THE BOX IS EMPTY’S TOP PICK’S

Lindsay Kesselman – Elegies by Steve Roens. Congregational Church of Weston, Weston, MA.  May 30, 2012.

The Eschler Music Foundation, in conjunction with the United Congregational Church of Weston, proudly announces the 2012 Concert Series, “A Community of the Spirit.” The series will commence at 8 pm on Wednesday, May 30 at the United Congregational Church of Weston, Massachusetts. The Concert will be presented free to the public.

Lindsay Kessleman, Soprano and Emily Robinson, Soprano will perform alongside Miaomiao Wang, Piano. Alexander Lane, organ, will also contribute to the evening’s program. The concert will debut new works by Peter Lane, PhD ABD (Brandeis University), and Dr. Nathaniel Eschler, PhD (Brandeis University).

Eschler Music Foundation is also pleased to present a new song cycle by the featured composer, Dr. Steve Roens, PhD (Professor, University of Utah). Dr. Roens’ cycle is based on the poetry of Utah’s former poet laureate and current Guggenheim Fellowship recipent, Dr. Katharine Coles, PhD (University of Utah). Cheryl Hart will be reading selections to be featured in Dr. Roens’ composition.

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The Fisher Ensemble – Magda G Script Reading.  The Project Room, Seattle, WA.  June 3, 2012, 2:00 p.m..

Garrett Fisher is currently composing his most ambitious opera to date, Magda. Infused with hints of the Greek tragedy Medea, Magda (with libretto by Amy Schrader) will be based on the wife of Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Magda bore six children, whose names all began with the letter “H,” supposedly out of reverence for Hitler. In 1945, in the Führerbunker, Magda Goebbels murdered her children before committing double suicide with her husband. In Euripides’ play, Medea murders her children to seek revenge against her unfaithful husband. Magda, on the other hand, performed the act as protest against a quickly changing political landscape. The opera explores the similarities and differences between these two figures and their stories.

In 2012-3, this opera will become the key element of a new film, Magda G, directed by Ryan K Adams and written by Garrett Fisher/Amy Schrader. The film centers on the actress Johanna Halcón who stars in the production, and who finds herself implicated in the opera’s story and subject matter in unusual (and unfortunate) ways. This Greek tragedy-within-an opera-within-a-film reveals itself much like a Russian doll, and resonates with our own culture’s struggle to discern what is real and what is propaganda, what is historical and what is fictional, cutting to the very core of our struggle to make sense of a confusing and ever-innovating universe.

Presented at the Seattle’s The Project Room, this project is part of an ongoing series, “Beginnings,” which follows various projects from conception to completion.

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HAPPENING THIS WEEK – 5/28/12-6/3/12 – Seattle

• Nat Evans – Cutting Word (World Premier).  Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA.  May 29 and June 1, 2012.
• Maria Mannisto/Jeremiah Cawley – UW Chamber Singers.  Meany Hall, Seattle, WA.  May 29, 2012, 7:30 p.m..
• The Fisher Ensemble – Magda G Script Reading.  The Project Room, Seattle, WA.  June 3, 2012, 2:00 p.m..

HAPPENING THIS WEEK – 5/28/12-6/3/12 – Elsewhere

• Lindsay Kesselman – Premiers by Nathaniel Eschler and Steve Roens. Congregational Church of Weston, Weston, MA.  May 30, 2012.

HAPPENING SOON

• Table and Chairs – Heatwarmer.  20/20 Cycle, Seattle, WA.  June 4, 2012, 8:00 p.m..
• Nat Evans – Sandscape (Film by Erin Elyse Burns).  TK Building, Seattle, WA.  June 7, 2012.
• Lindsay Kesselman /Kate Moroney – Einstein On The Beach. Sony Center for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Canada.  June 8-10, 2012.
• Lauren Husting – KnoX Brass WorX. International Women’s Brass Conference, Kalamazoo, MI.  June 10, 2012.
• The Fisher Ensemble – Magda G Score Reading.  The Fetherston Gallery, Seattle, WA.  June 15, 2012, 8:00 p.m..
• Kate Moroney – Soloist with Yale Choral Artists and Mark Morris Dance Company.  Arts and Ideas Festival, New Haven, CT.  June 19-22.
• Tom Peyton/Make Music New York – Gradient vs. Drone by Eric Frederic.  All over NYC.  June 21, 2012, all day.
• Parnassus Project – Music at Tully’s Flagship.  Tully’s Flagship Store, Seattle, WA.  June 23, 2012.
• The Box Is Empty – Music by Van Der Aa, Gordon, Gendel, Evans, and Kirsten. Century Ballroom, Seattle, WA.  June 29, 2012, 8:00 p.m.
• Lindsay Kesselman – Louis Andriessen’s The New Maths and Amy Beth Kirsten’s L’ange Pâle with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.  City Theater, Pittsburgh, PA.  July 13-14, 8:00 p.m.