Ensemble for These Times Announces Quest: Music by Women and Nonbinary Composers

55 Taylor Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102/ E4TT.org/ (510) 684-0505

Media Contacts:
Nanette McGuinness / nanette@E4TT.org
Brennan Stokes / brennan@E4TT.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 1, 2023

Ensemble for These Times

Announces

Quest: Music by Women and Nonbinary Composers

 

Featuring

The World Premiere of
“Spent” by Tamara McLeod

Three Works Chosen from E4TT’s Two-Year Collaboration

With Luna Composition Lab

Additional Music by Eight Contemporary Women and Nonbinary Composers

 

Performed by

Soprano Nanette McGuinness, Pianist Margaret Halbig, Cellist Abigail Monroe

and Guest Violinist Jennifer Redondas

 

Saturday, January 20, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.

In-Person at and Livestreamed from the Center for New Music, San Francisco

(Full calendar listing below)

 

San Francisco - Ensemble for These Times starts the New Year with “Quest: Music by Women and Nonbinary Composers,” a program featuring the commissioned World Premiere of “Spent,” a new work about climate change by composer Tamara McLeod, three pieces chosen as part of E4TT’s two-year collaboration with Luna Composition Lab, and eight additional works, by Jennifer Higdon, Tania León, Jessica Mao, Claudia Montero, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Florence Price, Gabriella Smith, and Alex Temple. “Quest: Music by Women and Nonbinary Composers” will be livestreamed for free (donations welcome) and also performed for an in-person audience at the Center for New Music on Saturday, January 20, 2024 at 7:30 p.m., preceded by a live pre-concert composer talk at 7:00 p.m.

 

ABOUT “QUEST: MUSIC BY WOMEN AND NONBINARY COMPOSERS”

E4TT continues its popular series on January 20, 2024, livestreamed from and performed in-person at the Center for New Music in San Francisco with “Quest: Music by Women and Nonbinary Composers.” The highlight of the program will be the World Premiere of “Spent,” a new piano trio about climate change and resource depletion by Ukrainian-American composer Tamara McLeod (b. 1999), along with three works chosen from E4TT’s Call for Scores with Luna Composition Lab alums—“Forget Your Scarf in My Life” (2021) for piano trio by Madeline Clara Cheng (b. 2004); “grace fall” (2021) for solo violin by Sage Shurman (b. 2005); and the second movement of “Ringlorn” (2021) for violin and cello by Isabelle Tseng (b. 2005). Music by eight more contemporary women and nonbinary composers rounds out the program: the West Coast premieres of “Quest” (2013) by Opera America Discovery Grant Recipient, Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh (b. 1992) and “Microphages” (1999, rev. 2019) by Arizona State University faculty member Alex Temple (b. 1983); “Blue Hills of Mist” (2006) for violin and piano by Pulitzer Prize and three-time Grammy-winner Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962), “Elegia for Paul Robeson” (1987) for piano trio by 2021 Pulitzer Prize winning Cuban-American composer Tania León (b. 1943); “Fulgurance” (2021) for violin and cello by recent SF Conservatory of Music graduate Jessica Mao (b. 1998); “Soy” by three-time Latin Grammy winning Argentinian composer Claudia Montero (1962-2021) and “An April Day” (1949) by Florence Price (1885-1953), both for soprano and piano; and “Imaginary Pancake” (2020) by Gabriella Smith (b. 1991), for solo piano. E4TT’s core ensemble (soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Abigail Monroe, and pianist Margaret Halbig) will be joined by 2023/24 season guest violinist Jennifer Redondas.

 

ABOUT E4TT’S COLLABORATION WITH LUNA COMPOSITION LAB

A two-year collaboration between Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) and Luna Composition Lab, the project consists of two phases: 1) E4TT held a Call for Scores to Luna Composition Lab alums in June 2023, with up to six works to be selected for performance on each of E4TT’s next two concerts of new music by women and nonbinary composers in 2024 and 2025; 2) E4TT will commission up to four of the composers who submitted scores in the first phase to write for the group, with the commissions announced in March 2024.

E4TT chose six scores for the project’s first phase. “Forget Your Scarf in My Life” for piano trio by Madeline Clara Cheng, “grace fall” for solo violin by Sage Shurman, and “Ringlorn”(second movement) for violin and cello by Isabelle Tseng will be performed in January 2024. The remaining three works—“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Gabriella Cariddo; “What I Know About Living,” by Devon Lee, both for soprano and piano; and “Prelude to the Afterlife” for piano by Olivia Bennett—will be performed on the group’s January 2025 concert, date TBD.

 

ABOUT LUNA COMPOSITION LAB

Luna Composition Lab’s mission is to close the gender gap in the field of music composition. Founded in 2016 by composers Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid, Luna Composition Lab provides mentorship, education, and resources for young female, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming composers ages 13-18. Luna Composition Lab is the only initiative of its kind in the United States. It has achieved national recognition as a program that aims to achieve a broad, lasting, and positive impact in the field of music by empowering and emboldening the next generation of musicians and creative leaders.

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Originally from Cuba, violinist/violist JENNIFER REDONDAS has performed as a soloist in the U.S., Netherlands, Italy, Austria, France and Cuba in venues that include the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Mozarteum in Austria. As a historical violinist and violist, she has participated in the Oregon Bach Festival and Berwick Academy under the direction of Jos van Veldhoven. Her passion for Cuban music and jazz has led her to perform at SF Jazz with renowned artists such as Chris Potter, Anat Cohen and Chucho Valdés. An active member of the “Adventures in Music” program at the San Francisco Symphony, Redondas was a Fellow for the Classical Tahoe Orchestra.

