Calendar

part of “Hear and Now: American Masterpieces”
program also includes works by Cowell, Fine, and Piston

Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 8pm
Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 3pm
Tickets: $20 – $35
Available by phone: 718.624.2083
or for more information: www.bargemusic.org

New York, NY—On Saturday, April 25 at 8pm and Sunday, April 26 at 3pm, composer Robert Sirota’s string quartet Triptych (2002) will be performed by the acclaimed American String Quartet (Laurie Carney and Peter Winograd, violins; Daniel Avshalomov, viola; Wolfram Koessel, cello) at Bargemusic. Moored in Brooklyn just under the Brooklyn Bridge in a renovated coffee barge, Bargemusic is known as one of NYC’s favorite chamber music halls, greatly due to its excellent acoustics and stunning skyline views.  These performances, titled “Hear and Now: American Masterpieces”, also feature Henry Cowell’s String Quartet No. 3, “Mosaic” (1935),  Irving Fine’s String Quartet (1952), and Walter Piston’s String Quartet No. 1 (1933).

Written to commemorate the victims of September 11, 2001, Triptych had an emotional first performance at Trinity Church on Wall Street, one of the churches on the periphery of Ground Zero, by the Chiara Quartet, which has also commercially recorded the work.  While the first movement is an evocation of alarm, Sirota describes the second and third movements as “a kind of meditation on the tragedy, first a grieving and then a consolation.”  The piece was created in tandem with a painting of the same name by Deborah Patterson; the three panels of the painting bear the same subtitles as the piece’s movements:  “Desecration,” “Lamentation,” and “Prayer.”  Like the images, the music can be described as a mixture of abstract and real, a blend of atonality and tonality. The Aspen Times noted that Sirota captures “the sounds of that fateful day in Lower Manhattan (including the buzz of the airplane in a sustained cello note and car alarms in the violins) to weave emotionally powerful music.”  The review continued that “the American String Quartet clearly connected with the audience.”

Robert Sirota’s work has been performed throughout the United States and Europe, at venues including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall in New York, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, and at The Juilliard School, the Shepherd School of Music, Peabody, Oberlin Conservatory, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, Royal Conservatory in Toronto, and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

Dr. Sirota has spent his professional life striking a balance between teaching, administration, and composition. The result has been the effective leadership of some of this country’s premier music schools (including the Peabody Institute and, currently, The Manhattan School of Music), and a varied compositional catalogue. His commissions include works for the Empire Brass, American Guild of Organists, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Fischer Duo, the Peabody Trio, the Webster Trio, and the Chiara String Quartet.

In January 2008 Dr. Sirota’s orchestral work, 212: Symphony No. 1 (named for the area code for Manhattan), received its world premiere in a performance by the Manhattan School of Music Symphony, led by Kenneth Kiesler. Anthony Tommasini, writing in The New York Times stated, “If directness can be considered a New York character trait, that quality comes through in Dr. Sirota’s symphony. Complexity for its own sake and expressive obfuscation are not for this energetic and highly professional composer…Thick, astringent chromatic harmonies come in tightly bound chords to create nervous sonorities. Yet the textures are always lucid; details come through.”

In late January, Dr. Sirota’s A Rush of Wings for chamber orchestra was premiered at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall by the Manhattan School of Music Sinfonia. In The New York Times, Steve Smith wrote, “Mr. Sirota’s goal would surely have been evident in the energetic swoops and airy plummets of his seven-minute piece, fashioned with the clean, angular melodies, tart harmonies, lively syncopations and punchy accents of American Neo-Classicism. Fidgeting strings conveyed a nervy energy under sustained woodwind and brass tones, with glockenspiel, vibraphone and cymbals providing a shimmering patina. As if buffeted by a breeze, the music frequently changed course without losing momentum.”

Robert Sirota’s catalogue is comprised of three short operas, a full-length music theatre piece, as well as orchestral, symphonic band, chamber and recital works. His 1999 work for organ and orchestra, In the Fullness of Time, has been performed several times by the Seattle Symphony, as well as by the Lincoln Symphony in Nebraska, the Meridian Symphony in Mississippi, and the Oberlin Orchestra.  His chamber music has entered the repertoire of several leading ensembles: Triptych is often played by the Chiara, Blair, and American String Quartets; his Piano Trio (1998) has been performed multiple times by the Peabody Trio, the Concord Trio, and many others; and A Sinner’s Diary for flute, two violas, cello, percussion and piano, completed in 2005, has already received several performances. His music has been recorded by the Fischer Duo for the Gasparo label, and by the Chiara String Quartet for their New Voice Singles series.

In recent years, Robert Sirota has composed several works for orchestra in addition to In the Fullness of Time, including Meridians (2006) and Epiphanies for string quartet and orchestra (2006).  Dr. Sirota’s music for chorus and for organ has also been widely performed, most notably Mass (1990) for chorus, soloists, organ and percussion; The Passion of Jesus Christ (1998), a visual oratorio for soloists, chorus, organ, piano and percussion; Celestial Wind (1987) for organ; and Easter Canticles (1993) for cello and organ.  Dr. Sirota’s children’s opera in one act, The Tailor of Gloucester (1987) is based on the story by Beatrix Potter and has been produced by companies throughout the country.

Robert Sirota has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the United States Information Agency, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, and the American Music Center.  Among his awards are a First Prize in the Long Island Composers Alliance Competition and the Andrew White Medal from Loyola College in Baltimore.

A native New Yorker, Dr. Sirota received his earliest compositional training at The Juilliard School, and received his bachelor’s degree in piano and composition from Oberlin Conservatory where he studied with Joseph Wood and Richard Hoffman.  A Thomas J. Watson Fellowship allowed him to study and concertize in Paris, where his principal teacher was Nadia Boulanger.  Returning to America, Dr. Sirota earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, studying with Earl Kim and Leon Kirchner.

Before becoming Director of The Johns Hopkins University’s prestigious Peabody Institute in 1995, Dr. Sirota served as Chairman of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University and Director of Boston University’s School of Music. In 2005, he was appointed president of the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he is also a member of the School’s composition faculty.  For more information visit www.RobertSirota.com.

About the American String Quartet

Internationally recognized as one of the world’s finest quartets, the American String Quartet celebrated its 30th anniversary during the 2005–2006 season. In over three decades of touring, the Quartet has performed in all 50 states and appeared in virtually every important concert hall throughout the world.  Resident quartet at the Aspen Music Festival since 1974 and the Manhattan School of Music in New York since 1984, the American has also served as resident quartet at the Taos School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The Quartet’s diverse activities have also included numerous international radio and television broadcasts, tours of Asia, and performances with the New York City Ballet, the Montreal Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Strad has called them “the finest quartet based in New York”.  As champions of new music, the American has given numerous premières. Their extensive discography can be heard on a range of labels; the quartet is also popular with radio audiences and has been featured on a range of national and local programs.  Formed in 1974, when its original members were students at The Juilliard School, the American String Quartet was launched by winning both the Coleman Competition and the Naumburg Award in the same year. Individually, the members devote additional time outside the quartet’s active performance and teaching schedule to solo appearances, recitals, and master classes.

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