Du Yun: Kraken [West Coast Premiere]
Anna Clyne: DANCE for cello and orchestra (Inbal Segev, cello) [World Premiere | Festival Co-commission]
Jake Heggie: The Work at Hand (Jamie Barton, mezzo; Inbal Segev, cello) [West Coast Premiere]
Dan Dediu: Levante [U.S. Premiere]
Cristi Măcelaru, the Festival Orchestra, and two stunning soloists carry us on a poetic journey with each of our featured composers in the house. Heralded by The New York Times as a “composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods,” Anna Clyne has become a Festival favorite since her 2011 debut. She returns with DANCE for cello and orchestra, co-commissioned by the Festival with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Based on a poem by the 13th century Persian poet and Sufi mystic, Rumi, Clyne’s new work features Inbal Segev, a cellist praised for her “warm, pure and beautiful tone” (Strings Magazine). Renowned mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton returns to the stage tonight to join Segev in Jake Heggie’s The Work at Hand, three symphonic songs set to poems by the late poet Laura Morefield. After her diagnosis with cancer, Morefield chronicled her difficult and deeply human experience of saying goodbye and letting go—resenting, fighting, struggling, and then finding peace in acceptance. The language and imagery she chose is particularly striking: origami, the Warrior 1 yoga position, and a reconnection to nature. Pulitzer Prize-winner Du Yun is a Chinese-born composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist—described by The New York Times as “an indie pop diva with an avant-garde edge”—who will join us for the West Coast premiere of Kraken. Du Yun has borrowed the intangible spirit of these mythological sea dragons to create a non-narrative, non-programmatic work. She explains, “These half gods or half demons are at once familiar and foreign, creatures that are alive among many cultures, latitudes and ages. This sensibility is very close to my heart. It speaks of the belief I have that our lives are often lived on the edge, in the inbetween-ness; a place not between reality and surreality and/or a dream state, but rather, a transient stage, an interstitial place, a location between right and wrong, true or false.” Composer Dan Dediu made his Festival debut in 2018 with Grana and returns this evening for the U.S. premiere of Levante. He describes the work as a musical transposition of the “sacred geometry” found in his Romanian hometown of Brăila, where all the streets form semicircles around a central axis. He calls his Levante a “symbolic auditory mandala.”
Dance, when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance, in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance when you’re perfectly free.
—Rumi
MEETUP! Arrive downtown early to savor the sights, sounds and flavors of the Church Street Fair, including live music and dance performances, food and wine vendors and artisan booths.
