ABOUT THE COMPOSER AND HER MUSIC

Dr. Vera Ivanova graduated from the Moscow Conservatory (Honors Diploma), Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (MM with distinction), and the Eastman School of Music (PhD in Composition). Her works have been performed in Russia, Europe and the USA.
After teaching as Assistant Professor of Theory and Composition at the Setnor School of Music of Syracuse University (NY), she was appointed as Assistant Professor of Music in the College of Performing Arts at Chapman University (Orange, California), where she currently works as Associate Professor. Dr. Ivanova is also teaching music theory and composition at the prestigious Colburn Music Academy for Young Artists in Los Angeles.

Her compositions have been described as “…humanistic and deeply felt works…” (John Bilotta, Society of Composers, Inc.). In her early Fantasy-Toccata (2003) for violin and piano, “the humor takes on a harder, sardonic edge recalling the composer’s roots in the work of Shostakovich and Schnittke” (Ted Ayala, Crescenta Valley Weekly). In her later Three Studies in Uneven Meters for piano (2011), “the greatest power of her brief, angular, crystalline music lies in its power to provoke the gods of symmetry” (Laurence Vittes, Lark Gallery Online Blog).

Dr. Ivanova is a recipient of the Sproull Fellowship at Eastman, the Gwyn Ellis Bequest Scholarship at Guildhall School, Moscow Culture Committee and American Composers Forum Subito grants, Honourable mention at the 28th Bourges Electro-Acoustic Competition, 3rd Prize at the 8th International Mozart Competition, 1st Prize in Category “A” at International Contest of Acousmatic Compositions Métamorphoses 2004 (Belgium), the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, the André Chevillion-Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize at the 8th International Piano Competition at Orléans (France), and the Special Award from Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music. She is also a winner of the 2013 Athena Festival Chamber Competition and the 2013 Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition and was selected to be Norton Stevens Fellow at the prestigious MacDowell colony residency in winter 2013-14.

Vera is actively involved in new music not only as a composer, but as an advisor (she’s been invited to be on advisory board of the American Composers Forum, Los Angeles chapter), adjudicator (UnTwelve Composition Competition, Synchromy call for scores, International Computer Music Conference Call for Music) and concert organizer (new music concerts at Chapman University’s Conservatory of Music and Synchromy group of Los Angeles-based composers, of which she is a founding member).

Her music is available in print from Universal Edition and Theodore Front Music Literature, Inc., SCI Journal of Music Scores (vol. 45), on CD’s from MicroFest Records (Beyond 12 Album), Ablaze Records (Millennial Masters series, Vol. 2), Quartz Music, Ltd., Navona Records (Nova and Allusions albums), Musiques & Recherches (Métamorphoses 2004), Centaur Records (CRC 3056), Soundiff (Miniatures Album, vol. 1) and on her website at: www.veraivanova.com.

SAMPLE COMPOSITIONS

ABOUT THE CONSORTIUM LEADER

Multiple GRAMMY® nominated pianist Nadia Shpachenko has performed extensively in solo recitals and with orchestras in major venues across North America, Europe and Asia. Described by critics as a “truly inspiring and brilliant pianist… spellbinding in sensitivity and mastery of technique,” Nadia enjoys bringing into the world things that are outside the box – powerful pieces that often possess unusual sonic qualities or instrumentation. Nadia’s concert highlights include solo recitals at Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Bargemusic, the Phillips Collection, REDCAT @ Disney Hall, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as numerous appearances as a soloist with orchestras in Europe and the Americas.

An enthusiastic promoter of contemporary music, Nadia has given world and national premieres of more than 50 works by Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Daniel Felsenfeld, Tom Flaherty, Annie Gosfield, Yuri Ishchenko, Vera Ivanova, Leon Kirchner, Amy Beth Kirsten, Hannah Lash, James Matheson, Missy Mazzoli, Harold Meltzer, Adam Schoenberg, Lewis Spratlan, Iannis Xenakis, Peter Yates, and many others. She performs on piano, toy piano, harpsichord, and percussion in concerts that often also feature recitation, electronics and multimedia. Nadia’s process of extensive research in preparing pieces for performance has led to a series of lecture-recitals that relate artistic and philosophical developments with musical ones, and explore the new ways in which composers and performers interact in today’s networked world.

