flutist CATHERINE GREGORY & harpist MÉLANIE GENIN
TOWARD THE SEA: FLUTE & HARP DUO CONCERT INSPIRED BY MOBY DICK
Featuring flutist CATHERINE GREGORY & harpist MÉLANIE GENIN
PROGRAMME:
Toward the Sea III by Toru Takemitsu
Aprés un rêve by Gabriel Fauré
Taheke (Waterfall) by Gareth Farr
The Song of the Lark by Charles Rochester Young
1. Song to the waking sun
2. Flight
3. Into darkness
Through the literary work of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, flutist Catherine Gregory and harpist Mélanie Genin present a musical program intertwined with the sea, where "meditation and water are wedded together" (Melville).
The centerpiece of the program, Tou Takemitsu's Toward the Sea III, was commissioned by Greenpeace for the 'Save the Whales' campaign, and the work refers largely to Melvile's novel. The program will also include music by Gareth Farr, Gabriel Fauré, and Charles Rochester Young.
Praised for her 'rich and fully present' sound (The New York Times), New York City based Australian flutist CATHERINE GREGORY has performed as a recitalist, chamber and orchestral musician at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Chicago Cultural Center and the Lincoln Center festival. Ms. Gregory has been a winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Competition, finalist in the Young Performer's Awards and has worked with such composers as Steve Reich, David Lang, and George Crumb.
Ms. Gregory has performed with ensembles namely the Paris Opera Ballet, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble LPR, the Locrian Chamber Players, Riverdale Sinfonietta, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, and the Metro Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Gregory is an alumna of Ensemble ACJW: a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute and continues this work with the Alumni group, Decoda. Ms. Greogry studied with Gerhard Mallon at the Queensland Conservatorium, as well as in the US under the auspices of a Fulbright Scholarship with Alberto Almarza and Janne Baxtresser.
Hailed by the Epoch Times as a "singular virtuoso with an exquisitely sensitive playing", MÉLANIE GENIN is a French harpist currently based in New York. Ms. Genin has recently made her debut at Carnegie Hall as soloist in the Debussy Dances for harp and orchestra as the First Prize winner of the International Shining Stars Series.
An international representative of the French harp school, she is the only harpist finalist of the 2014 Concert Artist Guild competition of New York and a semifinalist of the 2014 International Young Artists competitions. A fervent advocate of new music, Ms. Genin has commissioned numbers of works by contemporary composers namely Jules Matton, Yuri Boguinia, and Wei-Chieh Lin.
Ms. Genin has quickly become a major actor in the New York musical scene, and has performed in the most prestigious concert halls in the world including Avery Fisher Hall, Concertgebow in Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall in London, KKL in Luzern, Theatre des champs Elysées, Salle Pleyel in Paris, among others.
Ms. Genin is a recipient of the Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Foundation, Artistic Ambassador of Champagne Ardennes Region's chair. Future engagements include the premiere of two new works for solo harp, a collaboration with the Evermay Ensemble in Washington D.C., and concerts in France and Austra.
PHOTO CREDIT: Dario Acosta & Brian Hatton