World Premiere Featured

The Haddonfield Symphony and Music Director Rossen Milanov proudly present the world premiere of Martin Kennedy’s Oranges: 4 Pastorals on Saturday, March 12, 2005 at 8pm at Rowan University’s Pfleeger Concert Hall in Glassboro, NJ. Kennedy is the 2005 winner of The Haddonfield Symphony’s annual Young Composers’ Competition and his work will join a program that also features alumni oboist Katherine Needleman, now principal oboe of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Martin Kennedy, currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Julliard School in New York City, was born in Wakefield, England and moved to the U.S.A. as a child, growing up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He is widely regarded as a composer and pianist, having won many awards in both disciplines. His work has garnered such prestigious awards as four ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, a BMI Student Composer Award, and the 1999 Raymond Hubbel Award from ASCAP, just to name a few. He is in demand across the country as a collaborative pianist, having recently performed and lectured at the 2002 Brevard Summer Music Festival, and his compositions have been performed internationally. Both of these talents are showcased on a 1999 cd that featured his piano collaborations with flutist Thomas Robertello performing his works alongside those of French composer Faure. Kennedy won The Haddonfield Symphony’s 2005 Young Composers’ Competition with his submission Oranges: 4 Pastorals, which is the first third of a projected ballet based on the poem Oranges: 12 Pastorals (1949) by Frank O’Hara.

Kennedy is joined on the concert by oboist Katherine Needleman. Needleman is currently the Principal Oboe of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and has earned much success not only as an orchestral player, but also as a soloist and chamber musician. Katherine is no stranger to the Philadelphia area. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music; a former participant in The Haddonfield Symphony’s Professional Development Program, serving as its co-principal oboe during the 2000-2001 season; she is an Astral Artistic Services Artist, having won the 2001 national auditions; and has performed as soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Needleman returns to perform the demanding Concerto for Oboe, written by Czech composer Martinu. Written while the composer was visiting Nice, France, the piece has distinctive Mediterranean overtones and the inclusion of jazz elements, which is a genre for which the composer had an affinity.

The program also features two other works, both by French composers - Bizet’s L’Arlésienne, Suite No. 1, and Debussy’s Ibéria, the most famous of his Spanish-inspired Images for Orchestra. L’Arlésienne (The Girls from Arles) was born of a collaboration between Bizet and writer Alphonse Daudet and it tells of the love, struggle, and desire of the elusive lady from Arles. Ibéria evokes images of an Andalusian village – the heat of the sun, the fragrances of the night, the sultry rhythms of dance, and the festivities of a village in celebration.

The Haddonfield Symphony offers tickets and information on this performance online at www.haddonfield-symphony.org or through the box office at (856) 429-1880. This program made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Lockheed Martin, Subaru of America, William G. Rohrer Charitable Foundation, and the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders. The Haddonfield Symphony is a member of the South Jersey Cultural Alliance (SJCA).

Haddonfield Symphony concerts are wheelchair accessible performances. Large print programs are available at all subscription concerts; newsletters and brochures are available in large print upon request. Assistive Listening Devices are available at select venues. Please ask for information.

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Author: Press Release