Monthly Archives: February 2013

Shows — 2 Comments
18
Feb 13

FAMA with Talea Ensemble

Presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum

Ekmeles expands to 8 voices and joins Talea Ensemble to perform the US Premiere of Beat Furrer’s FAMA. Two performances, May 16 and 17, both at 8PM.

  • Beat Furrer – FAMA (US Premiere)

Personnel for concert

Presented with the support of the Harry and Alice Eiler Foundation

Talea’s 2012-13 season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Talea’s 2012-13 season is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and in part by New Music USA’s Cary New Music Performance Fund.

FAMA Acknowledgements

Performance details

  • Date: Thursday, May 16th 2013 - Friday, May 17th 2013
  • Time: 8:00pm
  • City: Ekmeles in New York, NY
  • Venue: Bohemian National Hall
  • Address: 321 East 73rd Street
  • Admission: Free, but ticketed
  • Notes: FAMA: Ekmeles and Talea Ensemble perform the US premiere of Beat Furrer’s FAMA. Link is for Thursday show, Friday tickets at http://www.acfny.org/event/beat-furrer-fama-1/
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Learning difficult music / Practice — Comments Off on Changing gears
17
Feb 13

Changing gears

Above: Aaron Cassidy's "I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips" Below: Ken Ueno's "Shiroi Ishi"

Above: Aaron Cassidy’s “I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips”
Below: Ken Ueno’s “Shiroi Ishi”

As singers of contemporary music, we are called upon to sing in many styles, and with many different vocal qualities. Working with the former is simply a matter of learning the proper aesthetic and idiom for each piece of music, or section of a piece, as it may be. Performing with a different vocal quality is a matter of physiology and muscular training, and can really throw a wrench into the works.

Rehearsing for our January 24th concert, I quickly realized I would need to use a lighter vocal mechanism for the long sustained lines of the second tenor part in Ken Ueno’s gorgeous “Shiroi Ishi” (it’s officially gorgeous, ask the New York Times). Since this was vocally the most challenging work on the program, I thought of it as my technical default for the rest of the show, centering my vocalizing and practicing around the technique required for the piece, and placing the other works on the show as much into the same space as possible.

On a wide-ranging program, however, it’s not always possible to stay within the confines of one vocal quality. I happened to have programmed Aaron Cassidy’s “I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips” on the same show, and get this, before the Ueno. I am occasionally my own worst enemy. Luckily we had made the time to run the full program in order in rehearsal, so I was prepared for the big gear shift from Cassidy into Ben Johnston, and finally to the long long lines of “Shiroi Ishi”. Balancing programmatic and performative concerns is a never-ending process, especially as singers of new music.