are at www.fpcbrooklyn.org.

MUSIC AT FIRST (www.musicatfirstsite.com), curated by Wil Smith (composer who also serves as organist at First Presbyterian), occurs monthly, featuring two performers or ensembles per evening. A diverse mix of New York City’s best ensembles and performers, accessible to a wide audience of both community members and seasoned listeners, Music at First has been described by Steve Smith in The New York Times as a “vibrant, eclectic new-music series.” This season has included performances by Kyle Bobby Dunn, guitar quartet Dither, bassist Eleonore Oppenheim and sound artist Lesley Flanigan. Phthia and Slow/Fast will close the season on Dec. 3rd.

Originally from Dublin and currently based in New York, ISABELLE O’CONNELL (www.isabelleoconnell.com) is one of Ireland’s most successful pianists, with a growing international career that has taken her across four continents. Her debut CD, RESERVOIR, was recently released on the Diatribe label and features works for solo piano by nine contemporary Irish composers. Described as “the young Irish piano phenom” by the New Yorker, she has also been described by Sequenza21 as a pianist who “plays with power, clarity and commitment.” She has a reputation for being a dynamic interpreter and energetic advocate of music by 20th and 21st century composers, and is a regular commissioner of new works. In 2007, Isabelle was co-Artistic Director of “New Music, New Ireland, New York”, a concert that showcased contemporary Irish composers at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Isabelle has toured Australia and the U.S. with the CRASH ensemble, and has also performed with John Adams at Zankel Hall, Meredith Monk at the Bang on a Can Festival, Alarm Will Sound, the New Zealand String Quartet and as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. Isabelle’s performances have been broadcast on television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic, including WNYC, WFMT Chicago, WQXR, BBC3 and RTE.

Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull are FLUTRONIX (www.flutronix.com), a pair of fresh and eclectic flutists who are paving the way from their classical roots to the future of music. Performing the works of notable pioneers of new music along side their own creations, Flutronix displays an innovative combination of flute and mixed media elements. Their original compositions comfortably navigate daring forms of popular, experimental, and contemporary classical music while implementing electronics and digital effects. Quickly becoming a staple in the New York City indie-classical scene, Flutronix has performed their signature act at leading new music venues including Galapagos Art Space, The Tank and The Cell. Flutronix has provided live underscoring for theatrical productions and worked with artists/ensembles of various disciplines including members of the Sirius string quartet, music producer/composer Shahla Atlas, drummer Joe Blaxx and Blind Ear Music. Their performances have been broadcast on WKCR and on WNYC’s webcast of “Battle of the Boroughs” where they competed as Brooklyn finalists.

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BROOKLYN (FPC) is committed to supporting the arts in the community, and has been noted by Lucid Culture blog as as “doing double duty as comfortable neighborhood hang and avant garde central for the budget conscious.”  FPC is an open and intentionally diverse congregation, by race, culture, age, theology, and sexual orientation.

Bach-centric, about to be released by saxophonist Dave Camwell on the Teal Creek Music label, is a collection of beloved works by Johann Sebastian Bach, arranged for saxophone. Five cuts on this CD feature Camwell on soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones in multiple overdubbed tracks. Other selections include performances by Camwell with saxophonists Stephen Page, James Romain, James Bunte, and Nathan Nabb. While most of these unique arrangements have been created by Camwell, other distinguished arrangers Ron Caravan, Charlie Vetter, and Ken Abeling are also featured.

In addition to Bach-centric, Camwell has released a previous classical CD, Aeterna (2008) on the Teal Creek label to critical acclaim. Aeterna includes works by John Anthony Lennon, Niccolò Paganini, J.S. Bach, Ron Albrecht, Steven Galante, Nate Brown and Robert Schumann. Both discs were funded by grants from the Iowa Arts Council.

Dr. Dave Camwell is a distinguished, versatile and dynamic performer. He is a Yamaha and Rico Performing Artist and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Saxophone and Jazz Studies at Simpson College, Indianola, IA. Camwell has received degrees from the University of Calgary (B.Mus, dual degree in Jazz Studies and Education, in collaboration with Jacksonville State University), the University of Northern Colorado (M.Mus, dual degree in Performance and Education), and the University of Oregon (D.M.A in Performance with a secondary emphasis in Jazz Studies).

Camwell has over twenty publications available through Dorn Publications and the University of Northern Colorado Jazz Press. His transcriptions have been performed across Canada, the United States, Great Britain and China. A notable performance of one of his transcriptions (Schumann’s Fantasiestücke) was given by James Bunte and Dr. David Riley in Carnegie Hall in 2006. He also writes a regular column for Saxophone Journal and has recorded two CD Master Classes for the publication – John Anthony Lennon’s Aeterna (March/April 2007) and Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet (January/February 2010). The Mozart Dissonance project garnered Camwell Simpson College’s Distinguished Faculty Research Award in May, 2010.

This fall, Camwell will tour with the Oasis Quartet (www.oasisquartet.com). They will be performing at the Universities of North Texas and Stephen. F. Austin, as well as well-known Milby High School in Houston, Oct 21-24. Camwell will be performing Bach repertoire featured on the Bach-centric CD at recitals throughout the Midwest starting in January, 2011 and at the North American Saxophone Alliance Region 3 Conference in March 2011.

Physical and Digital distribution for Bach-centric is available through CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon.com, and more; direct sales are available from www.TealCreekMusic.com.