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Tuesday, September 22, 2015

KINNARA ENSEMBLE OPENS 2015-16 SEASON WITH CONCERTS ACROSS NEW JERSEY OCTOBER 2-4

Kinnara Ensemble

Kinnara Ensemble opens their 2015-16 concert season with a series of concerts featuring works by Vaughan Williams, Parry, and Brahms. 

Sixteen singers from across the country will gather to perform a concert centered on Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music, which takes inspiration from Act V of William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. The work, originally composed for 16 soloists, was written as a tribute to the conductor Sir Henry Wood to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Wood's first concert.

Kinnara Ensemble is pleased to be joined for this performance by pianist James Goldsworthy and violinist Sunghae Anna Lim.

The program will also feature Parry's My soul there is a country; Brahms' Neckereien, Der abend, and Sehnsucht;   Stanford's Beati corum via; and Lotti's Crucifixus, among others.

WHERE & WHEN: The Presbyterian Church of Morristown on Friday, October 2, at 8:00 pm; The Hun School in Princeton on Saturday, October 3, at 8:00 p.m.; and Doylestown Presbyterian Church on Sunday, October 4, at 4:00 p.m
TICKETS: Admission varies by location.  Follow the links above or visit www.kinnaraensemble.org for specific venue ticketing information. 


About Sunghae Anna Lim, Violin

Korean-American violinist Anna Lim was raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and played her first concert at age 8 as a soloist with the Honolulu Symphony. Since then, Ms. Lim has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia in hr many capacities as chamber musician, soloist and orchestral player. She is a founding member of the Laurel Piano Trio, praised by the New York Times for their "lustrous tone and unerring interpretive intelligence". The group has won prizes at both the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the ProPiano Competition in New York, and has served as ensemble-in-residence at numerous music festivals and organizations, including WQXR (radio station of the New York Times), the Tanglewood Music Festival and the Portland Chamber Music Festival.

A keen advocate for new music, Ms. Lim is the violinist of the New Millennium Ensemble, winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award. She has premiered and recorded many new works, including music of American composers Morton Feldman, John Adams and Donald Martino. She is a frequent guest of Talea Ensemble, the DaCapo Chamber Players, and the New York New Music Ensemble. Ms. Lim has participated in music festivals such as Marlboro, Ravinia, Prussia Cove, Tanglewood, Aspen Music Festival, White Mountain Music Festival, Monadnock Music, Weekend of Chamber Music, Laurel Festival of the Arts, Music Mountain, Maverick Concerts and the Wellesley Composers' Conference.

She received a B.A. from Harvard University and completed her Diploma at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Her teachers include Sandor Vegh, Arnold Steinhardt, Gerhard Schulz, Ernst Kovacic and Louis Krasner.

About James Goldsworthy, Piano

Pianist James Goldsworthy has performed throughout Europe, Israel, Japan, Canada, and the United States, including broadcasts on Austrian National Television, the California cable television show "Grand Piano", Vermont Public Television, BBC Radio, and Minnesota Public Radio. While a Fulbright scholar in Vienna, he performed in one of the Musikverein 175th Anniversary Celebration concerts given in the Brahms Saal, and concertized in Vienna, Baden, and Spital am Semmering, Austria. More recently, he performed in recitals given at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, and in Le Sax concert hall in Achère, France.

Mr. Goldsworthy has accompanied singers Judith Bettina, Benjamin Luxon, Marion Kilcher, Véronique Dubois, and Edith Zitelli in recital and has concertized with violinist Lilo Kantorowicz-Glick and violist Jacob Glick. He has premiered works by Milton Babbitt, Chester Biscardi, David Olan, Tobias Picker, Mel Powell, David Rokowski, Cheng Yong Wang, and Amnon Wolman.

He has taught at Goshen College, Stanford University, and the University of St. Thomas. In 2003 Mr. Goldsworthy left the office of the associate dean at Westminster and is now a full-time professor in the piano department at Westminster. His recordings with Judith Bettina of Chester Biscardi's The Gift of Life, David Rakowski's Three Songs on Poems of Louise Bogan, and songs of Otto Luening are on the CRI label.

About J.D. Burnett, Artistic Director

J.D. Burnett enjoys a varied career as a conductor, singer, and teacher.  He is Assistant Professor of Music and Associate Director of Choral Activities at the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music, where he conducts the Men's and Women's Glee Clubs and the Collegium Musicum, and teaches courses in choral literature and conducting.

Formerly, he served as Assistant Director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus, conducted New Jersey Youth Chorus Young Men's Ensemble, was Associate Conductor of the Masterwork Chorus of New Jersey, and was Acting Director of Choral Activities at Montclair State University.  His earlier posts include Interim Director of Choral Activities at San Jose State University, Artistic Director of the New Jersey Chamber Singers, Music Director of the Houston Masterworks Chorus, Founder of Men's Consort Houston, and member of the choral music faculty at Kingwood High School in suburban Houston.  He also served as Choral Editor at McGraw-Hill, Inc. 

As a professional choral singer, Burnett has performed seasons, concerts, and recordings with the Stillwater Chamber Singers, Cantare Houston, The Santa Fe Desert Chorale, The Robert Shaw Festival Singers, Fuma Sacra, the Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street, the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, and Conspirare.  Burnett did undergraduate study at Stanford University and Oklahoma State University.  He holds a Masters Degree in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas.

About Kinnara Ensemble

Kinnara Ensemble is a 32-voice professional choir based in the Princeton, NJ area whose mission is to engage the public in exemplary choral experiences that speak to the modern soul.  Led by Artistic Director J.D. Burnett, singers hail from across the country for a week in residency together as they prepare for each concert series. 

Founded in 2008, Kinnara Ensemble has been noted for their purity of sound and musical dexterity.  The ensemble performs throughout the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. Deeply rooted in their community, in 2012 Kinnara was invited to headline the regional New Jersey ACDA conference, and has been called upon to partner with choirs such as the Westminster Conservatory Community Chorus and the Princeton University Glee Club. 

For more information, visit www.kinnaraensemble.org.