Ellen’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra - her first solo concerto for that instrument - is given its world premiere performances by soloist Zuill Bailey and the South Florida Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sebrina Maria Alfonso on March 5 (Fort Lauderdale), March 7 (Miami), and March 8 (Key West). Read the press release here.
WFSU has posted a selection from FSU’s Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Birthday Celebration Concert on October 12: the Noble Trio performing Pas de Trois (2017) for violin, cello, and piano. Listen to the segment here - a brief interview with the trio, and the performance begins at 3:40.
Ellen’s Episodes for Violin and Piano (2003) is included on Perspectives, a new disc just released by the Delos label featuring violinist Dawn Wohn and pianist Esther Park performing music by nine female composers. Read about the new disc here.
Forgotten Voices is a song cycle commissioned by Music Kitchen, an organization founded by violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins whose mission is “to bring top emerging and established professional musicians together in order to share the inspirational, therapeutic, and uplifting power of music with New York City’s disenfranchised homeless shelter population.” Fifteen composers are writing songs setting texts from homeless shelter clients, and Ellen’s contribution, titled “Music Kitchen Interplay,” was performed by Kelly and bass Mark Risinger last month. Read Kelly’s account of the event here.
The entire Forgotten Voices cycle will have its premiere at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on May 21, 2020.
The Semiosis Quartet performed Ellen’s String Quartet No. 2 on August 29, 2019, on a program dubbed “An American Century.” Boston Classical Review said that the ensemble “gave the work supreme advocacy” - read the review here.
The Violin Channel’s “New Music Tuesday” feature focused on Ellen’s Fantasy for Solo Violin, commissioned for the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and its premiere recording by Jinjoo Cho, on July 23, 2019. Read Ellen’s comments and hear the selection here.
Pianist Roberta Rust’s new CD release, titled Direct Contact, features Ellen’s Lament in its solo piano version. A review on The Art Music Lounge calls the work “a little masterpiece.” Read the review here.
Alan Chapman of Classical KUSC of Southern California paid tribute to Ellen’s 80th with two hours of her music on his show, “Modern Times.” And they riffed on her Peanuts cartoon appearance on FB.
Acclaimed young violinist Bella Hristova performed Ellen’s Fantasy for Solo Violin (2014) as part of her Young Concert Artists Michaels Award Concert at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall on March 21, 2019. Watch the six-minute piece on the concert video on YouTube here.
Ellen is the honoree at a May 5, 2019, gala benefit for conductor Harold Rosenbaum’s New York Virtuoso Singers and Canticum Novum Singers. The event takes place in Chappaqua, New York; for information, call 914-582-3912 or email cnssoprano@gmail.com.
Lou Gerbino of KJAN Radio Atlantic, IA, is broadcasting a weekly survey of Ellen’s symphonies beginning Sunday, January 13, 2019, at 7:00 pm CST and continuing on succeeding Sundays in the same time slot. You can stream it here: www.kjan.com.
"I salute a word.
I stand up and give it my chair."
Watch this six-minute work: "Ubuntu," music by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, poem by Stanley Moss, performed by Mark Risinger, bass; Richard Wilson, piano; and Ellen herself playing the djembe.
Gerard Schwarz interviewed Ellen for his "Behind the Baton" series of talks on Facebook Live. Listen as they talk about playing together in the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski, working with Pierre Boulez, and Ellen's thoughts on starting her composing career at a time when it was very much a man's world:
The BMI Foundation, in collaboration with BMI, has announced the nine young classical composers, ages 18 to 26, who have been named winners of the 66th annual BMI Student Composer Awards. Renowned American composer and Chair of the Student Composer Awards Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, BMI President and CEO and BMIF Honorary Chair Mike O’Neill, and BMI Executive Director of Classical and BMIF President Deirdre Chadwick presented the awards at a private ceremony held on May 14, 2018, at Three Sixty° in New York City.
For more information, including the list of the winners: click here
At a reception following an April 8, 2018, concert presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ellen was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame by its president, Dr. Gary L. Ingle, pictured here with Ellen and CMS Executive Director Suzanne Davidson.
For more information, visit http://classicalwalkoffame.org/.
A new series of "Classics for Kids" features on women composers will begin airing on radio stations across the country in March - Women's History Month. An installment on contemporary composers introduces some of them: Caroline Shaw, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Lera Auerbach, Kaija Saariaho, Chen Yi, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Missy Mazzoli, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Tania León. You can listen to the short feature here.
The Winnipeg Symphony performed the Canadian premiere of Ellen's Symphony No. 3 on January 31, 2018, as part of its Winnipeg New Music Festival. A video from Ellen introduced the piece, and in it Ellen talks about how the symphony showcases, unusually, the viola section:
Last month, Claudia Schreier & Company premiered a new work, "Wordplay," a pas de deux set to the first movement of Ellen's Quintet for Violin, Viola, Cello, Contrabass & Piano (2011), at an engagement at the Joyce Theater's 2017 Ballet Festival. The New York Times, praising the work's "playful, on-the-nose musicality," said, "'Wordplay' was performed by Unity Phelan and Jared Angle of City Ballet, and it closely resembled something you might see them dance with their home company: a sleek duet to a spiky, rhythmic modernist score (a quintet by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich)."
You can watch the seven-minute work on Vimeo below or HERE.
In 1990, Charles M. Schulz saluted Zwilich in the Peanuts strip for her flute concerto. This led to a fast friendship between the two talents and Zwilich's masterwork Peanuts Gallery, a six-movement piano concerto, each movement illustrates a favorite character from the comic strip. Florida State University produced a documentary, also featured on PBS, of the collaboration that led to the creation of Peanuts Gallery. The DVD is a fascinating documentary on the making of Peanuts Gallery, featuring interviews with Charles M. Schulz, Jean (Mrs. Charles M.) Schulz, and composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich about their creative processes. The video also features a live performance by the Florida State University Orchestra with piano soloist James Nalley, conducted by Alex Jimenez (including Snoopy dancing the Samba!).
Click HERE to purchase the DVD.
