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WHO:
Music from Copland House artists Christopheren Nomura, narrator; Siwoo Kim and Elizabeth Fayette, violins; Dana Kelley, viola; Alexis Pia Gerlach, cello; Sae Hashimoto, percussion; Michael Boriskin, piano
WHEN:
Monday, February 6, 2023 at 7:30PM
WHAT:
EMBRACE OR EXILE: THE COLOR OF FATE
Music by Kenji Bunch and text by George Takei; music by Gabriela Lena Frank
Who exactly are “enemy aliens?” And who determines that? Pondering the fragility of liberty, award-winning composer Kenji Bunch’s compelling new musical work, Lost Freedom: A Memory, is based on actor-author-activist George Takei’s unforgettable childhood memoir of his family’s forced relocation by U.S. government decree to a World War II-era Japanese American internment center. The acclaimed Gabriela Lena Frank’s Tres Homenajes (Compadrazgo) celebrates interrelationships and deep camaraderie – the opposite of banishment – in her vibrant triptych inspired by Latin American idioms, cultures, and landscapes.
Plus OFFBEAT / ONSTAGE post-concert artist talk and audience Q&A.
WHERE:
FREE FOR ALL! series, featuring Music from Copland House at Elebash Recital Hall, co-presented by The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
365 Fifth Avenue, New York City
WHOA: Premiered at Utah’s Moab Music Festival in 2021, the new Bunch-Takei work spotlights the Takei family, one of 120,000 Japanese Americans stripped of their property and liberty, and unjustly imprisoned in confinement camps. Takei revisits his own childhood imprisonment in Arkansas and northern California, and the ensuing struggles his family and so many others encountered after their release. He chronicles his small joys of childhood in the shadow of legalized racism, his mother’s hard choices, his father’s tested faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.
"Bunch’s music is shiningly original.” (The Oregonian)
“Frank is one of the most significant women composers in history.” (The Washington Post)
TICKETS: Free, registration strongly encouraged
Click HERE for reservations.
Media inquiries should be directed to Dworkin & Company at (914) 244-3803 or [email protected].
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MUSIC FROM COPLAND HOUSE, the celebrated touring resident ensemble based at Aaron Copland's National Historic Landmark home, has been hailed for “absorbing concert experiences” (Opera News) gathered from its journeys across 150 years of America’s vast musical landscape. MCH champions classic and forgotten voices from the nation’s past, as well as today’s established and rising creators of all backgrounds and identities. This singular American repertory ensemble has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, Euro-Radio, and other major media; engaged by Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, University of Chicago, Smithsonian Institution, and the Caramoor, Bard, Bowdoin, and Ecstatic Festivals, among many others; and heard on the Arabesque, Koch International, and COPLAND HOUSE BLEND labels. Founded in 1999, MCH boasts a stellar roster of Founding, Principal, and Guest Artists; as The Chicago Tribune raved, “Copland would have been proud of all of them.”
FUNDING CREDITS
Primary support for Copland House’s 2022-2023 FREE FOR ALL! series comes from the Amphion Foundation, ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Alice M. Ditson Fund, Friends of Copland House, Jandon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and New York State Council on the Arts. This series is supported by The Office for Academic Initiatives and Strategic Innovation at The Graduate Center, CUNY.
ABOUT THE CUNY GRADUATE CENTER
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York is a leader in public graduate education devoted to enhancing the public good through pioneering research, serious learning, and reasoned debate. The Graduate Center offers ambitious students more than 40 doctoral and master’s programs of the highest caliber, taught by top faculty from throughout CUNY – the nation’s largest public urban university. Through its nearly 40 centers, institutes, initiatives, and the Advanced Science Research Center, The Graduate Center influences public policy and discourse and shapes innovation. With its extensive public programs, The Graduate Center is one of New York City’s leading venues for culture and conversation.
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2023 SPRING SEASON AT-A-GLANCE
All concerts on Monday evenings at 7.30pm,
Elebash Recital Hall, 365 Fifth Avenue, NYC
FREE!
February 6, 2023
EMBRACE OR EXILE: THE COLOR OF FATE
Kenji Bunch and George Takei: Lost Freedom -- A Memory [NY Premiere]; Gabriela Lena Frank: Tres Homenajes (Compadrazgo)
Actor-author-activist George Takei’s unforgettable account of his experience as a 4-year-old child, taken with his family to a Japanese detainment one such internment center, is the basis for award-winning composer Kenji Bunch’s Lost Freedom: A Memory, a compelling new musical score that vividly reminds us that liberty isn’t to be taken for granted.
MCH ARTISTS: Christopheren Nomura, narrator; Siwoo Kim and Elizabeth Fayette, violins; Dana Kelley, viola; Alexis Pia Gerlach, cello; Sae Hashimoto, percussion; Michael Boriskin, piano
March 20, 2023
PAST AS PROLOGUE
Gabriella Smith: Brandenburg Interstices [NY Premiere]; John Musto: Piano Quintet [NY Premiere]; Robert Xavier Rodriguez: Estampie [NY Premiere]; Nico Muhly: Motion
Time-traveling across the generations, growing fresh creative fruit from artistic seeds of the distant past, reaching back to the English Renaissance, German Baroque, Italian opera, and more.
MCH ARTISTS: Brandon Patrick George, flute; Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet; Siwoo Kim and Stephanie Zyzak*, violins; Dana Kelley, viola; Alberto Parrini, cello; Yousif Sheronick, percussion; Michael Boriskin, piano
May 1, 2023
EPIC VISTAS, LONESOME ROADS
Juhi Bansal: Thirteen Moons [NY Premiere]; Shawn Okpebholo: Fractured Water [NY Premiere]; Kevin Puts: Arcana; Stacy Garrop: Postcards from Wyoming; Dan Visconti: Lonesome Roads
Five brilliant composers journeying across America’s varied, sprawling landscape, taking inspiration from the California desert, Chicago River, Hawaiian volcanoes, the Western flatlands, and the open road.
MCH ARTISTS: Brandon Patrick George, flute; Igor Begelman*, clarinet; Siwoo Kim and Stephanie Zyzak*, violins; Colin Brookes and Danielle Farina, violas; Alexis Pia Gerlach and James Wilson, cellos; Ayano Kataoka, percussion; Michael Boriskin, piano
June 12, 2023
CULTIVATE 2023
Closing concert of the American Composers Orchestra’s SONiC Festival, celebrating composers under 40
Program TBA [World Premieres]
A pandemic-delayed 10th Anniversary celebration of Copland House’s acclaimed, annual emerging composers institute (directed by Grammy-nominated composer-clarinetist Derek Bermel), featuring six World Premieres by the 2023 CULTIVATE Fellows, commissioned by Copland House and written especially for this concert.
* CUNY Graduate Center Doctoral program
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