Earplay’s 38th season launches on January 23 with an evocative program featuring three world premieres and one U.S. premiere, including “Songs for Majnūn Leyla” (Richard Aldag), “Katakana” (Linda Bouchard), “Tounen” (Hendel Almetus), and “Mirages” (Carla Magnan), the winner of our 2020 Donald Aird Composer Competition. “Mirages” was recorded and released on our YouTube channel during the pandemic, and we look forward to bringing it to the concert hall.
Performing on this concert will be core Earplayers, Terrie Baune (vn), Tod Brody (fl), Peter Josheff (cl), Thalia Moore (vc), Ellen Ruth Rose (va), and Brenda Tom, conducted by Mary Chun. Earplay will be joined by stellar guest artists that include Michael Dailey (tenor), Bryce Leafman (perc), and Brittany Trotter (fl). Concert begins at 7:30; pre-show dialogue at 6:45. Reception to follow concert.
Program at a Glance
Hendel Almetus, ”Tounen” for solo flute, Earplay commission & world Premiere
Linda Bouchard “Katakana” for solo viola and electronics, world premiere
Carla Magnan, “Mirages” for piano and cello, 2020 Aird Prize winner, US premiere
Richard Aldag “Songs of Majnun Leyla” for full ensemble, Persian hand drum, plus tenor vox
About the Program
Richard Aldag’s “Songs for Majnūn Leyla” for full ensemble, Persian hand drum, plus tenor vox (2022) is based on four poems (in English translation) by the poet Qays al-Mulawwah, also known as Majnūn Leyla (the one who was mad for Leyla). Qays was a 7th century Bedouin poet of the Bani Amir tribe in the Najd desert in Arabia. These Qays poems represent a deep and tragic love, a universal human narrative that transcends borders and can unite us across cultures and across millennia.
Linda Bouchard’s “Katakana” for solo viola and electronics (2022) is inspired by the katakana component of the Japanese writing system (which also includes hiragana, kanji, and sometimes Latin script). Defined as "fragmentary kana,” the katakana characters are derived from components or fragments of more complex kanji. These attributes will be expressed through the contrasts of the viola and electronic sources for the piece.
Hendel Almetus’ “Tounen” for solo flute (2022) is both vividly virtuosic and quietly meditative. Tounen, which translates to “return,” leads us through a series of sharply rendered episodes that investigate deeply held notions of identity and place while exploring a kaleidoscopic range of colors and techniques for the solo flute.
Carla Magnan’s “Mirages” for piano and cello (2018) will receive its U.S. concert hall premiere after being postponed during the pandemic. A set of four pieces – Mirage I, II, III and IV – are inspired by the optical phenomenon of the same name, a visual perception of distorted images of distant objects, which seem suspended in the air or turned upside down like reflections from a mirror, while what the images appear to represent is determined by the interpretive faculties of the human mind.