On January 27, the violinist Renée Jolles will perform the world premiere of Victoria Bond’s “Sorrow’s Springs are the Same” at the United Nations General Assembly Hall.
The performance is part of the UN’s memorial ceremony for the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The event is from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm in the General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters, New York.
Bond composed the work especially for this occasion, and was inspired by a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Bond says that Hopkins is one of her favorite poets, “because of his musical use of language, his original imagery and inventive words.” She adds, “The poem speaks to the universality of compassion, making the connection between a young child’s mourning the dying leaves in fall and the larger springs of sorrow.”
The ceremony is free and open to the public; guests must register in advance to attend in person. The General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters is at 46th Street and First Avenue. It will be live-streamed globally (free, no reservation needed), via United Nations WebTV, the United Nations YouTube channel, and the Twitter account of United Nations WebTV.
On Saturday, January 21, an interview with Victoria Bond is featured on WWFM’s “A Tempo” with host Rachel Katz. Tune in at 7 pm ET to WWFM-FM or online as she discusses the premiere at the United Nations of “Sorrow’s Springs are the Same.”
Ray Charles Tribute in Stockton, CA
On February 11, Victoria Bond heads to California to conduct the Stockton Symphony in a Ray Charles Tribute. Bond is an ideal leader for this program, as she served as principal guest conductor for Ray Charles in concerts throughout the world, including performances and recording of Quincy Jones’ Black Requiem.
The title composition of Victoria Bond’s latest album “Blue and Green Music” was commissioned by the Cassatt Quartet through a Chamber Music America commissioning grant.
“Victoria Bond’s hauntingly complex yet enchantingly playful Dreams of Flying is another imaginative work for string quartet”
“intriguingly compelling”
Also on the album is a performance by the Cassatt Quartet of Bond’s Dreams of Flying. Baritone Michael Kelly and pianist Bradley Moore perform From an Antique Land, songs set to poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Percy Shelley and Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Art and Science, inspired by a 1927 letter written by Albert Einstein.
A major force in 21st century music, composer Victoria Bond is known for her melodic gift and dramatic flair. Her works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and opera have been lauded by The New York Times as “powerful, stylistically varied and technically demanding.”
Victoria Bond’s discography includes Blue and Green Music featuring the Cassatt Quartet (2022), Illumination (2021), The Voices of Air (2020), Soul of a Nation (2018), and Peculiar Plants (2010), all on the Albany label, and Instruments of Revelation (Naxos, 2019). Victoria Bond’s compositions have been performed by the New York City Opera, Shanghai, Dallas and Houston Symphonies, members of the Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic, American Ballet Theater and the Cassatt and Audubon Quartets.
The New York Times praised Victoria Bond’s conducting as “full of energy and fervor.” She is principal guest conductor of Chamber Opera Chicago, and has held conducting positions with Pittsburgh Symphony, New York City Opera, Roanoke Symphony, and Bel Canto and Harrisburg Operas. Ms. Bond is Artistic Director of Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in New York, which she founded in 1998, and is a frequent lecturer at the Metropolitan Opera Guild. PFW is only supporting her WELLTONE NEW MUSIC STREAMING CONCERT SERIES- NOT THE LIEVE CONCERTS THAT BEGIN IN MARCH OR APRIL 2023
Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival exists to celebrate, support and promote the work of living composers. Over the past 26 years, works by more than 250 composers have been played by some of the best performers in the country. Audiences have delighted to on-stage conversations between host and founder Victoria Bond and the composers themselves. The 2023 season will marked the 26th year of the concert series, which Chamber Music America has called “a full-throttle commitment to contemporary music.”
The Way of Mountains and Desert
Paul Barnes is the featured artist in the opening concert of the 2023 Season. Performing the New York premiere of The Way of Mountains and Desert by Native American flutist and composer Ron Warren, he will be joined by James Nyoraku Schlefer who performs his composition Sidewalk Dances on the shakuhachi. Nyoraku Schlefer will be joined by a string trio to perform Rashomon by Victoria Bond. Barnes’s arrangement of Sacagawea by Philip Glass, with whom he has a long history of collaboration, features Ron Warren on Native flute. Additional works by Ron Warren fill out the program, which culminates in an improvised duet by the two flutists. For further program details, see below.Barnes and Warren reprise this program and more on the CEC May 24th concert.
James Nyoraku Schlefer will join Barnes and Warren.
Two more concerts are coming in September as part of the Village Trip, focusing on Edward Hopper and Edna St Vincent Millay.
