Park Avenue Chamber Symphony Featuring Soprano Tamra Paselk Performs Beethoven, Barber and Bartok, 2/22

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony led by music director David Bernard will be performing a stimulating and provocative program of works by Beethoven, Barber and Bartok featuring American Soprano Tamra Paselk at All Saints Church in New York City on Saturday February 22nd at 8PM and Sunday February 23rd at 3PM.

The program will open with Beethoven's Second Symphony, through which Beethoven draws the listener into a struggle between past and future--between the classical symphony as it has been and what it will become through Beethoven's pen. Traditional features are combined with new and exciting contrasts and surprises--all with blinding energy. The program continues with Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 featuring Tamra Paselk. Based on text by James Agee, Samuel Barber's music sends the listener on a journey to the deep South--reminiscing through childhood and the grief of the loss of a loved one. Barber's music is truly sublime, captivating and poignant. Béla Bartók's Dance Suite, which concludes the program, is an exciting rhapsodic compilation of dances with Arabic, Wallachian and Hungarian melodies. Composed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the union of the Hungarian cities Buda and Pest in 1923, the Dance Suite was one of Béla Bartók's most popular and successful works.

"Our audience is in for a treat," says music director David Bernard. "This music exudes beauty and intensity, and Tamra Paselk will certainly deliver an unforgettable performance."

Tickets can be purchased online for this performance here: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?EID=&showCode=BRA27. Tickets also can be purchased at the door on the day of the show.

Known as the energetic and incisive Music Director of New York City's Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, David Bernard has performed in more than 20 countries on four continents, including a nine-city tour of the People's Republic of China with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony and guest conducting appearances with the China Conservatory Orchestra, the Long Island String Festival, the Massapequa Philharmonic, the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, the Putnam Symphony and the South Shore Symphony. A two-time First Prize Winner of the Orchestral Conducting competition of The American Prize, David Bernard's discography includes 17 albums spanning music from Vivaldi to Copland, and released on Amazon.com, iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody of which Fanfare Magazine acclaimed "David Bernard's interpretations are splendidly proportioned; from the first note to the last the listener feels that this is the way the whole work must go...balances are expertly judged and wonderfully blended...overall, distinguished and elegant music making."

Tamra Paselk, Soprano, has entertained audiences across the world as an operatic soprano with her unique interpretations of both newly developed and classic characters. She was most recently praised by the New York Concert Review for delivering a "consistently evocative, engrossing account of Britten's Les Illuminations" in her performance with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony. Equally at home on the operetta/theater stages, Ms. Paselk has been featured with Gilbert& Sullivan groups in both San Francisco and New York in addition to frequenting the works of Offenbach and, more recently, her own cabaret show.

Since its founding in 1999, the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony has built a loyal following, both in New York City and worldwide through its extensive catalog of recordings on iTunes, Naxos/ClassicsOnline, Amazon and Spotify. In 2011 the orchestra toured the People's Republic of China performing in 9 cities including Beijing, Qingdao, Dalian, Chaoyang, Jinzhou, Shenzhen, Shenyang and Xi'an.

Three time--FIRST PRIZE Winner of The American Prize Competition in Orchestral Performance (2011, 2012, 2013), the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony's performances were described by the judges as "extremely impressive, well-shaped. This ensemble performs incredibly difficult repertoire on a professional level." New York Critics have acclaimed Park Avenue Chamber Symphony performances as "Triumphant...polished...exquisite...with a strong sense of style and commitment...with the depth and fervor of the old school European orchestras."

The ensemble regularly features important soloists including Carter Brey (principal cellist, New York Philharmonic), David Chan (concertmaster, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Jon Manasse (clarinet soloist) and Whoopi Goldberg (Oscar Winning Actor and Entertainer), as well as emerging artists from Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music and Mannes. The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony performs at All Saints Church on the Upper East Side of NYC, with additional performances at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall.

Through its fundraising efforts, the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony has helped establish a new Scholarship Fund for students at the Juilliard School's Pre-College Division, as well as support The Harmony Program-a New York City organization that provides music lessons to economically disadvantaged children and is modeled after Venezuela's world-famous model of music education, "El Sistema".