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West Edge Opera brings AS ONE to the West Coast

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WEAs One illuminates the brave and painful growth of a transgender person, whose identity is still deemed “abnormal” and, more shamefully for our world, is barely recognized. The deeply normal need to unite body and soul within the boundaries of accepted human interactions has much to reveal to all of us.

As One premiered at The Brooklyn Academy of Music just this past September. It is based on the life experience of noted filmmaker Kimberly Reed.

Two singers, a baritone and a mezzo-soprano, together portray the character Hannah. The two singers embody a young boy who knows he is different but can’t understand how or why. The 70-minute opera traces the life of young Hannah through her eventual gender reassignment. It examines the life of a transgender person through poetry, movement, beautiful music and film in a new and especially touching way.

New York Classical Review called its premiere this past September a “rich addition to the repertoire … formidable on all fronts … As One is everything that we hope for in contemporary opera: topical, poignant, daring, and beautifully written.”

The New York Times wrote: “As One forces you to think, simultaneously challenging preconceptions and inspiring empathy…[with] winning humor and a satisfying emotional arc.”

Bunch Symphonies in Chicago

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Kenji Bunch descends on Chicago this month with a performance of his Symphony No. 1 with the Chicago Philharmonic, and the world premiere of his Symphony No. 3: Dream Songs with The Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus.

Bunch writes about the Symphony: “In 1879, the Smithsonian Institution created the Bureau of American Ethnology, an ambitious field research program to preserve a record of the native cultures decimated by a century of conflict and oppression. Ethnomusicologists and anthropologists working for the BAE spent months at a time on Native American reservations, painstakingly recording and notating tribal folk songs and translating their uncredited texts and poetry. Abstracted from their original voices and ceremonial use, these terse, plain-spoken texts offer timeless wisdom and emotional insights that feel hauntingly relevant in today’s precarious times.

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Symphony No. 3: Dream Songs is a song cycle scored for full orchestra and chorus, adapted from these translations, (particularly the work of Frances Densmore). I organized the eight songs of the cycle into three parts: songs of anxiety and unrest, songs of war and its aftermath, and ultimately, a prayer of healing.”

At ca. 40 minutes, it represents a major new work for Bunch and is one of many large-scale works the composer is creating over the next 2 seasons.

San Antonio Symphony premieres Daugherty Rio Grande

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San Antonio Symphony commissions and gives world premiere of “Rio Grande” for orchestra by Grammy® Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty in San Antonio, Texas on June 5, 2015

Rio Grande for orchestra was commissioned and premiered by the San Antonio Symphony, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, music director, on June 5, 2015.  The work is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, three trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 3 percussion and strings. Duration is 8 minutes.
Rio Grande

I have composed concert music inspired by American landscapes such as Niagara Falls (1997) for symphonic band, Route 66 (1996) for orchestra, Gees Bend (2009) for electric guitar and orchestra, Mount Rushmore (2010) for choir and orchestra, Lost Vegas for orchestra or symphonic band (2011) and Reflections on the Mississippi for tuba and orchestra or symphonic band (2013).  I continue my exploration of creating unique aural landscapes with Rio Grande (2015) for orchestra.

Rio Grande is a 1,250 mile river, which flows from the mountains of Southern Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville, Texas. The river forms a natural boundary between the USA and Mexico as it winds its way through El Paso, Texas down to Big Bend National Park. It is at Big Bend, one of the largest, most arid and remote areas of the United States, that one experiences the magical canyons and spectacular rock formations that line the “Big River” or, as it is know in Mexico, “Rio Bravo”.

In my Rio Grande for orchestra, I have composed a dynamic, expansive musical landscape that is stark, haunting, agitated and majestic.  The percussion section, comprised of timpani, bongos, woodblocks, tom-toms and bass drums creates a rhythmic undercurrent to an angular motif, first heard in the woodwinds, which emerges high above the precipice. This jagged motif is passed on to individual instruments, such as tuba, and eventually in various colorful guises to the entire orchestra. Reminding us of the long cultural history associated with the Rio Grande, we also hear ghostly Mexican mariachi music echoing faraway through the canyons. In the coda, I combine all the musical material heard throughout the composition to create a majestic ending to our journey down the timeless Rio Grande.

 Michael Daugherty

Daugherty The Lightning Fields

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International Trumpet Guild commissions and gives world premiere of “The Lightning Fields“ for trumpet/flugelhorn and piano by Grammy Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty at ITG Convention in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Daugherty THE LIGHTNING FIELDS

The Lightning Fields for trumpet/flugelhorn and piano, commissioned by the International Trumpet Guild, will be premiered by Craig Morris, trumpet and flugelhorn with Asiya Korepanova, piano at the ITG Conference at Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday, May 26, 2015.

20 minutes in length, the composition is inspired by four unique nocturnal fields of natural or artificial light phenomena found in North America. The Lightning Fields is published by Michael Daugherty Music and available from Bill Holab Music.

The composer writes:

The Griffith Observatory is perched high above the city of Los Angeles on Mount Hollywood. It is from this precipice at night, that I have experienced the breathtaking view of endless city lights, as far as the eye can imagine, reaching into the distant Pacific Ocean. In the first movement, I imagine a lonely figure, perched high upon the Observatory precipice at midnight, playing melancholy, bluesy music on a flugelhorn.

