Voices Live Forever

Composer: Trevor Weston
Text: Sylvanus John Weston
Conductor: Karen Siegel

Recorded live May 21, 2022 by Noriko Okabe at Church of St. Luke in the Fields, New York, NY

Voices Everywhere

Voices Live Forever

Robert Buonaspina leads C4 in the fourth movement of Steven Gerber's Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought.

Sea Change

Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought 4. Sonnet 9

Robert Buonaspina leads C4 in a performance of Julian David Bryson's A Parable of Choices.

A Parable of Choices

Robert Buonaspina and Paige Scott lead C4 and Infinitus in a joint performance of My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night, by Brian Mountford and Ron Rybaczuk.

My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night (ft Infinitus)

Selections from Spectrum (2014) by Lisa Whitson Burns (*1983)
Daniel Andor-Ardó, conductor
Christopher Staskel, poems
Jonathan Singer, vibraphone
Melissa Bybee, Natalie Chamat, Perry Townsend, Brian Mountford, solo voices
C4 Ensemble: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective
November 13, 2014 at Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn
November 15, 2014 at The Church of St. Luke in the Fields, NYC
November 22, 2014 at Michiko Studios
Noriko Okabe, Brian Mountford and Jim Bilodeau, audio
Brian Mountford, Daniel Andor-Ardó and Joe Upham, video

Program Notes:

Ellsworth Kelly's Spectrum V, which is on display in the Modern and Contemporary Art wing of the Met (gallery 924), consists of thirteen separate panels, each approximately seven feet tall, and each painted a single color. (To see this artwork, visit: http://tinyurl.com/spectrum5). When Chris and I decided to write a choral piece inspired by the work, we wanted to capture both the distinct character of each color and the sense of balance and cohesion of the spectrum as a whole.

Musically, I undertook the experiment of creating a harmonic spectrum. Just as each panel in Kelly's work has only one color of paint, each miniature movement of "Spectrum" is based on a single harmonic color, a six-note chord type. For example, the first movement, which corresponds to a blaring yellow panel, uses a six-note chromatic cluster, a chord built entirely of half-steps. And just as neighboring panels in Spectrum V are most similar in color, consecutive movements in "Spectrum" are most closely related harmonically. By building this progression, I hope to capture to the overall experience of a spectrum — that of traveling a great distance in small steps, unaware in the moment of the gradual changes that are taking place within the harmony.

Looking back, I realize that Chris and I have not created the choral equivalent of Spectrum V, because while Kelly limited himself strictly to varying only one element, color, from panel to panel, our piece functions in many dimensions. It is as though we took from Kelly's work not a series of painted canvases, but rather thirteen blocks of brightly colored clay, which we shaped freely into musical sculptures.

~ Lisa Whitson Burns

Text:

Spectrum
Christopher Staskel

2.
Not quite verdant yet,
You're less like blades of grass pinched between my thumbs,
Emitting proud, but tiny elephant sounds,
And more like slips of Easter grass
My cat chokes on.

4.
Swallow me whole Charybdis,
You bloated-on-topaz Narcissus

6.
You diffuse like Alka-Seltzer
And leave a fine silt behind.
I've pushed your crumbs to the foot of my bed.

7.
I never really knew my grandfather. Eggplant, age spot.
Storm clouds, peacock, damp towels, full stop.
Cushions for a chair not for sitting on.
I never really knew my grandfather, but I knew
He held me when I was a baby.

8.
It wants to
Be lace, but
It plays too
Rough.

9.
You, you are Chiclets. You, you are scuzz breath.
I get you stuck in my head, cuz you are one-track.
I get you stuck in my head, then blow my brains out.
Yeah, yeah, I splatter the wall with Pepto-Bismol.

13.
Primarily –
Like highlighters want to be present, have merit,
And have their highlations be as important
        as the words they illuminate,
Or like dogs urinate on fresh snow –
Primarily, we want to leave an impression.

