HARPIST BRIDGET KIBBEY TO JOIN
CAMERATA PACIFICA’S NOVEMBER PROGRAM
OF FRENCH MASTERWORKS.
“[Bridget Kibbey] made it seem as though her instrument had been waiting all its life to explode with the gorgeous colors and energetic figures she was getting from it.”
New York Times
Camerata Pacifica’s French November program has been created to showcase the harp, and one of its premier exponents, Bridget Kibbey. A colleague of Camerata principal artists Richard O’Neill & José Franch Ballester at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bridget’s virtuosity, musicality and sparkling personality make her an easy fit into the Camerata community.
The program takes us into that early-20th century French world of swirling colors and shifting chromatic harmonies epitomized in the music of the rarely-acknowledged-as-the-radical-he-is Claude Debussy and all of the works and composers on this program have a link to that composer. The first half of the program deals with music that is deliberately evocative, opening with Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane. André Caplet was Debussy’s orchestrator and his Conte fantastique is written on the tale of Edgar Allan Poeʼs “Masque of the Red Death”. The score of Jolivet’s Chant de Linos includes the following information: “The Chant de Linos in Greek antiquity was a form of threnody: a funeral lamentation interrupted by cries and dances.”
Following intermission the musical expression is more indirect and abstract,Debussy returns with his late work, the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp andMaurice Ravel’s later affinity for orchestral sonority gets an early exploration within the tightly restricted ensemble deployed for his Introduction & Allegro.
Of Debussy’s groundbreaking L’Après midi d’un faune, Ravel famously commented, “It was hearing this work, so many years ago, that I first understood what real music was.”
Tickets for the concerts, as well as additional information on Camerata Pacifica can be found at
www.cameratapacifica.org or by calling 805-884-8410.
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November performance dates:
Friday, November 9, 1 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Hahn Hall, Santa Barbara
Sunday, November 11, 3 p.m. Temple Beth Torah, Ventura
Tuesday, November 13, 8 p.m. The Gold Room, Pasadena Civic Auditorium
Thursday, April 12th, 8 p.m. Zipper Hall, Los Angeles
The program:
Debussy: Danse sacreé et danse profane*
Caplet: Conte fantastique after Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death”
Jolivet: Chant de Linos
Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp*
Ravel: Introduction and Allegro*
Performers:
Adrian Spence – flute, Bil Jackson – clarinet, Catherine Leonard – violin,
Agnes Gottschewski – violin, Richard Yongjae O’Neill – viola, Ani Aznavoorian – cello, Tim Eckert – double bass, Bridget Kibbey – harp
Ticket prices:
Hahn Hall**, Zipper Hall & Pasadena Gold Room*** concert: $45 single tickets
Lunchtime Hahn Hall** concert: $22 single tickets
Temple Beth Torah concert: $40 single tickets
- Student Rush, 30 minutes prior, for $10, with valid student i.d.
- **Hahn Hall add $2 per ticket Facility Fee
- *** Pasadena Gold Room add $3 per ticket Facility Fee
- Call the office for group rate details
* denotes repertoire for 1 p.m. performance.
Or call: 805-884-8410
BRIDGET KIBBEY
Possessing a special connection with her instrument that captivates audiences across the United States and abroad, harpist Bridget Kibbey’s performances “…make it seem as though her instrument had been waiting all its life to explode with the gorgeous colors and energetic figures she was getting from it” (New York Times).
An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, a winner of Concert Artist Guild’s 2007 International Competition and Astral Artist Auditions, and a member of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS II, Ms. Kibbey’s performances have been broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today, on New York’s WQXR, WNYC’s Soundcheck, WETA’s Front Row Washington, and A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts. Bridget’s debut album, Love is Come Again, was named one of the Top Ten Releases by Time out New York. She may also be heard on Deutsche Grammaphon with Dawn Upshaw on Berio’s Folk Songs and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre.As hailed by the New York Times, harpist Bridget Kibbey
Ms. Kibbey has collaborated with an array of artists in repertoire new and established, including Ian Bostridge, David Krakauer, Jaime Laredo, Edgar Meyer, Mayumi Miyata, Cristina Pato, Sharon Robinson, David Schifrin, and the Calder and Jupiter Quartets. She is frequently featured with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and is the founding harpist of the International Contemporary Ensemble and Metropolis Ensemble.
This season’s highlights include Opening Night at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and multiple appearances in Alice Tully Hall showcasing French masterworks with harp with members of the Society, appearances at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C, Boston’s Gardner Museum, Chicago’s MusicNowseries, Elliott Carter’s 103rd Birthday Celebration, a world-premier by Kaija Saariahio with Houston’s DaCamera, concerto appearances with the Modesto Symphony, Illinois Symphony, a concerto tour with the Manchester Festival Strings, and solo and chamber performances at Music @ Menlo and the Mostly Mozart Festivals.
2012 saw the premier of Bridget’s new solo project, Music Box, a vibrant exploration of solo harp told through the lens of seven international composers, bringing their unique folk backgrounds to the harp, including Paquito d’Rivera, Kinan Azmeh, DuYun, David Bruce, Susie Ibarra, Kati Agocs, and her own arrangement.
A leader in broadening the scope and platform of her instrument, she has premiered new works by Kati Agocs, Harrison Birtwistle, Sebastian Currier, Pierre Boulez, Nathan Shields, Kaija Saariaho, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Augusta Read Thomas, Charles Wuorinen, among others. Ms. Kibbey performed Britten’s Canticles in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall with tenor Ian Bostridge, performed the New York premier of Elliot Carter's Mosaic in Zankel Hall for the composer's 100th birthday, and the American premier of Sebastian Currier's Broken Minuets with Symphony in C in Philadelphia's Kimmel Center.
Ms. Kibbey is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where she studied with Nancy Allen. She is on the harp faculties of Bard Conservatory, New York University, and the Juilliard Pre-College Program.
