The Strings of Modus Operandi Orchestra to Perform at Merkin Hall in November

On Wednesday, November 30th from 6:30-8:00 pm, The Strings of Modus Operandi Orchestra (MOO) will perform in their Merkin Hall debut. The program includes two works by Jessie Montgomery (recently named Composer of the Year by Musical America), Starburst and Strum; as well as two works by Dmitri Shostakovich - Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a (arr. Barshai) and the Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 35; as well as Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings by Richard Strauss.

The performance will take place at Merkin Hall, 129 West 67th Street (between Amsterdam & Broadway) in New York City. Tickets are $30, $20 for Students and Seniors, and are available at bit.ly/modus2022 or by calling 212.501.3330. For more information about MOO, please visit moonyc.org.

COMPLETE PROGRAM:

J. Montgomery: Starburst and Strum

Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a (arr. Barshai)

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 35 (Alexandre Moutouzkine and Eganam Segbefia, soloists)

R. Strauss: Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings

MOO Modus Operandi Orchestra, The Strings (moonyc.org)

MOO, or Modus Operandi Orchestra, is comprised of some of the finest players in the New York City area. Led by internationally acclaimed conductor Justin Bischof, their concerts have been met with critical acclaim and a dedicated audience following. MOO's mission is to provide the opportunity for the finest freelance musicians in New York City to perform great symphonic and operatic repertory as well as contemporary works and world premieres with their colleagues. MOO is the resident orchestra in New York City at St. Mary Church. Moo previously presented an Annual Children's Benefit for 10 years to help at-risk children and raised over $1,000,000 USD. Their Gala 10th Anniversary Concert featured soloists from the Metropolitan Opera in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. MOO has performed several full productions, including Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.

Justin Bischof, Founder, Artistic Director & Conductor (justinbischof.com)

New York City resident Justin Bischof is one of the most eclectic artists of his generation. He is an internationally acclaimed orchestral & opera conductor as well as concert organist, pianist and improviser. He has performed in some of the world's great venues including New York's Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Lincoln Center, Rose Theatre Lincoln Center, Tonhalle of Zurich, Eli Broad Theatre of Los Angeles, St. Paul's Cathedral London, Notre Dame Paris, Cologne Cathedral, to name a few. He has collaborated with some of the world's most prominent artists including Joshua Bell, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun and Roberta Peters. As an orchestral conductor, he was worked with numerous ensembles including National Arts Center Orchestra, The Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Vancouver Symphony, the Royal Symphony of Oman, the State Philharmonic Kavkazskiye of Russia, the WAAPA orchestra in Perth Australia, and the National Orchestra of Haiti. He made his Australian Opera Conducting Debut in Perth at the WAAPA leading a critically acclaimed production of the Australian Premiere of Robert Ward's Pulitzer Prize winning The Crucible. Other important opera premieres include the Hawaiian premiere of Menotti's The Medium and the Telephone, working with members of The Honolulu Symphony and Hawaii Opera Theatre. He is one of the profession's most respected organists and has concertized extensively. He has performed numerous premieres for solo organ and with chamber ensembles. He won the First Prize at the 2000 AGO International Organ Improvisation Competition and is a leading proponent of the craft with his all improvisation performances have been met with critical acclaim throughout the world. Bischof has performed and recorded with numerous orchestras including the Zurich Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony and the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt. Before COVID, he performed the Middle East premiere of Samuel Barber's Toccata Festiva for Orchestra and Organ in February 2019 at the Royal Opera House in Muscat Oman with the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt. Professor Bischof taught for many years at the esteemed Manhattan School of Music as well as Barnard College Columbia University. He is sought after as a guest professor for master classes around the world. He maintains a private conducting studio for gifted conductors. He serves on numerous boards including as Chair of the Alumni Council of MSM and Chair of the Conductors Retreat at Medomak.

Alexandre Moutouzkine, Piano (moutouzkine.com)

Mr. Moutouzkine has toured throughout Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Italy, and North and South America, as well as in China and Japan. In recent seasons, he has appeared as soloist with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Television Orchestra of Spain, Cleveland Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Valencia Philharmonic, the Gran Canaria and Tenerife symphonies in the Canary Islands, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Panama, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Cuba, the Israel Philharmonic, and the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra of the Czech Republic. The Dallas Morning News wrote of a performance by Russian-American pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine that he "played Brahms' Op. 117 Intermezzi more beautifully, more movingly, than I've ever heard them. At once sad, tender and noble, this was playing of heart-stopping intimacy and elegance." His performance of the Chopin Etudes in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory was recorded live and released on the Classical Music Archives label in Russia. Mr. Moutouzkine claimed top prizes at the Walter W. Naumburg, New Orleans, Cleveland, Montreal, Iturbi (Valencia), and Arthur Rubinstein international competitions, among others, and was a winner of Astral Artists' 2009 National Auditions. Recent highlights include debuts at the Great Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic in Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Symphoniker, a chamber music concert in Lincoln Center's Kaplan Penthouse with the Jasper String Quartet, an appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra on its Beyond the Score series, performances of complete solo works of Serge Rachmaninoff on the Carnegie Room series in New York, and recitals throughout Asia, including appearances in the Beijing Concert Hall and Japan's Yokohama Hall. Following the success of a performance of his own solo piano transcription of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, performed live alongside specially commissioned animation entitled Who Stole the Mona Lisa? at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, he made his New York premiere of the work at the 92 Street Y concert series and the Merkin Concert Hall in the 2014-15 season. Alexandre Moutouzkine holds undergraduate degrees from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover and Russia's Nizhny Novgorod Music Academy and a Master's degree and postgraduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky. He received a 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award from MSM and joined its faculty in September 2013.

