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

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.

Violinist Wanchi Huang Performs For the Fallen
2025-02-08 19:30 (America/New_York) | Garth Newel Music Center, 403 Garth Newel Ln., Hot Springs, VA, 24445
Violinist Wanchi Huang will perfrom For the Fallen on her program Imagining Worlds, celebrating her album release of that name on the Navona label. 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.” Garth Newel Music Center host wonderful programs throughout the year, with their piano quartet in residence as well as guest performers and ensembles. And if you want a preview, check it out on spotify, or on other streaming services.

Saxophonist Kevin Norton and Percussionist Jacob Ottmer Perform Of Wells & Springs
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 commissioners for Of Wells and Springs, will perform it with percussionist Jacob Ottmer at the North American Saxo[hone Alliance, Region 5. gathering at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music on February 23 at 11:30 a.m. in Mary Emery Hall 3250. The lead commissioners, members of Bent Frequency premiered it on their 20th anniversary concert at Georgia State University in Atlanta. The piece was inspired by Wendell Berry’s poem Water, about the joy of rain after drouth. At this point in our changing climate, we are in an ever-intensifying cycle of drouth and flood. He captures the vivid worry of drouth and the sweetness of its end. The poetry was the jumping-off point of the music and can be said to be a sonic reading of the poem. For more information visit here.

Pianist Dale Tsang Performs Scirocco
2025-02-22 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Berkeley Piano Club, 2724 Haste ST., Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Pianist Dale Tsang, formerly a member of Ensemble For These Times (E4TT) returns to perform Scirocco and 10 other contemporary piano pieces chosen through the organizations score call. Originally composed for and premiered by pianist Mary Kathleen Ernst, this short quick-silver piece is named for the wind that sweeps from the the Sarhar or Arabian desert into North Africa and Southern Europe. E4TT previously commissioned and premiered A Line-Storm Song, a setting of Robert Frost’s poem of that name for soprano and piano. A version is now available for baritone and piano as well.

Pianist Dale Tsang Performs Scirocco
2025-03-02 16:00 (America/New_York) | SF Music Center, 544 Capp St., San Francisco, United States

Pianist Tali Morgulis Performs Chai Variations on Eliahu HaNavi
2025-03-06 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Dudley Recital Hall, University of Houston, 3333Cullen Boulevard, Houston, TX, 77204, United States
Pianist Tali Morgulis performs Chai Variations on Eliahu HaNavi at Houston University’s Dudley ’s Recital Hall. Composed at Brahms Haus in Baden-Baden, this set of 18 variations iwas inspired by the folk song Eliahu Ha Navi (Elijah the Prophet). The letters of of “Chai,” which means “life” or “living” in Hebrew, symbolically stand for the number 18; hence, 18 variations. I decided to give the performer a choice regarding the ordering of the variations as a reflection of my sense of performance as a collaboration between performer and composer (and, for that matter, listener). It also reflects a dynamic conception of musical form. This means that there are 18! Or 6,402,373,705,728,000 possible orderings. For an advnance taste of the results, check out Nathan Cartwerette’s wonderful video, or Mary Kathleen Ernst’s terrific interpretation on her album Keeping Time. Colin Clarke wrote “ This is a magnificent piece of piano music that should be in many, many pianists’ reperotire (Fanfare Issue 44:2).

Interview on WTJU 91.1 FM A New Sound
2025-03-16 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | VA
William Neil, host of A New Sound, interviews Judith about her music and plays a variety of selections, including Glyph, for solo viola, string quartet and more. Examples will come from her extensive catalogue of chamber, electroacoustic and choral music. Such popular selections as Adonai Ro’i, her setting of Psalm 23, will be included, as will music from For the Birds, for amplfied cello and electronics fashioned from bird song.

Floes dance debuts at the Martha Graham Studio
2025-03-18 19:00, 2025-03-19 19:30 (America/New_York) | Martha Graham Studio Theatre, 55 Bethune St., Manhattan, 10014, United States
Choreographer Virginie Mecene, artist SoHyun Bae and Judith Shatin collaborated to create Floes, a inspired by ice floes – free-floating flat ice chunks that are becoming thinner due to climate change, and their movements are accelerating. This theme was front of mind as we collaborated on the piece, each sharing her work with the others as we built this piece.

