This preview has been provided by Mallarmé Chamber Players.

The Mallarmé Chamber Players will present a family and series chamber music concert on November 22 and November 23, 2014 respectively. Both programs will feature the Winston-Salem based cello and bass duo, Low and Lower. The ensemble is comprised of two UNC School of the Arts professors: cellist Brooks Whitehouse and bassist Paul Sharpe.

The family program on Saturday, Nov 22 at 1:00 pm will be presented by the duo alone. They will present zany and interactive music that will appeal to both children and adults while being informative, including everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to a rap on social media. The concert will last approximately 55 minutes; before and after the concert, children can try instruments at the Instrumental Petting Zoo provided by High Strung Violins and Guitars. The family concert series is sponsored by Mark and Cindy Kuhn.

Low and Lower will also be featured on a Mallarmé Series concert, on Sunday, November 23 at 3:00 pm. Low and Lower will elaborate on their comedic (but artistic) program from the family concert with a potpourri of their most popular eclectic repertoire, including their viral YouTube hit Poke: a bagatelle on antisocial media by UNCSA composer, Lawrence Dillon and their Gilbert and Sullivan patter song parody A Modern Music Genius from their beloved song cycle LowandLowerLieder.  Enjoy the theater of John Deak’s BB Wolf  (big bad wolf, that is) in which a self-narrating bass player bemoans the bad rap wolves get in fairy tales, and selections from their ground-breaking series Last in Flight, including Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee as you have never heard it before.  Violist Suzanne Rousso will join the duo for Mike Kelley’s Twisted, in which the players must recite rapid-fire tongue twisters as they play. Violinist Janet Orenstein will round out the ensemble for Anton Arensky’s A Minor String Quartet, Op. 35.  Originally scored for violin, viola and two cellos, bassist Paul Sharpe has claimed one of the cello parts as his own, proving Low and Lower’s confident assertion that all chamber music is better with bass!

Brooks Whitehouse and Paul Sharpe “are thrilled to be a part of the Mallarmé series. We look forward to kicking off the program with some of our duo favorites, and then branching out to a “Low Trio” format with Suzanne Rousso for Michael Kelley’s hilarious “Twisted”. We welcome violinist Janet Orenstein to round out the ensemble for the Arensky quartet in our own arrangement for violin, viola cello and bass”.

Both programs will be held at the lovely Kirby Horton Hall, in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. This program will be previewed by Frank Stasio on WUNC-radio The State of Things on Tuesday, November 18th at 12:00 pm.

Saturday, November  22, 1:00 pm | WHAT’S YOUR MUSICAL I.Q.?
Kirby Horton Hall, Sarah P. Duke Gardens, 420 Anderson St. Durham
$5 children 12 and under | $10 adults
Tickets available at the door and online
mallarmemusic.org | 919/560-2788

Sunday, November 23, 3:00 pm | DOWN TO THE DEPTHS
Kirby Horton Hall, Sarah P. Duke Gardens, 420 Anderson St. Durham
$20 in advance | $25 at the door | $5 students
Tickets available at the door and online
mallarmemusic.org | 919/560-2788

PROGRAM
Poke: a bagatelle on antisocial media
    Lawrence Dillon (b. 1959)

BB Wolf
    John Deak (b. 1943)

Last in Flight
    J.S. Bach/Saint-Saens/Casals/Rimsky-Korsakov
    (arr.  Whitehouse/Sharpe)

LowAndLowerLieder
    Flanders and Swann/Gilbert and Sullivan/Sir Mix-a-Lot/Whitehouse and Sharpe

Twisted
    Michael Kelley (b. 1972)

String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 35
    Anton Arensky (1861-1906)

 

ARTISTS

Janet Orenstein violin, Suzanne Rousso viola, Brooks Whitehouse cello, Paul Sharpe bass.

 

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATIONS

Cellist Brooks Whitehouse and Bassist Paul Sharpe are “Low and Lower,” America’s #1-selling cello bass duo. This ensemble’s performances are a mash-up of artistry, virtuosity, and satire. Low and Lower has developed a whole new genre in answer to the question, “Cello and bass…seriously?” With MacGyver-like determination they create, inspire and commission works using only the limited materials at hand – a cello, a bass, two voices, a sense of humor, a touch of theater, and a willingness to do almost anything.

Since their inception in 2010, they have traveled the country entertaining audiences with cello/bass chestnuts, brave new works, daring arrangements, vocalizing and storytelling. A live video of Lawrence Dillon’s “Poke” filmed during their 2012 Alaskan tour has gone viral, spreading across the world from the US to Europe, Africa, South America and the Philippines. The comments on the work and its performance range from “brilliant satire” and “I never laughed so hard in my life” to “Facebook has a piece of classical music written about it….this world is “#@$#%!”

In the last year alone, three new works have been written for Low and Lower by composers Joshua Davis, Bruce Tippette and John Allemeier, who’s “Undercurrents” they premiered this November on NCSU’s Arts NOW series to enthusiastic reviews. Last winter they toured the northeast, with concerts in Portland and Kittery, ME, and New Hampshire. They also visited Boston for a studio taping and interview at NPR’s WGBH radio.  The Winston-Salem Symphony has lead a national consortium of orchestras to commission a concerto for Low and Lower from Lawrence Dillon. Low and Lower premiered the work in October 2014 and will tour the country with it for the next two years. 

The Mallarmé Chamber Players are a flexible ensemble of professional musicians based in Durham, North Carolina, whose mission is to enrich the lives of their community through outstanding chamber music. The ensemble distinguishes itself by its innovative educational programs, its commitment to creative collaboration with other organizations, its creation of significant new work and its dedication to serve a diverse population.

Mallarmé annually presents a series of five concerts that features great, diverse, and multidisciplinary chamber music. Mallarmé performs everything from Bach with period instruments to brand new works. In this past year alone, Mallarmé has presented two world premières by composers Stephen Jaffe and Bo Newsome.  In 2010, Mallarmé released a CD on Albany/Videmus records of chamber music by African American composers, featuring jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, to great acclaim.

Mallarmé is in its 31st season and has been the recipient of grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, North Carolina Arts Council, Durham Arts Council, Target Foundation and The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.

Mallarmé is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, 501(c) (3) organization. The 2014-15 concert season is made possible in part by grants from the Durham Arts Council’s Annual Arts Fund and the North Carolina Arts Council. mallarmemusic.org