Talea Ensemble Announces 2023-2024 Season

The Talea Ensemble – comprised of sixteen bold and boundary-breaking  musicians, with a mission to champion musical creativity, cultivate curious listeners, and bring visionary new works to life – today announces its fifteenth and 2023-2024 season of performances. New York audiences can anticipate multiple world and US premieres, a special winter solstice concert, public showcases of two new operas in the workshopping process, numerous commissions, and a recording residency.

Quickly following two August performances at the TIME:SPANS Festival, Talea resumes its exciting programming at JACK in Brooklyn on Friday, September 15, 2023 at 8:00pm. The concert, titled Shades of Words, explores the themes of words in music, and features works by Hannah Kendall, Jeffrey Mumford, Andile Khumalo, Jessie Cox, and George Lewis. Some of these compositions pull words from poetry (for example, Kendall's Even sweetness can scratch the throat takes its title from a poem by Ocean Vuong, calling to mind the dichotomy between the sweetness of sugar and the human exploitation it took to produce sugar throughout history; and in Andile Khumalo's Shades of Words, the ensemble develops fragments of spoken poetry through musical textures). The pieces selected for this program employ a variety of imaginative mediums to weave together words and music, from the use of a narrator, to walkie talkies, to breaking the fourth wall between performers and audience.

On Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 6:00pm at the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew in Manhattan, Talea Ensemble presents, That Other Spring - Music of Haas & Hersch, an evening of works by Georg Friedrich Haas and Michael Hersch, including the US premiere of Hersch's one step to the next, worlds ending, Hersch's anonymous beneath the lemon trees, and Haas' … wie stille brannte das Licht. The concert features celebrated soprano Ah Young Hong, noted for her visionary interpretations of works from Baroque to modern. She was acclaimed for premiering Michael Hersch's poignant monodrama On the Threshold of Winter and more recently performed the title role of the opera Poppaea. This program explores the full gamut of expression, vigor, and versatility of voice in music today.

Ah Young Hong explains, “Hersch's anonymous beneath the lemon trees was written in response to the pandemic, one step to the next, worlds ending was a gradual return from all the darkness, and Haas's ...wie stille brannte das Licht captures a strain of wistfulness."

The Talea Ensemble next collaborates with Alec Hall on a new opera, The Life to Come, which is based on a short story by E.M. Forster. Workshop days take place on Saturday, November 18 and Sunday, November 19, 2023 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music's Mary Flagler Cary Hall, with a presentation open to the public on Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 2:00pm. Originally written in 1922, Forster's short story was not published until after the author's death in 1970 due to its explicit interracial homosexuality. In collaboration with librettist and poet Vanessa Place, Hall's opera sets Forster's story as a tale about English colonial violence in South America, queerness, and the birth of love. The Talea Ensemble plans to premiere the full opera in its 2024-2025 season. The Life to Come is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.  

On the winter solstice, Thursday, December 21, 2023 at sunset (approximately 4:26pm), the ensemble will perform Georg Friedrich Haas's Solstices for ten musicians in complete darkness at PS 21 in Chatham, NY. By taking away light from the artists and audience's experience, the concert will add a new lens to our ability to relate to sound, bringing everyone together through intensive listening. Solstices is an immersive, sensory work expanding the listening experience through worlds of microtones and overtones, and evoking the natural phenomena of planetary movement.

Talea will next embark on a week-long composer reading and recording workshop to be held at Queens College's Aaron Copland School of Music. From Monday, January 15 to Saturday, January 20, 2024, the ensemble will work with a group of early-career composers to workshop their recent pieces and produce high-quality professional recordings for the composers' use. A full schedule of public professional development workshops and a final residency concert will be announced at a later date. The Talea Recording Workshop is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Based on Ukrainian-born Brazilian author Clarice Lispector's final novel, The Hour of the Star (1978), Suzanne Farrin's new opera Macabea will feature six singers, chamber ensemble, and electronics. As part of the development process, Talea workshops segments of the opera from Tuesday, February 6 to Thursday, February 8, 2024, culminating with a public showcase on Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 8:00 pm at Hunter College's Ida K. Lang Recital Hall. This project is a collaboration between the Talea Ensemble, filmmaker Noelia Quintero, libretto consultant Graciela Montaldo, and the American Opera Project. Sergio Chejfec produced a finished final draft of the libretto before his death in 2022. Macabea is presented with the friendly support of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung.

Written for Talea will feature works commissioned by the ensemble. This season's program, which takes place on Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 7:30pm at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, will look back at the past 15 years of commissions and premieres, while also bringing to life new works by composers Talea will continue to celebrate for years to come. Full program to be announced at a later date.

On Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 7:00pm, the Talea Ensemble is featured in a concert of world premieres featuring works by Columbia University composers also at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

The Talea Ensemble partners with Catapult Opera on a new production of Nadia Boulanger's only known opera, La Ville Morte, at NYU Skirball Center with three performances on Friday, April 19, 2024 at 7:30pm, Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 7:30pm, and Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 3:00pm. The score for La Ville Morte was destroyed in World War I but reconstructed for performance in the early 2000s. Set amongst the ruins of Agamemnon's palace Mycenae, La Ville Morte follows a cast of archaeologists fraught by illicit love and incest, and delves into the relationship between blindness and the subconscious mind. 

On Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 7:30pm at the West End Theatre of the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew in Manhattan is Talea Encores, a concert featuring intimate chamber works by composers with whom the ensemble has existing collaborations. Since 2022, Encores has become a recurring initiative of Talea's New York programming and represents the group's commitment to building strong, long-term partnerships with composers. Event program to be announced at a later date.

Ambassadors, Talea's newest initiative, is a season-long hybrid residency spotlighting composers and artists from a different country or region each season through performance, podcast interviews, and discussion. This year, the ensemble's focus is on France, and the group has commissioned French composer Sanae Ishida as a cornerstone project for Aux Etoiles. Ishida's new work, In Pursuit of True Happiness, is inspired by the intimate, dreamlike, and spiritual world of the short story Night of the Milky Way Railway written by Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), and will have its world premiere on Saturday, June 1, 2024 at 7:30pm at the West End Theatre of the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew in Manhattan. Also programmed on Talea's season closing concert is the US premiere of Georges Aperghis's Carsten Trio, commissioned by Talea Ensemble board member Katharina Pistor and Carsten Bönnemann; Samir Amarouch's Electronica-1, which utilizes acoustic instruments to mimic the sounds and synchronicities of electronic music and explores what happens when those synchronicities unravel; the textural and dreamlike Cloud Trio by the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's, who lived and worked in France; and Gérard Grisey's Talea. Additional Ambassadors events will be announced throughout the season, spanning podcast interviews, panel discussions, and other engaging content highlighting the work and creative processes of Talea's partner composers. Ishida's work is made possible in part with the support of the FACE Foundation.

The Talea Ensemble is currently comprised of the following members: Tara Helen O'Connor and Barry Crawford (flutes), Rane Moore and Marianne Gythfeldt (clarinets), Adrian Morejon (bassoon & Executive Director), Karen Kim (violin), Hannah Levinson (viola), Chris Gross (cello), Greg Chudzik (double bass), Sam Jones (trumpet), Mike Lormand (trombone), Steven Beck and Stephen Gosling (piano), Matthew Gold (percussion), David Adamcyk (electronics), and James Baker (Principal Conductor).

“We celebrate our 15th Anniversary Season by both looking back at works formative to the ensemble and looking forward to new collaborations with the next generation of composers,” said Executive Director Adrian Morejon. “The significance of words and the voice in music is a central theme to our season. We are also enthusiastic about the continued growth of our artist development initiatives, such as the Emerging Composers Commission, the Recording Workshop, and this year's inaugural Ambassadors initiative.”

Talea is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The Talea Ensemble's 2023-24 season projects are supported in part by the Alice M. Ditson Fund, Amphion Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, and generous donors like you. Talea's season is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

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Concert Information
Shades of Words
Friday, September 15, 2023 at 8:00pm
JACK | 20 Putnam Ave (Between Grand and Downing in Clinton Hill) | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: https://shadesofwords.eventbrite.com

Jeffrey Mumford: Undiluted Days (1999-2000)
Hannah Kendall: Even sweetness can scratch the throat (2023)
Jessie Cox: After-were(l)ds (2019)
Andile Khumalo: Shades of Words (2012)
George Lewis: ANTHEM (2011)
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That Other Spring - Music of Haas & Hersch, with Ah Young Hong, soprano
Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 6:00pm
Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew | 263 W 86th St | New York, NY
Tickets: https://thatotherspring.eventbrite.com 

Michael Hersch: anonymous beneath the lemon trees (2020)
Michael Hersch: one step to the next, worlds ending (2021) [US Premiere]
Georg Friedrich Haas: … wie stille brannte das Licht (2009)
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Alec Hall's A Life to Come (workshop)
Saturday, November 18 and Sunday, November 19, 2023
Public presentation on Sunday, November 19, 2023 at 2:00pm
Mary Flagler Cary Hall, DiMenna Center for Classical Music | 450 W 37th St | New York, NY
Free RSVP: https://lifetocome2023.eventbrite.com 

