The New York City Opera Presents Elodie Lauten's "Waking in New York" -
Based on Texts by Allen Ginsberg - Performance on May 26 at Symphony
Space

The New York City Opera will present a very special performance of
Elodie Lauten's opera "Waking in New York, Portrait of Allen Ginsberg",
by the City Opera Orchestra and soloists under Music Director George
Manahan on Wednesday, May 26 at 2 PM at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway
at 95th Street in Manhattan.

This presentation is sponsored by the New York City Opera and will be
part of their 2004 VOX and Friends festival of new opera.  Most scenes
from the opera's second act will be presented on May 26, including:
"Personals Ad", "Jumping the Gun on the Sun", "Manhattan Thirties Flash",
"The Weight of the World Is Love" and "O New York." "Margaret Garner"
by Richard Danielpour, "Summer and All It Brings" by Daniel Felsenfeld
and "Korczak's Orphan" by Adam Silverman will also be presented.  Each
piece is excerpted to approximately 30 minutes.

This concert is free and open to the public.  For reservations or other
information, please call 212-388-0202.  For more information, please
call the Symphony Space Box Office at 212-864-5400, or visit them online
at http://www.symphonyspace.org.

During the Summer of 1996, only a few months before his death, the late
Allen Ginsberg put together a set of poems on the theme of New York, as
suggested by Elodie Lauten for a musical setting.  The poems he selected,
from "Cosmopolitan Greetings 1986-1992", "Collected Poems 1947-1980",
and "White Shroud Poems 1980-1989," are highly autobiographical and
reveal some of his most intimate thoughts.

"Waking in New York" is scored for baritone, soprano, mezzo soprano, and
orchestra and closely follows Ginsberg's own flow of mental associations,
which act as triggers of rhythm changes and key modulations.  This New
York City Opera presentation of Waking in New York follows three New
York productions (Music Under Construction, 1999; 14th St Y Theater.
2001; and Snug Harbor Festival, 2002) and a CD release on 4-Tay Records
(2003).

The composer has written of the work, "Generally, I tried to stay close
to Allen's train of thought, alternatively introspective and expansive,
sometimes triggering hints of different musical styles, but twice removed,
never as direct quotes.  It was like making film music with images
provided by his consciousness - until the melody found its way of taking
over."

The New York Times has called "Waking in New York", "lovely, effecting
and affecting." New Music Box has written, "The poetry of Allen Ginsberg
has inspired a wide range of composers...  however, all are trumped by
Lauten's moving memorial to her creative mentor." Gramophone UK said of
the CD, "Lauten reveals greater artistry the further you look beneath
the surface, successfully marking the leaps in Ginsberg's own impressionistic
narrative with appropriate changes in metre and key," and American Record
Guide calls it a, "strange but oddly compelling work...often wild and
marvelously demented chord changes...  this is a music of Gotham updated
to our times, immortalized by one of its best poetic voices, and put in
motion by a composer in tune with the pulse of her city."

Composer/keyboardist/producer Elodie Lauten (http://www.elodielauten.net)
has been described as a pioneer of post-minimalism, and a force on the
new music scene.  18 recordings of her music have been released on 10
labels.  Lauten has received awards from the NEA, ASCAP, MTC, AMC, and
commissions from Lincoln Center, the Soho Baroque Opera, Harpsichord
Unlimited and The Lark Ascending.  Lauten's Symphony 2001, was premiered
in February 2003 by the SEM Orchestra in New York.  In 1999, Lauten's
"Deus ex Machina Cycle" for voices and Baroque ensemble (4Tay) received
strong critical acclaim in the US and Europe.  Critics have hailed Elodie
Lauten's music as "an extraordinary revelation...a fixture of future
musical lexicons" (England), "wonderfully exciting music" (Netherlands),
"food for the soul" (Canada), "elegiac melodies" (The New York Times),
"grand work that we are likely to return to again and again" (21st Century
Music), "mesmerizing" (Option Magazine).  She has been called "a composer
of enchanting music...  a seminal figure...  one of the leading postminimal
composers...a major talent (The Village Voice), "a musical magus in the
Renaissance tradition" (Chicago Reader).  Lauten's "Variations On The
Orange Cycle" was included in Chamber Music America's list of 100 best
works of the 20th century and has been recorded for Lovely Music CDs.
She received a Master's in composition from New York University where
she studied Western composition with Dinu Ghezzo and Indian classical
music with Ahkmal Parwez.  From her father, jazz composer Errol Parker,
she acquired a deep understanding of improvisation.

For more information about her music, contact Jeffrey James Arts
Consulting at 516-797-9166 or [log in to unmask]

Jeffrey James Arts Consulting
Tel/Fax: 516-797-9166
Website: http://www.jamesarts.com