FREE MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT
SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2010 • 2 pm • Van Cortlandt Park (Broadway at 246 Street)


David Gilbert


Orlay Alonso


Papo Vazquez


Halley Gilbert



BRONX ARTS ENSEMBLE ORCHESTRA
David Gilbert, Conductor
Orlay Alonso, Piano
Halley Gilbert, Soprano
Papo Vazquez, Trombone
Rafael De Jesus, Vocalist

MUSIC
Bernstein: Overture to Candide
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in a Major
Rodgers & Hammerstein: Selection from Oklahoma!
Andrew Lloyd Webber: Selections from Phantom of the Opera
vocals solos from Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes and Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah
Special arrangements by Papo Vázquez
Favorite marches by John Philip Sousa

The free BAE Memorial Day outdoor tent concert is scheduled RAIN OR SHINE. Seating will be provided. Pedestrians can enter the park at Broadway and 246th Street. Limited free parking is also available at the Van Cortlandt Golf House. DIRECTIONS

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Conductor DAVID GILBERT is acclaimed for his dynamic performances with orchestras throughout the United States, the Far East and Europe. He was the first American to serve as principal guest conductor of the Beijing Central Philharmonic. Mr. Gilbert is a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music where he has conducted both symphony and opera. His compositions for chamber ensemble, orchestra, and opera include his ''Concerto for Trombone, Brass and Orchestra,'' ''Ballade Concertante for Tuba and Orchestra,'' and ''Phoenix Madrigal'' for flute and strings. Mr. Gilbert is Music Director and Conductor of the Greenwich Symphony and music director of the Bergen (NJ) Philharmonic and the Senior Concert Orchestra of New York.

Born in Santa Clara, Cuba, ORLAY ALONSO began piano studies at the age of seven. He came to the United States in 1996, where he attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts, and was awarded the Ann-Marie McDermott Memorial Scholarship to study at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division with Ubaldo Díaz-Acosta. As a winner of the 2003 Artists International Young Artists Piano Award, he gave his recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Mr. Alonso has garnered many top prizes including Winner of the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation, Kingsville, Queens College and Horace Mann Competitions. He is also the winner of BAE's 1999 Young Bronx Artists Competition. Mr. Alonso graduated from Mannes College of Music, received his Masters degree form Yale University and Professional Studies degree from Manhattan School of Music.

Soprano HALLEY GILBERT graduated from Eastman School of Music last year and has already distinguished herself in many operatic roles with Opera for Humanity, Harrisburg Opera, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Greenwich CT Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, and the Genessee Chamber Orchestra. She has performed as featured soloist with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, Bronx Arts Ensemble, North Jersey Philharmonic, Oswego Opera Theatre's recital series, and Gateway Classical Music Society. She is the winner of many awards including Syracuse Opera Club, and first prize in the Steinway Hall Vocal Competition.

Trombonist, composer and arranger PAPO VÁZQUEZ is more than thirty-five years into a career spanning the jazz, Latin, Afro-Caribbean and classical music and recording worlds. Recent honors include a commission from Wynton Marsalis for a new work inspired by Cuban painter Wilfredo Lam, which was performed as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz and Art concert this past February, and a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album for Papo Vázquez’ Mighty Pirates 2008 recording Marooned/Aíslado, on his own independent label, Picaro Records. He will be presented with a Latino Masters Award by the Pregones Theater in 2011 under the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Presenting program. He has been commissioned to compose for the 19-piece Afro-Puerto Rican Jazz Orchestra, and was the first artist to receive a commission to compose for the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, resident band of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Papo's first classical composition premiered with the
Bronx Arts Ensemble at Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture in 2004. A native of Philadelphia, Papo began performing at 15 with such bands as those of Willie Colon and Eddie Palmieri. In New York he began recording and performing with top names in salsa - The Fania All-Stars, Ray Barretto and Chico O'Farrill. He has toured with the Ray Charles Orchestra and performed also with Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Lewis, Hilton Ruiz and Milton Cardona, touring as a member of Tito Puente's Latin Jazz Ensemble and Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra. He has performed on film soundtracks for "Mo' Better Blues" and "The Mambo Kings".

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Presented with the support of Bronx Arts Ensemble, William Scribner, Executive/Artistic Director, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, New York City Dept of Parks & Recreation, Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation and Music Performance Funds, Local 802, AFM.