This came in over the weekend from the Concordia Conservatory:
“The Community Fund presents the second of three music and literature programs titled “Musical Adventures at the Library with Concordia Conservatory” on January 14 & 15. The second presentation will be “Trickster Tales.” The performances are free and open to the public.
Trickster Tales: “Anansi and the Magic Sticks” and “Anansi and the Talking Elephant,” by Eric A. Kimmel.
Cottle School Library, Tuckahoe, 12:40 p.m. Jan. 14
Eastchester Library, 11 a.m. Jan. 15
Bronxville Library, 1 p.m., Jan. 15
These performances are geared to children from pre-school to early elementary and their families. The program will be presented by Conservatory faculty member Yousif Sheronick, percussion, and Claire Simard, soprano and storyteller.
Hailed by the New York Times for his “dazzling improvisations” Yousif Sheronick appears internationally as soloist and chamber musician with world-renowned groups and artists such as Philip Glass, Ethos Percussion Group, Glen Velez, Foday Musa Suso, Simon Shaheen, Henry Threadgill, Lark Chamber Artists and Paul Winter Consort. duoJalal is his most recent venture with violist and wife Kathryn Lockwood.
Sheronick’s unique style encompasses traditions and instruments from the Middle East, North and West Africa, Brazil, India, and Europe. His ability to work in such diverse genres is due to having studied contemporary classical, jazz, world and rock music, which he seamlessly fuses into his playing.
Critics say Yousif “is capable of creating hypnotic atmospheres” (Mundoclasico) where he “transported the listener to another dimension.” (Ritmic). Venue performances include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Royal Festival Hall (London) and Wigmore Hall (London). Collaborators include Yo-Yo Ma, Branford Marsalis, Pandit Samir Chatterjee, Marcel Khalife, Sonny Fortune and Cindy Blackman.
Sheronick holds degrees from Yale University and the University of Iowa, is artist in residence with Ethos Percussion Group at Lehman College (Bronx, NY) and is currently teaching at Lafayette College (Easton PA) and presenting a series of master classes at Manhattan School of Music.
Claire Simard is an accomplished singer, actress and pianist whose performances have taken her from Paris to Italy, New York, and Washington, D.C. She received her Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance from the Catholic University of America and continued her studies at the Conservatoire de Paris and Brooklyn College, where she is pursuing a Masters in Voice.
Simard’s classical training has enabled her to perform a variety of styles of music, from opera to musical theatre. She has sung with the Bronx Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, International Institute of Vocal Arts, Underworld Opera, Christ Church of Bronxville, and St. Joseph Church.
She performs regularly with Broadway actors and musicians at Salon Sundays at the Algonquin Hotel, and has been involved in several readings and workshops of new musicals. She has also performed in the Washington, D.C. premiere of Follies, and has been recognized with two Spirit nominations for Best Actress.
Simard has worked extensively with children and teens on voice technique, acting, and musical theatre repertoire, assisting with productions such as Godspell, Jr., You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Annie, Barnum, and Grease. Claire also co-founded and directed a Musical Theatre Intensive workshop with the Mystic Arts Association in Mystic, CT. She is on the faculty at Concordia Conservatory where she teaches voice and musical theatre.
The Community Fund presents Musical Adventures at the Library with Concordia Conservatory in November, January, and April of 2010-11 in partnership with the Concordia Conservatory and the public libraries of Bronxville, Eastchester, and Tuckahoe along with the school librarians in the Bronxville, Eastchester and Tuckahoe school districts.
This grant program is designed to offer free programming to surrounding communities through music and literature presentations and to enhance public and private school language arts and music curricula in Bronxville, Eastchester, and Tuckahoe.
The grant from The Community Fund for this project reaches children ranging in age from 3 – 13 years old and their families. 2010-11 celebrates the
fourth consecutive year for the grant program partnership with The Community Fund, the public libraries of Bronxville, Eastchester and Tuckahoe, and Concordia Conservatory of Music & Art.
For information, call 395-4507, email kathleen.suss@concordia-ny.edu or contact the Eastchester, Bronxville and Tuckahoe public libraries.
Concordia Conservatory’s mission is to inspire, instruct, and enrich lives through music and the visual arts offering excellence in education, performance, and exhibition.
