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Press Releases
New Century Chamber Orchestra Announces 2013-2014 Season
San Francisco, CA – May 21, 2013 – Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra announce the 2013-2014 Season including four subscription weeks that include Donizetti’s rarely-performed one act opera Rita featuring San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows; a special collaboration with San Francisco’s renowned Chanticleer; and a world premiere violin concerto by Featured Composer Michael Daugherty. The season includes contemporary works such as Dreamscapes by Clarice Assad and Elegy by Samuel Jones, European masterworks such as Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile and Suk’s Serenade for String Orchestra, in addition to Jazz Classics from Gershwin and Ellington. This will be Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s sixth season as Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra.
The 2013-2014 season will feature New Century in performance at a variety of different Bay Area venues including first time appearances at Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall and the San Francisco Jewish Community Center; return appearances at the Yerba Buena Center for Performing Arts, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; and a return engagement at Cal Performances’ Fall Free For All at Zellerbach Hall.
American composer Michael Daugherty joins New Century for the 2013-2014 Season as Featured Composer, a program begun by Salerno-Sonnenberg in her first season as Music Director. The season opens with a varied exploration of Daugherty’s solo and chamber works, ranging from Viva for solo violin, performed by Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, to Sing Sing J.Edgar Hoover and Elvis Everywhere for string quartet and tape. Hailed by The Times (London) as having a “maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear,” Michael Daugherty is one of the most commissioned, performed and recorded composers on the American concert scene today. Known for music rich with American cultural allusions, Daugherty’s extensive compositional output encompasses the orchestral, band and chamber repertory. The concert will also feature Daugherty’s Viola Zombie for two violas, Regrets Only for violin, cello and piano and Strut for chamber orchestra, alongside Serenade for String Orchestra in E Major, Op.6 by Czech master Josef Suk. New Century will present selections from this program on September 29, 2013 at Cal Performances’ Fall Free For All, an entire day of free music, dance and theater in venues and outdoors across the UC Berkeley Campus.
The season continues with a program featuring two violin concertos written expressly for Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg; a world premiere by Featured Composer Michael Daugherty and a reprise of 2008-2009 Featured Composer Clarice Assad’s Dreamscapes, a work commissioned and premiered in May 2009. Jeff Kaliss of San Francisco Classical Voice stated that Dreamscapes is “an exciting and worthy addition to the repertoire... showcasing the NCCO’s individual and collective skills.” The program also explores the theme of legacy with music by Russian composers Tchaikovsky and student Anton Arensky, in addition to a work honoring the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile is accompanied by Arensky’s Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, based on one of Tchaikovsky’s Songs for Children, Op. 54. Elegy by Samuel Jones was written in 1963 during the days immediately following the President JFK’s assassination. Speaking about Elegy, the composer states that “the work is a brief musical statement of the feelings of grief and shock which swept the country and, indeed, the world.”
The second half of the 2013-2014 season marks two special first-time collaborations. In February, New Century welcomes the San Francisco Opera Center’s Adler Fellows in an evening of opera, including a performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s rarely presented one act opera Rita, a comic tale of domestic strife. Artists and roles for Rita will be announced at a later date. New Century will be highlighted in a number of instrumental works from famous operas arranged for the ensemble by Clarice Assad, including Strauss’ Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome, Massenet’s Meditation from Thais with Salerno-Sonnenberg as soloist and Mascagni’s Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana. Also featured on the program is Verdi’s Prestissimo from String Quartet in E minor, the only surviving chamber work in the composer’s catalogue.
The season concludes in March with another first-time collaboration featuring Chanticleer. Labeled by The New York Times as “the world’s reigning male chorus,” the two-time GRAMMY award winning ensemble will join New Century in a journey across the Atlantic from Germany to New York, spanning the era between two World Wars with European classics and works from the great American Songbook. Chanticleer has sold well over a million copies since they began releasing recordings in 1981 and are renowned for their artistic diversity ranging from Renaissance music to jazz, gospel and pop, in addition to the commissioning and performing of new works. Representing a contrast of music from the pre-World War II era, New Century will perform American works by Kurt Weill, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin with Chanticleer performing a wide variety of works, including a series of arrangements by the internationally renowned, all-male German chorus Comedian Harmonists.
