December 17, 2021
SOLITUDE
& SECRECY
When George began this piece during the winter 2020 lockdown, she did not know it would be a set: the undefined course of the pandemic provided indeterminacy and ultimately informed the instrumental groupings for each movement, which range from solos to a trio.
In its final form as a six-movement work, Solitude & Secrecy is a meditation on the strain of social distancing, the quiet complexities of solitude, and the longing for musical collaboration. For the performers as well as listeners, the piece offers the opportunity to sit alone for a moment—fear and anxiety hopefully sidelined—with the daunting secrets of an uncertain future.
September 17, 2021 at 12am
FOR YOU
For You investigates the relationship between the violin and piano as lovers, sounding a dialogue in which listeners may hear resonances of their own intimate communications.
George began writing the piece in 2016, implementing experience as a compositional constraint: new movements would be written only after new yous came into her life. Each of this autobiographical work’s six movements are thus informed, structured, and affectively tinged by specific relationships and events. The album, released by Pinch Records, was recorded in 2021, and features members of the Curiosity Cabinet: Adam von Housen, violin; and Edward Forstman, piano.
May 25, 2021 at 7pm
THINK OLIO
Stanley Kubrick & the Time Capsule
A film is - or should be -
more like music than like fiction.
It should be a progression of moods and feelings.
The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.
A lot of the signature style of a Kubrick film comes from the editing process, in which music and sound design generally plays a crucial role. In fact, pacing is one of Kubrick’s most peculiar cinematographic elements, and in this Olio, we’ll pay close attention to how music influences the perception of time in two of his most well-known works: The Shinning, A Clockwork Orange, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
April 24, 2021 at 7pm
ERATO ENSEMBLE
The Perils of Pierrot
Erato Ensemble’s concert “The Perils of Pierrot” takes chamber music in a new direction. Previously unassociated songs are woven together to illustrate a story about an intrepid cat who bravely escapes captivity and fearlessly embarks on a hero’s journey. Along the way, Pierrot encounters taunting birds, hot jazz, a mournful nightingale, a dying swan and more.
The original book is written by Gina Leola Woolsey, and features the poetry of Ronald Wallace, e.e. cummings, Dennis Nurkse, Langston Hughes, Pierre de Ronsard, Olive Fraser, and Sara Teasdale, set to music by Sondra Clark, Morton Feldman, Whitney George, Valerie Coleman, Albert Roussel, Julian Philips, Elaine Fine, Arthur Honegger, and William George. The book is narrated in spectacular fashion by our resident Scottish lass, Julie Begg.
Tuesdays at 7pm
starting April 20th, 2021 [ for 8 weeks ]
THINK OLIO:
Between Two Worlds: Olio Cinema Series
This OlioCourse is the film deep-dive of our dreams. Whitney George, brilliant composer and observer of film and music will guide us through some of the best films (with the best soundtracks) from directors like Sofia Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch & Wes Anderson. We are going to learn just how integral the connection between sound and image are as we experience some of the best examples from film history.
Music and the moving image have been entwined for over a century, and the relationship between these two mediums has changed and been tested over time, shaped by not only the individual artists in each respective field, but also the crucial collaborations between these dynamic mediums. We are going to learn just how integral the connection between sound and image are as we experience some of the best examples from film history.
November 26, 2021 at 8am
NOIR FRIDAY
An alternative celebration to Black Friday,
soon to become a yearly tradition
with The Curiosity Cabinet
While looking at your screen in a food coma, check out The Cabinet’s collaborative DIY remake of a classic Twilight Zone episode, “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up.” It’s weird; it has costumes, questionable mise-en-scène, and bad special effects; it’s confusing because we all had to play multiple characters; but most crucially, it’s pretty hilarious.
August 12, 2021 at 5pm
TUTTI THURSDAYS
Music for the Stage
Tutti Thursdays is a series sponsored by the
New York Women Composers Organization,
focusing on special topics lectured on by
experts in the field.
Writing music for opera and the stage requires a different set of tools and sensitivities to have the music support the action rather than distract from it. Join us as we talk about techniques for how to compose in parallel (and occasionally perpendicular!) music for dramatic action, where to start when designing pre-compositional blueprints for narrative works, how to use orchestration and instrumentation to add technicolor to music for the stage and operatic medium, and more.
