New York-based composer Gerald Cohen (www.geraldcohenmusic.com), known for his moving and vibrant chamber music, opera, choral and liturgical music, announces an exciting and important upcoming world premiere: Voyagers, to be performed with astronomical projections at New York's esteemed Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History on November 28th, is a new quintet inspired by the Voyager space mission.
Voyagers, a composition for clarinet and string quartet, is a tribute to the two Voyager spacecraft on the 40th anniversary of their launch, and of the music sent to accompany them on their journey out of the solar system. The piece, a linking of music, science and visual art, was commissioned by and written for the Cassatt Quartet and clarinetist Vasko Dukovski. Accompanying astronomical visualizations will be created by Carter Emmart, director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History.
The work will be performed at the Museum's Hayden Planetarium Space Theater in New York City on November 28, 2017 at 7pm. Tickets range from $12-$15 and are available at
www.amnh.org/learn-teach/adults/hayden-planetarium-programs/astronomy-live-voyagers
Cohen says "When the Cassatt Quartet asked me to write a piece based on the theme of 'voyages' for a planned concert, I recalled that the two Voyager spacecraft-launched in the late 1970s, explorers of the outer planets, and now journeying beyond the edge of our solar system-were each launched with a 'Golden Record', the brainchild of Carl Sagan, containing recordings of selections of Earth's music, along with photos and sounds of human life. This was sent as a message, to any extra-terrestrial civilization that might find the record, to convey the essence of human life on Earth."
This 25-minute piece focuses on several of the pieces that were part of the Golden Record, and weaves them together in a composition that celebrates humanity's quest to explore the universe, and the power of music to express the rich emotional and cultural world of human beings. The creators of the Golden Record chose a very idiosyncratic selection of pieces from around the world, and Cohen has in turn chosen several of these pieces-a Renaissance dance, an Indian Raga and a late Beethoven quartet-as the main source material for his composition about music and exploration.
Best-selling author, documentary filmmaker and producer of the Voyager Golden Record, Timothy Ferris (timothyferris.com), will be giving a brief contextual talk at the top of the program. Ferris has been called Called "the best popular science writer in the English language" by The Christian Science Monitor and "the best science writer of his generation" by The Washington Post.
About Gerald Cohen (
geraldcohenmusic.com)
Composer Gerald Cohen has been praised for his "linguistic fluidity and melodic gift," creating music that "reveals a very personal modernism that...offers great emotional rewards." (Gramophone Magazine). His deeply affecting compositions have been recognized with numerous awards and critical accolades. The music on his recently released CD, Sea of Reeds (Navona), "is filled with vibrant melody, rhythmic clarity, drive and compositional construction...a sheer delight to hear." (Gapplegate Music Review)
His opera, Steal a Pencil for Me, based on a true concentration camp love story, will have its world premiere production by Opera Colorado in January 2018; excerpts were featured at Forth Worth Opera's Frontiers Festival in 2016. Lucid Culture's review of a 2013 semi-staged version noted the effectiveness of Cohen's "...mesmerizingly hypnotic, intricately contrapuntal" music, with moments of "...Bernard Herrmann-esque, shivery terror...". Cohen's operas Sarah and Hagar, based on the story from the book of Genesis, and Seed, a one-act opera about love and choices for a post-apocalyptic couple, have been performed in concert form. Cohen is a noted synagogue cantor and baritone; his experience as a singer informs his dramatic, lyrical compositions. Cohen's best-known work, his "shimmering setting" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) of Psalm 23, has received thousands of performances from synagogues and churches to
Carnegie Hall and the Vatican.
Recognition of Cohen's body of work includes the Copland House Borromeo String Quartet Award and Hoff-Barthelson/Copland House commission, Westchester Prize for New Work, American Composers Forum Faith Partners residency, and Cantors Assembly's Max Wohlberg Award for distinguished achievement in the field of Jewish composition. Cohen received the Yale University's Sudler Prize for outstanding achievement in the creative arts, and has been awarded commissioning grants from Meet the Composer, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and Westchester Arts Council. Throughout his career, he has been selected for residencies including those at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and American Lyric Theater. Cohen's music has been commissioned and performed by chamber ensembles, choruses, and soloists throughout the United States.
Cohen's compositions are published by Oxford University Press, G. Schirmer/AMP and Transcontinental Music Publications. Gerald Cohen received a BA in music from Yale University and a DMA in composition from Columbia University. He is cantor at Shaarei Tikvah, Scarsdale, NY, and is on the faculties of The Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College.
The Cassatt String Quartet (
cassattquartet.com) was the first quartet in Juilliard's Young Artists Quartet Program. Performances include Queen Elizabeth II's Jubilee Celebration in London, New York's Alice Tully Hall, and Weill Recital Hall at
Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood Music Theater, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Theatre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the Beijing Central Conservatory in China. At the Library of Congress, the Cassatt performed on the library's matched quartet of Stradivarius instruments, and they performed the three complete Beethoven Quartet cycles at the University at Buffalo.
The Cassatt String Quartet has been heard on NPR's Performance Today, Boston's WGBH, and New York's WQXR and WNYC. They have 30 recordings, and were named three times to
Alex Ross' 10 best classical recordings of the year in The New Yorker magazine.The quartet is named for the celebrated American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt.
Cassatt String Quartet members include: Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower, violins; Ah Ling Neu, viola; and
Elizabeth Anderson, cello.
Vasko Dukovski, clarinet, is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist and diverse stylistic performer of the highest caliber. An avid performer and advocate of Avant-garde Free Style Improv and Contemporary classical music, Dukovski has collaborated with some of New York's most respected ensembles including Argento New Music Ensemble, Bang on A Can All Stars, Either/OR Ensemble, and others. In addition of being a front man of his world music group Tavche Gravche, he is a member and a co-founder of Grneta Ensemble. Dukovski has recorded for Naxos American Classics, Tzadik, Sono Luminous/Dorian, INNOVA Recordings, Deutsche Grammophon, Albany Records, New World Recordings, and Navona Records. He has Bachelors and Masters degrees from The Juilliard School of Music as a student of Charles Neidich and Ayako Oshima.
