November 8 & 10: Concert performances of Victoria Bond’s acclaimed opera about Clara Schumann

The German Forum presents Clara at Symphony Space in NYC (Nov. 8), and Rhinebeck CMS presents Clara at Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck, NY (Nov. 10)

On Friday, November 8 and Sunday, November 10, the German Forum presents Victoria Bond's acclaimed opera about Clara Schumann, performed in concert. Clara will be performed at Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre (2537 Broadway at 95th St., New York, NY 10025) on November 8 at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $30 and are available at this link.

A second performance of Clara with the same cast will be presented by the Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society on November 10 at 3:00 pm, at Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck, NY. Tickets are $35 and available at this link. Both performances of Clara will be an abbreviated concert version; cast details are below.

Victoria Bond’s opera about Clara Schumann (libretto by Barbara Zinn Krieger) premiered to critical acclaim at the Berlin Philharmonic Easter Festival in Baden-Baden earlier this year. The celebration of the 200th anniversary of Schumann's birth continues with these performances in New York. Composed by Ms. Bond during her residencies at the Brahms House in Baden-Baden, Clara weaves the intertwining lives of Clara Wieck, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms into a dramatic mixture of music and passion. Complete cast details are below.

The world premiere of Victoria Bond's opera about Clara Schumann received worldwide media attention (listen to Ms. Bond's interview about Clara on WWFM) and enormous audience acclaim at 11 sold-out performances. Co-presented by the Easter Festival of the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and the Berlin Philharmonic, Clara was performed by a cast of outstanding singers and orchestra, conducted by Michael Hasel, principal flute of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Calendar Listing

November 8 and 10, 2019

Clara

performed in concert

an opera about Clara Schumann

by Victoria Bond

November 8, 7:00 pm: Symphony Space

Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre

2537 Broadway at 95th St., New York, NY 10025

presented by The German Forum,

Babette Hierholzer, artistic director

Tickets are $30 (plus $5 service fee) and available at this link

November 10, 3:00 pm: Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society

Church of the Messiah

6436 Montgomery Street, Rhinebeck, NY 12572

presented by Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society

Babette Hierholzer, artistic director

Tickets are $35 and available at this link

Cast

Clara Schumann - Christine Reber, soprano

Robert Schumann - Jonathan Estabrooks, baritone

Friedrich Wieck (Clara’s father) - Robert Osborne, bass-baritone

Johannes Brahms - Heejae Kim, tenor

Yana Goichman, violin

Thilo Thomas Krigar, cello

Babette Hierholzer, piano

Victoria Bond, conductor

Music by Victoria Bond

Libretto by Barbara Zinn Krieger

A major force in 21st century music, composer Victoria Bond is known for her melodic gift and dramatic flair. Her works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and opera have been lauded by the New York Times as "powerful, stylistically varied and technically demanding."

Highlights of Ms. Bond’s catalogue include the operas Clara (premiered at the 2019 Berlin Philharmonic Easter Festival), Mrs. President, The Miracle of Light and The Adventures of Gulliver; ballets Equinox and Other Selves; orchestral works Thinking like a Mountain, Bridges and Urban Bird; and chamber works Dreams of Flying, Frescoes and Ash and Instruments of Revelation, among many others. Her compositions have been performed by the New York City Opera, Shanghai, Dallas and Houston Symphonies, members of the Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic, American Ballet Theater and the Cassatt and Audubon Quartets.

Bond’s recordings include Instruments of Revelation (Naxos American Classics, 2019), performed by members of The Chicago Symphony; and Soul of a Nation: Portraits of Presidential Character (Albany Records, 2018), works featuring soloists from the Chicago and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras that pay tribute to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and FDR. Her music has also been recorded on the Koch International, GEGA, Protone, and Family Classic labels, and her works are published by G. Schirmer, Theodore Presser, C.F. Peters, Subito Music and Protone Music.

The New York Times praised Victoria Bond’s conducting as “full of energy and fervor.” She has served as principal guest conductor of Chamber Opera Chicago since 2005. Prior positions include Assistant Conductor of Pittsburgh Symphony and New York City Opera and Music Director of the Roanoke Symphony and Opera, Bel Canto Opera and Harrisburg Opera. Ms. Bond has guest conducted throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Asia. She is the first woman awarded a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School.

Ms. Bond is Artistic Director of Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival, an annual new music series in New York, which she founded in 1998. She is a frequent lecturer at the Metropolitan Opera, has lectured for the New York Philharmonic and in 2019 was elected to the roster of the Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows. The Wall Street Journal, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times and other national publications have profiled Ms. Bond.

Nov. 17: Pianist Vasco Dantas makes Carnegie debut

November 17: Portuguese virtuoso pianist Vasco Dantas makes Carnegie Hall debut

Solo recital includes works by Debussy, Mussorgsky, and rarely heard works by Portuguese composer Luís de Freitas Branco

On Sunday, November 17 at 2:00 pm, Vasco Dantas makes his New York debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Praised for “his master technical skills and great emotional power” by MDR Klassik, the pianist from Porto, Portugal is winner of over 50 international prizes and has performed concertos and recitals throughout Europe. Tickets are $35-$45, and are available at CarnegieHall.org | CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800 | Box Office at 57th and Seventh.

The program includes Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, Book I of Claude Debussy's Préludes, and Luís de Freitas Branco's 10 Prelúdios. Freitas Branco (1890-1955) was a preeminent figure in Portuguese music in the first half of the twentieth century. His “10 Prelúdios” are unquestionably influenced by works by Debussy, whom he met in Paris in the 1910s. "I am thrilled to share the music of Luís Freitas Branco with New York City! While not widely known outside of Portugal, he is one of the most significant voices in 20th century concert music in Portugal, and certainly has been an influence on my own artistry," says Mr. Dantas.

Award-winning Portuguese pianist Vasco Dantas, has been heralded for his “romantic and musical heart” by Aachener Zeitung. Mr. Dantas has won prizes in international competitions including "Grand Prix" at Valletta International Piano Competition (Malta, 2017), 1st Prize at Estoril Lisbon Music Competition (Lisbon, 2015), 1st Prize at Porto 'Santa Cecília' Piano Competition (Porto, 2011), Prize 'Richard Wagner Circle' (Germany, 2016), and "Special Prize" at Concours International de Piano Son Altesse Royale La Princesse Lalla Meryem (Morocco, 2016).

Highlights of Mr. Dantas’ 2019-20 season include performances with the Banda Sinfónica Portuguesa and Lisbon Gulbenkian Orchestra, solo recitals at Ciclo de Concertos do Palácio da Pena in Sintra, Portugal and Piano on the Rocks International Festival in Sedona, Arizona, and the release of a new solo CD, “Delikatessen" on the ARS Produktion label featuring songs by German and Portuguese composers.

CALENDAR LISTING

Sunday, November 17, 2:00pm

Pianist Vasco Dantas
Carnegie Hall recital debut

Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
57th Street and Seventh Avenue
New York, NY

Tickets: $35-$45 available at CarnegieHall.org | CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800 | Box Office at 57th and Seventh

Presented by the Anna-Maria Moggio Foundation

Program:
Luís de Freitas Branco: 10 Prelúdios
Claude Debussy: Préludes, Book I
Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

Recordings by pianist Vasco Dantas

"Golden Liszt" - KNS Classical (A/043)
Works by Liszt including Grandes Études de Paganini and the Sonata in B minor.

