COMPLETED
CHIRON Performing Arts proudly presented a masterwork from a significant American composer!

Sunday – March 1st, 4PM
The National Opera Center
TICKETS HERE:

The New York Premiere of
EUGENE O’BRIEN’S “ALGEBRA OF NIGHT”


SEVEN SONGS AND TWO INTERLUDES
FOR VOICE AND PIANO QUARTET

Clara Osowski, mezzo soprano; Daniel Rieppel, piano; Monica Bauchwitz, violin and members of The String Orchestra of New York City.
This song cycle includes the poetry of Mark Strand, Charles Simic, Edwin Denby, Frank O’Hara, W.H. Auden and James Merrill.

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DONATIONS

Eugene O’Brien’s “Algebra of Night” will comprise the entire second half of the event and be preceded by a short interview with Mr. O’Brien.

The first half of this event will feature the music of CHIRON Performing Arts founder and director,  Christopher Kaufman.

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OUR FEATURED ARTIST – EUGENE O’BRIEN, Composer

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Eugene O’Brien is the recipient of the Award in Music of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Rome Prize of the American Academy in Rome, as well as awards from bmi, ascap and The League of Composers / ISCM. He has received Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Fulbright, National Endowment for the Arts and other fellowships, and has been commissioned by the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, by the Meet-the-Composer / Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund, and by many American, Asian and European performers and ensembles.
          His music has been heard in concerts by the Cleveland Orchestra, the Italian Radio Orchestras of Rome and Turin, the Omaha Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony Discovery series, the Louisville Orchestra New Dimensions series, and in numerous other orchestral and chamber concerts throughout this country and abroad. Recorded on the cri, Golden Crest, Crystal, Capstone, Gothic and Indiana University labels, his works are published by Codex Nuovo, G. Schirmer, and Boosey & Hawkes.
          Mr. O’Brien studied composition with Robert Beadell, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, John Eaton, Iannis Xenakis and Donald Erb. A former member of the composition faculties at The Cleveland Institute of Music and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., he is currently Professor Emeritus of Composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1987.

Read more about Mr. O’Brien and his work HERE:

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Founder/Director of CHIRON Performing Arts – Christopher Kaufman

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As director of CHIRON Performing Arts, Christopher Kaufman has presented the work of hundreds of artists of all disciplines. He is a composer of a wide variety of works, such as music for the classical concert stage and film, and environmental works which feature ‘music concrete’ compositions with hundreds of natural sounds mixed with live players and original videos. He also creates multimedia works for audiences of all ages which he presents on his series, The Phantastic Theater.
See his biographical brochure: HERE:

The First half of this concert will feature three of his works:

*OCEAN**
– for violin and piano

With performers:
Gregory Fulkerson, violin and Taka KIgawa, piano

Taka will also performs Kaufman’s
IN MEMORIAM: WENDY MARANISS

*Kaufman’s OCEAN was written in response to the BP Oil Disaster.    ** World Premiere

Robert Dick will perform Kaufman’s environmental work,

HUDSON VALLEY MUSIC – for Flute(s), Tape (filled with hundreds of natural and orchestral sounds) and video.
With the composer performing readings from Muir, Melville, Chief Seattle, Emerson, Blake and Whitman.

**World Premiere Performances

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ABOUT OUR PERFORMERS

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Clara Osowski, mezzo soprano

Hailed for her artistry and rich mezzo color, Clara Osowski shares her musicianship equally between the opera stage and recital hall. She has many opera credits, awards such as the winner of the Houston Saengerbund Competition (’17), and recognition for excellence in Minnesota as a recipient of the prestigious 2018-2019 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Musicians. [visit link below for much more].

In international competition with pianist Tyler Wottrich, in March of 2017, Clara became the first ever American prize winner when she placed second at Thomas Quasthoff’s International Das Lied Competition in Heidelberg, Germany. She recently won the Radio-Canada People’s Choice Award and third place in the song division at the 2018 Concours Musical International de Montréal.

