Music @The Playhouse: Vicki Ray - “Nacht und Träume” at Sierra Madre Playhouse

Sierra Madre Playhouse, a dynamic and intimate performing arts center in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley, launches its Fall 2024 programming on Saturday, August 3, 2024, 7:30 pm, with Nacht und Träume, a compelling music program delving into the territories of night and dreams presented by eminent pianist Vicki Ray. Joined by acclaimed soprano Elissa Johnston, Ray explores the liminal states of consciousness through the music of Franz Schubert and Alban Berg, alongside newer works by Rachel Beetz, Andrew McIntosh, Noah Meites, and Bill Alves. The program’s title comes from one of the featured works, Nacht und Träume (“Night and Dreams”), a stunning lied for voice and piano by Schubert with text by Matthäus von Collin.

Also featured are Beetz’s Unofficial Dreams, an ever-changing landscape of sound; Meites’ Book of Beasts, based on the illuminated text of a bestiary, or encyclopedia of animals, created during the Middle Ages; and McIntosh’s Intermezzo: December 28, 2020, After Midnight, dedicated to Ray, in which, according to the composer, the rain he recorded that night “provides a canvas for a field of piano harmonics.” In addition, Ray features three songs from Alban Berg’s Seven Early Songs – “Nacht” (Night), “Die Nachtigall” (The nightingale), and “Traumgekrönt” (Crowned in dream), concluding the program with composer/video artist Bill Alves’ minimalist Liminal Landscape, for which he created the music and video in tandem.

Ray, hailed as “a master at constructing a program, as well as a focused and probing performer” (San Francisco Classical Voice), is spotlighted on an array of keyboards, including acoustic piano and sampler/synthesizer with video.