Prepare to be captivated by the sheer expanse of expression as classical stylings intertwine with innovative multimedia, rock fusions, jazz improvisations, and audacious new tonal territories. Three consummate guitarist-composers — Nate Chivers, Nick Scout, and Troy Gifford — converge on one stage, united by their passion for the guitar, but each charting a unique creative cosmos.
Special guests include drummer Jaysen Rosario, guitarists Michael van Gelder and Allen Nicholas Kooken, multi-instrumentalist Nathan Taylor, and cellist/bassist Elliot May.
Guest composers include Alex Burtzos and Benoit Glazer.
Special pricing is available for members, students, teachers, frontline workers, veterans, and seniors.
In-person and livestream tickets are available. This event is part of Timucua’s International Guitar Festival 2024.
The concert will open with Troy Gifford performing his own solo works Cherith, Woodbury, Danza Triste, Valsera, and Evocacion y Furia. Nick Scout will play his A Toast to the Old Us followed by his La Danse de Rats, performed by Troy Gifford and Allen Nicholas Kooken on guitar. The program continues with Scout’s Loss of a Child, performed by Michael Van Gelder and Nathan Taylor on guitar, along with Elliot May on cello. Troy Gifford and Nick Scout will then team up for Benoit Glazer’s MaraTanVal. Alex Burtzos’s Atoms will be performed by Nate Chivers on guitar and Jaysen Rosario on drum kit. Finally, Nate Chivers will close the concert with Flower, Getting Better, Slink, and Simplicity.
These pioneering artists will explore cherished guitar traditions with bold new visions for the future, promising a transcendent evening of expansive guitar odysseys that will make you see the guitar in a new light.
On Saturday, August 17, 2024, at 7:30 p.m., Timucua Arts Foundation hosts “Songs from the Hispanic Diaspora” — an intimate musical exploration of the resonating experiences of exile, displacement, and the dreamlike impermanence of existence through the poetic lens of the Spanish-speaking world. This powerful concert by the Central Florida Composers Forum (CF2) features six newly commissioned works bringing to life poetry by pillars of Hispanic literature meticulously curated by Thamara Bejarano from Open Scene.
From Spain, Alex Burtzos sets Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s famed “La vida es sueño” in English, while Rebekah Todia captures Juan Ramón Jiménez’s “Yo no volveré” – both grappling with life’s illusory nature. Colombian poet Eduardo Carranza’s vivid imagery of the dead catalyzes a new work by Nate Chivers. Sorjuanista Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s amorous “Amor empieza por desasosiego” inspires Erik Branch’s musical perspectives on love’s ephemeral passions. The sensual longing of Puerto Rican writer Luis Llorens Torres’ poetry fuels Brandon Martin‘s latest work. And Jeremy Umlauf captures the Venezuelan poet Vicente Gerbasi’s mystical ode to nature “Bosque de música.”
Performed by an intimate ensemble of Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra musicians (flute, cello, piano) and singers from the vocal ensemble VoxO, these arresting musical offerings immerse the audience in the nostalgic dreamscapes and metaphysical reckonings born of the diasporic experience. Contextual insights by Open Scene’s Thamara Bejarano intersperse the performances, guiding a transcendent exploration of Hispanic literary and musical consciousness.
This performance represents a 5-way collaboration between Central Florida Composers Forum, Open Scene, Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra, VoxO and the Timucua Arts Foundation. OCCO and VoxO appear under the auspices of Performing Arts Matter.
Join Orlando’s premier chamber orchestra, OCCO, and the sensational VoxO for an unforgettable night of music focused on transformation and renewal inspired by the Phoenix. Experience world and regional premieres by composers from around the globe, including local talents from CF2. Don’t miss this powerful performance celebrating victory, beauty, and grace.
Featuring music by Barbara Kaszuba, Erik Branch, Bill Freas, Loren Loiacono, Eric Heumann, Jeremy Umlauf, Ayan Desai, Richard Rather, Anthony Mosakowski, and Derek Weagle.
Orlando, FL. This summer, the stage is set for an epic collision of music, visual art, and storytelling. On Saturday, June 1st at 7 pm, the Harriet’s Orlando Ballet Center will host “Heroes and Villains: A Comic Con(cert),” an extraordinary collaborative concert bridging the creative worlds of contemporary classical music and comic book artistry.
Presented by the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra (OCCO) in collaboration with Central Florida Composers Forum and Silverline Comics, this first-of-its-kind event will immerse audiences in compelling musical narratives of heroism and villainy written by a fascinating array of exciting compositional voices from Florida, the U.S., and abroad.
