One Night Stand: Alfredo Santa Ana
Presented by Music on Main
April 8, 2025 | The Fox Cabaret
A concert featuring Daniel Cabena (countertenor), Colin Browne (poet), Miranda Wong (piano), Mark Takeshi McGregor (flutes), Parmela Attariwala (violin/viola), Cassandra Bequary (Violin), Tawnya Popoff (viola), Olivia Blander (cello).
This one-night-only event showcases Santa Ana’s music with performances by the virtuosic talents of countertenor Daniel Cabena, violinists Parmela Attariwala and Cassandra Bequary, violist Andrew Brown, cellist Olivia Blander, flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor, and pianist Miranda Wong. The program will feature two recent collaborations with poet Colin Browne, who will join the ensemble to read the spoken texts built into the music. Together, the performers will bring the emotional clarity of Santa Ana’s music to life in a performance that promises to be as memorable as it is moving.
Santa Ana’s diverse body of work, ranging from chamber music to avant-garde soundscapes, has been performed by top ensembles like Standing Wave, Orchestre de la Francophonie, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and the Music on Main All-Star Band, and his music will be featured at the ISCM World New Music Days 2025 in Portugal. This special concert for Music on Main includes two world premieres.
PROGRAMME
I. Aves, The Four-Chambered Heart
(World premiere)
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A tree grows taller in the mind
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Before there was nothing
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Into the air
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We ride the Great Wheel
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On early summer evenings
6. Comrade humans, what are you good for?
7. Ithaca's ablaze
8. On the island that comes and goes
9. When night falls
10. Confined to my chamber, consumed by woes
4. Prayers to a Vanishing Sun
5. Snow Dirge
6. The Last Hymn
(World premiere of abridged version)
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Invocation
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I knew when I rushed in
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Citadel Hill
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A new them
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Who are you?
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O flat people
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Buffy
8. The kitchen table
10. Men of silage
11. Raven is geranium
12. A weapon called Canada
13. At four forty-six in the morning
14. I knew when I rushed in
(World premiere of ensemble version)
Version for voice, flute, piano, and string quartet
CHAPBOOK WITH TEXTS
The evening features two contemporary single-voice chamber cantatas: a reprise of Night Sonnets, first introduced in 2018 and presented here in an abbreviated version, and the world premiere of Aves: The Four-Chambered Heart. These adventurous works, collaborations with poet Colin Browne and scored for string-quartet and flute, will be sung by countertenor Daniel Cabena with spoken texts by Browne.