American composer Michael Colina's Idoru Piano Trio for piano, violin and cello will be given its World Premiere on Monday, June 30 by the New Arts Trio as part of the celebration of their 30th anniversary season at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.

In the Idoru Trio, Colina merges his formal classical training with jazz inflected harmonies, a strong rhythmic backbone and melodies that sound improvised or sung. The fascination with feminine beauty is the subject of the great futurist William Gibson's novel, Idoru. The setting is Japan, where Colina once lived and worked. He was inspired by the novels theme, which describes a society clamoring to meet the holographic projection of an impossibly beautiful woman. In turn, her computer-generated eyes reflect back ones every dream, hope and desire.

Since its inception in 1974, the New Arts Trio has performed in major cities throughout the United States and Canada. The Trio has also made several tours of eastern and western Europe. The New Arts Trio has been in residence at the Chautauqua Institution since 1978. During the seven week festival they perform, present master classes, coach chamber music and teach students who come to study with them from all over the world. Visit them here.

The Chautauqua Institution was founded in 1874 and is a National Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Much more about it here.

Michael has several upcoming performances and premieres of classical works in the next few months:

Los Caprichos commissioned by the National Theater Orchestra of Brazil, conducted by Maestro Ira Levin will be premiered September 23rd in Brasilia & September 27th in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This work is based on Francisco Goya's devastating prints of social repression at the end of the Spanish Inquisition in 1799.

November 11 - Colina's Goyescana/ Guitar Concerto No 1 will be premiered by the Imperial Symphony Orchestra of Lakeland, Florida, with Mark Thielen conducting. The work was commissioned by guitarist and soloist Robert Phillips.

Colina has also been commissioned by the Quintet of the Americas to write a new work for their world-renowned woodwind ensemble. The new work entitled "Baion De Bayo" is based on the Brazilian dance rhythm of the same name. Baion is a five-minute energetic tour de force that displays the ensembles virtuosity and sensibility for Latin American music. Performance Dates TBA.

Michael is currently composing a Violin Concerto on commission from the internationally renowned soloist Anastasia Khitruk. This project is partially funded by the Affanato Foundation for the Arts.

The composer has written this about the background on the concept behind the concerto entitled Ole Worms' Three Cabinets of Wonder: "Lawrence Weschler's prize-winning book Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder is the direct inspiration of this idea. As Weschler explains, 16th and 17th century scientists and intellectuals, having recently discovered the new world, were bringing back curiosities and objects that they collected into "museums". There they would bring others and stand utterly confounded and in awe at the curios. These curios, for them, might as well have been from outer space. The objects included botanical, animal and mineral selections - even mechanical automata in the most grotesque and bizarre specimens - i.e. Vanitas mundi Tableaux, a human fetus playing the violin with its umbilical chord as the bow. The final twist in the cabinets was that some of the objects were entirely fake and constructs of the imagination!"

"My musical cabinet of wonder contains 3 movements:

1. Fannies Hair - Fanny Hensel, Mendelssohn's beloved sister and a composer herself, left a few sketches for a violin concerto, which I have found and completed as a tribute from her to her brother.

2. Buddha's Assassin - set in a jungle in Thailand, the Buddha is stalked by a mysterious being intent on murder, their meeting is profound; the assassin is his lover.

3. (3rd movement) under construction.

Overwhelming response to a February 2, 2008 concert at the Westchester Council for the Arts in White Plains, New York gave Michael Colina and Porter Carroll Jr. the incentive to propose a unique collaboration with the Pepsi corporation to create and support a revolutionary musical venture.

This project is the vision of Porter Carroll, Jr., the founder of one of the 1980's most popular urban contemporary bands, Atlantic Starr. Mr. Carroll has partnered with 3 time Grammy Award winning producer, writer and arranger Michael Colina to create a program that couples classic rhythm and blues compositions with classical/chamber string ensemble arrangements, in a highly personal, creative and entertaining stage show.

More about this in future issues of this newsletter.

To hear samples of Michael's music, visit his Sound Room.

We are currently working on what promises to be a great CD of Michael Colina's chamber music. This will include pianist Pierce Emata's recording of the Sestina Mutations, the New York-based Sybarite String Quintet's performance of Disturbing the Silence, the Britto Trio's performance of the Idoru Trio and violinist Anastasia Khitruk's performance of Notturno for Piano and Violin.

Look for the disc in Fall 2008. More information in future issues of Sound Room.

If you don't yet know the music of Michael Colina, here's your opportunity to meet a fine composer. Just a quick sampling of the music at his website will tell you that this is the real thing – a composer who communicates.

For more information about the music of Michael Colina, visit him online at http://www.michaelcolina.com/. For more information about the composer, contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-586-3433 or jamesarts@worldnet.att.net.