E4TT Announces 2020/21 Season: (Re)Imagine: Old Becomes New

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 2020

Ensemble for These Times
Announces its Virtual and (We Hope) Live 2020/21 Home Season

(Re)Imagine: Old Becomes New

Old Becomes New
With Two World Premieres by Mary Bianco and a Special Appearance by Composer/Pianist Dalit Warshaw

Anemones: Music by Women Composers
With a World Premiere of a Commissioned Work by Emily Doolittle

The Cassandra Project
With World Premieres by Hannah Lash, Jessica Rudman, Valerie Liu, and David Garner,
Plus Works by Nina C. Young, Mary Kouyoumadjian, and Tina Davidson

Émigrés & Exiles from Hollywood: Series Finale
The Third and Final Concert in our Series of Works by Émigré Hollywood Composers

With Performances by
Soprano Nanette McGuinness, Cellist Anne Lerner, and Season Guest Pianist Margaret Halbig, with
Special Appearances by Violinists Ilana Blumberg and Dagenais Smiley, Violist Elizabeth Prior, and Pianist Dalit Warshaw

San Francisco - In these extraordinary times, Ensemble for These Times is very excited to announce its 2020/21 season, “(Re)Imagine: Old Becomes New,” in which contemporary chamber music performance is re-envisioned with a “back to the future” twist. Diversity and innovation will continue to be the hallmarks of season programming, not the least in “The Cassandra Project,” E4TT’s newest commissioning initiative, being presented on April 17, 2021 at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco, and including a new work by Yale composer Hannah Lash, along with commissions by Jessica Rudman, E4TT’s co-founder and Artistic Advisor David Garner, and emerging composer Valerie Liu; this program will also include music by Nina C. Young, Tina Davidson, and Mary Kouyoumadjian. The season will open on November 20, 2020, at Old First Concerts in San Francisco with “Old Becomes New,” a program of works by living composers that reimagine old forms, themes, or styles. The second of the four-concert series will be “Anemones,” a program of works by ten living women composers, including the World Premiere of a commissioned work by Canadian composer, Emily Doolittle, being presented at the Center for New Music in San Francisco on January 30, 2021. The season will close on June 12, 2021 with the finale of E4TT’s multi-year project, “Émigrés & Exiles in Hollywood” at the Berkeley Piano Club. To meet the particular challenges of these times for both artists and audiences, all performances will be live-streamed free for virtual participation, and live performances will be presented in strict alignment with local and statewide public health directives.

You can also download a PDF of our 2020/21 Season Press Release.

ABOUT ENSEMBLE FOR THESE TIMES
Awarded second place in 2019 for Chamber Music Performance 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 Artistic Executive Director Nanette McGuinness, cellist Anne Lerner, season guest pianist Margaret Halbig, and Artistic Advisor and 2015 American Prize-winning 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. E4TT performed at the 2016 Krakow Culture Festival, at the Conservatorio Teresa Berganza in Madrid in 2017, 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, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Old First Concerts, JCC Peninsula, Trinity Chamber Concerts, and Noontime Concerts, among other venues, and has commissioned 25 works and two arrangements. E4TT’s critically acclaimed debut CD, Surviving: Women’s Words (Centaur, 2016) won a Silver Medal in the 2016 Global Music Award. Its second CD, The Hungarians: From Rózsa to Justus (Centaur, 2018) won a Gold Medal in the 2018 Global Music Awards in three categories: chamber music, ensemble, and album. The group released itsthird CD, Once/Memory/Night: Paul Celan, in June 2020; the recording was chosen as the Center for New Music’s Album of the Week for July 17. Writes curator Kurt Rohde, “The members of Ensemble For These Times are longstanding, expert champions of forgotten work by those nearly lost to history, as well as bringing up new voices who have meaningful new work to share. Their newest recording is further evidence of this mission.”

ABOUT E4TT’S 2020/21 SEASON
Ensemble for These Times will present (Re)Imagine: Old Becomes New, the group’s 13th annual Home Season via live stream and at various Bay Area venues from November 2020 through June 2021.

