January 15, 2012| Sunday 7:30:pm
Miller Recital Hall, Manhattan School of Music, New York City World premiere -Soprano Susan Narucki and pianist Christopher Oldfather present the world premiere of New York composer Hayes Biggs' "Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs" as part of an evening of the music honoring the composer at the Manhattan School of Music, New York, New York. The recital takes place in MSM's Miller Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. , Sunday, January 15, 2012.
The composer offers this program note:
Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs (2011) (World Premiere)
1. From Psalm 139
2. Psalm 121 (Metrical version by Michael Wigglesworth, 1631–1705)
3. Vertue (George Herbert, 1593–1633)
4. The Bliss of Brahman (Sri Aurobindo Ghose, 1872-1950)
5. Let Evening Come (Jane Kenyon, 1947-1995)
6. God’s Grandeur (Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1844–1889)
Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs is my first major cycle for voice and piano. Its title comes from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians (5:19), in which he exhorts them to address one another “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” — virtually a definition of devotional poetry.
The cycle’s genesis was my desire to set Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “God’s Grandeur,” a poem I’ve known and loved since I was introduced to it in high school by my English teacher Vera Miller. My initial musical idea for the Hopkins setting — which is dedicated to Mrs. Miller’s memory — came in the late 1980s, years before I got around to the actual composition of the song, which I completed in 2005. The sheer length of the setting seemed to dictate that it would be part of a sizeable work, and the search for other suitable poetry ensued.
The form that the cycle took was that of two large songs bookending the structure: the Hopkins at the end, and verses from Psalm 139 at the beginning. The four songs in the middle are of more modest dimensions, ranging from a metrical version of Psalm 121 by a 17th-century Puritan minister to poems by George Herbert, Sri Aurobindo Ghose and the contemporary American poet Jane Kenyon.
The entire cycle is dedicated to tonight’s performers with gratitude, and a few other dedications should be mentioned: “From Psalm 139,” to the memory of my father, William Winstead Biggs; “Psalm 121” to my friend and MSM colleague Mark Stambaugh, “Vertue” to the memory of my great-aunt and great-uncle Mary Jo and Phil McGary, and “The Bliss of Brahman” to the memory of Alexandra Montano, a great singer and wonderful artist. Thanks to the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Yaddo for the residencies that allowed much of this work to be composed.
February 3, 2012| Friday 8:00:pm
Birmingham, U.K. Grisey and Clancy with Birmingham Contemporary Music GroupSoprano Susan Narucki joins conductor Clement Power and the members of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group for the world premiere of Findentotenlieder for soprano and ensemble by BCMG composer in residence, Seán Clancy and for Gerard Grisey's masterwork Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil.
March 5, 2012| Monday 8:00:pm
Conrad Prebys Music Center, San Diego Camera Lucida - SchoenbergSoprano Susan Narucki joins members of the San Diego Symphony and cellist Charles Curtis in a performance of Schoenberg's Second String Quartet, for string quartet and voice, on the Camera Lucida chamber music series.
March 10, 2012| Saturday 7:30:pm
Portland Youth Symphony Mahler Symphony No. 4Soprano Susan Narucki joins conductor David Hattner and the Portland Youth Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler's Fourth Symphony at the Arlene Schnitzer Hall, Portland Oregon. For tickets and more information, www.portlandyouthphil.org/
March 30, 2012| Friday 8:00:pm
Roger S. Berlind Theater, Princeton University Anthony Davis - Lear on the Second FloorThe Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts presents The Princeton One-Act Opera Project, an evening of three original one-act operas on Friday and Saturday, March 30 and 31 at 8:00 p.m. in the Roger S. Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton. The unique new works, each redefining what opera might be, are by composer Anthony Davis with playwright Allan Havis, composer and librettist and Princeton University Professor Barbara White with choreographer Kate Weare, and Princeton undergraduates James Chu ’13 (composer) and Lily Akerman ’13 (librettist). The disparate operas are unified by the vision of director Mark DeChiazza with Princeton’s Michael Pratt conducting. Sopranos Susan Narucki and Sarah Davis will be featured, and the casts include a range of professional singers and musicians and undergraduate student performers. Both performances will be preceded by a conversation with the artists, moderated by Atelier Director and Princeton Professor of Theater, Stacy Wolf, from 7:15-7:45 p.m. in the Berlind Theatre.
Composed by Davis with a libretto by Havis, Lear on the 2nd Floor is a contemporary take on Shakespeare’s King Lear. Grammy award-winning soprano Susan Narucki portrays Nora Lear, a prominent neuroscience researcher beset with early onset Alzheimer’s. As Nora loses her bearings and her autonomy, she is increasingly at the mercy of her three quarreling daughters. Nora’s dead husband Mortimer is Shakespeare’s fool in this version and is her constant companion as she walks through a world where the past and present blend and reality bends. Davis’s arrangement and instrumentation reflect diverse influences ranging from classical opera to jazz to reggae.
