New Years Eve Concert for Peace
New Year's Eve Concert: Program Notes
Voices of Afghanistan
As America, after twenty years of waging a war that should never have begun, finally withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving chaos in its wake, it brought home to me that my country is incorrigible, doomed to ignore the lessons of the past and endlessly repeat the same mistakes. Feeling so powerless to effect any positive change, I turned, as always, to music. With the world focused on all of the turmoil in Afghanistan, I knew that the greatness of Afghanistan's past was being overlooked - a country so rich in poetic and musical tradition. It was to that voice that I wanted to give expression and turned to poems, both ancient and contemporary, to set this music with hope that after so many years of horrific violence, the poetic soul of Afghanistan can one day be reborn without oppression, whether imposed from without or within. - Stanley Grill
Adinu
Adinu is a traditional Sufi melody, the text of which is attributed to the Andalusian Moorish Sufi mystic, philosopher, poet, and sage, Abu 'Abdillah Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Muhammad ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240). Born and brought up in Spain and traveling widely in Asia Minor, he died in Damascus. Regarded as one of the most influential figures in world spirituality, his writings numbering more than 350 books, which he considered to be divinely inspired by the prophets Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, have been studied by theologians and scholars of all religions. Known as "The Greatest Master," he believed that love was the dominant existential and universal force. Accordingly, he is, even today, a powerful symbol of inter-religious harmony.
Qudduus means "Holy" and is a text from Isaiah 6:3, that is central to Christian, Islamic and Jewish worship. In Islam, Qudduus refers to one of the ninety-rune names (or attributes) of God as found in the Qur'an. The text is strikingly similar to the Christian Sanctus (Latin for "Holy") and is a precursor to it. The melody is derived from a Christian Maronite hymn.
Shalom Aleichem
Shalom Aleichem (Hebrew: שָׁלוֹם עֲלֵיכֶם, 'Peace be upon you') is a traditional song sung by many Jews every Friday night upon returning home from synagogue prayer. It signals the arrival of the Shabbat, welcoming the angels who accompany a person home on the eve of the Shabbat.
New Year's Eve Concert: Artist Bios
Judy Collins has long inspired audiences with sublime vocals, boldly vulnerable songwriting, personal life triumphs, and a firm commitment to social activism. In the 1960s, she evoked both the idealism and steely determination of a generation united against social and environmental injustices. Five decades later, her luminescent presence shines brightly as new generations bask in the glow of her iconic 55-album body of work, and heed inspiration from her spiritual discipline to thrive in the music industry for half a century.
The award-winning singer-songwriter is esteemed for her imaginative interpretations of traditional and contemporary folk standards and her own poetically poignant original compositions. Her stunning rendition of Joni Mitchell's “Both Sides Now” from her landmark 1967 album, Wildflowers, has been entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Judy’s dreamy and sweetly intimate version of “Send in the Clowns,” a ballad written by Stephen Sondheim for the Broadway musical A Little Night Music, won "Song of the Year” at the 1975 Grammy Awards. She’s garnered several top-ten hits gold- and platinum-selling albums. Recently, contemporary and classic artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Shawn Colvin, Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, and Leonard Cohen honored her legacy with the album Born to the Breed: A Tribute to Judy Collins.
The cultural treasure’s 55th album, Spellbound, was released in February 2022, finds Judy enjoying an artistic renaissance. The 13 song album is a special entry in her oeuvre. It marks the first time ever she wrote all the songs on one of her albums. It features 12 new modern folk songs, and a bonus track of her evergreen, “The Blizzard.” Spellbound is an introspective and impressionistic album. It unfolds as if Judy curated a museum exhibit of her life, and welcomed us into a retrospective of her most formative moments, some big and public, and some intensely personal and intimate. Spellbound has been nominated in the Best Folk Album category at the 65th Recording Academy Grammy Awards in 2023.
Harry Smith is an NBC News Correspondent and recognized as one of television’s most distinguished journalists. Before joining NBC News, he hosted the CBS News morning shows The Early Show and its predecessor CBS This Morning for 17 years. Smith served as a senior correspondent for CBS News and substitute anchor for the CBS Evening News, Face the Nation and CBS News Sunday Morning.
