Judith Lynn Stillman, Trinity’s Curt Columbus and 5 members of the RI Philharmonic Orchestra team up for ‘April in Paris with Poulenc’–April 27

Trinity Rep’s Curt Columbus is featured in Stillman’s new play-within-a-concert

“Francis Poulenc epitomizes French culture and the Parisian arts scene, from the literary café to the music hall. With Curt Columbus brilliantly inhabiting the persona of Poulenc, the composer’s extraordinary and oftentimes divergent qualities are brought to life. An eccentric, erudite, witty and colorful character, he was paradoxically both religious and risqué, saucy and serious, sublime and silly. It’s been said that there’s a little bit of Poulenc in each of us.”

Together they present the premiere of Stillman’s play-within-a-concert, April in Paris with Poulenc, in which Curt Columbus is featured in the role of French composer and pianist Francis Poulenc (1899–1963).

His portrayal is interlaced with the performance of three of Poulenc’s masterworks. The event is 8 p.m. on Saturday (April 27) at the Carter Center for Music Education & Performance, 667 Waterman Ave., East Providence.

(On Monday, April 22, at 1 p.m., an abridged version will be performed at Sapinsley Hall, Rhode Island College.)

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About Judith Lynn Stillman,

pianist, composer and filmmaker: Judith Lynn Stillman has been hailed as an “artistic visionary,” is the Artist-in-Residence and a Professor of Music at Rhode Island College. She has performed throughout the world, at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Marlboro, Tanglewood, Grand Teton Festival and at the Grammy’s celebration in honor of Rostropovich. She has appeared with Wynton Marsalis, Borromeo, Shanghai, Muir, Cassatt and Lydian string quartets, the Beach Boys, in a BOSE commercial with Herbie Hancock, as visiting guest artist at major conservatories in China, Russia and the Czech Republic, and as music director in Rome and Verona, Italy. Winner of 18 piano competitions, the first Pell Award in the Arts, and the Christiana Carteaux Bannister Award for Civil Service in the Arts, Stillman holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School, where she won the Juilliard concerto competition and the Dethier Prize for Outstanding Pianist. Stillman, as filmmaker-composer-pianist, has garnered awards including Grand Jury Prize: Best Music Video, Best Multimedia Film, Best Music Score and Audience Choice in international film festivals in Los Angeles, Montréal, New York and the United Kingdom. Her iconic duo recording with Wynton Marsalis on Sony Classical was on the Top Ten of the Billboard charts: “Stillman and Marsalis make an impeccable duo. The playing consistently dazzles.”

About RI Philharmonic Orchestra members

Rachel Braude, flutist and piccoloist, is an active performer and teacher in the Boston area. She can often be seen performing with the Boston Ballet Orchestra, Boston Pops and Boston Symphony, and she currently holds positions in the Boston Philharmonic, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Portland Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic and Opera Boston. She is the former principal piccoloist of the St. Louis Symphony. An active teacher, she teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music (Prep Division) and maintains a private studio. Former teaching positions include the University of Massachusetts (Boston) and Rhode Island College. Braude is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School; her principal teachers include Trevor Wye, Bradley Garner, Geralyn Coticone and Lois Schaefer. She can be heard on the Chandos, Naxos, New World and BMOP Sound labels. Her debut solo recording can be heard on the album In Media Res in a piece written especially for her by composer Lisa Biewala, long-time BMOP collaborator and Prix de Rome winner. In the summers, Braude performs at the New Hampshire Music Festival and teaches at the Greenwood Music Camp (Junior Division). Braude and her husband, violinist Charles Dimmick, concertmaster for the RI Philharmonic Orchestra, have a young daughter, Chloe, and two naughty cats who occasionally object to her practicing high notes on the piccolo.

