Live performance: Trio Lawrence (Daniel Velasco -flute, Boris Vayner - Viola and  Erin Wood - harp) - March 14, 2025, Kansas City, MO.

Program Notes:
Words are the inspirational seeds for much of the music I compose.  The Voice of the Rain takes its title and inspiration from Walt Whitman’s poem “The Voice of the Rain” from Leaves of Grass. Whitman beautifully describes the world as an everlasting cyclical process of giving birth to itself and giving back life to its own origin. I was especially drawn to the last line of this poem where Whitman reveals a deeper truth about the creative process. He equates the everlasting cyclical nature of life, with the creative process, where - like the rain - the creation changes form but is always the same at its core and eventually returns to the poet as love from those who read the words.  It is my hope that the music captures the essence of Whitman’s powerful meditation on nature and humanity.

The Voice of the Rain was commissioned as part of a New Music USA Project Grant and written for Sarah Frisof - flute, Hannah Collins - cello and Michael Compitello - percussion. The Harp Version was written for Trio Lawrence (Daniel Velasco -flute, Boris Vayner - Viola and  Erin Wood - harp).

The Voice of the Rain 

And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:

I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely formed, altogether changed, and
yet the same,
I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin,
and make pure and beautify it;

(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering,
Recked or unrecked, duly with love returns.)


The Voice of the Rain (Harp Version)

I want a person to come into my life by accident, but stays on purpose.

I just like movies that somehow expose the world in a way that's different than you imagine it.

Beer practitioner. Alcohol trailblazer. Amateur music geek. Avid troublemaker.

Composer Ingrid Stölzel has been described as having “a gift for melody” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “evoking a sense of longing” that creates “a reflective and serene soundscape that makes you want to curl up on your windowsill to re-listen on a rainy day.” (I Care If You Listen)  

Stölzel’s compositions have been commissioned by leading soloists and ensembles, and performed in concert halls and festivals worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Kennedy Center, Seoul Arts Center, Thailand International Composition Festival, Festival Osmose (Belgium), Vox Feminae Festival (Israel), Dot the Line Festival (South Korea), Ritornello Chamber Music Festival (Canada), Festival of New Music at Florida State (USA), Beijing Modern Music Festival (China), Festival of New American Music (USA), and SoundOn Festival of Modern Music (USA). Her music has been recognized in numerous competitions, among them recently the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer's Award, Red Note Composition Competition, the Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers, and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Competition. Recordings can be found on various commercial releases including her portrait album “The Gorgeous Nothings” which features her chamber and vocal chamber music. Stölzel teaches composition at the University of Kansas School of Music.

https://www.youtube.com/user/DRORELIMELECH120V

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ACOUSTIC AND   ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC  COMPOSER .
STUDIED  COMPOSITION WITH  SERGIU  NATRA .
ELECTRONIC AND  ELECTROACOUSTIC  MUSIC  WITH YIZHAK  SADAI .
PIANO  --  WITH  PNINA  SALZMAN  , BART  BERMAN  , AVI  SCHONFELD .
CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC  COMPOSER , ACOUSTIC ,
ELECTRONIC AND  ELECTROACOUSTIC   MUSIC , 
EXPERIMENTAL  MUSIC . SOUND  ARTIST .
IMPROVISATION AND INTUITIVE MUSIC .
PIANIST .
ACCORDION AND  RECORDER  PLAYER .
FOUNDED  AND  CURATED    2  SERIES  OF  CONTEMPORARY  CLASSIC  MUSIC   IN TEL AVIV  ,  ISRAEL  -- 
 " NIGHT  HAPPENING -  FORUM FOR EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC "    1986  -  2007
" OTHER  ISRAELI  MUSIC "      1985   -  1987
MANY COLLABORATIONS  WITH  POETS , ACTORS , DANCERS ,  PAINTERS ,
 VIDEO ARTISTS , PERFORMANCE  ARTISTS .
MORE THAN  120  PREMIERS  OF  NEW  CONTEMPORARY  CLASSIC MUSIC - 
ACOUSTIC , ELECTROACOUSTIC , MULTI-MEDIA  --  WERE  PRESENTED
IN  HIS  SERIES DURING  23  YEARS OF ACTIVITY .
HIS  MUSIC WAS  PERFORMED  IN  EUROPE , CANADA , USA .
WON  VARIOUS GRANTS AND PRIZES .

The Voice of the Rain (Harp Version)

Ingrid Stölzel | Composer