PRESS RELEASE
April 2010
Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC presents
Songs from the Heart
Merkin Concert Hall, May 22, 2010 at 8:30PM
Conducted by Cynthia Powell, Artistic Director
With Taisiya Pushkar, piano and Naila Aziz, soprano
"Melodia sings with radiance and beauty" – Meredith Monk
Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC – NY’s premiere women’s choir – presents an evening of music with a romantic flavor. The 32 trained singers of Melodia, with conductor Cynthia Powell, raise their voices in a program of music that speaks from the heart. Recognized for their beautiful blended tone, expansive repertoire and artistic excellence, Melodia’s spring 2010 concert offers a special opportunity to hear some hidden musical treasures from the 19th century and more. Cynthia Powell, Artistic Director, says: "These quintessential romantic works are a feast for the ears and I can’t wait to share the music with our audience."
The concert is on Saturday May 22 at 8:30 pm at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center, Goodman House, 129 West 67th Street, NYC.
The centerpiece of the concert is a selection of part-songs by Robert Schumann, performed in celebration of his 200th birthday. Melodia will feature five songs drawn from two sets of Romances he composed for women’s choir in 1849 - Op. 69, & 91. A sixth song, Spruch, Op. 114, was composed in 1853 and is one of Schumann’s late works. Schumann’s luscious part-songs for women’s voices deserve to be included in the celebration of his work this year.
The concert continues with four sweet miniatures by Johannes Brahms: Vier Lieder aus dem Jungbrunen (Four Songs from the Fountain of Youth), which evoke the joy and tears of young love.
The concert will also feature the New York premiere of three songs by Azerbaijani composer Tofig Gulijev: Arzular (Dreams), Oglum (My Son), and Axsham Mahnisi (Twilight Song). Azeri soprano Naila Aziz, Melodia’s special guest soloist for this concert, blends Middle Eastern vocal techniques with Western choral singing in these seldom-heard pieces by Azerbaijan’s most beloved composer.
Additional concert highlights include Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn’s (sister of the famed Felix) Three Heine Duets; Rachmaninoff’s The Angel, from Six Choruses, Op. 14; two songs by Scottish composer Hamish MacCunn: On a Faded Violet, and O My Love, Leave Me Not!, and Mendelssohn’s Lied Mit Chor (the Elf Chorus) from Midsummer Night’s Dream. Taisiya Pushkar will perform a brief piano interlude featuring works by Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann.
Melodia Women’s Choir is recognized as New York City’s premiere women’s choir and a fresh voice in the choral arena. The choir has performed several world and New York premieres and has commissioned works by award-winning composer Christina Whitten Thomas, Chris Lastovicka, Allison Sniffin (Music Director, Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble) and Becca Schack.
Melodia has appeared at a wide variety of concert venues including Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space in its Wall to Wall series, Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in collaboration with the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series, Queens Museum of Art, and as guest artists for the New York City Comptroller’s Celebration of Women’s History Month. Melodia is a recent recipient of NEA funds, among numerous grants.
The mission of Melodia Women’s Choir is to create, explore and perform rarely heard women’s choral music and to promote opportunities for women composers and musicians. Melodia was founded in 2003 by Jennifer Clarke, an arts management consultant who has worked with London’s Royal Festival Hall, London Sinfonietta, and organizations in New York including the American Music Center, Symphony Space and Dancing in the Streets.
Cynthia Powell, Melodia’s Artistic Director and conductor since its inception, is an active conductor, pianist and organist in the New York area. Powell conducted a new choral version of Meredith Monk’s Book of Days at Merkin Hall in 2007 and conducted choral portions of Monk’s Songs of Ascension at the BAM Next Wave Festival in 2009 and has toured with Monk's opera, Atlas and Celebration Service in Europe, at the Spoleto USA Festival, the Walker Arts Center and Lincoln Center Festival. Powell also serves as Music Director at West End Collegiate Church, NYC, and is Artistic Director of the Stonewall Chorale.
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CONCERT DETAILS
Melodia Women’s Choir
Songs from the Heart
Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Merkin Concert Hall
Kaufman Center, Goodman House
129 West 67th Street, NYC
Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door
Students/seniors $15 in advance (with ID)
Visit our tickets page or call Brown Paper Tickets: 800-838-3006
Information: 212-252-4134
SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC Premieres new work by an American Woman Composer in a Bold Fall Program, Notes Upon the Breeze
Melodia Women’s Choir celebrates its sixth year of innovative concerts in New York City with the World Premiere of Notes Upon the Breeze, a remarkable new commissioned work by award-winning composer Chris Lastovicka. The music is set to the poetry of U.S. poet laureate Kay Ryan.
The concert will be on Saturday November 14 at 8 pm at Saint Peter’s Church in the Citigroup Center on Lexington Avenue and E. 54th Street in New York City. Artistic Director Cynthia Powell will conduct.
Lastovicka is the winner of the first Women Composers Commissioning Competition held by Melodia, a choir of 35 women’s voices. “Notes Upon the Breeze is fresh and inspired,” said Powell. “It’s matched perfectly to the poetry of Kay Ryan – meditative miniatures full of subtlety and wit.”
Written especially for Melodia, Notes Upon the Breeze is drawn from three poems by Ryan: How Birds Sing, Drops in the Bucket, and Distance. Fanfare Magazine has describes Lastovicka’s work as having a “real sense of power and refined craft.”
