RiteNow: The Composers

A one-time-only performance RiteNow: A Centennial Celebration of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring will take place at Woolsey Hall, 500 College Street (corner of College & Grove), New Haven, CT on November 17 at 8pm. Admission is free. Complete info is at www.RiteNowProject.com

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RiteNow will include works by composers Fay Kueen Wang, Justin Tierney, Matthew Welch, Benjamin Wallace, Daniel Schlosberg, Gleb Kanasevich, Polina Nazaykinskaya, and Paul Kerekes. Production designer Solomon Weisbard will create an immersive environmental design, and costumes will be created by Ksenia Zhuleva.

Complete composer bios are available at www.RiteNowProject.com. Here’s a summary:

Composer/performer Fay Wang’s music has been performed around Asia, Europe and USA, including the Berlin Concert House, the Arnold Schoenberg Center, Oper Graz, Yun Isang Memorial Hall, Beijing, Shanghai Concert Hall, Merkin Hall and Lincoln Center, with ensembles including the China Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Iuventus, RIAS Youth Orchestra, Dinosaur Annex, and a recent premiere by Bang On A Can All-Stars at NYC’s Ecstatic Music Festival.

The music of Matthew Tobin Welch (b.1976), Composer/Multi-instrumentalist, stems from a multi-faceted foundation. As a virtuoso of the Highland Bagpipe, he studied traditional music with Gold Medalist masters such as Colin MacLellan, Jack Lee, Angus MacLellan and Andrew Wright. Matthew also was a member of the four – time World Champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, winning with them in 1999 and 2001.

Justine Tierney‘s music was declared “superb, robust, and grand” by the Boston Globe who avowed that “Tierney’s dark-hued music had polished, ominous richness… and sound-worlds that were cogent and immediate.” A recent performance ofThe God’s Script was described as [one of] “two of the most compelling operas also draw on illustrious literary sources: … it sheathes in fierce, gorgeously orchestrated music a dramatization of Jorge Luis Borges’sLa Escritura del Dios.”

Ben Wallace, originally hailing from Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a New England based composer, pianist, percussionist, and conductor. His works have been performed at various venues in Cincinnati, New Haven, New York, Switzerland, and Albuquerque. He received his Bachelor of Music in 2011 from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati where he studied with Joel Hoffman, Michael Fiday, Mara Helmuth, and Al Otte of Percussion Group Cincinnati.

Polina Nazaykinskaya was born in Togliatti, Russia in 1987 and has been studying music since the age of 4. After graduating with honors from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia with concentrations in violin and composition, Polina earned her Masters of Music Degree from the Yale School of Music. Her professors at Yale included Christopher Theofanidis and Ezra Laderman. Currently Polina is pursuing Artist Diploma in composition at the Yale School of Music.

Composer and pianist Daniel Schlosberg (b. 1987) just completed his master’s degree and is currently pursuing his doctorate at the Yale School of Music. His works have been played by the Buffalo Philharmonic, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, New Morse Code, Yale Baroque Ensemble, Center City Opera Theater, and counter)induction. In July, his orchestral piece My reflection ran away with my eyes was featured at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, CA.

Gleb Kanasevich, a 2013 YSM graduate with MM in clarinet, has taken part in IRCAM’s 2013 AcademieManifeste and this year has had premiere performances at Spoleto Festival,soundSCAPE Festival, Atlantic Music Festival and Fundacion Music AntiquaNova in Argentina. He currently performs largely as a soloist and in duet with pianist Michael Sheppard under Chesapeake Concert Artists.

Paul Kerekes was born in Huntington, New York. His music has been described as “striking…ecstatic…dramatic” (WQXR), “highly eloquent” (New Haven Advocate), and able to create “an almost tactile picture” (The New York Times).