Fractured Atlas Bhakti Project Profile

(There are live links over to your left! More soon on that, once I get text approved for posting on the blog. For now, here is the Sponsorship Profile from the Fractured Atlas website; most of this you know, but here it is in a succinct snapshot, suitable for framing... I mean, for sharing with your friends, readers, colleagues, and other interested parties!)

The Bhakti Project is a collaboration between composer Judd Greenstein, pianist Jocelyn Dueck, and soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird. The three were Fellows at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2004, and shortly thereafter, Ms. Bird and Mr. Greenstein started talking about collaborating on a new work.

What formed over the next two years was a three-fold project:

1) Commissioning Mr. Greenstein to write a new work for soprano and piano, to be premiered by Ms. Bird and Ms. Dueck. Working together with Ms. Bird, Mr. Greenstein decided that texts for the songs will be taken from the Zohar, a central book of Kabbalah, the mystic arm of Judaism.

2) Presenting the work as part of a recital program. The title of the program – “I have some light: Songs of Spirit”– reflects the theme, which is the relationship one seeks with the Divine. Religions and spiritual paths from around the world are represented on the program, which will include works by Rachmaninoff, Messiaen, Dallapiccola, Harbison, and Barber, as well as Greenstein’s premiere and various genres of American music (folk, musical theatre, cabaret).

This recital program will have its premiere performance in May 2007 and will be presented several times in the 07-08 season.

3) The commercial recording of the new work and selections from the recital program. New Amsterdam Records, founded by Mr. Greenstein, has expressed interest in releasing the recording.

The titles of both the Bhakti Project and of the recital borrow from lines in John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs, which tell of one woman’s devotion (bhakti) to Krishna, her incarnation of Divinity. The recital explores an individuals’ devotion to his or her spiritual path, and this project explores and supports my devotion to bringing new music to life. I hope to encourage others to join me in that devotion!