November 20, 2020: Old Becomes New

The 2020/21 season will kick off on November 20 at Old First Concerts in San Francisco, with “Old Becomes New,” a program of new works by living composers harking back to older forms—etudes, chaconnes, mazurkas, rags—themes, and homages written by living composers in the styles of older composers. The double highlights of this program will be two World Premieres (“Etude for Margaret” for solo piano and “Are You Born,” to a poem by Muriel Rukeyser) of commissions by California composer Mary Bianco (b. 1939), along with a guest appearance streamed from New York by 2016 Guggenheim Fellow composer/pianist Dalit Warshaw (b. 1974), performing her “Winter Dream (in memoriam Charlotte Salomon)” (2014); Warshaw’s appearance was originally scheduled for June 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis. The program will also include the California premiere of “Through the Guarded Gate” (2018) by 1989 Guggenheim Fellow Juliana Hall (b. 1958) to texts by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Margaret Widdemer (1884-1978), and “Gershwin” from Cinq Hommages (1983, rev.) by E4TT’s co-founder David Garner (b. 1954). Other composers featured on the program include John Musto (b. 1954), Alden Jenks (b. 1940), Grigory Smirnov (b. 1997), Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 1958), Steven Stucky (1949-2016), Tan Dun (b. 1957), and Pablo Ortiz (b. 1956). Joining soprano Nanette McGuinness and cellist Anne Lerner will be season guest pianist Margaret Halbig. Additionally, E4TT will present a virtual interactive pre-concert composer talk with Warshaw and Bianco. The concert will be performed live if permitted by the San Francisco Department of Public Health; it will also be live-streamed on Old First Concert’s YouTube channel.

January 30, 2021: Anemones: Music by Women Composers

Following up on E4TT’s wildly successful concert of music by women composers at the start of the year, E4TT will begin 2021 on a similar note on January 30 at the Center for New Music in San Francisco with “Anemones: Music by Women Composers.” The highlights of the program will be the World Premiere of a commissioned song cycle, “Anemones,” by Canadian-born, Scotland-based Call for Scores composer, Emily Doolittle (b. 1972) to texts by Bay Area poet Rachel Richardson (b.1979) for soprano and piano, along with the reprise of “Matrix” (2020), by beloved Bay Area composer Elinor Armer (b. 1939), also for soprano and piano, and set to texts by two other Bay Area icons, Ursula Le Guin (1929-2018) and Rella Lossy (1944-1996); “Matrix” was commissioned by E4TT, and was premiered at the very end of the COVID-foreshortened 2019/20 season. These pieces will be accompanied by works by New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Cuban-American composer Tania León (b. 1943), and multiple-Latin Grammy winner Claudia Montero (b. 1983), plus seven other outstanding women composers: Caroline Shaw (b. 1982), Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962), Marti Epstein (b. 1958), Vivian Fung (b. 1975), Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980); Anna Clyne (b. 1980), and the remarkable Polish composer, Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969). The program will begin with a virtual transatlantic pre-concert composer talk by Armer and Doolittle. For this concert, soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Anne Lerner, and season guest pianist Margaret Halbig will be joined by guest violinist Ilana Blumberg. The concert will be performed live if permitted by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and live-streamed on YouTube.

