Carnegie Hill Concerts presents:
Crushed Coal to Dust and Suite of Songs
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PERFORMERS:
Akie Bermiss, Voice
KJ Denhert, Voice/Composer
Wayna, Voice/Composer
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CHC CHAMBER PLAYERS:
Aaron Beaumont, Piano
Amanda Gookin, Cello
Conrad Harris, Violin
Pauline Kim Harris, Violin/Composer
Celia Hatton, Viola
James Ilgenfritz, Bass
Nicholas Zork, Guitar/Composer
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PROGRAM:
Crushed Coal To Dust for Double Bass + String Quartet
Suite of Songs for Four Voices, String Quartet, Double Bass, Guitar, and Piano
Prelude
“Ordinary Miracles” (Wayna)
Interlude
“In this Together (Always Apart)” (Akie Bermiss)
Interlude
“Am I Wrong?” (KJ Denhert)
Interlude
“The Sound of Us” (Wayna and Akie Bermiss)
Finale
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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, Guitar, 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.
Free Admission
Akie Bermiss with his affable disposition, glasses, and healthy do of cascading dreads that drape down to his shoulders, is unabashedly a self-professed nerd to the nth degree. Since early childhood Akie has been an obsessed science fiction aficionado. Yet he does have an artist-friendly façade and has managed to cultivate and live a double-life as a thriving musician, pianist, singer/songwriter, composer, arranger and emerging solo artist.
Akie is a Brooklyn native raised in a musical household full of jazz and politics fueled by his former- activist mom and dad. He began singing in church, moved it to school for a while, enroute becoming somewhat of a musical chameleon. His raucous, guttural and soulful vocals are a delectable fusion of Donny Hathaway and Tom Waits. He’s equally adept singing neo-soul, funk, contemporary jazz, alternative rock, and hip hop. Over the past half a dozen years, he has become a visible contributor to the fertile Brooklyn music scene as a musician, songwriter or featured vocalist with a collective of upstart groups such as; FutureSoul band Aabaraki, the Screaming Headless Torsos, Miri Ben-Ari (the Hip Hop Violinist) and rap sensation Soul Khan. He is probably best known as the most recent addition to the popular band Lake Street Dive.
When he is home in Brooklyn, he can be found performing with his band, the akie bermiss Trio, at cutting edge venues like Rockwood Music Hall, Wild Birds Brooklyn, The Falcon, and BAMCafe, among others.
KJ Denhert is a 55bar NYC-based, award-winning songwriter, guitarist, vocalist and bandleader. An internationally touring artist, KJ’s career spans 40 years, numerous albums, and legions of devoted fans worldwide. Her soulful and smoky vocal stylings are earthy and elegant. Her lyrics embody the romance and poetry of the American Songbook. A child of the 60s, KJ’s music is both a rich tapestry of Urban Folk & Jazz and a reflection of the fiery time of cultural upheaval in which she lived. Echoes of James Taylor, Joni Mitchel, Carole King, Laura Nyro, and Steely Dan’s combine with KJ’s own unique musical voice to create music that is both unique and relevant for today. She has shared stages with artists ranging from Alicia Keys, Roberta Flack and many more. When she’s not touring, KJ has been electrifying crowds with her all-star band via a residency spanning over 23 years at the 55 Bar in New York City’s West Village. Her discography includes over 10 studio albums (including “Destiny” her latest release) and is at work on 3 new original projects set for 2018-19. Learn more about KJ at kjdenhert.com.
Wayna is a GRAMMY-nominated, singer, actress, and writer who was born in Ethiopia and raised in the suburbs of Washington, DC. She worked as a Writer in the White House before releasing three solo albums, garnering two Billboard-charting singles and a GRAMMY nomination for Best Urban/Alternative Performance.
Wayna toured with the iconic Stevie Wonder as a vocalist in his live band, joining the Songs in the Key of Life Tour and various performances throughout the US, Canada, London, and Mexico. As solo artist, she has performed with across the US and abroad – including shows at the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Essence Fest, and the White House.
Most recently, Wayna starred in a film opposite Emmy-nominated actor, Ethan Herisse (When They See Us). An official selection of TEN international film festivals in 2020, The Other Side is a fictional story set in Ethiopia that follows the lives of two orphan brothers. In June 2021, she co-starred and performed the titled song for “Here,” a short film about an immigrant family in New York City.
In spring 2022, Wayna will release a new album, entitled the Housewives of Zamunda – a musical parody about suburban African housewives.
