THOMAS PIERCY ~ CLARINET | ELINOR ABRAMS ZAYAS ~ PIANO
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LIVE FROM SPECTRUM NYC Thomas Piercy, clarinet & Elinor Zayas, piano George Gershwin "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" (Complete) |
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LIVE FROM SPECTRUM NYC Thomas Piercy, clarinet & Elinor Zayas, piano Audio Sampler: 0:01 Astor Piazzolla Escualo 0:46 Ned Rorem Bal Musette 1:19 Ned Rorem Lullaby 2:07 Leonard Bernstein Sonata 2:56 Fernando Otero Auscencias 3:56 Astor Piazzolla Soledad 6:14 George Gershwin Summertime 8:24 Astor Piazzolla Escualo |
Thomas Piercy is a critically acclaimed musician with orchestral, concerto, solo recital and chamber music appearances throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Described by The New York Times as “Brilliant...playing with refinement and flair…evoking a panache in the contemporary works…,” Mr. Piercy presents audiences to varied and exciting concerts of standard classical music, jazz-inspired programs, contemporary works, pieces written specifically for him and his own original arrangements, compositions and collaborations. Piercy performs and records on rare rosewood English-bore clarinets made for him by Luis Rossi of Santiago, Chile, and Buffet Prestige clarinets with Opperman mouthpieces and barrels. His sound has been described by critics as uniquely beautiful and consistently warm.
A versatile artist defying categorization – performing on the Emmy Award-winning Juno Baby CDs and DVDs; playing Rhapsody in Blue with pianist Earl Wild; performing concert improvisations with pianist Donal Fox; performing Mozart with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade; playing Broadway songs with Raoul Julia; conducting Cabaret or Rodgers & Hammerstein; working with the composer Leonard Bernstein; appearing in a KRS-ONE music video; playing hichiriki in Tokyo; recording with members of Maroon 5 - as an instrumentalist, singer, director and music director/conductor and actor, he has performed for Broadway and Off-Broadway, television, radio, video and commercial recordings.
Mr. Piercy has performed at many of the worlds acclaimed concerts halls including Carnegie Hall (NY, NY), Lincoln Center (NY, NY), the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC.), the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series (Chicago, Illinois), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Wigmore Hall (London, England), Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome, Italy) and Parthenon (Tokyo, Japan).
His many festival appearances have included a featured performance in memory of Leon Russianoff at the 1991 International ClarinetFest, a concert of contemporary American music at the 2005 ClarinetFest in Tokyo, Japan, and an all-Piazzolla concert at the 2007 International Clarinet Festival in Vancouver, Canada. He has performed in concerts and festivals in England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark, The United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
A recipient of numerous scholarships, prizes and awards, he studied clarinet, voice and conducting at the Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Virginia Commonwealth University and Shenandoah Conservatory. Piercy's earliest studies were in both voice and clarinet. He began his college education studying clarinet under Dr. Stephen Johnston at Shenandoah Conservatory and Gailyn Parks at Virginia Commonwealth University. He later moved to New York City to study with Gervase De Peyer under scholarship at Mannes College of Music; he continued to study extensively with De Peyer after leaving Mannes. Piercy later studied with and soon became an assistant to the renowned clarinet pedagogue Leon Russianoff; additional clarinet studies and reed-making studies were undertaken with clarinetist, reed, barrel and mouthpiece maker, and composer Kalmen Opperman. He has had arrangements and transcriptions published by Boosey & Hawkes, and as an assistant to Kalmen Opperman, he has contributed to clarinet study books and clarinet compositions published by Carl Fischer, Inc., and Baron Publishing. In demand as a clarinet, sax and voice teacher, many of Piercy's students have gone on to schools and careers in music.
Piercy is currently the Artistic Director and clarinetist of the Gotham Ensemble. A mixed vocal and instrumental ensemble based in New York City, the Gotham Ensemble premieres, performs and records a wide variety of repertoire, from the Classical to the avant-garde. A New York Times review of Gotham's Merkin Hall, New York City, performance of a program of Olav Thommessen's music specifically encouraged the public to go out and purchase the recordings. After a performance of Ned Rorem's "Ariel" at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Mr. Rorem wrote of Gotham as one of America's important chamber music groups performing new music today. Albany Records released “Gotham Ensemble Plays Ned Rorem” - a CD of Ned Rorem's chamber music featuring the clarinet.
