Elaris Duo to Perform Music of Joel Feigin, Benefiting Sandy Hook Promise

The music of composer Joel Feigin will be performed by the Elaris Duo, violinist Larisa Elisha and cellist Steven Elisha, on Saturday, May 2 at 7:30 PM in Mary Flagler Cary Hall of The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street in New York, New York. This concert is presented as a fundraiser for Sandy Hook Promise, which was created in response to the Newtown, Connecticut school shootings.

Repertoire for this event will be the World Premiere of Feigin's Shifting Spirits (2010) duo for violin and cello, a special preview performance of his An Offering--for the families of Newtown (2013), with Steven Elisha, cello and Joel Feigin, piano and Meditation 1 from Lament Amid Silence (2009) for solo piano, performed by the composer.

Other selections performed by the Elaris Duo will be Duo for violin and cello (1925) by Erwin Schulhoff and Zoltan Kodaly's Duo for violin and cello, opus 7 (1914).

Admission to the May 2 concert is by donation, with a suggested donation of $20. For tickets, please visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1434131. For more information, call 516-586-3433 or visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1374972986165317/.

Joel Feigin is a composer whose works have been widely praised for their "very strong impact, as logical in musical design as they are charged with emotion and drama." (Opera Magazine). His latest opera, Twelfth Night, based on the play by William Shakespeare, has been produced twice this season, by the Opera Theater of DePaul University, and the Opera Theater of the University of California, Santa Barbara, where it was praised as "a magical score...sophisticated and playful...fresh and artistically satisfying". Feigin's first opera, Mysteries of Eleusis, was performed at the Moscow Conservatory and the Russian-American Operatic Festival. Commissions include a Fromm Commission for Aviv: Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, written for Yael Weiss, as well as other commissions for pianists Margaret Mills and Leonard Stein, two orchestral works for the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony, and many chamber works. His CDs include the North/South Recordings 2-CD set, Transience, as well as two major piano works performed by Margaret Mills in Meditations and Overtones on Cambria Master Recordings. Feigin's latest CD, Lament Amid Silence, on the MSR label (MS1413), and features violist Helen Callus. Professor of Composition at the University of California Santa Barbara, Dr. Feigin studied with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau and with Roger Sessions at The Juilliard School, and is a student of Zen Buddhism. His website is at http://www.joelfeigin.com.

The Elaris Duo has gained national and international renown through their various performances, live radio broadcasts and educational activities, including the Bergen International Festival, Sunflower Music Festival, the National Taiwan University of the Arts, Elaris Chamber Music Academy, as well as solo appearances with Hastings (Nebraska) Symphony, Topeka Symphony, Gulf Coast Symphony, Sunflower Music Festival Chamber Orchestra, Lawrence Chamber Orchestra and the Taiwan National Arts Orchestra. The duo has been featured at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Georgia Music Educators Association Conference and American String Teachers Association National Conferences. Their acclaimed MRS Classics release, Duo Virtuoso, was featured in Fanfare Magazine and many other leading publications and web syndications. Visit them at http://elarisduo.com/.

Sandy Hook Promise's mission is to protect children from gun violence so no other parent experiences the loss of their child by engaging and empowering parents and communities with targeted prevention programs in the areas of mental wellness early-identification & intervention, social & emotional development and firearm safety & security. They help their community by providing resources and programs that foster connection, resiliency and overall wellness. Visit them at http://www.sandyhookpromise.org/.