Come Celebrate during special performance at Cornish on December 4, 2010.
Dec 4, 8pm
PONCHO Concert Hall
Kerry Hal
710 East Roy Street
map & directions
Buy Tickets in advance; $20 at the door; $10 for students, seniors, and Cornish alumni
Gamelan Pacifica celebrates the release of their new compact disc recording on New World Records with a special performance on Saturday, December 4th at 8 PM at PONCHO Concert Hall, 710 East Roy Street in Seattle. The CD entitled Scenes from Cavafy: Music for Gamelan features compositions for gamelan by the late American composer Lou Harrison.
The concert on December 4th will feature selections from the CD including Lou Harrison’s Scenes from Cavafy and A Soedjatmoko Set with special guest artists John Duykers, tenor soloist, and Jessika Kenney (MU ‘07), vocalist, as well as Harrison’s rarely performed Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Gamelan featuring violinist Jennifer Caine and cellist Sally Singer.
About the Artists
Founded in 1980, Gamelan Pacifica is among the finest ensembles in the United States devoted to the performance of gamelan music. It is an active and adventurous ensemble, with a reputation for creating diverse productions merging traditional and contemporary musical forms with dance, theater, puppetry, and visual media. The ensemble has performed at the Smithsonian Institute’s Festival of Indonesia, New Music Across America Festival, Vancouver New Music Society, On the Boards, Walker Art Center, Performing Arts Chicago, and elsewhere. Visiting artists who have worked with Gamelan Pacifica include some of the most notable artists of Indonesia including Sutrisno Hartana, Wayan Sinti, Didik Nini Thowok, Sri Djoko Rahardja, I Made Sidia, Endo Suanda, Dedek Wahyudi, Goenawan Mohamad, and Tony Prabowo. Gamelan Pacifica’s CD, Trance Gong (O.O. Discs) has received international acclaim. Gamelan Pacifica is directed by noted composer and Cornish Professor Jarrad Powell.
Lou Harrison’s (1917–2003) long-term love affair with the Indonesian gamelan had its roots in a course he took from Henry Cowell in the spring of 1935. As Harrison refined his understanding of traditional gamelan procedures during the 1980s, he began to transfer these compositional ideas to works for Western instruments. At the same time, Harrison continued to compose for the Indonesian ensemble itself, indulging a fascination for Asia that had been part of his life since his youth while simultaneously bringing this fascination into close interaction with his Western musical training. He simply found in gamelan music some of the most beautiful sounds he could imagine and he hastened to add these sounds to his toolbox of compositional resources as an extension of his personal artistic voice. In so doing, he honored the culture that had inspired him, and offered his works as an admiration for its artistic products. This is the world-premiere recording of these three major works in authoritative performances by Gamelan Pacifica, which had a long association with the composer, performing and giving the Northwest premieres of all his major works for gamelan.
Internationally acclaimed tenor, John Duykers, has appeared with many of the leading opera companies of the world including The Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Netherlands Opera, the Grand Theatre of Geneva, Frankfurt Opera, Opera de Marseille, the Canadian Opera Company, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, San Diego Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. Duykers is particularly known for his performances of contemporary music, having sung in more than 100 contemporary operas including 50 plus world premieres. He has had a close association with a number of contemporary composers, notably John Adams and Philip Glass. He sang the premiere of Glass’ White Raven, In The Penal Colony and the title role of Galileo Galilei. He also created the role of Mao Tse Tung in John Adams’ Nixon in China, which he performed throughout the world. Duykers has appeared regularly with San Francisco Opera where he performed in recent seasons in Britten’s Billy Budd, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Ligeti’s Grand Macabre, Los Angeles Opera, where he sang most recently in Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten, and at Santa Fe Opera where he returned in 2008 as Red Whiskers in Britten’s Billy Budd.
Jennifer Caine, violinist, was the first prize winner of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Competition in 2004 and recipient of several awards including the Isolde Menges Prize, Polonsky Foundation Grant and Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for Musicians. She has performed in concerts throughout the U.S. and Europe, and at music festivals including the Olympic Music Festival, Soesterberg International Music Festival, Music@Menlo, and Norfolk, Yellow Barn and Sarasota Music Festivals. As an orchestral musician, she has appeared in concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Philomusica, and Seattle Symphony. Jennifer is Resident Violinist at the Icicle Creek Music Center. Her recent collaborations in the Seattle area have included work with the Seattle Chamber Players and Sanssouci Chamber Ensemble, and she regularly performs on the Simple Measures and Second City Chamber Series. British cellist Sally Singer has an extensive background performing solo and chamber music. She has toured Britain, France, Italy, Austria and Germany with ensembles and has played in the major concert halls of London, New York and Vienna. As a soloist, Sally has appeared with the Danbury Symphony Orchestra, the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra and the Pleven Philharmonic, Bulgaria, where the Polemics of Art Journal review referred to her interpretation of Elgar’s cello concerto as “a performance of the highest caliber, which will leave life-long memories for every person in the audience.” Singer was a top prizewinner in the Corpus Christi International Young Artists competition, won the John Ireland Chamber Music Competition and received two fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Center. In addition to maintaining a busy performing schedule, Singer is Co-Artistic Director of the Icicle Creek Music Center and Co-Director of the Center’s summer Chamber Music Institute. Vocalist Jessika Kenney’s work demonstrates deep appreciation and understanding of both traditional musics and experimental methods. She has performed and recorded Classical Persian vocal repertoire with ney master Ostad Hossein ‘Omoumi, as well as new and traditional Javanese music with Gamelan Pacifica and Gamelan Madusari. From 1994-97 she studied with the jazz vocalist Jay Clayton; for several extended periods between 1997-2001 Kenney lived in Indonesia, studying and performing traditional Javanese vocal music with Nyi Supadmi and collaborating on music and theater in experimental settings. She currently studies classical Persian vocal music with Ostad Hossein ‘Omoumi. Performance highlights include appearing as a soloist with the Orchestra del Teatro Communale, Bologna, Italy, under the direction of Aldo Sisillo in 2003, in Athlantis with vocalist Mike Patton and the Coro da Camera di Modena, Italy in 2006, and in Eyvind Kang’s Shadow of Ideas in Milan and Barcelona in 2007. Her recordings include The Stonehouse Songs with Jarrad Powell, the voice/viola duet Aestuarium with Eyvind Kang, and Voices of Spring with the Hossein Omoumi Ensemble. She has created numerous experimental wayang (shadow plays) including Maya in the Bardo (1996), and Atria (2006), as well as many other works for voice and mixed ensembles.
