THE AGE OF RISE
A Call for Action on Climate Change
March 6, 2024
Juventas New Music Ensemble finishes its 2023-24 mainstage series at the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge with The Age of the Rise, a call for action on climate change. The concert will feature music by Eliza Brown, Catarina Domenici, Mary Montgomery Koppel, J. A. J. Sedarski, and Alexander Liebermann. The performance will be in person at the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge, MA and streamed live on YouTube on March 23 at 8 pm ET.
The concert’s title takes from Eliza Brown’s song cycle The Age of the Rise which depicts a changing world in the face of climate change. “Though these songs are in some sense about the future in a world of higher sea levels, they are really about the present”, says Brown. The final movement, "The last ones out," is about a family cabin that Brown's great-grandparents built on the coast of Maine in the 1930s. It was irreparably damaged by a storm this January.
Mary Montgomery Koppel
Catarina Domenici
J. A. J. Sedarski
Alexander Liebermann
Eliza Brown
The immediacy of climate change in our world is a common theme throughout the concert. House on Fire: Three Songs on Responsibility by Mary Montgomery Koppel excerpts Greta’s Thunbergs speech to the United Nations in 2018. “From the first time I heard the fury of this young woman’s words, I was struck to the core,” says Koppel. “I aimed in my setting to capture her power and anger through disjointed rhythms and fractured sonorities, but also used more lyrical passages to highlight the vulnerability in her desperation. I could think of no better way to conclude this collection than with Thunberg’s astute, prescient, and utterly justified diatribe.”
Before the concert, J. A. J. Sedarski, Alexander Liebermann, and Mary Montgomery Koppel will join musicologist and Boston Conservatory Professor Karen Ruymann for a pre-concert conversation. The composers will discuss their works, inspirations, and humanity in the face of ecological disaster.
The Age of the Rise will feature performances by Core Musicians Nicholas Southwick, flute; Celine Ferro, clarinet; Kelley Hollis, soprano; Ryan Shannon, violin; Thomas Schmidt, percussion; and Julia Scott Carey, piano. This concert will also feature Guest Artists Michael Bellofatto, horn; and Tianhui Ng, conductor.
Tianhui Ng
Kelley Hollis
Julia Scott Carey
Thomas Schmidt
Thomas Barth
Ryan Shannon
Nicholas Southwick
Celine Ferro
Michael Bellofatto
Tickets are on sale now at juventasmusic.org and range from $1-$35. Juventas continues to provide $1 Music for All tickets for anyone who cannot afford regular ticket pricing, no questions asked. Info at https://www.juventasmusic.org/the-age-of-the-rise
Upcoming Juventas Mainstage Season Programs
Anne Howarth: Center Stage
A special solo program featuring Juventas’s celebrated Hornist
January 27, 2024, at 8:00 pm ET
Multicultural Arts Center
41 Second St, East Cambridge, MA 02141
and via live YouTube broadcast
The Age of the Rise
A call for action on climate change.
With music by Eliza Brown, Catarina Domenici, Mary Montgomery Koppel, J. A. J. Sedarski, and Kyle Rivera
March 23, 2024, at 8:00 pm ET
Multicultural Arts Center
41 Second St, East Cambridge, MA 02141
and via live YouTube broadcast
Music in Bloom
171 acres; 20 composers; 5 simultaneous concerts; one unforgettable evening of music al fresco
With music by Stacy Garrop, Quinn Mason, Valeria Coleman, Oliver Caplan, Lauren Berofsky, Carson Cooman, Ken Sullivan, Adolphus Hailstork, Brandee Younger, Brittney Benton, Kian Ravaei, Brian Raphael Nabors, Stephanie Ann Boyd, Shelley Washington, Jessie Montgomery, Nina Shekhar, Caroline Shaw, Osvaldo Golijov, Osnat Netzer.
June 9 & 16, 2024, at 6:00 pm
New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill
11 French Dr, Boylston, MA 01505
About Juventas:
Juventas New Music Ensemble is a contemporary chamber group with a special focus on emerging voices. Juventas shares classical music as a vibrant, living art form. We bring audiences music from a diverse array of composers that live in today’s world and respond to our time.
Press Contacts:
Oliver Caplan
Artistic Director
oliver.caplan@juventasmusic.org
Joseph Sedarski
General Manager
joseph.sedarski@juventasmusic.org
