Contacts:
Nicole Gallego
New Haven Symphony Orchestra
203.931.2991
ngallego@newhavensymphony.org
Amistad Remembrance
New Haven, CT, February 5, 2009: Join the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Music Director William Boughton for Amistad Remembrance, Thursday, February 26, 2009, 7:30pm, Woolsey Hall, New Haven. Amistad Remembrance honors those that fought bravely for their freedom from the bonds of slavery. On the program: Duke Ellington’s The River Suite, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in G Minor featuring French violin extraordinaire Philippe Graffin and Joseph Schwantner’s New Morning for the New World—Daybreak of Freedom with WTNH News Channel 8 Anchor, Keith Kountz as narrator.
The concert also highlights the young musicians of the Amistad Academy String Ensemble. The budding musicians of the Amistad Academy String Ensemble will perform on stage alongside the musicians of the NHSO, performing Marsha Chusmir Shapiro’s moving work, African Accents. Since September, Amistad Academy String Ensemble has participated in music workshops led by Music Director William Boughton, and the NHSO string sections.
Philippe Graffin is known as a peerless interpreter of French repertoire and an advocate of rare and contemporary music. In addition to building a reputation as one of France’s finest violinists, Graffin has rediscovered original settings of such classics as Chausson’s Poème and Ravel’s Tzigane and has brought back to life the forgotten concertos of Fauré and Saint-Saëns and such rarely performed works as Bruno Walter’s violin sonata. He is founder and artistic director of Consonances, the international chamber music festival of Saint-Nazaire in Brittany, and has been invited to be Artistic Director of several chamber music projects at London’s Wigmore Hall. He appears at major European and American chamber music festivals, including the BBC Proms Chamber Music series. As a concerto soloist, he has appeared all over Europe with major orchestras.
Amistad Academy, the Achievement First flagship, is a rigorous, college-preparatory public charter school serving middle school students from throughout the city of New Haven. Recognized by the Connecticut Board of Education and local, regional and national media for closing the achievement gap, Amistad Academy helps its urban students achieve dramatic breakthroughs in academic achievement and personal conduct, putting them firmly on the college bound path. The Amistad Academy Ensemble is comprised of 22 student’s grades 7 to 8 and is led by Orchestra Director Vesna Mehinovic.
Keith Kountz has been a fixture at News Channel 8 for more than two decades. He currently co-anchors News Channel 8 at 5pm with Jocelyn Maminta and News Channel 8 at 10pm with Ann Nyberg. He began his career at WTNH as a general assignment reporter in 1987 and has served as morning and weekend anchor during his tenure at News Channel 8. Before coming to Connecticut, Keith worked as a reporter and anchor at television stations in South Carolina, Georgia and New York. Keith has been actively involved in a number of community service organizations in the New Haven area and has received more than 50 professional and community service awards.
Single tickets ($10-65) can be purchased through the NHSO Box Office at the Shubert Theater, 247 College Street in New Haven, (203) 562-5666 or by visiting newhavensymphony.org.
All programs subject to change without notice.
