Temple University Symphony Orchestra Performs In Alice Tully Hall, Features Two NY Premieres

Two New York premieres will be featured in a concert by the Temple University Symphony Orchestra on Friday, April 9, 2010, at 8 p.m. in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall (Broadway at 65th St., Manhattan). One of the works, Ansel Adams: America (in its New York premiere) by jazz great Dave Brubeck and his son, Chris, will feature 100 projected images by the eminent American photographer. The all-American program also includes works by Bill Cunliffe (also a New York premiere), Samuel Barber, and Leonard Bernstein.

The Temple University Symphony Orchestra, led by music director Luis Biava, is returning to New York City for the fourth time. The orchestra is part of the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University (in Philadelphia).

Tickets, $35 to $20; $10 for students, seniors and wheelchair patrons, are available at the Alice Tully Hall Box Office (after 21 January 2010); by calling (212) 721-6500; or online: www.lincolncenter.org

"This concert is a celebration of the American cultural landscape," said Dr. Robert T. Stroker, Dean of the College. "Providing students with opportunities to perform new works by major American composers is one of the many ways Boyer fosters and supports their future careers as professional musicians."

Boyer is part of the orchestral consortium that commissioned the Brubeck work. Ansel Adams: America, through the 100 photographs, chronicles Adams' life and work. After its world premiere performances, the Sacramento (California) Press described Ansel Adams: America as "a piece that fills the senses while evoking nostalgia and hope...When the final moonlit mountain went dark, the music stopped and the full house erupted... It also includes musical references to Adams' early mentors, Bach and Chopin... The effect is both inspiring and humbling."

Also on the program is a second commission: fourth stream...La Banda (The Band), by 2010 Grammy®-nominated composer and arranger Bill Cunliffe, for orchestra, jazz combo and solo trumpet, to be performed by Grammy® winner Terell Stafford. Rounding out the concert are works by Leonard Bernstein and by Samuel Barber, whose centenary will be observed in 2010.

On March 21, 2010, in Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, the Temple University Symphony Orchestra will give the world premiere of fourth stream...La Banda (The Band) and the Philadelphia premiere of Ansel Adams: America. The orchestra's last New York appearance was in 2008 in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall with Luis Biava conducting and Ricardo Morales as soloist.

The April 9 program is as follows:

Temple University Symphony Orchestra
Luis Biava, Conductor

BARBER - Essay No. 2, Op. 17

BERNSTEIN - On the Town: Three Dance Episodes

BRUBECK - Ansel Adams: America
[New York Premiere]

CUNLIFFE - fourth stream...La Banda (The Band)
[New York Premiere]
Terell Stafford, trumpet

About Luis Biava
Luis Biava served as conductor-in-residence for The Philadelphia Orchestra from 1994-2004, where he also served as principal second violin for nearly two decades. He has enjoyed long associations with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, South America, and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. He has been music director and conductor of the Temple University Symphony Orchestra since 1986.

Maestro Biava is a regular guest conductor with Vermont's Mozart Festival, Brevard Music Center, Casals Festival, and is the music director of the Festival Orquesta Sinfonica Juvenil de las Americas, a festival held every June as an educational branch of the Casals Festival. Since 2003, he has served as senior administrator and faculty of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan.

Maestro Biava has received The Philadelphia Orchestra's C. Hartman Kuhn Award for demonstrating "both musical ability and enterprise of such character as to enhance the musical standards and reputation of The Philadelphia Orchestra;" the Comcast Newsmaker of the Year for the Arts Award; the Arts Recognition Award from the Society for Performing Arts of the Media (PA) Theater; the Order of Merit from Italy; and the Medal of San Carlos, from the President of the Republic of Colombia.

About Temple University Symphony Orchestra
Under the leadership of music director Luis Biava, the Temple University Symphony Orchestra is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students who study and perform a full range of orchestral works. Students also perform with Temple's Opera Theater and the Department of Choral Activities in major performances on and off campus. Orchestra alumni hold positions with many renowned orchestras including The Philadelphia, Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras; the Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Houston, Cincinnati, National and Hungarian Symphony Orchestras; the Hong Kong, Israel, Malaysia and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras; and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

In addition to local and greater Philadelphia area performances, the Temple University Symphony Orchestra performs at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, and Carnegie Hall.

About Dave Brubeck
A Grammy® Lifetime Achievement award winner for his innovative work in jazz, Dave Brubeck is also a composer of many fully notated works including ballet suites, a string quartet, orchestral compositions and large-scale works for chorus and orchestra. He is a graduate of the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where recently a Brubeck Institute has been established to continue his legacy in music.

