Nov. 22-23: Cantori NY Presents the World Premiere of Karen Ouzounian & Lembit Beecher's DEAR MOUNTAINS

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists
katy@primoartists.com | 646.801.9406

Cellist and Composer Karen Ouzounian and Composer Lembit Beecher
Open Cantori New York’s 40th Season with the World Premiere of
Cantori NY Commission, DEAR MOUNTAINS

The Couple’s First Co-Composed Piece, Written for Choir, Solo Cello,
Oud and Percussion Draws on Musical and Personal Archives of the Armenian Diaspora

“hauntingly lovely and deeply personal” – San Francisco Chronicle

www.karenouzounian.com | www.lembitbeecher.com 
 

New York, NY (October 21, 2024) – On Friday, November 22, 2024 and Saturday, November 23, 2024, the world premiere of Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian’s co-composed new work, DEAR MOUNTAINS, opens Cantori New York’s 40th Season. Commissioned by Cantori New York and conducted by Mark Shapiro, the piece features performances by Karen Ouzounian, cello, Ara Dinkjian, oud, and Philip Mayer, percussion. Though Ouzounian and Beecher have collaborated extensively previously, DEAR MOUNTAINS is the first piece the two have written together. This 35-minute new work for choir, solo cello, oud, and percussion combines a 100-year-old story from Ouzounian’s Armenian family’s history with Armenian folk songs and liturgy and contemporary, imagined dances of a lost and distant Anatolian homeland. Drawing from disparate archival sources—carefully transcribed documentary recordings, prose descriptions, and personal memories—the piece imagines moments of music-making and listening occurring across the Armenian diaspora (in Beirut, Toronto, Fresno, Boston, and New York) over the last century in the wake of the Genocide, juxtaposing these scenes with a story often retold by Ouzounian’s grandmother. Exploring the fuzzy lines between documentary, memory, and imagination, the piece reflects on the fragmented ways in which diasporic communities are able to understand the past, simultaneously holding the worlds of the past and present, of grief and joy together in rebuilding their communities and futures.

Among the musical archives evoked is a 1917 recording of an Anatolian Armenian song called Eghin Havasi, recorded by Kemany Minas and Harry Hasekian in New York City for Columbia Records and painstakingly transcribed by Ouzounian and Beecher. In the 1993 issue of the quarterly magazine Ararat, Ouzounian and Beecher found a deeply moving description of Armenian immigrants gathering in Van Cortlandt Park in the 1920s after the Genocide, listening to this recording and dancing away their grief. “One of the movements, ‘Listening to Eghin Havasi in Van Cortlandt Park, New York (1920s)’ becomes an evocation of this scene. These days, the two of us take the 1 train up from Northern Manhattan and run in Van Cortlandt Park from time to time; we love its wide open grassy expanses and wild trails, an escape from urban New York City. Imagining this recording being played in those same spaces 100 years ago feels sharply poignant,” Beecher says.

The work also draws on Sidney Robertson Cowell’s 1939 field recordings for the Library of Congress of Armenian musicians in Fresno, CA, setting her spoken descriptions for the choir to sing, as well as memories from Ouzounian’s family members of the Armenian choral tradition that flowered in Lebanon—which was a significant refuge for survivors of the Armenian Genocide—in the mid-20th century. In the final moments of DEAR MOUNTAINS, a fragment of the voice of Komitas, the beloved Armenian composer-priest responsible for preserving the Armenian music of Anatolia, is heard in an archival recording of Hov Arek Sarer Jan (Make Wind, Dear Mountains), dating to the beginning of the 20th century. Threaded between these scenes of music-making are fragments of personal testimonies from Ouzounian’s family, most significantly her maternal grandmother, Sirvart, who, in her later years, keeps returning to stories both of her youthful career as a dressmaker in Lebanon and the tragic family history of her grandfather Mihran.

Ouzounian states, “Orphanhood and exile are present throughout DEAR MOUNTAINS. Like the clouds in Komitas’s Hov Arek Sarer Jan, Armenian communities have dispersed and reformed elsewhere, but remain forever tied to a homeland and the mountains they may never return to. DEAR MOUNTAINS is a piece of memory and archive but also represents an act of present-day imagination, defiance, and survival, channeling an Anatolian Armenian culture that was systematically erased and no longer exists in its indigenous land, yet continues to live and evolve around the world.”

Presented along with the world premiere of DEAR MOUNTAINS is the beautiful Exaudi for cello and voices by the late Canadian composer Jocelyn Morlock, as well as In the Beginning by Aaron Copland and Renaissance motets.

