VIRTUOSO musician Carmen Troncoso will play no fewer than nine different instruments at Saturday afternoon's York Late Music concert at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York.
Troncoso, a PhD researcher at the University of York, will perform works by York composers Roger Marsh, Jia Chai, Desmond Clarke and Carlos Zamora in her Upwards programme at 1pm.
The concert is so named because Troncoso will be exploring a theme of upwards in an "an insistent attempt to go upwards, to let the sounds take off, overcoming the limits of the instrument’s range, while the power of the words and voice drives the lines downwards," she says.
Joining her will be Lynette Quek and Desmond Clarke on electronics, while Troncoso's instruments will include two unique electro-acoustic models as she explores and expands the recorder’s limits with new music for recorder and electronics.
Troncoso has adapted Roger Marsh’s 1994 solo voice work A Little Snow for voice and flute recorder and will perform his 2017 piece Coppel too. Jia Chai’s new work, Let The Spring Breeze Enter…, will be given its world premiere this weekend, welcoming the spring with a collection of vibrant techniques.
Desmond Clarke’s multi-movement 2016 work Recordari innovatively combines old and new repertoires, instruments, and styles; Carlos Zamora's solo pieces, Momento, from 2016, and Taking Off From The Orchestra, from 2017, will conclude this lunchtime concert.
Later in the day, the Late Music Ensemble will celebrate composer Thea Musgrave’s 90th birthday year with her solo works for flute, cello and piano, plus music related by themes of friendship and celebration.
Taking part in this 7.30pm concert will be flautist Jennifer Cohen, pianist Alice Masterson, cellist William Descrettes, electronics player Lynette Quek and
ensemble director James Whittle.
Musgrave studied with Nadia Boulanger for four years in Paris before emigrating to the United States in 1972 and her programme will include Boulanger's Three Pieces for Cello and Piano from 1914. Three of Musgraves' own compositions will feature too: Narcissus, for solo flute and digital delay, from 1987; D.E.S. – In Celebration for solo cello, from 2016, and Snapshots, for solo piano, from 2009.
Reflective qualities can be found in the music of Musgrave’s fellow Scot, Martin Suckling, who celebrates the poetry of George Bruce in Three Venus Haiku, for cello and piano, from 2009.
American composer Joseph Kudirka's 21st Century Music, from 2008, and the world premiere of York St John University student Thomas Crawley's Movement, for trio, respond to the world today.
Bohuslav Martin?'s Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano, from 1944, is marked by lightness of heart and good cheer, unlike much of his music written during the war years, having moved from Prague to Paris in 1923, then to New York in 1941.
James Whittle will reflect on Thea Musgraves' music in a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm, with free entry and a complimentary glass of wine or juice. Tickets
for each concert are available at latemusic.org or on the door.
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