Mimesis Ensemble’s 2011-12 Season Opens With Young Voices

Mimesis Ensemble's 2011-12 season opens with "Young Voices," a program bringing together three of the foremost young composers for voice. Acclaimed composers Thomas Adès, Mohammed Fairouz, and Gabriel Kahane represent the exciting trends in vocal composition that have been emerging over the past 20 years. The program opens with Thomas Adès' Five Eliot Landscapes, his Opus 1 from 1990. Anthony Tommasini comments in a March, 2008 New York Times review on the setting of these T.S. Eliot poems: "the poems Mr. Adès chose are impressionistic portraits of places, and he presents the words in an impressionistic manner." This work is followed by Gabriel Kahane's Craigslistlieder, a cycle which sets real listings from Craigslist. Steven Blier writes in his program notes for New York Festival Of Song, "The songs are LOL funny, but also strangely touching, completely modern in their texts but hewing closely to the values of great songwriters of the past."

The second half of the program opens with three art songs by Mohammed Fairouz, setting poetry by W.B. Yeats ("The Stolen Child"), William Wordsworth ("We Are Seven"), and Ibn Shuhayd ("After the Revels"). A trilogy of song cycles by Fairouz, set to poetry by Judson Evans, brings the program to a close ("Four Haiku Poems", "Panopticon", and "Bonsai Journal"). The poet writes of the setting for the final work: "I imagine that it is very rare, considering their possessiveness, for poets to feel that a poetic work can achieve its ultimate fulfillment in a musical setting, but with 'Bonsai Journal' I must give Mohammed credit for an interpretation both true and clairvoyant."

MIMESIS ENSEMBLE
The Mimesis Ensemble is a New York City based ensemble dedicated to promoting 20th and 21st century music through dynamic performances. Founded in the Fall of 2008, the Mimesis Ensemble has performed over 30 concerts in three seasons at renowned venues such as Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space, the Miller Theatre at Columbia University, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, and Northeastern University. The Mimesis Ensemble has the ability to present performance forces ranging from solos to chamber groups to orchestra. This flexibility allows Mimesis to embrace the many unique combinations of instruments called for by 20th and 21st century composers.

Fostering close relationships with the composers they program, musicians are often coached and/or conducted by the composers themselves. The Mimesis Ensemble has worked directly with Samuel Adler, Martin Bresnick, Robert Cogan, Richard Danielpour, Halim El-Dabh, Pozzi Escot, Anthony De Ritis, Mohammed Fairouz, John Heiss, David McMullin, Malcolm Peyton, Tobias Picker, Gunther Schuller, Scott Wheeler, and Yehudi Wyner. Members of the ensemble come from renowned conservatories and universities, including The Juilliard School, The Curtis Institute of Music, Yale University, The New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and Mannes College. These vigorous advocates for the flourishing of music are passionately dedicated to the performance of contemporary music.

Mimesis Ensemble / "Young Voices"
Saturday, October 8, 2011 / 7pm
Tenri Cultural Institute / 43 West 13th St., New York, NY
Tickets: $25 ($20 in advance) /$15 with student ID
Info: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=SUM17

PROGRAM
Thomas Adès: Five Eliot Landscapes (1990)
Gabriel Kahane: Craigslistlieder (2006)
Mohammed Fairouz: The Stolen Child (2005), After the Revels (2009), We Are Seven (2009) Four Haiku Poems (2004), Panopticon (2006), Bonsai Journal (2007)

ARTISTS:
Marcy Richardson, soprano
Robert Mack, tenor
Christopher Johnstone, baritone
Drew Santini, baritone
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone
Taka Kigawa, piano
Katie Reimer, piano

WEBSITES:
www.mimesisensemble.org