National Sawdust Presents MUSIC OF LISA BIELAWA Performed By American Contemporary Music Ensemble, 4/6

On Thursday, April 6, 2017 at 7pm, National Sawdust (80 N 6th St.) will present a concert of the music of composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa, performed by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) with Bielawa as vocal soloist. The program, part of National Sawdust's series curated by composer Theo Bleckmann, will feature Bielawa's A Collective Cleansing (2000) for solo voice and digital audio, Graffiti Dell'amante (2010) for string quartet and soprano, Genesis Again (1998) for soprano and violin, and two arias from her episodic opera Vireo: "The Bat" and "The Dragon and the Girl." Bielawa lovingly dedicates this concert to the memory of longtime MATA Board President, Ellen Brody Hughes and says, "While this evening centers around works I've created expressly for myself as vocalist, this concert nevertheless turns outwards rather than in, a celebration of more than two decades of collaborations." ACME members performing include Ben Russell (violin), Laura Lutzke (violin), Caleb Burhans (viola), and Paul Wiancko (cello).

Bielawa premiered A Collective Cleansing in September 2000 at NYC's The Kitchen. It is her only work for her own voice multi-tracked, and includes selected choral excerpts in both Greek and English from the Aeschylus tragedy The Suppliant Maidens. Bielawa says, "You will hear me sing with 10 other Lisas, 17 years younger than this one!"

Graffiti Dell'amante is an open-ended musical-dramatic exploration of the multi-faceted predicament of the Lover from Roland Barthes' A Lover's Discourse. Bielawa describes Graffiti dell'amante as "a veritable explosion of collaborative energies, drawing on an invitation from Brooklyn Rider to make a piece for us to perform together during my Rome Prize year, although it was ACME who gave these songs their first NYC performance in 2010. Three of the five short pieces in this set celebrate the work of my Rome Prize colleagues - poets Peter Campion and Eliza Griswold, and Leonard Barkan's joyful translation of one of Michelangelo's love sonnets. This piece was commissioned by Ellen Brody Hughes."

Genesis Again was written in collaboration with violinist Carla Kihlstedt and Vireo librettist Erik Ehn and was premiered at the Bang on a Can Festival in New York in 1999. Scored sections trade off with improvised sections, sometimes together, sometimes with violin alone. This project was a study for the last scene of a chamber opera entitled Spooky Action at a Distance, written in free response to Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. The opera centers on the shape and limits of compassion, through the story of a doctor's reaction to losing patients by means beyond her control.

"The Bat" and "The Dragon and the Girl" are arias from Bielwa's current project Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser, a new opera composed on a libretto by Erik Ehn and directed by Charles Otte, which is unprecedented in that it is being created expressly for episodic release via broadcast and online media. ACME brought Vireo's aria "The Bat" to life in the opera's ninth episode, which was filmed at Alcatraz prison in June 2016. Bielawa says, "Not long after arriving in NYC in 1992 (and meeting Theo Bleckmann, my very first month here!), I began working with playwright Erik Ehn, whose libretto for my current made-for-TV opera Vireo saw its first draft in 1994. The two arias I will sing from Vireo were both sketched out in 1994 but not worked through or completed until 2016." Vireo, winner of the 2015 ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Multimedia Award, is a partnership with KCETLink and an artist residency project of Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) in Santa Ana, an outgrowth of Cal State Fullerton, Director/Chief Curator John Spiak. In May 2017, KCET will release the entire season of Vireo at once for free, on-demand streaming, which is a first for the network.

About Lisa Bielawa: Composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa is a 2009 Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition. She takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. The New York Times describes her music as, "ruminative, pointillistic and harmonically slightly tart."

Bielawa began touring as the vocalist with the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1992 and has premiered and toured works by John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, and Michael Gordon. In 1997, she co-founded the MATA Festival, which celebrates the work of young composers. Bielawa was appointed Artistic Director of the acclaimed San Francisco Girls Chorus in 2013 and is an artist-in-residence at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California.

Her music is frequently performed throughout the US and Europe, with recent and upcoming highlights including two world premieres at the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL, Wait premiered by pianist Jon Nakamatsu and the San Francisco Girl's Chorus, Neumark Dances performed at the American Guild of Organists 2014 National Convention, Vireo Canons and Chorale commissioned for the finalists of the American Pianists Association International Competition, Drama/Self Pity premiered by the Orlando Philharmonic, performances as both composer and soloist at the Kennedy Center's KC Jukebox series and SHIFT Festival, and a concert of her works at National Sawdust.

Bielawa's latest works for performance in public places include Chance Encounter, a piece comprising songs and arias constructed of speech overheard in transient public spaces, which was premiered by soprano Susan Narucki and The Knights in Lower Manhattan's Seward Park, and Airfield Broadcasts, a 60-minute work for hundreds of musicians that premiered on the tarmac of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin in May 2013 and at Crissy Field in San Francisco in October 2013.

Bielawa's latest album, The Lay of the Love, was released on Innova in June 2015. Her discography also includes albums on the Tzadik, TROY, Innova, BMOP/sound, Orange Mountain Music and Sono Luminus labels. For more information, please visit www.lisabielawa.net.

About ACME: The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) was honored by ASCAP during its 10th anniversary season in 2015 for the "virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers." NPR calls them "contemporary music dynamos," and The New York Times describes ACME's performances as "vital," "brilliant," and "electrifying." Time Out New York reports, "[Artistic Director Clarice] Jensen has earned a sterling reputation for her fresh, inclusive mix of minimalists, maximalists, eclectics and newcomers."

ACME has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, New World, New Amsterdam, and Butterscotch Records. Their recording with thereminist Carolina Eyck Fantasias (Butterscotch Records) was released in October 2016. ACME also released its first portrait album on Sono Luminus in February 2017, featuring music by members Caroline Shaw, Timo Andres, and Caleb Burhans, plus John Luther Adams. The group's 16-17 season includes a performance with Carolina Eyck at Baryshnikov Arts Center; a tour with Blonde Redhead performing their album "Misery is a Butterfly;" a tour with Grammy- and Oscar-nominated composer Jóhann Jóhannsson in music from his new Deutsche Grammophon album; two performances of Jóhannsson's ACME-commissioned Drone Mass at Duke Performances and Big Ears; a concert of composer Lisa Bielawa's works at National Sawdust; and a performance with Jóhannsson at the LA Phil's Reykjavik Festival at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

ACME's dedication to new music extends across genres and has earned them a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. ACME's many collaborators have included The Richard Alston Dance Company, Wayne McGregor's Random Dance, Gibney Dance, actress Barbara Sukowa, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, Grizzly Bear, Low, Matmos, Jeff Mangum, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Roomful of Teeth, Lionheart, and Theo Bleckmann. The group has performed at leading venues including Carnegie Hall, BAM, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Miller Theatre, The Met Museum, Constellation Chicago, Stanford Live, UCLA, Peak Performances, Melbourne Recital Hall, Big Ears, Sydney Opera House, the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Poland, and All Tomorrow's Parties in the UK, among many others. For more information, visit www.acmemusic.org.