Vijay Gupta to Wrap Up Artist-in-Residence at Mechanics Hall in November

Music Worcester's 2023 Artist-in-Residence Vijay Gupta directs the final public concert of his residency, This Love Between Us, on Friday, November 10th at Mechanics Hall in Worcester. Tickets and information can be found at musicworcester.org. 

This Love Between Us is a collaboration of choral, instrumental, and dance ensembles including the Worcester Chorus and CONCORA as well as Kritya Dance Company in a program of works by the celebrated composer Reena Esmail, (who is also Vijay's wife) and  J. S. Bach, woven together for an extraordinary evening of music and dance.

Indian-American composer Reena Esmail bridges the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, bringing communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. She has written commissions for ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Seattle Symphony,  Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Kronos Quartet. Esmail's life and music was profiled on Season 3 of PBS Great Performances series Now Hear This.  During Vijay Gupta's earlier Music Worcester concerts, he has shared her compositions Saans (Breath) and When the Violin with Central Massachusetts audiences.. 

“This Love Between Us is a piece about unity,” says Esmail. “Its seven movements juxtapose the words of seven major religious traditions of India (Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Islam), and specifically how each of these traditions approaches the topic of unity, of brotherhood, of being kind to one another.   

“Each movement contains a unique combination of Indian and Western classical styles,” she continued.  “Each lives somewhere in between these two musical cultures in their techniques, styles, and forms. But even more than uniting musical practices, this piece unites people from two different musical traditions: a sitar and tabla join the choir and baroque orchestra.  

“I wrote This Love Between Us through some of the darkest times in our country and in our world. But my mind always returns to the last line of this piece, the words of Rumi, which are repeated like a mantra over affirming phrases from each religion, as they wash over one another: ‘Concentrate on the Essence. Concentrate on the Light.'” 

The 100-member Worcester Chorus includes both amateur and professional singers from Worcester County, northern Connecticut, and the Boston area. Each year the Chorus performs with orchestras and soloists in Mechanics Hall as part of Music Worcester's main season, including an annual performance of Handel's Messiah.  CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists) has appeared often with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and has served as the resident chorus of the esteemed Bard Festival with the American Symphony Orchestra.  Chris Shepherd leads both ensembles. 

 

Kritya Dance Company founder Yamini Kalluri is a world-class professional Kuchipudi dancer based in New York City where she teaches, performs, and trains full time. Kalluri is trained as a classical Indian dancer in Kuchipudi dance/performance style, as well as in the Martha Graham school of avant-garde ballet.  She appeared with Music Worcester and Gupta both last May and earlier this season with The Darshan Trio. 

 

The program will also include performances of Esmail's Tuttaranna and J. S. Bach's Sinfonia in D Major and Magnificat. 

About Vijay Gupta's Year as Artist in Residence 

 

Throughout 2023 Artist-in-Residence, Vijay Gupta has delivered a series of recitals and performances, including collaborative presentations with The Worcester Chorus, Worcester Youth Orchestra, OpperTUNEity, The Worcester County Jail and House of Corrections.  These anchor performances were augmented with outreach in local middle and high schools, masterclass opportunities for college students, and coaching for young artists.   

His residency will conclude on November 14th in a collaborative concert with the Westborough High School Orchestra, performing Esmail's Concerto for You, a piece written for youth orchestra and violin. 

 

Esmail said "In a typical concerto, the soloist performs with dazzling virtuosity for the audience, while an entire orchestra sits in the background, staring at their back. I wanted to try something different in this piece.  

  

"For this experiment to work," she continued, "I wanted to find musicians who hadn't yet experienced a traditional concerto setting and hadn't yet made the agreements professional musicians have made — and so I turned to students, and specifically those for whom music was a passion, a means for connection rather than competition."   

 

Coincidentally, Westborough's Orchestra Director Kristin Chartier heard the debut with Vijay Gupta as the soloist. Vijay and Reena have been rehearsing with the orchestra this year. 

 

About Music Worcester 

Music Worcester, Inc., originally known as the Worcester County Music Association, for years ran the Worcester Music Festival. Current programs reflect the merger in the mid-1990s of the Festival with the International Artists Series and the MA Jazz Festival. Great performances by world-renowned orchestras and guest soloists, chamber music, ballet, world music and dance, jazz and choral masterworks are hallmarks of Music Worcester's annual operations. Multiple educational programs currently serve youth and families of greater Worcester: masterclasses by visiting artists, Tickets to Opportunity, Festival Singers, in-school residencies, and the Young Artist Competitions. Integral to Music Worcester's annual operations, the Worcester Chorus has been part of the organization since the very first concert season in 1858. 

 

Coming up at Music Worcester this Fall 

 

 Avi Avital, mandolin & Hanzhi Wang, accordion  

Sunday, October 22nd at 4PM  BrickBox Theater at JMAC  

 

The Knights Orchestra with Chris Thile 

Friday, October 27th at 8PM Mechanics Hall  

 

 

Midori and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra  

Friday, November 3rd at 8PM  Mechanics Hall  

  

Handel Messiah  

Worcester Chorus Chris Shepard, Artistic Director.  

Saturday, December 2nd at 8PM Mechanics Hall  

  

Holiday Concert  

Worcester Chorus Women's Ensemble Mark Mummert, Artistic Director  

Sunday, December 17th at 4PM  Trinity Lutheran Church  

 

Tickets and information This Love Between Us, and for all Music Worcester events can be found at musicworcester.org 

  

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