ELIZABETHTOWN — A decade ago, Joëlle Morris, a mezzo-soprano; Eliza Meyer, a cellist; and Bridget Convey, a pianist, were fortunate to find each other in central Maine.
They came together to form the Resinosa Ensemble, which performs this weekend at Piano by Nature in Elizabethtown.
“We are based in Maine, and we were trying to think of a name, and that’s always hard. Eliza, our cellist, was doing some thinking, and she discovered about the Resinosa pine tree, which is the red pine and has three needles fitted into one of the sprouting points. So that’s where she came up with the name,” Convey said.
‘THREE PAINTINGS’
Saturday and Sunday, the ensemble will present the program “Touch the Hand of Love” featuring the world premiere of “Three Paintings” by Maine composer Philip Carlsen, who selected poems by his wife, Franco-American poet Jeri Theriault, that were inspired by paintings of Gideon Bok, Andrew Wyeth and Marc Chagall.
“We do commission composers, but this one was actually Phil Carlsen, who I’ve known for a long time. For about a good 15 to 18 years, he wrote for us without us commissioning him,” Convey said.
“He said, ‘I want to write you guys a piece,’ and we’re like, ‘OK.’ We weren’t in a position to work on grant writing or anything at that time. He said, ‘No, I’m fine to do it.’ That’s one of the great joys. Sometimes, we commission composers and pay them their appropriate fee, and sometimes they just want to write for us, which is very kind of them. and in return, we perform the piece often, and we’ll record it. We had recorded an album a couple of years ago that we hope to release this year, which is all pieces that were written for us by Maine composers. That was one way to thank composers who have written for us as well.”
Carlsen and Theriault collaborate frequently.
“She’s a phenomenal poet, and he was really jazzed about a song cycle of his wife’s poetry for us. It was all his idea, his germination of everything that he thought of, and then they worked together. Some of the poems were already written, and then some she had authored for the composition. There are three movements, and each of the three movements is based on a specific painting,” Convey said.
The first movement is “Dark Winter” after “Dark Winter” by artist Gideon Bok, who lives in Maine. The second movement is “Woman and the Nautilus: A Painting” after “Chambered Nautilus” by artist Andrew Wyeth. The third movement is “Bella Above” after “Promenade” by artist Marc Chagall.
Theriault’s ekphrastic poems were set to music by Carlsen.
“I always loved his music. He writes music, has a lot of interesting sonic influences and world music influences. He has experience with gamelan and other Indonesian types of music and other parts of the world, as well,” Convey said.
“In the songs like ‘Dark Winter,’ he captures a really beautiful melody that’s truly very descriptive music about what the text is about. The ‘Chambered Nautilus’ piece has a beautiful melody in the cello. He is a cellist, so he writes really well for the cello, which is wonderful. Then ‘Bella Above,’ in the artwork itself, too, there is a sense of reaching up to the sky. and the piano part, my right hand spends most of its time in the high-high treble, and my left hand spends most of its time in the low-low bass. So he brings a very nice sonic world. He did a beautiful job setting Jeri’s poetry to music,” Convey said.
SYNOPSIS
The program’s title is named after a jazz song by Blossom Dearie.
“Which is our final piece on the program,” Convey said. “Our program is very diverse, considering the three of us. We’re all classically trained, but we have a wide variety of styles and genres in this program.
“We start of with a baroque piece, ‘Che si può fare’) by Barbara Strozzi, a female baroque composer from Italy. It’s an arrangement that Joëlle put together for us, so for cello, piano and voice. Then, ‘Summer Moon,’ the Florence Price piano solo, and then we’re doing Jessie Montgomery, who is a living African-American female composer, a Grammy Award winning composer, a piece (‘Losaida, My Love’) for cello and voice. Once again, the voice part in that has a real blend, kind of a jazzy style, not so much art song or operatic style.
“Phil’s pieces (‘Moving Day’ and ‘Three Paintings’) are great. Eliza, the cellist, and I had performed one of the cello and piano pieces that he had written for his son’s wedding as a wedding gift for his son. That’s one we had performed in previous years, so when he wrote the trio for us, hey, let’s bring back the piano and cello piece because, once again, it has that the theme of love. So that whole Phil Carlsen set is a lot of fun.”
FLORENCE PRICE
The last 10 to 20 years, musicologists have unearthed a lot of music from marginalized composers, not only in the United States, but around the world.
“We’re finding some phenomenon music written by women, women of color, men of color, people from different backgrounds, religions, genders, etc. that we’re learning so much about. Florence Price, she’s been an American composer that really has been busting out onto the scene for the last, I’d say, 10 years, for sure. She was the first African-American female composer to have her work performed by a symphony orchestra in the U.S.,” Convey said.
“Most of her music was up in an attic and wasn’t found, I think, until 1990s or something after she passed away in the 1950s. Her music was kind of historic, and then someone found it and they were like, ‘Oh, my God, this looks really great,’ and it had this rebirth. During her lifetime, she did have quite a bit amount of success, especially being a Black woman in the U.S. at a time when segregation was paramount. She writes beautifully for the piano. She really writes beautifully for every instrument. She has a bunch of beautiful art songs that are absolutely gorgeous. She has written a ton of piano solos, as well, and then this solo came to me from another project that I’m a part of, and we were having music all based on nature. We found this little gem, quite a sweet piece, ‘Summer Moon.’”
‘WE HAVE IT ALL’
Resinosa is also revisiting Amy Beach, a New England composer.
“We’re bringing back a piece (‘Chanson d’amour’) of hers. That’s for the trio, written for cello, mezzo-soprano and piano. ‘Song of Love,’ it’s very luscious, very romantic, very soupy. We performed that on our first season together back in 2016, so it’s been 10 years since we played it together. We got, like, a little Asian set, which is cool. We’re doing a duo (‘Romance of Hsiao and Ch’in’) by Chinese female composer Chen Yi. The piano and cello are emulating these two traditional Chinese instruments, and they have, like, a little romance together. We so much sound like those traditional Chinese instruments,” Convey said.
“Then, we got into a set of songs called ‘Midnight Songs’ by an American composer (Paul John Rudoi), who sets the poetry of an ancient Chinese concubine (Tsu Yeh). So they have that Chinese flair in regards to where the text comes from. Then, we go into Caroline Shaw’s rendition of ‘Shenandoah,’ which is a love song at many levels for cello and piano, and then Blossom Dearie at the end, ‘Touch the Hand of Love.’
“I love all the pieces on the program. What I love about the program, it’s so diverse. We have different instrumentation, music from different parts of the world, music from different genres and styles. We have it all, really.”