ChamberBridge presents

ChamberBridge: Messiaen Illuminated

Lara Bruckmann, soprano, and Eva-Maria Zimmermann, piano

with special guests

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

Concerts at 3pm, 5:30pm, and 8pm

Ondes Martenot demonstration at 4:30pm

Old First Concerts: 1751 Sacramento St, San Francisco

In the tradition of the French salons of the early 20th Century, the musicians of the voice and piano duo ChamberBridge (Lara Bruckmann, soprano, and Eva-Maria Zimmermann, piano) have invited some of their favorite creative minds to join them for a day of music, poetry, art, and innovation on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 at Old First Concerts in San Francisco.  At this one-time special event, ChamberBridge’s unique signature twist on the traditional recital will treat their audience to an insider’s guided tour of one specific neighborhood in the vast ocean of “classical” music: the work of French composer Olivier Messiaen and his profound influence on later composers.

ChamberBridge: Messiaen Illuminated will be a one-day festival featuring three full concert programs, a visual art exhibit, artist receptions, and a hands-on demonstration of the ondes Martenot, one of the earliest electronic instruments and one championed by Olivier Messiaen.  Guests may choose to attend any single concert or the entire series.  The concert programs will feature works by a whole family tree of composers branching from Messiaen, reaching from his teachers Paul Dukas and Maurice Emmanuel through to the 2nd and 3rd generations of his students, including Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail, Edmund Campion, Ron Bruce Smith, George Benjamin, and Gabriela Lena Frank.  Of special note are rare performances of  song cycles by Messiaen’s first wife Claire Delbos (both composed on texts by Messiaen’s mother, the accomplished poet Cécile Sauvage), and the premiere of a newly commissioned song cycle using some of these same texts by hot young composer Mei-Fang Lin.

Painter Srimongkol Darawali (“JAX” - work featured in banner above), who is deeply fascinated with 20th Century and contemporary experimental music, works while listening to composers such as Messiaen, Boulez and Stockhausen.  At receptions between the concerts, he will display and offer for sale some works made while listening to these and other composers in Messiaen’s compositional family tree.  JAX states, “I regard Messiaen as one of the most influential figures in the second half of the 20th Century to our civilization. Imagine - if Stockhausen had not heard "Mode de valeurs et d'intensités", we would find his music in the jazz section.”  The receptions will also offer guests the opportunity to share a glass of wine with the musicians and ask composers Ed Campion, Ron Bruce Smith, and Mei-Fang Lin about their work and connections to Messiaen.

ChamberBridge is collaborating with several artists to enrich the program well beyond works for voice and piano.  The festival programs will include performances by the Del Sol Quartet, sfSoundGroup, Mary Chun (ondes Martenot), Kyle Bruckmann (oboe), Diane Grubbe (flute), Graeme Jennings (viola), Charlton Lee (viola), and Kate Stenberg (violin).  As a special treat, Mary Chun will offer a hands-on demonstration of her rare vintage instrument, the ondes Martenot, during the reception between the first and second concerts.

ChamberBridge; Messiaen Illuminated is made possible through grants by the Zellerbach Foundation, American Composers Forum, the Ross McKee Foundation, and through generous gifts by individual supporters of ChamberBridge.

On Saturday, November 15th, 2008, ChamberBridge will share the stage with some of the Bay Area’s finest musicians when they present ChamberBridge: Messiaen Illuminated at Old First Concerts in San Francisco.  This one-time special event is a celebration of birth centenary of the composer Olivier Messiaen, one of the most deeply influential composers of the 20th Century.

Detail from a painting by Srimongkol “JAX” Darawali

To see full work, click here or on the banner above

 André Jolivet (1905-1974)

 Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Olivier Messiaen

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen

Claire Delbos (1906-1959)

Olivier Messiaen

Edmund Campion (1957)

Gérard Grisey (1946-1998)

George Benjamin (1960)

Maurice Emmanuel (1862-1938)

Gabriela Lena Frank (1972)

Olivier Messiaen

Ron Bruce Smith (1961)

Paul Dukas (1865-1935)

Maurice Emmanuel

Olivier Messiaen

Tristan Murail (1947)

Tristan Murail

Olivier Messiaen

Mei-Fang Lin (1973)

Claire Delbos

Olivier Messiaen