June 13-14
All Seeing Sky
Saturday | 6.14.25 | 8:00 PM
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street
Dmitri Shostakovich’s brooding Tenth Symphony, considered by many critics to be the composer’s finest, is a towering monument to the Stalinist era in Russia. In his double percussion concerto The All-Seeing Sky, John Psathas ruminates on the 21st-century surveillance state. Friday’s concert features a late Romantic gem for solo trombone by French composer Alexandre Guilmant. Saturday’s concert opens with a new work for The Chelsea Symphony by Elaine Tai.
Program
Morceau symphonique, op.88
(Friday only)
New Work
(Saturday only)
Symphony No. 10 in E minor, op.93
Featured Artists
A lifelong native of Brooklyn, Mike Mulligan is a freelance Trombonist in New York City and the Tri-State Area. A graduate of Montclair State University and Hunter College, he studied with Tony Mazzocchi, Ryan Keberle and George Curran of the New York Philharmonic. He has spent time around the country with the Broadway tours of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Musical!(2014-2016) and on stage with A Night with Janis Joplin the Musical (2018-2019). He has often been seen …
Elaine Tai is a Taiwanese American composer. She holds Certificates in Composition and Core Musical Skills from The Juilliard School’s Extension Division, along with a B.S. and M.S. from Columbia University. Her musical education includes participation in the Atlantic Music Festival for composition, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Academy, and Meadowmount School of Music for violin performance. She has studied composition under Conrad Cummings and Dalit Warshaw, and orchestral conducting with Mark Shapiro.
Born in Taiwan, Elaine’s interest in music emerged at …
Tamika Gorski is a percussionist currently based in New York City. An avid performer and supporter of contemporary music, she has commissioned and premiered numerous solo and chamber works by composers such as Molly Joyce, Elliot Cole, and Phong Tran. She has made appearances with the New Millennium Ensemble and Anagram Ensemble, among others, and has performed in Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, and as a soloist with La Camerata Washington Heights. Orchestrally, …
Patrick Litterst is a percussionist residing in Jersey City, NJ. Patrick has performed with various ensembles in and around New York City including the Chelsea Symphony, the Norwalk Symphony, the Richmond County Orchestra, Taconic Opera, the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, and many others.
Prior to moving to Jersey City, Patrick lived in Durham, North Carolina, and was a member of the Fayetteville Symphony, the Durham Symphony, and the Carolina Philharmonic. He also performed with a variety of other groups including …
Conductor
Mark Seto leads a wide-ranging musical life as a conductor, scholar, teacher, and violinist. He is Artistic Director and Conductor of The Chelsea Symphony in New York City, and Senior Lecturer in Music at Brown University, where he directs the Brown University Orchestra and teaches courses in music history, theory, and conducting. Recent highlights include performances with violinist Itzhak Perlman, violinist Randall Goosby, and clarinetist Anthony McGill, and the inauguration of The Lindemann Performing Arts Center at Brown University.
Since …
Damali Willingham is a conductor, composer, and bassoonist based in New Haven, CT. They recently graduated from the Berklee College of Music, where they made quite the impression as a young conductor. They served as a musical director and guest conductor of various ensembles, including the Berklee Motion Picture Orchestra, the school’s largest student-run ensemble. Damali attended the 2023 Aspen Conducting Academy and received the Robert J. Harth Award with the invitation to return for the 2024 Festival. They currently …