As part of the celebration of Athena Kildegaard's new book of poetry, Course, beloved Minnesota soprano Maria Jette and noted pianist Ann DuHamel will perform the world premiere of a song cycle by award-winning St. Paul composer Linda Kachelmeier. The song cycle, I Give Voice to My Mother, features six poems from Kildegaard's book. Kachelmeier's remarkable cycle reflects and enlarges the themes in the book.
The celebration will be Saturday, March 3, 7:00 p.m. at Studio Z. The program begins with the poet, composer and performers discussing the challenges and surprises of bringing poetry to life as art song. Kildegaard will read selections from the book, and then Jette and DuHamel will return to do a performance of the complete song cycle. A reception and book signing will follow.
Course is Kildegaard's fifth book of poetry and is published by Tinderbox Editions, an independent press based in Red Wing, MN. The book explores the course of Kildegaard's mother's life and death, the course of grief, and the course of a river. Four-time Minnesota Book Award winner Jim Moore says: “'Tenderness toward existence' is the phrase that came to me again and again as I read Course, Kildegaard’s marvelous new book of poems in which grief and joy course together through time and to the end of time. 'Any tender place a place for death,' Kildegaard writes. But equally true, as this book so lovingly demonstrates, is that any tender place is a place for life. Athena Kildegaard has written a book which has found a true home for tenderness in a world so desperately in need of it.”
The commissioning of the song cycle and the performance are made possible by an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Athena Kildegaard has been a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and the Midwest Book Award. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and have appeared in such journals as Ecotone, Poetry Northwest, North American Review, and Alaska Quarterly Review. She lives and teaches in Morris, Minnesota.
Linda Kachelmeier is a composer, conductor, and professional singer in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has received grants and commissions through the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, the American Composers Forum, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and is a 2017 McKnight Fellowship recipient for composition. She has written over 50 choral pieces and art songs performed by professional choirs such as The Singers, VocalEssence, and The Rose Ensemble, as well as many school and church choirs across the United States.
Soprano Maria Jette has sung everything from early Baroque opera to world premieres, in the United States and abroad. She has performed with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston, Kansas City, San Luis Obispo, Santa Rosa, Charlotte, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Austin, Marin and San Antonio Symphonies, New York Chamber Symphony, Portland Baroque Orchestra and Musica Angelica; plus Berkshires Opera, Roanoke Opera, Sacramento Opera. In the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro, she has sung with VocalEssence (led by conductor Philip Brunelle), Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, Minnesota Sinfonia The Schubert Club and Lyra Baroque Orchestra.
Pianist Ann DuHamel serves as Head of Keyboard Studies at the University of Minnesota, Morris, where she coordinates and teaches solo, collaborative, and group piano, as well as piano pedagogy. She is a founding member of new music group ensemble: Périphérie, which has performed in Carnegie Hall. Other venues where DuHamel has played include Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, and across the U.S., including the San Francisco Festival of Contemporary Music.
Athena Kildegaard is a fiscal year 2018 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
The celebration will be Saturday, March 3, 7:00 p.m. at Studio Z. The program begins with the poet, composer and performers discussing the challenges and surprises of bringing poetry to life as art song. Kildegaard will read selections from the book, and then Jette and DuHamel will return to do a performance of the complete song cycle. A reception and book signing will follow.
Course is Kildegaard's fifth book of poetry and is published by Tinderbox Editions, an independent press based in Red Wing, MN. The book explores the course of Kildegaard's mother's life and death, the course of grief, and the course of a river. Four-time Minnesota Book Award winner Jim Moore says: “'Tenderness toward existence' is the phrase that came to me again and again as I read Course, Kildegaard’s marvelous new book of poems in which grief and joy course together through time and to the end of time. 'Any tender place a place for death,' Kildegaard writes. But equally true, as this book so lovingly demonstrates, is that any tender place is a place for life. Athena Kildegaard has written a book which has found a true home for tenderness in a world so desperately in need of it.”
The commissioning of the song cycle and the performance are made possible by an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Athena Kildegaard has been a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and the Midwest Book Award. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and have appeared in such journals as Ecotone, Poetry Northwest, North American Review, and Alaska Quarterly Review. She lives and teaches in Morris, Minnesota.
Linda Kachelmeier is a composer, conductor, and professional singer in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has received grants and commissions through the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, the American Composers Forum, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and is a 2017 McKnight Fellowship recipient for composition. She has written over 50 choral pieces and art songs performed by professional choirs such as The Singers, VocalEssence, and The Rose Ensemble, as well as many school and church choirs across the United States.
Soprano Maria Jette has sung everything from early Baroque opera to world premieres, in the United States and abroad. She has performed with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston, Kansas City, San Luis Obispo, Santa Rosa, Charlotte, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Austin, Marin and San Antonio Symphonies, New York Chamber Symphony, Portland Baroque Orchestra and Musica Angelica; plus Berkshires Opera, Roanoke Opera, Sacramento Opera. In the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro, she has sung with VocalEssence (led by conductor Philip Brunelle), Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, Minnesota Sinfonia The Schubert Club and Lyra Baroque Orchestra.
Pianist Ann DuHamel serves as Head of Keyboard Studies at the University of Minnesota, Morris, where she coordinates and teaches solo, collaborative, and group piano, as well as piano pedagogy. She is a founding member of new music group ensemble: Périphérie, which has performed in Carnegie Hall. Other venues where DuHamel has played include Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, and across the U.S., including the San Francisco Festival of Contemporary Music.
Athena Kildegaard is a fiscal year 2018 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
ATHENA KILDEGAARD BOOK LAUNCH
FEATURING ANN DUHAMEL, MARIA JETTE, LINDA KACHELMEIER
March 3, 2018 at 7 p.m.
Studio Z: 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200, St. Paul
Free • Details
To celebrate the publication of Athena Kildegaard's new book of poetry, pianist Ann DuHamel and soprano Maria Jette will perform a song cycle of poems from the book composed by Linda Kachelmeier. The program will also include a discussion of the process of bringing this song cycle to life and readings of poems from the book.
Studio Z: 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200, St. Paul
Free • Details
To celebrate the publication of Athena Kildegaard's new book of poetry, pianist Ann DuHamel and soprano Maria Jette will perform a song cycle of poems from the book composed by Linda Kachelmeier. The program will also include a discussion of the process of bringing this song cycle to life and readings of poems from the book.
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