Music from Copland House Launches Spring Residency at the Emelin Theatre

EMELIN THEATRE & COPLAND HOUSE LAUNCH NEW RESIDENCY

ECLECTIC 3-CONCERT SERIES BY MUSIC FROM COPLAND HOUSE TO SHOWCASE AMERICAN MUSICAL CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, AND HISTORY

Mamaroneck NY, January 19, 2022 – The Emelin Theatre and Copland House today announce an exhilarating collaboration showcasing more than one-hundred years of American musical creativity and innovation. This spring, the internationally-acclaimed Music from Copland House ensemble, which “redefines what it is to listen to fine music in the 21st-century” (District Fray, Washington, DC), comes to the Emelin stage, and to audiences in Westchester and surrounding areas for a vibrant three-concert residency.

The series is moving to the Emelin after having been a popular fixture in northern Westchester for over 10 years, mostly at Westchester County’s Merestead estate. As the Bedford Record-Review raved, “if you’ve ever thought of a classical music concert as something boring, stuffy, or simply to be endured … Copland House at Merestead will have even the most concert-averse thinking again.” Music from Copland House’s concerts were also recognized by Westchester magazine as “Best of Westchester” and “Best of the Decade,” and included in its feature highlighting “52 Things to Love about Westchester.”

“The Copland House residency at the Emelin marks a tremendous opportunity to partner with an internationally recognized organization, whose artistry further diversifies our already rich and varied program of world-class music,” explained the Theatre’s Executive Director Elliot Fox. “Over the past 50 years, the Emelin has partnered with great Westchester-based artists such as Music from Copland House to better serve and attract both existing and new audiences throughout the community. We are honored to present this three-part concert series of important American music in 2022, and look forward to building our relationship with Copland House for the future.”

Fresh from the ensemble’s triumphant debut at the Kennedy Center, hailed as “historic” (Broadway World), Music from Copland House’s electrifying programs at the Emelin will embrace American works from Gilded Age Romanticism and the Harlem Renaissance through 20th-century classics and contemporary masters. Each event takes place on Sunday afternoon at 4pm, lasts for one-hour without intermission, and includes lively, post-concert OFFBEAT / ONSTAGE talks with the artists.

“While Music from Copland House has performed widely at the nation’s leading concert venues,” said Copland House’s Artistic and Executive Director Michael Boriskin, “Westchester is our home – as it was for Aaron Copland – and we are excited to turn the Emelin’s spotlight onto America’s concert music and its world of thrilling discoveries. And we’re especially glad to be resuming our live performances, after two years of the pandemic shutdown, as we join the list of illustrious artists who have performed on the Emelin’s welcoming stage.”

The series opens on April 3, 2022 with – fittingly – Sounds of Westchester, a salute to generations of composers who made the county home to one of the richest musical legacies in America. The program presents works by Westchester natives or transplants, including three Pulitzer Prize winners, renowned past and present masters, and a genuine maverick. Featured composers are Aaron Copland (Cortlandt Manor), Joan Tower (New Rochelle), Samuel Barber, (Mount Kisco), Pierre Jalbert (Bronxville), Charles Tomlinson Griffes (Tarrytown, where he was a young teacher at the then-new Hackley School in the early 1900s!), and Percy Grainger (White Plains, from where he used to walk to his concerts in Brooklyn!).

On May 1, Lives Entwined features three important works that embark on personal journeys to explore inner lives, outer worlds, and the joys and tensions that connect or disrupt them. Highlighting the program is the World Premiere of Emmy Award-winner John Musto’s Piano Quintet, inspired by the life and loss of a close friend. The iconic Leonard Bernstein’s early, rarely-heard Piano Trio is an artistic coming-of-age voyage of an extravagantly-gifted teeneafer in the 1930s. The prodigious Gabriela Lena Frank’s Hilos (“Threads”) recalls and reimagines the cultures and customs of her Peruvian ancestry.

