Shende’s song cycle is set to Julie Gard’s prose poem series “Thin Bits of Evidence,” in which each poem is tied to one of the objects above.
Mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway and the Amernet String Quartet will premiere Bowdoin composer Vineet Shende’s new song cycle Thin Bits of Evidence, in a program that also includes Gabriela Ortiz’s Incan-based Balkaah, Janacek’s String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters,” and Grieg’s String Quartet No. 2 in F Major at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, in Studzinski Recital Hall.
Shende’s music is set to a prose poem series by poet Julie Gard, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, who wrote the series after her house was set on fire in an arson attempt by a disturbed neighbor. Gard explains that writing poetry was her coping mechanism in the aftermath of that event, which took place in North Dakota in 2006:
Our neighbor had worked part-time at a thrift shop in town, and I went there one fall afternoon and filled a basket with objects that I felt drawn to in that moment, that connected in my gut to what had happened. At times I felt morbid to write about the fire, to dwell on it, but I also felt powerful whenever I picked up an object from that basket and composed a prose poem.
Following Wednesday’s concert, Gard will present a reading of her works in the faculty room in Massachusetts Hall at 4 p.m. Thursday April 10. Read more.