The Alternative Press

Orchestra for the Next Century, Gary M. Schneider, Music Director, performs world premieres of work by indie classical composers Padma Newsome, Sarah Kirkland Snider and Shara Worden on February 6, 2013 at 7:30 pm at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City.  The concert is being presented as part of the 2013 Ecstatic Music Festival.  For information and tickets, call 212-501-3330 or online at www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org.

The featured works include the 13-song cycle “Unremembered” by Sarah Kirkland Snider, the popera “2 Moon Smile” by Padma Newsome, and a selection of songs with chamber orchestra by Shara Worden.  Set to poetry by New York-based Nathaniel Bellows with accompanying projected artwork, “Unremembered” recalls childhood memories of growing up in rural Massachusetts.

The concert will be hosted by John Schaefer of WNYC and is being broadcast live as a NEW SOUNDS LIVE event over WQXR’s Q2 web-stream.  Austrailian-born Padma Newsome is well known as a member of the indie quartet Clog, which performs internationally.  Shara Worden is the amazing vocalist of My Brightest Diamond, with which she also tours internationally.

          “We are very excited to be performing in the Ecstatic Music Festival,” Music Director Gary Schneider said.  “Snider, Worden and Newsome are three incredibly talented composers who are at the forefront of the indie-classical movement. It is an honor to be playing their music at Merkin.”

Gary M. Schneider first gained attention as music director and conductor of The Hoboken Chamber Orchestra, an award-winning ensemble he founded in 1981 and led for ten seasons.  A prize-winner in the 1987 Leopold Stokowski Competition for American Conductors, Mr. Schneider has actively guest conducted numerous orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic.  Following his European debut at the International ZeltMusik Festival in Freiburg, Germany, TheBadischeZeitungheralded him as an “astonishing” musician for his diverse and impressive efforts as conductor, composer, “jazzer” and pianist. Mr. Schneider promises to put his more than 30 years of experience into making Orchestra for the Next Century a major musical force to be reckoned with.