Musical Offerings for Human Rights | Season 2
Building awareness with the universal language of music
A series of 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.”
Patricia Spencer, curator
SEE & HEAR – all Musical Offerings to date
Upcoming in Musical Offerings
Argentina and Cuba
Exploring music and human rights with composers Martin Gendelman, Tania León, and Pablo Ortiz
The United States
Exploring chamber jazz works by African-American composers David Baker and David Sanford
Tuesday,December 12, 2023, 7 pm EST
Da Capo Chamber Players YouTube channel
Exploring Persia and Mongolia
Works inspired by a Medieval Sufi poem and Mongolian traditional song
Joining host Lara Pellegrinelli and series curator Patricia Spencer, are the composers, and percussionist Michael Lipsey, a longtime collaborating musician with the ensemble.
• Learn more about Lara Pellegrinell
Shirish Korde – The Conference of the Birds 2 (2022)
written for the 50th anniversary celebration of Da Capo Chamber Players
Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Patricia Spencer, flute | Marianne Gythfeldt, clarinet | Steven Beck, piano | Ariadne Greif, soprano | Michael Lipsey, guest percussion
– Performed live at Merkin Hall, April 6, 2022
This piece will also be performed live on Da Capo Chamber Players' NYC series at Tenri Cultural Institute on May 19, 2024
• Learn more about Shirish Korde
• See the images and credits for Conference of the Birds II
• Read the texts for Conference of the Birds II
Lei Liang – Gobi Canticle (2004)
Curtis Macomber, violin | ChrisGross, cello
– Performed live at the CUNY Graduate Center, October 6, 2022
• Learn more about Lei Liang
• Read about the Lei Lab at UC San Diego
SEE & HEAR
EXPLORING PERSIA AND MONGOLIA
Musical Offerings for Human Rights: Season I
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
Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 7 pm EDT
Hearing the African-American Experience
Wendell Logan's Runagate, Runagate, a musical embodiment of spirit and determination to be free, and Berlo'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 | ChrisGross, 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
SEE & HEAR – Hearing the African Americancan Experience
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
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
This series is dedicated to the memory of Bernard Hulbert, MD
This concert series of the Da Capo Chamber Players was 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, The Alice M. Ditson Fund, The Amphion Foundation, Hulbert Charitable Trust, Zethus Fund, and generous individuals