"Promenade" - KNS Classical (A/036)
Works by Liszt including Tre Sonetti di Petrarca and Rhapsodie Espagnole, along with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

October 15-19: Momenta Festival V

In celebration of its 15th Anniversary, Momenta Quartet presents: Momenta Festival V - October 15, 16, 18 & 19

Four concerts each curated by a different quartet member

Admission is free for all Momenta Festival concerts Reservations strongly encouraged for events at Americas Society October 15 & October 16

"[the Momenta Festival] has become one of the most amazingly eclectic, never mind herculean feats attempted by any chamber ensemble in this city..." - New York Music Daily

October 15-19, 2019: Momenta Quartet presents the Momenta Festival at Americas Society and Tenri Cultural Institute. The fifth edition of the Festival features five premieres (four world premieres and one NYC premiere). Admission to all concerts is free. The festival features four diverse chamber music programs each curated by a different member of the quartet. With programs that blend the old and new, the "intriguing programming" (The New York Times) and "striking originality" (I Care If You Listen) of the Momenta Festival have been acclaimed by critics and fans alike.

The 2019 festival opens at Americas Society on October 15 with a retrospective on 15 years of the Momenta Quartet, featuring guest conductor David Bloom, vocalist Brad Walker and curated by violist Stephanie Griffin. The performance includes the world premiere of Alvin Singleton's Chamber Music America commission as well as the late Mario Davidovsky's String Trio. The music continues on October 16 with the program “Night Dances” curated by violinist Emilie-Anne Gendron and featuring works by Roberto Sierra and Gyorgy Ligeti. The festival moves downtown to the Tenri Cultural Institute for the final two concerts. On October 18, cellist Michael Haas’ program “American Voices” features a world premiere by Christopher Stark and a New York premiere by Alyssa Weinberg. The festival concludes on October 19 with the program “Toy Stories” curated by violinist Alex Shiozaki. Momenta is joined by toy pianist Phyllis Chen in a program inspired by the recent birth of Shiozaki’s first child. The evening ends with a performance of Mozart's String Quartet K. 387, a consonent conclusion to a wildly diverse quartet of programs.

"We founded this festival in 2015 as an artistic outlet for each of our individual musical interests," says Momenta violist Stephanie Griffin. "I continue to be surprised to discover new pieces and composers that my Momenta colleagues introduce me to through this festival."

Admission to all concerts is free. Reservations strongly encouraged for events at Americas Society October 15 & October 16

Momenta Quartet's 2019 Momenta Festival

Fifteen Years of Momenta: A Retrospective - curated by Stephanie Griffin

Tuesday, October 15 at 7:00 pm

Americas Society

680 Park Ave., NYC

Free admission

Momenta Festival V opens with a celebration of Momenta’s 15th anniversary with selected milestones from their unique and eclectic personal repertoire along with world premieres by Matthew Greenbaum (conducted by David Bloom) and the Chamber Music America commission of Alvin Singleton. The Momenta Quartet is joined by bass-baritone Brad Walker.

Program:

Mario Davidovsky: String Trio

Julian Carrillo: String Quartet no. 10

Alvin Singleton: Hallelujah Anyhow CMA Commission WORLD PREMIERE

Matthew Greenbaum: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry for baritone and string quartet WORLD PREMIERE, text by Walt Whitman

Guest artists: baritone Brad Walker and conductor David Bloom

Night Dances - curated by Emilie-Anne Gendron

Wednesday, October 16 at 7:00 pm

Americas Society

680 Park Ave., NYC

Free admission

"Dreamy and hallucinatory works inspired by or evocative of night music- contrasts of darkness and light, mysterious atmospheres and manipulations of time, extremes of character and emotion." This is how violinist Emilie-Anne Gendron describes her program which features the world premiere of Roberto Sierra's String Quartet no.3 - written for and dedicated to Momenta. Also on the program is Ligeti's raucous and colorful String Quartet no.1, music by Harry Partch arranged by the late Ben Johnston, and more.

Program:

Roberto Sierra: String Quartet no. 3 WORLD PREMIERE

Gyorgy Ligeti: String Quartet no. 1 “Metamorphoses nocturnes"

Mario Lavista: String Quartet no. 2 "Reflejos de la noche"

Harry Partch (arr. Ben Johnston): Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales

Erwin Schulhoff: Sonata for solo violin

American Voices - curated by Michael Haas

Friday, October 18 at 7:00 pm

Tenri Cultural Institute

43a W.13th St., NYC

Free admission

Featuring the world premiere of Christopher Stark's Seasonal Music, the New York premiere of Alyssa Weinberg's Still Life for clarinet and string quartet, as well as music by Manena Contreras and Jason Kao Hwang - American Voices highlights music all written in the past 15 years.

Program:

Manena Contreras: Instantes

Alyssa Weinberg: Still Life for clarinet and string quartet NYC PREMIERE

Jason Kao Hwang: If We Live in Forgetfulness, We Die in a Dream

Christopher Stark: Seasonal Music WORLD PREMIERE

Guest artist: clarinetist Eric Umble

Toy Stories - curated by Alex Shiozaki

Saturday, October 19 at 7:00 pm

Tenri Cultural Institute

43a W.13th St., NYC

Free admission

“Toy Stories is inspired by a recent, life-changing event that I experienced on May 2, 2019: the birth of my son. While I have long been interested in the unconventional sounds of toy instruments, this year’s festival seemed like the right time for a 'toy program'." - Alex Shiozaki. For the final concert of the 2019 festival, the Momenta Quartet is joined by toy pianist Phyllis Chen.

Program:

Stephanie Griffin: "Happy Car Ride" from The Lost String Quartet

Stefano Gervasoni: Adagio ghiacciato da Mozart, KV 356 for toy piano and violin

Phyllis Chen: The Matter Within for deconstructing toy piano, toy piano tines, and string quartet

Mozart: String Quartet No. 14 in G major, K387

Guest artist: toy pianist Phyllis Chen

Momenta: the plural of momentum - four individuals in motion towards a common goal. This is the idea behind the Momenta Quartet, whose eclectic vision encompasses contemporary music of all aesthetic backgrounds alongside great music from the recent and distant past. The New York City-based quartet has premiered over 150 works, collaborated with over 200 living composers and was praised by The New York Times for its "diligence, curiosity and excellence." In the words of The New Yorker's Alex Ross, "few American players assume Haydn's idiom with such ease."

Momenta has appeared at such prestigious venues as the Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery, Rubin Museum, Miller Theatre at Columbia University, the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Washington University in St. Louis, Ostrava Days in the Czech Republic, and at the internationally renowned Cervantino Festival in Mexico. Momenta has recorded for Centaur Records, Furious Artisans, PARMA, New World Records, and Albany Records; and has been broadcast on WQXR, Q2 Music, Austria's Oe1, and Vermont Public Radio.

Dan Siegler's Concrète Jungle: a twist on New York voices

October 17 & 18: Dan Siegler's Concrète Jungle

A conversation between New York past and New York present, about New York’s future

"The recorded music, by Dan Siegler...used varied sounds—rushing water, staticky buzzes—to complement the piano, strings, and brass, and was frequently haunting." - Andrew Boynton, The New Yorker

On October 17 & 18, Bessie-award winning composer of experimental music, Dan Siegler and guest artists perform the world premiere of Concrète Jungle at The Invisible Dog (51 Bergen St.) in Brooklyn. Admission is free ($15 suggested donation) and reservations are available at this link.

