TICKETS – $15 General Admission / $10 for BMCM+AC members + Students w/ID
Aphorisms is a tribute to composer and Black Mountain College student Ursula Mamlok, inspired by her life, art, and triumph over persecution and oppression. The performance is choreographed by Miro Magloire and performed by the Momenta Quartet, flutist Roberta Michel, and the New Chamber Ballet. Presented here as a new performance iteration created especially for Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, this event integrates live chamber music and dance to celebrate Mamlok’s work and legacy. BMCM+AC will present two evening performances (Oct. 14th and Oct. 15th) in the museum’s main level gallery, in conjunction with the exhibition Points in Space: Performance at Black Mountain College.
About the Performances:
Aphorisms presents six works by Ursula Mamlok, performed live, enriched by Miro Magloire’s contemporary ballet choreography. Magloire, a former composition student of Mauricio Kagel and the founder of the New York City-based New Chamber Ballet, has pioneered a captivating new form of music-and-dance collaboration: ‘unplugged’, without stage sets or theatrical lights, and with the audience seated around the stage and up close to the performers.
Aphorisms opens with the eponymous composition for solo violin, in which Mamlok’s extremely reduced sound language appears in counterpoint to two simultaneous trios of dancers. Her trio Music for Stony Brook reverses the relationship: this time the dancers perform as soloists. This is followed by a fast-paced dance duet to Sintra for flute and cello, and a rousing dance to the composer’s String Quartet No 2. The performance concludes with a danced finale to Ursula Mamlok’s Terzianum.
Aphorisms received its world premiere this April in Berlin, Germany, and will be seen here in a new version created especially for Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. It follows an earlier production entitled Stray Bird, based on a different musical selection and choreography, which premiered in New York in 2017 and went on to great acclaim in sold-out performances in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and opening the Jewish Culture Days in Magdeburg, Germany.
Ursula Mamlok was born in Berlin in 1923 to Jewish parents. In 1939, the family had to make a last-minute escape from the Nazis, fleeing to Ecuador, where there was no opportunity to continue the composition and piano studies she had already begun as a musically gifted student in Berlin. Mamlok successfully applied for a scholarship at the Mannes School of Music in New York and travelled to the metropolis alone at the age of 17, without any money or knowledge of English.
In 1944, she studied at Black Mountain College, absorbing new musical philosophies that would shape her later works. Mamlok went on to enjoy a ground-breaking career as one of the few female composers of her generation. As the only female professor of contemporary composition at the Manhattan School of Music, she became a role model and guiding star for many students. In 2006, Mamlok returned to live in Berlin, where she enjoyed a second career. She continued to compose, gave lectures, took an active part in dialogue concerts and concert rehearsals, and made numerous radio programs. Mamlok died on May 4, 2016, and was laid to rest next to her biological father at the Weißensee Jewish Cemetery in Berlin.
Ursula Mamlok’s works are published by Edition Peters and Boosey & Hawkes. In 2012, her biography by author Habakuk Traber was published by the Böhlau Verlag, and in 2013 the documentary ‘Ursula Mamlok – Movements’ by Anne Berrini was released, profiling the composer’s life and music. The label Bridge Records has released six CDs with Mamlok’s works, and in 2024 the volume ‘Ursula Mamlok – Komponistin zwischen New York und Berlin’ by Kolja Lessing was published in the ‘Jewish Miniatures’ series by Hentrich & Hentrich.
The Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Foundation
Ursula Mamlok established the Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Foundation during her lifetime with the intent to promote contemporary music and literature, and to support young, talented musicians. The foundation’s mission is to keep Ursula Mamlok’s works alive in performances, and to support emerging musicians by awarding the Ursula Mamlok Prize. Ursula and Dwight Mamlok’s archive has been transferred to the musical archives of the Akademie der Künste Berlin, where it has been cataloged and made accessible to the public. www.mamlokstiftung.com
New Chamber Ballet believes that small is beautiful and expressive. Currently celebrating its 20th Anniversary Season, the company has been redefining the way audiences experience contemporary ballet and chamber music for two decades with up-close performances in nontraditional venues. Praised by The New York Times as “one of the small-scale delights of the New York Dance Scene,” the company is noted for its groundbreaking collaborations with composers and musicians in bold, sculptural dances that blur the boundary of ballet and contemporary dance.
Founded by choreographer and composer Miro Magloire, the company has performed nationally from California to Massachusetts, and internationally from Germany to Guatemala, including at architecturally significant locations such as Bramante’s Tempietto in Rome, Tadao Ando’s Clark Museum in Massachusetts and the Grace Farms Cultural Centre of the Pritzker Prize-winning SANAA.
