PROGRAM
MISSY MAZZOLI Dissolve, O my Heart
MISSY MAZZOLI Interlude
MISSY MAZZOLI A Thousand Tongues
MISSY MAZZOLI Tooth and Nail
MISSY MAZZOLI Kinski Paganini
MISSY MAZZOLI The Night Ahead and No Real Fate
MISSY MAZZOLI A Song for Mick Kelly
MISSY MAZZOLI Hail, Horrors, Hail
MISSY MAZZOLI All I Want is All of It
MISSY MAZZOLI Procession Ascending
MISSY MAZZOLI Vespers for Violin
The Strad described Jennifer Koh as “a risk-taking, high-octane player of the kind who grabs the listener by the ears and refuses to let go.” The New York Times recently called composer Missy Mazzoli “one of the most inventive and surprising composers working in New York today.” The Grammy-nominated Mazzoli is one of only two women commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera; her Lincoln in the Bardo will be premiered there in 2025. Koh and Mazzoli have been collaborating for more than a decade, and will come together for a unique evening of Mazzoli works, with the composer at the keyboard.
Opening the program is Dissolve, O my heart, the result of a late-night conversation over Chinese food and cupcakes during which Koh asked Mazzoli if she’d write a piece that referenced Bach’s famous Partita in D minor. Also included are A Thousand Tongues, based on a poem by Stephen Crane, and A Song for Mick Kelly, inspired by the main character in Carson McCullers’s novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Mick Kelly wants to be a composer but it’s not quite in the cards for her as a girl from a poor family, growing up in 1930s Georgia.
Immerse yourself in the dazzling virtuosity of Jennifer Koh, and the adventurous sound world of Missy Mazzoli, “the 21st century’s gatecrasher of new classical music.” (National Public Radio’s Turning the Tables)