Callithumpian Consort + [nec]shivaree: Harrison, Cage, Earl Kim
NEC faculty Stephen Drury created the Callithumpian Consort and [nec]shivaree in the belief that new music should be an exciting adventure shared by performers and listeners alike, and that the brand new masterpieces of our day are beautiful, sensuous, challenging, delightful, provocative, and a unique joy.
Callithumpian’s repertoire is the new and unusual, encompassing a huge stylistic spectrum from the classics of the last 100 years to works of the avant-garde and experimental jazz and rock. It is grounded in the musical discoveries of John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Zorn, Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman, and Iannis Xenakis. [nec]shivaree is the attack wing of NEC's new music program, performing the modern, the new, and the avant-garde.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council and administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. It is a continuation of Callithumpian Consort's Summer institute for Contemporary Performance Practice and recevies friendly support of the Ernst von Siemen's Music Foundation.
Tonight's concert is dedicated to the memory of Carol Woodworth.
Access the concert program in our digital archive.
This is an in-person event with a private stream available to the NEC community here: https://necmusic.edu/live
Lou Harrison | Six Sonatas
Moderato
Allegro
Moderato
Allegro
Moderato
AllegroArtists- Yukiko Takagi, piano
John Cage | Four (1989)
Artists- Lilit Hartunia, Caroline Jesalva, violin
- Julian Sneige-Seney, viola
- Stephen Marotto, cello
Earl Kim | Where Grief Slumbers (1982)
Listen to it rain
from Drunken Boat
It's raining
Ophelia
The Farewell
The Departure
The girl with orange lipsLucy Fitz Gibbon
Noted for her “dazzling, virtuoso singing” (Boston Globe), soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon is a dynamic musician whose repertoire spans the Renaissance to the present. She believes that creating new works and recreating those lost in centuries past makes room for the multiplicity and diversity of voices integral to classical music’s future. As such, Ms. Fitz Gibbon has given U.S. premieres of rediscovered works by Baroque composers Francesco Sacrati, Barbara Strozzi, and Agostino Agazzari, as well by 20th century composers including Tadeusz Kassern, Roman Palester, and Jean Barraqué. She has also worked closely with numerous others, workshopping and premiering works by a wide range of composers including John Harbison, Kate Soper, Sheila Silver, David Hertzberg, Reena Esmail, Roberto Sierra, Anna Lindemann, and Pauline Oliveros. In helping to realize the complexities of music beyond written notes, the experience of working with these composers translates to all music: the commitment to faithfully communicate not only the score, but also the underlying intentions of its creator.
Program note
Apollinaire's poem, It's raining, in which the words form delicate chains of raindrops, and a verse from Rimbaud's, Le bateau ivre, translated by Beckett—"I have dreamt the green nights drifts of dazzled snow"—were the two initial sources of inspiration which resulted in the song cycle Where Grief Slumbers. Images of rain, snow, sea, and the calm black waters of the river that cradles Ophelia are coupled with reflections on departure and farewells.
– Earl KimArtists- Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano
- Maria Rindenello-Spraker, harp
- Lilit Hartunian, Caroline Jesalva, Jordan Hadrill, Natalie Boberg, violin
- Julian Sneige-Seney, Asher Boorstin, viola
- Stephen Marotto, Jeffrey Ho, cello
[nec]shivaree
[nec]shivaree, the NEC Avant-Garde Ensemble directed by Stephen Drury, is the attack wing of NEC's new music program, performing the modern, the new, and the avant-garde. Sounds are provided by such composers as John Cage, Steve Reich, Morton Feldman, George Crumb, Galina Ustvolskaya, and Giacinto Scelsi. The players of [nec]shivaree have worked with composers John Zorn, John Luther Adams, Christian Wolff, and Frederic Rzewski. The group gives concerts both inside and outside of the Conservatory, and has performed regularly at the Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge and Tonic and The Stone in New York.