A unique experience of experimental chamber music curated by Terri Phillips featuring the Blueshift Ensemble.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m./performance begins at 8 p.m. Approximate performance time: 45 minutes
Tickets are $10. Holiday cocktail included in the price of admission. Click here to purchase.
Limited number of chair seating available; standing room also available
About Terri Phillips
Terri Phillips is an artist and writer from Alabama, currently living in Memphis. She is a recipient of the ArtsMemphis Accelerator grant and has exhibited and curated internationally. She is a graduate of California Institute of the Arts and Pepperdine University. Her work has been written about in ArtForum, The New York Times,LA Times, Sculpture Magazine, and The Commercial Appeal. She has written three books of poetry and is currently finishing a record of country songs with the artist Jim Ovelmen.
About Blueshift Ensemble
Blueshift is a Memphis-based contemporary chamber music ensemble dedicated to bringing artists and audiences together through artistic collaboration. By programming both new and existing classical repertoire alongside multi-genre collaborations, Blueshift aims to connect a wider audience to today’s classical music. The ensemble draws upon Memphis’ uniquely diverse musical heritage by combining classical music with popular music genres such as rock, blues, soul, and hip-hop and featuring local musicians, dancers, visual artists, and composers.
About the musicians
A native of Brazil, Mariama Alcântara grew up in a musical family and began studying the violin at age seven. She made her solo debut at age 12 with the Paraiba Symphony Orchestra, and since then she has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras in her home country. Mariama moved to the United States in 2012, and received her bachelor’s degree in violin performance from the University of Memphis where she studied with Dr. Soh-Hyun Altino and Dr. Marcin Arendt. She has performed with many orchestras including the Jackson Symphony (TN), Starkville Symphony (MS), Sinfonietta Orchestra (TN), Memphis Repertory Orchestra, and Memphis Symphony (Feb. 2017). Mariama is now an IRIS Orchestra Artist Fellow and a member of the C3 Strings Trio. She also instructs and mentors elementary and middle school students as a Memphis Music Initiative fellow.
Blueshift Ensemble Artistic Director and flutist, Jenny Davis is a Memphis-based flutist who regularly performs with the Luna Nova Ensemble and the Memphis Repertory Orchestra and maintains a large private teaching studio. She has also performed with other area ensembles including the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, PRIZM Ensemble, Balmoral Chamber Orchestra, and is a member of the River City Flute Quartet. In past summers, Jenny has performed at the New Music on the Point contemporary chamber music festival, the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy, the National Music Festival, and the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival. Jenny was a finalist in the 35th Annual James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition, as well as alternate finalist in the 2015 Chicago Flute Club Donald Peck International Competition and 2014 Mid-South Flute Society Young Artist Competition. In addition to performing and teaching, Jenny serves on the boards of the Beethoven Club of Memphis and the Mid-South Flute Society and is a co-founder of the Greater Memphis Flute Club. Jenny holds degrees in flute performance from Boston University, Middle Tennessee State University, and two years of additional post-graduate flute studies with Trevor Wye at Studio in Kent, United Kingdom.
Andre Dyachenko currently serves as the principal clarinetist with Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Dyachenko has performed as a member Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera and as a guest principal with Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. During summers he has participated in several music festivals, including Music Academy of the West, Spoleto USA, Hot Springs Music Festival and Feodosia Music Festival. Mr. Dyachenko is a recipient of First and Grand Prize at the International Competition for Woodwind Players in Kharkiv and First Prize at the International Clarinet Association Orchestral Competition. He had his first solo debut with the orchestra at the age 14 playing Weber Concerto No. 1. Mr. Dyachenko performed numerous solo recitals around Europe and US. Mr. Dyachenko started his education at the age of 7 in Kharkiv Special Secondary School of Music under guidance of Valeriy Altukhov. In 1996 he was awarded full scholarship to study clarinet at Interlochen Arts Academy with Richard Hawkins. Mr. Dyachenko also holds bachelor’s degree from University of Michigan and master’s degree from University of Minnesota and Doctor of Music degree from Rice University. Among his teachers are Fred Ormand, Burt Hara, Richie Hawley, Lee Morgan, Yehuda Gilad, Richard Hawkins and Michael Webster.
Logan Hanna is a guitarist and educator from Memphis. He currently works with different jazz groups around town, and is a member of The Mighty Souls Brass Band, Big Barton, and the Memphis Ukulele Band. For the last 8 years, Logan has also been recording and performing with Grace Askew. He is also currently on the adjust faculty at the University of Memphis where he teaches Intro To Jazz Guitar. Heavily influenced by guitar greats such as Bill Frisell, Jim Hall, Marc Ribot, Albert King, T-Bone Walker, Steve Cropper, and Don Rich, Logan enjoys being somewhat of a musical chameleon blending styles to fit the music he is playing.
