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Celebrated Emblems

January 25 @ 3:00 pm

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 11, 2024

 

For questions, contact: 

caroline@musiciansofmaalwyck.org

(518) 512-9479

 

Experience stirring music and movement as Musicians of Ma’alwyck and the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company unite for the very first time to perform Celebrated Emblems, a captivating exploration of identity, history, and place. This distinctive program will be performed on January 24, 2025, at the Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany and January 25, 2025, at SUNY-Schenectady.

 

Celebrated Emblems features works by distinguished contemporary composers James Lee III, Missy Mazzoli, William Jay Sydeman, and George Walker, each delving into the stories and landscapes that shape America with powerful compositions.

 

Lee’s 2018 Quintet for Clarinet & String Quartet serves as the cornerstone for the rest of the program. This powerful piece reflects the complex histories and shared experiences of Black and Indigenous communities throughout America’s past. Sinopoli’s accompanying choreography, entitled “Telling,” will express the power of identity, both of culture and of place. 

 

The program will feature additional contemporary works that speak American identity. From the haunting echoes of Mazzoli’s Death Valley Junction, to the eager anticipation of Sydeman’s Journey Down the American River–an American version of Smetana’s The Moldau–to the aching beauty of Walker’s Quartet No. 1, each piece paints a vivid picture of America’s cultural and natural landscapes.

 

Six dancers from the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company will perform two original choreographies inspired by Lee and Mazzoli’s compositions, blending movement with music to illuminate these diverse American stories.

 

Join Musicians of Ma’alwyck and the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company for this marriage of music and dance and symbolism this January. Tickets $40 per person–visit musiciansofmaalwyck.org to reserve today!

 

January 24, 2025, 7:00PM | Capital Repertory Theatre | 251 N Pearl St, Albany, NY 12207

 

January 25, 2025, 3:00PM | Carl B. Taylor Auditorium, SUNY-Schenectady | 78 Washington Ave, Schenectady, NY 12305

Free preview (music only) on January 22 at SUNY-Schenectady at noon.

 

Musicians of Ma’alwyck’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by the W.G. Broughton Foundation and Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region.

 

ABOUT MUSICIANS OF MA’ALWYCK

 

Musicians of Ma’alwyck bring history to life through provocative musical performances in the Greater Capital Region and beyond. Now entering their 25th Anniversary Season, they have made a significant impact on the local arts scene through hundreds of unique classical music performances and projects.

 

Founded in 2000 by violinist and artistic director Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, Musicians of Ma’alwyck evolved from performing music that may have been heard in Albany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to an expanded repertory, including twentieth-century and contemporary works, in addition to commissioning new works from emerging composers. 

 

Based in the Capital Region but performing throughout New York State and beyond, the ensemble serves a diverse audience of music lovers, history enthusiasts, and supporters of the arts. Core musicians include Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, artistic director and violin; Norman Thibodeau, flute; Sten Isachsen, guitar; André Laurent O’Neil, cello. The group frequently collaborates with local, national, and international artists and organizations from a diversity of backgrounds and artistic styles.

 

The ensemble performs five concert programs per season in addition to specially curated events, including wine tastings and galas, at unique venues throughout the region. Performances are almost always multimedia, and each concert series includes a number of run-out shows at museums and historic venues, churches, and community and retirement centers. In addition to public performance, MofM has also explored the world of short film, and produces about one film per year. 

 

Musicians of Ma’alwyck have been in residence at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany for twenty-five years, and currently hold a residency at SUNY Schenectady. The ensemble released their first commercial CD in 2016, Music in the Schuyler Mansion, which the Times Union called “elegant and charming,” and their second in 2021, Hyde Hall & the Silver Goddess: Operatic Brilliance of Auber, Bellini, Meyerbeer, and Rossini from the Drawing Room. They have been nominated five times for a Thomas Edison Capital Region Music Award and have been featured on WMHT and WAMC radio stations and in film festivals.

 

 

 

The Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company is celebrated for the richly imagined choreography of Artistic Director Ellen Sinopoli and her dancers. As resident company of The Egg and as one of upstate NY’s premier dance companies, it has shared its creativity, collaborative projects and educational outreach for over three decades.

Tickets: musiciansofmaalwyck.org.