Long Island Premiere Of Alice Shields' THE WIND IN THE PINES Announced

The Eurasia Consort and the Association for the Promotion of New Music will present the Long Island Premiere performance of composer Alice Shields' Chamber Music America commission The Wind in the Pines - after the climate catastrophe for soprano, alto recorder, flute, Renaissance bray harp, Turkish oud, theorbo and percussionist, on Thursday, October 28 @ 7:00 PM at Hofstra University's Helene Fortunoff Theater in Monroe Lecture Center on California Avenue in Hempstead, NY.

Performers will be David Bloom, conductor; Martha Cluver, soprano; Daphna Mor, recorder; Sarah Carrier, flute; Karen Lindquist, Renaissance bray harp; Adem Birson, Turkish oud; August Denhard, Baroque theorbo and Rex Benincasa, percussion, playing glockenspiel, vibraphone and crotales.

This event is free and open to the public. Proof of vaccination and masking is required. For more information, visit https://news.hofstra.edu/organizer/department-of-music/, email jamesarts@att.net or call 516-586-3433.

The Wind in the Pines - after the climate catastrophe was inspired by Japanese Noh Theater. The composer writes about it, "(I had studied) the chants ("utai"), poetic texts and dramatic structure of traditional Japanese Noh Theater with Noh performer Mayo Miwa...With Mayo I had studied aspects of some of the chants and text and music from certain Noh plays, including the play Matsukaze, which means "the wind in the pines." This inspiring and at the same time devastating play is about the frenzied, deluded passion of two peasant sisters ---who are ghosts --- for an aristocratic lover who will never return to them. So when Tomoko Sugawara and Gus Denhard of the Eurasia Consort approached me to write a piece for them and their unique instrumental possibilities, I knew what I wanted to do."

"With The Wind in the Pines I have written a piece influenced by Noh. It's not Noh, of course, and it is not Matsukaze, but in it I am experimenting with creating a female character in a dream-like state of slow-motion frenzy in sound."

"This new work is dedicated to The Eurasia Consort for the rare opportunity to write for musicians and instruments who bridge both East and West, ancient and modern cultures."