Denise Plaza-Martin,

 oboe, a native of Pittsburgh, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music from Carnegie-Mellon University and a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory. She is a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Hilltop Oboe Trio and is the Oboe/English horn instructor at Rhode Island College. Plaza-Martin has been oboist for the Mechanics Hall kids concert series since its inception in 1994. As English Horn Soloist with the Star Wars in Concert Orchestra, Plaza-Martin has toured extensively throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. Orchestral work has included The Filarmonica de Caracas in Venezuela, where she performed in many Venezuelan cities and Islands in the Caribbean. She freelances throughout New England at venues including the Huntington Theatre, Xfinity Center, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, the Cape Cod Melody Tent and Boston TD Garden. Plaza-Martin also performs with the Portland (Maine) Symphony, RI Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Chorus of Westerly and Providence Singers. She has performed with the Hartford Symphony, Plymouth and Cape Cod symphonies, United States Coast Guard Band and Newport Music Festival.

Ian Greitzer,

 clarinet, serves as principal clarinetist of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic and Boston Classical Orchestra. He performs with the Boston Symphony, Cantata Singers, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Collage New Music. Greitzer holds both a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory and was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. A devoted performer of contemporary music, he is a member of the Boston Musica Viva, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston. Greitzer has appeared at the Rockport (Maine) Chamber Music Festival, Blossom Festival, Ravinia, Rockport (Mass.) Chamber Music Festival, Wolf Trap and Tanglewood Music Festival. He has performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Carnegie Recital Hall and Edinburgh Festival. Greitzer has also appeared in concert with the Blair, Manhattan, Lydian and Vermeer string quartets as well as being a member of the Zephyr Wind Quintet. He was a founding member of the New England Woodwind Quintet, Arada Trio and Extension Works New Music Ensemble. Greitzer is a faculty member of both The Boston Conservatory and Boston University College of Fine Arts. He has recorded for the Phillips, CRI, Koch International and Northeastern Records labels.

Kevin Owen,

 French horn, is principal horn and has been a soloist for the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Boston Landmarks Orchestra and Boston Philharmonic. He has also been a soloist for New Haven Symphony, Portland (Maine) Symphony, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Ocean State Chamber Orchestra, North Shore Philharmonic, Boston University Symphony Orchestra, as well as other orchestras. He has appeared on the David Letterman and Conan O’Brien shows with the rock groups Guster and My Morning Jacket. He has toured internationally with the Boston Symphony, Empire Brass, the Boston Chamber Music Society, and was a first-place winner in five chamber music competitions with the Boston Wind Quintet. Kevin composes and arranges music for the educational programs of the Portland Symphony, and his orchestra arrangements have been performed by the Rhode Island Philharmonic. He has taught at Brown University, Brandeis University, Boston Conservatory, Longy School of Music of Bard College and Rhode Island College.

Ronald Haroutunian,

bassoon, is an active performing artist in the New England area. He teaches bassoon at Boston University, University of Connecticut, MIT, Tufts and NEC Prep. He performs with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, extra bassoon with Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra and Boston Ballet.

 About Curt Columbus,

 Artistic Director, Trinity Repertory Company: In January 2006, Curt Columbus became Trinity Repertory Company’s fifth artistic director. He is also the artistic director of the Brown/Trinity MFA programs in acting and directing. His directing credits for Trinity include Ragtime, Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, Middletown, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Merchant of Venice, His Girl Friday, Camelot, Cabaret, Blithe Spirit, A Christmas Carol, Cherry Orchard and the world premieres of The Completely Fictional, Utterly True, Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allen Poe and Social Creatures. Trinity has been home to the world premieres of three of his plays, Paris by Night, The Dreams of Antigone, and Sparrow Grass. Trinity has also produced his translations of Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard and Ivanov as well as Feydeau’s A Flea in Her Ear and Lope de Vega’s Like Sheep to Water (Fuente Ovejuna).

Mr. Columbus’ adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (with Marilyn Campbell) has won awards and accolades at theaters around the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. His translation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, developed at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia, is now published by Dramatists Play Service, as is his play, Sparrow Grass, and his translations of Chekhov’s other major plays, Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard and Ivanov. Mr. Columbus lives in Providence with his husband, Nate Watson.