For the final concert of the season, Winsor will perform alongside Improbable Beasts, a raucous multi-piece bass clarinet ensemble whose mission is to share deep resonances, soaring lyricism, and propulsive grooves. The power of this collaboration will be showcased in Alamaailman Vasarat’s Riistomaasiirtäjä. Vassarat is a Finnish avant-garde group influenced by folk, klezmer, jazz and metal. Marc Mellits’ Prometheus has been called both diaphanous and pulsating - an “adventure in sound” and shares the earthy qualities of Vassarat’s music. Jon Russell’s premiere “You Are the Universe in Ecstatic Motion” is a setting of a text by Rumi. His piece, as well as O Virtus Sapientiae by Hildegard von Bingen explores more poetic and otherworldly themes. Linking these works will be Osvaldo Golijov’s, Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. The Boston Globe praised it as “spiritual, earthly—and earthy: it is music of prayer, celebration and mysticism.”
PROGRAM:
Hildegard von Bingen: O Virtus Sapientiae
Alamaailman Vasarat (arr. Russell): Riistomaasiirtäjä
Jon Russell: “You Are the Universe in Ecstatic Motion” (premiere)
Marc Mellits (arr. Russell): Prometheus
Osvaldo Golijov: Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind
PERFORMERS: Gabriela Díaz, violin; Katherine Winterstein, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; Nicholas Johnson, cello; Rane Moore, clarinet; featuring Improbable Beasts