He also hosted the A&E series Biography. Smith has interviewed a who’s who of world leaders from Barack Obama to Margaret Thatcher. He has reported from the Persian Gulf War, the Iraq War and the war in Bosnia as well as live from Tahrir Square the night Hosni Mubarak fell from power. Smith has also reported from disaster zones in the United States as well as Japan, Sri Lanka, Haiti and the Philippines. Smith has won several Emmy Awards and an Edward R. Murrow Award, as well as numerous other honors. He is a proud graduate of Central College in Pella, Iowa. He is married to the remarkable Andrea Joyce, a sports reporter. They are the parents of two fine young men.
Kent Tritle is one of America’s leading choral conductors. Called “the brightest star in New York's choral music world” by The New York Times, he is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine; Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York, the Grammy-nominated volunteer chorus; and Music Director of Musica Sacra, New York’s elite professional chorus.
Kent is a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School. Also an acclaimed organ virtuoso, Kent Tritle is the organist of the New York Philharmonic.
Kent Tritle’s discography features more than 20 recordings on the Telarc, Naxos, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI and MSR Classics labels, including the Grammy-nominated 2018 world premiere performance of the Paul Moravec/Mark Campbell oratorio Sanctuary Road with the Oratorio Society of New York.
Kent Tritle founded the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert series at New York’s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, and led it to great acclaim from 1989 to 2011. From 1996 to 2004, he was Music Director of New York’s The Dessoff Choirs. Kent hosted “The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle,” a weekly program devoted to the vibrant world of choral music, on New York’s WQXR from 2010 to 2014. A master clinician, Kent leads annual choral workshops at the Amherst Early Music Festival; recent years have also included workshops at Berkshire Choral International, Summer@Eastman and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He was featured in the WIRED video series “Masterminds,” an installment titled, “What Conductors Are Really Doing.” www.kenttritle.com.
Named one of the top “20 under 30” organists by The Diapason, Daniel Ficarri (b. 1996) is Associate Director of Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC and a composer of organ, choral, and chamber music.
A native of Pittsburgh, Daniel moved to New York City in 2014 to study with Paul Jacobs at The Juilliard School (where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees). Since then, Ficarri has made appearances in concert halls and houses of worship around the world, from Carnegie Hall to Westminster Abbey. By the age of 18, he performed live on WQXR as a soloist in their Bach Organ Marathon; and by the age of 23, he was presented as a soloist at Lincoln Center under the baton of Marin Alsop in Samuel Barber’s Toccata Festiva. Other orchestral engagements have included concerts with the Boston Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Florida Orchestra, and the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Itzhak Perlman, Andris Nelsons, David Robertson, James Gaffigan, and Bernard Labadie.
Daniel’s compositions have been performed in venues from London to Los Angeles, with commissions from the Madison Symphony Orchestra, American Guild of Organists, and Choir & Organ magazine. He was chosen to write inaugural works for the Miller-Scott Organ at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and the Hazel Wright Organ at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, where two of his works were recorded by Gothic Records. Ficarri studied composition with the late Rachel Laurin. Much of Daniel’s music is published by ECS Publishing Group. For more information, visit www.danielficarri.com.
Bryan Zaros is a young American conductor recognized for his “strong musical imagination” and “deep sense of musicality and communication.” Bryan is the Associate Director of Music & Choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City where he leads the Cathedral Choirs, Orchestra and Brass in liturgical as well as concert performances in the grand space of the world’s largest Gothic cathedral. He is also the Music Director of Central City Chorus, Music Director of The Pro Arte Chorale and a frequent guest lecturer at the Manhattan School of Music and at music conferences throughout the USA. Currently he serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Choral Consortium, on the Advisory Board to Music Sacra New York and is a conductor for the American Federation Pueri Cantores.
Recent conducting engagements have included invitations with choirs and orchestras throughout the USA, Europe and South America. Most notably he has conducted ensembles at David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., at American Choral Director’s Association Conferences, on the film set at Warner Bros. Studios and at various cathedrals in England including Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral-London and Canterbury Cathedral. He is a recipient of several conducting awards and fellowships including an American Prize award in Conducting. For more information about Bryan, visit www.bryanzaros.com
Jamet Pittman, soprano, earned both B.M and M.M. degrees in Voice from The Catholic University of America. While there, she competed in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and one of the judges took note and invited her to study in New York at the Manhattan School of Music, where she was a Paul Robeson Scholarship recipient. Since then, Ms. Pittman has performed as a classical soloist and also in professional choral groups, such as Musica Sacra, NY Choral Artists, and the esteemed Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola. She has also performed on Broadway (Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème), and in non- classical genres with the group Just Friends (specializing in music from the African-American experience).
