All-Mendelssohn Concert by Bay-Atlantic Symphony on August 27

AVALON – Enjoy an evening of the enchanting, sparkling music by Felix Mendelssohn as the Bay-Atlantic Symphony closes the 2011 “Symphony by the Sea” summer series of concerts sponsored by the Avalon Free Public Library on Saturday, August 27, at 7 p.m., at the Avalon Elementary School, 235 32nd St., Avalon, NJ.
The concert, conducted by the orchestra’s music director Jed Gaylin, will feature the return to Bay-Atlantic Symphony audiences of Spain-based violin virtuoso Kai Gleusteen in one of the all-time favorite violin concerti, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64.
The program, entitled “Sun, Splash, and Waves,” will begin with the Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Op. 26. Also known as the Fingal’s Cave Overture, it is a beautiful musical depiction of the power and beauty a cave in Scotland and the nearby sea. The concert will also include the composer’s famous Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, “Italian.”—a sparkling work full of the sunshine of Italy’s countryside.
Tickets are free and available to the general public on Thursday, August 11 from the Avalon Free Public Library, 235 32nd St., Avalon.
A free lecture about the concert’s music will take place on Thursday, August 25, at 7 p.m., at the library. Entitled “Composers on Vacation,” it will be presented by Paul M. Somers, the Symphony’s Adult Education Director. Somers is also a composer, performer, founder of Maurice River Music, was for 25 years the harpsichordist for the Virtuoso Strings of New York, and was a reviewer for the Star-Ledger.
The lecture will also be given on Thursday, August 18, at 6:30 p.m., at the Margate Public Library, Bloom Pavilion, 8100 Atlantic Ave., Margate. The lectures are sponsored by the libraries in which they are given.
For more information on the “Symphony at the Sea” series, which concludes with an all-Mendelssohn concert by the Bay-Atlantic Symphony with internationally renowned violinist Kai Gleusteen on Saturday, August 27, call the Avalon Free Public Library at (609) 967-7155, or visit the library’s website at www.avalonfreelibrary.org. For more information on the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, call their office at (856) 451-1169, visit the Symphony’s website at www.bayatlanticsymphony.org, or visit them on Facebook.
Returning for his fourth appearance with the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, Kai Gleusteen has been called “a violinist of incandescent technical brilliance,” He has been critically acclaimed world-wide for the beauty of his performances and has performed in the United States, Canada, Australia, Egypt, and most of the European countries. His vast repertoire ranges from the great violin concerti to chamber music.
Born in Calgary, Canada, he began his musical studies at age 5 and, by age 10, he was under the tutelage of Ivan Galamian and David Cerone during summers spent at the Meadowmount School of Music in New York. He also studied with such renowned violinists and teachers as Nathan Milstein, Josef Gingold, Dorothy DeLay, and Zakhar Bron. He made his first concert tour of England at age 15 with his local youth orchestra.
The first prize winner in the Commonwealth Concerto Competition in Brisbane, Australia and in the National Soloist Auditions in Chicago, he was also a finalist in the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition in Denmark. A recipient of the prestigious Skene Award in Scotland, he also formed his first chamber orchestra, The Group of Twelve.
Further study with famed violinist Camela Wicks eventually led him to Paris where, in 1991, he became the concertmaster and guest soloist of the Ensemble Orchestral I’lle de France. A meeting with the great violin virtuoso Sandor Végh led him to spend a year at the Mozart Foundation in Prague devoting himself to chamber music.
In 2000, he became the concertmaster of the Orchestra “del Gran Teatre del Liceu” in Barcelona, Spain. Three years later, he created the Gran Teatre del Liceu Chamber Orchestra and was appointed professor at the Escuela Superior de Musica de Catalunya.
Since then, Gleusteen has maintained his world-wide career as a soloist and recitalist, while maintaining his bonds with these musical centers.
Jed Gaylin, entering his 15th season as Music Director of the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, is also the Principal Conductor of the Cape May Music Festival. He has been the Music Director of the Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra since 1993 and, since 2007, the Principal Guest Conductor of the National Film and Radio Philharmonic in Beijing, China.
A sought-after guest conductor, he has led orchestras including the Sibiu Philharmonic of Romania—where he served as Principal Guest Conductor, Shanghai (China) Conservatory Orchestra, Bucharest (Romania) Radio Orchestra, Academia del Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona, Spain), Lodz and Pomorska (Poland) Philharmonics, Gnessin Institute Orchestra and Moscow (Russia) Chamber Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Guanajuato (Mexico), Orvieto (Italy) Festival Orchestra, and the Naples (Florida) Philharmonic. He also maintains a close association with Baltimore’s Opera Vivente and Johns Hopkins University, where he has served as Music Director of the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra since 1993.
In addition to his work with the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, Gaylin’s schedule included recording sessions last year in the Xinjiang Province of northwest China and performances last July with a pan-European Youth Orchestra as principal conductor for Spain’s Cervera Music Festival. Last December, he conducted the St. Petersburg Symphony in Russia.
Now entering its 28th season of providing classical music concerts, the Bay-Atlantic Symphony performs concerts and educational programs in Cumberland, Atlantic, Gloucester, and Cape May counties.
It is the resident orchestra of the Stockton College Performing Arts Center and the Guaracini Fine and Performing Arts Center at Cumberland County College, as well as being the orchestra-in-residence at the Cape May Music Festival since 2003. Avalon is the summer home of the Symphony, which is orchestra-in-residence of the resort’s “Symphony by the Sea” series. The Symphony has received worldwide exposure through its appearances on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition and WWFM’s Celebrating our Musical Community.
Among world-renowned soloists collaborating with the orchestra have been Hilary Hahn, Eugenia Zukerman, the Eroica Trio, Stefan Jackiw, Awagadin Pratt, Shai Wosner, Chee-Yun, and Adam Neiman.
The Symphony’s first commercial label recording, of She Comes to Shore–concerto for improvised piano and orchestra by the contemporary Hong Kong-born, Canadian-based composer and pianist Lee Pui Ming, is available on the Innova label, distributed by Naxos.
The Symphony will open its 2011-12 season with “I Hear a Symphony—Motown’s Greatest Hits”—a gala symphonic tribute to the singers and groups that created the Motown Sound—on Sunday, September 25, at 3 p.m., at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, in Atlantic City.