MIDWINTER FIRE: THE CHAMBER MUSIC OF ANDREW VIOLETTE AND MARK N. GRANT ON MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 2007 AT 8PM AT CHURCH OF CHRIST & ST. STEPHEN’S, 120 W 69 STREET, NEW YORK

The always interesting Andrew Violette and award winning Mark N. Grant offer an evening of their contemporary classical music performed by sopranos Elizabeth Farnum and Sharla Nafziger; flutist Maggie Lauer; Oren Fader, guitar; and pianists Andrew Violette and Stephen Gosling.

The program includes the NY premiere of the full five song setting of The Book of Illuminations for soprano and piano by Mark Grant (an earlier, three song version premiered with Downtown Music Productions); Pistis Sophia for solo soprano (Violette); Flute Sonata (Violette); Alba: The Lover’s Departure Before Dawn for solo guitar (Grant) and Four Sonatinas for piano (Violette).

Church of Christ & St. Stephen’s is located at 120 West 69th Street between Broadway and Columbus, New York. Tickets for the concert are $20 at the door. For further information about this January 29th event, contact Janet Reid, event publicist at 718.418.2419 or email getreviews@earthlink.net

Andrew Violette’s work has been called “new and bold” by the New York Times and his Piano Sonatas 1&7 (Innova) was selected as one of the best of 2003 by the Boston Globe.

Mark N. Grant is the first composer winner of the Eric Friedheim Foundation award for contemporary music since the award was last given in conjunction with the Kennedy Center in 1993. His Friedheim award commission, “The Rose of Tralee,” a cantata to his own libretto, will receive its world premiere on Friday, March 30, 2007 at 8 pm by the Amor Artis Chorus and Orchestra, Johannes Somary conducting, at Blessed Sacrament Church, 152 West 71st Street, New York, New York. Grant’s music has been hailed by New Music Connoisseur as “exquisite…[with] truly amazing lyrical moments that contrast beautifully with passages of unbearable emotional intensity.” Grant is a two-time winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for his books Maestros of the Pen: A History of Classical Music Criticism in America (Northeastern University Press: 1998) and The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical (Northeastern University Press: 2004)

Elizabeth Farnum is a widely sought-after performer of modern music, and her performances of modern and early music have taken her throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. She has collaborated directly with many of today’s leading composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Ricky Ian Gordon, Peter Schickele, Anthony Braxton and Toby Twining, performing at such venues as Alice Tully Hall, London’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Three of her several recordings have been nominated for Grammy awards. Representation: Myers International.

Maggie Lauer currently studies at the Manhattan School of Music with Linda Chesis. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Center (with sponsorship of the Chicago Youth Symphony). She is currently a member of the Tactus Contemporary Ensemble and a newly established chamber group of viola, flute and harp.

Soprano Sharla Nafziger has performed over sixty works in the oratorio and concert repertoire, and has appeared with opera companies, symphony orchestras, choral societies and festivals across North America, including recent and upcoming debuts with New York City Opera, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Florida West Coast Symphony, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall, and the Elora Festival (Canada). She has appeared in recital across her native Canada and in Germany and made her New York recital debut at Merkin Hall as the 2001 winner of Joy in Singing. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2002 with the Oratorio Society of New York. She can be heard on the Naxos label in Lully’s Ballet Music for the Sun King, the Telarc label in Die Agytische Helena (Erste Elfe), on Albany Records in the premiere recording of Larry Nelson’s Clay Songs, and soon to be released on the ERM label, the premiere recording of Boaz Tarsi’s Concerto for Soprano.

Oren Fader is distinguished as a performer of classical guitar repertoire, both traditional and contemporary. Mr. Fader has performed hundreds of concerts in the U.S., Europe and Asia with a wide range of classical and new music groups, including the Met Chamber Ensemble (directed by James Levine), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, New World Symphony, Absolute Ensemble, Cygnus, Fireworks, Poetica Musica, and Speculum Musicae. A champion of new music, he has premiered over 100 solo and chamber works with guitar, including compositions by Babbitt, Wuorinen, Machover, Biscardi, Currier, and many others,

Stephen Gosling, pianist, is a ubiquitous presence on the New York new music scene, and has also performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia. His playing has been hailed as “brilliant,” “electric,” and “luminous and poised” (New York Times), possessing “utter clarity and conviction” (Washington Post), and “extraordinary virtuosity” (Houston Chronicle).

Mr. Gosling was for three years pianist of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and appeared in several seasons of the Summergarden series at MOMA. He has also performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Grant Park Festival in Chicago, the Bang on a Can Marathon, Bargemusic, the 2001 Great Day in New York festival, and the PAN festival in Seoul, Korea. He is a member of both Ensemble Sospeso and the New York New Music Ensemble, and has performed with Orpheus, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Speculum Musicae, DaCapo Chamber Players, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Continuum, the League of Composers/ISCM Chamber Players, and Da Camera of Houston. He has also participated in Off-Broadway productions and collaborated with a number of dance companies, including American Ballet Theater and Parsons Dance Project.

Mr. Gosling has been heard on the NPR, WNYC and WQXR radio networks, and has recorded for New World Records, CRI, Mode, Innova, and Rattle Records

About the program:
The Book of Illuminations for soprano and piano by Mark Grant : A “book of illuminations” was a medieval handmade book illustrated (”illuminated”) by monks. In his cycle of 28 poems The Book of Illuminations, poet C. M. Silver conjures imaginary leaves from such a book. Each of Grant’s five song settings of Silver’s poems climaxes in an ecstatic vertical ascent, in three of them immediately followed by an amen-like moment of quiet. Settings 1, 3, and 5 will be sung by Sharla Nafziger, coloratura soprano, and settings 2 and 4 by Elizabeth Farnum, lyric soprano.

Alba: The Lover’s Departure Before Dawn for solo guitar (Grant)
In medieval provencal, an “alba” was a “middle-of-the-night” song — a troubadour’s song depicting a lover’s secret departure in the wee hours before dawn from a nocturnal tryst with his lady. An “alba” usually incorporated a dramatic warning call from the night watchman of the castle. Thus an alba might best be described as “a serenade interrupted by danger.” This is the first New York performance of Grant’s Alba since 1997.

Pistis Sophia for solo soprano; Flute Sonata; and, Four Sonatinas for piano (Violette).
Pistis Sophia was written in 1970. Flute Sonata was written in 1984. In both pieces the line is vocal and Italianate. There’s no extended technique—just the aural beauty of a pure contrapuntal line. If it doesn’t sound beautiful who wants to hear it?

4 Sonatinas is inspired by late Debussy. Major and minor triads are used coloristically not in terms of function. The form is open, unbounded, akin to late Debussy.