A LABORATORY FOR TODAY’S MOST ADVENTUROUS COMPOSERS!
David Alan Miller, conductor
Lucy Dhegrae, vocals
Lucy Fitz Gibbon, vocals
Dogs of Desire, the orchestra’s electrifying genre-bending new music ensemble, sing out with five world premieres by leading-edge composers Clarice Assad, Viet Cuong, Loren Loiacono, Andre Myers, and Rachel Peters inspired by great passions of historic figures and milestones, such as abolitionist Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and the Stonewall Uprising. Collaborators include Capital Repertory Theatre, Girls Inc., Albany High School Chorus, and choreographer Adam Weinert.
Viet Cuong, composer, and Adam Weinert, choreographer, Transfigured
Inspired by the people of Stonewall who relied on humor to persevere through injustice, and who ultimately awakened a new era in the LGBTQ rights movement with the 1969 Stonewall Uprising.
Clarice Assad, Ain’t I A Woman
In collaboration with Girls, Inc. (“inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold”), Assad creates a multimedia work inspired by Sojourner Truth’s 1851 “Ain’t I A Woman” speech.
Andre Myers, Studies in Hope: Frederick Douglass
Working with the Albany High School Chorus, Andre Meyers creates a Hip-Hop work Inspired by the words of Frederick Douglass.
Rachel J. Peters, If You Can Prove That I Should Set You Free
Collaborating with a theatre group, Peters takes inspiration from Alice Duer Miller’s Women are People
Loren Loiacono, composer, and Capital Repertory Theatre, Petticoats of Steel
Loiacono, in collaboration with Cap Rep, resets poetry, protest songs (both pro- and anti-suffrage), speeches, and letters in a contemporary vernacular to create a multifaceted portrait of the suffrage movement. The work incorporates poetry by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (author of “The Yellow Wallpaper”) and abolitionist Sarah Forten.
HOW DID DOGS GET ITS NAME?
Meet the Performers, Composers, and Collaborators
Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano, is a dynamic musician whose repertoire spans the Renaissance to the present. She believes that creating new works and recreating those lost in centuries past makes room for the multiplicity and diversity of voices integral to classical music’s future. As a recitalist Lucy has appeared in such venues as London’s Wigmore Hall; New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory, and Merkin Hall; and Toronto’s Koerner Hall.
Adam H. Weinert is a dancer, choreographer and researcher. Adam has danced with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, The Mark Morris Dance Group, Shen Wei Dance Arts, and Christopher Williams. In addition to his performance work, Adam has been published in The New York Times, the Juilliard Journal, and as a featured profile in New York Magazine. He produced and choreographed two award-winning dance films screened nationally and abroad, and his performance works have toured to four continents.
Intense and lyrical, Andre Myers’ music mixes narrative drama, poetry, and meditations on color to create work that aspires to moments of honesty, poignancy, and depth. A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Andre has three times been commissioned by the Michigan Philharmonic Orchestra, where he served as composer-in-residence for the Philharmonic’s CLASSical music outreach program.
An emerging orchestral voice, Loren Loiacono has received commissions and performances from such nationally esteemed ensembles as the Detroit Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and the American Composers Orchestra. For the Albany Symphony’s 2017-2018 Season, Loren served as Mellon Composer-Educator-in-Residence, and in June 2018 premiered her Concerto for Piano, written for Vicky Chow.
Soprano Lucy Dhegrae is a passionate vocalist who regularly premieres new vocal works and operas, and has worked closely with such composers as Unsuk Chin, Jason Eckardt, Susan Botti, Alexandra Vrebalov, and Sky Macklay. Dhegrae is the 2018 recipient of University of Michigan School of Music’s Emerging Artist Award, and among the first cohort of fellows with Turn the Spotlight, a new mentorship program for young professionals.
Through music, composer Viet Cuong enjoys exploring the unexpected and whimsical. His work has been performed on six continents and featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, and on American Public Radio’s Performance Today. . His recent compositions include a solo snare drum piece, a double reed sextet, and, most recently, a tuba concerto. He also enjoys composing for the wind ensemble medium, and his works for winds have amassed over one hundred performances.
A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Brazilian American Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop and jazz genres. A Grammy nominated composer, celebrated pianist, inventive vocalist, and educator, she is renowned for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. As an innovator, her award-winning education program, Voxploration, has been presented throughout the United States, Brazil, Europe and Qatar.
Composer/librettist Rachel J. Peters writes all manner of works for the stage. Her extensive catalogue of art songs and cabaret songs have been performed at Lincoln Center, Second Stage, The National Opera Center, Symphony Space, NYMF, Ars Nova, Joe’s Pub, and cabarets and theatres nationwide. Rachel has received the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust and multiple ASCAPlus awards.
