Kate Soper's "Ipsa Dixit" Named Finalist for Pulitzer Prize

by Ted Gordon on April 18, 2017, 10:14 a.m.

Kate Soper's Ipsa Dixit has been named a Finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music, along with winner Du Yun for her work Angel's Bone and fellow finalist Ashley Fure for Bound to the Bow.

Ipsa Dixit, which synthesizes several of Soper's compositions into a seamless theatrical performance, was developed during a residency at EMPAC, and premiered in a fully-staged version this February at Dixon Place. The piece, as Alex Ross writes in The New Yorker, is a "twenty-first century masterpiece" and "an awesomely wide-ranging intellectual journey." Soper's nomination also marks an important event in the seventy-four year history of the Pulitzer Prize: it is the first time that all three nominees are women. 

Three of the movements of Ipsa Dixit are available on PSNY, and each can also be performed as a standalone work: Cipher, for soprano and violin; Only The Words Themselves Mean What They Say, for soprano and flute; and Rhetoric, for soprano, flute, violin, and percussion. The remaining movements will be published soon, making each individual movement available for study and performance, as well as a score and set of parts for Ipsa Dixit in its entirety.

Below, check out an excerpt from Ipsa Dixit from the recent live staged performance at EMPAC with Soper and the Wet Ink Ensemble:

Kate Soper's "Ipsa Dixit" Premieres at Dixon Place

by Ted Gordon on Feb. 2, 2017, 10:12 a.m.

For six years, Kate Soper has been developing Ipsa Dixit ["She, herself, said it"]: an evening-length work that brings together her voice and instrumentalists of the Wet Ink Ensemble for an evening-length, staged work that explores the intersections between music, language, and meaning. Bringing together texts by Aristotle, Lydia Davis, Freud, and Plato, Ipsa Dixit addresses questions long avoided by philosophers and music theorists alike: is music a language? What, exactly, does it communicate? And who—body, voice, or instrument—is speaking?

Ipsa Dixit began when Soper realized that several of her works for voice and instruments—including Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say (2010-11) and cipher (2011)—shared several theoretical and musical correspondences, and ought to be developed into a single, multi-movement work. Through the past six years, Ipsa Dixit has developed into an evening-length work, with workshops and performances around the country, featuring Soper and Erin Lesser, Ian Antonio, and Josh Modney from Wet Ink. During a week-long residency at EMPAC in 2016, the piece developed into its final, fully-realized form, with the addition of director Ashley Tata, lighting designer Anshuman Bhatia, and projection artist Brad Peterson. 

Now, on February 3rd and 4th at Dixon Place, Ipsa Dixit is set to premiere in its most evolved form. (Dixon Place also saw the premeire of another of Soper's theatrical works, Here Be Sirens, in 2014.) If you're in New York, be sure to be there! 

Josh Modney in the PSNY Greenroom

by Ted Gordon on May 16, 2016, 10:21 a.m.

The PSNY Greenroom is where we ask today's top artists and ensembles to share the music that they're most excited about—the works they keep coming back to, that form their core repertory. Present Music, the Talea Ensemble, and the JACK Quartet have all shared their stories in the Greenroom, giving you a rare backstage glimpse of the music that fuels their innovative, passionate, and groundbreaking performances.

(photo: Josh Modney; credit: Edgar Hartung, edited by Michiko Saiki) 

We're thrilled to feature one of the hardest working people in New Music for a new Greenroom edition: the violinist, violist, and improviser, Josh Modney. As the executive director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, Modney manages one of the most vital new music ensembles in New York; Modney also is a member of the Mivos Quartet, and has performed extensively with the International Contemporary Ensemble. Collaborations with composers such as Kate Soper, Alex Mincek, Scott Wollschleger, and Mario Diaz de Leon, have led to powerful new works that exist equally as much in performance as they do on the page. And performance is what Modney does best, in every sense of the word. 

So what does Modney think about when he's in the greenroom, about to go on stage and perform? Head over to the Greenroom to see the full story of Modney's favorites on PSNY. Or, if you're in New York, be sure to stop by St. Peter's Church on June 10th, when the Wet Ink Ensemble will perform Erin Gee's Mouthpiece X, featuring fellow PSNY composer Kate Soper as solo vocalist.

Modney's PSNY Greenroom "Picks" include Alex Mincek's Color-Form-Line, Kate Soper's Cipher, Scott Wollschleger's Soft Aberration no. 2, Erin Gee's Mouthpiece: Segment of the 4th Letter, and Mario Diaz de Leon's Trembling Time II. Watch an excerpt of the Wet Ink Ensemble performing Mincek's Color-Form-Line, and visit Modney's Greenroom spotlight for more on his "picks".