The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Akropolis Reed Quintet to perform Aug. 4, 6
EAST HADDAM — IPark, New England’s leading open-air and closed-studio laboratory for creative pursuits in the arts and in nature, presents Detroit-based Akropolis Reed Quintet at a pair of all-premiere concerts, first at I-Park on Saturday at 7 p.m, then at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Monday, Aug. 6, at 7:30 pm.
Hailed for its “imagination, infallible musicality, and huge vitality” (Fanfare Magazine), the acclaimed quintet will perform five new works specifically composed to showcase the ensemble’s unique instrumentation: saxophone, clarinet, bassoon, oboe and bass clarinet.
Receptions following the performances will provide opportunities to meet the musicians and composers. For event details and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.i-park.org; for accessibility information, call 860-873-2468.
Founded in 2009 at the University of Michigan, the Akropolis Reed Quintet is a maverick of new wind music and the first-ever ensemble of its makeup to win
a Fischoff Gold Medal, Grand Prize at the Plowman and MTNA national competitions, and six national chamber music prizes in total. Akropolis has performed from Juneau to Abu Dhabi; showcased at five national conferences; commissioned over 30 reed quintet works; collaborated with Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond, the Dover Quartet, BodyVox Dance, and others; and recorded three albums, including the 2017 release, The Space between Us, dubbed “pure gold” by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The composers: Theo Chandler is pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at Rice University. The recipient of a Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters and a MortonGould Award from ASCAP, he has received commissions from the New York Youth Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, and Les Délices. He has been a fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, and Copland House CULTIVATE.
Natalie Draper received her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Peabody
Institute in 2017 and was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2015. Praised for her "individual and strong voice" (Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine), her compositions reflect her interest in musical character and evocative soundworlds. A recent work, Timelapse Variations, was hailed as a "tense, darkly colorful churn" (Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun). This fall, she will join the faculty at the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University as Assistant Professor.
Michael Gilbertson is the BMI Composer in Residence with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and a professor at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. A finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Music, his compositions have been described as “particularly beautiful” by The New York Times and “a compelling fusion of [the]new and ancient” by The Philadelphia Inquirer. His works have been programmed by, among others, the Pittsburgh Symphony, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Verona Quartet, and Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale.
Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s music, described as “stark” by WNPR, has been commissioned and performed by Symphony Number One, Spark and Echo Project, pianist Erika Dohi for Metropolis Ensemble Piano Series, Invoke Quartet, and others. A founder of the Iranian Female Composers Association and an advocate of music education, she is a Teaching Artist for NY Philharmonic‘s Very Young Composers program and teaches piano at Brooklyn Music School. She is pursuing her doctorate degree in music composition at Stony Brook University.
Octavio Vazquez’s music, hailed as “a burning torch for the next century” (The New Music Connoisseur), has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, andAsia by leading orchestras and soloists. His works have been recorded for Naxos and Delos and by national radio and international television networks. A winner of manynational and international prizes and the recipient of a MacDowell Colony residency, he is Assistant Professor of Music and Composition Program Director at Nazareth College, Rochester, NY.