Works by American Composers Steven R. Gerber and Benjamin Lees To Have
German Premieres at Berlin's Neue Synagogue - Centrum Judaicum on
Sunday, November 17

American composers Steven R. Gerber and Benjamin Lees will both receive
German Premieres of major chamber works on Sunday, November 17 - 8 PM at
Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum, located at Oranienburger
Strasse 28/30.

Mr. Gerber's "Spirituals" for Clarinet and String Quartet (1992) and Mr.
Lees' Piano Trio "Silent Voices" (1998) will be presented along with
Mendelssohn's Piano Quartet No. 2 in a program series titled "Remembering
Felix." This is the second of two programs, the first on November 16,
presenting other works by Mendelssohn, as well as Ernest Toch and Robert
Starer, whose piece is entitled "Remembering Felix."

Music Director and pianist for this concert series will be Vladimir
Stoupel. Mr. Stoupel, a native of Moscow and graduate of the Moscow
Conservatory, was a 1986 prizewinner at the International Piano Competition
in Geneva after which he gave his European debut recitals.  His virtuosity,
extensive and difficult repertoire and lucid interpretations have garnered
wide acclaim from the international music community.

Other performers for these concerts will include Anna Rabinova and
Alexander Kortschmar, violins, Igor Budinstein, viola, Friedemann Ludwig,
cello, Alexander Glucksman, clarinet and

Steven R. Gerber's music has gained international attention as a result
of two recent CD releases (on Chandos and KOCH) featuring several of his
major orchestral works, including Symphony No. 1, Serenade for String
Orchestra and the Violin, Viola and Cello Concertos. Mr. Gerber has
written for a number of fine soloists including Yuri Bashmet, Kurt
Nikkanen and Carter Brey and has had his music performed by groups such
as the Knoxville Chamber Orchestra, the Fine Arts Quartet, the National
Chamber Orchestra and the Russian Philharmonic.

The Concertante Chamber Players commissioned Mr. Gerber to create
"Spirituals", a multi-movement work for clarinet and string quartet.
Based on pre-existing material and drawing from various aspects of Negro
spirituals, Mr. Gerber has stated that: "The intention is not in any way
to deconstruct or even re-interpret the original spirituals, but merely
to use them as the basis for new inspirations whose character is sometimes
similar to, sometimes totally different from the source materials"

For more information about Steven R. Gerber, visit his website at
http://www.stevengerber.com/.

Benjamin Lees "Silent Voices" for piano, violin and cello was premiered
at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC on May
31,1998, and has since been premiered in Paris, Orlando and New York
City.  The work is published by Boosey & Hawkes - http://www.boosey.com/.

Of his Piano Trio No 2- "Silent Voices", Benjamin Lees writes, "This
work represents a small gesture of remembrance to those whose voices
were forever stilled by pogroms and genocides of the past. I have tried
to blend the elements of drama, grief and lyricism into a very compact
musical statement in the hope that this will be communicated to the
listener." The work is dedicated to Joseph Holt, George Marsh, Steven
Honigberg (the original performers of the work) and the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Mr. Lees other major Holocaust work, Symphony No. 4 (Memorial Candles)
was commissioned and premiered by the Dallas Symphony in 1985. It has
since been performed by the Israel Philharmonic and the London Philharmonia,
as well as the Houston, Winnipeg and Atlanta Symphonies. A recording of
Symphony No. 4 has recently been issued on the Naxos label.  Reviewing
the disc, Stephen Pettitt of The Sunday Times (U.K.) called Symphony No.
4 a work of "immense power and ambition, evoking all the fear, desolation
and darkness of that terrible episode."

For more information about Benjamin Lees, visit his website at
http://home.dc.rr.com/bglees/.

For more information about either Steven R. Gerber or Benjamin Lees,
please contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-797-9166 - tel and
fax or [log in to unmask]

Jeffrey James <[log in to unmask]>