French conductor, violinist join Slee Sinfonietta for UB concert

UB’s Slee Sinfonietta, under the baton of French conductor Julien Leroy, will be joined by violinist Alex Greffin Klein for a concert of works by Harvey, Leroux, Donatoni and UB faculty member David Felder at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

The concert is presented by the Department of Music and The Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music.

Tickets for are $15 for the general public and $10 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, seniors and non-UB students. UB students are admitted free with ID. Tickets may be purchased at the Center for the Arts box office, online at www.tickets.com or one hour before concert time at the Slee Hall box office.

Prior to the Sinfonietta program, Klein will perform a solo violin recital at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus. The recital, which is free and open to the public, will feature the works of Carter, Felder, Saariaho, Hurel and Canat de Chizy.

The flagship ensemble of the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music, the Slee Sinfonietta each year presents a series of concerts of challenging new works by contemporary composers and lesser-known works from the chamber orchestra repertoire.

Leading conductors and composers regularly conduct the Sinfonietta, founded in 1997 by composer David Felder, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Birge-Cary Professor of Music at UB, and comprised of a core group that includes UB faculty performance artists, visiting artists, national and regional professionals, and advanced performance students.

The ensemble has produced world-class performances of important repertoire; it tours and records, as well as presenting unique concert experiences for listeners of all levels of experience.

As assistant conductor of the Ensemble Intercontemporain — working first for Susanna Mälkki (2012-13) and then for Matthias Pintscher (2013-15) — Julien Leroy is among the new generation of young French conductors.

He has served as associate conductor of the Paris Cité Internationale Orchestra since 2006, and has conducted, among others, the New Japan Philharmonic orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall), the Ottawa National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic, the Verbier Festival Orchestra, the Orchestre Pasdeloup, the TM+ and Court-circuit ensembles.

A laureate of the Ottawa National Arts Centre 2009 Young Artists Conducting Program, supervised by Pinchas Zukerman and Kenneth Kiesler, he was selected for the Festival Verbier Academy with Kurt Masur. He was also awarded during the 15th Tokyo International Music Competition for Conducting.

Alex Greffin Klein was born in France to a long lineage of musicians and entered the postgraduate course at the Royal College of Music in London in 1997 — in the class of renowned Professor Felix Andriewsky. In 1999 and 2000, she obtained the postgraduate diploma in performance and the postgraduate diploma in advanced performance, solo and chamber music pathway.

Passionate about chamber music, she completed a string quartet postgraduate course with Walter Levin at the Basel Hochschule für Musik and continues further musical education with Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet) and György Kurtag.

In 2002, she joined the Benaim String Quartet and in less than two years received several international prizes with her colleagues, including third prize at the ARD International Competition in Munich, the Bordeaux International Competition for String Quartet and the Special Prize of the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Klein now devotes an important part of her career to promoting contemporary music, working closely with composers Pascal Dusapin, Philippe Hurel, Gérard Pesson, Michaël Jarrell, Allain Gaussin, Sofia Goubaïdoulina and Helmut Lachenmann, among others.

She plays a Sebastian Klotz violin dating from 1756.