World Premiere of Benjamin Lees' Landscape - after Yves Tanguy for Solo
Violin To Be Performed in Baltimore - April 12 Performance by Violinist
Ellen Orner

New York NY - Benjamin Lees' "Landscape - after Yves Tanguy" for solo
violin will be given its World Premiere performance by violinist Ellen
Orner on Tuesday, April 12 - 7:30 PM in Falvey Hall of the Maryland
Institute College of Art's Brown Center, 1300 Mount Royal Avenue in
Baltimore, Maryland.

This concept for this new piece, commissioned by and dedicated to
Ellen Orner, grew out of the admiration Mr. Lees and the violinist
share for Tanguy's French Surrealist paintings
(http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_152.html).  The
work is 16 minutes in duration and was completed in 2004.

This concert is free and open to the public.  For reservations and more
information, contact the Maryland Institute College of Art's Office of
Events at 410-225-2516 or visit them online at http://www.mica.edu/.

Russian-born violinist Ellen Orner has a special interest in new music.
She has given numerous New York premieres, including Benjamin Lees's
Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano. Her continuing interest in
multidisciplinary performance has led to her to found, in 2003, Concert
Lab, an experimental concert environment for presenting new music, with
the participation of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Maryland
Institute College of Art.  Her commission of the Lees' "Landscape -
after Yves Tanguy," is part of this collaboration.

Benjamin Lees' Symphony No. 5, "Kalmar Nyckel" was nominated for a 2003
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition by the National Academy
of Recording Arts and Sciences.  He was the first recipient of a Fromm
Foundation award for his String Quartet No. 1 and Sonata for Two Pianos.
His works have been commissioned, performed and recorded by, among others,
the Tokyo Quartet, Aurora Quartet, Sea Cliff Chamber Players, New York
Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony,
NBC Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra,
Houston Symphony, National Symphony, Dallas Symphony, San Francisco
Ballet, American Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony,
Louisville Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and Portland
(OR) Symphony.

Mr. Lees' String Quartet No. 5 has just been voted one of 101 'Great
American Ensemble Works' by Chamber Music America, from among 1,000 works
nominated for this accolade.  In 2004, the membership of Chamber Music
America nominated American works for small ensembles that they believed
to be "the most significant in the repertoire".  An independent panel
chose 101 of the most-nominated pieces that best represent the diversity
of style and instrumentation that comprises CMA's membership, citing
these as "Great American Ensemble Works".  To see the entire list of
works cited visit: http://www.chamber-music.org/programs/greatworkswinners.asp.

He is published by Boosey & Hawkes. You can find much more information
about Benjamin Lees at his website - http://www.benjaminlees.com/ or
from Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-797-9166 - tel and fax.

Jeffrey James Arts Consulting
Tel/Fax: 516-797-9166
Website: http://www.jamesarts.com