The following post comes from Sedgwick Clark’s very own blog “Why I left Muncie” (a MusicalAmerica.com blog)
For years I’ve been te
mpted by Music from Copland House concerts, at Aaron Copland’s National Historic Landmark home in New York’s lower Hudson Valley, but they always seemed out of reach. On Monday (2/20), however, the Mountain came to Mohammed III when several of the ensemble’s artists played a tasty program of mostly lightish American music at a dual benefit concert at Christ and St. Stephens Church on West 69th Street.
Following a performance by students and teachers of UpBeat NYC, a “grassroots organization” in the South Bronx modeled after El Sistema, the Copland House portion began with a world premiere by Rob Smith of Chaw, followed by works by Pierre Jalbert, Paul Schoenfield, Derek Bermel, Copland, and Grainger. All were executed winningly, especially Copland’s Vitebsk, which was given a stunning reading by violinist Harumi Rhodes, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and pianist Michael Boriskin.
Music from Copland House next performs in Manhattan at the Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Hall on March 28.