Tag Archives: cimbalom

Invented Folksongs in Rockport

Posted on by
Reply

Rehearsals are in full swing at the Shalin Liu Hall in Rockport, MA for an hour-long concert of my Invented Folksongs, which I’m performing with the Boston-based Ludovico Ensemble. I started writing these songs, which borrow elements from Ukrainian folk music, three years ago after arriving at Princeton University. This is the first time that these songs will be performed together in one show along with the premieres of the brand-new “Walk under the moon” and the radical reworking of an older piece under the new name, “Another meditation on an invented folksong”. The concert will feature Nick Tolle on the cimbalom, a rare beast in North America. I am so grateful to Nick and Rockport Music for inviting me to perform in this amazing space! This is truly amazing!

The concert takes place on Wednesday, May 9 at 7 pm at the Shalin Liu Hall in Rockport, MA. It is free!

Program:

What else can I give him?
Teach your daughters
Another meditation on an invented folksong
Drown in the depth
Walk under the moon

Performers:

Anna Pidgorna, voice
Mike Williams, percussion
Nick Tolle, cimbalom
Yoko Hagino, prepared piano
Gabriella Diaz, violin
Leo Eguchi, cello
Randall Zigler, bass

Unruly Sounds in Princeton

Posted on by
Reply

I am excited to be performing my piece What else can I give him? at the Unruly Sounds Festival taking place tomorrow (Sunday, Oct 2) outside of the Princeton Public Library in Princeton, NJ. I will be joined by Nick Tolle (cimbalom), Mark Eichenberger (percussion) and Florent Ghys (bass), who premiered the piece with me in December 2015. We are welcoming a new violinist, Andie Springer, for this performance.

The festival is free and will run from 12:30 to 7:00 pm. I will be performing around 2:00 pm. The rain location is inside the public library’s community room. For more info on the festival, visit this Facebook page.

What else can I give him? is part of a growing cycle of pieces I call ‘invented folksongs’ – pieces which draw heavily from the Ukrainian folksong tradition and marry it with a more contemporary compositional approach. Here’s a recording of the premiere performance with super duper violinist Courtney Orlando:

Leading up to the festival, composer-vocalist Annika Socolofsky and I got to visit Community Park Elementary school to chat and play with some kids in grades 4 and 5. Annika showed them some really cool ways to use their voices, and I told them about my upcoming opera Wild Dogs. We did some great howling, yipping, barking, chirping and croaking together. The kids made particularly great frogs hoping up with every “Enid” croak. I’ve never done something like this before and was surprised at how much fun I had with the kids.