PSO Chamber Concert with Chaleff & Zelman-Doring Set for 1/24

The Princeton Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series presents an afternoon of violin with sung and spoken word with PSO principal second violinist Alexander Chaleff, soprano Winnie Nieh, and poet Alexandra Zelman-Doring at the Institute for Advanced Study. The concert features works by composers Anna Clyne, Ralph Vaughn Williams, and Gustav Holst interspersed with Ms. Zelman-Doring's multi-lingual recitation of poetry related to the orchestra's season.

Alexander Chaleff is principal second violinist with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Previously, he was a rotating Concertmaster with New World Symphony and played in the Verbier Festival Orchestra. He also served as a concertmaster with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, New England Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, New England Conservatory Symphony, and Banff Festival Orchestra, among others. He has worked with notable conductors and composers including Kurt Masur, Michael Tilson Thomas, and John Williams and soloists such as Dawn Upshaw, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, and Joshua Bell. He holds a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

Soprano Winnie Nieh is a native of Hong Kong. She graduated from Harvard and received Associate diplomas from Trinity College London in piano, violin and voice at ages 13, 14 and 15. Gifted with perfect pitch and a "pure voice," she has performed for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and appeared as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Austrian Embassy. She made her European solo debut with legendary Maestro Helmuth Rilling in Bach's Cantata BWV 147. She won First Place in St. Andrews Arts Council (Canada)'s International Aria Competition, Third Place & Audience Favorite in Madison Early Music Festival's Handel Aria Competition, and was a National Finalist in New York Lyric Opera's Competition.

Ms. Nieh and Mr. Chaleff will be performing Ralph Vaughan Williams' Along the Field, a song cycle for voice and violin and Gustav Holst's Four Songs for Voice and Violin, Op. 35. Mr. Chaleff will also perform Anna Clyne's Rest These Hands, for solo violin and recitation with Ms. Zelman-Doring.

Ms. Zelman-Doring performs a selection of poetry including "A Coat" by William Butler Yeats, the inspiration for composer Anna Clyne's The Seamstress; Rosalía de Castro's "Lúa Descolorida," the basis for one of Osvaldo Golijov's Three Songs; "Maiden of the Rainbow" from Elias Lönnrot's compiled Kalevala which informed Jean Sibelius' Pohjola's Daughter; and an excerpt from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture recalls. She will be reciting the texts in the original languages.

Alexandra Zelman-Doring is a recent winner of the 2013 Financial Times/Bodley Head essay prize judged by Simon Schama, Tom Weldon, and Lucy Tuck, among others. She is the 2008 first-prize winner of the Glascock Poetry Prize which boasts Sylvia Plath and James Merrill among past winners. The writer studied at Brown University, Wadham College, Oxford, and holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia University. Her poems/texts have been set to music by composers such as Andile Khumalo and Jir?í Kader?ábek, and she collaborated with composer David Adamcyk to produce 'Cheval mémoire,' 2011, for solo piano, electronics, and sound installation. She is the author of numerous plays and is the artistic director of Throes Theater, www.throestheater.com, an international, non-profit theater company.

Through a special, ongoing partnership with the Institute, PSO Chamber Concerts are free and open to the public on select Sundays at 4:30 pm via advanced, ticketed reservations at princetonsymphony.org, three weeks prior to each concert. This concert will also be performed in Monroe on Monday, January 24 at 1 pm. The Princeton Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series includes performances for residents of the Stonebridge at Montgomery and Princeton Windrows retirement communities.

Ticketed reservations are necessary for the free PSO Chamber Series Concert Zelman-Doring & Chaleff at The Institute:

Sunday, January 24, 4:30 pm
Wolfensohn Hall
Institute for Advanced Study
Einstein Drive
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Free, with reserved ticketing (limit 2/household; children under 12 not admitted), order online at princetonsymphony.org or call 609-497-0020.

Monday, January 25, at 1 pm
Sponsored by The Monroe Township Cultural Arts Commission
Monroe Township Public Library
4 Municipal Plaza
Monroe Township, NJ 08831
Free and open to the public; www.monroetwplibrary.org or call (732) 521-5000.

Dates, times, programs, and artists subject to change.