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Monthly Archives: March 2013
New York Aurista Chamber Music featured at Annual New Music Winter Concerts
Two members of New York’s Aurista Chamber Music will be guest artists on the New Music Society’s Winter Concerts, March 20 and 21. Although both musicians have interest in many styles, they have wide experience performing contemporary works.
Thomas Osuga
Sho Omagari and Thomas Osuga
Pianist Thomas Osuga, an alumnus of Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music and founder/director of Aurista, will perform with violinist Sho Omagari, an alumnus of the Juilliard School of Music. Both musicians are virtuosos, very active in the New York area, and both have been guests here in the past. There will be recitals at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 20 in Bliss Recital Hall and at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, March 21 at Ss. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, 421 Covington Street. The group will also give presentations to two area schools; St. Joseph the Provider, and St. Joseph, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Osuga is a piano soloist and accompanist performing both chamber and solo venues. He has a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music and doctoral studies at New York University. In addition to founding and directing Aurista Chamber Music, a flexible ensemble, he also organizes several European music festivals and oversees musical programs at the Puffin Foundation Center in Teaneck, New Jersey. Osuga teaches at the Mannes School of Music Preparatory Division and maintains a large private studio. His students regularly win top awards in international competitions. Osuga has specialized in researching, commissioning, and performing works by Japanese/Americans. He has been a frequent guest artist recently of the New Music Society and recorded several works for inclusion on an upcoming benefit CD.
Aurista Chamber Music on MySpace
Sho Omagari
German born Sho Omagari has been performing since the age of five. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Mannes College, Master of Music from Juilliard, and is working on his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the State University of New York Stoneybrook. He won the 2012 International Music Competition Pforzheim, Germany and is past laureate of the Seventeenth International Youth Music Competition, Bulgaria. He has won numerous prestigious awards and scholarships, and is the first recipient of the Circle of Wind Music Scholarship Award created in memory of the victims of the 9/11 incident and 3/11 Japan Earthquake. Omagari recently gave a recital tour of Japan, playing concerts at the evacuation shelters in one of the worst stricken areas of the Japan Quake, and master classes for the public schools around Tokyo.
New Music Society
The guest artists will be premiering Robert Rollin’s Song and Dance for violin and piano. Rollin is Dana School’s Head of Composition. Aurista will also include his three-movement Suite Concertante in their repertoire. This is the violin and piano version of Rollin’s Violin Concerto. The Wednesday evening program will include works by Zhou Long, Takemitsu, and Bartók.
The Wednesday evening Bliss Hall program will also feature local composer Richard Zacharias’ two-movement string quartet Too Far to Walk. Zacharias is a member of the New Music Guild, Inc., a community support group for new music activities and is an active participant in the Dana Composition area. His string quartet will be performed by Mariana Szalaj and Karen Considine, violins, Natalie Sahyoun, viola, and Maria Fesz, cello — all former or current graduate students of the Dana School of Music. The same group will also premiere Senior Samantha Hogan’s Carpe Diem Overture.
Dana School of Music
Dana faculty Alan Mosher’s Danse des Oiseaux will be premiered by senior Rachel Minto, flute and graduate Ben Dague, guitar. Senior composition major Carol Ann Smolka will premiere her song, “Love Will Be Enough”. The Composers Ensemble, Gwyneth Rollin director, will present Samantha Hogan’s Sunrise, a programmatic quintet for soprano, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, and trombone.
The 7:00 p.m. Thursday program at Ss. Peter and Paul Church will feature Aurista Chamber Music playing music in a variety of styles and include works by Kreisler, Beethoven, Glatthorn, Monti, Saint-Saens, Youngmi Ha (Chair, Composition Department at New York University), and Rollin.
Although all recitals are free and open to the public, donations will be appreciated at Ss. Peter and Paul. You can also donate online
New Music Society 