NEC Update Vol. 2, No. 14, March 13, 2006

Two ways of listening to Joan Tower

One of America's most respected composers, Joan Tower has writtena large body of work thatis widely performed in America and overseas. This spring, NEC offers streaming audio of a work by Tower that was premiered here in 2003. And on May 21, Tower visits NEC to receive an honorary degree at the school's 135th Commencement.

Joan Tower's DNA was written for and premiered by the NEC Percussion Ensemble, Frank Epstein, conductor (in photo with Tower). It was the first in a series of commissions at NEC funded by the Bradford and Dorothea Endicott Foundation. The most recent Endicott commission, Jennifer Higdon's Splendid Wood, will receive its world premiere by the NEC Percussion Ensemble on April 23 in NEC's Jordan Hall.

Listen to Joan Tower's DNA.

Ran Blake tours with "truly great record"

The latest recording by pianist Ran Blake of the NEC faculty, All That Is Tied, is his first CD of solo performances in many years. Blake is appearing live in venues from New York to Amsterdam insupport of this release, which British music magazine Wire calls "a truly great jazz piano record" that puts the listener "in the presence of something magical and important."

Blake founded NEC's Contemporary Improvisation program of studies (then calledThird Stream) more than 30 years ago. Hewill be awarded an honorary degree at NEC's 135th Commencement on May 21.

Here are tour dates so far:
March 10: The Stone, New York, N.Y.
April 1: MIT's Killian Hall, Cambridge, Mass.
April 21: The Bimhuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (with David "Knife" Fabris '90, guitar)
April 23: de Singel International Arts Centre, Antwerp, Belgium (as part of Thelonious Monk Festival)

photo by Miro Vintoniv

Six young musicians enrolled in NEC's Preparatory School programs have swept the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2006 Concerto Competition for high school students, with the final live round held on the stage of Symphony Hall on February 7.

In addition to receiving cash prizes, the two first place winners, violinist Sarah Koenig-Plonskier (in photo) and cellist Sebastian Baverstam, will appear on a 2006 Boston Pops concert and a 2006/2007 BSO Family Concert respectively. Koenig-Plonskier is concertmaster of NEC's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, where Baverstam is principal cellist.

The second place winners are YPO principal flute Rose Lombardo and violinist Nigel Armstrong, a YPO section player. Third place is shared by pianist Hyun Ji Kim and YPO principal second violin Audrey Wright.

Although pianist Uri Caine did not attend NEC, one might assume he had from his musical output, which spans classical music and jazz projects as well as world music, pop, and hip-hop. He has arranged Wagner's music for a performance in St. Mark's Square in Venice, with the church bells incorporated into his charts. He joined up with drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of The Roots and other Philadelphia-based musicians of various backgrounds for the Philadelphia Experiment, a typically genre-busting project.

NEC board member Bruce Hauben and the Helen G. Hauben Foundation sponsor a week-long residency by Caine this month, to include private coachings and rehearsals with NEC students as well as public masterclasses and a student performance of his music, March 14-16.

NEC dominates jazz competition

photo by Miro Vintoniv

NEC jazz musicians ranging from 13-year-old saxophonist Grace Kelly to graduate student Dan Tepfer dominated the Fish Middleton Jazz Scholarship Competition held last month at the East Coast Jazz Festival in Rockville, Maryland.

Pianist Tepfer, who came to NEC from Paris to study, took first prize in the competition, and second prize went to double bassist Haggai Cohen Milo, a freshman from Israel. Third prize winner Kelly wrote: "There is no age limit for the competition. As a result the other nine semi-finalists were all at least in college, and some had already graduated ... A bit intimidating, if you ask me."

Grace Kelly was a featured performer at NEC's "Kids in Harmony" Preparatory Schoolfundraiser back in December (in photo).

Two generations of NEC conductors in SF

photo by Roger Farrington

NEC alumni from two widely separated eras will conduct San Francisco Symphony concerts in the 2006/2007 season just announced.

SFS conductor laureate Herbert Blomstedt '52 leads concerts early in the season that feature soloists Joshua Bell, violin, and Stephen Hough, piano. In March 2007, James Gaffigan '01 will conduct a program that includes works by Brahms and Ravel, as well as Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Chopin Competition winner Yundi Li.

Another NEC face on the SFS schedule is clarinetist Richard Stoltzman of the faculty, who will join the orchestra in April 2007 for performances of Takemitsu's Fantasma Cantos, a work written for Stoltzman.

In photo: Herbert Blomstedtmeets NEC President Daniel Steiner atNEC's "A Feast of Music" 2004 after conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

April events planned by NY, DC alumni clubs

photo by Andrew Hurlbut

Events planned by NEC alumni groups are not confined to Boston, but include upcoming activities by the lively NYC and DC regional clubs.

April 3: NEC's New York alumni club presents a discussion series event on "Career Advancement Tools for the Freelance Musician."

April 23: NEC's WashingtonDC club presents a concert to benefit the NEC Scholarship Fund for students from the greater Washington, D.C. area. NEC faculty performingon this concert are pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, violinist Donald Weilerstein, and cellist Paul Katz (in photo).

photo by Andrew Hurlbut

"Music and food mingled beautifully last night," wrote veteran Boston social scene reporter Dana Bisbee of NEC's 2006 A Feast of Music fundraiser, held February 25 at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. The event, cochaired by NEC overseers Barbara Burnes, Pamela White, and Elizabeth Willis Leatherman, and trustee Suki de Braganca, raised $400,000 for student scholarships.

A slide show now up on the NEC Web site gives a taste of the evening's high spirits, allowing you to relive an enchanted event or look forward to next year's!