Present Music performs world premiere by Carla Kihlstedt

June 23-24: Present Music Performs World Premiere by Carla Kihlstedt

Kihlstedt's song cycle "26 Little Deaths" inspired by Edward Gorey's Gashlycrumb Tinies

(June 24 performance live-streamed worldwide)

“expect Present Music to bring on the unexpected” — The Shepherd Express 

On June 23 and 24, 2022 at 7:30 pm (CDT), contemporary music ensemble Present Music closes out their 40th anniversary season with the world premiere of Carla Kihlstedt's 26 Little Deaths at the Jan Serr Studio in Milwaukee. Both performances will have an in-person audience, and it will be live-streamed worldwide on June 24. Tickets for in-person attendance and live-stream viewing available here.

Kihlstedt's new work is a sweeping song cycle inspired by Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies, a delightfully dark alphabet book by the American author, illustrator, playwright, set and costume designer. Gorey was known for his characteristic pen-and-ink drawings depicting unsettling narrative scenes in Victorian settings.

Carla Kihlstedt is an American composer, singer and violinist, whose work includes large-scale collaborative pieces that explore a single idea from many angles. She wrote both the music and the libretto for 26 Little Deaths, which was commissioned by Present Music. She is also featured as vocalist and violinist in the world premiere performance, accompanied by the Present Music ensemble. In this role, she serves as the guide through the set of 26 songs that are part Tim Burton, part Edgar Allan Poe, part art song, and 100% Present Music.

Earlier this season, Present Music performed the world premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning commission by Raven Chacon, plus world premieres by Latvian composer Krists Auzieks and English composer Daniel Kidane. A highlight of the forthcoming 2022-23 season is a new commission and fresh arrangements of works by composer Phillip Miller, written for South African artist William Kentridge's animated films that tackle the history of Apartheid (November 16, 2022 at Milwaukee Art Museum). Complete details of Present Music's 41st season will be announced this summer on PresentMusic.org.

Present Music congratulates the composer Raven Chacon on winning the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Along with the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ and Plymouth Church UCC, Present Music commissioned the winning work in 2021 for the 40th anniversary season of their concert series. "Voiceless Mass" was written specifically for the Nichols & Simpson organ and its space at The?Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, where it was premiered on Present Music's annual Thanksgiving concert. 

WATCH THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THE WINNER OF THE 2022 PULITZER PRIZE FOR MUSIC HERE

Calendar Listing

About Present Music 

Since its founding in Milwaukee in 1982, Present Music’s mission has been to commission and perform new concert music, bringing over 80 new works to life. Audiences “can almost always expect Present Music to bring on the unexpected” (The Shepherd Express) with programming that introduces innovative concert formats, embraces a broad diversity of repertoire, and makes the music of our time accessible to audiences with deep expression and serious fun.

The Present Music ensemble ranges from a core group of seven musicians to an ensemble of twenty or more. The group has worked closely with many of the nation's top composers, including John Adams, Henry Brant, David Lang, Caroline Shaw, Ingram Marshall, Missy Mazzoli, Bright Sheng, Roberto Sierra, and Michael Torke; and has a long and impressive track record for identifying outstanding talent early in the artists’ careers. Present Music is winners of an impressive six ASCAP/Chamber Music America’s Adventurous Programming Award. Their discography includes world premiere recordings on the Argo, Albany, Aoede, Northeastern, Naxos, and Innova labels.

The group is led by Co-Artistic Directors violinist/composer Eric Segnitz and conductor David Bloom. Present Music was founded by conductor Kevin Stalheim, who was Artistic Director for the first 37 years of the ensemble’s existence until 2019.

About Carla Kihlstedt 

Carla Kihlstedt is an American composer, improviser, singer, violinist, producer and educator. She writes large-scale collaborative and cross-disciplinary pieces that pull from many musical influences and explore a single idea from many angles, including sets of songs about the ocean, dreams, imaginary creatures, and quarantine.

She is a founding member of Tin Hat, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and Rabbit Rabbit Radio, and has written for San Francisco Girls’ Chorus, International Contemporary Ensemble, Present Music, Brooklyn Rider, and Del Sol String Quartet. Carla is on the faculty of the Contemporary Improvisation Department of the New England Conservatory and the MFA in Composition program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

 # # #