Creative Team

Curators & Directors

BETH MORRISON & PAOLA PRESTINI

Sensorial Object

KATHRYN HAMILTON

Composers

JUHI BANSAL

GABRIELA FRANK

MOLLY JOYCE

MARY KOUYOUMDJIAN

MISSY MAZZOLI

ANGÉLICA NEGRÓN

EMMA O’HALLORAN

PAOLA PRESTINI

ELLEN REID

SARAH KIRKLAND SNIDER

DU YUN

JUHI BANSAL

GABRIELA FRANK

MOLLY JOYCE

MARY KOUYOUMDJIAN

MISSY MAZZOLI

ANGÉLICA NEGRÓN

EMMA O’HALLORAN

PAOLA PRESTINI

ELLEN REID

SARAH KIRKLAND SNIDER

DU YUN

About

Experience two interactive evenings of art and song in a dazzling journey of the senses on December 15th and 16th at National Sawdust. You will be guided through 21c Liederabend Op. Senses with a handmade book for each audience member from artist Kathryn Hamilton with special artifacts that correspond with each piece, expanding your experience of the work beyond the usual sight and sound.

Curated and directed by Beth Morrison and Paola Prestini, the performances features spectacular works by Juhi Bansal, Gabriela Frank, Molly Joyce, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Missy Mazzoli, Angélica Negrón, Emma O’Halloran, Paola Prestini, Ellen Reid, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Du Yun.

December 15th Program:

“Distance to the Market”
Composed by Paola Prestini
Libretto by Donna Di Novelli

“As Long as we Live”
Composed by Missy Mazzoli
Text by Walt Whitman from Song of the Open Road

“East River”
Composed by Molly Joyce
Libretto by Christopher Oscar Peña

“Zolle”
Composed by Du Yun

“Letras Para Cantar”
Composed by Angélica Negrón
Libretto by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

“Lumee’s Dream”
Composed by Ellen Reid
Libretto by Roxie Perkins

“Constellations”
Composed by Emma O’Halloran

 

December 16th Program:

“Songs of Cifar and the Sweet Sea”
Composed by Gabriela Frank
Libretto by Pablo Antonio Cuadra

“Everlastingness”
Composed by Mary Kouyoumdjian
Libretto by Royce Vavrek

“Unremembered”
Composed by Sarah Kirkland Snider
Libretto by Nathaniel Bellows

“Night Wears Black”
Composed by Juhi Bansal
Text adapted from Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī

“This World Within Me Is too Small”
Composed by Missy Mazzoli
Libretto by Royce Vavrek & Missy Mazzoli

“Open Your Heart”
Composed by Paola Prestini
Libretto by Mark Campbell

Are you ready to “turn the art-song recital inside out” (New York Magazine)? Buy tickets today for these special performances.

Support

Co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects and National Sawdust

21c. Liederabend Op. Senses is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

The singers in 21c Liederabend, Op. Senses are alumni of The Juilliard School. Their performances are made possible, in part, with support to National Sawdust from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and a New York State Council for the Arts Restart NY: Rapid Live Performance grant.

Press

“Enthralling… a succinct definition of just what song is: a personal utterance with global reach and universal impact.”

The New York Times

“Each piece reached out to the listener/viewer; there was no evidence of the musical standoffishness that characterized some 20th­-century trends.”

Musical America

“Turns the art-song recital inside out.”

New York Magazine

“An ambitious evening of contemporary art song and opera.”

New York Times

“Reinventing the art of the song recital for Generation Y.”

The New Yorker

"Beth Morrison Projects, the estimable Brooklyn-based operatic producer/commissioner, collaborated for the first of two different programmes of songs by her superb stable of composers. Her presenting partner in 21c Liederabend Op Senses was Paola Prestini, the composer and founding artistic director of National Sawdust, the small, innovative performance space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The music was excellent... something of an all-star line-up of Morrison’s greatest hits.... and all 11 of the composers on both nights were women. The singers, all recent graduates of the Juilliard School, were equally excellent."

Financial Times

01 / 06