chamber orchestra — Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Northwest Sinfonietta presents free ‘Close-Up’ neighborhood concerts Mar. 31, Apr. 14

By Zachary C. Person
Media contact: Karin Choo, Northwest Sinfonietta

TACOMA, Wash. – The Northwest Sinfonietta presents two “Close-Up Concerts” this spring in collaboration with community arts partners. The free hour-long “neighborhood performances” will be held on Thursday, March 31 at the Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center (T.U.P.A.C.) (1105 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma) and on Thursday, April 14 at Mt. Tahoma High School (4634 S. 74th St., Tacoma).

Both concerts begin at 6:00 p.m. and are free and open to all. Advance registration is requested but not required. To learn more or register in advance, visit: www.nwsinfonietta.org.

“Song & Dance” on March 31 features a chamber ensemble from the Northwest Sinfonietta, and dancers from T.U.P.A.C. and Tacoma’s Sabor Flamenco. The program includes variations on “Black Noir Black” and juxtaposes works by prominent Black composers William Grant Still (“Lyric Quartet”), Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges (a movement from his second symphony), Jessie Montgomery’s “Strum” and a looping cello work by Gretchen Yanover with the well-known “La Musica della Strade di Madrid” by Italian classical-era composer Luigi Boccherini and Aaron Copland’s “At the River” from his second set of American songs.

“Pictures in Song” on April 14 features soloist Denise Dillenbeck, concertmaster of the Northwest Sinfonietta, a chamber ensemble of musicians from the sinfonietta, and the Mt. Tahoma High School orchestra directed by Emily Golan. The Mt. Tahoma High School orchestra will perform two works side-by-side with members of the Northwest Sinfonietta.

“It has been such a great experience having Northwest Sinfonietta musicians work with my students,” says Golan, “and we are all excited about the upcoming concert. It will definitely be something they never forget!”

The spring-themed program includes “Flowering Jasmine” by Latvian composer Georgs Pelēcis; the popular “Spring” from Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”; and two works by Astor Piazzolla: “Primavera Porteña” from the “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” and an arrangement “Oblivion” for string orchestra.

Concertmaster and violin soloist Denise Dillenbeck also serves as concertmaster of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra (Yakima, Washington), the Lake Chelan Bach Festival (Chelan, Wash.) and the York Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania. Dillenbeck has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Oregon Symphony and Baltimore Symphony, and has served as concertmaster for orchestras in Germany and England.

The Northwest Sinfonietta 2021-2022 season continues April 29 and May 1 with “Archipelago” featuring Cuban cross-over pianist Aldo López-Gavilán and concludes on May 21-22 with “In Place and Time” featuring flute soloist Demarre McGill and conductor Mei-Ann Chen in a program of works by Esmail, Rodrigo and Mozart

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About the Northwest Sinfonietta: The Northwest Sinfonietta was founded in 1991 by harpsichordist Kathryn Habedank and conductor Christophe Chagnard. The 35-member ensemble is the premiere chamber orchestra in the Puget Sound region and blends the intimacy of chamber music with the power of a full orchestra. In 2015, the Northwest Sinfonietta became one of the few orchestras in the world to move to an Artistic Partner model of operations, giving the musicians of the ensemble a larger role in the programming and vision for the ensemble. Learn more about the orchestra at: www.nwsinfonietta.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Northwest Sinfonietta presents “Violet Sunrise,” Lockington’s final performances March 5-6

By Zachary C. Person

TACOMA, Wash. – The Northwest Sinfonietta under the direction of artistic partner David Lockington presents “Violet Sunrise” March 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Rialto Theater in Tacoma (310 S. 9th St.) and on March 6 at 2:00 p.m. at the Pioneer Park Pavilion in Puyallup (330 S. Meridian).

Tickets $22-50. Student, military and group discounts available. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit: www.northwestsinfonietta.org.

These performances mark the last of Lockington’s tenure with the Northwest Sinfonietta. In 2015, the Northwest Sinfonietta became one of the few orchestras in the world to move to an “artistic partner” model of operations, allowing the musicians of the ensemble to take a larger role in the artistic decisions and vision for the orchestra. Lockington was one of three inaugural artistic partners that season and in 2018 was named principal artistic partner.

“Violet Sunrise” features three brilliant works for small orchestra. Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 6 in D Major “Le Matin” opens the program. Composed in 1761 by a youthful Haydn who had just joined the Esterházy court, “Le Matin” (“Morning”) was not written as an explicitly programmatic work, though the opening adagio introduction clearly depicting a sunrise has inspired many others to refer to the remaining movements as “noon” and “evening.”

Two movements from W.A. Mozart’s Oboe Concerto in C Major, K. 314 follow, featuring Northwest Sinfonietta Youth Concerto Competition winner Sebastian Kelzenberg. Now considered a popular and successful concerto for oboe, somehow K.314 was lost during Mozart’s lifetime and was “rediscovered” in the 1920’s in Salzburg, Austria by Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein. The second movement, in typical Mozartian fashion, is expressive and operatic in nature with delicately balanced phrases; the playful third movement features a theme later reused by Mozart in his opera “Abduction from the Seraglio.”

Kelzenberg is an award-winning young oboist from Washington state. He was winner of the Music Teachers National Association woodwind competition in 2019, a Merit Award recipient from the YoungArts Foundation, and was grand prize winner of the 2020 King FM/Seattle Chamber Music Society Young Artist Awards.

David Lockington’s “Violet Viola Concerto” featuring soloist Libor Ondras closes the program. The concerto is named after Lockington’s first granddaughter, Violet, who was born while he was composing the piece. Two days after her birth, a lullaby appeared to Lockington, which he wrote down and took to Ondras to play; that lullaby became the focus of the concerto’s second movement. The first movement, an “appassionata,” evokes a feeling the composer associated with Eastern European expression. The third and final movement, which Lockington describes as a “stomping type of dance” evokes a sense of travel. The concerto was premiered in 2019 by the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra (Grand Rapids, Michigan) and composed for soloist Libor Ondras.

Soloist Libor Ondras is a viola recitalist, conductor and educator. He began his studies with the famed violist Yuri Bashmet at the Moscow Conservatory as a recipient of a Slovak Ministry of Culture fellowship. Ondras continued his studies at the Academy of Music Arts in Prague and holds a doctorate from the University of Houston (Texas). He is currently associate professor, string specialist and director of orchestras at Grand Rapids Community College in Grand Rapids, Mich.

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