The series will present four distinct concerts on Wednesday, November 12; Saturday, February 28; Friday, April 24; and Wednesday, May 20.
“Since its inception five years ago, Soundings has focused on musical innovation. Many of the modern and contemporary works in the series had never before been presented in Dallas, and they consistently surprised, astonished, and delighted our audience. Soundings has also brought to the Nasher extraordinary performances of older works, masterpieces of the Western musical canon. These performances allowed audiences to discover familiar works anew, offering fresh perspectives on the radical and innovative spirit that lies at the heart of artistic creation,” said Nasher Director, Jeremy Strick. “As we celebrate this milestone season with Soundings Artistic Director Seth Knopp, we look forward to new revelations and surprises, to new ways of deepening our appreciation for music.”
Full season ticket packages are now on sale and guarantee seating to all four performances at a discounted rate of $65 for Members and $80 for non-Members. To purchase season tickets, please visit nashersculpturecenter.org/soundings.
2014-2015 Concert Lineup
November 12, 2014, 7:30 pm
Alisa Weilerstein in Recital
Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his six suites for unaccompanied cello in a single year, the same year he wrote his sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin. The enormity of this goes beyond Bach’s ability to compose so prolifically with such sheer beauty and invention. Each of these works seems a miracle of medium, able to realize an unimaginable potential living in a single instrument. Beethoven spoke for all of us when he said, “Das ist nicht ein Bach, das ist ein Meer” (… This is not a brook, this is an ocean.) Alisa Weilerstein opens the Nasher’s 2014-15 Soundings season with a program framed by Bach’s cello suites and exploring the works for solo cello of Zoltán Kodály, Benjamin Britten and Osvaldo Golijov. Individual tickets go on sale on Tuesday, October 7, 2014.
February 28, 2015, 7:30 pm
Music from Yellow Barn: Brett Dean’s String Quartet No.2 (“And once I played Ophelia”) and Arnold Schoenberg’s 2nd String Quartet
Two string quartets with soprano form the cornerstone of this Soundings program. Apart from the superficial pairing of two like ensembles, these are works that both wrestle with the most difficult of human circumstance: betrayal, madness, and suicide. Brett Dean’s examination of the plight of Shakespeare’s Ophelia and Schoenberg’s expression of his own very painful biography in the composition of his 2nd string quartet introduce the elements of objectivity and subjectivity in how we create and experience art. Brett Dean, a longtime member of the Berlin Philharmonic’s viola section, will be a part of the string quartet led by violinist Anthony Marwood and joined by soprano Allison Bell. Individual tickets go on sale on Tuesday, January 6, 2015.
April 24, 2015, 7:30 pm
Music from Yellow Barn: Percussionist Ian Rosenbaum and the Parker String Quartet
The play of tension and release is a vitally important element in our experience of music, and tonality, the hierarchical relationship between pitches or harmonies, is one framework that guides us. Much is asked of an audience experiencing new work with sounds that are less familiar, but the ear is quick and can adapt to new sounds when context is there to guide us. Percussionist Ian Rosenbaum and the Parker String Quartet lead us on a sonic adventure through tonalities at once ancient and new, sculpted by Bach, Beethoven, Berio, Webern and Wood. Individual tickets go on sale on Tuesday, March 3, 2015.
May 20, 2015, 7:30 pm
Music from Yellow Barn: Music on the Brink of War
Since its premiere in 1912, Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire has been regarded by generations of musicians and audiences as an icon of artistic originality. Igor Stravinsky, who knew something of originality, referred to Pierrot as the “solar plexus of twentieth century music”. While Schoenberg embraces new techniques to frame his work and stretch the listener’s imagination, even as he turns to the aesthetics of melodrama in Pierrot, Kurt Weill seeks to frame the realities of modern society with music that reflects its popular culture. Both Schoenberg and Kurt Weill (with dramatist Bertolt Brecht), whose Threepenny Opera, Mahogany, and Happy Days appear alongside the first stirrings of the Second World War, found the cabaret to be an environment well-suited to work that blurred the lines separating art and popular music, and the socialist and capitalist worlds to which their music reacted. Soundings presents an evening devoted to Pierrot Lunaire with soprano Lucy Shelton, and songs of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht with actors Walter van Dyk and Liza Sadovy. Individual tickets go on sale on Tuesday, April 7, 2015.
This concert is presented in partnership with SOLUNA: Dallas International Music & Arts Festival.
Soundings is supported by Charles and Jessie Price and Kay and Elliot Cattarulla.
About Seth Knopp, Artistic Director, Soundings:
Pianist Seth Knopp is a founding member of the Peabody Trio, recipient of the 1989 Naumburg Award. Since making their Alice Tully Hall debut in 1990, the trio has performed on the most important chamber music series, nationally and internationally. Their reputation as champions of new music garnered them an invitation to the first Biennale for contemporary music, Tempus Fugit, in Tel Aviv. The ensemble is in residence at the Peabody Conservatory, where Mr. Knopp serves on the piano and chamber music faculties. He is the Artistic Director of the Yellow Barn, an international chamber music festival, which brings musicians to Putney, Vermont each summer. Seth Knopp studied with Leonard Shure at New England Conservatory, Nathan Schwartz at San Francisco Conservatory, and with Leon Fleisher. His solo and chamber music performances can be heard on the Artek, Koch, and New World Records labels.