Underwater Acoustics (2018)

Commissioned by American Opera Projects for the Chautauqua Opera Company
Part of the Composer-in-Residence program at the 2018 Chautauqua Opera

Team

2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns, 3 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, Tuba, Harp, Timpani, Percussion, Strings. Mezzo-Soprano.

Preface

Underwater Acoustics (2018) is a concert aria for mezzo-soprano and orchestra on the poem by Rajiv Mohabir. The work was composed specifically for the semi-outdoor amphitheater at the Chautauqua Institute, and incorporates a quiet hum from the audience at the piece's conclusion, inviting audiences to consider all the sounds of their surrounding environment as an integral part of the listening experience.

Underwater Acoustics was commissioned by American Opera Projects for the Chautauqua Opera Company as part of the 2018 Chautauqua Opera Composer-in-Residence program.

Heard

Underwater Acoustics received its world premiere on July 14, 2018 at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater, with Steven Osgood conducting the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, featuring mezzo-soprano Alexandra Rodrick.

Photos by Dave Munch.

Such Sweet Sorrow (2018)

George_Lam · Such Sweet Sorrow (2018)

Poem by Allison Joseph
Commissioned by American Opera Projects for the Chautauqua Opera Company
Part of the Composer-in-Residence program at the 2018 Chautauqua Opera

Team

Bass and Piano.

Preface

Such Sweet Sorrow (2018) is a song for soprano and piano, on a poem by Allison Joseph. This work was commissioned by American Opera Projects for the Chautauqua Opera Company as part of the 2018 Chautauqua Opera Composer-in-Residence program.

Heard

Such Sweet Sorrow received its world premiere on August 2, 2018 at the Chautauqua Institution, with Brett Bode (bass) and Miriam Charney (piano).

Photo by Sara Noble

Sissieretta Jones, Carnegie Hall, 1902: O Patria Mia (2018)

Poem by Tyehimba Jess, from Olio
Commissioned by American Opera Projects for the Chautauqua Opera Company
Part of the Composer-in-Residence program at the 2018 Chautauqua Opera

George_Lam · Sissieretta Jones, 1902: Carnegie Hall, "O Patria Mia" (2018)

Team

Soprano and Piano.

Preface

Sissieretta Jones, Carnegie Hall, 1902: O Patria Mia (2018) is a song for soprano and piano, on a poem by Tyehimba Jess. This work was commissioned by American Opera Projects for the Chautauqua Opera Company as part of the 2018 Chautauqua Opera Composer-in-Residence program.

Heard

• June 28, 2018: Chautauqua Institution, with Kayla White (soprano) and Emily Jarrell-Urbanek (piano); world premiere.

• February 18, 2019: Minetta Lane Theater, as part of the Olio Live Audible.com event, with Kayla White (soprano) and Jeremy Gill (piano).

• March 14, 2019: National Opera Center (video above) as part of the OPERA America Emerging Artist Recitals series, with Kayla White (soprano) and Jeremy Gill (piano).

• July 4, 2021: Calliope’s Call’s I, Too, Sing America concert series, as one of the winners of its 2021 Call for Scores competition; with MaKayla M. McDonald (soprano) and Julia Scott Carey (piano).

Photo by Sara Noble

The Love Song of Mary Flagler Cary (2012)

Rhymes With Opera in performance at Mary Flagler Cary Hall, The DiMenna Center for Classical Music (June, 2012)

Team

Two sopranos, baritone, two violas and piano

Preface

The Love Song of Mary Flagler Cary was written for Rhymes With Opera, for its 2012 mainstage production in New York and New Haven The New York venue was the Mary Flagler Cary Hall at the new DiMenna Center for Classical Music, and I wanted to write a piece that would be intimately connected to the namesake of the hall where it will be premiered. Mary Flagler Cary was heiress to the Henry Flagler’s Standard Oil fortune, and she established the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, which funded music, among many other disciplines. The Love Song of Mary Flagler Cary is a meditation on Mary’s life, the spirit of collecting, and the cycle of beginnings and endings for Henry, Mary, their estate, and the Charitable Trust, which winded up operations in 2009.

Special thanks to the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies for allowing Rhymes With Opera to use he portrait of Mary Flagler Cary as a part of the performance of this work.

Heard

• June 9, 2012 Mary Flagler Cary Hall at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (New York, NY)


• June 10, 2012 The Big Room (New Haven, CT)
  

The Person In The Room Wishes To Be Left Alone (2011)

Libretto by Benjamin Rogers
For Soprano, Saxophone and Tape
Commissioned by the Emerging Voices Project

Team

Soprano, Alto Saxophone, Fixed Media Playback (most likely a CD)

Preface

The Person In The Room Wishes To Be Left Alone is a set of miniatures for soprano, alto saxophone and tape, and takes as its subject both the real-life child prodigy author Barbara Follett and the character of Margot Tenenbaum in Wes Anderson’s film The Royal Tenenbaums, on a libretto by Benjamin Rogers.

