New Century Chamber Orchestra with Geoff Nuttall, Barry Shiffman, and Sarah Cahill April 12, 2007

The Grammy-nominated New Century Chamber Orchestra is pleased to announce the next program of its 15th season, April 12, 2007. The program features a 17-member string orchestra roster, guest concertmaster Geoff Nuttall, violinist Barry Shiffman, and pianist Sarah Cahill performing on prepared piano.

Thursday, April 12, 2007, 8:00 pm
St. John's Presbyterian Church
2727 College Avenue, Berkeley

TICKETS: Tickets can be purchased at www.ncco.org or through City Box Office online at www.cityboxoffice.com and at 415.357.1111 or 415.392.4400. Single ticket prices for the orchestra series are $42/$28.

A small service charge will apply for single tickets. Half-price tickets are available for students. For more information, call the NCCO at 415.357.1111 or visit the website at www.ncco.org.

PROGRAM:

Arvo Pärt / Tabula Rasa for string orchestra, two violins, and prepared piano
Schoenberg / Verklärte Nacht
J.S. Bach / Concerto for 2 Violins and Strings

The New Century Chamber Orchestra (www.ncco.org), founded in 1992, looks for fresh, exciting new ways to present classical music in the San Francisco Bay Area by combining performances of extraordinary quality with innovative programming. The Music Director chooses the programs and guides the artistic vision, but the seventeen members of the orchestra perform without a conductor. Musical decisions are made collaboratively, resulting in an enhanced level of commitment on the part of the musicians to concerts of remarkable precision, passion and power. The NCCO also provides musical education to over 2,000 students annually in Bay Area elementary schools through intimate in-classroom presentations, and has released three compact discs since 1996, one of which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1997.

About the Guest Concertmaster

Geoff Nuttall was born in College Station, Texas, and began playing the violin at the age of eight after moving to London, Ontario. He spent most of his musical studies under the tutelage of Lorand Fenyves at the Banff Centre, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Toronto, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree.

In 1989, Mr. Nuttall co-founded the St. Lawrence String Quartet (www.slsq.com). As first violinist of this world-renowned foursome, he has performed well over fifteen hundred concerts throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Since winning the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Young Concert Artist Auditions in the early 90s, the St. Lawrence String Quartet has become a regular at some of North America’s most esteemed music festivals, including Mostly Mozart, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts and Spoleto USA. Their busy touring schedule has seen them in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum, Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Royal Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam, Theatre de Ville Paris, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, and the White House for President Clinton and guests.

About the Violin Soloist

Canadian violinist Barry Shiffman began his studies at the age of six under the guidance of his father, an amateur musician. He made his solo debut at fifteen with the Toronto Symphony and conductor Andrew Davis, and has since appeared with orchestras and in recitals across Canada. In 1989 Mr. Shiffman co-founded the St. Lawrence String Quartet. As a member of this ensemble he has performed over one thousand performances throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. In recent seasons Mr. Shiffman has become increasingly interested in the repertoire of the viola, and has performed as a violist at several summer festivals including Spoleto USA, Newport, San Miguel de Allende Mexido, and Festival Consonnance in St. Nazaire France. Barry is married to Abbotsford native Robin Fribance, whom he met while performing for the Music in the Morning Concert Series in Vancouver.

About the Piano Soloist

Sarah Cahill (www.sarahcahill.com) was recently praised in the Village Voice for “her phenomenal technique, her instinctive command of recent aesthetics, and quite possibly the most interesting repertoire of any pianist around.” She specializes in new American music as well as the American experimental tradition, and has commissioned, premiered, and recorded numerous compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to her include John Adams, Terry Riley, Annea Lockwood, Kyle Gann, Pauline Oliveros, and Evan Ziporyn, and she has also premiered pieces by Lou Harrison, Julia Wolfe, Ingram Marshall, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Ursula Mamlok, George Lewis, Leo Ornstein, and many others.

She has performed at the Phillips Collection, the Other Minds Festival, Pacific Crossings Festival in Tokyo, and at the Spoleto Festival USA. Recent appearances include the Tokyo Summer Festival and the Nuovi Spazi Musicali festival in Rome. For a “new music seance” produced by Other Minds, she performed three separate concert programs back to back, spanning music from the early 20th century to the present day. Sarah and pianist Joseph Kubera appear frequently as a duo; they recently premiered a set of four-hand pieces by Terry Riley at UCLA’s Royce Hall. This season Sarah has recitals scheduled in the Santa Fe New Music series and at a Cold Blue festival at Redcat Theater in Los Angeles.

Sarah’s albums of works by Ravel and Cowell are on the New Albion label, which also released her recording of Ruth Crawford’s Preludes and Piano Study in Mixed Accents and two suites by the virtually unknown experimental composer Johanna Beyer. She has also recorded for the Tzadik, CRI, New World, Albany, Artifact, and Cold Blue labels. She is currently preparing recordings of music by Leo Ornstein, Ingram Marshall, Evan Ziporyn, Kyle Gann, and Mamoru Fujieda. Her radio show, Then & Now, can be heard every Sunday evening from 8 to 10 pm on KALW, 91.7 FM.

Official Website: http://www.ncco.org/