St. Petersburg Palaces International Music Festival (Russia)

With support from USArtists International of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the PRISM Quartet makes its Russian debut in a concerto program at the St. Petersburg Palaces International Music Festival. PRISM will perform William Bolcom’s Concerto Grosso, and individual member of the Quartet will be featured in solo concerti. The program features the Taurida Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mikhail Golikov

PROGRAM

Alexander Glazunov
Concerto in E flat major for alto saxophone and string orchestra, Op. 109 (1934)
Soloist: Zachary Shemon

Heitor Villa-Lobos
Fantasia for tenor saxophone, three horns and strings (1948)
Soloist: Matthew Levy

Roshanne Etezady
Golden Spike for soprano saxophone and orchestra (2008)
Soloist: Timothy McAllister

Inttermission

Vincent d’Indy
Choral varié, Op.55 (1903)
Soloist: Taimur Sullivan

William Bolcom
Concerto Grosso for saxophone quartet and orchestra (2000)
Soloists: PRISM Quartet

TRANSLATED FROM FESTIVAL WEBSITE
International Fund “Palaces of St. Petersburg”
and Honored Artist of Russia Maria are Safariants

November 19, 2016 at 19 pm
The State Hermitage Museum, Armorial Hall
(Palace Sq., 2) concert of the International Music Festival

“Petersburg embankments”

November 19, 2016 will perform the most significant American team – the famous saxophone quartet the PRISM .

The ensemble of distinguished soloists under the direction set forth by Timur Sullivan. Each of them is an original, bright soloist. All they act separately as soloists and in the Quartet.
The musicians quartet has performed as soloist with the Detroit and Cleveland orchestras, collaborating with leading American conservatives, among them – the Curtis Institute of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory. Among the creative quartet partners – the leading contemporary artists and bands, jazz ensembles and rock bands, choirs and dance companies.

The composition of the quartet:
TIMOTHY McAllister, soprano saxophone
Zachary Shemona, alto saxophone
MATTHEW LEVY, tenor saxophone
Taimur Sullivan, baritone saxophone

The program – the Russian premiere of the Concerto for saxophone quartet William Bolkoma accompanied by a symphony orchestra and incendiary Suite George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” arranged for saxophone quartet and orchestra.

William Bolkiah – American composer and pianist, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, winner of the National Medal of Arts, winner of two Grammy Awards, and the Detroit Music Award – dedicated his concert musicians saxophone quartet PRISM. The work was a kind of hallmark of the ensemble. A variety of techniques of jazz and lyrical themes, and quotes on Gershwin and Porter make an incredible impression on the audience. PRISM Quartet performed this concert more than 20 times, and always with great success with the public, combined with rave reviews of American critics.

“An American in Paris” was written in 1928. This work is a fantasy that combines the features of the suite and a symphonic poem (with the last of her family latitude of blues themes, the presence of motivic connections).

A young American arrives in Paris and a beautiful spring morning goes on walk on the Champs-Elysees. At every step, he finds an occasion to admiration. And not the Louvre, not Versailles, not Trianon, – the usual bait of tourists – and simple Parisian streets with their bustle, hooters taxis, elegant crowd, immediate reaction of Parisians on any joke carried away by the hero of the symphonic poem by George Gershwin, the creation of which the composer was inspired by his trip to Europe.

In the first part of the concert the musicians will perform solo PRISM Quartet – one by one, accompanied by a symphony orchestra, presented to the audience the best examples of 20th century classical music for saxophone – Concerto Glazunov, Milhaud Scaramouche and other …

The cost of the concert tickets: 1500, 2000, 3000 rubles.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This engagement is supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support comes from a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.