Downtown Chamber Trio Highlights Four Women Composers in NJIT Concert
New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) will come alive with the sounds of female composers March 28, 2007, at 3 p.m., in the Campus Center Atrium. The Downtown Chamber Trio will perform the music of Nadia Boulanger, Rebecca Clarke, Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann. The Manhattan-based trio is under the direction of pianist and artistic director Mimi Stern-Wolfe. Other musicians in the group are violinist Reiko Kawabata, clarinetist William Blount and cellist Daniel Barrett.
The concert is free and open to the public. (ATTENTION EDITORS: To learn more about the concert, contact Sheryl Weinstein, 973-596-3436 or visit http://tsf.njit.edu/)
“Insights into the nature of our society and significant social change can be gained from many sources — including music,” said Jay Kappraff, PhD, a professor in the department of mathematical sciences at NJIT. Kappraff is also the organizer of the concert which is one of four cultural events offered this spring semester in NJIT’s Technology and Science Forum.
“With a philosophy which resonates strongly with that of the Forum,” said Kappraff, “the Trio’s performance will feature music created by four exceptional women in a socially relevant program that entertains, educates and challenges. The four female composers span a century of aspiration and accomplishment in music. They soared creatively in a cultural context that too often honored their male artistic peers with greater recognition.”
Stern-Wolfe is artistic director of Downtown Music Productions and a graduate of the School of Performing Arts, Queens College. Stern-Wolfe also earned a master’s degree from New England Conservatory of Music. She has worked with pianists Ray Lev, Cecile Ruef and Leonid Hambro, and in Paris studied with Nadia Boulanger, one of the composers to be featured in the NJIT concert.
Born in Japan, Kawabata debuted with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra at the age of 10 and won the Ana Ono Memorial Prize, becoming the youngest performer to win the competition. Barrett is a performer, composer and conductor whose work encompasses international festivals, popular TV shows like Saturday Night Live and documentaries such as Ric Burns’ The Way West.
The Forum Series’ last event takes place April 9, 2007 when James E. West, PhD, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Johns Hopkins University will offer two lectures. From 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the NJIT Campus Center Ballroom, the title of his talk will be “Where Credit Is Due: The Black Heritage in Technology.” Later from 4-5:30 p.m. in Tiernan Lecture Hall I, his talk is entitled “Noise Can Make You Sick.”
Last month, Margaret Leinen, PhD, chief science officer and vice president of Climos, discussed the buildup of atmospheric greenhouse gases over just two centuries.