In addition to performing seeking all that’s still unsung (2023-2024), the Lydian Quartet will also perform F.J. Haydn’s String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33 No. 3 (“The Bird”) and Lembit Beecher’s Juniper and Birch (2024, commissioned by the Lydian String Quartet). The commission of seeking all that’s still unsung has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For further information, visit: https://www.lydianquartet.com/schedule-source/2024/12/13/wayland-ma-wayland-concert-series

The Lydian Quartet will premiere “seeking all that’s still unsung” on April 6, 2024 in Slosberg Hall on the Brandeis University campus. “seeking all that’s still unsung” is inspired by the world that surrounds us in its "current" present, both visible and acknowledged and unseen and unacknowledged. It contemplates what is missing from our world because the passage of time has brought about evolution, extinction, forgetting, erasure, and obliteration. Using source material from The Sacred Harp songbook and a speech by Greta Thunberg, the work imagines what changes are possible as we move into our uncertain future. This work was made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Performance info can be found at: https://www.lydianquartet.com/schedule-source/2023/11/11/waltham-ma-brandeis-university-hz46e

Pianist Genevieve Feiwen Lee will present “La Voix du Pianiste” or Voice of the Pianist, in Thayer Hall at the Colburn School.  Ms. Lee will perform a program that features speaking and singing with keyboards. Performing on piano, toy piano, harpsichord, and other percussion instruments, Genevieve will be utilizing her voice in three languages. Works will include world premieres by Chris Castro and Livia Malossi Bottignole, plus Gao Ping’s Daydreams, and Kurt Rohde’s Famous Last Words for speaking keyboard player and assorted items.

The LYRIS QUARTET, described as “radiant… exquisite… and powerfully engaged” by Mark Swed of the LA Times, is one of the most sought after ensembles on the west coast. Equally at home with standard quartet repertoire and the music of today, Lyris has premiered countless works and has been involved in numerous commissions by some of the most exciting composers of our time. Members of the quartet have won top prizes at the Tchaikovsky International Competition and Aspen Music Festival and have collaborated with renowned artists Natalia Gutman, David Geringas, Martha Argerich, Alban Gerhardt, Boris Pergamenschikov, Midori, Guillame Sutre, Myung-Whun Chung, Glenn Dicterow and Richard Stoltzman.

Chris Castro’s song cycle Cançoes dos Desassosego is the centerpiece of this program featuring guest soprano Sharon Harms, praised as “superb”, “luscious-toned”, “extraordinarily precise and expressive”, and “dramatically committed and not averse to risk” by the New York Times.  

String quartets by Caroline Shaw, the youngest composer to ever be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and Kurt Rohde,  a Bay Area composer commissioned by Eclipse, round out this diverse program featuring living composers.

Performance info can be found at: https://tickets.chapman.edu/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=D14A5E06-C88C-4F1E-9770-A2182A3977AB

The LYRIS QUARTET, described as “radiant… exquisite… and powerfully engaged” by Mark Swed of the LA Times, is one of the most sought after ensembles on the west coast. Equally at home with standard quartet repertoire and the music of today, Lyris has premiered countless works and has been involved in numerous commissions by some of the most exciting composers of our time. Members of the quartet have won top prizes at the Tchaikovsky International Competition and Aspen Music Festival and have collaborated with renowned artists Natalia Gutman, David Geringas, Martha Argerich, Alban Gerhardt, Boris Pergamenschikov, Midori, Guillame Sutre, Myung-Whun Chung, Glenn Dicterow and Richard Stoltzman.

Chris Castro’s song cycle Cançoes dos Desassosego is the centerpiece of this program featuring guest soprano Sharon Harms, praised as “superb”, “luscious-toned”, “extraordinarily precise and expressive”, and “dramatically committed and not averse to risk” by the New York Times.  

String quartets by Caroline Shaw, the youngest composer to ever be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and Kurt Rohde,  a Bay Area composer commissioned by Eclipse, round out this diverse program featuring living composers.

Performance info can be found at: https://www.collageartculture.org

The LYRIS QUARTET, described as “radiant… exquisite… and powerfully engaged” by Mark Swed of the LA Times, is one of the most sought after ensembles on the west coast. Equally at home with standard quartet repertoire and the music of today, Lyris has premiered countless works and has been involved in numerous commissions by some of the most exciting composers of our time. Members of the quartet have won top prizes at the Tchaikovsky International Competition and Aspen Music Festival and have collaborated with renowned artists Natalia Gutman, David Geringas, Martha Argerich, Alban Gerhardt, Boris Pergamenschikov, Midori, Guillame Sutre, Myung-Whun Chung, Glenn Dicterow and Richard Stoltzman.

Chris Castro’s song cycle Cançoes dos Desassosego is the centerpiece of this program featuring guest soprano Sharon Harms, praised as “superb”, “luscious-toned”, “extraordinarily precise and expressive”, and “dramatically committed and not averse to risk” by the New York Times.  

String quartets by Caroline Shaw, the youngest composer to ever be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and Kurt Rohde,  a Bay Area composer commissioned by Eclipse, round out this diverse program featuring living composers.

Performance info can be found at: https://brightworknewmusic.com/event/lyris-plays-castro/

Microfest Records is releasing “Flotsam & Jetsam” on November 3, 2023. This recording will feature “Altromondo” for piano four-hands and assorted items, as performed by pianist Aron Kallay and Genevieve Lee. Also on the recording are works by João Pedro Oliveira and Alan Shockley.

After three years in development, Newtown Odyssey will be premiered on Newtown Creek on Sept. 9 & 10, 2023. With support from Creative Capital, the NEA and the Puffin Foundation, Newtown Odyssey is a floating opera that takes place on an industiral waterway. Performers will sing aboard floating stages, while the audience observes from along the shore and in boats, connecting them physically to the unique site of Newtown Creek. The opera is a collaboration between musician Kurt Rohde, writer Dana Spiotta, and artist Marie Lorenz. Performers include Sharon Harms, Charlotte Mundy, Kyra Sims, Joshua Perry, Laura Cocks, Levy Lorenzo, and Kurt Rohde.

Grossman Ensemble premieres new works by Augusta Read Thomas, Jason Eckardt, Sarah Gibson, and me at the Logan Center for the Arts on the University of Chicago campus. Timothy Weiss conducts.

Pianist Genevieve Feiwen Lee premieres Famous Last Words for speaking keyboard player on fables of Paul Mann (2016-2021) at Pomona College, commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation of Harvard University. This evening length work sets five original fables by poet Paul Mann. The work is theatrical in nature, and asks Lee to multi-task not only as a musician, but as a storyteller and actor.

Artist Marie Lorenz and writer Dana Spiotta are working with Rohde to create a water opera called Newtown Odyssey, funded with the support of a Creative Capitol grant. Singer Charlotte Mundy premieres Gaia|Gyre|Siren from Newtown Odyssey at Re:Growth: A Celebration of Art, Riverside Park and the New York Spirit in a dynamic outdoor performance on the water.

Cornell ReSounds: Body Percussion and Voice Theater

Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano

MikeDrop Duo (Michael Compitello and Mike Truesdell), body percussion

François Sarhan | Situation 7 (2012)

Kurt Rohde | to sing (2018, rev. 2021)

Georges Aperghis | Retrouvailles (2010)

Cornell ReSounds: Body Percussion and Voice Theater

Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano

MikeDrop Duo (Michael Compitello and Mike Truesdell), body percussion

François Sarhan | Situation 7 (2012)

Kurt Rohde | to sing (2018, rev. 2021)

Georges Aperghis | Retrouvailles (2010)