Maksim Velichkin

Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Suzanne Mueler & Pamela Sklar

A published composer of chamber music, Pamela Sklar plays many styles of music and enjoys collaborating as a flutist and composer. Her duo for violin/bongos and cello was co-featured at Composers Concordance's Festival II, and her Spell 166 for five flutes & organ is included in Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts's special collection. Her performance credits include numerous tours as soloist with Claude Bolling, concerts with Dave Brubeck, TV performances with tenor Andrea Bocelli, orchestras for the GRAMMY Awards, recordings for jingles, major films and many artists including Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Paul Simon, and Aretha Franklin. Her 2nd original cd Silver Pharaoh will be released by MSR Music in November. "The listener is transported to another time and place...hauntingly beautiful...full of colors...excellent...mastery." The National Flute Association; THE FLUTIST QUARTERLY (review of Pam's debut cd A Native American-Jazz Tribute cd). www.pamelasklar.com

Cellist Suzanne Mueller has been Summer Concert Artist-in-Residence at Old Westbury Gardens in New York since 2003, presenting an eclectic series of concerts with various partners. She is a graduate of both the Pre-College and College of The Juilliard School. Her teachers have included Marion Feldman, Alexander Kouguell, Lorne Munroe, Leslie Parnas, Channing Robbins, and Harvey Shapiro, and she has coached with artists including Joseph Fuchs, Margot Garrett, William Lincer, and, for non-classical cello and perspective, Eugene Friesen. She made her New York recital debut under the auspices of Artists International, as a member of the piano/cello Elysian Duo, and went on to perform as half of its successor, Elysian II, for ten years, before forming CROSS ISLAND with pianist Elinor Abrams Zayas. She also performs with clarinetist Thomas Piercy as CROSS ISLAND~Cello & Reed and with flutist Pamela Sklar as Cambiata Flute & Cello Duo. Another combination she enjoys is guitar and cello, and she was half of the guitar/cello duo, McCarron and Mueller, with Mark McCarron, for a decade. She enjoys collaboration with composers, which has led to her being a frequent performer on the Composer’s Voice concert series, presenting new music by living composers. Suzanne is a member of the New Directions Cello Association, the International Alliance for Women in Music and Mu Phi Epsilon music fraternity. She performs and records with the folk duo Hungrytown, and has also appeared and recorded with singer/songwriter Terry Winchell, and in the jazz-inflected pop ensemble of Dave Rave & Mark McCarron. She can be heard on CDs by CROSS ISLAND, HUNGRYTOWN, Robin Eve Terry Winchell, Dave Rave and Mark McCarron, Alli Collis, Lauren Agnelli, and the Cave Dogs. For more information about Suzanne, please see her website, http://suzannemuellercellist.com.

Concert Dates

  • November 9, 2014 - Composer's Voice at Jan Hus Church, New York City

15 one-minute selections for Suzanne Mueler & Pamela Sklar

Concert program

  • Shoodii's Dare

    Guilherme Afonso

    Guilherme Afonso is a composer from Brazil. He studies composition at Unesp (State University of São Paulo), and has composed music for his fellow students and performers. His compositions tend towards a contemporary approach of finding specific timbre combinations and trying to bring to front a very particular aspect of sound: it's color.

    “Shoodii's Dare” is based around the figure of Shoodii, an entity of great wit and wisdom personified by the coyote in Apache culture. Basically, there's a challenge for the performers which is playing the piece as a single and unending phrase, given the continuity found in music from Native Americans.

  • Dante's View

    Rodrigo Baggio

    Rodrigo Baggio has been performed in many cities around the world such as São Paulo (Brazil), Paris (France), Quebec (Canada), Bremen (Germany), London (England), Bucharest (Romania), Vermont, New York and Washington DC (USA). As a performer, he has played concerts in different countries of the globe.

    The open sky
    The natural landscape
    The view from the top
    That unique moment to contemplating the native territory.

  • Full Coyote Moon

    Agnieszka Bialek

    Agnieszka Bialek (born 1990 in Poland) composes, improvises, plays the flute and the piano, sings in choirs, teaches the flute and German... She has studied Composition and Music Theory in Cracow and Vienna, currently she studies Instrumental Pedagogy (Flute). As a composer she focuses on chamber and choral music.

    One of Native American legends, which inspired me to compose this piece, says that people used to come back to life after they had died and been gone for a little while. Then Coyote made death eternal. Ever since then he has been running away and starving, for no one will give him anything to eat. His howling fills moonlit nights on the prairies.

  • Healing Song’

    Jean de Lière

    Jean de Lière (1955) was born in Zeeland, in the south of The Netherlands and received his first lessons in 'soundpainting' with the Italian composer/double bassplayer Fernando Grillo. In the summer of 1979 he attended composition lessons with the Argentina composer Norberto Chavarri. A few years later followed by lessons with Tristan Keuris (Netherlands).

    This healing song will cure your curiosity...

  • Shaman

    Barry Hartglass

    For over 20 years, Barry has worked as a producer, engineer, composer, arranger, and musician. He received a BM in Music Engineering from University of Miami, studied composition at Juilliard, and is currently pursuing graduate studies in composition at Hunter College. Barry currently teaches audio production at Hostos Community College.

    Shaman (for bass flute and cello) was composed exclusively with pitches from the E dorian #4 mode (E–F#–G–A#–B–C#–D) although a G does not appear until the beginning of the contrasting section in measure 9. The main melodic theme was inspired by a wolf howl.

