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WPCNR LIVE AT NOON. From Downtown Music at Grace. May 31, 2016:
The local all-star performers from some of the greatest performing organizations in the world, known as “The Downtown Sinfonietta” will celebrate its 10th Anniversary Wednesday since it was created in 2006 by Timothy Lewis, the founder and Artistic Director of our Downtown Music at Grace concert series.
His vision was to have a resident chamber orchestra in place that would supplement and enhance the very successful Wednesday Noonday Getaway Concerts that began in White Plains in 1988.
Tim approached Vincent Lionti, a frequent viola recitalist at the church, about forming a small orchestra from his colleagues at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in a similar way that the venerable downtown London church in Trafalgar Square, St. Martin-in-the Fields, had started an ensemble in England. Downtown Sinfonietta’s Inaugural Concert took place on May 11, 2006 in the Grand Banking Room at the Arts Exchange in White Plains.
The program included music by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Dvorak, Sibelius, Percy Grainger (a longtime White Plains resident) and a World Premiere by the Westchester composer Dalmazio Santini. The Sinfonietta has performed a total of 69 works by 36 different composers in 19 concerts (including today’s concert).
The Sinfonietta has close affiliations and collaborations with the Downtown Music Chorus, the Stecher and Horowitz Piano Foundation, narrator Robert Sherman, and has given two World Premieres. Most of Downtown Sinfonietta’s performances have been recorded by Downtown Music’s master sound engineer and producer, Rocco Bueti.
Downtown Sinfonietta marks the Tenth Anniversary Wednesday by performing (appropriately) Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 10, as well as its first appearance on the Wednesday Noonday Getaway Concert Series.
The Downtown Sinfonietta
Yurika Mok, violin Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Derek Ratzenboeck, violin New York City Ballet Orchestra
Shenghua (Simon) Hu, violin Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Yuko Naito, violin St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
Mary Hammann, viola Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Chihiro Fukuda, viola Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
David Heiss, violoncello Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
David Calhoun, violoncello Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
David Romano, contrabasso American Ballet Theatre Orchestra
Hsuan-Fong Chen, oboe New York Philharmonic
Phillip Rashkin, oboe Chelsea Symphony Orchestra
Katie Jordan, horn Sarasota Orchestra
Jasmine Lavariega, horn The Juilliard School
Downtown Music at Grace concerts will resume
after Labor Day in September.
after Labor Day in September.
Please look for our twenty-ninth season announcement in August.