Those of us who know the beloved and internationally renowned conductor Barbara Day Turner (affectionately known as BDT) are very grateful for the difference she makes in every community where she works and lives, while making music truly "live" as well. She is an award-winning recording artist who has conducted opera and symphony orchestras internationally. Here in the USA she has been an important presence in the growth of Opera San Jose (California) , Utah Festival Opera (Logan Utah) and Aquilon Music Festival (Oregon) as well as summer festivals in Maine and elsewhere, while her current, and longstanding, position is as Founder and Music Director of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra (SJCO).
But what does all of that have to do with our ongoing series of Notes for Nourishment online concerts? As some of you have already experienced, each of the monthly concerts on Listen For Life's award-winning Notes for Nourishment (NFN) series collects donations to benefit a nonprofit that is nourishing the hungry, homeless or hurting. These concerts have raised thousands of dollars for over 56 different nonprofits in recent years - food banks, domestic violence shelters, artificial limb creators, homeless shelters, innovative school meal programs, medical treatment facilities, scholarships, and more. And since all nonprofit music organizations and orchestras are struggling financially at the best of times, much less during a pandemic, the four internationally active performers on our next Notes for Nourishment concert (whose careers have all been abundantly impacted by Maestra BDT) decided to choose her orchestra, the SJCO, as the beneficiary organization for all donations received during their November 29 online video concert, honoring the Maestra for her unrelenting dedication to the world of music and musicians. So we've entitled the concert "Thanksgiving on Strings".
Barbara Day Turner will not be appearing on the short, family-friendly 45-minute broadcast of exciting, favorite pieces for piano and strings - she will be watching it from home along with (hopefully) all of you.
To view the "Thanksgiving on Strings" broadcast (7pm PST on Sunday evening November 29) you simply need to access a YouTube link which will be posted on this blog AND on both of these sites (below) before the broadcast:
ListenForLife.org OR NotesForNourishment.org
Our next blog post will share bios about the four performers on this concert. Meanwhile, though, here below is some interesting background lore about the SJCO. We hope that this concert will inspire attendees of all ages and locations to not only come enjoy the music but also donate what you can for this worthy cause. Donations made (online) during the concert are entirely secure, and handled through ListenForLife.org (sponsoring the NFN ONline concerts) on the official fundraising platform Flipcause.com. 100% of the proceeds from the concert, once processed, will be given to Maestra BDT and the SJCO for their needs, plans and projects as they continue to impact the quality of life for all demographics in the greater Silicon Valley community.
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The San José Chamber Orchestra is a professional string-based ensemble of 19+ players. Many performances feature one or more commissions or world premieres by award winning composers with critically acclaimed guest artists as featured soloists. San José Chamber Orchestra is the recipient of five ASCAP/League of American Orchestras Adventurous Programming Awards, has produced seven CDs of American music and commissioned and/or premiered over 170 new works in 26 seasons. The San José Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1991 out of the desire of local musicians for an opportunity to play chamber orchestra repertoire and explore music written by living composers. Its formation was sparked by a challenge in the METRO newspaper from the late drummer Sammy Cohen to music director Barbara Day Turner, announcing that an orchestra was forming (unbeknownst to her) and privately saying to "stop being lazy and get started". The San José Chamber Music Society graciously sponsored the first concert and a board was formed shortly thereafter.
Among the orchestra's highlights: Appearance of their senior youth orchestra at a private event for the Dalai Lama. Prestigious Koussevitzky commissioning awards for new works by Hyo-Shin Na and Pablo Furman… Performing with William F. Buckley, Jr… Recording at Skywalker Ranch… More than a dozen years of creative programming with the renowned Choral Project; Six years of partnering with sjDANCEco at the California and Hammer Theatres in San José and at ODC Dance in San Francisco… Collaborations with the Klein International String Competition and the Merola Opera program…Creating music with performers on both non-Western and classically non-traditional solo instruments, including the komungu, erhu, sitar, waterphone and accordion.
About the conductor: Maestra Barbara Day Turner is the founder and music director of the San José Chamber Orchestra, and its family of youth orchestras. An ardent advocate for new music, she has premiered more than 140 new works just with SJCO. She has conducted the world premiere of operas by Henry Mollicone, Craig Bohmler, George Roumanis and Alva Henderson and has over 100 operas and musicals in her repertoire. Abroad, Maestra Day Turner has conducted opera in Berlin and the Thuringian Symphony Orchestra in Germany as well as the Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes, Mexico. Maestra Turner’s discography includes 6 recordings with SJCO, the PBS award-winning DVD of George Roumanis’ opera Phaedra, the Naxos release of Alva Henderson’s opera Nosferatu, and a recent critically acclaimed Naxos release of varied works by Howard Hersh entitled Angels and Watermarks. She is a frequent adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera national auditions, annually serves as a judge for the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, and serves on the board of directors of the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy and the advisory board of Opera Neo in San Diego.
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