Siegler's new electro-acoustic work features hundreds of intricately edited New York voices and highlights borough-specific accents, linguistic filler and word repetitions to form assembled sentences and musical grooves. Layered under the dialogue, Siegler transforms harsh urban street noise by filtering it through digital delay, reverb and echo effects, rendering it meditative and ambient.

The world premiere performance features guest instrumentalists, vocalists and dancers including Pam Tanowitz (dance), Netta Yerushalmy (dance), Christina Campanella (voice), Pauline Kim Harris (violin), Tomoko Omura (violin), and Greg Chudzik (double bass). The collaborative artists perform, individually, improvised solos that compliment and contrast with the ambient noise created by Siegler.

Concrète Jungle is inspired by and takes its title from musique concrète, an electronic genre pioneered in the 1940’s in which readymade sounds are employed in place of instrumentation.

Dan Siegler began recording the source material, clips of conversations and other utterances by New Yorkers, in 2013, shortly after his father was diagnosed with dementia. “I didn't realize it at the time,” said Siegler, “but by creating this piece, I was attempting to make order out of the chaos of my dialogues with him, which contained some of the most comical and emotional exchanges we'd ever had." After Siegler's father died, Dan discovered some of his black and white street photographs, including images of a Times Square flea circus, Chinatown parades, and East Village tenements. Projections of this artwork are incorporated into the performance.

“The New York City I remember is long gone,” says Siegler. “But when I'm live-mixing these dialogues and sounds, I'm establishing some measure of control, if only for one night, and placing sounds, voices, attitudes, expressions that may be considered antique, into a contemporary context.”

CALENDAR LISTING

October 17 and 18, 2019 at 7:30 pm

Concrète Jungle

by Dan Siegler

with guest performers Pam Tanowitz, dance, Christina Campanella, voice, Pauline Kim Harris, violin Tomoko Omura, violin, Greg Chudzik, bass and more

The Invisible Dog

51 Bergen St.

Brooklyn, NY

Free admission

($15 suggested donation) RSVP at this link

Dan Siegler is a Bessie Award-winning composer and sound artist. His music has been described as "luxuriously mercurial" by Artforum, and “eerie, churchly and jazzy…” by The Village Voice. Strongly influenced by musique concrète, his work incorporates references to jazz, blues and folk via a mix of analog synthesizers, orchestration for strings, horns and woodwinds, glitch sound material and field recordings.

Siegler has worked extensively with choreographer Pam Tanowitz. Their collaborations have been performed at venues including Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center Out of Doors and The Joyce Theater. He has composed music for choreographer Yanira Castro and the violin duo, String Noise, among others. DanSieglerMusic.com

andPlay duo: new release of world premieres on New Focus Recordings

Debut album by andPlay features world premiere recordings commissioned by the duo

Violinist Maya Bennardo and violist Hannah Levinson perform works by David Bird, Clara Iannotta and Ashkhan Behzadi

“playlist” on New Focus Recordings is released on September 27, 2019

When violinist Maya Bennardo and violist Hannah Levinson decided to form the duo andPlay in 2012, their mission was to expand the repertoire for their instrumentation. By any measure, this New York-based duo has already succeeded. andPlay has commissioned and premiered nearly three dozen works to date, in addition to performing other rarely heard 21st century works, in venues from New York City to Stockholm.

All four of the works on andPlay’s debut album, “playlist” (New Focus Recordings, FCR233, release date September 27, 2019) are world premiere studio recordings. The duo commissioned three of these: Crescita Plastica by Ashkan Behzadi, and two pieces by David Bird: Bezier and Apocrypha. The fourth work, Clara Iannotta's Limun, was previously released as a live recording, and is heard here for the first time in a studio performance.

This collection of composers represents diverse cultural backgrounds and styles. Iranian-American Ashkan Behzadi’s Crescita Plastica(2015) “begins like a mad virtuoso falling off a cliff, as though all the wild expressiveness of music over the last 400 years were suddenly unleashed,” writes Meghan Burke in the liner notes. The work is a dense struggle between opposing musical elements — sustained lines with crescendi of varying lengths; violent interjections of double stops; furious microtonal passage work; and razor thin ponticello outbursts.

New York composer David Bird’s Bezier (2013)opens with a playful cataloging of timbres on the instruments, a vocabulary of scratches, cracks, pops, and breathy bow sounds in childlike exploration. Emerging from this texture are ethereal harmonic trills, briefly conjuring the fragile sound world of Sciarrino’s solo violin works, floating into a remarkable section of chirping sounds that could be mistaken for a field recording in a bird sanctuary. The second work by Bird on the album,Apocrypha (2017), incorporates electronics, producing a dialogue between the acoustic and digital sounds in which the acoustic sounds struggle to maintain their organic identity.

The sonic palette in Italian-born Clara Iannotta’sLimun (2011) explores shimmering harmonics, brilliant ponticello exclamations, and weightless glissandi, forming composite phrases that establish a tactile sensuality. The work requires the participation of two page turners who serve double-duty: they each play a high drone on a small harmonica.

Maya Bennardo and Hannah Levinson are true ambassadors for their instrumentation, pushing their collaborators to find new ways of writing for their instruments that sound like more than just a violin and a viola. This album goes beyond exploring the limits of instrumental technique and sound, engaging with aesthetic boundaries and possessing the ineffable, mysterious quality of communicating emotional truths far greater than the sum of their parts.

andPlay performs on October 4 at Metropolis in New York City; in Columbus, Ohio on November 20 and at Kent State University on November 21; details forthcoming. Contact ClassicalCommunications@gmail.com to request a physical or digital copy of this recording.

TRACKS

1. Ashkan Behzadi – Crescita Plastica (2015) - 14:30

2. David Bird – Bezier (2013) - 9:18

3. Clara Iannotta – Limun (2011) - 7:24

4. David Bird – Apocrypha (2017) - 16:47

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra announces release of Mozart Piano Concerti recording with conductor David Robertson and pianist Orli Shaham

Release date: August 23 on Canary Classics

"a first-rate Mozartean" - Chicago Tribune

Renowned pianist Orli Shaham, conductor David Robertson, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra announce the international release of an album featuring two of Mozart’s most-loved piano concertos.

Recorded for Canary Classics at historic Powell Hall in November 2017 and January 2018, the valedictory season of Robertson’s 13-year tenure as Music Director of the SLSO, the album may be purchased via this link.

Between the month of his 21st birthday and the time of his death 14 years later, Mozart effectively invented the piano concerto and turned it into one of the most thrilling of all musical genres. Shaham trains the spotlight on the drama and expressive power of two of the composer’s finest works for keyboard and orchestra in her latest recording for Canary Classics. The album presents the compelling pairing of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 17 in G major K.453 and 24 in C minor K.491. Her vision of both scores is brought to life in company with the SLSO and Robertson, ideal partners in a project that penetrates deep beneath the surface of Mozart’s music to reveal a complex web of quicksilver emotions and fluctuating moods.

The album’s selected works stand as emblems of the extraordinary theatricality of Mozart’s concertos. Each highlights the spirit of dialogue between soloist and orchestra, the ever-shifting exchange of musical ideas, colors, and textures used by Mozart to create a world of limitless dramatic possibilities.

