MIRAGES for cello and piano

Earplay’s 2023 Season in San Francisco

MIRAGES

Mon, Jan 23  Old First Church

An ensemble of composers and musicians fueled by a passion for new chamber music perform Carla Magnan’s Mirages along with three World Premieres by Hendel Almetus, Linda Bouchard, and Richard Aldag.

Mary Chun, conductor

Terrie Baune, violin; Tod Brody, flutes; Peter Josheff, clarinets; Thalia Moore, cello; Ellen Ruth Rose, viola; Brenda Tom, piano

special guest Keisuke Nakagoshi, piano

Program

Hendel Almetus Tounen World Premiere
Linda Bouchard Katakana World Premiere
Richard Aldag Songs of Majnun Leyla World Premiere
Carla Magnan Mirages

Earplay was launched in San Francisco in 1985 by composers and musicians fueled by a passion for new chamber music, and since that time, each of our programs wholly encompasses music written in the 20th and 21st centuries. Earplay has performed more than 600 works by 350 composers, including 162 world premieres and 96 new works commissioned by the ensemble.

This performance, entitled Mirages, features three world premieres, including Hendel Almetus’ Tounen for solo flute commissioned by Earplay, Linda Bouchard’s Katakana for solo viola & electronics, and Richard Aldag’s Songs of Majnun Leyla for the full ensemble with guest percussion and voice. We will also perform Carla Magnan’s Mirages for cello and piano. This piece was the winner of our 2020 Aird Prize, and we’re excited to perform it in front of a live audience.

Mirages (2018) by Carla Magnan
for cello and piano
US premiere; 2020 Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition winner

Mirages is a set of four pieces for cello and piano. The pieces, Mirage I, II, III and IV, composed in 2018, are inspired by the optical phenomenon of the same name, a visual perception of distorted images of distant objects, which seem suspended in the air or turned upside down like reflections from a mirror, while what the images appear to represent is determined by the interpretive faculties of the human mind.

— C. M.

[program note for video premiered December 9, 2020]

https://earplay.org/www/bios.php?id=Magnan

https://earplay.org/www/notes.php?id=Magnan

https://earplay.wixsite.com/earplay/event-details/mirages

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