Violinist Kevin Lawrence Performs Rising on the Wings of Dawn
2024-02-24 19:30 (America/New_York) | Watson Hall, UNCSA, 1533 South Main St., Winston-Salem, NC, United States
UNC School of the Arts faculty Violinist Kevin Lawrence performs Rising on the Wings of Dawn on his program with pianist Dmitri Shteinberg. titled Small is Beautiful. Based on the image from Psalm 139, this spiritual music rises from the lowest note of the violin up through the registrar stratosphere over the course of the piece. To learn more, visit the composition page.

Sophie-Justine Herr Performs For the Birds on her Album Release Concert
2024-03-08 20:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Netzwerk Seilerei, Offenbacher Landstraße 190, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Sophie-Justine Herr performs For the Birds in Netzwerk Seilerei in Frankfurt am Main on an album release concert for her album :innen. The program also features music by a number of other noted composers including Elisenda Fábregas, Teresa Grebchenko, Young Pagh-Paan and Kaija Saariaho. The title “:innen” refers to the recently used ending to the base of the word composer, replacing the gendered endings with an inclusive one. Die Komponst:innen” instead of “Komponisten und Komponistinnen”).

The Atar Trio Performs To the Bird from a Distant Land
2024-03-10 20:30 (Asia/Jerusalem) | Sde Boker, Kibbutz Sde Boker 84993
The Jerusalem-based Atar Piano Trio, directed by pianist Ofer Shelley, commissioned a trio, To the Bird from a Distant Land, for their program celebrating the 150th birthday of iconic poet Hayim Bialik. Rather than create a song, I composed a piano trio inspired by his touching poem To the Bird, The bird forms the connecting link from the narrator’s home in the harsher climate of Europe, to the land of Israel, though his location is mentioned only elliptically, and that of the ‘hot land,’ by the reference to Zion. While the narrator nonetheless wonders whether some of the difficulties of his current situation are to be found in Israel as well, the dream of this land, and the hope for a peaceful, welcoming existence there are central. The bird functions as a symbol of Bialik’s flights of imagination.

Boston Choral Ensemble Performs La Frontera
2024-03-16 14:00, 2024-03-16 19:00 (America/New_York) | Multicultural Arts Center (East Cambridge, MA), 41 Second ST., East Cambridge, MA, 02141, United States
The Boston Chorale Ensemble performs La Frontera on its program My Journey Yours: Immigrant Stories on a matinee (2:00 p.m.). and an evening concert (7:00 p.m.) at the Multicultural Arts Center in East Cambridge, MA. The program also includes music by Melissa Dunphy and Sydney Guillaume, as well as songs from local immigrant communities. General admission is $25, but there are also $15 for students and seniors, and $10 for children, as well as a Pay what you can option! Boston Choral Ensemble is led by Dr. Katherine Chan, and is working to create a more diverse choral scene in the Boston region.

Atlanta Young Singers Premieres La Frontera Treble Chorus Version
2024-03-16 20:00 (America/New_York) | Church at Ponce and Highland, 1085 Ponce de Leon Ave., Atlanta
The Atlanta Young Singers, with their innovative conductor Paige Mathis, premieres the version of La Frontera for SSAA choir + piano on their program Beyond Borders at the Church at Ponce and Highland in Atlanta, GA on 3/16 at 3:00 p.m. La Frontera (The Border) is a poem by an undocumented immigrant youth held in an American maximum-security detention center. Sadly, we cannot know the identity of the author due to governmental restrictions. I was drawn to set this poem because it captures the stark realities of the immigration process as well as the powerful desire to immigrate to America. Given the frequent cruelty in the treatment of immigrants, I wanted both to bear witness to the problem and to help bring more attention to the issues of immigration. For more information, visit the composition page here.