Burns, Spectrum (selection)

O Nata Lux

Composer: Emma Daniels
Conductor: Daniel Andor-Ardó

Recorded live December 14, 2024 by Noriko Okabe at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields, New York, NY

O Nata Lux

Jacob Lyon leads C4 in the premiere of Cynthia Shaw's Exploding Toads. Recorded live October 19, 2024 at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields by Noriko Okabe.

Exploding Toads

Karen Siegel conducts C4 in a performance of Seawall, by Jamie Klenetsky Fay.

Composer: Jamie Klenetsky Fay
Conductor: Karen Siegel

Soprano
Rebecca Ehren
Noele Flowers
Christina Kay
Melissa Wozniak

Alto
Maya Ben-Meir
Jamie Klenetsky Fay
Erin Halpin
Jane Lawson
Beth Marker
Leonore Nelson

Tenor
Ben Arendsen
Nate Barnett
Mario Gullo
Joseph Prestamo
Casey Rule
Richard Tucker
Grant Yosenick

Bass
Daniel Andor-Ardó
Hayes Biggs
Brian Mountford
Perry Townsend
David See

Composed November 2016, Recorded March 18, 2017
Church of Saint Luke in the Fields, New York, NY

Audio Recording
Noriko Okabe

Collaborations

Jamie Klenetsky Fay: Seawall

Evening Star

composer: Michał Ziołkowski
poem: Edgar Allan Poe
conductor: Daniel Andor-Ardó

Recorded live November 11, 2017 at Our Lady of Mercy Church, Forest Hills, NY
Audio recording: Noriko Okabe

Cover art by Byron Gibbs

http://c4ensemble.org

Love and Other Stories

Evening Star

Poemas de Amor 1. Soñaba

Composer: Stephen Paulus
Poem: collected and translated by Alvaro Cardona-Hine
Conductor: Casey Rule
Percussion: Matthew Ward

Recorded live June 8, 2017 at The Riverside Church Theatre
Audio recording: Jacob Schmid

cover art by Zsuzsanna Ardó

http://c4ensemble.org

Electric

Poemas de Amor 1. Soñaba

Effortlessly Love Flows, the first movement from Ecstatic Meditations by Aaron Jay Kernis

Aaron Jay Kernis, Effortlessly Love Flows, from Ecstatic Meditations, Mvmt I

The Blue of Distance by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė

Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, The Blue of Distance

Hide and Seek

Composer: Lucas Marshall Smith
Poem: Lucas Marshall Smith
Conductor: Timothy Brown

Recorded live June 9, 2018 at Church of St. Luke in the Fields, NY
Audio recording: Noriko Okabe

cover art by Byron Gibbs

http://c4ensemble.org

Water Music

Hide and Seek

Crossing the Bar

Composer: Nilo Alcala
Poem: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Conductor: Benjamin Arendsen
Soloists: Artemisz Polonyi, Maya Webne-Behrman

Recorded live June 9, 2018 at Church of St. Luke in the Fields, NY
Audio recording: Noriko Okabe

cover art by Byron Gibbs

http://c4ensemble.org

Crossing the Bar

Conversations With Strangers

Composer: Natalie Dietterich
Poetry: Anonymous
Conductor: Timothy Brown

Recorded live November 16, 2019 by Noriko Okabe at Church of St. Luke in the Fields, New York, NY

Connections

Conversations With Strangers

and the swallow

Composer: Caroline Shaw
Text: Psalm 84
Conductor: Alexander Boostrom

Recorded live November 16, 2019 by Noriko Okabe at Church of St. Luke in the Fields, New York, NY

and the swallow

C4 is a unique, award winning chorus directed and operated collectively by its singing members, functioning not only as a presenting ensemble in its own right but also as an ongoing workshop and recital chorus for the emerging composers and conductors who form the core of the group.

c4ensemble

Popular tracks