This Island
March 2, 2022 7 p.m. WeDs@7 Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, UC San Diego With American pianist Donald Berman
This Island is a program of little-known music from the first half of the 20th century, written almost exclusively by female composers, including Nadia Boulanger, Marion Bauer and Henriette Bosmans, Irene Fuerison and Elizabeth Claisse. While some were celebrated in their day, they have been largely forgotten; yet their music is evocative, lyrical and exquisitely crafted, wholly representative of major compositional trends of their time.
The songs of This Island were researched during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel and performance were impossible. A single reference in a letter from Rainer Maria Rilke was the catalyst for a trail of discovery that wound its way through online databases housed in many cities, states and countries. Among many remarkable works, we found songs that are emotionally potent, possessing unusual beauty and eloquence. Ultimately, This Island is a gathering of strong, singular voices from the past, speaking to us of the enduring possibility of human connection across the span of time.
“…If you could only be here with me so I could share with you the happiness of these great poems, they would let you realize what we all now need more urgently: that transience is not separation…”
- Rainer Maria Rilke to Adelheid Franziska von der Marwitz, January 14, 1919 (from The Dark Interval, translated and edited by Ulrich Baer)
MaY 2, 2022 7 p.m. Conrad prebys Concert hall, UC San Diego
with Violinist Curtis Macomber
György Kurtág's Kafka Fragments, Op.24 was completed in 1985 and is a seventy-five-minute work for voice and violin, set to fragments of text from the diaries of Franz Kafka. The work is divided into four parts. The first, third and fourth parts consist primarily of movements that are short in duration and which vary widely in their range of expression. These brief, intense movements are juxtaposed with several extended movements, which serve as a counterbalance, allowing us the opportunity to explore the composer's fantastical sound world more fully.
I have been performing the piece for over thirty years and am drawn to the limitless range of emotional expression that is created through the fusion of the texts with Kurtág's inexhaustible musical imagination. The piece is a tour de force, exploring the limits of what can be expressed through the combination of voice and violin, an outpouring of wonder, rage, and ecstasy. It is a musical journey that I find to be irresistible.
On May 2, 2022, I presented the work with my longtime friend and colleague, the American violinist Curtis Macomber, a legendary champion of contemporary music, as part of an ongoing project to record and perform the work.
June 8, 2022 Barbro Osher Recital Hall, Bowes Center San Francisco Conservatory of Music 7:30 P.M.
Songfest A tribute to James Primosch
I’m delighted to join the renowned SONGFEST program for American Music week, in a program that honors the work and life of my dear friend, the late James Primosch. The June 8 program includes music by George Crumb, Anna Weesner and John Harbison, in addition to several of Jim’s songs. I’ll be singing three selections from Jim’s beautiful cycle Holy the Firm, accompanied by Liza Stepanova, piano.
June 9, 2022 Barbro Osher Recital Hall, Bowes Center San Francisco Conservatory of Music 7:30 P.M.
I’m very pleased to be performing the Milosz Songs, a beautiful cycle by the distinguished American composer John Harbison, in the version for voice and piano, as part of an evening honoring the composer’s life and work.
June 10, 2022 Bowes Center, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Master Class: Songs of Charles Ives with SONGFEST Participants.
This Island
sEPTEMBER 16, 2022 LONGY CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC/BOSTON MA 8 P.M.With American pianist Donald Berman
See description for March 2, 2022.