The Piedmont Duo Premieres & Records Mariola
2024-03-22 20:00 (America/New_York) | Old Cabell Hall, Room B018, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, United States

Canta la Sal at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee
2024-04-05 20:00 (America/New_York) | Seully Hall, Boston Conservatory, 8 Fenway, Boston, MA, United States
Canta da Sal, scored for horn, cello and piano, was inspired by initial discussions with hornist Anne Howarth followed by Pablo Neruda’s vivid poem Oda a la sal. It is a co-commission of Anne Howarth, the Juventas New Music Ensemble and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and is funded in part by the Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Program of the International Horn Society. The Neruda poem eloquently speaks of salt, its connection to the sea and to life, to its song as it is mined and as it moves through the entire chain of life. Salt is both necessary for life, and can destroy it, as in the siege of Carthage, or throughthe malfunction of our own bodies. We laugh and cry and shed salty tears. Salt is within us and of us.

Mehrdad Gholami Performs Ruah
2024-05-03 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Performing Arts Center, Western Washington University, 516 High Street, Bellingham, Washington
Mehrdad Gholami, who performed Ruah with the Aspen Contemporary Players, will perform with the Western Washington University Symphony Orchestra, led by Dr. Ryan Dudenbostel. Ruah (the ‘h’ is guttural, as in the German ‘ch’) is a Hebrew word that translates as air, wind, or breath. In Cabalistic mysticism, it also refers to the part of the soul that mediates between the body and the spirit. Both the colloquial and spiritual meanings are at work here. The images of breath and air inform the timbral stretching of the flute’s sound, with the flutist using the voice and its breath flow in conjunction with played tones. The program also features Mozart’s Symphony No. 39, K. 543, Charles Halka’s Son of Scherzo and Disposition, by Colin Marks. Livestream here!

I-Jen Fang Performs Adventure on Mt. Hehuan
2024-06-02 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | The Quarry Gardens, 1643d Salem Rd., Schyler, VA, United States
Dynamic percussionist I-Jen Fang performs Adventure on Mt. Hehuan at the beautiful Quarry Gardens at Schyler on June2,4,6 & 8 on the program from 6:00 – 7:00. The program includes operatic, artsong, folk, spiritual and contemporary music from operatic greats, such as Verdi & Wagner, art song by Copland and Schubert, as well as contemporary pieces by Shatin and Hill. The venue is in a natural ampitheater, with more info here. The program was organized by the ever-innoative and excellent Victory Hall Opera. You can picnic before and enjoy the natural setting! Rain date 6/3.

I-Jen Fang Performs Adventure on Mt. Hehuan
2024-06-04 18:00 (America/New_York) | The Quarry Gardens, 1643d Salem Rd., Schyler, VA, United States
Dynamic percussionist I-Jen Fang performs Adventure on Mt. Hehuan at the beautiful Quarry Gardens at Schyler on June 2,4,6 & 8 on the program from 6:00 – 7:00. The program includes operatic, artsong, folk, spiritual and contemporary music from operatic greats, such as Verdi & Wagner, art song by Copland and Schubert, as well as contemporary pieces by Shatin and Hill. The venue is in a natural ampitheater, with more info here. The program was organized by the ever-innoative and excellent Victory Hall Opera. You can picnic before and enjoy the natural setting! Ran date 6/5.

I-Jen Fang Performs Adventure on Mt. Hehuan
2024-06-06 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | The Quarry Gardens, 1643d Salem Rd., Schyler, VA, United States
Dynamic percussionist I-Jen Fang performs Adventure on Mt. Hehuan at the beautiful Quarry Gardens at Schyler on June 2,4,6 & 8 on the program from 6:00 – 7:00. The program includes operatic, artsong, folk, spiritual and contemporary music from operatic greats, such as Verdi & Wagner, art song by Copland and Schubert, as well as contemporary pieces by Shatin and Hill. The venue is in a natural ampitheater, with more info here. The program was organized by the ever-innoative and excellent Victory Hall Opera. You can picnic before and enjoy the natural setting! Rain date 6/7.

Sophie-Justine Herr Performs For the Birds on her :innen Concert
2024-06-06 20:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Atelier 21, Jullicher Str. 21, Aachen, Germany
Sophie-Justine Herr performs For the Birds in Netzwerk Seilerei in Frankfurt am Main on an album release concert for her album :innen. The program also features music by a number of other noted composers including Elisenda Fábregas, Teresa Grebchenko, Young Pagh-Paan and Kaija Saariaho. The title “:innen” refers to the recently used ending to the base of the word composer, replacing the gendered endings with an inclusive one. Die Komponst:innen” instead of “Komponisten und Komponistinnen”).This is the third recording of Shatin’s piece, with previous ones by American cellist Madeleine Shapiro on her album Sounds Nature, and Mexican cellist Iracema de Andrade on Voces Electroacústicas.

