Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival 2021Cuttin Edge Concerts had it’s first concert of 2021 on 4.12.21 The Art of the 21st Century: Trombone Jorge Machain: Adelante. performed by Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombone, New York Philharmonic.
It was a huge success!!!
“My earliest musical memory is my mother singing to me when I was about three — she was a soprano at The Met. My father played trumpet at The Met, as did my grandfather, who came to the U.S. from Sicily and became the cornet soloist at the Rialto Theater.”Joseph Allessi
It was thrilling, said Victoria Bond and it is thanks to you and the Puffin Foundation West that this concert was possible. I started out the program by thanking you from the stage. There were over 1,000 viewers watching it online! If you were not able to watch it yesterday, an edited video up online very soon. There will be two more live concerts, with all of the composers and performers participating on stage, live at Symphony Space in the Thalia Theater. The concerts are listed below, and in the coming months I will share with you videos of the composers and performers in our monthly newsletters. If you are not already on our mailing list to receive these, please e-mail me at info@victoriabond.com so that I can add your name to our contacts. Here are the upcoming concerts:
4.19.21
Immigrant Dreams: Performed by Paul Barnes, piano; Ron Warren, Native American Flute
4.26.21
Daring Women: Mrs. President Victoria Bond, composer; Hilary Bell libretto
In honor of the 101st anniversary of Women’s Suffrage, Cutting Edge Concerts will present scenes from the opera, Mrs. President, about the first woman to run for President. The opera highlights Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for President of the United States. A true revolutionary, she fought for women’s rights and ran for the country’s highest office in 1872, before women had been granted the right to vote. She was branded “Mrs. Satan” by the press because she posed a threat to society, and jailed on election night. In the final scene, Woodhull, in her prison cell, silenced but not defeated, looks ahead to a future generation of women who will realize her vision of equality.
Sopranos Valerie Bernhardt and Keely Futterer; Mezzo-soprano Katie Hannigan; Tenor Scott Ramsay; Baritone Michael Kelly; Pianist Marc Peloquin
The Letters of Mademoiselle
- C. Dalit Warshaw, composer
A protégée of Auguste Rodin, Camille Claudel (1864 –1943) was among the very few to blaze new pathways for women sculptors and gain recognition, flouting the bourgeois ideals that had determined the proper course of a woman’s life. Claudel was termed a “Woman of Genius,” yet her fall from grace was a disturbing and tragic ending to a young, brilliant career too soon cut short, as she fell into disrepute and ultimately into what her family characterized as madness. In this cycle, Camille Claudel’s story is narrated through a series of five musical “letters,” each addressed to a different significant figure in the artist’s life. The text is significantly inspired from the words of Camille, the sculptor Auguste Rodin, and her brother, the poet and diplomat Paul Claudel.
Nancy Allen Lundy, soprano; Dalit Warshaw, piano.
I met Victoria Bond 
a number of years ago and you too should get to know her as OperaWire has recently said:
“Composer Profile: Victoria Bond, Legendary American Composer & Conductor is one of the most popular artists of opera and classical music today.
Over a long career that has included conducting stints around the world and dozens of original compositions, Bond is also notable for her distinction as the first woman to receive a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School.
Bond was born in Los Angeles, California to a musical family. After moving to New York, she studied piano at the Mannes School of Music. Bond returned to the West Coast for her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California, moved to New York for a Master’s and a doctorate from Juilliard.
She has been commissioned by organizations around the world, including American Ballet Theater, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and the Michigan Philharmonic. She is the principal guest conductor of Chamber Opera, Chicago and previously served as assistant conductor of New York City Opera, music director of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of Bel Canto Opera Company of New York, among others. She has guest conducted across the United States and the world in locations ranging from Honolulu, HI, to Richmond, VA to Beijing, China.
Additionally, Bond founded the Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in 1998 to encourage compositions from contemporary composers. Her awards include the Walter Hinrichsen Award, the Victor Herbert Award, the Perry F. Kendig Award, and the Miriam Gideon Prize, as well as three honorary doctorates…..”
Get on her email list and watch the next concerts.
