EXTENSITY to Launch EXT Pop Up Concerts Featuring Emerging Composers
Featuring pianists Chelsea Randall and Francesca Khalifa performing works by Grace Coberly, Hannah Sobel, George Walker, Alfredo Diez Nieto and more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Aug. 04, 2022
EXTENSITY is launching EXT Pop Ups-an ongoing series of short-form concerts spotlighting today's most promising emerging composers in non-traditional venues and unexpected locations-with two adventurous California recitals in partnership with Wildflower Composers, featuring pianists and EXTENSITY co-founders Chelsea Randall and Francesca Khalifa.
Randall and Khalifa kick off the EXT Pop Ups series with a benefit concert for EXTENSITY's 2023-2024 commissioning fund and forthcoming California chapter on August 26, 2022, 7:30pm, at a private residence in San Diego, CA, and a public concert on August 28, 2022, 7:00pm at St. Andrew Church in Pasadena, CA. The programs will highlight West Coast premieres of piano solo works by two talented Wildflower Composer alums: Grace Coberly and Hannah Sobel, alongside new and seldom heard works by George Walker, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Alfredo Diez Nieto and Miguel del Aguila among others. Coberly and Sobel will each receive a monetary prize and a high quality recording of their featured pieces.
The EXT Pop Ups Series gives up-and-coming composers the opportunity to have their work performed and premiered by professional musicians, and offers composer/musicians a platform to perform their own compositions. Concerts are 45 minutes to 1 hour long, and presented in an accessible and educational format. Following the CA launch, the series will come to NY as part of EXTENSITY's 2023-2024 season. Learn more: https://www.extensityconcertseries.com/august-28-2022-illuminations-chelsea-randall-francsca-khalifa-pianists-ext-pop-ups-series
Concert Information:
Illuminations: EXTENSITY Benefit Concert
Friday, August 26, 2022, 7:30pm
Private residence, San Diego, CA
Illuminations: Chelsea Randall & Francesca Khalifa, pianists
Sunday, August 28, 2022, 7:00pm
St. Andrew Church, Pasadena, CA
Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/illuminations-chelsea-randall-francesca-khalifa-pianists-tickets-376478566527
Chelsea Randall, pianist
Francesca Khalifa, pianist
Program for both events:
Guido's Hand: Five Pieces for Piano - George Walker
Prima Respira - Grace Coberly
Dream and Variations (excerpts) - Dorothy Rudd Moore
Azuretta - Regina Harria Baiocchi
-Chelsea Randall
-Intermission-
Sposalizio S 161 (from Deuxième Année de Pèlerinage: Italie (Second Year of Pilgrimage: Italy) - Franz Liszt
Concert Etudes S 145: Waldesrauschen, - Franz Liszt
Tocata - Alfredo Diez Nieto
Conga - Miguel del Aguila
Nocturne - Hannah Sobel
-Francesca Khalifa
*Programs subject to change
About EXTENSITY
EXTENSITY is a musician-founded series presenting cutting-edge programming by emerging and established artists working across a range of disciplines including music, fine art and multimedia. EXTENSITY aims to foster connections between musical traditions, artistic practices and time periods with emphasis on underrepresented and new voices.
We also create platforms for artists and audiences to interact and make new discoveries through receptions, interviews, panels, lectures and special events. EXTENSITY hinges on this fluid, immersive perspective, both in programming and in experience; our goal is to promote a free flow of ideas, stimulate dialogue, and forge meaningful links between artists and engaged, active audiences. https://www.extensityconcertseries.com/
About Wildflower Composers
Wildflower Composers aims to amplify the voices of women and gender-marginalized composers and work toward a more equitable future for contemporary music. https://wildflowercomposers.org/
About Chelsea Randall
NY-native pianist Chelsea Randall is a multifaceted artist who seeks to create fresh dialogues between the old, new and undiscovered as a performer and collaborator. Recent appearances include a series of livestream recitals shining light on works by Robert Palmer and Ruth Crawford Seeger, made possible by a grant from Live From our Living Rooms, and solo appearances in California, New York and the tri-state area.
Highlights of the 2022-2023 season include a collaboration with kora virtuoso Malang Jobarteh supported by New Music USA's Creator Development Fund and the launch of American Mavericks, a performance and commissioning project dedicated to modern Black American Composers. A US tour of American Mavericks kicked off in June '22 with stops in MA, CA, NY, and will continue with a CA and international tour in '23. As a soloist, Chelsea has appeared at venues from Weill Recital Hall and Alice Tully Hall in NY to Clare College at Cambridge University, UK and has been a guest artist at the Orvieto, Pacific and Colby festivals. She is the recipient of research and performance grants from Conservatoire de Paris and McGill University among others.
Chelsea is the co-founder and Artistic Director of EXTENSITY Concert Series in NY, which aims to promote diversity and equity in classical and new music. She received her musical education from NYU, the Royal College of Music and the Juilliard School Website: https://www.chelsearandall.com/
About Francesca Khalifa
Francesca Khalifa is a Brooklyn-based Italian-Egyptian pianist, researcher, organizer and activist. Awarded by renowned pianist and musicologist Paul Badura - Skoda as the winner of the Ferrara International Piano Festival in 2014, the pianist's recent highlights include solo concerts with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica Ettore Pozzoli, the Orchestra Sinfonica Junior La Verdi, the Metropolitan Opera String Quartet, the Orchestra Amadeus, as well as solo appearances at Steinway Hall New York City, Harbin Concert Hall (China) and Oficina del Historiador (Cuba).
The Italian pianist has been a guest artist for master classes and lectures at Pino Torinese Master Classes, the School of Performing Arts of Virginia Tech University, the UCF School of Music in Orlando, the E. Said Conservatory in Jerusalem.
Khalifa is a recipient of the City Artist Corps Grant 2021, which supported the launch of Legado - a project dedicated to the performing, commissioning and recording of music by living, Latin classical composers. The pianist was also awarded with the Talent Scholarship by the New York University and received the President's Trio Fellowship from USF Tampa.
Her mentors are the Cuban pianist and pedagogue German Diez and pianist Ena Bronstein-Barton, both former pupils of Claudio Arrau. Her research on German Diez is at the base of the documentary Piano Lessons, which received the official endorsement of the American Liszt Society. The movie has been officially selected at the Silicon Beach Film Festival 2021 (US), the 39th Turin Film Festival,, FlickFair Film Festival 2022 and premiered in New York City, Milan, Miami and Turin. Khalifa's debut album, Elevation, was released for Sheva Collection on July 15th 2022 and distributed by Naxos US on all major streaming platforms. For more information visit francescakhalifa.com
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