Da Capo Chamber Players Conclude 51st Season Concert Series With YOUNG COMPOSERS ABOUND III Program At Tenri Cultural Institute June 11

The internationally heralded, New York-based Da Capo Chamber Players will perform a program entitled Young Composer Abound III at New York City's Tenri Cultural Institute (43A W 13th St, New York, NY 10011) on Sunday evening, June 11, 2023, 8 p.m. EST. The concert, which concludes the ensemble's 51st season, will present works by five young contemporary composers from various cultural backgrounds.

"Renowned for penetrating and polished performances, Da Capo has been crucial in creating a body of contemporary American chamber music by commissioning over 100 new works. Through their performances, they have introduced this repertoire to audiences around the world," wrote Rick Perdian in the December 12, 2022 edition of New York Classical Review. The complete program follows:

Jessica Mays Look Again (2013)

Wang Lu Trinkets (2013)

Andile Khumalo Schaufe[r]inster II (2014)

Katherine Balch Prelude (2019)

Matthew Ricketts Enclosed Position (2014)

General Admission at $30 and Student/Senior Tickets at $15 can be purchased through Eventbrite, and at the Tenri Cultural Institute on June 11. For more information please visit Da Capo Chamber Players' website.

Called "a superbly gifted composer [with] a compositional voice that is truly unique and full of wonder" by the Mercury News, Katherine Balch's works are inspired by the intimacy of quotidian objects, found sounds, and natural processes.

Ms. Balch's compositions have been commissioned and performed by leading ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta, l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Minnesota, Oregon, Albany, Indianapolis, and Tokyo. She has been featured on IRCAM's ManiFeste, Fontainebleau Music Festival, and Festival MANCA in France, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in the UK, Suntory Summer Arts and Takefu Music Festival in Japan, and the Aspen, Norfolk, Santa Fe, and Tanglewood music festivals in the United States.

Winner of the 2020-2021 Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome, Ms. Balch was nominated by violinist Hilary Hahn for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's 2020 Career Advancement Award. She has also been honored by ASCAP, BMI, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Chamber Music America, the Barlow Foundation, Civitella Ranieri, the International Society of Contemporary Music, the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and Wigmore Hall. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Composition at the Yale School of Music. She holds a D.M.A. from Columbia University and an M.M. from Yale School of Music; and her mentors are George Lewis, Georg Friedrich Haas, Marcos Balter, Zosha Di Castri, Aaron Kernis, Chris Theofanidis, and David Lang.

Durban-born composer Andile Khumalo, is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he teaches composition, orchestration, and music theory at the University of the Witwatersrand. His work has been described by critics as "striking," and "strident," but also uniquely "sensitive."

Mr. Khumalo's works have been presented at prestigious venues and festivals in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. He has received numerous awards and commissions from ensembles such as Ensemble Mosaik (Berlin), Talea Ensemble (New York), Fontana Trio (Switzerland), Stuttgart chamber orchestra (Germany), Takefu music festival (Japan), and Juilliard New Music Ensemble (New York).

In 2013, Mr. Khumalo completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Columbia University (New York City) under the guidance of George Lewis. His former teachers include Marco Stroppa, Tristan Murail, Fabien Levy, and Jürgen Bräuninger. He has served as a board member of the International Society for Contemporary Music, South African section, as well as on the board of the SoundMindLab.

Composer and pianist Wang Lu writes music that reflects a very natural identification with influences from urban environmental sounds, linguistic intonation and contours, traditional Chinese music, and freely improvised traditions, through the prism of contemporary instrumental techniques and new sonic possibilities.

Ms. Wang's music has been performed in North America, Europe, and Asia by leading ensembles such as Boston Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW, Orchestre National de Lille, Holland Symfonia, Musiques Nouvelles, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Shanghai National Chinese Orchestra, Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and many others. Her works were also featured in notable festivals including the New York Philharmonic's Sound On series (2022), the New York Philharmonic Biennial (2014), Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, MATA Festival, Cresc. Biennale in Frankfurt, Gaudeamus Music Week, Tanglewood Music Festival in Boston, Beijing Modern, Pacific, Takefu festivals in Japan, Aspekte Festival in Salzburg, and the Havana New Music Festival, and many others.

She is the recipient of the Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2020), the Berlin Prize in Music Composition (2019), and commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation at the Library of Congress and the Fromm Foundation at Harvard. Ms. Wang is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow. From 2020 to 2022, she was the Vanguard Emerging Opera composer at the Chicago Opera Theatre and currently she serves as an Associate Professor of Music at Brown University.

