"Three Fridas"
I. Self-Portrait
II. Henry Ford Hospital
III. The Wounded Deer

Performed by Jakob Lenhardt (clarinet), Grace Kawamura (violin), Lian Ojakangas (violin), Abigail Choi (viola), and Julia Knowles (cello).

http://ninashekhar.com/three-fridas/

Three Fridas - II. Henry Ford Hospital

The story of Luisa and Alejandro.
Inspired by my many years performing as concertmaster of an Argentine Tango orchestra.

Luisa Y Alejandro

marcoadrianramos.com
"This piece was conceived during the inaugural Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music Composition Workshop in 2017; I am very grateful to Gabriela Lena Frank, Johnny Gandelsman, and Joshua Roman for their part in its formation. The work unfolds in a series of lyrical episodes, ranging from the bittersweet to the almost mystical." 
-program note from first performance (Paul Hall, Juilliard Feb 2018)

Manami Mizumoto, violin
Aaron Wolff, 'cello

Unknown album (2/23/2018 10:06:10 AM)

Verónica o Serenata (2017)

Toomai String Quintet featuring Alina Roitstein

www.toomaiquintet.com

Artwork: "Fantasy" by Gonzalo Borges

Cómo Fue by Beny Moré (arr. Andrew Roitstein)

Bartok: Contrasts, Sz. 111

Shell and Wing (2018)

commissioned for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Kevin Noe, Director by the American Composers Forum CONNECT Program.  

Instrumentation: solo soprano, flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, violoncello, percussion, piano

Premiere:  July 6 & 7, 2018; Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble with Lindsay Kesselman, soprano and Kevin Noe, conductor; City Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA

About:

My sons, Izaak and Declan, have profoundly changed and shaped the way I see the world. I initially set out to write a collection of vignettes about them, about childhood—a way to capture the beautiful, tender, and often silly and hilarious moments of their lives, but, my plans suddenly shifted after yet another all too common incidence of violence against children at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. In response to this violence, I felt compelled to respond in some way—to respond to my fear of sending my sons out into this violent world. Shell and Wing emerged as a collaboration and a response to these parental impulses with my friend and fellow father, poet Robert Fanning. Robert’s response to our conversation—a poem in two stanzas—gave voice to the ambiguity, the conflict I feel as a parent—this profound longing to protect my children coupled with the knowledge that I must also let them go.

The first poem is in a parent’s voice—my voice—and the second poem is in a child’s voice—that of my sons. Musically, the first movement is a sort of fragmented lullaby interwoven with a distorted memory of Robert Schumann’s Träumerei(Dreaming/Reverie) from Kinderszenen(Scenes from Childhood). Schumann’s harmonies are pulled and stretched until they resemble only a distant echo of the original. The second movement begins with solo piano, distant and aching that transforms into a quiet, dream-like duet for the soprano and vibraphone. The child’s song grows and builds, underpinned by a chaconne—a repeated chord progression—and eventually becomes the same song heard in the first movement, the parent’s song.

Read about Robert Fanning’s experience collaborating on this piece: https://robertfanning.wordpress.com/2018/06/01/collaborative-efforts/

SHELL AND WING

by Robert Fanning

I. SHELL                                                             

I hold you, breath beneath my skin, a nest of flesh. No world can break
you here. Shadows feather the shell. If you fly, you’ll never go far.
I dream my body border and sky, my heart an aviary. In my sleep, you wake.
I hold you. Breathe a nest beneath my skin, flesh no world can break.
Now, the season’s errant and astray; coiled rage hisses to strike. Hate leaks
into vine and branch, river and vein. So, song in me, rise. May death take no air
I hold. You, my breath beneath. My skin a nest of flesh. No world can break
you. Here, shadow. Feather, never go. I’m a shell if you fly. Fly far.                                                         

II. WING

You dream you hold me in your nest of breath. Before they lifted me
from mingled blood, I rose, a song within your feathered sleep
for centuries. Your veined branches mapped my lidded eyes. A tree
you dream you hold. In your nest of breaths before me. They lifted me
from you to veil the sky. I flew through your death in learning to fly.
No world bears us. Though we slip our nets of wing and flesh, may love keep
you, this dream you hold in your nest of breath, before they lift me
from mingled blood. I wrote your song within. My feathered sleep.


© Copyright 2018 by Robert Fanning
International copyright secured. All rights reserved.

Shell And Wing

"Three Songs" (2018) for Hindustani Vocalist, Soprano and Sinfonietta  by Akshaya Avril Tucker. Live recording with Saili Oak, Suzanne Lis and the Prismatx Ensemble at the University of Texas Austin, Bates Recital Hall, on March 21, 2018.

