Memento Nostri (2020) by Calliope Tsoupaki -- U.S. Premiere by Cantori New York

Performed on March 10th, 2024 as part of Cantori New York's winter concert series at Church of St. Francis Xavier, 46 W 16th Street, NYC. This was its U.S. Premiere.
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MEMENTO NOSTRI
by Calliope Tsoupaki
00:00 I. Requiem Aeternam
22:26 Viol re-tuning
23:26 II. Memento Nostri
54:15 Applause
Lyrics at: cantorinewyork.com/s/Memento-...
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Calliope Tsoupaki was appointed as Composer Laureate of the Netherlands from November 2018 to November 2021. During these three years she was the spokesperson of Dutch new music. She is an honest and passionate personality who as a composer wants to be in the middle of society and thus win the hearts of many for today’s music. The New York Times once described the work of Calliope Tsoupaki as “dizzyingly beautiful” and the Dutch magazine TM - a theatre, music, and dance publication - called her “Monteverdi of the 20th century.” Tsoupaki’s music blends East and West into a contemplative and spiritual whole - her motivations are deeply personal and at the same time universal in their power of expression.
Her oeuvre has more than 100 works varying from operas to oratorios, requiems to string quartets, solo compositions to large orchestral pieces, music for theatre, dance, multi sensory works to Greek love songs and many more.
In July 2021 she was awarded the prestigious Matthijs Vermeulen Composition Prize, for her piece Thin Air, a composition for variable instruments and instrumentation, as an expression of solidarity and compassion in the troubled times of the pandemic. Thin Air has been performed more than 50 times in various festivals and by musicians from all over the world.
Tsoupaki's mesmerizing and immersive MEMENTO NOSTRI masterfully showcases her talent for threading multiple worlds in a single piece. It entwines both Latin and Byzantine texts, marries early and contemporary musical traditions, and balances the soulful richness of the strings with the lilting voices of the recorders.
All the while, Tsoupaki skillfully balances the work’s sense of both grief and joy. While cycling through somber lamentations and supplications, in alternating snippets of Latin and Greek, pockets of lightness emerge. These elements of the bittersweet culminate in the piece’s final prayer, a stirring a cappella coda that swells into its moving conclusion.
MEMENTO NOSTRI was completed in 2020 and premiered in the Netherlands in 2021. It’s dedicated to Tsoupaki’s former teacher, the late Dutch composer Louis Andriessen.
www.calliopetsoupaki.com/
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Featuring:
Parthenia Viol Consort - parthenia.org/
Beverly Au, viola da gamba
Lawrence Lipnik, viola da gamba
Rosamund Morley, viola da gamba
Lisa Terry, viola da gamba
Farallon Recorder Quartet - www.farallonrecorderquartet.com/
Miyo Aoki, recorder
Annette Bauer, recorder
Letitia Berlin, recorder
Daphna Mor, recorder
Jasmine Galante, soprano soloist
Audio: Swan Studios NYC / Andreas Meyer
Video: Jacob McCoy / Richard Berg
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Cantori New York is an acclaimed chamber chorus specializing in new & neglected music.
cantorinewyork.com
Mark Shapiro, Artistic Director
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.
This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.