Issue No. 29: Two World Premieres by Mara Gibson
Last week composer Mara Gibson unveiled world premiere video recordings of two brand-new pieces - the staged song cycle Galatea’s Dream and her bassoon concerto Escher Keys.
From the press release:
Composed in 2020, Escher Keys is a musical work from composer Mara Gibson that continues her long standing passion for drawing inspiration from a variety of artistic mediums. Inspired by the lithographs of MC Escher, Gibson explores timbral and attack possibilities between the bassoon and orchestra blurring the similar timbres through formal inversion and the investigation of negative/positive space. This process also resulted in a work that gives great room for bassoon soloist Darrel Hale to interpret his perception of the artwork in performance. Each movement juxtaposes traditional and non-traditional relationships between Hale interjecting his statements and the orchestra responding with atmospheric tessellations under the baton of Scott Terrell.
Gibson’s staged song cycle, Galatea’s Dream, also investigates evolving interpretations. Through a collaboration spanning five years, Gibson composed three songs for mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen in unique duo combinations with viola in One Voice, bassoon in White Ash, and saxophone in The Clockmaker’s Doll. Gibson deftly reimagined these works into a song cycle staged by Rachel M. Harris and performed by Ihnen alongside violist Kimberly Sparr, bassoonist Darrel Hale, and saxophonist Alan Theisen for this world premiere broadcast.
I was fortunate to perform as a part of Galatea’s Dream alongside astonishing performers and a superb creative team.
Listen to both pieces here.
About the composer: Mara Gibson composes works that are ethereal yet deliberate, intense without being frantic. Whether inspired by poetry, visual art, or the ineffable human emotion, Gibson experiments with alternative sounds and morphs forms of artistic expression into daring, musical odysseys. Originally from Charlottesville, VA, Gibson graduated from Bennington College and completed her Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo. She also attended London College of Music as well as L’École des Beaux-Arts in Fontainebleau, France and the International Music Institute at Darmstadt, Germany. She has earned grants and honors from the American Composer’s Forum; the Banff Center; Louisiana Division of the Arts; Arts KC; Meet the Composer; the Kansas Arts Commission National Endowment for the Arts; the International Bass Society; ASCAP, the John Hendrick Memorial Foundation; Virginia Center for the Arts; and Yale University. Recently, she enjoyed a residency at the MacDowell Colony and was awarded an ATLAS grant through the Louisiana Board of Regents for her bassoon concerto Escher Keys. Internationally renowned ensembles and soloists perform her music throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Australia, Asia, and Europe.