[aaus-list] [HUSI 2008] LECTURE & OPERA PREVIEW, Fri., Aug. 1, 7-9 pm: Virko Baley, "Break, Blow, Burn: Famine as Virtual Opera - On the Making of His Original Opera 'Red Earth (Hunger)'"

[Seegel, Steven]

*** ANNOUNCEMENT *** 
 
*** 2008 HARVARD UKRAINIAN SUMMER INSTITUTE *** 
 
"RED EARTH (HUNGER)", an opera in one act and three scenes
Libretto by Bohdan Boychuk -- Music by Virko Baley
 
On Friday, August 1, 2008, the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute is honored to sponsor a lecture at Harvard University by the critically acclaimed composer, Grammy award-winning producer, Virko Baley, Distinguished Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  The lecture will be illustrated with musical examples from the making of his original opera, Red Earth (Hunger).    
 
*** The event is free and open to the public. 
 
Lecture and Musical Presentation by Virko Baley 
"Break, Blow, Burn: Famine as Virtual Opera -- On the Making of His Original Opera, Red Earth (Hunger)"

 

Friday, August 1, 2008 

7:00-9:00 PM

 

CGIS (Center for Government and International Studies) South Building

Room S-020: Belfer Case Study Room

Harvard University

1730 Cambridge Street

Cambridge MA 02138

 

For directions on the Harvard campus: http://map.harvard.edu/

For the HUSI 2008 calendar of events: http://www.huri.harvard.edu/calendar.html

 

 

ABOUT THE OPERA 

 
Virko Baley writes about the opera: 
 
"The opera was conceived over 30 years ago, but only now is being completed. I became fascinated by a play of Bohdan Boychuk, Holod [Hunger], which he wrote in the 60s. I liked its slightly Beckett-like atmosphere, but invested with remnants of expressionism and dream-like qualities. I also liked its verbal precision. I asked Bohdan to make me a libretto in two versions, Ukrainian and English, with the understanding that it would be set first in English, with the Ukrainian adapted to it afterwards. He agreed. In the late 1990's there3 was a plan to produce the opera in Las Vegas, Nevada by the combined forces of the University of Nevada's departments of music and theater. The distinguished film director Yuri Illienko agreed to produce and direct it. We also contacted one of Ukraine's great costume designers, Liudmyla Semykina to participate in the project, and she agreed. Unfortunately, due to a number of conflicts that arose, the whole project was cancelled. In 2004 I decided to revive work on the opera by first taking four scenes and creating a symphonic version of them - thus, my Symphony No. 2, Red Earth was the first completed stage in the opera's slow progress towards full realization."


 
ABOUT THE COMPOSER 
 
Virko Baley, composer, conductor, pianist and writer, was born in Ukraine in 1938, but has spent most of his creative life in the United States. He is the recipient of the 1996 Shevchenko Prize for Music, awarded by the Ukrainian government. He is also the Petro Jacyk Distinguished Research Fellowship at the Ukrainian Research Institute for the academic year of 2006-2007 to continue work on his opera Red Earth (Hunger). 
 
In 2007 he was awarded a GRAMMY as recording producer for TNC Recordings for Best Instrumental Performance with Orchestra. He is an author of many articles on Ukrainian music, including many entries for GROVE. Shirley Fleming, reviewing a concert of his music in the New York Post called his music "vibrant, dramatic, communicative, much of it framed by extra-musical allusions that place it in a solid context." According to Village Voice critic Kyle Gann, the New York premiere of Violin Concerto No. 1, quasi una fantasia was full of "sonic images memorable enough to take home." 
 
His Symphony No. 1: "Sacred Monuments" released on TNC Recordings was commented in ClassicsToday by David Hurwitz as "Powerfully imagined, clearly articulated, and quite moving...It's a very serious ambitious statement by a gifted artist, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it turns out to have more staying power than many other contemporary works by today's trendier composers." 
 
In addition, Virko Baley co-produced and wrote the music for Yuri Illienko's film Swan Lake: The Zone, which won two top prizes at Cannes in 1990, and the music for Illienko's last film, Prayer for Hetman Mazepa. 
 
As conductor he has led the Kiev Camerata in recordings of over 15 CD's of orchestral music by composers ranging from Mozart, Beethoven, Ivan Karabyts, Valentin Silvestrov, Bernard Rands to Yevhen Stankovych. Most recently Virko Baley received the prestigious Academy Award in Music 2008 from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 
 
He is also the co-director of NEON, an annual composers' conference at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
 
 
Dr. Steven Seegel
Director, 2008 Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute
Assistant Professor of History, Worcester State College
Harvard University
Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
34 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
office: (617) 496-6001
cell: (865) 437-7832
fax: (617) 495-8097