WORLD PREMIERE - “SCATTERED STARS” - BY JANE BARSUMIAN

From Vivi Hlavsa:

Jane Barsumian

On a program full of “lovable” music the world premiere performance of a new work by Jane Barsumian will be of outstanding interest to area concert goers. The WOODSTOCK CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, conducted by Artistic Director David Leighton, will present its final concerts of the 2010-2011 season, featuring Jane Barsumian’s newest work, “Scattered Stars.”  The program also includes “Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 1” by Ottorino Respighi, “Adagietto” from the Symphony No. 5 of Gustav Mahler, “Czech Suite” by Antonin Dvorak and “Overture to The Wasps” by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

 Performances: 

• 8 pm Friday, April 29 at Olin Hall, Bard College, 
• 8 pm Saturday, April 30 at Pointe of Praise Family Life Center, 243 Hurley Avenue, Kingston, and 
• 3 pm Sunday, May 1 at Saugerties Reformed Church, Main Street, Saugerties: 

Tickets: adults $20.00, college students $5, K-12 with accompanying adult, free. Subscription sets are available (4 tickets good for any concert).
Jane Barsumian, a resident of the Hudson Valley for some thirty-three years, is well known for her remarkable skills as violinist, pianist, organist, vocalist and composer.  “Scattered Stars” is her first work for chamber orchestra and audiences will have an opportunity to hear her music in full panoply of orchestrated imagination.  Her style is charming, witty and actually beautiful.  Yes, you read that correctly – this is contemporary music you will enjoy.  Born into a musical family, father was a concert violinist, composer and conductor, mother a church organist for seventy five years, Jane Barsumian studied piano with Frank McConnell, Edgar Roberts and Antoinette Lind, violin with Norman Black of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Henk Schram of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and composition with Grammy-winning composer Joan Tower.  For the 2002 Woodstock Cycle Jane composed music and text for the Cantata "Healing." She is the 2006 winner of the Hymn Competition of the Eastern North Carolina Religious Arts Festival, and has written service music for the Episcopal Church.

The WOODSTOCK CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, formed in 1980 by musicians from the Woodstock area, now is comprised of professional musicians from the entire Hudson Valley. The WCO regularly commissions music by local and regional composers and each season performs in Woodstock, Kingston, Saugerties, and at Bard College.