Ear Candy: EDGE Ensemble with Conservatory Choir & Julia Wolfe
Friday, February 20 @ 7:30 pm
Armstrong Concert Hall
Ear Candy New Music Festival
EDGE Ensemble with Conservatory Choir & Julia Wolfe
As part of Shenandoah Conservatory’s Ear Candy New Music Festival, the Conservatory Choir joins Shenandoah’s in-house new music group EDGE Ensemble for an exploration of the masterful chamber and vocal music of MacArthur “Genius Grant” and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe, alongside works by young contemporary composers curated personally by the composer herself.
The concert features powerful choral settings such as Guard My Tongue and You breathe, the lively percussion work Dark Full Ride, and Wolfe’s seminal Bang on a Can All-Stars sextet Lick, all showcasing her intense, genre-blurring musical voice.
Music and conversation unfold together throughout the evening as Wolfe joins Jonathan Newman for a live, in-program discussion reflecting on the creative impulses behind the works performed.
The program also introduces vibrant music by emerging New York-based composers Robert Honstein and Shelley Washington, placing bold new voices in dialogue with Wolfe’s established catalog. The concert offers a dynamic celebration of boundary-pushing new music and the virtuosic artistry of Shenandoah Conservatory’s student and faculty performers.
Meet the Guest Composer
Julia Wolfe’s music is distinguished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers to extremes and demands attention from the audience. She draws inspiration from folk, classical and rock genres, bringing a modern sensibility to each while simultaneously tearing down the walls between them.
In addition to receiving the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Wolfe was a 2016 MacArthur Fellow. She received the 2015 Herb Alpert Award in Music and was named Musical America’s 2019 Composer of the Year. Wolfe is co-founder/co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can, and she is Artistic Director of NYU Steinhardt Music Composition.
Her music is published by Red Poppy Music and G. Ricordi & Co., New York (ASCAP) and is distributed worldwide by the Universal Music Publishing Group.
Lean In & Engage
Q.
What are students learning or experiencing through this process?
Music of all sorts is produced out in the world, and our students need to learn how to play all of it. These intensive productions are a great opportunity for them to grapple with ways of playing and rehearsing with which they might be unfamiliar, and to coach with not just a living composer, but one of the most successful and lauded ones in the world.”
– Jonathan Newman
Q.
What excites you about working on this project?
For this festival, I am always most excited about almost the entirety of our conservatory’s music community getting involved in the production of world-class new music to present to a part of our community which may not always experience it.”
– Jonathan Newman
Q.
What are you excited about for audiences to experience?
I’m excited to share Julia’s extraordinary and unique music with our community. She is a world-class artist and renowned composer writing consistently intriguing and muscular new works based on important themes. She is also a person of warmth and generosity, and I look forward to our students and patrons meeting her in person.”
– Jonathan Newman
Digital Program
Shenandoah Conservatory uses digital programs for all performances. In addition to their engaging and accessible design, digital programs are cost effective, environmentally friendly and enable us to create and update our programs more efficiently, which means we can focus our resources on the performances you love! View our digital programs by clicking the button above, scanning the QR code in our venue or texting PROGRAM to (540) 307-2336 at the performance. [Note: Digital programs are best viewed on your mobile or tablet device.]
Plan Your Experience
Explore Upcoming Events By Series
Subscribe Today
Subscribe now and save 20% per ticket!
Support Us
All gifts–regardless of size–make a difference.
