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Press Releases
Antara Ensemble at Saint Peter's Lutheran Church, NYC 1/5/10
The 14-member Antara Ensemble, led by its music director, conductor/
flutist Harold Jones, will appear on Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 8:00 p.m., at Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church, 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street, New York City. The program will include Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerto Op. 6, No. 8 for String Orchestra (the “Christmas Concerto”), Johann Joachim Quantz’s Flute Concerto in G Major, Leos Janácek’s Idyll for String Orchestra, and the World Premiere of Ray Leslee’s Shakespeare Songs for Tenor, Flute & Strings. Guest conductor for the Quantz work will be Ariel Rudiakov, with Harold Jones as the flute soloist. Mr. Rudiakov will also conduct the Leslee work, with tenor Nathan Lee Graham and Harold Jones as soloists.
Tickets are $25; seniors (62 and over) and students $20. For information and reservations: (212) 866-2545, or www.antaraensemble.com.
The 14-member ANTARA ENSEMBLE was formed by flutist Harold Jones to bring quality classical music at affordable prices to the culturally diverse neighborhoods of New York. The group performs a repertoire spanning centuries and including works by American, African-American, European and Third World composers.
A native of Chicago, HAROLD JONES has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Tully Hall, CAMI Hall and other New York venues, Jordan Hall in Boston, and throughout the U.S., Europe and Taiwan. He has appeared as flute soloist with The Bach Aria Orchestra, American Symphony, New York Sinfonietta, Brooklyn Philharmonia, National Orchestral Association, and other ensembles. Mr. Jones is on the faculties of the Westchester Conservatory of Music and Manhattanville College. Mr. Jones’s recordings on the Antara label include two LPs: “From Bach to Bazzini” and “Afternoon Fantasies”, and three CDs: “Let Us Break Bread Together”, “Just As I Am” and “Lil’ Lite O’ Mine”.
Conductor/violist ARIEL RUDIAKOV IS CURRENTLY Music Director and Conductor of the Danbury Symphony Orchestra. He received his principal conducting training from Maestro David Gilbert. Mr. Rudiakov was a scholarship student in the Masters program at Yale University, completing his degree in 1991 as a full scholarship student at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. A founding member of the String Orchestra of New York City, he has held guest and permanent conducting posts with the Metropolitan Symphony, the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra and the Bergen Philharmonic. He is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division, the Michael Rudiakov Music Academy, and the Manchester (VT) Music Festival, where he has been the conductor of the Manchester Chamber Orchestra since 1989. He was appointed Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival in 2001.
Composer RAY LESLEE was educated at the Manhattan School of Music (Theory) and the State University of New York at Buffalo (B.A. in Musical Theatre Composition and M.A. in Humanities). He has taught at Hunter College, UC Santa Barbara, SUNY Buffalo, and the LaGuardia High School for The Performing Arts. His credits as a composer include Standup Shakespeare (directed by Mike Nichols and produced by the Shubert Organization Off-Broadway); Avenue X (Playwrights Horizons) – won Best Musical awards in Dallas, Seattle, Austin, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, as well as the Richard Rodgers and Kleban awards; A Good Man (selected for the 2004 National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival in New York and made its European premiere in 2006 at The Vienna Chamber Opera); Romeo & Juliet for Orchestra & Actors, a symphony in four movements, performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; plus over 75 original scores for US theatres as diverse as the Actor’s Studio, the Acting Company, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Drama Dept., the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Great Lakes Festival, the Kennedy Center, U.K., Israel and Switzerland. He was the Composer-In-Residence at Buffalo’s popular summer festival Shakespeare In Delaware Park, 1976-1990, where he created and conducted some 30 new musicals. He has received awards and commissions from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the American Music Center, the Garland Award, the Concordia Award, the Anna Sosenko Trust, the NYU Buddy Baker Film Scoring scholarship, NYSCA, CETA, and the ASCAP Special Award annually since 1982. He received The Gilman & Gonzalaz-Falla Musical Theatre Award in 1997 and was honored at Lincoln Center for his contribution to the American theatre.
