Ryan Chase: Stargazer (2012)
first Boston performance
Eric Moe: Tough Songs About Death (2017)
first Boston performance
Joan Tower: Breakfast Rhythms I (1974)
Matthew Ricketts: Seven by Seven
first Boston performance
Kamran Ince: Waves of Talya (1988)
first Boston performance
Featuring Tony Arnold, soprano
All performances include a 7pm pre-concert talk with the composers and music director, as well as a post-concert reception.
The music of two young composers, Ryan Chase (b. 1987) and Matthew Ricketts (b. 1986) anchor Collage’s second program. Chase, now teaching at Colby College, composes music described as a "whirlwind… [that] deftly explore[s] contrasts of mood, from bombastic to introverted.” The equally colorful music of Canadian-American Ricketts, who teaches at Columbia University, has been characterised as “effervescent and at times prickly,” an “hypnotically churning exploration of melody.”
This rich program features seminal works by three well-established composers: Eric Moe, whose music has recently become a vital voice in Collage’s repertoire; Joan Tower, whose 80th birthday we very belatedly celebrate with one of her seminal works; and Turkish-American Kamran Ince, who has that rare ability to “sound connected with modern music and yet still seem exotic….bridging the East and the West.” This is an unexpected program of influences and influencers.