World Premiere of??Composer Robert Sirota???s Hafez Songs
Commissioned and presented by Palladium Musicum
Saturday, September 29, 2018 at 7:30pm
Newport Art Museum
76 Bellevue Avenue | Newport, RI
For ticket reservations ($65; includes reception),
visit www.palladiummusicum.org or call 203.661.6856.
???a compelling musical voice of our time??? ??? The American Organist
Newport, RI ??? On Saturday, September 29, 2018 at 7:30 pm, Palladium Musicum presents the world premiere of composer Robert Sirota???s Hafez Songs at the Newport Art Museum (76 Bellevue Avenue) in a program entitled “Opera Concert in the Gardens of Ancient Persia.??? Commissioned by Palladium Musicum, Inc. ??? with Patron support ??? Hafez Songs is based on four poems by the great 14th-century Persian Sufi poet Hafez, composed for soprano and baritone soloists with instrumental ensemble. The performers are soprano Maeve H??glund; baritone Jorell Williams; pianist Nate Raskin; flutist Martha Cargo; cellist Ben Larsen; and guitarist Jordan Dodson.
Of the texts, Sirota explains, ???These poems are ghazals, a form of lyric poetry common to the Persian court of this time period. This genre has some similarities to the western sonnet, both in form (both make use of rhyming couplets) and subject matter – mortality, sacred and sensual love ??? and both make abundant use of images from the natural world. These poems simultaneously juxtapose a world-weary fatalism with a mystical and ecstatic longing for heaven. I have chosen to express this duality by setting the poet???s words for two voices – the poet in conversation with himself???
Sirota continues, ???The four ghazals that I have set all employ the Persian garden, and more specifically, the gardens of Shiraz, as a central metaphor, an earthly paradise which mirrors and presages heaven. The rich imagery used includes water, wind, flowers (rose, jasmine, narcissus, anemone), the nightingale, and wine.??? Thus, for this performance dedicated to the experience and atmospherics of Persian gardens, the magnificent Bagh-e Eram (???Garden of Heaven???) in Shiraz has been ???recreated??? to conjure the setting.
The opera concert also includes familiar selections from the repertoire of traditional operas performed by rising young opera stars. They are established young performers who have exhibited exceptional vocal and artistic abilities receiving training in our renowned young artist development opera programs such as those offered by the Metropolitan Opera and the Washington National Opera. The selection of vocal artists and the artistic development of the concert have been undertaken by Dona D. Vaughn, Artistic Director of Opera Programs at the Manhattan School of Music and Artistic Director, Opera Maine.
About Robert Sirota: Over four decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work ??? whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: ???Sirota???s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.???
Robert Sirota???s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; the Chiara, American, Telegraph, Ethel, Elmyr, and Blair String Quartets; the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown music festivals; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Recent and upcoming commissions include Jeffrey Kahane and the Sarasota Music Festival, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Palladium Musicum, American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, Concert Artists of Baltimore, and yMusic.
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Recipient of grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center, Sirota???s works are recorded on Legacy Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels. His music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Schott, Music Associates of New York, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.
A native New Yorker, Sirota studied at Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard and divides his time between New York and Searsmont, Maine with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists. For complete information, visit www.robertsirota.com
About the Presenter: Palladium Musicum, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is devoted to celebrating classical music internationally as an expression of culture, the arts and the sacred, experienced in an intimate setting.?? www.palladiummusicum.org