Thu

3/15/2012

8:00pm

Edge

Turks head knot

Contemporary Music Ensemble

• $25 Assigned Rows 1-2
• $15 Assigned Rows 3-5
• $10 General Admission
• $5 Student

• Peter Paulsen, double bass/director
• Chris Hanning, percussion
• Chris Bacas, saxophones
• Charlotte Paulsen, mezzo-soprano
• Adam Unsworth, guest french horn

Event Details

The contemporary music ensemble Turks head knot incorporates the discipline and precision of modern classical composition with the expressive flow of jazz improvisation; forging a sound quite unique and their own. Newly commissioned works as well as compelling arrangements drawn from a wide range of material are staple elements of the ensemble’s repertoire.

 

This event is supported by the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs.

Peter Paulsen

Peter Paulsen is an active performer on the Philadelphia jazz scene as well as Assistant Principal Bass of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra and Principal Bass of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. He has received three PA. Council on the Arts composition grants and was recognized with a PEW Fellowship in Composition. Mr. Paulsen has released four critically acclaimed CDs of his compositions, “Three-Stranded Cord” Peter Paulsen Quintet, “Tri- Cycle” Peter Paulsen Trio and Peter Paulsen “Change of Scenery” Sextet and “Goes Without Saying” Peter Paulsen Quintet. He is Instructor of Double Bass & Jazz Studies at West Chester University and is committed to the education of young students through numerous master classes, clinics and performances at universities and schools throughout the country.

Chris Hanning

Chris Hanning performs nationally as an artist/clinician for Promark, The Yamaha Corp. of America and the Zildjian Company and is Principal Timpanist with the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra and Bach Festival Orchestra of Bethlehem. He has recorded extensively for NFL Films and appears as composer/performer on the CDs, “Curves” MPH Trio and “The Seasons” with the Manhattan Saxophone Quartet featuring Dave Liebman.

Chris Bacas

In a thirty-year career, Chris Bacas has played with many generations of outstanding musicians and appeared on more than forty-five recordings, including three ("Two Choices", "Leave a Message" and "Exits") as leader/co- leader. His touring experience includes Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens; the Nice, North Sea, Cork, Santiago, Montreal, Moers, Texaco, Annapolis, JVC New York and Central PA Jazz Festivals; the Hollywood Bowl; LA's Comedy Store; NewYork's Blue Note and Birdland; Chicago's Jazz Showcase; and Washington DC's Blues Alley and One Step Down. Chris has toured with the Stefan Bauer, Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Peter Paulsen, Buddy Rich and Artie Shaw Bands and performed and recorded with Smithsonian's Jazz Masterworks Orchestra under conductors David Baker and Gunther Schuller. Chris transcribed, arranged and performed music in many of Martin Williams' small group jazz concerts at the Smithsonian. Chris was soloist on both flute and saxophone in the Mary Lou Williams' "Mass" which was performed and recorded in the National Cathedral. Jazz pianist Dr. Billy Taylor described Chris, “He is a sensitive, lyrical saxophonist and flutist who plays with stunning authority"

Charlotte Paulsen

Charlotte Daw Paulsen, mezzo-soprano, possesses a voice described as unusually rich and complex. She received critical acclaim in the New York Times: “Charlotte Daw Paulsen sang with her usual deep, dark-chocolate tone [‘Israel in Egypt’],” and of Rossini’s ‘Petite Messe Solennelle’ “The real star, along with the chorus, was Charlotte Daw Paulsen a mezzo-soprano with real contralto gravity and power in her lower register, in the Aguns Dei, her performance grew dramatic in the best sense and utterly gripping.”

She is frequently invited to perform works of depth and emotional expression, such as the United States premieres of Stabat Mater, The Armed Man a Mass for Peace, and Gloria by Karl Jenkins, and New York City’s’ premier of Et la vie l’emporte by Frank Martin with I Cantori. Known as a fine interpreter of Oratorio, she was hailed for her performance in Messiah as

  “an intense performer, with an unusual and distinctive voice, compelling and enormous in its lower register.”

  Previously she performed the contralto role in Elijah with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir; Missa Solemnis of Beethoven with Questra Sinfonica de Mineria, Beethoven’s 9th with Huntsville Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem with Eugene Symphony and Virginia Symphony. Her debut at Carnegie Hall was in the Mozart

  Requiem, under the direction of John Rutter. She performed Bach’s St. Mathew Passion, and his B minor in Wilmington Grand Opera House; Vivaldi’s Magnificat and Gloria as well as Handel’s Israel in Egypt with Musica Sacra in Carnegie Hall, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater in Count Basie Theater; Judas Maccabaeus with Berkshire Choral Festival; Jeptha with Sacred Music in a Sacred Space; Aida with Greater Bridgeport Symphony; and Brahms Alto Rhapsody. She performed Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with Louisiana Philharmonic, “No one was more exposed than Paulsen, a mezzo-soprano whose voice blossomed from whispers to vaulting arcs of sound as she wrung every ounce of feeling from ‘Urlicht’ [Resurrection Symphony]“ Times-Picayune. Mussorgsky’s ‘Songs and Dances of Death’ and Mahler’s ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ with Xalapa Symphony Orchestra, mentioned in Cubarte “fascinating interpretation, and wonderful sound”. She was heard in recital at Saint Paul’s Chapel, New York City; the Academy of Music, Philadelphia; St. Marks, Baltimore; elsewhere in France; Luxembourg; Italy; and Germany; where she recorded with Helmut Deutsch for Saarland Radio.She was selected in Paris to sing for Pavarotti’s Competition and received 1st place in the Liederkranz Foundation Awards, as well as honors from Salzburg Mozarteum, Zurich International Opera Studio, Tanglewood Festival, and Opera Music Theater International.

Adam Unsworth

Adam Unsworth is Associate Professor of Horn at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Prior to his appointment at Michigan, he was Fourth Horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra (1998-2007) and Second Horn of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1995-1998). He has performed as a guest Principal horn of the St. Louis Symphony and Principal horn of the Colorado Music Festival. A former faculty member at Temple University, Adam has appeared as a recitalist and clinician at many universities throughout the United States, and has made several solo and chamber appearances at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. After completing graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Douglas Hill he recorded Jazz Set for Solo Horn, released in 2001 as part of 'Thoughtful Wanderings', a compilation of Hill's works for horn. In 2006 Adam released his first jazz CD entitled Excerpt This!, which features five of his original compositions for jazz sextet and three unaccompanied works. Since then he has completed a second jazz CD, Next Step, and released Just Follow Instructions, a recording of the chamber music of Daniel Schnyder 1in 2009. In April 2010 the University of Michigan Symphony Band featured Adam as a soloist on the premiere recording of Dana Wilson’s Concerto for Horn and Wind Ensemble. In February of 2011, he appeared as soloist on this piece with the Aurora Wind Orchestra in Funabashi City, Japan. The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music named him their Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2000.