Cygnus Ensemble Presents MILTON BABBIT AND THE 21ST CENTURY, 5/19

Cygnus Ensemble presents Milton Babbitt and the 21st Century, a special evening of performances to honorone of our most brilliant musical minds, the late Milton Babbitt. The concert will feature Babbitt's SwanSong No. 1, world premieres and a recent piece by four generations of Babbitt protégés, each 15 to 20 years apart in age: Peter Westergaard, Frank Brickle, Jonathan Dawe and David Fulmer. Sopranos Elizabeth Farnum and Tony Arnold will be the featured guest artists. Cygnus had planned this as a 95th birthday concert for Milton since the fall of 2009. While sadly the concert has become a memorial event rather than a birthday celebration, Cygnus shall convey the continuing vitality and relevance of Babbitt's work as we move into the heart of the 21st Century. Babbitt's legacy as composer and educator endures, eliciting undaunted courage and creativity amongst his students and emboldening them to passion and excellence in their pursuits.
Milton Babbitt and the 21st Century complements two earlier Cygnus presentations that focused on Babbitt, concerts honoring his 80th and 90th birthdays. His 90th celebration was held at Merkin Hall and was entitled Milton Babbitt at the Crux of the 20th Century, including earlier Babbitt works, from the 1940s. The notes from that event are archived on the Cygnus website.

Milton Babbitt and the 21st Century
Thursday, May 19, 2011 7:30pm
Elebash Recital Hall at CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, New York, NY
Free admission; no tickets required.
www.cygnusensemble.com
http://www.gc.cuny.edu/events/details_landing.asp?EventId=32249

Swan Song No. 1 (2002-2003), Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt (1916-2011) wrote Swan Song No. 1 for Cygnus in 2002-2003. Swan Song No. 1 is an astounding synthesis of the chromatic - a sound we associate with Babbitt's daunting earlier works - and the diatonic - a sound more familiar and "tonal". In Swan Song, the diatonic moments stand out as anchors and points of orientation. This is a synthesis that had been a central concern for Babbitt for decades, yet Swan Song is among the late works of Babbitt that shows the most remarkable clarity in this way.

Make Me a Willow Cabin (2011), Peter Westergaard World Premiere
Peter Westergaard (b. 1931), the first of the Babbitt students, gives Cygnus Make Me a Willow Cabin, an aria from his latest opera, Twelfth Night, scored for Cygnus' trademark broken consort sextet, with soprano.

This is Westergaard's second Shakespeare opera, following The Tempest. Westergaard wrote the operas and co-founded the opera company that would present them (Princeton Opera). Westergaard's work is treated extensively in Paul Griffiths' book Music Since 1945.
Farai un vers (2009), Frank Brickle Frank Brickle (b. 1951) is represented with the recent work Farai un vers (Guillaume d'Aquitaine), for soprano, two guitars and 'cello. Elizabeth Farnum will sing this song, with text by the "first troubadour".

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