HIGHPOINT MUSIC TO LAUNCH INAUGURAL CONCERT AT WOODSTOCK'S COLONY CAFÉ - MAY 26TH






Highpoint Music will feature newly commissioned works by five of the country’s most promising, emerging composers of classical and crossover music at Woodstock’s Colony Café, May 26th, at 7:30pm.


Highpoint Music Seminar and the upcoming concert were created and funded by Shokan resident George Tsontakis as a means of supporting young composers and as an appreciation of his having, most recently, been the beneficiary of two of classical music’s richest prizes. Internationally prominent composer and 2007 Grawemeyer winner Sebastian Currier, will serve as Highpoint Music’s first Guest Composer and will have a recent work presented at the Colony.


Five handpicked young, emerging composers will hear their works for the first time, composed for the event and commissioned through the Highpoint Bard Young Composer Commissions. These new works reflect a myriad of current trends -- from contemporary, classical, thorniness, to jazz, rock and world music: Composer Chris Kapica will perform with an amplified Ecce on electric guitar, and Takuma Itoh’s duo features saxophone and percussion.


The Colony Café event will be the culmination of a four-day program of master classes, seminars and rehearsals with the five fellows, Tsontakis, and Currier as well as visiting composers and musicians. The composer fellows will present their earlier music in forums and receive feedback from the mentors and participants. The seminars will be held in Shokan and at Woodstock Percussion, in Olive (not open to the public.)


The commissions are supported in part by a gift from Bard College and other support comes from Woodstock Percussion and the Emerson and Catamount. The outstanding ensemble Ecce (East Coast Composers Ensemble) will perform these new works with guest artist Garry Kvistad of Woodstock Percussion, who is also a member the renowned percussion quartet, NEXUS.


COMPOSITION FELLOWS - 2010

(The composers attend or recently graduated the following colleges and conservatories)


Niccolo Athens (Juilliard)

Max Grafe (Indiana University)

Takuma Itoh (Cornell University)

Chris Kapica (Juilliard)

Polina Nazaykinskaya (Yale)


Concert Event

Wednesday, May 26th, at 7:30pm

The Colony Café, 22 Rock City Road, Woodstock, NY

(845) 679-5342

http://www.colonycafe.com/Index.html

Suggested Donation $10, $8 Students and Seniors


For information and reservations, please email to highpointmusic@gmail.com.