Aaron Beaumont is a Brooklyn-based producer, composer, performer, and mix engineer who creates music for wide-ranging spaces, from the Tribeca Film Festival to Theatre 80 in the East Village to the West Hollywood Carnaval main stage to KCRW Santa Monica to the Sziget Festival in Budapest. For the past five years, Aaron has served as in-house producer, composer, and mix engineer for the Gregory Brothers and Schmoyoho, with original songs collecting over 750 million streams and a gold record. Recent Gregory Brothers collabs have included Weird Al, Blondie, Darren Criss, Sex Education, Cobra Kai, and The Umbrella Academy on Netflix, Justice League film (ft. Gary Clark Jr.), Markiplier, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bassnectar, Jacksepticeye, LaurDIY, and Thomas Sanders. He was a finalist as both a composer and lyricist for the Fred Ebb Award for his first original musical Behind Closed Doors, which enjoyed a sold-out run in Theatre 80 off-Broadway as part of the New York Fringe Festival. Aaron co-wrote and arranged music for the feature film Permission (Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Jason Sudeikis, Tribeca), contributed original songs, piano, and arrangements to Gil McKinney’s debut album (#1 iTunes jazz, #8 Billboard jazz) and Christmas album, contributed original songs and keyboards to Briana Buckmaster's debut album (#1 iTunes Blues, #3 Billboard Blues), and premiered a new song cycle, Midtown Antoinette, with Parisian soprano Lorelei Zarifian for Florida Tech / Foosaner Art Museum. Aaron has also composed original scores for films and theatrical productions including Where Hope Grows; Permission; Pew Pew Pew; Alex & Jaime; Cedar Cove; Dan is Dead; All the Lovely Wayside Things; Tall, Dark, and Handsome; Heart; Until We Have Faces; Shrew; The Fire Room; the Breakfast Show with Adam O; Companion; and Beyond Imagination, winning best score and sound design at the Hollywood Fringe Festival for his work on Fugitive Kind’s production of The Fire Room by Ovation Award-winning playwright Meghan Brown. Aaron served as 2017 Artist in Residence for the Spark & Echo Arts project and completed commissioned works for Spark & Echo in 2016 and 2018. He co-founded the SongLab workshop with Jason Manns and Nicholas Zork and currently serves as co-chair of the Carnegie Hill concert series in New York, featuring leading interpreters of classical and New Music from around the globe. Aaron released his debut solo project, Nothing's Forever (Not Even Goodbye) on Milan Records (Warner-Ryko) in 2008. L.A. Weekly wrote that Aaron’s music brings “a new life to the ancient music-hall/pop piano-man tradition, with clear-headed songs of genuinely witty lyrical oomph and, most of all, a historically informed musical depth – all delivered with style, grace, wit and elan, of course.”
Praised for her “expert technical work” (The Strad), cellist Amanda Gookin "pushes Classical forward" (LA Times) and champions the future of music through the creation and bold performance of new works, and a dedication to education, culture, and community engagement.
Her initiative, Forward Music Project, commissions new multimedia works for solo cello that elevate stories of feminine empowerment through raw performances and educational initiatives. Since its inception in 2015, FMP has commissioned 18 new works by such composers as Pamela Z, Paola Prestini, Jessie Montgomery, Angélica Negrón, Jessica Meyer, Allison Loggins-Hull, Kamala Sankaram, and Nathalie Joachim. She has been presented by The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), The Wallis (Los Angeles), National Sawdust (New York City), OK Electric (Tulsa, OK), Forbes Center (Harrisonburg, VA) Park Avenue Armory (New York City), and deDoelen (Rotterdam, NL). Her first solo album, Forward Music Project 1.0, was praised as “the highest level of artistry” by The Whole Note and listed in The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020 by the New York Times. Her upcoming album, FMP 2.0: in this skin will release on November 19, 2021 on Bright Shiny Things.
Amanda was the founder and decade-long cellist of the contemporary improvising string quartet, PUBLIQuartet. PQ was the 2017/18 Quartet-In-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and recipient of the 2019 Chamber Music America Visionary Award. Amanda initiated PQ’s composer program, PUBLIQ Access, to commission works by emerging composers who significantly impact a new approach to writing for string quartet. In pursuit of socially conscious programming, her GRAMMY® nominated album with PUBLIQuartet, Freedom and Faith, addressed the resilience of the female spirit throughout history.
An advocate for new music, Amanda is a member of Contemporaneous, a New York-based chamber ensemble dedicated to performing and promoting contemporary music; and Nu Deco, a Miami-based ensemble presenting genre-bending music, art, and media collaborations in both traditional and alternative venues. She has performed with International Contemporary Ensemble, Wordless Music Orchestra, Shattered Glass, S.E.M. Ensemble, LA Dance Project, and Beth Morrison Projects as well as jazz and pop artists Sigur Rós, Macy Gray, Cory Henry, Billy Childs, Kimbra, Ben Folds, and James Carter.
Designing and leading courses on social leadership, music history, and improvisation, her work has reinvigorated the core curriculum at The New School College of Performing Arts and SUNY Purchase. Amanda is a sought-after public speaker on the intersections of activism and music and has made appearances on TEDxMidAtlantic, Houston Public Media, Second Inversion, and I Care If You Listen.
Fulfilling her strength and passion for activating change and innovation from both sides of the stage, she currently serves as Executive Director of the MATA Festival in New York City and the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival in Virginia.
