Duo YUMENO (koto & cello) performs Heike Quarto, a four-piece suite composed by Daron Hagen and inspired by a medieval Japanese epic
About this event
Duo YUMENO (Yoko Reikano Kimura Japanese koto, Hikaru Tamakicello) will perform Heike Quarto, a four-piece suite composed byDaron Hagen - one of the most prominent American opera composers - that was commissioned by the duo between 2015 and 2018. This concert will be the first opportunity to hear the entire suite in a live concert setting.
The cycle was inspired by The Tale of Heike, an epic account of the struggle between two warrior clans in medieval Japan, and seamlessly integrates idioms of both traditional Japanese and Western classical music.
“Played with precision and deep feeling by the duo... the piece was a gripping, gorgeous narrative of the life of a woman in 12th-century Japan. Full of idiomatic flavor, it made compelling use of the techniques of the Western classical tradition, especially polyphony and formal design. Most impressive was how the music told a clear, succinct, and unsentimental story using vocal sounds without texts.” - New York Classical Review on Heike Quarto
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Duo YUMENO
New York based koto / shamisen player and singer Yoko Reikano Kimura and cellist Hikaru Tamaki create a singular fusion sound, inspired by tradition but with a contemporary sensibility. Duo YUMENO’s repertoire includes a dynamic range of compositions – both traditional and contemporary - all of which explore the dialogue between classical Japanese and western music. The New York Classical Review praised, "the duo ... played with precision and deep feeling." In 2014, they were awarded the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program grant, and in 2015, received the Aoyama Baroque Saal Award. They have been actively presenting their cross-cultural programs throughout the world and have performed at venues such as the John F. Kennedy Center, the United Nations, Princeton University, University of Cambridge, Kasuga Grand Shrine and Ryōan-ji Temple. Most recently, the duo performed its 10th anniversary recital to a sold-out audience at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Their activities have been featured in the media, like the New York Times, Chamber Music Magazine, Japan Times and NPR. URL: duoyumeno.com
Daron Hagen
“A composer born to write operas” (Chicago Tribune) possessed of an “infinitely fertile imagination” (Fanfare Magazine) whose music is “dazzling, unsettling, exuberant, and heroic” (The New Yorker), “Hagen’s music represents a considerable artistic achievement of uncompromising seriousness” (Times Literary Supplement). Opera News describes his Amelia as “one of the 20 best operas of the 21st century;” NATS Journal of Singing calls him “the finest American composer of vocal music in his generation.” His “theatrical audacity,” and “gift for big, sweeping tunes” (New York Times) underpin work that “is both highly original and gripping; restless, questioning music that never loses its heart.” (Wall Street Journal). “To say that Daron Hagen is a remarkable musician is to underrate him. Daron is music,” wrote Ned Rorem in Opera News. His “ruthlessly honest and beautifully written” memoir, Duet With the Past (McFarland, April 2019) “takes him from his haunted childhood to the upper echelons of musical life in New York and Europe” (Tim Page). URL: daronhagen.com