“New Century continues to expand its reach and it is the energy here in San Francisco that we thrive on,” says Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. “I am constantly reminded of how lucky we are to be a part of the Bay Area’s rich and vibrant music scene and to be surrounded by such astounding talent as Chanticleer and the Adler Fellows. We’re delighted to share the stage with them in these special first-time collaborations. Our Featured Composer program welcomes the most prominent composers of today and I am particularly excited to work with Michael Daugherty, who is one of the great American composers. The violin concerto that he is writing for us will undoubtedly be a highlight and I can’t wait to premiere this work as soloist.”
Subscriptions to the New Century Chamber Orchestra are on sale now. 3-Concert Subscriptions range from $72- $162; 4-Concert Subscriptions range from $96- $216. Call (415) 357-1111 ext. 4 or visit www.ncco.org to purchase a subscription.
Single tickets range in price from $29 to $59 and will go on sale August 1, 2013 through City Box Office: www.cityboxoffice.com and (415) 392-4400, with the exception of concerts at Mountain View Center for the Arts: www.mvcpa.com and (650) 903-6000, and the Bing Concert Hall: live.stanford.edu and (650) 725-ARTS. Discounted $15 single tickets are available for patrons under 35. For further information on New Century, please visit www.ncco.org.
For further information on New Century, please visit www.ncco.org. Media contacts are listed at the end of the release.
New Century Chamber Orchestra 2013-2014 Season Calendar
Daugherty Perspectives
September 26-29, 2013
Thursday, September 26, 2013, 8pm, Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, Mountain View
Friday, September 27, 2013, 8pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, September 28, 2013, 8pm, Yerba Buena Center for Performing Arts, San Francisco
Sunday, September 29, 2013, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, Marin
Daugherty: Viva, for solo Violin
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Daugherty: Viola Zombie (for two violas)
Daugherty: Regrets Only (for violin, cello, and piano)
Daugherty: Sing Sing J. Edgar Hoover (for string quartet and tape)
Daugherty: Elvis Everywhere (for string quartet and tape)
Daugherty: Strut (for chamber orchestra)
Suk: Serenade for String Orchestra in E Major, Op.6
Cal Performances Fall Free For All
September 29, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013, 11am, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley
Works will include selections from “Daugherty Perspectives” program. To be announced at a later date.
Legacies and Concertos
November 20-24, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013, 8pm, Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, Mountain View
Friday, November 22, 2013, 8pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, November 23, 2013, 8pm, Yerba Buena Center for Performing Arts, San Francisco
Sunday, November 24, 2013, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, Marin
Tchaikovsky: Andante Cantabile
Arensky: Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky
Jones: Elegy
Assad: Dreamscapes
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Daugherty: Concerto for Violin (World Premiere)
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin Commissioned by the New Century Chamber Orchestra
Donizetti’s Rita
February 12-16, 2013
Featuring SF Opera Adler Fellows
Wednesday, February 12, 2014, 8pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Friday, February 14, 2014, 8pm, First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto
Saturday, February 15, 2014, 8pm, SF Jewish Community Center, San Francisco
Sunday, February 16, 2014, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, Marin
J. Strauss (arr. Lindstrom): Overture to Die Fledermaus
Mascagni (arr. Assad): Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana
Verdi: Prestissimo from String Quartet in E minor
Massenet (arr. Assad): Meditation from Thais
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Strauss (arr. Assad): Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome
Donizetti: Rita
Atlantic Crossing
March 21-24, 2013
Featuring Chanticleer
Thursday, March 20, 2014, 8pm, Bing Concert Hall, Stanford
Friday & Saturday, March 21 & 22, 2014, 8pm, SF Conservatory of Music, San Francisco
Sunday, March 23, 2014, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, Marin
Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 8pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
*Repertoire to be announced at a later date.
ABOUT NEW CENTURY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
The New Century Chamber Orchestra, one of only a handful of conductorless ensembles in the world, was founded in 1992 by cellist, Miriam Perkoff, and violist, Wieslaw Pogorzelski. Musical decisions are made collaboratively by the 19-member string ensemble, including San Francisco Bay Area musicians and those who travel from across the U.S. and Europe to perform together. World-renowned violin soloist, chamber musician and recording artist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg leads from the concertmaster chair. She joined the ensemble as music director and concertmaster in January 2008, bringing “a new sense of vitality and determination, as well as an audacious swagger that is an unmistakable fingerprint of its leader,” according to Gramophone magazine.
