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Press Releases
Composer Robert Sirota Announces 2019-2020 Season - Sirota @ 70
Composer Robert Sirota Announces Sirota @ 70
A 70th Birthday Celebration Throughout the 2019-2020 Season
Commissions, Premieres, Performances, and Residencies in the U.S and Asia
“a compelling musical voice of our time” – The American Organist
New York, NY – Composer Robert Sirota announces his schedule for Sirota @ 70, a celebration throughout the 2019-2020 concert season featuring residencies, performances, and premieres in honor of his 70th birthday. Sirota’s distinctive voice is clearly discernible in all of his work—whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music—or even in his arrangements for Paul Simon’s recent farewell tour, with the chamber ensemble yMusic. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.”
On Sunday, October 13, 2019 at 2pm – Sirota’s actual 70th birthday – an all-Sirota concert is presented by Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Hall (129 West 67th Street). This performance includes the New York premiere of Luminous Bodies (performed byyMusic with pianist Timo Andres) and other works featuring violist Jonah Sirota, organist Victoria Sirota, percussionist Chris Thompson, and pianists Molly Morkoski and Robert Sirota. This is the first all-Sirota performance since he stepped down as President of the Manhattan School of Music in 2012.
In addition to the October 13 celebration, there will be many more events as part of Sirota @ 70, including performances presented by Cooperstown Summer Music Festival (Cooperstown, NY); Mt. Kisco Concert Association (South Salem, NY); Morris Museum (Morristown, NJ); Concerts on the Slope (Brooklyn, NY); Sierra Chamber Society (Walnut Creek, CA); Noontime Concerts (San Francisco, CA); San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Saint John's Episcopal Cathedral (Knoxville, TN).
Commissions for Sirota @ 70 include Job Fragments for baritone Thomas Pellaton, with text adapted by Victoria Sirota from the Book of Job; Blackbird Singing for flute, cello, and piano for flutist Linda Chesis and the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival;Dancing With the Angels for flute, viola, and harp, for Carol Wincenc; and Contrapassos with libretto by Stevan Cavalier for the Telegraph Quartet and soprano Abigail Fischer, by the Sierra Chamber Society. This season also features brief residencies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore) and University of California, Los Angeles.
Schedule of Sirota @ 70 Events
Cooperstown Summer Music Festival: Life of Birds
Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 4pm | Otesaga Resort Hotel | Cooperstown, NY
Featuring Robert Sirota's Birds of Paradise, as well as the world premiere of Sirota's Blackbird Singing, based on The Beatles' "Blackbird," commissioned by Linda Chesis for the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival. More information
Kaufman Music Center Presents: Sirota @ 70
Sunday, October 13, 2019 at 2pm | Merkin Hall | New York, NY
On his 70th birthday, composer Robert Sirota is celebrated by an all-star lineup performing a selection of his works spanning 20 years, including the New York premiere of Luminous Bodies performed by yMusic with pianist Timo Andres. More information
Mt. Kisco Concert Association – Private Concert
Sunday, October 27, 2019 at 4:30pm | Private Home | Mt. Kisco, NY
The American String Quartet performs a program that includes Sirota's String Quartet No. 2, “American Pilgrimage.” More information
Wave Upon Wave – Telegraph Quartet & Robert Sirota
Sunday, November 3, 2019 at 2pm | Morris Museum | Morristown, NJ
Telegraph Quartet performs Robert Sirota's String Quartet No. 3, “Wave Upon Wave.” Sirota will participate in a discussion about his work after the performance. More information
Private Concert
Friday, November 15, 2019 at 7:30pm | Sirota Home | Yonkers, NY
Fundraising concert for the Sirota@70 season, featuring the Larsen-Choi Duo, cellist Ben Larsen and pianist Hyungjin Choi, in works by Bach, Sirota, and Choi.
Concerts on the Slope
Sunday, December 1, 2019 at 3pm | Saint John's Episcopal Church | Brooklyn, NY
Featuring Robert Sirota's String Quartet No. 3, “Wave Upon Wave.” More information
Concerts on the Slope
Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 3pm | Saint John's Episcopal Church | Brooklyn, NY
Featuring Robert Sirota's Fantasy for cello and piano. More information
Composer Residency
Monday, February 17, 2020 | Yong Siew Toh Conservatory | Singapore
Robert Sirota will teach private lessons and give a composition seminar.
Kaufman Music Center Presents: Only at Merkin with Terrance McKnight: Carol Wincenc, flute
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 5pm | Merkin Concert Hall | New York, NY
Flutist Carol Wincenc will premiere Robert Sirota's Dancing With the Angels with her trio Les Amies, commissioned by Wincenc in celebration of her 50-year career. More information
Composer Residency
Wednesday, March 11, 2020 | Residency at University of California, Los Angeles | Los Angeles, CA
Robert Sirota will give a composition seminar at UCLA and will perform his Elegy for a Lost World with violist Jonah Sirota.
