May 2022
Joycean Perspectives
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Network collaborates with The Rosenbach to present a new song cycle based on select passages from the novel by Grammy Award-winning composer Lansing McLoskey. Titled One Book Called Ulysses and scored for voice and sinfonietta, this special commission will be featured alongside an arrangement of James Joyce’s original song “Bid Adieu to Girlish Days,” and selections from Joyce Cycle by composer Otto Luening, who worked closely with…
Find out more »July 2022
The Book of Dawkins Songs
An expression of belief about the nature of life, and the joy we can find in understanding it, told through Richard Dawkins’ decidedly secular world view, paradoxically organized by David in the shape of a Christian Mass. Sumptuous Planet: A Dawkins Mass captures the famed biologist’s thoughts on the magnificence and staggering beauty of nature, as well as its utter indifference to our presence here. David’s musical world is one of anticipation and question – there is always another dimension…
Find out more »October 2022
Merz Trio Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano
The Merz Trio has made a sweep of recent US chamber awards, having taken top prizes at the 2021 Naumburg, 2019 Concert Artists Guild, and 2019 Fischoff Competitions. For its PCMS debut, the Trio joins forces with Lucy Fitz Gibbon—a soprano noted for her “dazzling, virtuoso singing” (Boston Globe)—for a program that includes songs by James Primosch, a world premiere by Philip Maneval, and beloved instrumental works by Brahms and Ravel. A Concert in Celebration of James Primosch (1956-2021) Primosch:…
Find out more »December 2022
Curtis Opera Theatre Eric Owens, bass-baritone
A master of his craft, bass-baritone Eric Owens “speaks to you even in his silences… and shakes you when he sings” (Chicago Sun-Times). An alumnus of the Curtis Institute, where he is now Director of Vocal Studies and the Curtis Opera Theatre, the Philadelphia native and opera superstar leads a group of exceptional young singers in a program encompassing Brahms’s Romantic Neue Liebeslieder and a range of operatic repertoire. Program includes Brahms’s Neue Liebeslieder, Op. 65 and a selection of…
Find out more »Dynasty Battles, piano
Philadelphia native Dynasty Battles once performed George Walker’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in a private engagement at the composer’s home. In his PCMS recital debut, this visionary young pianist celebrates the centenary of the first Black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, performing two of Walker’s groundbreaking piano sonatas alongside works by Beethoven, Bach, and Hindemith. Celebrating George Walker Beethoven: Sonata in A-flat Major, Op. 110 Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier (Sel.) interspersed with Hindemith: Ludus Tonalis (Sel.) Walker:…
Find out more »January 2023
JACK Quartet Julietta Curenton, flute
Possessing a “tone that draws in one’s ear with sounds and ideas that simply cannot be resisted” (Philadelphia Inquirer), flutist Julietta Curenton joins “leading new-music foursome” (New York Times) the JACK Quartet in a concert that includes the Philadelphia premiere of Iranian composer Aida Shirazi’s Vestiges. The program concludes with John Zorn’s Nachträglichkeit, a work for string quartet and flute that is full of surprises, from extremely quiet moments to unexpected, fast blows. Burhans: Contritus Lachenmann: Quartet No. 2, Reigen…
Find out more »February 2023
Philippe Tondre, oboe Roberto Díaz, viola Amy Yang, piano
Lauded for the elegance and power of his playing, Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Oboe Philippe Tondre debuts on our series in the company of two Philadelphia favorites: Roberto Díaz—the President and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music and former principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra—and pianist Amy Yang, a “jaw-dropping pianist who the show… with effortless finesse” (Washington Post). Schumann: Three Romances, Op. 94 Loeffler: Deux Rhapsodies Brahms: Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2 Klughardt: Schilflieder, Op. 28
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