Five Boroughs Music Festival: Terra Nova (Digital World Premiere)
Free (Free)
Brad Balliett — Wood Warblers
Dylan Greene — When China Discovered the World
Majel Connery — Fallen Angel
Doug Balliett — The Gothic Pater Noster
Doug Balliett — Agamemnon Crosses the Line
Dylan Greene — laundry and cooking
Elliot Cole — Terra Nova
Oracle Hysterical
Doug Balliett, double bass & viola da gamba
Brad Balliett, bassoons
Majel Connery, keyboards & voice
Elliot Cole, guitars, keyboards, & voice
Joe Bergen, percussion
Hub New Music
Michael Avitable, flute
Nicholas Brown, clarinet
Alyssa Wang, violin
Jesse Christeson, cello
Majel Connery – All the way down
Brad Balliett – Wood Warblers
Dylan Greene – When China Discovered the World
Majel Connery – Fallen Angel
Doug Balliett – The Gothic Pater Noster
Doug Balliett – Agamemnon Crosses the Line
Dylan Greene – laundry and cooking
Elliot Cole – Terra Nova
5BMF marks a triumphant return to live concert performance and the grand finale of its 2020-2021 Digital Mainstage Season with the New York City and online premieres of Terra Nova, a concert-length song cycle inspired by new lands and the people who ventured into them, composed by the members of Oracle Hysterical and performed in collaboration with Hub New Music.
Commissioned by Hub New Music and 5BMF, Terra Nova will be presented live in partnership with BPL Presents on May 15th in a free, outdoor performance on the steps at Brooklyn Public Library’s majestic Grand Army Plaza location, and also filmed at the historic Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor, Staten Island, for its online premiere on June 17th.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Terra Nova is inspired by a range of ambitious, gritty (and sometimes naive, cruel, and myopic) explorers: a fanciful view from Amelia Earhart’s cockpit by Majel Connery; a playful setting of John James Audubon’s descriptions of wood warblers by Brad Balliett; Dylan Greene’s speculative tone poem of the pre-Columbian exploration of North America by Chinese mariners; Elliot Cole’s haunting setting of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s final letter home; and Agamemnon, Doug Balliet’s tension-filled spoken-and-sung cantata depicting the ill-fated king’s reunion with Clytemnestra; plus many more. These adventurers, captivated by unchartered territory, share an often combustible mix of guts, ego, greed, and unwavering determination, their discoveries ranging from the beautiful to the terrible.
Both venues share deep connections with the musical material. Terra Nova will be in its element on the grounds of Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza, one of the city’s great monuments to the printed word, whose collection contains all of the texts that inspired these new works. The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, by contrast, shares in the songs’ spirit and history; now a museum for contemporary art, it was once a dormitory for sailors, with frescoed walls that still read “Rest after dangerous Toil,” a 188-year-old space, existing then and now for intrepid explorers and explorations.
Sound Engineer: Chris Botta
Videography: Eric Jenkins-Sahlin, Meristem Pictures
The broadcast will become available at 7:30pm Eastern / 4:30pm Pacific.
5BMF’s online events are 100% free this season. Please consider showing your support by donating to this project. Your gifts will go directly to our 2020-2021 Season artists, and will help sustain us as we plan and prepare to return to live concert programming: http://5bmf.org/support/