Sierra Chamber Society - Telegraph Quartet
Sunday, March 15, 2020 at 3pm | Grace Presbyterian Church | Walnut Creek, CA
Telegraph Quartet and soprano Abigail Fischer premiere Robert Sirota's Contrapassos, with libretto by Stevan Cavalier, commissioned by the Sierra Chamber Society. More information
Noontime Concerts - Telegraph Quartet
Tuesday, March 17, 2020 at 12:30pm | Old St. Mary's Cathedral | San Francisco, CA
Telegraph Quartet and soprano Abigail Fischer perform Robert Sirota's Contrapassos. More information
SFCM Residency Spring Concert - Telegraph Quartet
Wednesday, March 18, 2020 at 7:30pm | SFCM Recital Hall | San Francisco, CA
Telegraph Quartet and soprano Abigail Fischer perform Robert Sirota's Contrapassos. More information
Concerts on the Slope Gala
Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 3pm | St. John's Episcopal Church | Brooklyn, NY
The Concerts on the Slope Annual Fundraising Event features Robert Sirota's Hafez Songs. More information
Organ Celebration
Friday, April 24, 2020 | Saint John's Episcopal Cathedral | Knoxville, TN
A celebration of the cathedral's new organ will feature Robert Sirota's organ concerto, In the Fullness of Time. More information
More Spring 2020 performances to be announced, including:
Joint concerts by composers Jonah and Robert Sirota, performing their works for solo viola and viola with piano (New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA)
Music for violin and piano performed by Laurie Carney and David Friend (Yonkers, NY)
Works for solo organ and chamber music for organ, cello, and piano performed by Robert & Victoria Sirota and Norman Fischer & Jeanne Kierman (Houston, TX and Yonkers, NY)
About Robert Sirota
Robert Sirota’s chamber works have been performed by Alarm Will Sound; Washington Square Contemporary Music Society; Sequitur; Sandbox Percussion; Yale Camerata; yMusic; pianist Jeffrey Kahane; TACTUS Ensemble; Chameleon Arts Ensemble; New Hudson Saxophone Quartet; Left Bank Concert Society; Dinosaur Annex; the Chiara, American, Telegraph, Ethel, Elmyr, and Blair String Quartets; the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and the Fischer Duo, and at festivals including the Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown music festivals; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Orchestral performances include the Seattle, Vermont, Virginia, East Texas, Lincoln (NE), Meridian (MS), New Haven, Greater Bridgeport, Oradea (Romania) and Saint Petersburg (Russia) symphonies, as well as conservatory orchestras of Oberlin, Peabody, Manhattan School of Music, Toronto, and Singapore.
Sirota’s liturgical works include three major commissions for the American Guild of Organists: In the Fullness of Time, a concerto for organ and orchestra, Mass for chorus, organ and percussion, and Apparitions for organ and string quartet, as well as works for solo organ, organ and cello, and organ and piano.
Recent commissions include Sirota’s third string quartet, Wave Upon Wave for the Naumburg Foundation; Immigrant Songs for the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine; Luminous Bodies performed by Jeffrey Kahane and yMusic at the Sarasota Music Festival; Hafez Songs for Palladium Musicum; and his Cello Sonata No. 2, for Benjamin Larsen and Hyungjin Choi. Sirota has also been commissioned by the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, yMusic, and has written arrangements for Paul Simon.
Sirota has held seminars and residencies at University of Missouri-Kansas City, Samford University, Carnegie Mellon University, Peabody Institute, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and New World School of the Arts at Miami Dade College. He also created and curated Bridging the Gap, a series of concerts at National Sawdust that explore the relationships between generations of composers.
Sirota is recorded on the Capstone, Albany, New Voice and Gasparo labels and his discography grows with an arrangement on Paul Simon’s In The Blue Light (Legacy Recordings, 2018); Elegy for a Lost World on violist Jonah Sirota’s Strong Sad (National Sawdust Tracks, 2018); his second string quartet, American Pilgrimage, on American String Quartet’s American Romantics (independently released, 2018); and Diners, on the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet’s New York Rising (ClasSax, 2019).
Recipient of grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, and the American Music Center, Sirota’s music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Schott, Music Associates of New York, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.
Before becoming Director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in 1995, Sirota served as Chairman of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University and Director of Boston University's School of Music. From 2005-2012, he was the President of Manhattan School of Music, where he was also a member of the School’s composition faculty.
A native New Yorker, Sirota studied at Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard and divides his time between New York and Searsmont, Maine with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists.
For more information, visit www.robertsirota.com.
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