Sophia Vasek, pianist
Michael Harrison, composer/pianist
Nitin Mitta, tabla
Mari Kimura, violinist
Sophia Vastek & Michael Harrison*
Saturday, May 21, 2016, 3:00pm
Big Secret Theatre, Long Island City, Queens
Pianist Sophia Subbayya Vastek and pianist/composer Michael Harrison join forces in a collaborative program as part of the Queens New Music Festival exploring Harrison’s raga and just intonation-based compositions alongside the music of Philip Glass and Donnacha Dennehy. Joining them will be renowned tabla player Nitin Mitta, as well as violinist Mari Kimura who will play an excerpt from Harrison’s new work “Harmonic Constellations.”
Music to be heard this afternoon:
Jaunpuri: Rendition of a Raga by Michael Harrison
Kind of Glass* by Michael Harrison
Two Pages by Philip Glass, arr. by Vastek & Harrison
Harmonic Constellations [excerpt] by Michael Harrison
Raga Prelude 2: Hijaz Bhairav* by Michael Harrison
Stainless Staining by Donnacha Dennehy
*World premiere
Sophia Subbayya Vastek
Pianist Sophia Subbayya Vastek maintains an active performing schedule both locally and internationally. She has most recently performed in South Africa, Mexico City, in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center, the United States State Department, the Canadian Embassy, and Polish Cultural Institute, as well as in venues throughout her adopted home of New York City.
Sophia is one half of Tilted Arc, a new electroacoustic duo with electronic sound artist and multi-instrumentalist Sam Torres that seeks to explore how music exists in space, and how space exists in music. This summer, she will be working alongside composer Michael Harrison at arts letters & numbers leading workshops and aiding in the development of its inaugural music program. Sophia’s debut album is due out later this year with music by Michael Harrison, John Cage, and Donnacha Dennehy. Sophia received a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University, Bloomington where she studied with Emile Naoumoff, the last pupil of Nadia Boulanger, and a Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music.
Michael Harrison
Composer/pianist Michael Harrison is a protégé of La Monte Young and Terry Riley, and has been called “an American Maverick” by Philip Glass. His expertise in “just intonation” tunings and Indian ragas has created “a new harmonic world…of vibrant sound” (The New York Times). Harrison has collaborated or performed with Grammy-winning vocal project Roomful of Teeth, cellist Maya Beiser, filmmaker Bill Morrison, Kronos Quartet, JACK Quartet, Del Sol Quartet, Contemporaneous, and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. His compositions have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave Festival, MoMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Louvre Museum, Centre Pompidou, MASS MoCA, Stuttgart Ballet, Spoleto Festival USA, the United Nations, Bang on a Can marathons, Ojai Music Festival, Other Minds Festival, Quattro Pianoforti Festival in Rome, American Academy in Rome, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Stings of Autumn International Music Festival in Prague, Havana Contemporary Music Festival, Sundance and other film festivals throughout the world.
Time Loops (Cantaloupe Music), his CD with Maya Beiser, was selected for NPR’s “Top 10 Classical Albums of 2012.” Revelation: Music in Pure Intonation (Cantaloupe Music), his 75-minute work for just intonation piano, was chosen by The New York Times, Boston Globe and Time Out New York as one of the Best Classical Recordings of 2007. Critic Tim Page wrote: “Say it plainly — Michael Harrison’s ‘Revelation: Music in Pure Intonation’ is probably the most brilliant and original extended composition for solo piano since the early works of Frederic Rzewski three decades ago.”
He is a disciple of Indian vocal master Mashkoor Ali Khan and the co-founder and president of the American Academy of Indian Classical Music. Harrison has also been on faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design, Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program, and Bang on a Can’s Summer Institute.
Upcoming recordings include Harmonic Constellations for violinist Mari Kimura on New World Records, Radians Phase II for Third Sound on Innova Recordings, and Cello Constellations for Christina Jensen on Sono Luminus. His works have been released on Bang on a Can’s Cantaloupe Music label, New Albion Records, Important Records, and Fortuna Records. Recent awards include the American Composers Forum Delegation to Cuba, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, two Classical Recording Foundation Awards, IBLA Foundation Grand Prize, University of Oregon Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, and fellowships from Yaddo, the American Academy in Rome, Bogliasco Foundation, MASS MoCA, and the MacDowell Colony, where he serves on the Fellows Executive Committee. For more information visit: www.michaelharrison.com.
*QNMF 2016 call for proposals winner.
