Nadia Sirota, Viola

75th Anniversary Celebration Event

SUNDAY CONCERTS

January 24, 2016, 4 PM

Music Room

“A one-woman contemporary classical commissioning machine” (Pitchfork), violist Nadia Sirota performs the second concert of Nico Muhly’s curatorship.

Artist Images

Program

75th Anniversary Celebration Event

“A one-woman contemporary classical commissioning machine” (Pitchfork), violist Nadia Sirota is best known for her singular sound and expressive execution, coaxing works and collaborations with Nico Muhly, Daníel Bjarnason, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Judd Greenstein, and Missy Mazzoli. Her program includes world premieres by Mathew Fuerst and Alex Freeman, Washington premieres by composer-collaborators Bryce Dessner and Richard Reed Parry, plus works by Nico Muhly, Paul Corley, and Daniel Bjarnason.

Program

Nico Muhly (b.1981)
Étude 3 (2013)

Judd Greenstein (b.1979)
In Teaching Others We Teach Ourselves (2012)

Mathew Fuerst (b.1977)
from Sonata (2016)*
Dance
Chorales

Alex Freeman (b.1972)
who listens in the snow (2016)*

Nico Muhly
Keep In Touch (2005)

Intermission

Bryce Dessner (b.1976)
from Delphica (2015)**
I.
II.

Paul Corley (b.1983)
Tristan da Cunha (2013)

Richard Reed Perry (b.1977)
Old Folk (2016)**

Daníel Bjarnason (b.1979)
Sleep Variations (2004, arr. 2011)

* World Premiere
** Washington, DC Premiere

About the Artist

Nadia Sirota’s debut album First Things First (New Amsterdam Records) was named a record of the year by The New York Times, and her follow-up Baroque (Bedroom Community and New Amsterdam) has been called “beautiful music of a higher order than anything else you will hear this year” by SPINMedia website PopMatters.

This season, Nadia premieres both a new concerto written for her by longtime collaborator Nico Muhly and a new podcast, Meet the Composer on Q2 Music, exploring the work of living composers through her interviews and musical selections. She was awarded the 2010 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in Radio and Internet Broadcasting for her previous show on Q2 Music.

Sirota is a member of yMusic, Alarm Will Sound, and ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble), and has lent her sound to recording and concert projects by such artists and songwriters as Grizzly Bear, Jónsi, and Arcade Fire. In 2013 she won Southern Methodist University’s 2013 Meadows Prize, awarded to pioneering artists and scholars with an emerging international profile. She received her undergraduate and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where she performed as co-founder of the AXIOM ensemble, initiated the Castleman/Amory/Huang studio’s New Music Project, and created the Juilliard Plays Juilliard program for student composers and performers. After winning the top prize in Juilliard’s 2005 concerto competition, Sirota performed Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher with conductor Marin Alsop and the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall. As a chamber musician, Sirota has collaborated with such artists as Joseph Kalichstein, Itzhak Perlman, and the Silk Road Ensemble, as well as with members of Kronos Quaret, the Chiara Quartet, and the Peabody Trio. In the fall of 2007, Nadia joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music for its new Masters Program in Contemporary Music Performance.

Artist website

Watch & Listen

Nadia Sirota speaks about her growth and experience as a young musician “bringing new music to new audiences”.

This performance of a piece by Nico Muhly with violist Nadia Sirota and Muhly on piano and electronics is an example of what their program at The Phillips Collection will include.