To see the video! Here is the first song: https://youtu.be/3z-uS2Y6kY0
Here are the second and third songs: https://youtu.be/9YuF5r5WSD4

I. Saiyan: Fantasy on a song by Shobha Gurtu (00:00-09:10)
Lyrics: 
Saiyan nikas gaye mai na ladi thi
Na kachu boli na kachu chali
Sar ko jhukaye mai to chup ke khadi thi Rang mahal ke das darwaaje
Na jaane kaun si khidki khuli thi
Kahat Kamaali Kabir ki beti
Aise biyahi se to kuwari bhali thi
Kamaali (c.15th Century)

My love is leaving, but I do not resist
In stillness, without my notice, she slipped away.
My royal palace has ten doors
Who knows who opened that window, from which she flew...
As its beloved departs, the mortal body grieves, Said Kamaali, daughter of Kabir.
Transl. Saili Oak & Akshaya Avril Tucker

II. Geliebte Sakhi: Beloved Friend (09:11-22:45)
An earlier version of this song, for mezzo-soprano and sinfonietta, was commissioned by Density512, on the subject of “re-composing” Alma Mahler songs. Thus, the German text and some aspects of its setting comes from Alma Mahler’s Fünf Lieder. In juxtaposing the Heine text with a slow khyal composition in Raag Bageshree, I am creating one human character that sings in two voices. This is a meditative love song, but the lover or friend could be human, divine, abstract — even music itself.

Lyrics:
Ich wandle unter Blumen
Und blühe selber mit,
Ich wandle wie im Traume
Und schwanke bei jedem Schritt. O halt mich fest, Geliebte!
Vor Liebestrunkenheit
Fall' ich dir sonst zu Füßen Und der Garten ist voller Leut!
Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

I wander among the flowers, blooming, I wander as if in a dream,
swaying at every step.
Oh, hold me close to you!
Enraptured,
I fall at your feet
while the garden breathes the life of thousands!
Transl. Akshaya Avril Tucker

Eri sakhi tyaja maan
Dhara dhyaan, chhaand gumaan Tabhi pave gyaan
Pratamata dhara dhyaan, Sharana eka surajaan,
Pajhe saba miTat agyaan.
Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande (b.1960)

My friend, let go of your arrogance Focus, be compassionate
Let your pride fall away
Surrender to each note
Then you will see that truth:
The artist is the divine servant of music
Transl. Saili Oak & Akshaya Avril Tucker

III. Tarana: Dance (22:45-29:45)
Tarana is based on abstract syllables (“de re na”, “ta na na”) and references two Tarana compositions by Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, in Raag Bhimpalas and Raag Desh. The soprano and Hindustani vocalist explore fast, frequently improvised runs, as well as lyrical lines, playing off one another.

Cover image, "Dancing on the Edge," courtesy of Kamini Avril, painter. (www.instagram.com/kaminiavril/)

Three Songs

I imagine this as the music to a cute RPG. A fun, cheerful and quirky town with eccentric but very happy characters in it. 

Art by Carl "Surt" Olsson, for OpenGameArt.org. Universal (CC0 1.0)Public Domain Dedication

Some cool compositional stuff I considered/learned while working on this one:

- the tonic is unclear until the end of the 8-bar phrase. Surprise! I didn't realize this when I wrote it, but apparently that's one of the things that makes it sound more fun and unexpected :)
- Instead of choosing a different tonal center (like the dominant) for the B section, I changed one note in the scale to make it a different mode. It has Fs in it, instead of E's! I tried a dominant tonal center but I just couldn't get the effect I wanted. Changing that one note for that middle section did it for me, though!
- it was a bit of a puzzle to bring the energy level down for the B section without feeling like it's in a totally different "town." I landed on giving the piano less to do, slowing the harmonic movement down, but leaving in a pretty snappy, melodic bass line. I really like the way the bass melody kept things moving and bopping along.
- learned the term "melodic treatment," or treating the melody in a different way. In my case I used a really sparse, staccato version of the flute melody over some bass chords as a transition back to the beginning of the loop. It sort of tied it all together.

Bustling Port Town

Bustling Port Town unmixed

premiered by the National Sawdust Ensemble @ National Sawdust on June 4th, 2019- as one of the winners of their 2019 Hildegard Competition.

Lidiya Yankovskaya, Conductor
Allison Loggins-Hull, flute
Oran Etkin, clarinet
Sugar Vendil, piano
Ian Rosenbaum, percussion
Miranda Cuckson, violin
Jeffrey Zeigler, cello

Charles Hagaman, NS Technician

Openwork, knotted object // Trellis in bloom // lightning ache [2019] | National Sawdust Ensemble

World Premiere Recordings!

Grammy nominated pianist ARON KALLAY plays music by Robert Carl, Veronika Krausas, Eric Moe, & others on a state-of-the-art physically modeled piano where left to right doesn’t necessarily equal low to high and 12 equal steps per octave no longer applies.

“exquisite… every sound sounded considered, alive, worthy of our wonder” — LA TIMES

“Perhaps Los Angeles’ most versatile keyboardist” — LA OPUS

"Kallay is a multiple threat: a great pianist, brainy tech wizard, and visionary promoter of a new musical practice. Beyond highly recommended." — FANFARE

Three Songs

AkshayaTucker

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