April 12-16: Premiere Tour of Song Cycle by Gity Razaz Performed by Karim Sulayman and the Israeli Chamber Project
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World Premiere Tour of New Song Cycle by Composer Gity Razaz
Flowing Down the Widening Rings of Being
Performed by Tenor Karim Sulayman and the Israeli Chamber Project
Friday, April 12, 2024 at 7:30pm
Kaufman Music Center | 129 West 67th Street | New York, NY
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Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 7:30pm
Bender JCC of Greater Washington | 6125 Montrose Road | Rockville, MD
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Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at 7:30pm
Meany Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington
4040 George Washington Lane Northeast | Seattle, WA
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“There’s an uncompromising beauty to works by the Iranian-born American composer.” – BBC Music Magazine
“Razaz has a compelling voice and refreshing command of sonority and harmony.” – San Diego Union-Tribune
Stream the Canadian Premiere Performance of Razaz’s Methuselah (In Chains of Time):
https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/35704
Composer Gity Razaz’s music has been hailed by The New York Times as “ravishing and engulfing” and in 2022, she was named a “Rising Star” by BBC Music Magazine. Her new song cycle, Flowing Down the Widening Rings of Being, will be given its world premiere performances by the Israeli Chamber Project with Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman in three performances in April – in New York, NY at Kaufman Music Center on April 12; in Rockville, MD at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington on April 14 as part of the Poling Artists of Excellence Concert Series; and in Seattle, WA at Meany Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington on April 16. Flowing Down the Widening Rings of Being for tenor, violin, viola, cello, clarinet, harp and piano is based on poetry and prose of Rumi and Rainer Maria Rilke. The song cycle is commissioned by the Israeli Chamber Project.
Gity Razaz, who was born in Tehran, Iran in 1986 and now lives in New York, is a composer whose music is deeply influenced by the constantly changing, at times tumultuous, realities of the world, including her identity and personal journey as an immigrant. This process of what Razaz describes as “uprooting and rebuilding” occupies much of her work, resulting in music that is emotionally charged and dramatic, while still maintaining mystery and lyricism. Her compositions are her means of responding to a hyperactive, disconnected world and offering transformation to listeners.
Razaz’s new song cycle, Flowing Down the Widening Rings of Being, juxtaposes the writing of Rumi and Rainer Maria Rilke. In an interview with I Care If You Listen, Razaz explains:
“Rumi and Rilke lived about 700 years apart and on nearly opposite sides of the earth, and with completely different religious backgrounds. Yet their philosophical and imaginative perspectives on some of the most existential topics in the history of mankind are eerily similar. In the poems selected for this project, I was attracted to the almost identical poetic imagery they both used in the poems which I ended up selecting for this project: they both use the imagery of ‘widening rings and circles’ to describe life and existence. Rumi calls for embracing uncertainty and living the ‘questions,’ ‘flowing down the always widening rings of being’ while Rilke acknowledges life’s unyielding truth, and moves through it with the confession that ‘I live my life in widening circles.’…”
“Tibi Cziger, artistic director of the Israeli Chamber Project, and I have been dreaming up a collaboration for many years,” Razaz says. “It’s been a joy to finally write for this fantastic ensemble, and of course, Karim Sulayman, whose voice is absolutely divine and sure to bring such depth of color and expression to these poems.”
“I first heard Gity Razaz’s music when we were both students at the Juilliard School, nearly twenty years ago,” says Israeli Chamber Project Artistic Director and clarinetist, Tibi Cziger. “Her unique, original and meaningful voice was already apparent and it was clear to me that I would one day commission a work from her. When the idea to collaborate with tenor Karim Sulayman was hatched, we at ICP felt the need and even the duty to include a new, original work, and I could not think of a more appropriate composer to reflect the beauty of this collaboration. The upcoming premiere is one of the artistic peaks in the sixteen years of our existence and we are eagerly looking forward to it.”
Also this spring, Razaz’s major orchestral work Methuselah (In Chains of Time), commissioned by the League of American Orchestras and Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, received its Canadian premiere in performances in February by the National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by Alexander Shelley. The performance is available to stream online in full on NACO’s website.
Other spring 2024 highlights for Razaz include a performance by Alisa Weilerstein of Secrets, Invocations for solo cello, presented by Washington Performing Arts at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on April 6, 2024. The piece in two movements was commissioned by Weilerstein as part of her multi-year FRAGMENTS project which weaves the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 newly commissioned works.
More about Gity Razaz:
Gity Razaz’s music has been commissioned and/or performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, National Sawdust, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, former cellist of the Kronos Quartet Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist Inbal Segev, violinist Jennifer Koh, League of the American Orchestras, violinist Francesca dePasquale, Metropolis Ensemble, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, and Amsterdam Cello Biennale among many others.
Recent works include a piece for Alisa Weilerstein and her ground-breaking project Fragments, a commission from BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo for the prestigious Last Night of the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and a world premiere with San Diego Symphony under Rafael Payare as part of an ambitious multiple-orchestra spanning initiative from the League of American Orchestras. Upcoming commissions include a collaboration with Israeli Chamber Project and the Grammy-winning tenor, Karim Sulayman, as well as a concerto for flautist Sharon Bezaly and London’s Wigmore Soloists.
Her compositions have earned numerous national and international awards, such as the Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters that is “is given to a composer of demonstrated artistic merit in mid-career”, the Jerome Foundation award, the Libby Larsen Prize in 28th International Search for New Music Competition, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Composer Institute, Juilliard Composers’ Orchestra Competition, multiple ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards, ASCAP Plus Awards, Juilliard’s Palmer Dixon Award for the outstanding composition of the year in 2010 and 2012, as well as special recognition from the Brian Israel Composition Prize, Margaret Blackburn Memorial Competition, the League of Composers (ISCM), to name a few.
Razaz’s debut album, The Strange Highway, which was recently released on Sweden’s preeminent BIS Records, has garnered international praise. As described by BBC Music Magazine, “There’s an uncompromising beauty to these works by the Iranian-born American composer, the opening title work, for cello octet, is a wild rhythmic ride, while the closing Metamorphosis of Narcissus offers some fantastic musical storytelling. Impressive.”