Described as “heroic” (MusicWeb International), “exceptional” (Textura Magazine), “memorable” (New Classic LA), and “a new favorite” (Pictures on Silence), Nadia’s world premieres CD “Woman at the New Piano” was released worldwide on the Reference Recordings label, featuring four solo and two duet compositions (performed with pianist Genevieve Feiwen Lee) written for the album by Tom Flaherty, James Matheson, Adam Schoenberg, and Peter Yates. “Woman at the New Piano” was nominated for 58th GRAMMY® Awards in 3 categories: Best Classical Compendium, Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance by Nadia Shpachenko and Genevieve Feiwen Lee for Tom Flaherty’s “Airdancing” for Toy Piano, Piano and Electronics, and Producer of the Year, Classical for Marina A. Ledin and Victor Ledin. Nadia’s upcoming recording project “Quotations and Homages” features newly-written solo and collaborative works for 6 pianists (performed with Ray-Kallay Duo, HOCKET and Genevieve Feiwen Lee) inspired by a variety of earlier composers and pieces, from Beethoven to Brahms to Stravinsky to Messiaen to Carter to Gubaidulina to The Velvet Underground. Nadia’s upcoming recording project “The Poetry of Places” features new solo and collaborative works (performed with pianist Joanne Pearce Martin and percussionists Nick Terry and Cory Hills) inspired by diverse buildings.

As a distinguished chamber musician, Nadia frequently collaborates with prominent artists, most recently including Emanuel Borok, Martin Chalifour, Justin DeHart, Kevin Fitz-Gerald, Vijay Gupta, Maja Jasper, Genevieve Lee, Timothy Loo, Jerome Lowenthal, Marek Szpakiewicz, Kathleen Supové, Nick Terry, and the Lyris Quartet. Her recent collaborative performances presented new works by Los Angeles composers at the Hear Now Music Festival and the Salastina Music Society.

A dedicated educator, Nadia is currently on the faculties of Cal Poly Pomona and Claremont Graduate Universities, and the Beverly Hills International Music Festival. In addition, she has recently served as visiting faculty at Pomona College, guest lecturer at the California Institute of the Arts, Artist in Residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and University of South Carolina, and piano faculty at the Sarasota and Montecito International Music Festivals. Winner of more than a dozen piano competitions, she frequently gives master classes and presents contemporary music workshops in conservatories and universities worldwide.

Nadia Shpachenko completed her DMA and MM degrees at the University of Southern California, where she was awarded the title of Outstanding Graduate. Her principal teachers included John Perry, Victor Rosenbaum, and Victor Derevianko. Nadia Shpachenko is a Steinway Artist and a Schoenhut Toy Piano Artist.

CONSORTIUM DETAILS

PERFORMANCE SLIDESHOW QR CODE:

DURATION:
8-12 minutes (4 movements)

INSTRUMENTATION:
Solo piano (with optional soundtrack)

DIFFICULTY:
Piece will be written with professional performers in mind

EXCLUSIVITY DEADLINE:
March 1st, 2019

ADDITIONAL INFO:
The working title of the proposed composition is “In the Deep Heart’s Core.” The idea of the proposed work is to incorporate into music four poems: The Echo, by Anna Akhmatova, In the Fog, by Hermann Hesse, Wind, by Boris Pasternak, and The Lake Isle of Innisfree, by W.B. Yeats.

All fours poems were recorded by the authors themselves (and are in public domain, freely available online). One of the goals of this commission is to incorporate not only the text and its content into the music, but also the original recorded readings by the authors. Compositionally, each movement will translate the literary source to original musical content and implement the poetic form of each poem on a structural level, applying the shape, intonation, and rhythm of each verse (taken from the original readings done by the authors) to the musical form, reflecting the read poems’ rhythmic patterns of phrases and gestures.

The poems chosen for this cycle are joined together a the common theme: contemplation upon human existence and its reflection in nature. For all four poets, the images of nature were not merely an idyll, but a refuge from political oppression, which changed the course of their lives dramatically. Nature reflects their inner thoughts, hidden “in the deep heart’s core” and provides a consolation, expressed through the prism of lyricism inherited by Pasternak and Akhmatova from the Russian “Silver Age” style, through the elements of psychoanalysis in Hesse’s poem (influenced by Carl Jung’s methods), and through the Romantic nationalism of early Yeats.

The cycle will start with a shorter introduction (The Echo) to the central movement, based on Hesse’s haunting poem Im Nebel (In the Fog), and continue with a fast third movement (Wind), which might incorporate folk-song elements, as suggested by Pasternak’s imagery of a lullaby, sung by the winds, and conclude with a finale (The Lake Isle of Innisfree), reproducing the structure (but not the form) of a sonata cycle. The performers will have a choice of including the poems into the program notes (provided by the composer), playing back before the performance of each movement readings of the poems, recorded by poets themselves (all four recordings are available and in public domain), or projecting the poems on a screen, or leaving the text of the poems out and using only the cycle’s title (and subtitles of movements) to show the literary connection between music and text.

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While participation in Global Premiere is currently by invitation, we encourage those who have not received an invitation but are interested in being involved to apply using the contact form. This includes composers, performers of all instruments, and sponsors. Invitation emails include a PayPal link to secure a premiere.