Musaics of the Bay Spring ’21 Season announced

ART AND MUSIC MEET AT MUSAICS OF THE BAY

New Series Pairs Artists and Musicians in Multi-Arts Collaborations, Creating Over 60 New Works Premiered in Virtual Concerts – Spring Season Announced

Berkeley, CA – (March 4, 2021) – The Bay Area’s exciting new concert series Musaics of the Bay continues its 2020-2021 season this spring with a slate of new premiere collaborations it’s bringing into the world. By the end of the season, it will have commissioned and premiered over 60 new works. The multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary series adds a completely new dimension to the already rich San Francisco Bay area, and in addition to its commissioning program, it brings cultural partnerships and mentoring of top-tier local talent in live and filmed performance that will enrich the region’s offerings.

Every Monday through June 2021, Musaics of the Bay’s signature series, the Stay-at-Home Symposium, unites diverse performers and living composers with visual artists, poets, sculptors, and filmmakers from the Bay Area and around the globe, in premieres of newly commissioned musical compositions, based on works of art, preceded by an in-depth conversation among all the participating artists. These Symposium premieres are “musical mosaics” meant to spark the imagination of artists and audiences alike, adding a new dimension to the traditional listener experience. Featured this spring are new works by composer Sophie Mathieu inspired by poet Martha Talburt for her granddaughter, Baroque cellist Madeline Bouissou; composer Alistair Coleman for violinist Emma Meinrenken, and composer/pianist Milad Yousufi, all inspired by painter Simon Dinnerstein; jazz pianist and composer Jeremy Corren inspired by artist Ariel Soulé; Gareth Loy inspired by June Yokell; Peter Myers inspired by an art piece by Nomin Zolzaya for the SAKURA cello quintet; composer Alexander Gadjiev for pianist Andrei Gologan inspired by quilt artist Nadine Rosenthal, painter Katie Swatland, and calligrapher Hassan Massoudy; and composer Natsumi Osborn for violist Nicholas Gallitano and cellist Julia Weldon inspired by a Japanese antique object from the collection of purveyor Adam Irish.

The vision of acclaimed young pianist, artistic director Audrey Vardanega aims to bring the wonderfully transformative and life-enriching power of musical partnerships she has experienced in her own career to the series. “We’re thrilled to be able to not only add to the chamber music repertoire and cultural world at large by bringing new creations into the world,” Vardanega said, “but to give our audiences the thrill of unexpected and of discovery. As a performer, it’s always a wonderful adventure to crack open a new piece of music and see what’s ahead, but adding another discipline takes it to a new level and I’m excited to bring that to our audiences across the globe.”

Musaics of the Bay’s Mentor Partnership educational series pairs talented young local students over a period of a few months with established artists, to also create brand new works for the Stay-at-Home Symposium. These relationships take an array of forms, where mentor performers, composers, or other artists guide the creative collaboration process. An upcoming highlight is pianist Jon Nakamatsu’s premiere of a new piece by the gifted student composer Tiffany Cuaresma, based on Simon Dinnerstein’s painting Night. Simon will guide Tiffany through the process of interpreting his painting, which she will take as the inspiration for her composition, premiering later this Spring.

In addition to its monumental, ongoing commissioning project, Musaics’ Virtual Season 2020 presented an exciting array of other online events. After having launched an in-person inaugural season pre-Covid the series, like so many others is now online, featuring Bay Area-based stars of the classical music world in performances of a wide range of repertoire, all of which are accessible online in the Virtual Season archive.

Concerts are FREE. More information on the website, and subscribe to Musaics of the Bay’s YouTube Channel for access. Check out the viewing room to learn more about the art and the musical creations it informed in.

Media inquiries should be directed to Dworkin & Company at (914) 244-3803 or elizabeth@dworkincompany.com.

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March 15

Here and Now for Gut Strings:

A celebration of family through music for solo Baroque cello, poetry, and painting; composer Sophie Mathieu imagines a piece for Baroque cellistMadeleine Bouissou inspired by the paintings and poetry of Madeleine’s grandmother, Martha Talburt, who is also a visual artist.

