Georgia Tech School of Music Presents:
Romantic Masters VII: Rachmaninoff Second
Tuesday, April 11th, 2023
7:30 pm
Ferst Center for the Arts
Chaowen Ting, Conductor
Composer Bio – Sarah Kirkland Snider
Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider writes music of direct expression and vivid narrative that has been hailed as “rapturous” (The New York Times), “groundbreaking” (The Boston Globe), and “poignant, deeply personal” (The New Yorker). Recently named one of the “Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music” by The Washington Post, Snider’s works have been commissioned and/or performed by the New York Philharmonic; San Francisco Symphony; National Symphony Orchestra; Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Philharmonia Orchestra; the Birmingham Royal Ballet; Deutsche Grammophon for mezzo Emily D’Angelo; percussionist Colin Currie; vocalist Shara Nova; eighth blackbird; A Far Cry; and Roomful of Teeth, among many others. The winner of the 2014 Detroit Symphony Orchestra Lebenbom Competition, Snider’s recent projects include Forward Into Light, an orchestral commission for the New York Philharmonic inspired by the American women’s suffrage movement; Mass for the Endangered, a Trinity Wall Street-commissioned prayer for the environment for choir and ensemble; and an opera on 12th-century polymath St. Hildegard von Bingen, commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects.
The 22/23 season will see world premieres for Renée Fleming and Will Liverman; Decoda Ensemble; and the Emerson String Quartet, in their final commission, to premiere on their farewell tour. Penelope and Unremembered, her two genre-defying LP song cycles, earned critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Gramophone Magazine, and Pitchfork, among others. In Fall 2020, Nonesuch Records and New Amsterdam Records co-released Snider’s third LP: Mass for the Endangered, performed by English vocal ensemble Gallicantus, to wide critical acclaim. In Fall 2022, Nonesuch Records and New Amsterdam Records will release The Blue Hour, a collaborative song cycle with composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, and Caroline Shaw for vocalist Shara Nova with A Far Cry string orchestra, on text by Carolyn Forché. A founding Co-Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based non-profit New Amsterdam Records, Snider has an M.M. and Artist’s Diploma from the Yale School of Music, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. Her music is published by G. Schirmer.
Soloist Bio - Amy Petrongelli
Lauded in the New York Times for her “admirable fluidity,” soprano Amy Petrongelli’s diverse performance career embraces both traditional and contemporary repertoire, from Haydn’s Creation in Carnegie Hall to Berio’s Sequenza III at the Radio Nacional Córdoba in Argentina. In 2020, Amy was honored with an Emerging Artist Award from the University of Michigan for her significant contributions to the field of music performance.
Amy has been a featured performer for organizations such as Five Boroughs Music Festival, the Casement Fund Recital Series, and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. Particularly at home in contemporary repertoire, Amy has premiered new works for organizations such as the Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco, New American Voices, and AEPEX Contemporary Performance and has collaborated with members of Eighth Blackbird, Bent Frequency, Alarm Will Sound, Latitude 49, and the Metropolis Ensemble. Recent premieres include works by Laura Kaminsky, Emma O’Halloran, Nina Shekhar, Nicolas Lell Benavides, Juliana Hall, and David Biedenbender. Amy is also the vocalist and co-artistic director of Khemia Ensemble, an ensemble dedicated to reflecting diverse perspectives in contemporary classical chamber music through immersive, multimedia performances.
A passionate educator, Amy is currently a member of the voice faculty at the University of Georgia, having previously taught at Baylor University, Penn State University, Eastern Michigan University, and the University of Akron. She is the Director of the Collaborative Piano Institute Vocal Academy summer program at Louisiana State University and has held guest faculty positions at the Brancaleoni International Music Festival and the International Choral Conducing Masterclass Program. She holds a BME in choral music from Central Michigan University and a MM and DMA in voice performance from the University of Michigan.