September – Shadows

September 21st, 2025 • 3:00pm
Hotel Leo

TICKETS:

John Rutter
Shadows (1979) ~10 min.

Richard Hodges, Baritone
Eli Schille-Hudson, Guitar

John Rutter is a British composer well loved and regarded for his choral music and his founding of The Cambridge Singers in 1981. Despite being so well known for writing for the human voice, Shadows is his only song cycle. This is a beautiful work based on 16th and 17th c. English poems reflecting on the beauty, joy, tenderness, and fleetingness inherent in human life.

In the composer’s own words:
“Choral music is not one of life’s frills. It’s something that goes to the very heart of our humanity, our sense of community, and our souls. You express, when you sing, your soul in song.”

Máximo Diego Pujol
Buenos Aires Color Pastel (2015) ~14 min.

Mehrdad Gholami, Flute Eric Kean, Viola
Eli Schille-Hudson, Guitar

Maximos Diego Pujol is an Argentinian composer inspired by the musical heritage of his home country. He often aims to fuse traditional Argentinian tango with more formal academic musical concepts. He is well known among guitarists as his substantial compositional output has enriched the repertoire for that instrument.

Interview with Máximo Diego Pujol on the evolution of the guitar

Samuel Barber
Dover Beach for voice and string quartet Op. 3 (1931) ~10 min.

Richard Hodges, Baritone
Shu-Hsin Ko & Lenelle Morse, violins Lisa Humphrey, Viola Sam Sinai, Cello

American composer Samuel Barber began composing at the age of 7. Barber composed in many genres including orchestral, chamber, opera and choral music – but two thirds of his output was vocal music. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music and, upon graduation, had developed into a sought after Baritone. Barber made the first recording of Dover Beach. Listen to Barber singing his own composition.

In the composer’s own words:
“There’s no reason music should be difficult for an audience to understand”

Anne Cawrse
Lullabies and Crooked Dances (2008) ~12 min.

Mehrdad Gholami, Flute
Erika Block, Clarinet
Pat Nelson, Bassoon

Anne Cawrse is an award-winning Australian composer of acoustic solo, chamber, orchestral and vocal works. This single movement work, Commissioned by the Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival, comprises of five short episodes, each which borrow elements from both the lullaby and dance genres. Vibrant and energetic dance rhythms intertwine with the triple meter of a classical Berceuse.

In the composer’s own words:
“I recognise more and more the importance and value of seeing yourself in your industry, past and present. I also recognize that a musical history that only allows the voices of men to be heard is not a complete one.”

Dimitri Shostakovich
Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 (1960) ~22 min.

Lenelle Morse & Shu-Hsin Ko, Violins
Eric Kean, Viola Sam Sinai, Cello

We are delighted to add Shostakovich to our list of composers we bring to you. Shostakovich wrote 15 quartets- and number 8 is among the most popular. Shostakovich maintained he could never hear the Eighth Quartet without breaking into tears.

In the composer’s own words:
“I reflected that if I die someday then it’s hardly likely anyone will write a work dedicated to my memory. So I decided to write one myself. You could even write on the cover (of the 8th string quartet): ‘Dedicated to the memory of the composer of this quartet’.”

In the words of writer Julien Barnes:
“His quartets are like secret letters, hidden messages from an artist trapped in tyranny.”