Pianist Orli Shaham said, “These pieces move with such intense energy, driven forward by themes that grow in many directions. They develop like characters in a play or an opera. Mozart always thought dramatically and theatrically first. The way he wrote the first melody you hear is the perfect way to set up a scene, whatever that scene is. I feel like these concertos are great examples of opera at the concerto level. With the theme and variations in the finales, for example, each variation is a little part of a scene in which the story is being pushed along.”

Taken together, the two concertos embrace tragedy and comedy, pathos and joy, laughter and tears. Mozart pushes at the boundaries of convention – from harmonic language and thematic development to the technical demands he makes on the soloist – to construct multiple layers of meaning.

The SLSO recording of the Mozart piano concerti is latest in a robust history of recordings that has resulted in nine Grammy Award wins. Most recently, the SLSO, in conjunction with Blue Engine records, released the first commercial recording of Wynton Marsalis’Swing Symphony in July 2019. The SLSO won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for the Nonesuch release of John Adams’ City Noir, conducted by Robertson.

April 26: NY Phil musicians perform Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra benefit concert

April 26: NY Philharmonic musicians perform a benefit concert for Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra in a homey setting

WHCO presents an evening with violinist Anna Rabinova, cellist Ru-Pei Yeh and pianist Steven Beck at The Lounge in Washington Heights

The Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra is proud to present an intimate evening with highly acclaimed musicians of the New York Philharmonic. The program on Friday, April 26 at 8:00 pm features violinist Anna Rabinova, cellist Ru-Pei Yeh and pianist Steven Beck in a program of classics by Beethoven and Brahms, and Paul Schoenfield's whimsical Cafe Music. 

The evening includes drinks and hors d'oeuvres, and an opportunity to meet the performers and Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra musicians. The event is a fundraiser for WHCO, which has been bringing free high-quality orchestra performances to upper Manhattan audiences for the past four seasons.

The venue is the intimate setting of The Lounge at historic Hudson View Gardens, 128 Pinehurst Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Tickets for this benefit event are $75, available for purchase at WashingtonHeightsOrchestra.org. Details and performer bios are available at the same link.

The Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, founded in 2015 by conductor and music director Chris Whittaker, is a professional ensemble that presents free concerts to its Upper Manhattan community. Comprised of musicians from Upper Manhattan, the orchestra presents engaging concerts with a diverse repertoire; including favorite classical works, genre bending crossover pieces, and works by living composers. The WHCO strives to engage the people of Washington Heights and neighboring communities through exemplary musical performances and innovative educational programming. Learn more at WashingtonHeightsOrchestra.org

Hudson View Gardens, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is one of the very first cooperative apartment complexes in New York. Situated on the highest natural point in Manhattan, it overlooks the Hudson River and the scenic palisades of New Jersey. HVG is known for its beautifully manicured gardens, tree-lined private lane and classic Tutor architecture.

The Lounge at HVG, a cozy space complete with a bar, library and fireplace, is host to events for residents of Hudson View Gardens and the public.

CALENDAR LISTING

April 26, 2019 at 8:00 pm

Benefit Concert for Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra featuring:

Anna Rabinova, Violin

Ru-Pei Yeh, Cello

Steven Beck, Piano

Program:

Beethoven: Kakadu Variations, Op. 121a

Elliott Carter: Epigrams

Brahms: Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 101

Schoenfield: Café Music

The Lounge at Hudson View Gardens

128 Pinehurst Avenue at West 183rd Street in Manhattan

Tickets: $75, available at WashingtonHeightsOrchestra.org

Directions: Take the A train or #1 train to 181st St or the M4 bus to 183rd St.

Insider Interview: Mia Zabelka, sound artist

On Monday, April 8 at 7:30 pm, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York presents the Austrian violinist and vocalist Mia Zabelka with experimental video artist Katherine Liberovskaya. The evening also features the legendary intermedia artist Phill Niblock performing his signature hypnotic compositions. In this Insider Interview, we spoke with Ms. Zabelka about her early musical influences, approach to improvisation and collaboration, and so much more.  More info online at acfny.org.

Classical Music Communications - You started your training of the violin in a very traditional sense. What are your earliest memories of breaking away from the classical tradition?

Mia Zabelka - In addition to my classical violin training I started to play in a jazz rock band at the age of 14. At that time there was a very lively jazz scene in the Vienna Underground. For example, Joe Zawinul came out of it. It brought me more recognition and social integration from my school friends than classical music.

I was also interested in electronic music/ sound art from a very early age. This was at a time before the computer was generally available and we drew enormous loops and lengths of audiotape through the sound studio instead. Work at the mixing console was also incredibly important, since it was here that we could still maintain the “haptic” aspect through the physical contact we had in handling the sound and tonal events we produced. I experimented with the sounds of my own pulse and breath and improvised with them at live concerts on the violin and with my voice.

CMC - You’ve described your compositions as “noise & sound art,” in addition to calling yourself a “sound artist.” What is sound art?

MZ - Sound art is an artistic discipline in which sound is utilized as a primary medium. Sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. Sound art can be considered as being an element of many areas such as acoustics, psychoacoustics, electronics, noise music, audio media, found or environmental sound, soundscapes, explorations of the human body, sculpture, architecture, film or video and other aspects of the current discourse of contemporary art. Noise music is a category of music that is characterized by the expressive use of noise within a musical context. Noise music includes a wide range of musical styles and sound-based creative practices that feature noise as a primary aspect.

CMC - For your upcoming show at the ACF, you’ll be performing with video artist Katherine Liberovskaya. What is your process for composing sound art with visual art in collaboration such as this one? 

MZ - The interdisciplinary interaction of Sound, Art, and Video is the primary aspect of this cooperation. Since my first release SOMATEME I have continuously explored sound and music as physical phenomena, always pushing back the boundaries in experimental performances and compositions that question established notions, improving the available techniques and given structures. 

I transform movement into a language of musical signs. The gestures/phrasing which are intrinsically ever-present when playing the instrument are then inflated, exaggerated, transformed, de-constructed etc. and I succeed in finding new musical formulations through this, reaching beyond most stereotypes and clichés, and which are thus characteristic for my special musical language.

I play both acoustic and electric violin and various electronic devices today. An issue of great importance to me with these instruments is having direct access to the sound material with the effect pedals, which I can operate manually. The electronic sound is devised physically through “haptic” playing. Using this set up I am given the opportunity to expand the sound range so extensively that the violin itself becomes an interface and/or an electronic sound generator/sound machine. I use the electronic sound as it were to dress up or mask the natural acoustic sound of the instrument.

CMC - Improvisation seems to be a very important part of your style. In a concert like the upcoming one at the ACF, how much of this music is set (written out, or otherwise set in stone), and how much is improvised? Do you leave certain sections open for improvisation, or is there always room for it?

MZ - In my solo work, I basically act more as a composer than as an improvisational musician. These are electroacoustic compositions, but in the live context they also repeatedly include improvisatory parts. I create a composed framework that is open to improvisational aspects. I describe my form of musical improvisation as “automatic playing”. What I mean by this is not only a computer-like mechanical playing style, but rather the ability to achieve the production of a flow of sound similar to that in speech, filled with musical ideas and deep inner emotion both in my music and myself.

CMC - In this project, the dialogue is created through surveillance technology.  What exactly is surveillance technology, and how do you use it?