Opera News has called Anthony Davis a “National Treasure” for his pioneering work in opera. In his operas X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, Tania, and Wakonda's Dream, Davis provides a political and social critique of America with music that embraces a spectrum of influences from Wagner and Berg to Ellington and Mingus to the Indonesian gamelan and South Indian ragas. Davis also composed the music for the Broadway production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. He is a Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego.
Over three decades, Allan Havis has had his plays produced at and commissioned by theatres across the country and in Europe. His fifteen full length published plays include Morocco and The Tutor, which received San Diego’s 2008 Patté Best Play award. Since 2006, Havis has been Provost of Thurgood Marshall College at the University of California, San Diego.
April 5, 2012| Thursday 8:00:pm
Tufts University, Boston MA Pierrot LunaireThe culminating event of a forum on Pierrot Lunaire organized by Tufts Faculty members Donald Berman and Schoenberg scholar Joseph Auner. Soprano Susan Narucki joins Boston musicians Joanna Kurkowicz, Emmanuel Feldman, Diane Heffner, Sarah Brady, and Berman for a performance celebrating the centennial of this seminal 20th Century masterwork.
April 25, 2012| Wednesday 7:00:pm
Conrad Prebys Music Center, UC San Diego Songs by Zemlinsky, Webern and KurtágSoprano Susan Narucki and pianist Aleck Karis present an evening of gorgeous works for voice and piano: songs by Alexander Zemlinsky, Anton Webern, op. 4, and Kurtág's Three Old Inscriptions, op. 25. Also on the program, bass baritone Philip Larson in songs of Brahms, Mahler and Wolf. The program is on the UCSD Department of Music's Concert Series: Weds@7.
For more information: musicweb.ucsd.edu/concerts/
May 30, 2012| Wednesday 7:00:pm
Conrad Prebys Music Center, San Diego The Kaiser of AtlantisUCSD faculty members Susan Narucki, Steven Schick, grad students from UC San Diego Department of Music and special guests collaborate in performances of Viktor Ullman's powerful chamber opera 'The Kaiser of Atlantis', written in 1943, while the composer was interred in the concentration camp Theresienstadt. When the opera's obvious references to the Nazi regime were discovered during rehearsal, the work was banned; it had tragic consequences for the composer and his family. Miraculously, the work survived.
The story is a type of fable. After a protracted and violent war, Death discovers that his job has been taken away from him by the "Kaiser of Atlantis". Death decides to go on strike; all of a sudden the concept of war, victory and defeat becomes irrelevant. The result is moving and heartbreaking.
The cast includes sopranos Tiffany Du Mouchelle, Bonnie Lander and Alice Teyssier, guest artists baritones Vince Vincent, Ryan Reithmeier, tenor Gerald Seminatore and and UCSD Professor Philip Larson. Professor Steven Schick conducts UCSD's new music ensemble palimpsest, Susan Narucki directs. The production team also includes Orli Nativ, costume designer and Gaeun Kim, scenic designer, both from UCSD Department of Theater and Dance..
'The Kaiser of Atlantis' is an initiative of kallisti, whose mission includes presenting works of modern music theater in an intimate setting, led by Susan Narucki.
June 1, 2012| Friday 7:00:pm
Conrad Prebys Music Center, UC San Diego The Kaiser of AtlantisA repeat performance of The Kaiser of Atlantis. (See May 30 listing).
June 2, 2012| Saturday 7:00:pm
Conrad Prebys Music Center, UC San Diego The Kaiser of AtlantisA repeat performance of The Kaiser of Atlantis. (See May 30 listing.)
July 1, 2012| Sunday 8:00:pm
Putney, Vermont Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival and SchoolSoprano Susan Narucki will be serving as a member of the faculty of the reknowned Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival and School during July 1-15, 2012. Watch this space for more information, concert listings and events. yellowbarn.org
August 14, 2012| Tuesday 8:00:pm
Salt Bay Chamberfest Lukas FossSoprano Susan Narucki joins Salt Bay Chamber Music Festival founder cellist Wilhelmina Smith, Daniel Druckman, Tom Sauer and Burt Hara in a performance of Foss' classic "Time Cycle" .
November 30, 2012| Friday 8:00:pm
Montpelier, France Elliot CarterSoprano Susan Narucki sings the role of Mama in the Opera de Montpelier's new production of Eliott Carter's modern classic "What Next?" and a world premiere of JETZT by Mathis Nitschke. Watch this space for more information.
December 2, 2012| Sunday 8:00:pm
Montepelier, France Eliott Carter - What Next?A repeat of the November 30, 2012 performance.
December 6, 2012| Thursday 08:00:pm
Harvard University, Cambridge MA Narucki and Alarm Will Sound in Reynolds' Seasons: Cycle IISoprano Susan Narucki joins conductor Alan Pierson and members of Alarm will Sound in the Harvard Composer in Residence Roger Reynolds' Seasons: Cycle II. Written for Narucki and Alarm will Sound, Seasons: Cycle II had its world premiere in July 2011.
