February 13 & 14, 2015
Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra
Steve Eva, conductor
Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 PM
Chagrin Valley Little Theatre
40 River St.
Chagrin Falls, OH 44022-3024
Composer Nathan Felix returns to Chagrin Falls to host the world premiere performance of his new symphony: The Curse, the Cross and the Lion. Nathan's efforts inspired a documentary by director David Schulte entitled The Curse & The Symphony, capturing the story of a young, ambitious, and perhaps rebellious musician searching for identity and truth within classical structures of culture and society. The documentary has screened at 14 film festivals and received numerous accolades, including "Best Documentary Short" at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival. Nathan will on hand for the concert and is looking forward to being back with his friends in Chagrin Falls.
The Curse the Cross & the Lion is an adventurous, cinematic symphony by indie-composer, Nathan Felix, that explores 6 thematic movements that span over 28 minutes long and was performed by and written for full symphony orchestra.
CCL was written over the course of 8 years while Felix was touring throughout Scandinavia, the Faroe Islands, China, the USA, & Europe with his hybrid indie-rock orchestra, The Noise Revival Orchestra.
With the help of New York via Portugal conductor, Andre Lousada, the two young visionaries sketched out a plan that brought Felix to Fredonia, NY in April of 2012 to record The Curse the Cross & the Lion.
From the dissonant opening crescendo of the self-titled 1st movement, to the brooding yet elegant 3rd movement of Broken Down the Walls, to the Western jangle of Don’t Give It Up, The Curse the Cross & the Lion, injects your soul with a genre-bending musical adventure that pays homage to some of the greats in both film and classical music.
About Nathan Felix
Disenchanted with the world of punk and indie rock, self-trained composer Nathan Felix found solace in the structure and arrangements of classical music somewhat by chance. Fueled by the crazy idea of writing a full symphony, he chose to bypass the rock n roll lifestyle after 3 albums and constant world touring, and focus all of his energy on composing the classical way.
In 2013, Felix looked to establish himself as a composer and released his 1st symphony, The Curse the Cross & the Lion, to critical acclaim including being featured by the BBC and numerous NPR stations around the country. A subsequent documentary by director David Schulte titled, The Curse & The Symphony, captured a contradictorial story of a young, ambitious, and perhaps rebellious musician searching for identity and truth within classical structures of culture and society. The documentary has screened at 14 film festivals and received numerous accolades, including Best Documentary Short at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival. Felix will return to Chagrin Falls in February 2015 to premiere The Curse The Cross & The Lion with Steve Eva’s, Chagrin Studio Orchestra.
The success of The Curse the Cross & the Lion opened an opportunity to travel to Bulgaria to debut a new symphonic piece for an orchestra in Burgas in the summer of 2013. Upon returning to the US, Felix began composing a choral symphony sung in Classical Latin titled Neon Heaven that will be released in 2015 and preformed in Denmark, Austin and Portugal.
In addition to his recent work with orchestra, Felix served as an official music ambassador for the US in China and composed music for a series of PSA’s for an international campaign by LIVESTRONG to raise cancer awareness in China and Mexico. In late in 2014, Felix reformed his band, The Noise Revival Orchestra, for a tour in Asia highlighted by festival dates in Japan and Taiwan where TNRO performed for crowds of 35,000 and 50,000.
About the Studio Orchestra
The Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra is volunteer-driven, nonprofit musical endeavor that brings studio arrangements, as well as the classics that inspired them, to stages in the Chagrin Valley community.
The Studio Orchestra is the only known orchestra in the region with a particular focus on studio arrangements. Written as film scores and rarely played live, studio arrangements represent some of the most dynamic, high-energy music of our time, by some of the most respected composers.
The Studio Orchestra affords its musicians the privilege and honor to play these original works—and its audience members the rare opportunity to hear them played live. With guest musicians and vocalists as well as multimedia presentation, the performance experience is more than just a concert—it represents a new vision in musical entertainment.
About the Conductor
Stephen A. Eva is a native Clevelander from a musical family and graduate of Shaker Heights High. Mr. Eva, an accomplished trumpet player in his youth, attended The National Music Camp at Interlochen where he sustained injury to his lip from overplaying. His attention quickly turned to his true love, conducting, and he became the first student conductor ever at Shaker High School. Mr. Eva graduated from Grove City College with degrees in Economics and Philosophy where he organized and directed the first Jazz Ensemble.
For the past 23 years, Mr. Eva has been the conductor and driving force of the Hermit Club Symphony Orchestra (Cleveland's premier performing arts club.) Through the Hermit Club Orchestra, he has conducted numerous large-scale symphonic works, concertos, chamber music, musical theater, choral and pops concerts.
Mr. Eva is well known in Chagrin as the Musical Director of the Chagrin Light Orchestra for the past two seasons where he introduced fun, innovative programming to the Community. PMr. Eva is self-employed as an industrial equipment systems integrator. He lives with his wife Marilyn in neighboring Auburn Township and is a dedicated father of 5 children.