April 17, 2021: The Cassandra Project

E4TT’s 2020/21 commissions concert, “The Cassandra Project,” is inspired by the famed priestess in Greek mythology who was cursed to utter true prophecies, but never to be believed, a timely notion during the current pandemic (cue Dr. Fauci!). The concert will take place in San Francisco at Noe Valley Ministry on April 17 and will feature four World Premieres about Cassandra and her fate: a new work for piano trio by a rising star in new music, 2016 Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Fellowship recipient Hannah Lash (b. 1981); “Cassandra” for soprano, cello, and piano, by E4TT Call for Scores composer Jessica Rudman (b. 1982) to a new text by her regular collaborator, librettist Kendra Preston Leonard (b. 1974); “Cassandra Effect” for cello and piano by Bay Area composer and 2019 Ruth Crawford Seeger Award winner Valerie Liu (b. 1971); and “Kassandra” for soprano and piano trio by E4TT co-founder David Garner (b. 1954), to a text by Friedrich Schiller (1759-1809). Other works on the program include “Moerae” for piano trio by Armenian-American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian (b. 1983); “Memento Mori” by 2015 Rome Prize recipient Nina C. Young (b. 1984), for string quartet; and “Cassandra Sings,” also for string quartet, by the first classical composer ever to receive a Pew Fellowship, Tina Davidson (b. 1952). E4TT soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Anne Lerner, and season guest pianist Margaret Halbig will be joined by special guest artists violinists Ilana Blumberg and Dagenais Smiley, and violist Elizabeth Prior; several of the composers will also attend, including Garner, Liu, and others TBA, for pre-concert talks. The concert is expected to be performed live at the Ministry and will also be live-streamed on E4TT’s YouTube channel. This concert is supported by funds from the San Francisco Arts Commission.

June 12, 2021: Émigrés & Exiles in Hollywood: Series Finale

E4TT will bring its 13th Season to an exciting finale at the Berkeley Piano Club in Berkeley on June 12, with “Émigrés & Exiles in Hollywood: The Finale,” the concluding concert in the group’s multi-year exploration of composers who fled Europe in the 1930s and ‘40s and became known for establishing today’s “Hollywood” sound. This concert will serve as a preview for the ensemble’s return invitation to the Krakow Culture Festival at the end of the month, and will include chamber works by many enormously talented émigré film composers, long with Polish composers of the era: songs by Austrian émigré Erich Zeisl (1905-1959); “Hollywood-Elegie Nr. 7” (1942) by the doubly-exiled Austrian composer Hanns Eisler (1898-1962), to a text by Bertolt Brecht from Eisler’s Hollywood Liederbuch; excerpts from “Kaleidescope” for solo piano (1946) by Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995) by the winner of two Academy Awards (Ben Hur and Spellbound); an excerpt from “Sonatine Transatlantique” (1930) by Polish composer Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986), known for his score for Paris Underground; “Tanzlied des Pierrot” from Die Tote Stadt (1920) by Austrian-American prodigy Erich Korngold (1897-1957), who scored The Adventures of Robin Hood; “Scherzo and Introduction” by two-time Oscar winner (A Place in the Sun and Sunset Boulevard) Franz Waxman (1906-1967), arranged for cello and piano; along with a cello-piano duo by Auschwitz survivor Szymon Laks (1901-1983); “Moravian Dance” for cello and piano by Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969); selected inventions for solo piano and preludes for solo cello by Polish composers André Tchaikowsky (1935-1982) and Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996); and a delightful duet arranged for soprano, cello, and piano by Henryk Vars (1902-1977), known for The Big Heat. This concert will again feature pianist Margaret Halbig with soprano Nanette McGuinness and cellist Anne Lerner; it will be presented live and also live-streamed.

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.

Season guest pianist MARGARET HALBIG is in high demand as a collaborative artist in both the instrumental and vocal fields. On staff at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 2011, she regularly performs recitals, masterclasses, and lessons and has collaborated with many of esteemed Bay Area musicians including mezzo-soprano Frederica Von Stade, San Francisco Symphony Principal Trombonist Timothy Higgins, and SF Symphony’s principal tubist Jeffrey Anderson. An advocate of new and contemporary music, Halbig is the pianist for Ninth Planet, a San Francisco-based new music collective and a member of the wind-and-piano sextet Frequency 49. Halbig was a Collaborative Teaching fellow at Interlochen Arts in 2017 and 2018 in both collaborative and solo piano and has been the pianist for Young Women’s Chorus of San Francisco since 2014.

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, then attending the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she earned a Master of Music in Cello Performance. She has performed with numerous Bay Area orchestras and is a much sought-after chamber musician and performer of contemporary music. A dedicated educator, Lerner 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 (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)—which was called “perfect for the song recital lover” by Chamber Music Magazine—features several premiere recordings.

