Versipel New Music: Different Trains
$25 general, $50 VIP ($10 student/senior/etc.)
- Versipel New Music Collective
- Megan Ihnen, mezzo-soprano
Pamela Z — Twenty Answers
Mendel Lee — Fast-Paced World (world premiere)
Eve Beglarian — Island of the Sirens
On May 25th and 26th, Versipel New Music will perform Steve Reich’s iconic 1988 string quartet Different Trains with world premiere choreography by Lauren Guynes (Marigny Opera Ballet, HUB Dance Collective). The program also features the world premiere of Fast-Paced World by New Orleans composer Mendel Lee with new choreography by Jakki Kalogridis. Rounding out the program, we will present Eve Beglarian's work Island of the Sirens for voice and instrumental trio featuring mezzo-soprano Meghan Ihnen, and Pamela Z's open-ended work for ensemble and magic eight balls, Twenty Answers.
This program is presented with support from The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation and the New Orleans Theater Association.
About Versipel New Music
Versipel New Music presents contemporary classical music, New Orleans style. Reflecting the breadth and beauty of the classical concert music scene of today, we perform music of the late 20th and 21st Centuries, music inspired by our modern, peripatetic, global, and technologically driven lives. Frequently collaborating with living composers both in the U.S. and overseas, our programs span a diversity of styles from fresh European modernism, to U.S. postmodernism, with a heavy dose of technology, improvisation, and performer creativity thrown in. At a Versipel show, you'll see and hear music that is recent and new, fresh from the composer's pen (or pencil… or computer), pieces that are often being performed for the very first time.
Versipel reflects the idea of the constant morphing of the artistic muse and how contemporary music continuously reforms, reshapes and grows anew. As a free-spirited city with its unique convergence of cultures and eclectic traditions in music and in art, New Orleans makes a perfect home for adventurous and innovative new music. Because of the multifaceted nature of the New Orleans cultural and artistic scene, we have created an organization designed to be versipellous, to change shape and take on audience engagement in many different ways. Our concerts are performed by the Versipel Collective, a group of local musicians dedicated to exploring the outer realms of contemporary music through the use of electronics, computers and improvisation as well as visiting artists and ensembles from all over the world.
https://versipel.org/About Megan Ihnen, mezzo-soprano
Megan Ihnen is a mezzo-soprano on a mission to change the world through the commissioning, performance, and proliferation of new music.
https://www.meganihnen.com