MZ - In my cooperation with Katherine Liberovskaya we use a small camera attached to my right wrist, making visible in real time the genesis of the music / the sound. Katherine uses another camera and special software to generate feedback loops from these shots. Thus, the process of creating music is spontaneously transformed into visuals.

CMC - Is there a social commentary attached to this project?

MZ - I think experimental music and improvisation always involve a social commentary.

CMC - What do you hope audiences will take away from this performance?

MZ - In my music, I am always trying to tell stories.  I hope that people are getting touched by this sonic story telling. I would like to encourage the listeners to listen intensively, to actively participate in the process of creating the music and the visuals, to get involved in an audiovisual adventure together with us.

New on Naxos: Chamber music by Victoria Bond

“Instruments of Revelation”

A CD of recent chamber music by Victoria Bond

World-class performers: Chicago Pro Musica, pianist Jenny Lin, tenor Rufus Müller, and pianist Olga Vinokur

Release date: April 12, 2019

Purchase on Amazon.

Victoria Bond's passion for chamber music is evident in each of the more than 100 works she has composed for the genre. Released on April 12, 2019, the NAXOS American Classics CD "Instruments of Revelation" includes world premiere recordings of Ms. Bond's most recent chamber works.

Drawing on Bond's chamber music of the last 15 years, "Instruments of Revelation" features performances by the Grammy award winning ensemble Chicago Pro Musica, "dynamic pianist" (NYTimes) Jenny Lin, and "dramatic tenor" (Toronto Star) Rufus Müller among others.

Lending its title to the album, Instruments of Revelation is a three movement work with each movement based on a different tarot card: "The Magician", represents ambiguity with music shifting suddenly from the mysterious and solemn to the cunning and dexterous; "The High Priestess", possesses wisdom, passion and secrets of the law, her music is calm but slowly ignites into throbbing desire; and "The Fool", considered both the holy mystic and the intoxicated lunatic, embodies music of both comedy and chaos.

Frescoes and Ash was commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and is based on seven images from Pompeii. Opening with a raucous band wandering the streets, dancing and playing a tarantella, the pieces continues with a mosaic of swimming fish, a mysterious fortune teller, a comedic group of actors and a bizarre skull symbolizing the Romans’ acceptance of death.

As a composer who is often inspired by literature and imagery, Leopold Bloom's Homecoming is Victoria Bond's account of one section of James Joyce's Ulysses. As Ms. Bond reflects, "I have been drawn to Ulysses ever since I was in high school. I think this is because the writing resembles the way I think - not in complete sentences, but in fleeting images and allusions, in a stream of consciousness." Rounding out the CD, Binary is a fast-paced and rhythmically complex set of variations on the number two.

TRACKS

1-3. Instruments of Revelation (2010)

Chicago Pro Musica

4-10. Frescoes and Ash (2009)

Chicago Pro Musica

11. Leopold Bloom's Homecoming (2011)

Rufus Müller, Tenor | Jenny Lin, Piano

12. Binary (2005)

Olga Vinokur, Piano

A major force in 21st century music, composer Victoria Bond is known for her melodic gift and dramatic flair. Her works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and opera have been lauded by the New York Times as "powerful, stylistically varied and technically demanding." 

In addition to "Instruments of Revelation", the chamber works on the Naxos label, highlights of Ms. Bond's catalog include the operas Mrs. President, Clara and The Miracle of Light; ballets Equinox and Other Selves; orchestral works Thinking like a Mountain, Bridges and Urban Bird, among many others. Her compositions have been performed by the New York City Opera, Shanghai, Dallas and Houston Symphonies, members of the Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic, American Ballet Theater and the Cassatt and Audubon Quartets.

Ms. Bond is Artistic Director of Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in New York, which she founded in 1998, and is a frequent lecturer at the Metropolitan Opera and has lectured for the New York Philharmonic. The Wall Street Journal, NBC's Today Show, the New York Times and other national publications have profiled Ms. Bond. For more information about Victoria Bond and her upcoming projects, visit VictoriaBond.com

June 1: Defiant Requiem performance in Asheville

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

Saturday, June 1 in Asheville, NC

at US Cellular Center

Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by prisoners in a WWII concentration camp

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed in Asheville, NC at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium (87 Haywood St.) on Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 7:30 pm. Complete details below.

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery.

Kym Verhovshek, a Weaverville resident, has been working with The Defiant Requiem Foundation and Carolina Jews for Justice to bring this program to Asheville. Kym’s father, George Baum, now a retired journalist, was one of the 15,000 children who were imprisoned in Terezín during World War II. To honor his legacy, Kym has been working with CJJ and other local groups and individuals to raise the funds needed for this program.

In the words of Ms. Verhovshek, “The story of Defiant Requiem is universal. As the daughter of a holocaust survivor and the mother of a 5-year-old boy, I am the bridge between my father’s legacy and my son’s future. It is through music and conversation that I am driven to make a difference.”

Led by Maestro Murry Sidlin, president of The Defiant Requiem Foundation and creator of this powerful concert/drama, Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín features the Asheville Symphony, Voices of Terezín Remembrance (a chorus comprised of singers from the Asheville Symphony Chorus, Asheville Choral Society, and other community members), and soloists Jennifer Check (soprano), Ann McMahon-Quintero (mezzo-soprano), Bruce Sledge (tenor), and Jongmin Park (bass).

Ticketing information and more for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is available in the calendar listing below.

Murry Sidlin and The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org.

Saturday, June 1 at 7:30 pm

Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

87 Haywood Street

Asheville, NC 28801

Tickets on sale now at Ticketmaster.com

Please consider becoming a sponsor by visitinghttps://www.defiantrequiem.org/Asheville

Presented by The Defiant Requiem Foundation. Proceeds to benefit Carolina Jews for Justice.

Murry Sidlin, creator & conductor

Jennifer Check, soprano

Ann McMahon-Quintero, mezzo-soprano

Bruce Sledge, tenor

Jongmin Park, bass

Asheville Symphony

Voices of Terezín Remembrance

April 28: Defiant Requiem in DeKalb

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

Sunday, April 28

at Northern Illinois University's Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by prisoners in a WWII concentration camp

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed at Northern Illinois University on Sunday, April 28, 2019 at 3:00 pm at Boutell Memorial Concert Hall (550 Lucinda Ave., DeKalb, IL). Complete details below.

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery.

Led by Maestro Murry Sidlin, president of The Defiant Requiem Foundation and creator of this powerful concert/drama, Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín features the Northern Illinois University Philharmonic, Northern Illinois University Concert Choir, Cor Cantiamo, McHenry County College Chorus, and Voices in Harmony. Soloists include Sarah Gartshore (soprano), Susan Platts (mezzo-soprano), Andrzej Stec (tenor), and Sam Hadley (bass).

Ticketing information and more for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is available in the calendar listing below.

Murry Sidlin and The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org.

