FREE MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT

Submitted by ub on

SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2011 • 2 pm • Van Cortlandt Park (Broadway at 246 Street)
David Gilbert-Papo Vazquez-Halley Gilbert

BRONX ARTS ENSEMBLE ORCHESTRA
David Gilbert, Conductor
Halley Gilbert, Soprano
Papo Vazquez, Trombone
Theresa Norris, Flute

MUSIC
Oliver Caplan: Journey to the West*
Gian Carlo Menotti: Monica's Waltz, from The Medium
Rodgers & Hammerstein: Selections from The Sound of Music
Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil: Selections from Les Misérables
Raymond Torres-Santos: Recordar es vivir
Aaron Copland: Suite of Old American Songs
Morton Gould: American Salute
Papo Vázquez: Oasis and Primavera
John Philip Sousa: Stars and Stripes Forever

The free BAE Memorial Day outdoor tent concert is scheduled RAIN OR SHINE. Seating will be provided. Pedestrians can enter the park at Broadway and 246th Street. Limited free parking is also available at the Van Cortlandt Golf House. DIRECTIONS
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Conductor DAVID GILBERT is acclaimed for his dynamic performances with orchestras throughout the United States, the Far East and Europe. He was the first American to serve as principal guest conductor of the Beijing Central Philharmonic. Mr. Gilbert is a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music where he has conducted both symphony and opera. His compositions for chamber ensemble, orchestra, and opera include his ''Concerto for Trombone, Brass and Orchestra,'' ''Ballade Concertante for Tuba and Orchestra,'' and ''Phoenix Madrigal'' for flute and strings. Mr. Gilbert is Music Director and Conductor of the Greenwich Symphony and music director of the Bergen (NJ) Philharmonic and the Senior Concert Orchestra of New York.

Soprano HALLEY GILBERT graduated from Eastman School of Music last year and has already distinguished herself in many operatic roles with Opera for Humanity, Harrisburg Opera, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Greenwich CT Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, and the Genessee Chamber Orchestra. She has performed as featured soloist with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, Bronx Arts Ensemble, North Jersey Philharmonic, Oswego Opera Theatre's recital series, and Gateway Classical Music Society. She is the winner of many awards including Syracuse Opera Club, and first prize in the Steinway Hall Vocal Competition.

Trombonist, composer and arranger PAPO VÁZQUEZ is more than thirty-five years into a career spanning the jazz, Latin, Afro-Caribbean and classical music and recording worlds. Recent honors include a commission from Wynton Marsalis for a new work inspired by Cuban painter Wilfredo Lam, which was performed as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz and Art concert this past February, and a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album for Papo Vázquez’ Mighty Pirates 2008 recording Marooned/Aíslado, on his own independent label, Picaro Records. He will be presented with a Latino Masters Award by the Pregones Theater in 2011 under the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Presenting program. He has been commissioned to compose for the 19-piece Afro-Puerto Rican Jazz Orchestra, and was the first artist to receive a commission to compose for the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, resident band of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Papo's first classical composition premiered with the Bronx Arts Ensemble at Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture in 2004. A native of Philadelphia, Papo began performing at 15 with such bands as those of Willie Colon and Eddie Palmieri. In New York he began recording and performing with top names in salsa - The Fania All-Stars, Ray Barretto and Chico O'Farrill. He has toured with the Ray Charles Orchestra and performed also with Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Lewis, Hilton Ruiz and Milton Cardona, touring as a member of Tito Puente's Latin Jazz Ensemble and Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra. He has performed on film soundtracks for "Mo' Better Blues" and "The Mambo Kings".