FREE Open Rehearsal: CHRIS ROGERSON World Premiere for Soprano & String Quartet
Go behind the scenes and observe CMNW’s world-class musicians working together to put the finishing touches on the music for upcoming performances. An informal Q&A follows the rehearsal.
Join us for a unique view into creating new music as mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron and the Viano Quartet rehearse Chris Rogerson’s newest commission for CMNW.
This year’s open rehearsals are sponsored by: George & Debbie Olsen
Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Wednesday, 7/26 • 11:00 am PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- CHRIS ROGERSON “Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt” (2023)
CHRIS ROGERSON Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt (2023)
I am right-handed in nearly everything I do—except for baseball, a sport my father taught me as a left-hander himself. I grew up playing wiffle ball in my backyard, my own “rough diamond,” begging my dad to play game after game. Of course I wanted to crush the ball out of the park, but my father taught me to focus on the little things, like how to track down a fly ball in center field. I idolized ruthless competitors like Barry Bonds; my father taught me a game of quietude.
So when my former teacher Martin Bresnick introduced me to the poem “Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt” by David Bottoms, I was drawn to it and hoped to set it one day. I rediscovered it recently when Bottoms passed away. To me, this beautiful poem embodies the unique relationship between many fathers and their children. Have I ever learned “what you were laying down” (a clever reference to the bunt itself)? In particular, I find it moving that the poem itself is a personal sign to the poet’s father: “Like a hand brushed across the bill of a cap / Let this be the sign / I’m getting a grip on the sacrifice.”
In Sign for My Father, I try to capture an elegiac feeling of childhood, as well as the uniquely American nostalgia for the pastime of baseball. This work is dedicated to my father.
—© Chris Rogerson
Chris Rogerson’s Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt, was commissioned by CMNW’s Commissioning Fund. Since 1971, CMNW has commissioned and premiered more than 120 new works by some of America’s leading composers.
It is Chris’ fourth commission from CMNW. His other works include: Meditation for Violin & Saxophone Quartet (2022), Thirty Thousand Days (2017), and Constellations (2015), as a CMNW Protégé Composer.
Artists
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Fleur Barron
Mezzo-soprano
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Hailed as “a knockout performer” by The Times, Singaporean-British mezzo Fleur Barron is a passionate interpreter of opera, symphonic works, and chamber music ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary. She is currently Artistic Partner of the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Oviedo, for which she will curate and perform multiple projects across several seasons. The artist is mentored by Barbara Hannigan.
The 2024-25 season sees Fleur Barron emerge as an exciting, leading voice in Mahlerian repertoire across a series of important symphonic debuts: Das Lied von der Erde with Daniel Harding and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on tour across Germany, with Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm, on tour to Spain with Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Staatsorchester at the Elbphilharmonie, and at the Oregon Bach Festival; Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Nathalie Stutzmann and the Atlanta Symphony; Mahler’s second symphony with the Orquesta de Valencia; Rückert Lieder with PhilZuid; and the Kindertotenlieder at Het Concertgebouw’s Mahler Festival with Julius Drake.
Other orchestral engagements include Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra, Saariaho’s Adriana Songs with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, and orchestrated Schubert songs with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias.
She takes on three new opera roles: Concepción in Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra under Ludovic Morlot (including a studio recording); Comrade Chin/Shu Fang in Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly at the Barbican Centre directed by James Robinson; and Galatea in Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo with La Nuova Musica at Wigmore Hall.
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Viano Quartet
String Ensemble
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Lucy Wang, violin
Hao Zhou, violin
Aiden Kane, viola
Tate Zawadiuk, celloPraised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet is one of the most sought-after ensembles today and recipients of the prestigious 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since soaring to international acclaim as the first-prize winner at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have traveled to nearly every major city across the globe, captivating audiences in New York, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Paris, Beijing, Toronto, Lucerne, and Los Angeles. They are currently in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program from 2024-2027.
During the 2025 summer season, the quartet will debut at Klavier-Festival Ruhr, CMS Summer Evenings, Tippet Rise, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Their many return visits include Music@Menlo, Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music, and MISQA. Their latest album, Voyager, was released with Platoon Records in Spring 2025.
The Viano Quartet has collaborated with world-class musicians including Emanuel Ax, Fleur Barron, Sir Stephen Hough, Miloš Karadaglić, Mahan Esfahani, and Marc-André Hamelin. Dedicated advocates of music education, they have given classes at institutions such as Northwestern University, University of Victoria, Colburn Academy, Duke University, and SMU Meadows School of the Arts. Each member of the quartet is grateful to the interminable support from their mentors at the Curtis Institute and Colburn Conservatory, including members of the Dover, Guarneri, and Tokyo string quartets.
The name “Viano” reflects the unity of four string instruments acting as one, much like a piano, where harmony and melody intertwine.
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Chris Rogerson
Composer
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Hailed as a “confident new musical voice” (The New York Times), a “big discovery” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), and a “fully-grown composing talent” (The Washington Post), Chris Rogerson’s music has been praised for its “haunting beauty” and “virtuosic exuberance” (The New York Times). Recent notable works include Of Simple Grace, for cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Four Autumn Landscapes, a clarinet concerto written for Anthony McGill, and String Quartet No. 4, for the Escher Quartet. Rogerson’s music has been programmed at venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Musikverein in Vienna.
The 2021-22 season brings several major orchestral premieres: a new piano concerto for Anne-Marie McDermott, commissioned by the Bravo! Vail Festival; a new violin concerto for Benjamin Beilman, commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony; and Sacred Earth, for mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges with video by Emmy-nominated director and National Geographic photographer Keith Ladzinski. Other recent commissions and performances have come from the Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, New Jersey, New World, and San Francisco symphonies, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
Born in 1988, Mr. Rogerson studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, and Princeton University. He is represented by Young Concert Artists, Inc. and served as YCA Composer-in-Residence from 2010-2012. In 2016, Mr. Rogerson joined the Musical Studies Faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he lives full-time.