Courtroom Concert: Linda Chatterton, flute; Maja Radovanlija; Matthew McCright, piano

Hosted by composer Abbie Betinis, our popular Courtroom Concerts take place at noon most Thursdays in the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul. This series features accomplished musicians and composers from the Twin Cities and surrounding area, as well as occasional musical newcomers to the area. These one-hour concerts are free and open to the public.

About the Artists:

LINDA CHATTERTON, Flute

“The kind of performance that sparks wild standing ovations. Definitive” says the American Record Guide of flutist Linda Chatterton. Ms. Chatterton has performed in New York at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, was a featured recitalist on the prestigious Dame Myra Hess series in Chicago and has been heard throughout the US many times on National Public Radio’s Performance Today.  A Minneapolis-based artist, Ms. Chatterton has performed with numerous groups including the Minnesota Orchestra, and she tours regularly as a duo performer with harp, guitar and piano. As a concerto soloist, highlights include many performances of traditional and contemporary repertoire in the US and Europe. She has served as a US State Department Arts Envoy overseas.

Ms. Chatterton has commissioned, recorded and premiered dozens of new works, including music by Edie Hill, Lu Pei, Abbie Betinis, Jocelyn Hagen, David Kechley, Wendy Wan-Ki Lee, Aaron Travers, Takuma Itoh and Roberto Sierra. She gave the world premiere of Chen Yi’s “Southern Scenes” flute and pipa concerto with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra, conductor JoAnn Falletta and pipa player Gao Hong, as well as the world premiere of Cuban composer Leo Brouwer’s work for flute and guitar quartet, with the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, in St. Paul.  She and guitarist Maja Radovanlija premiered a major new work written for them by Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad, through a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning grant.

Past projects include concert tours in China, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan; a concerto performance with the State Hermitage Chamber Orchestra in Moscow, Russia, with a master class at the Moscow Conservatory; concerts and master classes in the UAE, Spain, France, Cuba, Montenegro and Romania; a concert tour of Australia with pianist Matthew McCright; and a sold-out concert at the DiMenna Center in New York City of contemporary chamber music by Hong Kong composers. Her London concert at the famous St. Martin-in-the-Fields concert series with McCright garnered the review: “Throughout the concert Chatterton displayed lovely tone and a fine sense of line, with technical prowess which was always understated, resulting in some involving and intelligent performances.”

She is the first and only two-time flutist to win a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Musicians, and she has received many awards from the Jerome Foundation, Chamber Music America, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the American Composers Forum.

In addition to her concert schedule, Ms. Chatterton is highly regarded for her insightful master classes, and she has served as a mentor to music students at the University of Minnesota’s School of Music.  In a related realm, Ms. Chatterton often can be heard giving her “It Sounded Better at Home!” workshop series based on her extensive work on the psychology of optimum performance.

Ms. Chatterton has recorded on the CBS Masterworks, Innova, and Gothic labels, and has also independently released seven recordings, including her most recent recording, “Songs and Dances for Solo Flute.”

She received her Master of Music degree from the University of Minnesota, studying with Julia Bogorad, and her Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music as a scholarship student of Bonita Boyd. A native of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, her first flute studies were with Robert Webb.

Ms. Chatterton is a Powell Flute Artist and plays a custom made platinum Powell flute.

www.lindachatterton.com

MAJA RADOVANLIJA, Guitar

An international performer, improviser and teacher, Minneapolis-based guitarist Maja Radovanlija has been Instructor of Guitar at the School of Music, University of Minnesota since 2011. She tours nationally and internationally as a member of the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet and as part of a flute-guitar duo with flutist Linda Chatterton. She has also collaborated with other chamber musicians such as the Szilard Mézei trio, oboist Yasna Brandstäter, ImprovIsAndDo project, Improvised Ecosystems, OneVoice mixed chorus and Ansambl Studio 6.

Her concerts have taken her across the United States and to China, Thailand, Canada, Bulgaria, Greece, Tunisia, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Belgium and the former Yugoslavia. Festival performances include Plovdiv Guitar Festival in Bulgaria, the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Cuba; the Mid-America Guitar Festival, the Underwater-Overground Multimedia Festival in Croatia, the Ethno-Flanders Music Festival in Belgium and the GuitarArt Festival in Montenegro.

