Tag Archives: women

Nova Pon and the Mother and Child Reunion


Redshift TK 546 (also available on Bandcamp)

I’ve written before (and likely will again) about the disturbing lack of attention given to new classical composers from Canada. Nova Pon (1983- ) is a Canadian born and educated artist who was awarded an “Emerging Composer” award back in 2015 here, in this release, shows herself to be a composer who has emerged and continues to develop substantial works that are easily approached yet quite original. The two works on this disc (released just last year) are the work of a mature and evolving artist from my neighbor to the north (not the 51st U.S. State).

The disc begins with World Within (2015), a chamber work of a brief but symphonic dimension that provides the listener with a sonic taste of the composer’s work at the time of that emerging composer award. It is scored for a modestly sized chamber orchestra. The composer describes the work as a musical metaphor describing the visuals of staring into a little sphere (like a terrarium) as well as a metaphor for the experience of deep emotion. It appears to be a set of variations in more or less classical tradition, This concern with visual, emotional, and musical metaphor develop much more substantially in the five movement Symphonies of Mother and Child (2022), the featured work on this fine Redshift Records release.

Ms. Pon shares, in the concise liner notes, the intended metaphorical underpinnings of both works on the disc, and describes each of the five movements of this symphony. The composer invokes the same metaphor that Luciano Berio did in titling his masterful “Sinfonia” of 1968, the original meaning of “sounding together”. In doing so she invokes her connection to the past and the evolving meaning of “symphony”. She also returns to her focus on her internal world contemplating her experiences as a mother. It is ,perhaps, a world known more completely to women who have borne children, but the music does speak universally.

The performance duties are discharged most enthusiastically by Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble under the able guidance of Owen Underhill. This music, I suspect, may not be easy to play but it is a delight to hear. Whether the listener connects with the intended metaphors, their own metaphors, the music, or both, the music and performance here are likely to connect with listeners. This is quite a spectacular release and puts Nova Pon on my musical radar which I will monitor eagerly awaiting this artist’s next effort.

I must also comment on the beautiful album art work by Kathryn Beals which seems to evoke the very images that inspired the composer. No surprise that both album design and liner notes were also the work of Ms. Pon. This is a very personal album that explores themes not often considered in the classical western music traditions, a trend that this writer has noticed lately. As the emerging composer was born and crowned, she now shares her personal experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and nurturing even as she gives birth to some amazing new music. Give a listen. You will be glad you did.

Holes in the Sky, Lara Downes Channels the Collective Artistry of the Feminine


downesholes

Sony/Portrait

Lara Downes has proven herself as a virtuoso pianist in solo, chamber, and with orchestra.  She has demonstrated facility with standard repertoire as well as an intelligent selection of contemporary composers.  In this sort of mid-career place she has begun releasing a more personal kind of album of which this is the third incarnation.  The “series’ to which I refer is the perception of this reviewer, not one defined as such by Ms. Downes but stick with me. Her previous releases have been organized on one level or another on themes just like most album of any stripe.  The difference is a more sociopolitical focus.

One look at the eclectic musical choices here and one sees Downes sharing her spotlight with kindred spirits (composers and performers both) while her themes take on more socially conscious ideas.  The first of these was America Again (2016) which is a beautiful collection of short piano pieces predominantly though not exclusively by black composers.  It is a very personal choice of repertoire reflecting her profound knowledge of the repertoire as well as the neglect of black composers.  The second was Lenny (2018), a tribute to Leonard Bernstein.  It includes a marvelously varied group of guest artists and, much as Lenny did, blurs the line between the “classical” and the “vernacular”.  It was a love song to a cherished artist (this writer included in the cherishing).

She does something similar here in this album whose title is taken, appropriately enough, from Georgia O’Keefe, “I want real things, live people to take hold of, to see, and talk to, music that makes holes in the sky, I want to love as hard as I can.”  In the essay that opens the program booklet Downes speaks briefly of her relationship with women in general and women as composers and as performers.

The album opens with a 1949 piece by Florence Price, a black American composer much of whose whose work has recently been rediscovered and recorded.  Her work was also featured on the America Again album.  This is a mid-century romantic piece for solo piano.

The second track, and the one that hooked this listener big time is this recording of Judy Collins early song, Albatross (1966) which appeared on her album Wildflowers which in turn provided some of the design elements of the album.  The liner notes to the present album also note this connection.

In place of detailed liner notes there is a fascinating conversation between two of the women involved with this album, Lara Downes and Judy Collins.  A lovely black and white portrait is included in the liner notes.  Their discussion centers primarily on the Albatross song but also touches on the nature of political activism in which Downes laments not being active in marches.  Collins tells her (and this writer agrees wholeheartedly) she belongs at the piano.  Indeed her activism, though of a gentler nature, gets ideas out most effectively utilizing her incredible talents as a pianist, historian, and fellow musician.

Rather than go through an analysis of each of these pieces I am simply going to provide a track list.  It appears that this album is designed to be heard and contemplated as a sonic document first and as a research project at a later time (one hopes for more detail at some point because these are interesting pieces).

1. Memory Mist (1949) by Florence Price

2. Albatross (1967) by Judy Collins

3. A Tale of Living Water (2010) by Clarice Assad

4. Dream Variation with Rhiannon Giddens (1959) by Margaret Bonds and Langston     Hughes

5. Ellis Island with Simone Dinnerstein (1981) by Meredith Monk

6. Don’t Explain with Leyla McCalla (1944) by Billie Holiday

7. Willow Weep for Me (1932) by Ann Ronel (arr. by Hyungin Choi)

8. Venus Projection (1990) by Paula Kimper

9. Morning on the Limpopo: Matlou Women (2005) by Paola Prestini

10. Farther from The Heart with Hila Pittman (2016) by Eve Beglarian and Jane Bowles

11. Favorite Color (1965) by Joni Mitchell (arr. by Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum)

12. Noises of Gratitude (2017) by Jennifer Higdon

13. Arroyo, Mi Niña with Mogos Herrera (2018) trad. arr. by Lara Downes

14. Music Pink and Blue (2018) by Elena Ruehr

15. Idyll (1946) by Hazel Scott

16. Blue Piece with Rachel Barton Pine (2010) by Libby Larsen

17. Bloom (2018) by Marika Takeuchi

18. Just for a Thrill with Alicia Hall Moran (1936) by Lil Hardin-Armstrong (arr. by               Hyungin Choi)

19. Agwani (Doves) (2009) by Mary Kouyoumdjian

20. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed (2014) by Georgia Stitt

21. Rainbow (n.d.) by Abbey Lincoln and Melba Liston (arr. by Laura Karpman)

22. All the Pretty Little Horses with Ifetayo Ali-Landing and The Girls of Musicality (Trad. arr. by Lara Downes and Laura Karpman)

In these 22 tracks all the music is by women composers and, most charmingly a selection of women performers who appear as sort of cameos on different tracks.  The music ranges from the mid-twentieth century to the present and embraces a variety of genres (classical, folk, blues, etc.).  The end result is a charming and very intimate document but also one which is somehow gently subversive as it presents the best in musical and performance quality as an acknowledgement of the accomplishments of women in general, (to paraphrase Ms. O’Keefe) making music as hard as they can.