The Tardis Ensemble is a chamber music collective founded in 2011 with the purpose of engaging audiences through thematic programs that explore distinct time periods, countries, or genres. The ensemble is a mixed core of winds and strings: Sophia Tegart, flute; Catherine Lee, oboe; Helena Spencer, bassoon; Casey Bozell and Holland Phillips, violins; Clark Spencer, viola; and Valdine Ritchie Mishkin, cello. For this concert, the Tardis Ensemble is joined by baritone soloist Aaron Cain.
Our program is inspired by Lesley Dill's interactions with poetry and multimedia, and it includes musical works that similarly respond to poetic texts, voices, and imagery. Copland's Threnodies are elegies to two fellow artists: composer Igor Stravinsky and American poet Beatrice Cunningham. Barber's Dover Beach, featuring baritone soloist Aaron Cain, is a setting of Matthew Arnold's stark poem of the same title. Britten's Phantasy Quartet, though not directly related to a specific poem, takes the listener through a series of evocative scenes, from a plaintive procession to a pastoral idyll and back again. We were particularly interested in featuring works by two female American composers, one of the late Romantic period (Amy Beach) and one contemporary (Emily Doolittle). Emily Doolittle's work is inspired by the relationship between bird and other animal songs and human music; her Social Sounds of Whales at Night (2007) features the voices of whales, grey seals, and musician wrens, answered by the oboe d'amore. Finally, Amy Beach's Theme and Variations for flute and string quartet positions the flute as a solitary, contemplative voice and borrows its melodic theme from Beach's own song setting of the anonymous poem "An Indian Lullaby."
- Aaron Copland: Threnody I in memoriam Igor Stravinsky and Threnody II in memoriam Beatrice Cunningham for flute/alto flute and string trio
- Samuel Barber: Dover Beach for baritone and string quartet
- Benjamin Britten: Phantasy Quartet for oboe and string trio
- Emily Doolittle: Social Sounds from Whales at Night for oboe d'amore and electronics
- Amy Beach: Theme and Variations for flute and string quartet
