from a book of beautiful monsters

4 min.

November 10, 2013 at the Berkeley Arts Festival in Berkeley, California (of first song only);
April 1, 2014 a the National Opera Center in New York City (of both songs).
Vox n Plux: Elizabeth Farnum, soprano; William Anderson, mandolin; Oren Fader, guitar

Commissioned for vox n plux by the Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music

Aracelis Girmay

from a book of beautiful monsters for soprano, mandolin and guitar (2013, revised 2015) was commissioned by the Roger Shapiro Fund for Vox n Plux. In the fall of 2013 I set off for the Civitella Ranieri artist colony in Umbria, certain I would be setting Italian poetry for this short project and, well, feeling pretty Italian about everything. But at the colony I met Aracelis Girmay, a resident of Brooklyn, whose wonderful poem noche de lluvia I knew already from the Poetry in Motion posters on the subways in New York City. So I set her poetry instead. When my parents were kids they lived only blocks apart from each other in Brooklyn, but met at a dude ranch in the countryside. This was a little like that.

• November 10, 2013: Vox n Plux, Berkeley Arts Festival, Berkeley, California (Noche de lluvia)
• December 10, 2013: Vox n Plux, Spectrum, New York City (Noche de lluvia)
• February 23, 2014: Vox n Plux, St. Augustine, Roman Catholic Church, Brooklyn, New York (Noche de lluvia)
• April 1, 2014: Vox n Plux, NYFOS Next “Harold Meltzer and Friends” concert, National Opera Center, New York City
• April 3, 2014: Vox n Plux, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, New York
• April 28, 2014: Vox n Plux, Cornelia Street Cafe, New York City
• August 10, 2014: Vox n Plux, Ebb & Flow Arts Series, A’ali’ikuhonua Creative Arts Center, Seabury Hall, Maui, Hawaii
• October 16, 2015: Vox n Plux, Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, New York City
• May 22, 2016: Vox n Plux, Queens New Music Festival, The Secret Theatre, Long Island City, New York