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Eve Beglarian, Five College Visiting Composer
Composer, performer, and audio producer Eve Beglarian has been widely praised by music critics for the remarkably experimental and interdisciplinary nature of her music, which often works with video and theater. Suggesting its broad appeal, her music and music theater works have been performed in the most mainstream concert halls and theaters as well as in clubs and lofts. Her chamber music, for example, has been commissioned and performed by the California EAR Unit, Relâche, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the Crosstown Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, and the New York New Music Ensemble, among others. A collaborative work for music theater with Hildegurls titled Ordo Virtutum, directed by Grethe Barrett Holby, premiered at the Lincoln Center Festival last summer. She also recently collaborated with director Chen Shi-Zheng on a production of The Bacchae for the China National Beijing Opera Theater. Her critically acclaimed performing duo twisted tutu with keyboard player Kathleen Supové blends high technology with theater. Beglarian's current projects include Re-Thinking Mary, a performance project that will be developed at the Atlantic Center for the Arts; a Meet the Composer co-commission for The Bilitis Songbook, a song cycle/concept CD with boombox virtuoso and composer Phil Kline; a major piece for cellist Maya Beiser that will premiere at Carnegie's Zankel Hall; and A Book of Days, a long-term project of 365 multimedia pieces for live performance as well as internet delivery. Recordings of her music are available on CRI Emergency Music, OO Discs, Canteloupe, Accurate Distortion, Atavistic, and Kill Rock Stars. The February concert at Amherst College will feature several songs from A Book of Days, which draws on the spirit of the medieval book of days. All the songs to be performed -- Cave, Five Things, Lullaby, Until It Blazes, and Michael's Spoon -- will be accompanied by video images. Another work by Beglarian, titled Take your Joy and written as a commission for the Amherst College Concert Choir, under the direction of Mallorie Chernin, will have its world premiere at this performance. Also on the program will be a new work by Hampshire College professor of music Daniel Warner; Vocalise, by Amherst College assistant professor of music Eric Sawyer; and original compositions by two Five College students: Owen Granich-Young (Hampshire College) and Heather Willey (UMass Amherst). The performers will include the Mount Holyoke College Glee Club, under the baton of Catharine Melhorn, and Junko Watanabe, soprano, who teaches voice at Amherst College. A discussion with composer Eve Beglarian will follow the concert. The public is also welcome to attend two other events related to Beglarian's visit: a talk by the composer and an open rehearsal for the concert, both free. On Wednesday, February 9 in Room 102, Arms Music Center, Amherst College at 2:00 p.m., Beglarian will discuss her recent compositional work with performers of traditional Asian music in a lecture entitled "Leaping the Gap: Embracing Failures of Translation." That evening, there will be an open rehearsal of the new commission Take Your Joy with the Amherst College Concert Choir in Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College at 7:00 p.m. Sponsored by the Five College Music Departments' Chairs Fund, Five Colleges, Incorporated, and organized by Five College faculty composers Eric Sawyer (Amherst College) and David Sanford (Mount Holyoke College). Funded in part by a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts and Meet the Composer, Inc. with additional support from the ASCAP, the Virgil Thomas Fund, and with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information about the concert or related events, or to arrange an interview with the composer, contact Renee Fall at Five Colleges: (413) 256-8316. PHOTO AVAILABLE ON REQUEST Page created 1/14/05
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Eve
Beglarian, an American composer who has been described as "one of
new music's truly free spirits," [Kyle Gann, The Village Voice]
will be in residence February 9 to 11, 2005, hosted by the music departments
of the five colleges. The highlight of her visit will be a
concert of new music on Friday, February 11,
2005 in Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College at 7:30 p.m., featuring
works by Beglarian as well as original compositions by Five College faculty
and students. Admission is free and members of the public are welcome.