Pianists Clarice Assad and Inna Faliks, with Soprano Samantha Malk, explore “The Sensuousness of Spring.”

Music/Words (www.musicwordsnyc.com), an interdisciplinary series founded and curated by NYC- based pianist Inna Faliks (www.innafaliks.com), continues its fourth season on Sunday, April 22, 2012, at 6:00 pm with a performance at New York’s Cornelia Street Cafe featuring Faliks and guest Clarice Assad at the piano along with soprano Samantha Malk and poet Irina Mashinski. The program will explore the sensuousness of early Schoenberg (with the Stefan Georgy poetry used in the songs), along with the passion of Mashinski’s poetry and Assad’s Brazilian music. The program includes Schoenberg’s Drei Klavierstucke, opus 11; his songs from Book of Hanging Gardens; and various improvisations by Ms. Assad based on Brazilian piano music. The Cornelia Street Café (www.corneliastreetcafe.com) is located at 29 Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, NYC. Tickets are $20 and are available by calling 212-989-9319.

The series MUSIC/WORDS was recently praised by Lucid Culture as being “surreal, impactful, and relevant” and was described as “a throwback to the Paris salons of the late 1800s.” It celebrates links between poetry and music by presenting collaborations between exciting solo performers and acclaimed contemporary poets in the form of a live recital/reading.

Inna Faliks created the series in order to foster a chance for poets and musicians to work together and inspire each other, as well as to allow different audiences to come together for these musical-literary events. New published and unpublished works are read alongside performances of music old and new and connected by content, intuition, and inspiration.

According to Faliks, “I pair performers together based on their personalities and styles, and encourage them to choose the poems and music in varied ways that are strongly and intuitively connected.”

In this performance, Ms. Mashinski will tailor her readings to Ms. Assad’s and Ms. Faliks’ musical selections, finding poems from her own works that connect with the music. Music/Words will be featured in regular live broadcasts throughout the month of April on WFMT Radio in Chicago.

Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a “serious triple threat,” and “an arranger and orchestrator of great imagination” (SF Classical Voice), Clarice Assad (www.clariceassad.com) is making her mark in the music world as a pianist, arranger, as a vocalist and as a composer.  A versatile artist of musical depth and sophistication, her works have been published in France (Editions Lemoine), Germany (Trekel), and in the United States (Virtual Artists Collective Publishing), and have been performed in Europe, South America, the United States and Japan. Miss Assad’s music often have a thematic core, and explore the physical and psychological elements of the chosen story or concept. With a repertoire in continuous expansion, her works are sought out by musicians both in the classical and the jazz realms.

South African soprano Samantha Malk recently returned from a concert tour around China, Vietnam and Thailand.  At the end of 2010, she was thrilled to make her Weill Hall debut recital at Carnegie Hall.  During that summer, she finished her engagement as a young artist for the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Music Festival in Chicago.  In July 2010, the International Contemporary Ensemble invited Samantha as the guest soprano in a live broadcast on WQXR Classical Radio New York as well as a two-day music festival celebrating the music of Edgar Varèse at Alice Tully Hall.  Earlier that year, during an alumni residency, Samantha performed songs of Debussy and Schumann lieder at the Britten Pears Music Festival.  Her operatic roles include Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Nannetta in Falstaff, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro.  After immigrating to the United States, Samantha came to study music, earning her Bachelor of Music at Indiana University and her Master of Music at Manhattan School of Music.

Bilingual poet and translator Irina Mashinski has authored seven books of poetry in Russian, and her most recent collections are Volk (Wolf) and Raznochinets pervyi sneg i drugie stikhotvoreniia (Raznochinets First Snow and Other Poems). Her work has appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, including Poetry International, Fulcrum, Zeek, The London Magazine, and An Anthology of Contemporary Russian Women Poets. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming Anthology of Russian Poetry from Pushkin to Brodsky, as well as co-founder and co-editor of the Cardinal Points literary journal, published in the U.S. in English and Russian. She also serves on the editorial board for the NYC based translation project “Ars-Interpes.” Irina Mashinski is the winner of several literary awards, including the First Prizes at the Russian America (2001), Maximilian Voloshin (2003), and other poetry contests. Her poetry has been translated into English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Serbian.

Recently praised by Lucid Culture for “her signature blend of lithe grace and raw power,” Ukrainian-born, New York City based pianist Inna Faliks has established herself as one of the most passionately committed, exciting and poetic artists of her generation. After her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she has performed on many of the world’s great stages, with numerous orchestras, in solo appearances, and with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin and Keith Lockhart. Critics praise her “courage to take risks, expressive intensity and technical perfection” (General Anzeiger, Bonn), “poetry and panoramic vision” (Washington Post), and “riveting passion, playfulness” (Baltimore Sun). Her CD on MSR Classics, “Sound of Verse”, was released in 2009.