March 21

VIRTUAL GALA CELEBRATION AT RUNNYMEDE SCULPTURE FARM

This special event comes to audiences from the beautiful barn at Runnymede Sculpture Farm (Woodside, CA). a 120 acre sculpture farm featuring over 160 works of art. The program features the cello, an instrument of huge range and versatility widely loved for its expressive possibilities and deep resonance. This program follows an arc anchored by the rich brown woodiness of the cello’s open G string and the famous Suite No. 1 in G Major by J.S. Bach, the World Premiere of Weathervane for three cellos inspired by a Runnymede sculpture by composer Skyler Baysa, and more. With the performance setting of a weathered wooden barn, a natural extension of the instruments themselves, repertoire for one to three cellos, mainly centered around G, is on tap that evening.

The Gala features San Francisco Opera Principal Cellist Peter Myers, cellist and Co-Director of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival Tanya Tomkins, and 19 year-old Oakland-based cellist Nick Reeves. Suggested Donation: $38-$250. RSVP here.

Poetry, calligraphy and painting come together with cellist Andrew Janss and pianist Audrey Vardanega’s performance of a new work by composer, pianist and visual artist Milad Yousufi, “I Cried…” The piece is based on a calligraphic painting created by Milad called “Memories.”

Cellist Nicholas Politi composes and performs a fantastical musical narration for solo cello inspired by Bruce Herman’s painting, Watering Hole. The new work is something in between a cello concerto and a duet for cello and fixed media.

In composer Alistair Coleman’s solo piano meditation, he explores the “purposeful randomness” of color, palette and texture in painter Simon Dinnerstein’s Solaris. Dinnerstein’s work was inspired by a palette he used for many months for an earlier painting. The buildup that ensued became a kind of found object, almost fossilized and affected by time, endowed with a kind of purposeful randomness.

Jazz Pianist Jeremy Corren composes and performs a new piece for solo piano based on Italian artist Ariel Soulé’s Tatlin. The new work is a medition between the figurative and the abstract and charts a composition that follows extremes between the organic haze and geometric of the two.

Pianist and composerSpencer Cha performs a new solo piano composition inspired by Alastair Dacey’s portrait, The Decembrist. The new work plays on the portrait’s commanding reflectiveness.

Gareth Loy’s composition, for cello and viola, guides listeners along a creek leading to the San Francisco Bay depicted in landscape artist June Yokell’s painting Into the Kingdom. Cellist Amy Kang and violist Sydney Whipple bring to life the trademark beauty of the natural from which Yokell draws inspiration.

Peter Myers’ Saraband for Cello Quintet suggests the characteristic rhythmic pattern of a saraband, a slow, stately Baroque dance form in three. Well known to cellists from Bach’s solo suites, and throughout the movement, the pattern expands and contracts metrically to shape its flow. The Saraband is inspired by an art piece by Nomin Zolzaya and will be premiered by the SAKURA Cello Quintet consisting of cellists Stella Cho, Michael Kaufman, Benjamin Lash, Yoshika Masuda, and Peter Myers.

Composer and pianist Milad Yousufi performs his own composition for solo piano in response to the details of Simon Dinnerstein’s legendary painting, TheFulbright Triptych. The almost overlooked work, due to its hybridity of medium, became asignature work of the artist.

Italian pianist and composer Alexander Gadjiev creates a new multi-movement work for solo piano for Salzburg-based pianist Andrei Gologan, inspired by quilt artist Nadine Rosenthal’s Tree of Life Quilt, No. 12 from artist Katie Swatland’s Elements Collection, and the rich, calligraphic work of Hassan Massoudy.

Composer Natsumi Osborn realizes a composition for viola and cello performed by violist Nicholas Gallitano and cellist Julia Weldon, inspired by a Japanese antique object from the collection of purveyor Adam Irish.