CMNW: umama womama – Coleman, Lash, & Ngwenyama
$47.50-$62.50 ($20 ages 18-29, $10 ages 17 & under)
- Alexi Kenney, violin
- Jessica Lee, violin
- Hanna Lee, viola
- Nokuthula Ngwenyama, viola
- Zitong Wang, piano
- Valerie Coleman, flute
- Han Lash, harp
Nokuthula Ngwenyama — Down (CMNW co-commission, west coast premiere)
Han Lash — Music in Cold (CMNW co-commission, west coast premiere)
Valerie Coleman — Aja (CMNW co-commission, west coast premiere)
R. Murray Schafer — Trio for flute, viola, and harp
Sergei Rachmaninoff — Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 36
Three years in the making, be among the first to hear the exciting West Coast debut of this powerhouse composer collective and stunning ensemble of performers. CMNW favorites flutist Valerie Coleman, violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and harpist Han Lash came together to create umama womama, a unique three-composer trio, to help us celebrate our 50th anniversary season. Postponed by the pandemic, this incredible trio of beloved musicians and their music will finally be unleashed!
About Chamber Music Northwest (CMNW)
Chamber Music Northwest serves more than 50,000 people annually in Oregon and SW Washington with exceptional chamber music through over 100 events annually, including our flagship Summer Festival, year-round concerts, community activities, educational programs, broadcasts, and innovative collaborations with other arts groups. CMNW is the only chamber music festival of its kind in the Northwest and one of the most diverse classical music experiences in the nation, virtually unparalleled in comparable communities.
Chamber Music Northwest's mission is to inspire our community through concerts and events celebrating the richness and diversity of chamber music, performed by artists of the highest caliber, presenting our community with exceptional opportunities for enjoyment, education, and reflection.
https://cmnw.org/About umama womama
Flutist Valerie Coleman, violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and harpist Han Lash joined forces in 2019 to create an all-star ensemble whose mission is to celebrate motherhood and champion the performer-composer hybrid artist model, while expanding the Debussy trio combination of flute, viola, and harp through the creativity of its members. The name umama womama is a rhythmic play of the word "mother" in Zulu, said in the singular and plural. It speaks to the complex responsibilities of its members, whose artistry as performers and composers is informed by their related experiences. Delayed by pandemic for two years, this ensemble makes its anticipated debut with the Phoenix Chamber Music Society, Clarion Concerts, and Chamber Music Northwest in the 2022 spring and 2023 summer seasons.
https://www.vcolemanmusic.com/umama-womama.htmlAbout Alexi Kenney, violin
Violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras around the world, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated musicians of our time. Alexi is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
http://www.alexikenney.com/About Jessica Lee, violin
https://www.clevelandorchestra.com/discover/meet-the-musicians/first-violins/lee-jessica/
About Nokuthula Ngwenyama, viola
About Zitong Wang, piano
Award-winning Chinese pianist Zitong Wang made her solo recital debut at age 13 in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. She has performed at such venues as the Steinway Hall in New York, Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, and Severance Hall in Cleveland. She has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Galicia Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic, Yakima Symphony, and Waring Festival Orchestras. She has worked with conductors Jahja Ling, Xian Zhang, Lina Gonzalez-Granados, José Trigueros, and Yang Yang.
Among others, she won first prize in the Rosalyn Tureck International Bach Competition and Virginia Waring International Concerto Competition, second prize in the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition, and first prize in the Princeton Festival Competition and France Music Competition. In 2022, she won first prize and the “Nelson Freire Prize” for the best performer of a piece by Frederick Chopin in the XXXIII Ferrol International Piano Competition.
https://igor.cn/portfolio/wang-zitong/index.htmlAbout Valerie Coleman, flute
Lincoln Performance Hall (LH 175) at Portland State University
1620 SW Park AvePortland, OR 97201
United States