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SF contemporary chamber music group E4TT announces Ensemble for These (Summer) Times 2020 Listening Series #2: Giving Voice to the Voiceless
Ensemble for These Times
Proudly announces
Ensemble for These (Summer) Times: Summertime 2020 Listening Series
#2: Giving Voice to the Voiceless
Free and Online Tuesday, July 28-August 10, 2020
(calendar listing below)
San Francisco — Contemporary chamber group Ensemble for These Times proudly announces the second program in “Ensemble for These (Summer) Times,” E4TT’s summertime listening series of free biweekly, topical online concerts of relevant new music from the group’s performance archives. Each program will focus on a different theme, and starting with the second program, will be paired with an interview with a creative artist who has collaborated with E4TT. Links will be announced via the group’s newsletter and social media and will expire when the new program goes live. Remaining dates planned for the series are July 28, August 11, and August 25.
From the very start of the group, when we focused on “bringing new, nearly new, forbidden, and forgotten music to light,” a major part of E4TT’s mission has been to give voice to unheard/under-represented creators. Others have shared this space with us—indeed, several preceded us—and we are heartened to see numerous ensembles joining us in this attempt in the past 2-3 years. Program #2 is a 40-minute virtual snapshot of a few of the works by women, exiled, oppressed, LGBT, and POC creators we’ve performed over the past decade. The video will be at https://youtu.be/-M6X-DdD2Ho and the program notes and booklet at http://www.E4TT.org/summer2.html. The paired interview for this program will be with Chelsea Hollow, who also has been active in this arena.
Download the press release as a pdf.
ABOUT ENSEMBLE FOR THESE (SUMMER) TIMES
Starting July 14 and continuing through July and August, E4TT is offering “Ensemble for These (Summer) Times,” the group’s summertime listening series of biweekly, topical programs with relevant new music from E4TT’s extensive recording archives. The focus of each program will be a different subject and will be paired with an interview with a creative artist who has collaborated with E4TT. The link to each program will be announced via the group’s newsletter and social media and will expire when the next program goes live. Remaining dates planned for the series are July 28, August 11, and August 25.
Ensemble for These (Summer) Times #2: Giving Voice to the Voiceless
From the very start of the group, when we focused on “Bringing new, nearly new, forbidden, and forgotten music to light,” a major part of E4TT’s mission has been to give voice to unheard/under-represented creators. Others have shared this space with us—indeed, several preceded us—and we are heartened to see numerous groups joining us in the past 2-3 years. Program #2 is a 40-minute virtual snapshot of a few of the works by women, exiled, oppressed, LGBT, and POC creators we’ve performed over the past decade. “Giving Voice to the Voiceless,” our second program features: “A Map of Laughter” (2014) for solo piano by Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980); Prelude #3 (2002) for solo piano by Elena Ruehr (b. 1963); “Last Cigarette,” for cello and piano from Noir Vignettes, 2014) by Stacy Garrop (b. 1969); “By a Departing Light” (1997) for soprano and piano by Libby Larsen (b. 1950); “The Witch of Harlem” (1937) for violin and piano by Audrey Call (1905-2001), “Jede Stunde ohne Dich” (before 1974), for soprano and piano by Hans Winterberg (1901-1991); “Homage to Paderewski” (1941) for solo piano by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968); Oberek (from 1er Recueil, 1918-1928) for solo piano by Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986); “Hi-Lili, Hi-lo” Bronislaw Kaper (1902-1983) for soprano and piano, from the film Lili (1953); “Grotesque Passacaglia” (1935) for solo piano by Vítezslava Kaprálová (1915-1940); Eu durmo comigo (2015) by Carlos Dos Santos (b. 1990); and “Demeter Mourning” from “Mother Love” (2019) for soprano, violin, and piano, by Brennan Stokes (b. 1996); and “Allerseelen” (2012) for soprano and piano and “Mein blaues Klavier” (2015) for soprano, cello, and piano, by E4TT composer and co-founder David Garner (b. 1954); to poetry by Rita Dove (b. 1952), Angélia Freitas (b. 1973), Else Lasker-Schüler (1869-1945); Mascha Kaléko (1907-1995), Emily Dickinson (1830-1886); and Marie-Luise Pfeifer-Winterberg (1923-1991).
