For Immediate Release: 10/15/04
Contact: Joan Ryan (256) 543-4187
joanryanmusic@prodigy.net
New York Scandia Symphony
Opens Its 2004-2005 Season
Thursday, November 18 at 1 PM
Trinity Church, Broadway & Wall Street, NYC
Music Director Dorrit Matson Leads
U.S. Premieres of Poul Schierbeck’s "Schnedler – Epilogue"
Jón Leifs’s "Geysir" and "Icelandic Folk Dances"
And Christian Sinding’s "Suite in Old Style"

On Thursday, November 18 at 1:00 PM, Music Director Dorrit Matson opens the New York Scandia Symphony’s 14th season, on the "Concerts at One" series at Trinity Church, Broadway & Wall Street in New York City. The program includes the U.S. premieres of Poul Schierbeck’s Schnedler – Epilogue, Jón Leifs’s Geysir and Icelandic Folk Dances, and Christian Sinding’s Suite in Old Style featuring violinist Evalon Ingolf as soloist. A donation of $2 is suggested. For information, call (212) 602-0747.

An exceptional orchestra in residence at historic Trinity Church, the 46-member New York SCANDIA SYMPHONY has delighted New York audiences with its warm and vibrant tone, a lovely clarity of expressive detail, and imaginative programming. It has a valuable mission: a commitment to presenting music by Classical, Romantic and Contemporary Scandinavian composers. This year, several themes of Scandinavian culture will be explored, and Scandinavian literature will be presented along with the concert events. The performance of Danish composer Poul Schierbeck’s "the Tinderbox" with text by Hans Christian Andersen at Scandia’s May 12 concert is one of the official American activities during the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 bicentenary. Renowned actor Michael York will narrate the fairy tale as soloist with the orchestra. Scandia’s February concert is dedicated to Carl Nielsen programmatic works. Finland’s national epic, Kalevala, will be honored in a May performance of works by Sibelius.

Music Director and conductor DORRIT MATSON is a native of Copenhagen, Denmark. Acclaimed for her performances of Scandinavian music, Ms. Matson has a vast repertoire of European and American masterpieces and an expanding list of performances in concert and theater. She holds degrees in conducting and musicology from the University of Miami, the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and the University of Copenhagen. Her numerous awards include a Fulbright Fellowship, the American Scandinavian Society of New York Award, the Italian State Scholarship, the Denmark-American Fund Prize, and the American Women’s Club Award.

Violinist EVALON INGOLF comes from a well-known musical family in Iceland, and began violin studies at a very early age. After attending the conservatory of Reykjavik for 6 years, she left Iceland to study with some of Europe’s leading pedagogues at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, the Conservatory of Geneva and the Sweelink Conservatory in Amsterdam. She has given numerous solo recitals in Iceland, Japan, the U.S. and Europe, including Weill Recital Hall in New York City and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Ms. Ingolf has released two CDs, and also recorded for the Icelandic State Radio.

Composer POUL SCHIERBECK (1888-1949) was born in Copenhagen. He studied composition with Carl Nielsen and Thomas Laub and made his debut as a composer in 1915; the following year he was appointed organist at the Skovshoved church, a position he retained until his death. He went to Italy for further studies, also traveling to London and Paris, Germany and Switzerland. Schierbeck’s Schnedler – in Memoriam has never been published. It was apparently written in memory of the conductor Frederik Schnedler-Petersen in 1938 (the year Schnedler died), probably for a memorial concert in Tivoli Gardens Concert Hall. The score was damaged during a fire in Tivoli, and the parts were lost. A new score and the orchestral parts are being produced in Denmark for Scandia, financed by the Sylvia and Poul Schierbeck’s Legat.

JÓN LEIFS (1899-1968) has become recognized as the most important and original composer of Icelandic music in the 20th century. His major contribution to Icelandic music was his attempt to integrate elements of native folk music into the Western art music tradition. Leifs began musical studies at Reykjavik before moving to Leipzig in 1916, where he was a student until 1922. Throughout the 1920’s he studied, collected and recorded Icelandic folk melodies. During this time he had great success both as a composer and conductor in Germany (he took the Hamburg Philharmonic on a tour of Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands). His success in Germany came to an end when the Nazis seized power in 1933; four years later his works were banned there, in part because his wife was of Jewish descent. In 1944 the couple succeeded in fleeing to Sweden. Among his many achievements, Leifs was the Music Director for the Icelandic State Broadcasting Service. in 1954 he founded the International Council of Composers at Thingvellir, Iceland. Geysir is a stupendous tonal picture, imbued with the power of nature unleashed. The orchestra follows the great geyser as it spews boiling water high into the sky. Though written in 1961, the work was not premiered until 1984.

CHRISTIAN SINDING (1856-1941) was born into an artistically gifted family in Kongsberg, Norway. He trained to be a violinist, but in 1887 moved to Germany to attend the Leipzig Conservatory, and began to concentrate on composition. His early works brought him immediate recognition in his native country, and he began to receive grants from the Norwegian government; in 1910 he was awarded an annual stipend. Sinding was a prolific composer, whose musical output totals 132 works. He spent much time in Germany and was closely associated with German music and culture. Sinding died in Oslo in December 1941. His Suite in Old Style has never been recorded.

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