Saint Rose Camerata In Concert

Music of Danish and Contemporary American Composers to Conclude Acclaimed Faculty Ensemble’s 14th Season

ALBANY (March 1, 2017) — The Saint Rose Camerata wraps up its 14^th year with a concert of music by Danish and contemporary American composers.

The Camerata will perform its final concert of the 2016-17 season Saturday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m. on the D’Arcy-Brady Stage in the Kathleen McManus Picotte Recital Hall, Massry Center for the Arts, 1002 Madison Ave., Albany, New York.

A presentation of Premiere Performances at The College of Saint Rose, admission is free.

Program for the concert is:

• Quintet for Winds, Op. 43 — Carl Nielsen
• Love Songs for Soprano and Oboe — Jennie Brandon
• Unraveling — Andrew McKenna Lee

Performers: Susan Boddie, soprano; Yvonne Hansbrough, flute; Sherwood Wise, oboe and English horn; Victor Sungarian, horn; Andrew McKenna Lee, guitar; with guest artists Christopher Bush, clarinet; Susan Loegering Daves, bassoon; Jude Traxler, percussion.

Brandon’s 2014 Love Songs for Soprano and Oboe are translated from texts of Native American words.  The narrative tells the tale of a Native American woman rocking her child to sleep at night and the stories she tells her child to lull the baby to sleep.  The cycle speaks to the notions of love, appreciation of the earth and strength of community in raising a child surrounded by love.

Quintet for Winds is one of Danish composer Nielsen’s latest works in which he has attempted to render the characters of the various instruments.  At one moment they are all talking at once, at another they are quite alone.  The work consists of three movements: Allegro, Minuet and Prelude–Theme with Variations.

Lee’s Unraveling is scored for electric guitar, percussion and looping machines.  The composer states:  “Unraveling is kind of my own, abstract response to minimalism.  The use of looping machines obviously connotes repetition, and indeed, Unraveling is based on a series of slowly unfolding episodes during which loops are built in real time and then repeated.  These repetitions generally fade to the background and become a texture over which new material – and consequently, new loops – are then created and developed, somewhat like a chain.  My aim in this piece, aside from employing and enjoying the use of technology, was to try and make repetitive music that seemed to gradually flow and morph from one idea into another, a fairly constant compositional preoccupation of mine.”

Directed by Yvonne Chavez Hansbrough, the Saint Rose Camerata is the College’s resident faculty ensemble.  Each year since its founding in 2003, the Camerata has brought chamber music to life in the Capital Region by presenting a series of concerts with diverse programming.  Members of the ensemble perform recognized masterpieces, unfamiliar works and new compositions.  The varied programs, often based on creative themes, are presented in mixed ensembles of strings, winds, voice and keyboard.

Opened in 2008, the critically acclaimed Massry Center for the Arts features the 400-seat Kathleen McManus Picotte Recital Hall, Esther Massry Gallery, choral and instrument rehearsal rooms, teaching studios, piano labs and classrooms. Past performing artists have included B.B. King, Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck, Stewart Copeland, Béla Fleck, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Doc Severinsen, Ramsey Lewis, Maceo Parker, Mary Lambert, Tim Reynolds, Stefon Harris, John Pizzarelli, the Boston Symphony Orchestra Strings, Yuja Wang, Paula Cole and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The 46,000 square-foot gem is certified LEED Gold, ranking it among the Capital Region’s most energy-efficient and Earth-friendly buildings.

For more information about the Saint Rose Camerata, contact Yvonne Chavez Hansbrough at 518-454-5193 or hansbroy@strose.edu.

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