48 St. Stephen featuring a World Premiere by Christopher Stark
Award-winning duo 48 St. Stephen will perform works by Bach, Walker, Messiaen, and a world premiere of a work by WashU composer Christopher Stark. Free admission. No reservations, tickets, or registration is required. Free parking is available in the garage behind the building.
Program:
Sonata No. 6 for violin and keyboard in G Major, BWV 1019 (1717- 23) by J.S. Bach (1685 - 1750)
I. Allegro
II. Largo
III. Allegro
IV. Adagio
V. Allegro
Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano (1958) by George Walker (1922 - 2018)
Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1940-41) by Olivier Messiaen (1908 - 1992)
VIII. Louange à l’lmmortalité de Jésus
Cocci di tempo (2023) (world premiere) by Christopher Stark (b. 1980)
This commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Mellon Foundation.
Biography:
48 St. Stephen is an adventurous ensemble whose mission is to develop a sense of closeness between the old and new, and a timelessness that holds them together. The duo is deeply committed to works by living composers as well as masterpieces from the traditional canon, and they create concert experiences that connect repertoire from the likes of Bach, Mozart, and Prokofiev to today’s most experimental music.
Founded at the very beginning of 2020, 48 St. Stephen has rapidly increased their visibility in the fields of contemporary music and chamber music. The group has won several awards and grants including St. Botolph Club Foundation’s Emerging Artist Award and Chamber Music America’s Commissioning Grant with Rome Prize winner Christopher Stark. The duo was also selected to perform at Ramapo College’s “Healing Hands” project, a series dedicated to exploring how the arts contribute to healing during the COVID-19 pandemic’s challenging times.
The COVID-19 pandemic motivated the group to be more active and creative in ways to connect with audiences. In 2020, 48 St. Stephen commissioned and documented two new pieces by Bongani Ndodana-Breen (University of Cape Town) and Yoon-Ji Lee (Berklee College of Music). The resultant pieces, which reflected the composers’ responses to the height of the pandemic, were premiered by Metropolis Ensemble and later aired on the German public radio WDR 3’s program “Tonart.”
The ensemble has performed recitals at venues in Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and Rhode Island, and looks forward to upcoming residencies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Washington University in St. Louis, and Vanderbilt University. 48 St. Stephen’s 2023-2024 commissions include music by Molly Herron, Dan VanHassel, and Patrick O’Malley.
Christopher Stark, whose music The New York Times has called, "fetching and colorful," has been awarded prizes from the American Academy in Rome, Guggenheim Foundation, Chamber Music America, Barlow Endowment, and the Fromm Foundation at Harvard. Named a "Rising Star" by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his works have been performed by ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Detroit Symphony, and he has created arrangements for the producers of artists like Drake, Eminem, and Zac Brown Band. Stark has held residencies at Civitella Ranieri, Copland House, AiR Bergen in Norway, and the Bogliasco Foundation where he was the Aaron Copland Fellow in Music. His film score for the feature-length film Novitiate, starring Melissa Leo and Margaret Qualley premiered at Sundance in 2017 and was theatrically released by Sony Pictures Classics later that year. Stark currently lives and works in Missouri, where he is an Associate Professor of Music at Washington University in St. Louis and a Creative Partner of the St. Louis Symphony, where he curates their contemporary chamber music series at the Pulitzer Foundation.