Carnegie Hill Concerts Presents: Crushed Coal to Dust and Suite of Songs | Nov 23, 2021 at 7:30PM

Crushed Coal to Dust by Pauline Kim Harris is an entry to the interweb of parallel universes--a fleeting depiction of an alternate reality that tears your heart out of your soul, only to be released into the stratosphere like nothing happened. Driven by a drone-like undercurrent, an ominous motif in the double bass, overlapping with a syncopated, magnetic melody consisting of glissandi looping in the cello, the explosive fragmented outbursts in the viola and ephemeral textures in the violins manipulate suspense and drama. At the end, all that remains is a feeling, perhaps an intangible imprint of a phenomenon that may or may not have occurred.

Suite of Songs is a collaborative composition by Nicholas Zork, Pauline Kim Harris, and 2020 CHC Midday Music Festival artists KJ Denhert, Lynette Williams and Wayna. This multi-movement work, orchestrated by Pauline Kim Harris for a small chamber ensemble consisting of a String Quartet, Bass, and Piano, will feature the CHC Chamber Players and vocal performances by KJ Denhert, Wayna, and additional festival artist, Akie Bermiss. The suite reflects on the pandemic, with each of the songs drawing inspiration from the three thematic categories into which Walter Brueggemann divides The Book of Psalms: orientation, disorientation, and new orientation. The suite, even as it leans into lament, resonates with persistent hope. 

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