Alcyon Chamber Ensemble

Leslie Amper to Join Alcyon Chamber Music Institute (ACMI)

alcyonchamberensemble — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 23:34:27 +0000

Alcyon Chamber Music Institute (ACMI) announces the addition of pianist Leslie Amper to the chamber music faculty beginning in January 2012. Ms. Amper will coach four-hand piano literature and chamber music with piano and mixed-instrument combinations. She will also be available for private piano lessons. ACMI partners with Nashoba Youth Orchestra to offer opportunities for music study for all ages. For more information, please contact Alcyon Chamber Ensemble director Shannon Snapp at shannonsnapp@gmail.com.

Filed under: Announcements, In the news Tagged: ACMI, Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, Alcyon Chamber Music Institute, chamber music coaching, Leslie Amper, Nashoba Youth Orchestra

ACE’s Shannon Snapp to perform with The Boston Cecilia

alcyonchamberensemble — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 23:30:15 +0000

Alcyon Chamber Ensemble’s Artistic Director and cellist, Shannon Snapp will be performing in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion as continuo cellist. The performance by Don Teeters and The Boston Cecilia takes place Sunday, November 6 at 2pm at NEC’s Jordan Hall in Boston. This performance marks the beginning of Maestro Teeters’ 44th – and final – season with The Boston Cecilia. He will step down as Music Director after Cecilia’s concert on May 4th of next year.

Tickets: $15-62; 617.232.4540, ext.1; www.bostoncecilia.org

Filed under: chamber music concerts, classical music, Concerts / Events Tagged: Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, Shannon Snapp, The Boston Cecilia

See and Hear Alcyon on VodPod

alcyonchamberensemble — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:40:25 +0000

Clips from Alcyon’s May 2011 concerts in Winchester and Westford, MA can now be seen and heard on VodPod. Check it out! Follow us!

Special thank you to Gustavo Assis-Brasil!

Filed under: Announcements, chamber music concerts, Featured, In the news Tagged: Alcyon Chamber Ensemble video, Alcyon Chamber Music concerts, Gustavo Assis-Brasil

Alcyon Chamber Ensemble to perform in November at Acton Discovery Museum

alcyonchamberensemble — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:45:43 +0000

On November 20, 2011, members of Alcyon Chamber Ensemble will present a concert and instrument demonstration at Acton’s Discovery Museum to celebrate the new on-going exhibit “The Science of Sound”. Alcyon Chamber Ensemble musicians Shufang Du, violin and Shannon Snapp, cello, present a program for children and families designed to introduce members of the string family. Emphasizing the science of tone production and the art of performance, instruments are examined with regard to similarities and differences. The program is highly interactive and includes demonstrations and questions and answers, followed by a concert of music by Western music’s genius composer, JS Bach. Bach’s music is simple enough to be enjoyed by young children and sophisticated enough to engage accompanying siblings and adults.

This event is scheduled to start on November 20, 2011 at 3:00 pm. The Discovery Museum is conveniently located near the intersection of Routes 2 and 27. Map and directions to the Acton Discovery Museum can be found here.

Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, Inc. is a multi-faceted organization of professional musicians presenting live concerts and educational opportunities for children and adults. Alcyon Chamber Music Institute (ACMI), located at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Westford, MA offers private lessons and chamber music coaching to instrumentalists, incuding pianists. ACMI partners with the Nashoba Youth Orchestra (NYO) to offer a full range of musical training.

For more information, visit us at http://alcyonchamberensemble.wordpress.com/ and http://nashobayouthorchestra.org/

Filed under: Announcements, chamber music concerts, classical music, Concerts / Events, In the news Tagged: ACMI, Acton Family Concerts, Acton massachusetts concerts, Alcyon Chamber Ensemble Family Concerts, Alcyon children's concerts

Alcyon to perform in Family Concert at Acton Discovery Musuem

alcyonchamberensemble — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 13:01:25 +0000

The Alcyon Chamber Ensemble will perform in a Family Concert this fall at the Acton Discovery Museum. Subscribe to Alcyon’s feeds to keep posted with updates.