Sunday, April 28 at 3:00 pm

Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

550 Lucinda Avenue

DeKalb, IL 60115

Tickets are $10 for general admission, $5 for students and are available at http://www.niu.edu/music/

Presented by the Northern Illinois University School of Music and The Defiant Requiem Foundation with funding from the Gretchen M. Brooks University Residency Project

Murry Sidlin, creator & conductor

Sarah Gartshore, soprano

Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano

Andrzej Stec, tenor

Sam Hadley, bass-baritone

Northern Illinois University Philharmonic

Danko Drusko, director

Northern Illinois University Concert Choir

Eric A. Johnson, director of choral activities

Cor Cantiamo - Eric A. Johnson, founding artistic director

McHenry County College Chorus - Steven Szalaj, director

Voices In Harmony - Steven Szalaj, director

Victoria Bond's Clara Schumann opera at Berlin Phil. Easter Festival

The Easter Festival of the Baden-Baden Festival Hall and the Berlin Philharmonic presents the world premiere of Victoria Bond's opera Clara in April 2019. Composed by Ms. Bond during her residencies at the Brahms House in Baden-Baden, Clara weaves the intertwining lives of Clara Wieck, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms into a dramatic mixture of music and passion.

"Clara Schumann was a 19th century “Wonder Woman” who shattered the glass ceiling of her day. She has long been an inspiration to me," said Bond. "I am thrilled that Clara will be premiered in Baden-Baden, a place that figured so prominently in her life." 

The fully staged production with orchestra is produced by the Festival Hall Baden-Baden and conducted by Berlin Philharmonic member Michael Hasel.

The performances are on April 14, 17, and 21, 2019 at the Theatre Baden-Baden, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the year of Clara Schumann's birth. An additional eight performances of the work scored for chamber ensemble will be performed in May and June 2019 at the Theatre Baden-Baden and conducted by Clemens Jüngling. More information is at this link.

Also by Victoria Bond

Mrs. President, an opera about the first woman to run for president of the United States....in 1872

The Adventures of Gulliver, with libretto by Stephen Greco and design and direction by Doug Fitch

A major force in 21st century music, composer Victoria Bond is known for her melodic gift and dramatic flair. Her works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and opera have been lauded by The New York Times as "powerful, stylistically varied and technically demanding."

Victoria Bond's most recent CD, "Soul of a Nation: Portraits of Presidential Character", features soloists from the Chicago and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras. Released on Albany Records in 2018, each of the four works include narration taken from the presidents' own words. 

In addition to Clara and Mrs. President, highlights of Ms. Bond's catalogue include the operaThe Miracle of Light; ballets Equinox and Other Selves; orchestral works Thinking like a Mountain, Bridges and Urban Bird; and chamber works Dreams of Flying, Frescoes and Ashand Instruments of Revelation, among many others. Her compositions have been performed by the New York City Opera, Shanghai, Dallas and Houston Symphonies, members of the Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic, American Ballet Theater and the Cassatt and Audubon Quartets.

The New York Times praised Victoria Bond's conducting as "full of energy and fervor." She has served as principal guest conductor of Chamber Opera Chicago since 2005. Prior positions include Assistant Conductor of Pittsburgh Symphony and New York City Opera and Music Director of the Roanoke Symphony and Opera, Bel Canto Opera and Harrisburg Opera. Ms. Bond has guest conducted throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Asia. She is the first woman awarded a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School.

Ms. Bond is Artistic Director of Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in New York, which she founded in 1998, and is a frequent lecturer at the Metropolitan Opera and has lectured for the New York Philharmonic. The Wall Street Journal, NBC's Today Show, The New York Times and other national publications have profiled Ms. Bond. For more information aboutVictoria Bond and her upcoming projects, visit VictoriaBond.com.

April 6: Mark Dover and Jeremy Jordan at National Sawdust

The duo Port Mande – clarinetist Mark Dover and pianist Jeremy Jordan - performs at National Sawdust on Saturday, April 6 at 7 pm. The program features music composed by each of the members of the duo in a range of styles. Mark Dover said, “Our original music runs the gamut from jazz, electronic, hip hop, and neosoul, to definite but veiled touches of contemporary classical.”

Also featured are concert works, including Dover’s arrangement of Schumann’s Dichterliebe as well as a 2017 piece for clarinet and piano by Jonathan Ragonese, commissioned by Dover. Complete program details are below.

Port Mande will perform music with and by guest artists, including soprano Faylotte Crayton and rapper POES. “The evening will have a variety show vibe,” said Dover, “as we announce music from the stage and call up guests to join us.”

Tickets are $25 for general admission and are available at nationalsawdust.org. National Sawdust is located at 80 North 6th Street in Brooklyn.

CALENDAR LISTING

April 6, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Chris Grymes Open G Series at National Sawdust:
Port Mande - Mark Dover and Jeremy Jordan

Program
Selections from the following:
This Is Loss (Mark Dover) 
I Am, Here Now (Dover) 
Lulu’s Dream (Jeremy Jordan)
Soon After (Jordan) 
Lead So I Can Follow (Dover) 
Hip Hop set with rapper POES
Song Without Words #2 (Dover) 
Non Poem 4 (Jonathan Ragonese) 
Dichterliebe No. 1 (Schumann arr. Dover) feat Lotte Crayton 
Fish Me A Dream (Jordan) 
Vocalise (Dover) featuring Faylotte Crayton
Let Us Break Bread Together (Traditional) 
Trust Us (Jordan)
Sipping on Schewitz (Dover) 

National Sawdust
80 North 6th St in Brooklyn
Tickets are $25 for general admission, and are available at nationalsawdust.org

Port Mande (formerly Duo Process), is the collaborative partnership between clarinetist Mark Dover of Imani Winds and pianist/producer Jeremy Jordan. The name Port Mande is a play on the linguistic term “portmanteau” – a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, like the word smog (itself a blend of “smoke” and “fog”). Much like a portmanteau, Dover and Jordan’s artistic partnership is a blend of all of their vast musical influences – both having worked prolifically in classical, jazz, hip hop, gospel, pop, and world music scenes. Port Mande’s mission is to bring all cultures of people together by embracing music of every genre.

Praised by Opera News for his “exemplary clarinet playing,” Mark Dover’s vast array of musical experiences have helped him establish himself as one of the most diverse clarinetists of his generation. In January of 2016, Dover joined Grammy-nominated wind quintet, Imani Winds

A member of the Young Steinway Artists roster and critically acclaimed, “a clear technical virtuoso”, “a rare talent”; “a true Wunderkind”, pianist and native Chicagoan Jeremy Jordan has performed solo and chamber concerts throughout Europe and America including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Rudolfinum in Prague, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and the Ravinia Festival.

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín with the Pacific Symphony

April 16: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa

April 17: Royce Hall at UCLA

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by prisoners in a WWII concentration camp

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed by the Pacific Symphony on April 16, 2019 at 8:00 pm at Segerstrom Concert Hall (600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA), and on April 17 at 8:00 pm at UCLA's Royce Hall (10745 Dickson Court, Los Angeles, CA). Proceeds from the performance on April 17 will benefit Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Complete details below.

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery.

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín features the Pacific Symphony, Pacific Chorale (Robert Istad, artistic director), soloists Aga Mikolaj (soprano), Ann McMahon Quintero (mezzo-soprano), Edgaras Montvidas (tenor), and Nathan Stark(bass), actors John Rubinstein and David Prather, and Maestro Murry Sidlin, president of The Defiant Requiem Foundation and creator of this powerful concert/drama.

Ticketing information and more for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is available in the calendar listing below.

Murry Sidlin and The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org.

Tuesday, April 16 at 8:00 pm

Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall

600 Town Center Drive

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Tickets range from $25 - $196 and are available atwww.pacificsymphony.org

Presented by the Pacific Symphony

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wednesday, April 17 at 8:00 pm

Royce Hall, UCLA

10745 Dickson Court

Los Angeles, CA 90095

Tickets range from $45 - $98 and are available atTicketmaster.com.

