Fiscal Year:2015
Category:Performance, Composition
Composers:Laura Kaminsky, Jessie Montgomery, Damon Ferrante, Errollyn Wallen, Frank Brickle, George Antheil , Ezra Pound , William Anderson
Performance:Morgan Library and Museum
Date:8 December 2015
Performers:Elizabeth Farnum , Errollyn Wallen, Cygnus Ensemble
Cygnus will perform at the Morgan Library and Museum in connection with the exhibit, Hemingway Between the Wars.
To complement the exhibit, Cygnus will present new works by Laura Kaminsky, Errollyn Wallen, Damon Ferrante, and Jessie Montgomery that relate to Hemingway, and the figures who were important to him in Paris between the wars. Composer Frank Brickle will create new arrangements of excerpts from arias from two rarely heard operas–George Antheil’s opera Transatlantique, and Ezra Pound’s quasi-opera Le Testament de Villon.
Laura Kaminsky is creating the centerpiece for the evening, a group of musical portraits of Hemingway and figures who were important to him in Paris between the wars.
Errollyn Wallen is a noted singer/composer, based in the UK. She will set portions of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, singing as Hemingway.
Damon Ferrante is composing an instrumental work based on Joan Miro’s “The Farm”, the painting that Hemingway purchased at a time when he was not at all flush, and when Miro really needed the money. Ferrante’s musical works are often inspired by the visual arts, as was the case with his epic guitar duo, The Footbridge, which riffs on Alexander Calder.
Jessie Montgomery is composing music to accompany a scene from Jean Cocteau’s silent film, “Blood of a Poet”.
Frank Brickle is doing new arrangements for Cygnus of excerpts from two rarely heard operas by
George Antheil’s Transatlantique
Ezra Pound’s Le Testament de Villon
Antheil & Pound were collaborators during this period. They were both figures who were making their presence known in Paris during this period.