Metropolitan Piano Stories

Saturday, February 26, 2022 at 7:30 PM 8:50 PM
Church-in-the-Gardens (map)

Tickets: $20 Adults / $10 Students / FREE for children 12 and under

A program of piano music by living women composers from the NYC metropolitan area. Each piece has a story behind it. Composers include Victoria Bond, Dalit Warshaw, Anjelica Negron, Meredith Monk, Valerie Capers, Missy Mazzoli, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Beata Moon. Performed by Artistic Director, Barbara Podgurski, and a number of guest composers, who will introduce their own works

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The Program

Beata Moon: “Rhapsody”  (commissioned by the NJMTA)
Dalit Warshaw: “First Love Song”
Victoria Bond: “Rage”
Angélica Negrón: “La Intervención” 
Missy Mazzoli: “Isabelle Eberhardt Dreams of Piano” for electronics & piano
Niloufar Nourbakhsh: “HbeaRt” for electronics & piano

Intermission

Beata Moon: “Sonata”
I. Maestoso, grand,
II. Easygoing, 
III. Placid, simply, 
IV. Robust

Meredith Monk: “Railroad”
“Windows in 7”
“St. Petersburg Waltz”

Valerie Capers: “Billie’s Song”
“Cancion de la Havana”
“Bossa Brasilia”
“Sweet Mr. Jellyroll”

Internationally acclaimed composer/conductor Victoria Bond’s compositions have been praised by the New York Times as "powerful, stylistically varied and technically demanding.” Bond’s second string quartet, “Blue and Green Music” was commissioned by The Cassatt String Quartet through a grant from Chamber Music America. Her opera Clara about Clara Schumann received its premiere and 11 performances at the Berlin Philharmonic Easter Festival in Germany, April, 2019. Ms. Bond has composed eight operas, six ballets, two piano concertos and numerous orchestral, chamber, choral and keyboard compositions. She has been commissioned by The Cassatt String Quartet, American Opera Projects, the Houston and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, Cleveland and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestras, Michigan Philharmonic, Young People’s Chorus, American Ballet Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Bond holds a Doctorate in orchestral conducting from The Juilliard School. https://www.victoriabond.com

Dr. Valerie Capers was born in the Bronx and received her early schooling at the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School of Music, the first blind person to do so. For several years she served on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. She was also a member of the faculty in the Department of Music and Art at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY) where she introduced several jazz courses to the music curriculum. From 1987 to 1995 she served as department chair, where she is now professor emerita. Among the awards and commissions she has received are the National Endowment for the Arts, including a special-projects grant to present a jazz series at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Meet the Composer, the CUNY Research Foundation, the Smithsonian, and The Fund for Artists of Arts International. Dr. Capers was the first recipient of Essence magazine’s “Women of Essence Award for Music” where she was in the elite company of fellow honorees Oprah Winfrey and Marla Gibbs. She has been recognized by the Bronx Music Heritage Center as a Bronx Living Legend for her “enduring legacy to the American jazz tradition,” and she is a distinguished member of the Bronx Walk of Fame. In fall 2015, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio appointed her to the city’s prestigious Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission. https://valcapmusic.com/

Recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (NY Times) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out NY), Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed by the Kronos Quartet, LA Opera, eighth blackbird, the BBC Symphony, Scottish Opera and many others. In 2018 she became one of the first two women, along with Jeanine Tesori, to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera, and was nominated for a Grammy award. She is Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2015 was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia. Upcoming commissions include works for Opera Philadelphia, the National Ballet of Canada, Chicago Lyric Opera and Norwegian National Opera. Her works are published by G. Schirmer. https://missymazzoli.com

Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, music-theater works, films and installations. Recognized as one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, she is a pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance.” Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound, discovering and weaving together new modes of perception. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which there are no words. Celebrated internationally, Ms. Monk’s work has been presented at major venues throughout the world. Over the last six decades, she has been hailed as “a magician of the voice” and “one of America’s coolest composers.” In conjunction with her 50th Season of creating and performing, she was appointed the 2014-15 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall. Recently Monk received three of the highest honors bestowed to a living artist in the United States: induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2019), the 2017 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize and a 2015 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. https://www.meredithmonk.org

A versatile musician acclaimed for her expressivity and sincerity, Beata Moon continues to reach audiences through her many-faceted roles as composer, pianist and educator. Moon graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School where she was a student of Adele Marcus. Reviewer Andrew Druckenbrod of Gramophone magazine wrote, “Moon writes compelling music that is utterly sincere…” Moon also works as a teaching artist for Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic. Through her various roles as an educator, performer and composer, Moon fulfills her wish to work musically with people of all ages and backgrounds. She has facilitated conversations about race and restorative justice and believes in the power of music and the arts to heal and work towards social change. She recently became certified as a Climate Reality Leader trained by former US Vice President Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project. http://beatamoon.com

Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys, and electronics as well as for chamber ensembles, orchestras, choir, and film. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise.” Negrón has been commissioned by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Kronos Quartet, loadbang, Prototype Festival, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Sō Percussion, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, and the New York Botanical Garden, among others. Upcoming premieres include works for the Seattle Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra and NY Philharmonic Project 19 initiative and multiple performances at Big Ears Festival 2022. https://www.angelicanegron.com

Described as “stark” by WNPR and “darkly lyrical” by the New York Times, a winner of the Second International Hildegard commission award, a 2019 recipient of Opera America’s Discovery Grant, and a finalist for Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation competition, Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s music has been performed at numerous festivals and venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. A founding member and co-director of Iranian Female Composers Association, Nourbakhsh is a strong advocate of music education and equal opportunities. She is currently an adjunct faculty at Molloy College and co-director of Peabody Conservatory Laptop Ensemble. Niloufar holds a doctoral degree from Stony Brook University and regularly performs with her Ensemble Decipher. https://niloufarnourbakhsh.com

Dalit Warshaw’s works have been performed by numerous ensembles, including the NY and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras (Zubin Mehta conducting), the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Boston, Houston, and Grand Rapids Symphonies. As pianist, she premiered her piano concerto, "Conjuring Tristan," with the Grand Rapids Symphony in 2015. Her theremin concerto, "Sirens," performed in 2019 by both the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Albany Symphony, was listed among “Boston’s Best Classical Music Concerts in 2019” by the Boston Globe. After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016, she was awarded an OPERA America Discovery Grant and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters the following year. She has soloed on theremin with BMOP, the NY Festival of Song, and the San Francisco Symphony, among other ensembles. Additional honors include five ASCAP Grants, a Fulbright Scholarship, a Charles Ives Scholarship, and two BMI Awards. Warshaw has held multiple residencies at the Yaddo and MacDowell Artist Colonies, and graduated Columbia University and the Juilliard School, where she obtained her doctorate. Warshaw currently teaches on the composition faculties at Brooklyn College and at the Juilliard School. http://dalitwarshaw.com

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