Cléonice, Improvisation, Jazz from NEC

NEC Presents Trio Cléonice, Contemporary Improvisation Workshop, and Rindello-Parker, Soo Han for Opening Our Doors Day

Performers at Jordan and Brown Halls, Gardner Museum, Oct. 8 in all-day Fenway Alliance Open House

Something to suit every taste! New England Conservatory will offer three widely different musical events as its contribution to the Fenway Alliance’s Opening Our Doors Day, Oct. 8, at 2 p.m.

In NEC’s Jordan Hall, the Trio Cléonice—the current ensemble in the Professional Piano Trio Training Program—will perform. Composed of violinist Ari Issacman-Beck, pianist Emely Phelps, and cellist Gwen Krosnick, the Trio was founded in 2008 at the Kneisel Hall chamber music festival and is coached at NEC by pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein. The group takes its name from the restaurant Cléonice in Ellsworth, ME. Not surprisingly, the players derive perhaps equal pleasure from music, fine dining and cooking. They perform with great joie de vivre. The title of their blog says it all—“Grilled Octopus and the Archduke.” For more information, click here.

In Brown Hall, Hankus Netsky, Chair of Contemporary Improvisation (CI), will demonstrate how Everyone can Improvise. Netsky says: “Discover your inner improvisational voice … and how to express that voice through any instrument. Singers and instrumentalists of all ages are welcome to join this exploration—bring your family, or go it alone. There are no maps. If you are frightened by key signatures, clefs, accidentals, and opus numbers, fear not: we will be working with oral traditions that are as old as human life and that predate literacy of any kind. Melodic and harmonic improvisation do not require a license to operate heavy equipment!

“Your guides will be members of New England Conservatory's Contemporary Improvisation faculty, and we invite you to play with us today as one of many expressions of the 40th anniversary of this innovative and inspiring musical philosophy.” For more information, click here.

Finally, revealing their alter-egos as jazz performers, composer Soo Han and harpist Maria Rindenello-Parker will offer a recital in the flower-filled courtyard of the Gardner Museum. As vocalist and jazz harpist, this delightful duo present a fresh setting of standards. For more information, click here.

NEC’s Jordan Hall, Brown Hall, Williams Hall and the Keller Room are located at 30 Gainsborough St., corner of Huntington Ave. St. Botolph Hall is located at 241 St. Botolph St. between Gainsborough and Mass Ave.

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY

Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory in Boston, MA offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 720 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world.  Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars.  Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide.  Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.

The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions.  On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, contemporary improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Programs and Partnerships Program, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors.  Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music, jazz, and contemporary improvisation.

NEC presents more than 900 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, century-old, beautifully restored concert hall.  These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz, contemporary improvisation, and opera scenes.  Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre or Paramount Theatre in Boston.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Senior Communications Specialist
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617-585-1143
Ellen.pfeifer@necmusic.edu