Dedicated to the creation

and performance of new music

SAINT PETER'S CHURCH
CITIGROUP CENTER
54
TH
STREET & LEXINGTON AVENUE
NEW YORK CITY
JANUARY 21, 2014 8:00 PM
NEW MUSIC
FOR
VOICE AND PIANO
NEW YORK COMPOSERS CIRCLE
JANUARY 21, 2014 8:00 PM
While We Were Sleeping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Debra Kaye
Craig Ketter, piano
At Home with Allen Ginsberg* . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peri Mauer
1. At Home with Allen Ginsberg
2. Sunset
3. Blueberry Candles
4. This Just In...
5. 23G vs HPD
Daniel Neer, baritone Christopher Berg, piano
Parable** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert S. Cohen
1. Black Cloudbank Broken
2. Arise from Sleep Old Cat
3. Gathering May Rains
4. Ah Me, I Am the One
5. Interlude: See, See, See! Oh See
6. A Lost Child Crying
7. White Moth, Flutter Off
8. Rainy Month
9. Fever Felled Halfway
10. Epilogue: Three Loveliest Things
Valerie Gonzalez, soprano Craig Ketter, piano
INTERMISSION
Rumi Songs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Griffith
1. Ode 966, Divan II
2. Ode 1586, Divan III
Heather Meyer, mezzo-soprano Christopher Oldfather, piano
Demonstrations of Love*** . . . . . . . . . . . Patricia Leonard
1. Hope
2. 40 Years
3. Everywhere
Sharon Harms, soprano Christopher Oldfather, piano
Sor Juana Songs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Eaton
1. Que contiene una fantasa contenta con amor decente
2. Encarece de animosidad la eleccin de estado durable hasta la muerte
3. Refiere con ajuste, y envidia sin l, la tragedia de Pramo y Tisbe
Sharon Harms, soprano Christopher Oldfather, piano
* World Premiere
** New York Premiere
***American Premiere
PLEASE JOIN US FOR A RECEPTION
AFTER THE CONCERT
The NYCC thanks the staff and personnel of Saint Peter's Church
for their assistance with this concert.
The New York Composers Circle gratefully acknowledges support by a grant
from the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.
Parable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert S. Cohen
Black cloudbank broken
Scattered in the night
Now see, moonlighted mountains. (Basho)
Arise from sleep old cat
And with great yawns
Amble out for love. (Isso)
Gathering May rains
From cold streamlets for the sea:
Murmuring Mogami. (Basho)
Ah me, I am the one
Who spends his little breakfast
Morning-glory gazing. (Basho)
See, see, see! Oh see
Oh, what to say
Ah, Yoshino, mountain all abloom (Teishitsu)
A lost child crying
Stumbling over the dark fields
Catching fireflies. (Ryusui)
White moth, flutter off
Fly back into my breast now quickly
My own soul (Wafu)
Rainy month dripping on and on
As I lie abed;
Ah, old man's memories. (Buson)
Fever felled halfway
My dreams arose to march again
Into a hollow land. (Basho)
Three loveliest things
Moonlight, cherry bloom.....
Now I go, seeking silent snow. (Rippo)
SONG TEXTS
Rumi Songs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Griffith
Text by Rumi, English translations by Zahra Partovi
Ode 966, Divan II
My eyes are sanguine
Blood never sleeps.
It is from madness
That my heart never sleeps.
Birds and fish look at me baffled:
Days and nights pass, how can he never sleep!
In the past I too wondered
How does the inverted sky never sleep?
Now the sky is asking:
How does this forsaken man never sleep?
Love reads me long fables at night
My heart listens to them and can never sleep.
Before the time of death I am certain
When the soul abandons the body, it does not sleep.
Hush! Go silently then to the beginning
Eyes looking to journeys end never sleep.
Ode 1586, Divan III
When I found I was a thorn,
I fled to the flower.
When I saw I was vinegar,
I mingled with sugar.
I was a bowl-full of poison,
I rushed to the antidote.
Becoming a cup of dregs
I poured into the water of life.
As an afflicted eye
I held out my hand to Jesus.
When I knew I was an unripe fruit
I suspended from the ripe.
The dust from loves road
Was collyrium for my soul.
In tenderness I became a poem
Sifting through the kohl.
Love said: Its all true,
O, but do not presume!
I am wind, you are fire,
I inflame you.
Demonstrations of Love . .Words and music by Patricia Leonard
Hope
The map of the human heart is vast.
Along its transverses graceful trees
In blowing breeze reach to Heaven for another chance
And open fields with shallow graves
These freshly wounded hearts still pray.
With all its flaws and fractures
The heart can thaw and capture
The light of another soul
Like a firefly in a childs hand.
40 Years
Our love has endured these 40 years
with joy and dreaming.
And though I have grown old, to gray from gold
My love stays new.
How our kids have grown
and sow seeds of their own.
Its their time for dreaming
The world now belongs to them.
Fondest memories live in these rooms
and cannot die.
From mending childrens socks and broken hearts,
to lullabies.
Who says age can tarnish the soul?
Our love ever shimmers brightly as it grows.
Where did the time go?
The seasons fly by the days too few.
I have just one wish
For 40 more great years with you.
Everywhere
October chill, the leaves are dying;
I close my eyes and pretend its springtime.
The past relived suspended in my mind.
Were young again our love is endless;
I feel your kiss it melts the distance
Only for a moment then youre gone.
Everywhere, everywhere, I see you
Everywhere love belongs.
I still can see your face; its now the month of May
My heart comes back to life and then youre gone.
I walk for miles through a sea of faces
to recognize the one love I lost
I think its you and I call out your name.
A music hall, a crowded caf,
A gallery, and on the subway
Only for a moment then youre gone.
Everywhere, everywhere, I see you
Everywhere love belongs.
I still can see your face; its now the month of May
My heart comes back to life you cant be gone
I see you everywhere.
Sor Juana Songs . . . . . . . . . . . .
Poetry by Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz
Que contiene una fantasa contenta con
amor decente
Detnte, sombre de mi bien esquivo
imagen del hechizo que ms quiero
bella ilusin por quien alegre muero,
dulce ficcin por quien penosa vivo.
Si al imn de tus gracias, atractivo,
sirve mi pecho de obediente acero,
para qu me enamras lisonjro
si has de burlarme luego fugitivo?
Mas blasonar no puedes, satisfecho,
de que triunfa de m tu tirana:
que aunque dejas burlado el lazo estrecho
que tu forma fantstica ceia,
poco importa burlar brazos y pecho
si tu labra prisin mi fantasa.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Eaton
(translations by Alan S. Trueblood)
Which contains an amorous fantasy,
content with platonic love
Semblence of my illusive love, hold still
image of a bewitchment fondly cherished,
lovely fiction that robs my heart of joy,
fair mirage that makes it joy to perish.
Since already my breast, like willing iron,
yields to the powerful magnet of your
charms,
why must you so flatteringly allure me,
then slip away and cheat my eager arms?
Even so, you shan't boast, self-satisfied,
that your tyranny has triumphed over me,
evade as you will arms opening wide,
all but encircling your phantasmal form:
in vain shall you elude my fruitless clasp,
for fantasy holds you captive in its grasp.
Encarece de animosidad la eleccin de
estado durable hasta la muerte
Si los riesgos del mar considerara,
ninguno se embarcara; si antes viera
bien su peligro, nadie se atrviera
ni al bravo toro osada provocara.
Si del fogoso bruto ponderara
la furia desbocada en la carrera
el jinete prudente, nunca hubiera
quein con discreta mano lo enfrenara.
Pero si hubiera algune tan osado
que, no obstante el peligro, al mismo Apolo
quisiese gobernar con atrevida
mano el rpido carro en luz baado,
todo lo hiciera, y no tomara slo
estado que ha de ser toda la vida.
Spiritedly, she considers the choice of a
state enduring unto death
If men weighed the hazards of the sea,
none would embark. If they foresaw
the dangers of the ring, rather than taunt
the savage bull, they'd cautiously
withdraw.
If the horseman should prudently reflect
on the headlong fury of the steed's wild dash,
he'd never undertake to rein him in
adroitly, or to wield the cracking lash.
But, were there one of such temerity that,
facing undoubted peril, he still planned
to drive the fiery chariot and subdue
the steeds of Apollo himself with daring
hand,
he'd stop at nothing, would not meekly
choose
a way of life binding a whole life through.
Refiere con ajuste, y envidia sin l, la
tragedia de Pramo y Tisbe
De un funesto moral la negra sombra,
de horrores mil y confusiones llena,
en cuyo hueco tronco aun hoy resuena
el eco que doliente a Tisbe nombra,
cubri la verde matizada alfombra
en que Pramo amante abri la vena
del corazn, y Tisbe de su pena
dio la seal que aun hoy al mondo asombra.
Mas viendo del Amor tanto despecho,
la Muerte, entonces de ellos lastimada,
sus dos pechos junt con lazo estrecho.
Mas, ay de la infeliz y desdichada
que a su Pramo dar no puede el pecho
ni aun por los duros filos de una espada!
Refers to fit and envy without him, the
tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe
A dismal mulberry tree's black shade
where shadowy dreads stir dolefully
and in whose hollow trunk there still
resounds
an echo calling Thisbe soulfully,
covered the dappled greensward of a lawn
where amorous Pyramus pierced his breast
and bled away, and Thisbe showed her grief
by an act with which the world is still
impressed.
But seeing Love behave so atrociously,
Death pitied them and bound their chests
in one tight knot together dotingly.
Oh, surely a fate far more to be deplored
is that poor woman who can't bind her breast
to Pyramus's own with so much as a sword.
ROBERT S. COHEN has written music for chorus, orchestra, chamber
ensemble, dance, and theatre, and has been the recipient of numerous
awards and commissions. His works have been performed in such
prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall, Symphony Space,
Bargemusic, and the Sofia Opera House, as well as numerous others
throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Major works include:
Alzheimers Stories for soloists, chorus and large ensemble, Of Eternity
Considered as a Closed System for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, and a
monodrama entitled Edison Invents for baritone and orchestra. Other
works include: String Quartet (A Day in the Life), The Mysterious
Transformation of Johann B. for clarinet and percussion, Five Nights in
Sofia, for violin and piano, Dream Journal, for brass quintet, and an
extensive catalogue of both accompanied and a cappella choral works. In
addition, Bob co-authored the book and composed the score for the 2000
Richard Rodgers Award-winning Off-Broadway musical Suburb. He is
published by Edition Peters, Hal Leonard, Shawnee Press, HoneyRock
Music, and Dramatic Publishing. Bob is a graduate of Brown University
and Queens College and served time at Columbia University. He lives
with his wife Maryann and two cats, Fred and Ginger, in Upper Montclair,
New Jersey. His website is www.robertscohen.com.
He writes: Parable, a song cycle for soprano and piano, is a setting of
translations of ten haiku by a variety of well-known traditional Japanese
poets. In arranging the poetry, I sought to create a narrative that
simultaneously follows a number of arcs: birth to death, morning to night,
and spring to winter. While borrowing certain elements from non-western
music, e.g., scales, simplicity of texture, etc., my primary goal was to use
the poetry to illuminate the cyclical nature of life. Parable is structured in
two parts with an interlude in between. In the final two songs I examine
both the fear of and the ultimate acceptance of death.
JOHN EATON was called "The most interesting opera composer writing
in America today" by Andrew Porter in The London Financial Times.
Eaton's work has been performed extensively throughout the world. In the
early 1960s he did perhaps the first live performances on modern sound
synthesizers. They were put together for him by Paolo Ketoff (the Syn-
Ket) and Robert Moog. Later, he performed on the new Eaton-Moog
Multiple-Touch-Sensitive Keyboard, called the most sensitive instrument
to human nuance ever developed except for the human voice. A number
of these early pieces were recently re-issued on a record called First
COMPOSERS
Performances by the Electronic Music Foundation. He has written some
twenty operas including The Cry of Clytaemnestra, which has received
great public and critical acclaim at its nearly twenty performances. The
Tempest was called a "formidable intellectual as well as musical
achievement ... an opera of stark beauty" by Michael Walsh of Time
magazine following its premiere by the Santa Fe Opera. His TV opera
Myshkin has been seen by an estimated 15,000,000 people. In 1993 he
formed the Pocket Opera Players, which has presented a dozen pieces by
him in this new form, most recently The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button. Martin Bernheimer raved in Opera News, Everyone managed to
focus the fuzzy line that connects whimsy to pathos. And Anthony
Tommasini in The New York Times said opera is a form of drama, and
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button kept me involved right through.
Eaton has been the recipient of many awards, most notably the genius
award from the MacArthur Foundation, three Prix de Rome, and two
Guggenheim grants. His newest pocket opera, the farce Rerouted, was
produced last October at Symphony Space.
He writes, The poems speak for themselves, they hardly need
explication: the illusive love of the first is expressed musically by the
liberal use of the middle pedal of the piano as well as having the singer
sing directly into the strings with the sustaining pedal engaged. The
second poem seems to me a personal manifesto: Sor Juana was an
incredibly courageous woman, in discounting the cost of defying the
overbearing authority of her undoubtedly envious male detractors. The
third speaks in anguish of an unrealized love, using the tale of Pyramus
and Thisbe as a departure: the vain calling of Pyramus for Thisbe again
uses the strings of the piano to evoke the hollow echo of his call. These
songs have had many performances, both in the soprano and mezzo
version. They are among the most difficult pieces I have written both for
the singer and pianist. I feel utterly confident in the superb abilities of both
the singer, Sharon Harms, and the pianist, Christopher Oldfather, to handle
them.
JENNIFER GRIFFITH moves between creative efforts as composer and
scholar. At the Graduate Center of the City University of New York she
studied composition with Thea Musgrave, David Del Tredici, and Tania
Len, and wrote her dissertation on composer/bandleader/bassist Charles
Mingus. Griffiths commissions include In E for the 2008 Festival Non
Sequitur, several songs, and her chamber oratorio, The Reed (2010), for
the Grace and Spiritus Chorale of Brooklyn. Her pocket opera Dream
President was presented at New York City Operas VOX 2004, and she
has also written for the new music ensembles Newspeak, Glass Farm, and
Cygnus. Griffiths green opera, Beautiful Creatures, was presented
November 11, 2011, in a staged reading directed by Christopher Alden.
She is currently writing a stage piece, an aria of which has been
commissioned by Heather Michele Meyer (soprano), entitled The Domme.
Composer DEBRA KAYE has received a steady stream of commissions
since 2003. Chamber music from these collaborations will be released on
PARMA Recordings in 2014. Support for her music includes grants from
ASCAP, Meet the Composer, Mannes College, the Edward T. Cone
Foundation, Ft. Wayne Childrens Choir, and New School University, and
residencies at the Millay Colony and Wurlitzer Foundation. With roots in
the classical tradition, Debras music embraces a wide range of influences
and inspirationsjazz, world music, experimental improvisations, poetry,
world events, and the found sounds of daily life: a canon of footsteps,
polyrhythmic waves on a lake, the counterpoint of a New York City street.
Debra is former executive director of NYCC and currently vice president
of the Howland Chamber Music Circle, Beacon, New York, and holds
degrees from NYU and Mannes College, where she is on the Preparatory
Division faculty.
She writes, Super Storm Sandy brought devastation to our doorsteps;
friends and loved ones were uprooted. The storm approached at night, and
I improvised a beginning, thought of our unheeded wake up calls, and
woke to find what had happened while we were sleeping.
A native of Boston, PATRICIA LEONARD studied composition with
Larry Bell and David del Tredici. Her works have been performed
frequently in the United States and Europe. Her piano trio Strangely Close
yet Distant was recently featured on a special Mahler anniversary CD
performed by members of the Met Opera Orchestra. Her song cycle My
Dearest Friend - The Letters of John and Abigail Adams is scored for
soprano, baritone, and orchestra, and will have its world premiere in
Boston in October 2014. She is a recent finalist for the American Prize.
This piece was written for soprano Lauren Welliehausen as part of her
concert series of vocal works by Wagner and Puccini. Demonstrations of
Love had its world premiere in Germany in 2010, then was later performed
in Switzerland.
PERI MAUER: M.M., B.M. Manhattan School of Music, B.A. Bard
College, graduate of the High School of Music and Art, has composed
works for solo instruments, chamber music ensembles, orchestra, and
theater. Recent premiere performances of her music include A Little New
Year's Flair for piano, premiered in Bargemusic's Here and Now Winter
Festival by Blair McMillen, Red Sky for trumpet at Kupferberg Center for
the Performing Arts, Life on Earth for chamber ensemble (for which she
was also conductor and cellist) in Music With a View Festival 2013,
Illuminations of the Night for orchestra, by the New York Repertory
Orchestra at Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Nudibranch Friday for violin
and cello, in Bargemusic's Here and Now Series with an encore
performance at Symphony Space, Quietly, at Dusk for solo clarinet, in the
Composers Voice Concert of New Music, In the Moment for contralto and
cello (for which she was also cellist) and Blogarhythm, for 24-piece
chamber ensemble (which she also conducted) in Music With a View at
the Flea Theater, Dutchess Starlight Revisited for cello, trombone, and
electric guitar in Composers Concordance Festival at DROM (for which
she was also cellist), among others. Upcoming performances include new
works she is developing for performance with the ensemble Eight Strings
and a Whistle and the LaGuardia High School Junior Band. She has
received grants for her work from New Music USA Composer's
Assistance Program, Meet the Composer, Composers Guild of Utah, and
National Federation of Music Clubs. Also a professional cellist and
conductor, Ms. Mauer has performed with such groups as American
Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, Encompass New Opera Theater in
Alice Tully Hall, Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber
Orchestra, The Chelsea Symphony, Playwrights Horizons, NYU
Contemporary Players, Prospect Theater Company, Manhattan
Contemporary Ensemble, American Chamber Opera, etc., and has held the
position of assistant conductor of Redeemer Arts Chamber Orchestra in
New York City.
She writes, The inspiration behind At Home with Allen Ginsberg is
Ginsberg's poem "The Lion For Real." I do not work with the poem in a
literal sense, however, but use the timbre and rhythm of Ginsberg himself
reading the poem (as posted on a YouTube video) as motifs to work off of
and develop. The other songs are completely my own (I am the lyricist as
well as composer,) and the collection is quite varied, tied together by
universality of life experience articulated by my own sense of modern life
spirit.
CHRISTOPHER BERG is a composer, pianist, and music director.
Reviewing a recording of his Songs on Poems of Frank O'Hara, the
American Record Guide said, "On the evidence of these songs, Berg may be
an American Hugo Wolf." Steven Blier, Artistic Director of the New York
Festival of Song, has written, "Just as Poulenc illuminated the poetry of
PERFORMERS
Apollinaire and Eluard, Chris Berg clarifies O'Hara. He musicalizes O'Hara's
words with an expert sense of timing, a perfect balance of recitative and
tunefulness and a dry sense of humor. In this subtle blend of music, words,
and silence, he locates the poem's furtive sensuality." New recordings of
several of his song cycles featuring singers David Krohn, Lauren Snouffer,
and Vera Slywotzky, were released in 2013. Among his other composing
credits are a musical, Back Home, produced at the New York Music Theater
Festival 2007, an opera, Cymbeline, based on Shakespeares play, and a song
for the Five Borough Song Cycle. As pianist and composer, he has an
ongoing long-term collaboration with the Mirror Visions Ensemble. A
concert of his songs (featuring Naomi OConnell and Jesse Blumberg) was
presented on the prestigious Trinity Church Noontime Concerts series in
February 2013; a week later, Ms. OConnell performed four new songs by
Mr. Berg on her debut recital at Weill Recital Hall.
Canadian soprano VALERIE GONZALEZ has appeared on the
international opera stages of Canada, United States, and Europe, portraying
numerous soubrette, coloratura and comprimario roles that have earned her a
reputation as an acrobatic and verismo actress with a quicksilver presence
and a soaring, brilliant coloratura. Valerie has sung such roles as
Blondchen in Mozarts Die Entfhrung aus dem Serail, Norina in Donizettis
Don Pasquale, and Oscar in Verdis Un Ballo in Maschera with Pacific
Opera Victoria, Olympia in Offenbachs Les contes dHoffmann with
LOpera Montreal, Barbarina in Mozarts Le nozze di Figaro and the Dew
Fairy in Humperdincks Hansel and Gretel with the Canadian Opera
Company, as well as Esmeralda in Smetanas La Fiance vendue with
LOpra de Genve, the title role in Le coq dor with LOpra de Nice,
Papagena in Mozarts Die Zauberflte with Opera Lyra in Ottawa, Adele in
Strauss Die Fledermaus with Pacific Opera Victoria, as well as Zerbinetta in
Ariadne auf Naxos, a role that she also sang at the Glimmerglass Opera
Festival in New York, and with which she made her European debut in the
Jonathan Miller production of Ariadne at the Broomhill Festival in Kent,
England. She has also performed numerous renditions of Naiad in Strauss
Ariadne auf Naxos, Flora in Brittens The Turn of the Screw, Emmie in
Brittens Albert Herring, Papagena in Mozarts Die Zauberflte, and
Esmeralda in The Bartered Bride, in the theaters of the Canadian Opera
Company, Edmonton Opera, Calgary Opera, and Cleveland Opera. She has
also been heard many times on CBC Radio broadcasts and has appeared in
several world premieres of new Canadian operas, including Hunahpu in John
Olivers Guacamayos Old Song and Dance. Valerie graduated from the
University of British Columbia with a B.Sc. in Chemistry, and was a
Resident Artist with the Canadian Opera Company. She continues to sing
regionally, and currently teaches voice at NJCU, as well as in her private
music studio, Viva La Diva Music Studio in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
Praised as "superb", "dramatically astute", and "luscious-toned" by The New
York Times, American soprano SHARON HARMS is known for fearless
performances of works new and old for the concert and operatic stage. Ms.
Harms has sung premieres by the living composers Gabriela Ortiz, Charles
Wuorinen, Louis Karchin, Oliver Knussen, David Fulmer, Jesse Jones, John
Eaton, and Georg Friedrich Haas, among others. She has been featured with
the Argento Ensemble, Ensemble Signal, New Fromm Players, Simon
Bolivar Orchestra, Pueblo Symphony, Baroque Band of Chicago, Slee
Sinfonietta, New Chamber Ballet, Ensemble Mise-en, Alter Ego Ensemble,
and Orchestra of the League of Composers. She has held two fellowships at
the Tanglewood Music Festival and been a guest artist at the June in Buffalo
Festival and the Los Angeles International New Music Festival. She recently
received a Latin Grammy nomination for her work on Gabriela Ortiz' Aroma
Foliado, and will be featured on a new CD of works by Louis Karchin with
Da Capo Chamber Players on Bridge Records. She will also premiere a new
work by John Eaton with Eighth Blackbird and the Pacifica Quartet for the
50th anniversary of Contempo at Chicago University. Other upcoming
activities include a residency with the Argento Ensemble at Princeton's
Institute for Advanced Study, and a newly choreographed performance of
Kurtg's Kafka Fragments with New Chamber Ballet. Ms. Harms studied at
Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music with Carol Vaness. During her
time there she was the inaugural recipient of the Georgina Joshi Graduate
Fellowship. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from
the University of Northern Colorado and a Master of Music degree in vocal
performance from Indiana University.
American pianist CRAIG KETTER is rapidly distinguishing himself as a
leading pianist of his generation, performing as soloist and chamber musician
throughout the world. Critically acclaimed for transporting the listeners to
extraordinary heights and into a world beyond time and space, Mr. Ketter
is known for playing with powerhouse sonority combined with long-lined,
dulcet lyricism. He has performed as soloist with the Grant Park Symphony
Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Sacramento Philharmonic, the
Oakland East Bay Symphony, the South Orange Symphony, the Garden State
Philharmonic, the Raleigh Symphony, the Durham Symphony, the Rocky
Ridge Music Festival Orchestra, and the American Festival for the Arts
Orchestra. His solo concerts have taken him to Mexico, Argentina, Barbados,
France, Germany, and Japan and across the United States and Canada. Mr.
Ketter regularly joins forces with international singers and chamber groups.
Venues include NPRs Performance Today series, CBS Sunday Morning,
Sirius Satellite Radio, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Teatro Colon in
Buenos Aires, La Huaca, Atlapa in Panama City, the Savannah Music
Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine, Music in the
Mountains in Colorado, and The Marilyn Horne Foundation. Musicians he
has collaborated with include flutist Eugenia Zukerman, clarinetists Stephen
Williamson, Ricardo Morales, and Jon Manasse, cellists Robert deMaine and
Eric Bartlett, violinists Kelly Hall-Tompkins and Roy Malan, and singers
Deborah Voigt, Margaret Jane Wray, Cynthia Lawrence, Samuel Ramey,
Paul Plishka, Ben Heppner, Cliff Forbis, and Robert White. Mr. Ketter is
currently on the piano faculty of New Jersey City University.
A native of Santa Barbara, California, soprano HEATHER MICHELE
MEYER has received critical acclaim for her strong shimmering voice and
her riveting, poignant delivery. Especially at home with Britten and
Mozart, she made her professional debut as the Governess in The Turn of the
Screw. Since then, she has been seen as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro,
Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. A
passionate supporter of new music, she has collaborated with such groups as
American Opera Projects, Opera Index, Mannes College Faculty and Alumni
composers, and Encompass New Opera Theatre. During the 2009-2010
season, Ms. Meyer joined the internationally renowned Caramoor Music
Festival as a Bel Canto apprentice artist, and made her role debut as First
Lady in The Magic Flute with Baltimores Opera Vivente. Her 2010-2011
engagements included the soprano solos in Mendelssohns Elijah with Amor
Artis and Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony with Grace Choral Society of
New York City, and the role of Rica in Jennifer Griffith's new opera,
Beautiful Creatures, produced by Stage|Time Collaborative and directed by
Christopher Alden. In the 2011-2012 season, she was seen in Poulenc's
Stabat Mater with the acclaimed Voices of Ascension and as Lisbe in Spohr's
rarely heard opera Zemire und Azor with Liederkranz Opera Theatre, and was
the soprano soloist for Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle with Amor Artis.
Most recently she was seen in Paula Kimpers new opera Truth at the New
York City Fringe Festival in the dual role of Olive/Mary, and as Vitellia in
La clemenza di Tito with dell'Arte Opera Ensemble. Upcoming engagements
include a recital of new works as a part of the Brooklyn Sounds series.
DANIEL NEER enjoys a uniquely diverse career as a singer, librettist, and
lyricist. Concert appearances range from Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center,
Merkin Concert Hall, Guggenheim Museum, and Morgan Library to The
Apollo, Chicago Art Institute, and Aspen Music Festival. On Broadway he
has performed in two original companies: in the Tony-award winning
production of Baz Luhrmanns La Bohme and the UKs National Theatre
production of Coram Boy, directed by Melly Still. Other New York City
collaborations include Rebel Baroque Orchestra, Gotham Chamber Opera,
Metropolis Ensemble, Vox Vocal Ensemble, Opera Slavica, Ekmeles, Two
Sides Sounding, Vertical Player Repertory, and Mark Morris Dance
Company. Daniel is a frequent collaborator on new works including Pete
Wyers Numinous City (Royal Opera House Covent Garden), Petr Kotiks
Many Many Women (Ostrava Days Festival), Simon Bainbridges Tenebrae
(Roulette), Douglas Cuomos Arjunas Dilemma (New York City Operas
Vox on the Edge), Michael Dellairas The Secret Agent (Center for
Contemporary Opera), Stephen Schwartzs Sance on a Wet Afternoon
(American Opera Projects), Chandler Carters Strange Fruit (Harlem School
for The Arts), and Yoav Gals Three Weeks (LABA Productions). He has
recorded for the Dreamworks, Albany, Newport Classics, and Naxos labels.
As a writer, Daniels first play The Interview received a world premiere as
part of the New Works International Festival for Short Plays at the Richmond
Shepherd Theater in New York City. He is librettist for three chamber
operas: Mercury Falling (Long Leaf Opera Festival), Odes to Earth and Air
(Adelphi University), and Stop and Frisk (Beat Festival) and for the cantata
Brooklyn Queens Expressway (Queens New Music Festival). Song settings
of his poetry and chamber texts have been heard in concert at Yale
University, the New Gallery Concert Series in Boston, the Andrea Clearfield
Salon in Philadelphia, and with the QUBE String Quartet in Columbus,
Ohio. Daniel studied music and theater at The Ohio State University, the
University of Michigan, and the Royal Academy of Music in London,
England.
One of New Yorks most gifted, trusted, respected, often-requested, and well-
liked pianists, CHRISTOPHER OLDFATHER has devoted himself to the
performance of twentieth-century music for more than thirty years. He has
participated in innumerable world-premiere performances, in every possible
combination of instruments, in cities all over America. He has been a
member of Bostons Collage New Music since 1979, of New York Citys
Parnassus since 1997, and of New York Philomusica since 2007, and as a
collaborator has joined singers and instrumentalists of all kinds in recitals
throughout the United States. In 1986 he presented his recital debut in
Carnegie Recital Hall, which was then immediately closed for renovations.
Since then he has pursued a career as a free-lance musician. This work has
taken him as far afield as Moscow and Tokyo, and he has worked on every
sort of keyboard ever made, including, of all things, the Chromelodeon. He is
widely known for his expertise on the harpsichord, and is one of the leading
interpreters of twentieth century works for that instrument. As soloist he has
appeared with the MET Chamber Players, the San Francisco Symphony, and
Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Germany. His recording of Elliott Carter's
violin-piano Duo with Robert Mann was nominated for two Grammy Awards
in 1990. Recently he has collaborated with the conductor Robert Craft, and
can be heard on several of his recordings.
The NEW YORK COMPOSERS CIRCLE, now in its twelfth year, is a
multifaceted artistic and educational organization of composers and performers,
whose mission is to promote public awareness and appreciation of contemporary
music through concerts, salons, and other events in the New York metropolitan
area. For its members, the NYCC offers a variety of opportunities for testing
works in progress at monthly salons open to the public, performing completed
works in concert, and fostering collaboration and development, both artistic and
professional. For composers who are not members, the NYCC offers the
opportunity of a public performance to winners of its annual composers
competition. For the sophisticated concertgoing public, the NYCC offers four
concerts a year of members works, curated by a jury of members headed by
MacArthur Award-winning composer John Eaton. And for members of the
public who have not yet been exposed to much contemporary music, the NYCC
sponsors an outreach program, in which we send performers to various
institutions including high schools and senior centersat no charge to the
institutionto perform musical works of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Inspired by a workshop at the American Music Center, Jacob E. Goodman
founded the New York Composers Circle in the spring of 2002 as an association
of composers meeting regularly to play their music for one another. It soon
became apparent that we had the artistry and commitment to present our music to
a larger audience. In May, 2003, the NYCC produced its first public concert at
Saint Peters Church, featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del
Tredici along with eleven of the NYCC's original members. This well-attended
concert was favorably reviewed in the New Music Connoisseur.
Under the continued leadership of Debra Kaye, John de Clef Pieiro, and
Richard Brooks, and currently of Hubert Howe, the NYCC's membership has
more than quintupled since its inception, and the number of its concerts has
grown from one each season to its current calendar of five concert presentations
during the 2013-14 season. The group continues to expand its programs.
Informal readings of new pieces allow composers to "test fly" their works with
some of New York's finest professional and advanced student musicians. Such
events, along with our monthly music salons and collaborations with other
groups and institutions, support the creation and presentation of new music
through the various stages of its development. In the 2004-05 season, award-
winning composer Ezra Laderman joined members of the NYCC in its spring
concert. In addition to its own two concerts, in March 2006 the NYCC
presented a joint concert with the performing ensemble ModernWorks; during
the following season we collaborated with New York University in our first
concert at NYU's Frederick Loewe Theatre; in March 2010 we collaborated with
the Italian No Borders Quartet in presenting a program of works by American
and Italian composers that was performed both here and in Italy; and in
September 2012 we presented a concert under the auspices of the noted
Bargemusic series Here and Now.
In the summer of 2007 the NYCC held the first of its annual composers'
competitions, open only to nonmembers. The winning work in the 2013
competition, Eric Segerstrom's Two Poems, for piano trio, and David Brooks's
'Metamorphosis' Variations, for prepared piano, the winner of the honorable
mention, will receive their premiere performances at our final concert of the
season on June 7, 2013, at the Symphony Space Thalia.
Five seasons ago the NYCC launched a new outreach initiativethe New York
Composers Circle's Community Encores program. We send professional
performers to institutions throughout New York City such as schools and senior
centers, at no cost to the institution, with the aim of acquainting previously
untapped audiences with concert music of the 20th and 21st centuries; each
concert is emceed by a member of the NYCC, who introduces the performers
and the music they play. The first concert in this series, featuring
pianist/composer Nataliya Medvedovskaya with commentary by John de Clef
Pieiro, took place to great audience acclaim on February 24, 2009, at the
Hebrew Home in Riverdale. To date, we have presented seventeen such
outreach concerts, at public high schools (Bronx Science, Stuyvesant, and Hunter
College H.S.) and at additional senior centers (Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
at Saint Peter's Church and JASA); three more are scheduled for this season. A
recent Community Encores concert, at Stuyvesant High School, featuring
soprano Sofia Dimitrova and pianist Catherine Miller, garnered a rapt audience
of 350 students, whose probing questions were fielded by the performers and by
composer Richard Russell, who acted as emcee.
These free outreach concerts are presented under the sponsorship of NYCC
contributors, and the list of schools and senior centers is expanding. See the next
page for how you can help support this important project, which is bringing new
music to new audiences.
Staff for this concert:
Paricia Leonard, producer
Eugene W. McBride, stage manager and page turner
Yekaterina Merkulyeva and Patricia Leonard, reception
Eugene Marlow and Josy Fox Goodman, at the door
Robert Anderson, sound recordist
Tamara Cashour, publicity
Jacob E. Goodman, programs
Friends of the New York Composers Circle
Judith Anderson
Naoko Aoki
Oliver Baer
William and Marilyn Baker
Roger Bermas
Gary Bloom
Nancy R. Bogen-Greissle
Herv Brnnimann
Richard Brooks and Clifford Hall
Barry Cohen
Robert Cohen
Gloria Colicchio
Mary Cronson
David Del Tredici and Ray Warman
Gary DeWaal and Myrna Chao
Robert and Karen Dewar
Mr. and Mrs. John Eaton
Jeanne Ellis
Michael and Marjorie Engber
Harriet Englander
Margaret Fairlie-Kennedy
Anne Farber
Allen C. Fischer and Renate Belville
Amy Roberts Frawley
Victor Frost
Peter and Nancy Geller
Lucy Gertner
Dinu Ghezzo
Essie Glusman
Jacob E. and Josy Fox Goodman
Perry Gould
Stanley S. Grossel
Martin Halpern
Linda Hong
Hubert Howe
Carl and Gail Kanter
David Katz
Lou Katz
David Kaufman
Barbara Kaye
Richard Kaye
Daniel Klein
Alvin and Susan Knott
Andrea Knutson
Susan Korn
Leo Kraft
Herbert and Claire Kranzer
Gabriel and Carol Laderman
Michael Laderman
Raphael Laderman
Dorothy Lander
Arnold and Michelle Lebow
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Leibholz
Stephen and Ann Leibholz
Erwin Lutwak
Joseph and Nina Malkevitch
David Martin
Martin Mayer
William Mayer
Eugene W. McBride
Christopher Montgomery
William and Beryl Moser
Gayther and Carole Myers
Bill Nerenberg
Linda Past and Joseph Pehrson
Jeanette and Stuart Pertz
Murray S. Peyton
Richard Pollack and Lori Smith
Bruce S. Pyenson
Marjorie Senechal
John H. Solum
Abby Jacobs Stuthers
Alice and Al Teirstein
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Townsend
Raymond Townsend
Gary and Katrine Watkins
Sally Woodring
Thomas Zaslavsky and Seyna Bruskin
Martin Zuckerman and Susan Green
The NYCC gratefully welcomes donations large and small, which help make our
concerts possible. Contributions to the New York Composers Circle are tax-deductible
under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Your donations may be sent to
the address on the last page of this program, or you may click on the "Donate Now"
button on our website, www.NYComposersCircle.org.
If you would like to help us in our efforts to build new audiences for new music, please
become a Friend of the New York Composers Circle and send us your contribution.
New York Composers Circle
Board of Directors
Richard Brooks John de Clef Pieiro John Eaton
Jacob E. Goodman David Katz Stephen Leibholz, Chair
Administration
Hubert Howe, Executive Director and Grant Cordinator
Patricia Leonard, Deputy Executive Director
David Katz, Treasurer
David Picton, Secretary
Jacob E. Goodman, Concert Director and Outreach Coordinator
Tamara Cashour, Publicity Coordinator
Emiko Hayashi, Coordinator of Readings
Richard Russell, Webmaster and Membership Coordinator
Honorary Members
Elliott Carter (dec.) John Eaton Ezra Laderman Tania Len Paul Moravec
Composer Members
Roger Blanc
Richard Brooks
Jennifer Griffith
Martin Halpern
Patricia Leonard
Eugene Marlow
Nailah Nombeko
Joseph Pehrson
Madelyn Byrne
Tamara Cashour
Emiko Hayashi
Hubert Howe
Peri Mauer
Eugene W. McBride
David Picton
Frank Retzel
Robert S. Cohen Memrie Innerarity Richard McCandless Dana Richardson
Jesse Diener-Bennett Carl Kanter Kevin McCarter Richard Russell
Max Giteck Duykers Jonathan Katz Nataliya Medvedovskaya Inessa Segal
Brian Fennelly Debra Kaye Yekaterina Merkulyeva Nina Siniakova
Susan Fischer Leo Kraft Scott Miller Cesar Vuksic
Joseph Gianono Orlando Legname Dary John Mizelle Matt Weber
Jacob E. Goodman Stephen Leibholz Gayther Myers David Wolfson
Performer Members
Demetra Adams, soprano Marcia Eckert, piano Noah Palmer, piano
Christina Ascher, contralto Oren Fader, guitar Lisa Pike, horn
Haim Avitsur, trombone Leonard Hindell, bassoon Anthony Pulgram, tenor
Mary Barto, flute Jill Jaffe, viola Ricardo Rivera, baritone
Virgil Blackwell, bass clarinet Craig Ketter, piano Stephen Solook, percussion
Allen Blustine, clarinet Michael Laderman, flute Patricia Sonego, soprano
Sofia Dimitrova, soprano Maxine Neuman, cello Jacqueline Thompson, soprano
Stanichka Dimitrova, violin Margaret O'Connell, mezzo Anna Tonna, mezzo-soprano
Tiffany Du Mouchelle, soprano Javier Oviedo, saxophone Arlene Travis, soprano
Contact
New York Composers Circle
20 Scott Drive East
Westhampton, NY 11977-1015.
www.NYComposersCircle.org
Our next concert will take place at 8 PM on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014,
at Saint Peter's Church, 54th St. and Lexington Ave.
For more information, please check the NYCC website.