Photo by Sergio Policicchio

This concert will be streamed on this page. Americas Society will host a virtual reception with the musicians after the performance. Americas Society members can register by emailing membership@as-coa.org. If you’re not yet a member and would like to join us, learn more about membership. 

In 2018,  Americas Society's vocal ensemble Meridionalis premiered a new production of Claude Vivier's chamber opera  Kopernikus  with live video by Sergio Policicchio in Buenos Aires. (It was also the South American premiere of the piece.)  Alongside the International Contemporary Ensemble, the group performed the New York premiere of the piece the following year. For this virtual concert, Policicchio prepared an online version with live music from the May 2019 concert in New York. 

In what  Vivier described as a "ritual opera of death," the central character—a young woman named Agni—descends into a dreamworld where "mystical beings borrowed from stories gravitate around her. The plot defies precise interpretation, offering multiple, often contradictory meanings. At the center of the quest is the composer’s fascination with the perennial majesty of the cosmos and his belief that “art will no longer be the sweet panacea that we apply to a wounded body, [but] will be the body.”  

Performers 
Meridionalis:  
Katharine Dain: Coloratura 
Amy Goldin: Soprano 
Hai-Ting Chinn: Mezzo-soprano 
Kirsten Sollek: Contralto 
Christopher Herbert: Baritone 
Joseph Beutel: Baritone 
Steven Hrycelak: Bass 
International Contemporary Ensemble: 
Michelle Farah: Oboe 
Joshua Rubin: Clarinet 1 
Madison Freed: Clarinet 2 
Zachary Good: Clarinet 3 
Gareth Flowers: Trumpet 
Michael Lormand: Trombone 
Josh Modney: Violin

 Conducted by Sebastian Zubieta