now it’s time

Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble (2019)

The Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble performs music composed in the last twenty years in concerts that feature multidisciplinary collaboration, technology, improvisation, and theatrical elements. The Ensemble often highlights the work of students and faculty. With the support of Grant #2019-029 from the Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier, the Ensemble presented presented now it’s time, a program featuring world premieres from five trailblazing female composers, at Pittsburgh’s Kelly Strayhorn Theater.

In February 2019, the CMU Contemporary Ensemble, under the direction of Professor Daniel Nesta Curtis, presented “now it’s time,” a program featuring the music of five trailblazing female composers. Two of the featured composers, Binna Kim and Annika Socolofsky, are recent graduates of CMU’s composition program and developed new works specifically for this occasion. The program also included the world premieres of two works by CMU faculty composers Nancy Galbraith and Marilyn Taft Thomas, each of whom wrote works that feature female alumni soloists. Pulitzer Prize winning composer Julia Wolfe’s music completes the program, which traces the struggles and triumphs of outstanding female artists at various points in their careers.

PROGRAM

7:30pm, Saturday, February 16, 2019
Kelly Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh

  • Annika Socolofsky: Don’t Say a Word (2019, world premiere)
  • Binna Kim: stacked emotions (2019, world premiere)
  • Nancy Galbraith: Percussion Concerto (World Premiere) featuring percussionist Abigail Langhorst (MM ’14);
    Soosan Lolavar Girl (2017)
  • Julia Wolfe: The Vermeer Room (1989)
  • Marilyn Taft Thomas: Songs of Strength (2019, world premiere) composed in honor of long-time CMU voice professor Mildred Miller Posvar and featuring mezzo-soprano Hannah Shea (BFA ’18)