An Die Musik: Coffee, Patisserie, & Classical Music
Online: $10 | In person: $20 ($10 student)
- Mekhi Gladden, oboe & English horn
- Katherine Needleman, oboe & piano
Althea Talbot-Howard — Troparion
James Lee III — Principal Brothers No. 2
Thea Musgrave — Niobe
Che Buford — Wounds in so many places (world premiere)
Laura Elise Schwendinger — Luna (world premiere)
Ruth Gipps — Threnody
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges — Selected works ("The New Chevalier Sonata"; realized for oboe & piano by Althea Talbot-Howard)
Béla Bartók — 44 Duos for Two Violins, Sz. 98, BB 104 (selections; arr. Katherine Needleman)
Katherine Needleman is a multi-faceted musician and native of Baltimore. She won first prize in the International Double Reed Society’s Inaugural Commissioning Competition in 2020. She curates Coffee, Patisserie, and Classical Music at An die Musik Live. She explores the connection between composer and performer in this series, focusing on music that has been unreasonably under-programmed for various reasons. She performs as an oboe recitalist throughout the U.S. As a day job, she is an orchestral oboist, having performed as guest principal with all of the U.S.’s “Big Five” orchestras except for one and has been the Baltimore Symphony’s principal oboist since 2003.
Mekhi Gladden is an oboist and English hornist from Atlanta, Georgia who is currently based in Philadelphia. Mekhi has attended the Aspen Music Festival and performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony In C. After winning first prize in the Eric Varner Young Artist Competition in 2021, he attended the Brevard Summer Music Institute where he won the Jan and Beattie Wood Concerto Competition. He is entering his fifth year at the Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of Richard Woodhams. Mekhi began studying oboe at age twelve before entering the Talent Development Program at age fifteen. He then studied with Emily Brebach, English horn of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. During his time at Curtis, Mekhi has also worked to further diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence in classical music through his performance and advocacy.
Attending in person: Coffee and pastries at 10am / Concert at 11am. Valid full-time student ID required at the door for student ticket price.
About Mekhi Gladden, oboe & English horn
About Katherine Needleman, oboe & piano
Katherine Needleman joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as principal oboist in 2003, the same year she won first prize at the International Double Reed Society's Gillet-Fox Competition.
A lifelong improviser, she has recorded the Marmalade Balloon, an album of improvised, ambient chamber music with distinguished classical music colleagues as well as synthesizers from the 1960s and 1970s. She started writing music down on paper during the COVID-19 pandemic and won the International Double Reed Society's Inaugural Commissioning Competition with her sonata for oboe and piano. They commissioned her to write a work for English horn and piano which received its premiere in July, 2021, with Alison Teale of the BBC Symphony.
A Baltimore native, Ms. Needleman attended high school at the Baltimore School for the Arts but left early to attend the Curtis Institute of Music. She served on the faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University for fifteen years and is currently on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music.
http://katherineneedleman.com/