Quodlibet Ensemble And Countertenor Reginald Mobley Perform Concert Raising Awareness For Voters Rights

Quodlibet Ensemble and countertenor Reginald Mobley are featured in Coming Together, a digital world premiere film available to watch Thursday, October 1, 2020 at 5pm ET through Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2020 at 5pm ET, that traces a journey from struggle to hope amidst challenging times. Co-presented by Five Boroughs Music Festival, Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC), Tippet Rise Art Center, and Bay Chamber Concerts, the 60-minute film begins with Frederic Rzewski's Coming Together for narrator and ensemble with text by Samuel Melville, one of the leaders of the revolt against police brutality at Attica Prison in 1971; followed by a set of four songs and spirituals by Florence Price, starting with uncertainty and looking to God for strength; and J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 54, Widerstehe doch der Sünde, which urges the listener to stay true to the righteous path, despite temptation. Watch the trailer for Coming Together: https://vimeo.com/460332727

The musical collaboration was curated by Quodlibet Ensemble's Artistic Director Katie Hyun and created for film in collaboration with Mobley, both passionate advocates for social and political justice. Coming Together was recorded at remote locations and at BAC in September 2020, one of the very first ensemble recordings made in New York City after shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rzewski was recorded and filmed by each performer individually and edited by Paul Wiancko and Katie Hyun and the Price and Bach were recorded and engineered by Noriko Okabe. Lighting design is by Joe Levasseur.

The film was conceived by Hyun, violinist and founder of Quodlibet, and filmed by Pastor Isaac Scott, an award-winning social impact multimedia artist and human rights activist and a Fellow at the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School, whose passion for human rights comes as a result of being directly affected by the criminal justice system and its disenfranchising nature. For this project, Pastor Scott was assisted by Pastor Kairi Chapman.

The project is in partnership with VOTESart, a non-partisan organization founded by two members of Quodlibet, Rebecca Anderson and Alex Fortes, which uses music to promote voter registration and creative civic engagement. The film features information about voting and connects viewers with voter registration and voter information resources.

Program Information

Coming Together (Digital World Premiere)
Co-Presented by Five Boroughs Music Festival, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Tippet Rise Art Center, and Bay Chamber Concerts
Thursday, October 1, 2020 at 5pm ET - Tuesday, November 3, 2020 at 5pm ET
Tickets: Free
How to Watch:
www.bacnyc.org
www.5bmf.org
www.tippetrise.org
www.baychamberconcerts.org

Featuring:
Frederic Rzewski - Coming Together (1972) based on a text by Samuel Melville
Reginald Mobley, narrator
Quodlibet Ensemble (Rebecca Anderson, violin; Alex Fortes, violin; Katie Hyun, violin; George Meyer, violin; Ben Russell, violin; Beth Wenstrom, violin; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Kyle Miller, viola; Hannah Collins, cello; Paul Wiancko, cello; Joe Magar, electric bass)
Edited and produced by Paul Wiancko and Katie Hyun
Florence Price - Bewilderment (Langston Hughes, arr. Alex Fortes)
Florence Price - My Soul's Been Anchored In De Lord (spiritual, arr. George Meyer)
Florence Price - Rise Mourner (spiritual, arr. George Meyer)
Florence Price - I'm Going To Lay Down My Heavy Load (spiritual, arr. Alex Fortes)
J. S. Bach - Cantata BWV 54, Widerstehe doch der Sunde (Just Resist Sin)
Reginald Mobley, countertenor
Quodlibet Ensemble (Alex Fortes, violin; Katie Hyun, violin; George Meyer, violin; Dorothy Kim, viola; George Meyer, viola; Michael Unterman, cello; Max Zeugner, bass; Jeffrey Grossman, organ)
Noriko Okabe, audio engineer
Edited and produced by Katie Hyun and Pastor Isaac Scott

Katie Hyun, video concept
Pastor Isaac Scott, videographer
Pastor Kairi Chapman, videographer
Joe Levasseur, lighting designer

Special thanks to Pedja Muzijevic, Katie Hyun, Alex Fortes, Rebecca Anderson, and Michael Unterman. Produced by Baryshnikov Arts Center, Five Boroughs Music Festival, Quodlibet Ensemble, and VOTESart

About Reginald Mobley
Reginald Mobley is one of the most sought after countertenors on both sides of the Atlantic, noted for his "crystalline diction and pure, evenly produced tone" (Miami Herald). Highlights include extensive tours around Europe singing a repertoire encompassing Bach's St. Matthew and St. John Passions with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists led by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. He has also recently been invited to perform with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Internationale BackAkademie Stuttgart, Balthasar-Neuman Choir, Wiener Akademy, Freiburger Barockorchester and Orkiestra Historyczna in Poland.