Following Army service in World War II, Mr. Brubeck studied composition with the French composer, Darius Milhaud, who encouraged him to compose using the languages of jazz as well as classical music. This led to the founding of the experimental Dave Brubeck Octet. In 1954, Time Magazine acknowledged Dave Brubeck's achievements in jazz with a cover story on him and his quartet that included saxophonist Paul Desmond.

Since that time, Dave Brubeck has received many honors internationally, including honorary degrees from universities in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, England and Canada, and a place in the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. In 2006, he received the prestigious Laetare Award from Notre Dame University. He is recognized as a Jazz Master by the NEA and was honored as a "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress. President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of the Arts and he has been similarly honored by the governments of France, Italy and Austria. In 2008, Condoleeza Rice presented him with the U. S. State Department Benjamin Franklin Award in recognition of his role as musical ambassador. In 2009, Dave Brubeck was a Kennedy Center honoree.

About Chris Brubeck
Composer and multi-instrumentalist Chris Brubeck has earned international acclaim as a performer and leader of his groups, The Brubeck Brothers Quartet and Triple Play. The Chicago Tribune wrote that Chris is "a composer with a real flair for lyrical melody - a 21st Century Lenny Bernstein."

Recent premieres and commissions include: "Mark Twain's World: A Symphonic Journey for Orchestra and Genuine Thespians;" "Quiet Heroes - A Symphonic Salute to the Flag Raisers of Iwo Jima;" "Music is the Power;" "Spontaneous Combustion: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra;" and "From the Blues to Beyond." His first two trombone concertos were recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, with Chris as soloist.

Chris Brubeck is the recipient of the several ASCAP awards including the Deems Taylor Award and a Distinguished Achievement Award from Arizona State University. He has served as composer-in-residence at the Henry Mancini Institute and has been named a "Music Alive Composer-in-Residence."

About Ansel Adams
Photographer and conservationist Ansel Easton Adams was born in San Francisco on February 20, 1902. Highly resistant to "regular education," the boy was taken out of school in 1915 and, from then on, gained his education from a combination of personal study/exploration and private tutors. In 1916, the family made a trip to Yosemite, which proved to be a seminal experience. He decided to become a concert pianist in 1925, but later abandoned that goal and devoted his life to photography. In 1932, he founded the f/64 group with photographer Edward Weston and developed unique techniques to obtain maximum tonal range from black-and-white film. His visionary photographs of western landscapes, inspired by that early trip to Yosemite, led to three Guggenheim grants to photograph the national parks (1944-58). Mr. Adams moved to Carmel, California, in 1962 and, a few years later, led the establishment of Friends of Photography. A lifelong conservationist, he served on the Sierra Club Board from 1934-1971. Ansel Adams died on April 22, 1984.

About Bill Cunliffe
Composer, arranger and jazz pianist Bill Cunliffe has performed and toured with some of the biggest names in jazz: Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, Marian McPartland and Joshua Redman. He has arranged for and performed with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. He regularly tours and records with his own ensembles, Imaginacion and Trimotif. Mr. Cunliffe is a 2010 Grammy®-nominee for Best Instrumental Arrangement.

Bill Cunliffe is the recipient of a Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award, numerous National Endowment for the Arts grants, and three Grammy® nominations. His CDs have all charted on nationwide jazz polls and his instructional books have become part of the standard reference library for musicians. He is a Baldwin Piano Artist.

Mr. Cunliffe studied piano with the great Mary Lou Williams at Duke University and holds a master's degree from the Eastman School of Music. He taught at Central State University and Temple University and is currently Associate Professor of Music at Cal State Fullerton.

www.billcunliffe.com

About Terell Stafford
Terell Stafford has been hailed as "one of the great players of our time, a fabulous trumpet player," by piano legend McCoy Tyner.

Mr. Stafford has performed with some of the biggest names in jazz: Bobby Watson, Shirley Scott, McCoy Tyner, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath and Diana Krall on her 2006 Grammy®-nominated CD. He is currently a member of the 2009 Grammy® award winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and the Clayton Brothers and Frank Wess Quintets, and performs and tours regularly with the Terell Stafford Quintet.

Terell Stafford has appeared on television (The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and You Bet Your Life with Bill Cosby), played on the soundtrack for the feature film, A Bronx Tale, and is slated to perform as featured guest for National Public Radio's popular series, Billy Taylor's Jazz at the Kennedy Center. He also serves as a member of the resident faculty at the prestigious Vail Foundation's ‘Vail Jazz Party' in Colorado and is an instructor and mentor for Jazz at Lincoln Center's "Essentially Ellington" High School Band Festival.

Mr. Stafford formerly taught at the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies and is currently Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Studies at Temple University. He studied at the University of Maryland and holds a master of music education degree from Rutgers University.

www.terellstafford.com