The evening’s program features an eclectic array of contemporary compositions by ascending artists such as Matt Browne, Jason Capehart Jr., Alexandros Darna, Inna Onofrei, and Erik Valdemar Sköld, among others, including a premiere by Orlando’s own Jeremy Umlauf. Visual projections featuring the work of local comic book publishing house Silverline Comics will enhance the musical experience.
Prior to the concert and during intermission, concertgoers will have the opportunity to meet comic book creators, who will display, sell, and sign their original works. Get your tickets now! BAM!
1. As the Sun Sets Upon This Autumn Night – Jeremy Umlauf
Jeremy Umlauf – Piano
2. The Time Quartet – Paul Austin Sanders
2nd Movement – The Threads of Time; 3rd Movement – The Dances of Time
Irene Pacheco – Violin 1 Anabel Tejeda- Violin 2
Tyler Pacheco – Viola Annalise Lange – Cello
3. Barcarolle – Dan Crozier
Xiting Yang – Piano
4. Alice + Zoltan 4ever – Alex Burtzos
George Weremchuk – Alto Saxaphone
Luis Fred – Bass Trombone
Ammon Perry Bratt – Piano
5. Suite for Flute & String Quartet – Stan Cording
Foretold, Quest, Processional
Emma Koi – Flute
Lisa Ferrigno – Violin 1 Joni Hanze – Violin 2
Scott Knopf – Viola Adriana Stenvik – Cello
About the Composers and Program Notes (In Alphabetical Order)
Alex Burtzos is an American composer and conductor based in New York City and Orlando, FL. His music has been performed across four continents by some of the world’s foremost contemporary musicians and ensembles, including JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire, loadbang, Contemporaneous, ETHEL, Jenny Lin, RighteousGIRLS, Decoda, and many others. Alex is the founder and artistic director of ICEBERG New Music, a New York-based composers’ collective.
Alex holds a DMA from Manhattan School of Music, where his primary teachers were Reiko Fueting and Mark Stambaugh. He is the Endowed Chair of Composition Studies at the University of Central Florida, where he teaches composition, orchestration, film scoring, video game scoring, and music technology. His music is published by Just a Theory Press, NewMusicShelf, and others.
Alice + Zoltan 4ever is based on a 2008 article in Gizmodo magazine. The article related the story of an inventor who, frustrated with his search for love, had decided to build himself a robotic companion. The author concluded on a frankly sympathetic note: “My conversation with Zoltan lasted a couple of hours – not enough time for me to be able to claim that I ‘got’ him. What I did find, however, is that he is not a freak. Strange, maybe, but sympathetic, mature… In short, a likable guy who can’t make it work with women – and so he has found an alternative.”
This composition strives to capture something of this lovelorn inventor’s personality, and imagines him – maybe – finding happiness at last.
Commissioned by Ana García and premiered by Ana García, Jason White, and Tim Thompson in Bossi-Comelli Studio, New York, NY (October 2014).
Stan Cording is an Orlando native and graduate of Rollins College. He writes in a style called New Lyricism, emphasizing the beauty and mood of the music over the materials or methods used to make it. His music is a respectful continuation of classical music tradition without being overly reverent to a particular style or fad. His music has a strong appeal to both audiences and performers alike. Drawing inspiration from the unique interests and requirements of the musicians, patrons and collaborators he works with, his music is performed in venues from the church to the concert hall, and within a wide range of genres and forms, from art song to choral, chamber, orchestral and Christmas music. His album, Christmas Carols Old and New, is available on Amazon. Scores and recordings are available on his website: cording.org.
Suite for Flute and String Quartet is in three movements. The titles and text that inspired each movement: “Foretold” “Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become” – James Lane Allen “Quest” “Silver hidden in the gold. Young man hidden in the old. Laughing lord with weeping eyes. Bring kind and ring before sunrise!” – Margaret Lovett “Processional “ “… the shout of a king is among them.” – Numbers 23:21
Described as “harmonically lush and lyrically soaring” by the New York Times, and as having “abstract elegance, structural coherence, and tender feeling” by the Wall Street Journal, music by Daniel Crozier has been performed or recorded by organizations as diverse as Fort Worth Opera, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Seattle Symphony, and New York City Opera. His operatic, orchestral, and solo works have been released on the Albany, ACA Digital, and Parma labels. Awards include a fellowship from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Grant, five nominations for awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and first prizes in National Opera Association and Jacksonville Symphony competitions. He currently serves as Professor of Theory and Composition at Rollins College.
