NEWS RELEASE
The Cleveland Orchestra performs Family Concert
program titled “The Composer Is Dead”
at Severance Hall on April 25
Program featuring collaboration by popular children’s author Lemony Snicket and acclaimed composer Nathaniel Stookey to be conducted by James Feddeck
CLEVELAND, April 13, 2010 – The Cleveland Orchestra will perform its third and final Family Concert of the 2009-10 season on Sunday, April 25, at 2:00 p.m. The featured piece on the program, titled The Composer Is Dead, is a collaboration by best-selling children’s author Lemony Snicket and acclaimed composer Nathaniel Stookey. The concert will be led by Assistant Conductor James Feddeck and will feature Nathaniel Stookey as narrator.
The Composer Is Dead uses a mystery and humor to introduce children to the orchestra, in a 21st-century update of the Peter and the Wolf tradition. The Composer Is Dead was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, which premiered the work at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on July 8, 2006. The San Francisco Chronicle called The Composer Is Dead “a deliciously morbid entertainment in the vein of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events.” (The Composer Is Dead is also available in book form and on a compact disc by the San Francisco Symphony. The book cover is shown above.)
A video clip about The Composer Is Dead may be seen at YouTube - Lemony Snicket and Nathaniel Stookey on The Composer Is Dead.
The Composer Is Dead Storytime – Meet the Composer
Composer Nathaniel Stookey will read from Lemony Snicket’s children’s book The Composer Is Dead on Saturday, April 25, at 1:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Eton Chagrin Boulevard, 28801 Chagrin Blvd. in Woodmere, Ohio. Phone: (216) 765-7520.
Biographical information on James Feddeck follows. Biographical information on Nathaniel Stookey is available on request.
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One-hour Family Concerts are designed for children ages 7 and older and their families, providing an opportunity for families to spend time together while enjoying popular classical music performed by The Cleveland Orchestra in Severance Hall. Each concert is preceded by fun, free, concert-related activities throughout the Hall, beginning one hour prior to the performance.
Pre-Concert Activies
Pre-Concert Activities for the “Composer Is Dead” Family Concert include:
- Cuyahoga County Public Library (Smith Lobby, Ground Floor) – Concertgoers can see what’s new in the libraries of Cuyahoga County and view a display of books by Lemony Snicket.
- Hathaway Brown Chamber Players (Reinberger Chamber Hall, Ground Floor) – Chamber music performed by students from Hathaway Brown School.
- Artists Corner (Founders Gallery, Box Level) – The composers may be dead, but children can bring them back to life by choosing a drawing of a composer from the concert program to color. Children can create a colorful composer keepsake to take home as an addition to their Severance Hall Family Concert experience.
- Instrument Discovery with Royalton Music Center (Strings: Smith Lobby, Ground Floor; Brass, Woodwind, Percussion: Dress Circle/Balcony Lobby) – Children can discover their “inner musician” by trying out a string, brass, woodwind, or percussion instrument in this hands-on music-making experience, with the assistance of associates from Royalton Music Center and students from Baldwin-Wallace College.
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Family Concerts are sponsored by Giant Eagle.
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The Cleveland Orchestra’s Family Concerts are part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Community Music Initiative, a broad array of educational programs designed to foster a love of music and a lifetime of participation in the musical arts, and to provide greater access to orchestral music to more of Cleveland’s citizens than ever before. New this year, Cleveland Orchestra musicians use music to help children at local Head Start sites learn school readiness skills as part of the PNC Grow up Great program; Cleveland Orchestra musicians who are MusicMentors support school string programs in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District; and the MusicMasters program draws on the expertise of Orchestra musicians to offer clinics, masterclasses, and coaching throughout the region. Other educational programs include Cleveland Orchestra Education Concerts (which bring more than 16,000 school children to Severance Hall each year), the Learning Through Music school partnership program, Concert Previews, the Student Advantage Program for college students, Music Study Groups for adults, and several programs to nurture aspiring young musicians (Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Youth Chorus, and Children’s Chorus). For more information about any of these programs, call the Orchestra’s Department of Education and Community Programs at (216) 231-7355, or visit clevelandorchestra.com.