Presented by The Defiant Requiem Foundation and the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Proceeds to benefit Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.

For sponsorship packages, please contact Victoria Lonberg at victoria@lamoth.org or visit here.

Murry Sidlin, creator & conductor

John Rubinstein & David Prather, actors

Aga Mikolaj, soprano

Ann McMahon Quintero, mezzo-soprano

Edgaras Montvidas, tenor

Nathan Stark, bass-baritone

Pacific Symphony

Pacific Chorale

Robert Istad, artistic director

Insider Interview: Mark Dover, clarinetist

Insider Interview: Mark Dover, clarinetist
February 12, 2019

On Saturday, April 6, 2019 at 7:00 pm, Chris Grymes’ Open G Series at National Sawdust (80 North 6th St., Brooklyn) presents Port Mande, the clarinet and piano duo consisting of Mark Dover and Jeremy Jordan. In this Insider Interview, we spoke with clarinetist Mark Dover about the upcoming program.  More info online at nationalsawdust.org.

Classical Music Communications: How was Port Mande formed?

Mark Dover: Jeremy Jordan and I have been close friends and collaborators since 2013.  Even though a lot of our projects and concerts involve more than just the two of us, we’ve always felt that our work as a duo is the real foundation of all of our music. Coming primarily from the classical world we wanted to think of a way to take the simple idea of a clarinet and piano duo and expand the olive branch as far as we could.  

CMC: Both you and Jeremy seem to have very deep backgrounds in classical music. How does that inform your performances of the non-classical pieces?

MD: It really works both ways.  For me personally I almost feel like my background in jazz and improvised music informs my classical music performances almost as much or even more.  There’s a sense of once you know learn something musically and really know it, you can’t unknow it, and you can’t really set it aside, it will always be a part of you.  In terms of my classical roots informing everything else, my sense of time is definitely apparent.  In chamber music we are taught the art of rubato, of moving between the notes and the barlines, and I think my original music has a deep sense of that.  And then definitely aspects of 19th and 20th century European harmony are very present in my music and arrangements. Then again that’s present in probably all music these days!

CMC: Looking at the program, it’s clear your musical interests spread far. How do you keep these pieces connected together in a program like this? Is there a common theme?

MD: I think the theme is always playing music that speaks to us.  There’s not necessarily anything deeper to it than that in this program. Although one thing we try to relay to all our audiences is that this music is actually more similar than it is different.  It’s all really connected through the lineage of our musical ancestors.

CMC: Tell me about your collaborators for this program, POES and Faylotte Crayton. Have you worked with them before? Do they share your diverse taste in music? What will they bring to the program?

MD: Well Faylotte Crayton is my wife, so there’s that! She’s an incredible soprano, went to Juilliard and then Bard for her masters where she studied at Dawn Upshaw’s Vocal Arts Program. She has a sound that really just gets right to your gut, full of raw emotion. I say that totally objectively! And POES is an amazing rapper from Washington Heights  that Jeremy and I met a few years back.  He’s a real poet, and raps about justice and equality, and about  his identity as a Dominican family man trying to make it in a very competitive scene. He has a flow that is just so smooth, and even though he doesn’t play an instrument or read music you can just hear his musicianship in his phrasing.  Both of them definitely share our taste in music, but they primarily work in their own genres of opera/art song and hip hop. Which is beautiful for us because we get to insert them into our crazy world and the results are really exciting.

CMC: How do you find time to compose (in addition to a busy career with Imani Winds and as a clarinet soloist)?

MD: I’m always trying to be near a keyboard. I always compose from the piano.  Even on the road I’ll drive the Imanis crazy with my backstage noodling.  It’s cathartic to me to write music, so it really doesn’t feel like work.  Especially since I’m usually drowning in a sea of chamber music pieces that need to be learned in a very short amount of time. 

CMC: Do you have any favorites amongst your own compositions audiences will hear at the April 6 concert?

MD: I wrote a song entitled This is Loss that was written during a very difficult time in my life.  It was only performed once before, so I’m really looking forward to digging into that.

CMC: What do you hope audiences will get out of coming to this concert?

MD: I hope audiences will leave feeling drunk with new sounds!  And I hope they feel like if nothing else, they’ve had a musical experience that was very different from the concerts they’ve attended in the past.  That’s all we could ever hope for!

April 7: Composer Portrait Jeremy Gill at National Sawdust

Program features world premiere for violin duo in reaction to The Last Tango in Paris, and New York premiere of settings of Walt Whitman's poetry

"The execution is fresh and clever….a compositional tour-de-force that shows Gill’s versatility and attention to detail." – The American Record Guide

On Sunday, April 7 at 7:00 pm, at National Sawdust, composer Jeremy Gill showcases his compositions inspired by the words of Whitman, the philosophy of Pascal, and the film The Last Tango in Paris. A fresh face in NYC, this concert marks the first program consisting entirely of Gill's music since his move to the Big Apple last year. Jeremy Gill's composer portrait concert is presented by Chris Grymes' Open G performance series at National Sawdust.

Described as “vividly colored” (The New York Times) and “exhilarating” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Jeremy Gill's music has been championed by renowned musicians worldwide. Recent highlights include the premiere of his oboe concerto by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaap van Zweden; the Grammy-winning Parker Quartet's Innova Recordings release of Gill's epic hour-long string quartet Capriccio, and the premiere of Gill's four-hand piano concerto performed by Shai Wosner and Orion Weiss with the Chautauqua Symphony conducted by JoAnn Falletta, with a subsequent performance by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Read more details about Jeremy Gill's busy Spring 2019.

The program for this portrait concert features works all written in the last five years. Violinists Mandy Wolman and Beverly Shin perform the world premiere of Lascia fare mi. Translated as "leave me alone", Lascia fare mi is a fantasy for two violins that plays in nine uninterrupted “scenes,” inspired by the scenes from Last Tango in Paris in which the characters of Jean and Paul appear alone. These scenes reveal their evolving relationship, and as they inevitably come to know one another more conventionally, their interactions grow increasingly more passionate and more violently antagonistic.

Celebrating the bicentennial of Walt Whitman's birth, the Whitman Portraitwill be performed by the six singers for whom it was written, including Kristin Sampson and Rachel Calloway (complete details below). A collection of six songs, this will be the NYC premiere of the Whitman Portrait performed in its entirety.

Also a NYC premiere, the Duo for violin and piano was commissioned for the 35th anniversary of Market Square Concerts, and performed here by Duo Prism. Rounding out the program, Six Pensées de Pascal is Gill's setting of text by the 17th century French mathematician Blaise Pascal. This work was written for the Philadelphia vocal ensemble Variant 6, who will be performing on this concert.

Tickets are $29 for general admission and are available at nationalsawdust.org. National Sawdust is located at 80 North 6th Street in Brooklyn.

