Two New York City Premieres by Composer Anna Clyne to be Presented in March 2022

On Thursday, March 24, 2022 at 7:30pm, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will present the Calidore String Quartet in the New York City premiere of GRAMMY Award-nominated composer Anna Clyne's Breathing Statues, a CMS co-commission, at the Rose Studio. The concert, part of the new-music series New Milestones, also includes Sofia Gubaidulina's Quartet No. 4 for Strings with Tape, Joan Tower's White Water, and Jörg Widmann's Jagdquartett.

On Friday, March 25, 2022 at 7:30pm, American Composers Orchestra takes to Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall (7th Avenue between 56th and 57th Street) for a concert of premieres, including the New York premiere of Clyne's Restless Oceans. Conducted by Marin Alsop and featuring violinist Jennifer Koh, the program additionally includes the New York premiere of Lisa Bielawa's Sanctuary (a Carnegie Hall co-commission), the U.S. premiere of Hannah Kendall's Tuxedo: Vasco 'de' Gama, and the world premieres of Prophecy in Reverse by Paula Matthusen and Invisible Portals by Dai Wei.

Anna Clyne's Breathing Statues (2019) for string quartet had its world premiere on February 20, 2020 at the Richardson Auditorium at Alexander Hall in Princeton, NJ, performed by the Calidore String Quartet. The 15-minute piece draws inspiration and musical quotes from Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartets No. 13 in B-flat major Op. 130, No. 16 in F major Op. 135, and the Grosse Fuge Op. 133. It also draws inspiration from On Music, a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke. The concept for Breathing Statues came to Clyne from a poignant moment in the Grosse Fuge where the music stops and, in between moments of silence, breathes as it shifts from a root position E-flat major chord to a first inversion C major chord.

Clyne says, "This idea of the music breathing reminded me of another poignant moment in Beethoven's B-flat Major Quartet when the lower strings provide a pulsing accompaniment to a violin melody that is marked beklemmt (oppressed, heavy of heart) and the voice almost stutters as if out of breath. I also found other quotes that have a similar feeling of breathing or sighing, such as a moment in the Adagio of the B-flat Major Quartet; and quotes that would strongly contrast, such as the descending rhythmic lines in the lower strings in the Grosse Fuge, and a violent outburst in the last movement of the F-Major Quartet." The concept of breath - of the music and musicians breathing - sometimes together and sometimes apart, reminded Clyne of Rilke's On Music, from which Breathing Statues derives its title.

Clyne's Restless Oceans (2018) for orchestra received its world premiere on January 22, 2019 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It was performed by the all-women Taki Concordia Orchestra and conducted by Marin Alsop, to whom it is dedicated and where Alsop was presented with the Forum's prestigious Crystal Award in recognition of her championship of diversity in music. At three minutes, Restless Oceans draws inspiration and its title from A Woman Speaks, a poem by Audre Lorde. In addition to playing their instruments, the musicians are called upon to use their voices in song and strong vocalizations, as well as their feet to stomp and to bring them to stand united at the end. "My intention was to write a defiant piece that embraces the power of women," Clyne says.

Concert Information
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Presents New Milestones: Visions and Illuminations
Thursday, March 24, 2022 at 7:30pm
Rose Studio | 165 W 65th St | New York, NY
Tickets: Starting at $35
Link: https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/nyc/events/upcoming/new-milestones-visions-and-illuminations/

SOFIA GUBAIDULINA: Quartet No. 4 for Strings with Tape (1993)
ANNA CLYNE: Breathing Statues for String Quartet (2019) [CMS Co-Commission]
JOAN TOWER: White Water for String Quartet (2011)
JÖRG WIDMANN: Jagdquartett for Strings (2003)
Calidore String Quartet

American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
Friday, March 25, 2022 at 7:30pm
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall | 7th Ave between 56th and 57th St | New York, NY
Tickets: $45-$55
Link: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2022/03/25/American-Composers-Orchestra-0730PM

