Da Capo Bridges—50th Anniversary Season
Premieres written for the occasion by 3 major composers!
Merkin Concert Hall Kaufman Music Center
129 West 67th Street, NYC
Please Note: In addition to (hopefully!) permitting in-person audiences, concerts will also be live-streamed on the same day, same time, with the same program.
A link for the streamed version of each concert will also be posted here and sent in an email blast shortly before the concert date.
Thursday, June 9, 2022, 8pm EDT
Bridging Eras: Then and Now
Eminent composers with whom Da Capo has collaborated from the beginning of its half-century of music-making, plus exciting new voices
Bruce Adolphe – Portraits World Premiere
Written for Da Capo’s 50th Anniversary
George Perle – Sonata a quattro*
Joan Tower – Looking Back*
Younger composers | Recent collaborations
Shen Yiwen – Guo Shang: Hymn to the Fallen and Li Hun: Recessional*
Sid Richardson – Astrolabe* NY Premiere
*Written for the Da Capo Chamber Players
GUEST ARTIST
James Baker percussion
Tuesday, May 10, 2022, 8pm EDT
Bridging Styles
Diversity of styles — the ultimate contrasts
Judith Shatin – Gregor’s Dream (chamber work with electronics)
Jason Eckardt – Rendition (new complexity)
Erica Lindsay – Further Explorations (jazz). Written for Da Capo, NY Premiere
Elliott Carter – Con leggerezza pensosa (old complexity)
Steve Reich – Double Sextet (minimalism)
GUEST ARTISTS
Oliver Xu percussion
Caroline Davis alto saxophone
Erica Lindsay tenor saxophone
Mark Helias acoustic bass
Allan Mednard drums
Wednesday, April 6, 2022, 8pm EDT
Bridging Cultures
Chamber works honoring musics and cultures from around the globe.
Shirish Korde – The Conference of the Birds II*
World Premiere. Written for Da Capo’s 50th Anniversary
Shulamit Ran* (Israel) – Mirage*
Tania León (Cuba) – One Mo’ Time*
George Walker (African-American) – Music for 3
Eric Moe – Spirit Mountain (based on a Nepalese offering song)
Hannah Kendall – Tan-Tan (a Caribbean tale)
*Written for the Da Capo Chamber Players
GUEST ARTISTS
Lucy Shelton soprano
Ariadne Greif soprano
Yoshi Weinberg flute, alto flute, bass flute and piccolo
Jacqueline Leclair oboe, English horn
Nanci Belmont bassoon
Michael Lipsey percussion
The concerts of the Da Capo Chamber Players are made possible in part with public funds from:
New York State Council on the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
which believes that a great nation deserves great art
They are also made possible with private funds from:
The Aaron Copland Fund for Music
The Alice M. Ditson Fund
The Amphion Foundation
Hulbert Charitable Trust
Zethus Fund
and generous individuals
Musical Offerings for Human Rights
Building awareness with the universal language of music
A series of three online events combining performances from the ensemble’s digital archives with current conversations.
Each anchored by our shared conviction that the more we explore, experience, and understand cultural differences and varying viewpoints as captured in music, the more we honor and celebrate every individual's right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Works by composers Luciano Berio, Valerie Coleman, Kyle Gann, Wendell Logan, Chinary Ung, Chou Wen-chung
Bruce Adolphe, Carman Moore, Harvey Sollberger, hosts
Kyle Gann, Michael Lipsey, David Rakowski, David Sanford, Whitney Slaten, Chinary Ung, speakers
Patricia Spencer, curator
SEE & HEAR all three events in this series
David Rakowski
Luciano Berio
Wendell Logan
David Sanford
Carman Moore
Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 7 pm EDT
Hearing the African-American Experience
Wendell Logan’s Runagate, Runagate, a musical embodiment of the spirit and determination to be free, and Berio’s tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., O King
Carman Moore, host
David Sanford, David Rakowski, Da Capo's Patricia Spencer and Steven Beck, speakers
Wendell Logan – Runagate, Runagate (1989)
Robert Mack, tenor soloist | Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Patricia Spencer, flute and piccolo | Marianne Gythfeldt, clarinet and bass clarinet | Christopher Oldfather, guest piano | Michael Lipsey, guest percussion | Marcus Parris, conductor
Performance from: February 12, 2020 at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, NYC
Luciano Berio – O King (1968)
Lucy Shelton, soprano | Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Patricia Spencer, flute | Meighan Stoops, clarinet | Steven Beck, piano
Performance from: May 1, 2017 at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, NYC
Chinury Ung
Chou Wen-chung
Michael Lipsey
Harvey Sollberger
Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 7 pm EDT
Asian Echoes
Chinary Ung’s Child Song, delighting in and preserving Cambodian song in a time when it was forbidden, plus Chou Wen-chung’s Ode to Eternal Pine, a musical reflection of the Chinese terms “tian di ren – heaven, earth, and humanity”
Harvey Sollberger, host
Chinary Ung, Michael Lipsey, members of Da Capo Chamber Players, speakers
Chinary Ung – Child Song (1985)
Patricia Spencer, flute | Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Steven Beck, piano
Performance from: June 5, 2019 at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, NYC
Chou Wen-chung – Ode to Eternal Pine (2009)
Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Patricia Spencer, flute | Nuno Antunes, guest clarinet | Steven Beck, piano | Michael Lipsey, guest percussion
Performance from: June 5, 2019 at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, NTC
Lia Di Stefano, images | Andrés León, video
Valerie Coleman
Kyle Gann
Whitney Slaten
Bruce Adolphe
Tuesday, June 22, 2021, 7 pm EDT
Paean To Merging Cultures
Exploring sounds of Native American history — merged with African American history in Valerie Coleman’s Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes — and as memorialized in Kyle Gann's Hovenweep.
Bruce Adolphe, host
Kyle Gann, Whitney Slaten, Curtis Macomber, Patricia Spencer, speakers
Valerie Coleman – Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes (2014)
Curtis Macomber violin | Chris Gross cello | Patricia Spencer flute | Marianne Gythfeldt clarinet | Steven Beck piano
Performance pre-recorded for August 13, 2021 virtual National Flute Association Convention. Recorded on June 11, 2021, Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY, by Judith Sherman and Charles Mueller.
Kyle Gann – Hovenweep (2000)\
Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Patricia Spencer, flute | Marianne Gythfeldt, clarinet | Margaret Kampmeier, guest piano
Performance from: March 10, 2020 at The László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Performance Space, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Hovenweep is an ancient, highly developed, and well-preserved village on the Utah-Colorado border, occupied by the Anasazi from 500 BC to 1300. The Anasazi (the “Ancient Ones”) are thought to be ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians.
Consultants for
Musical Offerings for Human Rights
Amy Roberts Frawley, producer
Hemsing Associates, public relations
Andrés León, technical director
Lia Di Stefano, graphic designer
Sarah Elia, social media
Background music: Petroushkates (1980) by Joan Tower, founding pianist of Da Capo Chamber Players, commissioned by the ensemble in honor of its 10th anniversary – performance by Da Capo Chamber Players at Bard College, September 10, 2014
The concerts of the Da Capo Chamber Players are made possible in part with public funds from:
National Endowment for the Arts
which believes that a great nation deserves great art
They are also made possible with private funds from:
The Aaron Copland Fund for Music
The Alice M. Ditson Fund
The Amphion Foundation
Hulbert Charitable Trust
Zethus Fund
and generous individuals
This series is dedicated to the memory of Bernard Hulbert, MD