Judith Lynn Stillman teams up with NASA’s first woman director Carolyn Huntoon, WaterFire’s Barnaby Evans and members of the RI Philharmonic Orchestra for Music Without Borders on November 2, 2019.
Bottom row: Barnaby Evans, Steven Laven, Abigail Kubert Cross, & Katherine Winterstein.
WaterFire’s Barnaby Evans and NASA’s Carolyn Huntoon of Barrington featured
in Stillman’s composition in honor of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing,
called SMALL STEP, GIANT LEAP: A Lunar Fantasy.
The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School hosts Music Without Borders: Judith Lynn Stillman and Friends from the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. Pianist Stillman performs with Orchestra members Katherine Winterstein, violin, Abigail Cross, viola, and Steven Laven, cello, in a variety of works celebrating cultures from around the globe…and beyond!
The chamber music program includes special appearances by WaterFire’s Barnaby Evans and Barrington’s Dr. Carolyn Leach Huntoon, the first woman to serve as Director of NASA’S Johnson Space Center. Together they narrate Stillman’s SMALL STEP, GIANT LEAP: A Lunar Fantasy, commissioned in 2019 in honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon landing.
The event is at 8 p.m. on Saturday (Nov. 2) at the Carter Center for Music Education & Performance, 667 Waterman Ave., East Providence. (On Oct. 30, at 1 p.m., there will be a preview performance at Sapinsley Hall, Rhode Island College.)
“Showcasing composers from Spain to China, the evening encompasses ethnic, indigenous and folk idioms within classical frameworks, and music that intermingles cultural traditions. The audience will experience, firsthand, that music is an extraordinary, unifying force. Our program highlights diverse cultures and represents an eclectic amalgamation of music from around the world, seemingly disparate. Yet, inspired melodies, passionate harmonies, driving rhythms, and overarching organic structures connect us all under the boundless umbrella of musical creation.”
– Judith Lynn Stillman
At a Glance
Music Without Borders: Judith Lynn Stillman and Friends from the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra
8:00 pm – Saturday, November 2, 2019
RI Philharmonic’s Carter Center for Music Performance & Education
667 Waterman Ave., East Providence
Judith Lynn Stillman, artistic director and pianist
Barnaby Evans, narrator
Carolyn Leach Huntoon, narrator
RI Philharmonic Orchestra members
Katherine Winterstein, violin
Abigail Cross, viola
Steven Laven, cello
Joaquín Turina: Piano Quartet in A Minor, Op. 67
Richard Strauss: Liebesliedchen for piano, violin, viola and cello,
Rabih Abou-Khalil: Arabian Waltz for Piano Trio
Judith Lynn Stillman: SMALL STEP, GIANT LEAP: A Lunar Fantasy
and works by Joaquín Rodrigo, Josef Suk, and more.
BUY TICKETS
Tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for students 18 and under or with a college ID, $10 for RI Philharmonic Music School students and family members. Tickets can be purchased online at tickets.riphil.org, in-person from the RI Philharmonic Orchestra Box Office in East Providence, or by phone 401.248.7000 (Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.). Day of concert tickets will be available at the Carter Center starting at 7 p.m. Questions and for information email [email protected].
Additional Show Time:
Music Without Borders: Judith Lynn Stillman and Friends from the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra
1:00 pm – Monday, October 30
Sapinsley Hall, Rhode Island College
Admission is free with a suggested donation of $10, and tickets are available at the door.
About Judith Lynn Stillman, pianist, composer and filmmaker
Judith Lynn Stillman hailed as an “artistic visionary,” is the Artist-in-Residence and a Professor of Music at Rhode Island College. She enjoys an active performing career nationally and internationally, including at the Marlboro, Tanglewood, and Grand Teton music festivals, in world premieres at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and at the Grammy’s celebration in honor of Rostropovich. Ms. Stillman has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Mark O’Connor, Carol Wincenc, Paula Robison, Andras Schiff, Richard Stoltzman, Borromeo, Shanghai, Muir, Cassatt, and Lydian string quartets, the Beach Boys, in a BOSE commercial with Herbie Hancock, principals of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, as visiting guest artist at major conservatories in China, Russia, Scotland and the Czech Republic, and as music director in Rome and Verona, Italy. Winner of 18 piano competitions, the first Pell Award in the Arts, and the Christiana Carteaux Bannister Award for Civil Service in the Arts, Ms. Stillman holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School, where she won the Juilliard concerto competition and the Dethier Prize for Outstanding Pianist. Ms. Stillman, as filmmaker-composer-pianist, has garnered awards including Grand Jury Prize: Best Music Video, Best Multimedia Film, Best Music Score and Audience Choice in international film festivals in Los Angeles, Montréal, New York and the United Kingdom and screenings in 48 countries worldwide. Her iconic duo recording with Wynton Marsalis on Sony Classical was on the Top Ten of the Billboard charts: “Stillman and Marsalis make an impeccable duo. The playing consistently dazzles.”