In addition to performing classic pieces of chamber orchestra repertoire, New Century commissions important new works, breathes life into rarely heard jewels of the past and performs world premieres. The New Century Chamber Orchestra Featured Composer program commissions composers to write new works, with the goals of expanding chamber orchestra repertoire and providing audiences with a deeper understanding of today’s living composers. The orchestra provides insight into the breadth of the Featured Composer’s work by performing a variety of pieces by the composer throughout the season.
In 2011, Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg and New Century embarked on the Orchestra’s first two national tours together. The performances in the Midwest, East Coast, and Southern California garnered record-breaking audiences and national critical acclaim. In January and February 2013, New Century followed with a highly-successful eight-state national tour, the largest and most ambitious artistic undertaking in the organization’s history. In addition to touring efforts, New Century’s national footprint has also continued to grow with a rapidly increasing national radio presence. The ensemble has been broadcast a total of 21 times on American Public Media’s Performance Today, with each broadcast heard on 260 radio stations across the country.
The orchestra has released six compact discs. The two latest albums, Together (released August 2009) and LIVE: Barber, Strauss, Mahler (released November 2010), were recorded with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg on the NSS Music label. Other recordings include a 1996 collaborative project with Kent Nagano and Berkeley Symphony Orchestra featuring the work of 20th century-Swiss composer Frank Martin, and Written With the Heart’s Blood, a 1997 Grammy Award finalist, both on the New Albion label. In 1998 the orchestra recorded and released works of Argentine composers Alberto Williams and Alberto Ginastera on the d’Note label, and, in 2004, the orchestra recorded and released Oculus, a CD of Kurt Rohde’s compositions on the Mondovibe label. All of the recordings have been distributed both internationally and in the United States. The orchestra’s first concert DVD, filmed by Paola di Florio, director of the 1999 Academy Award-nominated film Speaking in Strings, was released May 8, 2012. The DVD weaves together documentary footage and a live tour concert from a February 2011 performance at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
ABOUT NADJA SALERNO-SONNENBERG
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, an internationally-acclaimed violin soloist and chamber musician best known for her exhilarating performances and passionate interpretations, joined the New Century Chamber Orchestra in January 2008 as music director. Nadja’s first five seasons were hailed as a tremendous success by audiences and critics alike – “a marriage that works,” in her words, and renewing enthusiasm for “one of the most burnished and exciting ensembles in the Bay Area,” according to Rich Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News.
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, an internationally-acclaimed violin soloist and chamber musician best known for her exhilarating performances and passionate interpretations, joined the New Century Chamber Orchestra in January 2008 as music director. Nadja’s first five seasons were hailed as a tremendous success by audiences and critics alike – “a marriage that works,” in her words, and renewing enthusiasm for “one of the most burnished and exciting ensembles in the Bay Area,” according to Rich Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News.
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s professional career began in 1981 when she won the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. In 1983 she was recognized with an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and in 1999, she was honored with the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg was born in Rome and immigrated to the United States at the age of eight to study at The Curtis Institute of Music. She later studied with Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. For more information on Nadja, please visit www.nadjasalernosonnenberg.com and www.nssmusic.com.
ABOUT MICHAEL DAUGHERTY
Characterized by music that is rich with cultural allusions bearing the stamp of classic modernism, Michael Daugherty is one of the most frequently performed living American composers. Daugherty first came to international attention with the 1994 performance of his Metropolis Symphony at Carnegie Hall with the Baltimore Symphony conducted by David Zinman and has since composed a vast number of works spanning orchestral, band and chamber music.
His music has received numerous awards and fellowships including “Outstanding Classical Composer” at the Detroit Awards, the Delaware Symphony’s A.I. DuPont Award and the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Composer’s Award; and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has also featured as Composer-in-Residence with such as orchestras as the Louisville Symphony, Detroit Symphony and Colorado Symphony and festivals as the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary of Music, Henry Mancini Summer Institute and the Music from Angel Fire Chamber Music Festival.
Daugherty’s music has been released on numerous labels including Albany, Argo, Delos, Equilibrium, Klavier, Naxos and Nonesuch. On Naxos, the Nashville Symphony’s 2011 recording of Metropolis Symphony and Deus ex Machina received three GRAMMY awards, including Best Classical Contemporary Composition. In the same year, Naxos released a CD of orchestral music to great acclaim entitled Route 66 with Marin Alsop conducting the Bournemouth Symphony.
A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Daugherty is the oldest of five brothers, all of whom are professional musicians. His education includes degrees from the University of North Texas, the Manhattan School of Music and Yale University. He also studied computer music with Pierre Boulez at IRCAM in Paris in addition to pursuing further studies with Gyorgy Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany. Daugherty has taught music composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and currently teaches as the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) where he is Professor of Composition.
