Calgary, Canada – November 23, 2012

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Performance by the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble
November 23, 2012
Concert at the Arrata Opera Center

Voices of the rainforest for flute, cello and piano.

Voices of the rainforest was performed by the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble at the concertOn Biophony along with works by George Crumb and others.
Published by Hofmeister MusikVerlag.Available for sale.  

The premiere recording of Voices of the Rainforest performed by the Meininger-Trio is released on Haensler Records and available atAmazon.com 

Biophony

Hong Kong – November 3, 2012

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Performance by Stanley Wong

November 3, 2012
Concert at the Hong Kong Recital Hall

Mirage for piano 

Pianist Stanley Wong celebrates the Chinese Lunar New Year Holidays performing two works by Elisenda Fabregas at the concert Fire and Ice
Parsons Music Recital Hall 14/F, Times Square Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

Mirage (1997) and Homenatge a Mompou (2006) are published by
and available at Hidden Oaks Music Company
A live recording of Mirage performed by Roger Wright
is available on ABC Classics at Amazon.com

Homenatge a Mompou was commissioned and premiered by Marcel Worms.
Listen to Marcel Worms performing Homenatge a Mompou on Youtube

 

Lansing, Michigan – October 28, 2012

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Performance by the Icarus Trio at the Lansing Orchestra Chamber Music Series
October 28, 2012
Concert at the Molly Grove Chapel at First Presbyterian Church, Lansing

Voces de mi tierra for flute, cello and piano.

In addition to Voces de mi tierra, the Icarus Trio program included works by Norman Dello Joio, Ginastera, and Manuel de Falla among others.

Published by Hofmeister Musik Verlag.

Meininger-Trio‘s recording ofVoces de mi tierra for flute, cello & piano is released on the Haenssler PROFIL EDITION label distributed by Naxos. Available at Amazon.com 

Two performances in Freiburg – May 31, 2012 and June 6, 2012

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Voices of the Rainforest (2007) for flute, cello and piano

Trio Quer-Strich
May 31, 2012 and June 6, 2012
Freiburg venues

The premiere recording ofVoices of the Rainforest performed by the Meininger-Trio is available on Haensler Records. This recording features also music by Libby Larsen,Chen Yi and Kate Waring. Here is a sneak preview of its cover and contents!

 

 

Premiere in Hwaseong, South-Korea – May 26, 2012, 5 PM

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Retorn a la terra (2012)

for narrator, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, percussion, violin, and double bass
texts by Catalan poets Josep Carner and Joan Maragall.

Virtuoso Ensemble 
under the direction of Unai Urrecho and narrator Jong Hoon Yoo
Dong Tan Art Center of Hwaseong
May 26, 2012, 5 PM

Unai Urrecho and Jong Hoon Yoo narrator at the Hwaseong Arts Center (Ban Sook Concert Hall of the Dong Tan Art Center of Hwaseong) on May 26, 2012. The Virtuoso Ensemble includes Rodrigo Puskas, violin; Hyo Sun Lee, double bass; Hyonsuk Kim, clarinet; Nguyen Bao Anh, bassoon; Eric Robins, trumpet; Lim Hyun Su, trombone; and Kevin Clarke, percussion.

This composition was inspired by two poem in the Catalan language: Retorn a Catalunya by Josep Carner and La Sardana by Joan Maragall. Carner’s poem describes both the excitement and nostalgia he feels on returning to his country after a long absence. Maragalls’s poem is an homage to the sardana, the National dance of Catalunya. This work has three movements – the first and the second are connected. Carner’s poem is read at various points throughout the first and second movements. Only one paragraph from Maragall’s poem is read at the beginning of the third movement.

I. La serra de foc (The mountain of fire) is inspired by the poem’s sense of expectation and excitement at the return to Catalunya, and also by the proverbial Catalan strength. As the poem says: “la forca tota vella … que ens agermana” (the old force … that makes us family).

II. In Records (Memories) the music freely uses fragments of old Catalan melancholic melodies that impart a medieval religious tone to the entire movement.

III. Dansa (Dance) is an homage to the sardana and uses its basic rhythm, as well as typical melodic turns of the dance.
Retorn a la terra uses the same instrumentation as L’Histoire du soldat by Stravinsky and both works will be performed at the same concert.

Text of Josep Carner poem Retorn a la terra

Retorn a la terra (2012)

Retorn a la terra (2012)

 

MusikfestStuttgart (Germany) – August 31, 2011

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Voices of the Rainforest (2007) for flute, cello and piano

Meininger Trio 

Voices of the rainforest for flute (alto flute), cello and piano (2007) was written for the Meininger-Trio.
The premiere of Voices of the rainforest took place at WDR Concert Hall in Cologne, Germany, on March 15, 2008. This concert was broadcasted on April 26, 2008, on WDR’s program Nachtmusik. The pre-premiere took place at the Ibero American Institute in Berlin on March 14, 2008. This concert was sponsored by the Spanish Embassy in Berlin and the Oro Verde (Tropical Rainforest Foundation)

 

Two performances in Spain – May 13, 2011 and June 14, 2011

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Goyescas (2009)

for flute, viola and piano
Ensemble Gaudi 
Orfeo Maones. Temporada de concerts de JJMM de Mao – May 13, 2011 
Auditori Municipal de Terrassa (Barcelona) – June 14, 2011

Goyescas (2009) for flute, viola & piano is an arrangement of the original flute & guitar piece of the same title for the Ensemble GAUDI of Barcelona (Sofia Martinez, flute, Joan Felix,viola, and Isabel Felix, piano.)

