Flutist Laura Falzon together with contralto Christina Ascher and cellist Ted Mook will perform the World Premiere of Alice Shields‘s work Komachi at Sekidera, and the US Premiere of Dai Fujikura‘s work Still Sweet… at The Tank in New York City, NY on Nov 18th 2010
Komachi at Sekidera, for contralto, alto flute and cello with words and music by New York composer Alice Sheilds, is based on the Japanese Noh play Sekidera Komachi by Kanze Motokiyo Zeame (1363-1443). The protagonist of the Noh play, Ono no Komachi, was a woman famous for her poetry and her beauty, who lived at the Heian court in 9th-century Japan. She became a legend after her death, and many stories have accumulated around the few known biographical facts about her life.
In Still Sweet… for contralto, bass flute and cello, Dai Fujikura, born in Osaka, Japan and based in London, UK, creates a delicate, filigree texture in which the voice is often treated instrumentally. Short surges of vocalism and emotion reveal the text by Harry Ross.