Lisa Bielawa concert, Feb 26 2026
- ladiesvoices
- Feb 28
- 3 min read
I went to a Composer Portrait of Lisa Bielawa at the Miller Theatre on Feb 26, 2026. You might know that I used to sing in a chamber chorus called Cerddorion back in the aughts and teens? We commissioned Bielawa for a piece as part of an anniversary season and she wrote this incredibly beautiful and meaningful piece for us (performed by us on this Tzadik recording):
I saw that the Miller was doing a concert of her work and bought a ticket. I think the piece I sang was the only piece of hers I knew and I was curious to hear more.
The performers were Bielawa (who's a soprano in addition to a composer) and a chamber ensemble called Contemporaneous, conducted by David Bloom. The first piece was from 2013, Incessabili Voce, for soprano, violin, cello, clarinet, saxophone, and piano.
The piece opened with Bielawa singing a chant and the instrumentalists playing from offstage, barely audible. They eventually wandered onstage and the music had a Merce Cunningham vibe - - things happening at the same time but not really lined up, possibly not even aware of each other. An intriguing sort of looseness. I'd like to see the score to see how she notates that. The instrumentalists walked off (often while playing) at the end of the piece. It finished with the singer and pianist, with the clarinet playing a little something from the wings.
The second piece was a world premiere commissioned by the Miller Theatre for this concert, Balloon Variations, an instrumental suite from an opera currently in development. The ensemble was made up of the instruments in the previous piece with the addition of a second violinist plus three of four of the players also playing acoustic guitar. At one point the first violinist picked up a guitar and was playing it while still having the violin perched under his chin. He also sang. Fret not, he never did more than two things at a time. My view of a later moment was blocked by the conductor, but someone else was playing a cordless drill. It was that kind of piece. The music was often delightful but not always focused. The audience was invited to sing the word "balloon" in a rising minor third in random rhythm, overlapping and giving a cute carpet of sound for the instruments to stand on. I was intrigued by this piece but let's say not entirely won over...? I'm definitely interested in hearing the opera.
The second half started with an interview between Bielawa and Melissa Smey. Bielawa talked about how her career became "bifurcated" - - she was a singer, doing music written by other people (she's been a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble since 1992), and writing music. Sometimes a group asked her to write a piece including herself as a singer but generally she was either a singer or a composer. She said this was the first time ever that she programmed a concert and chose herself as the singer.
The final piece was Graffiti dell'amante for soprano and string quartet. There were six movements: Absence, Desire, Devotion, Forgiveness, Ravishment, and Remembering. She wrote the piece so the movements could be performed in any order, she wanted the audience to decide on the order. She called out a word and asked for a show of hands to see who wanted the first movement to be Absence - - then Desire, etc. Eventually we narrowed it down and we had an order. But she was confused about the order we had chosen. Of course I had made a note of the order so I saved the day and ran to the stage with my list. I got a small round of applause. The order was:
Desire
Ravishment
Absence
Devotion
Forgiveness
Remembering
I would guess that most performances end with Remembering!
The piece had extraordinary writing for the strings, idiomatic and full of interest. Each movement either ended or began with a solo for one of the players, this made a smooth connection to the next movement. Of course her vocal writing was first rate. I'd love to hear my friend Mimmi Fulmer sing this piece. Actually she'd do a great job with the first piece, too.
Comments