Spring concerts planned at Bliss

the vindicator

YOUNGSTOWN — Aurista Chamber Music, a New York ensemble, will headline the New Music Society’s annual spring concerts Wednesday through Friday. The performers are Thomas Osuga, a pianist and Dana School of Music alumnus, and cellist Andrea Lee. Also appearing will be British composer Paul Mealor, who will present several lectures and seminars and will work individually with Dana composition students during his week’s residency.

Osuga lives in New York and is on the faculty at Mannes College of Music and at the Diller-Quaile School of Music. He is curator of the Puffin Foundation “On The Rise” Concert Series and is the artistic director of the Golden Key International Music Festival, New York Division.

Lee made her debut as an orchestral soloist at age 6, winning the Birmingham-Bloomfield Symphony Competition in her native Michigan. Since then she has won numerous awards such as the Bach Society Prize, and has performed as soloist and chamber musician at the University Club and Goethe Institute in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston and the Museum Kranenbergh in Holland.

Mealor, who teaches at Aberdeen University in Scotland, has been commissioned by major performers such as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Britten Sinfonia, Mika Takehara, and the Gemini Ensemble. In 1997 he established the successful Northop Festival of Music and in 2005, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, created the University of Aberdeen Music Prize for Composition.

Misook Yun, a soprano and Dana faculty member, will be guest artist in Mealor’s “Between Eternity and Time,” a setting of poems by Emily Dickinson. She will be accompanied by pianist Joo-hwa Lee. Yun, who performs nationally, is known for her solo and operatic appearances. She starred in Opera Western Reserve’s production of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” in November.

Kathryn Umble, a flutist and Dana faculty member, will perform Dana composer Robert Rollin’s “Five Pieces for Flute and Piano on Legends of the Seneca Indians,” which she performed last March on tour in New York with Aurista Chamber Music. Rollin’s piece was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by its publisher, Seesaw Music. The piece also received the Ohio Governor’s Award for Creative Excellence at a special ceremony with the governor.

The Dana Chorale, directed by Hae-Jong Lee, will perform Paul Mealor’s “Ave Maria,” and Frank Ticheli’s “Earth Song.” Ticheli, a former guest composer at the Dana New Music Festival, teaches at the University of South California. Graduate student Dong-Hyun Son will guest conduct both works.

Wednesday’s concert will include several premieres. Clarinetist Richard Zacharias, a composer and member of the New Music Guild, will play his “Little Romp,” with Daniel Brandt on euphonium. His Sonata for Viola and Piano, second movement, will be performed by senior Wendy Portis, viola, and Tim Webb, piano.

Junior composition major Daniel Brandt’s “Cradle Song” will be premiered by senior Lauren Hess, soprano, and pianist Joo-hwa Lee. Junior Brandon Loewit’s work for solo violin will be premiered by Dana faculty member Gwyneth Rollin. Aurista Chamber Music will present Ohio premieres of Robert Rollin’s Sonata for Cello and Piano.

Both of Thursday’s concerts will contain a blend of music of varying styles. The Friday performance will feature Mealor’s “Borderlands Trio,” performed by Aurista Chamber Music and joined by Dana senior Wendy Portis, viola. Portis performs as a freelance professional in the region and has been a mainstay of the New Music Society for years.