World Premiere Performance of Meira Warshauer Symphony No. 1 Living,
Breathing Earth by South Carolina Philharmonic on March 24
The World Premiere performance of Meira Warshauer’s Symphony No. 1 –
“Living, Breathing Earth” will be given by the South Carolina
Philharmonic, Nicholas Smith, Music Director, at 7 PM on Saturday, March
24, 2007 as part of their Master Series 7 concert at the Koger Center
for the Arts, 1051 Greene Street in Columbia, South Carolina.
Tickets for the March 24 concert are $40, $32, $23, $16 and $13. For
tickets and more concert information, please call the South Carolina
Philharmonic box office at 803-254-7445 or visit them online at
http://www.scphilharmonic.com/buynow.html.
This new work, commissioned by the South Carolina Philharmonic, Western
Piedmont Symphony of North Carolina, and the Dayton Philharmonic of Ohio
(their Premiere performances will be given on April 26 and 28), has been
described by the composer: “the title, Living, Breathing Earth, came to
me in contemplating the image of the rainforests as lungs of the earth.
I felt our planet, alive with all variety of creatures and plants
living in symbiosis with each other, breathing in and out, and the
planet as a whole, pulsing with breath.” You can read Carson Cooman’s
Music & Vision Daily interview with the composer about the new work at
http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2007/01/meira-warshauer.htm.
Other works on the program include William Walton’s Façade, Sally Smith,
Narrator and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Marina Lomazov, pianist.
Founded 42 years ago, the South Carolina Philharmonic has become one of
the leading orchestras in the southeast. The South Carolina
Philharmonic’s mission is to continue providing quality symphonic music
for their audiences, broaden public awareness and enjoyment of symphonic
music, expand educational music programs for elementary, middle and high
school students, support their Youth Orchestra program that serves more
than 200 young instrumentalists and collaborate with other local arts
groups to reach a more diverse audience. Maestro Nicholas Smith has been
in charge of orchestras and opera companies for more than thirty years
on both sides of the Atlantic. He has conducted orchestras in a dozen
countries, making him adept at communicating with few words. Many
concerts have been broadcast on radio and television and he has recorded
CDs with Finnish, British and Czech orchestras. Much more about him and
the orchestra at http://www.scphilharmonic.com/. For a list of season
sponsors, visit http://www.scphilharmonic.com/sponsors.html.
Meira Warshauer’s compositions have been performed and recorded to
critical acclaim throughout the United States and in Israel, Europe, and
Asia. A graduate of Harvard, New England Conservatory of Music, and the
University of South Carolina, Dr. Warshauer studied composition with
Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, William Thomas McKinley, and Gordon
Goodwin. She has received numerous awards from ASCAP as well as the
America Music Center, Meet the Composer, and the South Carolina Arts
Commission. In 2000, she received the first Art and Cultural Achievement
Award from the Jewish Historical Society of S. Carolina.
Dr. Warshauer is a Visiting Lecturer at Columbia College, Columbia,
South Carolina . Her CDs include the soundtrack to the documentary Land
of Promise: The Jews of South Carolina and Spirals of Light, chamber
music and poetry (by Ani Tuzman) on themes of enlightenment, on the Kol
Meira label and “Revelation” for orchestra, included on the MMC CD
Robert Black Conducts. Her music is published by Oxford University
Press, MMB Music, World Music Press and Kol Meira Publications. Her
latest Bracha Newsletter, containing full program notes for Symphony No.
1, is online at http://www.jamesarts.com/releases/jan07/MW_nws_010907.htm.
You can find much more about her at http://home.sc.rr.com/meirawarshauer/.