News In Brief 4/16/04

News In Brief 4/16/04

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music; Kronos Quartet Under 30 Project; Elliott Carter at Prada Soho; New Music for Earth Day

Written By

NewMusicBox Staff

CABRILLO FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music has announced its 42nd anniversary season, which will run August 1 through August 15, 2004 at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium and Mission San Juan Bautista in California. So far, the confirmed featured composers participating are John Adams, Clarice Assad, Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Little, Kevin Puts, Gregory Smith, and Julia Wolfe. Thomas Adès, Oliver Knussen, James MacMillan, Christopher Rouse, and Mark-Anthony Turnage have also been invited.

World Premiere
Clarice Assad: Violin Concerto featuring Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg

U.S. Premiere
Julia Wolfe: My beautiful scream featuring the Kronos Quartet

West Coast Premieres
David Little: SCREAMER! – a three-ring blur for orchestra Gregory Smith: Mr. Smith’s Bowl of Notes

KRONOS QUARTET UNDER 30 PROJECT

The world premiere of composer Felipe Pérez Santiago‘s new work, CampoSanto, will be given at Dinkelspiel Auditorium on April 16, 2004. CampoSanto is the second commission from the Kronos: Under 30 Project, a collaboration of the Kronos Quartet, Stanford Lively Arts at Stanford University, and the American Music Center. Felipe Pérez Santiago, a Mexican-born composer working in Rotterdam, Holland, was selected out of more than 160 composers from 21 countries. Alexandra du Bois was awarded the first commission in 2002.

Kronos has also announced a call for scores for the Kronos: Under 30 Project/#3. Created to celebrate the Kronos Quartet’s 30th anniversary, the Under 30 Project is a commissioning and composer-in-residence program for composers under 30 years of age. The program will support the creation of new work by young artists, helping Kronos develop lasting artistic relationships with the next creative generation.

A LITTLE ELLIOTT CARTER WITH THAT PRADA HANDBAG?

Some fun news from the folks at Boosey & Hawkes: On Thursday, May 6 (7 pm), a concert of music by Elliott Carter will be given at Prada Soho. Chamber works by the composer will be performed with film interludes by Frank Scheffer, whose new documentary on Carter, “A Labyrinth of Time,” receives its world premiere the previous evening as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. The Prada Soho concert is presented by the Tribeca Film Festival, in association with the Fondazione Prada. The program includes Con leggerezza pensosa, Figment No. 1, Figment No. 2, Gra and Hiyoku, along with the Piano Sonata and Duo for Violin and Piano. These works will be performed by: Charles Neidich and Ayako Oshima (clarinet), Rolf Schulte (violin), Fred Sherry (cello), Christopher Oldfather and Charles Rosen (piano).

NEW MUSIC FOR EARTH DAY

In what may well be an Earth Day first, Nathan Currier’s oratorio Gaian Variations, will be performed at Lincoln Center by an entourage that includes the Brooklyn Philharmonic with Harold Rosenbaum conducting, the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Canticum Novum Singers, soloists Elizabeth Keusch, Marietta Simpson, John Aler, Kevin Maynor, Emma Tahmizian, Judith Lynn Stillman, Anne Akiko Meyers, and the Shanghai Quartet, plus dancers and an actor.

The work takes as its inspiration the idea of the Earth as a living organism. Most of the movements are vocal settings of words by James Lovelock, author of the GAIA hypothesis. The libretto intertwines selections from Lovelock’s writings with texts by Loren Eiseley, which recount the origins of the idea of a living earth within a western scientific framework, centering on James Hutton in the late 18th century.

The concert is a benefit for Earth Day, presented by Earth Day Network of Washington, DC. All proceeds will benefit Earth Day Network’s charitable activities.