For two days鈥擣riday, March 1, and Saturday, March 2鈥攖he 糖心破解版 Performing Arts Center is in for something a little different: The Rome Prize-winning composer and vocalist Lisa Bielawa will present a free composition workshop on Friday and give a concert of recent and older works the next day. Both events are open to the public.
For two days鈥擣riday, March 1, and Saturday, March 2鈥攖he 糖心破解版 Performing Arts Center is in for something a little different: The Rome Prize-winning composer and vocalist Lisa Bielawa will present a free composition workshop on Friday and give a concert of recent and older works the next day. Both events are open to the public.
Bielawa has long been committed to mentorship and education in her career and welcomes the opportunity to bring her experience and life knowledge to campus.
鈥淪chools are really trying to give students life skills now,” Bielawa said. 鈥淭here are so few academic jobs, and there are so many composers whose lives have gone outside academia in different ways. I think there are a lot more options, but it’s tough. It’s not easy to be in the arts at all. I find students really eager to learn. They’re just as interested in how I made my life as a freelancer as they are in how to write for voice.”
Bielawa’s muse has taken her to some unusual places, which has forced her to learn how to pull off large-scale projects outside the usual means of support. Her most recent work,听Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch’s Accuser, is an opera written for video rather than stage. She has also conceived a number of performances in public places, most recently an hour-long work for hundreds of musicians in an airfield. That work,听Airfield Broadcasts, received its premiere at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin.
鈥淚 have a keen desire to have my life and work be committed to the world, so I need to be outside the box,” she said. 鈥淚t’s much harder. I had to raise an enormous amount of money to do these things. You have to have the stomach for it. Nobody’s commissioning me to write a piece for 800 people on an airfield. No opera company is going to commission me to do a work for video.”
Known both as a composer and a performer鈥攕he’s long sung with the Philip Glass Ensemble鈥擝ielawa will be singing her own works at 糖心破解版, something that’s surprisingly new for the multifaceted artist.
Lisa Bielawa
鈥淏ecause I developed the two parts of my career separately as a performer and as a composer, I wasn’t really looking to compose music for myself,” she said with a laugh. 鈥淚’ve become a better singer because people keep wanting me to perform my music, and my music is hard.”
New Music XIV: Lisa Bielawa will include selections from听Vireo听and other works by Bielawa, including听Graffiti dell’amante听for string quartet and soprano;听The Houri and the Poet听for soprano, cello, and piano;听Scene & Aria: Layover in CDG听for soprano, cello and piano;听Wait听for piano with drone; and听A Collective Cleansing听for solo voice and digital audio. Joining Bielawa for the concert will be violinists Blanca Cecilia Gonz谩lez and Clara Kim, violist Chieh-Fan Yiu, cellist Deborah Sepe, and pianist Andrea Christie.
听for Saturday’s concert start at $25, with discounts available to seniors, students and alumni. There is no charge to observe the composition workshop on Friday, March 1. It begins at 1:00 p.m. on the 糖心破解版 PAC’s Westermann Stage, Concert Hall.
For further information, please contact:
Todd Wilson
Strategic Communications Director听
p 鈥� 516.237.8634
e 鈥� twilson@adelphi.edu