NEC Update Vol. 2, No. 26, July 31, 2006

CMS Two picks NEC's Jupiter Quartet

Down Beat covers NEC poll-leaders

NEC remembers Ligeti

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CMS Two picks NEC's Jupiter Quartet

photo by Susan Wilson, www.susanwilsonphoto.com

The multiple prize-winning Jupiter String Quartet (in photo), which just completed two years in NEC's Professional String Quartet Training Program, has been appointed to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two residency program. One of only two ensembles chosen this year, the quartet will join a roster of 21 musicians for a two-year residency beginning in 2007/2008.

The CMS Two program has been around for a decade; NEC quartet-in-residence the Borromeo String Quartet was an early participant. In the past year NEC has sent violinists Lily Francis '01 PREP, '08 M.M. and Susie Park '06 A.D., and violist David Kim '05.

Down Beat covers NEC poll-leaders

Your eyes aren't deceiving you: jazz trumpeter/ composer/ bandleader Dave Douglas '83 has now appeared in this newsletter for two consecutive issues. We can't help it: this time he is the cover subject of the August edition of Down Beat magazine, after having been selected "Trumpeter of the Year" in the DB critics poll.

NEC faculty and alumni are, as always, pervasive in this poll. The magazine also includes a profile of pianist/ composer/ bandleader Satoko Fujii '96 G.D.

In the introduction to a lengthy interview conducted by fellow musician Steve Coleman, Down Beat notes that "while Dave Douglas won top trumpet honors in the Critics Poll, his influence in the past year has been manifold. His Greenleaf Music ... continues to evolve as a pioneering artist-run independent label. Through this label Douglas has pursued ambitious projects ... He directs the Festival of New Trumpet Music, with its fourth season in New York running Sept. 15-Oct. 15, and he's artistic director of the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music. He also continues to explore ever deeper compositionally."

Douglas will be visiting NEC in 2007 for a residency sponsored by NEC board member Bruce Hauben and the Helen G. Hauben Foundation.

NEC remembers Ligeti

photo by Jeff Thiebauth

Composer Gyorgy Ligeti, the avant-garde composer who slipped into the mainstream through the use of his music in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, died earlier this summer. Many of us at NEC thought back on the amazing series of concerts that took place here in 1993, when the composer visited for a week-long festival of concerts of his music.

One of this month's "Live from NEC" audio streams recaptures Ligeti's 1993 visit with a performance of his Mysteries of the Macabre by soprano Lisa Saffer '84 M.M., '86 A.D. Concerts at NEC this fall include repertoire that honors the beloved composer.

In photo: Ligeti addresses a class of NEC students in 1993.

Listen to Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre.

NEC has joined the rest of the world this year in celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). As the year comes to a close we offer a few more works by Mozart on our fall concert schedule, as well as one of this month's streaming audio clips: the Requiem in D Minor, K.626, performed by the NEC Youth Chorale.

October 2: Flute Quartet in D Major, K.285
performed by Paula Robison, Masuko Ushioda, Kim Kashkashian, Laurence Lesser
October 12: Serenade in C Minor, K.388
performed by the NEC Wind Ensemble

And watch for details of Perkin Opera Scenes scheduled for October 10 and 17, which are likely to include Mozart scenes.