Announcing the 2023 Cheswatyr Commission!

Monday, October 2, 2023 - 6 pm @ The Forum at Columbia University
605 W 125th St, New York, NY 10027
‍hosted by Tania León
- Free Event -
RSVP is encouraged.

Availability at the door may be limited and on a first come first serve basis.
View the full Concert Program

In year two of Cheswatyr Commissions, Composers Now will present the world premiere of Alyssa Regent's "The Island Before Open Waters" (2023), which will be performed by the Harlem Chamber Players.

Bora Yoon served as the composer mentor for Ms. Regent and will perform her own music and a piece by Meredith Monk. Complementing these works will be chamber music by Missy Mazzoli and Julia Wolfe, also performed by the Harlem Chamber Players.

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Alyssa Regent (b. 1995)  is a New York based composer originally from the islands of Guadeloupe. She studied composition with Suzanne Farrin, David Fulmer, Marcos Balter and George Lewis and is currently pursuing a DMA at Columbia University. She is inspired by what she calls "the unseen", seeking to evoke passions and sensations that are deeply rooted in introspection. She harvests from the ethereal, the enigmatic intersections between music and spirituality. She loves to think about music as an exploration of the spiritual and emotional dimensions of the human experience. Her compositions urge listeners to reflect on their own spirituality, embrace their emotions, and connect with each other during a shared listening experience. Her goal is to weave together these themes and create musical tapestries that stir the depths of the soul. Alyssa's music has been performed by several New York based ensembles and soloists including Talea Ensemble, Connor Hanick, Emi Fergusson and NMK Ensemble.

Korean-American composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Bora Yoon is an interdisciplinary artist who conjures audiovisual soundscapes using digital devices, voice and found objects and instruments from a variety of cultures and historical centuries –  to formulate an audiovisual storytelling through music, movement and sound. Featured on the front-page of the Wall Street Journal and in the National Endowment for the Arts podcast for her musical innovations, Yoon's music has been presented at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Singapore Arts Festival, the Nam Jun Paik Art Center (South Korea), the TED stage, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Banff Centre for Art and Creativity, MADE Festival (Sweden), Festival of World Cultures (Poland), Walker Art Center, Broad Museum (LA), Park Avenue Armory, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and universities worldwide. Upcoming projects include a new evening-length work for the high-density wavefield synthesis and kinetic performance featuring custom instrument design by Joshue Ott [superDraw] at EMPAC - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (premiering March 2023); new works for percussionists Steve Schick, and Ji Hye Jung; and a new developing Asian opera '아가씨' Handmaiden, featuring libretto by poet E.J. Koh [Pachinko, Magical Language of Others] supported by OPERA AMERICA, which was workshopped in Fall 2022 at Princeton University. Bora Yoon recently joined the faculty at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

The Harlem Chamber Players is an ethnically diverse collective of professional musicians dedicated to bringing high caliber, affordable, accessible live music to people in the Harlem community and beyond. Founded in 2008, The Harlem Chamber Players annually presents a rich season of formal live concerts, indoors, outdoors, and online. The ensemble also promotes arts inclusion and equal access to the arts, bringing live music to underserved communities and promoting shared community arts and cultural engagement. The group was first inspired by the late Janet Wolfe, a long-time patron of minority musicians and founder of the NYC Housing Symphony Orchestra. The Harlem Chamber Players has presented culturally relevant programs at numerous venues throughout the city and collaborated with many other arts organizations. The Harlem Chamber Players is in-residence at the Harlem School of the Arts and received coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Musical America, and on NPR, NBC, Here and Now on ABC was awarded the 2022 Sam Miller Award for the Performing Arts.