Domestic bliss! Music married to poetry, through the voice of
L O R A L I B B Y S O P R A N O performing 3 Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé by Maurice Ravel
Magical watercolors pour through each note of the composition, every word and gesture, sonorous and poetic. The soprano floats on the texture of the first poem, buoyed by the river coursing through the strings. The second poem– an illusion of constant ascent, drifting ever upward on currents of air, The final poem, sparkles and glitters in bursts, like sun-speckled rocks, or glints of light in a glass of wine. "The combination of symbolist Stéphane Mallarmé's esoteric poetry and Maurice Ravel's elusive tonal designs..." The first selection of the program in . . .
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After Everything has long been fascinated by the serendipitous interplay between music and text. This concert presents classic works by Maurice Ravel and Magnus Lindberg, as well as new pieces by Matthew Cmiel and Preben Antonsen, each selection unique in character, yet sharing a very particular common thread: the possibilities which arise when these two realms of artistic expression align to create something beautiful.
Bay Area composers Matthew Cmiel and Preben Antonsen have been churning out both music and entrepreneurial performance groups together ever since their days as precocious middle schoolers. They’re grown now, and they’ve got a new startup, a contemporary music collective called, a little grandly, After Everything.
Following the group’s inaugural concert in September in the Presidio comes a new program of vocal works. "A Basil Tale" is Antonsen's miniature operatic triptych on pre-existing texts, while Cmiel's The Three Oddest Words" takes inspiration from the work of the Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska. Chamber works by Ravel and Magnus Lindberg complete the program, which features soprano Lora Libby.
MATTHEW CMIEL, DIRECTOR/CONDUCTOR,
AFTER EVERYTHING ON
P R E B E N A N T O N S E N' S A B A S I L T A L E
They never speak. They are only spoken about. Two characters– Hamlet’s Ophelia & Keats’ Isabella– with remarkably similar stories. Dominated by powerful men their entire lives, denied the rites of passage through to adulthood, and suddenly, left on their own. The voices and the people gone, a real and crushing loss embeds itself in their hearts and they revert to the familiar: childhood.
Beautifully set by Preben Antonsen, every emotion is deeply felt, embracing the spirit of naive wonder and whimsy. Like a child who scrapes his knee, screaming loudly one instant and the next, pure elation. Any moment, and the text could veer off in a totally new direction.
Cathartic, and deeply humanizing, the piece leaves one with a sense of the oneness of experience, enveloping the listener in sound worlds with a poor child who has lost everyone. Join us this Saturday evening, 8PM, at Unity Church of San Francisco, 2222 Bush Street at Fillmore. The music and performances will be a spectacular experience. Seating is limited; you might want to grab a seat in advance. $25/Adults, $10 Students.
With love,
Matthew Cmiel, Director
After Everything
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P R E B E N A N T O N S E N C O M P O S E R & P I A N I S T
Preben Antonsen (b. 1991), a graduate of Yale University (Music and Computer Science, 2013), has been composing since he was a small child and studied composition with John Adams from 2001-2009. He was featured as a young composer on NPR’s program From the Top in 2008, and had his first orchestral work premiered by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in March 2009. Pianist Sarah Cahill, commissioned him to write a piano work for her anti-war project, "A Sweeter Music," which she performed in Berkeley and New York in 2013. He is a 2005 BMI Student Composer Award winner, and six of his compositions were recognized by ASCAP, by honoring him with the Morton Gould Young Composer Awards in 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2010. In addition, he collaborated regularly with other teenage composers and instrumentalists on the Bay Area new music concert series, "Formerly Known As Classical," which seeks to engage teenage audiences.
As a pianist, Preben has performed at the Garden of Memory, an annual new music festival at Chapel of the Chimes. He has accompanied vocal students at the Yale School of Music as well as live tango dancers. His bachelor's degree has given him experience in a range of computer music applications such as sequencing, recording, and designing software synthesizers. Preben's musical pursuits are diverse and include electronic dance music and experimental noise.
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AFTER EVERYTHING RUNS ON LOVE, ART, INSPIRATION & DONATIONS.
After Everything has long been fascinated by the serendipitous interplay between music and text. This concert presents classic works by Maurice Ravel and Magnus Lindberg, as well as new pieces by Matthew Cmiel and Preben Antonsen, each selection unique in character, yet sharing a very particular common thread: the possibilities which arise when these two realms of artistic expression align to create something beautiful.
From the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, studying under Einojuhani Rautavaara & Paavo Heininen, to private lessons in Paris, Punk Rock in Berlin, and Taiko in Japan, after everything, Finnish composer, Magnus Lindberg went on to create an array of works of all shapes and sizes- orchestral, chamber orchestra, soloists and orchestra, wind orchestra, small ensemble, solo instrument & vocal. Among them....
T H E C L A R I N E T T R I O
•Sound Big, Sound• •like the tranquility we seek• •Crash Wave, Crash•
with
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S O P H I E H U E T C L A R I N E T
A clarinetist based in the San Francisco Bay Area and an avid proponent for new music, Sophie is also Development Director of Wild Rumpus, a contemporary chamber music ensemble dedicated to performing the music of the present. She has performed with New Spectrum Ensemble, the Magik*Magik Orchestra, and local indie rock band The Family Crest. She earned her Master’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with Luis Baez, her Bachelor of Music in clarinet performance and a Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Fred Ormand.
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E V A N K A H N C E L L O
Intensely passionate about new music and music of non-Western cultures, cellist Evan Kahn has been praised as “a cellist deserved of serious listening”. for bringing his “electrifying … nuanced and colorful” style to all of his collaborations, from concerti to chamber music to contemporary performances. He has commissioned and premiered over 45 works by composers from around the world, including his father’s Cello Concerto.
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The first movement, Sound Big, Sound, fills the room with resonance & growth. The second movement, Like the Tranquility we seek, offers some breathing room, the cello & clarinet float through a more intimate texture. The third and final movement, Crash Wave, Crash, returns to the ideas, style, and harmony of the first movement; just as the format of the title mirrors that of the first movement. The piece ends in a place of deep and profound resonance.
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AFTER EVERYTHING RUNS ON LOVE, ART, INSPIRATION & DONATIONS.
After Everything has long been fascinated by the serendipitous interplay between music and text. This concert presents classic works by Maurice Ravel and Magnus Lindberg, as well as new pieces by Matthew Cmiel and Preben Antonsen, each selection unique in character, yet sharing a very particular common thread: the possibilities which arise when these two realms of artistic expression align to create something beautiful.
An accomplished guitarist who has won prizes for his playing from the American String Teachers Association and Downbeat Magazine, Matthew was given a special award from Downbeat for founding and organizing Formerly Known As Classical, a new music ensemble made up of and organized entirely by teens, specializing in performing music written in their own lifetime; creating what they believe to be new classics as well as advocating for younger people.
After Everything has long been fascinated by the serendipitous interplay between music and text. This concert presents classic works by Maurice Ravel and Magnus Lindberg, as well as new pieces by Matthew Cmiel and Preben Antonsen, each selection unique in character, yet sharing a very particular common thread: the possibilities which arise when these two realms of artistic expression align to create something beautiful.
