Fall chamber music on Governors Island: Viola Duos!
The Glass Clouds Ensemble hosts Noémie Chemali and Carrie Frey for an afternoon concert of viola duos in a cozy arts salon!
VENUE
The Glass Clouds Ensemble House (Building 14, Nolan Park) is a beautiful community arts space with cozy seating, art exhibits, and sound installations.
Governors Island is a short ferry from Manhattan and Brooklyn – ferry schedule & more info. It's a great place to spend a weekend day, rain or shine, with lots of art, bike paths, and food trucks!
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Note by Noémie Chemalie:
This program traces a shared thread between Eastern Europe and Southeast Europe through their common history under Ottoman rule. What draws me to folk music is how it reflects the collective soul of a people, without intellectual pretension or individual ego.
We open with selections from Bartók's 44 Duos for Two Violins (arranged for violas) — folk tunes the composer himself collected and transcribed from Hungary and Transylvania. From there we move to Navazi by Kian Ravei, which reimagines two violas as the Persian kamancheh.
Next comes a piece by Carrie Frey, drawn from Arkady Martine's science fiction novels A Memory Called Empire and its sequel A Desolation Called Peace. Its connection to the evening's theme lies in its vocal writing, inspired by the music of Țara Oașului in Romania.
We then turn to the first of two works by Lebanese composer Wajdi Abou Diab: Mouraba' Dance, which casts the viola as a camel charmer. Frank Bridge's Lament follows, evoking the same vein of sorrow found in Bartók's earlier folk tunes.
The program continues with Irs', Abou Diab's second work, built from a series of wedding songs, and closes with two further transcriptions of Romanian folk tunes by Carrie Frey.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Violist Noémie Chemali enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and writer. Praised for her “formidable technique” (The Flip Side) and her “technical and interpretive skills” (New Music Buff), Ms. Chemali has received awards from Chamber Music America, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Juilliard School, and the Barenboim-Said Foundation. Noémie has recently appeared with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Vermont Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Toomai String Quintet, Ensemble Ipse, and the Black Box, S.E.M, Glass Clouds, and Pano Hora Ensembles.
Noémie is the violist and co-founder of Riwaya Ensemble, a contemporary music ensemble that celebrates the rich heritage and artistic innovation of Middle Eastern music. She recently released her debut album of music by Lebanese composers, Opus 961, which has been featured by publications such as La Scena Musicale, Strings Magazine, The Violin Channel, L’agenda Culturel, L’Orient le Jour, Oberon’s Grove, amongst others.
Born and raised in Cleveland, she continued her studies at McGill University (BM), McDuffie Center for Strings (AD), Juilliard (MM), and is currently pursuing her doctorate at Stony Brook University.
Carrie Frey is in demand across the United States and Europe as a violist, teacher, composer, and improviser. Known as “one of the finest interpreters of contemporary music in New York” (Bandcamp Best Contemporary Classical), she has premiered over 300 works by composers including Wadada Leo Smith, Hannah Kendall, Matthew Aucoin, Paul Pinto, Shelley Washington, George Lewis, inti figgis-vizueta, Kate Soper, Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Mark Applebaum and Peter Eötvös.
Frey’s compositions, described as “an agonizingly beautiful meditation on the Romantic style” (I Care if You Listen) and “the work of an intelligent composer who not only knows her craft, but the ways to exploit her expert knowledge of the possibilities of the instruments to great advantage” (New York Concert Review), have been performed by the Rhythm Method, RE:duo, Arco Belo, Adrianne Munden-Dixon, Leah Asher, and Kal Sugatski.
Carrie is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.) the Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Performance Program (M.M.), and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (D.M.A.). Her mentors throughout her studies have included Kathryn Dey, Peter Slowik, Nadia Sirota, Danielle Farina, and Daniel Phillips. She lives in Brooklyn.
TICKETS
Walk-ins welcome but RSVP suggested! Free event with optional donation.
Donations help support our community space on Governors Island. The Glass Clouds Ensemble presents and hosts free concerts, artist residencies, and interactive installations every weekend from May through October, and we greatly appreciate your support!