IN THE MOMENT: WOMEN COMPOSERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
In March & April of each year from 2010-2012, Oni Buchanan will be performing programs from her new concert series, IN THE MOMENT: WOMEN COMPOSERS OF THE 21st CENTURY, featuring solo piano works written by women composers since the year 2000. For this vibrant series (which also coincides with National Women’s History month), Ms. Buchanan conducts comprehensive research into the music of living women composers. Her programming choices are guided by the fundamental quality these works all have in common: a level of authenticity that demands embodiment in performance. These are works that need to be heard, and Oni Buchanan brings the works to the stage in all their individuality and nuance.
The music, positioned at the living edges of today’s many compositional fronts, varies widely in texture and transparency, sound and approach, and duration; some works last fewer than 60 seconds while others are extended outpourings of over 30 minutes. Some use only the traditional sounds of the instrument, some use extended techniques, and some include outside resources ranging from electronic sound on pre-recorded CDs to breathtaking video projections on the inside of the raised piano lid. Several of the composers work at the boundary between sound and silence, exploring the piano’s unique acoustic properties and the decay of its sound. Others have a strong interest in importing musical source material from children’s songs, salsa, blues, rave music, and alternative rock, while still others embark on an exploration and re-invention of older musical forms such as the sonata, ballade, toccata, and etude. Inspiration is often found well outside the typical musical sphere, in sources as distant as baseball, Sudoku, factory machinery, and schizophrenia.
When this diverse music is brought together in the concert hall, patterns of obsession and approach emerge, creating a fascinating web of correspondences between the works. The audience too forges connections with the music, as each listener is a living contemporary of these works, able to hear and understand “in the moment” of the music’s own composition.
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“In the Moment: Women Composers of the 21st Century,” 2010 program:
Missy Mazzoli, Orizzonte (2004, for piano and tape)
Cindy Cox, The blackbird whistling/Or just after (2001)
Hierosgamos III, IV, V (2003)
Joan Tower, Vast Antique Cubes/Throbbing Still (2000)
Mei-Fang Lin, Interaction (2001, for piano and tape)
Tania Léon, Tumbao (2005)
Adina Izarra, Cónclave (2003)
Alwynne Pritchard, The Barnyard Song (2003)
Annie Gosfield, The Wanton Brutality of a Tender Touch (2006)
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“In the Moment: Women Composers of the 21st Century,” 2011 program:
Missy Mazzoli, Isabelle Eberhardt Dreams of Pianos (for piano and tape)
Annie Gosfield, The Wanton Brutality of a Tender Touch (2006)
Kaija Saariaho, Ballade
Carolyn Yarnell, The Same Sky
Cindy Cox, Hierosgamos (complete)
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