The North/South Chamber Orchestra presents an Ode to New York City on November 3

To be heard are compositions by New York composers Christopher James, Max Lifchitz, Alexandro Rodriguez, and Andrew Thomas.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The North/South Chamber Orchestra will kick off its 46th consecutive season with a free concert on Monday evening, November 3, celebrating the vibrant 400th anniversary of Fort Amsterdam, the birthplace of the fantastic city of New York.

To be heard are compositions by New York composers Christopher James, Max Lifchitz, Alexandro Rodriguez, and Andrew Thomas.

The event will begin at 7:00 PM and is expected to conclude around 8:30 PM.

It will take place at the welcoming and acoustically superior Christ & St. Stephen's Church, located at 129 West 69th Street, New York, NY.

No tickets or reservations are required; admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS AND THEIR MUSIC

Christopher James has composed over forty full-scale works in various media. A graduate of Stony Brook University and The Juilliard School, his compositions have been performed at prestigious venues such as the Library of Congress and Carnegie Hall. Written in 2019, Ode is based on the opening theme of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in E Minor, Op. 90. The music is characterized by a late Romantic style reminiscent of composers like Brahms and Elgar.

Max Lifchitz is the founder and director of the North/South Chamber Orchestra. He has performed as a pianist on concert stages across Europe and the Americas. His compositions and performances are available on most streaming platforms. One of his notable works, Yellow Ribbons No. 40, is part of an ongoing series honoring the former American hostages in Iran. These compositions serve as a personal tribute to the artistic and political freedoms that are often taken for granted in the West. The tragic events of September 11, 2001, in New York City convinced Lifchitz that it was both appropriate and worthwhile to continue working on this series, which he began in the early 1980s. Each of the four movements in this piece is titled: "Distant Fanfare," "Waging Peace," "Days of Wrath," and "Reveries." It was composed in 2005 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the North/South Chamber Orchestra.

Alexandro Rodríguez was very active as a guitarist, bassist, arranger, orchestrator, composer, and producer in his native Caracas, Venezuela, before relocating to New York City in the early 1980s. He collaborated with many distinguished Latino musicians, including Ray Mantilla, Mario Bauza, Daniel Ponce, Graciela, and Eddie Palmieri. His recent compositions have been inspired by the political, social, and economic crisis that Venezuela is experiencing, while honoring the political prisoners held by the Maduro regime, as well as the fallen victims of the many public protests held throughout Venezuela. Especially written for the occasion, Rodriguez's new work, New York, celebrates the vitality and exuberance of his adopted city through three distinct and contrasting movements.

Andrew Thomas studied with Karel Husa at Cornell University and Nadia Boulanger in Paris before earning a doctorate in music at The Juilliard School. Since 1970, he has taught Composition at the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School, serving as the Division's director from 1994 to 2006. As a guest professor, he has taught in Korea and China, including Hong Kong and Guangzhou, as well as at Guangxi Arts College in Nanning. Regarding his composition Premonitions for violin and ensemble, Thomas states: "The work pays homage to the Latin music I secretly cherished as a teenager while celebrating violinist Claudia Schaer and North/South Consonance. The first movement evokes the tango, the second the bossa nova, and the third incorporates rhythms from the mambo and the rumba. Although there is no percussion written in the score, the ensemble plays traditional Spanish rhythms and Afro-Cuban drumming patterns, transforming the entire ensemble into a percussion group."

MEET THE PERFORMERS

Canadian violinist Claudia Schaer trained at The Juilliard School, where she studied with and served as an assistant to Sally Thomas, before earning a doctorate in performance from Stony Brook University, SUNY. Described by the press as a “rock-solid performer” and praised for her “outstanding musicianship,” Schaer has appeared as soloist and chamber musician at numerous international festivals. These include the Thy Chamber Festival in Denmark; the Berlin Philharmonic’s Opera Barga Festival in Italy; the Luzerne Festival in Switzerland; and China’s Nanning Festival, where she was invited to serve as a Guest Professor for the Guangxi Arts College. Her recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas was recently released to much acclaim. Ms. Schaer has performed and recorded with the North/South Chamber Orchestra since 2004

Active since 1980, North/South Consonance, Inc. is devoted to the promotion of music by composers from the Americas and the world. Its activities are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; as well as grants from the Music Performance Fund, the BMI Foundation, and the generosity of numerous individual donors.

For further programming information, please visit the North/South Consonance website @ https://www.northsouthmusic.org/


https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/north-south-chamber-orchestra/341962939

Max Lifchitz
North/South Consonance, Inc
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