Sphinx Chamber Orchestra Tour

Another great review of the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra and Harlem Quartet in The New York Times today...

Rite of Strings, for Black and Latino Youth
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER

During a concert by the Sphinx Laureates on Tuesday evening, a girl sitting in a row of children behind me at Carnegie Hall wondered aloud why performers always exit the stage between bows.

The formal traditions of classical concerts sometimes surprise newcomers. What may have surprised veterans, on the other hand, was seeing so many minority children and teenagers in the audience, and that kind of presence is something the Sphinx Organization — a nonprofit group dedicated to increasing the presence of blacks and Latinos in classical music as performers, composers and audience members — wants to encourage.

Sphinx, founded in 1996, offers an annual competition for black and Latino string players, and laureates perform in the excellent Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, now midway through its inaugural national tour. Chelsea Tipton II, resident conductor of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, led a diverse program of works for strings on Tuesday, opening with the Fugue from Villa-Lobos’s “Bachiana Brasileira” No. 9.

The violinist Elena Urioste, the 2007 winner of the Sphinx Competition senior division, offered a passionate, virtuosic rendition of the “Ballade” from Ysaÿe’s Sonata No. 3 for solo violin. She also performed the solo part in the Ponce-Heifetz “Estrellita,” played here in a languid arrangement for violin and string orchestra by Geoffrey McDonald.

The concert, presented by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, also included a lively rendition of the jazzy “Alla Burletta” from Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s “Generations” Sinfonietta and an elegant performance of George Walker’s romantic “Lyric for Strings.”

The Harlem Quartet, consisting entirely of first-place laureates of the Sphinx Competition, was joined by the guest artist Paul Katz, the former cellist of the Cleveland Quartet, for the first movement of Schubert’s String Quintet in C.

In a video presentation about the organization’s goals, Melissa White — the second violinist of the Harlem Quartet, a Sphinx laureate and a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia — discussed the isolation she felt growing up and encountering so few black and Latino classical musicians. The violinist Aaron P. Dworkin, Sphinx’s founder and president, said from the stage that as a biracial classical musician he had also experienced isolation, and that classical music would benefit from the involvement of a wider section of society.

The program also included the presentation of a new prize created in honor of the violinist Isaac Stern, which the organization hopes will be awarded annually to one particularly gifted Sphinx musician. The inaugural recipient was the violinist Clayton Penrose-Whitmore, 15, who demonstrated his skills during a buoyant performance of Vivaldi’s Concerto in B minor for Four Violins, which concluded the concert.

Get the full review here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/arts/music/23sphi.html

Hey girls and boys,

I feel very strange for doing this because I don't even do this in my own language. But I am going to give it my best. Please excuse my bad spellings sometimes. How did I get in to this? Hm, well, first I received a message on facebook from Afa urging and looking for players and I thought, wow, it's in the middle of the school year and I am going to miss classes. I thought it wasn't the best idea since this is my last year in school. I didn't think it much si I said to myself, "I am going to do it". This is a unique experience and thought it would expose me to wonderful experiences with great human beings.

I can't complain because, thanks to missing three and a half weeks of classes and lessons, for the first time ever I went to Carnegie Hall and performed with the most amazing players. As soon as I walked into Carnegie, the first thing I thought it was, "wow, we are about to perform where great musicians such as Heifetz, Oistrakh, Ricci, Anne-Sophia Muter, Leonard Bernstein and so on, performed once". I couldn't believe it. I couldn't stop thinking about it in the dress rehearsal. Anyways, Carnegie Hall was one of the most touching moments for me in the tour. And also because, despite of the unfortunate accident in Ohio, guess what, Janina was back in the second violin section ready to lead us. I thought that was the most courageus thing ever.

I have been learning so much from each one of the players for the past three weeks and have shared so many incredible experiences. We became indeed a family in the SCO tour and I feel very lucky to have been part of it. It was definitely worth it to miss all of that time of classes in school.

I wish everyone a great and succesful rest of the year. I hope to run into most of you around the globe because it is indeed a small world and you never know.

