The Warmth of Other Suns: Seth Parker Woods, cello
featuring Andrew Rosenblum, piano, and a new commissioned work by Nathalie Joachim | Exhibition Concert
Join us for a pre-season event featuring cellist Seth Parker Woods in conjunction with the exhibition The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement. Parker Woods will perform a new work inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series by Nathalie Joachim, co-commissioned by The Phillips Collection and The Seattle Symphony.
Program
Join us for a pre-season event featuring cellist Seth Parker Woods in conjunction with the exhibition The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement. Parker Woods presents two Washington, DC, premieres including a new work inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series by Nathalie Joachim, co-commissioned by The Phillips Collection and The Seattle Symphony. Parker Woods also presents a new work by Cuban-born composer Tania León, based on the story of the Little Rock Nine, the landmark moment of 1957 that symbolized the fight for desegregation of public schools. Pianist Andrew Rosenblum joins for George Walker’s Cello Sonata, and Parker Woods completes the program with several works for solo cello, including Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Black/Folk Song Suite, Lamentations, Alvin Singleton’s Argoru II, and a further work by Nathalie Joachim, Dam Mwen Yo, for cello and tape.
PROGRAM:
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR PERKINSON (1932-2004)
Lamentations: Black/Folk Song Suite for Solo Cello
NATHALIE JOACHIM (b. 1983)
Dam Mwen Yo for Cello and Tape (2017)
GEORGE WALKER (1922-2018)
Cello Sonata for cello and piano
ALVIN SINGLETON (b. 1940)
Argoru II (1970) for solo cello
TANIA LEÓN (b. 1943)
New Work (2019) for Solo Cello*
NATHALIE JOACHIM (b. 1983)
The Race for Solo Cello (2019)*
*co-commissioned by The Phillips Collection and The Seattle Symphony
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR PERKINSON (1932-2004)
Lamentations: Black/Folk Song Suite for Solo Cello
*premiere
About the Artists
Hailed by The Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace” who possesses “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” Seth Parker Woods has established a reputation as a versatile artist straddling several genres. In addition to solo performances, he has appeared with the Ictus Ensemble (Brussels, BE), Ensemble L’Arsenale (IT), zone Experimental (CH), Basel Sinfonietta (CH), New York City Ballet, Ensemble LPR, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s (US). A fierce advocate for contemporary arts, Woods has collaborated and worked with a wide range of artists ranging from the likes of Louis Andriessen, Elliott Carter, Heinz Holliger, Georg Friedrich Haas, Helmut Lachenmann, Klaus Lang, and Péter Eötvos to Peter Gabriel, Sting, Lou Reed, Dame Shirley Bassey, and Rachael Yamagata to such visual artists as Ron Athey, Vanessa Beecroft, Jack Early, Adam Pendleton, and Aldo Tambellini.
Holding a PhD from the University of Huddersfield, Woods studied with Thomas Demenga, Lucas Fels, Frederik Zlotkin, and Daniel Morganstern. In recent years he has appeared in concert at the Royal Albert Hall—BBC Proms, Snape Maltings Festival, the Ghent Festival, Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Le Poisson Rouge, Bohemian National Hall, Cafe OTO, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Klang Festival-Durham, INTER/actions Symposium, ICMC-SMS Conference (Athens, GR), NIME-London, Sound and Body Festival, Instalakcje Festival, Virginia Tech, La Salle College (Singapore), and FINDARS (Malaysia), among others. Recent awards include a DCASE artist grant, Earle Brown/Morton Feldman Foundation Grant, McGill University-CIRMMT/IDMIL Visiting Researcher Residency, Centre Intermondes Artist Residency, Francis Chagrin Award, Concours [Re]connaissance-Premiere Prix, and the Paul Sacher Stiftung Research Scholarship.
His debut solo album, asinglewordisnotenough (Confront Recordings-London), has garnered great acclaim since its release in November 2016 and has been profiled in The Guardian, 5against4, I Care If You Listen, Musical America, Seattle Times, and Strings Magazine, amongst others.
Woods serves on the music faculty at Dartmouth College as a Visiting Lecturer, as well as the inaugural Artist-in-Residence with the Seattle Symphony and their new concert venue, Octave 9.
Andrew Rosenblum, Chicago-based pianist and harpsichordist, is highly sought-after as both a soloist and collaborative artist. In May 2017, he won second prize in the harpsichord category of the 69th annual Prague Spring International Music Competition. He also won the prize for best performance of Harpsycho by Petr Wajsar, which was commissioned for the competition. His 2017/2018 season included his conducting debut at the National Gallery of Art with the New York Opera Society on Gisle Kverdokk’s opera Letters from Ruth, rehearsal piano work with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and Music of the Baroque, performances of Monteverdi opera selections with Third Coast Baroque at the Italian Consulate in Chicago, performances at the Logan Center for the Arts and PianoForte Chicago as part of the 2017 Ustvolskaya Festival, and recordings of the music of Lori Laitman for multiple upcoming album releases.
Rosenblum performed as the harpsichord soloist in Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, with Yo-Yo Ma and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in December, 2015. In October and November 2015, he was the pianist for the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s “Opera in the Neighborhoods” production of Second Nature by Matthew Aucoin, which was performed for 18,000 children in the Chicago area.
Andrew joined the collaborative piano faculty of the Heifetz International Music Institute in June 2015, returning in the summers of 2016 and 2017. He currently works as a pianist for vocal and instrumental studios at DePaul and Northwestern Universities, and prior to moving to Chicago worked as a staff pianist at the Cleveland Institute of Music, staff pianist for the International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest, rehearsal pianist for the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and choral pianist for Cleveland State University Choirs. As a rehearsal pianist, he has helped soloists prepare for concerto performances with many leading orchestras, including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Rosenblum has performed in many prominent venues in the US, including the Kennedy Center and Alice Tully Hall, and has concertized internationally in Guadalajara, Mexico, Gros Islet, St. Lucia, and Banff, Canada. His performances include collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Elmar Oliveira, Robert Vernon and Joan Kwoun. His passion for new music has led him to premiere works by many eminent composers, including Lori Laitman, Juan Pablo Contreras, and Daniel Wohl. His Trio, Memoria Nova, founded with violinist Tara Lynn Ramsey and flutist Shanna Gutierrez, explores connections between musical styles across the spectrum of music history and had its debut performance at PianoForte Chicago in April, 2017. He maintains a private harpsichord and piano studio in the Chicago area.
Andrew Rosenblum received his master’s degree in collaborative piano and harpsichord from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Anita Pontremoli, Peter Bennett, and Janina Ceaser. He currently studies harpsichord privately with the internationally-renowned harpsichordist Jory Vinikour.