Download NADJA SALERNO-SONNENBERG LEADS THE NEW CENTURY

NADJA SALERNO-SONNENBERG LEADS THE NEW CENTURY CHAMBER
ORCHESTRA
IN PERFORMANCES WITH SOPRANO MELODY MOORE
SEPTEMBER 18-23
San Francisco, CA – August 24, 2012 – Music
Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New
Century Chamber Orchestra open their 2012-2013
season September 18-23 with concerts
celebrating the centennial of British composer
Benjamin Britten. Soprano Melody Moore joins
the ensemble for performances of Les Illuminations, a
prominent work in the composer’s distinguished and
varied repertoire. Acclaimed for her “remarkably
controlled voice that goes from meltingly soft to the
height of emotion and projection without strain” by San Francisco Classical Voice, Ms. Moore
returns for her fourth appearances with the ensemble. The program also features Britten’s Simple
Symphony and Bartók’s Divertimento.
A work more frequently performed with large string orchestra, Les Illuminations was last
performed by New Century in 2007, also featuring Melody Moore as soloist. Writing of these
performances in San Francisco Classical Voice, Lisa Hirsh said “…NCCO's 19 players might as
well have been 50, so overwhelming was the performance. The piece soars, glitters, buzzes,
thrums like a guitar…Ms. Moore matched Britten and NCCO's wizardry note for note, phrase for
phrase, executing every detail in the score with complete command and captivating the audience
in the process.”
Deeply affected by the emotional intensity of French poet Arthur
Rimbaud’s Les Illuminations, Britten immediately set excerpts of these to
music. Its main themes are the theatricality of life, the chaos of the big
cities, and the tragic, painful aspect of beauty. Britten chose a sentence
from one of the poems as the motto for his cycle: “J'ai seul la clef de cette
parade sauvage” (“I alone have the key to this savage parade”). This
sentence also provides the “key” to Britten's view of Rimbaud's poetry:
only the artist, observing the world from the outside can hope to make
sense of the “savage parade” that is life.
Britten’s exceptional talents were noticed at a young age but it was the Simple Symphony, written
in 1934, which established him as one of the most promising young composers of the day. The
themes of the Simple Symphony are derived from Britten’s childhood compositions – songs and
piano pieces written between the ages of nine and twelve. However, their arrangement in
symphonic forms and his skillful scoring for string orchestra show the consummate artist that the
20-year-old Britten already was.
Bartók’s Divertimento was composed in 1939 at a fragile historic point in Europe, when peace
was still intact but was increasingly threatened by the spectre of war. Paul Sacher, conductor of
the Basel Chamber Orchestra, commissioned Bartók to write his third Basel work for string
orchestra after the success of Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and the Sonata for Two
Pianos and Percussion. The title, which translates as “entertainment” in Italian, denotes the 18thcentury musical genre which was prominent in the works of Mozart and his contemporaries.
The program will be given on four different evenings in different locations around the Bay Area:
Tuesday, September 18 at 8 PM, Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton High,
Atherton, Thursday, September 20 at 8 PM, First Congregational Church, Berkeley, Saturday,
September 22 at 8 PM, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, and Sunday, September 23 at 5 PM,
Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, San Rafael. New Century offers an Open Rehearsal at
10 AM on Monday, September 17 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for a price of
only $8. The concerts are underwritten through the generosity of Mark Jordan and Kendall
Patton, long-time friends of the New Century Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Moore recently created the role of Susan Rescorla in the world premiere of Christopher
Theofanidis’ Heart of a Soldier at San Francisco Opera in September 2011. That same year, she
debuted with New York City Opera as Rita Clayton in Stephen Schwartz’s opera, Séance on a
Wet Afternoon, returning to the company in early 2012 to sing the lead role of Régine Saint
Laurent in Rufus Wainwright’s opera, Prima Donna.
Her recently critically acclaimed performances include two appearances with English National
Opera – as Mimi in Jonathan Miller’s new production of La bohème and as Marguerite in Des
McAnuff’s new production of Faust. Of her performances with English National Opera, The
Independent wrote “This young lady is special. She has a distinctive dark complexion to her
voice and she sings and phrases with real fantasy. She alone really filled the house and hearing
the voice open to greet the coming spring in her act one aria was for sure one of the high spots of
the evening.” An acclaimed Mimi, Ms. Moore has also performed the role with San Francisco
Opera and Opera Cleveland. She has also appeared with Los Angeles Opera as the Countess
Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, and in their productions of Der Zwerg and Der Zerbrochene
Krug. Elsewhere, she has appeared with New Orleans Opera as Manon Lescaut, Orlando Opera
in the title role in Suor Angelica and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra as Donna Anna.
Most recently, she sang the role of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Atlanta Opera and as one of
the Three Ladies in San Francisco Opera’s production of The Magic Flute. In early 2013, Ms.
Moore will sing the role of Shirley La Verne as she makes her Houston Grand Opera debut in the
American classic, Show Boat. Ms. Moore is equally recognized for her outstanding work on the
concert stage. Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle praised her 2011 performance
with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra, saying, “Moore's four
Schubert songs, arranged by Clarice Assad, were delivered with the kind of intensity and raw
emotional power that are too rarely heard in this repertoire.” She is a 2007 Adler Fellow and
former Merola Opera Program participant.
CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE:
Benjamin Britten Centennial
September 18-23, 2012
Britten: Simple Symphony
Bartók: Divertimento
Britten: Les Illuminations
Melody Moore, soprano
Concerts:
Open rehearsal: Monday, September 17, 2011, 10 AM-12:30 PM, San Francisco Conservatory of
Music, San Francisco
Tuesday, September 18, 8 PM, Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton High, Atherton
Thursday, September 20, 8 PM, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, September 22, 8 PM, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
Sunday, September 23, 5 PM, Osher Marin JCC, San Rafael
Single tickets range in price from $29 to $59 and season subscriptions range in price from $78 to
$280. Subscriptions and single tickets are on sale through City Box Office:
www.cityboxoffice.com or at (415) 392-4400. Discounted $15 single tickets are available for
patrons under 35. Open rehearsal tickets are priced at $8.
For further information on New Century, please visit www.ncco.org. Media contacts are listed at
the end of the release.
About New Century Chamber Orchestra:
The New Century Chamber Orchestra, one of only a handful of conductorless ensembles in the
world, was founded in 1992 by cellist, Miriam Perkoff, and violist, Wieslaw
Pogorzelski. Musical decisions are made collaboratively by the 19-member string ensemble,
including San Francisco Bay Area musicians and those who travel from across the U.S. and
Europe to perform together. World-renowned violin soloist, chamber musician and recording
artist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg leads from the concertmaster chair. She joined the ensemble as
music director and concertmaster in January 2008, bringing “a new sense of vitality and
determination, as well as an audacious swagger that is an unmistakable fingerprint of its leader,”
according to Gramophone magazine. In 2011, Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg and New Century
embarked on the Orchestra’s two most extensive tours to-date. The performances in the
Midwest, East Coast, and Southern California garnered record-breaking audiences and national
critical acclaim.
In addition to performing classic pieces of chamber orchestra repertoire, New Century
commissions important new works, breathes life into rarely heard jewels of the past and
performs world premieres. The New Century Chamber Orchestra Featured Composer program
commissions composers to write new works, with the goals of expanding chamber orchestra
repertoire and providing audiences with a deeper understanding of today’s living composers. The
orchestra provides insight into the breadth of the Featured Composer’s work by performing a
variety of pieces by the composer throughout the season.
The orchestra has released six compact discs. The two latest albums, Together (released August
2009) and LIVE: Barber, Strauss, Mahler (released November 2010), were recorded with Nadja
Salerno-Sonnenberg on the NSS Music label. Other recordings include a 1996 collaborative
project with Kent Nagano and Berkeley Symphony Orchestra featuring the work of 20th centurySwiss composer Frank Martin, and Written With the Heart’s Blood, a 1997 Grammy Award
finalist, both on the New Albion label. In 1998 the orchestra recorded and released works of
Argentine composers Alberto Williams and Alberto Ginastera on the d’Note label, and, in 2004,
the orchestra recorded and released Oculus, a CD of Kurt Rohde’s compositions on the
Mondovibe label. All of the recordings have been distributed both internationally and in the
United States. The orchestra’s first concert DVD, filmed by Paola di Florio, director of the 1999
Academy Award-nominated film Speaking in Strings, was released May 8, 2012. The DVD
weaves together documentary footage and a live tour concert from a February 2011 performance
at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
About Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg:
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, an internationally-acclaimed soloist and chamber musician best
known for her exhilarating performances and passionate interpretations, joined the New Century
Chamber Orchestra in January 2008 as music director. Nadja’s first four seasons were hailed as a
tremendous success by audiences and critics alike – “a marriage that works,” in her words, and
renewing enthusiasm for “one of the most burnished and exciting ensembles in the Bay Area,”
according to Rich Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News.
A powerful and innovative presence on the recording scene, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
continues to enrich the collection of her record label NSS Music, which she started in 2005. The
label’s roster of artists includes Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, horn
player John Cerminaro, pianist/composer Clarice Assad, conductor Marin Alsop, the American
String Quartet, the Colorado Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo, and the
New Century Chamber Orchestra. Together, the first CD with New Century, features Astor
Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. The second CD, a live recording featuring Strauss’s
Metamorphosen, Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No. 5, has
been praised as “brilliant” (Oregon Music News), and allmusic.com advised, “For those who like
orchestral music for strings that takes nothing less than revelation as its goal, this is a musthave.”
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s professional career began in 1981 when she won the Walter W.
Naumburg International Violin Competition. In 1983 she was recognized with an Avery Fisher
Career Grant, and in 1999, she was honored with the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. Nadja
Salerno-Sonnenberg was born in Rome and immigrated to the United States at the age of eight to
study at The Curtis Institute of Music. She later studied with Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard
School. For more information on Nadja, please visit www.nadjasalernosonnenberg.com and
www.nssmusic.com, as well as Facebook and Myspace.
Photo Credit:
New Century Chamber Orchestra / David Allen
Melody Moore / Courtesy of Melody Moore
Press and Media Relations Contact:
Karen Ames Communications
Karen Ames and Brenden Guy
(415) 641-7474
[email protected]
[email protected]
Sarah Riddle, Director of Development and Marketing
(415) 357-1111, ext. 305
[email protected]
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