Brooklyn Art Song Society Presents Britannica IV: Contemporary

Brooklyn Art Song Society continues its ambitious survey of British song with Contemporary Britannica, which features the songs of three acclaimed living English composers: Thomas Adès, Harrison Birtwistle, and Oliver Knussen. Highlights of this program include Adès' cabaret-tinged Life Story Op. 8, Knussen's haunting a capella Four Late Poems and an Epigram of Rilke Op. 23, and the US-premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's monumental 30-minute song cycle Songs from the Same Earth. Sopranos Justine Aronson and Charlotte Mundy, two regulars on the contemporary music scene, as well as tenor Zach Finkelstein (BASS debut) join pianists Michael Brofman and Richard Valitutto (BASS debut).

About Britannica:

Brooklyn Art Song Society embarks on an all-encompassing survey of British song: six concerts, 100+ songs, 17 composers, and works spanning over 400 years. Britannica captures the vast English cultural heritage, from Dowland to Birtwistle, Shakespeare to Auden.

About Brooklyn Art Song Society

The Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) will enter its sixth season of first-music making in the Fall of 2015, having earned a reputation as one of the preeminent organizations dedicated to the vast repertoire of poetry set to music. The New York Times called BASS "a company well worth watching" and Voce di Meche hailed, "as long as BASS is around we do not need to worry about the future of art song in the USA." BASS's innovative programming is epic in scope yet presented in intimate settings. Past highlights have included performances of the complete songs of Charles Ives and Henri Duparc, a festival of works from Franz Schubert's last year, a five-concert survey of the songs of Les Six, and an ongoing project to present the complete lieder of Hugo Wolf.

Committed to keeping art song relevant in our time BASS has collaborated closely with important living composers such as Tom Cipullo, Herschel Garfein, Daron Hagen, Libby Larsen, Lowell Liebermann, James Matheson, Scott Wheeler and Yehudi Wyner, and has commissioned works from up-an-coming composers Michael Djupstrom, Marie Incontrera and Michael Rose. In May 2015 BASS released its first album, New Voices, on Roven Records, which debuted at number one for new releases in Opera and Vocal on Amazon.com and in the top 10 on the Billboard Traditional Classical chart.

The 2015-16 season includes Britannica, a six-concert celebration of British song from Dowland to Birtwistle, the conclusion of The Hugo Wolf Project, and the world-premiere of Andrew Staniland's Canadian Songbook (BASS/Casement Fund Song Series co-commission). On top of monthly concerts in Brooklyn, BASS will travel to Kansas City, MO and Portland, ME. In the summer BASS is the Fonzaley Resident Ensemble at the Sembrich in Bolton Landing, New York and the ensemble in residence at the Lake George Music Festival. This season features over 30 of the finest young interpreters of art song.

For more information visit www.brooklynartsongsociety.org