News From the Hartt Dean's Office
December 12, 2007

Bright Sheng- The 2007 Unclaimed Property Composer-in-Residence Concert Series, Dec. 12-14

The Hartt School is proud to announce the 2007 Unclaimed Property Composer-in-Residence Concert Series featuring Bright Sheng. Hailed as one of today’s most influential composers, Sheng will bring his brilliance and innovation to The Hartt School stage in a three-day concert series on Wednesday, December 12, through Friday, December 14.  The Hartt School Contemporary Players, Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra will be performing Sheng’s compositions.  Hartt faculty will also be featured as soloists in the concert series.  All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m., and will be held at Lincoln Theater on the University of Hartford campus.  Admission is free for the December 12 concert.  Tickets for the December 13 and 14 performances are $20 with discounts for senior citizens, students and groups.  Contact the University of Hartford Box Office at (860) 768-4228 or purchase tickets online at www.hartford.edu/hartt. 

Wednesday, December 12, 2007: The Hartt Contemporary Players, under the direction of Christopher Zimmerman, will perform Sheng’s work Postcards.  Mr. Sheng will also conduct John Adam's Chamber Symphony with the ensemble. The ensemble will be joined by Hartt faculty members Robert Black, Mihai Tetel and Anton Miller performing chamber works of Sheng.  The performance will take place in Lincoln Theater on the campus of the University of Hartford.  Admission is free.

Thursday, December 13, 2007: The Wind Ensemble will perform Sheng’s work La’i (Love Song).  Also on the program is Ingolf Dahl's Sinfonietta and Stravinsky’s Piano Concerto featuring piano soloist Anastasia Seifetdinova.  Renowned international conductor Tim Reynish from England will be guest conducting. The performance will take place in Lincoln Theater on the campus of the University of Hartford.  Admission is $20, with discounts for students, seniors and groups. 

Friday, December 14, 2007: Under the direction of Christopher Zimmerman, the Orchestra will perform Sheng’s work Nanking, Nanking! for Pipa and Orchestra.  The concert also includes Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.  The performance will take place in Lincoln Theater on the campus of the University of Hartford.  Admission is $20, with discounts for students, seniors and groups. 

Bright Sheng, born in Shanghai, China in 1955, is a Chinese-American composer, conductor, and pianist. He has lived in the United States since 1982 and is on faculty at the University of Michigan.  In April of 1999, Mr. Sheng received a special commission from the White House to create a new work for a state dinner, hosted by the president, honoring the Chinese Premiere Zhou Rongji. In October 2001, Bright Sheng was named a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow with a cash prize of $500,000.  Sheng’s Nanking! Nanking! was recently premiered by Northern German Radio Symphony in Hamburg, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. Other recent premiers include Red Silk Dance, Silver River, Flute Moon, China Dreams, Four Movements for Piano Trio, Madame Mao and a quadruple concerto for the New York Philharmonic celebrating the twentieth debut anniversary of Yo Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax. He was Distinguished Guest Composer of Winnipeg Symphony in Canada and he recently conducted the China National Symphony Orchestra in concert of his symphonic music in Beijing.  Mr. Sheng has appeared as solo pianist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, as a conductor with the San Francisco Ballet, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Asian Youth Orchestra among many more. He has collaborated with many distinguished musicians including Leonard Bernstein, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, and Neeme Järvi. His music has been widely performed in the United States, Europe and in Asia.  In addition to many national and international awards, Mr. Sheng has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Naumberg Foundation, and Copland Foundation. Last year, he was the recipient of the Michigan Arts Award and a Rackham fellowship from the University of Michigan.  Mr. Sheng’s music is exclusively published by G. Schirmer, Inc. and records on the Sony Classical, Delos, Koch International, New World, and Grammofon AB BI labels.  Among his important teachers were Leonard Bernstein, George Perle, Hugo Weisgall, Chou Wen-Chung, and Jack Beeson.  Sheng is currently in demand throughout the world as a composer, and will have his work featured at the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. 