Press and Media Relations Contact:
Karen Ames Communications
Karen Ames and Brenden Guy
(415) 641-7474
karen@karenames.com
brenden@karenames.com
The 2013-2014 season will feature New Century in performance at a variety of different Bay Area venues including first time appearances at Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall and the San Francisco Jewish Community Center; return appearances at the Yerba Buena Center for Performing Arts, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; and a return engagement at Cal Performances’ Fall Free For All at Zellerbach Hall.
American composer Michael Daugherty joins New Century for the 2013-2014 Season as Featured Composer, a program begun by Salerno-Sonnenberg in her first season as Music Director. The season opens with a varied exploration of Daugherty’s solo and chamber works, ranging from Viva for solo violin, performed by Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, to Sing Sing J.Edgar Hoover and Elvis Everywhere for string quartet and tape. Hailed by The Times (London) as having a “maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear,” Michael Daugherty is one of the most commissioned, performed and recorded composers on the American concert scene today. Known for music rich with American cultural allusions, Daugherty’s extensive compositional output encompasses the orchestral, band and chamber repertory. The concert will also feature Daugherty’s Viola Zombie for two violas, Regrets Only for violin, cello and piano and Strut for chamber orchestra, alongside Serenade for String Orchestra in E Major, Op.6 by Czech master Josef Suk. New Century will present selections from this program on September 29, 2013 at Cal Performances’ Fall Free For All, an entire day of free music, dance and theater in venues and outdoors across the UC Berkeley Campus.
The season continues with a program featuring two violin concertos written expressly for Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg; a world premiere by Featured Composer Michael Daugherty and a reprise of 2008-2009 Featured Composer Clarice Assad’s Dreamscapes, a work commissioned and premiered in May 2009. Jeff Kaliss of San Francisco Classical Voice stated that Dreamscapes is “an exciting and worthy addition to the repertoire... showcasing the NCCO’s individual and collective skills.” The program also explores the theme of legacy with music by Russian composers Tchaikovsky and student Anton Arensky, in addition to a work honoring the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile is accompanied by Arensky’s Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, based on one of Tchaikovsky’s Songs for Children, Op. 54. Elegy by Samuel Jones was written in 1963 during the days immediately following the President JFK’s assassination. Speaking about Elegy, the composer states that “the work is a brief musical statement of the feelings of grief and shock which swept the country and, indeed, the world.”
The second half of the 2013-2014 season marks two special first-time collaborations. In February, New Century welcomes the San Francisco Opera Center’s Adler Fellows in an evening of opera, including a performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s rarely presented one act opera Rita, a comic tale of domestic strife. Artists and roles for Rita will be announced at a later date. New Century will be highlighted in a number of instrumental works from famous operas arranged for the ensemble by Clarice Assad, including Strauss’ Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome, Massenet’s Meditation from Thais with Salerno-Sonnenberg as soloist and Mascagni’s Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana. Also featured on the program is Verdi’s Prestissimo from String Quartet in E minor, the only surviving chamber work in the composer’s catalogue.
The season concludes in March with another first-time collaboration featuring Chanticleer. Labeled by The New York Times as “the world’s reigning male chorus,” the two-time GRAMMY award winning ensemble will join New Century in a journey across the Atlantic from Germany to New York, spanning the era between two World Wars with European classics and works from the great American Songbook. Chanticleer has sold well over a million copies since they began releasing recordings in 1981 and are renowned for their artistic diversity ranging from Renaissance music to jazz, gospel and pop, in addition to the commissioning and performing of new works. Representing a contrast of music from the pre-World War II era, New Century will perform American works by Kurt Weill, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin with Chanticleer performing a wide variety of works, including a series of arrangements by the internationally renowned, all-male German chorus Comedian Harmonists.
“New Century continues to expand its reach and it is the energy here in San Francisco that we thrive on,” says Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. “I am constantly reminded of how lucky we are to be a part of the Bay Area’s rich and vibrant music scene and to be surrounded by such astounding talent as Chanticleer and the Adler Fellows. We’re delighted to share the stage with them in these special first-time collaborations. Our Featured Composer program welcomes the most prominent composers of today and I am particularly excited to work with Michael Daugherty, who is one of the great American composers. The violin concerto that he is writing for us will undoubtedly be a highlight and I can’t wait to premiere this work as soloist.”