She is the proud player of a cello made by David Wiebe in Woodstock, NY.
Violinist Conrad Harris has performed new works for violin at Ostrava Days, Darmstadt Ferrienkürse für Neue Musik, Gulbenkian Encounters of New Music, Radio France, Warsaw Autumn, and New York's Sonic Boom Festival. In addition to being a member of the FLUX Quartet and violin duo String Noise, he is concertmaster/soloist with the S.E.M. Orchestra, Ostravská Banda, STX Ensemble, Wordless Music Orchestra and Ensemble LPR.
He has performed and recorded with such artists as Elliott Sharp, Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, David Behrman "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Jean-Claude Risset, Rohan de Saram and Tiny Tim. His recordings of the Lejaren Hiller Violin Sonatas with pianist, Joseph Kubera will be released in 2018 on New World Records. He has also recorded for Asphodel, Vandenburg, CRI, and Vinyl Retentive Records.
Based in New York City, violist Celia Hatton finds herself in a myriad of musical settings. From premiering new works for solo viola, to collaborating with dancers, to exploring the conductorless chamber orchestra process, Hatton’s ability to adapt to various creative backdrops has led her to a colorful career performing throughout the US, Europe, and Asia.
She has given the world premiere of string quartets by Colin Matthews, Derek Bermel, and Felix Jarrar, as well as premieres of solo viola works by Ansel Chang at Carnegie Hall and Jonathan Katz at Jacob’s Pillow Dance. Hatton was a member of the Zorá String Quartet and has performed with the Harlem Quartet and Blair String Quartet. She is the core company violist for Periapsis Music and Dance, a creative collective that cultivates collaboration between composer and choreographer, musician and dancer, to create new concert works. She’s performed throughout South Korea as performing artist for the New York in Chuncheon festival and an Honorary Ambassador to the city of Chuncheon.
She is a founding member of Shattered Glass, an Associate Musician at the Metropolitan Opera, has performed with St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, toured nationally with A Far Cry and Sphinx Virtuosi, and toured internationally with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Hatton has performed at the Apollo Theatre, Jazz at Lincoln Center in collaboration with Paquito D’Rivera, Smalls Jazz Club, The Blue Note Jazz Club, and Birdland Jazz Club. She can be heard on Mark Gross’ jazz album “+ Strings,” BIGYUKI’s electronic album “Reaching for Chiron,” and Terry Slingbaum’s “Slingbaum One.
She has performed on NBC’s Today Show in conjunction with NPR, and performed with Alicia Keys, Eminem, Frank Ocean, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Pharrell, and Stevie Wonder, among others. Hatton can be heard on the movie scores of Judas and the Black Messiah, Joker (2019), Western Stars, I Tonya, A Dog’s Purpose, The Girl on the Train, Goldfinch, and The Greatest Showman.
Hatton received her Professional Studies and Master’s Degree from Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Karen Dreyfus as the recipient of a William Randolph Hearst Scholarship. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree with Kim Kashkashian at New England Conservatory receiving a Presidential Distinction Award Scholarship and Frances O. and Elizabeth Hunnewell Scholarship.
Composer and bassist James Ilgenfritz is recognized in The New Yorker for his “characteristic magnanimity” and his “invaluable contributions to New York’s new- music community.” James has performed around the US, Europe, and in Asia with his bands Hypercolor and MiND GAMeS. In 2021 Ilgenfritz’s record label Infreqeunt Seams released “Aging,” a collaboration with Czech-born composer/performer Lucie Vítková. This follows his previous releases You Scream A Rapid Language – an album of recent chamber music, which was noted in The Wire for its "glint of mischief" and ability to "foreground the performative and gestural elements of music making," as well as two previous solo contrabass albums Origami Cosmos (2017) and Compositions (Braxton) 2011 – which featured music by Annie Gosfield, Miya Masaoka, Elliott Sharp, JG Thirlwell, and Anthony Braxton. James presented his music in residencies at John Zorn’s The Stone in 2015 and 2018, and in 2011 he was Artist In Residence at ISSUE Project Room. He holds degrees from University of Michigan and University of California San Diego. James began New York’s first Suzuki Bass program at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in 2011, and continued there until 2019, when he left to pursue a PhD in music composition at University of California Irvine. James splits his time between Brooklyn, NY and Orange County, California. www.james-ilgenfritz.com
Pauline Kim Harris aka PK or Pauline Kim is a GRAMMY™-nominated violinist and composer. The youngest student to have ever been accepted into the studio of legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz, she has appeared throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia as soloist, collaborator and music director. Known for her work with classical avant-punk violin duo, String Noise, she has toured extensively with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and continues to collaborate with leading new music ensembles in New York City. Pauline Kim was the first Music Director for the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company and has been the featured artist for choreographers David Parker and Pam Tanowitz. Pauline’s debut album, Heroine — a reimagining of the Bach Chaconne and Ockeghem’s Deo Gratias was released on Sono Luminus with worldwide distribution on September 27, 2019.