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Violinist ILANA BLUMBERG has appeared across the United States and internationally, in solo appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, the Albany Symphony (NY), Symphony Napa Valley, and the Merced Symphony, as well as performances at the prestigious Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, the La Jolla Summerfest as a 'Rising Star', the Aspen Music Festival, and many others. She appears frequently throughout the Bay Area with the Marin, Silicon Valley, West Edge Opera, Berkeley, and California Symphonies, as well as with the Golden Gate String Quartet, eco ensemble, and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble.
Pianist TAYLOR CHAN completed her M.M. in Collaborative Piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she is now a staff accompanist for both the Pre-College and Collegiate Divisions. She also serves as rehearsal pianist and accompanist for the Grammy Award-winning Premier Ensemble of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, preparing newly commissioned scores for premiere performances with guest artists such as the Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass Ensemble. She earned her undergraduate degree at California State University, Long Beach.
LAURA GAYNON is a passionate performer of both modern and baroque cello based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has performed with the American Bach Soloists, Valley of the Moon Festival, Opera Parallele, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, and is the co-founder/ co-artistic director of Bard Music West. Gaynon has degrees from Yale University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she graduated with an M.M. in cello performance and an Artist Certificate in chamber music.
Soprano CHELSEA HOLLOW is known throughout the SF Bay Area for her “soaring high range” and “stage panache!” Locally, she performs with companies including The San Francisco Opera Guild, West Bay Opera, West Edge Opera, and Pocket Opera. In 2016, Chelsea made her international debut in Guadalajara, MX as Mina Harker in Ibarra’s Despertar al Sueño with Escenia Ensamble and returned to Mexico performing Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire (Previn) with the Chihuahua State Philharmonic. Favorite roles include Zerbinetta, Olympia, and K?nigin der Nacht.
Cellist ANNE LERNER completed her B.A. in Music at Northwestern University as a Cello Performance major after three years as a Spanish Literature major at Bryn Mawr College, earning an M.M. in cello performance at the San Francisco Conservatory. She has performed with numerous Bay Area orchestras and is a much sought-after chamber musician and performer of contemporary music. A dedicated educator, Anne conducts two youth orchestras in the Marin Symphony Youth Program, is on the faculties of Dominican University and San Rafael High School and maintains a large private studio.
Soprano and E4TT co-founder and Artistic Executive Director NANETTE MCGUINNESS has performed in 12 languages on two continents in over 25 roles with the Silesian State Opera (Czech Republic), Opera San Jose (Opera in the Schools), and West Bay, Pacific Repertory, Trinity Lyric, and Livermore Valley Operas, among others. Solo concert engagements include Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, as well as 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. Her CD of music by 19th and 20th century women composers, “Fabulous Femmes” (Centaur CRC 2461) was called “perfect for the song recital lover” by Chamber Music Magazine and features several premiere recordings.
KAREN ROSENAK recently retired from fulltime teaching at UC Berkeley where she taught musicianship from 1990 until 2014. She also maintained a career as pianist and founding member with the Bay Area new music ensembles Earplay and Empyrean, and performed for a number of years with other new (and “old”) music groups, including recently for Left Coast Chamber Ensemble’s premiere of Kurt Rohde’s opera, Never was a knight. . . at Z Space in San Francisco, with West Edge Opera’s Snapshot performances in 2017 and 2018, and on fortepiano with the New Esterhazy String Quartet. She currently serves part time as coordinator of piano instruction at UC Berkeley.
Pianist DALE TSANG earned her BM in piano performance from the University of Southern California, her MM from the University of Michigan and her DMA from Rice University. Nominated for the 1997 Van Cliburn competition, she took first prize in the 2001 Carmel Music Society Competition and was a semi-finalist in the 1999 Washington International Competition. Tsang performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the Holland Music Sessions and the Sarasota Music Festival. Tsang is a faculty member at Laney College and an active solo and chamber musician, both nationally and internationally.
Pianist XIN ZHAO received a B.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and an M.M. in Chamber Music Performance. Zhao received the San Francisco Conservatory’s Mirina Grin Award, and the second annual Kristin Pankonin Art Song Award; she also won First Place in the Fresno Music Club Awards, receiving the Bell T. Ritchie Award. Zhao has collaborated with the Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra and many prominent musicians including Menahem Pressler, Richard Fleischman, Pinchas Zukerman, Jeff Nuttall, members of Miro Quartet, and JeanMichel Fonteneau. In 2016, Zhao’s piano trio, the Capitoline, won the Berkeley Piano Club’s Emerging Artist Award.
