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Press Releases
Shriver Hall Concert Series Presents East Coast Premiere of Sasha Cooke’s how do i find you
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214
Shriver Hall Concert Series Presents the East Coast Premiere
of Mezzo-Soprano Sasha Cooke’s how do i find you – March 6
A Recital-Length Project Exploring Experiences and Themes of America Today,
Including California Wildfires, School Shootings, Working From Home, Race, Nature, and Resilience
In-Person Season Offers Livestream Option to all Ticket Holders
New Album, how do i find you, Out Now on Pentatone!
“An astounding collection… and although they represent a diversity of styles, it seems as if
each composer was equally inspired to showcase Cooke’s luscious sound… Cooke sounds
fabulous, and the songs acknowledge the pandemic in wry, raw, or gently insightful ways
without sounding tragic.” – The New Yorker
Baltimore, MD (February 10, 2022) — Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) — Baltimore’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists — presents the East Coast premiere of Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke’s new, recital-length project how do i find you with pianist Kirill Kuzmin on Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 5:30pm.
Curated by Cooke during the pandemic, how do i find you explores experiences and themes of America today, including California wildfires, school shootings, working from home, race, nature, and resilience through new works by composers Timo Andres, Lembit Beecher, Matt Boehler, Christopher Cerrone, John Glover, Gabriel Kahane, Jimmy López, Andrew Marshall, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Rene Orth, Frances Pollack, Hilary Purrington, Huang Ruo, Kamala Sankaram, Caroline Shaw, and Joel Thompson. An album of the same name was released on Pentatone on January 28 and the concert program received its world premiere on January 30, 2022 presented by the San Francisco Symphony, about which Seen and Heard International raved that the songs are “relatable, and the best fuse music and words into powerful emotions, emphasizing the right syllables but also conjuring something bigger than either element could on its own.”
Cooke says, “The only common thread is that these gifted creators were given carte blanche to create what spoke most to them during this time. The freedom afforded by this unique common thread lends each piece a sense of immediacy and authenticity, offering listeners a chance to find songs that resonate with their own recent lives. I chose to feature composers in their 40s or younger; the juxtaposition of their varied works is an apt reflection of the way we’ve all had to manage daily life while confronting existential threats. This approach is an experiment in liberation, inspired by a time in which so many of us have looked into the mirror, or at our loved ones on a computer screen, and wondered: Is this real life? Who are you now? How do I find you?”
Concert Information
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Kirill Kuzmin, piano
Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 5:30pm (Pre-Concert Talk at 4:30pm)
Shriver Hall | 3400 N. Charles Street | Baltimore, MD 21218
Tickets: $44 for seated ticket or home livestream.
Link: www.shriverconcerts.org/
Caroline Shaw – how do I find you
Kamala Sankaram / Mark Campbell – Listen
Matt Boehler / Todd Boss – Risk Not One
Missy Mazzoli / Royce Vavrek – Self-Portrait with Dishevelled Hair
John Glover / Kelley Rourke – Spider
Frances Pollock / Emily Roller – #MasksUsedToBeFun
Christopher Cerrone / John K. Samson – Everything Will Be Okay
Lembit Beecher / Liza Balkan – After the Fires
Andrew Marshall / Todd Boss – (A Bad Case of) Kids
Intermission
Huang Ruo / David Henry Hwang – The Work of Angels
Timo Andres / Lola Ridge – Altitude
Nico Muhly / Thomas TraherneInward – Inward Things
Hilary Purrington / Mark Campbell – That Night
Joel Thompson / Gene Scheer – Still Waiting
Rene Orth / Colleen Murphy – Dear Colleagues
Gabriel Kahane – The Hazelnut Tree
Jimmy López Bellido / Mark Campbell – Where Once We Sang
Niloufar Nourbakhsh – Surprise Encore [World Premiere, Commissioned by Shriver Hall Concert Series]
About Sasha Cooke
Two-time Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has been called a “luminous standout” (The New York Times) and “equal parts poise, radiance and elegant directness” (Opera News). Ms. Cooke is sought after by the world’s leading orchestras, opera companies, and chamber music ensembles for her versatile repertoire and commitment to new music.
In the 2021-22 season, Ms. Cooke returns to the Metropolitan Opera for her role debut as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and as Eduige in Rodelinda, led by Harry Bicket. On the concert stage, she joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra for performances of Janácek’s Glagolitic Mass, conducted by Jakub Hruša, and then again as Margret in Wozzeck, both in Boston and on tour at Carnegie Hall led by Andris Nelsons. Other symphonic highlights include Michael Tilson Thomas’ Meditations on Rilke with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer, as well as Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” with the Oregon Symphony. Finally, she gives a solo recital at the Tucson Desert Song Festival where she premieres a new work by Jennifer Higdon.
