CONCERT VI: Anahita Abbasi – Situation VI Happenings
SARAH HENNIES Growing Block for 4 to 10 musicians (2019)
MARCOS BALTER Vision Mantra for violin, viola, and cello (2009)
ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR Shades of Silence for violin, viola, cello, and piano (2017)
ANAHITA ABBASI Situation VI – Happenings for piano, percussion, violin, viola, cello, and bass (2021) [World Premiere]
Mikhail Shmidt violin
Jordan Voelker viola
Ha-Yang Kim cello
Abbey Blackwell bass
Jérémy Jolley electric guitar
Cristina Valdés piano
Bonnie Whiting percussion
Our final concert of the season highlights the up-and-coming Iranian composer, Anahita Abbasi, whose music has been played by prominent ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. SMO will premiere her new work, Situation VI – Happenings, a reflection on the challenges of the past year in which the musicians are “faced with seven sound sculptures (in this case happenings) with different qualities and sonorities.” The program continues with Sarah Hennies‘ work, Growing Block, which illustrates the concept of growing block theory through the ordering of musical events, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Shades of Silence, a somber and delicately textured piece for violin, viola, cello, and piano, and Marcos Balter’s shimmering Vision Mantra, inspired by mosaic ceiling patterns.
This concert is no longer available on our Digital Stage.
ABOUT OUR FEATURED COMPOSER:
Anahita Abbasi, Composer
Anahita Abbasi’s music has been commissioned and performed by distinguished soloists and ensembles such as Mahan Esfahani, Steven Schick, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien musicians, Quatuor Diotima, Mivos Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Argonat Quartet, Off Spring, and has been showcased at festivals all around the world among which: Mostly Mozart Festival, The Kitchen, Kennedy Center, Lincoln center, Time Span, Soundnow festival- Bent Frequency, Mise -En festival (USA), Darmstadt Ferienkurse (Germany), Ircam – Manifeste Academy (France), Matrix –Experimental studio des SWR (Germany), BIFEM (Australia), Klangspuren Schwaz (Austria), Sound State festival (London), Tectonics (Glasgow), Akademie der Künste (Berlin), Klang Festival (Copenhagen), Tage neuer Musik (Austria), Tongyeong International music festival (Korea) Impuls festival (Austria), Time of music (Finland), Atlas festival (Netherlands), Grachten festival (Netherlands) and many others.
In 2014, she received the work-scholarship from Experimentalstudio des SWR in Freiburg. A recipient of a 2015 Morton Gold ASCAP young composers award, Ms. Abbasi was also nominated in 2017 at the Cairo Contemporary Festival as one of the “women composers of our time” alongside Kaija Saariaho and Isabel Mundry. Aside from teaching composition and giving lectures and workshops on fundamentals of creation, she is also the founding member of Schallfeld Ensemble in Graz, Austria as well as IFCA (Iranian Female Composers Association) in New York City; where she is curating concerts, creating platforms and advocating for young composers and acts as their ambassadors in presenting their music to others.
Anahita Abbasi was born and raised in Iran. In 2005 she moved to Austria and pursued her undergrad at the University of music and performing Arts Graz, where she studied music theory with Clemens Gadenstätter and Christian Utz & composition with Beat Furrer and Pierluigi Billone; while working closely with Georges Aperghis, Franck Bedrossian and Philippe Leroux. Abbasi is currently residing in San Diego and finishing her Ph.D. in composition under the supervision of Rand Steiger at the University of California San Diego.