The Broyhill Chamber Ensemble
Relections: "Falling Bodies"

Gil Morgenstern, Artistic Director

Co-commissioned by An Appalachian Summer Festival and Nine Circles Chamber Theatre in celebration of the festival's 25th anniversary, Falling Bodies integrates actors and musicians in an imagined meeting between the 17th-century "father of modern science," Galileo Galilei, and the 20th-century author of Survival at Auschwitz, Primo Levi. First seen during the 2008 festival, it returns after a maturing process that included more workshops and sold-out performances in the US and Italy. Written and directed by Jonathan Levi; music by Bruce Saylor.

Featured performers will be Gil Morgenstern, violin; Lauren Weiss, flute and Yousif Sheronick, percussion.

About The Broyhill Chamber Ensemble

The Broyhill Chamber Ensemble is an extraordinary association of internationally acclaimed musicians which, in association with Nine Circles Chamber Theatre and its international Reflections series, presents an alternative to the conventional approach to chamber music programming.

Reflections presents solo and chamber music together with art, poetry and prose from around the world in combinations that both reflect upon one another and invite the audience to reflect anew on universal themes. The ensemble's flexibility of instrumentation and great variety of repertoire make it the ideal group for exploring the full spectrum of chamber music's expressive palette and experimental performance. According to Broyhill Chamber Ensemble Artistic Director Gil Morgenstern, "The Reflections series continues the well-established tradition of exploring both Old World masters and the less familiar but masterful works of contemporary artists. From sublime compositions created in the midst of horror and terror, to music inspired by painting and sculpture, each piece on select programs will reflect and refract the ones surrounding it in an interactive and intimate setting." Whether in traditional concert format, in residency or in its Reflections series, the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble steps outside the customary performance boundaries by presenting programs that marry the intimacy of chamber music with the power of theatre.

In addition to An Appalachian Summer Festival, Reflections is presented in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Florence and Capri, Italy.

Acclaimed for his artistry and technical brilliance as soloist with orchestra, in recital or as a chamber musician, violinist Gil Morgenstern has performed all over the world to overwhelming critical praise. Mr. Morgenstern is the artistic director of the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble, the co-artistic director of Nine Circles Chamber Theatre, an organization dedicated to exploring the collaborative nature of inter-disciplinary performance, and the artistic director of performance series in New York City, Florida, Pennsylvania and Florence, Italy. He has been the subject of numerous television and radio shows and he can be regularly heard on NPR broadcasts. Mr. Morgenstern and the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble record for the MMC and Koch International Classics label.

The Broyhill Chamber Ensemble Concert Series is sponsored by the Broyhill Family Foundation (in memory of Faye Broyhill), the R.Y. and Eileen L. Sharpe Foundation, and the Muriel and Arnold Rosen Endowment for the Arts. This program has also been underwritten in part through the generous support of Allene Broyhill Stevens, Budd and Nanette Mayer, McDonalds of Boone/Venda Lerch, Peter and Joni Petschauer, Neil and Nancy Schaffel, and Shirley Stein Spector.

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