This season also marks the release of Ms. Cooke’s new CD, entitled How Do I Find You, on the Pentatone label. The recording, featuring songs by Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, Missy Mazzoli, and Jimmy López Bellido, serves as a tribute to both the struggles and hopes of artists that have been wrought by the pandemic. Ms. Cooke performs the world premiere on January 30th, 2022, as part of the San Francisco Symphony’s Great Performers Series, before giving subsequent recitals at the Shriver Hall Concert Series and elsewhere. Ms. Cooke has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others, and with more than 70 symphony orchestras worldwide under leading conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gustavo Dudamel, Franz Welser-Möst, and Bernard Haitink. Recent recordings can be found on labels including Hyperion, BIS, Chandos, and more. She studied at Rice University, The Juilliard School, and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Learn more at www.sashacooke.com.
About Kirill Kuzmin
Kirill Kuzmin is currently a principal coach at Houston Grand Opera. In the 2021-22 season, Mr. Kuzmin continues working on HGO music staff for productions of Dialogues des Carmélites and Turandot. He also serves as a music staff member at The Glimmerglass Festival.
He has worked on a number of productions with HGO, including Eugene Onegin (also as diction coach), Le nozze di Figaro, Faust, Giulio Cesare (also as continuo accompanist), and West Side Story, as well as two of the monumental Ring cycle operas by Wagner: Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. At Glimmerglass, he served as principal coach for the productions of Silent Night and La Traviata.
Recital appearances included Schwabacher Debut Recital in San Francisco (with baritone Sol Jin). In 2021, he was the pianist for video-streamed recitals with Arturo Chacun-Cruz, Sasha Cooke, and Nicholas Phan. In 2022, he will appear in a recital with Sasha Cooke at San Francisco Symphony.
A Russian native, Mr. Kuzmin spent three years with the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, first as a young artist and then as a full-time member of the music staff. During his time with the company, he served as opera coach and accompanist on a number of Russian operas, including Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges and Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride, as well as works from the standard operatic repertoire, such as Turandot, Der Rosenkavalier, La traviata, and La sonnambula. While in Moscow, he also served as pianist and coach for a number of operatic undertakings by the acclaimed Moscow Philharmonic.
Mr. Kuzmin holds degrees in piano performance from the Moscow Conservatory and in collaborative piano from the Moscow Conservatory and the University of Michigan, where he studied with renowned collaborative pianist Martin Katz. Learn more at https://kirillkuzmin.com.
About Shriver Hall Concert Series
For more than 50 years, Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) has been “Baltimore’s finest importer of classical music talent” (The Baltimore Sun) and the area’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists with a mission to craft performances and educational programs at the highest level of excellence. A 5-time recipient of Baltimore Magazine’s distinction “Best Classical Music” in its annual “Best of Baltimore” issue, the coveted subscription series features many of the world’s most renowned soloists and ensembles, presented in The Johns Hopkins University’s Shriver Hall.
Founded in 1966 by Dr. Ernest Bueding, a pharmacologist at The Johns Hopkins University, and a group of similarly dedicated music enthusiasts, SHCS set out to make an important contribution to the vitality of an already vibrant city. When flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal walked onto the stage of Shriver Hall for the first concert, more than 1,100 people witnessed the launch of what is now recognized as a remarkable success story: Shriver Hall Concert Series. In the succeeding years SHCS has presented hundreds of acclaimed and emerging international artists in classical chamber music and recitals and a legacy of important debuts and premieres. In addition, SHCS collaborates with local schools and subsidizes hundreds of student tickets each season.
The list of artists presented by SHCS is remarkable—Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Ewa Podlés, Maurizio Pollini, Jacqueline du Pré, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jordi Savall, András Schiff, Rudolf Serkin, Janos Starker, Daniil Trifonov, Lynn Harrell, Emmanuel Ax, Alban Berg Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, and Quartetto Italiano, among many others. SHCS also has a history of championing important musicians early in their careers, including Richard Goode, Hilary Hahn, Hélène Grimaud, Dawn Upshaw, Lang Lang, and the Emerson String Quartet. Commissioned composers include Timo Andres, Sebastian Currier, Jonathan Leshnoff, James Lee III, Hannah Lash, and Nina C. Young.
Designed specifically for the community, SHCS offers the Discovery Series, a series of free concerts presented in venues throughout the region focused on artists emerging on the national and international scene. Artists featured include Narek Hakhnazaryan, Colin Currie, Xavier Foley, and the Dover Quartet. SHCS also offers the annual Spring Lecture Series, a series of free talks focused on annual topics related to the intersection of music and society, and a variety of student programs.
For more information, visit www.shriverconcerts.org.
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Photo Credit: Lynn Lane
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