Melodia’s November 14 concert will also feature Songs of the Lights by Latvian-born Canadian composer Imant Raminsh, set to Algonquin and Navajo texts, and Songs from “The Princess,” by Gustav Holst, using poems by Alfred Tennyson. The choir will perform selections from Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.
Instrumentalists joining the choir in concert are Taisiya Pushkar, piano, and the Transfiguration Quintet, with performers Song-a Dell'Aquila Cho and Naho Tsutsui, violins; Stephanie Griffin, viola; Karen Ouzounian, cello, and Rachel Calin, bass. Lindsay Haughton will play percussion.
Melodia Women’s Choir has garnered attention for its rich and ringing sound, along with its creative repertory. The choir has performed several world and New York premieres, including a rare all-female version of Vivaldi’s Gloria, and it previously commissioned works by Allison Sniffin and Becca Schack. Melodia’s Women Composer Commissioning Project drew 65 submissions from composers in 24 states.
Chris Lastovicka’s composition Crossing the Horizon was performed by the New York City Opera at its 2007 VOX showcase of American Composers and was a finalist in the international chamber opera competition of the Houston Opera in 2009. Her music has been performed at the Boston Early Music Festival, Merce Cunningham Studio, and in Spoleto, Italy. She received a Dale Warland Singers New Music Reading Session award, Presser and Hatz awards, and recognition from the Diana Barnhart American Song Competition. Her music has been released on the Ahari Press and Classic Concert Records (Austria) labels.
Melodia has appeared at a wide variety of concert venues including the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in collaboration with the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series, Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space in its Wall to Wall series, Queens Museum of Art, and as guest artists for the New York City Comptroller’s Celebration of Women’s History Month.
The mission of Melodia Women’s Choir is to create, explore and perform rarely heard women’s choral music and to promote opportunities for women composers and musicians. Melodia was founded in 2003 by Jennifer Clarke, an arts management consultant who has worked with London’s Royal Festival Hall, London Sinfonietta, and organizations in New York including the American Music Center, Symphony Space and Dancing in the Streets.
Cynthia Powell, Melodia’s Artistic Director and conductor since its inception, is an active conductor, pianist and organist in the New York area. Powell is conducting choral scenes in Meredith Monk’s Songs of Ascension at BAM this fall and has toured with Monk's opera, Atlas and Celebration Service in Europe, at the Spoleto USA Festival, the Walker Arts Center and Lincoln Center Festival. Powell also serves as Organist and Choirmaster at West End Collegiate Church, NYC, and is Artistic Director of the Stonewall Chorale.
Funding for Melodia’s commissioning program is provided by the Sorel Charitable Organization and the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation.
CONCERT DETAILS
Melodia Women’s Choir
“Notes Upon the Breeze”
Saturday, November 14, 2009
8 pm
Saint Peter’s Church, Citigroup Center
Lexington Avenue at East 54th Street, New York City
Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door.
Purchase tickets here or call 212-252-4134
September 30, 2008
AWARD-WINNING COMPOSER CHRIS LASTOVICKA ANNOUNCED AS WINNER OF MELODIA’S FIRST WOMEN COMPOSERS COMMISSIONING COMPETITION
Melodia announces Chris Lastovicka, an award-winning composer, as the winner of its first Women Composer Commissioning Competition. She will create a new work to be premiered for the Fall 2009 Melodia Women's Choir concert.
Chris Lastovicka’s work has been noted for its "real sense of power and refined craft" (Fanfare Magazine). Her opera Crossing the Horizon is a finalist in Houston?s Opera Vista international chamber opera competition. Excerpts from Crossing the Horizon were performed by New York City Opera at its 2007 VOX: Showcasing American Composers festival.
Her music has been performed at the Boston Early Music Festival, Merce Cunningham Studio, and in Spoleto, Italy. She received a Dale Warland Singers New Music Reading Session award and cum laude recognition from the Diana Barnhart American Song Competition. Her electronic work Spring was commissioned by Robin Becker Dance (NYC) for the company’s 15-year anniversary.
Lastovicka's music has been released on the Ahari Press and Classic Concert Records (Austria) labels. A recipient of a Presser Award, a Hatz Award and a NYSCA Decentralization grant, Lastovicka became, at age 14, the youngest winner in the history of Chicago's Gruenstein Memorial National Organ Competition. At 15, she won Oberlin’s Otto B. Schoepfle National Organ Competition and was a finalist in the Fort Wayne National Organ Competition. She studied composition with Samuel Adler, Frederick Bianchi, Joel Hoffman, and Allen Sapp; orchestration with Dominick Argento; and organ with Roberta Gary.
Melodia Women’s Choir, now entering its sixth season, creates, discovers and performs works for women's voices. Previously commissioned works include Becca Schack’s In My End Is My Beginning, premiered last season, and Allison Sniffin's Hear Me With Your Eyes, based on love poems of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, premiered at Merkin Hall in 2006.
Melodia women's Choir was founded in 2003 by Jennifer Clarke, Executive Director, and is conducted by Cynthia Powell, Melodia's Artistic Director and founding conductor.
FREE FOR ALL AT TOWN HALL
Melodia Women's Choir is proud to be a community partner of Free for All at Town Hall, a series of free Sunday afternoon concerts, featuring top-tier classical artists.www.freeforallattownhall.org. Look out for the next series of great concerts in summer 2008.
