Avant-Gardner – Composition Commission issued to Chaya Czernowin

Calderwood Performance Hall, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, USA

The Isabella Stewart Museum in Boston presents new and recent music in three-concert series entitled „Avant Gardner“. In 2013 the concerts will feature works of composers associated with Boston. Thus, the project’s objective is not only to support the composition of new music but also to replace the stereotype of the conservative “Boston Composer” with an image of varied and exploratory voices. The focus of each concert is the premiere of a work commissioned for the occasion, alongside other works to provide context, all performed by the Callithumpian Consort. With the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Chaya Czernowin, Professor of Composition at Harvard University, will create “Wintersongs 4: Wounds/Mistletoe” for 13 players, continuing a cycle of works begun in 2002. In her new work, a group of high, loud instruments will “burn” and “scratch” fragments of material thrown off of the earlier “Wintersong” pieces. The cycle “Wintersongs” is also a documentation of the process of building a piece, catching it in the shifts and turns of its creation, and marking the main stations of its “becoming”.

Premiere: April 4, 2013 
Calderwood Performance Hall, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Further Information:
www.isgm.org