On Wednesday, September 18, a gathering of Rome Prize Fellows and Academy friends at the Italian Cultural Institute on New York’s Upper East Side offered an intimate evening of music that moved beyond the confines of conventional concert-going. The program for Notes from Rome—featuring the works of four composers performed by the Longleash ensemble and one sung by its composer accompanied by an electric guitarist—generated a vibrant dialogue between contemporary creative voices and the rich tradition of Italian influences.
With approximately eighty attendees, Notes from Rome was adeptly organized by Eve Orenstein, senior manager of development, special events, who also helped with 100 Years of “Rhapsody in Blue” and Music from the American Academy in Rome at Carnegie Hall last April. All five composers whose work was presented tonight are fellows: Suzanne Farrin (2018), Baldwin Giang (2024), Igor Santos (2022), Kate Soper (2024), and Anthony Vine (2024). All but Santos were present to hear their works played live and then speak with attendees at a closing reception. The Italian Cultural Institute, with its elegant architecture of wood-paneled walls, its rich cultural heritage, and its history of cosponsoring programming with the Academy, provided a beautiful backdrop for such a performance.
The event, held in an intimate room overlooking Park Avenue at the end of a warm late-summer day, started at 7:00 PM. Before the concert, ICI director Fabio Finotti and AAR President Peter N. Miller each gave a few words of introduction. Miller brought up the remarkable fact that since the Pulitzer Foundation started giving prizes in music, Academy-affiliated composers have won thirty-three of seventy-one: fifteen awards given to thirteen Rome Prize Fellows, and eighteen awards given to eighteen Academy Residents.
The music began with Igor Santos’s Sounding Petals (2019) bringing a burst of kinetic energy. This 2022 Rome Prize Fellow makes work that explores the boundaries between acoustic instruments and found sounds, and this piece seemed to bridge worlds with its playful exploration of musical material. Pala Garcia (violin) and John Popham (cello) of Longleash, joined by the guest pianist Mika Sasaki, navigated the twists and turns of Santos’s composition with confidence. A coordinated video component as seen in some of the composer’s recent work was absent. Tonight, we experienced only the playful energy of music buzzing with experimentation.
As two of the musicians made some adjustments, Garcia noted that most of the composers had taken the same retreat at the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Kentucky. Longleash had commissioned Anthony Vine to write Devotions (2022), which the ensemble then played. The selections presented—movements i, iii, iv, and vii—were excerpts from a longer work inspired by thirteenth-century motets. Vine’s compositional style is minimalist, yet emotionally rich, drawing on spirituality and sound itself. The alternating drawn-out passages of violin, cello, and harmonium in iii evoked prolonged human breathing, in and out, ever so slowly. Vine’s use of open spaces gave iv a mournful, contemplative quality, a slow-moving soundscape with brief moments of sonic suspension.
Midway through the concert was Suzanne Farrin’s Here and Away (2002), a delicate, evocative piece for solo piano. Farrin, a 2018 Fellow, is known for crafting music that feels both organic and cerebral, with insistent rhythms and virtuosic elements. When this piece was selected, she said it was personally memorable because it marked a significant moment in her early compositional development. Sasaki’s sensitive and skillful touch on the keys for Here and Away brought a change in texture.
Garcia and Popham returned to the piano trio for Baldwin Giang’s songs after sufjan (2020), which pays homage to the pop-folk icon Sufjan Stevens as Giang navigates popular songs into classical music. The movements so/than (interlude) and to be alone with you (featuring Sasaki on simulated Fender Rhodes) were both reflective and melancholic, with a sense of longing infused in the melodic lines. Like Stevens’s music, Giang’s work felt deeply personal, as though the music was inviting the listener into a private moment of contemplation. Longleash, which premiered the complete collection two years ago, handled these delicate pieces with sensitivity, drawing out the emotional depth.
Closing the concert was an excerpt from Kate Soper’s The Romance of the Rose (2021), with the composer herself on vocals. The piece, “Shame’s Double Aria,” is part of a larger opera based on the medieval allegorical text of the same name. Soper’s voice carried from notes to cries, low to high, and James Moore’s spare yet textured accompaniment on electric guitar provided the perfect foil. Two days after her performance Soper announced the recording of The Romance of the Rose on New Focus Recordings will be released on November 15, 2024.
What made Notes on Rome memorable was not just the high level of musicianship, but the sense of artistic community it fostered. In fact, one composer remarked how wonderful it was to be back in the Academy fold, sharing music and meeting new people while reconnecting with friends and fellows. We look forward to what all five composers produce next, drawing inspiration from their time in Rome and infusing their work with a sense of place, history, and reflection.
Christopher Howard is communications manager for the American Academy in Rome.