A frequent performer of new music, Mr. Piercy has premiered over 50 new pieces in the last three years. Ned Rorem, a Pulitzer Prize winner and Grammy Award-winning composer, wrote his only clarinet and piano piece, "Four Colors," for Mr. Piercy. The work had its premier at an 80th birthday concert celebration for Mr. Rorem at Carnegie Hall in the fall of 2003. A short list of the composers he has worked with and premiered their works (many of them written for him) include Milton Babbit, Allan Blank, Ed Bland, Philippe Bodin, Wendy Mae Chambers, Elisenda Fabrégas, David Fetherolf, Donal Fox, Daron Hagen, Gilbert Galindo, Nicolas Gilbert, Masatora Goya, Jennifer Higdon, Silas Huff, Benjamin Lees, Yuichi Matsumoto, Jun Nagao, Takeshi Ogawa, Sergey Oskolkov, Joseph Perhson, Jonathan Pieslak, André Ristic, Robert Xavier Rodriguez, Erin Rogers, Manly Romero, Ned Rorem, Marjorie Rusche, Allen Schulz, Hifumi Shimoyama, Olav Anton Thommessen, and many others.
Piercy's discography includes "Gotham Ensemble Plays Ned Rorem", a CD of chamber music featuring the clarinet (released by Albany Records), "CAFE", a CD of music for clarinet and guitar (released by Tonada Records), the world-premier recording of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's "Ballad in Memory of Shirley Horn" and the Emmy Award winning CDs and DVDs "Juno Baby." He can also be heard on commercials, film and theater recordings. He has recorded for the Albany, Capstone, DGI, Changing Tones, NJST, and Tonada Records labels. Mr. Piercy is an official Rossi Clarinet and Forestone Reeds artist. www.rossiclarinet.com www.forestone-japan.com
More information at www.thomaspiercy.com
A versatile artist defying categorization – performing on the Emmy Award-winning Juno Baby CDs and DVDs; playing Rhapsody in Blue with pianist Earl Wild; performing concert improvisations with pianist Donal Fox; performing Mozart with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade; playing Broadway songs with Raoul Julia; conducting Cabaret or Rodgers & Hammerstein; working with the composer Leonard Bernstein; appearing in a KRS-ONE music video; playing hichiriki in Tokyo; recording with members of Maroon 5 - as an instrumentalist, singer, director and music director/conductor and actor, he has performed for Broadway and Off-Broadway, television, radio, video and commercial recordings.
Mr. Piercy has performed at many of the worlds acclaimed concerts halls including Carnegie Hall (NY, NY), Lincoln Center (NY, NY), the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC.), the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series (Chicago, Illinois), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Wigmore Hall (London, England), Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome, Italy) and Parthenon (Tokyo, Japan).
His many festival appearances have included a featured performance in memory of Leon Russianoff at the 1991 International ClarinetFest, a concert of contemporary American music at the 2005 ClarinetFest in Tokyo, Japan, and an all-Piazzolla concert at the 2007 International Clarinet Festival in Vancouver, Canada. He has performed in concerts and festivals in England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark, The United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
A recipient of numerous scholarships, prizes and awards, he studied clarinet, voice and conducting at the Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Virginia Commonwealth University and Shenandoah Conservatory. Piercy's earliest studies were in both voice and clarinet. He began his college education studying clarinet under Dr. Stephen Johnston at Shenandoah Conservatory and Gailyn Parks at Virginia Commonwealth University. He later moved to New York City to study with Gervase De Peyer under scholarship at Mannes College of Music; he continued to study extensively with De Peyer after leaving Mannes. Piercy later studied with and soon became an assistant to the renowned clarinet pedagogue Leon Russianoff; additional clarinet studies and reed-making studies were undertaken with clarinetist, reed, barrel and mouthpiece maker, and composer Kalmen Opperman. He has had arrangements and transcriptions published by Boosey & Hawkes, and as an assistant to Kalmen Opperman, he has contributed to clarinet study books and clarinet compositions published by Carl Fischer, Inc., and Baron Publishing. In demand as a clarinet, sax and voice teacher, many of Piercy's students have gone on to schools and careers in music.
Piercy is currently the Artistic Director and clarinetist of the Gotham Ensemble. A mixed vocal and instrumental ensemble based in New York City, the Gotham Ensemble premieres, performs and records a wide variety of repertoire, from the Classical to the avant-garde. A New York Times review of Gotham's Merkin Hall, New York City, performance of a program of Olav Thommessen's music specifically encouraged the public to go out and purchase the recordings. After a performance of Ned Rorem's "Ariel" at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Mr. Rorem wrote of Gotham as one of America's important chamber music groups performing new music today. Albany Records released “Gotham Ensemble Plays Ned Rorem” - a CD of Ned Rorem's chamber music featuring the clarinet.