The Flute on its Feet, a virtuoso tour de force that includes classics of the flute repertoire, new works by American composers, and pieces choreographed for flutist/dancer Zara Lawler by innovative choreographer C. Neil Parsons. The Flute on its Feet offers audiences a new and truly unique experience within the world of classical music: instrumental performance of the highest quality fully integrated with dance, theater and storytelling. The Flute on its Feet will be in residency in Denton, TX from March 27-30, with public performances on March 29 and 30.

Zara Lawler has created a new genre of performance that defies definition, and never fails to engage and delight her audiences. Dance and story create new entry points into the music for the uninitiated; for the experienced concertgoer, they illuminate the music in a profound and moving way. At once groundbreaking and inviting to new audiences, Lawler offers a new performance standard for the 21st century.

SCHEDULE OF DENTON RESIDENCY:

March 27-29: Zara Lawler and C. Neil Parsons will be guest artists at Texas Woman’s University Arts Triangle, Denton, TX, teaching workshops and leading master classes on interdisciplinary performance with drama, dance and music students, culminating in a performance they will co-create with students on March 29.

On Thursday, March 29 from 5-7pm as part of the Arts Triangle event, Lawler and flute students will lead the audience from station to station in processionals from Lawler’s E Pluribus Flutum. It is a walking tour, and the processionals are scheduled to lead people from the Pioneer Woman Statue (Texas Street and Oakland Avenue on the campus of TWU in Denton) to the Margo Jones Performance Hall for a final performance at approximately 6pm. The program will feature Lowell Liebermann’s 8 Pieces for flute, alto flute and piccolo, choreographed by Parsons; Fantasies (music by Telemann, choreographed by Parsons) and a mini-performance piece co-created by Lawler, Parsons and selected students (to be based on a haiku by Japanese poet and haiku master Matsuo Basho). All performances on this day, and a reception afterwards, are free and open to the public.

On Friday, March 30, Lawler and Parsons will conduct a performance/workshop from 1-3pm at the University of North Texas, Denton, TX. The event will take place at the Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater on the UNT campus, on Avenue C between Highland and Chestnut Streets. This event combines performance with interactive activities designed to introduce music students to the world of interdisciplinary performance. Audience members will get an inside look at how Lawler and Parsons’ unique performance style is created. The duo will perform the same pieces as at the Arts Triangle (minus the student-created work), as well as This Floating World, a solo for flute by American composer Edie Hill. This event is free and open to the public.

Performing works by Inhyun Kim, Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, Marco Stroppa, Kurtag, Messaien, Ligeti, Debussy, and Schumann, pianist Jenny Q. Chai makes her Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall on Thursday, April 19 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $30 ($15 for students) and are available at www.carnegiehall.org, at the Carnegie Hall Box office at 57th street and 7th avenue in New York City (which is also the location of the venue), or by calling 212 247 7800.

This concert, featuring two world premieres and one US premiere, is being presented by Ear to Mind (www.eartomind.com), a New York City based arts organization which strives to present innovative programs that allow the public to experience contemporary music in non-traditional contexts, as well as by producing publications that allow the public to gain intimate knowledge of the contemporary music field, simultaneously providing composers and performers with a platform for their work.

The Program includes:

• Inhyun Kim – Parallel Lines (World premiere)
• Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang – “Current”, a newly commissioned work from the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust’s 2011 Pianist/Composer Commissioning Project (World premiere)
• Marco Stroppa – “Innige Cavatina” from Miniature Estrose by (US premiere)
• Claude Debussy – Études No.3 ” pour les quartes” and No.6 “pour les huit doigts”
• György Ligeti – Études Book I No. 1 “Désordre” and No. 2 “Cordes à vide”
• Olivier Messiaen – Cantéyodjayâ
• György Kurtág – “Quiet talk with the Devil” and “Les Adieux” from Jatekok
• Robert Schumann – Kreisleriana

Hailed as a “brilliant and fearless young performer,” Jenny Q Chai is an active pianist specializing in contemporary music. Recipient of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust’s 2011 Pianist/Composer Commissioning Project, first prize winner of the Keys to the Future Contemporary Solo Piano Festival, and recipient of the DAAD Arts and Performance award in 2010, Chai has premiered, most notably, Life Sketches by Nils Vigeland, Exercise in Deism by John Slover, Intimate Rejection by Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, and Blue Inscription by Scott Wollschleger. Chai has also premiered “Marriage (Mile 58) Section F” from The Road by Frederick Rzewski in Ghent, Belgium, where she was given the Logos Award for the best performance of 2008. Recently, Chai had the privilege of introducing the concept of prepared piano to a Chinese audience, with the world premiere of Mallet Dance by John Slover, in Shanghai Concert Hall.

