February 10, 2003 Contact: Paula Mlyn

Guest artists include Juilliard’s president and bassoonist Joseph W. Polisi and Juilliard student performers in a program of Mozart, Schoenberg, and Strauss

On Thursday, March 20 at 8 p.m. in Juilliard’s Paul Hall this season’s Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series concludes with a performance by the New York Woodwind Quintet. The program includes Mozart’s Fantasy in F Minor, K. 608, Schoenberg’s Quintet, Op. 26, and the Strauss Suite in B-flat, Op. 4. In addition to the Quintet’s regular members Carol Wincenc (flute), Stephen Taylor (oboe), Charles Neidich (clarinet), Donald MacCourt (bassoon), and William Purvis (horn), this performance features Juilliard’s president and bassoonist Joseph W. Polisi as well as Juilliard performers Lauren Sileo, (flute), Gregory Brown, (oboe), James Shields, (clarinet), Evan Kuhlmann, (contrabassoon), Megan Cullen, (horn), Tian Xia Wu, (horn), and Lisa Conway, (horn).

For more than 50 seasons, the New York Woodwind Quintet has maintained an active performance schedule in the United States and abroad while also teaching the next generation of woodwind performers. The Quintet has commissioned and premiered over 20 compositions, some of which have become classics of the woodwind repertoire. They include Samuel Barber's Summer Music, and quintets by Gunther Schuller, Ezra Laderman, William Bergsma, Alec Wilder, William Sydeman, Wallingford Riegger, Jon Deak, and Yehudi Wyner. The Quintet has featured many of these in recordings for such labels as Boston Skyline, Bridge, New World Records, and Nonesuch. The members also record as soloists for CRI, Deutsche Grammophon, and Telarc. The Quintet’s members also honor the legacy of departed members, including the late Samuel Baron, by continuing to perform his transcriptions of works such as Bach’s Art of the Fugue and the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the late Ronald Roseman, by performing his Wind Quintet No. 2 and Sextet for Piano and Winds which was dedicated to the New York Woodwind Quintet and completed just before he died. Since the 1989-90 season, the Quintet has been ensemble-in-residence at The Juilliard School, where the members present eight seminars each year for student woodwind quintets, teach individual students, and give regular coaching sessions. The Quintet has also initiated the wind program for Young Audiences.

Carol Wincenc, flutist, has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras around the world and has premiered works written for her by many of today’s most prominent composers. Recently written for her are ten short Valentines by Arnold Black, Tobias Picker, Roberto Sierra, Michael Torke, Christopher Rouse, Lukas Foss, Peter Schickele, Joan Tower, Paul Schoenfield, and Henryk Gorecki. In great demand as a chamber musician, Ms. Wincenc’s collaborations include the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo, and Cleveland string quartets, and Jessye Norman, Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, and Elly Ameling. Music publisher Carl Fischer has just released the Carol Wincenc "Signature Series" collection of works for flute, selected and edited by Ms. Wincenc. First Prize winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Solo Flute competition, Carol Wincenc has been a member of the flute faculty at The Juilliard School for sixteen years.

Now in his second season with the Quintet, Oboist Stephen Taylor is a graduate of The Juilliard School where he studied with Lois Wann and Robert Bloom. He is solo oboist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, principal oboe with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, the New England Bach Festival at Marlboro, the American Composers Orchestra, and co-principal oboe with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He also has held the principal chair with the Casals Festival Orchestra underZubin Mehta, American Symphony, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. Closely involved with contemporary music, Mr. Taylor has appeared as soloist with the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Group for Contemporary Music, Speculum Musicae, and the American Composers Orchestra. His summer activities include appearances at the Caramoor, Bravo! Colorado, OK Mozart, Chamber Music Northwest, Bridgehampton, and Music from Angel Fire festivals. He has premiered dozens of new works, including Andre Previn’s song cycle Honey and Rue in its 1992 world premiere, and Elliott Carter’s Trilogy for Oboe and Harp in its 1993 U.S. premiere. Of Mr. Taylor’s more than 200 recordings, many are first releases, including Wolpe's Oboe Quartet and his Duo Im Hexachord. Mr. Taylor has served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Purchase and Brooklyn College. Currently he holds artist-in-residence status at Columbia University as a member of Speculum Musicae and serves on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and SUNY Stony Brook. He is a recipient of the Fromm Foundation performer's grant from Harvard University.

Charles Neidich, clarinetist, is active not only as a soloist and collaborator in chamber music programs, performing with leading ensembles including the St. Louis and Minneapolis Symphonies and the Juilliard and Mendelssohn String Quartets, but also as a composer and conductor, most recently fulfilling all three roles with the San Diego Symphony. Mr. Neidich has been active in restoring original versions of works and bringing them before the public, including those of Mozart, Weber, Copland, and Schumann. He also is a leading exponent of new music, premiering works by Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Ralph Shapey, and Joan Tower, among others. His recordings are available on the Sony Classical, Sony Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Hyperion, and Bridge labels. In addition to the New York Woodwind Quintet, Mr. Neidich is a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He is currently on the faculties of The Juilliard School, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the Manhattan School, and the Mannes College of Music.

Donald MacCourt has been the bassoonist of the New York Woodwind Quintet since 1973. He also is a member of Speculum Musicae and plays principal bassoon in the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Mr. MacCourt has been heavily involved in the performance and recording of chamber music, especially contemporary chamber music, for many years. He can be heard on recordings with the Quintet, Speculum Musicae, the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and the Group for Contemporary Music. Mr. MacCourt serves on the faculties of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, SUNY, and The Juilliard School. He was on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center from 1985 to 1997.

William Purvis, hornist of the Quintet since 1974, pursues a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as French horn soloist, chamber musician and conductor. A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Purvis has participated in numerous first performances, and has most recently given premieres of horn concerti by Peter Lieberson and Bayan Northcott, a trio for violin, horn and piano by Poul Ruders, and as conductor of Speculum Musicae, the U.S. premiere of Luimen by Elliott Carter. He also is a member of The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Mozzafiato, an original instrument wind sextet, and performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His large number of recordings spans an unusually broad range from original instrument performance to standard and contemporary solo, chamber music and orchestral repertoire, and also includes numerous contemporary music recordings as conductor. Mr. Purvis was appointed to the faculty of Yale University School of Music in September 2000, and he also is on the faculties of The Juilliard School and SUNY Stony Brook. Mr. Purvis is a graduate of Haverford College with a bachelor or arts degree in philosophy.

Joseph W. Polisi became the sixth president of The Juilliard School in September 1984. He holds a doctor of musical arts degree from Yale. As a bassoonist, Dr. Polisi has performed extensively in the United States in solo and chamber performances. In addition to performing with faculty and students in concerts at The Juilliard School, he has participated in a benefit concert at the Vivian Beaumont Theater for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and in chamber performances in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. He has written many scholarly and educational articles for professional journals, is a frequent speaker on arts and education issues, has produced several sound recordings, primarily focusing on contemporary American music, and has recorded a solo album of 20^th-century bassoon music for Crystal Records.