Schedule

Dünya (the Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Greek word for “world”) Ensemble is a musicians’ collective located in Boston, Massachusetts. Its goal is to explore a cosmopolitan view of the world through the lens of a wide range of Turkish traditions, alone and in conversation with the musics of the formerly Ottoman peoples, as well as with western and other world traditions. The Dünya collective includes specialists in Ottoman music, early European music, Middle Eastern Christian and Jewish music, ethnomusicology, jazz, contemporary composition and popular music.

The CBC broadcast of Yehudi Menuhin and Glenn Gould’s performance and discussion of Schoenberg's Fantasy for Violin and Piano.

After the film, a discussion on performing Schoenberg will be led by festival coordinator Joel Pitchon.

Pierrot Lunaire embodies Schoenberg’s free atonal and highly expressionist style while also marking a shift to a more formalist, ordered approach to composition. W. Anthony Sheppard, professor of music at Williams College, will trace Schoenberg’s work from Transfigured Night, through Erwartung, to Pierrot.

Schoenberg, Transfigured Night (Verklaerte Nacht)
Brahms, Sextet in Bb Major Op.15

Joel Pitchon and Joana Genova, violins; Ronald Carbone and Ariel Rudiakov, violas; Volcy Pelletier and Ronald Feldman, cellos.

The New York-based Argento Ensemble presents Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with other recent works influenced by Schoenberg's compositional language, including solo and ensemble works by Elliott Carter, Matthias Pintscher and David Fulmer. Michel Galante, director.

The Smith College Poetry Center and the Department of Music present a concert-length work for piano, spoken text and electronics, with music composed by John Gibson. Jon Woodward, poet; Oni Buchanan, pianist.

Unique artifacts of our moment, Jon Woodward's poems are hypnotic, satiric, and surreal. Mary Ruefle writes of his third collection, the book-length poem Uncanny Valley, which serves as the text for the concert piece of the same name, “These apocalyptic, pixilated poems forge a mythology of our ravaged culture.”

A new telling of the ancient tale of Vasalisa and Baba Yaga the Witch, as written by Ellen W. Kaplan with original music by Gregory W. Brown. The full play combines music, dance and theatre for a sumptuous presentation of this well-known fairy tale.

MFA thesis dance concert, featuring original performances and cutting-edge choreography from second-year graduate students from the Smith College Department of Dance. Choreographers are Melissa Edwards, Eliza Larson, Kelly Silliman and Catherine Wagner.

Johnny Appleseed, The Legend and the Truth, read by Jane Yolen (author); music by Clifton J. Noble; illustrated by Jim Burke. This and other works will be followed by Assorted Jigs and Reels, performed by Blacksheep.

Ellen Redman, flute; Joel Pitchon, violin; Volcy Pelletier, cello; Kevin Fontaine, banjo; Clifton J. Noble, piano.

Lecture by Professor David E. Schneider, Amherst College

Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Musical Modernism on the Eve of World War I

Webern, Langsamer Satz for string quartet
Strauss, Capriccio for string sextet
Stravinsky, Sacre du Printemps (Rite of Spring) for two pianos

Judith Gordon and Conor Hanick, piano; Joel Pitchon and Joana Genova, violin; Ronald Carbone and Ariel Rudiakov, viola; Volcy Pelletier and Ronald Feldman, cello.