Projects

LINES: Music and Relationships

In her debut CD, Ms. Stinson will explore music that is connected through composers' relationships as teachers, friends and mentors, ranging from Europe to North America. Recording will take place October 22, 23 and 30th, 2009 at the American Academy of Arts and Letters with Judith Sherman engineering and producing. Elements of this program will be offered in the 2010-2011 season as a celebration of the CD release.

LARK
Quartet and Chamber Artists
An evolution of the renowned Lark Quartet, the Lark Chamber Artists combines the artistry of suberb string quartet playing with exciting new collaborations and commissions. While the Lark Quartet remains at the core of this dynamic group, the Lark Chamber Artists offer a diverse array of programs, ranging from collaborations with Baritone to Percussion. Lark is at the cutting edge of exhilarating and fulfilling programming.

Open End
Open End was formed in 2005, the brainchild of several interconnected musical friendships. Equally committed to new chamber music, particularly by composers with no easily-pegged stylistic affiliations, and to free improvisation, the ensemble is made up of players well-known in ever-expanding contexts whose collective experience spans the whole of Western instrumental literature, from the oldest to the newest. Open End has performed in the US, France and Italy, and was invited in 2007 for a week-long residency at the Conservatoire National de Région in Strasbourg, France, where they gave masterclasses in chamber music and improvisation and performed two concerts in collaboration with the ensemble Accroche Note.

Kean Concert Artists
The mission of the Concert Artist Program of Kean University is to deliver world-class music education and performances. The Program maintains at the University a professional ensemble of nationally and internationally reputed musicians, who perform a concert series on campus of classical chamber music and jazz. The concerts are available to the university community and to the general public. The members of the ensemble serve as a studio faculty for the Department of Music, teach courses related to their specialties, and reach out to the community.

Contrasts
Acclaimed for their exhilarating performances of old and new repertoire, the Contrasts Quartet is a group of four extraordinary virtuosi whose instruments include clarinet, violin, cello and piano. The group chose its name to describe the contrasting timbres of their instruments, as well as the variety of their repertoire. The ensemble performs a mix of duos, trios and quartets, presenting a broad range of programs from the Baroque through today's repertoire. The Contrasts Quartet has worked with many living composers and has commissioned and premiered works of Aaron Jay Kernis, Michael Torke, Ned Rorem, Scott Johnson and Derek Bermel, among others. Their recent recording of Ned Rorem's Nine Episodes for Four Players was nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award.

CELLO
From its inception in 1988 playing classical music in the jazz clubs of New York City to its current international career premiering new works alongside both popular and classical repertoire in Universities and concert halls alike, CELLO has long been recognized as one of the most innovative ensembles on the concert music scene. This ensemble of four classically trained women celebrates the unequaled sound of four cellos through works based in jazz, hip hop beats and world and contemporary classical musics.

Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players
Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players was created in January 2002 as A Living Tribute to Jens Nygaard, conductor extraordinaire of the orchestra, Jupiter Symphony. New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini gave his consent, calling it "a fitting series." Adam Baer of the New York Sun proclaimed it "one of the city's cultural jewels." Dedicated to acknowledge and perpetuate the legacy of Maestro Nygaard—founder of the Jupiter Symphony who died in September 2001—the chamber music group celebrates a legacy that denotes musical excellence, gives performance opportunities to outstanding musicians, and imparts a love of and enthusiasm for music through interesting and unusual programs of pieces in the standard repertoire, and especially works by lesser known composers that deserve to be heard.

Lines II : A Work for cello and piano by John Link

As a continuation of her CD project LINES (scheduled release in the 2010-2011 season), Caroline is commissioning John Link, the esteemed Carter specialist, to write a piece for cello and piano to be paired in concert and on a subsequent recording with Elliott Carter's Figment II (Remembering Mr. Ives.)

Concerto for Cello and Wind Ensemble | Commission Proposal 2010-2011   download pdf

Cellist Caroline Stinson and composer Steven Bryant present a commission-collaboration for a Concerto for cello and wind ensemble with Cynthia Johnston Turner of Cornell University at its head. Through a hybrid commission consortium of both symphony orchestras and wind ensembles, the collaboration aims to include both university and professional ensembles.

Beyond creating an exciting work for the rare combination of cello and wind ensemble, the goal of this commission is to bridge the world of the wind ensemble with that of the symphony orchestra and to expand the sound possibilities for wind ensemble, something Bryant is becoming known for, most notably in his most recent work Ecstatic Waters, presented at the 2009 CBDNA National conference. The instrumentation of the work (see below) will allow for a shared performance life between these large ensembles, and given their experience and accolade, both Steven and Caroline are the strongest of ambassadors for a project of this ambition.

Alongside Steven Bryant's new work, the choice of an additional work is being offered for programming: Voyages (18 min) for cello and winds by Pulitzer Prize Winner Steven Stucky, or the Concerto in G Major for cello and strings by Luigi Boccherini. Both are in the artist's repertory and will pair beautifully with the new virtuosic work by Steven Bryant. Should a commissioning group wish to participate with a local soloist, they may present a premiere following a 3-year exclusive-rights period reserved for the commissioning soloist, Caroline Stinson.

