Hear music where women reclaim voices lost, with works by Frances White, Shelley Washington, and Eve Beglarian. Plus, Lucy Dhegrae sings Caleb Burhans’ “No.”
Listen to music for voice and electronics from mezzo-soprano Lucy Dhegrae by Caleb Burhans, from a work where the only text in the piece is the word "no." It’s from The Processing Series, at National Sawdust where she was an Artist in Residency for the 2019-2020 season. The series came from Dhegrae’s own experience of losing her voice following a sexual assault - and how she was eventually able to sing again, after having processed the trauma.
There’s also music from a chamber opera for solo voice and electronic sound by Frances White, She Lost Her Voice That’s How We Knew. It’s a collaboration with soprano Kristin Norderval and Valeria Vasilevski, who directed and wrote the libretto, and features Elizabeth Brown's shakuhachi playing as part of the electronic score. The piece forms an interior drama where multiple voices have been silenced, yet there is also a sense of multiple listeners hearing these voices.
Then, hear “BIG Talk” by Shelley Washington together with José Antonio Zayas Cabán on baritone saxophones. It’s Washington’s personal response to the prevalence of rape culture (cat-calling, sexual harassment, and the like.) Washington says that she “carefully considered the everyday endurance of a constant barrage of physical and verbal abuse, how we as women bear the brunt of the cultural burden, how we are expected to silently maintain physical and emotional poise” and how sick of it she is. The piece intends to send a message to “stop perpetuating rape culture by any and every means necessary” (Bandcamp.) - Caryn Havlik
#4300: Women's Voices, Unsilenced (First aired 11/20/2019)
ARTIST: Lucy Dhegrae
WORK: Caleb Burhans: No [1:00]
RECORDING: Rehearsal recording, National Sawdust
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: The work appears on roomfulofteeth.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Frances White | Libretto by Valeria Vasilevski, for Kristin Norderval, soprano & Elizabeth Brown, shakuhachi
WORK: She Lost Her Voice That's How We Knew- V [6:00]
RECORDING: She Lost Her Voice That's How We Knew
SOURCE: Ravello / Parma RR 7915
INFO: ravellorecords.com
ARTIST: Lucy Dhegrae
WORK: Caleb Burhans: No [6:08]
RECORDING: Rehearsal recording, National Sawdust
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: The work appears on roomfulofteeth.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Frances White | Libretto by Valeria Vasilevski, for Kristin Norderval, soprano & Elizabeth Brown, shakuhachi
WORK: She Lost Her Voice That's How We Knew- VI [7:49]
RECORDING: She Lost Her Voice That's How We Knew
SOURCE: Ravello / Parma RR 7915
INFO: ravellorecords.com
ARTIST: Orchestra of the League of Composers | Louis Karchin, conductor
WORK: Beglarian: Waiting for Billy Floyd [10:42]
RECORDING: Recorded live @ Miller Theatre at Columbia University, June 17, 2013
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: Eve Beglarian’s River Project here: evbvd.com/brim
ARTIST: Frances White | Libretto by Valeria Vasilevski, for Kristin Norderval, soprano & Elizabeth Brown, shakuhachi
WORK: She Lost Her Voice That's How We Knew- VII [4:09]
RECORDING: She Lost Her Voice That's How We Knew
SOURCE: Ravello / Parma RR 7915
INFO: ravellorecords.com
ARTIST: Shelley Washington & José Antonio Zayas Cabán
WORK: BIG Talk, excerpt [1:50]
RECORDING: BIG Talk
SOURCE/INFO: shelleywashington.bandcamp.com