Sophie-Justine Herr performs For the Birds
2024-06-07 18:00 (America/New_York) | Garbsen bel Hannover, Homeyers Hof, Frielinger Str. 12, Garbsen

World Premiere: Ice Becomes Water (Amp. St. Qt. & Electronics)
2024-06-07 19:30 (America/New_York) | New Music on the Point, 1361 Hooker Rd., Leicester, Vermont
Ice Becomes Water is a lament on the tragic melting of glaciers in our Anthropocene age and a call to change. Originally scored for string orchestra and electronics, this version is reimagined for string quartet and the original electronics. Those were developed from field recordings shared by glaciologist Oscar Glowacki, who studies the acoustic signatures of glaciers. As the glaciers melt, they raise sea levels, change currents, and affect the entire web of ecosystems across the world. This performance is by members of the Jack Quartet and cellist Jaeyoung Chong.

I-Jen Fang Performs Adventure on Mt. Hehuan
2024-06-08 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | The Quarry Gardens, 1643d Salem Rd., Schyler, VA, United States
Dynamic percussionist I-Jen Fang performs Adventure on Mt. Hehuan at the beautiful Quarry Gardens at Schyler on June 2,4,6 & 8 on the program from 6:00 – 7:00. The program includes operatic, artsong, folk, spiritual and contemporary music from operatic greats, such as Verdi & Wagner, art song by Copland and Schubert, as well as contemporary pieces by Shatin and Hill. The venue is in a natural ampitheater, with more info here. The program was organized by the ever-innoative and excellent Victory Hall Opera. You can picnic before and enjoy the natural setting! Rain date 6/9

World Premiere: Forest Music
2024-06-15 15:00 (America/New_York) | The Falls of Lana Trail, Salisbury, United States
I composed Forest Music for the participants of the 2024 season of New Music On The Point, the summer program in Dunsmore, Vermont,in response to composer/director Juraj Kojs’s imaginative theme, Artphibian. Forest Music was inspired by five of the most common, yet magnificent, trees in this area: sugar maple, white ash, paper birch, Eastern hemlock and Eastern white pine. This is a guided improvisation piece, with performer-chosen instrumentation and music that traces the growth cycle of these trees from seeds to leave, roots and bark, and their interaction with the surrounding ecosystem. It is part of my Quotidian series, with music inspired by the natural and built world that can be performed by performers at all levels. Participants in New Music on the Point premiered Forest Music on the Falls of Lana Trail in Salisbury, VT. Versions are in preparation for all growth regions in the US.

Yooh Jung Huh Performs Fasting Heart on Newly Published Music Competition Winners Concert
2024-08-01 13:15 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, 900 E. Market St., San Antonio
Flutist Yoon Jung Huh performs Fasting Heart for solo flute at the 2024 National Flute Association conventin in San Antonio. Fasting Heart, was inspired by the Taoist discipline “hsin chai.” As Professor Kaltenmark explains in his Lao Tzu and Taoism, this is a technique of purification in which one transcends the act of listening with the heart (or mind) to listen with the breath (or soul). Fasting Heart embodies a journey in which contemplative motion is twice interrupted by outbursts. The timbral colors juxtapose qualities of breath and voice with these. Extended techniques developed by the composer combine timbres of the voice and flute. The opening, for example, combines singing and humming into the instrument, with silent trilling that creates a fluttering effect. The flute resonates the sound in a warm and haunting way. Fasting Heart was recorded by Patricia Spencer on her CD of music by Musgrave and Shatin, called Narcissus and Kairos, on the Neuma label (CD 450-95). For more information visit here.

