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Portrait of Chaya Czernowin at New York's Miller Theatre

Oct. 14, 2014

Portrait of Chaya Czernowin at New York's Miller Theatre

On October 23, Miller Theatre's Composer Portraits series celebrates the music of Chaya Czernowin with the performance of four works composed between 2003 and 2014, including the world premieres of Wintersongs V: “Forgotten Light” and 5 action sketches. Steven Schick conducts the program, which features countertenor Kai Wessel, baritone Jeffrey Gavett and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). 

Wintersongs V: “Forgotten Light”, dedicated both to ICE and to Dieter Schnebel in honor of his 85th birthday, is the final work in Czernowin’s Wintersongs series. Czernowin writes:

The series Wintersongs started around 2002 with a piece for low instruments and electronics. This piece was dark and its vitality was halted; the low instruments were moving like the slow search of a plant towards light. Soon I recognized that Wintersongs I was a very concentrated layer of a larger piece. 
I wanted to hear the septet without the electronics and reinterpret the instrumental part anew. Three percussionists were added and Wintersongs II: “Stones” was written.

Still the piece wanted to grow. It was as if the original was a photograph on which I could first paint and then write, and later erase and even glue on diverse media. For the next nine years I had a plan to continue 
and invent new and very different interpretations to Wintersongs. However, the narrative of writing Wintersongs did not pan out as expected. Instead of Wintersongs again acting as a base over which one paints or writes, the original septet of the first Wintersongs became a shade of a memory: a threatening memory in Wintersong V and a very poetic and disappearing one in Wintersong IV. The piece has become an organic plant with related but independent layers of growth: a contemplation about how memory evolves and eludes us.

Commissioned by Columbia University's Miller Theatre, Czernowin’s 5 action sketches is a set of five miniatures for two voices and five instruments. In contrast to the Wintersongs series, which Czernowin describes as “like a mixed dish cooked over a very long time”, 5 action sketches is a collection of spontaneous, quick and highly focused fragments. The program also features performances of Czernowin’s Wintersongs IV: “Wounds/Mistletoe” and Wintersongs II: “Stones”.

Chaya Czernowin has also been named the recipient of the 2016 Heidelberg Artist Prize. Hosted by the city of Heidelberg, the distinguished German prize is awarded to one composer annually. As part of the celebration, an orchestral work of Czernowin’s will receive a performance in February 2016 by the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally, Johannes Harneit leads the orchestra in a performance of The hour glass bleeds still, for string orchestra, on February 15, 2015.

For details on Chaya Czernowin's Composer Portrait concert, please visit millertheatre.com.

Visit schott-music.com for more information on Chaya Czernowin.

Chaya Czernowin
5 action sketches (2014)
five miniatures for 2 voices (alto, countertenor) and ensemble
bfl.bcl.tsax-tba-vc
10’

Wintersongs V: “Forgotten Light” (2014)
for two septets and octet with two singers (alto and countertenor)
Septet I: bfl.bcl-btn-tba-va.vc.db; Septet II: 2pic.ob.cl.ssax-tpt-acc; Octet: pno.cemb.gtr-3perc-alto voice, countertenor
27’

Wintersongs IV: “Wounds/Mistletoe” (2013)
for chamber ensemble
2pic.bfl.ob.cl.bcl.ssax(spsax)-tpt.btbn.tba-3perc-acc-va.vc.db
11’

Wintersongs II: “Stones” (2003)
for seven instrumentalists and three percussionists
bfl.bcl-btbn.tba-3perc-va.vc.db
16’

The hour glass bleeds still (1999, rev. 2002)
for string orchestra (version also for string sextet)
19' 

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