Events

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lawler_fadoul_horizontal_med.1On Sunday, March 17, Lawler and Fadoul will present Katherine Hoover’s Two Preludes: Uptown and Out of Town as part of the New York Flute Club Flute Fair, at the Lighthouse, 111 East 59th Street, New York City. This world premiere was commissioned by the flute/marimba duo as part of  their Gronica Project, and anticipates the release of their next CD Prelude Cocktail, due out later this year. They will also be celebrating the composer’s 75th birthday. More information and tickets here.

Listen to Lawler and Fadoul’s music on InstantEncore.

The engaging and illuminating duo of Zara Lawler, flutist, and Paul J. Fadoul, marimbist offer audiences an unexpected mélange of classical virtuosity, lively commentary, theatrical flair and a small dose of indie rock sensibility. Their repertoire ranges from delightful arrangements of classics to newly written pieces for their unusual instrumentation, and even includes a few one-act plays. This season’s highlights include a residency at the Yellow Barn Music School in Putney, VT, the premiere of their new arrangements of Preludes and Fugues by Bach and Shostakovich, an appearance at St. Mark’s in the Bowery in New York City, a children’s concert in Lawler’s home town of Nyack, NY, and a tour of their dance-inspired program, Tango Sandwich.

Lawler & Fadoul have a long history of collaboration, both as a duo, and previously, as members of the innovative ensemble Tales & Scales. Since 2004, they have performed together in many of the country’s most prestigious venues, including the Kennedy Center, Strathmore, the Cerritos Center, the Kravis Center, Trinity Wall Street, and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center.

Lawler & Fadoul are dedicated to increasing the repertoire for their unique combination. In addition to their insightful interpretations of the standards, they create their own arrangements for the duo, and are pursuing commissions of new works. Their Gronica Project, a multi-year program of increasing the repertoire for flute and percussion, begins this year with their own transcriptions of Preludes and Fugues by both Bach and Shostakovich.

Also dedicated and inspiring educators, Lawler & Fadoul are teaching artists for the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. On behalf of the NSO, they create in-school interactive concerts for children from pre-K thru 6th grade, and perform in public schools throughout the DC metro area.

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A soprano-in-demand throughout the United States and Europe, Michelle Areyzaga will be in New York performing a selection of love songs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on March 8, 2013. Inspired by the real-life love drama that occurred between Brahms and Schumann, close friends and bitter rivals during their lifetimes, the program will feature a neat selection of lieder by both composers, as well as love songs by Ullman and Berg.

COMPLETE DETAILS

Michelle Areyzaga Appears with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
March 8, 2013, 8:00 PM
$28-$60
70 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-6582
For more information and tickets, please visit chambermusicsociety.org.

As a diverse and coveted singer, Michelle Areyzaga’s musical origins are in Chicago where she is much in demand among highly regarded companies, as well as throughout the United States and Europe. She has sung most recently with New York City Opera in her debut (Orpheus-Telemann) and has appeared with Chicago Opera Theater, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s In the Neighborhoods programs, Grant Park Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Chicago Light Opera Works, Chicago Chamber Opera, Chicago Master Singers, Apollo Chorus, Camerata Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Center to name a few.

Ms. Areyzaga’s operatic roles have included Cunegonde, Candide; Adina, L’elisir d’amore; Sandman and Dew Fairy, Hänsel und Gretel; Despina, Così fan tutte; Zerlina, Don Giovanni; Pamina, Die Zauberflöte; Susanna, Le nozze di Figaro; Lauretta, Gianni Schicchi; Musetta, La bohème and Casilda in The Gondoliers.

She has championed the works of Bernstein through numerous orchestral engagements with the Rochester Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, Springfield Symphony, Bartlesville Symphony and San Antonio Symphony.

Ms. Areyzaga is a frequent guest of the New York Festival of Song under the direction of Steven Blier and Michael Barrett and has sung with Orquesta Sinfónia del Estado de México, New York City Opera’s VOX Series, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Opera, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Lake Forest Symphony, Wichita Symphony Orchestra, Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. As a recorded artist, she has performed song cycles by Gwyneth Walker on The Sun Is Love (Proteus). Other recordings include Songs from Spoon River (Cedille) by Lita Grier and The Small Hours, songs by William Ferris. She has sung numerous times in both live and programmed broadcasts on Chicago’s classical music radio station WFMT.

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flowersI was recently asked by my friend, the excellent Chicago-based Fundraising Consultant Mark Warner (MDW Consulting), to write a guest column for his January newsletter. I decided that I would share with readers a short list that changed my life in 2012, taken from Howard Schubiner’s excellent book, Unlearn your Pain. Nominally the book is about back pain, but the words below can be used effectively in work and career situations to unblock situations and to help move forward with projects and goals in a positive, healthy way. I have used these with my clients and will continue to do so in 2013. Schubiner’s words are simple, yet powerful, as quoted below:

“One of the most important aspects of…improving your psychological health is to be kind to yourself. I cannot emphasize this enough. It is very easy to develop and maintain a self-critical attitude. I urge you to take time each day to be kind to yourself. You can do this…by catching yourself in self-critical thoughts, and by doing some things for yourself. If you forget a task or don’t finish all the work or errands on your list, be kind to yourself.

