Nadia Sirota and Friends

Program

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL BE POSTPONED.

The Phillips Collection continues to vigilantly monitor the news and information about COVID-19.  As a precautionary measure and in adherence with recommendations by the District of Columbia Health Advisory, we will postpone all museum-sponsored public events through Friday, April 3. The Phillips special exhibits and permanent collection remain open as usual during regular hours.

If a ticket purchaser would like a refund, or in the event of a program cancellation, ticket purchases will be refunded. Please contact reservations@phillipscollection.org for any additional questions. 

New music powerhouse Nadia Sirota returns to the Phillips for a collaboration with violinist Rob Moose and cellist Gabriel Cabezas. Their intelligent and exquisitely balanced program splices together music by some of today’s most dynamic composers with intimate solo works and arrangements of music by J.S. Bach. In a musical meditation that moves seamlessly between the centuries, this performance will include music by Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, Missy Mazzoli, and more.

Program:

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)
Trio Sonata No. 6 in G Major, BWV 530: Vivace

MISSY MAZZOLI (b. 1980)
Lies You Can Believe In

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 
Trio Sonata No. 6 in G Major, BWV 530: Lento

MARCOS BALTER (b. 1974)
Vision Mantra

NICO MUHLY (b. 1981)
Drones and Strings 

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 
Trio Sonata No. 6 in G Major, BWV 530: Allegro

BRYCE DESSNER (b. 1976)
Skrik Trio

About the Artists

Violist Nadia Sirota’s varied career spans solo performances, chamber music, curation, and broadcasting. In all branches of her artistic life she aims to open classical music up to a broader audience. Nadia’s singular sound and expressive execution have served as muse to dozens of composers, including Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Missy Mazzoli, Daníel Bjarnason, Judd Greenstein, Marcos Balter, and David Lang. Nadia won a 2015 Peabody Award, broadcasting’s highest honor, for her podcast Meet the Composer, “the world’s best contemporary classical music podcast” (Pitchfork), which deftly profiled some of the most interesting musical thinkers living today. 

Since 2018, Nadia has served as the New York Philharmonic’s Creative Partner, a position created for her. In this role, she helped create and hosts two series: Nightcap and Sound ON, the latter of which she also curates. In addition, Nadia works with the Philharmonic on contemporary music initiatives across the organization. 

As a soloist, Nadia has appeared with acclaimed orchestras around the world, including the Detroit Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra, and the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France. To date, she has released four solo albums of commissioned music, first things first (2009), Baroque (2013), Keep In Touch (2016), and Tessellatum (2017). Nadia is a member of Bedroom Community, a collective of musically diverse artists who work and collaborate at Reykjavik’s Greenhouse Studios. She has also lent her sound to recording and concert projects by such artists as The National, David Bowie, and Björk. 

Nadia is a member of the acclaimed chamber sextet yMusic. Their virtuosic execution and unique configuration have attracted high profile collaborators including Paul Simon, Ben Folds, and Anohni, and inspired an expanding repertoire of original works by prominent composers including Andrew Norman, Caroline Shaw, and Chris Thile. 

Nadia has received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for her work in radio, and Southern Methodist University’s Meadows Prize, awarded to pioneering artists and scholars with an emerging international profile. She sits on the board of directors of Chamber Music America, the national service organization for ensemble music professionals. Nadia received her undergraduate and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Hsin-Yun Huang.  

In the last decade, Rob Moose has emerged as one of the most sought after instrumentalists and arrangers of his generation. As violinist and guitarist, Moose has toured with Antony & the Johnsons, Sufjan Stevens, Glen Hansard, Blake Mills, and Beth Orton. In 2011, he joined Bon Iver, writing arrangements and recording strings for the group’s sophomore album. Highlights of that experience include four sold-out concerts at Radio City Music Hall, an appearance on Saturday Night Live, a Gold record, and two Grammy wins for “Best New Artist” and “Best Alternative Album.” 2016’s follow-up, “22, A Million,” also featured Moose’s strings on the opening track, as well as saxophone arrangements throughout.