More recently, Jamet was part of 3 Mo’ Divas, which was showcased in a PBS special, and showed her ability to sing several styles, including opera, musical theater, spirituals and R&B. In 2019, she performed as part of Jason and Alicia Hall Moran’s Work Songs exhibit at the Biennale Art Festival in Venice, Italy. Jamet is honored to be a member of the professional Choir of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Katie Geissinger, mezzo-soprano, recently returned from London, Amsterdam, and Vilnius, where she performed in Song of Songs (music by David Lang, choreography by Pam Tanowitz) and in concert with Meredith Monk. She has premiered Monk works with the Houston Grand Opera and the San Francisco and St. Louis Symphonies, and is featured on 8 of Monk’s ECM recordings, including the Grammy-nominated Impermanence.
Katie appeared at Carnegie Hall as the Witch of Endor in Honegger’s Le Roi David with the Oratorio Society of New York, and in Jonathan Miller’s staged version of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion at BAM. Previous engagements at the Cathedral include Bach’s Mass in B Minor and the concert and recording of Four Quarters of Jerusalem by the Cathedral Choir with Rose of the Compass, under Kent Tritle.
Other performances include Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach (Elektra Nonesuch), Bang on a Can/Ridge Theater’s OBIE-winning The Carbon Copy Building (Cantaloupe), Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer, Ann Hamilton’s the event of a thread with music by David Lang at the Park Avenue Armory, and Monk’s Songs of Ascension at the Guggenheim.
Katie has served on the faculty of the Bang on a Can Summer Institute at MassMoCA, where she performed Steve Reich’s Music for Eighteen Musicians. She has also appeared on Broadway in Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme, and in Coram Boy, and can be heard on the soundtracks of Kundun, The Big Lebowski, and Joker. Upcoming performances include concerts in Dublin, Munich, Providence, and the US premiere of Monk’s latest work, Indra’s Net, at the Park Avenue Armory.
Stanley Grill has been obsessed with music since the age of six, when his mother took him to Carnegie Hall and he was astonished and awestruck by a performance of “La Mer.” While that obsession first took the form of playing piano at every possible moment (when not otherwise engaged in activities typical of a kid growing up in the Bronx of the 1950’s and ‘60s), it was Stan’s music theory studies at the Manhattan School of Music that converted that obsession to writing music – and to finding his own musical voice.
He learned the craft from extraordinary musicians: among others – Robert Helps, Leon Kushner, Ursula Mamlok and Joseph Prostakoff. Stan’s passion for medieval and Renaissance music has greatly influenced his writing – a contemporary expression of ageless techniques based on melody, modal harmonies, and contrapuntal, extended, interweaving lines. Two main themes permeate many of his works – music composed in an attempt to translate something about the nature of the physical world, and music composed to inspire and promote world peace.
Stan’s music has been performed the world over – from Ecuador to Poland; Toulouse to Tokyo; Brooklyn to Vienna – by such artists as New World Symphony, Camerata Philadelphia, Camerata Arkos, Duo+ Ensemble, Englewinds, Pandolfis Consort, Umbria Ensemble, Diderot Quartet, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, One World Symphony, violists Brett Deubner and Ralph Farris, and violinist Jorge Avila.
A native of San Diego, violinist Alex Fortes is recognized for his versatility and warmth. Recent orchestral and chamber music performances have included performances in France, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Indonesia, as well as throughout North America with groups such as the Henschel Quartett, Dalí Quartet, Franklin String Quartet, Momenta Quartet, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Knights, Quod Libet, and A Far Cry. His playing is featured on A Far Cry’s 2014 Grammy-nominated album, Dreams and Prayers, as well as on Law of Mosaics, which The New Yorker’s Alex Ross hailed as one of the top ten albums of 2014. He can also be heard on a forthcoming album with the Henschel Quartett and pianist Donald Berman featuring the music of Chris Theofanidis.
Fortes holds a strong interest in finding new contexts in which to experience familiar music. His recent arrangements of Schubert lieder and chamber music were hailed by the Boston Globe as “uniformly resourceful and complementary…smart, subtle.” In May 2016, A Far Cry premiered his arrangement with Sarah Darling of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in collaboration with pianist Simone Dinnerstein.