The series finale on June 19 is a Juneteenth celebration of this important but long-overlooked day in American history. Borrowing its title from a Maya Angelou lyric – “I’ve got a magic charm / That I keep up my sleeve” – from her children’s book Life Doesn’t Frighten Me — the concert pays tribute to the power and resilience of the human spirit. The wide-ranging program — featuring texts by Langston Hughes, Marcus Amaker, Dudley Randall, Walt Whitman, and others — reaches back to late-19th-century Black spirituals, visits the exuberant artistic worlds of the Harlem Renaissance, and salutes 20th- and 21st-century masters.

All concerts feature Music from Copland House, lauded by The New Yorker as “bold, adventurous, and “superb.” The only American repertory ensemble journeying widely across a century-and-a-half of the U.S. musical landscape, MCH appears on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, and the European Broadcasting Union; performs at Tanglewood, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, and other major venues; and records on the Koch, Arabesque, and Copland House Blend labels. Its roster of Founding, Principal, and Guest Artists includes some of America’s most celebrated performers, of whom The Chicago Tribune has raved, “Copland would have been proud of them all.”

COVID PROTOCOLS: The Emelin Theatre and Copland House are both committed to the safety and well-being of our communities in this continuously-evolving COVID-19 environment. Prior to admission, all patrons must present proof of full vaccination (i.e., two courses of Moderna or Pfizer, or one course of Johnson & Johnson) completed at least 14 days prior to the performance date, as well as a photo ID. (A hard copy or photograph of attendee’s vaccination card, Excelsior Pass, or COVID Alert CT are acceptable forms of proof.) All audiences must wear masks, covering their nose and mouth, while inside the theatre and throughout the performance. Patrons should read Emelin’s full COVID-19 Policy online on the Emelin Theatre website, prior to buying.

TICKETS: $45/Orchestra and $35/Mezzanine.

Subscription packages when purchasing tickets for ALL three Copland House events are available at a 25% discount.

Subscribe by Mon, Feb 7 and enjoy waived handling fees as well.

Additional information and tickets are available on the Emelin Theatre website or at (914) 698-0098.

Media inquiries:

Copland House: Elizabeth Dworkin elizabeth@dworkincompany.com;

Emelin Theatre: Francesca Carter francesca.carter@emelin.org

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Major support for Copland House’s 2021-2022 season comes from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Friends of Copland House. Additional support comes from ArtsWestchester, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and the Amphion, ASCAP, BMI, Jandon, and Westchester Community Foundations.

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All concerts at the Emelin Theatre, 153 Library Lane, Mamaroneck, NY

 All concerts include post-performance OFFBEAT / ONSTAGE artist talks

Joan Tower: Petroushskates

Charles Tomlinson Griffes: Poem

Pierre Jalbert: Crossings

Samuel Barber: Canzone

Percy Grainger: Three British Folk Songs [arr. Paul Dunkel]

Aaron Copland: Sextet

MCH Artists: Carol Wincenc, flute; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Siwoo Kim and Suliman Tekalli, violins; Melissa Reardon, viola; Alexis Pia Gerlach, cello; Michael Boriskin, piano

Gabriela Lena Frank: Hilos

John Musto: Piano Quintet [WORLD PREMIERE]

Leonard Bernstein: Piano Trio

MCH Artists: Igor Begelman, clarinet;, Siwoo Kim and Suliman Tekalli, violins; Maren Rothfritz, viola; Alexis Pia Gerlach, cello; Michael Boriskin, piano

Tom Cipullo: I Hear America Singing

Margaret Bonds: I, Too, Sing America

Harry T. Burleigh: From the Southland

Shawn Okpebholo: Two Black Churches, and Folk Songs Reimagined

William Grant Still: Suite for Violin and Piano

MCH Artists: Adam Richardson, baritone; Suliman Tekalli, violin; Michael Boriskin, piano

Individual tickets: $45/Orchestra, $35/Mezzanine. Subscription packages when purchasing tickets for ALL three Copland House events are available at a 25% discount.

Purchase tickets or get more information: www.emelin.org or (914) 698-0098.

Media inquiries: Dworkin & Company, info@dworkincompany.com or (914) 244-3803.