Calendar Listing
Sunday, April 25, at 2:00 p.m.
(Pre-concert activities 1:00-1:45 p.m.)
Severance Hall
FAMILY CONCERT
The Cleveland Orchestra
James Feddeck, conductor
Nathaniel Stookey, composer and narrator
The Composer Is Dead
There’s dreadful news from Severance Hall – the composer is dead and the perpetrator is lurking within the orchestra! The Composer Is Dead is a morbidly funny musical whodunit that “investigates” every section of the orchestra – a Peter and the Wolf for the 21st century, aimed at a new generation.
Family Concerts are sponsored by Giant Eagle.
Tickets are priced at $10, $15, $16, $18, and $23.
To charge tickets by telephone on American Express, Discover Card, MasterCard, and Visa, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at (216) 231-1111 or 800-686-1141 during regular ticket office hours (Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.). Tickets are also available online. The website offers secure ticket transactions with any major credit card and provides complete concert listings.
Please note: There are no added service charges or handling fees for concert tickets purchased through the Severance Hall Ticket Office – in person, by telephone or fax, or on the website.
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Press Contact: Jennifer Schlosser, (216) 231-7518 / jschlosser@clevelandorchestra.com
James Feddeck
Assistant Conductor
Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Endowed Chair
The Cleveland Orchestra
Music Director
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
James Feddeck is in his first season as an assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, having been appointed by Franz Welser-Möst in March 2009. As assistant conductor, Mr. Feddeck conducts Education, Family, and other concerts and serves as cover conductor for Severance Hall and Blossom Festival subscription concerts. He also helps oversee the editing of archival recordings of concerts and provide assistance to Franz Welser-Möst. Mr. Feddeck made his debut with The Cleveland Orchestra in a Blossom Festival concert in August 2009, as an Aspen Academy Conductor.
As music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Mr. Feddeck leads the ensemble in weekly rehearsals and conducts its 2009-10 season three-concert series in Severance Hall, concerts in the Cleveland area, and a performance for Severance Hall’s Community Open House Day in January 2010. In March, he conducted the Youth Orchestra in a side-by-side concert with The Cleveland Orchestra, for high-school students.
James Feddeck came to Cleveland from his prior position as assistant conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. During his two-season tenure in Memphis, he developed and conducted subscription programs, educational concerts, and community programs, and served as an advocate for music education.
During the summer of 2009, Mr. Feddeck served as assistant conductor at the Aspen Music Festival and School. A conducting fellow for three summers at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied with Murry Sidlin and David Zinman, James Feddeck received the Aspen Conducting Prize in 2008. He was awarded the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize in 2007 and was nominated for the Glimmerglass Opera Conducting Prize in 2006. In addition, he was the unanimous winner of the Sixth Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition and, at twenty-two, its youngest participant.
Mr. Feddeck’s musical training and background is unusually diverse and multifaceted. He holds the distinction of having been admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in four areas: piano, oboe, organ, and conducting. While at Oberlin, he was music director and conductor of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Following undergraduate and graduate degrees from Oberlin, where he studied conducting with Steven Smith, Timothy Weiss, and Bridget-Michaele Reischl, Mr. Feddeck continued his studies in conducting at the University of Michigan, working with Kenneth Kiesler. He has participated in conducting masterclasses at Aspen with Patrick Summers, Harry Bicket, and James Conlon.
An accomplished organist, Mr. Feddeck has performed recitals throughout Europe and North America and has won competitions sponsored by the American Guild of Organists. As an oboist, he has taken a special interest in new music, having commissioned and premiered works including Daniel Pinkham’s Oboe Quartet.
Recent and upcoming conducting engagements include appearances at the Aspen Music Festival with artists including Misha Dichter and Cho-Liang Lin, Cleveland Institute of Music, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (with soloist Yo-Yo Ma), and return performances with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.
