Ann Moss – soprano, Hillary Nordwell – piano, Alexa Beattie – viola
Hailed as “beautiful feminine giants of chamber music,” One Art Ensemble has quickly gained recognition for its inspiring juxtaposition of historic chamber music and art song with new works by living composers. OAE has created innovative concert sets for Noe Valley Chamber Music, Old First Concerts, CMASH New American Chamber Music Series, the Bing Concert Series at Stanford University Hospital, and San Francisco’s Noontime Concerts. OAE has made two concert tours to northern Washington state, appearing on the KONP Radio show Artbeat, and a concert tour to Boston where they presented a workshop centered around their commissioned repertoire at the Longy School of Music of Bard College.
OAE is part of the core membership of CMASH, a new music repertory group committed to establishing and nurturing long-term collaborative relationships between composers and performers. In 2009, One Art Ensemble commissioned Boston area composer Vartan Aghababian to set two poems by Elizabeth Bishop, which received their premiere on April 11, 2010 at Noe Valley Chamber Music. Their second commission was for Bay Area composer Liam Wade to set a collection of fantastical poems by Boston area poet Lisa DeSiro, which were premiered in February, 2010. OAE served as the 2010 Ensemble in Residence for the PhD candidates in Composition at UC Davis, a residency which culminated in two public performances of six new chamber works composed for the Ensemble. In April, 2010, OAE premiered Candlelight Cafe, a work by LA based composer Weslie Brown arranged specifically for the trio by Liam Wade. In the Fall of 2010, the Ensemble commissioned and premiered Mame Loshn, a cycle of 5 songs in Yiddish by Miriam Miller with poetry by Sarah Traister Moskovitz, in Port Townsend, WA. Current commissions include a song cycle on poetry of Emily Dickinson by Vartan Aghababian, whose fiftieth birthday the Ensemble celebrates on their April 2014 concert set. Through ongoing collaborations with living composers, One Art Ensemble contributes to an expanding repertoire that is carefully crafted to highlight the full range and expressive power of this unique chamber ensemble.