Program Notes: Barcarolle, for solo piano
Written during a summer at the Oregon Bach Festival, this fourth barcarolle in a series of five is the most introspective of the set. Conceived during a festival of J. S. Bach’s works, the point of departure is a melody that opens with the intervals found in the musical spelling of the great patriarch’s name. What follows is a piece about the spinning of long lyrical lines, and lines against and within them. The traditional, rocking six, nine, or twelve-eight metric scheme of the barcarolle, or boat-song, is here shifted to groups of seven in the piece’s principal idea. There is a lengthy tradition using the musical translation of the name “Bach” as thematic material, including the very last music written by the master himself.
Paul Austin Sanders has been a member of Central Florida Composers Forum since 2018 ..From Ethereal soundscapes to Neo Classical compositions..this concert will feature his 9th new work..His Creative Background has run the gamut from Studying not only Vocal performance and composition but jazz bass and actors studio as well as a variety of art classes at times……With one grandmother a pianist and the other an artist….the seeds were planted and over time the moniker of RenaissanceArtzMan evolved… As This concert is connected to word play..I thought to explore some that fit with The Word Play of Time that this string quartet deals with
Abrakadabra..From The Hebrew for making something manifest…to speak it into existence… Tick Tock ..Time moves forward…subdivided into multiple increments of micro seconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and beyond to Centuries to Millenia to Infinity..Time is a Word….Words in Time to the rhythms of Music that flow forth from our minds from the Universal Creative flow that keeps us on the go ..in Time ..each day ..each way we create, Inspired by the way the moment is unfolding in our minds…Tick tock ..This Moment in time is unfolding, Made Manifest by truly being in this moment..Abrakadabra.
Two movements from “The Time Quartet” adapted for the String Quartet will be performed.
Jeremy Umlauf is a rising composer from the Orlando, Florida area. His music mostly utilizes a traditional tonal harmonic language that is often mixed with subtle polytonality. His music is also often narratively driven and is occasionally inspired by music outside the Classical tradition. A few of his musical heroes include Leoš Janácek, Gustav Mahler, Alfred Schnittke, Koji Kondo, Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra, and Thomas Kalnoky of Streetlight Manifesto. In his free time Jeremy can be found fishing Florida’s rich fisheries, where he has caught snook, tarpon, spotted seatrout, redfish, largemouth bass, and chain pickerel. His love of fishing helps fuel his inspiration and passion for composition.
Growing up in Florida, I have always had a deep appreciation for breathtaking sunsets. To me, the sunset represents a time of both profound beauty and deep melancholy as the day ends and the night begins. It is this feeling that I aimed to capture in music.As The Sun Sets Upon This Autumn Night begins with a sparse texture that is meant to represent small patches of color slowly creeping into the sky. As the introduction progresses, the musical activity increases, acting as a parallel to even more new shades of color appearing at the beginning of the sunset. The activity culminates into a flurry of motoric motion which represents most of the duration of the sunset. After a cascading descent, the piece starts to wind down as the sky grows darker. Before long, the piece suddenly ends and all that is left is the silence of the night.
The Lyric Arts Trio of Kansas City (Elena Lence Talley, clarinet; Daniel Velicer, piano; and Sarah Tannehill Anderson, soprano) have delighted audiences throughout the Midwest with their technical and artistic abilities and wonderful musicianship. They project a warmth and pleasure in performing concerts crafted around a central theme, complemented by informal remarks about the music that enlighten and entertain audiences. In this concert, they will be performing:
Stella Sung — Three Songs on Poems by Robert Frost Charlie Griffin — When Great Trees Fall Alex Burtzos — The Explosion, and Other Tales, Mvt. III.Dublinesque Troy Gifford — Night Voices Mark Piszczek— Star Fell Alan Gerber — Mvts. 1 & 4 from Love’s Paradox Seunghee Lee — Selected movements from Dancheong
Event Venue
Timucua Arts Foundation 2000 S Summerlin Ave Orlando, FL 32806
Discounted tickets are available for members, students, teachers, frontline workers, veterans, and seniors. In-person and livestream tickets are available. Please bring a bottle of wine or non-alcoholic beverage to share.
STELLA SUNG
As a national and international award-winning composer, the music of Stella Sung has been performed throughout the United States and abroad. She served as the first Composer-in-Residence for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra (2008-2011), and was one of the five composers nationally selected for a “Music Alive” award, a three-year award that allowed Dr. Sung to serve as Composer-In-Residence for the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance (2013-16), sponsored by New Music USA, the League of American Orchestras, ASCAP, the Aaron Copland Fund, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. Dr. Sung is Composer-in-Residence for Dance Alive National Ballet (Gainesville, FL).
