An Enchanting Evening at Nordia House

This special benefit concert is a pre-festival amuse-bouche that features the “eloquent intensity” (The New Yorker) of the Jupiter String Quartet as they make their Chamber Music Northwest premiere this year. The evening includes recent works by Japanese-American composer Michi Wiancko and budding star Alistair Coleman, performed by Soovin Kim and members of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra.

The lush event includes this intimate concert setting and the beautiful grounds at Nordia House, along with wine, delightful delicacies
from Broder Söder, and Missionary Chocolates.

Nordia House
Tuesday, 6/29 • 6:00 pm PT
Tickets: $150

Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

ALISTAIR COLEMAN ‘Moonshot’: A Triptych for String Quartet (2019)

ALISTAIR COLEMAN (b. 1998)
Moonshot: A Triptych for String Quartet (2019)

I. July 16, 1969
II. July 20, 1969
III. July 21, 1969

Three years ago, I was fortunate to tour the Glenstone Art Museum in Potomac, MD. It was a magical experience, and it was here that I encountered On Kawara’s Moon Landing triptych. The juxtaposing colors, precise gestures, powerful historical context, and placement of the pieces encapsulated me in the space. I have only seen photos and historical artifacts from the mission, but experiencing Kawara’s pieces, each completed on the day of each event, made me feel frozen in a moment in time — almost as if the works themselves were artifacts from the mission, or more broadly, living relics from a watershed moment in American history. 

Experiencing Kawara’s Moon Landing Triptych led me to envision a three-movement work for string quartet which is now titled Moonshot. Each movement is titled with a date painted on each canvas: I. July 16, 1969, launch; II. July 20, 1969, the lunar landing; and III. July 21, 1969, the day people on Earth came together to celebrate humanity’s first steps on the Moon. I wanted to illustrate the feeling of each moment in time, using the paintings as a direct connection to those events, and capturing the wonder of art and space exploration that Kawara’s work evoked in me. The piece was commissioned by the Glenstone Museum and premiered in 2019.  The world-premiere recording was filmed in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and produced for the 2019 Smithsonian Year of Music.

—© Alistair Coleman

 

MICHI WIANCKO To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores

Michi Wiancko (b. 1976) To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores

Pelagic Within
Dream of the Xerces Blue
Central Park Microbial
Invisible Eviction
Crying, Together
Follow the Water
Rise Up

This work was written for the Jupiter String Quartet and commissioned by Bay Chamber Concerts in celebration of the organization’s 60th anniversary, in partnership with the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores is a multi-movement work for string quartet that celebrates the beauty and vitality of the natural world, and suggests a space for hope and inspiration at a time when young people and adults alike have no choice but to take on fears and worries for our planet. The themes of regeneration and resilience are central to this work, as is the notion of collective humanity, and the need to help protect each other and our most vulnerable populations.

Movement 1: Pelagic Within
Our journey begins on the water, as we travel from shoreline to open sea.

Movement 2: Dream of the Xerces Blue
Dedicated to the magic of pollinators specifically to the gossamer-winged butterfly, Xerces Blue, which became extinct after loss of its coastal sand dune habitat in San Francisco’s Sunset District. It was last spotted in the Bay area in 1943.

Movement 3: Central Park Microbial
A tribute to the microbiome of the soil beneath New York City’s Central Park, discovered only in recent years to be shockingly diverse and resilient. The vast majority of the park’s microbes have yet to be studied or even named.

Movement 4: Invisible Eviction
The world is on fire.

Movement 5: Crying, Together
A song of mourning dedicated to our most vulnerable populations.

Movement 6: Follow the Water
A return to the ocean, and the rivers that flow into it.

Movement 7: Rise Up
A celebration, a call to action, and a meditation on our collective humanity.

— © Michi Wiancko, 2020

MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No.6 in F Minor, Op.80

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) String Quartet No.6 in F Minor, Op.80

III. Adagio
IV. Finale: Allegro molto

For most of his 38 years, Felix Mendelssohn lived a charmed life. His wealthy, cultured family nurtured his prodigious musical talent from early childhood, and he enjoyed close loving relationships, particularly with his older sister Fanny. Mendelssohn also possessed a sunny temperament. The ebullience of the incidental music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream or the sun-drenched joy of the Italian Symphony reflect an untroubled soul.

On May 14, 1847, Fanny experienced numbness in her hands while rehearsing for an upcoming family concert. Shortly thereafter she suffered a massive stroke and died; she was 41. When Mendelssohn got word of her death four days later, he collapsed.

Mendelssohn remained incapacitated by grief for several months. “I could not at first think of music without experiencing the greatest emptiness and barrenness in my mind and heart,” he later wrote. Weakened physically and emotionally, Mendelssohn and his family went to Switzerland for the summer. At the end of July, he wrote to his younger sister Rebecka, “I force myself to be industrious in the hope that later on I may feel like working and enjoying it.” Eventually Mendelssohn recovered enough to compose the String Quartet in F Minor, Op 80, which he titled Requiem for Fanny.

The hushed Adagio conveys Mendelssohn’s abiding love and the depth of his sadness. The first violin’s tender melody sings over an understated accompaniment with contrapuntal textures. After a gradual increase of intensity and volume, the music returns to the opening theme’s gentle resignation. The Finale echoes the distress of the opening Allegro vivace assai as breathless trills, sudden dynamic changes, and disintegrating melodies disquiet the listener.

Mendelssohn never fully recovered from the shock of Fanny’s death; six months later he, too, died of a stroke.

— © Elizabeth Schwartz

2021 Summer Festival Program Book

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