Invocation – a prayer for peace

• Kenneth Overton, baritone
• Camille Ortiz, soprano
• Colin Pip Dixon, violin
• Arnaud Ghillebaert, viola
• Kathryn Brunhaver, cello

Invocation – a prayer for peace is a lyrical, haunting, and powerful new work by composer Colin Pip Dixon for soprano, baritone and string trio. It brings together words from 8th Century BCE to the present. Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu prayers alongside writings by poets, a scientist, an environmental activist, and civil rights leaders. The world premiere performances in Eugene and Portland feature Grammy Award winning baritone Kenneth Overton and internationally acclaimed soprano Camille Ortiz. The work doesn't seek to explain or preach, but rather to offer an original music experience, a moment of contemplation through music spent together in “silence” around one of the most urgent questions of our times: do our beliefs drive us further into violence or lead us towards deeper peace and reconciliation? 

About The Elsewhere Ensemble

The Ensemble was founded by Colin Pip Dixon and Arnaud Ghillebaert. It has performed in Paris, London, Edinburgh, New York, Montreal, Boston, Belgium, Lyon, Lebanon.

About Kenneth Overton, baritone

https://www.kennethoverton.com/

About Camille Ortiz, soprano

Camille Ortiz, who currently serves as Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Oregon, has appeared recently with Opera Lafayette at the Kennedy Center, Opera Orlando, and Boston Baroque.

About Colin Pip Dixon, violin

Originally from NYC, composer, violinist & actor Colin Pip Dixon lived and worked in Paris, France for many years. Upon returning to NYC he produced, composed music, and performed in His Majesty, the Devil – a play with music at 59E59 Theaters, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2013) and FringeNYC (2014). As a violinist, he has performed throughout France, as well as in Brussels, Geneva, London, Turin, Yerevan (Armenia), Montreal, Beirut, Boston, and New York. For many years he has composed and performed, both on stage and off, with the French theater company Théâtre de l'Arc-en-Ciel. His compositions include: Invocation (soprano, violin & viola), Chekhov Triptych, Suite Khamush, (based on the poetry of Rumi), I Have a Dream (soprano & string trio based on Martin Luther King Jr.), The Velveteen Rabbit (orchestra & narrator), as well as more classic forms including a sonata for violin & piano (The Bells) and a trio for violin, viola & piano. Music for theater includes: Etty Hillesum (toured France, Switzerland, Quebec and Belgium), The Tolstoy Diaries (Paris, Lyon), La Première Seconde (Paris). As a musician/actor: The Cherry Orchard, Primo Levi, Pinocchio (marionettes), Dancing Color Box (circus show), Cyrano de Bergerac (at Unesco). His compositions have received grants from the French institutions SACEM & SPEDIDAM, and he was part the Artward Bound residency (The Field 2015). In 2010 he was invited to perform Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata at Les Invalides, Paris in honor of the 100th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy's death. …in God's Flower Garden (his book of short stories) was published by Pocol Press (2006) and during the past two years he has written music, lyrics and book for a musical: Underground. His violin teachers have included Barbara Krakauer, Carol Stein Amado and Patricia Reibaud; he has a BA in music from Haverford College and was a musician/scholar on full scholarship at the European Mozart Academy in Poland. Since arriving in Oregon he has played in the Eugene Symphony and with Harmonic Laboratory's production of Tesla: Light, Sound & Color.

About Arnaud Ghillebaert, viola

Originally from Paris, Arnaud Ghillebaert has performed as an orchestra musician with The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields (Sir Neville Mariner) and the London Symphony Orchestra. He toured Europe for two summers with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under the baton of Sir Colin Davis and Herbert Blomstedt in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall in London or the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and is now a member of the New Haven Symphony and the Artosphere Festival Orchestra (Corrado Rovaris, musical director). He played in the Southbank Sinfonia in England for one year and appeared in London's National Theatre production of Tom Stoppard's and Andre Previn's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. A founding member of the Elsewhere Ensemble, in 2013 he created the role of the Shadow in His Majesty the Devil-a play with music. The show, inspired by Dostoyevsky, was performed at 59E59 Theaters in New York City, FringeNYC, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. A dedicated chamber musician, he was invited to perform at the Louis Moreau Institute in New Orleans and in the "Starry Nights" music series at the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University alongside Colin Carr, Eugene Drucker (Emerson String Quartet), and Nick Cords (Silkroad Ensemble, Brooklyn Rider). He received his Masters from the Royal College of Music in London and completed his Doctorate in Violin and Viola performance at Stony Brook University in 2016. He has just been named as viola instructor at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance (Eugene, OR). Since arriving in Oregon he is the guest principal violist of Oregon Mozart Players, and has been playing concerts with Chamber Music Amici, Microphilharmonic, and with the Eugene Symphony (viola section).

About Kathryn Brunhaver, cello

Cellist Kathryn Brunhaver currently lives in Eugene, OR where she is a member of the Elsewhere Ensemble and Eugene Symphony. She has appeared as a guest artist with Chamber Music Amici, microphilharmonic, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, Columbia River Chamber Music Festival, Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival, Astoria Music Festival Orchestra, and as Principal Cello with Orchestra NEXT, among others. She completed a Doctorate in Cello Performance at the University of Oregon in 2017 and was named Outstanding Graduate Performer. Kathryn enjoys exploring innovative ways of playing the cello and has earned a reputation for specializing in new music, which has included premiering works for solo vocalizing cellist, as well as composing works for herself. This interest in new music extends across genres and has led her to join two regionally-acclaimed bands—Satori Bob and Halie and the Moon. She also performs as a solo singer-songwriter under the name Queen of Cups. Kathryn holds a Master's degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Bachelor's degree from the Peabody Institute, where she was the recipient of the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Orchestral Scholarship and the prestigious Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award.