Bach (14:34)

Harbison (11:57)

Mozart (14:41)

Laporta (39:14)

Britten (20:11)

De Leon (13:45)

John Harbison

Flashes and illuminations

Nathaniel Sullivan, baritone

Josefina Urraca, piano

Robert Sirvent, video art

Note by the composer Flashes and Illuminations was commissioned by Reader’s Digest/Meet the Composer for baritone Sanford Sylvan and pianist David Breitman. Honoring their long musical partnership, I composed a piece that falls equally to pianist and singer, from poets who invite sustained reflection. The title comes, in part, form the “Flashes and Dedications” section of Eugenio Montale’s book La Bufera (The Storm), in which the poem “Sulla Greve” appears (the Greve is a small river near Florence). For Montale, the “flash” is a momentary perception of the natural world or a human interaction that brings sudden insight. Each poem suggested to me a Montalean flash: sudden, muted lightning on the horizon.

Note by the video artist In all the poems I have felt a certain metaphysical desolation, a pain, a conception of existence as something brittle and unreliable. That has dragged me towards a concept of the pieces based on flashes of light that are interspersed in the middle of the persistent darkness or next to the purest abstraction. I have left the initial 15 seconds of the piano without images. It seemed better to me to respect the somewhat desperate solemnity of those first seconds.

I - On the Greve

Lyrics by Eugenio Montale Now I feast no longer in your look as I did then, When, at my whistle, you leaned out, barely visible. A rock, a blocked furrow, the swallow’s black flight, a covering for the world… And now for me, bread is that velvet bud which opens unclosing with a slide from a mandolin. Water is that rustling current, your deep breathing wine.

II - Cirque d’Hiver

Lyrics by Elizabeth Bishop Across the floor flits the mechanical toy,
fit for a king of several centuries back.
A little circus horse with real white hair.
His eyes are glossy black.
He bears a little dancer on his back.
She stands upon her toes and turns and turns.
A slanting spray of artificial roses
is stitched across her skirt and tinsel bodice.
Above her head she poses
another spray of artificial roses.
His mane and tail are straight from Chirico.
He has a formal, melancholy soul.

He feels her pink toes dangle t’ward his back
along the little pole
that pierces both her body and her soul
and goes through his, and reappears below,
 under his belly, as a big tin key.
He canters three steps, then he makes a bow,
canters again, bows on one knee,
canters, then clicks and stops, and looks at me.
The dancer, by this time, has turned her back.
He is the more intelligent by far.
Facing each other rather desperately—
his eye is like a star—
we stare and say, “Well, we have come this far.”

Note by the video artist It is a beautiful metaphor of existence told through mechanical toys. I have transformed the toys into little puppets moved by mysterious strings, the strings that then move the lives of the human beings that appear in the images. When the string of the toy runs out and the poet says "Well, we've come this far" I understand it as the end of a life cycle. The rope is over, the show is over, life is over ...

III - To Be Recited to Flossie on Her Birthday

Lyrics by William Carlos Williams Let him who may among the continuing lines seek out that tortured constancy affirms where I persist let me say cross cross purposes that the flow’r bloomed struggling to assert itself simply under the conflicting lights you will believe me a rose to the end of time.

Note by the video artist It is a beautiful poem of initiation to life. No flower, nothing beautiful or worthwhile, blooms except by asserting itself under conflicting lights and threatening shadows. "You will believe me a rose until the end of time", says the poet, or an "Eternal Rose", that is, something beautiful that arises between flashes and blackouts something valuable that is known destined to disappear and be eternal at the same time.

IV December 1

Lyrics by Czesław Miłosz The vineyard country, russet, reddish, carmine-brown in this season. A blue outline of hills above a fertile valley. It’s warm as long as the sun does not set, in the shade cold returns.

A strong sauna and then swimming in a pool surrounded by trees. Dark redwoods, transparent pale-leaved birches. In their delicate network, a sliver of the moon. I describe this for I have learned to doubt philosophy And the visible world is all that remains.

Note by the video artist Finally, I understood that the entire sensual description of landscapes is nothing but a slight directed at any philosophy, metaphysics in general. It is written by someone who has spent a long time searching for the meaning of life in philosophy and who is disappointed not to have found it. It is like a painter who paints a classical landscape after having sought (without finding it) beauty in pure abstraction. I have tried to confront the two worlds (the philosophical and the sensual) giving more importance to the abstract world, to metaphysics. Flashes of landscapes appear but are always filtered through the metaphysical veil that prevents us from seeing clearly what our senses demand of us. It is necessary to renounce that veil of philosophy to enjoy the only thing that is probably real.

Nathaniel Sullivan, baritone

I’m Nathaniel, a musician, theatre artist, and writer devoted to holding space for reflection, understanding, and creative projects that champion change.

