Jonathan Leshnoff's MONICA SONGS Tour Opens this Sunday at U.C. Berkeley

Baltimore-based composer Jonathan Leshnoff's newest commissioned work, Monica Songs, featuring soprano Jessica Rivera and pianist Robert Spano, will receive its world premiere performance on Sunday, October 13, 2013 at U.C. Berkeley. The performance launches the five-city tour of this work, which also includes performances on Oct. 17 at Bailey Hall, Atlanta, Oct. 20 at Smothers Theatre, Malibu, Calif., Oct. 26 at Memorial Hall, Cincinnati and culminates in a performance on Oct. 29 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York. Please see below for complete tour details.

Monica Songs was inspired by the life of Monica Langhammer, who died in 2003 at age 38 from an undiagnosed case of Cushing's Disease. Langhammer, an accomplished printmaker and poet, had a personality that was "vivacious and multi-faceted" said her mother Sandra Hyslop, the lead-commissioner of the project. Co-commissioners include the Friends of Monica-a group of 139 personal friends of Langhammer, many of whom will travel to see the work performed in one or more of the venues on the five-city tour-and the Carnegie Hall Corp.

The work is a six-movement song cycle is based on a variety of texts that were meaningful to Langhammer:

• It opens with texts from the Old Testament Book of Ruth to frame the song cycle, "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go...."
• Then follows the deeply contemplative sonorities surrounding Emily Dickinson's "We cover Thee-Sweet Face-,"
• This leads to the joyful perpetual motion that propels e.e. cummings's "i thank You God for most this amazing,"
• Leshnoff's laugh-out-loud traveling music fuels a letter that Monica wrote to her mother from a truck stop, "Greetings from Troy, Illinois";
• Inspired music of hope to sets the tone for a letter of encouragement from mother to daughter;
• The song cycle closes as it began with another excerpt from the Book of Ruth, here serving as its final benediction.

Monica Langhammer's mother, Sandra Hyslop, chose Jonathan Leshnoff for the weighty task of eulogizing her daughter with music for several reasons. She had heard his Yiddish Dance Suite performed by Gil and Orli Shaham at the 92nd Street Y in New York, and appreciated the lyricism, honesty and subtle complexity characteristic of his style. She also knew that he was a kind person, likely to listen with a very perceptive ear, and a devoted family man. These qualities drew Hyslop to Leshnoff for the project. She wanted to create a living memorial to her daughter by commissioning a work of music.

"I wish I knew Monica while she was living. But, in a way, writing this work has helped me get to know her," said Leshnoff. "I discovered a young woman with a compassionate heart, wacky sense of humor and effervescent spirit. Sandra's heart for her daughter is something that I can understand and relate to as a parent. It is my honor to create what I hope will be something substantial, wonderful and lasting that can use a mother's pain to pierce all of our hearts and remind us what is really important."

Named by the Washington Post as one of the "gifted young composers" of this generation, Jonathan Leshnoff is a leader of contemporary American lyricism. His compositions have earned international acclaim for their accessible melodies, structural complexity and weighty themes.

The New Jersey-born and Baltimore-based composer's works have been performed by an array of classical music's most celebrated stars, including Jessica Rivera, Gil and Orli Shaham, Robert Spano, Jeffrey Khaner and an upcoming premiere with Manuel Barrueco. His works have been performed by orchestras around the world, including the Baltimore, Philadelphia, Asturias, Atlanta, Kansas City, Buffalo, Santa Barbara, Tucson, Amarillo, Fort Wayne, Memphis, Harrisburg, Fairfax and Columbus symphony orchestras, as well as by the IRIS Orchestra, Concert Opera de Toulon, Kyoto Orchestras, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra.

The 2013-2014 season begins with the five-city tour of Leshnoff's new song cycle Monica Songs, featuring soprano Jessica Rivera and the legendary music director/pianist Robert Spano as the accompanist. The tour culminates with Leshnoff's Carnegie Hall debut on October 29, 2013. In January 2014, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Marin Alsop will debut his Guitar Concerto, featuring fellow Baltimorean Manuel Barrueco. Barrueco will also perform the guitar concerto in May 2014 in Oviedo, Spain with the Asturias Symphony, under the baton of Andrew Grams, as well as with the Nashville Symphony, under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero. In March 2014, Leshnoff collaborates with Robert Spano once again, but this time with Spano at the podium leading the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Leshnoff's flute concerto, featuring Jeffrey Kahner. The season closes in May 2014 with a new work for viola, choir and orchestra based on the poems of Edgar Allan Poe, performed by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic under the direction of Andrew Constantine.

Jonathan Leshnoff has released three albums to date, all on the Naxos American Classics label. His recording of Violin Concerto, performed by Charles Wetherbee with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, led by Markand Thakar, was selected among Naxos' Top 40 CDs of 2009. Other Naxos releases feature his Symphony No. 1, conducted by Michael Stern with the IRIS Chamber Orchestra, along with Leshnoff's chamber music.

Named by the Washington Post as one of today's "gifted young composers," Jonathan Leshnoff's music has been lauded by Strings magazine as "distinct from anything else that's out there," and by the Memphis Commercial Appeal as "a fluid, thoughtful work, superbly textured and unafraid to be intellectual," and by the Baltimore Sun as "remarkable assured, cohesively constructed and radiantly lyrical." The New York Times concluded in a concert review that "the afternoon's keenest discovery was Mr. Leshnoff."

Leshnoff's catalogue includes four string quartets, two oratorios, seven concerti, trios, a string sextet, two symphonies and numerous solo and chamber works. Current projects include a third symphony and a clarinet concerto. Leshnoff is a Professor of Music at Towson University and a composer-in-residence with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. For more information, visit www.JonathanLeshnoff.com.

Photography by Katya Chilingiri