Of her performance at the Keys to the Future Festival, Zachary Woolfe wrote in the New York Times: “Jenny Q Chai opened the concert playing two of Ligeti’s Études with rich tone and rhythmic clarity; especially strong was her “Cordes à vide.”

Chai is currently working on her thesis on Marco Stroppa with contemporary pianist Marilyn Nonken for her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Manhattan School of Music. Chai has also studied at the Shanghai Music Conservatory, at Curtis Institute of Music with Seymour Lipkin, and has received two degrees from the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Solomon Mikowsky, Nils Vigeland, and Anthony de Mare. In Germany, she studied with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and performed in Ensemble 20/21, directed by David Smeyers, as well as the group Musikfabrik. In what is already an illustrious career, Chai’s performances have been covered in major media throughout the U.S., China, and Europe, including Time Out New York, Shanghai Culture, and Cologne Daily News, and her performances of contemporary music have been broadcast in Italy, Germany, China, and the U.S. Her talents have been showcased on recordings with Ensemble 20/21 on the Deutschlandfunk label (performing music by Hanns Eisler) and as solo pianist/vocalist on ArpaViva’s New York Love Songs.

For Chai, near-total immersion in the contemporary music world has only enhanced her appreciation of the classical repertoire. “I feel a sense of contentment programming creative concerts, mixing and matching old and new works, so as to highlight what is most special in each piece. After all, nothing comes from nothing, and new music is very much connected to that which came before.” Now splitting her time between the U.S. and China, Chai co-directs the New York City-based contemporary music organization Ear to Mind, and is founder of FaceArt Music Association in Shanghai. In an Ear to Mind performance in April 2011, Chai premiered three new works, including Five Pieces (for Jenny Q Chai) by Nils Vigeland.

Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang is a Taiwanese composer whose work seeks to capture the individual beauty of the fleeting moment, revealing complexity within simplicity. Her music has been performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She has collaborated with Brooklyn Rider String Quartet, MIVOS Quartet, members of Eighth Blackbird, pianists Eric Huebner, Vicky Chow, Jenny Q. Chai, conductors David Gilbert, Brad Lubman, Paul Chiang, and visual artists Alice Grassi and Takeshi Moro. Her music has been broadcast on WNYC and Taukay Edizioni Musicali, and has been released on the ArpaViva label. Ms. Wang is the winner of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music competition and the Look and Listen Festival Composition Prize, and the recipient of grants from the American Composers Forum, the American Music Center, and the ASCAP Foundation. Ms. Wang has been a fellow at the MusicX Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Pacific Music Festival, Bang on a Can Music Festival, an associate artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and has worked with Robert Beaser, Matthias Pintscher, David Felder, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and Lera Auerbach. She has recently studied with Nils Vigeland, Reynold Tharp, and Stephen Taylor.

As a frequent collaborator with choreographers, visual artists, and filmmakers, composer Inhyun Kim challenges her audience think in new and unconventional ways about music as a performing art. Ms. Kim has been commissioned by organizations such as White Wave Dance Company, The Actor’s Theatre, Hudson Saxophone Quartet and Brooklyn Independent television, and her works have been performed at the DUMBO dance festival, Wave Rising series, the Joyce Soho theatre, What We Want!!!, The Tompkins Square gallery at the New York Public Library, Dance New Amsterdam, Ceres Gallery as part of 2008 Make Music NY, the Museum of Modern Arthur as part of the 12th annual Art Under the Bridge festival, Galapagos Art Space, and Symphony Space. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Music degrees and studied with Julia Wolfe, Susan Botti and Reiko Fueting. Ms. Kim’s music can be heard on her CD “Music =”, released in 2010 by Carrier Records. Ms. Kim is a recipient of the Jordan Berk Memorial Prize in composition, Manhattan School of Music president’s award, and was recently awarded a mentorship with composer Vivian Fung, as part of NYFA’s Mentoring program for Immigrant Artists. Ms. Kim is co-director of the contemporary music nonprofit organization, Ear To Mind.

Composer, researcher and professor, Marco Stroppa was born in Verona, Italy, and has composed for both acoustical instruments and new media. His repertoire includes works for concerts, one music drama, two radio operas and various special projects. He often groups several works around large cycles exploring specific compositional projects, such as a series of concertos for instrument and a spatialized orchestra or ensemble inspired by poems of W.B. Yeats, a book of Miniature Estrose, seven pieces for solo piano, a cycle of works for solo instrument and chamber electronic music inspired by poems of e. e. cummings, and two string quartets. He has worked as a composer and researcher, teacher at IRCAM, and he founded the composition and computer music workshop at the International Bartók Festival in Szombathély, Hungary. He taught composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris and Lyon and since 1999 he has been full professor of composition and computer music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart. He studied at the Conservatories of Verona, Milan and Venice and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship.

This concert is sponsored by The Gurrand Group and FaceArt Music InterNations.