Classical Candlelight Concerts to Present CROSSING THE OCEAN with Bridget Kibbey, Harp and Elliott Forrest, WQXR

ArtsRock will begin a new season of Classical Candlelight Concerts with a concert featuring award-winning harpist Bridget Kibbey, hosted by WQXR's Elliott Forrest. Hailed as the “Yo-Yo Ma of the harp,” by Vogue Magazine, Kibbey performs solo works for harp from her newest album, Crossing the Ocean, commissioned from an international set of composers, along with Bach's powerful and moving Toccata and Fugue in D minor. With the harp as her muse, Kibbey explores the synthesis of past and present, bringing her stunning presence and luminous playing to the candlelit majesty of the historic First Reformed Church in Nyack.

Kibbey's new album, Crossing the Ocean, was released by Pentatone on October 13th 2023 and features six solo works for harp commissioned from an international set of composers, including Kinan Azmeh's It's About Time (Syria), Du Yun's The Ocean Within (China), Paquito d'Rivera's Bandoneon (Cuba), Avner Dorman's Three Butterfly Songs (Israel) featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw, Kati Agócs' Northern Lights (Canada), and David Bruce's Caja de Música (England).

Each composer was asked to write for the harp for the first time, using the music they grew up hearing as point of departure. The results are snapshots of cultural memories, a mash-up of traditional and contemporary genres, and an anthology of the composers' surrealistic perspective on their pasts. From virtuosic soundscapes to driving grooves, Kibbey showcases the harp's expressive potential as she takes on the role each composer has set.

Saturday November 11th at 8pm
First Reformed Church of Nyack
18 South Broadway Nyack NY 10960

Further information and tickets, visit the link below.

 

Biography - Bridget Kibbey

Called the “Yo-Yo Ma of the harp,” by Vogue's Corey Seymour, harpist Bridget Kibbey “...makes it seem as though the instrument had been waiting all its life to explode with the energetic figures and gorgeous colors she was getting from it.” (The New York Times)

With the harp as her muse, Kibbey is in demand for her virtuosic and soulful performances that showcase the expressive potential of the instrument—excavating centuries of music as a soloist and alongside today's top performing artists—from the French Belle Époque to the Baroque, to Persian Modes, to Latin Jazz traditions and beyond. Kibbey recently made her solo NPR Tiny Desk Debut, is a winner of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Salon de Virtuosi Sony Recording Grant, the only harpist to win a place in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Bowers Program, Premiere Prix at the Journées de les Harpes Competition in Arles, France, among others. She has commissioned and toured new harp concerti by composers Vivian Fung and Brazilian-born João Luiz Rezende; and in the 2025-26 season she initiates a new project premiering concertos by composers Clarice Assad and Samuel Torres with a consortium of orchestras. She has toured and recorded with luminaries such as Placido Domingo, Dawn Upshaw, Kathleen Battle, and Gustavo Santaolalla.

Last season, she toured Bach keyboard transcriptions with the Dover Quartet and recitals with duo partner violinist Alexi Kenney, and launched Persia to Iberia, tracking sounds of the Islamic Golden Era alongside Persian singer Mahsa Vahdat, kora-player Yacouba Sissoko, and percussionist John Hadfield. This season, she performs solo recitals in Washington, DC, San Francisco, Toronto, and New York; tours solo and chamber music French masterworks with the Calidore Quartet presented by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and launches her newest project Leyenda, which has Kibbey tracking sounds and modes across five centuries and three continents, landing in today's Nuevo Latino scene of New York City, alongside Latin-Grammy winning percussionist Samuel Torres and NY Gypsy All-Star Clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski. Ms. Kibbey's solo performances have been broadcast on NPR Music's Tiny Desk, Performance Today, WQXR, WNYC's Soundcheck, WETA's Front Row Washington, WRTI's Crossover, and on television in A&E's Breakfast with the Arts. She has been profiled in Vogue, Time Out New York, The Harp Column, and MUSO Magazine.

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