Bowerbird is pleased to present the Arcana New Music Ensemble performing solo and chamber music of Elliott Carter.

PROGRAM:

Two Thoughts About the Piano
Figment V for marimba
Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux II
Epigrams
Enchanted Preludes
Gra for clarinet
Canon for 4

ARCANA NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE:

Anna Lim – violin
Tom Kraines – cello
Nic Handahl – flute
Jonathan Leeds – clarinet
David Hughes – piano
Andy Thierauf – marimba

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Composer Elliott Carter (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) is internationally recognized as one of the most influential American voices in classical music, and a leading figure of modernism in the 20th and 21st centuries. He was hailed as “America’s great musical poet” by Andrew Porter and noted as “one of America’s most distinguished creative artists in any field” by his friend Aaron Copland. Carter’s prolific career spanned over 75 years, with more than 150 pieces, ranging from chamber music to orchestral works to opera, often marked with a sense of wit and humor. He received numerous honors and accolades, including the Pulitzer Prize on two occasions: in 1960 for his String Quartet No. 2 and in 1973 for his String Quartet No. 3. Other awards include Germany’s Ernst Von Siemens Music Prize and the Prince Pierre Foundation Music Award. Carter was the first composer to receive the United States National Medal of Arts, and is one of a handful of composers inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. He was recognized twice by the Government of France: being named Commander of the “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,” and receiving the insignia of Commander of the Legion of Honor in September 2012.

Founded in 2015, the Arcana New Music Ensemble is a group of Philadelphia-based musicians dedicated to presenting interesting, beautiful, and unconventional music in interesting, beautiful, and unconventional places.
The Arcana New Music Ensemble is a Philadelphia-based chamber ensemble dedicated to contemporary classical music. Its mission is to perform works by living composers and to reexamine music from the past, often focusing on composers whose work has been overlooked. A hallmark of Arcana’s programming is its frequent use of portrait concerts, which allow the ensemble to explore a composer’s work in depth. These programs balance music by widely recognized composers with works by those who are less well known or historically underrepresented.

Founded in 2015 by musicologist Thomas Patterson, harpist Elizabeth Huston, and curator Dustin Hurt, Arcana was created to provide a platform for Philadelphia’s many skilled performers interested in exploring both new works and important compositions from the past hundred years. Since 2020, the ensemble has been co-directed by Andy Thierauf and Dustin Hurt.
In 2016, Arcana partnered with Pig Iron Theatre Company to present Samuel Beckett, Words and Music by Morton Feldman and began a multi-year project devoted to the music of Moondog (Louis Hardin). The following year included a portrait concert of Galina Ustvolskaya, collaborations with Variant 6 and Prometheus Chamber Orchestra, and performances of works by Julius Eastman, including Stay On It, Femenine, and Thruway.

In 2018, Arcana presented rare works by Pauline Oliveros and portrait concerts of Tom Johnson, James Tenney, and Ben Patterson, along with a second Moondog program. In 2019, the ensemble presented concerts focused on Claude Vivier and Johanna Beyer and participated in a program of George Crumb’s chamber works. From 2020 onward, the ensemble’s programming has included a retrospective of David First, collaborations with the Wildflowers Composer Festival, and concerts highlighting Iranian and Iranian-American composers. Recent seasons have featured portrait concerts of Sarah Hennies, Raven Chacon, and George Walker, the launch of the annual Postal Pieces project, and performances of Pauline Oliveros’s The Well and the Gentle and Lucia Dlugoszewski’s Black Lake.

Support for this program provided by the Amphion Foundation