Alex has participated in educational residencies in both English and Spanish related to entrepreneurship, music performance and education, at colleges and public schools throughout the United States. He holds degrees from Harvard College and Mannes College, and his teachers include Mark Steinberg, Peter Zazofsky, Hernan Constantino, Mary Gerard, and Michael Gaisler.
Diane Lesser is one of the top studio recording oboists in the country. She is the principal oboist of the New York Pops, Amici New York, Greenwich Symphony, Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra and the National Chorale. She can be heard frequently as principal oboist of Voices of Ascension, Musica Sacra, the Oratorio Society, St. John the Divine’s Great Music in a Great Space, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, St. Ignatius Loyola’s Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, the Grace Church Choral Society, and she plays English horn with the Little Orchestra Society. Ms. Lesser performed on the Grammy nominated recordings of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road and Uri Caine’s The Passion of Octavius Catto with Kent Tritle and the Oratorio Society.
Active in the world of commercial music, Ms. Lesser can be heard on recordings accompanying Cynthia Erivo, Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, Lena Park, Barry Manilow, and Paul Simon. She has played on numerous soundtracks including Maggie’s Plan, The Forgotten Kingdom, Excuse Me for Living, and Remember Me. Ms. Lesser has also been heard on TV’s Chris Matthews Show, Ugly Betty, and Good Morning America while accompanying Andrea Bocelli. In addition, she has played hundreds of television and radio commercials such as Coca Cola, General Electric, Budweiser, Lucky Charms, Nasonex and Reynold’s Wrap.
Ms. Lesser has performed at the OK Mozart Festival, Caramoor, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Philadelphia’s Mann Center and Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, as well as in Asia, Europe and South America.
She has played at diverse venues such as the Grammy Awards, Sesame Street, the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, Z100’s Jingle Ball, Gracie Mansion and at the White House. In 2015, she played at the Madison Square Garden Mass for the visit of Pope Francis, in 1995 in Central Park for Pope John Paul II , and for several of Hayden Planetarium’s Space Shows.
Diane Lesser received a Bachelor’s of Music degree from the Juilliard School where she was the winner of the Wind Soloist competition and studied with Robert Bloom. She received a Master’s of Arts degree from Queens College where she won the Concerto Soloist competition and studied with Leonard Arner.
Nina Stern has carved a unique and extraordinarily diverse career for herself as a world-class recorder player and classical clarinetist. A native New Yorker, Stern studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, where she received a Soloist’s Degree. From Basel, she moved to Milan, Italy where she was offered a teaching position at the Civica Scuola di Musica. Nina performs widely on recorders, chalumeaux, and historical clarinets.She has appeared as a soloist or principal player with orchestras including Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, American Classical Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, La Scala Orchestra, Hesperion XX, Handel and Haydn Society, Philharmonia Baroque, Opera Lafayette, and has recorded for Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Sony Classics, Telarc, MSR, Good Child Music, and Smithsonian labels.She has appearedon albums by Natalie Merchant and Paul Simon. Recent projects include performances and recordings with her ensembles Rose of the Compass and East of the River (Daphna Mor, Co-Director).Stern was appointed to the faculty of Juilliard’s Historical Performance program in2012. She is founder and Artistic Director of S’Cool Sounds, an award-winning music education project serving public school children and under-resourced communities in the U.S. and abroad. For this work, Stern was awarded an Endicott Fellowship in 2003 and was honored by Early Music America in 2005 and again in 2019, and by the American Recorder Society in 2023. She was appointed Director of Community Engagement for the Boston Early Music Festival in 2021.
Praised as a “Recorder virtuoso” and for her “astonishing virtuosity” by The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune, Recorder/ Ney player and vocalist Daphna Mor has performed throughout Europe, The United States and her native Israel both as a soloist and ensemble player. Recent solo appearances include Tanglewood festival, the Met Museum in New York and St Martin’s in the Fields in London with Apollo’s Fire Orchestra. As a member of the orchestra, Mor performed with The New York Philharmonic, American Classical Orchestra and Orchestra of St. Luke’s toname few. She has appeared in a duo with Joyce DiDonato on the singer’s album tour for In Warand Peace and can be heard on Sting’s album If On A Winter’s Night for Deutsche Grammophon.Mor is a performer, curator and teacher of music of the Jewish diaspora, particularly of Sephardic repertoire. She co leads the Global music ensemble East of the River together withNina Stern. Their new album Ija Mia, of Sephardi and Ottoman music is set for release in March 2024.
