Winds of the WHCO

3:00pm Saturday, November 17, 2018

Anna Urrey, Flute
Ellen Hindson, Oboe
John Hong, Clarinet
Nanci Belmont, Bassoon
Laura Weiner, Horn

Program

Jennifer Higdon: Autumn Music

Darius Milhaud: Sonata, for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet & Piano, Op. 47

Franco Donatoni: Luci II

Louise Farrenc: Sextet for Piano and Winds, Op. 40

This concert is made possible in part with funding from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. LMCC.net

UMEZ enhances the economic vitality of all communities in Upper Manhattan through job creation, corporate alliances, strategic investments, and small business assistance.

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support, to create vibrant, sustainable communities in Lower Manhattan and beyond.

About the Artists

Anna Urrey, Flute

An avid solo and chamber music artist, Finnish-American flutist Anna Urrey has performed with the New Jersey Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony in C, among others. Internationally, Ms. Urrey has collaborated with Philippe Entremont at Les Concerts du Cloître in Nice, France, was an Artist-In-Residence at the Banff Music Center in Alberta, Canada, and performed in Muscat, Oman, with the Castleton Festival Orchestra under the direction of Lorin Maazel. A dedicated pedagogue, Ms. Urrey is a New York Philharmonic Teaching Artist Apprentice and an adjunct flute teacher at the City College of New York. She also serves on the faculty for the Harmony Program at P.S. 129 and maintains a private studio in New York City. Ms. Urrey earned her M.M. and Performance Certificate from the Manhattan School of Music and B.M. from Rutgers University, where she received the Burian Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance. Her principal teachers include Robert Langevin, Michael Parloff, Bart Feller, and Kaoru Hinata.

Ellen Hindson, Oboe

Ellen Hindson is a freelance oboist and teacher in New York City. Currently Principal Oboe with the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, Ellen enjoys performing with a wide range of ensembles in and around New York including the New York Festival Orchestra, the Binghamton Philharmonic, and the New York Concerti Sinfonietta. She has performed in venues ranging from Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall to Brooklyn's National Sawdust for immersive concerts with The Experiential Orchestra, Contemporaneous, and Groupmuse. Ms Hindson is a founding member of Trade Winds Ensemble; she won the Peter M. Gross prize for her work performing and teaching with this ensemble, which has included two residencies in East Africa as well as a guest recital and masterclasses at Wright State University. In 2017, Trade Winds Ensemble partnered with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago to offer free music workshops to refugee children from Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Passionate about teaching, Ellen is currently on the faculty as an orchestra coach and oboe instructor at the Diller-Quaile School and Bloomingdale School of Music, and maintains a private oboe studio in New York City. Originally from Wisconsin, Ellen received her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Minnesota, and moved to New York to earn her Masters degree at the Mannes School of Music with Sherry Sylar, Associate Principal Oboe with the New York Philharmonic.

John Hong, Clarinet

Hailed by The Chicago Tribune for his “particularly deft solo playing” and The New York Times for executing his performances “with aplomb”, John Hong is a clarinetist with a resume that includes multiple international performances. Most recently, he has performed with the Mostly Mozart festival, the American Ballet Theater, and can be heard in taxi cabs and Lincoln Center in NYC Ballet’s promotional videos, featuring music by Aaron Severini. A recent Master’s graduate of The Juilliard School, Mr. Hong’s first New York performance was as an artist for 2014’s An Evening Honoring Stella McCartney at Alice Tully Hall. A sought after musician, Mr. Hong has performed with the American Ballet Theatre, MostlyMozart Festival, MidAtlantic Opera Orchestra, Juilliard’s Axiom and New Juilliard Ensemble, the Juilliard Dance Division’s Choreography and Composition series, and The Juilliard Orchestra in numerous venues, including Peter Jay Sharp Theater, David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Carnegie Hall. He has been privileged to premiere numerous works of Juilliard composers, including those of Emilia Tamburri, Hilary Purrington, Will Stackpole, Nicky Sohn, and Joshua Cerdenia. In his mission to make the arts accessible to the 99%, Mr. Hong was a proud Morse and Gluck Fellow through The Juilliard School, infusing the values and enrichment of music through lectures and performances in numerous grade schools, hospitals, and psychiatric wards throughout New York City. As an arts advocate, Mr. Hong writes on many topics of interest on his personal blog, including his thoughts on the reformation of classical music and navigating the 21st century as a musician. Since its conception in 2015, the blog has gained significant popularity; enjoying a feature on The Juilliard Journal and garnering attention from The Washington Post. His blog can be found on his website, www.johnhong.me/blog, where he inches closer to his mission of one day writing a New York Times bestseller.

Nanci Belmont, Bassoon

Praised as "outstanding" by the New York Classical Review, bassoonist Nanci Belmont is a dynamic musician enjoying a diverse career as a performer, teaching artist, and arts advocate. ecognized for her artistry, Nanci is the Second Prize winner in the 2016 Fernand Gillet-Hugo Fox Competition of the International Double Reed Society. She made her New York City debut as a soloist in 2013, performing Strauss' Duett Concertino for Clarinet and Bassoon. Since then, additional solo appearances have included the Gubaidulina Concerto for Bassoon and Low Strings with Ensemble mise-en, and several New York and World premieres of contemporary solo bassoon works. n avid chamber musician, Nanci is frequently invited to perform at Chamber music festivals and series throughout the Northeastern United States, and has collaborated with groups such as Decoda, Argento Chamber Ensemble, and the Talea Ensemble. She is an alum of Ensemble ACJW (now Ensemble Connect)- a Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute, and is currently a member of The City of Tomorrow, a wind quintet dedicated to the expansion and performance of contemporary repertoire. Following her passion for teaching and music advocacy, Nanci strives to find new and exciting ways to extend her music making into schools and the larger community. She currently works as a Teaching Artist with the Bridge Arts Ensemble and Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and has performed outreach work through the Weill Music Institute as an Ensemble ACJW Fellow. In addition to having a private studio, Nanci serves on bassoon faculty at the Special Music School in Manhattan. anci holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance, summa cum laude, from Florida State University, and a Master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Frank Morelli.

Laura Weiner, Horn

A high-altitude native of Colorado, Laura Weiner is a passionate horn player and advocate for classical music. An experienced chamber musician, solo performer, and teaching artist, she is a recent alumnus of Ensemble ACJW, a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute. She has performed a wide variety of chamber concerts in Weill Recital Hall with Ensemble ACJW and was a soloist at Zankel Hall under the baton of Robert Spano in March 2013. Ms. Weiner has performed with diverse musical groups, including the New World Symphony, Decoda, and Genghis Barbie. She has spent her summers performing in orchestras at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria; the Texas Music Festival; and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. Ms. Weiner received her Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude from Northwestern University and her Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a University Fellowship. Ms. Weiner’s principal teachers have been Gail Williams, William Barnewitz, and Douglas Hill. When she isn’t performing, rehearsing, or teaching, Ms. Weiner enjoys devouring books, practicing taekwondo, and hiking up and snowboarding down mountains.