Looking for a fun music-filled afternoon? Come experience Amici Strings on Sunday, October 1 when we will perform a repeat of our 2023 spring concert. See below for details:
We appreciate your patronage and offer free admission. Donations either at the door or online are appreciated!
Looking for a fun music-filled afternoon? Come experience Amici Strings on June 25 when we will present our 2023 spring concert.
We appreciate your patronage and offer free admission. Donations either at the door or online are appreciated!
Join us for a spring concert to reflect and celebrate!
Spring Concert Date: Sunday, June 12, 2022
Time: 4pm
Location: Wayne Methodist Church, 210 S. Wayne Ave., Wayne, PA
We invite you to join us as we return to the stage for our Spring 2022 concert! We are overjoyed to be playing once again and to share our enthusiasm for these wonderful classical pieces.
– Vivaldi, Concerto for Violin and Cello, B flat Major, RV 547
Soloists: Paul Roby and Noelle Casella Grande
– Dvorak, Nocturne, Op. 40
– Hungarian Suite for Cello and Strings, arr. Gary Fagin
Soloist: Noelle Casella Grande
– Tchaikovsky, Serenade for Strings
Free Admission. Donations either at the door or online are appreciated!
Winter Concert – Monday, February 24, 2020; Private concert for residents at Shannondell at Valley Forge retirement community. Soloist will be Noelle Casella Grand, cello.
Music by Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Nicola Porpora, Massenet, Mozart, Gardel, and Piazzolla.
Noelle Casella Grand, an American born cellist, is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London where she received a Master of Arts and the accompanying LRAM Teaching Diploma with distinction. Prior to her years at the Academy,
Noelle studied in New York at Sarah Lawrence College and at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Noelle enjoys an active career encompassing both performance and teaching throughout Europe and the United States. Noelle is currently a Director of the Grand School of Music (New Hope, PA), conductor of the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County’s Ripieno String Ensemble (Newtown, PA) and a member of the string faculty at the George School (Newtown, PA). Noelle plays on both a Joseph Hill cello, c. 1770 London and a Luis & Clark carbon fibre cello.
Concert #1 – Monday, June 3, 2019; Private concert for residents at Shannondell at Valley Forge retirement community.
Concert #2 – Sunday, July 7, 2019, 7:00PM; Part of the “Concert Sundaes” series at Souderton Community Park, Wile Ave & Reliance Rd , Souderton, PA 18964. Soloists will be Jason DePue, violin, and Dave Cullen, guitar. Music by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Nicholas Buc, Elgar, DePue, Debussy, Piazzolla, and Leroy Anderson.
Concert #3 – Friday, July 19, 2019, 7:30PM. Wayne United Methodist Church, 210 South Wayne Avenue, Wayne, PA 19087. Soloist will be Noelle Casella Grand, cello. Music by Tchaikovsky, Bach, Nicola Porpora, Mozart, and Piazzolla.
Thanks for your support at our recent concert! Find highlights from our summer 2019 concert here.
Noelle Casella Grand, an American born cellist, has been praised for her “wonderful, rich tone” and her “particularly expressive and finely nuanced playing”. Noelle is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London where she received a Master of Arts and the accompanying LRAM Teaching Diploma with distinction. Prior to her years at the Academy,
Noelle studied in New York at Sarah Lawrence College and at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Equally at home on the concert platform as in the classroom, Noelle enjoys an
active career encompassing both
performance and teaching throughout Europe and the United States. As an internationally active pedagogue, Noelle is currently a Director of the Grand School of Music (New Hope, PA), conductor of the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County’s Ripieno String Ensemble (Newtown, PA) and a member of the string faculty at the George School (Newtown, PA). Noelle has also most recently been invited to participate in the ECSOC (Elizabeth College Summer Orchestral Course) in Guernsey, U.K. as part of the cello faculty.