Stella Sung is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2020-21 “Commissioning Grant for Female Composers” from Opera America and a 2021-22 NEA grant for her opera The Secret River (with Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Mark Campbell commissioned and produced by Opera Orlando). She is the recipient of a Phi Kappa Phi National Artists Award, Florida Individual Artists Fellowships, a fellowship at the prestigious MacDowell Colony, and awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).
Premieres, performances, and commissions of Dr. Sung’s work have included compositions for world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the German Ministry of Culture (Rhineland-Pfalz), the National Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Pops, the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, the Monterey (CA) Symphony, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, the Akron Symphony Orchestra, the Sarasota Symphony Orchestra, the Jacksonville (FL) Symphony Orchestra, and other university and regional orchestras, chamber music ensembles, and soloists.
Several documentary films have been made about Sung’s work, including a film by award-winning documentary filmmaker Lisa Mills, which captures the world premiere performance of Sung’s large orchestral work, The Circle Closes (2010). This film has garnered a Silver Medal Award from the 2011 Park City Film Music Festival (Park City, Utah) and a 2011 Bronze Telly Award. Sung’s highly acclaimed composition for orchestra, Rockwell Reflections, was excerpted and made into a five-minute film by Lisa Mills and was selected for the Cultural Arts Award at the 2009 International MOFILM short film festival.
Another award-winning documentary film about Sung’s Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra by filmmaker Aaron Hosé was selected for two Telly Awards (2007).
The music of Stella Sung is published by the Theodore Presser Music Publishers (USA), Editions Henry Lemoine (France), Southern Music Company (Keiser, USA), and Sonic Star Music Productions (USA), and is currently available on Koch International Recordings, Naxos, Cambria Master Recordings, Sinfonica (Italy), Eroica Master Recordings, MSR, and Albany Records. Sung’s compositions have been broadcast on radio stations worldwide, including WGBH-Boston, WBUR-Boston, WNYC-New York, KING FM radio (Seattle, WA), the Bavarian Radio (Munich, Germany), the Swedish National Radio, and Radio Vaticana (Rome, Italy).
Sung holds a Bachelor of Music degree (piano performance) from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), a Master of Fine Arts degree (Composition) from the University of Florida, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree (piano performance) from the University of Texas at Austin. The University of Florida has recognized Dr. Sung as a Distinguished Alumna, an Alumna of Outstanding Achievement, and she has also received a Distinguished Achievement Award from UF.
Dr. Sung is the director of the Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology, and Entertainment (CREATE) at the University of Central Florida, College of Arts and Humanities. Dr. Sung holds a “Pegasus” Professorship, the highest honor awarded to distinguished faculty members at the University of Central Florida, and is also an endowed “University Trustees Chair” professor.
The 16-voice ensemble VoxO, directed by Claire Hodge and joined by pianist Libby Chippeaux, violinist Julia Gessinger, cellist Jamie Clark, and harpist Haley Rhodeside, presents a first-of-its-kind program ever heard in Orlando: regional or world premieres of choral works written entirely by living Central Florida composers.
The works in this program explore the depths of the emotional and spiritual human experience, from the Korean lullaby Jajang-ga by ChanJiKim to Alex Burtzos’s setting of Shakespeare’s Come Away, Death. New spiritual works set in Latin, like Brandon Martin’s Ave Maris Stella, Stan Cording’s Exaudi Me, and Alan Gerber’s Ubi Caritas, complement the secular deeply poetic expression found in works like Troy Gifford’s Like Water, Chaz Underriner’s Forget Sleep, and Charlie Griffin’s In After Time.
Altos: Ashley Duvé, Alice Fortunato, Jennifer Hunt, Corrie Shaw
Tenors: William Ayers, Michael Clossey, Larry Fortunato, Enrique Ynaty
Basses: Michael Andrew Creighton, Jason Ernst, Linden Gould, Andrew V Smith
Many, many thanks to The Awesome Foundation for their support of this project, along with Full Sail University, University of Central Florida, Valencia College, Track Shack, and Tom Dyer.
Experience the adventurous spirit and wide-eyed wonder of childhood through music as Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra partners with 16-voice sensation VoxO for “Through a Child’s Eyes.” This exciting concert features five world premieres that contemplate life’s joys and sorrows from a youthful perspective.
