Chaya Czernowin's Winter Songs in North American Premiere in Toronto

Chaya Czernowin sees the North American premiere of the first version of her Winter Songs, entitled Pending Light, on March 29th at the Isabel Bader Theatre of the University of Toronto. Presented by New Music Concerts and conducted by Robert Aitken, Winter Songs: Pending Light is performed in a program dedicated to Roger Reynolds, under whom Czernowin studied and whose music has greatly influenced her composition. Pending Light is the first of three versions of this composition scored for septet with electronics that she developed at IRCAM with Eric Daubresse. Version II, Stones, adds three amplified percussionists to the septet, and version III, Roots, is a combination and modification of the first two versions. Czernowin, recently appointed Professor of Music at Harvard University, writes of Winter Songs:

The whole cycle reflects on the aspect of winter, which has to do with one being pulled into the cave of one's interior, into the passivity of long sleep. At the same time, underneath, in the earth, the roots of vitality slowly solidify and start to blindly search for a way between the stones. The composing of this piece took place mostly in the Fall and Winter 2003/04, in a period following the passing of a close friend, Mark Osborn, a composer, 33 years old.

For more information about Chaya Czernowin and her music, visit her composer profile.

For more information on New Music Concerts, visit www.newmusicconcerts.com.

Chaya Czernowin
Winter Songs I: Pending Light (2003)
for seven instrumentalists, sampler player and IRCAM electronics
dedicated to Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf
bfl.bcl.btbn.tb-va.vc.db
14'