About RI Philharmonic Orchestra members
Praised by critics for playing that is “as exciting as it is beautiful,” and for “livewire intensity” that is both “memorably demonic” and full of “personal warmth and charisma,” violinist Katherine Winterstein enjoys a wide range of musical endeavors. Ms. Winterstein is the concertmaster of the Vermont Symphony, the acting assistant concertmaster of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and performs regularly with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She is a member of the Hartt String Quartet, and this past summer was her 14th season with the Craftsbury Chamber Players. She has appeared as soloist with several orchestras including the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, the Champlain Philharmonic, the Boston Virtuosi, and the Vermont Symphony. She has served on the performance faculty of Middlebury College in Vermont since 2002 and joined the faculty of the Hartt School of Music in September of 2011.
Born in Syracuse, N.Y., violist Abigail Kubert Cross started her musical career studying Suzuki piano at age four and, at age nine, picked up the viola in the public schools. In 1993 and 1995 respectively, Ms. Cross received her bachelor’s and master’s from Boston University where she studied with Steven Ansell, principal viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She spent her summers at Tanglewood, Kneisel Hall, Sarasota Music Festival, and one summer performing opera in Rome. She is currently the principal viola of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, a position she has held for 21 years. In addition, she is a member of the Boston Lyric Opera Orchestra and performs regularly with the Boston Ballet, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Odyssey Opera, BMOP and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra. As a member of Walt Disney World’s All-American College Orchestra Alumni, Ms. Cross performs a yearly concert in Orlando.
Cellist Steven Laven appears with the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra (principal cellist), the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. He is also an adjunct instructor of cello and chamber music at Rhode Island College, performing in the faculty Proteus String Quartet. Previously, he has held titled positions with the Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera and Omaha Symphony Orchestra. He has earned cello performance degrees from the Eastman and Manhattan schools of music.
About the guest narrators
Dr. Carolyn Leach Huntoon, who lives in Barrington, spent 30 years on the frontiers of space exploration. Dr. Huntoon began her research into the human physiological aspects of space flight during the Gemini and Apollo programs as a graduate student. Today, she continues to participate in defining and developing experiments to explain changes in the human body caused by space flight. Dr. Huntoon joined NASA in 1968 through a National Research Council post-doctoral research fellowship.
Her career has been broadened with a variety of assignments within the Agency. She was chosen as Chief of the Biomedical Laboratories Branch at the Johnson Space Center, responsible for all aspects of biochemical, hematological and physiological investigations of humans in space. From the start of the Shuttle program, Dr. Huntoon has participated in astronaut selection boards. Dr. Huntoon served as Associate Director of the Johnson Space Center from 1984-1987—sharing management responsibilities for the wide variety of activities at this large research and development facility. In 1987, she was named as Director of Space and Life Sciences with responsibility for managing medical research and operations as well as the physical sciences activities at Johnson Space Center. In 1994, she was appointed Director of Nasa’s Johnson Space Center.
About Barnaby Evans, Artistic and Executive Director, WaterFire Providence
Barnaby Evans is an artist, designer, developer, thought leader and consultant who uses his experience in many fields and media to create original solutions in planning, public art, public space, environmental resiliency, and urban interfaces. Originally trained as a scientist focusing on environment and ecology, Mr. Evans creates original artworks and design solutions involving major urban interventions, site-specific sculpture installations, photography, landscape, architectural/design projects, writing and conceptual works. Mr. Evans combines his technical and ecological expertise, an awareness of spatial psychology, his sensitivity as an artist and a design philosophy to create unique solutions to public art and urban issues.
Mr. Evans created WaterFire in Providence in 1994 as part of an effort to rebrand and re-establish Providence as a destination. Frustrated by the intense negativity of the local residents about their capital city and recognizing that the just-finished award-winning river relocation plan and park would need pump-priming to be an effective change agent, Mr. Evans designed WaterFire as a city-scale intervention that combines a design approach with aesthetics, land art, installation, site-specific work, music, ritual and spectacle.
Featured image: Moon at the WaterFire Arts Center. Photograph by Jen Bonin.
About the author
I've worked at WaterFire Providence since 2003. For the first 9 years of my career, I worked in the Production Shop learning all of the details that go into the physical production of the event. In 2012 transitioned to the role of managing WaterFire's social media and web presence. I now head up WaterFire Providence's digital projects including, web, social, databases, and our physical IT infrastructure.