Additional funding for travel and performance will be pursued from grant programs and organizations such as the American Composers Forum, The American Music Center, and Meet the Composer, Inc.

We invite you and your organization to join us for this groundbreaking commission in a unique concerto for cello and winds. Thank you for your interest!

Project parameters (tentative):
• Concerto for Violoncello and Wind Ensemble (3 fls., 2 obs., 3 Bb cls., 2 bsns., 3 Bb tpts., 4 hns., 3 tbns., 1 tba., 3 percussion, timp.)
• Duration: 10-12 minutes
• Commission Fee: $10,000 (includes engraving costs);
         $2,000 contribution by the soloist, $1,000 contribution by each ensemble
• Premiere performance rights exclusivity for all consortium members for 3 years with soloist Stinson: Fall 2010 – Spring 2013 and fall of 2013-Spring 2014 for premieres with other soloists
• Caroline Stinson will offer for programming Pulitzer Prize Winner Steven Stucky's Voyages for cello and winds, or the Luigi Boccherini Concerto in G Major for cello and orchestral strings
• Soloist's fee will be negotiated with each ensemble, based on travel and housing needs
• Caroline and Steven will participate in pre-concert discussions and/or other publicity events, including workshops, radio appearances, outreach, discussion of the evolution of the work, working as professional musicians, etc.
• Travel fees for Steven Bryant will be negotiated separately from this agreement.

Caroline Stinson and Steven Bryant

Praised for her vibrant lyricism, fresh interpretations and expressive performances, cellist Caroline Stinson is sought after by orchestras and fellow musicians nationally and abroad for solo and chamber music concerts of both traditional and contemporary repertoire. Ms. Stinson's performance credits include Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Museum of Modern Art's Summergarden Series in New York, Boston's Gardner Museum, Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian in the United States; Germany's Koelner Philharmonie, Switzerland's Lucerne Festival and France's Cité de la Musique and Theatre at Rennes, in Europe, and the Centennial Centre and Winspear Halls in Canada. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. Stinson has joined forces with the acclaimed LARK Quartet and Chamber Artists, renowned for its commissions of new works by some of today's foremost composers, including Aaron Jay Kernis, William Bolcom and Jennifer Higdon.

Caroline Stinson's 2009-2010 season includes performances in the United States, Canada and France. Highlights include a November residency at Syracuse University with the LARK, a solo recital at Bargemusic in New York in February, at the South Orange Performing Arts Center in NJ in May, and a recital and masterclass at the Conservatoire Nationale de Région in Strasbourg, France. With the LARK in the spring of 2010, Ms. Stinson premieres ensemble commissions by Paul Moravek and William Bolcom at Merkin Hall in New York with Jeremy Denk and at Stanford University with Stephen Salters respectively. Performances in recent seasons have included concerto performances with the Syracuse Symphony under Daniel Hege, recitals in Oregon and Maryland with duo partner, Molly Morkoski, appearances at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland with Pierre Boulez conducting Elliott Carter's Triple Duo, and as a returning featured artist for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's International New Music Festival, where she appeared in multiple performances broadcast nationally on CBC Radio.

Caroline is a member of Open End (a new music and improvisation group founded with her husband, composer and violinist Andrew Waggoner), CELLO and Contrasts. Her teachers have been Alan Harris (Cleveland), Maria Kliegel (Germany), Joel Krosnick (Juilliard) and Tanya Prochazka. Caroline is a teaching assistant to Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School and teaches at Syracuse University.

Steven Bryant is an active composer and conductor with a varied catalog, including works for wind ensemble, orchestra, electronic and electro-acoustic creations, chamber music, and music for the web. Steven's music has been performed by numerous ensembles across North America, Europe, and East Asia. He is a two-time winner of the National Band Association's William D. Revelli Composition Award: in 2007 for Radiant Joy, and in 2008 for Suite Dreams. His first orchestral work, Loose Id for Orchestra, hailed by celebrated composer Samuel Adler as "orchestrated like a virtuoso," was premiered by The Juilliard Symphony and was recorded by the Bowling Green Philharmonia for Albany Records. His recent orchestral work, Alchemy in Silent Spaces, commissioned by James DePreist and The Juilliard School, was premiered by the Juilliard Orchestra, in Alice Tully Hall, in May, 2006. Other notable commissions have come from the Japanese Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference, the United States Air Force Band of Mid-America, the Amherst Saxophone Quartet (funded by the American Composers Jerome Composers Commissioning Program), and a consortium of wind ensembles from around the country, including the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan, Arizona State University, University of Miami, and many others.

Steven is a founding member (along with Eric Whitacre, Jonathan Newman, and Jim Bonney) of the composer-consortium BCM International: four stylistically-diverse composers from across the country, dedicated to enriching the repertoire with exciting works for media often mired in static formulas. BCM's music has generated a following of champions around the world, several thousand fans in an active online community, and two recordings: "BCM Saves the World" (2002, Mark Custom Records) and "BCM Men of Industry" (2004, BCM Records).

Steven studied composition with John Corigliano at The Juilliard School, Cindy McTee at the University of North Texas, and Francis McBeth at Ouachita University. He resides in Durham, NC. For more information, please visit his website at http://www.stevenbryant.com.