Thank you all for being super cool and talented.
Best of luck,
Sinceramente y con mucho amor,
Sandro

I feel terrible that I haven't written anything on this blog yet, especially considering how much I've been chattering about the Sphinx tour to anyone who will listen! The past few weeks have become one of the most wonderful experiences I've ever had, musically and otherwise. Every Sphinx event that I've been a part of since 2003 has been full of laughs, great hangs, and such awesome people, and this tour has been no exception. I always tell everyone (from newspaper interviewers to concert audience members to other musician friends who are curious as to what Sphinx is all about) that Sphinx is like a family. To be honest, I feel like this tour has taken that sentiment to a completely new level. True, whenever there's been a gathering of Sphinxies, whether it's been at the competition itself, at a Carnegie gala, or at a concert in another city to which members of the devoted staff have traveled to support their laureates, there's always that "family reuinion" feeling -- TONS of hugs and catching up, even if you'd only met a member of the Sphinx family once before. Obviously, living in such close proximity to the other SCO members has played a huge part in bringing us closer -- we've partied together in our PJs, explored middle America in all its red-state grandeur, braved some nauseatingly long bus rides -- and, for the most part, we've been laughing and happy the whole time (at least I have!). But it was an incident that wasn't so positive that made me realize how truly special this group of people is, and that no matter how well we all knew each other before, these will be ties that would be tough to break, post-tour...a lot like family.
Five of our members got in an awful car accident the night after our concert in Granville, Ohio. I had left my phone in my room that night while a group of us were taking advantage of Granville's GORGEOUS hotel's hot tub, but when I returned at whatever ridiculous hour we had all decided we were appropriately pruney, I had two texts from Melissa explaining the car wreck. My heart SANK...it was one of the scariest things I had ever felt; I can only imagine what the five people in the car had felt. I won't describe the accident in further detail because it still makes my stomach drop every time I think about it, but thinking about my precious little Melissa, and the other four people in that car...AAAAAAAGHHHHHHHH. Awful. When Melissa finally got back to the hotel at 6 a.m., I felt what I can only assume a parent would feel in a situation like that -- the most unbelievable relief and love. She told me all about the accident, and we were giggling about the fact that (no matter how silly) we were so unbelievably lucky to have another chance to play our national anthem together. A few days later, onstage during our concert in Detroit, I was looking around at the orchestra around me, and I couldn't believe how lucky I felt to be playing with such amazingly special, kind people, and I starting tearing up thinking about what could have potentially happened a few nights earlier. Cliche or not, things can happen in a flash (and music always has a way of giving things a heightened intimacy/sentimentality), and I am so relieved and thankful that everyone in the Sphinx family is okay and we can play two more amazing concerts together.
This has become astoundingly sappy -- I apologize! Meanwhile, I am battling bronchitis -- so convenient that it set in two days before the Carnegie concert! Oh well, I really can't complain; it's been a lovely few weeks and I will be EXTREMELY sad to see it end. Thanks for dealing with this cheesy post...but then again, this is from a girl who has started listening to Christmas carols already!
love,
Elena

Sunday's concert in Detroit, co-presented by University Musical Society (UMS) & the Detroit Symphony, was awesome! Below are a few photos taken by Ken Fischer, President of UMS, Sphinx Board member, and longtime supporter of Sphinx:

SCO on stage

Melissa White & Elena Urioste perform their rendition of the National Anthem

SCO members meet the audience

More Photos Here!

Seasoned musicians shine in group's debut

From the strikingly beautiful extemporized version of the "Star Spangled Banner" to the emphatic finale of Michael Abels' "Delights and Dances," the debut concert by the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra yesterday in Orchestra Hall was an artistic triumph and a marvel of institutional collaboration.

Under the sensitive baton of Chelsea Tipton II, the touring orchestra was nothing less than professional in its performance of works tracing the history of classical music from Baroque and Classical standards to late-breaking compositions reflecting today's society.

Keep reading: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081013/ART10/810130364