New York Stories is composed by Daron Hagen, with a libretto by Hagen and Barbara Grecki. It presents three intimate vignettes based on real people's experiences living in the big apple. The opera is musically conversational with the first skit being fiery and romantic, following a woman living in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, coupled with an Italian immigrant who arrives to do maintenance work, and the romantic moment they share. The second tells the story of an Upper East Side woman getting a surprise visit from her brother. The third depicts a warm, domestic self-portrait of the composer and his spouse as new parents attempting to put their infant son to sleep after a night on the town. With orchestra.
Paloma Alonso
"2020"
Darian Donovan Thomas, violin
Shayna Dunkelman, percussion
Angélica Negrón, mentor
Paloma Alonso is a New York City native. She is 13 years old and attends the Léman Manhattan Preparatory School. Her parents, both classical concert pianists, were her first piano teachers. Alonso cites her Cuban father and Albanian mother as major inspirations for introducing her to music of all styles and genres. She began studying cello six years ago with Juilliard-trained teacher Yves Dharamraj and also pursues her passion for dance at the school of New York Theatre Ballet where she has trained rigorously since the age of four. Alonso joined the New York Philharmonic Young Composers Program in 2017. She commented that "This wonderful program opened a whole new world of expression to me. Composing is another tool that allows me to be expressive in a beautiful and artistic way". In December 2019, on a Young People's Concert, the Philharmonic performed Alonso's Sweating Bullets under the baton of its Music Director Jaap van Zweeden. The orchestral work was scheduled to be performed by the Philharmonic again in April of 2020 but, was unfortunately cancelled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.