But the company’s artistic home remains its ongoing series in New York City. “In a city full of ballet, Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet is a welcome and unique voice… Indeed, with music and choreography that remind us of our own humanity, Magloire, with New Chamber Ballet, will continue to show us what is possible for ballet.” (Tara Lindis, Times Square Chronicle)
Lauded as “refreshingly original” by Alastair Macaulay of The New York Times, Miro Magloire is the founder and artistic director of New Chamber Ballet, for which he has created over one hundred ballets in his signature sculpturesque, in-the-round style. Born in Munich, Germany, he started his career as a composer, studying with Mauricio Kagel, before moving to New York to pursue his dance career. Magloire is particularly interested in contemporary music, often in collaboration with important composers and music ensembles. Outside of his own company, he has created numerous commissioned works as well as architecturally inspired, site-specific works. Magloire has lived and worked in New York for 30 years.
Dancers:
Anabel Alpert graduated from the Miami City Ballet School and danced professionally with The Sarasota Ballet, Ballet Austin, and the American Contemporary Ballet. She graduated cum laude from Penn State University with a degree in Organizational Leadership. In 2022, she founded the New Chamber Ballet Young Patrons Club and in 2023, she founded the NYC Emerging Artists Project with the mission of promoting and supporting emerging dancers and choreographers. This is her sixth season with New Chamber Ballet.
Megan Foley began her training at the International Ballet School in Colorado, and continued it at the San Francisco Ballet School under Patrick Armand. In 2017 she joined Oklahoma City Ballet’s Studio Company. Most recently, Megan was a member of New York Dance Project. This is her seventh season with New Chamber Ballet.
Nicole McGinnis began her training in Pasadena, California, going on to train at the Marat Daukayev School of Ballet in Los Angeles. She then joined the Graduate Program at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, where she has had the opportunity to perform with the company and the school in works including those by George Balanchine, Terrence Orr, and Staycee Pearl. This is her fifth season with New Chamber Ballet.
Amber Neff has been a member of New Chamber Ballet for fourteen seasons and was nominated by Pointe Magazine as Standout Performance of 2022. She performed featured roles for The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Claudia Schreier & Company, and Emery LeCrone DANCE, and was a member of Boston Ballet and Richmond Ballet. Amber received her training in New York at The Dance Design School, the HARID Conservatory, and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theater.
Rachele Perla grew up in West Boylston, MA, and received her early dance training at the Boston Ballet School before earning her BFA in Dance at Fordham University/The Ailey School. She has performed works by George Balanchine, Mikko Nissinen, Alvin Ailey, Adam Barruch, Amy Hall Garner, and Robert Hill. This summer, she participated in the National Choreographer’s Initiative. This is her ninth season with New Chamber Ballet.
Kayla Schmitt began dancing at Ballet Conservatory of Asheville at the age of three. She went on to study at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Manhattan Youth Ballet, and finished out her training in Ballet Chicago’s Studio Company. In the second half of her training, she performed many Balanchine ballets as well as works from Marcia Dale Weary and Durante Verzola. This is her fourth season with New Chamber Ballet.
Brooklyn-based flutist Roberta Michel is dedicated to the music of our time. She has commissioned and premiered hundreds of new works and has worked with many notable composers of our day. Roberta is the flutist and Co-Director of Wavefield Ensemble and is a member of Da Capo Chamber Players, PinkNoise, and Duo RoMi.
Roberta has also performed with: Art Ensemble of Chicago, Cadillac Moon Ensemble (founding member), SEM Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ecce Ensemble, Portland String Quartet, Newspeak, Wet Ink Ensemble, Argento, Iktus, Wordless Music Orchestra, Ensemble LPR, and Cygnus Ensemble among others. Recent venues include: Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tulley Hall, Merkin Hall, The Kennedy Center, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She can be heard on New Focus, Chandos, Innova, Tzadik, Bridge, Wide Hive, New Dynamic, and Meta Records. She played on the 2021 GRAMMY-winning album of Dame Ethyl Smyth’s The Prison with Experiential Orchestra. Her recently released solo album Hush, on New Focus Recordings, “digs deep into the possibilities of flute on this gripping solo recital.”
Roberta is the Assistant Teaching Professor of Flute at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She previously taught flute at Sarah Lawrence College, Brooklyn College, and music courses at St. Francis College. She plays a Brannen flute with a Mancke headjoint. Roberta’s solo album Hush here is available here.