South African native ELIZABETH PRIOR is the principal violist with the Santa Rosa symphony and is also a season substitute with the San Francisco Ballet. She recently joined the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Prior is associate principal with the Marin Symphony and performs regularly with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and The Farallon Quintet. Other orchestral credits include Freiburg Philharmonic (Associate Principal) and Cape Town Symphony. She has toured and worked with the Chamber Ensemble of Cologne in France, with Südwestfunk, Stuttgart Radio, Basel Symphony, and the Mannheim Opera Orchestra. Other engagements include: Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival; Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Midsummer Mozart, and Chamber Music San Francisco. Additionally, for 13 years, she performed regular viola recitals with Maestro Donald Runnicles collaborating on piano.

DAGENAIS SMILEY earned her Bachelor of Music at Oberlin Conservatory and her M.M. from the University of Southern California. She is proud to have worked under such notable conductors as Leon Fleisher, David Zinman, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and John Williams. She has participated in master classes given by Yuval Yaron, Kathleen Winkler, Alexander Barantschik, Fritz Gearhart, the Calder Quartet, and Glenn Dicterow. A busy orchestral musician and active in most Northern California and Nevada orchestras, she is currently acting associate concertmaster of the Sacramento Philharmonic and is assistant concertmaster of the Modesto Symphony. Smiley is a violin lecturer at UC Davis and also maintains a private teaching studio.

DALIT HADASS WARSHAW is a New York-based composer, pianist, and thereminist. Her works have been performed internationally by numerous orchestral ensembles. As a pianist, Warshaw has performed widely as both soloist and chamber player, in venues as diverse as Avery Fisher Hall, Miller Theater, Alice Tully Hall and the Stone. She has soloed with the Rockland Symphony, Cheyenne Symphony, and the Misgav Chamber Players. Her awards include five ASCAP Foundation Grants to Young Composers, a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and two BMI Awards. She currently serves on the composition faculty at Juilliard and CUNY-Brooklyn College.

ENSEMBLE FOR THESE TIMES 2020/21 HOME SEASON
(Re)Imagine: Old Becomes New
CALENDAR LISTINGS

Friday, November 20, 2020 at 8:00 p.m., San Francisco
“Old Becomes New”
Artists: Soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Anne Lerner, and season guest pianist Margaret Halbig
Repertoire: Two World Premieres by California composer Mary Bianco (b. 1939); “Winter Dream (in memoriam
Charlotte Salomon)” by 2016 Guggenheim Fellow composer/pianist Dalit Warshaw (b. 1974), streamed from New York; a California premiere by 1989 Guggenheim Fellow Juliana Hall (b. 1958); an etude by 2020 Guggenheim Fellow Marti Epstein (b. 1959); a rag by John Musto (b. 1954); a mazurka by Alden Jenks (b. 1940); “Gershwin” from Cinq Hommages (1983, rev.) by E4TT’s artistic advisor and co-founder David Garner (b. 1954); a chaconne for cello and piano by Russian-American composer Grigory Smirnov (b. 1997); and selected “Variations on a Chicacona by Giuseppe Columbi” for solo cello by Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 1958), Steven Stucky (1949-2016), Tan Dun (b. 1957), and Pablo Ortiz (b. 1956).
Pre-concert programming: An interactive transcontinental virtual composer talk with composer/pianist Dalit Warshaw and composer Mary Bianco at 7:30 p.m.
Venue: Old First Concerts, 1751 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, and live-streamed on O1C’s YouTube channel
Tickets: $5-23 (in person); free (live-stream)
Info: www.oldfirstconcerts.org/ or www.E4TT.org/new.html

Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 7:30 p.m., San Francisco
“Anemones: Music by Women Composers”
Artists: Soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Anne Lerner, and season guest pianist Margaret Halbig
Repertoire: “Anemones” (World Premiere) by Canadian-born, Scotland-based Call for Scores composer, Emily
Doolittle (b. 1972), to texts by Bay Area poet Rachel Richardson (b. 1979); “Matrix” (2020) by beloved Bay Area composer Elinor Armer (b. 1939), set to texts by Ursula Le Guin (1929-2018) and Rella Lossy (1944-1996); a work for solo piano by Cuban-American composer Tania León (b. 1943); Buenos Aires in Tres by multiple-Latin Grammy winner Claudia Montero (1983); In manus tuas for solo cello by 2013 Pulitzer Prize composer Caroline Shaw (b. 1982); “Echo Dash” for violin and piano by Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon (b.1962); etudes by 2020 Guggenheim fellow Marti Epstein (b. 1958); plus works by Canadian composer Vivian Fung (b. 1975), Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980), 2010 American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives composer Anna Clyne (b. 1980), and Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969).
Pre-concert programming: A virtual transatlantic composer talk by composers Elinor Armer and Emily Doolittle at 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Center for New Music, 55 Taylor Street, San Francisco, and live-streamed on YouTube
Tickets: $15/10 (in person); free (live-stream)
Info: www.E4TT.org/anemones.html

Saturday, April 17, 2021 at 7:30 p.m., San Francisco
“The Cassandra Project”
Artists: Soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Anne Lerner,season guest pianist Margaret Halbig with guest violinists Ilana Blumberg and Dagenais Smiley, and guest violist Elizabeth Prior
Repertoire: Piano Trio (Title TBD, World Premiere) by 2016 Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Fellowship recipient Hannah Lash (b. 1981); “Cassandra” (World Premiere) for soprano, cello, and piano, by E4TT Call for Scores composer Jessica Rudman (1982) to a new text by her regular collaborator, librettist Kendra Preston Leonard (b. 1974); “Cassandra Effect” (World Premiere) for cello and piano by Bay Area composer and 2019 Ruth Crawford Seeger Award winner Valerie Liu (b. 1971); “Kassandra” (World Premiere) for soprano and piano trio by E4TT co-founder David Garner (b. 1954), to a text by Friedrich Schiller (1759-1809); plus a piano trio by Armenian-American Mary Kouyoumdjian (b. 1983); a string quartet by 2015 Rome Prize recipient Nina C. Young (b. 1984); and “Cassandra Sings” for string quartet by Tina Davidson (b. 1952). This concert is supported by funding from the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Pre-concert programming: A virtual transcontinental composer talk with Lash, Rudman, Liu, Garner, and librettist Leonard at 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Noe Valley Ministry, 1021 Sanchez Street, San Francisco, and live-streamed on YouTube
Tickets: $30/$15/$5 (in person); free (live-stream)
Info: www.E4TT.org/cassandra.html or https://cassandraproject.eventbrite.com

Friday, June 12, 2020, at 7:30 p.m., Berkeley
“Émigrés & Exiles in Hollywood: Series Finale”
Artists: Soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Anne Lerner, season guest pianist Margaret Halbig
Repertoire: Songs by Austrian émigré Erich Zeisl (1905-1959); “Hollywood-Elegie Nr. 7” (1942) from Hollywood Liederbuch by Austrian émigré Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) to a text by Bertolt Brecht); excerpts from “Kaleidescope” for solo piano (1946) by two-time Academy Award winner Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995); excerpt from “Sonatine Transatlantique”(1930) by Polish composer Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986); “Tanzlied des Pierrot” from Die Tote Stadt (1920) by Austrian-American prodigy Erich Korngold (1897-1957); “Scherzo and Introduction,” arranged for cello and piano, by two-time Oscar winner Franz Waxman (1906-1967); ); “Echoes of Love,” arranged for soprano, cello, and piano, by Henryk Vars (1902-1977); “Moravian Dance” for cello and piano by Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969); selected inventions for solo piano by Polish composer André Tchaikowsky (1935-1982); preludes for solo cello by Polish-Russian composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996); and the Romance from “Trois Pièces de Concert” for cello and piano by Auschwitz survivor Szymon Laks (1901-1983).
Venue: Berkeley Piano Club, 2724 Haste St., Berkeley, and live-streamed on YouTube
Tickets: $30/$15/$5 (in person); free (live-stream)
Info: www.e4tt.org/emigres.html or https://emigres.eventbrite.com

For more information about E4TT’s 2020/21 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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