• Life Force: Music of Joel Harrison for Cello and Violin featuring Wendy Sutter and Tim Fain
• 7:00pm

Orange Mountain Records CD release show

Continuing their highly acclaimed and successful partnership, cellist Wendy Sutter and violinist Tim Fain present “Life Force: The Music of Joel Harrison for Cello and Violin”. This highly anticipated release from the composer/guitarist/singer Joel Harrison is a follow up to his most recent release “Urban Myths” and pairs the duo for a highly charged exploration of Harrison's singular vision.

ABOUT WENDY SUTTER

Acclaimed by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many other publications, Wendy Sutter is one of the leading cellists of her generation. Holding an unrivaled mastery of the classical repertoire, Sutter's stunning performances provide a heartfelt intensity, garnering overwhelming praise from critics, and adoration from audiences around the world.

After studying at the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, Sutter made her professional solo debut at Avery Fisher Hall in 1990 with the New York premiere of “Kaddish” for cello and orchestra by the late David Diamond, and under the direction of Gerard Schwartz. Incredible debut performances soon followed at New York's Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and demand for her playing quickly rose.

In 1994 she accepted an invitation from Mikhail Baryshnikov to premiere “A Suite of Dances,” a pas de deux for instrumentalist and dancer centered on Bach’s compositions for solo cello, choreographed by the legendary Jerome Robbins. Sutter and Baryshnikov presented the work throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia on tour with the White Oak Dance Project. Sutter balanced her solo work by continuing to perform in top ensembles, with crowning performances at Marlboro Music, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Spoleto, and many other festivals and concert halls.

In 2000, Sutter took a leave of absence from the classical repertoire to join the avant-garde ensemble, Bang on a Can. As a member of the ensemble’s All-Stars, she premiered works by many top modern composers including Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Ornette Coleman and Meredith Monk.

Sutter’s most recent project, “Songs and Poems for Solo Cello,” written for her by Philip Glass, is a work that draws deeply from the wellsprings of musical tradition. The piece has collected impressive CD and download sales, and as Greg Sandow put it in the Wall Street Journal, “Sutter throws herself into the music with something like ferocity, playing each repetition as an intensification of the one before. Or maybe she's just so intense that everything feels new. And so the music never stands still..."

Sutter plays on “the Ex Vatican Strad,” a viola da gamba built in Cremona in 1620 by the great luthier Nicolò Amati and adapted to a cello by the master and his most famous student, Antonio Stradivari. The instrument is gifted with an extraordinary presence.

ABOUT TIM FAIN

With his adventuresome spirit and vast musical gifts, violinist Tim Fain has emerged as a mesmerizing new presence on the music scene. The “charismatic young violinist with a matinee idol profile, strong musical instincts, and first rate chops” - (Boston Globe) was featured as the sound of Richard Gere’s violin in Bee Season. Selected as one of Symphony magazine’s “Up-and-Coming Young Musicians of 2006,” and a StradMagazine 2007 “Pick of Up and Coming Musicians,” Fain has recently captured the Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Young Concert Artists International Award. As The Washington Post recently raved, “Fain has everything he needs for a first-rate career.”

He electrified audiences at his New York concerto debut at Alice Tully Hall with Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Symphony, and at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Performing works from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to Richard Danielpour and Philip Glass, he has been soloist with the Mexico City and Oxford (UK) Symphonies, recently made his debut with the Baltimore Symphony with conductor Marin Alsop and with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, appeared as soloist with the Philip Glass Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in a concert version of Einstein on the Beach, made his Ravinia recital debut, and gave a special performance of the Beethoven Concerto at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Other recent and upcoming performances include appearances with the Champaign-Urbana, Wheeling, Illinois and Maryland Symphonies, as well as recitals for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Maverick Concerts, Howland Chamber Circle, and Carmel Music Society and in Utah, Maryland, Syracuse and elsewhere throughout the United States.

A dynamic and compelling performer in traditional works, he is also a fervent champion of 20th and 21st century composers. His provocative debut CD on Image Recordings of music for solo violin reflects Fain’s inquisitive passion and intellect by combining old and new in solo works by J.S. Bach, Fritz Kreisler, Kevin Puts, Mark O’Connor, Daniel Ott, and Randy Woolf. He was hailed for his appearance onstage with the New York City Ballet, where he performed alongside the dancers in the company’s acclaimed premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s “Double Aria,” and he has also appeared with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Seán Curran Company, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in the U.S. and abroad. He also continues to pursue his passion for jazz and has worked with jazz pianist Ethan Iverson, and recently appeared at the Jazz Standard with composer and saxophonist Patrick Zimmerli and The Cutting Room with composer Daniel Bernard Roumain.

A native of Santa Monica, California, Tim Fain is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Victor Danchenko, and The Juilliard School, where he worked with Robert Mann. He currently lives in New York City.