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By PlaybillArts Staff
04 Oct 2008
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| Music Director David Bernard |
The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony kicks off its fall season Oct. 4-5 with Fantasy!, a program that includes Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and works by Mendelssohn and Weber.
According to program notes, "The rich compendium of folk tales known as the Tales of Arabian Nights is one of the great collective art works of Islamic culture, and one of the world’s literary treasures. For centuries, the anonymous stories that comprise this anthology circulated individually throughout the Middle East before being brought together in a single volume. The work was introduced to Europe in the early 1700s but was not widely known until the nineteenth century, when a number of translations, most notably the unexpurgated one by the English explorer and linguist Richard Francis Burton, appeared in print."
"The Tales of Arabian Nights has inspired a number of composers. Ravel and Szymanowski are just two of the more prominent musicians who based scores on this subject, but the most famous musical treatment of the Sultana and her marvelous stories is the symphonic suite Scheherazade by the Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky‑Korsakov."
Under the direction of David Bernard, the program will also include Medelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream and Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 1 featuring clarinet prodigy Christopher Pell.
Performances take place Saturday, October 4, at 8 PM and Sunday, October 5, at 3PM at All Saints Church on 230 E. 60th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Avenues).
For tickets and information visit the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony website.
*Founded in 1999 and now recognized as one of the finest non-professional ensembles in New York City, The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony combines professional-level music making with a philanthropic mission to support public service organizations operating within New York City.
Park Avenue Chamber Symphony (PACS) members combine successful business careers with considerable accomplishment in music. Members of the orchestra include investment bankers from Goldman Sachs, Fortress Investment Group, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and RG Niederhoffer Capital Management, as well as business executives with the Associated Press, AllianceCapital, American Express, Bank of America, BMG Records, Cyan Pictures, DB Marketing Technologies, McKinsey & Company, the operations department of the New York Philharmonic, the New York Times, Pfizer, Reader's Digest, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Tommy Hilfiger. Other members are judicial law clerks and attorneys from Paul, Weiss, Wharton & Garrison; Tannenbaum Helperin; and Cowan DeBaets, while others are officials in City and State government agencies and the United Nations.
Well schooled in the performing arts, Park Avenue Chamber Symphony members include alumni of The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, The Mannes College of Music and The Curtis Institute of Music, as well as former members of professional orchestras.
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