ANNA CLYNE: Restless Oceans [New York Premiere]
HANNAH KENDALL: Tuxedo: Vasco 'de' Gama [U.S. Premiere]
DAI WEI: Invisible Portals [World Premiere]
PAULA MATTHUSEN: Prophecy in Reverse [World Premiere]
LISA BIELAWA: Sanctuary [New York Premiere, Carnegie Hall Co-Commission]
American Composers Orchestra
Marin Alsop, conductor
Jennifer Koh, violin

About Anna Clyne

London-born Anna Clyne is a GRAMMY-nominated composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music. Described as a "composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods" in a New York Times profile and as "fearless" by NPR, Clyne is one of the most acclaimed and in-demand composers of her generation, often embarking on collaborations with innovative choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, and musicians.

Clyne has been commissioned by a wide range of ensembles and institutions, including BBC Radio 3, BBC Scottish Symphony, Britten Sinfonia, Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Ballet, London Sinfonietta, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and the Southbank Centre. Her work has been championed by such world-renowned conductors as Pablo Heras-Casado, Riccardo Muti, Leonard Slatkin, André de Ridder, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Osmo Vänskä, and Marin Alsop, who praised Clyne, stating: "Anna Clyne is someone I look to for great music. It's always emotional and driven by her heart, but skillfully composed."

From 2010-2015, Clyne served as a Mead Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Music Director Riccardo Muti lauded Clyne as "an artist who writes from the heart, who defies categorization, and who reaches across all barriers and boundaries. Her compositions are meant to be played by great musicians and heard by enthusiastic audiences no matter what their background." She has also been in residence with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, L'Orchestre national d'Île-de- France, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Berkeley Symphony, and National Sawdust. Clyne serves as the mentor composer for the Orchestra of St Luke's DeGaetano Composer Institute. She is currently serving a three-year residency as Associate Composer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, through the 2020-2021 season, including plans for a series of new works commissioned over three years.

Several upcoming projects explore Clyne's fascination with visual arts, including Color Field for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, inspired by the artwork of Mark Rothko, and Between the Rooms, a film with choreographer Kim Brandstrup and LA Opera. Her elegy Within Her Arms opened the New York Philharmonic's 2021-2022 season, the orchestra's first full New York program since the pandemic began. Other recent and upcoming premieres include PIVOT, which opened the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival; A Thousand Mornings for the Fidelio Trio; a saxophone concerto for Jess Gilliam; Strange Loops for the Orchestra of St. Luke's; Fractured Time for the Kaleidoscope Ensemble; Overflow for wind ensemble, inspired by the poetry of Emily Dickinson, composed for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Woman Holding a Balance, a film collaboration with Orchestra of St. Luke's and artist Jyll Bradley; and In the Gale for cello and bird song, created with and performed by Yo-Yo Ma.

Clyne composed a trilogy of Beethoven-inspired works that premiered in 2020 for Beethoven's 250th anniversary: Stride for string orchestra, inspired by Beethoven's Sonata Pathétique, premiered by the Australian Composers Orchestra; Breathing Statues, premiered by the Calidore String Quartet; and Shorthand for solo cello and string quintet premiered by The Knights at Caramoor and in a version for cello and string orchestra by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

Other recent premieres include Sound and Fury, first performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Pekka Kuusisto in Edinburgh; and her Rumi-inspired cello concerto, DANCE, premiered with Inbal Segev at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, led by Cristian Măcelaru. DANCE was also recently recorded by Segev and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Marin Alsop, which was released to critical acclaim on AVIE Records and has garnered more than six million plays on Spotify.

Clyne is the recipient of the 2016 Hindemith Prize; a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; awards from Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Jerome Foundation; and prizes from ASCAP and SEAMUS. She was nominated for the 2014 Times Breakthrough Award (UK).

Clyne's music is represented on AVIE Records, Cantaloupe Music, Cedille, MajorWho Media, New Amsterdam, Resound, Tzadik, and VIA labels. In October 2020, AVIE Records released Clyne's Mythologies, a portrait album featuring the works Masquerade, This Midnight Hour, The Seamstress, Night Ferry, and <

Clyne's music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes. www.boosey.com/clyne.

Photo Credit: Christina Kernohan