CALENDAR LISTING

April 7, 2019 at 7:00 pm

Chris Grymes Open G Series at National Sawdust:

Jeremy Gill, Composer Portrait

Program:

Whitman Portrait (2014) (New York premiere)

Performers: sopranos Deborah Lifton and Kristin Sampson, mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway, tenor Dominic Armstrong, baritone Jorell Williams, bass-baritone Matthew Burns, and pianist Jeremy Gill

Duo for Violin and Piano (2015) (New York premiere)

Performers: Duo Prism (Jesse Mills, violin and Rieko Aizawa, piano)

Six Pensées de Pascal (2017)

Performers: Variant 6

Lascia fare mi (2018) (world premiere)

Performers: Violinists Mandy Wolman and Beverly Shin

National Sawdust

80 North 6th St in Brooklyn

Tickets are $29 for general admission, and are available at nationalsawdust.org

Baruch Performing Arts Center: NYC premiere of Gregory Spears' "Walden"

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March 13: Baritone Brian Mulligan and pianist Timothy Long perform the New York premiere of Gregory Spears' Walden

Program also includes Dominick Argento's Pulitizer Prize winning From the Diary of Virginia Woolf

“a voice that is rich, secure, and really, really big” –The New York Times

On Wednesday, March 13 at 7:30 pm, straight from its world premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Baruch Performing Arts Center presents Brian Mulligan and Timothy Long performing the NYC premiere of Gregory Spears' song cycle Walden. The program also includes Dominick Argento's From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Tickets are $36 for general admission ($16 for students) and are available at www.baruch.cuny.edu/bpac. Baruch Performing Arts Center is at 55 Lexington Avenue (enter on 25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues), in Manhattan.

Gregory Spears' opera Fellow Travelers was a sensation at the 2018 Prototype Festival. His latest work, Walden, composed for Brian Mulligan was heralded as "a gripping performance" (The Washington Post) at its world premiere in the Fall. With texts drawn from Henry David Thoreau's classic 1854 book, Walden "speaks with a naked intimacy that’s almost painful" (The Washington Post). The cycle is paired with Dominick Argento's From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, written for Janet Baker in 1974.

Praised for his "velvety, evenly and effortlessly produced baritone and nuance-rich phrasing" (Opera News), Brian Mulligan frequently appears with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies including the Metropolitan, San Francisco, and Houston Grand Operas. He is joined by pianist Timothy Long, whose "collaboration at the piano [with Mulligan] was so sympathetically symbiotic that it seemed...that a single musical intelligence was at work (The Washington Post)."

CALENDAR LISTING

March 13, 2019 at 7:30 pm

Baruch Performing Arts Center presents:

Brian Mulligan (baritone) & Timothy Long (piano)

Program:

Gregory Spears: Walden *NYC premiere*

Dominick Argento: From the Diary of Virginia Woolf

Baruch Performing Arts Center

55 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan

(enter at 25th Street between 3rd and Lexington Avenues) 

Tickets are $51 for premium seating, $36 for general admission, and $16 for students, and are available at www.baruch.cuny.edu/bpac

Cutting Edge Concerts: February 11, 18, 25

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Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival 

Victoria Bond, Artistic Director

Cutting Edge Concerts' 22nd season features music by Philip Glass, Paul Chihara, Hannah Lash, Amy Beth Kirsten, Victoria Bond and more

February 11, 18, & 25, 2019 at Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Thalia in New York City

"...a gift to New Yorkers thirsty for new sounds" - Time Out New York

Victoria Bond's Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival celebrates its 22nd Season with three programs in February 2019 at Symphony Space.

Inspired by Pierre Boulez's series, "Perspective Encounters", the composer and conductor Victoria Bond founded Cutting Edge Concerts in 1998. With more than two decades of concerts, Cutting Edge Concerts has presented over 300 new works by nearly 200 composers. Each program highlights the music of living composers, all of whom attend the concert. Along with performances by world-class ensembles and soloists, each program features on-stage discussions between host Victoria Bond and the composers. CEC has been called "a full-throttle commitment to contemporary music" by Chamber Music America.

February 11, 7:30 pm | Cutting Edge Concerts: Dream Forms

New York-based di.vi.sion piano trio (Kurt Briggs, violin; Matt Goeke, cello; Renee Cometa Briggs, piano) performs Steven Burke's Dream Forms (composed for the di.vi.sion trio), inspired by clairvoyant, lucid and epic dreams. Additional works include Victoria Bond's Other Selves, commissioned by the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival as a ballet based on sculptures by Marjorie Michael; and "Piano Trio No. 2" by Jim Lahti.

February 18, 7:30 pm | Cutting Edge Concerts: New Visions of Cherished Classics

Acclaimed Philip Glass interpreter, pianist Paul Barnes joins forces with Scott Hosfeld (viola), Maria Newman (violin), and Laura Hamilton (violin) for Glass's Byzantine chant-inspired work Annunciation Quintet. The first half also includes the NYC premiere Victoria Bond's Simeron Kremate as well as Maria Newman’s Pennipotenti.

The evening also features a workshop performance of The Adventures of Gulliver, a new opera based on the classic Jonathan Swift tale, with music by Victoria Bond, libretto by Stephen Greco and design and direction by Doug Fitch. The cast includes:

Daniel Klein, baritone; Ariadne Graf, soprano; Sean Christensen, tenor; Yoojin Lee, mezzo-soprano; David Charles Tay, tenor; Jonathan Hare, baritone; and Mark Peloquin, piano.

February 25, 7:30 pm | Cutting Edge Concerts: The Poetry of Places

The Horszowski Trio (Jesse Mills, violin; Paul Wiancko, cello; Rieko Aizawa, piano) is joined by clarinetist Alan Kay, flutist Elizabeth Mann, and soprano Sophia Maekawa for a performance of Paul Chihara's Amatsu Kaze ("heavenly wind"). The work is based on seven Haiku, and Chihara's songs are happy, sad, sexy, witty, and always very lonely.

The evening also features pianist Nadia Shpachenko performing selections from her recently released CD, “The Poetry of Places” - works composed for her by Lewis Spratlan, Harold Meltzer, Hannah Lash, Amy Beth Kirsten, Jack Van Zandt, Victoria Bond, and James Matheson.

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival concerts are on Mondays, February 11, 18, and 25, 2019 at 7:30 pm at Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street in Manhattan). Tickets are $20 in advance ($30 day of show) and are available online.

Feb 23: Defiant Requiem performance at IUP

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Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

Saturday, February 23

at Fisher Auditorium, Indiana PA

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem as performed in the Terezín Concentration Camp, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by the prisoners of a WWII concentration camp

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed on February 23, 2019 at 7:30 pm at Fisher Auditorium(403 S. 11th Street) in Indiana, PA. 

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery. This performance features the full Verdi Requiem with the chorus and soloists accompanied by a single piano, as it was in Terezín.

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín features pianist Arlene Shrut with Colleen Ferguson on violin, the IUP Chorale and Penn State Altoona Ivyside Pride Vocal Ensemble, as well as soprano Annie Gill, mezzo-soprano Bonnie Cutsforth-Huber, tenor Tim Augustin, and bass Joseph Baunoch and actors Richard Kemp and Michael Schwartz. It will be conducted by Maestro Murry Sidlin, president of The Defiant Requiem Foundation and creator of this powerful concert/drama.

This performance of Defiant Requiem is presented by The Defiant Requiem Foundation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Department of Music, and the Penn State Altoona Department of Arts and Humanities, with funding from the Gretchen M. Brooks University Residency Project.

Tickets for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín are $10 general admission, $8 for seniors and $6 for students, anyone with a Military ID, and children under 18. Tickets are available online or in person at the The Lively Arts Ticket Office (in the lobby of the IUP Performing Arts Center, 403 S. 11th Street, Indiana, PA). 

Murry Sidlin and The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org.