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Share Ekmeles is a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and rarely-heard works, and gems of the historical avant garde. They have a special focus on microtonal works, and have been praised for their “extraordinary sense of pitch” by the New York Times. They are the recipients of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation’s 2023 Ensemble Prize, the first American group to receive the honor.
Description
Wednesday, February 14th, at 7:30PM at The DIMenna Center for Classical Music’s Bezaquen Hall, Ekmeles vocal ensemble gives their annual Valentine’s Day performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s landmark 1968 work Stimmung. The work is a touchstone of 20th century composition, a meditative concert-length work wholly based around a single tone and its acoustically tuned overtones. The spirit of the 60s is present not only in the work’s experimental striving, but also its personal eroticism, which inspired Ekmeles’s Valentine’s Day tradition and the title and motto for the event: Stimmung is for lovers.
Stimmung translates literally to “tuning”, and also can refer to “atmosphere” or “harmony”, encompassing both the theoretical focus of the work, and its meditative aspects. Composed while Stockhausen was living on Long Island Sound in Connecticut, Stimmung is a captivating balance between intellectual rigor and spiritual exploration. The pitch material of the work is derived from a single low Bb, overtones of which the singers articulate on pulsing rhythmic patterns of vowels. Treating each of the overtones of this fundamental Bb as new fundamentals on which to produce overtones, Stockhausen multiplies the timbral possibilities of the work into the hypnotic and rich textures it is known for.
Director and baritone Jeffrey Gavett will be joined by soprano Charlotte Mundy, mezzo soprano Elisa Sutherland, contralto Kirsten Sollek, tenor Andrew Fuchs, and bass Steven Hrycelak.
Date & Time
Wed, Feb 14, 2024 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Venue Details
The DiMenna Center
450 West 37th StreetNew York, New York 10018
