Nina Stern

02.19.10 | Watch Nina and "East of the River" on Youtube

02.07.10 | Nina Stern To Bring “Recorders Without Borders” to Children in Kenya
On June 18th, 2010, Nina will fly to Nairobi, Kenya.
Working in collaboration with S’Cool Sounds – the music education program she founded in New York City in 2001 - and Cross Cultural Thresholds - an organization working to feed and educate nearly 300 of the most vulnerable children in the Kibera Slum of Nairobi - Nina will introduce her approach to the group study of instrumental music to young children and their teachers in Kenya.

For four days Nina will work with over one hundred children at the "Drug Fighters School" in Kibera. Nina will also work with their teachers, ensuring that the project can continue into the future. During the months leading up to this trip, Nina will be working to link two New York City school communities to the project: The AmPark Neighborhood School and The Fieldston Lower School, both in the Bronx. Children in the three communities will get to know each other through musical and personal exchange. The children of the AmPark and Fieldston Lower schools will have the opportunity to meet in person, collaborating on a musical project which they will share with their global partner in Kenya through letter-writing and video exchange. Through the use of technology, the three communities will work to create a collective musical offering. The project is an investment in the future of the children in Kibera and in New York City.

The goal of this exciting new initiative is to develop a lasting relationship between these three communities, using music to learn about different world cultures and helping the children to appreciate the complex world in which we live.

Cross Cultural Thresholds is working to raise the money necessary to bring Nina to Kenya and to provide the children with the recorders and percussion instruments that they will need. Nina will be donating her services and expertise. If you would like to help, you can do so by making a tax-deductible donation to Cross Cultural Thresholds.

• A donation of $5 will provide one recorder for a child in Kibera or Shampole. (Each child will need his or her own recorder.)
• $20 will provide one frame drum.
• $100 will provide recorders for an entire classroom of Kenyan children.
• Any amount will help towards Nina’s airfare.

Please make out your checks to “Cross Cultural Thresholds” (with a note stating that your contribution should go towards the “Recorders Without Borders” project and send it to:

Mary Davidson
Cross Cultural Thresholds
243A Heritage Hills
Somers, NY 10589

Many Thanks!

07.06.09 | "East of the River" now represented by GEMS Live
For bookings, please contact Senior Artist Representative Wendy Redlinger by email at wredlinger@gemsny.org or by telephoning (802) 254-6189.

02.22.09 | Announcing the Publication of "Recorders Without Borders, Vol. II" by Nina Stern
Volume II in the "Recorders Without Borders" series contains 13 traditional tunes from
around the world arranged for recorders and percussion. This volume comes with a play-along CD featuring Nina Stern on recorders and Shane Shanahan on percussion.

To purchase this item, launch related site below.

10.07.08 | "Musica Pro Rara Opens Season in Style"
"The presentation at Towson University's Center for the Arts, an ideal space in acoustics and atmosphere for Pro Musica, focused on German baroque composers and had the considerable advantage of Nina Stern's virtuosity on the recorder. She coaxed myriad shadings from the instrument in a solo Fantasia by Telemann and blended beautifully with Whear, violinist Cynthia Roberts and harpsichordist Avi Stein in trio sonatas by Telemann and Handel." (Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun, 10/6/08)

05.04.08 | "The Remarkable Mission of Nina Stern: Workshops in Austin Texas"
Nina Stern, together with percussionist Mauricio Molina, takes her "Flutes and Drums" program to schools and the local chapter of the American Recorder Society in Austin Texas.
(Please go to "In the Schools" to download a PDF of an article reporting on these workshops.)

02.21.08 | Announcing the publication of "Recorders Without Borders" by Nina Stern
Nina Stern's new book for beginning recorder players and percussion,
published by Sweet Pipes. The book contains twelve original compositions
in the styles of traditional music from around the world.

