Music from Salem Cello Seminar May 27-June 3, 2012

the cello seminar

Music From Salem, the Brown Farm
154 Priest Road, Salem, New York

May 27-June 3, 2012

Cello Seminar concert Sunday June 3, 2pm
At Hubbard Hall, Cambridge NY

Faculty

Rhonda Rider, cellist (Triple Helix; faculty, The Boston Conservatory)

Judith Gordon, pianist (faculty, Smith College)

David Russell, cellist (faculty, Wellesley College; Firebird Ensemble; Furious Band)

The Cello Seminar is designed to explore music written for the cello by twentieth and twenty-first century composers. The wide range of repertoire, from classics to works on the cutting edge, will include pieces by such composers as Carter, Hyla, Harvey, Mackey, Jolas, Webern, Harbison and Tower. Works for solo cello and cello ensemble will be preformed at the end of the week in Hubbard Hall, a beautifully restored 19th-Century Vaudeville Hall in Cambridge, New York. Located at the Brown Farm in rural New York, the seminar is open to young professional and professionally-bound cellists.

Daily Schedule

The daily schedule will consist of open lessons, rehearsals and masterclasses. Topics will include Cello Seminar by Susan Alancraig contemporary techniques andscore analysis from the performer’s perspective, exploration of the tonal and technical range of the instrument, as well as some basics to cello playing such as bow control, ease and security in shifting and practice techniques. Discussions will cover such topics as making a living as a cellist, orchestra auditions, the ins and outs of chamber music groups and programming contemporary music. Participants will prepare approved solo and ensemble repertoire as well as brief introductory talks for a public performance in Hubbard Hall. Participants will be encouraged to take risks, extending their techniques and broaden their concepts.

The Cello Seminar Fees: $750 for tuition, room (double occupancy) and board at the Brown Farm. Some scholarship is available. The Brown Farm offers a vegetarian cuisine prepared from locally grown produce.

For a list of suggested repertoire please contact: Rhonda Rider
E-mail: rhondarider@gmail.com

The Faculty

Cellist Rhonda Rider, is a founding member of the Naumburg Award winning Lydian Quartet, with whom she played for over twenty years, Her chamber music and solo recordings have been nominated for Grammy Awards and cited as Critic's Choice in both the New York Times and Boston Globe. As a soloist she won the Concert Artists Guild Award as well as an Aaron Copland Recording Grant. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Corcoran Gallery, Wigmore Hall (London), Library of Congress, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and has been a guest artist with the Boston Chamber Music Society and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Chamber Music Series. Dedicated to the performance of new music, Ms. Rider has premiered works by such composers as John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Steve Mackey and Elliott Carter. During the summer months, she performs and teaches at Music From Salem (NY), Green Mountain Festival (VT), and is the cello coach for the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong. In 2011 she will be Artist-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park where she will premiere eleven solo cello pieces commissioned for her residency.

Rider is the Chair of Chamber Music and on the Cello Faculty at The Boston Conservatory, she also teaches doctoral candidates at Boston University and is Artist-in-Residence at Wellesley College with her piano trio Triple Helix.

Pianist Judith Gordon gave her New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Introductions series. She has been heard as soloist with Boston Pops, ProArte Chamber Orchestra, Civic Symphony of Boston, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Among her colleagues in recital and chamber music are violinists Rose Mary Harbison and Andrew Kohji Taylor; violists James Dunham, Cynthia Phelps, and Marcus Thompson; cellists Andres Diaz, Yo-Yo Ma, and Rhonda Rider; vocalists
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, James Maddalena, and Lisa Saffer; the Borromeo and Lydian String Quartets; and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She has been featured in concerts and on recordings with Essential Music, Boston Musica Viva, and Collage New Music. Gordon has participated in festivals including Charlottesville, Rockport, Santa Fe, Spoleto, and Token Creek. A graduate of New
England Conservatory, Judith Gordon was named Musician of the Year by the Boston Globe in their “Best of 1996 Classical”.

Cellist David Russell maintains a vigorous schedule both as soloist and as collaborator in the U.S. and Europe. He was appointed to the teaching faculty of Wellesley College in 2005 and currently serves as Director of Chamber Music. He served as Assistant Principal 'cello with the Tulsa Philharmonic and on the teaching faculty of Oklahoma City University from 2001 to 2003. As a member of the Grammy-nominated Eaken Trio, formerly in residence at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, he has toured extensively in France, Germany, Italy and England. A strong advocate and performer of new music, Mr. Russell has performed with such ensembles as Phantom Arts Ensemble for American Music, Dinosaur Annex, Collage New Music, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Music on the Edge, AUROS Group for New Music, Firebird Ensemble, Notariotous, and the Fromm Foundation Players at Harvard. With violinst Rolf Schulte and pianist Geoffrey Burleson, he is in residence at the Composers’ Recording Insitute at Cleveland State University.

Recent projects include performances of concertos by Chen YI (with BMOP) and Ligeti (Ithaca College) the premieres new concertos by Laurie San Martin (with Fort Worth Symphony) and Derek Hurst (with BMOP), residencies at the University of California-Davis, the University of Illinois and the Icicle Creek Center for Chamber Music and recordings of works by Lee Hyla, Tamar Diesendruck, Curtis Hughes and Eric Moe.