Chatter: Music Worth Talking About A Centennial Chamber Music Performance

Chatter is (ad)venturing into Santa Fe with a major musical offering which includes a  world premiere of Caprichos, written by renowned composer Roberto Sierra for the Albuquerque-based chamber music program in honor of New Mexico’s statehood Centennial. The concert, at 6 pm on Friday, Nov. 9, in the St. Francis Auditorium, is a collaboration with the New Mexico Museum of Art and the New Mexico History Museum. Thomas Leech of the Press of the Palace of the Governors will create a limited-edition keepsake based on Sierra’s score for the audience. (The Press is a working exhibit of 19th- and 20th-century letterpress printing techniques and equipment.)

Tickets are $25 general admission, $9 students and people under 30, available at www.chatterchamber.org and at the door.

Sierra’s Caprichos is the centerpiece of the program and has been approved as an official event of the New Mexico Centennial. In addition to commissioned works for orchestras and chamber groups around the world, Sierra has written three compositions in honor of centennials for the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Juilliard School, and New Mexico’s statehood. (For more on Sierra, see his bio here: http://www.robertosierra.com/Site/Bio_Calendar.html)

Scored for piano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and percussion, Caprichos will be joined by Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, a landmark song cycle based on the poems of Albert Giraud composition that was written and premiered 100 years ago in October 1912 Pierrot Lunaire contains many paradoxes: the instrumentalists are simultaneously soloists and an orchestra, Pierrot is both hero and fool in a drama that is also a concert piece, cabaret as high art and vice versa, song that is also speech, a male role sung by a woman.

The final piece on the program is one of the most controversial and bold compositions by John Adams, who is often referred to as “America’s greatest living composer.” His formidable Grand Pianola Music is scored for two pianos, winds, brass, three female voices, and percussion (including two well-deployed bass drums). Adams describes Grand Pianola Music as “dueling pianos, cooing sirens, Valhalla brass, thwacking bass drums, gospel triads, and a Niagara of cascading keys.” He seamlessly combines writing that evokes, and was inspired by, the vast openness of the Southwest with moments of calm and delicate beauty. A perfect pairing of moods for the celebration of our state’s 100th anniversary.

Musicians for the Roberto Sierra’s Caprichos:

David Felberg, violin

James Shields, clarinet

Jesse Tatum, flute

James Holland, cello

Teddy Robie, piano

Jeff Cornelius, vibraphone

Ensemble Music New Mexico is the parent organization of three Albuquerque-based performance series: Sunday Chatter (previously the Church of Beethoven), Chatter 20-21, and Chatter Cabaret. Together, they present a full spectrum of chamber music repertoire, from Baroque to 21st century, with special attention to American composers. The groups perform in unconventional but physically and psychologically accessible venues; foster curiosity about and understanding of today’s composers through juxtapositions of contemporary and traditional classical music; offer courageous programming and challenging opportunities for professional musicians; bring together music and poetry and other spoken word each Sunday; and bring youths to the stage and to the audience.

Chatter’s home performance space is The Kosmos, an old warehouse with a wooden barreled arch ceiling at 1715 5th St. NW, in the geographic center of Albuquerque. Every Sunday morning at 10:30 am, Chatter presents a live, unique concert of music in the classical idiom, 10 minutes of poetry or other spoken word, plus espresso and home-made goodies—all in about an hour.

For more information, go to www.chatterchamber.org

Interviews:

•David Felberg, Artistic Director / Violinist / Conductor: bupkus@prodigy.net, 505-453-3798

•James Shields, Clarinetist / Associate Artistic Director: jamestshields@mac.com,

512-497-0109

•Conor Hanick, Pianist (Pierrot Lunaire and Grand Pianola Music): conorhanick@me.com,

319-321-9946

•Roberto Sierra, Composer, is available for telephone interviews. To schedule, please contact

Chatter: Pamela Michaelis, pamelamichaelis@mac.com, 505-292-7537