Clarinetist Özlem Kolat gives the Turkish premiere of 3 Shatin Pieces
2025-03-28 20:00 (Europe/Istanbul) | Çanakkale Mahal Art Hall, Çanakkale, Turkey
Clarinetist Özlem Kolat gives the Turkish premiere of Cherry Blossom and a Wrapped Thing; After Hokusai, Grito del Corazón and Penelope’s Song at the Çanakkale Mahal Art Hall on 3/28, with additional performances of this grouping on her upcoming recitals in Istanbul in April and in Ankara at the Bilkent Concert Hall in May.
Cherry Blossom and a Wrapped Thing, commissioned by F. Gerard Errante, was inspired by a mysterious print of the same name in a musuem of Hokusai’s prints in Tokyo. Shatin and Errante are long-term collaborators, and he also contributed to the transformation of Penelope’s Song for clarinet and electronics. Grito del Corazón will be performed with the video by Kathy Aoki, while the music combines electronics with a guided improv score.

Piedmont Duo Performs Mariola
2025-03-29 11:15 (America/New_York) | Bridgewater College, Bridgewater Collegge, Bridgewater, VA, United States
Violist Ayn Balija and Percussionist I-Jen Fang, aka the Piedmont Duo, perform Mariola on 3/29 on their program Guiding Light: Music for Viola and Marimba, at the College Music Society MidAtlantic conference. Commissioned and premiered by them, Mariola will appear on their upcoming album. Named for the combination of the 2 instruments, Mariola also refers to a very hardy shrub that grows in the dry southwestern regions of the US. It manages to survive difficult conditions and reaches up through the dry soil, forming delicate white flowers in the summer. This seemed a perfect metaphor not only for the compositional process, but also the situation of contemporary concert music in the US, and of course beyond.

Immigrant, with music by Judith Shatin, with Martha Graham Dance Company
2025-04-03 19:30 (America/New_York) | Joyce Theatre, 175 8th Avenue, Manhattan, NY, 10011, United States
Noted choreogrpaher Virginie Mécène, a Martha Graham dancer who now runs Martha Graham 2, reimagined Martha Graham’s lost piece Immigrant. The original version used music by Arthur Honegger. For hers, Virginie chose music from my Adveture on Mt. Hehuan, for solo bass drum and interactive electronics. The music for the dance was drawn from the recording of the premiere, with star percussionist I-Jen Fang, and Shatin on electronics. You can find more info and links to the premiere performance here. This is one of four performances on the Martha Graham season ‘Dances of the Mind’ at the Joyce Theatre. The others are on April 6 (2:00 p.m.), April 9 (7:30 p.m.) April 13 (2:00 p.m.).

Conductor I-Jen Fang & the UVA Percussion Ensemble Perform Khamsa
2025-04-05 20:00 (America/New_York) | Old Cabell Auditorium, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, United States
Khamsa was commissioned by the UVA Percussion Ensemble and its director I-Jen Fang on the occasion of their tenth anniversary and recorded it on their album Speed of Sound. The title, Khamsa, which means ‘five’ in Arabic, refers to an ancient palm-shaped amulet that has been used as a sign of protection against the ‘evil eye.’ It has meaning in all three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, though it predated all of them. During a time of turmoil in the Mideast and Africa, still ongoing, I chose this title and designed a structure based on the five digits as a way of expressing hope for better times ahead, for protection for all people against intolerance based on religious creed and ethnicity. Each of the five members of the quintet represents the fingers of the open palm. The music is intensely dramatic, with powerful gestures to ward off evil. For more information, visit www.judithshatin.com.

Immigrant, with music by Judith Shatin, at the Martha Graham Dance Company
2025-04-06 14:00 (America/New_York) | Joyce Theatre, 175 8th Avenue, Manhattan, NY, 10011, United States
Noted choreogrpaher Virginie Mécène, a Martha Graham dancer who now runs Martha Graham 2, reimagined Martha Graham’s lost piece Immigrant. The original version used music by Arthur Honegger. For hers, Virginie chose music from Shatin’s Adveture on Mt. Hehuan, for solo bass drum and interactive electronics. The music for the dance was drawn from the recording of the premiere, with star percussionist I-Jen Fang, and Shatin on the electronics. You can find more info and links to the premiere performance here. This is one of four performances on the Martha Graham season ‘Dances of the Mind’ at the Joyce Theatre. The others are on April 3 (7:30) April 9 (7:30 p.m.), and April 13 (2:00 p.m.).
