Jan. 18: Fabio Vacchi, a Jonas Tarm premiere and more!
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Fabio vacchi, krista river, jonas tarm, brian raphael nabors, joseph schwanter and richard pittman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
01/07/2020
Contact: Robert Pape, Executive Director
617-354-6910, rpape@bmv.org
Music exploring the broad range of human emotion
Fabio Vacchi’s powerful setting of life as an Italian World War II POW,
Jonas Tarm’s “The Last March,” a world premiere and his BMV debut,
the Northeast Premiere of Brian Raphael Nabors’ joyful and diverse “7 Dances,”
and the reprise of Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph Schwantner’s elegy for a member of the BMV family.
Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020, at 8pm
at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
BOSTON—Music Director and Boston Musica Viva founder Richard Pittman leads one of the most powerful programs of chamber music in Greater Boston this season, SONGS OF PRISONERS OF WAR, on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 8pm, in Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA.
Boston favorite mezzo-soprano Krista River (“a shimmering voice...with the virtuosity of a violinist and the expressivity of an actress.” —The New York Times) joins BMV for Italian composer Fabio Vacchi’s Canti di Banjaminovo. The 2003 BMV commission features texts from the perspective of World War II prisoners of war in a German concentration camp in Poland by poet by Franco Marcoaldi.
Estonian-American composer and recent New England Conservatory graduate Jonas Tarm makes his BMV debut with the world premiere of The Last March, a new work that, in the words of the composer, “begins with an intense, grandiose and almost hysterical declaration that grabs you by the throat and screams, ‘The end is approaching.’ The end of the piece responds to the chaos with a calm flow to silence.” Tarm further notes that while composing The Last March, he was reminded of the final lines of the T.S. Eliot poem The Hollow Men:
“This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”
Brain Raphael Nabors, the latest winner of the national Rapido! Composition Contest, makes his BMV debut with the Northeast Premiere of 7 Dances, an expanded version of his top-prize work that explores the diversity and depth of dance music across an array of genres.
The program also includes the reprise of Sleep Now for clarinet and string quartet by Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph Schwanter. Sleep Now was written and premiered last season as an elegy to Lore Pittman, the late wife of Boston Musica Viva founder and director Richard Pittman, and a foundational supporter and friend to the ensemble.
Tickets available at (617) 354-6910, BMV.org, and at the door.
$30 adults, $25 seniors, $10 students. All seating general admission.
About Composer Jonas Tarm
Estonian-American Jonas Tarm (b. 1994) has focused in recent years primarily on work as a composer for the concert stage and film. Various ensembles have commissioned him to write original music, including the Tallinn Philharmonic Society, New York Virtuoso Singers, Fraternity Ugala, New York Youth Symphony and the Estonian XXVII Song Festival. His work has also been performed worldwide by ensembles such as the Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn in Germany, Camerata Notturna Orchestra in New York, New World Symphony Players in Miami – among others. Jonas has worked closely with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and its celebrated conductor, Risto Joost since 2013: the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra has premiered four of Jonas’ major works and has performed his works worldwide.
Jonas has worked as a composer and music producer for film production companies such as Mida’s Cave and Found Objects Music Productions. Jonas recently released his first album There Was a Beginning – a soundtrack recorded by the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra for Mida Chu's film. Among other recent events include Jonas’ Estonian Song Festival debut with the newly commissioned work Päike laulab (The Sun Sings) for an 800 person symphony orchestra.
Jonas received his bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory with artistic and academic honors in 2016 where he studied with Efstratios Minakakis, Anthony Coleman and John Mallia. He completed his master’s degree studies with Efstratios Minakakis and Michael Gandolfi at the New England Conservatory in May 2019 with the Francis Judd Cooke Scholarship.
About the Rapido! Composition Contest
Rapido!® A 14-Day Composition Contest was founded by the Atlanta Chamber Players & The Antinori Foundation in 2009 to promote new chamber music compositions. The Rapido Contest challenges composers of all ages to submit an original chamber work of 4-6 minutes composed in just 14 days: musical form and instrumentation are specified. 15 Semi-Finalist works compete at regional concerts, followed by a National Finals Concert with 5 Finalists competing. First prize includes a $5,000 Commission - to expand the winning work for premiere performance by partner ensembles in five US cities the following season and - capping the Rapido contest! - to compose a work for symphony orchestra to be premiered by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra!
About Boston Musica Viva
Music Director Richard Pittman founded Boston Musica Viva in 1969 as the first professional ensemble in Boston devoted to contemporary music, and today it is the oldest new music ensemble in the United States. Through the years, BMV has become one of the most highly respected ensembles of its kind, with an international reputation for innovation and excellence. Andrea Musso of the Corriere di Torino praised “the superb versatility of the ensemble,” and Tim Page of The New York Times wrote that BMV is “justly celebrated as one of the finest new music ensembles in the United States.”
Boston Musica Viva is particularly proud to have been an early champion of composers including Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, John Harbison, Joseph Schwantner, and Steven Stucky, each of whom went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. In its 50-year history, BMV has performed over 600 works by over 250 composers, including 240 world premieres.
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