July 14th, 2022 at 7pm
COMPOSERS NOW
Impact Series
a half-hour virtual screening of portfolio selections
and commentary by composers, presented by
Composers NOW: an organization dedicated to
advancing the music of living composers through
public presentations.
Composers Now announces IMPACT. Each installment in this series offers a composer the opportunity to reflect on one's creativity, influences, pathways, and responsibility as a living artist in our ever-changing world. Designed for the virtual space, every session shares a composer's essential thoughts directly with you, the audience, in the safety and comfort of your own place. These commentaries, interwoven with performance videos and other materials, articulate a creator's IMPACT. The July series includes an episode on Whitney George.
May 3rd, 5th,
6th, and 7th, 2022 at 6:30 PM
FRESH SQUEEZED OPERA
Self Defined Circuits
A new, multi-media chamber opera
by composer Jillian Flexner
and librettist Orlando Segarra
for chamber ensemble & electronics
Newly created, a sex robot, tries to find out what it means to be a woman while trapped in a world created by her programmer, Pete, and his "Siri" device, Cora. Inspired in part by the “Me Too” movement, the composer's own experiences in an abusive relationship during her formative years, and the works of Sci-Fi pioneers Isaac Asimov and Ursula Le Guin, this opera explores the idea of "womanhood" through the lens of someone new to the world, and desperate to find where she fits. Conducted and musically directed by Whitney E. George.
March 3rd, 2022 at 2pm (EST)
CODE RED
Music for a Dying Planet
a program of music
presented in honor and recognition
to our irreversable impact on this planet
Torleif Torgersen, professor of piano at the Grieg Academy, will play pieces that honor and recognize extinct and extinct species, and pieces of mourning about rainforests that are cut down, oceans that are heated and fossil emissions.
The program includes several works for solo piano from the Extinction Series Set including Dusky Seaside Sparrow, Reunion Ibis, Passenger Pigeon, Mysterious Starling and the newly commissioned Great Auk.
June 10-12th, 2022
FRESH SQUEEZED OPERA
Vocal Lab
a virtual vocal lab which includes master classes
and additional lessons with Fresh Squeezed Opera
collaborators and artists.
For composers of all ages, nationalities, education levels, races, genders, and backgrounds. We invite you to apply to participate in the virtual Fresh Squeezed Vocal Lab. This VIRTUAL lab will give composers an opportunity to work with the renowned vocalists of Fresh Squeezed Opera to develop a new piece for voice and piano. Workshops and demonstrations from FSO members will help composers take command of writing for the voice. Engraving workshop in June 2022 will be held by Whitney George. Additional (composition) lessons available for lab participants.
April 28th, 2022 at 7pm (GMT)
CLIMATE
& MUSIC
A lecture and concert event with a focus
on climate and the relationship
it has to music.
The event will take place at Palais de l'Athénée (Rue de l'Athénée 2, 1205 Genève), as a lecture and concert event, blending performance and discussion. Pieces on the program include works by John Luther Adams, Matthew Burtner, and Whitney George's Reunion Ibis for solo vibraphone from the Extinction Series Set, performed by percussionist Loïc Morin with accompanying lecture by Christophe Bitar.
January 30th, 2022 at 2pm (EST)
MARSYAS TRIO
New York Women Composers
A live broadcast of works written for chamber trio
by female identifying composers based in New York,
made possible with generous funding
provided by the New York Women Composers Organization
Marsyas Trio takes its name from Greek mythology – inspired by the bold, spirited passion of Marsyas, the celebrated pipe-playing satyr who dared challenge Apollo in a musical contest. In victory, Marsyas lost his life to the envious wrath of the god, saving his last breaths for the instrument he immortalised.
The program includes "Somewhere In Between" from the recently completed "Solitude & Secrecy" set by Whitney George, and chamber works by Chen Yi, Elisenda Fabregas, Hilary Tann and Marilyn Bliss.
May 1-20th
ACTIVISTM THRU ART
The Extinction Series
a commissioning project
to extend works in The Extinction Series
and provide hands-on, immediate support
for climate activism
Since 2014, Brooklyn-based composer Whitney George has been writing movements for The Extinction Series, a large-scale work that will never be completed. The ongoing series is composed of a collection of brief, programmatic movements written for both vocal and instrumental soloists, with each movement acting as a musical obituary for an extinct animal.
This Spring, we invite you to consider offering your support for both the expansions of The Extinction Series with three additional solo movements, and a group of organizations working on the twin aims of preservation and climate organizing.
April 15th, 2022 from 10am-5pm
CAN YOU IMAGINE?
a celebration of Tania León
a multi-day event celebrating the life and legacy of
composer, conductor, and educator Tania León.
Organized by the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music and sponsored by the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, the symposium will kick off at 7 PM on Thursday evening 14 April with a screening of archival footage ranging from premiere performances of León’s collaborations with Dance Theatre of Harlem to the London Sinfonietta’s surprise gift of choreography for her piece Toque.
On Friday 15 April, performances of León’s work will be livestreamed beginning at 10 AM from Elebash Hall at the Graduate Center, interspersed with two distinguished panels of León’s colleagues and former students. The festivities on Friday include musical performances of León's Indígena and Parajota Delaté by members of The Curiosity Cabinet, conducted by Whitney George.