May 11, 2021 at 7pm
THINK OLIO
David Lynch & the Signature Touch
Through the darkness of future’s past
The magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds…
“Fire… walk with me"
In this Olio, we’ll watch selections of Lynch’s most iconic projects: Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive and explore the process under which the music was created, how it serves the narrative and visuals, and what parallels these moments expose - in what I call the “Lynch Vocabulary.”
April 22, 2021 at 7:00 pm
EUREKA ENSEMBLE
Rising Tides Project
Music to empower young artists and musicians in Boston, support local environmental outreach initiatives, and raise awareness on the impacts of climate change on communities in Boston
Our inaugural event on April 22nd at 7pm will take place as part of UMass Boston’s Earth Week. The event will focus on original songs written by four young musicians especially for this event, with additional environmentally-focused music.
Program includes original works by the 2021 Rising Tide Fellows: Travis Ambroise, Angelina Botticelli, Danny Rivera, and Erin Vadala with other works by Whitney George, J Andres Ballestros, Sam Wu, and Lili Boulanger
March 19th, 2021 at 7pm
THINK OLIO:
Olio Film Night: Hitchock's Vertigo
For the first edition of Olio Film Night, where a professor guides us through a classic film, we'll be taking a look at one of the most famous collaborative teams in cinematic history: director Alfred Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann.
In the golden age of cinema, works put forth by the Hitchcock/Herrmann team set a gold standard for those collaborative partnerships to follow. Join us in this special Olio where Professor George will discuss some themes and specific scenes of Vertigo before we watch the film, followed by a Q-A session. Everyone will be asked to find this film for themselves for streaming during the Olio.
September 27, 2021 at 8pm
DIALOGUES
A thought-provoking town hall-style conversation,
a forum for meaningful exchanges of ideas between composers, performers and audiences
brings the night to a close.
Join Tania León, the artistic director of Composers Now, for an evening of inspiring performances of short works by three dynamic and virtuosic artists, Whitney George, Adonis G. Matos (aka Adonis Gonzalez), and Yumi Kurosawa, as Composers Now steps back on stage with a live audience in Marc Scorca Hall at the National Opera Center.
June 25, 2021 at 7pm
AXEMAN
Presented as a radio drama for a trio of actors and accompanying jazz-based chamber ensemble, Axeman delves into the psychology of making profit off human suffering and an exploration of the American Dream.
The tale of the New Orleans Axeman is a spooky one! At the conclusion of the 1919 Spanish Flu, a murderer crept through the streets causing mass hysteria. And apparently he loved jazz music. He wrote an op-ed to the Times-Picayune addressing the townsfolk of New Orleans, instructing each and every one of them, to play jazz music and a life would be spared.
May 7, 2021 at 2pm
HISAM
A Legacy of Feminist Musicology
Join us as we celebrate the writing, mentoring, and the field-changing work of Ellie Hisama.
The afternoon’s events will include discussions of Gendering Musical Modernism, the conference and book Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Worlds, and a keynote address by Dr. Hisama.
We’ll conclude with a screening of selections from Miriam Gideon’s opera Fortunato, presented by composer/conductor Whitney E. George and moderated by musicologist Lindsey Eckenroth
April 20, 2021 at 7:30 pm
HAILEY COHEN
Quarantine Cabaret
Program includes works by William Bolcolm, Kurt Weill
Jake Heggie, Whitney E. George, and Eileen Weiser EXCEL FUND commission of "Human Nature" by Jerrell R. Gray
January 16th, 2021 at 12pm
THINK OLIO
OlioFest: 12-hour audio experience
With a combination of live and pre-recorded lectures,
interviews, concerts, workshops, and call-ins
from our community on the ground in NYC,
we will curate a day to engage in the art of deep listening.
In the spirit of some of the great public access variety shows and telethons of the past, Think Olio will host a 12-hour radio show featuring notable Olios from our archive, new professor voices, updates from our NYC community, and we'll be raising funds for the upcoming year's programming the whole time. Think Radio Show + Telethon + Festival hosted by Chris and David and some special guests.