Rhapsody: Music by Women Composers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 30, 2020

Ensemble for These Times
Announces
Rhapsody: Music by Women Composers

With music by a Diverse Group of Ten Living Women Composers:
Elinor Armer, Anna Clyne, Tania León, Jessie Montgomery, Claudia Montero,
Vivian Fung, Missy Mazzoli, Jennifer Higdon, Marti Epstein, and Caroline Shaw 

Performed by
Soprano Nanette McGuinness, Cellist Anne Lerner, Season Guest Pianist Margaret Halbig,
and Guest Violinist Ilana Blumberg

Saturday, January 30, 7:30 p.m.
Virtual Performance Live-Streamed from the Center for New Music, San Francisco
(Full calendar listing below)

San Francisco - In these extraordinary times, Ensemble for These Times continues its 2020/21 home season with “Rhapsody: Music by Women Composers,”* a new program of works by an exciting, diverse group of ten living women composers—Elinor Armer, Anna Clyne, Tania León, Jessie Montgomery, Claudia Montero, Vivian Fung, Missy Mazzoli, Jennifer Higdon, Marti Epstein, and Caroline Shaw. As an additional highlight, the program will also include a piece by the remarkable Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969).  The concert will be live streamed for free (donations welcome) from the Center for New Music in San Francisco on January 30, 2021.

*This concert is sponsored, in part, by a grant from The Ross McKee Foundation.

January 30, 2021: Rhapsody: Music by Women Composers

Following up on E4TT’s wildly successful concert of music by women composers at the start of the year, Ensemble for These Times will begin 2021 on a similar note on January 30, 2021 at the Center for New Music in San Francisco with “Rhapsody: Music by Women Composers.” A concert of music by a diverse group of ten living women composers, the program will feature two reprises from E4TT’s COVID-foreshortened 2020/21 season: “Matrix” (2020, premiered March 8, 2020), by beloved Bay Area queer composer Elinor Armer (b. 1939), for soprano and piano, set to texts by two Bay Area icons, Ursula Le Guin (1929-2018) and Rella Lossy (1944-1996) and “Rest These Hands,” (2014) for solo violin and spoken voice by 2010 American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives composer Anna Clyne (b. 1980), to a poem by Clyne’s mother. In addition, the concert will also feature Tumbao (2005) by New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Cuban-American composer Tania León (b. 1943), “Rhapsody No. 1” (2014), for solo violin by Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater New Works composer Jessie Montgomery (b.1981), and Buenos Aires in Tres for piano trio  by multiple-Latin Grammy winner Claudia Montero (b. 1983), plus works by six other outstanding living women composers: “Primitive Dance and Folksong” (2011) by Chinese-Canadian composer Vivian Fung  (b. 1975); In manus tuas (2009) for solo cello by 2013 Pulitzer Prize queer composer Caroline Shaw (b. 1982); “Echo Dash” (2013) for violin and piano by Pulitzer Prize winner, queer composer Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962); Etudes No. 2 and 12 from “American Etudes” (1991-2005) for solo piano by 2020 Guggenheim fellow Marti Epstein (b. 1958); “Heartbreaker” (2013) for solo piano by exciting composer Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980). An additional highlight of the concert will be “Mazovian Dance” (1951) for cello and piano by the remarkable Polish composer, Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969). The program will begin with a virtual pre-concert composer talk by Armer and an introductory video by Montgomery.

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 live-streamed on the Center for New Music’s website and YouTube channel.

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 Teaching fellow at Interlochen Arts in 2017 and 2018 in collaborative and solo piano.

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.

ABOUT ENSEMBLE FOR THESE TIMES

Awarded second place in 2019 for Chamber Music Performance by The American Prize and 2019 Finalists 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 its third 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, “Once/Memory/Night: Paul Celan,” released in June 2020 in honor of this seminal poet’s centennial, is further evidence of this mission.

CALENDAR LISTING

Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 7:30 p.m., San Francisco 

“Rhapsody: Music by Women Composers”

Artists: E4TT (Soprano Nanette McGuinness, cellist Anne Lerner, and season guest pianist Margaret Halbig) with guest violinist Ilana Blumberg

Repertoire: “Matrix” (2020) by Elinor Armer (b. 1939), set to texts by Ursula Le Guin (1929-2018) and Rella Lossy (1944-1996); Tumbao for solo piano by Tania León (b. 1943); “Rhapsody No. 1” for solo violin by Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981); Buenos Aires in Tres by Claudia Montero (1983); In manus tuas for solo cello by Caroline Shaw (b. 1982); “Echo Dash” for violin and piano by Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962); Etudes No. 2 and 12 from “American Etudes” by Marti Epstein (b. 1958); ”Primitive Dance and Folksong” by Chinese-Canadian composer Vivian Fung (b. 1975); “Heartbreaker” for solo piano by Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980); “Rest These Hands” for solo violin by Anna Clyne (b. 1980); and “Mazovian Dance” for cello and piano by Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969).

Pre-concert programming: A virtual composer talk by composer Elinor Armer and an introductory video by Jesse Montgomery at 7:00 p.m.

Venue: Live-streamed by the Center for New Music’s YouTube Channel.
Link: https://centerfornewmusic.com/event/rhapsody-music-by-women-composers-e4tt

RSVP: https://rhapsody_livestream.eventbrite.com Free (donations welcome)

Info and www.E4TT.org/rhapsody.html

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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