Subscriptions to the New Century Chamber Orchestra are on sale now. 3-Concert Subscriptions range from $72- $162; 4-Concert Subscriptions range from $96- $216. Call (415) 357-1111 ext. 4 or visit www.ncco.org to purchase a subscription.
Single tickets range in price from $29 to $59 and will go on sale August 1, 2013 through City Box Office: www.cityboxoffice.com and (415) 392-4400, with the exception of concerts at Mountain View Center for the Arts: www.mvcpa.com and (650) 903-6000, and the Bing Concert Hall: live.stanford.edu and (650) 725-ARTS. Discounted $15 single tickets are available for patrons under 35. For further information on New Century, please visit www.ncco.org.
For further information on New Century, please visit www.ncco.org. Media contacts are listed at the end of the release.
New Century Chamber Orchestra 2013-2014 Season Calendar
Daugherty Perspectives
September 26-29, 2013
Thursday, September 26, 2013, 8pm, Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, Mountain View
Friday, September 27, 2013, 8pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, September 28, 2013, 8pm, Yerba Buena Center for Performing Arts, San Francisco
Sunday, September 29, 2013, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, Marin
Daugherty: Viva, for solo Violin
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Daugherty: Viola Zombie (for two violas)
Daugherty: Regrets Only (for violin, cello, and piano)
Daugherty: Sing Sing J. Edgar Hoover (for string quartet and tape)
Daugherty: Elvis Everywhere (for string quartet and tape)
Daugherty: Strut (for chamber orchestra)
Suk: Serenade for String Orchestra in E Major, Op.6
Cal Performances Fall Free For All
September 29, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013, 11am, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley
Works will include selections from “Daugherty Perspectives” program. To be announced at a later date.
Legacies and Concertos
November 20-24, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013, 8pm, Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, Mountain View
Friday, November 22, 2013, 8pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, November 23, 2013, 8pm, Yerba Buena Center for Performing Arts, San Francisco
Sunday, November 24, 2013, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, Marin
Tchaikovsky: Andante Cantabile
Arensky: Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky
Jones: Elegy
Assad: Dreamscapes
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Daugherty: Concerto for Violin (World Premiere)
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin Commissioned by the New Century Chamber Orchestra
Donizetti’s Rita
February 12-16, 2013
Featuring SF Opera Adler Fellows
Wednesday, February 12, 2014, 8pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Friday, February 14, 2014, 8pm, First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto
Saturday, February 15, 2014, 8pm, SF Jewish Community Center, San Francisco
Sunday, February 16, 2014, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, Marin
J. Strauss (arr. Lindstrom): Overture to Die Fledermaus
Mascagni (arr. Assad): Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana
Verdi: Prestissimo from String Quartet in E minor
Massenet (arr. Assad): Meditation from Thais
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Strauss (arr. Assad): Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome
Donizetti: Rita
Atlantic Crossing
March 21-24, 2013
Featuring Chanticleer
Thursday, March 20, 2014, 8pm, Bing Concert Hall, Stanford
Friday & Saturday, March 21 & 22, 2014, 8pm, SF Conservatory of Music, San Francisco
Sunday, March 23, 2014, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, Marin
Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 8pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
*Repertoire to be announced at a later date.
ABOUT NEW CENTURY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
The New Century Chamber Orchestra, one of only a handful of conductorless ensembles in the world, was founded in 1992 by cellist, Miriam Perkoff, and violist, Wieslaw Pogorzelski. Musical decisions are made collaboratively by the 19-member string ensemble, including San Francisco Bay Area musicians and those who travel from across the U.S. and Europe to perform together. World-renowned violin soloist, chamber musician and recording artist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg leads from the concertmaster chair. She joined the ensemble as music director and concertmaster in January 2008, bringing “a new sense of vitality and determination, as well as an audacious swagger that is an unmistakable fingerprint of its leader,” according to Gramophone magazine.
In addition to performing classic pieces of chamber orchestra repertoire, New Century commissions important new works, breathes life into rarely heard jewels of the past and performs world premieres. The New Century Chamber Orchestra Featured Composer program commissions composers to write new works, with the goals of expanding chamber orchestra repertoire and providing audiences with a deeper understanding of today’s living composers. The orchestra provides insight into the breadth of the Featured Composer’s work by performing a variety of pieces by the composer throughout the season.
