Emerald City Music Presents Oboe / Oboe – Featuring James Austin Smith and Titus Underwood in a World Premiere by Fred Onovwerosuoke
Emerald City Music Presents Oboe / Oboe
Featuring Oboists James Austin Smith and Titus Underwood
in the World Premiere of a New Work by Fred Onovwerosuoke
for Two Solo Oboes and String Quintet
(2024 ECM Commission)
Plus Music by Marina Dranishnikova, Tomaso Albinoni,
Mark O’Connor, and W.A. Mozart
Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director
Friday, February 9, 2024 at 8pm
415 Westlake
415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/oboe-oboe
Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts
2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA
Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/oboe-oboe-olympia
“[Artistic Director Kristin Lee] wants to show you, through Emerald City Music’s concert series, just how varied and innovative chamber music can be.”
– The Seattle Times
Seattle & Olympia, WA – On Friday, February 9, 2024 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd SW), Emerald City Music (ECM) presents Oboe / Oboe – a program dedicated to highlighting the artistry of the oboe, through works composed for the woodwind instrument by a diverse group of composers from around the world and from throughout many different eras in time.
Emerald City Music showcases the dextrous versatility of the oboe – a traditionally solo instrument – as a duo. The program was created with two specific superstar oboists in mind: returning artist James Austin Smith and Emerald City Music debut artist Titus Underwood. Also featured as guest performers for this concert are violinist and ECM Artistic Director Kristin Lee, violinist and best-selling author, Ling Ling Huang, violist Ayane Kozasa, cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, bassist Rachel Calin, and pianist/harpsichordist Oksana Ejokina.
The evening explores historical keystone pieces written for the oboe – from the baroque era to classical, mid-20th century, and finally to the contemporary sounds of 2024. The flurry of oboes is interjected with a light hearted and virtuosic piece by Mark O'Connor: String Quartet For Violin, Viola, Cello, And Bass: I. Fast And Cheerful (2019). The program features a world premiere by Fred Onovwerosuoke commissioned by Emerald City Music, written for two solo oboes and string quintet. The American composer, who was born in Ghana of Nigerian parents, writes music that bears influences from across Africa, the Caribbean, and the American Deep South.
Instrumentation that features two oboes in double-soli is exceedingly rare and the works with this configuration were primarily popular in only the baroque era. The program platforms one of these works, Tomaso Albinoni's Concerto, published in 1722, bookending the evening with Fred Onovwerosuoke’s modern counterpart. Additionally, the program will also feature Marina Dranishnikova’s Poem For Oboe and Piano (1953) and W.A. Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370 (1781).
Of this thoughtfully curated program and the decision to showcase the oboe in particular, Artistic Director Kristin Lee says:
“This program from our Seventh Season, Oboe/Oboe, is perhaps the one I’m looking forward to with the most anticipation. It’s the only program from this season that features a variety of instruments like the oboe, strings, and harpsichord. In addition, we will be featuring a mix of returning and brand new artists to our ECM stage.
The biggest reason for it being the highlight is the feature of our world premiere performance of Fred Onovwerosuoke’s brand new concertino for Two Oboes and String Quintet. I encountered Fred’s music through learning about the friendship between him and Titus Underwood, one of the featured oboists on this program. The essence to creation and process of music making stems from human relationships so I’m excited to share their friendship and new friendships with our audience. It’ll be a joyful evening of music over decades –– the perfect way to kick off our spring season!”
For the performance at 415 Westlake, audiences can enjoy ECM’s flagship “date-night experience,” which combines vibrant classical performance with an open bar, and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The second performance of the program in Olympia will take place at the Capital High School Performing Arts Center.
Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for their casual environment combined with award winning artists, ECM has gained recognition from several high-profile publications like Seattle Times, The City Arts deemed ECM “the beacon for the casual-classical movement.” Unique to only ECM attendees are encouraged to wear casual clothes, enjoy the open bar and walk around in order to increase the satisfaction of each of the ECM concerts. The Seattle Times calls ECM’s programming “very different,” noting its “nontraditional atmosphere,” which often “doesn’t have a stage separating performers from the audience, and artists mingle with the audience during the intermission.”
This performance, and all of ECM’s Mainstage performances this season, will be recorded live and then made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.
For more about the artists, visit: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season-artists
About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director:
Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.
As a soloist, Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum, the Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. An accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee became a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center after winning The Bowers Program audition and completing the program's three-year residency. In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is a devoted educator. She is on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin. Lee is also the founding artistic director of Emerald City Music (ECM), a chamber music series that presents authentically unique concert experiences and bridges the divide between the highest caliber classical music and the many diverse communities of the Puget Sound region of Washington State.
Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant, top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions, and awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation.
Born in Seoul, Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples, Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley. For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.
About ECM:
Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences. Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces and tours seven productions annually, with each tour visiting Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival, and an annual concert in New York City.
ECM has gained recognition regionally and nationally as a major player in the chamber music scene. Artistic Director Kristin Lee –– a touring violinist awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant and a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center –– is regarded for her innovative programming that both honors the tradition of chamber music while expanding the genre’s boundary past common limits. Emerald City Music made a name for itself beginning in its second season with a national collaborative commission with Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams, and has continued to press the boundary of chamber music with accolades like a tour of Steve Reich’s iconic and rare Music for 18 Musicians, a pitch-black performance of Georg Haas’s “In the Dark” quartet, and the West Coast debut of the Danish folk group The Dreamers’ Circus.
ECM values real, authentic connection and holds the belief that music possesses the innate power to connect people, inclusive of varying backgrounds and perspectives. Over eight years, artists from every corner of the globe have visited Emerald City Music to prove just that: there exists a special connection between artist and listener that only music can facilitate.
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