The award-winning Young People’s Chorus of New York City and Artistic Director and Founder Francisco J. Núñez continue their groundbreaking Transient Glory new music series with the world premieres of six choral works for young voices in concerts at National Sawdust in Brooklyn on Friday, November 4 at 7:00 p.m. and Merkin Concert Hall in Manhattan on Sunday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m.
Hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer, YPC will premiere works by six distinguished composers representing a wide range of perspectives and styles. They are Mason Bates, YPC Composer-in-Residence Michael Gordon, Joan La Barbara, YPC alumna Jessie Montgomery, Robert Xavier Rodriguez, and Charles Wuorinen.
Mr. Núñez created Transient Glory as a platform for today’s important composers ― those who write major orchestral works, operas, and chamber music ― to write for children’s chorus because, Mr. Núñez says, “I wanted to inspire today’s Mozarts and Beethovens to write masterworks for the 21st- century children’s chorus, with subjects that would appeal to the young minds of today.” Now, nearly two decades later with over 100 compositions commissioned and premiered by YPC, Transient Glory has established an awareness among composers of the child’s voice as a significant instrument for making music. Transient Glory works have now been performed by youth choirs worldwide and many of the works have become part of the standard repertoire for children’s chorus.
Conducted by Mr. Núñez and accompanied by YPC principal pianist Jon Holden, the programs at National Sawdust and Merkin Concert Hall feature the premieres of:
· Michael Gordon’s Great Trees of New York City, a work that celebrates historic trees from New York City’s five boroughs, representing the diversity and scale of the city’s urban forest
· Joan La Barbara’s A Murmuration for Chibok, with lyrics by Monique Truong, which promises never to forget the more than 250 school girls abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria in 2014
· Jessie Montgomery’s Danse Africaine, set to a poem by Langston Hughes, with a dance-like character that stays true to the poem’s natural sense of rhythm and cadence
· Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s A Surfeit of Similes set to Norton Juster’s humorous and witty poem of over 100 similes, ranging from “as poor as a church mouse” and “as flat as a pancake” to the wistful “as sad as adieu”
· Charles Wuorinen’s Exsultet, based on the ancient chant to which the Easter Proclamation is declaimed; with the chant’s phrases elaborated canonically, melodically, and harmonically for chorus, piano, trumpet, and trombone
· Movements from Mason Bates’ new SATB version of Sirens, depicting mysterious and mythical sirens from history and literature, with texts from Homer’s Odyssey, the Book of Matthew, poems by Heinrich Heine and Pietro Aretino, and stories from the indigenous South American Quechua people
More information and tickets are available at www.ypc.org.
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