Nashville Chamber Orchestra Spring Concert

Release Date: 3/1/2001. Expired: 3/25/2001

The Nashville Chamber Orchestra will perform at The Renaissance Center at 2 p.m., Sunday, March 25 in the Performance Hall. Tickets for this event are $10 adults, $8 seniors and $5 for children under 13.

The Nashville Chamber Orchestra will become the first American chamber orchestra to be recorded on the Naxos label when they record a CD of the music of Aaron Copland on March 26. The orchestra will join the ranks of the Cologne Chamber Orchestra and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra as members of Naxos’ prestigious artist roster. Klaus Heymann, Chairman and Founder of Naxos, recently expressed the label’s enthusiasm toward the NCO, saying “the NCO is one of the finest chamber orchestras in the United States and that it can sustain comparison with the best in Europe.”

The concert will feature Copland’s Clarinet Concerto and Quiet City, the Serenade for Strings by Antonin Dvorak, and New World Sketches for Greek folk ensemble and string orchestra by Nickitas Demos. The concert and recording will feature soloists Laura Ardan, Principal Clarinetist with the Atlanta Symphony, Scott Moore, Principal Trumpeter with the Memphis Symphony, and Paula Engerer, English Hornist with the Phoenix Symphony. Ardan will perform the Clarinet Concerto, and Moore and Engerer will perform as soloists on Quiet City.

One of the concert’s highlights will be the world premiere of New World Sketches, by Atlanta-based composer Nickitas J. Demos. This work, which was commissioned by the NCO, depicts the immigration of Demos’ family from Greece to America in the 20th century; a story that he feels is common to the heritage of all Greek-Americans and, in a broader sense, to all American immigrants. New World Sketches is an historic work because it is the first time that a Greek folk ensemble has been featured in a classical composition. The solo Greek ensemble will consist of two traditional Greek folk instruments – the bouzouki, which is similar to a lute, will be performed by James Kellaris, and the doumbek, which is a hand-held drum will be performed by Christopher Saleh. Also included in the traditional folk ensemble will be a clarinet, played by Demos, and violin, played by NCO concertmaster David Davidson.

The NCO’s premiere of New World Sketches will be the culmination of a month-long residency by Demos that will include educational programs in 25 elementary schools throughout the middle Tennessee region. Demos will lead the school programs and perform as clarinetist along with a string quartet from the NCO and Kellaris and Saleh on bouzouki and doumbek. These programs are being presented to introduce students to Demos’ music, and to help them explore the similarities and differences between Greek folk music, Tennessee folk music and classical music. Along with the educational programs, the NCO will perform New World Sketches on a six-city concert tour to all the communities that received the educational program. Demos’ residency, the educational programs and concert tour are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute for American Music and the Tennessee and Metro Nashville Arts Commissions.

The NCO is enjoying a period of dramatic growth as it celebrates its 10th Anniversary season of ambitious and innovative programming. Its budget has doubled in the last three years, and the orchestra is preparing to record its third CD with a major record label. Under the leadership of music director and founder Paul Gambill, the orchestra has developed a national profile for the way their programming is attracting audiences and challenging people’s perception of what a chamber orchestra can be. Recognition of the orchestras success at attracting new audiences to the concert hall has come in the form of a national award for adventurous programming from ASCAP, feature length profiles in SYMPHONY and Eastman Notes magazines, and broadcasts on National Public Radio’s flagship classical music show, Performance Today.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call (615)740-5600.