Suzanne Farin (Left) by Luke Redmond; International Contemporary Ensemble (middle) by DigitICE Media Team; and Ashley Fure (Right) by Daniel Dorsa
Library of Congress and Portland Ovations Co-Present the International Contemporary Ensemble in World Premieres by Suzanne Farrin and Ashley Fure, Live on YouTube May 28.
Hosted by Terrance McKnight
Featuring Live, Interactive Discussions with Farrin, Fure, and ICE Musicians, Plus Newly Released Documentary Footage About Suzanne Farrin.
Participate in an interactive digital concert (via YouTube and Zoom) on Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. EDT featuring world premieres by Suzanne Farrin (co-commissioned by the Carolyn Royall Just Fund in the Library of Congress and ICE) and Ashley Fure, paired with Olivier Messiaen’s Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus for ondes Martenot.
The program takes the audience through a virtual-immersive experience, focusing on notions of perception and listening. Suzanne Farrin’s Nacht, created in collaboration with ICE through remote collaborative systems, unfolds in a dreamy atmosphere featuring the ondes Martenot (an early electronic cousin of the theremin), harp, percussion, bass, and voice. Set to texts by Rumi and Hafiz in translation by Cyrus Atabay, the work explores language, translation, and identity. What do we experience differently by seeing writers like Rumi and Hafiz through the filter of the German language?
“This is a listening score. To perform it, please find two mason jars or two large glasses,” is how Ashley Fure’s interior listening protocol 1 begins. Created specifically for and in this time of social distancing, the piece is a full-body listening experience, only made possible by audience members participating from their homes. As Fure leads a slowly evolving physical choreography, the jars produce a magically immersive soundscape in the privacy of your own ears.
The human voice is evoked through the tones of the ondes Martenot, especially in the work of Olivier Messiaen. In 1941 while Messiaen was prisoner of war during World War II, he composed one of his greatest pieces, Quatour pour la fin du temps (The Quartet for the End of Time). The opening of the work as well as the source for the fifth movement, Louange à l'Eternité de Jésus, is from Messiaen’s 1937 Fêtes des Belles Eaux (Festival of the Beautiful Waters), written for six ondes Martenot to accompany the majestic fountains along the Seine for the International Exposition for Art and Technology in Paris. One of the few pieces Messiaen took from his life outside of captivity was this moment for ondes Martenot. In this program, we will hear a re-translation: the version for cello and piano performed on ondes Martenot and piano.
The stream will also include a “lobby” experience, after the performance, where audiences can tune in to live discussions between Farrin, Fure, and members of ICE. Glimpses into Suzanne Farrin’s work process and longtime collaboration with the Ensemble will be shared in a screening of a short documentary. Viewers around the world can tune in to view and participate in the digital event via YouTube live (hosted on ICE’s channel) and are invited to continue conversations with artists after the performance via Zoom.
RSVP above to receive stream link and zoom info 24 hours before the concert.
Performers
Suzanne Farrin, ondes martenot
Alice Teyssier, voice
Ross Karre, percussion
Randall Zigler, bass
Nuiko Wadden, harp
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Ryan Streber, sound engineer
Program
Suzanne Farrin: Polvere et Ombra (2008)
Suzanne Farrin: Nacht [World Premiere, co-commissioned by the Carolyn Royall Just Fund in the Library of Congress and ICE]
Ashley Fure: interior listening protocol 1 [World Premiere]
Olivier Messiaen: “Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus” from Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941)
About Terrance McKnight
Terrance McKnight: a proud voice resounding from the middle of the road. Terrance is the evening host on WQXR.
When Terrance McKnight moved to New York City, his 96-year-old grandmother offered him a few words of wisdom: “If you’ve got something to say, get out there in the middle of the road and say it; don’t go hiding behind no bush.” From a long line of passionate citizens — his maternal family founded a branch of the NAACP in Mississippi and his father the pastor of a church in Cleveland — Terrance and his siblings were expected to contribute to their community while growing up. Early on, Terrance decided he would take the musician’s journey. As a teenager, he played trumpet in the school orchestra and played piano for various congregations around Cleveland. At Morehouse College and Georgia State University he performed with the college Glee Club and New Music Ensemble respectively and subsequently joined the music faculty at Morehouse. While in Georgia he brought his love of music and performing to the field of broadcasting. Terrance is an Artistic Advisor for the Harlem Chamber Players and serves on the board of the Bagby Foundation and the MacDowell Colony. He’s frequently sought out by major cultural organizations for his insight into the cultivation of diverse perspectives and voices in the cultural sphere. He regularly curates concerts and talks at Merkin Concert Hall, the Billie Holiday Theatre the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Museum of Modern Art.
Performances and commissioning activities during the 2019-20 concert season are made possible by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Family Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Amphion Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Pacific Harmony Foundation, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, mediaThe foundation inc., The Casement Fund, BMI Foundation, as well as public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The International Contemporary Ensemble is the Ensemble in Residence of the Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for ICE.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.