Sacred & Profane: music by Sheree Clement & Robert Sirota
$35 ($25 senior/student, $5 child)
- Ariadne Greif, soprano
- Hyungjin Choi, piano
- Katherine E. Fortunato, percussion
- Ben Larsen, cello
- Roberta Michel, flute
- Emilie-Anne Gendron, violin
- Alex Shiozaki, violin
- Stephanie Griffin, viola
- Michael Haas, cello
- Paul Pinto, baritone
- Jonah Sirota, viola
- Nadia Sirota, viola
Sheree Clement — Mermaid Songs (for string quartet & soprano; world premiere)
Robert Sirota — A Sinner's Diary (for flute, 2 violas, cello, percussion, & piano)
Sheree Clement — Table Manners (for 2 a cappella voices; live premiere)
Composers Robert Sirota and Sheree Clement present "Sacred and Profane," a performance that invites audiences to explore the dual narratives of conflict and reconciliation. A unique blend of chamber music and opera, Sirota and Clement's music grapples with the human condition through the lenses of comedy, drama, and lyricism. The evening will feature an all-star group of performers including soprano Ariadne Greif, baritone Paul Pinto, the Momenta Quartet, cellist Benjamin Larsen, pianist Hyungjin Choi, flutist Roberta Michel, violists Jonah Sirota and Nadia Sirota, and percussionist Katherine Fortunato.
About Momenta Quartet
Emilie-Anne Gendron, violin |
Alex Shiozaki, violin |
Stephanie Griffin, viola |
Michael Haas, cello
About Ariadne Greif, soprano
Ariadne Greif, praised for her "luminous, expressive voice," "searing top notes," and "dusky depths," (NYTimes), enjoyed a casual child career as a “boy” soprano at the LA Opera, eventually making an adult debut singing Lutoslawski's Chantefleurs et Chantefables with the American Symphony Orchestra. She starred in operas ranging from Donizetti’s Elixir of Love with The Orlando Philharmonic, to Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias at the Aldeburgh Festival, and Atthis, by G.F. Haas, which The NY Times called "one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances in recent times.”
She performed with William Kentridge in his production of Ursonate at the Luxembourg Philharmonie, the Performa Festival, CalPerformances, and the Ultima Festival in Oslo, where she was invited back for September 2020 and 2022 with two large pieces of her own. She stepped in at the last minute at the 2022 Ojai Festival with AMOC, and starred in a film for Opera Philadelphia of We Need To Talk, a new monodrama written for Ariadne by Caroline Shaw and Anne Carson, as well as an opera film called Table Manners by Sheree Clement. Ariadne has premiered upwards of twenty new operas and more than a hundred new chamber works.
Ariadne has performed at Resonant Bodies, Sydney Chamber Opera, Sarasota Opera House, The Meidan Festival, Den Norske Opera, with the Orlando Philharmonic, The Knights, and across the US, Canada, France, Finland, and the Middle East, including more than 200 concerts with Ensemble Mélange, and in appearances with Pekka Kuusisto, Gabriel Kahane, Lukas Ligeti, and JACK Quartet, among others.
http://www.ariadnegreifsoprano.com/About Hyungjin Choi, piano
About Katherine E. Fortunato, percussion
About Ben Larsen, cello
About Roberta Michel, flute
About Emilie-Anne Gendron, violin
Lauded by The New York Times as "brilliant" and by The Strad for her "marvellous and lyrical playing," violinist Emilie-Anne Gendron enjoys an active and versatile freelance career based in New York. A deeply committed chamber musician, Ms. Gendron has been on the roster of the Marlboro Music Festival and the touring Musicians from Marlboro since 2011. She has appeared frequently with Talea Ensemble, A Far Cry, Argento Ensemble, Sejong Soloists, and has served on numerous occasions as concertmaster of ensembles including Orpheus, IRIS Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. She is a founding member of Ensemble Échappé, a new-music sinfonietta, as well as the Gamut Bach Ensemble, in residence with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Ms. Gendron's extensively varied international appearances have included recitals in Sweden and at the Louvre in Paris; festivals in Russia, Finland, and Jordan; and recently, major venues in China, South Korea, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. She was trained at the Juilliard School where her teachers were Won Bin Yim, Dorothy DeLay, David Chan, and Hyo Kang. A dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, she holds a B.A. in Classics from Columbia with Phi Beta Kappa honors, and a Master of Music degree and the coveted Artist Diploma from Juilliard.
https://www.emilieannegendron.com/About Alex Shiozaki, violin
Praised by The New York Times as "spellbinding," violinist Alex Shiozaki is emerging as a strong advocate for the music of today.