 

E4TT pianist MARGARET HALBIG is in high demand as a collaborative artist in both the instrumental and vocal fields. She is currently associate chair of the Voice Department and principal vocal coach at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she also frequently collaborates with faculty and student singers and instrumentalists. In 2023, Halbig was appointed Collaborative Piano Coordinator of Interlochen Arts Camp and has been the pianist for Young Women’s Chorus of San Francisco since 2014. An advocate of new and contemporary music, she is the pianist and a board member of San Francisco-based new music collective Ninth Planet. Halbig earned her DMA from the University of California Santa Barbara and undergraduate degree in Piano Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, and University of Evansville, Indiana.

 

Soprano, E4TT co-founder and Artistic Executive Director NANETTE MCGUINNESS has performed in 13 languages on two continents in over 25 roles with the Silesian State (Czech Republic), Opera San Jose (Opera in the Schools), and West Bay Opera, Pacific Repertory Opera, Trinity Lyric Opera, and Livermore Valley Opera, among others. Solo concert engagements include Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Shéhérézade (Ravel), Nuits d’étés (Berlioz), Stabat Mater (Rossini), Requiem (Fauré), Gloria (Vivaldi), Lord Nelson Mass (Haydn), Vesperae Solennes (Mozart), and Handel’s Messiah and Solomon. McGuinness has been featured on seven albums with Centaur and Yuggoth Records, and her CD of music by 19th and 20th century women composers, Fabulous Femmes (Centaur)—was called “perfect for the song recital lover” by Chamber Music Magazine. She earned her PhD in Music (specializing in Musicology) at UC Berkeley, MM in Vocal Performance from Holy Names College, and BA in Music from Cornell University. nanette.biz

 

E4TT cellist ABIGAIL MONROE hails from New Mexico and holds her Bachelor’s in Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in Cello Performance under the instruction of Jennifer Culp. A member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, she has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician, and large ensemble musician in venues across the United States. Abigail performs frequently throughout the Bay Area and Midwest and has served as both Principal cellist of the SFCM Orchestra, as well as the Miami Summer Music Festival Symphony Orchestra. As the winner of the Jackie McGehee Young Artists Competition in 2019, Abigail was also featured as cello soloist performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the New Mexico Philharmonic.

 

 

ABOUT ENSEMBLE FOR THESE TIMES

Winner of The American Prize in 2021 for Chamber Music Performance, ENSEMBLE FOR THESE TIMES (E4TT) consists of award-winning soprano/ Artistic Executive Director Nanette McGuinness, cellist Abigail Monroe, pianist Margaret Halbig, and cofounder/ Senior Artistic Advisor composer David Garner. E4TT made its international debut in Berlin in 2012; was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Budapest for a four-city tour of Hungary in 2014; and performed at the Krakow Culture Festival in 2016 and 2022, and at the Conservatorio Teresa Berganza in Madrid in 2017. E4TT has performed locally at the German Consulate General, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Old First Concerts, JCC Peninsula, Trinity Chamber Concerts, and Noontime Concerts, among other venues. E4TT has released four albums, all of which have medaled in the Global Music Awards: “The Guernica Project” (2022), Photo: Michael Halberstadt Photo: Michael Halberstadt Photo: Michael Halberstadt Photo: Michael Halberstadt commemorating the 85th anniversary of the horrific carpet bombing of civilians and Picasso’s masterwork in response; “Once/Memory/Night: Paul Celan” (2020), honoring the centennial of the seminal 20th-century poet; “The Hungarians: From Rózsa to Justus” (2018), with works by Hungarian émigré Miklós Rózsa, and three of his compatriots who perished in the Holocaust; and “Surviving: Women’s Words,” (2016), new music to poetry by women Holocaust survivors.

 

CALENDAR LISTING

Saturday, January 20, 2024 at 7:30 p.m., San Francisco

“Quest: Music by Women and Nonbinary Composers”

Artists: Guest violinist Jennifer Redondas and E4TT (soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Abigail Monroe, and pianist Margaret Halbig)

Repertoire: “Spent” (World Premiere) for piano trio by Tamara McLeod (b. 1999); “Forget Your Scarf in My Life” (2021) by Madeline Clara Cheng (b. 2004) for piano trio; “grace fall” (2021) for solo violin by Sage Shurman (b. 2005); “Ringlorn” (Movement #2, 2021) by Isabelle Tseng (b. 2005) for violin and cello; “Quest” (2013, West Coast Premiere) for solo piano by Niloufar Nourbakhsh (b. 1992); “Microphages” (1999, rev. 2019, West Coast Premiere) for solo piano by Alex Temple (b. 1983); “Blue Hills of Mist” (2006) for violin and piano by Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962); “Elegia for Paul Robeson” (1987) for piano trio by Tania León (b. 1943); “Fulgurance” (2021) for violin and cello by Jessica Mao (b. 1998); “Soy” for soprano and piano by Claudia Montero (1962-2021); “An April Day” (1949) for soprano and piano by Florence Price (1885-1953); and “Imaginary Pancake” (2020) for solo piano by Gabriella Smith (b. 1991).

Pre-concert programming: Composer talk at 7:00 p.m.

Venue: Center for New Music, 55 Taylor Street, San Francisco, and livestreamed on E4TT’s YouTube channel

Tickets: $15/10 (in person); free (live stream, donations welcome)

Info: https://www.e4tt.org/quest.html

Purchase tickets/RSVP: https://bit.ly/3sXOIDR or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/quest-music-by-women-andnonbinary-composers-tickets-688281718147

 

For more information about E4TT’s 2021/22 Bay Area Home Season, please visit our website. High resolution jpgs are available for download http://www.e4tt.org/presskit.html.

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