Decoda to Visit UK for Wind Quartet Concert, Workshops
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 8, 2019) — Decoda, the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall including University of Kentucky’s own ToniMarie Marchioni, will visit the university for a series of workshops and a concert Nov. 10-13.
The concert, which is free and open to the public, will include music for one, two, three and four instruments interwoven in a musical narrative beginning 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, at the Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall. Inspired by motion and counterpoint in music, the concert will include works by Johann Bach, Béla Bartok, Leoš Janacek, Bohuslav Martinu and more.
Decoda was founded in 2012 by alumni of Ensemble Connect, a two-year fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. As the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, the group's activities are anchored in creating compelling performances.
At home in New York City, Decoda works with partner organizations such as WQXR, the Police Athletic League, NYPD and NYC Administration for Children’s Services to engage a diverse cross-section of the city through creative songwriting workshops and interactive performances that promote collaboration and compassion. Decoda’s versatile artists are dedicated to creating dynamic performances and opportunities for musical discovery.
While at UK, Decoda will feature the Wind Quartet which includes Catherine Gregory, ToniMarie Marchioni, Paul Cho and Shelley Monroe Huang.
Catherine Gregory, an Australian flutist, has performed at The Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Barbican Centre in London and at the Lincoln Center Festival. She will make her recital debut at Carnegie Hall this fall. Gregory is passionate about connecting all communities through music. Her upcoming project, Just Breathe, provides interactive performances for cancer patients to provoke, stimulate and harness their creative expression throughout their treatment journey.
Oboist, ToniMarie Marchioni, has performed in Europe, South America, Asia and throughout the U.S. as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. Currently an assistant professor of oboe at UK School of Music, Marchioni is a frequent performer at the International Double Reed Society conferences and a sought-after clinician and pedagogue.
Paul Cho, clarinetist, has performed throughout Asia, Australia, Europe and the U.S. with MET Opera Orchestra, New Haven Symphony, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, Youth Orchestra of the Americas and Asian Youth Orchestra. In addition to his professorship at Adelphi University, Cho teaches at Horace Mann School and New York Music School in Tenafly, New Jersey. He also taught at PS 200 in Brooklyn as a fellow of the Ensemble ACJW, currently Ensemble Connect.
Shelley Monroe Huang is a bassoonist with Decoda and a past bassoon fellow at Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. As a teaching artist, Huang performs in schools, universities and community venues. She leads songwriting projects, teaches students to play the recorder and works with Carnegie Hall on The Lullaby Project, a program where new parents write lullabies for their babies. As a concert bassoonist and contrabassoonist, Huang has performed with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra and the Charlotte, Albany, New Haven and Princeton symphony orchestras.
While on campus, Decoda will also host three workshops. Details for the free public workshops are:
- “Working with Living Composers,” geared toward all instrumentalists and composers discussing the ins and outs of the composer/performer relationship, will be presented 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10, at Fine Arts Building Room 107.
- “Secrets of Chamber Music” workshop, set for 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 11, at Niles Gallery located in the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library, will include open coaching with several student groups of different instrumentations.
- “Arts for Social Change,” 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, in the Singletary Center Recital Hall, will include a discussion of Decoda's community engagement work, a sample interactive performance for an educational setting and work on personal mission statements.
In addition, Decoda will present at three of UK's arts administration classes and give interactive performances at Kentucky Children's Hospital and Lexington's School for the Creative and Performing Arts on Nov. 13.
The School of Music at UK College of Fine Arts has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, music therapy, composition, and theory and music history.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.