The remainder of the 2019/20 season would have seen Mobley embark on his first Australian tour to perform with Bach Akademie Australia and Canberra International Music Festival, now postponed to 2022. A recording of Spirituals with piano will be released on the French label, ALPHA CLASSICS. In the United States, Mobley has recently been engaged in recorded concerts with the Washington Bach Consort, Quodlibet Ensemble for the Five Boroughs Music Festival in New York, Pacific MusicWorks in Seattle, Cantata Collective in Berkeley, Bach Collegium San Diego and Agave Baroque. Mobley has been appointed as the first Programming Consultant with the Haendel and Haydn Society in Boston, MA.

 

About Quodlibet
Quodlibet is a collective of creators and string players with the aim to produce creative musical experiences that engage, entertain, and invite people to invest in their communities. To reflect this, Quodlibet has partnered with VOTESart and committed to raising awareness on voters’ rights and registration. The players pursue careers as performing artists in both solo and prominent chamber ensembles that cover a wide range of musical styles, including ACRONYM, New Morse Code, Aizuri Quartet, Diderot String Quartet, Founders, A Far Cry,  American Contemporary Ensemble, NOVUS Trinity and Trinity Baroque Orchestra. In addition to their performing careers, the members also hold teaching positions at the University of Kansas School of Music, visiting artist at the Crane School of Music in SUNY, and Musicambia, an organization dedicated to bringing music education into correctional facilities. Quodlibet Ensemble has performed at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Rockefeller University, the Essex Winter Series, Yale University British Arts Center and Dwight Chapel, the Maxwell Shepherd Arts Fund in Collinsville, CT,  and Spring Glen Church in Hamden, CT. Their debut CD, Quodlibet Ensemble: Concerti Grossi, in which all players adapted gut strings, was released in the fall of 2014.

About Katie Hyun
A winner of Astral Artists’ 2016 National Auditions, violinist Katie Hyun has been described as “a virtuoso by anyone's measure”(The Berkshire Review). She has appeared in numerous festivals, including most recently the American Bach Soloists, Bravo! Vail, Chamber Music Northwest, Tippet Rise Arts Center, the Outer Banks Chamber Music Series, and Mostly Mozart. Ms. Hyun is the founder and director of Quodlibet Ensemble, a collective of string players dedicated to engaging and inviting audiences to invest in their communities. To further that cause, Quodlibet has partnered with VOTESart to raise awareness about voters’ rights and voter registration. Katie also serves on the faculty of Musicambia, an organization that brings music education to correctional facilities.

Ms. Hyun recently made her debut recital with Astral Artists in Philadelphia, where she featured a program that showcased both the Baroque and modern violins. On modern violin, Ms. Hyun serves as concertmaster for NOVUS Trinity Wall Street and regularly performs both solo and chamber music in the New York and Philadelphia area. On Baroque violin, she appears frequently with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra and Seraphic Fire. She has made solo appearances with NOVUS Trinity Wall Street, the Houston Symphony, the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Columbia Festival Orchestra, among others. 

About Paul Wiancko
Paul Wiancko has led an exceptionally multifaceted musical life as a composer and cellist. As a performer, he has collaborated with Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, Nico Muhly, and members of the Guarneri, Takács, JACK, Parker, Orion, and Juilliard quartets. Chosen as one of Kronos Quartet’s “50 for the Future,” Paul’s own music has been described as “dazzling”, “compelling” (Star Tribune) and “vital pieces that avoid the predictable” (Allan Kozinn). His 25-minute quartet LIFT is featured on the Aizuri Quartet’s Grammy-nominated album Blueprinting, one of NPR’s Top 10 Classical Albums of 2018. Learn more at www.paulwiancko.com. 

About Noriko Okabe
Noriko Okabe is a trained classical musician turned recording engineer, aiming to capture the magic of music making. She works with WQXR, and as the concert recording engineer for Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, and Music From Angel Fire in New Mexico, as well as various clients in NYC and Philadelphia. She also freelances in audio related projects, including The Moth, Simon & Schuster Audio, Audible, and Pineapple Street Media.