A frequent performer of new music, Mr. Piercy has premiered over 50 new pieces in the last three years. Ned Rorem, a Pulitzer Prize winner and Grammy Award-winning composer, wrote his only clarinet and piano piece, "Four Colors," for Mr. Piercy. The work had its premier at an 80th birthday concert celebration for Mr. Rorem at Carnegie Hall in the fall of 2003. A short list of the composers he has worked with and premiered their works (many of them written for him) include Milton Babbit, Allan Blank, Ed Bland, Philippe Bodin, Wendy Mae Chambers, Elisenda Fabrégas, David Fetherolf, Donal Fox, Daron Hagen, Gilbert Galindo, Nicolas Gilbert, Masatora Goya, Jennifer Higdon, Silas Huff, Benjamin Lees, Yuichi Matsumoto, Jun Nagao, Takeshi Ogawa, Sergey Oskolkov, Joseph Perhson, Jonathan Pieslak, André Ristic, Robert Xavier Rodriguez, Erin Rogers, Manly Romero, Ned Rorem, Marjorie Rusche, Allen Schulz, Hifumi Shimoyama, Olav Anton Thommessen, and many others.
Piercy's discography includes "Gotham Ensemble Plays Ned Rorem", a CD of chamber music featuring the clarinet (released by Albany Records), "CAFE", a CD of music for clarinet and guitar (released by Tonada Records), the world-premier recording of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's "Ballad in Memory of Shirley Horn" and the Emmy Award winning CDs and DVDs "Juno Baby." He can also be heard on commercials, film and theater recordings. He has recorded for the Albany, Capstone, DGI, Changing Tones, NJST, and Tonada Records labels. Mr. Piercy is an official Rossi Clarinet and Forestone Reeds artist. www.rossiclarinet.com www.forestone-japan.com
More information at www.thomaspiercy.com
Pianist Elinor Abrams Zayas is a frequent piano soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative artist. As a piano soloist, she specializes in playing music by the Spanish and South American composers Isaac Albeniz, Antonio Soler, Federico Mompou, Alberto Ginastera, and Astor Piazzolla. A native of Brightwaters, her early teachers were Ruth Koch, Claude Gonvierre, and, at The Juilliard Pre-College, Howard Aibel and Leonard Eisner. Undergraduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music were with Constance Keene, and chamber music with Artur Balsam. She studied jazz and improvisation with Valerie Capers, arranging with John Carisi, and performed in Jazz ensembles led by Dave Samuels and David Freidman. Her graduate studies, also at Manhattan, were with Robert Helps, who introduced her to contemporary music, and also to the techniques of Abby Whiteside. Sophia Rosoff—a Whiteside disciple, whose pupils included Gary Graffman and jazz pianist Barry Harris, was a major influence, as was the the jazz pianist Joanne Brackeen.
Ms. Zayas formed the chamber ensemble Nepenthe in 1984. Nepenthe presented a successful concert series at the Boulton Center for the Arts in Bay Shore, and performed widely on Long Island. Elinor has also been the pianist for the Long Island Masterworks Chorus and the Long Island Philharmonic Chorus, a musical director at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, NY, and a soloist in the metropolitan area at such venues as Trinity Church in NYC, and the Friends of the Arts Beethoven Festival at Planting Fields Arboretum. Ms. Zayas is the pianist for Cross Island, formed in 2007 and known for their programs of diverse period, styles and genres. She also performs with Cross Road, a string jazz group led by composer/bassist Reynard Burns. Cross Road recently performed at Dowling College and on the Patchogue Theater Chamber Music Series. Ms. Zayas has served on the music faculties of Five Towns College, Hofstra University, and is currently on the music faculty of the Sachem Public Schools. She has recorded many works including compositions by such composers as Cecile Chaminade, Paquito D'Rivera, Paul Schoenfield and Franz Schubert.
Ms. Zayas formed the chamber ensemble Nepenthe in 1984. Nepenthe presented a successful concert series at the Boulton Center for the Arts in Bay Shore, and performed widely on Long Island. Elinor has also been the pianist for the Long Island Masterworks Chorus and the Long Island Philharmonic Chorus, a musical director at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, NY, and a soloist in the metropolitan area at such venues as Trinity Church in NYC, and the Friends of the Arts Beethoven Festival at Planting Fields Arboretum. Ms. Zayas is the pianist for Cross Island, formed in 2007 and known for their programs of diverse period, styles and genres. She also performs with Cross Road, a string jazz group led by composer/bassist Reynard Burns. Cross Road recently performed at Dowling College and on the Patchogue Theater Chamber Music Series. Ms. Zayas has served on the music faculties of Five Towns College, Hofstra University, and is currently on the music faculty of the Sachem Public Schools. She has recorded many works including compositions by such composers as Cecile Chaminade, Paquito D'Rivera, Paul Schoenfield and Franz Schubert.