Works from Aaron Copland, Debussy and Nick DiBerardino

This week’s program features works from American composer Aaron Copland, Debussy and Curtis graduate Nick DiBerardino (Composition ’18). Nick is currently one of the Curtis Institute of Music 2018-19 Community Artist Fellows.

Copland: Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson
Sophia Fiuza Hunt, mezzo-soprano; Grant Loehnig, piano
American composer Aaron Copland completed Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1950 for voice and piano. ‘The Chariot,’ the last song in the cycle was the first poem by Emily Dickinson that caught Copland’s attention. He continued to add songs and ended up with twelve. Sophia Fiuza Hunt is currently in her fourth year at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Debussy: Sonata in D minor
Chase Park, cello; Linzi Pan, piano
Claude Debussy wanted to write ‘six sonatas for various instruments,’ but he was only able to complete three. The sonata for Cello and Piano completed in 1915 was one of the last three sonatas that Debussy wrote before his death in 1918. It is a large part of the cello repertoire and is referred to as a masterpiece written for the cello. The movements are Prologue: Lent, Sérénade: Modérément animé—and Finale: Animé.

Nick DiBerardino: Otherworldly Air
Lun Li, violin; Abigail Fayette, violin; Kunbo Xu, viola; Zachary Mowitz, cello
Nick DiBerardino is an American composer of orchestral, chamber and vocal music. Otherworldly Air was written in 2017 for a string quartet. Nick says, “the players are asked to play in unusually high ranges and with the somewhat unorthodox color of molto sul ponticello playing.”