DelawareScene: Coastal Concerts presents East of the River @ Coastal Concerts

Coastal Concerts presents East of the River

East of the River

About East of the River

East of the River was founded by internationally renowned recorder players Nina Stern and Daphna Mor. They are known for exploring haunting and virtuosic melodies from the traditional repertoires of the Balkans, Armenia, and the Middle East, as well as gems of the Medieval European classical repertory. The music is arranged and interpreted by musicians whose musical backgrounds include Classical, World music, and Jazz. Together they create the unique blend that is East of the River. The members of the ensemble have separately recorded and performed with artists as Yo Yo Ma, Philip Glass, Jordi Savall, Sting, Natalie Merchant, Aerosmith, Simon Shaheen, Glen Velez, and many others.

Nina Stern

Nina Stern has carved a unique and astonishingly diverse career for herself as a world-class recorder player and classical clarinetist. A native New Yorker, Ms. Stern studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, where she received a Soloist’s Degree. From Basel, she moved to Milan, Italy where she was offered a teaching position at the Civica Scuola di Musica.

Ms. Stern performs widely on recorders, chalumeaux, and historical clarinets. She has appeared as a soloist or principal player with orchestras such as The New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, American Classical Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Philharmonia Baroque, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, La Scala Theatre Orchestra, Clarion Orchestra, I Solisti Veneti, Hesperion XX, Opera Lafayette, Handel and Haydn Society, and Tafelmusik.

Her numerous festival and concert series appearances have included performances under leading conductors such as Loren Maazel, Kurt Masur, Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock, Claudio Scimone, Kent Tritle, Jane Glover, Bruno Weil, Ton Koopman, Andrew Parrot , Harry Christophers, and Jordi Savall. She has recorded for Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Sony Classics, Newport Classics, Wildboar, Telarc, MSR, Good Child Music, Smithsonian, and AVIE labels.

Nina Stern’s latest projects include performances and recordings of traditional music of Eastern Europe, Armenia, and The Middle East, as a soloist, and with her ensembles Rose of the Compass and East of the River (Daphna Mor, co-Director.) In recent years, Rose of the Compass has collaborated annually with the conductor Kent Tritle and the Choir of St. John the Divine in creating programs for the "Great Music in a Great Space" concert series at the Cathedral. East of the River’s latest album Ija Mia was released on the AVIE label in March of 2024.

Ms. Stern was appointed to the faculty of Juilliard’s Historical Performance program in 2012 and has served on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music – where she directed the Historical Performance Program from 1989 to 1996 – the Civica Scuola di Musica (Milan, Italy), Oberlin Conservatory, and the Five Colleges in Massachusetts.

Nina Stern is also hailed as an innovator in teaching school-age children to be fine young musicians. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of S’Cool Sounds, a successful hands-on music education project. The Washington Post applauded this program as a model in its “innovation in the classroom” series (11/9/03). For this important work Ms. Stern was awarded an Endicott Fellowship in 2003 and was honored by Early Music America in 2005 with the “Early Music Brings History Alive” Award and again in 2019 with the Laurette Goldberg Award for Achievement in Early Music Outreach.

Nina Stern served as Director of Education for the New York Collegium from 2002-2007. She has consulted for Midori & Friends and for Carnegie Hall’s Weill Institute, helping them to develop and expand their recorder curriculum. She is the author of “Recorders Without Borders” - two books for beginning recorder players and percussion. Ms. Stern has shared her teaching methods with students and teachers throughout the U.S., in the Netherlands and Belgium, and has worked to establish recorder programs in several schools in the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, at Village Health Works in Kigutu, Burundi and at a school for Syrian refugee children in Azraq, Jordan.

In 2023, Nina received the American Recorder Society’s Distinguished Achievement Award.

Daphna Mor

Daphna Mor (recorders, voice, ney) has performed throughout Europe and the United States as both a soloist and ensemble player. Mor’s “astonishing virtuosity” (Chicago Tribune) has been heard in solo recitals in the United States, Croatia, Germany and Switzerland.

She has performed as a soloist with the New York Collegium, the New York Early Music Ensemble and Little Orchestra Society, and as a member of the orchestra with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera and Orchestra of St. Luke's. Mor was awarded First Prize in the Settimane Musicali di Lugano Solo Competition and the Boston Conservatory Concerto Competition, and has appeared in a duo with Joyce DiDonato on the singer's promotional tour for the album In War and Peace.

Devoted to new music, Mor has recorded on John Zorn's Tzadik label, and has performed the world premiere of David Bruce's Tears, Puffes, Jumps, and Galliard with the Metropolis Ensemble. Also active in the world music community, Mor has performed in festivals and on stages worldwide, including New York’s Summer Stage and Munich’s Gasteig.

She can also be heard on Sting’s album If On A Winter’s Night for Deutsche Grammophon. Mor serves as the Music Director of Beineinu, a New York initiative dedicated to the modern cultivation of Jewish culture, and is a researcher, performer and teacher of liturgical music of the Jewish diaspora. She leads programs for the Education Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

www.daphnamor.com

Tickets for individual concerts will be available for purchase online at our web site after September 1st, 2024. A limited number of discounted season subscriptions are available for premium and general seating online. Discounted admission for students, active military and first responders are available.

Coastal Concerts is supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.