Clara’s passion for contemporary music is exhibited in the song-cycles she has premiered by numerous composers with the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa, and her most recent collaborations with Linda Kachelmeier (Stars), Jeremy Walker (Alma Gentil), Linda Tutas Haugen (Gjendine’s Lullaby), Paul Rudoi (Midnight Songs) and James Kallembach (St. John Passion and Songs on Letters of John and Abigail Adams).

There is much more to Clara’s career. Please visit her site for more: HERE:

Monica Bauchwitz and The String Orchestra of New York City, Concertmaster

Monica’s career as a violinist and champion of new music is extensive. She founded and directed the Manhattan chamber music series “Concerts in the Heights”. This series brings together world-class musicians for performances and educational projects.  She is also a founder and Artistic Director of the conductor-less String Orchestra of New York City- SONYC.

She has toured extensively across Europe with classical and contemporary chamber music repertoire and has participated in such festivals as Great Irish Houses Music Festival in Ireland, and the Schleswig-Holstein Chamber Music Series in Germany.  She is presently coaching and performing at Concordia College.  Chamber music collaborations have included Colin Carr, Antony Pay, and Philippe Entremont as well as crossover work with Trey Anastasio from Phish and country singer Trisha Yearwood.  She has performed as soloist with orchestras in Scandinavia, Central Europe, and the New York region and has recorded under the Philips and Albany labels.

Please visit her site for more about Monica and SONYC. HERE:

Gregory Fulkerson, violin

Internationally acclaimed violinist GREGORY FULKERSON has had a flourishing career in both classical and contemporary music. It was as a major exponent of American contemporary music that Mr. Fulkerson rose to prominence, taking the First Prize in the International American Music Competition sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Kennedy Center (now sponsored by Carnegie Hall). As a result of that victory, Mr. Fulkerson began a very active performing career which included debuts in New York, London, Paris, Rome, and Brussels. He has performed over 30 concerti with orchesrtra, including the World Premieres of the John Becker Concerto with the Chattanooga Symphony, the Richard Wernick Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Roy Harris Concerto with the North Carolina Symphony (later performing and recording it with The Louisville Orchestra). Among the conductors under whose baton Mr. Fulkerson has played are Riccardo Muti, Zdenek Macal, Geoffrey Simon, Bernard Rubenstein, Lawrence Leighton Smith, Gerhardt Zimmermann, Robert Spano, and Marin Alsop. He performed the title role in the 1992 revival of the Philip Glass opera, EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH, for a total of 48 performances on four continents, and later recorded the work for Nonesuch.
MORE HERE: and HERE:

Taka Kigawa, piano

Critically acclaimed pianist TAKA KIGAWA has earned outstanding international recognition as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber music artist since winning First Prize in the prestigious 1990 Japan Music Foundation Piano Competition in Tokyo, and the Diploma Prize at the 1998 Concurs Internacional Maria Canals De Barcelona in Spain, with such accolades from The New York Times as “Phenomenon. There’s no denying that he is something special,” “The extraordinary pianist.” and from The New Yorker “Unbelievably challenging program. Kigawa is an artist of stature.” and from La Nación (Buenos Aires) “Taka Kigawa is a stupendous virtuoso.” His New York City recital in 2010 was chosen as one of the best concerts of the year by The New York Times. His New York City recital in August 2011 was picked as one of the most notable concerts in the 2011-2012 season by Musical America. Also his Buenos Aires recital in April 2014 was chosen as one of the best concerts of the year by Argentina’s leading paper, La Nación.   More about Taka Kigawa HERE:

Robert Dick, Flutist/composer/Inventor

CHIRON core member Robert Dick is world renowned for his revolutionary work as a flutist, composer, inventor and world leader in new music techniques.  Every ‘woke’ composer on earth knows his compendium, The Other Flute.  I have the distinct honor of seeing the manuscript, a work to live surely beyond our lifetimes.

Daniel Rieppel, piano, leader

Daniel is co-director of CHIRON Performing Arts. He is a highly regarded pianist, a performer of new music as well as a scholar on the music of Schubert. He is professor of Music at SW Minnesota State University and has conducted the SW Minnestoa Orchestra for many years. He has championed the music of many composers in the Minnesota region and beyond. He performs piano recitals and concertos with orchestras. Visit his website for much more: HERE: