Grammy-Winning Choir The Crossing Performs the World Premiere of Stacy Garrop’s In a House Besieged, Saturday, March 26, 2022 at 3:00pm Shadyside Presbyterian Church.
The concert features The Crossing and “brilliant organist” (Dallas Morning News) Scott Dettra in the world premiere of Chicago-based composer Stacy Garrop’s In a House Besieged, commissioned by the Cleveland Museum of Art, as well as The Crossing in Lansing, McLoskey’s The Memory of Rain and Arvo Pärt’s Salve Regina.
Stacy Garrop’s In a House Besieged fuses the writings of American short-story writer, novelist, and essayist Lydia Davis into a unique libretto reflecting the fear and anxiety around the aging process. Davis’s texts ask the question, “We see our homes and the world around us crumble and decay with time; can we admit that our bodies and minds will do the same?” Through her mastery of choral textures, Garrop ponders, “Is our topic a crumbling society, cognitive collapse, moral deprivation, or the devastating disintegration of our environment?”
The piece presents five stories over the course of as many movements, each highlighting various aspects of the aging process. Two additional fragments woven between these movements serve as a prologue, a series of interludes, and an epilogue. One fragment consists of the sounds someone makes while trying to recall how to pronounce the word “woman.” The other fragment, when fully heard at the end of the piece, illustrates the rising apprehension a person experiences with the onset and progression of dementia.
Tom Welsh, Director of Performing Arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art, notes, “The Cleveland debut of The Crossing will be especially meaningful to us, as Stacy Garrop’s piece is dedicated to the memory of our longtime friend Robert G. Schneider. Bob was for many years the president of the Musart Society, longtime supporters of music in the museum, and Stacy’s work is written for his two great loves – choir and organ.”
In a House Besieged | Saturday, March 26, 2022 at 3:00pm | Shadyside Presbyterian Church | For more information visit: www.crossingchoir.org/events/2021-22/house-besieged-pittsburgh
Chatham Baroque brings New York-based ensemble East of the River to Pittsburgh for a program of Medieval Sephardic music and more.
This April, Chatham Baroque presents New York-based ensemble East of the River for the program Hamsa, featuring music from the geographic regions of Andalusia, North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, and the Sephardic diaspora. This program consists of songs and dances from liturgical and folk traditions as well as examples of classical instrumental music from the Ottoman court. These various types of music aren’t built with Western musical conventions, but rather, use the system of microtonal melodic modes referred to as the Arabic maqam.
This will be the organization’s first public program presented at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary since Chatham Baroque moved its headquarters there in January, 2022. The campus’s Kelso Museum of Near Eastern Archeology will feature a related exhibit, and East of the River’s Daphna Mor and Nina Stern will also give a lecture, free to Chatham Baroque subscribers and ticket holders, on the historical significance of the music of Hamsa.
East of the River | Hamsa | Hicks Memorial Chapel, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, East Liberty | Venue Info | Saturday, April 30, 5 PM and Saturday, April 30, 8 PM | For tickets visit: https://www.chathambaroque.org/21-22-east-of-the-river-hamsa/
Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh Presents Toward the Unknown Region
This April, Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (MCP) presents Toward the Unknown Region, a concert about boldly emerging from these uncertain times with daring optimism and a sense of renewal.
The choir of 100-plus voices will deliver dynamic works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Jonathan Dove, and more.
At 114 years in operation, MCP is the city’s most celebrated chorus. Composed of approximately 120 singers, it is led by Robert Page Music Director Matthew Mehaffey. With its 2021-’22 season, the choir returns to live shows after more than a year.
MCP’s April concert will feature two dynamic works for chorus: Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Toward the Unknown Region and Jonathan Dove’s blistering song cycle The Passing of the Year, which contains an extended, challenging, and beautiful solo piano part. The concert will also feature music by Jocelyn Hagen, Ellen Gilson Voth, and others.
Mehaffey notes that the two major works featured in the concert incorporate texts from prominent poets, including Whitman, Blake, Tennyson, and Dickinson.
“Using a variety of highly charged and hypnotic rhythms and piano and choral textures, The Passing of the Year traces a journey through the seasons, from the anticipation of summer and its eventual steamy arrival, to autumn’s sense of mortality, ending in winter with the promise of rebirth and hope to come,” he says.
“Toward the Unknown Region, one of the composer’s earliest works, captures the sense of youthful adventure when one sets out on a new journey. It begins with murky, uncertain harmonies and climaxes with a new, exultant theme on Whitman’s lines ‘Then we burst forth, we float, in time and space/ O soul, prepared for them, equal, equipt at last…’”
Mehaffey adds, “Both works are meant to inspire hope and courage amidst our uncertain times. The program will be rounded out with a variety of other pieces, both ancient and modern.”
Toward the Unknown Region | Saturday, April 2, 2022 | 7:30 pm| Hillman Center for Performing Arts, Shadyside Academy and Sunday, April 3, 2022 | 2:30 pm| Westminster Presbyterian Church, Upper St. Clair | Tickets at https://www.themendelssohn.org/current-season/toward-the-unknown-region/
Categories: Arts and Ideas
Leave a Reply Cancel reply