Text by Jonathan Swift

Baritone – Robin McGinness
Piano – John Henderson

Jonathan Swift’s 1729 satirical essay “A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick” is shockingly contemporary in its allusions to a widespread lack of empathy between people of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Swift is clearly responding to a popular sentiment by the rich that they are bothered by homeless people begging for money, as well as their tendency to generalize that all poor people are thieves. Along the way, he also touches on interconnected issues such as abortion and domestic violence. In the excerpts of text I have chosen, I have excluded any mention of Ireland or the 18th century in order to better highlight the similarities with present day America. In this musical setting, the speaker is framed as a demagogue fully embodying all the hyperbolic and rapid mood shifts existing in the text, who radiates pride at having created the perfect solution to save their “great country.”

A Modest Proposal

We all know the story: A hen on a farm finds a grain of wheat, and decides to turn it into bread. All along the way she asks the other farm animals for help, but they refuse. When the bread is made, however, they all demand a piece of it. Typically, the story ends with the hen refusing to share her bread, keeping the fruits of her labor for herself. In Winell’s retelling, the internal contradictions and battling voices within her take over and wreak havoc upon the whole farm.
The Little Red Hen
libretto & music by Elena Doria Winell*

Recording engineered, produced, mixed, & mastered by Aaron Zimmer

PLAYERS:

Conductor - Jonathan Villegas
Hen - Rose Hegele*
Soprano - Kayleigh Sprouse
Alto - Marjorie Sheiman
Contralto - McKey Monroe*
Tenor - Michael Balsamo
Bass - Rahzé Sinclair
Flute - Eli Gentle
Clarinet - Olivia Harrison
Percussion 1 - Deqi Mu
Percussion 2 - Samuel Hsu
Piano - Daniel Nerger*
Violin 1 - Brian Stuligross*
Violin 2 - Sangwoo Kim
Viola - Daria Dodonova
Cello - Athos Maelstrom*
Bass - Noah Sapp

This premiere was made possible with generous donations from:

Dustyn Geary-Gilman & Kenneth Gilman
Mar Rodriguez & Jodi Milonas
Sonia Gardner & Ken Winell
Kelly Winell
Lily Holliday
Rose Hegele
Cindy Browning
Mary Durante
Terry Holthause
Michael McGuire
Martin Deegan
Bob & Linda Pisciotta
Jamie & Art Lima
Elena Doria Winell

*members of Der Gestanke

The Little Red Hen - Scene Four: Who Will Eat the Bread?

The Cask of Amontillado by Elena Doria Winell

Libretto adapted from Edgar Allan Poe by H. Cipriana and Elena Doria Winell

Recorded as part of Tony Arnold's Opera Etudes on April 11th, 2025 at Joe Byrd Hall, Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MD.

Conducted by Linus Ip
Audio & Video Recording by Yuchen Bian

CAST:
Montresor - Sophia Sorrentino
Fortunato - Abigail Sherman
"Fortunato" - Sophie Low
Conscience (Good) - Siying Chen
Conscience (Bad) - Ruoyu Li

Chorus - H. Cipriana, Olivia Carlton, Julie Knott, Analeigh Flieger, Erika Carper, Kylee Kamikawa

OLD BAY NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE:
Andrew Nguyen - Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
Michael Liu - Percussion
Haeun Lim - Piano
Heeyun Cho - Violin
Claire Russel - Double Bass

SYNOPSIS: In this short adaptation of Poe’s classic tale, the story unfolds with Montresor’s conscience taking on two tangible, disembodied forms, constantly whispering and conversing with him as he lures Fortunato deeper into the catacombs. As Montresor's dark plan unfolds, his inner guilt and turmoil begin to manifest through a haunting dialogue between him and his conscience, which taunts and questions his actions. After Montresor seals Fortunato’s fate, the opera takes a twisted turn: Fortunato’s voice transforms into a demonic, mocking echo, joined by a chorus of spectral voices. These voices, a blend of Fortunato's tortured spirit and Montresor’s fractured psyche, berate and taunt Montresor for his crime. The conscience now merges with the cacophony of demonic voices, amplifying his paranoia and guilt. The opera explores Montresor’s descent into madness, blurring the lines between his own voice, Fortunato’s ghost, and the eerie chorus, which relentlessly drives him to the brink of insanity, akin to the themes in Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat. The haunting sounds culminate in Montresor’s complete unraveling, as he is consumed by the very guilt he tried to bury, forever tormented by the consequences of his actions.