Alec Hall: A Life to Come (2023)
Libretto by Vanessa Place
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Solstices
Thursday, December 21, 2023 at Sunset (approximately 4:26pm)
PS 21 | 2980 NY-66 | Chatham, NY
Tickets: https://ps21chatham.org/

Georg Friedrich Haas: Solstices (2017)
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Early Career Composer Recording Workshop 
Monday, January 15 to Saturday, January 20, 2024
Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College | 65-30 Kissena Blvd | Flushing, NY

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Suzanne Farrin's Macabea (workshop)
Tuesday, February 6 to Thursday, February 8, 2024
Public presentation on Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 6:00pm
Ida K. Lang Recital Hall, Hunter College | 424 Hunter North | New York, NY
Free RSVP: https://macabeaworkshop.eventbrite.com 

Suzanne Farrin: Macabea (excerpts)
Libretto by Sergio Chejfec
Libretto consultant Graciela Montaldo
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Written for Talea
Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 7:30pm
Mary Flagler Cary Hall | DiMenna Center for Classical Music | 450 W 37th St | New York, NY
Tickets: https://writtenfortalea2024.eventbrite.com 

Program to be announced at a later date
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Columbia Composers
Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 7:00pm
Mary Flagler Cary Hall | DiMenna Center for Classical Music | 450 W 37th St | New York, NY

World premieres featuring works by Columbia University Composers
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La ville morte
Friday, April 19, 2024 at 7:30pm
Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 7:30pm
Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 3:00pm
Catapult Opera 
NYU Skirball Center | 566 LaGuardia Place | New York, NY

Nadia Boulanger: La ville morte (1914)
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Talea Encores
Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 7:30pm
Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew | 263 W 86th St | New York, NY
Tickets: https://taleaencores2024.eventbrite.com 

Program to be announced at a later date
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Aux Etoiles
Part of the Talea Ambassadors initiative focusing on France for the 2023/24 Season
Saturday, June 1, 2024 at 7:30pm
Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew | 263 W 86th St | New York, NY
Tickets: https://taleaambassadors2024.eventbrite.com 

Samir Amarouch, Electronica-1 (2019)
Georges Aperghis: Carsten Trio (2021) [US Premiere]
Sanae Ishida: In Pursuit of True Happiness (2024) [World Premiere]
Kaija Saariaho: Cloud Trio (2009)
Gérard Grisey: Talea (1986) 

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About the Talea Ensemble
Heralded as “a crucial part of the New York cultural ecosphere” by the New York Times, the Talea Ensemble's mission is to champion musical creativity, cultivate curious listeners, and bring visionary new works to life with vibrant performances that remain in the audience's imagination long after a concert. Recipients of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the ensemble has brought to life over 45 commissions of major new works since it since it was founded in 2008, including bold and inventive productions that span multiple genres, bringing together music and other contemporary art forms such as theater and visual art. Talea has helped introduce NYC audiences to important works of seasoned composers such as Pierre Boulez, Georg Friedrich Haas, Beat Furrer, Olga Neuwirth, Unsuk Chin, and Hans Abrahamsen, and has regularly commissioned composers of the following generations. 

The Talea Ensemble's work has spanned imaginative performances, collaboration with composers, artist development projects, discussion, and reflection around music. Highlights from Talea's most recent performance seasons have included: world premieres by Wang Lu, Tyshawn Sorey, Sarah Hennies, Natacha Diels, Anthony Cheung, Agata Zubel, Mark Applebaum, and more; a production of Georg Friedrich Haas's concert-length Solstices in complete darkness; the US premiere of the immersive theater work Love & Diversity by Manos Tsangaris; and a performance of Julius Eastman's Femenine in the NY Philharmonic Artist Spotlight Series. 

Festival engagements have included performances at Lincoln Center Festival, Donaueschingen Musiktage, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, TIME:SPANS, Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Wien Modern, Vancouver New Music, Festival Musica, and many more. The ensemble has also partnered with institutions from across disciplines, such as the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, the City of Ideas Festival in Mexico, and the Storm King Art Center. 

Talea undertakes residencies in music departments around the country to support early career composers. Residencies in the current season include the Peabody Institute, Rice University, Hunter College, Brown University, Ithaca College, and Queens College. Since 2020, Talea has targeted support to early career composers through the Talea Access Project, which includes a commissioning program and a composer recording workshop. Talea is committed to continuing to build these artist development programs in the upcoming seasons.