daily festival recaps
- Music@Menlo Wraps Up Spectacular Sixth Season (August 08)
- Voices of Our Time (August 07)
- "without whom we would be mute" (August 06)
- Just Another Day at Music@Menlo (August 05)
- Private Music Made Public (August 04)
- Modernist Marathon (August 03)
- The Musical Imagination (August 03)
- Delicious Dissonance (August 01)
- What Ithaka Means (August 01)
- Romantic Cadence (July 30)
- Brahms the Progressive (July 30)
- "Vissi d'arte..." (July 29)
- "...and all the world is fresh and bright again." (July 27)
- Festive Day, Romantic Evening (July 27)
- Open House (July 25)
- "Origins of Modern String Playing" and Today's Rising Stars (July 25)
- Classical Bookends (July 23)
- Lesser Gives More (July 22)
- Fame is the Spur (July 22)
- Yes! (and Bird! and Bach!) (July 20)
- Baroque Heroics (July 19)
- Towards Bach (July 18)
- A Grand Beginning (July 17)
"without whom we would be mute"
Posted: August 06
The final days of Music@Menlo’s 2008 season explore the infinitely rich musical landscape of our own time. At Wednesday’s Encounter, “Future Forward: Exploring the Here and Now,” Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean of the Juilliard School, led a hearty discussion with the season’s three visiting composers: Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, and Kenneth Frazelle. Gabriela, Jennifer, and Kenneth (as well as Chinese composer Tan Dun, in absentia) collectively reflect the wide diversity of today’s musical culture. The Encounter included live performances of each visiting composer’s music: Chamber Music Institute International Program pianist Liza Stepanova performed the first movement of Gabriela’s “Ghosts in the Dream Machine;” International Program pianist Qing Jiang, violinist Areta Zhulla, and cellist Dmitri Atapine gave a hair-raising account of Jennifer Higdon’s “Fiery Red;” and festival pianist Jeffrey Kahane delivered the evening’s perfect cadence with a short selection by Kenneth’s vast catalogue of music for solo piano.
Gabriela, Jennifer, and Kenneth lead the season’s final master class on Thursday (12:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall), a priceless opportunity to witness the creative artists themselves guiding the Institute musicians through preparation of their own works. “Ghosts in the Dream Machine,” Jennifer Higdon’s Piano Trio, and Kenneth Frazelle’s String Trio appear on Thursday and Friday evening’s Prelude Performances (6:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church), courtesy of the International Program musicians. The season’s final concert program, “Music Now: Voices of Our Time,” likewise presents music by each of the visiting composers, including the world premiere of Kenneth’s Piano Trio, commissioned by Music@Menlo. There is a limited number of tickets still available—don’t miss out on this historic musical event! The program culminates in Tan Dun’s “Elegy: Snow in June,” whose enormous battery of percussion has required an extension of the stage at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. A powerful tribute to the victims of Tiananmen Square, “Elegy: Snow in June” is of especial relevance to our own social climate and represents a fitting conclusion to Music@Menlo’s survey of today’s composers—“without whom,” in Ara’s words, “we would be mute.”