Here are some examples of what I mean by being kind to yourself.

  1. Accepting that you are human and that you cannot be everything to everyone.
  2. Accepting your faults and realizing that you are a good person.
  3. Forgiving yourself for your mistakes, just as you would forgive others whom you love.
  4. Learning to say “no” to certain requests.
  5. Sending positive and caring messages to yourself.
  6. Recognizing that many others have been in your situation and have survived and thrived.
  7. Accepting your feeling as being normal.
  8. Catching yourself when you send critical messages to yourself and replacing those with kind and understanding messages.
  9. Figuring out what you need and not being shy about asking for it or taking steps to attain it.
  10. Taking time for yourself to do things just for you or just to allow you to relax and enjoy life.
  11. Standing up for yourself.
  12. Realizing that you are an important person on this earth and that you deserve to be happy and healthy.”

Read this list everyday, and you will find that certain burdens, fears, or concerns will dissipate, freeing your mind and your energy for active pursuit of your goals and happiness. My best wishes to you for a happy, healthy and productive 2013!

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The Chinese Fine Arts Society has received an NEA grant to support it’s amibitious “Five Elements Project”.  The grant is one of 832 Art Works grants totaling $23.3 million in funding nationwide.

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Chicago, IL – National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced today that Chicago’s Chinese Fine Arts Society(CFAS) is one of 832 non-profit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. The Chinese Fine Arts Society is recommended for a $17,500 grant to support the 2013-14 Five Elements Project.

The Five Elements Project, dedicated to the memory of Barbara Tiao, the late founder of the Chinese Fine Arts Society, is a multifaceted, two-year initiative seeking to create several important new pieces of music that will touch on the theme of the traditional Chinese elements, namely Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. 2013 is the five-year anniversary of Ms. Tiao’s passing, and 2014 is CFAS’s 30th anniversary, making this a momentous two-year period for the organization. This project engages two of the United States’ most lauded Chinese composers, Zhou Long (2011 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Music) and Huang Ruo, to create compelling works of music that explore the theme of the Chinese Five Elements, to be premiered in a concert series in 2014. Mr. Long’s composition will be comprised of five movements and scored for clarinet, pipa, piano, violin, viola and cello. Mr. Ruo’s will be a violin piece written for longtime CFAS collaborator and friend, Rachel Barton Pine.

“I’m proud to announce these 832 grants to the American public including The Chinese Fine Arts Society’s Five Elements Project,” said Chairman Landesman. “These projects offer extraordinary examples of creativity in our country, including the creation of new work, innovative ways of engaging audiences, and exemplary education programs.”

“My late mother, Barbara Tiao, would be so pleased” says CFAS Board President Julie Tiao Ma, “She strove for excellence and for creating a new canon of Contemporary Chinese music. To engage the best of today’s composers will be a thrill and an honor for CFAS.”

In March 2012, the NEA received 1,509 eligible applications for Art Works requesting more than $74 million in funding. The 832 recommended NEA grants total $22.3 million, span 13 artistic disciplines and fields, and focus primarily on the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing works for the benefit of American audiences. Applications were reviewed by panels of outside experts convened by NEA staff and each project was judged on its artistic excellence and artistic merit.

For a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, please visit the NEA website at www.arts.gov.

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0050 b&WMEDIUMPianist Inna Faliks will appear at Salle Cortot in Paris, France, on Monday, February 18, 2013, 8:30pm, under the auspices of Pro Musicis. Salle Cortot is located at 78 rue Cardinet – 75017 Paris – Tel : 01.47.63.47.48. The mixed program will include works by Beethoven, Schumann, Shchedrin, and Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin.

Program will include:

Shchedrin Basso Ostinato
Beethoven Polonaise in C op 89
Beethoven Sonata Op. 57 Appassionata
Ljova “Sirota”, written for Inna Faliks in 2011
Schumann Davidsbundlertanze op. 6

Pianist Inna Faliks has set herself apart in thousands of performances as a sincere, communicative and direct performer whose virtuosity, power and risk taking serve the depth, intelligence and poetry of her interpretations. Inna’s command of standard solo and concerto repertoire is highlighted by her love of rare and new music, and interdisciplinary and audience-involving programs and lectures. These include her award winning Music/Words, where she alternates music with readings by contemporary poets, her program of piano music of the poet Boris Pasternak (on MSR Classics Sound of Verse, which drew comparisons to Argerich and Cliburn), 13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg – new variations on Bach’s Aria , music of women composers, and many other programs. She makes sure to present programs that include both beloved crowd pleasers and music that is new and challenging, creating an adventurous, moving and involving experience for the audience. She is a musical omnivore. Faliks debuted as a teenager with the Chicago Symphony and at the Gilmore Festival to rave reviews, and has been exciting and moving audiences worldwide since then.