THE SCHUBERT CLUB PRESENTS
COURTROOM CONCERT SERIES 2015–2016
(Most) Thursdays at Noon • October 15–April 28
Courtroom 317, Landmark Center
Free Admission
The Schubert Club’s popular COURTROOM CONCERT SERIES, hosted by composer Abbie Betinis, opens its 23rd season of free weekly concerts on Thursday, October 15 at noon. This series features local artists of the highest caliber from the Twin Cities and nearby surrounding area, as well as occasional musical newcomers to the area. These concerts routinely reach capacity.
Courtroom Concerts are held almost every Thursday, October 15 through April 28, in beautiful Courtroom 317 of Landmark Center and are free and open to the public. Programs last approximately one hour. Complimentary coffee is served.
Highlights in the 2015-16 season include WindSync, Flying Forms Baroque Ensemble, Elkina Sisters piano duo, Lumina Ensemble, Copper Street Brass Quintet, and Mirandola Ensemble. This season will continue the tradition of highlighting music by Minnesota composers including Libby Larsen, Carol Barnett, Stan Woolner, Paul Rudoi, Tim Takach, Jocelyn Hagen, Abbie Betinis, Edie Hill and Dominick Argento, along with the return of the ever-popular “Carols of MN Composers” concert in December. The Courtroom Concerts will also feature winners–past and present–from The Schubert Club’s Bruce P. Carlson Student Scholarship Competition.
2015-2016 Schedule
October 15
Saxophone Quartet
Dave Franzel, Kurt Hattenberger, Ben Cold, CJ Longabaugh
October 22
The Poet’s Song
Roderick Phipps-Kettlewell, piano Marilène Phipps Kettlewell, poet; Riley Svatos, soprano; Erick Krohg,baritone
October 29
Irina and Julia Elkina, duo piano
November 5
Music of Edie Hill
Gary Ruschman, tenor; Kristian Anderson, guitar; Linda Chatterton, flute
November 12
Schubert String Quartet No. 15
Christiano Rodrigues, Mary Catherine Cox, violins; Seido Karasaki, viola; Seulki Lee, cello
November 19
WindSync
December 10
A Baroque Christmas
Flying Forms: Marc Levine, baroque violin; Tami Morse, harpsichord; Carrie Henneman-Shaw, soprano; John West, recorder; Phillip Rukavina, lute; Donald Livingston, baroque harp
December 17
Songs for the Season, by Minnesota Composers
Lumina Women’s Ensemble, with Mark Bilyeu, piano
January 7
Francis Poulenc’s Birthday
Hannah Peterson, flute
Tim Shows, oboe
January 14
Jonathan Mattson, piano
January 21
Music of Dominick Argento & Libby Larsen
Clara Osowski, mezzo-soprano, Jake Endres, baritone
February 4
Music of Stan Woolner
Ivan Konev, piano
February 11
Mirandola Ensemble
February 18
I. Music of Jocelyn Hagen
David Walton, tenor and Erik Barsness, percussion
II. Dolce Wind Quintet
February 25
Laura Sewell, cello; Ora Itkin, piano; Chris Kachian, guitar
March 3
Cameron Pieper, piano
March 10
David Franzel, saxophone
March 24
Music of Paul Rudoi & Tim Takach
March 31
Artu Duo: Garret Ross, piano & Ruth Palmer, cello
April 7
I. Roderick Phipps-Kettlewell, piano
II. Sam Viguerie, cello
April 14
Music of Carol Barnett
Maria Jette, soprano; Julie Carey, flute; Lorelei Giddings, oboe; Carley Olson, clarinet; Steve Ecklund, fr. horn; Ann Hagen, bassoon
April 21
Music of The Schubert Club Composer Mentorship Students
Copper Street Brass
April 28
Music of Abbie Betinis
No Concerts:
November 26, December 3, December 24, December 31, January 28, March 17
The Courtroom Concert Series is co-sponsored by Minnesota Landmarks and The Schubert Club.
For more information, please visit schubert.org/courtroomconcerts
The music of Schubert Club Composer-in-Residence Abbie Betinis (b. 1980) is acclaimed as “inventive, richly melodic” (The New York Times), “the highlight… pushes forward a brooding, dissonant unease” (Boston Globe), and “extraordinary music by a greatly gifted young composer” (Chicago Classical Review). Her catalog of over fifty commissioned works includes projects for the American Suzuki Foundation, Cantus, Dale Warland Singers, Flying Forms Baroque, James Sewell Ballet, New England Philharmonic, St. Olaf Choir, Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, and Zeitgeist.
A 2015 McKnight Artist Fellow, Abbie has also received grants and awards from the American Composers Forum, Minnesota Music Educators Association, Sorel Organization, and a previous McKnight Artist Fellowship (2009). In a project by New York’s WQXR Public Radio and NPR listeners, Betinis was selected as one of their favorite “100 Composers Under 40.” Her song cycle “Nattsanger (Nightsongs)” for soprano, clarinet and piano won an Honorable Mention in ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and is distributed by Naxos.
Her music is published by G. Schirmer, Graphite Publishing, and Hal Leonard, but most extensively by her own venture, Abbie Betinis Music Co, which she founded in 2006 to distribute her scores directly from her studio to musicians around the world. An advocate for new music, she is co-founder and president of the Independent Music Publishers Cooperative, has held residencies with The Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists and The Rose Ensemble, and is featured in the award-winning Public Television documentary about Minnesota’s choral tradition “Never Stop Singing.”
A graduate of the Suzuki piano program in her hometown of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Betinis holds a B.A. from St. Olaf College, M.A. in music composition from the University of Minnesota, and has studied harmony and counterpoint in the tradition of Nadia Boulanger through the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, France. She lives in Saint Paul, where she is Adjunct Professor of Composition at Concordia University.