This work is based on five paintings by Francisco Goya.
See GOYAS’ PAINTINGS

Ensemble Gaudi premiered Goyescas at the Festival Internacional de Musica (Concerts de Mitjanit) de Sitges (Spain) on June 28, 2009. A subsequent performance took place on February 10, 2010, at the ESMUC (Escola Superior de Musique de Catalunya) in Barcelona. More recent performances of this work have taken place at La Pedrera de Caixa Catalunya in Barcelona on August 21 and 22, 2010.

Goyescas consists of seven movements (the first two are attaca.) The duration is about 21 minutes.

I.     Pregón
II.    La familia de Carlos IV (The family of Charles IV)
III.   Las majas en el balcón (The maiden on the balcony)
IV.   El sueño (The dream)
V.    La fragua (The foundry)
VI.   Toque
VII. La gallina ciega (Blind man’s bluff)
Read full PROGRAM NOTES

Goyescas will be available by Hofmeister MusikVerlag later this spring. Until then, score is available from Hidden Oaks Music Co.

Joan Felix, Isabel Felix, Elisenda Fabregas, and Sofia Martinez after the Spanish premiere of Goyescas for flute, viola and piano on June 28, 2009 at the Sala d’Or of the Palau Maricel (Concerts de Mitjanit) in Sitges.

SITGES

Three performances in Germany – September 4 – 5 and October 14, 2010

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Gacelas de Amor (2009)

for soprano, flute and piano
(poetry by Federico Garcia Lorca)
Jörg Waschinski and the Meininger-Trio 
Grunstadter Sternstunden – September 4, 2010 
Bingen – September 5, 2010 
Muenchen at the Gasteig, Kleiner Saal – October 14, 2010

Gacelas de amor (2009) is based on three poems by Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca (from the collection Gacelas,from Diwan del Tamarit (1931-1934). In his Gacelas, the passionate and sensual voice of Lorca burns with maximum intensity. The Gacelas are amorous and erotic in nature and portray metaphorically both the suffering and ecstasy brought by ‘romantic’ love. Musically this work is set in an evocative but subtle Spanish musical atmosphere with modal overtones.

This work was commissioned by Christiane Meininger and written for Jörg Waschinski, male soprano; Christiane Meininger, flute; and Rainer Gepp, piano. See full concert program.
The premiere took place at the Center for International Light Art in Unna (Germany) on June 18, 2009. Read Concert review (in German) –(in English).

UNNA

Rainer Gepp, Elisenda Fabregas, Jorg Waschinski and Christiane Meininger after the premiere of Gacelas de Amor on June 18, 2009.

This concert was sponsored by the American Embassy, the Zentrum for Information und Bildung in Unna, the Center for International Light Art in Unna (Germany) and a travel grant from the Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University

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Barcelona – July 7, 2010

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Homenaje a Mompou (2006) for piano

Festival of Song 2010
Max Lifchitz, piano
Auditorio Centro de Estudios Norteamericanos in Barcelona (Via Augusta) 
July 7, 2010

Homenaje a Mompou (2006) was commissioned by Marcel Worms who performed this work in Europe and in the U.S. including the Fundacio Frederic Mompou in Barcelona. On April 18, 2010, Max Lifchitz performed Homenaje a Mompou as part of the North/South Consonance Concert Series at Christ and St. Stephen’s Church on New York City’s Upper West Side. This concert was sponsored in part by New York Women Composers

PROGRAM NOTES

Published by Hidden Oaks Music Co.  

Additional information on Catalan composer Federico Mompou.

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Finland – May 27, 2010

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Voces de mi tierra for flute, cello and piano

Performance at Tapiola Symphony Concert Series in Finland
Hanna Juutilainen, flute
Huilu Tuija Rantamaki, cello
Naoko Ichihashi, piano 
May 27, 2010

Voces de mi tierra was written for the Meininger-Trio and was premiered at the 15th International Bodensee Festival in Meersburg, Germany, on May 24, 2003. 

Voces de mi tierra has received many performances in the US and Europe including Bargemusic in Brooklyn (NY), Cactus Pear Music Festival (Texas), Mendelssohn-Festtage 2005 – Kammermusik im Schumann-Haus, Leipzig; Potsdamer Festspiele SansSouci, Potsdam, Brandenburg (Germany); Bodensee International Music Festival in Bad Waldsee, Germany. Chamber groups that have performed Voces de mi tierra include the Meninger-Trio (Germany), NeoArs Sonora (Spain), All Season Chamber Players, Toki Ensemble, neoLit Ensemble, Terzetta Trio, Davanti Trio , Kathryn Master and friends, and Terra Voce. 

Published by Hofmeister Musik Verlag. 

I. El Cortejo (Courtship) 
II. Noche en la Alhambra (Night in the Alhambra) 
III. La moza y el gitano (Scherzando) (The peasant and the gypsy) 
IV. Gigue. 

PERFORMANCE HISTORY

PROGRAM NOTES

Meininger-Trio‘s recording of Voces de mi tierra for flute, cello & piano is available on the Haenssler PROFIL EDITIONlabel distributed by Naxos.