From Robert Sirota: “Luminous Bodies”

Robert Sirota, composer

Robert Sirota

Saturday June 23, 2018 | 8:00 pm | Sarasota Opera House
Tickets

The world premiere of Robert Sirota’s Luminous Bodies, commissioned by the Sarasota Music Festival, is the focal point of a program you will find captivating. The work’s title, “Luminous Bodies,” refers to the composers Sirota found most influential: Gershwin, Copland, Lili Boulanger, Fanny Mendelssohn (Felix Mendelssohn’s sister), and Leonard Bernstein. One of music’s great geniuses, Mozart set a new standard for all who came after—especially in his piano concertos, which he intended for himself as soloist. The Piano Concerto No. 14, composed at the height of Mozart’s popularity as a performer, mixes the energy of comic opera with the grace of Classical form. From the opening invocation of joy to the jubilant horn calls in the finale, Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 will bring a grand and joyful conclusion to the 2018 Festival.

Program

MOZART
Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat, K. 595

Jeffrey Kahane, pianist

Jeffrey Kahane, piano

SIROTA
Luminous Bodies*

Jeffrey Kahane, piano; yMusic

yMusic. No image credit

*World Premiere performance. Luminous Bodies was commissioned by the Sarasota Music Festival.

About Robert Sirota:
Over four decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.”

Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; the Chiara, American, Ethel, Elmyr, and Blair String Quartets; the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown music festivals; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Recent and upcoming commissions include the American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, Concert Artists of Baltimore, and yMusic.

Recipient of grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center, Sirota’s works are recorded on the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels. His music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Schott, Music Associates of New York, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.

A native New Yorker, Sirota studied at Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard and divides his time between New York and Searsmont, Maine with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists.

See the full article here .

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

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John Schaefer

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Jerry Gordon Serenade to a Cookoo Frdays 11:00AM-2:00PM with Jerry’s Room at 1:00Pm
Jeannie Becker Sunday Jazz 10:00AM-1:00Pm

Please visit The Jazz Loft Project based on the work of Sam Stephenson
Please visit The Jazz Loft Radio project from New York Public Radio

From Robert Sirota: “Freedom Concert”

Robert Sirota, composer

Robert Sirota

Freedom Concert

Saturday, April 28, 2018
4:00 PM 6:00 PM

Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew 263 West 86th Street New York, NY, 10024 United States

Purchase Tickets: $20-40

The Dessoff Choirs’ Freedom Concert, modeled after “freedom concerts” presented by the late Coretta Scott King, offers a choral tapestry of music that reflects on events of the past while promoting hope for the future. Featured works include Ralph Vaughan Williams’ plea for peace, Dona nobis pacem (1936); Robert Sirota’s homage to the nine victims of the Mother Emanuel AME massacre, Prelude and Spiritual for Mother Emanuel; and works by three female composers. The concert closes with the well-known civil rights freedom song Oh Freedom.

Dona nobis pacem from Mass in B minor Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Dona nobis pacem Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
III. Adonai, Adonai Lo gavah libi from Chichester Psalms Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Prelude and Spiritual for Mother Emanuel Robert Sirota (b.1949)
Cry Peace Libby Larsen (b.1950)
Blessed Assurance Nancy Wertsch (b.1943)
We shall walk through the valley Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989)
Oh, Freedom (arr. Malcolm J. Merriweather and Charles Duke)

About Robert Sirota:
Over four decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.”

Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; the Chiara, American, Ethel, Elmyr, and Blair String Quartets; the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown music festivals; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Recent and upcoming commissions include the American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, Concert Artists of Baltimore, and yMusic.

Recipient of grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center, Sirota’s works are recorded on the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels. His music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Schott, Music Associates of New York, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.

A native New Yorker, Sirota studied at Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard and divides his time between New York and Searsmont, Maine with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists.

See the full article here .

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

John Schaefer

For new music by living composers

newsounds.org from New York Public Radio

https://www.wnyc.org/
93.9FM
https://www.wqxr.org/
105.9FM

Home

For great Jazz

88.3FM http://wbgo.org/

WPRB 103.3FM

Dan Buskirk Spinning Jazz Mondays 11:00AM-1:00PM
Will Constantine Jr, Blues Bop and Beyond Thursdays 11:00-2:00 featuring Latin Jazz
Jerry Gordon Serenade to a Cookoo Frdays 11:00AM-2:00PM with Jerry’s Room at 1:00Pm
Jeannie Becker Sunday Jazz 10:00AM-1:00Pm

Please visit The Jazz Loft Project based on the work of Sam Stephenson
Please visit The Jazz Loft Radio project from New York Public Radio

