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Bernard Rands' Walcott Songs Given New York Premiere

Feb. 28, 2008

This month cellist Greg Hesselink and mezzo-soprano Mary Nessinger perform the New York premiere of Bernard Rands' Walcott Songs. Premiered at Tanglewood Music Center in July of 2005, the work is the setting to music of three otherwise unrelated poems by Derek Walcott: ‘Endings', ‘Midsummer, Tobago', and ‘The Fist.' These are not conventional settings of poems to music, however, as composer Rands explains:

The poems are beautiful and powerful in their own right! Rather, the texts are analyzed and explored through fragmentation, reordering, repetitions and changing pace of delivery. Thus the poems find new meanings and expression, in a musical context, often beyond that imagined or intended by the poet. The songs were composed between 2002 and 2004, in reverse order from that of their final performance order.

The New York premiere of Walcott Songs takes place on March 3 at 8 PM in Merkin Concert Hall located inside the Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts.

Bernard Rands' busy performance schedule in March also features the Chicago based ensemble Callisto performing Rands' String Quartet Nos. 2 and 3, Scherzi for chamber ensemble, and Walcott Songs; Boston's St. Botolph Club's portrait concert on March 11 featuring Memo 4 for solo flute, Walcott Songs and String Quartet No. 2; and Rands continues his residence of Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

Looking ahead to next year, Bernard Rands' 75th birthday season, the New York Philharmonic will present the world premiere of a work commissioned by the orchestra.

For more information on the music of Bernard Rands, go to www.schott-music.com or www.bernardrands.com.

For ticketing information on the New York premiere performance of Walcott Songs, visit www.kaufman-center.org.

Bernard Rands
Walcott Songs (2004)
for mezzo-soprano and cello
15'

String Quartet No. 2 (1994)
12'

String Quartet No. 3 (2004)
17'

Scherzi (1974)
For chamber ensemble
cl(bcl).pno.vn.vc
18'

Memo 4 (1997)
for solo flute
12'

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