Carolina Eyck, virtuoso thereminist gives a special performance on the Earplay new chamber music concert in the Herbst Theatre, Monday evening, March 22 at 7:30 pm. Ms. Eyck will play Stigma integrum by Jan Bilk, scored for theremin and string quintet. Ms. Eyck's appearance is in cooperation with the San Francisco Ballet and the U.S. premiere of The Little Mermaid. One a few musicians worldwide to master the the playing of the only instrument ever created that does not require physical contact, she is highly regarded master on the instrument. Invented in 1919 by Leon Theremin, a Russian physicist and cellist, the theremin contains an antennae and a rod to control pitch and volume by manipulating the magnetic field.
Information about the rest of the concert that evening:
Earplay continues its 25th season by celebrating the diverse new music atmosphere and offering a glimpse of a modern musical journey through the last half of the 20th century culminating with the world premiere of an Earplay commission, Through the Golden Gate by Lori Dobbins. String Trio by Arnold Schoenberg, a seminal work and rarely heard live, is one of his final masterpieces that firmly anchors the program in "modern? music.
A Bay Area native, Lori Dobbins composed a San Franciscan piece for the entire ensemble which is alive with the dramatic tension and flair that characterize her work. Karen Rosenak performs two virtuoso solo works exploring a serious range of piano touch from the gentle stroke to the violent assault in The Art of Touching the Keyboard in contrast to a quirky Freight Train Bruise.The evening begins appropriately with The Riot, an exhilarating trio.
Join us for an evening of adventure!
Herbst Theatre San Francisco
Earplay 25:Outside In
Monday, March 22
Herbst Theater at 7:30 p.m.
(6::45 p.m. pre-concert talk
Bruce Bennett in conversation with Lori Dobbins)
Tickets: City Box Office, 415 392-4400 www.cityboxoffice.com
... The German theremin artist Carolina Eyck left no doubt of her expertise at drawing arresting sonorities from this pioneering electronic instrument. In Jan Bilk?sStigma integrum, it emits an eerie vocal line, while the ensemble (from the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra) chugs along with approximations of Slavic folk material. ...
"Financial Times" San Francisco, Allan Ulrich, March 23, 2010
... The most dazzling work by far featured an electronic dinosaur, the theremin, invented by the Russian Leon Theremin in 1919---unique, in that you need not touch the instrument in playing it. Its electronics respond to proximity of the two hands---one, to control pitch and vibrato, the other to control volume. Making this a unique experience was theremin virtuoso Carolina Eyck from Berlin, the finest such performer you will likely ever run into. Eyck converts the theremin?s vague ooh-aahs too often heard in bad science-fiction movies into a medium for precise tones, sounding like an accomplished lyric soprano doing vocalise on pitch. Eyck was on loan from her San Francisco Ballet gig, where she is currently performing underwater, so to speak, in ?The Little Mermaid.?
Eyck was the lead in Jan Bilk?s ?Stigma integrum,? backed by a string quintet that sounded too much like Brahms or Richard Strauss. But the 10-minute work was not just electronic---it was magnetic in impact. ...
"San Francisco Bay Area", Paul Hertelendy, March 23, 2010