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To start the new year, the Pasadena Community Orchestra is hosting “Past + Present,” a two-hour virtual concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 15, that will offer both old and new performances.
First will be the Jazz Cello Quartet by Shirl Jae Atwell, followed by a few other past performances.
Atwell’s performance was recorded by four members of the PCO cello section in October. Following Atwell is a past performance of the Wieniawski Violin Concerto No. 2, featuring Aubree Oliverson on violin. This performance from November 2016 is her second of three appearances with the PCO, and the orchestra is pleased that she has agreed to this encore presentation.
Atwell earned her bachelors’ degree from Kansas State Teachers College and a master of music theory/composition degree at the University of Louisville. She also completed four years of post-graduate work in composition at the University of South Carolina.
In 1984, Atwell won the Clifford Shaw Memorial Award for Kentucky Composers; was commissioned to write “Fear Not, Little Flock” for the 175th anniversary of the Little Flock Baptist Church; and saw the New York City debut of her first opera, “Sagegrass.” In 1991, another of her operas, “Esta Hargis,” was premièred at Emporia State University in Kansas, followed shortly by the 1992 debut of “Handelian,” a work for string orchestra premièred by the Jefferson County All-County Middle School Orchestra.
The Southern Baptist Seminary Orchestra in Louisville premièred her “Movements Four South,” an orchestral suite, in 1993. That year also saw the placement of six Atwell scores in the permanent collection of the Paris Bibliothèque Internationale de Musique Contemporaine, at the invitation of the Contemporary Music International Information Service.
Atwell was named the 1996 winner of the National School Orchestra Association composition contest with her string orchestra piece, “Modus á Four.” She is also the 1997 winner of the Texas Orchestra Directors Association contest with a string orchestra piece entitled “Drifen.”
Atwell retired from full-time string teaching with the Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky in 2007. She is now spending her time composing, conducting, arranging, presenting and working with string teachers in the Louisville area and throughout the southeast. She is an active member of ASCAP.
At 22, Aubree Oliverson is proving to be one of America’s most promising young artists. She has been praised for her evocative lyricism and joyful, genuine approach, and her performances have been described by the Miami New Times as “endearing and powerful… brimming with confidence and joy.” San Diego Story described her music as “masterful… [with a] rich and warm sonority.”
Filled with a refreshingly positive outlook, Oliverson made her solo debut with the Utah Symphony at age 11 and has since been devoted to pursuing a life in music.
She has garnered several accolades, including her Carnegie Hall Weill Hall recital debut at age 12 as winner of the American Protégé International Strings Competition, several featured performances on NPR’s hit radio show From the Top, a 2016 National YoungArts Foundation Award, the prestigious Dorothy DeLay Fellowship and concerto performance at the Aspen Music Festival, and winner of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, the highest honor the U.S. government can bestow on a high school student.
The concert will be available on the PCO events webpage, www.pcomusic.org/events, and on YouTube. For more information, call (626) 445-6708 or email info@pcomusic.org.
