Make Music WinterDecember 21, 2012

7-Recordare-featured-image
Hiroya Miura & Michael J. Smith Recordare

A world premiere by composer Hiroya Miura reflects on the ideas of “judgment day” and the cyclical nature of time, for a performance on the date believed to be the end of a 5,000-year cycle on the Mayan calendar.

Starting underneath the carillon at Harlem’s St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, two groups of brass musicians will emerge, accompanied by bells, and march through the neighborhood using streets and neighborhood landmarks as musical cues. When the two marching groups cross paths, they will congregate to play Berlioz’s version of Dies Irae before resuming a journey to rejoin the carillon music at the church (played by carilloneur Michael J. Smith).

Click here to join!

St. Martin’s Episcopal Church will provide a reception immediately following the concert in the Parish Hall. Refreshments will be served; the suggested donation is $20.00. All proceeds will go directly to the church’s “Raise the Roof” Capital Campaign.

Brass players (confirmed as of 12/18):

Trumpet: Mike Bafundo, Sophia Dolan, Sam Friedman, Brian Groder, Sam Hoyland, Wilmer Wise
Trombone: Jeremy Howard Beck, Arden Brian, Lillian Paulina, Meredith Slopen, Catherine Trossello, Ward Wolff
Horn: Sarah Baird Knight, Yuko Yamamura
Tuba: Alan Gilbert


View recordare map 1 in a larger map
Start
St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Lenox Ave & 122nd St, 5pm
End
St. Martin's Episcopal Church, 5:30pm
How to Join
To perform, sign up on the Recordare page.
Hiroya Miura, a native of Sendai, Japan, is active as a composer and performer in North America. Acclaimed by Allan Kozinn of the New York Times as “acidic and tactile,” his compositional output typically mirrors his multiple musical roles, and creates “the charm resulting from continuous changes of balance.” Miura has composed works for Speculum Musicae, New York New Music Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, Juilliard Percussion Ensemble, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and members of Reigakusha, presented in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theater, Annenberg Center, Carnegie Hall’s Japan-NYC Festival, and many others. He holds a DMA degree from Columbia University, and is Associate Professor of Music at Bates College, where he teaches music theory and composition, and directs the college orchestra.
Michael J. Smith has served as the carillonneur of St. Martin's Episcopal Church since 2001. A native of Kentucky, he was educated at New College (Florida), the University of Chicago, and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. He is a philologist by training, and is currently writing computer software. Besides playing the carillon at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, he also sings in the choir at St. Michael's Episcopal Church, and occasionally plays the organ there. He was a founding member of the chant group Sarum and served as the group's paleographer and Latinist. He shared with Dionisio Lind the honor of induction into City Lore's "People's Hall of Fame" in 2009.

The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission named St Martin's Episcopal Church, built from 1887-89, "undoubtedly the handsomest example" of the Romanesque Revival architectural style in Manhattan. In the late 1940's, the members of the church commissioned the manufacture and installation of a 42-bell carillon in the tower. This largest of percussion instruments, manufactured in the Netherlands and installed in 1949, is the second largest in New York City. For more on the history of this carillon, click here [pdf].

7. Hiroya Miura photo
mjs headshot
Logo-Raise the Roof