"THE NOW AND PRESENT FLUTE," A SEMINAR AND TWO RECITALS AT BARD COLLEGE Opening recital features flutists Patricia Spencer and Melissa Sweet, with pianist Linda Hall; closing recital features performances by participants in the seminar
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—From June 14 to June 18, Annandale will be filled with the music of Pan as flutist Patricia Spencer leads the seminar "The Now and Present Flute," sponsored by the music program at Bard College. Two recitals will be held in conjunction with the seminar, the first will feature flutists Spencer and Melissa Sweet, accompanied by pianist Linda Hall, on Wednesday, June 14, at 8 p.m. in Bard Hall. The closing recital, on Sunday, June 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Bard Hall, will feature performances by the participants in the seminar. Both are free and open to the public.
The opening recital features performances of Lili Boulanger's "Nocturne," Paul Hindemith's "Canonic Sonata" for two flutes, Lukas Foss's "Three American Pieces," Eric Chasalow's "Over the Edge" for flute and tape, André Jolivet's "Incantation," and Pierre Boulez's "Sonatine."
The closing program, with performances by the seminar participants, Don Hulbert, Alex Lisse, Barbara Smith, and Marisa Tigue, as well as Spencer and Sweet, will feature the works of Martin Hennessy, Harvey Sollberger, Brian Fennelly, Richard Wilson, Tom Duffy, Kirk Nurock, and Bohuslav Martinu.
Flutist Patricia Spencer recently returned from solo performances in Beijing, as part of the International Computer Music Conference. She has been acclaimed for her "astounding ability to play late 20th-century music, with all its technical and musical demands,
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beautifully and intelligently," American Record Guide. Spencer’s recitals draw especially from the growing repertoire of pieces written for her by such composers as Ge Gan-ru, Miriam Gideon, Peter Golub, Stephen Jaffe, Arthur Kreiger, Salvatore Martirano, Thea Musgrave, Judith Shatin, Harvey Sollberger, Louise Talma, Joan Tower, and Yehudi Wyner. Her solo recordings include Joan Tower's Hexachords, Harvey Sollberger's Riding the Wind, Eleanor Cory's Epithalamium, Miriam Gideon's Eclogue, and Eric Chasalow's Over the Edge for flute and electronic sounds. She received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts recording program, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, and the Copland Fund for her two solo recordings on Neuma Records. The first recording includes works by Boulez, Carter, Talma, Martirano, Jaffe, Kreiger, Korde, and Perle. The second recording, called "rapturous" by Fanfare Magazine, is "Narcissus and Kairos," with works by Judith Shatin and Thea Musgrave. Spencer, a faculty member in the music program at Bard College, also teaches flute and chamber music at Hofstra University. This August, she will perform the world premiere of Shulamit Ran’s flute concerto, Voices, at the National Flute Association Convention in Columbus, Ohio.
Flutist Melissa Sweet has been a principal flutist with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra for more than twenty years. She has been a member of various chamber music ensembles and performs with guitarist Gregory Dinger as the duo Interlude. Sweet is also a highly regarded flute teacher in the Hudson Valley. Her teachers have included Murray Panitz, Claude Monteaux, John Solum, and Patricia Spencer.
Pianist Linda Hall performs with singers and instrumentalists throughout the United States and abroad, and is also a singing coach. She is assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera; in recent seasons she has prepared the casts for Corigliano's Ghosts of Versailles and Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, Death in Venice, and Billy Budd, among others. Hall recently appeared on stage at the Met as the pianist in the party scene in the premiere of John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. Her recordings include one with cellist Jascha Silberstein on the Musical Heritage Society label and two with flutist Patricia Spencer on Neuma Records. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Salzburg Mozarteum and holds a graduate degree in piano performance from the Juilliard School.
For further information about the recitals, call 914-758-6822.
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