Beata Moon’s “Wind Quintet” will be featured at the Women’s Work concert

Women’s Work will present an evening of new works by women composers performed by Quintet of the Americas at The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, New York on Tuesday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 general admission, $10 for students and seniors and can be purchased online.

Founded by composer Beth Anderson in 2004, Women’s Work produces a series of three concerts a year to educate the public about the achievements of women composers and performers of all periods and nationalities. They document the performances with biographies, program notes, photographs, recordings of the composer’s works and other information. You can hear audio recordings and watch videos of past performances on the Women’s Work MySpace page or you can follow their Facebook page. They have interviewed many women composers and created podcasts which are available at: http://www.jamesarts.com/womens-work/index.htm.

Women’s Work is focusing on chamber music for its tenth anniversary season. Beth Anderson has drawn together a wonderfully diverse group of contemporary women composers for the April 16 performance. The evening will include Julia Wolfe‘s On Seven-Star Shoes, Laura Kaminsky’s Cadenza Variations for Woodwind Quintet, Barbara Harbach‘s Freeing the Caged Bird, Magda Santos’ Chorando em Sao Paulo, Beata Moon‘s Wind Quintet, and Kate Neal’s Paper Scissors Dog with video by Sal Cooper.

Kate Neal’s “Paper Scissors Dog” with animation by Sal Cooper will be performed on April 16

You can read more about all of these composers and listen to excerpts of their works by visiting the websites linked to their names in the preceding paragraph.  On Kate Neal’s website, you can watch an excerpt from her Paper Scissors Dog video animated by Sal Cooper.  On Beata Moon’s site, her bio reveals that she began studying piano at age 5 and made her orchestral debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at age eight. There is a wonderful video interview where she talks about her transition from child prodigy concert pianist to composer.

Quintet of the Americas is a woodwind ensemble founded in Bogota, Colombia and now based in New York City.  The group specializes in music from the Western Hemisphere and over the past three decades, they have commissioned over 70 works, performed over three hundred concerts, and recorded eight CDs. Members of the Quintet are Karla Moe, flute, Matt Sullivan, oboe, Nicholas Gallas, clarinet, Barbara Oldham, horn and Maureen Strenge, bassoon.

On May 21, Women’s Work will present the final concert of their 2013 series which will feature Canta Libre Chamber Ensemble performing new chamber music by women for flute, harp and strings.