Let William Blake’s poetic ode “A Cradle Song” transport you to a place of innocence shielded from life’s harshness. Feel the liminal space between dreaming and waking in Ella Higginson’s mystical “Dawn.” Learn music’s magic alongside Robert Louis Stevenson’s whimsical verses. Marvel at the child-like visual poetry of e.e. cummings’ imaginary world where effortless love reigns in Charlie Griffin’s setting of who knows if the moon’s a balloon, rearranged specifically for VoxO at the request of their director, Claire Hodge. Grieve a child taken too soon yet find resilience in his spirit with Abby Henkel’s setting of Mary Craig’s elegiac “Perigee.” Dance with shorebirds on sandy shores through the playful lens of “Gymnopedie.” And wander in awe through a meadow’s symphony of shimmering lights.
Under the direction of Todd Craven (OCCO) and Claire Hodge (VoxO), this imaginative program will be performed on September 9 at 8 p.m. at the Alexis and Jim Pugh Theater of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Experience choral music anew as “Through a Child’s Eyes” offers a kaleidoscope of perspectives, allowing you to reconnect to life’s beauty.
Experience contemporary chamber music at its finest when Performing Arts Matter presents the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra and Central Florida Composer Forum in “OCCO Deconstructed: Landscapes of Shadow and Light.” Hear music by award-winning composers performed by small ensembles of OCCO’s outstanding musicians.
The program includes Alex Burtzos‘ “King | Cawdor,” depicting the emotional turmoil of political power; Sharon Omens‘ “Thoroughfare,” contrasting urban loneliness and natural connectedness; Troy Gifford‘s energetic string quartet works “Lumina” and “Lacerta”; Dan Crozier’s haunting “Nocturne” for cello and piano; and Christian Yom’s “Sansori,” merging traditional Korean music and lush strings. The evening concludes with Charlie Griffin‘s “Cambiando Paisajes,” a piano trio work inspired by Latin rhythms.
With passionate performances and thought-provoking new music, this evening of shadow and light is not to be missed. Experience contemporary music as it was meant to be heard – live on stage.
The performers for this event are: Jamie Clark – Cello Nora Lee Garcia – Flute Julia Gessinger – Violin Elliot May – Bass Haley Rhodeside – Harp Jazmin Skipper – Bassoon Jessica Speak – Clarinet Hannah Sun – Piano Anabel Tejada – Viola Andreas Volmer – Violin
Don’t miss “Homages,” the inaugural concert of our 2023 summer series
Experience an electrifying night of contemporary classical music performed by the acclaimed Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra at Harriet’s Orlando Ballet Center on July 29th at 7 pm. The program features exhilarating performances by some of today’s most exciting local and national composers that confront generational tensions, pay homage to tango masters, and wrestle with life’s uncertainties.
Alex Burtzos‘ fierce “RAGE” channels the pent-up frustration of youth through driving metal rhythms. Troy Gifford‘s sensuous “Milonga Abandonada” lovingly embraces the spirit of Argentine tango. Ryan Homsey’s meditative “Music and Life Mingle” pays tribute to legendary film composer Richard Robbins. Cole Reyes’ kinetic “Sprint” is a frenetic tour de force. Jeremy Umlauf‘s poignant “Sisyphus” immortalizes the mythic Greek hero in music. And Jamie Wehr’s unforgettable “Where is John Galt?” featuring rising-star guest pianist Caroline Owen pays homage to Leonard Bernstein via the iconoclastic work of author Ayn Rand.
Don’t miss this one chance to hear some of the best musicians in Orlando tackle these bold new works for the chamber orchestra. Claim your seat today for a concert that will linger in your mind long afterward.
The ever-passionate and always-prepared Maestro Todd Craven will conduct the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra.
This series represents a cooperative effort between Performing Arts Matter, Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra, and Central Florida Composers Forum.
OCCO’s amazing performers are:
Concertmaster: Julia Gessinger Violin 2: Galen Kaup Viola: Marla Morgan Cello: Paul Fleury Bass: Elliot MayFlute and Piccolo: Tammara Phillips Flute, Alto Flute, Piccolo: Tina Edelstein Oboe: Charles McGee Clarinet: Jessica Speak Bass Clarinet: Keith Koons Bassoon: Jazmin Skipper Trumpet: Griffin Weber Trombones: Joseph Vascik, Laurie Penpraze, Alex Regazzi Percussion: Bryant Bernal, Madison Schafer, Paul Yorke