In 2011, Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg and New Century embarked on the Orchestra’s first two national tours together. The performances in the Midwest, East Coast, and Southern California garnered record-breaking audiences and national critical acclaim. In January and February 2013, New Century followed with a highly-successful eight-state national tour, the largest and most ambitious artistic undertaking in the organization’s history. In addition to touring efforts, New Century’s national footprint has also continued to grow with a rapidly increasing national radio presence. The ensemble has been broadcast a total of 21 times on American Public Media’s Performance Today, with each broadcast heard on 260 radio stations across the country.
The orchestra has released six compact discs. The two latest albums, Together (released August 2009) and LIVE: Barber, Strauss, Mahler (released November 2010), were recorded with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg on the NSS Music label. Other recordings include a 1996 collaborative project with Kent Nagano and Berkeley Symphony Orchestra featuring the work of 20th century-Swiss composer Frank Martin, and Written With the Heart’s Blood, a 1997 Grammy Award finalist, both on the New Albion label. In 1998 the orchestra recorded and released works of Argentine composers Alberto Williams and Alberto Ginastera on the d’Note label, and, in 2004, the orchestra recorded and released Oculus, a CD of Kurt Rohde’s compositions on the Mondovibe label. All of the recordings have been distributed both internationally and in the United States. The orchestra’s first concert DVD, filmed by Paola di Florio, director of the 1999 Academy Award-nominated film Speaking in Strings, was released May 8, 2012. The DVD weaves together documentary footage and a live tour concert from a February 2011 performance at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
ABOUT NADJA SALERNO-SONNENBERG
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, an internationally-acclaimed violin soloist and chamber musician best known for her exhilarating performances and passionate interpretations, joined the New Century Chamber Orchestra in January 2008 as music director. Nadja’s first five seasons were hailed as a tremendous success by audiences and critics alike – “a marriage that works,” in her words, and renewing enthusiasm for “one of the most burnished and exciting ensembles in the Bay Area,” according to Rich Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News.
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, an internationally-acclaimed violin soloist and chamber musician best known for her exhilarating performances and passionate interpretations, joined the New Century Chamber Orchestra in January 2008 as music director. Nadja’s first five seasons were hailed as a tremendous success by audiences and critics alike – “a marriage that works,” in her words, and renewing enthusiasm for “one of the most burnished and exciting ensembles in the Bay Area,” according to Rich Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News.
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s professional career began in 1981 when she won the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. In 1983 she was recognized with an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and in 1999, she was honored with the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg was born in Rome and immigrated to the United States at the age of eight to study at The Curtis Institute of Music. She later studied with Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. For more information on Nadja, please visit www.nadjasalernosonnenberg.com and www.nssmusic.com.
ABOUT MICHAEL DAUGHERTY
Characterized by music that is rich with cultural allusions bearing the stamp of classic modernism, Michael Daugherty is one of the most frequently performed living American composers. Daugherty first came to international attention with the 1994 performance of his Metropolis Symphony at Carnegie Hall with the Baltimore Symphony conducted by David Zinman and has since composed a vast number of works spanning orchestral, band and chamber music.
His music has received numerous awards and fellowships including “Outstanding Classical Composer” at the Detroit Awards, the Delaware Symphony’s A.I. DuPont Award and the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Composer’s Award; and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has also featured as Composer-in-Residence with such as orchestras as the Louisville Symphony, Detroit Symphony and Colorado Symphony and festivals as the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary of Music, Henry Mancini Summer Institute and the Music from Angel Fire Chamber Music Festival.
Daugherty’s music has been released on numerous labels including Albany, Argo, Delos, Equilibrium, Klavier, Naxos and Nonesuch. On Naxos, the Nashville Symphony’s 2011 recording of Metropolis Symphony and Deus ex Machina received three GRAMMY awards, including Best Classical Contemporary Composition. In the same year, Naxos released a CD of orchestral music to great acclaim entitled Route 66 with Marin Alsop conducting the Bournemouth Symphony.
A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Daugherty is the oldest of five brothers, all of whom are professional musicians. His education includes degrees from the University of North Texas, the Manhattan School of Music and Yale University. He also studied computer music with Pierre Boulez at IRCAM in Paris in addition to pursuing further studies with Gyorgy Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany. Daugherty has taught music composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and currently teaches as the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) where he is Professor of Composition.
Press and Media Relations Contact:
Karen Ames Communications
Karen Ames and Brenden Guy
(415) 641-7474
karen@karenames.com
brenden@karenames.com
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