Melodia Women's Choir of NYC presents Incantations: Mystical, Darkly Transcendent Music for the Autumn Season

World premiere commission 

Eko by ALLISON SNIFFIN

Butoh dance performance, by STÉPHANIE LARRIÈRE 

U.S. premieres

Fairy Day: Three Idylls for Female Chorus, by C.V. STANFORD

Days and Moments – Autumn and Winter, by ROBIN MILFORD

New York, NY— On the heels of their sold-out spring season, Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC, led by Cynthia Powell, presents Incantations, an excursion into the secret recesses of the spirit world. 

Melodia is thrilled to announce the world premiere commission of Eko, composed by Allison Sniffin (Music Director, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble) for women’s voices and string quintet. In the true Melodia tradition of pushing the boundaries of choral performance, the haunting music of Eko will provide the soundscape for Japanese Butoh dance in an original work choreographed and performed by Stéphanie Larrière. 

Continuing its mission to bring audiences the rarest of works, Melodia presents the U.S. premieres of Fairy Day: Three Idylls for Female Chorus from Irish composer C.V. Stanford and Days and Moments – Autumn and Winter, by English composer Robin Milford.

“I have always had a special fascination with the arcane and the inexplicable, and I love English choral music,” said Artistic Director Cynthia Powell. “When Melodia found the suite by Robin Milford, who was a student of Vaughan Williams, and the cantata by Charles V. Stanford describing the world of fairies and nature spirits, I knew they would be featured in a Melodia concert someday. That we are performing them for American audiences for the first time is an added thrill!”

Rounding out this concert are Shakespeare-inspired compositions by David Willcocks, a Christina Rosetti poem, Echo, by Jeffrey Van, reimagined works from the canon of the Mediaeval Baebes, and a delightfully diabolic piano solo by Sergei Prokofiev performed by longtime Melodia collaborative pianist Taisiya Pushkar. 

Saturday, Nov 23 @ 7:30pm; Holy Apostles, 296 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY (@28^th St)

Sunday, Nov 24 @ 3:00 pm; West End Collegiate, 245 W. 77th St., New York, NY (@ West End Ave.)

TICKETS $25/ $20 adv / $15 adv senior & student

www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/5998

212-757-2945

PROGRAM

ALLISON SNIFFIN (b.1960)
*Eko
women’s voices and strings (world premiere commission)
Butoh dance choreographed and performed by STÉPHANIE LARRIÈRE

ROBIN MILFORD (1903-1959)
*Days and Moments – Autumn and Winter
women’s voices and strings, poetry by WALTER DE LA MARE (U.S premiere)

CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD (1852-1924)
*Fairy Day: Three Idylls for Female Chorus (U.S. premiere)

Selections from the MEDIAEVAL BAEBES song book

DAVID WILLCOCKS (1919-2015)
Full Fathom Five
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun

JEFFREY VAN (b.1941)
Echo

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Suggestion Diabolique Op.4 
TAISIYA PUSHKAR, solo piano

*Indicates a premiere performance

ABOUT

Allison Sniffin is a frequent arranger for Melodia Women's Choir and the inaugural composer for Melodia’s Women’s Composer Commission Series (Oyeme con los ojos: Sor Juana, 2006). Sniffin serves as Music Director of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble and has toured worldwide with Monk since 1996. She co-orchestrated and edited Monk’s works for the New World Symphony, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Kronos Quartet, Western Wind Ensemble, Young People’s Chorus of NYC and Bang On a Can. Sniffin is the recipient of grants from Meet the Composer and the Concert Artists Guild for her composition work and a winner of the New York Philharmonic's 2017 New World Composition Challenge for Going Home: A Movement of Voices, written collaboratively with Dionne McClain-Freeney and performed this fall by community-based art project Habitat:Home.

Stéphanie Larrière is a teaching artist, educator and performer. A French native, New York City is her adopted second home. In recent years, Larrière has discovered and embraced Butoh dance, which has been a revelation to her approach to dance and life, studying under Vangeline and the Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute. In addition to Butoh, Larrière is a professional tap dancer and leads multidisciplinary dance and music projects around New York. She has been a member of Melodia Women’s Choir for four seasons and is especially excited, grateful and honored this season to be dancing Eko, composed by Allison Sniffin. 

Cynthia Powell, Melodia Artistic Director, celebrates her 16th season with Melodia. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, she has served on the guest faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, led the St. George’s Choral Society in NYC, and was a guest conductor at the International Choral Festival in Havana, Cuba. She is also the Artistic Director of the Stonewall Chorale, and currently serves as Director of Music and Organist at West End Collegiate Church in NYC, and Organist/Choirmaster of Temple Sinai in Tenafly, New Jersey. 

Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC, founded in 2003 by Executive Director Jenny Clarke and Artistic Director Cynthia Powell, has established a reputation as the premier women’s choir of NYC. To date, Melodia has performed 30 concerts of works written for women’s voices, presented 12 world premieres (including nine original commissioned works from women composers) and performed with more than 100 leading female instrumentalists. Called “riveting” by The New York Times, Melodia has performed at Symphony Space, Merkin Concert Hall, DiMenna Center for Classical Music and the Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola. The choir has been featured on WQXR and Q2 radio, including in “Her Music: 24 Hours of Emerging Women Composers,” in 2014, 2015 and 2016, Women’s eNews, Women’s Voices for Change, Chorus America’s The Voice, Vocal Area Network, Epoch Times, Go Magazine, and on The Sandi Klein Show. Melodia is the recipient of two WNYC/WQXR Radio Salute the ARtS Initiative awards and released its first professionally produced recording, “Lullaby,” in 2014. Melodia’s first ever summer sing for women’s voices in August 2019 was attended by 90-plus singers. www.melodiawomenschoir.org

PRESS: Teri Duerr, H D NYC, teri@horsedragon-nyc.com, 646-862-3379