ABOUT ENSEMBLE FOR THESE TIMES
Awarded second place for Chamber Music Performance in 2018/19 by The American Prize and currently Semifinalists for the Ernest Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music, E4TT consists of award-winning soprano and co-director Nanette McGuinness, Van Cliburn competitor pianist Dale Tsang, cellist Anne Lerner, and co-director and 2015 American Prize in Composition winner 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. E4TT performed at the 2016 Krakow Culture Festival, was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Budapest in 2014 for a four-city tour in Hungary, and made its international debut in Berlin. E4TT has performed locally at the German Consulate General, SF Conservatory of Music, Old First Concerts, JCC Peninsula, Trinity Chamber Concerts, and Noontime Concerts, among other venues, and has commissioned 18 works and two arrangements.
E4TT’s debut CD, Surviving: Women’s Words (Centaur, 2016) won a Silver Medal in the 2016 Global Awards. Lesley Mitchell-Clarke in The Whole Note wrote “Now more than ever […] the potent and timeless messages of survival, love, tolerance and forgiveness contained on this brilliant presentation need to resonate throughout the world.” E4TT’s second CD, “The Hungarians: From Rózsa to Justus” (Centaur, 2018) features a rarely heard cello duo by Hollywood movie maven (and Hungarian émigré) Miklós Rózsa (Spellbound, Ben-Hur), along with works by three others of his compatriots who perished in the Holocaust, including the premiere recording of a work by the young Lajos Delej, and an end-of-the-era waltz song with text and music by György Justus. The recording won a Gold Medal in the 2018 Global Music Awards in three categories: chamber music, ensemble, and album. The ensemble’s third. recording, “Once/Memory/Night: Paul Celan” was just released on June 30, 2020.
CALENDAR LISTING
Tuesday, July 28, 2020-August 10, 2020 online
“Ensemble for These (Summer) Times #2: Giving Voice to the Voiceless”
Musicians: E4TT with violinist Ilana Blumberg, cellist Laura Gaynon, and pianists Karen Rosenak and Xin Zhao
Repertoire: “Grotesque Passacaglia” (1935) for solo piano by Vítezslava Kaprálová (1915-1940); “Jede Stunde ohne Dich” (before 1974), for soprano and piano by Hans Winterberg (1901-1991) to poetry by Marie-Luise Pfeifer-Winterberg (1923-1991).; “Homage to Paderewski” (1941) for solo piano by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968); Oberek (from 1er Recueil, 1918-1928) for solo piano by Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986); “Hi-Lili, Hi-lo” Bronislaw Kaper (1902-1983) for soprano and piano, from the film Lili (1953); “A Map of Laughter” (2014) for solo piano by Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980); Eu durmo comigo (2015) by Carlos Dos Santos (b. 1990) to poetry by Angélia Freitas (b. 1973); “Last Cigarette,” for cello and piano from Noir Vignettes, 2014) by Stacy Garrop (b. 1969); “Demeter Mourning” from “Mother Love” (2019) for soprano, violin, and piano, by Brennan Stokes (b. 1996), to poetry by Rita Dove (b. 1952); Prelude #3 (2002) for solo piano by Elena Ruehr (b. 1963; “By a Departing Light” (1997) for soprano and piano by Libby Larsen (b. 1950) to poetry by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886); “The Witch of Harlem” (1937) for violin and piano by Audrey Call (1905-2001), and “Allerseelen” (2012) for soprano and piano and “Mein blaues Klavier” (2015) for soprano, cello, and piano, by E4TT composer and co-founder David Garner (b. 1954) to poetry by Mascha Kaléko (1907-1995), and Else Lasker-Schüler (1869-1945), respectively.
Venue: YouTube
Link: https://youtu.be/-M6X-DdD2Ho
Program notes: www.E4TT.org/summer2.pdf
For more information about Ensemble for These Times, please visit the group’s website.
High resolution jpgs are available for download http://www.e4tt.org/presskit.html.
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