American Premiere A Success!

On Sunday, October 21, 2013, Omaha Symphonic Winds and violist Brett Deubner gave the American Premiere of Houston Dunleavy’s concerto for viola and wind ensemble “A Kiss Before the World’s End.” The concert was performed at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church in Omaha, Nebraska to an appreciative audience that included collegiate viola students and their instructors as well as the general public.

Brett Deubner’s solo performance was masterful in portraying the “angst and tension” as described by one audience member. Dunleavy’s concerto is dedicated to his former music student, Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reported who was captured and killed in Pakistan in 2002. Pearl’s birthday was in the month of October, and his family created the Daniel Pearl World Music Days that encourages concerts dedicated to promoting diversity and understanding throughout the world.

The American Premiere was a registered event of 

the 11^th annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days.

Other works on the program were well received by the audience including Percy Grainger’s Children’s March, Keith Michael Davis’ A Western Plains Overture, Eric Richards’ Of Mythic Battles: Past and Future, and Howard Hanson’s Laude” Chorale, Variations, and Metamorphoses. Encores for the performance were given by Brett Deubner (Spectre) and OSW (Hands Across the Sea-Sousa).

The Premiere venue (St. Andrew’s) was a wonderful location. The sanctuary is very aesthetic visually while acoustically enhancing the music. Both the OSW musicians and the audience members expressed the desire for the ensemble to return to St. Andrew’s for future performances.

Omaha Symphonic Winds next concert is Sunday, March 11, 2013, at 3:00 in the Elkhorn High School auditorium (1400 Veterans Drive, Elkhorn, NE). The program features works by Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein.

American Premiere Composer

HOUSTON DUNLEAVY, COMPOSER

www.houstondunleavy.com

Houston Dunleavy was born in Ulster in 1962, and first immigrated to Australia in 1973.

Since 1985, Dunleavy has pursued a national and international career as a composer and conductor. His composition teachers include Peter Tahourdin, Barry Conyngham, Donald Erb, David Felder and Charles Wuorinen, and his conducting teachers are Roland Yeung and Gilbert Brooks.

He served as Visiting Composer at James Madison University, The Cleveland Institute of Music, Ball State University, the University of Florida, Georgia State University, The University of Southern Florida, The University of Melbourne and the University of Tasmania.

Dunleavy is also a former Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra, Senior Lecturer in Composition and Honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Wollongong, and currently serves as an academic staff member at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney and Musical Director of the Sydney Male Choir.

Recent performances of his music include the 2007 Florida Electro-acoustic Music Festival, the 2008 Aurora Festival, the 2008 Albert Roussel Festival, and The Delaware New Music Festival. In 2010, Dunleavy’s music had performances at the "Organs of the Goldfields" Festival in Ballarat, Vic., Adelaide, Wollongong, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, as well as Taipei, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, (Oregon) in the USA, and Manchester, England.

In 2011, "Flying in Paradise" was premiered at the Tubamania Festival in Bangkok (the Australian premiere was given at the 2011 Melbourne International Festival of Brass). There were further performances at the 2011 Australian National Flute Festival and in the Opera Prometheus "Sydney in Love" Festival.

2011was capped off in grand style by the world premiere (December 3, Melbourne), of Dunleavy’s concerto for viola and symphonic winds "A Kiss Before The World's End" given by Brett Deubner, viola and the Grainger Wind Symphony, conducted by Roland Yeung.

American Premiere Soloist, Brett Deubner

BRETT DEUBNER, VIOLIST

http://www.brettdeubner.com

Brett Deubner, one of this generation’s most accomplished violists, has inspired worldwide critical acclaim for his powerful intensity and sumptuous tone. He has performed across the United States, in nine countries on four continents. As an experienced soloist, chamber music collaborator and educator, Brett Deubner has made a lasting impression on musical life the world over.

Recent performances include the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Knoxville Symphony, the Filharmonic del Quito, the New Symphony of Sofia and the Kiev Camerata in Ukraine. He has collaborated with some of today’s leading conductors such as Ann Manson, Lucas Richman, Patricio Aizaga and Rossen Milanov. Equally at home with Baroque, Renaissance and Classical styles, Mr. Deubner performs the music of Bach, Telemann, Purcell, Dowland as well as concerti of Stamitz, Zelter, Hoffmeister, Vivaldi, Rolla, and Bach.

Brett Deubner’s commitment to extending the repertoire for the viola is made evident by collaborations some of today’s greatest composers such as Samuel Adler, Lalo Schifrin, Andrew Rudin, David Del Tredici and several of this generation’s leading young composers. To date, over 25 viola concerti and numerous solo and chamber works for viola have been written for Brett Deubner.

As a recitalist and active chamber musician collaborator, Brett Deubner has appeared at the festivals of Caramoor, Heidelberg, Norfolk, Kent-Blossom, Sitka, Juneau Jazz and Classics, CapeMay, East Coast Carolina, Bravo in Vail, and the Windham Festival. He has collaborated with pianist Joseph Kalichstein, Anton Nell, Marcantonio Barone, violinists Timothy Fain, Paul Rosenthal, Zvi Zeitlin, Nina Beilina, as well as the Colorado, Tokyo, Vermeer quartets and Claremont Trio.

His many recordings include concerti as well as recordings with piano, trio and quartet. Brett Deubner’s debut Cd entitled English Viola Romance (Eroica Classics 2005) garnered instant praise: "This CD is a must for any fan of the viola and English music!" Minneapolis Post, Viola Dreams (Eroica Classic 2006) Brett received rave reviews for his recording of the 2 Viola Concertos of Frank Lewin with the New Symphony of Sofia, Bulgaria under the baton of Phildelphia Orchestra resident conductor Rossen Milanov (Albany 2007), and this past season, Brett’s newest CD recording festuring Andrew Rudin’s Viola Concerto for Centaur (2010) brought great reviews and acclaim.

Brett Deubner serves on the faculty of Temple University's Boyer School of Music and Dance in Philadelphia and during the summer is on the faculty at the Luzerne Music Center in Upstate New York and the Round Top Festival Institute in Texas. Brett is the Artistic Director of the concert series, “Music and More” in New Jersey where he makes his home.