Marilyn Bliss - world premiere of "It was the wind" for alto flute and Native American flute, March 10

 

is Laura Falzon and Pamela Sklar, two flutists who between them have performed a wide spectrum of works ranging from Classical, contemporary, intercultural, rock, pop, folk and jazz and performed in concerts throughout the USA, Canada, France, Italy, England, Scotland, Malta, Finland, Greece, Mexico, Morocco, India and Japan. Steeped in distinctly varied musical backgrounds, they have come together to introduce, present and perform a variety of music, akin to a musical hybrid, which features original compositions by composers from across the globe, and offers over six octaves of silver and wood flute sounds. 2Flutes’ culturally varied influences and their cumulative flutes’ wide ranges, textures and color contribute to innovative performances which engage and stimulate audiences from all walks of life. For more info visit http://www.2flutes.net
 
 
Flutist Laura Falzon has established a career as a soloist, chamber musician and educator and has performed throughout the US, Europe and Asia. In New York, Falzon has performed in venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Le Poisson Rouge, The Tank and Tenri. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras and ensembles such as London’s Spectrum ensemble, St. Martin in the Fields Sinfonia, Rasumovsky Quartet, Lunatics at Large, Mimesis ensemble, the National Orchestra of Malta, and Elekoto ensemble. Praised by the Musical Times for her "versatile technique", by the British Flute Society's PAN Magazine for her passionate interest in contemporary music describing her as “fearless in tackling and promoting it", and hailed by the Music & Musicians journal as “an excellent instrumentalist", Dr. Falzon has worked with many composers and premiered numerous works written for her. These include works by composers Charles Camilleri, Halim El-Dabh, Theodore Wiprud, Mohammed Fairouz, Dai Fujikura, Alice Shields, Carlos Jose Castro and Bushra El-Turk. The recipient of numerous awards, she has received grants from, amongst others, The British Arts Council, New York Women Composers, Rotary Foundation and Sparkplug Foundation. Her teachers have included Julius Baker, Sebastian Bell, Susan Milan and Kim McCormick. A founding member and artistic director of Id-Dinja and ISSA Sonus ensemble, she teaches at CUNY and Columbia University’s Teachers College.
 
A published composer of chamber music, Pamela Sklar performs and collaborates as a flutist and composer, improvising & playing many styles of music. Described as “engaging… piquant…stimulating…delightful” by the NY Times, her performances or collaborations as soloist/guest artist/ principal player include appearances with Dave Brubeck, Gil Shaham, and Alan Hovhaness. As co-founder and director of L’Arema Ensemble, she worked closely with Pulitzer Prize winner Karel Husa; with Claude Bolling she appeared throughout the USA, Canada, France, Mexico and Morocco. As member/soloist of the NY Ragtime Orchestra, she toured Japan five times.  Praised by the National Flute Association’s Flutist Quarterly for her debut cd A Native American-Jazz Tribute “the listener is transformed into another time and place…hauntingly beautiful…full of colors…mastery”, Ms. Sklar can be heard on recordings for many other artists including Tony Bennett, Paul Simon and Natalie Cole. She received her Bachelor of Music degree with Honors from the Mannes College of Music and studied with John Wummer, Karl Kraber, Samuel Baron and Marcel Moyse.  

Pianist Daniel  Beliavsky (piano)  has performed in Europe and throughout the United States with both orchestra and in recital, and produces music documentaries through his production company, Opus1films (opus1films.com).  In 2011, Daniel produced a film documentary about the distinguished American composer Donald Harris’s opus one, the Sonata (1957) for piano, and about Harris’s early career in Paris.  In 2011, Daniel recorded David Del Tredici’s Fantasy Pieces (1960) for a film he just produced about composer Del Tredici and his music.  Daniel’s commercial audio releases include The Complete Works for Solo Piano of Lukas Foss (Sonatabop.com label), a world-premiere recording completed in honor of composer Lukas Foss’s 80^th birthday in 2002.  In 2004, Daniel released two additional recordings on that same label:  From Italy to Russia, which includes works by Domenico Scarlatti, J.S. Bach, and Modest Mussorgsky, and Ecstasy and Poetry, which features multiple pieces by Franz Schubert and Frédéric Chopin.  Daniel has appeared on radio, film, and television, and has been reviewed by the American Record Guide, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Topeka Capital-Journal, Musicweb-International, Musical Pointers, Sequenza21.com, the New Yorker Magazine, and the New York Times.   A graduate of Columbia and New York University, Daniel resides in New York City, where he is a visiting professor of music theory, aesthetics, and history at several universities.