Momenta: the plural of momentum–four individuals in motion towards a common goal. This is the idea behind the Momenta Quartet. The New York City-based quartet has engaged in residencies at Temple, Cornell, Brown, and Binghamton Universities; performed at The National Gallery and The Library of Congress; and received commission grants from Chamber Music America, and the Koussevitzky, Jerome, and Barlow Foundations. Momenta’s debut album, Similar Motion, is available on Albany Records. In 2022 New World Records released their album of Alvin Singleton’s four string quartets. They are currently recording the complete quartets of the 20th-century Mexican composer and microtonal innovator Julián Carrillo for Naxos Records. More information is available at www.momentaquartet.com.
Members:
Lauded by the New York Times as “brilliant” and by The Strad for her “marvellous and lyrical playing,” violinist Emilie-Anne Gendron enjoys an active and versatile freelance career based in New York. A deeply committed chamber musician, Ms. Gendron has been on the roster of the Marlboro Music Festival and the touring Musicians from Marlboro since 2011. She has appeared frequently with Talea Ensemble, A Far Cry, Argento Ensemble, Sejong Soloists, and has served on numerous occasions as concertmaster of ensembles including Orpheus, IRIS Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. She is a founding member of Ensemble Échappé, a new-music sinfonietta, as well as the Gamut Bach Ensemble, in residence with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Ms. Gendron’s extensively varied international appearances have included recitals in Sweden and at the Louvre in Paris; festivals in Russia, Finland, and Jordan; and recently, major venues in China, South Korea, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. She was trained at the Juilliard School where her teachers were Won Bin Yim, Dorothy DeLay, David Chan, and Hyo Kang. A dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, she holds a B.A. in Classics from Columbia with Phi Beta Kappa honors, and a Master of Music degree and the coveted Artist Diploma from Juilliard. www.emilieannegendron.com
Praised by The New York Times as “spellbinding,” violinist Alex Shiozaki is emerging as a strong advocate for the music of today. At home with music new and old, he has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Sapporo Symphony, Sendai Philharmonic, AXIOM Ensemble, and the Juilliard Orchestra. Other highlights include summer residencies at the Tanglewood Music Center as a New Fromm Player and a Japan tour with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. A member of the Momenta Quartet since 2016, he also regularly performs with the IRIS Orchestra, Contemporaneous, and Mimesis Ensemble. As part of the Shiozaki Duo with his wife and pianist Nana Shi, Alex has given recitals in New York, Boston, Washington D.C., and California. Holding a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.M. and D.M.A. from the Juilliard School, he counts among his teachers Ronald Copes and Joseph Lin of the Juilliard String Quartet, Lynn Chang, and Robin Sharp. In addition to his performance activities, he is on faculty at the Juilliard School, State University of New York at New Paltz, and Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Stephanie Griffin is an innovative violist and composer with an eclectic musical vision. Born in Canada and based in New York City, her musical adventures have taken her to Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Mongolia. Stephanie founded the Momenta Quartet in 2004, and is a member of the Argento Chamber Ensemble and Continuum; principal violist of the Princeton Symphony; and viola faculty at Hunter College. She was a 2019 Composition Fellow at the Instituto Sacatar in Brazil, and has received prestigious composition fellowships and commissions from the Jerome Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the Bronx Council on the Arts. As an improviser she has performed with Henry Threadgill, Wadada Leo Smith, Butch Morris and Adam Rudolph, among others, and was a 2014 Fellow and 2021 Alumna-in-Residence at Music Omi. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School where she studied with Samuel Rhodes, and has recorded for Tzadik, Innova, Naxos, Aeon, New World and Albany records. Since August 2020, she has served as the Executive Director of ACMP, a nonprofit organization providing grants and services for amateur chamber music worldwide.
Michael Haas is an accomplished and exciting cellist, performing in New York City and around the world. His playing has been described as “refined and attractive” by the New York Times. Leading a varied musical life, Michael is equally at home performing chamber music and orchestral repertoire both old and new. He has recently appeared performing at Symphony Space, the New York Live Arts Theater, Le Poisson Rouge, as well as for Tertulia, a new series bringing chamber music to intimate settings around New York City. In addition to his work with Momenta Quartet, he performs regularly with the Princeton Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and American Ballet Theater Orchestra. He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School.
Images from the New Chamber Ballet’s 2017 Performance of Stray Bird – Photos by Arnaud Falchier.
This event is generously supported by:
