Parthenia to Open 2025–2026 Season with WHEN I HAD A VOICE at the Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center

Parthenia will open its 2025–2026 New York concert season with WHEN I HAD A VOICE, presented on Sunday, November 23 at 4:00 p.m. at the Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, 53A Chambers Street, 2nd floor, located in the 280 Broadway building near City Hall.

The program will feature new works for voice and viols by contemporary composers Phil Kline, Frances Blaker, and Christopher DiVincenzo, and will include the world premiere of No Wind No Rain by Richard Einhorn. Special guest Elizaveta Kozlova, soprano, will appear in the program.

Following the performance, a reception will invite viol players of all levels to bring their instruments and participate in a consort reading session. Composers are also welcome to bring new compositions for viols to be read by participants.

Parthenia is a quartet of viols—Beverly Au, Lawrence Lipnik, Rosamund Morley, and Lisa Terry—that animates both ancient and contemporary music. The ensemble appears at major venues and festivals including Bargemusic, Music Before 1800, Maverick Concerts, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Miller Theatre, and the Yale Center for British Art, as well as in Europe at the Regensburg Tage Alter Musik.

Parthenia produces its own New York concert series and collaborates regularly with leading early music specialists including Piffaro, Julianne Baird, Paul O’Dette, Blue Heron, and ARTEK. The group actively commissions and premieres works by today’s composers, among them Eleonor Sandresky, Richard Einhorn, Phil Kline, Frances White, Max Lifchitz, Will Ayton, Nicholas Patterson, and Kristin Norderval. Their most recent CD, Nothing Proved (MSR Classics), features music by Hildegard von Bingen, Frances White, Kristin Norderval, and Tawnie Olson. Parthenia is represented by Shirley Hunt, Director of Booking and Artist Representation at GEMS Live!, and serves as the Early Music Ensemble in Residence at Stern College for Women.

Described as “versatile” and “dramatically convincing” (Voce di Meche) and praised for her “impassioned phrasing” (OperaWire), Elizaveta Kozlova has performed nationally and internationally in both classical and contemporary repertoire. Her credits include roles such as Doralice (Il trionfo dell’onore), Anna I (Die sieben Todsünden), Servilia (La Clemenza di Tito), and Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro). She has also appeared as a soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion with Juilliard415 and in Magnificat at the Moscow International House of Music. Kozlova’s collaborations include performances at Carnegie Hall and premieres at the Yale School of Music’s New Music New Haven concert series. She is a recipient of an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and the Marin Alsop Entrepreneurship Award from the Mannes School of Music, where she earned her BM and MM degrees.

Parthenia’s concert season is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. The ensemble is a sponsored organization of the New York Foundation for the Arts and a member of Early Music America and Chamber Music America.