Alia Musica Pittsburgh presents Comala

Chatham University, Laughlin Music Center
Tickets: $15 at the door / $10 in advance
$10 seniors and students
Free for children under 16
purchase tickets at www.alia-musica.org

Renowned soprano Tony Arnold joins Rob Frankenberry and an all-star ensemble for Zohn-Muldoon’s Comala.

Joined by musicians from New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and Lexington, Alia Musica Pittsburgh performs Comala, the landmark work for voices and chamber ensemble by Mexican-born composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon in Pittsburgh on January 22 and on tour.  A finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Comala features legendary new-music soprano Tony Arnold with the Pittsburgh-based tenor and polymath Rob Frankenberry.

The ensemble comprises guitarist Dieter Hennings (recently featured by Pittsburgh’s Guitar Society of Fine Arts); members of the Atlanta-based new music ensemble Bent Frequency, percussionist Stuart Gerber and saxophonist Jan Baker; and members of the world-touring Eastman BroadBand, a collective of students and recent graduates of the Eastman School of Music. Zohn-Muldoon and and fellow professor of composition Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez formed Broadband in 2007.  Alia Musica Pittsburgh Artistic Director Federico Garcia will conduct the ensemble as they tour the program to Chatham University in Pittsburgh, the Eastman School of Music, the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and the University of Kentucky. the program is produced jointly by Alia Musica, Eastman, Cincinnati College Conservatory, and University of Kentucky and supported in part by The Heinz Endowments and the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

Along with Comala, program the includes music by Michael Fiday, professor of composition at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the premiere of two new compositions written for the occasion by Pittsburgh composers and Alia Musica members John Arrigo-Nelson and Federico Garcia.

View the complete program below the fold.

PROGRAM

recitativo frammenti, John Arrigo-Nelson (b. 1975)
world premiere
flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano, percussion, and guitar

~ intermission ~

Comala, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon (b. 1962)
featuring Tony Arnold, soprano and Rob Frankenberry, tenor

SYNOPSIS

Based on the celebrated novella by Juan Rulfo, Pedro Paramo, Zohn-Muldoon’s Comala stages scenes from one of the most influential examples of magical realism, the genre advanced by Rulfo and his cohorts Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Fulfilling a promise made to his mother Doloritas on her deathbed, Juan Preciado travels to Comala on an errand to meet his father, the powerful patriarch Pedro Paramo.  He hopes to claim his rights as Paramo’s legitimate heir, and thus bring meaning to his rootless existence.  As he approaches Comala, Juan Preciado reminisces about his mother’s poetic descriptions of the village — but upon arriving to Comala, he finds that his father is long dead.  Moreover, Comala is an abandoned and decaying village, bearing no resemblance to his mother’s recollections.

PERSONNEL

Tony Arnold, soprano.  John Von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune writes “anything sung by soprano Tony Arnold is worth hearing.” Hailed by the New York Times as “a bold and powerful interpreter,” she has gained international acclaim for sparkling and insightful per- formances of the most daunting contemporary scores. In 2001, Ms. Arnold was thrust into the international spotlight when she became the only vocalist ever to be awarded first prize in the Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition. On the heels of that triumph, she claimed first prize in the 15th Louise D. McMahon International Music Competition. Since that time, Ms. Arnold has established a reputation as a leading specialist in new vocal repertoire, receiving consistent critical accolades for her many recordings, as well as performances with groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, New York New Music Ensemble, Ensemble 21, eighth blackbird, Contempo, Orchestra of St. Lukes, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Fulcrum Point, and many others.

Rob Frankenberry, tenor.  The Pittsburgh-based tenor, pianist, and conductor Robert Frankenberry was born and raised in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, where both his parents made music.  Robert holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance from Mercyhurst College and a Master’s Degree in Voice performance from Carnegie Mellon University.  His vocal instructors have included Louisa Jonason, John Shirley-Quirk, Judith Natalucci and Diana Walters.  At the piano, Robert Frankenberry is a member of the Pittsburgh-based IonSound Project, and has worked in various pianistic capacities for Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham College, the Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh.  As a pianist, he performs both standard and contemporary chamber music and has premiered more than 150 works by living composers.  Robert Frankenberry has filled faculty positions at several colleges and universities, most recently as instructor of voice and bassoon and director of orchestral studies at Mercyhurst College.  He lives in Lawrenceville and frequently travels for rehearsals and performances across the USA.

Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, composer.  Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon is a Mexican-American composer and finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Currently chair of the composition department at the Eastman School of Music, Zohn-Muldoon has in the past held positions at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the University of Guanajuato. Zohn-Muldoon’s honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Tanglewood Music Center (Omar del Carlo Foundation), Camargo Foundation, Endowment for Culture and the Arts of Mexico, a Mozart Medal from the Embassy of Austria in México, and commissions from the Fromm Foundation, and the US / Mexico Fund for Culture.

Dieter Hennings, guitar. Dieter Hennings’s musical endeavors span from new music on guitar to early music for lute, baroque guitar, and theorbo. Recent engagements include a soloist appearance with Ensemble Ripieno in Pittsburgh, the Guitar Festival in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico, as well as guitar festivals in Chiapas, Louisville, and Cincinnati. In 2012 he collaborated with baroque vioinist Monica Huggett and the ensemble Julliard 415 of the prestigious music school. Other engagements include appearances at the Mexican Embassy in Rome, Festival SpazioMusica of Cagliari, Conservatorio de las Rosas in Morelia, Mexico, University of Chicago, Festival Internacional de Chihuahua, New York’s Joyce Theater, Julliard’s Paul Hall, and New England Conservatory. Mr. Hennings is Assistant Professor of Guitar at the University of Kentucky where he supervises and instructs an active, international studio.

Federico Garcia, conductor. Born in Colombia in 1978, Federico Garcia moved to the US in 2001 to pursue graduate studies in Composition and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh.  He has been Artistic Director of Alia Musica Pittsburgh since its inauguration in 2007, and is also Music Director of the East Liberty Community Engagement Orchestra and of Ensemble Ripieno.  His music has been performed throughout the world, from his native Colombia to Thailand, across the US, and most recently in Bulgaria and Mexico. He has shared stages with new music artists of the stature of Cliff Colnot, Lisa Kaplan, Robert Dick, George Tsontakis, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. His “Passacaglia on a theme by Bach” won first prize in the Colombian composition competition for symphony orchestra in 2001, and is recorded in the 2013 album “Orchestral Masterworks” of ABLAZE Records.