“The Lightning Field,” the second movement, refers to an extraordinary modernist installation located in a remote area of New Mexico created by Walter De Maria in 1977. A frequent target of lightning strikes, the installation consists of 400 stainless steel poles symmetrical arranged in a one mile square grid. The music I have created for the trumpet falls into abstract patterns of time and infinite space with an occasional bolt of lightning interrupting the proceedings.

According to legend, the “Marfa lights,” also know as the “ghost lights,” can be seen after nightfall outside of Marfa, Texas off of U.S. Route 67, near the Rio Grand River and the Mexican border. In the third movement, which is played on flugelhorn,  I have created a ghostly soundscape of mariachi melodies. The music unfolds in slow-motion like tumbleweeds rolling across a dusty Texas plain.

In the fourth and final movement, the trumpet performs soaring feats of electric virtuosity to suggest the the fantastic neon lights and electric billboards of Times Square, New York City. We occasionally take a detour to West 52nd Street, a side street of Times Square. It is here that I evoke the specters of trumpet jazz legends such as Miles Davis, Clifford Brown and Roy Eldridge. Back in the 1950s, they haunted the jazz clubs of West 52nd Street, such as Birdland and the Three Deuces, which disappeared into oblivion long ago.

A Day in the Life of Kimberly Reed, co-librettist of AS ONE

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As One co-librettist and transgender filmmaker Kimberly Reed has created a video for the Op Ed page of The New York Times showing a day in her life – specifically April 7, when As One opened at Utah State University. In the video, Reed shows glimpses of the various ways she has attempted “to dispel misunderstanding and increase empathy” by introducing the quotidian stories of transgender individuals – through documentaries, news interviews, spoken word performances, and most recently through her work on As One.

Songs from an Unmade Bed celebrates its 10th Anniversary

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Bed

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of this unique musical there will be a special one-night-only performance at Subculture on May 26. Featuring the original star, Michael Winther and Kimberly Grigsby on the piano, Peter Sachon on cello and Shane Shanahan on percussion. It promises to be a special night and will sell out quickly, so we recommend buying tickets in advance (click here.)

You can read more about the piece here.

 

Vancouver Biennale brings together Vivian Fung and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

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The Vancouver Biennale brings together JUNO® Award-­‐winning Canadian composer Vivian Fung and the GRAMMY® and JUNO® Award-­‐winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere performance of a commissioned work inspired by the Vancouver Biennale exhibition. The performance will be part of the VSO’s 2015-­‐2016 season opening concert, and will launch live music as part of the Biennale program, further fulfilling on its vision to celebrate the full spectrum of Contemporary arts in one integrated exhibition.

“Apropos of the Biennale itself and our curatorial theme Open Borders Crossroads Vancouver, Vivian is known for crossing traditional boundaries and exploring a diversity of cultures in her music”, says President and Artistic Director Barrie Mowatt. “She has created an exhilarating sound portrait of our exhibition, brilliantly interpreting several of our public artworks into music”.

Five distinct artworks by renowned Contemporary artists from China, Brazil, India and Australia featured in the current Biennale exhibition, including “F Grass” by Ai Weiwei and “Giants” by OSGEMEOS, are the inspiration for the multi-­‐movement work. The result is a wonderfully textured musical celebration of the Vancouver Biennale by one of Canada’s “must hear” Contemporary composers.

The Biennale is equally excited to be partnering for the first time with the VSO under the leadership of Maestro Bramwell Tovey. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performs the world premiere as part of its GOLDCORP Masterworks Gold series opening concert on Saturday September 26th. Tickets are available online through the VSO at www.vancouversymphony.ca, or by calling VSO Customer Service at 604-­‐876-­‐3434.

September will mark the beginning of the Vancouver Biennale incorporating live music performance into its exhibition. The CineFest LIVE program will feature a series of inspiring documentary films about music and the staring musicians will perform live in concert after each screening. Stay tuned for program announcements and online ticket sales.

Grey’s Opera Frankenstein at La Monnaie

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Frankenstein

The Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (Brussels), 2015/16 season will premiere a new opera by Mark Grey on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The powerhouse cast and artistic team includes: Scott Hendricks, Sasha Cooke, Malena Ernman, Christopher Gillett, Andrew Schroeder, Robert Hayward, Hendrickje van Kerckhove
Àlex Ollé and La Fura dels Baus creative team. Conductors Leo Hussain and Bassem Samir Akiki

http://www.lamonnaie.be/en/502/579/Frankenstein

Life and death in the light of technological progress

‘Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?’ Unlike the film that was later made of it, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein told the sad story of a creature born out of a scientific experiment who strives for good, yet does evil and is consequently disowned by his creator. As a philosophical reflection on the human condition, on the technology that gives humanity power over life and death, and as a warning to a society that threatens to cast out the individual, the American composer Mark Grey returns to this original story for his first full-length opera, 200 years after Mary Shelley wrote it. Thanks to the extremely opulent visual idiom of Àlex Ollé and the inspiring conducting of Leo Hussain and Bassem Akiki, this world premiere promises to be a treat for both the eye and the ear.