The New Juilliard Ensemble, led by Joel Sachs, performs world premieres by Jack Beeson and Jakub Ciupinski and additional works on Wednesday, November 19 at 8 PM in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Program also includes Western Hemisphere premieres by Gilbert Amy, Raminta Serksnyte, and Alexander Shchetynsky, and Milton Babbitt's "Crowded Air"

The New Juilliard Ensemble, led by Joel Sachs, continues its season on Wednesday, November 19 at 8 PM in Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater with two world premieres, both composed for the New Juilliard Ensemble: Jack Beeson’s (U.S.) The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1999) and Jakub Ciupinski’s (Poland/U.S.) Epyllion (2008); and three Western Hemisphere premieres: Gilbert Amy’s (France) Le temps du soufflé III, for French horn and ensemble (2001), Alexander Shchetynsky’s (Ukraine) Chamber Symphony (2006), Raminta Šerkšnyte’s (Lithuania) Vortex (2004); plus Milton Babbitt’s (U.S.) 1988 homage to Elliott Carter, The Crowded Air (1988).

FREE tickets are available November 5 at the Juilliard Box Office, located in the newly renovated lobby of Juilliard at 155 West 65th Street. Box Office hours are Monday through Friday, from 11 AM – 6 PM. For more information, call (212) 769-7406 or go to www.juilliard.edu.

Jack Beeson’s The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze is based on a song familiar to many Americans. Mr. Beeson added some words to help transform it into a dramatic situation. Juilliard alumnus Marshall Cold is the countertenor soloist. Professor of music at Columbia University and chairman of its music department, Mr. Beeson was director of the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, which has aided the careers of lesser known composers. Born in Muncie, Indiana in 1921, Mr. Beeson received his bachelor and master degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He studied privately in New York with Béla Bartók and assisted Otto Luening in Columbia University’s Opera Workshop producing new operas by Americans. He was the recipient of the Rome Prize in 1948.

Mr. Ciupinski’s work, Epyllion (from the Greek meaning ‘little epic’) is a short narrative poem, not intended as programmatic music, but telling a very personal story that also is shaped by the collective environment. This world premiere work is 14 minutes long. Polish composer Jakub Ciupinski studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Christopher Rouse at Juilliard, as well as with Zbigniew Bujarski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Edwin Roxbrough, and Joe Cutler. His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and venues throughout Europe and North America. He currently is living and composing in New York.

Gilbert Amy’s Le temps du soufflé III is one in a series of compositions for wind instruments, premiered in the 2005-06 season with the Ensemble Apostrophe of the Nice Philharmonic. NJE’s performance is its first outside of France, and features Juilliard French hornist, Molly Norcross. Mr. Amy was born in Paris in 1936 and after graduating in philosophy with top honors, attended the Paris Conservatory from 1995 to 1960, studying with Milhaud, Messiaen, and pianist Yvonne Loriod. He was influenced by Pierre Boulez and the summer composition courses at Darmstadt, attending in 1958 and 1960. He succeeded Boulez as conductor and director of Domaine Musicale, from 1967 to the dissolution of the group six years later. In 1976, as advisor to Radio France, he founded its Nouvel Orchestra Philharmonique, a group that emphasized new music, remaining chief conductor and artistic director until 1981. After teaching at Yale, he became director (now retired) of the Lyon Conservatory, while continuing to conduct. Mr. Amy has received the Grand Prix National de la Musique (1979), the Grand Prix de la SACEM (1983), the Grand Prix Musical de la Ville de Paris (1986), the Prix du Disque de l’Académie Charles Cros (1987), and the Prix de la Critique Musicale (1988).

Alexander Shchetynsky’s Chamber Symphony for 13 instruments is in two movements: Adagio and Moderato con moto. The work was commissioned by the festival Warsaw Autumn and premiered there in 2006. Born in 1960 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, an industrial and university city one of the Soviet Union’s largest, Mr. Shchetynsky was influenced by the Soviet avant-garde, especially Denisov, Schnittke, Pärt, and Bibik. He participated in master classes in Denmark and summer courses in Poland. His works range from solo instrumental to orchestral, choral pieces and opera, and since the late 1980s, have been presented at prestigious festivals and concerts in Europe and America and performed by internationally acclaimed artists and ensembles. He regularly lectures on Ukrainian music, gives master classes and participates in symposia in Europe.

