FAMILY FUN DAYS: FERDINAND THE BULL-FAMILY & CHILDREN CHAMBER EXPERIENCE SUNDAY, JULY 27 AT 4PM
An interpretation of the classic story, “Ferdinand the Bull” set to original music composed by artistic director, Eliot Bailen. Susan Rotholz will narrate the story and be accompanied by Bailen on cello.
Written in 1936, by American author Munro Leaf, “Ferdinand the Bull” tells the classic story of a peaceful bull who only wants to smell the flowers in the meadow. But after accidently sitting on a bumblebee, he goes into a rampage, knocking other bulls out and crashing a tree to the ground. Mistaken as brave and fearless he is picked to fight in the bullrings.
However, Ferdinand was not interested in fighting; only in admiring the beautiful flowers thrown into the ring. So, he was taken back home where he once again could sit under his favorite tree and smell the flowers.
Eliot Bailen and Susan Rotholz join us from Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival.
Praised by the New York Times as “irresistible in both music and performance.” flutist, Susan Rotholz, winner of the Young Concert Artists with Hexagon Piano and Winds and Concert Artists Guild as a soloist, continues to be in demand as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician and teacher.
Susan is Principal flute of the Greenwich Symphony and The New York Chamber Ensemble and is a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The New York Pops and the Little Orchestra Society. She has toured extensively with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and also performs with the American Symphony, New York City Ballet, Gotham Opera Company, Encore’s at City Center and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Susan is co-founder/director of the Sherman Chamber Ensemble and the Rodeph Sholom Chamber Music Series and performs each season with the Cape May Music Festival, Greenwich Chamber Players, Saratoga Chamber Players and the Sebago Long Lake Chamber Music Festival.
Susan attended the Marlboro Music and Grand Teton and was principal flutist of the New England Bach Festival for 25 years. Her recordings of the complete Bach Flute Sonatas and the Solo Partita with Kenneth Cooper, fortepiano, on the Bridge Records label received a New Classics review saying the “beguiling sounds and first-class performances make this an enchanting experience.” Susan, with pianist Margaret Kampmeier, just released through Bridge Records, American Tapestry, Duos for Flute and Piano: Beaser, Copland, Muczynski and Liebermann. “Remarkable on this recording is the stellar duo playing of Susan Rotholz and Margaret Kampmeier, who combine brilliant instrumental virtuosity with deep understanding of this quintessentially American repertoire.” A devoted teacher and chamber music coach, Susan teaches at Columbia University, Queens College: Aaron Copland School of Music, City College CUNY and at the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College. In 2002 she received the Norman Vincent Peale Award for Positive Thinking. (https://music.columbia.edu/content/susan-rotholz)
Eliot Bailen’s active career as a cellist, composer and teacher covers a broad span of activity. Strings Magazine writes, "At Merkin Hall (NYC) ‘cellist Eliot Bailen displayed a warm focused tone, concentrated expressiveness and admirable technical command always at the service of the music” (July, ’99). Principal cello of the New York Chamber Ensemble, New Jersey Festival Orchestra, Orchestra New England, New York Bach Artists, Teatro Grattacielo and the New Choral Society, Mr. Bailen is also Founder and Artistic Director of the Sherman Chamber Ensemble whose performances the New York Times has described as “the Platonic ideal of a chamber music concert.” (July, 2005).
He performs regularly with the Saratoga Chamber Players, Bronx Arts Ensemble, the Cape May Music Festival and the Sebago-Long Lake Chamber Music Festival and is Founder and Artistic director of Chamber Music at Rodeph Sholom in New York. He appears frequently such orchestras as the Orchestra of St. Luke's, New York City Opera and Ballet, American Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Musica Sacra and the Oratorio Society of New York and is Assistant-Principal cello of the Stamford Symphony. He has recorded for Nonesuch, Koch International, Deutche Grammophon, Delos, New World, Beanstalk, BMG and Flying Dutchman Records and continues to be heard as solo cello in numerous Broadway shows.
Mr. Bailen received his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from Yale University and a Music Associate in cello and chamber music at Columbia University and Teachers College. Graduating in 1977 with High Honors in Music and French Literature from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Mr. Bailen also holds an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University where he was awarded the coveted Slater Prize for Entrepreneurship. In 2002, he was awarded the Norman Vincent Peale Arts Award for Positive Thinking.
Mr. Bailen’s commissions include an Octet (“For Ellen”) for 3 winds and strings premiered by the Sherman Chamber Ensemble in August, 2013; a ‘Double Concerto for Flute and Cello’ commissioned by the Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra and premiered in October 2012 with Mr. Bailen and his wife, flutist, Susan Rotholz as soloists; “Perhaps a Butterfly” a chamber work for Soprano, child soprano, flute and string trio commissioned by Cantor Rebecca Garfein at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York where it was premiered in 2011. “Perhaps a Butterfly” was recently selected along with another work for publishing by Transcontinental Music. Mr. Bailen’s ‘Saratoga Sextet,’ commissioned by the Saratoga Chamber Players, was premiered to critical acclaim in June, 2014 at Filene Hall, Skidmore College as part of Saratoga Artsfest (“The crowd loved it!” writes the Schenectady Daily Gazette). Most recently was the premiere of Mr. Bailen’s musical, “The Tiny Mustache,” which received a second grant for further development from the Omer Foundation after it’s successful debut.
As a writer and producer of children's music Mr. Bailen has gained national attention as Winner of the 1990 Parent's Choice Gold Medal, winner of numerous ASCAP Popular Awards and appearances as a featured guest artist on Nickelodeon's "Eureeka's Castle" airing from 1993 through 1997. Mr. Bailen received over twenty-five commissions for his "Song to Symphony" project, an extended school residency program that presents children's original musicals in an orchestral setting; the project was the subject of a NY Times feature article (Sept. 2006). The Song to Symphony project was recently awarded a special Alumni Grant from the Yale School of Music. Susan and Eliot live in New York City with their twin sons David and Daniel and their daughter Julia. (https://music.columbia.edu/bios/eliot-bailen)