ENSEMBLE FOR THESE TIMES (E4TT) ANNOUNCES 15TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON

 

5 Programs Featuring 30 Contemporary Composers

Continue E4TT’s Tradition of Uplifting Diverse Voices

 

E4TT Launches UPLIFT program, a California-based

commissioning and education pilot program for BIPOC

women composers and students

 

Friday, October 21, 2022, 8 p.m., CelesTrios

Featuring the world premiere of “Celebration 15” by composer Elena Ruehr

 

Sunday, January 29, 2023, 4 p.m., Mosaic

Featuring works by women and non-binary composers, including world premieres by composers Mary Bianco and Dawn Norfleet

 

Saturday, February 25, 2023, 7:30 p.m., Call for Scores: Solo Piano

E4TT emerita pianist extraordinaire Dale Tsang returns to celebrate E4TT's 15th anniversary with works chosen from a new Call for Scores for solo piano

 

Saturday, April 15, 2023, 7:30 p.m., Fractured Light

In collaboration with SF Conservatory of Music's Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) Department, E4TT showcases commissions by composers Juhi Bansal, inti figgis-vizueta, Tamara MacLeod, and Michael Robert Smith

 

Saturday, June 3, 2023, 7:30 p.m., Crystal: 15th Anniversary Celebration

E4TT’s 15th anniversary gala celebration featuring favorite works from the past decade and world premieres by Vivian Fung and Marcus Norris

 

(San Francisco, CA) August 11, 2022 - Contemporary chamber music group Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) today announced its 2022-2023 15th Anniversary season, welcoming 30 composers and 15 musicians performing 20th and 21st century music in 5 programs that showcase the works of women and underrepresented composers.

Since its inception, E4TT has had a strong, ongoing commitment to new music by women composers or with texts by women writers, as well as by emerging and less-known composers. The 2022-23 season welcomes back longtime E4TT collaborators and special guests in both virtual and live performances that include a total of 10 world premieres and 14 commissions, a Call for Scores program featuring new works for solo piano, the annual program featuring works by women and non-binary composers, and a gala celebration of greatest hits and world premieres. 

The 2022-23 season also marks the launch of E4TT’s UPLIFT program, a California-based commissioning and education pilot program for BIPOC women composers and students. The three UPLIFT composers who will have new works premiered this season are Juhi Bansal, Vivan Fung, and Dawn Norfleet, who will also lead four composing sessions for high school students at L.A’s George Washington Preparatory High School. The students will also be invited to attend E4TT’s livestream concerts.

In 2022, E4TT launched its podcast, For Good Measure, featuring weekly interviews every Monday with BIPOC & women creative artists. Hosted by McGuinness, For Good Measure is available on all podcast channels.

 

SEASON AT A GLANCE:

 

CelesTrios

Friday, October 21, 2022, 8:00PM | Old First Concerts, San Francisco

E4TT opens its 15th anniversary season with CelesTrios, featuring a selection of trios, including the world premiere of Celebration 15 by Elena Ruehr. E4TT will be joined by special guests violinists Otis Harriel, Mia Nardi-Huffman, pianist emerita Dale Tsang, and cellist Doug Machiz.

Tickets: $25 (in person)/ $20 (livestream) | E4TT.org/celestrios.html 

 

Elena Ruehr: Celebration 15 (world premiere, commission)

Arthur Gottschalk: Beat

Jonathan Bailey Holland: Trio

Bohuslav Martinu: Piano Trio #2, H. 327

Yaz Lancaster: Shed Velvet

Tina Davidson: Tremble

David Garner (E4TT co-founder): Piano Trio

 

Mosaic

Sunday, January 29, 2023, 4:00PM | Calliope East Bay Music & Arts, Albany

E4TT's annual favorite returns with music by both women and non-binary composers. Featuring world premieres by composers Mary Bianco and Dawn Norfleet, and works by 20th and 21st century composers. E4TT is joined by guest violinist Ilana Blumberg.

Tickets and livestream: $25/$20/$15| E4TT.org/mosaic.html

 

Reena Esmail: Two Tones

Margaret Bonds: Troubled Water 

Jessica Meyer: The Last Rose

Niloufar Noubakhsh: Cello sonata

Elena Ruehr: Music Pink and Blue

Erollyn Wallen: Dervish 

Jennifer Jolley: Democracy Dies in Darkness

Yaz Lancaster: Mosaic

Gabriela Lena Frank: Khazn’s Recit: Elu D’vorim

Chrysanthe Tan: Retrospect

Dawn Norfleet: Title TBD (world premiere, commission) (UPLIFT composer)

Mary Bianco: Title TBD  (world premiere, commission)

 

Call for Scores: Solo Piano

Saturday, February 25, 2023, 7:30PM | Berkeley Piano Club, Berkeley

Emerita pianist extraordinaire Dale Tsang returns to celebrate E4TT's 15th anniversary with works chosen from a new Call for Scores for solo piano. E4TT received 56 scores by 34 composers; the winners will be announced at a later date, and details will be available here.  E4TT's first Call for Scores was in 2016, and 275 scores were received by 200 composers; 56 scores were chosen by 54 composers, which launched a three-year series entitled 56x54 that ran from 2016-2019. 