Recent performances include Vivaldi’s Concerto for Cello and Violin (as directed from the cello) with the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County, the original version of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Old York Road Symphony, Vivaldi’s Double Cello Concerto with the Bach Festival Orchestra, and the Korngold Cello Concerto with the Guernsey Sinfonietta with praise such as “she really understands what she is playing in Korngold” (Bennett Lerner, pianist). Noelle was also recently featured as solo cellist for a Nakashima Foundation for Peace event, upon personal invitation by Mira Nakashima-Yarnall. Other performances and collaborations include the UK premiere of solo cello work Intimation by Australian composer David Holyoake at the Royal Academy of Music as well as having worked with New York based photographer Don Freeman on the soundtrack for a documentary to accompany his acclaimed book, Artists Handmade Houses. Noelle has performed with such ensembles as the Philadelphia International Music Festival (PIMF) Piano Trio, Bach Festival Orchestra (Principal/Soloist), Riverside Symphonia, Pennsylvania Philharmonic, baroque ensemble La Fiocco (soloist), Pennsylvania Sinfonia (Asst. Principal), L’Offerta Musicale Venezia, New York Consort of Viols, the Royal Academy of Music’s Symphony, Concert and Opera Orchestras, Guernsey Sinfonietta (Principal), Rehearsal Orchestra, Conservatorium van Amsterdam Symfonieorkest (Asst. Principal), Guernsey Choral and Orchestral Society (Soloist and Principal), London Arts Orchestra (Co-
Principal), CUNY New Music Ensemble in New York City (Principal), and the New York Youth Symphony. Having lived in the Unites States, Holland and the UK, Noelle has performed in many venues from Carnegie Hall, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Duke’s Hall, Bernard Haitinkzaal, St James’s Piccadilly, The Union League of Philadelphia and Bryant Park, NYC. Upcoming engagements for the 2018-2020 seasons include several concerti with Philadelphia based string ensemble, Amici Strings (www.amicistrings.com).
Alongside her regular performance and teaching schedule, Noelle enjoys organizing and performing for charitable events and causes. Noelle has recently organized a string orchestra to perform in the Baker Street Pedestrian Underpass in London to raise awareness for homelessness in the UK as well as being honored during a solo performance for the American Heart Association.
Noelle plays on both a Joseph Hill cello, c. 1770 London and a Luis & Clark carbon fibre cello.
Performance by Cellist Noelle Casella Grand, with Amici Strings; 02.24.2020
Amici Strings held a concert Friday, June 8 at 7:30 p.m. at Wayne United Methodist Church with guest performances by Kendra Broom, Dave Cullen, and Jason DePue! A reception following the concert featured the artwork of Joe Klapper: Joe Klapper Fine Art.
Program
J.S. Bach, Little Fugue in g minor, BWV 578
H. Purcell, Dido’s Lament
–Kendra Broom, mezzo soprano
G. F. Handel, Svegliatevi nel core
–Kendra Broom, mezzo soprano
A. Vivaldi, Concerto in D Major for guitar and strings, RV 93
–Dave Cullen, guitar
G.F. Handel, Ombra mai fu
–Kendra Broom, mezzo soprano
~~~~~
E. Elgar, Serenade for String Orchestra, Op. 20
N. Buc, Shadow Dances
Traditional, arr. J. DePue, Grumbling Old Man, Growling Old Woman
–Jason DePue, fiddle
Traditional, arr. J. DePue, Shepherd’s Waltz
–Jason DePue, fiddle
A. Bazzini, arr. W. DePue, La Ronde Des Lutins, Op. 25
–Jason DePue, violin
Our 2018 winter concert was held on Sunday, January 21 at 4 p.m. at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 121 Church St. in Phoenixville, PA.
We were joined by Kendra Broom, mezzo-soprano at the Curtis Institute of Music.
Program
Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto in D Minor, RV565
Jean Sibelius, Impromptu for String Orchestra
Henry Purcell, “When I am laid in earth” (Dido’s Lament) from Dido and Aeneas
George Frideric Handel, “Svegliatevi nel core” from Giulio Cesare
≈ Interval ≈
C. Hubert Parry, Minuet from An English Suite, for string orchestra
Edvard Grieg, Suite of Norwegian Melodies
Carlos Gardel, “Por una Cabeza,” arr. Grigg
Leroy Anderson, Jazz Legato and Jazz Pizzicato
About Kendra Broom
Kendra Broom, from Oakland, Calif., entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2015. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full-tuition scholarships, and Ms. Broom is the Shaun F. O’Malley Fellow.
A mezzo-soprano, Ms. Broom has sung the roles of the Melisande (Impressions of Pelleas), L’enfant (L’enfant et les sortilèges), Lucretia (The Rape of Lucretia), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Faith (Rene Orth’s Empty the House), and Javotte (Manon) for the Curtis Opera Theatre. Other roles include Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Suzy (La rondine), Macduff’s Son (Bloch’s Macbeth), Alcina (Orlando Paladino), Cupidon (Orphée aux Enfers), Mallika (Lakme), Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Jack (Smyth’s The Wreckers), and Adelma (Busoni’s Turandot). In addition to the Curtis Opera Theatre, she has appeared in productions at the Chautauqua Institution and the Bard Music Festival.
