Chelsea Chen Will Debut Revie Work Based On Genetic Sequence Of Extinct Bird

Internationally renowned organist Chelsea Chen will make history when she premieres a new work for organ by Australian-Canadian composer Julian Darius Revie, featuring the genetic sequence and recorded song of an extinct bird, Saturday, March 23, 2019 at 3:00 PM at Saint Thomas Church in New York City.

The concert is part of the dedication series for the new $11 million Miller-Scott Organ (www.saintthomaschurch.org/music/neworgan) by Dobson organbuilders.

Revie's new piece, Arise, gives new voice to the extinct Kauai O'o bird, the last one of which was recorded in 1987 - a male singing his mating song. Geneticists have recently sequenced DNA from a Kauai O'o museum specimen. In collaboration with the late Nobel laureate Yale biochemistry professor Thomas Steitz, Revie has devised a system to translate genetic sequences into musical notes. Arise consists of the interplay between the "sound" of the bird's own genetic code, the recorded birdsong, and music derived from this song, believed to have been sung by the very last one of its species.

The concert also includes an original work by Ms. Chen, Taiwanese Suite, and works by Bach, Messiaen and Ad Wammes, as well as Max Reger's exhilarating Chorale-Fantasy on Halleluja! Gott zu loben, bleibe meine Seelenfreud.

Chelsea Chen is internationally renowned for her concerts of "rare musicality" and "lovely lyrical grandeur," and a compositional style that is "charming" and "irresistible" (Los Angeles Times). She has electrified audiences throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia in venues such as Singapore's Esplanade, Hong Kong's Cultural Centre, Kishinev's National Organ Hall, and Philadelphia's Kimmel Center. She has soloed with orchestras throughout the world including the Wuhan Philharmonic in China, the Jakarta Simfonia in Indonesia, and the Juilliard Percussion Orchestra in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

Australian-Canadian composer Julian Darius Revie is the winner of the Vatican's 2016 composition competition. His compositions for solo instruments, voice, chamber ensembles and orchestra have been performed in North America, Europe, and Australia, in venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Sydney Opera House. He has written pieces for Papal masses in Rome and in the US, including one premiered by The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. His 2018 work Veni, premiered by Seraphic Fire and the American Brass Quintet, "manages to pack a plethora of imaginative choral and instrumental writing into the work's 12-minute span. He is clearly a rising and significant choral composer" (South Florida Classical Review). Revie is Composer in Residence at St. Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel at Yale University. Prior posts include serving as Associate Director of Music at the Center for Music and Liturgy, Saint Thomas More Chapel at Yale University Organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Ottawa and Director of the Choir of Robinson College at Cambridge University. A modern-day renaissance man, Revie holds degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Yale University and Caltech in the United States and a Master's in Composition from Cambridge University in Great Britain.

Additional information may be found at www.julianrevie.com and www.chelseachen.com

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