Prelude and Fugue
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gavotte I and II
Gigue
Accompanied by Nelson Padgett.
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio con molto sentimento d'affetto
III. Allegro
Accompanied by Nelson Padgett.
Nelson Padgett enjoys a multifaceted career as a soloist and collaborator. He has appeared with the Houston, National, and North Carolina Symphonies, and his many awards include a silver medal at the William Kapell International Competition and a Beethoven Fellowship from the American Pianists Association. A former student of Leon Fleisher, he toured the world with the Philip Glass Ensemble for over thirty years. Specializing in collaboration with string players, he has given recitals with renowned violinists such as Pamela Frank and Elmar Oliveira, and has been an official pianist at the Meadowmount School of Music, the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and the Cooper International Violin Competition. Since 2011 he has been a pianist at the Green Mountain Chamber Festival. A native of North Carolina, Mr. Padgett has lived in New York City since 1987, and spends most of his time playing with string students at Juilliard and New York University.
I have the pleasure of improvising with Thea and have always been struck by her ability to play high harmonics and to combine different techniques in interesting ways. When she asked me to write a piece for her, Thea’s unique vocabulary served as the starting point of the collaboration. I have revised this piece several times and it has changed with me as I have evolved as a composer. Through every version, Thea’s feedback and insights have been invaluable. The iteration of the piece being performed today is a shorter version arranged specifically for the occasion.
Matt Simon is a Jewish American composer from New York. His music focuses on the exploration of compositional ideas, numbers, and sonic textures. Trained as a jazz guitarist, Simon received a Bachelor of Music from New York University where he studied with Bruce Arnold, Tony Moreno, and Ralph Alessi. Upon being exposed to the ideas of the Second Viennese and New York Schools, Simon became interested in the classical music of the twentieth century and the breadth of possibilities it offered. After studying with Nathan Davis for several years, Simon attended the Manhattan School of Music where he received a Master of Music in composition, studying with Reiko Fueting. Simon’s music has been performed by ensembles including S.E.M. Ensemble, Longleash, Quartet121, Ostravská Banda, and Ensemble Signal.
For Solo Cello and Tape
Inspired by Martine Thomas’ text, The thinness of depicts our internal landscape of static, noise, hypercontrolled states, and inner dialogue that manipulates our shiftng perspectives and sense of reality. It remarks on the idea that the lives of women in society are filtered through the expectations and perceptions of others, a layered complexity that is at the core of every interaction. We strive to be understood, to be able to communicate clearly with one another, but often neeed to filter our thoughts and intentions in order to be considered easily digestible. Constantly told how we should act, speak, and think, we are left with conflicting ideas of our reality and the spaces we occupy in the world.
light through distance. now focus in, up close. nothing but light, overcome, overpowering, overwhelming, thermonuclear fusion happening right now in the plasmic spheroid, coming through clear from how far.
the dark whittles down to clarity. what holds together. what is inner. what is real, what distorts the message, what do you concede, & what will not translate? shed it. forget the loss, keep clear & ask to be understood. against the star-thin edge between you & darkness & how can meaning come through. through the body of darkness above. through the body at hand, the body at a glance, the body submerged within cloud or water or space, membranes, equilibrium, & what can be exchanged between or across tell me what can come through?
fusion, luminous, coming clear from thousands of miles. through distance the thinness. the plasmic spheroid. from unknown miles, unknown distance. dark whittling down to clarity. whittling down to the interior. it will not translate.
by Martine Thomas
An avid collaborator, Camila Agosto is an electroacoustic composer and interdisciplinary artist currently based in New York City. Camila seeks to discover intersections of her work with additional artistic fields through partnerships with other musicians, visual artists, choreographers, instrument builders, and creators. Her music is both fully notated and improvisational and often employs extended instrumental techniques, exhibiting a particular emphasis on the exploration of different timbral and textural elements. Within her works, Camila is interested in uncovering the sonic potentialities of acoustic instruments through highlighting and exposing the human element of live performance. Her music has been featured at venues and festivals in the United States and abroad.
Upcoming projects include Paracusia IV; a continuation of a multi-movement, concert-length program scored for solo saxophone and live electronics co-commissioned with Justin Massey, with a grant awarded from the Canada Council for the Arts, The Memory of Water Vol. 1; a multi-piece project created in collaboration with violist and poet, Martine Thomas, exploring the integration of text, live composition, improvisation, electronics and custom instruments, as well as I gather them all; a new work for small ensemble commissioned by the Bar Harbor Music Festival.
Camila is currently a doctoral candidate at Columbia University. She holds a Master’s degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelors in Music from Montclair State University.