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PostClassical Ensemble with James Austin Smith

Chamber Ensemble

Sunday Concert

Sold Out / Online / In-Person

Single Tickets: $35 members | $50 non-members
PCE

Oboist James Austin Smith, praised by the New York Times for his virtuosic, dazzling, and brilliant performances, joins members of Washington, DC’s premiere chamber orchestra, PostClassical Ensemble, in a program of virtuoso works for oboe and strings. Conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez, the program includes oboe repertoire from the Baroque to today, with music by Tomaso Albinoni, Florence Price, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Luciano Berio. PostClassical Ensemble will also perform DC native George Walker’s deeply moving Lyric for Strings and Smith will present a stirring solo piece by Guggenheim Fellow and Rome Prize winner Suzanne Farrin. They conclude with Grammy award-winning composer Kevin Puts’s Oboe Concerto No. 1.

Under the leadership of Music Director Angel Gil-Ordóñez, Washington’s PostClassical Ensemble (PCE) breathes new life into the orchestral experience through imaginative programming performed by the most talented musicians in the nation’s capital. Founded in 2003, PCE is a pioneer in transforming the concert experience through inclusive and original story-telling. Its performances include collaborations, across artistic mediums, that showcase how Film, Literature, and Art enhance and inspire a new way to experience the musical repertoire.

Praised for his “virtuosic,” “dazzling" and “brilliant” performances (The New York Times) and his “bold, keen sound” (The New Yorker), oboist James Austin Smith performs new and old music across the United States and around the world.  Mr. Smith is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Decoda, co-principal oboist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Artistic and Executive Director of Tertulia, a chamber music series that takes place in restaurants in New York and San Francisco  He is a member of the oboe and chamber music faculties of Stony Brook University and the Manhattan School of Music.

Mr. Smith’s festival appearances include Marlboro, Lucerne, Music@Menlo, Spoleto USA, Bowdoin, Bay Chamber Concerts, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Orlando; he has performed with the St. Lawrence, Parker, Rolston and Orion string quartets and recorded for the Nonesuch, Bridge, Mode and Kairos labels.

Mr. Smith received his Master of Music degree in 2008 from the Yale School of Music and graduated in 2005 with Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) and Bachelor of Music degrees from Northwestern University.  He spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Leipzig, Germany at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” and is an alumnus of Ensemble Connect, a collaboration of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, the Weill Music Institute and the New York City Department of Education.  Mr. Smith’s principal teachers are Stephen Taylor, Christian Wetzel, Humbert Lucarelli and Ray Still.

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