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Event
RAM Presents: "Sojourns in Song"
The New York-based composer and performer group, Random Access Music (RAM), announces its final program of the season Sojourns in Song. This is the second and final performance of this program to take place on Friday, May 27, 2016, 8 pm at the Tenri Cultural Institute in Manhattan (43 W 13th Street; New York, New York 10011; 1, 2, 3, F, N, Q, R, 4, 5, & 6 trains to 14th Street). In Sojourns in Song, RAM explores various 21st century vocal works featuring the RAM debut of guitarist Nadav Lev, soprano Risa Renae Harman, mezzo-soprano Tammy Coil, and baritone Seth Gilman along with clarinetist Thomas Piercy and violinist Sabina Torosjan of the RAM Players. New vocal works by Gilbert Galindo and David Schober will be heard alongside songs by fellow RAM composers Guy Barash and David Fetherolf. Also on the program is the winning work from RAMs 2015/2016 Call for Scores, Al Vacio by Federico Garcia-De Castro in addition to 4 Bialik Childrens Songs by Ronnie Reshef off of Nadav Levs new album, New String Attached and Quatorze Jactations by Georges Aperghis showcasing Seth Gilman. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $15 for student/senior admission, and free for kids 12 and under.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM: Sojourns in Song
The vocal works on this program reflect the diverse cultural influences of the composers and poets found in American life and beyond, from being stranded on a New York City sidewalk during a blackout, to social injustices in the U.S., playful fairy tale-esque children songs in Hebrew, a Spanish setting of a soul experiencing void, to the joy of a newly born daughter, to objectivist 20th century poetry, and more. Dont Feel Bad for Me by Poet Gold, with a musical setting for baritone, folk guitar, violin, and clarinet by Gilbert Galindo, touches on the theme of empathy for our fellow human beings who suffer personal or social injustices accompanied by music colored with blues riffs and harmonies, modern dissonances, and at times dramatic operatic flare. The poet herself will perform a special reading of this poem on the May 27th concert. Ronnie Reshefs setting of 4 Bialik Childrens Songs for mezzo-soprano and guitar (found on the album New Strings Attached off of the Delos label) by the 20th century Hebrew poet Hayim Nahman Biali deal with nature and is interpreted musically with light comedic settings, to semi-horrific allusions and vocally virtuosic writing employing warm sounds, dissonant intervals, dark tones, and modal harmonies. The Daughters Call by David Schober was written in response to the birth of the composers daughter in late February. The text was newly composed by Sokunthary Svay, a Khmer writer and musician from the Bronx, who shares the experience of having one daughter (now nine years old). Showcasing baritone Seth Gilman, Georges Aperghiss Quartorze Jactations is a theatrical vocal work utilizing extended techniques reflecting states of anxiety. In David Fetherolfs setting of Paean to Place by Lorine Neidecker, he says, Lorine Neidecker is argualbly one of the most overlooked great American poets of the 20thcCE. Generally classified as an Objectivist, her work is stark, vivid, and subtle. She spent most of her working life in Ft. Atkinson, WI and is often thought of as having affinities with William Carlos Williams as well as Chinese and Japanese poetry. Her work speaks to me on a deep personal level and Im thrilled to have this setting part of Sojourns in Song. In Guy Barashs opera, Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins, based on Nick Flynn's play, four strangers meet on a New York City sidewalk during a black out. Gideon finds himself locked out of his apartment, stranded on the street where he meets the specter-like Alice, ringleader of the neighborhood, who sings to him: "Straw to a Drowning Man." This program also features this years winner of the 2015-2016 RAM Call for Scores, Federico Garcia-De Castros Al Vacío, for female voice and guitar. In Al Vacío with text found in his brother notebook, whole-tone descents and hollow perfect fifths in the guitar depict the void (vacío) of the title, stemming melodically and structurally from the first word, nunca.
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LocationTenri Cultural Institute (View)
43A West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011
United States
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