From Robert Sirota: Composer Robert Sirota’s “Wave Upon Wave”

Robert Sirota, composer

Composer Robert Sirota’s Wave Upon Wave

Performed by the Telegraph Quartet
Winner of the 2016 Naumburg Chamber Music Award
Presented by Noe Valley Chamber Music

Sunday, May 20, 2018 at 4pm
Noe Valley Ministry
1021 Sanchez St. | San Francisco, CA

Tickets ($25 advance; $30 at the door) and information available at http://www.nvcm.org or 415-648-5236

Robert Sirota: http://www.robertsirota.com
Telegraph Quartet: http://www.telegraphquartet.com

On Sunday, May 20, 2018 at 4pm the Telegraph Quartet, winners of the 2016 Naumburg Competition, will perform composer Robert Sirota’s third string quartet, Wave Upon Wave on Noe Valley Chamber Music’s 25th anniversary season finale at Noe Valley Ministry (1021 Sanchez Street).

Wave Upon Wave is the third string quartet in a trilogy spanning fifteen years, which Sirota began in 2002 with Triptych, an extended meditation on 9/11. Sirota’s second string quartet, American Pilgrimage, celebrates the rich diversity of the American landscape and the American spirit, and was completed in spring 2016.

Sirota says, “Each of the string quartets in my trilogy is in essence a long journal entry reflecting a response to our times. Now, given the uncertainty of this moment in our history, rife with threats of tyranny, environmental catastrophe, and the human potential for evil, I find myself turning inward to examine the topography of the human heart: our vast potential for creative energy, idealism and altruism. Wave Upon Wave is about our fears, our hopes, and our prayers that we will triumph over the forces of darkness which threaten to overwhelm us.”

Wave Upon Wave was commissioned by The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation for the competition winners and was premiered by the Telegraph Quartet on February 6, 2018 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.

This program also includes Mozart’s String Quartet in D Major, K. 575 and Ravel’s String Quartet in F major. Complimentary wine and light bites are provided at intermission and there is a post-concert AfterParty reception and conversation with the artists moderated by musicologist Kai Christiansen immediately following the concert at La Boulangerie de Noe (3898 24th Street).

About the Telegraph Quartet:
The Telegraph Quartet (Joseph Maile, violin; Eric Chin, violin; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) was formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary and non-standard repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle in 2017 as, “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape,” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was most recently awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Past prizes include the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet has since gone on to perform in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions from Los Angeles and New York to Italy and Taiwan, including Carnegie Hall, San Francisco’s Herbst Recital Hall and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Chamber Masters Series and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. In 2016, the Quartet was invited as one of a handful of emerging professional string quartets from around the world to perform in Paris, France at the Biennale de quatuors à cordes, a showcase for major concert presenters of Europe and Asia taking place at the Philharmonie de Paris. The Telegraph Quartet gave its first Carnegie Hall appearance in Weill Recital Hall in 2015 along with violinist Ian Swensen and pianist Jeff LaDeur. A fervent champion of contemporary and 20th century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has co-commissioned John Harbison’s String Quartet No. 6, which received its West Coast premiere in the fall of 2017 at San Francisco State University’s Morrison Artist Series. In 2018, the Quartet plans to release its debut album featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner.

About Robert Sirota:
Over four decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.”

Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; the Chiara, American, Ethel, Elmyr, and Blair String Quartets; the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown music festivals; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Recent and upcoming commissions include the American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, Concert Artists of Baltimore, and yMusic.

Recipient of grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center, Sirota’s works are recorded on the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels. His music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Schott, Music Associates of New York, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.

A native New Yorker, Sirota studied at Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard and divides his time between New York and Searsmont, Maine with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists.

Received via email .

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

John Schaefer

For new music by living composers

newsounds.org from New York Public Radio

https://www.wnyc.org/
93.9FM
https://www.wqxr.org/
105.9FM

Home

For great Jazz

88.3FM http://wbgo.org/

WPRB 103.3FM

Dan Buskirk Spinning Jazz Mondays 11:00AM-1:00PM
Will Constantine Jr, Blues Bop and Beyond Thursdays 11:00-2:00 featuring Latin Jazz
Jerry Gordon Serenade to a Cookoo Frdays 11:00AM-2:00PM with Jerry’s Room at 1:00Pm
Jeannie Becker Sunday Jazz 10:00AM-1:00Pm

Please visit The Jazz Loft Project based on the work of Sam Stephenson
Please visit The Jazz Loft Radio project from New York Public Radio