Program Information
Friday, November 22, 2024, at 8:00PM
Saturday, November 23, 2024, at 8:00PM
Church of the Holy Apostles | 296 9th Ave, New York City
Tickets: Adult - $25 online, $30 at the door; Senior - $20 online, $25 at the door; Student/Child - $13 online, $15 at the door
Link: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=256057

Program:
Jocelyn Morlock – Exaudi
Aaron Copland – In the Beginning
George Kirbye (d. 1634) - Vox in Rama
Mikolaj Zielinski (1550-1615) - Vox in Rama
Karen Ouzounian and Lembit Beecher – DEAR MOUNTAINS [WORLD PREMIERE]
     I. Drinking Coffee with Sirvart Margarossian Hamboyan in Toronto (2024)
     II. Imagined Anatolian Dance Nr. 1 (6/8)
     Ill. Listening to Eghin Havasi in Van Cortlandt Park, New York (1920s)
     IV. Imagined Anatolian Dance Nr. 2 (Tamzara)
     V. Sidney Robertson Cowell Records Jack Aslanian and Others in Fresno, California (April 23, 1939)
     VI. Imagined Anatolian Dance Nr. 3 (Curcuna)
     VII. Singing in Beirut, as Remembered by Sirvart Margarossian Hamboyan and Zareh Ouzounian (1940s-1960s)
     VIll. Father and Son Stepan and Haigaz Simonian from Worcester, MA Record for Columbia Records (1927) while Sirvart Margarossian Hamboyan Tells a Story in Toronto (2021)
     IX. Listening to the Voice of Komitas Vartabed, Originally Recorded in 1908 or 1912 (Now)

Cantori New York
Mark Shapiro, conductor
Karen Ouzounian, cello
Ara Dinkjian, oud
Philip Mayer, percussion
Gabrielle Barkidjija, mezzo soprano

About Lembit Beecher
Estonian-American composer and animator Lembit Beecher writes “hauntingly lovely and deeply personal” music (San Francisco Chronicle) that stems from a fascination with the ways memories, histories and stories permeate our contemporary lives. Threading together fragments of family lore, distantly experienced legends, imagery and songs from Estonian folk culture,along with explorations of place, migration, natural processes and ecology, he has created an idiosyncratic and thoughtful musical language full of fragile lyricism, propulsive energy, and visceral emotions, which draws raves for its “astonishing musical invention” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “exquisite touches” (San Francisco Chronicle).

From song cycles like After the Fires, based on conversations with residents of his hometown of Bonny Doon about the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fires, to large-scale pieces like Say Home, a 38-minute work for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra that weaves through its musical texture the voices of almost 50 residents of the Twin Cities speaking about the meaning of home, Lembit’s works are grounded in a sense of empathy, exploring the relationship between individual experience and communal understanding.

Noted for his collaborative spirit and “ingenious” interdisciplinary projects (The Wall Street Journal), Lembit has served three-year terms as the Music Alive composer-in-residence of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the inaugural composer-in-residence of Opera Philadelphia, working with devised theater actors, poets, ethnographers and engineers, as well as incorporating Baroque instruments, electronically-controlled sound sculptures, homemade speaker systems and stop-motion animation into his projects. Lembit’s three operas with noted Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch have drawn particular acclaim. Starring Frederica von Stade and Marietta Simpson and directed by Joanna Settle, his opera Sky on Swings, which traces the relationship of two women diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, was praised as “a shattering musical and theatrical evocation of what it feels like to have Alzheimer’s disease” (The Wall Street Journal). In 2015 he received a major grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage to develop and produce Sophia’s Forest, a chamber opera for soprano Kiera Duffy, the Aizuri Quartet, and a multi-piece sound sculpture, built in collaboration with architects and engineers at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University’s ExCITe Center.

Recent premieres include Tell Me Again for cellist Karen Ouzounian and the Orlando Philharmonic, A Year to the Day, a song cycle with librettist Mark Campbell, written for tenor Nicholas Phan and violinist Augustin Hadelich, and string quartets for the Juilliard, Aizuri and Lydian quartets, in addition to works for cellist Seth Parker Woods, bassoonist Martin Kuuskmann, and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. The Grand Prize Winner of the S&R Foundation’s Washington Award, Lembit was a graduate fellow at the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Denison University, and has been in residence at the Copland House, MacDowell, Bogliasco Foundation, Penn Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, White Mountains Festival, Scrag Mountain Music, and the Decoda Skidmore Chamber Music Institute. Lembit has lived in Boston, Houston, Ann Arbor, Berlin, New York and Philadelphia, earning degrees from Harvard, Rice and the University of Michigan where his primary teachers included Evan Chambers, Bright Sheng, Karim Al-Zand, Pierre Jalbert, Kurt Stallmann and Bernard Rands. Also active as a pianist and animator, Lembit has created stop-motion animations for the Experiential Orchestra, Aizuri Quartet, Decoda, Music on the Strait and violinist/composer Michelle Ross. For 2023-24, Lembit served as a Visiting Artist-Teacher at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. He lives in Washington Heights, New York with his wife, cellist and composer Karen Ouzounian. Learn more at lembitbeecher.com.

About Karen Ouzounian
Described as “radiant” and “expressive” (The New York Times) and “nothing less than gorgeous” (Memphis Commercial Appeal), cellist Karen Ouzounian creates music from a deeply personal place. An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, collaborator and composer, she is the recipient of the S&R Foundation’s Washington Award and sought after for her open-hearted, vibrantly detailed and fiercely committed performances. An omnivorous musical spirit, she has premiered numerous works and collaborated with some of the finest musicians of our time, including Rhiannon Giddens, Augustin Hadelich and Kayhan Kalhor.

