2010
December 21, 2010
An original composition for children by Russell, titled "Two Clicks," was premiered at Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School's Winter Concert. It was performed on mallet instruments and unpitched percussion instruments by the 4th-6th grade Percussion Ensemble, under Russell's direction.
December 1, 2010
Russell submitted an original composition, "Rondo A La Orff (County Fair)," to the Sonor company’s Composition and Arrangement Challenge. Winners will be announced in spring 2011, and a book of all the submitted compositions and arrangements will be published at that time.
November 14, 2010
Russell and Tara Nadel performed Russell’s work Point-Counterpoint for alto recorder and flute in a special concert featuring Baltimore-area alumni of the Walden School and Junior Conservatory summer programs. The concert was held at the Peabody Preparatory School of Music campus in Towson, Maryland, and also featured works by Dr. D.J. Sparr, Lewis Krauthamer, Rebekah Griffin Greene, and Noah Mlotek.
November 1, 2010
November 1, 2010: Russell is featured on composer Richard Zarou’s blog, No Extra Notes, as the composer of the week. In the interview with Mr. Zarou, Russell spoke about his background as a composer, his interests, his musical style, and more. Russell also spoke in detail about his works Four Haiku (2007), for a cappella chorus, and Wail (2005), for saxophone quartet. Recordings of both works are included as part of the podcast, which is available for free download at the No Extra Notes website.
October 20, 2010
Russell sang Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC, in the main Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The performance was part of the NSO’s “Young People’s Concerts” series, a special series of concerts which bring all the fourth-grade students from Fairfax County Public Schools and Prince George’s County Public Schools to the Kennedy Center to hear the NSO perform. Russell was a consultant for the ARTSEDGE organization’s team that prepared all the scripts, teaching resources and learning resources for the 2010 Young People’s Concerts, which focused on the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. One important element of the materials created and shared with the students was a new English version of the lyrics to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” written by talented California playwright Doug Cooney, which all the students in Fairfax County learned to sing in preparation for a sing-along at the concert. Russell was invited by NSO Education Director Carole Wysocki and conductor Brett Michaels to come onstage with the orchestra and lead the audience of 1,200 fourth-grade students in singing the “Ode to Joy.”
June 29, 2010
Russell flew to Memphis, TN, to attend part of the 2010 Joint Conference of the American College of Cantors (ACC) and Guild of Temple Musicians (GTM), at which his recent composition Shabbat Cycle received its world premiere by Cantor Kay Greenwald, soprano, and Dr. Alan Mason, piano. This premiere performance is a result of Shabbat Cycle being selected as the winning work of the 2010 GTM Young Composers' Contest. Please click here to read the complete press release issued by the Guild of Temple Musicians.
May 25, 2010
Russell completed his newest work, a four-minute composition for orchestra titled The Road to Independence, as part of his "Storyboard Project" with the ARTSEDGE educational organization of the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The score to the work, along with a computer-generated recording, program notes, a listening map for teachers and students to use, and all the composer's drafts and handwritten plans and "scribble work" for the piece are currently posted online at the ARTSEDGE "Sounds Historic" website. Russell composed The Road to Independence with specific guidance from a large number of fourth-grade students from Fairfax County, VA, and Prince George's County, MD, who made suggestions to Russell by submitting Hollywood-style storyboards that depicted important events from the history of the American Revolution, culminating in the signing of the Declaration of Independence. For more details on this project, please visit the ARTSEDGE website, and also watch this page for updates as materials are posted. Also see below for more information regarding Russell's "vlogs," or "video blogs," recorded as part of his arrangement with the Kennedy Center to describe his compositional process in a series of short videos.
May 18, 2010
The ARTSEDGE educational organization of the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., has just completed editing on a series of "vlogs," or "video blogs," featuring Russell, and has posted them on the ARTSEDGE "Sounds Historic" website. These vlogs are meant to help explain the composer's process for writing a new piece of music, taking a composition from initial inception to a completed product, with step-by-step explanations along the way appropriate for children or adults. Specifically, these vlogs were meant to enhance the experience of fourth-graders from Fairfax County, VA, and Prince George's County, MD, who have the remarkable privilege of being able to attend a special educational concert by the National Symphony Orchestra which is aligned every year to a different set of cross-curricular standards. This year's concert, titled "Sounds Historic," focused on the historical and socio-cultural connections of important pieces in the orchestral repertoire. ARTSEDGE and Russell have partnered to create the vlogs and a new piece of music, titled The Road to Independence, which will directly reflect the input and suggestions of those same fourth-graders - see above for more information.
May 5, 2010
Russell is informed that he is the 2010 winner of the 2010 Young Composers' Contest of the Guild of Temple Musicians. Please click here to read the complete press release issued by the Guild of Temple Musicians. The competition win resulted in a cash prize; submission of the winning composition, Shabbat Cycle to Transcontinental Music Publications for possible publication; and a premiere on June 29, 2010, at the 2010 GTM/ACC Conference in Memphis, TN, to be performed by Cantor Kay Greenwald, soprano, and Dr. Alan Mason, piano.
April 24, 2010
Russell's choral work Windy Nights, scored for two-part treble singers, piano and optional recorder or flute soloist(s), received its official world premiere at Hayfield Secondary School in Alexandria, VA, with a performance by the Fairfax County Sixth Grade All-County Chorus, a massed chorus of over 900 sixth-grade students from all Fairfax County schools. The 2010 All-County Chorus was directed by renowed choral conductor Dr. Lynnel Joy Jenkins, from the Princeton Girls' Choir in Princeton, NJ, and was accompanied by Nancy Stowe. The performance was extremely successful and was very well-received by the audience of over 2,000 people. Russell is grateful to all the FCPS administrators and leaders who helped make the performance possible; to Dr. Jenkins and Ms. Stowe; and is particulary indebted to the skills and dedication of the 900+ talented students who sang and played the recorder. Their enthusiasm was envigorating, and it was a wonderful experience to be able to be both a familiar teacher and the composer of a featured song. The performance will be featured multipled times on the local "Apple 21" cable channel, available to residents of Northern Virginia.
February 2010
Russell completed a three-song cycle for soprano and piano titled Shabbat Cycle, which he entered in the 2010 Young Composers' Contest of the Guild of Temple Musicians. The three songs are in Hebrew, taken from the Friday night Jewish prayer service, and include settings of the 98th Psalm, the Meditation before the Amidah, and the "Magen Avot".