Thu 2/26 @ 7PM
Sat 2/28 @ 4PM
Sun 3/1 @ 7:30PM
Almost a year ago, Les Delices, Cleveland’s period chamber music ensemble founded by oboe player Debra Nagy in 2009, launched a new program that displayed its ambition and its intent to diverse its reach. A Moment’s Oblivion was the first in a planned series of concerts titled The Mythology Project. It featured the world premiere of a cantata they’d commissioned by 34-year-old Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong with a libretto by Cleveland poet Dave Lucas. Cuong’s piece was based on a Chinese myth called The Loss of Memory, about a man who, after losing his memory, is dismayed to get it back as he is forced to re-confront his bad memories from the past. It featured tenor Nicholas Phan, who has mixed Chinese and Greek heritage.
At the time Nagy had not yet identified the composer for the second iteration of The Mythology Project which will be performed this weekend. With composer Gilda Lyons, who is of Nicaraguan heritage, and featured vocalist EstelíGomez, an American with a Mexican/Nicaraguan background, the focus shifts not only to mythology from another part of the world, but to a different gender. The folklore and legends of central America relating to women fuel the piece.
The program will debut Lyons’ new work “La Diosa.”
Because [Gomez] might be the only female voice featured across the project, she wanted to lean into a strong, empowered female presence and symbolism,” says Nagy. “So we started thinking about Central American legends and mythology and role of women and what kind of positive and empowered stories, message and symbolism might inspire us. We brought Gilda into the project, who is also of Nicaraguan descent. She did a lot of research and wrote not only music but text. It’s bilingual, 60% Spanish, 40% English — 100% comprehensible.”
While writing new music for a period instrument ensemble and centering Latin-American culture and women’s voices might seem like a stretch, Lyons wouldn’t be more suited for the job. She has worked in a wide range of musical contexts, including theater, folk ballads, opera and electronic music, and she herself is a vocalist. And her music is driven by a strong awareness of her roots as well as social justice.
“Gilda and I had many conversations,” Nagy relates. “At one point she said to me, the mythology and a lot of religious figures are masculine. There’s lots of violence; they’re often screaming. But she created a beautiful comforting voice that’s whispering in our ear instead. It’s transcendence. She brought together three different female figures, two different Mayan goddesses in the four movements.”
Gomez also brings different musical worlds together, working in both new music and Les Delices’ early music world.
“She seemed like the perfect collaborator for a project for an early music ensemble looking to perform new music,” says Nagy. “She had a conversation with Gilda and they really hit it off.”
Nagy also built a full concert program around the new work.
“Once it was determined that we were going to take up Central American mythology as the theme, it seemed obvious to build the program around that. One of the things I’m interested in with mythology project is not only adding to the larger repertoire but getting to present music that otherwise might not be central to a concert program. I don’t think it’s all that common in Cleveland to get to focus on music from Central America from the 18th century.
But the program will surround Lyons’ new piece with baroque-era works by composers such as José de Torres, Luis de Briceño, and Rafael Antonio Castellanos as well as music taken from Bolivian and Peruvian manuscripts that combine the indigenous, African and Hispanic influences the merged in those cultures. And the core ensemble of Nagy, violinist Shelby Yamin, harpsichordist Mark Howard and viola de gamba player Rebecca Lindell will be augments by some guest musicians: Puerto Rican guitarist Hector Alfonso Torres, Venezuelan baroque violinist Maria Romero from Nashville, and percussionist Liam Smith.
“It feels like a very international ensemble,” says Nagy.
The program will be previewed on Thursday February 26 in a conversation with Lyons taking place at CentroVilla25, 3140 W. 25th Street, a new Hispanic business incubator where there are plenty of food vendors to patronize before the program, which will also feature local high school students performing music from Bolivia.
On Saturday February 28, the ensemble will perform at Heights Theater in Cleveland Heights; on Sunday March 1, it performs at the Pivot Center for Art, Dance and Expression in Ohio City. Get tickets here.