At the heart of Karen’s artistic practice is her love of unusual collaborations and the development of adventurous new works. Her current and recent projects include the creation of an experimental theater work with acclaimed director Joanna Settle; the world premiere of Lembit Beecher’s cello concerto Tell Me Again with conductor Eric Jacobsen and the Orlando Philharmonic; the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s Shorthand for solo cello and strings with The Knights, which she toured as soloist with The Knights throughout Europe and the U.S. and released on Avie Records; the release of Kayhan Kalhor’s Blue as the Turquoise Night of Neyshabur for solo cello, kamancheh and tabla; the development, touring and recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s Falling Out of Time; the commissioning of a new piece for cello/voice, Bring Your Own Garden Party, by Christina Courtin; and the digital world premiere of Beecher’s A Year to the Day, filmed for The Violin Channel with Augustin Hadelich and Nicholas Phan. Additional recent appearances include concertos with the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, and Philharmonic Orchestra of Santiago, Chile, in repertoire ranging from the Elgar Cello Concerto to John Adams’s Absolute Jest. Her evening-length video work In Motion, an exploration of heritage, family history and migration through interviews, her own compositions, and collaborations with visual artists Kevork Mourad and Nomi Sasaki and composer-percussionist Haruka Fujii, was presented by BroadBand. Recent compositions include works for the Silkroad Ensemble and Noe Music.

Dedicated to the art of chamber music, Karen was a founding member of the Aizuri Quartet for eleven years, during which time the ensemble was awarded major chamber music prizes on three continents, including Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award, the Grand Prize at the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, and served as the MetLiveArts String Quartet-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Quartet’s debut album, Blueprinting, featuring new works written for the Aizuri Quartet by five American composers, was released by New Amsterdam Records to critical acclaim (“In a word, stunning” - I Care If You Listen), nominated for a GRAMMY Award, and named one of NPR Music’s Best Classical Albums.

Karen performs around the globe as a member of the Silkroad Ensemble, the GRAMMY Award-winning group founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 2000 that engages cross-cultural collaboration and understanding. Recent tours with the Silkroad Ensemble include Uplifted Voices, which included the world premiere of her composition Der Zor and appeared at Carnegie Hall, American Railroad, Phoenix Rising, and Kinan Azmeh and Kevork Mourad’s Home Within. She has toured with Musicians from Marlboro, appeared at the Ravinia, Caramoor and Ojai festivals, performed as guest principal of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and is a member of the Brooklyn-based chamber collective The Knights. Born to Armenian parents in Toronto, Karen holds Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from Juilliard, where she was a student of Timothy Eddy, and a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music. She resides in New York City with her husband, composer and animator Lembit Beecher. Learn more at www.karenouzounian.com.

About Cantori New York
Praised by The New York Times for its “spirit of exploration” and “virtuosity and assurance,” Cantori imaginatively interweaves historical hidden gems with audacious premieres to create eclectic and dynamic musical experiences.

A four-time winner of the ASCAP/Chorus America Adventurous Programming Award—more than any other chorus in the Eastern United States—Cantori has performed at all five major halls at Lincoln Center, as well as Zankel Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, and elsewhere.

Cantori’s first-class presenters have included American Ballet Theater, American Opera Projects, Carnegie Hall, Great Performers at Lincoln Center, Gotham Early Music Series, La MaMa Experimental Theatre, Music at the Anthology, Symphony Space, and World Financial Center Arts & Events. Distinguished artistic partners include Tony winner Maryann Plunkett, Obie winner Kathleen Chalfant, and Metropolitan Opera artist Sasha Cooke. Collaborations include The Chieftains and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in a video presentation of Disney’s Kingdom Hearts. In 2013, Cantori traveled to Marseille to perform in a series of concerts honoring the city’s term as European Capital of Culture.

The ensemble’s desire to work with living composers has led to world, national, and regional premieres of more than 100 compositions. With The Crossing, Notre Dame Vocale, and Volti, Cantori has participated in a nationwide commissioning consortium of the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music; projects have included works by Gregory Spears and Pulitzer-Prize winner Caroline Shaw. The diverse, international roster of composers whose music Cantori has premiered and/or commissioned includes Thierry Escaich, Mohammed Fairouz, Alice Ping Yee Ho, Angélica Negrón, and Dariusz Przybylski. In 2016, Cantori gave the US premiere (in a chamber version) of The Prison (1930), the last work by the great English composer Ethel Smyth.

Cantori New York has a varied discography including, among others, The Metamorphoses by British composer Paul Crabtree, and Echoes and Shadows, featuring works by Tom Cipullo and Chris DeBlasio. Cantori’s recording of Le vin herbé by Swiss composer Frank Martin was an Opera News Editor’s Choice.

*Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz

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