Tickets: $30/$15/$5 (in person); free (live stream) | E4TT.org/solopiano.html

 

Fractured Light

Saturday, April 15, 7:30PM | SFCM Osher Salon, SF

In collaboration with SF Conservatory of Music's TAC Department, E4TT showcases four commissions and world premieres by composers Juhi Bansal, inti figgis-vizueta, Tamara MacLeod, and Michael Robert Smith, and works by Salina Fisher, David Garner, Angelica Negron, Marcus Norris, and Pamela Z (SF premiere). Guest artists include vibraphonist Adrienne Anaya and violinist Ilana Blumberg.

Tickets: FREE (in person and live stream) | E4TT.org/fracturedlight.html

 

Salina Fisher: Komorebi

Tamara McLeod: Golden Fragments (soprano, violin, piano) (world premiere, commission)

Angelica Negron: la bicicletta de cristal

Michael Robert Smith: Duo for cello and piano (world premiere, commission)

Juhi Bansal: Piano trio (UPLIFT composer)  (world premiere, commission)

inti figgis-vizueta: Piano trio  (world premiere, commission)

Marcus Norris: Shatter

Pamela Z: Only if It’s Asked

David Garner: Traveling Light

SFCM TAC Department student composer competition winner; to be announced. 

 

Crystal: 15th Anniversary Celebration

Saturday, June 3, 7:30PM | Noe Valley Ministry, SF

Join E4TT for its 15th anniversary gala celebration featuring guest artists performing favorites from the past decade and world premieres by Vivian Fung and Marcus Norris. Special guests include Ilana Blumberg, violin, Taylor Chan, piano, Haruka Fujii, percussion, Chelsea Hollow, coloratura soprano, Laura Reynolds, English horn, and more!

Tickets: $30/$15/$5 (in person); free (live-stream, donations welcome) | E4TT.org/crystal.html

 

Vivian Fung: Companion piece to Shimmer (UPLIFT composer) (world premiere, commission)

Vivian Fung: Shimmer*

Marcus Norris: Igbo Landing (working title) (world premiere, commission)

Elinor Armer, Matrix (selection)*

David Garner: Die eichne Tuer (selected movements)*

David Garner: Mein blaues Klavier (movement 3)*

Brennan Stokes: The Unseen (selections)* 

Missy Mazzoli: A Map of Laughter

Sarah Kirkland Snyder: Prelude

Alexander Tansman: Cabaret

*E4TT commission

 

About Ensemble for These Times

Winners of The American Prize in 2021 for Chamber Music Performance, Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) consists of award-winning soprano and Artistic Executive Director Nanette McGuinness, cellist Abigail Monroe, pianist Margaret Halbig, and Senior Artistic Advisor and SF Conservatory of Music faculty member, composer David Garner. The group focuses on 20th and 21st century music that is relevant, engaging, original and compelling—music that resonates with today and speaks to tomorrow, that harnesses the power of artistic beauty, intelligence, wit, lyricism, and irony to create a deep understanding of our times and the human condition. Since its inception in 2007, E4TT has had a strong, ongoing commitment to new music by women composers or with texts by women writers, as well as by emerging and less-known composers. E4TT has commissioned 40 new works. 

 

Recordings include Surviving: Women's Words (2016 Global Music Awards Silver Medal winner), a song cycle based on poems by four women Holocaust survivors; The Hungarians: from Rozsa to Justus (2018 Global Music Awards Gold Medal winner), featured music by Hungarian and Hungarian-American composers exiled or lost in the Holocaust; Once/Memory/Night: Paul Celan, which honors the centennial of the birth of Celan, one of the most important post-WWII poets who greatly influenced 20th Century European literature; and The Guernica Project (2022 Global Music Awards Gold Medal winner), which commemorates Picasso's iconic painting of the same name inspired by the bombing of the town of Gernika in 1937. 

 

E4TT has been invited to perform in Madrid, Spain; at the 2016 and 2022 Krakow Culture Festival; a four-city tour to Hungary as part of the Daniel Pearl World Music Days, and Berlin, Germany. Formerly known as the Jewish Music & Poetry Project (JMPP), the ensemble rebranded as E4TT in Fall 2015, with the JMPP continuing as a project of the group. The ensemble’s new name was inspired by one of E4TT’s first songs, “In dieser Zeit” (“In These Times”), to a text by German/Polish poet Mascha Kaléko (1901-1976). Part of Garner’s first major work for the group, “In dieser Zeit” appears on Surviving: Women’s Words. To learn more, please visit E4TT.org.

 

E4TT’s 2022/23 season is sponsored, in part, by the Ross McKee Foundation and supported by a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission and in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency; E4TT’s UPLIFT project is supported by the California Arts Council, Learn more at www.arts.ca.gov 

 

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