Sunday, May 16, 2010

Harold Jones Conducts Antara Ensemble at Weill Recital Hall in New York June 11 at 8 PM


[Lil' Lite O' Mine; Composers: Gabriel Fauré, Cécile Louis Chaminade, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, William Foster McDaniel, Claude Debussy, Traditional, Frédéric Chopin, Pierre Sancan, Erik Satie, Adolphus Hailstork, Franz Schubert, Paul-Henri Büsser; Arranger: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson; Harold Jones, flute; Colette Valentine, piano; Leonarda 355 (2005)]

AfriClassical has received a Press Release from the Antara Ensemble, founded and directed by Harold Jones, an African American flute player and conductor:

Friday, June 11, 2010 at 8 PM
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
154 West 57th Street, NYC
Works by Benjamin Britten, Gordon Jacob, Philip Lasser, William Foster McDaniel & Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The 14-member Antara Ensemble concludes its 16th season on Friday, June 11 at 8:00 p.m., at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, 154 West 57th Street, New York City. Antara’s founder/director, flutist Harold Jones, will conduct the ensemble in Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony; Philip Lasser’s Vocalise for Cello and Strings with cellist Eugene Moye; William Foster McDaniel’s Overture for String Orchestra; and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Concerto for Violin No. 4 in D, K. 218 with violinist Ashley Horne. Ariel Rudiakov will be guest conductor for Gordon Jacob’s Concerto for Flute and Strings, with Harold Jones as soloist. (Program subject to change.)

This concert is made possible through the generosity of the Weismann Foundation. Tickets are $35, seniors (62 and over) and students $25. For information and reservations: (212) 866-2545, or http://www.antaraensemble.com.

The 14-member ANTARA ENSEMBLE was formed by flutist Harold Jones to bring quality classical music at affordable prices to the culturally diverse neighborhoods of New York. The group performs a repertoire spanning centuries and including works by American, African-American, European and Third World composers.

A native of Chicago, HAROLD JONES has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Tully Hall, CAMI Hall and other New York venues, Jordan Hall in Boston, and throughout the U.S., Europe and Taiwan. He has appeared as flute soloist with The Bach Aria Orchestra, American Symphony, New York Sinfonietta, Brooklyn Philharmonia, National Orchestral Association, and other ensembles. Mr. Jones is on the faculties of the Westchester Conservatory of Music and Manhattanville College. His recordings on the Antara label include two LPs: “From Bach to Bazzini” and “Afternoon Fantasies”, and three CDs: “Let Us Break Bread Together”, “Just As I Am” and “Lil’ Lite O’ Mine”.

PHILIP LASSER attended Nadia Boulanger’s École d’Arts Americains in Fontainebleau, France. He graduated from Harvard College, and then moved to Paris to study composition with Boulanger’s closest colleague, Narcis Bonet, and piano with the legendary Gaby Casadesus. Later, at Columbia University, Lasser studied counterpoint and analysis with Jacques-Louis Monod. He received his doctorate in composition from The Juilliard School, where he worked with David Diamond. Lasser’s music has been performed by artists such as Elizabeth Futral, Simone Dinnerstein, Gerard Schwarz and Zuill Bailey, among many others. His “12 Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach” is on the best-selling Telarc CD of Simone Dinnerstein “The Berlin Concert”.

WILLIAM FOSTER McDANIEL received a Master of Music degree from Boston University; he also studied as a Fulbright Scholar with Jacques Fevrier in Paris. In musical theater, Mr. McDaniel has served as conductor for the Broadway and National Touring companies of Ain’t Misbehavin’, Timbuktu, Bubbling Brown Sugar and off-Broadway’s The Fantasticks. His larger works have been performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, New Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles.

Conductor/violist ARIEL RUDIAKOV is currently Music Director and Conductor of the Danbury Symphony Orchestra. He received his principal conducting training from Maestro David Gilbert. Mr. Rudiakov was a scholarship student in the Masters program at Yale University, completing his degree in 1991 as a full scholarship student at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. A founding member of the String Orchestra of New York City, he has held guest and permanent conducting posts with the Metropolitan Symphony, the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra and the Bergen Philharmonic. He is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division, the Michael Rudiakov Music Academy, and the Manchester (VT) Music Festival, where he has been the conductor of the Manchester Chamber Orchestra since 1989. He was appointed Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival in 2001.

A graduate of The Juilliard School, violinist ASHLEY HORNE performs regularly with the American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Bard Festival Orchestra, Westchester Symphony, and other ensembles in the New York area. He has been a recitalist at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and is first violinist of the Chanticleer String Quartet. Solo and chamber music performances have taken him to Spain, Portugal, the Azores Islands, Odessa and Istanbul.

EUGENE MOYE is Principal cellist of the American Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Opera Orchestra of New York and Westchester Philharmonic. He is also frequently sought after to play chamber music concerts. In addition, Mr. Moye has recorded with or backed up many popular music stars, among them Michael Jackson, Brittany Spears, Ricky Martin, Tony Bennet, Ray Charles and Kiss. [Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941) and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004) are profiled at AfriClassical.com]





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