The work was commissioned by and is dedicated to Elisabeth Halliday and Zach Herchen, as a part of the Emerging Voices project. The commission was funded by Ted Esborn.

Heard

• February 4, 2012, Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore, MD), Elisabeth Halliday, soprano and Zach Herchen, saxophone.

• January 20, 2012, George Mason University (Fairfax, VA), Elisabeth Halliday, soprano and Zach Herchen, saxophone.

• September 25, 2011, Gershwin Hotel (New York, NY), Elisabeth Halliday, soprano and Zach Herchen, saxophone.

• September 18, 2011, Follen Church (Lexington, MA), Elisabeth Halliday, soprano and Zach Herchen, saxophone.

This Evidence (2008)

Monologue For Chamber Orchestra
Words by Benjamin Rogers
Written for a reading and recording session with Alarm Will Sound

Team

Flute, Oboe, B-flat Clarinet, B-flat Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, B-flat Trumpet, Trombone
Violin, Viola 1*, Viola 2*, Cello*, Double Bass*
(*also speaks)

Preface

for some reason we humans keep on trying to do ourselves harm. we group together and pick fights and dominate our own humanity by regulating, dissecting, and dismembering our fellow humans. we are able to express our outrage of our handling of race or gender issues in the past and simultaneously seek out our most private parts to declare war upon.

so how does one stand up to the interrogations of the many? some protest outwardly while others simply sequester themselves behind some internal wall. either way, we humans also keep on trying to survive.

– Benjamin Rogers

Heard

• February 10th, 2009 Alarm Will Sound, in residence at Duke University (recording session)

十年 Ten Years (2007)

For Mixed Chorus
Words by 林立 (Lap Lam)
Written for Hong Kong Voices, Ken Lam, artistic director

Team

Mixed Chorus, a capella

Preface

The mountains and the streams, feelings, questions, generations come and go. Ten Years (2007) is a collaboration between poet Lap Lam and composer George Lam. The work consists of two poems: an original, classical-style verse with the same title, and a companion poem written in the contemporary vernacular. While the classical poem reflects on the bygone decade, the accompanying contemporary verse asks pointed questions: how much have we remembered, and how much have we already forgotten?

Ten Years was composed for and dedicated to Ken Lam and Hong Kong Voices.

Heard

• June 2, 2007, Hong Kong Voices (Ken Lam, conductor), at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

• August 11, 2007, Hong Kong Young People’s Chorus (Virginia Cheng, conductor), at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

Variations On (2006)

Chamber Concerto for Seven Players
Words by Benjamin Rogers
Written for the 2006 Aspen Music Festival and School and the 2006 Aspen Contemporary Ensemble

Team

Flute, B-flat Clarinet, Piano, Percussion, Violin, Viola, Cello
(*all players also speak.)

Preface

Variations On (2006) is a chamber concerto for seven players, and was written for the 2006 Aspen Music Festival and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. The short movement makes use of five very different strains of text, which are all spoken by the members of the ensemble. Sometimes fragments of these texts overlap. Sometimes the text is incomprehensible. Sometimes the voices are heard over the accompanying music, and at other times the music takes over and becomes the focus. The result could be described as concurrently overhearing different corners of a decidedly very different type of party.

The creative process for Variations On began with my approaching Benjamin Rogers, a writer friend of mine living in Chicago, in March of 2006. We brainstormed ideas for the piece, the texts, the music, the title. Benjamin sends me various sketches of text, and I send him piano renditions of musical fragments for each text. In the end, we decided on five different voices for the piece, and I set out to integrate all of these voices into the work. In 2007, Variations On was adapted for the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, with new Chinese translations and adaptations of the original text by Lap Lam.

Finally, what exactly happens when you hear words and music together? How does one change the meaning of the other?

Heard

October 26, 2007 Hong Kong Sinfonietta, with Yip Wing-sie, conductor.
July 13, 2006 Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, at the Aspen Music Festival and School, with Sydney Hodkinson, conductor.

Fog Argument (2004)

Two Songs for Tenor and Piano
on the poem by Mark Doty
For Robert Maril

Team

Tenor and piano

Preface

Fog Argument (2004, Revised 2005) was commissioned by Robert Maril, and was premiered by Robert Maril at the Peabody Conservatory of Music on May 1, 2004.

The work uses the original poem by Mark Doty of the same name, published in the collection Atlantis, used by permission of the author.

Heard

• January 27, 2010 Tobenski-Algera Concert Series. Dennis Tobenski, tenor, Marc Peloquin, piano.

• September 16, 2005 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Robert Maril, tenor, Michael Trinastic, piano.

• May 3, 2004 Peabody Conservatory of Music. Robert Maril, tenor, Robert Muckenfuss, piano.