Tag Archives: mahlers 4th symphony

James Blachly conducts Mahlers 4th symphony

Trinity Church’s James Blachly Performance Benefits NOLA Music Education

James Blachly conducts Mahlers 4th symphony
James Blachly conducts Mahlers 4th to benefit All Souls Camp in New Orleans

As busy as we all get, everyone has a dream. James Blachly is no exception.

Navigating through the hustle and bustle of Lower Manhattan, this distinguished composer/conductor and Trinity Choir member often dreamt of re-creating the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

“I attended and watched rehearsals and fell in love with the performance of Mahlers 4th Symphony. To me it was like paradise. I realized then, to work on this piece would be a great priviledge.”

Tonight that dream will be realized — as Blachly along with colleague Owen Dalby have assembled The Sheep Island Ensemble, in what they consider to be a “dream team” of young professional musicians across New York to perform Mahlers 4th 6PM tonight at Trinity Church.

Lucky for the rest of us, tonight’s performance is free — with a suggested $20 donation — in which proceeds will go to The All Souls Music Camp, which is dedicated to providing music education of children living in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

Although tonight’s concert isn’t explicitly connected with Trinity Church — being a Trinity Choir member helped the musicians score the location in light of supporting The All Souls Music Camp.

The All Souls Music Camp began in 2009 with 12 students, and has grown to 51. It’s a program for children from 3-16 and provides formal training in choral singing, strings, composition and music literacy. It was the brainchild of a local church that had began in an abandoned Walgreens turned community center for the children of the Ninth Ward.

As a volunteer for the All Souls Camp, tonights concert can be considered a full circle for Blachly. For he credits his education in Stuyvesant for the music education that led him to his profession.

“It was during my senior of Stuyvesant that I decided to be a classical musician professionally and practiced 5 hours a day to make it into and attend Oberlin.”

As part of the prestigious Trinity Choir, he appreciates being close to the World Trade Center site as keeping him connected to the post 9/11 world  — helping him to keep connected to the reality of what it takes to help a community after disaster. Many of the students of All Souls can relate to in their post Katrina world.

” [The All Souls Camp] is a really beautiful community and they have grown a lot over the past 5 years. We’ve been involved for the past 2 years and I realize that music can inspire and remind us of the most exalted state of humanity.”

For those interested in attending, please find the information below:

The New York City Summer Mahler Project
Mahler’s 4th Symphony
Date: Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Trinity Church Wall Street
At the Intersection of Wall Street and Broadway
Tickets: Free with $20 Donation to benefit the All Souls Music Camp in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans
Telephone: (212)-866-0468 (GEMS) or (646) 320-5583 (Blachly)
Online: www.jamesblachly.com OR www.gemsny.org
Tickets: At the door.