SONO AUROS Trio
Recital with flutist Lucian Rinando, cellist Samuel Magill and harpist extraordinaire Mélanie Genin
PROGRAM
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Beau Soir
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Reverie
Paul Dupin (1865-1949) Pièce dialoguée
André Jolivet (1905-1974) Pastorales de Noël
Christian Dachez (*1951) Un jour Bleu (world premiere)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Sonate en trio for flute viola and harp (arranged for the cello by Sam Magill)
Encore: Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Clair de Lune
BIOS
Known for his richly expressive tone and artistry, flutist Lucian Rinando is admired equally for his chamber music and orchestral performances. He has performed for more than two decades with the trio, Elysian, an ensemble of flute, cello and harp with cellist Samuel Magill and harpist Elaine Christy. As winners of the Artists’ International Award, they performed their debut recital at Weill Recital Hall in 1997. Writing in Strings Magazine, Edith Eisler praised the group as “...masters of their instruments”. Elysian has performed in concert series in the US and in festivals abroad such as the Costa Rica International Music Festival and the Albert Roussel Festival in Belgium.
In 2011, Mr. Rinando recorded with musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra on the Azur label featuring the world premier recording of René de Castéra’s Basque-inspired Concerto for Flute, Clarinet, Cello and Piano. That disc was named “Record of the Year” by the U.K. based www.musicweb-international.com, where the critic wrote, “...The musicians put their heart and soul into this recording, and the result is a resounding success.” Locally, Mr. Rinando was a participant in the New York Chamber Music Festival at Symphony Space for several seasons and has performed numerous concerts for more than a decade on the New York Public Library Concert Series. Other series of chamber music include Chamber Music Westchester in Tarrytown, NY, Downtown Music at Grace in White Plains, NY, and The Tower Hill Chamber Music Society in Red Bank, NJ, where he was also a member of the Red Bank Chamber Music Society.
Currently, Lucian is delighted to debut the newly formed ensemble, Sono Auros, with cellist Sameul Magill and harpist extraordinaire Mélanie Genin. They will be playing on the Oakland Library Series in Oakland, NJ and also the Richter Art Association in Danbury, CT this spring.
Lucian Rinando has been principal flutist of the Garden State Philharmonic since 2002. Other engagements with orchestras have been as principal flute for the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Cantori New York, The New York City Opera National Touring Company, and Sunset Boulevard on Broadway. He was a flute extra for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for 10 seasons. In addition to flute performance, Mr. Rinando was the Assistant Conductor of the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons. The Asbury Park Press praised his conducting as “warm, sumptuous performances… Rinando’s gestures seemed graceful and confident in his interpretation”.
Under the astute pedagogy of Mr. Bernard Z. Goldberg, he earned a Bachelor of Music Performance from Duquesne University. He also studied in New York with renowned flutists Jeanne Baxtresser, Trudy Kane, and Judith Mendenhall.
Cellist Samuel Magill has been called ’… a world-class artist (Magill’s opulent tone is positively seductive)…” in the March/April, 2018 issue of Fanfare Magazine. Of his Centaur release of Andrew Rudin’s Cello Sonata, Fanfare wrote, “Throughout, Magill’s beautiful cello tone is in evidence, endlessly expressive, subtle in shading. Rudin is presently writing a composition for solo cello for this Metropolitan Opera Orchestra member, a first rate artist and instrumentalist.” His first Naxos CD of the Cello Concerto of Vernon Duke was hailed as "flat-out magnificent" by the American Record Guide, while The Strad wrote in 2010 of his world premier recording of Franco Alfano's Cello Sonata "...Magill's husky, dark timbre matches the Cello Sonata's yearning intensity to perfection...”
The June, 2014 STRAD Magazine raved about Magill’s “sumptuous tone” in his March, 2014 recital at Bargemusic in New York, in which he and Beth Levin performed the rarely heard Czerny transcription of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. This led to their latest recording, titled Cello Music from Austria-Hungary; this 2016 Navona release features the Kreutzer, the Sonata for Solo Cello by Artur Schnabel, and Emanuel Moór’s Ballade, for Cello and Piano. Of the Schnabel, in Jed Distler wrote in Classics Today, “…Magill’s superb technique, range of color, and intelligent pacing make a compelling case for a work that I’m sure many cellists will find rewarding.” He wrote about the Beethoven, “The point is that the musical message transcends any questions of instrument on account of Magill’s supple bow arm, spotless intonation, and tonal evenness, abetted by Levin’s intense response to Beethoven’s subito dynamics and her sound collaborative instincts.”