Filed under: Announcements, chamber music concerts, Concerts / Events, In the news Tagged: Acton massachusetts concerts, Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, Family Concerts

Alcyon Chamber Ensemble’s 5th Season Closes Strong!

alcyonchamberensemble — Fri, 27 May 2011 09:19:32 +0000

Alcyon Chamber Ensemble’s 5th Anniversary Season came to a strong close this past Sunday, May 22nd at Westford’s Parish Center for the Arts. The concert, “Music of the last Quarter Century” also marked the end of Alcyon’s first season in this historic and acoustically beautiful space. Cellist Patrick McGuire, a third year Juilliard student and Westford native shone as the ensemble’s young guest artist. The world premier of Gustavo Assis-Brasil’s “Three Octets” was both energetically and poignantly performed by the ensemble and received by the audience. The piece was commissioned for the occasion by the Michael J. Weinstein ACE Commissioning Fund.

Violinist Shu-fang Du and pianist Leslie Amper opened the program with an insightful performance of Wolfgang Rihm’s “Antlitz”. Violinist Edward Wu and cellist McGuire joined Amper for Takemitsu’s magical trio, “Between the Tides”. Mr. Assis-Brasil’s new work brought the first half to a close with the additions of violist Dimitar Petkov, bassist Luke Sutherland, clarinetist Diane Heffner and hornist Michael Weinstein. Penderecki’s dramatic “Sextett” brought the afternoon to a close.

Filed under: chamber music concerts, Concerts / Events Tagged: Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, alcyon chamber ensemble concerts, Shannon Snapp

Alcyon Announces Inaugural Composition Contest Winner

alcyonchamberensemble — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:01:23 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WINCHESTER, MA – May 20, 2011

The Alcyon Chamber Ensemble Announces Inaugural Composition Contest Winner

At its May 15th concert performance at Winchester’s Parish of the Epiphany,
the Alcyon Chamber Ensemble announced that Sid Richardson’s composition
was the winning entry for this year’s contest.

The piece by Sid Richardson is called “Après La Transfiguration de La
Nuit” and is scored for Clarinet, Horn, String Trio, and Piano. Sid
is a Belmont native and a recent graduate of Tufts University where he
studied with John McDonald. He plays the bass.

“We are very excited to perform this piece next season,” stated
Shannon Snapp, who is the Artistic Director of this performing ensemble.

Applications were received from Sweden, the United Kingdom and
the United States.

About the Contest

The goals of this exciting opportunity are three fold, namely:

* to nurture and inspire young composers;
* to encourage the composition of new chamber works; and
* to provide community access for new works of art to be heard

This competition will be open to applicants who are under 25 years of age. Each applicant may submit one composition of 5 minutes to 15 minutes in length. The composition shall consist of any combination of instruments played by the Alcyon Chamber Ensemble (violin, viola, cello, bass, clarinet, horn, piano) and be scored for between 5 to 7 instruments. (The specific scoring requirements may change from year to year, so please check back often for updates).

Application deadline is March 1st of each year. Winner to be announced in the Spring.

The winning composition will be performed and recorded by the Alcyon Chamber Ensemble during the following concert season.
For more information about the composition contest, please read here.

About Alcyon

Founded in 2006, the mission of the Alcyon Chamber Ensemble is to foster the appreciation of chamber music,
especially in young people. We are committed to bringing chamber music to public and private schools,
communities and institutions through concerts, residencies, classes, workshops, and private lessons.
Our ideal venue is intimate and interactive. Our instrumentation (string quartet, bass, clarinet, horn and piano)
gives rise to creative programming. Our goal is to engage the audience in lively music-making. All members of
the ensemble are committed teachers as well, and one of our target audiences is young children who are ready
to study an instrument.