To purchase this book, call or fax Sweet Pipes at:
(800) 446 1067 - Telephone
(800) 576 7608 - Fax
or launch related site below

05.20.07 | JUST RELEASED: Nina Stern and Daphna Mor's New CD, "East of the River"
Available for purchase at
CDbaby.com
(http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sternmor) and
Digstation.com
(http://www.digstation.com/ArtistAlbums.aspxalbumID=ALB000005854)

Nina Stern and Daphna Mor began playing together several years ago and immediately felt a unique musical bond. While they have been hired often to play standard repertory with established early music ensembles and prestigious orchestras like The New York Philharmonic, they also share a passion for exploring new repertory and new horizons for the recorder. Nina and Daphna became especially interested in the music of Armenia and the Balkans, finding that that repertory was especially suited to their instrument. Balkan music's virtuosic rhythms and exciting tempi lend themselves to the fleet recorder and the soulfulness of the Armenian repertory is well suited to the plaintive sound of the instrument. In "East of the River", Daphna and Nina invited their favorite musicians from New York City's classical, jazz and world music backgrounds to collaborate with them. Jazz bass player Omer Avital who has been called "the poet of the bass", composer/accordionist Uri Sharlin and percussionist Tomer Tzur each added his own unique talents and flavor to "East of the River".

05.08.07 | Music Review: A surprising soprano near the top of his game
On performance of "Parto, parto" from "La Clemenza di Tito" with male soprano Michael Maniaci and Boston Baroque:

"Maniaci sang with a beautiful, long line, to the lovely obbligato accompaniment of clarinetist Nina Stern."

By David Perkins, Globe Correspondent

04.02.07 | Baroque delivers a rare Vivaldi in vivid color, Boston Globe, Boston MUSIC REVIEW
On Boston Baroque's performance of Vivaldi's "Juditha Triumphans":

"For many of the individual arias, Vivaldi carves out wonderfully distinctive worlds unto themselves, often by pulling out solo instruments from the orchestra. Most extraordinary on Saturday night, the second of two performances, was the moving aria "Veni, veni, me sequere fida" in which Juditha compares her lament to that of a turtle dove, and from the orchestra arises the remarkable voice of the chalumeau, a clarinet-like instrument with a more reedy but beautiful and yes, dove-like, timbre as expertly rendered by Nina Stern ."

By Jeremy Eichler, Globe Staff

03.01.06 | "Classroom Recorder with Nina Stern" by Nancy Tooney
"While recorders surely have an established place in classroom learning, recorder virtuosa Nina Stern has shown that there's more to it than just helping kids learn to "tootle" a few easy tunes. In 2002, Stern, who performs extensively and has taught college students, began teaching 250 children from the Ella Baker Public School in Manhattan, connecting them to cultures where they have their roots as well as to music from its earliest beginnings to the 21st century. She expects excellence and makes it possible for all students to learn and succeed."

01.10.06 | Sarasa Ensemble Plays Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio live on WGBH, Boston
Sarasa helped us celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday in January 2006, with this performance of his “Kegelstatt” Trio, K.498. The players are: Nina Stern, clarinet Jennifer Stirling, viola Maggie Cole, fortepiano Sarasa is a chamber music en ...

03.16.04 | "Interview with Nina Stern" - by Charles Fischer

11.16.03 | "Where the Toot, Toot, Tootling Is in Earnest" Valerie Strauss; The Washington Post; Nov 18, 2003; A.09;
"The repertoire [Nina Stern] introduces to youngsters from the Bronx and Harlem reaches back centuries and around the world, to cultures where the students have their roots. There are songs from the Caribbean, Asia and Africa, as well as American spirituals, pieces from the 12th century and, coming soon, Renaissance works -- all selected to be rhythmically and melodically interesting enough to appeal to children who know only hip-hop.
Recorder music wafts through the school at breakfast time as children grab time to practice, and at lunch, when Stern often gives extra instruction to those who want it. Some pull out their instruments as they wait for the bus to take them home. They all take great care of their brightly colored plastic recorders -- which are end-blown flutes -- tucking them into book bags to keep them safe."