NATALIA BADZIAK performs three contemporary works for solo viola:
Giacinto Scelsi's - Manto I was composed in 1957 as a recorded improvisation that was later transcribed. The viola is in scordatura tuning and the piece centers around a single pitch that is altered through extended techniques.
John Kennedy’s The Journey was commissioned and premiered in 2019 and features the violist singing and s peaking the text of a Mary Oliver poem.
Andrew Norman's Sabina is a solo viola version of an excerpt from his string trio The Companion Guide to Rome. It was inspired by a visit to a Roman church at dawn.
MOE STAIANO guides an ensemble of musicians in a composition written specially to be performed at Mosswood Chapel. Musicians will be distributed among its hallways and rooms surrounding the main performance space. The seated audience will experience the work acoustically "mixed and mastered" in real-time as the instrumentalists roam throughout the building. This will be Moe's first performance of his ensemble since 2018. His one online guided improv performance from 2020 doesn't count.
MOE STAIANO ENSEMBLE
Karl Evangelista - Guitar
Melne Murphy - Guitar
Drew Wheeler - Guitar
Agnes Szelag - Cello
Bobby Todd - Upright Bass
Naomi Stein - Piano
Jordan Glenn - Xylophone
Scott Siler - Percussion