Sam has appeared as soloist throughout Japan and the U.S., including performances of the Schumann Concerto and Brahms Double Concerto in Tokyo's famed Suntory Hall and in Alice Tully Hall. Mr. Magill has partnered with the pianists Oxana Yablonskaya, Pascal Rogé and the late Grant Johannesen, and has given annual recitals since 1994 at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He is a co-founder of The Elysian Ensemble, a Flute, Cello and Harp Trio. They made their New York debut at Weill Recital Hall to critical acclaim. Strings Magazine declared them "masters of their instruments".
A pupil of the late Zara Nelsova, Mr. Magill was educated at the Peabody Institute and Rice University. He is currently a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York, and was formerly Associate Principal Cello. He was for nine summers Principal Cello and Soloist of the New York Symphonic Ensemble. As such he toured throughout Japan playing the concerti of Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Dvorak, Dohnanyi, Schumann, Brahms and Beethoven. Three of these performances were recorded live by Panasonic. Magill was also a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Houston Symphony, and was Principal Cello of the Houston Ballet Orchestra. He has been a Guest Principal Cello for Opera North in Leeds, U.K. In July of 2015, Magill served as Principal Cello of the Castleton Festival in Virginia, and has been a participant in the Lake Tahoe Summerfest.
He is a founding member of the New York Piano Quartet, the resident ensemble of the New York Chamber Music Festival, under the direction of Violinist Elmira Darvarova. The Quartet released 2 CDs on the Urlicht label in January 2013. Of the Erich Korngold and Joseph Marx Quartets, Gramophone Magazine (May 2013) wrote: "Both pieces receive ultra-impassioned, vividly detailed performances…”
Hailed as “a globe-trotter” and “singular harp virtuoso” by L’Union France and the Epoch times of New York, Mélanie Genin is known for her “desire to re-shape and re-invent classical music” (Justine Philippe, L’Union, France).
Since her solo debut at Carnegie Hall with the International Shining Stars, Ms. Genin has performed in some of the most prestigious halls in the world, including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall London, KKL Luzern, Audi Hall München, Avery Fisher Hall, Salle Pleyel, Théâtre du Châtelet, and Théâtre des Champs Elysées, under conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Mark Elder, Alan Gilbert, Pablos Heras-Casado, and Leonard Slatkin. Her talent extends to working with and commissioning pieces from young composers, most notably for “Toward the Sea”, an immersive, multimedia show co-created with Australian flutist Catherine Gregory, which debuted at New York’s Lincoln Center.
A sought-after chamber music partner, Ms. Genin regularly performs with Grammy-nominated violinist Elmira Darvarova (former Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera). In 2016 she accompanies the legendary prima ballerina Uliana Lopatkina in the Dying Swan at Lincoln Center in a cello and harp version. She is part of Sono Auros, a trio newly formed with flutist Lucian Rinando and cellist Samuel Magill (Metropolitan Opera). In demand as a soloist she did the US premiere of the Triple Concerto for Harp, Guitar and Cimbalom by Hungarian composer Balint Karosi. She was recently invited to perform the Concerto for Harp by Ginastera, the Harp Concertino by Dohnanyi with the Spectrum Symphony of New York and the Mozart Double Concerto with the Washington Square Park Festival. Active alumni of the Lucerne Festival Academy, she returns to the Festival frequently for various projects including NoMozart a collective creation of six musicians.
Away from the stage, Ms. Genin is committed to bringing comfort to those in need, a passion which is manifested through her art therapy project “Harpe Porte à Porte”, where she takes her harp to perform at the bedside of sick children, cancer sufferers and the terminally ill. During her visits Ms. Genin is able to connect with patients, their families and caregivers, giving them a way to escape from their pain to a place of comfort and relief.
A native of France, Ms. Genin received her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where she studied with Isabelle Moretti. She was then selected as one of only two recipients of a Bruni-Sarkosy Foundation scholarship to study at The Juilliard School in New York with Nancy Allen. She subsequently became the first harpist to ever be admitted into the Artist Diploma program at The Manhattan School of Music, where she studied under the guidance of the late Deborah Hoffman, Susan Jolles and Mariko Anraku. In 2014 she was named the only harpist finalist of the Concert Artist Guild competition and was also a semi-finalist of the Young Concert Artist series in New York.
The highlights of Ms. Genin’s 2017-2018 season include the recording of “French Masterpieces” with Elmira Darvarova, a performance of the Handel Concerto at Carnegie Hall with the Lucerne Festival Alumni Ensemble, Toward the Sea with Catherine Gregory at Scrag Mountain Festival, the creation of three pieces by Christian Dachez including Un Jour Bleu with the Sono Auros trio, her chair at Radio City Hall performing the Christmas Spectacular and featuring the Rockettes. 2018 marks her return to the Washington Square Park Festival and a tour in Luxembourg and Switzerland with Nomozart, a Lucerne Festival production.
