Momenta Festival VII (September 15-18, each night starting at 7:30pm): Four evenings of adventurously programmed string quartet by members of the Momenta Quartet music to benefit the Broadway Community! Admission is free; all donations will be sent from Music for Food to the Broadway Community.

September 15- Distant Songs
Curated by Michael Haas
In the words of Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, “Music is, above all, a chant, a song the world sings about itself.” Momenta explores the influence of song and the human voice on this program featuring recent works by Silvestrov and American composers Elizabeth Brown and Shawn Jaeger.

Elizabeth Brown: Just Visible in the Distance (2013)
Valentin Silvestrov: String Quartet no. 3 (2011)
Shawn Jaeger: Thy Wondering Eyes (2010)

September 16- Mexican Independence Day Celebration: Quartets by Historic Mexican Composer Julián Carrillo
Curated by Stephanie Griffin
Momenta continues its deep dive into the fascinating and under-explored world of historic Mexican composers, focussing in this concert on the experimental composer and theorist Julián Carrillo (1875-1965) who developed a theory of microtonal music which he called “The Thirteenth Sound” (Sonido 13). As part of the quartet’s ongoing project to make the world premiere recordings of Carrillo’s complete string quartets for Naxos, Momenta will perform his String Quartets No. 5 (1937), showing his exploration of modal and atonal scale systems, and No. 11 (1962), featuring his groundbreaking foray into microtonality.

Program:
Julián Carrillo: String Quartet No. 5 (1937)
Julián Carrillo: String Quartet No. 11 (1962)

September 17- Horn Fifths
Curated by Alex Shiozaki, with special guests David Byrd-Marrow (French horn) and Nana Shi (piano)
David Byrd-Marrow and Nana Shi join Momenta on this program exploring the horn and its harmonies. Having premiered Hirofumi Mogi’s In Memory of Perky Pat (2021) earlier this year, Momenta is reprising that whimsical piece for string quartet and french horn. Grażyna Bacewicz’s Piano Quintet No. 2 (1965) provides another take on harmony, replacing overtones with quintal harmonies in this angular and virtuosic quintet. To close the evening, we return to the comforting consonance of Johannes Brahms’s Horn Trio, taking us through a full range of emotions without leaning too much into the clash of dissonance.

Hirofumi Mogi: In Memory of Perky Pat (2021) for string quartet and horn
Grażyna Bacewicz: Piano Quintet No. 2 (1965)
Johannes Brahms: Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 40 (1865)

September 18- Visionary Sounds
Curated by violinist Emilie-Anne Gendron
Momenta presents the world premiere of David Glaser’s String Quartet No. 5 (2022), written for Momenta in memory of Mario Davidovsky, alongside Davidovsky’s intricate Synchronisms No. 9 (1988) for violin and recorded electronic sounds. This exploratory evening also includes Stefan Wolpe’s ephemeral and whimsical set of miniatures, “Twelve Pieces for String Quartet” (1950); and Beethoven’s groundbreaking “Serioso” quartet.

Program:
Stefan Wolpe: Twelve Pieces for String Quartet (1950)
Mario Davidovsky: Synchronisms No. 9 (1988) for violin and recorded electronic sounds
David Glaser: String Quartet No. 5, in memoriam Mario Davidovsky (2022) *world premiere, written for Momenta
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 11 in f minor, Op. 95 “Serioso” (1810)