Last month, acclaimed harpist and faculty of The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts Anne LeBaron presented world premieres of two new works.
On Oct. 13, the world premiere of LeBaron’s work I’m explaining a few things (a lamentation) took place at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music as part of the Prima Voce Emerging Artists Fall Concert Series. The piece is named after Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda’s work, which depicted the severities wrought by the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). I’m explaining a few things was commissioned for and performed by mezzo-soprano Tivoli Treloar, and accompanied by renowned opera vocal and diction coach Lucy Tucker Yates, to whom CalArts President Ravi Rajan is married.
LeBaron’s second world premiere occurred days later on Oct. 15 at the 43rd annual Bowling Green New Music Festival. Cosmic Rose, for harp and French horn, was inspired by Arp 273, a pair of interacting spiral galaxies that form the shape of a rose. The work was performed by horn player and commissioner Rachel Constantino, as well as harpist Shelly Du.
“While composing this piece, the image of the rose created by whirling galaxies that briefly merge as they intersect was a lodestone for me,” said LeBaron.
Currently, LeBaron is working on announcing a Los Angeles premiere of Femicide, her new work for solo cello. The piece, which was recently performed by Rocío Díaz de Cossío at Ensenada New Music Festival in Mexico, is performed in three sections honoring murdered women and their families. Highway of Tears is dedicated to Indigenous women in Canada, Say Her Name for Black women in the US, and Daughters of Juarez for Mexican women in Ciudad Juarez.
“Ultimately, we hope that performances of Femicide will function as a call to action,” said LeBaron.