Eganam Segbefia, Trumpet (everythingego.com)

Eganam "EGO" Segbefia got his start busking at the Grand Central Shuttle train station in 2015 as a member of MTA's Music Under New York program, and since then, has performed at notable venues across New York City such as The Greene Space, Cathedral of St. John The Divine, and the much-revered Carnegie Hall. Eganam was born in Lagos, Nigeria to Ghanaian parents, Moses and Dzineli, an Electrical Engineer and a Chef. His family migrated from Lagos to the United States in February 1999 after being chosen in the Diversity Immigrant green card lottery. As a teenager growing up in the Bronx, Eganam participated in after-school music programs and the Drum and Bugle Corps during the summer to safeguard himself from his rough neighborhood. Introduced to a wide array of instruments, he was drawn to the trumpet and recalls: "Initially, playing the trumpet was largely to hide my broken English vernacular from my peers so as not to be teased; but over the years, it has grown to be an extension of myself, which I now use to share my passion and love for music and my life experiences." Eganam achieved his Classical Trumpet Masters Degree from Manhattan School of Music and earned a Music Education Degree during his undergraduate years at South Carolina State University. Throughout the duration of his studies, his diligence rewarded him with winning multiple awards and scholarships: the Manhattan School of Music Educational Assistance Program Scholarship, South Carolina State University Marching Band Scholarship, SCSU Marching 101 Outstanding Musicianship Award, and the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music's Most Improved award. Most currently, Eganam competed and won Manhattan School of Music's prestigious Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition. By constantly persisting through struggles in his education and life experiences, Eganam developed his motto, "Inspiration Without Perspiration is Hallucination". Devoted to this mantra, Eganam is currently a member of the United Nations Orchestra and is pursuing his dream of becoming one of the world's premier soloists while using his growing platform to provide clinics and workshops to high school and college students.

Eiko Kano, Concertmaster (eikonyc.com)

Praised as an artist with "electrifying intensity and lyrical expression", Japanese violinist Eiko Kano is known for her sensational and dynamic performances. Eiko has a thriving international career as a soloist as well as a chamber musician frequently collaborating with distinguished artists such as principal oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic Albrecht Meyer, Eugene Drucker of the Emerson Quartet and Kenneth Cooper and Ani Kavafian. She is a top prizewinner of multiple international competitions and as a result of winning the Forval Scholarship, Eiko was granted the Stradivarius "Reinville" violin for 2 years. She currently serves as an assistant concertmaster in Grammy Award-winning Albany Symphony Orchestra as well as regularly plays in the New York Philharmonic. Eiko is the concertmaster and senior artistic advisor of Pegasus: The Orchestra based in New York. Eiko has received BM and MM degrees from Manhattan School of Music and is a long-time resident of New York. In 2016, she launched the critically acclaimed production titled A Manhattan Story (unique style of violin music with original storytelling). Winter was released in 2017 followed by Spring in 2018 and both CDs have been featured in the audio program on all international JAL flights. In 2018, Eiko founded a dynamic new ensemble, The New Yorkers, featuring Karén Hakobyan as her duo partner. Since then they have been performing extensively in USA and touring Japan for three consecutive seasons. As a recognition of her remarkable performances, Eiko was loaned the precious "Wilhelmj" Stradivarius violin by Nippon Music Foundation. Her rare and mesmerizing video production of Bach Chaconne filmed in the prestigious Kyoto temple Zenrin-ji (Eikando) with a costume designed by Junko Koshino was scheduled to be featured on all JAL International flights and it has been featured on STRAD Magazine. Her belief and passion to connect science and music influenced by her physicist farther led her to be appointed as the Musical Ambassador by prestigious OIST Foundation (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) in 2020 and also as Honorary Music Director by OIST in 2022.

Jessie Montgomery, Composer (jessiemontgomery.com)

An acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator, Jessie Montgomery is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21st-century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as "turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life" (The Washington Post). Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Some recent highlights include Shift, Change, Turn (2019) commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Coincident Dances (2018) for the Chicago Sinfonietta, and Banner (2014)-written to mark the 200th anniversary of "The Star-Spangled Banner"-for The Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation, which was presented in its UK premiere at the BBC Proms on 7 August 2021. Summer 2021 brought a varied slate of premiere performances, including Five Freedom Songs, a song cycle conceived with and written for Soprano Julia Bullock, for Sun Valley and Grand Teton Music Festivals, San Francisco and Kansas City Symphonies, Boston and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, and the Virginia Arts Festival (7 August); a site-specific collaboration with Bard SummerScape Festival and Pam Tanowitz Dance, I was waiting for the echo of a better day (8 July); and Passacaglia, a flute quartet for The National Flute Association's 49th annual convention (13 August). Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young African American and Latinx string players and has served as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Organization's flagship professional touring ensemble. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and a former member of the Catalyst Quartet, Jessie holds degrees from the Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a PhD Candidate in Music Composition at Princeton University. She is Professor of violin and composition at The New School. In May 2021, she began her three-year appointment as the Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.