Setting for soprano, flute, and guitar of a Wallace Stevens poem. First performance in Copenhagen in November 2020.

Cy est Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, et les Unze Mille Vierges

Ursula, in a garden, found
A bed of radishes.
She kneeled upon the ground
And gathered them,
With flowers around,
Blue, gold, pink, and green.
She dressed in red and gold brocade
And in the grass an offering made
Of radishes and flowers.
She said, "My dear,
Upon your altars,
I have placed
The marguerite and coquelicot,
And roses
Frail as April snow;
But here," she said,
"Where none can see,
I make an offering, in the grass,
Of radishes and flowers."
And then she wept
For fear the Lord would not accept.
The good Lord in His garden sought
New leaf and shadowy tinct,
And they were all His thought.
He heard her low accord,
Half prayer and half ditty,
And He felt a subtle quiver,
That was not heavenly love,
Or pity.
This is not writ
In any book.

In Progress

A Sacred Song

Two pieces written in 1979, recently recovered and re-recorded.

Toccata (1979)

ConnectiveTissue - Marina Kifferstein, violin

"Mind Mirror : Nyodai's Dream" for shakuhachi, pipa and 17-string koto (1998)Duration: ca.10'. Premiered by Ned Rothenberg, shakuhachi; Min Xiao-Fen, pipa; and Masayo Ishigure, koto, at the International Conference for Medieval Japanese Culture hosted by Columbia University's Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies at St. Paul's Church in 1998.

Mind Mirror: Nyodai's Dream

I. Slam

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"Hymn to a Blue Hour" for trombone choir
by John Mackey
performed by Joseph Alessi, accompanied by the Alessi Seminar Participant Choir, conducted by Jonathan Whitaker.
Live performance from August 3, 2013.
Score available here: http://ostimusic.com/Hymn-Tbn.php

John Mackey: Hymn to a Blue Hour (trombone choir version), feat. Joseph Alessi

6 voices - Ekmeles with electronics

Mary Mackenzie
Rachel Calloway
Patrick Fennig
Eric Dudley
Jeffrey Gavett
Steven Hrycelak

defining silence (2015) Ekmeles - 6 voices and electronics

This is the Koch International Classics recording with Dora Ohrenstein, soprano; Judith Pearce, alto flute and Masayo Ishigure, koto.  The photo by Seth Tillett is from the Dec.1, 2015 performance at Opera America with Martha Cluver, soprano; Sarah Carrier, alto flute and Mayuko Matsuda, koto.  You can see the video of this performance by the Aviva Ensemble on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOkke6F6lis&list=PLYEPrmRM36Vtubr5ibqwOucPm5ycZGToo

Komachi at Sekidera is a mini-opera for soprano, alto flute and koto based on the Japanese Noh play "Sekidera Komachi" by Kanze Motokiyo Zeame (1363-1443).  

The protagonist of the play, Ono no Komachi, was a woman of great literary gifts and beauty who lived at the Heian court in ninth-century Japan.  She became a legend after her death, and many apocryphal stories surround the few known biographical facts concerning her life.  In the present piece Komachi has lived into old age, beyond her beauty and her literary fame, and has been forgotten.  Confronted with age and mortality, she alternates between crying out for the days that are gone, and quieter sections in which she contemplates the bittersweet delight of still being alive.  

The structure of this little opera was influenced by the dramatic monologues of Monteverdi’s operas and 18th-century Japanese Kumiuta songs. The modal character of the melody, which often returns to the unstable interval of the tritone, mirrors Komachi’s existential state, as does the alto flute, which shadows her feelings with sounds reminiscent of the shakuhachi, the Japanese bamboo flute.  The koto reflects Komachi's passionate nature.

-- Alice Shields

Komachi at Sekidera (monodrama)

On Expansion (2009) Richard Valitutto, piano

Piccolo and electronics
Robin Meiksins, Piccolo

Frog and saucepan photo by James Lee

Drishti - Robin Meiksins, Piccolo

One of the pioneers of electronic music, Alice Shields creates cross-cultural electronic and acoustic operas and music for voice, dance, theater and video. Her work is influenced by Japanese Noh Theater and Indian Bharata Natyam dance-drama, and has been performed by the New York City Opera Vox Festival, Academie der Künste (Berlin), Venice Biennale, Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, Arangham Dance Theater (India), Dance Alloy (Pittsburgh), NYC-Electroacoustic Music Festival, Santa Fe Opera Gallery Concerts, Association for the Promotion of New Music, American Composers Alliance, Ensemble Pi, Iktus Percussion and other groups. 

Her work is recorded on New World, Koch International Classics, Albany, CRI, Atlantic Records, American Composers Alliance Recordings, Opus One and Tellus, and is published by the American Composers Alliance: https://composers.com/alice-shields