The 2007 Unclaimed Property Composer in Residence project, featuring Bright Sheng, has been made possible by generous grants from:
                            Susan Brake
                            The Saunders Foundation

Purchase tickets online

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

Last Newsletter of the Semester
This newsletter will be the last of the semester.  The next issue of News from the Hartt Dean’s Office will be Wednesday, January 30.  Please email your news and announcements by Friday, January 25 to harttpr@hartford.edu

ACADEMIC ACCOLADES

Hartt faculty member Emlyn Ngai will be teaching baroque violin at the Amherst Early Music Winter Workshop held January 18-21 at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ across from Philadelphia.  The baroque violin program will concentrate on the unaccompanied literature for violin as well as other repertoire.  Information and registration is available online.

Hartt faculty member Nat Reeves participated in Guimarães Jazz 2007, at the invitation of the University of Guimarães in Portugal, from Nov. 7 through 10. With the world-renowned jazz artists, Pharoah Sanders on saxophone, William Henderson on piano, and Joe Farmsworth on drums, Reeves played bass on “Contrabaixo.”
(UNotesDaily, Dec. 10)

Scott Metcalfe, assistant professor of music production and technology, recently returned from a trip to England where he presented lectures in music technology to students and faculty at Staffordshire University, in Stafford, and Birmingham Conservatoire, in Birmingham.
(UNotesDaily, Dec. 10)

STUDENT & ALUMNI NEWS

David Katz (BM, 1977; AD, 1984; MM, 1989) will bring MUSE of FIRE, his acclaimed one-man play about conductors and great music, to Theatre Building Chicago for 26 performances beginning February 14 through March 23, 2008. Based in part on events that took place at The Hartt School in the 1980’s, MUSE of FIRE has been hailed as “searing and unforgettable”.  MUSE of FIRE lifts the veil on the conductor’s secret life to reveal that conductors are not born, they are forged in fury. Premiered at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Bar Harbor, Maine in 2005, the play has since been seen throughout the Northeast. Katz will present a command performance of MUSE of FIRE at the Conductors Guild National Convention in Baltimore in January.  For ticket information, updated schedules, background, bios and synopsis, please visit www.museoffiretheplay.org

Leanne Baldwin (MM, 1996)) has been named executive director of the Abilene (TX) Philharmonic. She holds a master’s degree in piano performance from The Hartt School at the University of Hartford, and comes to Abilene with a background in music management and nonprofit consulting.

Emily Jane Taubl, a freshman at The Hartt School, was profiled in the New York Times as part of a story on the eighth annual van Rooy Competition for Musical Excellence held last month. Taubl, a cellist, took first place in the competition and will make her Hartford Symphony Orchestra debut on Jan. 24 and 25.
(New York Times, Dec. 9)

Read the Community Division's Newsletter

Brooker Joins American Ballet Theatre Advisory Team

Susan Brooker, chair of the Dance Department at The Hartt School Community Division, has joined a team of artistic advisors for the renowned American Ballet Theatre’s (ABT’s) new National Training Curriculum.
(UNotesDaily, Dec. 11)

Students participate in the Hartford Symphony Orchestra's Holiday POPS! Spectacular

Students from The Hartt School Community Division’s Connecticut Children’s Chorus and the Dance Department’s Intensive Program will join the Hartford Symphony and the Hartford Chorale on Saturday, December 15 at 3:00 and 8:00 p.m. at the Connecticut Convention Center’s Grand Ballroom.  Thrill to the spectacle of the season as HSO Director Edward Cumming leads this sparkling holiday celebration of carols, sing-alongs, Santa and more!  Tickets range in price from $42 - $67 and can be purchased by calling 860.244.2999 or online.
Attending the 3:00 p.m. performance?   Then arrive early and enjoy a pre-concert performance provided by Vocal Students from The Hartt School Community Division.  This special pre-concert performance begins at 2:00 p.m. and will feature soloists performing holiday-related repertoire.