Deptford Town Hall, Council Chamber ( 1st floor)
London SE14

Opposite New Cross Gate tube/rail station

Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Centre for Russian Music and Graduate Forum Presents: 

10 June 2010

RUSSIAN DIASPORA IN AMERICA

Recital-Seminar on Schillinger's influence on Gershwin. An exploration through music and words of the Russian diaspora in America, focusing on the link between Schillinger and Gershwin, with guest speaker Ilya Levinson.

Performed by Becky Wiles (piano), Alex Eichenberger (cello), Mercedes Maresca Martinez and Heather Leighton (flutes)

 4 pm:

Research Seminar:
Professor Ilya Levinson ( Chicago, USA):
George Gershwin and Joseph Schillinger. The Schillinger's System of Music Composition as found in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess 

5 pm :

Programme of music by Ilya Levinson:


Prayer for solo cello(2005)

Alex Eichenberger, cello

The Polyphony of Trees, for piano (2007)

Rebecca Wiles, piano


Structures in the air, for solo flute (1994)

Mercedes Maresca Martinez , flute 

Variations , for flute and piano (1982) 

Heather Leighton, flute, and Rebecca Wiles, piano 

Russian bom Ilya Levinson graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory where he studied composition with Alexander Pirumov and orchestration with Edison Denisov. After immigrating to the United States in l988, Levinson completed a Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Chi¬cago where his training included instruction from Ralph Shapey, Shulamit Ran, John Eaton, and Howard Sandroff.
Levinson's catalogue includes four operas, four musicals, various symphonic and chamber music compositions, film scores and original music for theatre productions. In 1997 and 2003 Mr. Levinson received the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Music Composition. His musical Ameri¬can Klezmer was produced in Los Angeles by West Coast Jewish Theatre in February and March 2006. His Klezmer Rhapsody is recorded by the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band on Shanachie label.

Levinson's music has been performed by Contemporary Chamber Players, CUBE Contemporary Music Ensemble, Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, among others. Levinson's monodrama, "The Tell Tale Heart," (after E.A. Poe) was commissioned by CUBE in 2001 and performed to critical acclaim. His "Chicago Fantasy," written for American Music Festivals where Mr. Levinson is a composer in residence, was premiered on July 4, 2000 with the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra in Bolshoi Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Phil Sim¬mons, conducting. It was subsequently performed by Presidents Orchestra during Chicago Days in Moscow in 2002. His Klezmer Rhapsody, Shtetl Scenes, and Prayer were performed at Espace Rachi in Paris in 2006.
Mr. Levinson is Music Director and co founder of New Budapest Orpheum Society, a group performing music of Jewish Cabaret. The group's CD Dancing on the Edge of the Volcano is re¬corded on Cedille label. Mr. Levinson  teaches at Columbia College and at the University of Chicago.


Free Admission

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