Music of Judith Shatin Celebrated in Concerts on April 5, 6, 18, 27 and 28 at University of Virginia in Charlottesville

The choral, chamber, electroacoustic, digital and orchestra music of Judith Shatin will be celebrated in concerts and events on April 5, 6, 27 and 28 at Old Cabell Hall and Auditorium on the campus of University of Virginia, Charlottesville. These will be presented as part of Shatin Music Month, a celebration of the composer’s retirement from teaching and shift to full-time composing.

The programs kick off on April 5 @ 2 PM in the University’s Nau Hall, Room 211, with a symposium devoted to Shatin’s music. There will be three talks:

1. Steve Kemper: Sounding the Word, Exploring Religious Symbolism in the Music of Judith Shatin
2. Juraj Kojs: Streams and Voices in the Electroacoustic Music of Judith Shatin
3. Denise Von Glahn: Judith Shatin Composes Environmental Awareness

Next, @ 8:00 p.m., in Old Cabell Auditorium, the University Singers, under the baton of Ryan Mullaney, perform Adonai Ro’i, Shatin’s setting of Psalm 23 in the original Hebrew, on their Spring concert.

Then, on April 6 @ 8 PM, again in Old Cabell Auditorium, a wide-ranging concert will include acoustic, electroacoustic and digital music created during Shatin’s tenure at the University. The program features both outstanding UVA performance faculty and guest artists, including rising star mezzo Jennifer Beattie, noted bass David Salsbery Fry and distinguished pianists Gayle Martin and Jeremy Thompson. Selections include Werther for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano to Three Summers Heat for mezzo and electronics, Vayter un Vayter (Farther and Farther) for bass, clarinet, cello and piano, For the Fallen for amplified trumpet and electronics and Fantasy on St. Cecilia for solo piano. The concert is an Arts Enhancement Event and is co-sponsored by the McIntire Department of Music and Jewish Studies.

On April 18, @ 8 PM, still in Old Cabell Auditorium, the New Music Ensemble will feature her digital music, premiering Zipper Music, scored for 2 amplified zipper players and interactive electronics, performed with 2 MIDI controllers. The piece is part of her Quotidian Music series. This concert also features Workers Union by Louis Andriessen, among other contemporary pieces.

And, on April 27 @ 8 PM, at Old Cabell Auditorium, The Charlottesville Symphony, conducted by Benjamin Rous, will perform Shatin’s Piping the Earth on their Spring program, together with works by Wagner, Schumann and Respighi.  Called ‘…bursting with imaginative detail…’ (San Francisco Chronicle), Piping the Earth was inspired by a metaphor in the ancient Chinese text, the Zhuangzi. It refers to the changing sounds of the wind as it sweeps through earth’s caverns, yet the nature of air remains constant.  Like the wind, the music ranges from the murmuring of the opening to tumultuous sweeps, from eddying swirls to a powerful maelstrom.

The piece was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Women’s Philharmonic, who premiered it. It was subsequently recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic, conducted by Joel Suben, for the Capstone label.

The April 27 program will be repeated on April 28 by The Charlottesville Symphony at Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts.

More information about the April 5 and 6 UVA events at http://music.virginia.edu/news-item/6001.

More about the April 27 and 28 concerts at https://cvillesymphony.org/concerts/masterworks-5/.

Called “highly inventive...hugely enjoyable and deeply involving” by the Washington Post and "exuberant and captivating" by the San Francisco Chronicle, Judith Shatin's music is renowned for its dramatic shape and imaginative blending of acoustic and digital media, as well as her work in each. Orchestras that have performed her music include the Denver, Houston, Virginia, Illinois, Knoxville, Minnesota, National and Richmond Symphonies and the American Composers Orchestra. Her chamber and choral music is internationally performed and has been featured at festivals throughout North America and Europe. She has been commissioned by organizations and ensembles including the Barlow Endowment, the Fromm Foundation, the Library of Congress, the National Symphony, the Dutch Hexagon Ensemble, Ensemble Berlin PianoPercussion and Scottish Voices.

Innova Records has issued two portrait CDs that showcase both her acoustic and electroacoustic chamber music in performances by the Cassatt Quartet, Da Capo Chamber Players, and a variety of additional distinguished performers. Her music can also be heard on the Ravello, Centaur, Neuma, New World and Sonora labels. Shatin is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, where she founded the Virginia Center for Computer Music. Visit her online at http://www.judithshatin.com.

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