a multimedia saxophone performance event
Grito del Corazon (2001) by Judith Shatin/Kathy Aoki
soprano saxophone, electronic sounds and video
Live video stills from Grito del Corazon.
Program Notes
Grito del Corazon was inspired by Goya's "Black Paintings." Their haunting, stark quality was deeply compelling to both myself and artist Kathy Aoki. When the Ensemble Barcelona Nuova Musica wanted to commission a work for their Painting Music program, premiered on November 20, 2001 at the VIII Festival de CinemaIndependent de Alternativa 2001, I immediately recalled my intense response to Goya's paintings in the Prado, and suggested this theme. These paintings surrounded Goya in his home known as the "Deaf House," because a devastating illness had left him completely deaf. The contents of the paintings deal with terrifying subject matter, such as Saturn devouring his Son (Saturno Devorando a su Hijo). In all cases, the images invoke fear and trembling.
About the Composer
Called "marvelously inventive" by the Washington Post and "exuberant and captivating" by the San Francisco Chronicle, Judith Shatin's music reflects her adventures as a timbral explorer. Her inspirations range from myth and poetry to the calls of the animals around us and the sounding universe beyond. Her music is internationally performed and has been featured at festivals including the Aspen, BAM Next Wave, Grand Teton, Havana in Spring, Moscow Autumn, Seal Bay, Ukraine and West Cork. Orchestras that have performed her music include the Denver, Houston, Illinois, Knoxville, Minnesota, National and Richmond Symphonies. Shatin's music can be heard on the Centaur, Neuma, New World and Sonora labels. It has been commissioned by groups including the Ash Lawn Opera, Barlow Foundation, Core Ensemble, Garth Newel Chamber Players, Kronos Quartet, Music-at-LaGesse Foundation, National Symphony, newEar, Hexagon Ensemble, Virginia Chamber Orchestra and Wintergreen Performing Arts, the last through Americans for the Arts.
Educated at Douglass College (AB), The Juilliard School (MM) and Princeton University (PhD), Judith Shatin is currently William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor and Director of the Virginia Center for Computer Music, which she founded at the University of Virginia. Additional studies included two summers as a Crofts Composition Fellow at Tanglewood, as well as studies at the Aspen Music Festival. Now an advocate for her fellow composers, she has served on the boards of the American Composers Alliance, the League/ISCM, and the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM). She also served as President of American Women Composers, Inc. (1989-93).
Shatin has been honored with four National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, as well as awards from the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, the New Jersey State Arts Council and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. A two-year retrospective of her music, and the commission for her folk oratorio, COAL, was sponsored by the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Arts Partners Program. She has held residencies at Bellagio (Italy), Brahmshaus (Germany), La Cite des Arts (France), Mishkan Amanim (Israel) and in the US at MacDowell, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Shatin's music is published by Wendigo Music, distributed by MMB Music Inc.; and by Arsis Press, C.F. Peters, Colla Voce and Hal Leonard.