Composer/multi-instrumentalist Ara Dinkjian was born in New Jersey, USA in 1958. He has been the organist for the Armenian Apostolic Church for fifty years. Ara graduated Hartt College of Music, earning the country’s first and only special degree in the oud. He is considered one of the finest oud players in the world, with a very personal style, emphasizing a uniquely beautiful tone. His groundbreaking and highly influential group NIGHT ARK recorded four CDs for RCA/BMG and PolyGram/Universal. He has performed in 24 countries throughout the world. His compositions have appeared in movie and television soundtracks, and have been recorded by renowned musicians and singers in 16 different languages. Dinkjian’s composition “Homecoming” (“Dinata, Dinata”) was performed at the closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympics. In 2013 at the Nevruz Festival in Dikranagerd (Diyarbekir), over 1 million people sang his song “Picture” (“Ağladıkça”) to welcome peace after years of conflict in the region. He has recorded six solo CDs, as well as three CDs with his current group, THE SECRET TRIO. Dinkjian’s collection of over 6,000 Armenian and Turkish 78rpm records is one of the largest archives of this material in the world. Ara and his father Onnik, the iconic Armenian folk and liturgical singer, are the subject of a documentary film titled Garod. The Ara Dinkjian Songbook was just published by Aras Publishing, which was founded by Hrant Dink.
Zafer Tawil is an accomplished Palestinian musician and a virtuoso on ‘oud, qanun, violin, and Arab percussion. He performs across the U.S. and in the Middle East with such musicians as Sting as well as celebrated world music artists. He was a featured composer and performer in acclaimed director Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-nominated film “Rachel Getting Married” and is composing and performing for Demme’s next film project, Zeitoun. Zafer is continuously exploring the boundaries of Arab music, and often performs collaborative concerts involving classical Indian and Persian music, as well as Jazz fusion. He has been a guest teacher at workshops on Arab music at many institutions and universities across the United States. A native of Jerusalem, he resides in New York City.
The art of playing the kanun, a trapezoidal zither used in the Middle-East, has reached new heights with the current generation. Improvements in construction and tone, increasingly accurate mandal (moveable bridge) systems, and innovative new techniques have dramatically expanded the instrument’s impact on music. No player has had as much influence on this revolution of kanun playing as Tamer Pinarbaȿi. Tamer was born in Karaman, Turkey in 1970. He began his kanun lessons at the age of 10, appeared in the film “Haci Arif Bey” at 11, performed with Necdet Yaşar at 12, and made his first of hundreds of recordings at 13, with artists such as Orhan Gencebay, İbrahim Tatlıses, and Sibel Can. He attended the Istanbul Technical University State Conservatory of Turkish Music where he developed his unique approach of playing with all ten fingers instead of the traditional method of using plectrums (mızrap) on the two pointer fingers. This technique, as well as his knowledge of both the eastern modal (makam) system and western harmony, paved the way for him becoming one of the world’s greatest kanun virtuosos. After attending ITU, he began giving solo concerts throughout Europe. In 1994, Tamer moved to America, where he has continued to develop his compositional and performance styles in many diverse musical environments, including New York Gypsy All-Stars and The Secret Trio.
Percussionist/composer/arranger/educator Shane Shanahan has combined his studies of drumming traditions from around the world with his background in jazz, rock and Western art music to create his own unique style. He is a founding member of the genre defying, Grammy-Award Winning Silkroad Ensemble, and served as Co-Artistic Director of the group for three years after Yo-Yo Ma stepped down from this role in 2017. Shane has performed and/or recorded with Bobby McFerrin, Aretha Franklin, James Taylor, Philip Glass, Alison Krauss, Deep Purple, Jordi Savall, Sonny Fortune, Chaka Khan, Bill Frisell and Glen Velez, among others. Shane’s dynamic performances have brought people to their feet in the greatest concert halls of the world, including Carnegie Hall, after which the New York Times proclaimed, “By the time he finished in a virtuosic jester’s dance, limbs flying as he whirled back and forth between doumbek, cymbals and body parts, the audience roared with delight.” Shane collaborates actively with the dance, theatre and yoga communities in the New York area and while not on tour, he teaches drumming classes in Brooklyn. He has also played in the pit orchestras of several Broadway shows including Caroline, or Change, The Color Purple, Shrek, Spider-Man, Fun Home, Tuck Everlasting, and Mean Girls.