DECEMBER 31, 2014
World Premiere: Graham Cohen's Unexpected Affinities
MusicaNova Orchestra joins Paradise Winds January 11 at 4 p.m
PHOENIX – MusicaNova Orchestra and Arizona-based Paradise Winds (above) will perform a new work composed by Graham Cohen, a 15-year-old prodigy, currently studying at the Julliard pre-college division and the youngest winner of the Morton Gould Young Composer Competition. The piece, "Unexpected Affinities" was commissioned by the Selznick Tikkun Olam Foundation in memory of Holocaust survivors Max and Nina Gurin.
The concert features a guest appearance by Martin Goldsmith, noted author and classical music radio host on SiriusXM and former host of Performance Today on NPR. Goldsmith is the American-born son of two German-Jewish musicians who escaped the Holocaust, who speaks and writes extensively on his own family's experiences in the Jewish Kulturbund's orchestra in Frankfurt. The Kulturbund was an organization that performed at the pleasure of Joseph Goebbels's Nazi Ministry of Information and Propaganda and used Jewish artists (forbidden to play in German orchestras) to present concerts solely for Jewish audiences from 1933 to 1941. Mr. Goldsmith will discuss his family's history as well as his recent books on the topic, The Inextinguishable Symphony and Alex's Wake.
"Unexpected Affinities" is a Concerto Grosso for reed quintet and string orchestra. Paradise Winds and the MusicaNova Orchestra will be led by Music Director Warren Cohen. Also on the program is the Chamber Symphony of Franz Schreker, a composer whose works were dubbed "Entartete Kunst" (degenerate art) and banned by the Nazis in the 1930s.
The performance of "Unexpected Affinities" will be held January 11 at 4 p.m. at Central United Methodist Church, Central Avenue at Palm Lane in the Central Arts District.
Tickets are $60 (includes VIP seating and post concert reception with Martin Goldsmith)
$20 general admission, $15 seniors and students. www.musicanovaaz.com.
