On Wednesday May 19 at 7pm EDT, we are hosting Tafel Talks: Joseph Bologne, Black & Classical. This conversation will explore the music, life, and legacy of the influential Black violinist and composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Our panel of contributors from New York, Nassau, and Toronto will unpack Bologne’s significance within past and current contexts and discuss the impact of systemic racism in music history.
In this post, get to know the panelists and moderators of this event.
DR. CHRISTINE GANGELHOFF
Dr. Christine Gangelhoff is a multi-dimensional practitioner of music. She is an experienced performer; an enthusiastic teacher and mentor; an advocate for arts and cultural institutions; and a dedicated scholar. She is currently Associate Professor of Music at The University of The Bahamas and has also held positions on the faculties of Memorial University of Newfoundland and St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Dr. Gangelhoff’s academic and musical career has led her across the globe, giving her unique opportunities to delve deeply into local musical traditions. Her research into the little-known classical composers of the Caribbean has inspired albums, academic symposia, concert series, scholarly publications and most recently, an innovative textbook. Dr. Gangelhoff is a founding member of the chamber ensemble C Force. Since its formation in 2008, the group has been featured in concert throughout the Caribbean, the United States, and Canada, and has recorded three CDs of Caribbean classical compositions. Their aim is to showcase little-known classical composers of the Caribbean region in original compositions, transcriptions, and arrangements. Through her work with C Force and her extensive research, Dr. Gangelhoff has helped increase the exposure of this neglected piece of Caribbean culture.
TANYA CHARLES IVENIUK
A native of Hamilton, Ontario, with roots in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, violinist, Tanya Charles Iveniuk has performed across North and South America, and the Caribbean. Recipient of the Women’s Art Associate of Canada – Luella McCleary Award, the Gabriella Dory Prize in Music, and the Hamilton Black History Council’s John C Holland Award, Tanya received a Bachelor of Music (Violin Performance) from the University of Toronto, and an Artist Diploma (Orchestral Performance) from the Glenn Gould School. Currently, she is a violinist with Ensemble du Monde, Toronto Mozart Players, Sinfonia Toronto, and the Odin Quartet. Her former posts include concertmaster and soloist with the Colour of Music Festival
Orchestra (COMF) and the COMF Virtuosi (SC, USA). Tanya is a dedicated educator, and an in-demand string adjudicator and clinician abroad, as well as in Ontario. She is on the Education Outreach Team for Ensemble du Monde in Guadeloupe and has also been an instructor in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico for the Centro Regional de Estudios Musicales program and in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for the White Chapel Music Studio. Tanya is a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Toronto-Faculty of Music in the Education department and is also on faculty at two music schools that service the youth-in-need from high-priority areas of the City of Toronto: The Regent Park School of Music and Axis Music.
PATRICK JORDAN
Patrick Jordan is a native of West Texas, where he studied with Susan Schoenfeld. His studies continued in Boston at the New England Conservatory and the Longy School; his principal teachers were Walter Trampler and Eugene Lehner. While living in Boston, Patrick was a member of the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra, the Boston Quartet (1986–1993), D.C. Hall’s Band, and the period-instrument van Swieten Quartet (1994–1997). He has been a member of the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra since 1997, serving frequently as principal viola, and from 2005–2019 was principal violist of the Carmel Bach Festival.
He is a member of the Eybler Quartet, one of three quartets on the faculty of the Banff Centre’s summer program Evolution of the String Quartet. The Eybler Quartet has released seven CDs, including world premieres of Joseph Eybler, Johann Baptist Vanhal and Franz Asplmayr, as well as better known works such as Joseph Haydn’s op. 33 and Beethoven’s op. 18 quartets.
When not busy with the viola or teaching at the Glenn Gould School, Patrick is an enthusiastic cook and student of the culture of food.
MODERATOR: MARLON DANIEL
American conductor Marlon Daniel is a protégé of the renowned Finnish pedagogue Jorma Panula. He has been described as “a natural and enormous talent” by the Chicago Sun-Times and as “fabulous and exceptional” by Pravda – Moscow. He is one of the most dynamic conductors of his generation and is a bright light for diversity in the world of classical music. He has performed in prestigious venues in Asia, Europe and the United States, from Carnegie Hall to the Rudolfinum.
A laureate of the 2018 Bucharest Symphony Orchestra International Conducting Competition, he has also a recipient of the ‘Voice of the Artist’ Award from the United Nations in recognition of his charitable work bringing awareness to the crisis in Darfur and an Honorary Key to the City of Chicago for Outstanding Musical Achievement. Recently, he has made acclaimed débuts with Chineke! in London, the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, Sofia Sinfonietta, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba, where he was the first American to date invited since President Barack Obama’s historic lifting of the U.S. embargo in 2015, and the only African American to conduct the orchestra in its sixty-year history.
He is the world’s foremost exponent and interpreter of the music of Chevalier de Saint-Georges and a champion of works by living composers, especially of African descent. His recording “Phoenix Forever” (music of Hampson Sisler) on the MSR Classics label received rave reviews and was in consideration for a 2011 GRAMMY.
He has held positions as Associate Conductor of the Praga Sinfonietta, Principal Guest Conductor of the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra and has been a Guest Lecturer at Yale University. Currently, he is Artistic and Music Director of the Festival International de Musique Saint-Georges, Music Director of Ensemble du Monde (chamber orchestra), Director of the Diversity in Classical Music Program at Teachers College, Columbia University and has recently joined the faculty Fordham University as Director of Orchestral Ensembles.
Next season, he will make débuts at the prestigious Havana Mozart Festival, Opera Créole in New Orleans and release a new CD on the French label, Alpha Records.
Tafel Talks: Joseph Bologne, Black & Classical takes place Wednesday May 19 at 7pm EDT. Buy tickets at tafelmusik.org/bologne