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THE CORE ENSEMBLE
TAHIRAH WHITTINGTON, Cellist & Operations Manager
HUGH HINTON, Pianist & Artistic Advisor MICHAEL PAROLA, Percussionist & Executive Director MARGOT EMERY, Managing Director
Since its founding in 1993, The Core Ensemble has been acclaimed for the development of a new genre of chamber music theatre works, as well as a long history of commissioning and performing contemporary chamber music.
The Core Ensemble maintains a deep commitment to reaching the widest possible range of audiences demographically and geographically, in formats ranging from formal performance to informal lecture and educational residency programs. The Core Ensemble has commissioned many of today's finest composers for new works featuring the unique instrumental combination of cello, piano and percussion. Many of these works have been funded by the most prestigious commissioning programs in the United States. CD recordings have been released on the New World, Albany and Centaur labels. A series of chamber music theatre works combining music with other performance elements such as narrative and dance have toured nationally and internationally since 1995. MORE.... |
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 Photo by Donn Thompson |
TAHIRAH WHITTINGTON
Tahirah Whittington, originally from Houston, TX, has performed for audiences in the United States, Chile,
France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Bermuda, St. Kitts, and Japan. Solo engagements include a performance with
the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC, as a result of winning 1st prize at the 1999 Sphinx
Competition. She was a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall for the 2007 Sphinx Gala. An avid chamber musician,
Ms. Whittington has toured as a member of Core Ensemble since 2001. Ms. Whittington is a founding
member of The Young Eight, a touring string octet based in Seattle, WA, and a resident member of the Ritz
Chamber Players based in Jacksonville, FL. She is featured on Cedille Records' recording of Coleridge-
Taylor Perkinson's unaccompanied cello work, "Lamentations: a Black Folk Song Suite," for which she
received a Grammy nomination. Ms. Whittington has collaborated with jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman,
reggae artist Beres Hammond and performed on recordings with R&B artists Alicia Keys, Angie Stone, Joe,
and gospel singer Donnie McClurkin. Ms. Whittington received her Bachelor's Degree from the New England
Conservatory of Music as a student of Laurence Lesser and a Master's Degree in Cello Performance from
The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick. She is pursuing her Doctoral Degree at the Bienen
School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, studying with Hans Jørgen Jensen. Ms.
Whittington is currently on the cello faculty at the Meadowmount School of Music.
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HUGH HINTON
Hugh Hinton has performed widely as a chamber musician and recitalist, including concerts and residencies
throughout the Middle East as a United States Information Agency Artistic Ambassador. Orchestral concerto
engagements include joining the Aequalis Ensemble in the world premiere performances of the Chinary Ung
Triple Concerto with the Phoenix, Honolulu, New Hampshire and Stony Brook symphonies, as well as with
the Core Ensemble in the world premiere performances of the Bernard Rands Triple Concerto with the
Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Florida Philharmonic, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony and the New
Hampshire Symphony. His recordings of chamber and contemporary music have been broadcast internationally on "Art of the States"
and can be found on the New World, Albany, CRI, Etcetera and Newport Classics labels.
Mr. Hinton earned his Bachelor's degree from Harvard University and Master's and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music, where his principal teachers were Russell Sherman, Wha-Kyung Byun, Lev Vlassenko and Mykola Suk. He has taught at the New England Conservatory and Holy Cross College. He currently on the piano faculty at the Community Music Center of Boston and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge MA. |
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MICHAEL PAROLA
Michael Parola received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the State University of New York at Purchase and
his Master's and Doctor of Musical Arts Degrees from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His
primary teachers were Raymond Des Roches and Richard Horowitz. Mr. Parola was a founding member and
percussionist with the Aequalis Trio from 1984-1993 and then founded the Core Ensemble in 1993. With both
ensembles he has commissioned dozens of new chamber music trios for the unique instrumental combination
of cello, piano and percussion with hundreds of performances and residency programs throughout the
United States and at international venues in England, Russia, Ukraine and Australia.
Orchestral concerto engagements include commissioning and performing with the Aequalis Trio the Chinary Ung Triple Concerto with the Phoenix, Honolulu, New Hampshire and Stony Brook Symphonies and also commissioning and performing with the Core Ensemble the Bernard Rands Triple Concerto with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Florida Philharmonic, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony and New Hampshire Symphony. His recordings have been broadcast internationally and can be heard on the New World, Albany and Centaur labels. Michael Parola served as percussion instructor at the Harid Conservatory of Music from 1993-1999, Florida Atlantic University from 1993-1998 and the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University from 1999-2008. In addition to his roles as Percussionist and Executive Director, Mr. Parola has served since 1995 as Executive Producer for nearly a dozen Core Ensemble chamber music theatre works; unique multi-genre programs combining chamber music with narrative theatre. |
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MARGOT EMERY
Margot Emery has served as Managing Director of the Core Ensemble since 1995. During that time, local
and regional touring of the ensemble's chamber music and chamber music theatre pieces has expanded to
include national and international work. The ensemble's programs now reach every region of the U.S. and
have been heard in Russia, Ukraine, the Caribbean, England and Australia. During Ms. Emery's tenure, the
Core Ensemble has performed in such prestigious venues as the Guggenheim Museum, Central Park
SummerStage, the Chautauqua Institute, the Boston Center for the Arts, Cambridge University (England)
and the Queensland Biennial Festival in Australia. Ms. Emery has been responsible for raising funds to
commission 12 music theatre pieces, 14 chamber music works and 3 triple concertos. Ms. Emery has
initiated and managed extensive outreach and residency programming in Massachusetts, in collaboration
with the Community Music Center of Boston, and in Florida including a Chamber Music America Residency
based at the Duncan Theatre/Palm Beach State College. She spearheaded a series of site-specific projects
resulting in five evening-length chamber music theatre works created and performed with such diverse
partners as the South Florida Haitian community, residents of Glades County, and students in the Teen
Time/Planned Parenthood Afterschool program. Ms. Emery secured funding for these projects from the
National Endowment for the Arts, the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Humanities
Council, the Palm Beach County Cultural Council and the A.D. Henderson Foundation. Past positions
include Development Director for the USS Constitution Museum, Director of Development Services for the
Palm Beach County Cultural Council and Palm Beach Development Manager for the Florida Philharmonic
Orchestra. Ms. Emery holds diplomas from Laval University in Quebec City, Canada, and the Mozarteum
in Salzburg, Austria.
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