Composer Suzanne Farrin, whose theatrical piece La Dolce Morte is featured this season with ICE at the Met Museum, is also a virtuoso player of the ondes Martenot. The ondes is a member of the Theremin electronic instrument family, but its pitch is controlled both by a keyboard and a sliding ring which makes a smooth sound between musical registers. On this program are several new pieces for ondes Martenot and some classics, with its centerpiece the original version of Olivier Messiaen's “Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus” from the Quartet for the End of Time. Messiaen, one of the greatest champions of the instrument, would delight in the further explorations by today's composers.
PROGRAM
Sean Harold: Kinderstück WORLD PREMIERE
Alvin Lucier: Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas, parts one and two
Ashley Fure and Ross Karre: Heterodyne Etudes WORLD PREMIERE
Olivier Messiaen: Feuillets Inedit, movement 4
Lars Petter Hagen: Syv Studier i Selvpålagt Tristesse
Olivier Messiaen: Abîme des oiseaux
Jacob Kirkegaard and Suzanne Farrin: Ondes Corti
Olivier Messiaen: Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus
Suzanne Farrin, ondes Martenot
Ross Karre, director, producer, scenography, and video design
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Joshua Rubin, clarinet
Alice Teyssier, voice
Monica Duncan, video design
Merve Kayan, filmmaker
Nicholas Houfek, lighting designer
Levy Lorenzo, electronics
OpenICE New York is made possible through lead support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Howard Gilman Foundation, alongside generous support from the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE Foundation), New Music USA, the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research at the Eastman School of Music, the National Endowment for the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for ICE.