Sophie-Justine Herr Performs For the Birds on her :innen Album Program
2024-08-19 20:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Meldorfer Dom, Meldorf, Nordermarkt 19, Meldorf, Germany

Staunton Music Festival Features Marvelous Pursuits
2024-08-21 12:00 (America/New_York) | First Presbyterian Church 100 E. Frederick St., Staunton VA, 100 E. Frederick ST., United States
Marvelous Pursuits, scored for vocal quartet and piano 4-hands, is a setting of Barbara Goldberg’s delightful poetry cycle of the same name, in a scoring for vocal quartet and piano 4-hands. The poetry is a post-modern take on love and desire.Commissioned the New York Festival Chamber Players, it is a foil to Brahms’ Liebeslieder and was first programmed with them! I was drawn to these poems for their humor, sonic wordplay, dramatic structure, and lively musicality. And, of course the drama of a man with two mistresses, whose wife is having an affair with the piano tuner~ The internal rhyme is terrific in such pairs as mistresses/tranquillity; gaily/daily; kitchen/perfection; tart/ marzipan; and sherry/Vespers. All of these are chock full of musical inspiration. The poetic structure, with its varied character groupings and the epiphany of the man’s ultimate return to his wife, who is ‘suddenly, irresisbibly dear, suggested a musical denouément as well. For more information, visit the composition page.

Rachael Cohen & Katya Janpoladyan Premiere New Version of Love Song
2024-08-24 13:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Shaler Area Middle School, 1810 Shaler Area Middle School, Glenshaw, PA, 15209, United States
Clarinetist Rachael Cohen & cellist Katya Janpolaydan will premiere a new versin of Love Song composed for them on Steel City Clarinet Day on August 24th. Both are members of the Kassia Ensemble, which commissioned Shatin to compose Kassia, inspired by their namesake, the 9th-century Abbess, hymnographer and poet. Love Song, itself an instrumental of Shatin’s earlier Come Live With Me and Be My Love, brings its own special flavor to this pastoral music in the warm timbres of clarinet and cello.

Violinist Timothy Summers plays Rising on the Wings of Dawn
2024-09-11 20:00 (America/New_York) | Vault Virginia, 300 E Main St., Charlottesville, VA, United States
Timothy Summers will perform Rising on the Wings of Dawn on a special program in Charlottesville’s newest cultural space, located in an old bank. In addition to Shatin’s music, the program includes music by Teleman, Taverner and others. Rising on the Wings of Dawn is a beautiful image drawn found in Psalm 139. I had been partial to this Psalm for some time and previously set verses from it in And Night Will Shine As Day, scored for soprano and organ.You can hear it in advance in this recording by Wendy Case: The Tiger and the Clover. To learn more, visit the composition page here.

Performance of Teruah by Haim Avitsur, Phil Snedecor, Colleagues and Hart School Students
2024-09-22 14:00 (America/New_York) | Mandel Jewish Community Center, 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford, CT, 06117, United States
Teruah, meaning joyous shout, is the title of my piece for shofar, brass ensemble and tympani. Co-commissioned by the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival and the Jewish Commission of Los Angeles in 2006, Teruah celebrates the holiday of Rosh HaShanah. In addition to music inspired by the shofar calls, I have drawn on a beautiful Rosh HaShanah melody, composed by Avraham Tzvi Kubowitzki, the paterna grandfather of my husband Michael Kubovy. The melody’s words are part of the Rosh HaShanah service relating to the blowing of the shofar. They express the hope that the Lord will “understand and listen, look at and pay attention to” our plea. I am grateful to Michael, who heard this as a child, for sharing this melody and dedicate this music to him and his family. I also wish to thank Ron Schneider of the Pittsburgh Symphony for his excellent editorial suggestions. This performance has been organized by trumpeter Phil Snedecor and trombonist Haim Avitsur who will perform with their colleagues and students from the Hartt School. They are also recordingit for a future album. To learn more, or for the score, visit here. And if you want to hear it now, find it on Sound Cloud.

World Premiere of Floes
2024-10-19 20:00 (America/New_York) | Old Cabell Auditorium, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, United States
Floes, in this version for music and video, is the second collaboration between artist SoHyun Bae and composer Judtih Shatin, this time also in collaboraton with choreographer Virginie Mécène, formerly a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Company and currently director of Graham 2. The piece evolved collaboratively, with each sharing work in progress with the others and responding to theirs. The music and video also combine with Mécène’s choreography. Named for the large ice sheets that form on the surface of bodies of water, the sonic and visual elements embody formation, breaking and melting.