Raminta Šerkšnyte’s Vortex is a commission from the Gaida Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania, premiered by Irvine Arditti and Gaida Ensemble at the 2004 Klangspuren Festival in Austria. NJE’s performance is its first outside of Europe. Juilliard violinist, Francesca Anderegg, is featured in the work written for violin solo and large ensemble. Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnyt? studied piano, music theory, and composition at the Naujalis Gymnasium in Kaunas from 1982 to 1994 and composition at the Lithuanian Academy of Music. Only 33 years old, she has many international credits including master classes and fellowships in Europe. Her compositions are performed in major concerts and new music festivals throughout Europe and in the former Soviet republics; upcoming projects will be premiered by Gidon Kremer’s Kremerata Baltica and by Canadian flutist Robert Aitken.

Milton Babbitt’s The Crowded Air was composed for the ensemble Speculum Musicae, in honor of (now centenarian) Elliott Carter’s 80th birthday. It carries as a personal message to Mr. Carter, a motto from Emily Dickinson: Musicians wrestle every where, All day – among the crowded air. Mr. Babbitt is now retired from Princeton University – and as of May 2008 – from Juilliard. His catalog of music includes works for orchestra, but his lifelong interest has centered around chamber, solo, and vocal music. A pioneer in electronic music, he produced some of the world’s most important works for live soloists and electronic sounds.

The New Juilliard Ensemble, and Joel Sachs, open FOCUS! 2009 – CALIFORNIA: A Century of New Music - on Friday, January 23, 2009 at 8 PM in Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater. NJE’s season concludes on Friday, April 3, 2009 at 8 PM in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater with works by Barrett Ansbach, Stefano Gervasoni, Martin Matalon, Betty Olivero, and Manuel Sosa. The New Juilliard Ensemble (NJE), led by founding director Joel Sachs, celebrates the liveliness of today’s music, focusing primarily on repertory of the last decade. Now in its 16th season, NJE presents music by a variety of international composers writing in the most diverse styles. Its members are current students at Juilliard, who are admitted to the ensemble by audition. The ensemble returned again to MoMA’s Summergarden festival and has been a featured at the Lincoln Center Festival. In January 2008 at Juilliard’s FOCUS! festival celebrating Elliott Carter’s 100th year NJE members performed with members of the Lucerne Festival Academy Ensemble, conducted by Pierre Boulez. The combined ensembles performed again at last summer’s Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.

New Juilliard Ensemble founder (in 1993) and director Joel Sachs performs a vast range of traditional and contemporary music as conductor and pianist and is co-director of the internationally acclaimed new-music ensemble Continuum. Dr. Sachs has appeared in hundreds of performances nationally, and internationally, he has held residencies at the Hochschule der Künste (Berlin), Trinity College of Music (London), the Hochschule Mozarteum (Salzburg), and at the School of Music and Fine Arts, and the annual Oficina de Musica in Curitiba (Brazil). He conducted and recorded the distinguished Icelandic contemporary music ensemble Caput. June 2008 marked his sixth visit to Mongolia. In March, 2009 he will be in residence at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. Dr. Sachs’ recordings appear on the Advance, CRI, Dorian, Naxos, New Albion, Nonesuch, and TNC labels. He produces and directs Juilliard’s annual FOCUS! festival, has been artistic director of Juilliard’s concerts at MoMA’s Summergarden festival since 1993, and also was a co-director of the Sonic Boom festival.

Dr. Sachs, who is a member of Juilliard’s music history faculty and was the first chairman of its music history department, currently is writing a biography of the American composer Henry Cowell, to be published by Oxford University Press. He appears on radio as a commentator on recent music and has been a regular delegate to Netherlands Music Days and other international music conferences.