Musicians For Harmony “Concert for Peace”: Music of Jewish & Arab Composers
Thursday, April 08, 2010 7:30 pm
Featuring:
Borromeo String Quartet
Imani Winds Quintet
Randall Scarlata, baritone
Works by:
Richard Danielpour
Halim El-Dabh
Tobias Picker
Yehudi Wyner
...and the world premiere of FURIA by Mohammed Fairouz
In the spring of 2010, Musicians For Harmony will present a concert of contrapuntal dialogue between cultures using the forum of contemporary music in a program featuring works by five of the foremost living composers. Composers of Jewish and Arab origin are brought together to showcase the diversities, individual richness and, above all, shared histories and common ground of their respective heritages.
Halim El-Dabh, a revolutionary voice in Egyptian music, is heard through his String Quartet: Metamorphoses and Fugue on Egyptian Folklore. The quartet, written in the 1950s, explores Arab folk idioms, maqam (Arabic modes) and western contrapuntal forms (fugue). Tobias Picker's Nova follows: a chamber work by "our finest composer for the lyric stage"(Wall Street Journal) written as a companion to Schubert's "Trout" Quintet. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner's Tanz and Máissele, Yiddish for "Dance and Little Story," ends the first half.
The second half of the program opens with the work of a composer who combines his Persian/Jewish background with one of the most distinctive American voices of our time: Richard Danielpour's Third String Quartet was written to commemorate the Holocaust and uses the baritone voice as a vehicle together with the strings.
The evening ends with the world premiere of a song cycle entitled Furia commissioned by Musicians For Harmony from Mohammed Fairouz, one of the most sought after composers of the young generation. Drawing on his Persian Gulf and Palestinian origins, Fairouz seeks to confront issues of communication through the rich heritage of music and languages from the Middle East. The cycle will incorporate Arabic, Hebrew and English poetic traditions.
Musician for Harmony's website
Single Tickets: $25, $60, $100 Students: $12
Discounted tickets can be purchased at the Box Office or by calling 212 501 3330.
EVENT ABBREVIATIONS:
AGRH = Ann Goodman Recital Hall,
KC = Kaufman Center,
LMS = Lucy Moses School
MCH = Merkin Concert Hall,
SMS = Special Music School,
YAP = Young Artist Program