Contact
Shannon Snapp, Artistic Director
Alcyon chamber Ensemble, Inc.

http://www.alcyonensemble.org/

shannonsnapp@gmail.com
+1 781-721-7725

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Filed under: Announcements, chamber music concerts, Contests, In the news Tagged: Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, compositiion contest

Alcyon Chamber Ensemble Presents its Final Program of 2010-11 Season

alcyonchamberensemble — Thu, 05 May 2011 17:48:01 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WINCHESTER, MA – May 5, 2011 – Alcyon Chamber Ensemble Presents its Final Program of the 2010-11 Season

Gustavo Brasil

Alcyon Chamber Ensemble presents its final program of the 2010-11 season on Sunday, May 15th at 3pm at Winchester’s Parish of the Epiphany and on May 22nd at 3pm in Westford at the Parish Center for the Arts. This brings to an end Alcyon’s Fifth Anniversary season which has been dedicated to great works of the last 25 years. The May program features a new work by Gustavo Brasil, “Three Octets” which was commissioned by the Michael J. Weinstein Commissioning Fund for this occasion. Other works on the program are “Antlitz” for violin and piano by Wolfgang Rihm, “Between Tides” for violin, cello and piano by Toru Takemitsu, and “Sextet” for Clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello and piano by Krzysztof Penderecki.

Patrick McGuire

Alcyon’s guest young artist for this concert is cellist Patrick McGuire. A Westford, MA native, Mr. McGuire graduated from Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and the New England Conservatory’s Preparatory Program. Mr. McGuire is an undergraduate student of Joel Krosnick at The Juilliard School. He has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and The Freer Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute, among others. He is co-founder of the Arusha Arts Initiative, an arts outreach program based in Arusha, Tanzania, which is organized and run by Juilliard students.

The winner of Alcyon’s first annual Composition Contest will be announced at both concerts.

A reception will follow immediately after each concert.

Admission at the door: $20 general, $15 seniors, $10 students.

About the Student Composition Contest
Aspiring composers are encouraged to submit their work to Alcyon Chamber Ensemble for review. Please visit http://alcyonchamberensemble.wordpresss.com/ for more details. Although there is an annual deadline, applications received after the deadline will be considered for the following year.

About the Alcyon Chamber Ensemble
Formed by cellist and Artistic Director Shannon Snapp in 2006, the mission of the Alcyon Chamber Ensemble is to foster the appreciation of chamber music, especially in young people. We are committed to bringing chamber music to public and private schools, communities and institutions through concerts, residencies, classes, workshops, and private lessons. Our ideal venue is intimate and interactive. Our instrumentation (string quartet, bass, clarinet, horn and piano) gives rise to creative programming. Our goal is to engage the audience in lively music-making. All members of the ensemble are committed teachers as well, and one of our target audiences is young children who are ready to study an instrument. Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, Inc. derives its name from the mythical golden bird that calms troubled waters.

Contact
Shannon Snapp, Artistic Director
Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, Inc.
16 Myrtle Street
Winchester, MA 01890
781-721-7725

http://www.alcyonensemble.org/

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Filed under: Announcements, chamber music concerts, classical music, Concerts / Events, Contests Tagged: Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, composition contest, Westford Chamber Music, westford concerts, winchester chamber music, winchester concerts, young artists

Alcyon’s Leslie Amper to perform in Westford March 20th

alcyonchamberensemble — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:03:28 +0000

Alcyon’s Leslie Amper will be performing in Westford, MA at the Parish Center for the Arts, 10 Lincoln Street in Westford, MA.

The concert is part of the Piano Heritage Series and it will start at 4pm. There is a pre-concert talk with starts at 3:15 pm. Leslie will perform works by Copland, Cowell, Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford and William Grant Still.

Sunday March 20, 2011 @ 4pm (pre-concert talk 3:15pm)
Leslie Amper
Westford PCA
10 Lincoln Street
Westford, MA 01886

Tickets can be purchased in advance with general seating.
($5 and up)

You can order your tickets online here.

Filed under: chamber music concerts, classical music, Concerts / Events Tagged: Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, Leslie Amper

Alcyon Chamber Ensemble Children’s Concert recently featured in news article

alcyonchamberensemble — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:17:18 +0000

The Alcyon Chamber Ensemble recently performed a Children’s Concert Series in Boston, Winchester, Reading and Westford Massachusetts, featuring guest artist Zhantao Lin, playing the erhu. Shufang Du (violin and piano) and Artistic Director Shannon Snapp (cello) also performed with him at these events.

Here is a recent news article which highlighted the performance in Reading Massachusetts at Creative Arts.

Filed under: In the news Tagged: Alcyon Chamber Ensemble Chinese New Year celebration, alcyon chamber ensemble concerts, Alcyon Chamber Ensemble outreach, Chinese New Year, Chinese Yoyo