As an Iowan-turned-New Yorker, I’ve maintained my Midwestern roots through my deep appreciation for the warm contentment you feel from embracing a daily hygge practice. For me, it’s waking before dawn, sitting in a chair by the fireplace, and devouring a good book or reflecting on an idea for an upcoming blog post.

Throughout my experiences as a musician and performing artist, I’ve had the privilege to perform on legendary stages (Carnegie Hall, Seiji Ozawa Hall, Sosnoff Theater) and collaborate with awe-inspiring individuals (Sanford Sylvan, Dawn Upshaw, Lucy Dhegrae, Thomas Adès, John Harbison, Jen Waldman). During the COVID-19 Pandemic, I produced and performed in the Pandemigram Project, bringing you and your loved one’s together through personalized, virtual musical messages. Through this project, we’ve proudly raised over $7,500 for 43 different charitable organizations so far!

As I continue to perform, create, and collaborate, I am energized to challenge the industry to prioritize and celebrate the diversity of all people and their unique gifts. I work to hold space for my fellow artists to create from a place of purpose and service, and to embrace that the foundation of all significant work is its meaningful contribution to our communities and our causes.

Josefina Urraca, piano

Josefina Urraca (full name: Maria Josefina Urraca Perez de Diego), is a New York City-based pianist.

Josefina was born in Spain in a musical environment, her mother is a piano teacher, her brother a cellist, and all her family, especially her grandfather, classical music lovers. Her first formal teacher and great guidance was Eva Gigosos at the Palencia Conservatory. 

From she was seven, Josefina attended Masterclasses with prestigious pianists and pedagogues such as: Maria Joao Pires, Ferenc Rados, Rita Wagner, Eldar Nebolsin, Julian Martin, Joaquín Achúcarro, Pavel Gililov, Jose Ramón Méndez, Matti Raekallio, Frank Wibaut, Jeffrey Swann, Alexander Kandelaki, Nino Kereselidze, Miguel Ángel Ortega, Alberto Rosado, Antonio Baciero and Manuel Carra.

Josefina received her undergraduate degree at the Salamanca Conservatory. In 2007, she was selected to continue her studies at the Aula de Música de Alcalá de Henares. During these years Ms. Urraca worked with her more influential teachers: Patrín García Barredo, Josep Colom, Claudio Martínez-Mehner, and Kennedy Moretti.

In 2008 Josefina expanded her education at the École Normale de Musique de Paris with Guigla Katsarava. 

During the following three years she attended the well-renowned music school Reina Sofía (Madrid), where she studied with the great Dmitri Bashkirov, Claudio Martínez-Mehner, Márta Gulyás, Luis Fernando Pérez, and Denis Lossev.

In 2014, Josefina Urraca received with the highest academic qualifications her Master's Degree from Manhattan School of Music under the supervision of Dr. Silverman.

Passionated for chamber music, Josefina Urraca is since 2013, a founder-member and managing director of CreArtBox, a classical and contemporary music ensemble. CreArtBox members are musicians from prestigious orchestras such as Metropolitan Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Louisiana Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony Orchestra, Oviedo Filarmonia, BBC Orchestra, and Euskadi Filarmonia. 

Josefina Urraca has received prices from Savvy Musicians in Action, INJUVE Chamber Music Competition, Montehermoso Contemporary Creation Award, Veguellina de Orbigo, Ciudad de Carlet, Rotary Club de Valladolid, Ciudad de Linares: Marisa Montiel, and have received grants and support from the Promete Foundation, Amphion Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Foundation, Queens Council on the Arts, the Spanish Embassy in the USA, Manhattan School of Music, Caja Madrid Foundation, Luis Galvé Foundation, and Albéniz Foundation.

Josefina has been a frequent performer at venues in Spain, Italy, Austria, France, Japan, England, Germany, and the US, as a soloist and as a chamber music player, including Carnegie Hall, Ryogoku Monten Hall in Tokyo, Auditorio Sony in Madrid, and Alfred Cortot Auditorio in París.

Robert Sirvent, video art

In his projects we can find habitually a certain fusion between differents arts (music,images,texts)All the sources are "the same source" and his name is poetry.His pieces had been awarded in many festivals, like Water Music(video classics Cervera 2016) Moon hideaway (video classics Cervera 2015). The Rebel has been selected in Berlin Flash Film Festival, and The zoo of the dr.Blau in H'Sin Chidrens awards and Berlin Flash, and awarded in 17 Premi d'Art Digital J. Graells(Spain), Dynamic within static was finalist in Video Art Event (Oradea -Romania 2018) and part of official selection in 30Girona Film Festival(2018) , "Interferences" Honorable Mention in Berlin Flahs Film Festival (2020), Official Selection in VAFTA 2020 ( Colombia-Cuba) ,Official selection in ALC Video Art Festival 2020(Alicante-Spain), Finalist in Athens International Digital Film Festival "El patrón indescifrable de la luz" Honorable Mention in Berlin Flash Film Festival (2020).






Continue to the next piece