Women of Note - March 5 @ 7 PM in NYC

The North/South Chamber Orchestra, led by Max Lifchitz, is excited to continue its wonderful tradition of free-admission concerts.

Join the ensemble on Thursday evening, March 5, 2026, for an exciting evening of music featuring captivating pieces by remarkable female composers from Colombia, Cuba, and the United States.

We are particularly thrilled to have the talented percussionist Frank Cassara as our featured soloist.

The concert will showcase recent works by Alexa Canales, Mara Gibson, Odealine de la Martinez, Keyla Orozco, and Alba Potes.

The event will take place in person, starting at 7 PM and concluding around 8:30 PM at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, located at 450 West 37th Street, New York, NY 10018.

Seating is limited, so please email ns.concerts@att.net to secure your spot.

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERS

Alexa Canales studied at Rutgers University and Boston College. Her compositions have been performed by musicians and ensembles across the United States and Europe. Notable performances include those by the SOLI Chamber Ensemble, Ensemble for These Times, Brightwork Ensemble, Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, Helix! New Music Ensemble, New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra, and Boston Percussion Group. One of her significant works, Infinite, employs six instruments and explores themes of color, rhythm, and texture. This fast-paced piece is full of restless energy. The opening motif propels the music forward, leading to several expressive and lyrical passages. The initial restlessness only pauses briefly at select moments throughout the composition.

Mara Gibson is a native of Charlottesville, VA. She graduated from Bennington College and earned her Ph.D. from SUNY Buffalo. She has received grants and honors from notable organizations such as the American Composers Forum, the Banff Centre, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the MacDowell Colony. Her compositions encompass a wide range of media, including chamber and solo works as well as electroacoustic music. Her music has been performed across the United States, Europe, and China. Gibson’s Rhythmic Mosaics reflects her interest in birds and natural phenomena. The piece addresses the 9/11 tribute lights, which unfortunately pose a threat to over 160,000 birds. This mini-concerto for violin and chamber ensemble narrates one night each year when these lights shine for four hours, allowing the birds to survive. Silence interrupts the music four times, corresponding to the moments when the lights are turned off throughout the 24-hour period of the 9/11 tribute.

Odaline de la Martinez is a Cuban-American composer and conductor who currently resides in the United Kingdom. She made history in 1984 as the first woman to conduct at the BBC Promenade Concerts and serves as the artistic director of the London-based Lontano Ensemble. Throughout her career, she has conducted orchestras across the Americas, Europe, and Australia, and has recorded albums for various labels. Her recent work Memorias (Memories) was inspired by the composer's childhood memories of growing up in Cuba. The first movement Prologo (Prologue) evokes the sounds of Afro-Cuban drums, while Atardecer en Varadero (Afternoon in the Varadero Beach) reflects the beauty of a Cuban beach where she cherished lovely walks. Lastly, Carnaval captures the excitement of Carnival, filled with vibrant dancing and singing.

Keyla Orozco was born in Santiago de Cuba and studied music at the University of the Arts in Havana. She later pursued graduate studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands. Orozco has received fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim, Cintas, and Fromm Foundations, and she completed a residency at the MacDowell Colony. Her works have been performed throughout Latin America, Europe, and the United States. One of her notable compositions, Marimba de Jucaro Amarillo (Marimba of the Yellow Olive Wood Tree), was created in memory of her father, Danilo Orozco Gonzalez, a distinguished Cuban musicologist who taught at the University of the Arts in Havana. Orozco explains that her family planted a Jucaro tree (Yellow Olive Wood tree) at the site where her father's remains are laid to rest. She chose the marimba as the most suitable instrument to honor her father through her music, especially because his remains rest beneath a precious Jucaro tree. She emphasizes that "the marimba is not only crafted from wood but also produces a sound reminiscent of wood."

Percussionist Frank Cassara will be the soloist performing this work. A proponent of new and classic, western and world percussion music, Cassara has premiered many works with as many diverse groups. As a percussionist for the Philip Glass Ensemble, he has performed around the globe and recorded Glass' music and film scores. He has also performed around the world with Steve Reich and Musicians at major international festivals.

Alba Potes was born in Cali, Colombia, and began composing after moving to the United States. Her music is subtle, evocative, and energetic, showcasing rich European influences blended with rhythms and melodic gestures inspired by Latin American traditions. A graduate of Temple University, she has received commissions from various organizations, including the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, Cantori New York, the Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music, and Denmark's Esbjerg Ensemble. Her work, Y la brisa trae aroma de Cadmia (And the Breeze Carries the Scent of Cadmia), is imbued with a sense. It was inspired by memories of how the hot days in her native city of Cali were cooled by evening breezes and the fragrance of the flowers of the cadmia tree. The composition's first movement features a gentle intensity in its instrumental activity. In the second movement, whispers and conversations emerge at first, with gestures that evoke sounds from South America in the cello, leading the piece to a soft conclusion.

Founded in 1980, North/South Consonance, Inc. is dedicated to promoting music by composers from the Americas and around the world. Its activities are supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as grants from the Music Performance Fund, the BMI Foundation, the Zethus Fund, and the generosity of numerous individual donors.

For further programming information, please visit the North/South Consonance website @ https://www.northsouthmusic.org/