As a violinist and violist, Moose is an active recording artist, having played on nearly 300 albums by artists ranging from Alabama Shakes to John Legend to Joshua Bell, as well as appearances on Grammy Award-winning albums by The Arcade Fire and Loudon Wainwright III. Equally in demand as an arranger, his work has been performed or recorded by The National, St. Vincent, Jim James, tUnE-yArDs, Interpol, LeAnn Rimes, The Decemberists, Laura Marling, They Might Be Giants, Trey Anastasio, and Punch Brothers. Moose has also contributed to three Red Hot benefit albums, most recently interpreting Bach piano works as a duo with Chris Thile.

In collaboration with Sufjan Stevens, Moose made his debut as conductor and orchestrator at the Kennedy Center Opera House in 2007. He has continued in this capacity with Antony & the Johnsons, on the album, Cut the World, and in venues such as Disney Hall and The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. Occasionally active as a co-producer, Moose’s roster includes Ben Folds’ “So There,” Gabriel Kahane’s “The Ambassador,” Time for Three’s eponymous debut, and My Brightest Diamond’s “All Things Will Unwind.”

In 2008, Moose co-founded yMusic, a sextet that has played at Carnegie Hall, won Time Out NY’s classical album of 2011, and been hailed by Performance Today’s Fred Child as “one of the groups that has really helped to shape the future of classical music.” In 2017, the group released its third album, First, written entirely by Son Lux’s Ryan Lott and produced by Thomas Bartlett. Equally committed to accompanying singers and bands, yMusic recently completed an extended tour with Ben Folds in support of their collaborative album, “So There.” Highlights of yMusic’s current season include the premieres of commissioned works by Caroline Shaw and Chris Thile, collaborative concerts with Paul Simon (Eaux Claires) and Anohni (Elbphilharmonie), and a recording of “God Only Knows” with John Legend for the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.

Hailed as “an intense player who connects to the music naturally, without artifice, and [who] brings a singing line to the cello” (The Oregonian), cellist Gabriel Cabezas is one of America’s most sought after young musicians. Combining superb technique, intellectual curiosity, and a pioneering musical spirit, he is equally at home in front of an orchestra, collaborating with a singer-songwriter, or sharing the stage with dancers. A winner of Astral’s 2014 National Auditions, he has been featured as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, New World Symphony, Nashville Symphony, and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, among others. His debut performance with the Cleveland Orchestra was described as “remarkably poised and elegant…with superb attention to phrasing, nuance, and tonal coloration” (The Plain Dealer).

An avid chamber musician, Cabezas tours with “Musicians from Marlboro” and has collaborated with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mitsuko Uchida. He is also a member of the New York sextet yMusic, hailed by NPR’s Fred Child as “one of the groups that has really helped to shape the future of classical music.” Their virtuosic execution and unique configuration (string trio, flute, clarinet, and trumpet) has attracted the attention of high profile collaborators—from Dirty Projectors to Paul Simon—and has inspired an expanding repertoire of original works by some of today’s foremost composers. He is also the co-founder of Duende, a new music and contemporary dance collective that focuses on the interaction between performers and dancers in the live realization of new scores.

Born and raised in Chicago, Cabezas also has strong family ties to Costa Rica; his great uncle founded the country’s National Conservatory and is the only Costa Rican musician to have performed at Carnegie Hall in the 20th century. Cabezas returns often to play with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica and to work with students at the Programa Nacional de Educación Musical.

Gabriel Cabezas studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Carter Brey, and is a recipient of a Career Grant from the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation. He received a 2016 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, a career grant awarded to emerging classical artists of color, who, early in their professional career, demonstrate artistic excellence, outstanding work ethic, a spirit of determination, and ongoing commitment to leadership. As a Sphinx Medal winner, he recorded Britten’s Suites for Solo Cello. Cabezas was also twice the First Place Laureate at the Sphinx Competition—in the Junior Division (2006) and in the Senior Division (2012). A committed advocate for community engagement and education programs across the country, he is involved with the Sphinx Organization, Midori’s Partners in Performance, and Chicago’s Citizen Musician movement.

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