Since her early performing years in Belgrade, Maja has a strong interest in contemporary music. She has premiered new pieces by Aaron Travers, Clarice Assad, Leo Brouwer, PQ Phan, Szilard Mézei, Alex Lubet, Joey Crane, Ben Abrahamson, Jeffrey Van, Ian Krouse, Mary Ellen Childs, Catherine Dalton, Richard Barret and many others. In solo recitals Maja often performs her own pieces inspired by Balkan music, improvised pieces and arrangements of traditional Balkan songs.

Maja’s commitment to music education and community outreach is shown by her creation of the Minneapolis-based Powderhorn Music Project, a guitar program that offers free lessons, workshops and performances to for BIPOC children and their families. Her guest artist events at universities include solo recitals and masterclasses at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Hawaii, the University of Georgia and Indiana University. In addition to her teaching, she serves as an adjudicator in national and international competitions. Maja is proponent of music improvisation and is on the board of the International Society for Improvised Music.

Maja received her Master and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees from Indiana University as a student of Ernesto Bitetti and Nigel North. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of Belgrade in Serbia.

MATTHEW MCCRIGHT, Piano

American pianist Matthew McCright has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific and on such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and Ireland’s National Concert Hall. He has thrilled audiences and critics alike with imaginative programming that places the greatest piano repertoire alongside the music of today’s most innovative composers. A native of Pennsylvania, McCright now resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is a member of the piano faculty of Carleton College. An accomplished recording artist, McCright has released eight solo recordings; his most recent Hanging by a Thread on the Proper Canary label, What is Left Behind also on the Proper Canary label, Endurance on the Vox Novus label, as well as three albums on innova Records (Second Childhood, A Waltz through the Vapor, and Blender), the piano works of Gene Gutchë on Centaur Records, and the piano music of Olivier Messiaen on Albany Records. His solo touring shows include Evening Preludes, The People’s Music, Contemplations: The Music of Olivier Messiaen, Connecting Flights, There and Back Again, Forward Looking Back, and Endurance.

A four-time winner of the Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative, McCright’s affinity for contemporary music and curiosity in seeking new sound worlds has led him to premiere numerous pieces, and has collaborated with such composers as Pauline Oliveros, Augusta Read Thomas, Paul Dresher, Michael Gordon, Mary Ellen Childs, Julia Wolfe, Mark Anthony Turnage, Terry Riley, Alvin Lucier, Amy Williams, Kirsten Broberg, Daniel Nass, Laura Caviani, Andrea Mazzariello, Sean Friar, Justin Merritt, Dorothy Hindman, Robert Voisey, Christopher Coleman, Kyong Mee Choi, Ingrid Stölzel, Justin Rubin, Mike McFerron, Reinaldo Moya, Stephen Andrew Taylor, David Evan Thomas, Edie Hill, Linda Buckley, Garrett Sholdice, Razak Abdul-Aziz, Greg Hutter, and Judith Lang Zaimont among many others.

McCright’s festival participation includes Bang on a Can at MassMOCA, Printing House Festival of New Music (Dublin), Late Music Festival (UK), Vox Novus, SEAMUS, Hampden-Sydney Chamber Music Festival, Engelbach-Hart, Kodály Institute, Perilous Night, Fringe, Bridge, Spark Festival of Electronic Music, SPLICE, Festival of Lakes, Rayuela, Oh My Ears, Source Song, Seward Arts, Zeitgeist Early Music, Duquesne University’s Summer Music, Music 2000, CCM Village Opening, and Minnesota Composers Alliance, as well as programs for the American Composers Forum across the country. He has been featured in articles in the NewMusicBox, Tutti, and Voice magazines and in radio broadcasts across the globe. He has performed in collaboration with a variety of ensembles including Ensemble 61, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, dal niente, Mirandola Ensemble, Wild and Wulliman, La Bonne Chanson, Intersections, Gypsy Hocket, Renegade Ensemble, Zeitgeist, Taipei Trio, Balkanicus, New Sound, New Century Piano Duo, Dixie Five, Composer’s Ensemble, Westminster Triptych, WC Jazz Ensemble, and with countless other chamber music groups. He is currently the Director of Music at Saints Martha and Mary Episcopal Church. He tours regularly with violinist, Francesca Anderegg. Since 2009, he performs internationally with flutist Linda Chatterton as part of the Chatterton-McCright Duo. Their 2016 album French Connections was released on the Proper Canary label.

McCright completed his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Minnesota, Master of Music Degree in Piano from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and earned his Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance, Magna Cum Laude, from Westminster College. His past teachers include Lydia Artymiw, Lisa Moore, Nancy Zipay DeSalvo, and Richard Morris. He is represented by Proper Canary Artist Services. For more information please visit: www.matthewmccright.org