7

Concert: Musiqa responds to Fighting: Ukrainian War Photographers

Saturday, November 18 | 6PM

FotoFest and Musiqa co-present a live musical performance inspired by the exhibition Fighting: Ukrainian War Photographers.

Musiqa has commissioned Houston-based composer Theo Chandler to create a new work for violin and soprano in response to a photograph captured by Sergey Korovayny that shows Ukrainian composer Soroush Zali performing Arno Babajanian’s Elegy in a destroyed building in Irpin, Ukraine. In addition, the program will include two works by Ukrainian composers: Valentin Slivestrov's Postlude for solo violin, and Bohdana Frolyak's Partita-meditation for two violins. Performers will be Ukrainian-American soprano Yelena Dyachek and violinists Nanki Chugh and Jacob Schafer.

LOCATION
Silver Street Studios
2000 Edwards Street
Houston, TX 77007

PARKING
Parking is free and located on the north side of Silver Street Studios between Edwards and Winter Street. Click here for the GPS location.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Throughout his body of work, composer Theo Chandler (b. 1992) explores music’s profound and mysterious capacity to convey sensations, images, and personal experience. Chandler has received recognition from numerous artistic institutions. He is a recipient of the Barlow Endowment General Commission, Copland House Residency Award, SCI/ASCAP Graduate Commission, American Prize for Vocal Chamber Music, Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award, Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Graduate Music Award from the Presser Foundation. He is a previous winner of Musiqa’s annual Emerging Composer Fellowship (since renamed the Catalyst Commission) and holds composition degrees from Rice University (DMA 2021), The Juilliard School (MM 2017), and Oberlin Conservatory (BM 2015), receiving multiple awards at each institution. 

Ukrainian-American soprano Yelena Dyachek was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition in 2016, receiving praise from The New York Times saying “…memorable as the soprano Yelena Dyachek from California, who demonstrated impressive range, depth and power in ‘Come scoglio’, before delivering an emotionally captivating Letter Scene…”.  She is a graduate from Houston Grand Opera’s prestigious studio program during which she premiered the role of Dominique DeMenil in Some Light Emerges, and appeared as Musetta in La bohème, Flora in La traviata, and Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Further productions with HGO included Norma and Nixon in China. During the 2022-2023 season Dyachek performed a recital with Musical Bridges Around the World in San Antonio as a part of their Schubert Birthday Celebration, collaborated with Houston Symphony, sang Zemfira in Aleko and the title role in Francesca da Rimini with Boston’s Odyssey Opera, presented Ukrainian art songs with the Montrose Project, and made her debut at the Asia Society Texas. This fall, she is slated to guest as the soprano soloist with the Moores School of Music in Rachmaninoff’s The Bells.

Nanki Chugh is an Indian-American violinist from Santa Monica, California. She is currently pursuing her masters degree at the Shepherd School of Music, studying with Paul Kantor. She completed her undergraduate degree at Yale University in May 2022 where she studied both music and biochemistry, receiving a bachelors of science in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics. She was the concertmistress and a member of the Programming Committee during Yale Symphony Orchestra’s Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 seasons. She has participated in numerous festivals including Heifetz International Music Institute, Orford Music Festival, and ‘Incontri in Terra de Siena’ Festival, Italy, and is the recipient of several awards including the Alfred Newman Award, Glen Katz Memorial Scholarship, and Margaret Ross Scholarship from the Westside Committee of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Nanki enjoys exploring the crossover space between Western and Hindustani classical music, and is particularly inspired by the works of Reena Esmail. She is also passionate about the therapeutic potential of music; she has been a part of many music for healing programs, playing for patients in medical wards, programming and performing virtual concerts for patients during the pandemic, and studying the effects of music on the brain.

Violinist Jacob Schafer is a multifaceted performer dedicated to compelling, thoughtful presentations of works old and new. Currently based in Houston, Texas, he is a core member of Loop38 and Kinetic Ensemble and regularly performs with Musiqa, Da Camera of Houston, and Mercury Chamber Orchestra. Passionate about bringing music to the community in contexts both innovative and familiar, he has taught music to students in underserved public schools and performed at venues across Houston as diverse as Jones Hall, the Houston Public Library, the Galveston Artist Residency, and Smither Park. Recent performance highlights include the world premiere of Du Yun’s Oksoko, piano trio concerts in Leipzig, Germany, chamber music with pianists Lisa Moore and the late Leon Fleisher, the American premieres of works by Julian Anderson and Oliver Knussen, and collaborations with composers Matthew Aucoin and George Lewis. Festival appearances have included Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Norfolk New Music Workshop, Composer’s Conference Contemporary Performance Institute, Sarasota Music Festival, Heifetz Institute, and Tanglewood Music Center. Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Jacob holds a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics and in Music from Yale University, and an M.M. in violin performance from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He is currently completing his D.M.A. at Rice under the tutelage of Paul Kantor. 

EXHIBITION SUPPORT FOR FIGHTING: UKRAINIAN WAR PHOTOGRAPHERS
Gay Block, Blair Bouchier and Camille Cohn, Anna and Hal Holliday, Frazier King, Carol and Paul Liffman, Wendy and Mavis Kelsey, Bryn Larsen, Sandy Jo Lloyd, Sandra Tirey and Jan R. Van Lohuizen, Anne Wilkes Tucker, and Wendy Watriss.

This program is presented with support from the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers and the Association of Professional Photographers, Czech Republic. 
 

UAPP Logo