Bent Frequency Performs Of Wells & Springs at UCLA
2024-11-03 19:00 (America/New_York) | Schoenberg Hall, UCLA, 445 Charles E. Young Dr. East, Los Angeles, United States
Bent Frequency Duo Project,, which commissioned Of Wells & Springs, performs it at UCLA, on the RESONATE program, a collaboration between the Bent Frequency Duo Project, UCLA Library and UCLA Davise Fund. Of Wells and Springs takes its title (and the spelling of drouth) from environmentalist Wendell Berry’s poem, Water, from his collection, Farming: A Handbook. The poem tells of a terrible drouth, of the narrator’s mother waiting for men to bring water from distant springs, of his fear of recurring drouth and of his love of the water of ‘wells and springs. And, I have added to that the increasing severity of drouths and the obliterating floods that have become devastatingly common. To learn more, visit www.judithshatin.com.

Bent Frequency Duo perform Of Wells & Springs at C4NM
2024-11-08 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Center for New Music, 55 Taylor St., San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
Bent Frequency Duo Project,, which commissioned Of Wells & Springs, performs it at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. Of Wells and Springs takes its title (and the spelling of drouth) from environmentalist Wendell Berry’s poem, Water, from his collection, Farming: A Handbook. The poem tells of a terrible drouth, of the narrator’s mother waiting for men to bring water from distant springs, of his fear of recurring drouth and of his love of the water of ‘wells and springs. And, I have added to that the increasing severity of drouths and the obliterating floods that have become devastatingly common. To learn more, visit www.judithshatin.com.

Piedmont Duo Plays Mariola at CNU
2024-11-08 20:00 (America/New_York) | Diamonstein Concert Hall at Christopher Newport University, 1 Avenue of the Arts, Newport News, VA, United States
The Piedmont Duo, consisting of violist Ayn Balija & percussionist I-Jen Fang, commissioned and recorded Mariola. The title delightfully combines their names and also refers to a hardy shrub that grows in the Southwest of the US and can handle extremely dry conditions. It overcomes them to blossom in the summer with delicate white flowers. This provided a rich metaphor for the compositional process, from pushing ideas into shape to their gradual flourishing. The piece begins with the intensity of seeds taking root and growing. The harmonic anchor gradually changes, ultimately rising a major second as the plants reach the light, culminating in a stratsopheric registral and timbral close. For more information visit www.judithshatin.com.

Kol HaMusica Broadcasts To the Bird from a Different Land
2024-12-19 11:40 (America/New_York) | Kol HaMusica Radio Station, Jerusalem, Israel
Kol HaMusica, the Jerusalem-based station, will broadcast To the Bird from a Different Land for piano trio following the interview with the founder and leader of the Atar Piano Trio who commissioned the piece. They premiered it at Studio Annette in Tel Aviv and it forms part of their Bialk in the Pool touring program. For more information, and to hear the piece, visit the composition page.

Violinist Wanchi Huang Performs For the Fallen
2025-01-24 19:30 (America/New_York) | University Village, 500 Crestwood Dr., Charlottesville, United States
Violinist Wanchi Huang will perfrom For the Fallen on her program Imagining Worlds, celebrating her album release of that name on Navona. Take Effect Reviews notes the ‘’atmosphere of mystery” in For the Fallen, and says that Huang “illuminates the voices of modern American music with an [un]paralleled attention to detail and execution.” If you would like a preview, check it out on spotify, or other streaming services.

Kevin Norton & Jacob Otter Perform Of Wells & Spring
2025-02-23 11:30 (America/New_York) | Cincinnati College Conservatory- Mary Emery Hall 3250, 2600 Clifton Ave., Cincinnati, OH, United States
Saxophonist Kevin Norton, one of the consortium commission for Of Wells & Springs (alto sax and percussion) will perform it with percussionist Jacob Otter at the Region 5 conference of the North American Saxophone Association (NASA) at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory on 2/23/2025 at 11:30 a.m. Of Wells & Springs was inspired by Wendell Berry’s vivid poem Water, about the sweetness of rain after drouth (his spelling). The situation in California, and so many other places where cycles of drouth and flood are increasing, makes the contrast ever more striking! To learn more about Of Wells & Springs, visit here.
