Gala Benefit for the Piedmont Council of the Arts
- Saturday, May 8, 2010
- The Paramount
- 8:00pm
- $15 student / $25 adult / $75-500 patron
Composer Judith Shatin and the Borup-Ernst violin/piano duo team up to bring an exciting evening of music to the Paramount Theater in a Gala Benefit for the Piedmont Council of the Arts. The Council is the focal point for arts activities in our community, promoting, coordinating and advocating to enrich our cultural life. Founded in 1979, it provides web-based resources, hosts celebratory arts events, and co-sponsors community cultural events and projects. It works to increase both access to and awareness of the arts, as well as offering forums to address arts-related issues. The PCA is the designated arts agency of Charlottesville, and has wide outreach services to Fluvanna, Greene, Nelson, Orange, Staunton and Waynesboro.
Judith Shatin (www.judithshatin.com), whose music has been called “hugely enjoyable and deeply involving” by the Washington Post, has made Charlottesville and the University of Virginia her home for the past thirty years. While internationally performed and commissioned, Shatin also has deep roots in the community, and has created music for numerous local groups. These include FOCUS (The Joy S. Sisters Show) and Ash Lawn Opera (Follies and Fancies, based on Moliere’s Les Precieuses Ridicules). She has also collaborated with the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra (most recently Jefferson, In His Own Words), University Singers (And How My Brother Is Cain), The Virginia Consort (Songs of War and Peace) and the Virginia Glee Club (The Jabberwocky), among others. At UVA, she founded the Virginia Center for Computer Music, whose annual TechnoSonics festival, now at Live Arts, has become a much-anticipated event. She has also worked with regional groups, such as Wintergreen Performing Arts for whom she composed Singing the Blue Ridge, scored for mezzo, baritone, orchestra and electronics made from wild animal calls. Her goal in this project was to help people become more aware of their rich sonic environment. She is delighted to share her music with the community in this gala concert.
The Borup/Ernst duo (http://borupernstduo.com/) has established itself as an important champion of contemporary American music. Their debut CD American Fantasies (Centaur 2918) featured the collected works by Arnold Schoenberg and his American students and followers, John Cage, Gunther Schuller, Donald Harris and Leon Kirchner. The CD was received with great enthusiasm by audiences and reviewers alike, with The Strad noting how their performance was “made all the more gripping by Borup and Ernst’s interpretative empathy and watertight ensemble.” This past season the duo has performed Shatin’s music for violin and piano music in a series of recitals in America and Denmark, and their recording of her music, Tower of the Eight Winds, has just been released on the Innova label (#770).
For ticket information visit http://www.theparamount.net.