Bellingham Symphony Orchestra: Harmony from Discord Meets Mozart's Requiem
$15-$49; student discounts available
- Sarah Shafer, soprano
- Nerys Jones, mezzo-soprano
- Brendan Tuohy, tenor
- Charles Robert Stephens, baritone
- Wu Fei, guzheng
- Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, oud
- WWU University Choir
- Bellingham Chamber Chorale
Wu Fei — Hello Gold Mountain (Wu Fei, guzheng & Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, oud)
On Sunday, February 26th, the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra (BSO) will present its eighth Harmony from Discord concert, featuring contemporary composer Wu Fei's Hello Gold Mountain paired with Mozart's powerful and exalted Requiem.
Guest artists Wu Fei, guzheng, and Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, oud, will join the orchestra for Hello Gold Mountain, Wu Fei's masterpiece inspired by stories of WWII Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai from Europe. An accomplished artist, Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz has performed alongside Yo-Yo Ma in the Silk Road Ensemble.
Next, Western Washington University Choirs and Bellingham Chamber Chorale join vocalists Sarah Shafer, soprano; Nerys Jones, mezzo-soprano; Brendan Tuohy, tenor; and Charles Robert Stephens, baritone, for an unforgettable performance of Mozart's Requiem.
This concert marks the eighth Harmony from Discord concert performed by the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra. Begun in 2016, the Harmony from Discord series celebrates music that transcends oppression by shining a light on composers whose music has endured through the darkest of times across the globe.
"I think the cool thing about this concert is that it’s two Requiems side-by-side," explains Music Director Yaniv Attar. "Wu Fei's piece is kind of a Requiem for the loss of possibilities, specifically in the integration of two cultural traditions – Chinese and Jewish. For me, a major aspect of the HfD series is the question of 'what if?' What if the composers we perform had not died in the Holocaust? What other treasures would we have known from them? In the case of Wu Fei's piece, if the Jews did not have to leave China, what other possibilities could have come to fruition in this richly multi-cultural environment? It is an important question, especially today, when there are so many refugee crises around the world."
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A Pre-Concert Lecture about the program by Dr. Ryan Dudenbostel will take place at 2:15pm in the Walton Theatre. Doors open at 2pm and seating is limited, so please plan accordingly.
This concert qualifies for Classical Kids, Take-A-Teen, and Student Rush ticket discounts. Visit https://www.bellinghamsymphony.org/visit-us/ticket-discounts to learn more.
About Sarah Shafer, soprano
About Nerys Jones, mezzo-soprano
About Brendan Tuohy, tenor
About Charles Robert Stephens, baritone
Charles has enjoyed a career spanning a wide variety of roles and styles in opera and concert music. His performances have shown "a committed characterization and a voice of considerable beauty." (Opera News, 1995) At the New York City Opera he sang the role of Professor Friedrich Bhaer in the New York premiere of Adamo's Little Women, and was hailed by the New York Times as a "baritone of smooth distinction." Other New York City Opera roles since his debut as Marcello in 1995 include Frank in Die Tote Stadt, Sharpless in Madame Butterfly, and Germont in La Traviata. He has sung on numerous occasions at Carnegie Hall in a variety of roles with the Opera Orchestra of New York, the Oratorio Society of New York, the Masterworks Chorus, and Musica Sacra.
Now based in Seattle, Charles has sung with the Seattle Symphony, Tacoma and Spokane Symphonies and Opera Companies, Portland Chamber Orchestra and many other orchestras and opera companies in the Pacific Northwest. He joined the roster of the Seattle Opera in 2010 for the premiere of Amelia by Daron Hagan.
Recent collaborations with early music expert Stephen Stubbs include the role of Haman in Handel's Esther with Pacific Musicworks as part of the Seattle Handel Festival, Messiah with Portland Baroque and the role of Tiresias in the Boston Early Music Festival's lavish production of Steffani's Niobe, Queen of Thebes. A long association with Maestro Gary Thor Wedow has recently led to two performances with the Seattle Symphony: Messiah and "Opera Festival."
http://www.charlesrobertstephens.com/About Wu Fei, guzheng
Wu Fei is a classically trained composer, singer and master of the guzheng, the 21-string Chinese zither. She has performed around the world at venues including the Forbidden City, New York’s MoMA, Paris’ Quai Branly Museum, the North Sea Jazz Festival, Vossa Jazz, the Europalia Festival and the Big Ears Festival in Tennessee.
She plays in the guzheng's vernacular — a musical language at least 2,500 years old – mixing Western classical and Chinese traditions with a contemporary, idiosyncratic sound. Wucomposes for choir, string quartet, chamber ensemble, Balinese gamelan, and orchestra. Her chamber orchestral work Hello Gold Mountain, inspired by the stories of Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai from Europe in World War II, earned a MAP Fund award.
Wu has collaborated with artists from different disciplines and genres, including Emmy-winning directors Pierce Freelon and Jon Halperin, Grammy-winning musicians Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn and Billy Martin (Medeski-Martin-Wood) and composers John Zorn and Fred Frith. She has released two solo recordings and two collaborative albums – one with classical guitarist Gyan Riley and the other with singer-songwriter Abigail Washburn.
Wu studied at the China Conservatory of Music and Mills College. A native of Beijing, she currently lives in Nashville.
https://www.wufeimusic.com/About Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, oud
Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (born 1975 in Brooklyn, NY) is an American bassist and oud player who has recorded and performed extensively with Cyro Baptista's Banquet of the Spirits, Daniel Zamir's Satlah, Rashanim, and Pharaoh's Daughter, and John Zorn. Blumenkranz studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the Rimon School of Music in Israel, and holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2012 he released the first album under his leadership Abraxas: Book of Angels Volume 19 featuring compositions by John Zorn.
https://www.facebook.com/ShanirDosentCheckThisPage/