GVO Performs Orchestral Brilliance Feat. George Curran In Brubeck's Prague Concerto

The Greenwich Village Orchestra (GVO) continues its 2018-2019 season with Orchestral Brilliance, led by Music Director Barbara Yahr, on Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 3:00pm at All Saints Church. The program features New York Philharmonic bass trombonist George Curran as soloist in Chris Brubeck's Prague Concerto; Richard Strauss's lush, romantic Suite from Der Rosenkavalier; and Debussy's impressionistic Nocturnes led by Assistant Conductor Eric Mahl.

Future GVO concerts this season include The Earth In Context on Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 3:00pm featuring principal trumpet Phil Parsons and English hornist Jason Smoller in Copland's Quiet City and a chamber music concert on March 15, 2019 at the Tenri Cultural Institute.

George Curran became the bass trombonist of the New York Philharmonic in June 2013 after serving in that role with the orchestra during the previous season. Prior to that, he was a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and a fellow with the New World Symphony.

Curran has participated in several recording projects recently, starting with an Atlanta Trombone Project recording titled Roadwork. This project resulted in the formation of the Southeast Trombone Symposium, an annual week-long summer workshop at Columbus State University (CSU). Following that recording, he was a soloist on a disc titled A Beautiful Noise, which featured prominent trombone soloists performing with the CSU Trombone Choir. In 2017, Curran released a full length solo CD called Vital Signs, which contains works by Gillingham, Gershwin, Bourgeois, Pierce, and Verhelst. Another CD, Legacy, was released concurrently by members of the Southeast Trombone Symposium, on which Curran is featured prominently throughout.

As a soloist, Curran has premiered several new works written for him, most importantly the title track of his solo CD. Written by David Gillingham and called Vital Signs of Planet Earth, Curran premiered the piece with the Central Michigan University Wind Ensemble, and has performed it several times since, including in Carnegie Hall. He was twice a soloist and judge at the Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival in South Korea, and was a featured soloist and clinician at the prestigious Slide Factory in Rotterdam. This past year he was featured at several major workshops, including the International Trombone Festival, the Arctic Trombone Festival, and the Spanish Trombone Festival and Competition. Curran has also performed concertos with bands at the American Trombone Workshop and the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, as well as with many collegiate and local ensembles.

A native of Farmington Hills, Michigan, George Curran received his bachelor's degree in music education on euphonium from Central Michigan University and a master's degree in performance on bass trombone from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His principal teachers have included John Rojak and Peter Norton. He is an S.E. Shires Trombone artist, and is on the faculty of Rutgers University, Manhattan School of Music, and Mannes School of Music.

Now in its 32nd season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances. The GVO was founded in 1986 by a group of musicians from the New York Metropolitan area. The 70-member community orchestra is made up of accountants, actors, artists, attorneys, carpenters, editors, physicians, professors, photographers, computer programmers, retirees, scientists, students, and teachers, among others. Now in its 32nd season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances.

The GVO regularly performs with internationally acclaimed soloists. In recent years, the orchestra has performed alongside soloists such as violinists Andrés Cárdenes, Itamar Zorman, and Hye-Jin Kim; cellists Edward Arron, Raman Ramakrishnan, David Heiss, and Brook Speltz; soprano Christine Goerke; mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Johnson Cano and Naomi O'Connell; baritone Jesse Blumberg; trumpet soloist Brandon Ridenour; and more.

Now in her seventeenth season with the GVO, Music Director Barbara Yahr continues to lead the orchestra to new levels of distinction. With blockbuster programming and internationally renowned guest artists, the GVO under Barbara's baton, has grown into an innovative, collaborative institution offering a full season of classical music to our local community.

A native of New York, Yahr's career has spanned from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Her previous posts include Principal Guest Conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, Resident Staff Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony under Maestro Lorin Maazel and conductor of the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra. She has appeared as a guest conductor with such orchestras as the Bayerische Rundfunk, Dusseldorf Symphoniker, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Frankfurt Radio, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Janacek Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, and the National Symphony in Washington D.C. She has also conducted the orchestra in Anchorage, Calgary, Chattanooga, Columbus, Detroit, Flint, Louisiana, New Mexico, Lubbock, Richmond as well as the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber, Rochester Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony and the Chautauqua Festival Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared in Israel conducting in both Jerusalem and Elat and as an opera conductor, has led new productions in Frankfurt, Giessen, Tulsa, Cincinnati, Minnesota and at The Mannes School of Music in NYC. She has coached the actors on the set of the Amazon Series, Mozart in the Jungle, and last season, conducted the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Yahr is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Middlebury College where she studied piano and philosophy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Max Rudolf and an MM in Music Theory from the Manhattan School of Music. She was a student of Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock, Maine.

Yahr's commitment to finding new ways to reach a broader population with music ultimately led her into the field of music therapy. She is a Board Certified Music Therapist, with an MA in music therapy from NYU and post-graduate certification from the world-renowned Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy? in New York City. Her pioneering, community music therapy project, Together in Music, brings orchestral music to the special needs community with uniquely interactive programs. Barbara is married to Alex Lerman and has two adult step-children, Abe and Dania, and a 16 year-old son, Ben.

Eric Mahl is the Music Director of the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra (WCYO), Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Third Street Music School Settlement, Artistic Director of the Harmony Program Youth Orchestra North (HPYO), Artistic Director of the New Jersey Young Artists Ensembles (NJYAE), and assistant conductor of the Greenwich Village Orchestra in New York, NY.

Mahls' past positions include assistant conductor to the contemporary music ensemble Orchestre 21, in Montreal QC, and Urban Playground Chamber orchestra in New York, New York, Conductor of the Fredonia Symphonia, cover conductor for the Orchard Park Symphony in Buffalo, NY, and assistant to all orchestral and operatic activities at SUNY Fredonia, in Fredonia, NY. He has had guest conducting experiences with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, Greenwich Village Orchestra, The Chelsea Symphony, Urban Playground orchestra, and the University Orchestras of the College Conservatory of Music at Cincinnati (CCM), Orchestra de l'Universite de Montreal, and SUNY Fredonia.

Mahl received his Bachelors of Music in Education from Ithaca College and continued his studies both at Universite de Montreal and the State University of New York at Fredonia, where he received his master's degree. He has studied with some of the foremost conducting pedagogues in the United States including Marin Alsop, James Ross, Harold Farberman, Neil Varon, Marc Gibson, Larry Rachleff, Don Schleicher, Jean-Francois Rivest, Paolo Bellomia, and Joeseph Gifford. He has participated in workshops and competitions in the United States, Canada, the Czech Republic; at the Eastman School of Music, College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, and Bard College. Mahl's Primary instrument is the trumpet, although he is well-schooled in all the orchestral instruments. He continues to perform in orchestral, jazz, and chamber music settings. Mahl is an outdoor enthusiast, and accomplished cook, and an avid runner.

To post a comment, you must register and login.