The Subject Tonight is Love: A Video Premiere

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Austin Chamber Ensemble presents its 40th Season with works for soprano and piano showcasing the premiere of Ethan Wickman’s If You Have Not Been Drinking Love with text by Daniel Ladinsky, inspired by the 14th-century Persian Sufi poet Hafez of Shiraz. The program will include a brief video segment of the composer, Ethan Wickman, discussing this amazing work. The concert video will also include the song cycle Days and Nights by Lori Laitman, and a set of four-hand piano works including 'Variations on a Shaker Melody' from Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland. In addition to the poetry inspired by Hafez, the works include texts by Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson, and Christina Rossetti.

Our season concert video will feature soprano Claire Vangelisti and pianists Richard Seiler and Martha Mortensen Ahern. Enjoy the video below of composer, Ethan Wickman, discussing his commissioned work.

Ticket prices include the processing fee. The concert video is available for viewing starting May 9th, 7pm. Tickets may be purchased before 7pm on Friday, May 14th. The concert video will be viewable until 9pm on Friday, May 14th. (Check spam folder if necessary for instructions).

2020-2021 - Our Fortieth Season!

The Subject Tonight is Love: A Video Premiere

 May 9^th – 14^th, 2021

“Days and Nights” Song Cycle by Lori Laitman (composed 1995)

Days and Nights Song cycle by Lori Laitman

Along With Me Rabbi Ben Ezra [excerpt] by Robert Browning

Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in His hand

Who saith “A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!”

They might not need me

They might not need me — yet they might — (poem 1391) by Emily Dickinson

They might not need me — yet they might —

I’ll let my Heart be just in sight —

A smile so small as mine might be Precisely their necessity —

Over the fence

Over the fence — (poem 251) by Emily Dickinson

Over the fence — Strawberries — grow —

Over the fence — I could climb — if I tried, I know — Berries are nice! But — if I stained my Apron —

God would certainly scold! Oh, dear, —

I guess if He were a Boy — He’d — climb

— if He could!

Song

Song by Christina Rossetti

When I am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me;

Plant thou no roses at my head,

Nor shady cypress tree: Be the green grass above me With showers and dewdrops wet;

And if thou wilt, remember, And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows, I shall not feel the rain;

I shall not hear the nightingale

Sing on, as if in pain:

And dreaming through the twilight

That doth not rise nor set,

Haply I may remember, And haply may forget.

Wild Nights

Wild Nights — Wild Nights! (poem 249) by Emily Dickinson

Wild Nights — Wild Nights! Were I with thee

Wild Nights should be Our luxury!

Futile — the Winds — To a Heart in port —

Done with the Compass — Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden — Ah, the Sea!

Might I but moor — Tonight — In Thee! 

Claire Vangelisti, Soprano

Richard Seiler, Piano

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“What Wondrous Love Is This"                                                                             

Southern Harmony, 1835

Arr. by Victor Labenske

“Song” from A Secret Garden                                               

Rolf Lovland Arr. by Mary McDonald and Joel Raney

Variations on a Shaker Melody

Aaron Copland From “Appalachian Spring"     

Arr. for Piano Four Hands by Bennett Lerner

Richard Seiler and Martha Mortensen Ahern, pianists

 *************************************************************

PREMIERE "If You Have Not Been Drinking Love"

Music by Ethan Wickman, text by Daniel Ladinsky (composed 2020)

I Know The Way You Can Get

by Daniel Ladinsky, inspired by Hafez of Shiraz (14th-century Sufi poet)

I know the way you can get

When you have not had a drink of Love:

Your face hardens, Your sweet muscles cramp.

Children become concerned

About a strange look that appears in your eyes

Which even begins to worry your own mirror And nose.

Squirrels and birds sense your sadness

And call an important conference in a tall tree.

They decide which secret code to chant

To help your mind and soul.

Even angels fear that brand of madness

That arrays itself against the world

And throws sharp stones and spears into

The innocent And into one's self.

O I know the way you can get

If you have not been drinking Love:

You might rip apart

Every sentence your friends and teachers say,

Looking for hidden clauses.

You might weigh every word on a scale

Like a dead fish.

You might pull out a ruler to measure

From every angle in your darkness

The beautiful dimensions of a heart you once Trusted.

I know the way you can get

If you have not had a drink from Love’s Hands.

That is why all the Great Ones speak of

The vital need To keep remembering God,

So you will come to know and see Him

As being so Playful

And Wanting, Just Wanting to help.

That is why Hafez says: Bring your cup near me.

For all I care about Is quenching your thirst for freedom!

All a Sane man can ever care about Is giving Love!” ―

Daniel Ladinsky, inspired by Hafez of Shiraz (14th c.), 

Claire Vangelisti, Soprano

Martha Mortensen Ahern, Piano

"Dancing Dervishes" - folio from a Divan of Hafez Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād