Season Finale for Saint Rose Camerata

Acclaimed Ensemble Concludes Season with Contemporary Chamber Music by Faculty Composers

ALBANY (March 30, 2016) — The Saint Rose Camerata explores contemporary chamber music in a season finale featuring works by Saint Rose faculty composers Bruce Craig Roter, Sean McClowry and Andrew McKenna Lee.

The Camerata will perform its last concert of the 2015-16 season Saturday, April 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kathleen McManus Picotte Recital Hall, Massry Center for the Arts, 1002 Madison Ave., Albany, New York.

A presentation of Premiere Performances at The College of Saint Rose, admission is free.

Program for the concert is:

• Three Short Songs (On poems by Judah al-Hariz) for tenor, flute, clarinet, viola and cello – Bruce Craig Roter, professor of music
• Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano – Bruce Craig Roter
• Parting the Waters for solo double bass – Sean McClowry, assistant professor of music industry
• “Arabescata” and “Gravity and Air” from Scordatura Suite (2002) for solo guitar – Andrew McKenna Lee, assistant professor of music industry
• the dark out of the nighttime (2005) for flute, viola, harp and guitar – Andrew McKenna Lee

Performers: Leroy Bynum, Jr., tenor; Amanda Brin, viola; Yvonne Hansbrough, flute; Sherwood Wise, oboe; Bruce Craig Roter, clarinet; Andrew McKenna Lee, guitar; Sean McClowry, double bass; Karlinda Caldicott, harp; Young Kim, piano. Guest artist: André Laurent O’Neil, violoncello.

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
Bruce Craig Roter has received numerous awards from ASCAP as well as grants from the Meet the Composer Foundation and the American Music Center. Roter has been commissioned by the NEA, the American Composers Forum, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Carson City Symphony and the Bismarck Symphony, among others. With a richly tonal palette, Roter’s music balances lyricism with passages that are more dissonant and bold. Roter’s music has been performed throughout the U.S., in Europe and the Middle East and has been televised and documented by PBS. A music educator as well as a composer, Roter is a professor of music at Saint Rose.

Sean McClowry is a composer, double bassist and music producer, active in both classical and popular music idioms. His compositions often explore historical and spiritual concepts, sometimes attempting to draw abstract meaning from moments in history, and other times exploring the sound and intensity of contemplative prayer. In 2012, McClowry performed his Concerto for Double Bass with the American Modern Ensemble, which The New York Times called “tastefully flamboyant.” As a music producer, he is working on an album for Steph Shaw, a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter. McClowry is an assistant professor of music industry at Saint Rose.

Composer and guitarist Andrew McKenna Lee has been commissioned by some of the world’s leading ensembles and organizations, including the Brentano Quartet, eighth blackbird, the American Composers Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has given solo concerts featuring his original compositions for guitar in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. His debut CD release, Gravity and Air, was named one of 2009’s “Top Ten Best Classical Albums” in Time Out Chicago. His EP Solar/Electric, released the same year, also met with critical praise. His most recent project is The Knells, a “post-progressive, neo-psychedelic art rock ensemble” that combines Renaissance-inspired vocal polyphony with influences from psychedelic, classic and progressive rock. Lee is an assistant professor of music industry at Saint Rose.

Directed by Yvonne Chavez Hansbrough, the Saint Rose Camerata is the College’s resident faculty ensemble. Each year since its founding in 2003, the Camerata has brought chamber music to life in the Capital Region by presenting a series of concerts with diverse programming. Members of the ensemble perform recognized masterpieces, unfamiliar works and new compositions. The varied programs, often based on creative themes, are presented in mixed ensembles of strings, winds, voice and keyboard.

Opened in 2008, the critically acclaimed Massry Center for the Arts features the 400-seat Kathleen McManus Picotte Recital Hall, Esther Massry Gallery, choral and instrument rehearsal rooms, teaching studios, piano labs and classrooms. Past performing artists have included B.B. King, Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Doc Severinsen, Ramsey Lewis, Maceo Parker, Mary Lambert, Tim Reynolds, Stefon Harris, John Pizzarelli, the Boston Symphony Orchestra Strings, Yuja Wang, Paula Cole and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The 46,000 square-foot gem is certified LEED Gold, ranking it among the Capital Region’s most energy-efficient and Earth-friendly buildings.

For more information about the Saint Rose Camerata, contact Yvonne Chavez Hansbrough at 518-454-5193 or hansbroy@strose.edu.

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