This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
Georgia State University’s Ensemble ATL, a relative newcomer to the Atlanta chamber music scene, presents its fourth season in 2024 with a pair of performances to be held at Georgia State University’s Kopleff Recital Hall. Both performances will feature members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Opera and Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, as well as freelance performers.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Ensemble ATL
Credit: Photo courtesy of Ensemble ATL
The ensemble’s season will commence Sept. 9 with an evening of works by Arnold Schönberg to celebrate the composer’s 150th birthday. Outstanding among the pieces performed will be “Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21.” An arrangement of 21 poems by Belgian poet Albert Giraud into German opera, the composition is among Schönberg’s most widely revered and performed works, but it is also close to the heart of Ensemble ATL Conductor and Music Director Robert J. Ambrose.
“It is a piece that has pulled at me for most of my career,” explained Ambrose. “This will be my fifth time conducting the piece, and each time I revisit it, it seems to be more beguiling, more compelling, more insistent in what it is trying to say.”
Additionally, the performance will feature soprano Lindsay Kesselman. “Lindsay is an absolute superstar and especially well versed in modern music,” says Ambrose. He is quick to note that while “Pierrot Lunaire” was written in 1912 and thus not quite in the modern era, it makes use of vocal techniques that were revolutionary for the time period. Kesselman is outstanding at interpreting such nontraditional concepts, he adds.
Credit: Photo by Bo Huang
Credit: Photo by Bo Huang
The ensemble’s Jan. 21 performance, titled “Entente Cordiale,” offers a diverse array of performances and compositional explorations with works by Henry Tomasi, George Onslow and Joseph Bologne, the latter of whom is experiencing a renewed interest following the release of the 2022 biopic “Chevalier.” Additional works performed will include Anna Clyne’s “Hopscotch” for solo flute performed by Sarah Kruser Ambrose and Dani Howard’s “Add Oil” for solo cello performed by Brad Ritchie.
The program’s title, Ambrose said, is “a reference to a series of agreements signed by France and the United Kingdom in 1904 to improve relations between the two nations.” It was a natural fit given the program’s pairing of French and British composers, with work by composer George Onslow tying it all together.
“I knew I wanted the concert to be created around Onslow’s magnificent ‘Nonet, Op. 77,’” he explained. “Onslow’s father was British and mother was French, so I had the idea to build a program that would alternate between pieces by French and British composers and culminate in ‘Nonet.’”
MUSIC PREVIEW
Ensemble ATL
7 p.m. Sept. 9, Georgia State University’s Kopleff Recital Hall, 15 Gilmer St. SE (inside the Arts & Humanities Building), Atlanta, Free. news.gsu.edu.
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Jordan Owen began writing about music professionally at the age of 16 in Oxford, Mississippi. A 2006 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, he is a professional guitarist, bandleader and composer. He is currently the lead guitarist for the jazz group Other Strangers, the power metal band Axis of Empires and the melodic death/thrash metal band Century Spawn.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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