Celestial Song & Ambient Soundscapes: Reflections on Mother Cabrini, Mary, & the Nativity

• Ruth Cunningham, voice
• Don Slepian, keyboards
• Stuart Diamond, winds

Drawing inspiration from Mother Cabrini's reflections on Mary and the Nativity, Stuart Diamond collaborates with ambient-music pioneer Don Slepian and the acclaimed early music vocalist Ruth Cunningham. Together, they weave a blend of medieval song, chant, and contemporary improvisation to create peaceful, meditative atmospheres in the candlelit space of The Cabrini Shrine.

About Electric Diamond

Electric Diamond is one of the longest-lived electronic performance ensembles – 40 years plus and going strong. It is a reimagining of the classical music chamber ensemble. The group first performed in 1979, playing concerts at Carnegie Recital Hall, Symphony Space, the Guggenheim Museum and other venues of the New York 1970s new music scene. In the mid 1980s electronic wind player founder Stuart Diamond joined forces with the eclectic, electric keyboard innovator Don Slepian, whose credits and talents are legendary – from artist-engineer-in-residence at Bell Laboratories to the original ambient sound painter for "Music from the Hearts of Space."

Together, they began presenting programs that integrated classical music with free-flowing improvisations – from Bach to Mussorgsky, from medieval dances to Native American soundscapes. They have performed throughout America and Asia, performing for the erudite audiences at Steinway Hall to the mass crowds at the Macy's 4th of July Celebration in downtown Manhattan.

Electric Diamond's concerts are truly "live," without the use of any computer sequencing or multi tracking techniques. The results are performances of immediacy, power, and authenticity – seamless and flowing meditations, integrating classical, jazz, pop, folk, and medieval music into the original sound that is Electric Diamond. Think electronic-classical-raga.

About Ruth Cunningham, voice

Ruth Cunningham is a classically trained musician, a sound healing practitioner, and a founding member Anonymous 4. She combines these skills to improvise music that connects people to the healing and spiritual power of music. She specializes in improvisational sacred music from varied spiritual traditions in both liturgical and concert settings. Her solo program Light and Shadow encompasses a mixture of music including several traditional chants from Western and Eastern traditions as well as Ruth's own compositions and improvisations. The texts include Medieval Latin Marian texts, Sanskrit texts, prayers, and poems by Ruth's sister Elizabeth Cunningham. She accompanies herself on Medieval harp, Renaissance flute and recorder, piano, and shruti box.

With Anonymous 4, she performed in concerts and festivals throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East and made twelve recordings with harmonia mundi and one, Voices of Light by contemporary composer Richard Einhorn, for Sony Classical. After leaving Anonymous 4 for a number of years to study music and healing, Ruth rejoined the group in 2007 and sang with them until the group disbanded in 2015.

Ruth's most recent CD releases are Light and Shadow: Chants, Prayers and Improvisations and Harpmodes: Journey for Voice and Harp. She has released two CDs of multi faith chants with colleague Ana Hernandez: Blessed by Light and HARC: Inside Chants. Among her other recordings are Sacred Light with harpist Diana Stork on the At Peace Music label and Ancient Beginnings which is part of the Open Ear Center’s music for healing series. She is featured on Invoking the Muse a CD with Frame Drummer Layne Redmond released on the SoundsTrue label.

She was part of the women's ensemble of Early Music NY and participated in their CD Music of Medieval Love. She has also performed and recorded with the Renaissance vocal ensemble Pomerium. She is a regular member of the professional choir at St. Ignatius of Antioch in New York City. As a sound healing practitioner, Ruth works with individuals and groups on using the voice and music as tools for healing and transformation. She collaborates with other healers and musicians in a variety of settings and is interested in integrating sound healing and performance. Ruth played and taught a sound healing class for the Integrative Stress Management Program at St Vincent's Hospital in NYC from 2001-2007. In 2001-2002 she was among the musicians who offered their services at St. Paul's Chapel, which served as a refuge for the workers at Ground Zero.

Ruth received a B. Mus. in Performance of Early Music from the New England Conservatory of Music and taught recorder and renaissance flute at the Amherst Early Music Workshops for sixteen years. She is certified as a cross cultural music healing practitioner (CCMHP) by the Open Ear Center where she studied with Pat Moffitt Cook. She has also studied vocal improvisation with Rhiannon.

About Don Slepian, keyboards

https://donslepian.com/

About Stuart Diamond, winds

Stuart Diamond is best known as a composer, musician, and librettist, where he has created a vision of new art that fuses electronic media and words with classical music.

He has composed well over 100 works in all medium including symphonic and chamber music, theater, dance, film and video. He has written for a diverse range of artists, including Kronos String Quartet, Metropolitan Opera star Elinor Ross, Israeli cellist Simca Heled and Max Polikoff, the founder of the first "Music in Our Times" series at the 92nd Street Y. He has written works for the SLC Orchestra, Topango Symphony, Ensemble Arte Viva de la Sorbonne Paris, and the Meadows Chamber Orchestra. Most recently, Karen Bentley premiered his KONZERTO for Violin and Electric Orchestra.

Mr. Diamond was one of the first musicians to perform with the Lyricon, the original wind synthesizer. The Lyricon is an instrument that transforms a performer's wind and embouchure pressures into electrical voltages that in turn control the dynamics parameters of a synthesizer. As a result, the synthesizer is turned into an instrument of remarkable expression and power.

Many of his seminal works incorporate the use of live performance electronic instruments, creating huge soundscapes that are a synergy of contemporary sound with classical musical forms.

Diamond's ensemble, Electric Diamond, has been performing continuously since 1979. It is perhaps the only ensemble dedicated to presenting live classical electronic music concerts, with a repertoire covering the entire spectrum of classical music from the Middle Ages, Baroque, Classical, and Native American music. The ensemble has premiered many of Mr. Diamond's original works, including the fantasy tone poems Lyric Images, Dances of Merlin and Beauty and the Beast. The National Parks Service produced a series of concerts by Electric Diamond, including a special pre-fireworks 4th of July concert at Castle Clinton that was sponsored by Atlantic Records. Electric Diamond has appeared at a variety of other venues, including Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, the Guggenheim Museum, the International Conference of Computers in the Arts, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT universities, and the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center. Electric Diamond has been heard on nationally syndicated radio shows, such as New Sounds, The Hearts of Space, Robert Sherman's The Listening Room, and at the Liberty Science Center for its prestigious Geraldine R. Dodge lecture series.