"Very Open Composing" - Musical Meditations on Aging

Dear Friends of Scrag Mountain Music,

As many of you know, Scrag Mountain Music is commissioning a new piece of vocal chamber music and we're working in collaboration with Opera Philladelphia.  The new work is being written by our composer-in-residence, New York City based composer Lembit Beecher and will be premiered May 30-June 1, 2014 in Randolph, Montpelier, and Warren.  The piece is scored for soprano, strings, and piano with text by Toronto librettist and director Liza Balkan.  Balkan has drawn the libretto from interviews and gently crafted them into poetry.  The composition will be a musical meditation on aging process. 

Next week, the composer, librettist, and musicians will be in residency in Vermont for five days to workshop the piece-in-progress.  During that time the librettist will conduct interviews with Vermonters around the theme of aging and the composer will work to set these ideas to music with the aid of the musicians who will be premiering the piece.  At the end of this residency – on Tuesday April 8 – Scrag Mountain Music will hold a “very open composing session” where the audience can witness the early stages of the composition and ask questions of the composer, librettist, and performers.  The evening will also include a time for the public to react to the emotional content of the work and share their own experiences and observations on the aging process.   The workshop is co-sponsored by the Warren Public Library and the Warren United Church and will take place from 7-8:30pm on Tuesday April 8 in the Emma Ford Room of the Warren United Church, Main Street, Warren, VT.

In addition to being Scrag Mountain Music’s Composer-in-residence in fall 2011, Lembit was appointed to a three-year term as the first Composer-In-Residence of Opera Philadelphia and his recently premiered opera has received critical acclaim from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.  Opera Philadelphia and Scrag Mountain Music are partnering on this commission and we are honored to be collaborating with such esteemed institution and hope that this partnership will ensure the future success of this music born here in Vermont.


Musically yours,
Evan Premo

artistic director, Scrag Mountain Music