The Cask of Amontillado

scraps for loadbang by Elena Doria Winell, text by Emily Dickinson. Performed at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Baltimore, MD on April 29th, 2025

Ty Bouque - baritone
Andy Kozar - Trumpet
Adrián Sandí - Bass Clarinet
William Lang - Trombone

This piece is about fragmentation. The poem is taken from Dickinson's collection of "envelope poems" which were literally scrawled in dull pencil on various scraps of papers and envelopes. Like most of her work, these poems did not see the light of day until after her death. The brief interjection comes from what began as my attempt at 'modernizing' the language of the poem, only retroactively realizing a) how pointless that is and b) how intensely I had projected my own immediate reality into this 'translation.'

scraps

For Hardanger string quartet - performed by Bergamot Quartet:

Ledah Finck, Hardanger fiddle
Sarah Thomas, Hardanger fiddle
Martine Thomas, Hardanger viola
Irène Han, Hardanger Cello

A Plague, A Whisper, A Loveliness - for Bergamot Quartet

INTERNATIONAL YOUNG COMPOSERS & CONDUCTORS ACADEMY IN TICINO
World premieres by the composers and conductors selected for the 9th edition of the IYCA in Ticino

ENSEMBLE MODERN
	•	Eva Böcker — Cello
	•	Paul Cannon — Double Bass
	•	Christian Hommel — Oboe
	•	Megumi Kasakawa — Viola
	•	Thomas Adrian Mittler — Horn
	•	Giorgos Panagiotidis — Violin
	•	Johannes Schwarz — Bassoon
	•	Dietmar Wiesner — Flute

TUTORS
	•	Oscar Bianchi (Italy / Switzerland)
	•	Titus Engel (Switzerland)
	•	Andile Khumalo (South Africa)
	•	Francesca Verunelli (Italy)

CONDUCTORS
	•	Christian Schüller (1990/1991 — Germany)
	•	Andreas Bäuml (1991 — Germany)
	•	Onna Stäheli (1997 — Switzerland)
	•	Hon Ning Cheung (1997 — Hong Kong)
	•	Elias Jurgschat (1995 — Germany)
	•	Daniel Satanovski (2002/2003 — Germany)
	•	Kirill Zvegintsov (1983 — Ukraine)
	•	Sebastiano de Salvo (1997 — Italy)
	•	Mateusz Gwizdała (1993 — Australia / Poland)

Emma Tucker (2001 — USA) — Embrittlement

Recorded on August 9th, 2025. Performed by Elena Winell and Rahzé Sinclair.

Bethany Younge/Kayleigh Butcher - Her Disappearance



kairosclerosis

n. the moment you realize that you’re currently happy—consciously trying to savor the feeling—which prompts your intellect to identify it, pick it apart and put it in context, where it will slowly dissolve until it’s little more than an aftertaste.

– The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

July 19, 2025 – Princeton University Richardson Auditorium
New Jersey Symphony – New Scores: The Cone Institute Concert
Christopher Rountree, conductor
Steven Mackey, institute director & host

Kairosclerosis

Written for the Voix Nouvelles Academy – Fondation Royaumont
Sound recording : Caroline Christiaens

Poem by Irène Gayraud

Sophie Collin, soprano
Margaux Loire, soprano
Parveen Savart, soprano
Sophia Stern, soprano
Gabriel-Ange Brusson, countertenor
Marie Brendle, contralto
Peyee Chen, soprano
Susanne Leitz-Lorey, soprano
Daniel Gloger, countertenor
Martin Nagy, tenor
Guillermo Anzorena, baritone
Andreas Fischer, bass


Les tournesols grillent sur pied.

On entend
le froissement de leur tige sèche
quand leur tête s'affaisse.

Il est tellement plus facile
de faire semblant de ne pas entendre
tellement plus facile
de ne pas leur répondre.

Avec un peu d'entraînement on parvient très bien
à ne plus rien écouter.

Les tournesols grillent sur pied

Max Eidinoff is a composer, improviser, and educator whose music is marked by creative audacity and dramatic flair.

A Modest Proposal

Max Eidinoff

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