About Pastor Isaac Scott
Pastor Isaac Scott is an award-winning social impact multimedia artist and human rights activist. He is a Fellow at the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School and Founder & Lead-Artist for The Confined Arts at the Center for Justice at Columbia University, where he spearheads the promotion of justice reform through the transformative power of the arts. His research at Columbia investigates social and institutional methods of dehumanization in the carceral system to decrease punitive triggers in the US criminal justice system. Pastor Scott’s passion for equal human rights runs deep, and comes as a result of being directly affected by the criminal justice system and its disenfranchising nature. Since returning to society in 2013, he's combined fine art, graphic design, and film and media to counter the existing negative narratives of people in prison and of those formerly incarcerated and directly impacted. As a result of the impactful work of The Confined Arts, Pastor Scott received the 2018, 2019, and 2020 Change Agent Award from the School of General Studies at Columbia University, where he currently studies Visual Arts and Human Rights as a Justice in Education Scholar Scholar. Today, Pastor Scott holds the esteemed title of Associate Pastor at God’s Touch Healing Ministry, located in East Harlem, NY, where he serves on Manhattan Community Board 11 on the nomination of City Council Bill Perkins. Learn more at www.isaacsquarterly.com. 

About Pastor Kairi Chapman
Kairi Chapman, a Harlem, New York native, has been a lifelong artist. Chapman's disciplines are in the fine arts tradition with a focus on figurative illustrations using primarily acrylic paint on canvas. He has explored many disciplines in the arts, from watercolors to clay sculptures, body painting, even limited theater performances. Over the past 3 years, Chapman has explored film production as his latest medium – delving into a new frontier of storytelling.

About Joe Levasseur
Lighting designer Joe Levasseur has collaborated with many dance and performance artists, including: Pavel Zuštiak, Jennifer Monson, John Jasperse, Sarah Michelson, Neil Greenberg, Beth Gill, Donna Uchizono, and Brian Brooks. His lighting design work has been seen throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. He has received two ‘Bessie’ Awards and a Knight of Illumination Award for his work on Meredith Monk’s Cellular Songs. Learn more at www.joelevasseur.com. 

About Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF)
Since 2007, Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) has brought virtuosic chamber music performances of the highest caliber to every borough of NYC, cultivating new audiences for the genre and encouraging music lovers to look beyond Manhattan for outstanding performances. Lauded as “imaginative” by The New York Times, “enterprising” by The New Yorker, and “vital” by WQXR’s Operavore blog, 5BMF’s commitment to musical outreach and diverse programming has distinguished it as a standout presence in the New York City arts community from its earliest days.

5BMF’s artist roster of over 250 individual performers and ensembles is comprised of talented emerging artists and distinguished musicians alike, representing an incredibly diverse range of musical genres and styles. Its venues are just as eclectic, and have included performing arts spaces, cultural centers, and historic New York City landmarks such as Federal Hall, Pregones Theater, Flushing Town Hall, King Manor Museum, Brooklyn Historical Society, the Alice Austen House, and the Staten Island Museum, to name merely a few.

As champions of new music, 5BMF has commissioned over 50 composers and presented world premieres of their works all across New York City, most notably the two borough-wide tours of its Five Borough Songbook Volumes I and II. 5BMF’s outreach initiatives continue to expand every year, and have included program-related interactive lectures and discussions, public masterclasses with world renowned performing artists, and free public programming. Learn more at www.5bmf.org. 

About Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC)
Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) is the realization of a long-held vision by artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov who sought to build an arts center in Manhattan that would serve as a gathering place for artists from all disciplines. BAC’s opening in 2005 heralded the launch of this mission, establishing a thriving creative laboratory and performance space for artists from around the world. BAC’s activities encompass a robust residency program augmented by a range of professional services, including commissions of new work, as well as the presentation of performances by artists at varying stages of their careers. In tandem with its commitment to supporting artists, BAC is dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary,innovative work at affordable ticket prices. For more information visit bacnyc.org.

About Tippet Rise Art Center
Tippet Rise Art Center is located in Fishtail, Montana against the backdrop of the Beartooth Mountains, roughly midway between Billings and Bozeman and just north of Yellowstone National Park. Set on a 12,000-acre working sheep and cattle ranch, Tippet Rise hosts classical music performances and exhibits large-scale outdoor sculptures. Tippet Rise is anchored in the belief that art, music, architecture, and nature are inextricably linked in the human experience, each making the others more powerful. For more information about Tippet Rise, please visit www.tippetrise.org. 

About Bay Chamber Concerts
Based in Rockport, Maine, Bay Chamber Concerts is dedicated to transforming lives through high-quality concert programs, music education and innovative community engagement. With a rich, 60-year history of presenting concerts in Mid-Coast Maine, Bay Chamber’s programming features renowned artists and ensembles throughout the year and in annual summer concert series and festivals. The organization also offers year-round lessons and classes for all ages through its community music school. For more information, visit www.baychamberconcerts.org.