Unremembered

Deemed “one of the decade’s more gifted, up-and-coming modern classicalcomposers” (Pitchfork), composer Sarah Kirkland Snider writes music of direct expression andvivid narrative that has been hailed as “rapturous” (The New York Times), “haunting” (The LosAngeles Times), and “strikingly beautiful” (Time Out New York). With an ear for both thestructural and poetic, Snider’s music draws upon a variety of influences to render a nuancedcommand of immersive storytelling.

Snider’s works have been commissioned and performed by some of the most prestigiousorchestras, ensembles, and soloists throughout the world, including the San Francisco, Detroit,Indianapolis, and North Carolina Symphonies, the Residentie Orkest Den Haag, and theAmerican Composers Orchestra; violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, percussionist Colin Currie, andvocalist Shara Nova (formerly Worden); Ensemble Signal, The Knights, yMusic, and Roomful ofTeeth, among many others. Her music has been heard at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and theBrooklyn Academy of Music, and at festivals including BAM Next Wave, Aspen, Ecstatic,Sundance, NY Festival of Song, and Zurich’s Apples & Olives. Penelope, her song cycle formezzo and orchestra (or chamber ensemble), has been performed over forty times in the UnitedStates and Europe.

The 16/17 season will feature premieres and performances including the US premiere ofUnremembered, inspired by the poems and illustrations of writer/visual artist Nathaniel Bellows,with Padma Newsome, Shara Nova, and D.M. Stith on the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’sacclaimed Liquid Music series, followed by tours of the work in the US and Holland. Additionalhighlights include the world premieres of a new work for violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and acollaborative commission for female vocalist and string orchestra, and a performance of herlarge orchestral work, Hiraeth, by the North Carolina Symphony at the Kennedy Center.Premieres of commissions set for future seasons include Requiem for the Endangered, a massfor Trinity Wall Street Choir and NOVUS; and The Living Light, an opera co-commissioned byBeth Morrison Projects and Opera Cabal.

New Amsterdam Records has released two critically-acclaimed full-length albums by Snider:Unremembered (2015), an hour-long, thirteen-part song cycle for seven voices, chamberorchestra, and electronics, and Penelope (2010), a J. Paul Getty Center-commissioned songcycle with lyrics by playwright Ellen McLaughlin. Unremembered was named one of the TopFive Albums of the Year by The Washington Post and The Nation. Penelope was named No. 1Classical Album of 2010 by Time Out New York and was one of NPR’s Top Five Genre-DefyingAlbums of 2010.

In addition to her work as a composer, Snider is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of NewAmsterdam Records, a Brooklyn-based independent record label. She has an M.A. and A.D.from the Yale School of Music and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.

David Stith comes from a musical family: his father is a college wind ensemble director and former church choir director; his grandfather is professor emeritus in the music department atCornell University; his mother is a pianist; his sisters sing opera, play piano, tap dance, play timpani and are excellent soft ball players. David Stith grew up dreading the family ensemble’s appearances in church, preferring instead to draw mazes on the blank sides of church bulletins during services. In fifth grade, a harrowing performance of Phantom of the Opera at a school assembly (accompanied by his mother on piano) nearly turned him off to music for good. He started a noise band in high school, called Starchild (or Starchildren, or The Pool –they never did quite decide); but they preferred painting their guitars to playing them. David wrote a lot of bad poetry during this time.

In college, David attempted writing a novel and a children’s book, illustrating his work with original woodcut prints. His pursuit of writing and illustration brought him from Rochester toBrooklyn, where he took up work as a graphic designer. While in Brooklyn, David befriendedShara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond), and soon after began facilitating, in small technical ways, the recording of her album Bring Me The Workhorse. This, in turn, spurred David to begin writing and recording songs of his own. It was a casual, private affair. He spent countless days stored away in his bedroom, sketching folk songs with epic electronic gestures, a rekindling of passions for his first familial love: music.
It was no grand injunction that encouraged David to return to music. He writes songs for the same reasons he enjoys a good conversation: it’s just natural. His songs come out of a knock-about life, pressed by the urge to overcome insecurities, to probe questions, to revisit dreams and visions.

Born in “The Diamond state” of Arkansas to a family of musical traveling evangelists, Shara Nova moved across America throughout her youth, then went on to study classical voice at The University of North Texas. In New York, she began composition lessons with Padma Newsome and assembled her chamber pop band, My Brightest Diamond in 2001, subsequently releasing four albums on Asthmatic Kitty Records. Nova has received composer commissions from yMusic, Brooklyn YouthChorus, Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, Brooklyn Rider, Nadia Sirota, So Percussion and Roomful of Teeth. She has performed with the San Francisco, Indianapolis, North Carolina Symphony among others. Many artists have sought out Nova’s distinctive voice, including David Lang, David Byrne, The Decemberists, Bryce Dessner, Steve Mackey, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Sufjan Stevens and Matthew Barney. Nova’s latest project, a baroque opera titled You Us We All (2015), made its U.S.debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.