Delara Hashemi is a freelance musician and teacher in the Memphis area. She subs with the Memphis Symphony, the Memphis Symphony Woodwind Quintet, and plays in the BlueShift Ensemble and Poplar Wind Trio. She has performed in the National Flute Association (NFA) Collegiate Flute Choir at conventions in 2009 and 2011. Delara was the 2011 and 2012 Music Teachers National Association State Winner in Oklahoma, Young Artist Performance – Woodwinds. Delara completed degrees in flute performance at the University of Memphis where she studied flute with Prof. Elise Blatchford, and the University of Central Oklahoma where she studied flute with Dr. Emily Butterfield.
Blueshift cellist and Composer-in-Residence, Jonatha
Ed Murray is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and was a student of Vic Firth. He has held the position of Assistant Principal of Percussion/Timpani in the Memphis Symphony Orchestra since 1987, and has been a member of the Iris Orchestra since the year 2000. Ed has been the first-call percussionist for the Orpheum Theatre Touring Shows since 1990 and is the drummer for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra Big Band. He was a soloist with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra on three separate occasions, featured on Xylophone, Marimba and World Percussion. He was the Principal Percussionist for the Mexico City Philharmonic, 1985-1987, and has performed with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Mathis and Joshua Bell.
Renée Kemper Murray has called Memphis her home since 2004. She has been a Musical Director for many Regional Theaters across the U.S. such as the Fulton Opera House (PA), the Barter Theater (VA), the Old Creamery (Iowa), and the Tri-Arts Sharon Playhouse (CT). After completing Graduate School at the University of Memphis (2006), she joined the production staff at Memphis’ Playhouse on the Square as the Resident Music Director for seven years. She is now in her third year with St. George’s Independent Schools as Music Artist-in-Residence and Fine Arts educator at their Memphis Campus. In addition to her Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano Performance, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Southwestern University (Georgetown, TX) and has attended the Aspen School of Music in Colorado. She has received five Ostrander awards and two Memphis Theater Awards for Excellence in Musical Direction as well as two Ostrander Awards for singing roles in theater – one for her featured role in Jaques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris and the other for Leading Actress in the musical, A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. She has played with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra Big Band, continues to play for shows, performs as singer and guitarist in her own band, and is a member of Blueshift Ensemble.
Violinist Marisa Polesky is a member of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and the IRIS Orchestra. In addition, she works with the Memphis Music Initiative as a mentor/teacher at White Station Middle and High Schools and teaches at St Louis School.
Jennifer Puckett currently serves as principal violist with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Prior to her tenure here in Memphis, she completed three years with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. She has been on the EMF faculty since the summer of 2005. Mrs. Puckett has been teaching private lessons since 1996. She has taught with different Suzuki programs and is the founder of the East Memphis Music Academy. Her current private studio consist violin and viola students of all ages. Originally trained as a violinist, she received her Bachelor’s degree in violin performance from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Some of the summer music festivals she attended in the past are the Aspen Music Festival, Meadowmount School of Music, National Repertory Orchestra, Spoleto USA, and the Brevard Music Center. The Aspen Music Festival led her to the University of Colorado in Boulder where she received her Master’s degree in viola performance. Mrs. Puckett held graduate quartet and teaching assistantships for the three years that she was at the University of Colorado. Over the years she has played professionally with many other orchestras including the Colorado Symphony, Alabama Symphony, and the Arizona Music Festival to name a few. In addition to her position with the Memphis Symphony, her leadership experience includes principal viola on numerous occasions with the New World Symphony, and throughout her college career as concertmaster, principal second violin, and principal viola.
Jonathan Russ composes direct, expressive music with an eye towards social good, drawing from the languages of contemporary classical music, musical theater, and indie rock. He is Composer-In-Residence with the Blueshift Ensemble and the American Chamber Ensemble, and is a founding member of the ICEBERG New Music composers’ collective. Jonathan has worked with Marimolin, Sō Percussion (through their Summer Institute), members of the JACK Quartet and International Contemporary Ensemble, clarinetist Stanley Drucker (NY Philharmonic), mezzo-soprano Jennifer Beattie, and pianists Amir Khosrowpour and Marilyn Lehman. Awards include the MA-ASTA Composition Competition, ShoutHouse Call For Scores, and the Boston Conservatory Choral Composers’ Competition. Jonathan has held residencies at the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts and the Hambidge Center, was featured at the inaugural New Music On The Bayou Festival, and will be in residence at Arteles and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in 2017. Upcoming projects include a book of piano pieces, an opera about a hermetic young woman, and a piece for New York-based ensemble loadbang. As a guitarist, Jonathan has performed with indie bands Young Yeller and Lucky Sons, and has played in musical theater pits throughout New York. He holds a master’s in composition from The Boston Conservatory, where he studied with Andy Vores and Curtis Hughes, as well as a BA from Brown University in music and an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in musical theater writing. www.