Actor and singer NATHAN LEE GRAHAM’s eclectic career includes such feature films as “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Zoolander”, the internationally renowned television show “Absolutely Fabulous”, the Broadway show production of the TONY and Grammy nominated “The Wild Party”, the first national touring company of “Jesus Christ, Superstar”; as well as countless commercial and new theater projects. He has performed “Songs of Innocence and Experience” with the Westchester Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Carl St. Clair. Mr. Graham has a BSA in Musical Theater from Webster University Conservatory.
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The 14-member ANTARA ENSEMBLE was formed by flutist Harold Jones to bring quality classical music at affordable prices to the culturally diverse neighborhoods of New York. The group performs a repertoire spanning centuries and including works by American, African-American, European and Third World composers.
A native of Chicago, HAROLD JONES has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Tully Hall, CAMI Hall and other New York venues, Jordan Hall in Boston, and throughout the U.S., Europe and Taiwan. He has appeared as flute soloist with The Bach Aria Orchestra, American Symphony, New York Sinfonietta, Brooklyn Philharmonia, National Orchestral Association, and other ensembles. Mr. Jones is on the faculties of the Westchester Conservatory of Music and Manhattanville College. Mr. Jones’s recordings on the Antara label include two LPs: “From Bach to Bazzini” and “Afternoon Fantasies”, and three CDs: “Let Us Break Bread Together”, “Just As I Am” and “Lil’ Lite O’ Mine”.
Conductor/violist ARIEL RUDIAKOV IS CURRENTLY Music Director and Conductor of the Danbury Symphony Orchestra. He received his principal conducting training from Maestro David Gilbert. Mr. Rudiakov was a scholarship student in the Masters program at Yale University, completing his degree in 1991 as a full scholarship student at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. A founding member of the String Orchestra of New York City, he has held guest and permanent conducting posts with the Metropolitan Symphony, the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra and the Bergen Philharmonic. He is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division, the Michael Rudiakov Music Academy, and the Manchester (VT) Music Festival, where he has been the conductor of the Manchester Chamber Orchestra since 1989. He was appointed Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival in 2001.
Composer RAY LESLEE was educated at the Manhattan School of Music (Theory) and the State University of New York at Buffalo (B.A. in Musical Theatre Composition and M.A. in Humanities). He has taught at Hunter College, UC Santa Barbara, SUNY Buffalo, and the LaGuardia High School for The Performing Arts. His credits as a composer include Standup Shakespeare (directed by Mike Nichols and produced by the Shubert Organization Off-Broadway); Avenue X (Playwrights Horizons) – won Best Musical awards in Dallas, Seattle, Austin, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, as well as the Richard Rodgers and Kleban awards; A Good Man (selected for the 2004 National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival in New York and made its European premiere in 2006 at The Vienna Chamber Opera); Romeo & Juliet for Orchestra & Actors, a symphony in four movements, performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; plus over 75 original scores for US theatres as diverse as the Actor’s Studio, the Acting Company, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Drama Dept., the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Great Lakes Festival, the Kennedy Center, U.K., Israel and Switzerland. He was the Composer-In-Residence at Buffalo’s popular summer festival Shakespeare In Delaware Park, 1976-1990, where he created and conducted some 30 new musicals. He has received awards and commissions from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the American Music Center, the Garland Award, the Concordia Award, the Anna Sosenko Trust, the NYU Buddy Baker Film Scoring scholarship, NYSCA, CETA, and the ASCAP Special Award annually since 1982. He received The Gilman & Gonzalaz-Falla Musical Theatre Award in 1997 and was honored at Lincoln Center for his contribution to the American theatre.
Actor and singer NATHAN LEE GRAHAM’s eclectic career includes such feature films as “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Zoolander”, the internationally renowned television show “Absolutely Fabulous”, the Broadway show production of the TONY and Grammy nominated “The Wild Party”, the first national touring company of “Jesus Christ, Superstar”; as well as countless commercial and new theater projects. He has performed “Songs of Innocence and Experience” with the Westchester Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Carl St. Clair. Mr. Graham has a BSA in Musical Theater from Webster University Conservatory.
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