Elysian Ensemble Comes to the Watchung Arts Center

The Elysian Ensemble, a classical trio featuring harp, flute and cello, will perform at the Watchung Arts Center on Saturday, April 11 at 8 PM. Founded in 1997 by cellist Sam Magill and flutist Lucian Rinando, the trio made their critically acclaimed New York debut at Weill Recital Hall, and have been described by Strings Magazine as “masters of their instruments”. In addition to Mr. Magill and Mr. Rinando, the ensemble also includes harpist Elaine Christy. The evening will include a dessert reception and an opportunity to meet the performers.
Praised by the New York Times for his “unimpeachable reading” of the Poulenc Cello Sonata, cellist Samuel Magill has had a rich and varied career as soloist and chamber musician. He has appeared as soloist throughout Japan and the U.S., including performances of the Schumann Concerto and Brahms Double Concerto in Tokyo’s famed Suntory Hall and in Alice Tully Hall. Mr. Magill has partnered with the pianists Oxana Yablonskaya, Pascal Rogé and the late Grant Johannesen, and has given annual recitals since 1994 at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
He is currently a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York, and was formerly Associate Principal Cello. He was for nine summers Principal Cello and Soloist of the New York Symphonic Ensemble. As such he toured throughout Japan playing the concerti of Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Dvorak, Dohnanyi, Schumann, Brahms and Beethoven.
A pupil of the late Zara Nelsova, Mr. Magill was educated at the Peabody Institute and Rice University. Mr. Magill has taught extensively on the secondary and tertiary educational levels for more than 30 years. He was Artist in Residence at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville and was Chair of the String Department at the Texas Southern University in Houston. As an audition coach Sam has unique experience in both the orchestral and opera repertoire, having won auditions for the Houston Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, as well as being either a runner-up or a finalist for the Chicago Symphony, The New York Philharmonic, The Atlanta Symphony, The Cincinnati Symphony and the Chicago Lyric Opera.
Flutist Lucian Rinando is admired equally for his orchestral and chamber music performances. As Principal Flutist of the Garden State Philharmonic since 2000, he has become a popular soloist with orchestras in New Jersey. Within the New York metropolitan area he has worked with ensembles such as the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as an Artistic Extra, and as Principal Flute for both the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and Cantori New York.
Mr. Rinando is the Assistant Conductor of the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra and his programs there for the last 3 seasons have become audience favorites. As Assistant Conductor, he is also Assistant Program Director and consequently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the MSO since 2008.
He has been Instructor of Flute at the Monmouth Conservatory of Music in Red bank, NJ since 2001. For over 22 years Lucian has shared with his flute students the French Conservatory training that he obtained from his mentor Bernard Z. Goldberg.
Under the astute pedagogy of Mr. Goldberg, he earned a Bachelor of Music Performance Cum Laude, from Duquesne University. He also studied in New York with renowned flutists Jeanne Baxtresser, Trudy Kane, and Judith Mendenhall, and has apprenticed with Anne Pollack at Your Flute Works as a flute technician for five years.
Elaine Christy is winner of the American Harp Society National Harp Competition and has twice won the Ruth Lorraine Close Competition Award for advanced study. Ms. Christy was invited to perform at the World Harp Congress in Seattle/Tacoma and Geneva, Switzerland. She has performed at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Riverside, St. Bartholomew, and Trinity Church concert series, and gave the world premiere of Oyeme con los ojos by Allison Sniffin in Merkin Hall and has appeared with the CBS Orchestra on The Late Show with David Letterman. She is a member of the Richardson Chamber Players, Princeton University.
A past member of the Board of Directors of the World Harp Congress and the American Harp Society, Ms. Christy has also served as a national competition judge. Her publications have appeared in the American Harp Journal and the World Harp Congress Review, and her music editions for solo harp have been published by Lyon and Healy.
Elaine Christy holds a doctorate degree from the Manhattan School of Music, and has been Professor of Harp at the University of Kansas. She is currently Harp Instructor at Princeton University. Her latest CD entitled “Love Dreams” is available at www.elainechristy.com.
Tickets are $16 in advance, $20 ($18 WAC members, $10 students) at the door. Tickets may be purchased online at watchungartscenter.eventbrite.com. To obtain more information about upcoming performances, classes and workshops, and monthly art exhibitions, please visit WatchungArts.org or call 908-753-0190.
The Watchung Arts Center, located at 18 Stirling Road in Watchung on the Watchung Circle, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts facility serving Watchung, the surrounding communities and the Tri-State Area.