  • Stars and Silence

    Andrew Herring

    Andrew Herring, 18, has recently achieved compositional honors from DownBeat Magazine, MATA JR., and state and national music education associations. He is a recent alumnus of Central Dauphin High School in Harrisburg, PA, and currently studies composition at Shenandoah Conservatory with David T. Little.

    Stars and Silence is composed in reflection of a breathtaking experience from a camping trip with my best friend. While driving through the thick woods, we decided to pull over to appreciate nature’s beauty. The beautifully chilly January air hit our lungs as we noticed the peaceful silence. When we lifted our heads, we found stars, brighter and more numerous than we had ever seen.

  • Dream Catcher

    Laszlo Kékszakállú

    Transylvanian born Laszlo Kékszakállú studied clarinet at Universitatea Naţională de Muzică din Bucureşti, Romania. He was a founding member of the psychedelic-post-modern-experimental-chamber-rock ensemble éhes Magyar. His music has been performed by various individuals and groups in Europe.

    The dream catcher, hung over the bed, protects the sleeper, filters out the nightmares and only lets the “good” dreams through. This piece is about that filtering process.

  • upon first gleaning the warrent of dawn

    Hinse Mutter

    Hinse studied classical double bass at the Rotterdam University of the Arts, and is active as a double bass player in many dutch orchestras. He has written songs, chamber music and orchestral pieces, and his arrangements of Mahler and Bach have been broadcasted on national dutch radio.

    upon first gleaning the warrent of dawn tries to capture the feeling one has, awakening in nature and looking out onto the magnificence of a great canyon, filled with the sounds of life and the first soft rays of the sun, tasting the bittersweet beauty of the circle of life.

  • Across Water

    Peter Nickol

    Peter Nickol was born in 1946. He studied originally at York University, later at Exeter and Manchester, with a PhD in Composition awarded in 2008. He is based in Exeter, Devon (UK). His second orchestral piece, ‘Commuter’, recently won the composers’ competition for the Big Bend Community Orchestra, Tallahassee, FL.

    ‘Across Water’ recalls a dawn scene in Canada, a view across a lake, mist-shrouded, near-silent.

  • Trail of Tears

    Eurydice V. Osterman

    Eurydice V. Osterman is a composer, author, organist, lecturer, and Fulbright Scholar. She earned the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She is currently professor of music at Oakwood University, Huntsville, Alabama.

    Trail of Tears was written to commemorate plight of Native Americans as they traversed from the southern parts of the United States to their new location in Oklahoma. The ostinato in the cello represents both the footsteps and the drip of the tears. The haunting sound of the bass flute lends itself to the many emotions that were inevitably experienced.

  • Popé Spirit

    Peter Reilich

    Peter Reilich studied piano, percussion and composition privately in Los Angeles, was Principal Timpanist in Mehli Mehta's American Youth Symphony (UCLA) and attended Interlochen Arts Academy, Michigan on full scholarship. Recent completed works include a children's ballet, concert overture for orchestra, several chamber and solo pieces.

    "Popé (1630–1688) was a Tewa religious leader from Ohkay Owingeh (known since the colonial period as San Juan Pueblo) who led the Pueblo Revolt in 1680 against Spanish colonial rule." The spirit of independence against tyranny is the "spirit" in the title.

  • Meditation for Bass Flute and Cello

    Scott Anthony Shell

    Scott Anthony Shell is originally from Chicago where he earned a BM in composition at DePaul University. He currently lives in Sedona AZ and composes instrumental and vocal music in the contemporary classical tradition. More info at www.scottanthonyshell.com

    This meditation is a canon in 7/4 using a melody which emphasizes the major 2nd interval. I find this interval to induce a sense of peace and stillness. The resulting counterpoint in the odd meter evokes a subtle unsettling feeling that flirts with temporary resolution until reaching the cadence.

  • Tears for the Land

    Samuel Stokes

    Dr. Samuel Stokes teaches in the talent music program for the Natchitoches Parish Schools in Louisiana, and is the music composition instructor at Northwestern State University. He has recently had compositions premiered by the LSU Symphony, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Shannon Roberts, Yumi Suehiro, Thomas Piercy, Vilian Ivantchev, and Maksim Velichkin.

    "Tears for the Land" is a reflection on the sadness brought upon all living things when modern life causes harm to the natural beauty and resources of the earth.

  • Pomola: Guardian of Mt. Katahdin

    Michael Tsiames

    My name is Michael Tsiames, I am a composer from the small town of New Fairfield, CT. I am about to graduate from my high school and depart to Western Connecticut University, as a starting place to obtain my degree in Theory and Composition. I have been composing for about 3 years now, and desire to eventually write orchestral scores, and to score to film.

    "Pomola: Guardian of Mt. Katahdin" depicts the Native American myth of Pomola, a giant bird-like creature with the power over the cold and ice. The tribes who created the myth, the Penobscots and the Abenakis, often avoided to climb the mountain in fear of disturbing the creature. The piece gives the listener a feeling of uneasiness, a sense of a foreboding power that guards the mountain.

  • A Vindication of the Sin of Wrath

    Luca Vanneschi

    Luca Vanneschi’s music was awarded prizes in more than twenty International competitions and it has been performed by some of the more qualified musicians all over the world. Hans Werner Henze said about his music: “… it is an intelligent, non conformist, elegant and full of grace music.”

    The native Aleutini used to call the today’s Alaska Alaxsxaq. My composition for bass flute and cello draws inspiration from this land, from its solemn and majestic landscapes. The sounds are low and wide, deep and chilly.The piece touches on allusions to a moonscape atmosphere, to evoke memories, flashes, feelings.