Ms. Broom performed the lead role in Sheila Silver’s A Thousand Splendid Suns as part of OPERA America’s New Works Forum. She has also appeared as a soloist in performances of Berio’s Sinfonia with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the New York City Master Chorale, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Binghamton Philharmonic, and Menotti’s Missa O Pulchritudo with the Glen Ridge Choral Society. This season she will be singing Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble, alto soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the New Jersey Symphony, and Melisande in Pelléas et Mélisande with West Edge Opera.
Ms. Broom holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was awarded the Ambrose Monell, Birgit Nilsson, and Emily W. Voorhis Scholarships. She was also the recipient of the Marc and Eva Stern Fellowship at SongFest in 2011, and the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation in 2015. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, poetry, and arts outreach.
Our summer concert was held on Friday, July 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Wayne United Methodist Church, 210 S. Wayne Ave, Wayne, PA.
Vivaldi: Concerto Grosso in D Minor, Op. 3, No. 11
Sibelius: Impromptu for String Orchestra
Parry: An English Suite (Prelude, Minuet, Sarabande, Frolic)
Ireland: Minuet from A Downland Suite
Grieg Suite
Last Spring, Op. 34, No. 2
Norwegian, Op. 53, No. 1
Cow Call and Peasant Dance, Op. 63, No. 2a and 2b
Gardel: Por una Cabeza
Anderson: Jazz Legato and Jazz Pizzicato
Our winter concert was held on Sunday, January 15, 2017 at 4 p.m. at St. Peter’s (121 Church Street) in Phoenixville, PA. The concert was part of the Music @ St. Peter’s Series.
Program
Antonio Vivaldi: Four Seasons
Gustav Holst: St. Paul’s Suite
Geroge Gershwin: Lullaby
Astor Piazzolla: Libertango
Our guest soloist for the Vivaldi and Holst was Paul Roby of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Click here to see Roby and Amici Strings performing the Vivaldi at our summer concert.
About Paul Roby
Paul Roby’s first lessons were from his parents, a violinist and an oboist. His early studies continued with Mary Crowder-Hess and Roman Totenberg, students of Ivan Galamian and Carl Flesch, respectively. At the age of 16 Mr. Roby was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied violin with Yumi Ninomiya Scott and Jascha Brodsky, members of the Curtis Quartet. Immediately after graduation from Curtis, Mr. Roby won a position with the Baltimore Symphony under David Zinman and soon after became a member of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1991 Mr. Roby became a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and in November 2000 was named associate principal second violin.
Mr. Roby made his solo debut at age 12 with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and has since won such prizes as the best Wieniawski Polonaise Prize at the Wieniawski-Lipinski Competition in Lublin, Poland, and the Davidoff Prize for Outstanding Artistry at the 1989 Schleswig-Holstein Festival. As a founding member of the Salzau Quartet, Mr. Roby played a command performance for German President Weizäcker at his official residence.
St. Peter’s is located at 121 Church Street in Phoenixville. Its vision is to be an inclusive, vibrant Christian community honoring its Episcopal heritage by achieving excellence in worship, mission, education and fellowship. More information about St. Peter’s can be found here: St. Peter’s.
Thank you to everyone who helped make our July 29, 2016 concert a success!
Program
Antonio Vivaldi: Four Seasons
Gustav Holst: St. Paul’s Suite
Geroge Gershwin: Lullaby
Astor Piazzolla: Libertango
Our guest soloist for the Vivaldi and Holst was Paul Roby of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Paul Roby
Amici Strings gave a concert at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on January 10, 2016 at 4 p.m. The performance was part of the Music @ St. Peter’s series.
Amici Strings held its inaugural concert on Friday, August 7, at 7:30 pm at Wayne United Methodist Church. The program included:
Admission was free and a reception followed the concert.
About Wayne United Methodist Church
Wayne United Methodist Church is located at 210 S. Wayne Ave, in the heart of downtown Wayne, and remains an active part of the community. The Church is currently celebrating its 125th anniversary with a year-long schedule of special events. Click here for more information about events and ministries: WayneUMC.
amicistrings.com 