At home with music new and old, he has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Sapporo Symphony, Sendai Philharmonic, AXIOM Ensemble, and the Juilliard Orchestra. Other highlights include summer residencies at the Tanglewood Music Center as a New Fromm Player and a Japan tour with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
A member of the Momenta Quartet since 2016, he also regularly performs with the IRIS Orchestra, Contemporaneous, and Mimesis Ensemble. As part of the Shiozaki Duo with his wife and pianist Nana Shi, Alex has given recitals in New York, Boston, Washington D.C., and California.
Holding a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.M. and D.M.A. from the Juilliard School, he counts among his teachers Ronald Copes and Joseph Lin of the Juilliard String Quartet, Lynn Chang, and Robin Sharp. In addition to his performance activities, he is on faculty at the Juilliard School, State University of New York at New Paltz, and Interlochen Center for the Arts.
https://www.alexshiozaki.com/About Stephanie Griffin, viola
Stephanie Griffin is an innovative violist and composer with an eclectic musical vision. Born in Canada and based in New York City, her musical adventures have taken her to Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Mongolia. Stephanie founded the Momenta Quartet in 2004, and is a member of the Argento Chamber Ensemble and Continuum; principal violist of the Princeton Symphony; and viola faculty at Hunter College. She was a 2019 Composition Fellow at the Instituto Sacatar in Brazil, and has received prestigious composition fellowships and commissions from the Jerome Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the Bronx Council on the Arts. As an improviser she has performed with Henry Threadgill, Wadada Leo Smith, Butch Morris and Adam Rudolph, among others, and was a 2014 Fellow and 2021 Alumna-in-Residence at Music Omi. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School where she studied with Samuel Rhodes, and has recorded for Tzadik, Innova, Naxos, Aeon, New World and Albany records. Since August 2020, she has served as the Executive Director of ACMP, a nonprofit organization providing grants and services for amateur chamber music worldwide.
https://www.stephaniegriffinviola.com/About Michael Haas, cello
Michael Haas is an accomplished and exciting cellist, performing in New York City and around the world. His playing has been described as "refined and attractive" by The New York Times. Leading a varied musical life, Michael is equally at home performing chamber music and orchestral repertoire both old and new. He has recently appeared performing at Symphony Space, the New York Live Arts Theater, Le Poisson Rouge, as well as for Tertulia, a new series bringing chamber music to intimate settings around New York City. In addition to his work with Momenta Quartet, he performs regularly with the Princeton Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and American Ballet Theater Orchestra. He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School.
https://www.michaelhaascello.com/About Paul Pinto, baritone
Paul Pinto is a writer, composer, performer, opera-sermonizer, and multi-disciplinary dabbler who makes music, new media, micro-theatres and durational performance by himself and with his friends. Some of those friends include the collectives thingNY, Varispeed and LoveLoveLove. A few favorite projects include Patriots with Jeffrey Young, Robert Ashley's Perfect Lives with Varispeed, Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King, and the cyclorama video installation Whiteness with Kameron Neal. He sang and danced on Broadway in Dave Malloy's Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, and wrote and performed in the electronic opera Thomas Paine in Violence starring Joan LaBarbara. Recent commissions and partnerships include HERE Arts, Prototype Festival, Colgate University, The Fisher Center, the Look + Listen Festival, American Opera Projects, Opera America, Culturehub, LaMaMa, Quince Ensemble, WNET All Arts, Media Art Xchange, The Rhythm Method, Yarn/Wire, Gelsey Bell, and Kristin Marting.
https://www.pfpinto.com/About Jonah Sirota, viola
About Nadia Sirota, viola
Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space
2537 BroadwayNew York, NY 10025
United States
https://www.symphonyspace.org/your-visit/leonard-nimoy-thalia