North/South Chamber Orchestra Will Perform a New Year's Concert

North/South Consonance, Inc. kicks off the New Year with a free-admission concerts on Sunday afternoon January 13 when the North/South Chamber Orchestra will perform four compositions by composers from the US and Venezuela. Featured will be music by Christopher James, Max Lifchitz, Alex Rodriguez and John Winsor.

The event will start at 3 PM and end approximately at 4:30 PM. It will be held at the auditorium of Christ and St. Stephen's Church (120 West 69th Street) in Manhattan. The auditorium is ADA accessible. No tickets or reservations needed.

The concert will feature four recent compositions:

• Chritopher James' Ode for violin and ensemble was completed in 2018. The unabashedly post-romantic work is a virtuosic tour the force for the soloist and ensemble. Long-time North/South violinist Claudia Schaer will be the soloist for the occasion.
• Max Lifchitz's Yellow Ribbons No. 50 belongs to a series of compositions began during the 1979 American hostage crisis in Iran. In the manner of a "concerto for orchestra" the work affords opportunities for technical display to all the players of the ensemble.
• Alex Rodriguez's Continental Suite for guitar and chamber orchestra will feature as soloist the Venezuelan-American guitarist Hermann Hudde in his first New York appearance. Rodriguez is a Venezuelan guitarist, jazz-musician and composer who employs Latin American idioms in his listener-friendly works.
• John Winsor's Chamber Symphony is an exciting four-movement tour de force for the ensemble being heard for the first time. Based in Virginia Beach, Winsor is active as clarinetist and composer and is now retired from active duty in the US Army.

Since its inception in 1980, the North/South Consonance, Inc. has brought to the attention of the New York City public over 1,000 works by composers hailing from the Americas and elsewhere representing a wide spectrum of aesthetic views. Its activities are made possible in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs as well as the generosity of numerous individual donors.