Composer, pianist, and songwriter Jessica Mays is based in New York City and her hometown of Denver, Colorado. Her music derives inspiration from the jazz, pop, contemporary classical, and avant-garde worlds, evoking a blended sound that is both visceral and distantly familiar.

Mays's music has been performed both locally and abroad, by a wide variety of soloists, ensembles and orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Playground Ensemble, Ensemble Paramirabo, Ensemble Lunatik, Blackbox Ensemble, Thin Edge New Music Collective, The Labo de musique contemporaine de Montréal, and many others. She has been featured as composer and performer by a number of festivals, including the Chelsea Music Festival, Loon Lake Live, and the Cluster Music Festival, and she has written arrangements for the Colorado Symphony.

Matthew Ricketts is a Canadian composer based in New York City. Called "lyrical, contrapuntal, rhythmically complex and highly nuanced" by The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Mr. Rickett's music is noted for his "effervescent and at times prickly sounds," "hypnotically churning exploration of melody" (ICareIfYouListen) as well as its "tart harmonies and perky sputterings" (The New York Times). He is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow.

His works have been performed internationally by the Aspen Philharmonic, Esprit Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Flux Quartet, the Fromm Players, Quatuor Bozzini, the Chiara String Quartet, Collage New Music, and many others. Mr. Ricketts is the recipient of fellowships from Bogliasco Foundation (2022), Millay Arts (2022), Civitella Ranieri (2021), The American Academy of Arts and Letters (2020), MacDowell (2022; 2019), and the Tanglewood Music Center (2018), among others.

In 2018, Mr. Ricketts' multilingual opera Chaakapesh: The Trickster's Quest (written in collaboration with renowned Cree playwright Tomson Highway) opened the Montreal Symphony's 84th season to great critical acclaim and went on to tour Indigenous communities throughout Québec.

Mr. Ricketts holds a Bachelor of Music degree in music composition and theory from McGill University's Schulich School of Music, and a DMA from Columbia University. Principal mentors include Brian Cherney, John Rea, Chris Paul Harman, George Lewis, and Fred Lerdahl.

The Da Capo Chamber Players has been hailed by The New Yorker as a "distinguished ensemble...at the center of the New York new-music scene for forty-five years" (May 2016). Winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award early in its trajectory (1973), the ensemble has just celebrated its 50th season earlier in 2022. It is a five-member "Pierrot" ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano). The internationally acclaimed group has worked closely with today's most respected composers, building a heritage of present-day American chamber music drawn from an enormous spectrum of styles.

Known for its unique and dedicated attention to every work, its dynamic performances are consistent with the highest musical standards found in performances of traditional repertoire. A further very important goal is to bring exciting American music to other destinations around the world, and to present musics of global cultures for American audiences.

The Da Capo Chamber Players' annual New York series has been praised for "superb" and "gripping" performances. Ground-breaking programs have included premieres by Elliott Carter, George Perle, Louis Karchin (AMERICAN VISIONS, setting of poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, with the poet as guest reader), Joan Tower, Shulamit Ran, Chinary Ung, and countless others. The five ensemble members bring years of creative insight, involvement and artistic vision to their work and performances of today's repertoire, including over 150 works written especially for the group. Adventuresome programs with electronic sounds, works by young composers, and collaborations with choreographers-all have sparked the imagination of listeners. Their Merkin Concert Hall celebration of the centenary of Schoenberg's PIERROT LUNAIRE (with Lucy Shelton) received a standing ovation, just as it did again at New Music New College in Sarasota, FL, in 2016.

In 2010, NPR named the ensemble's recording, Chamber Music of Chinary Ung (Bridge Records), as one of the five Best Contemporary Classical CDs of the Year.

Educational outreach has always been and continues to be a vital part of Da Capo's work. The ensemble shares its love and commitment to this important repertoire with next generation artists through its ongoing residency at Bard College and touring engagements that feature masterclasses, readings and performances. Further-as young composers continue to develop, after graduation, Da Capo continues to program them, helping them with career-building.

In 2021, anchored by Da Capo Chamber Players' conviction regarding culture, diversity, and human rights, the Da Capos presented Musical Offerings for Human Rights, a three-concert virtual series through YouTube Premiere: Hearing the African American Experience; Asian Echoes; and Paean To Merging Cultures.

Since its founding in 1970, the Da Capo Chamber Players has received funding from the New York State Council on the Arts. This season, it has received increased support from NYSCA for its 50th anniversary.

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