Waking in New York at NYCO

In one of the most important performances of Elodie Lauten's music in recent years, The New York City Opera will present her opera Waking in New York, Portrait of Allen Ginsberg, performed by the City Opera Orchestra and soloists under Music Director George Manahan, conducted by Jeffrey Domoto, featuring Julianne Borg, soprano, Kathryn Freist, mezzo soprano and Scott Hogsed, baritone, on Wednesday, May 26, 2 PM, at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street. This concert is free and open to the public. For reservations or other information, please call 212-388-0202. This presentation is sponsored by the New York City Opera and will be part of their 2004 VOX and Friends festival of new opera.

Most scenes from the opera's second act will be presented: Personals Ad, Jumping the Gun on the Sun, Manhattan Thirties Flash, The Weight of the World Is Love and O New York. Works by Richard Danielpour, Daniel Felsenfeld and Adam Silverman are also on the program, each piece excerpted to approximately 30 minutes.

During the Summer of 1996, only a few months before his death, the late Allen Ginsberg put together a set of poems on the theme of New York, as suggested by Elodie Lauten for a musical setting. The poems he selected, from Cosmopolitan Greetings 1986-1992, Collected Poems 1947-1980, and White Shroud Poems 1980-1989 are highly autobiographical and reveal some of his most intimate thoughts. Waking in New York closely follows Ginsberg's own flow of mental associations, which act as triggers of unusual rhythm changes and key modulations. Lauten has written an essay about her time with Allen Ginsberg in the New York of the early 1970s.

You can read this piece at: www.jamesarts.com/internationalcomposer/lauten.html.

Reviews of Waking in New York

"The poetry of Allen Ginsberg has inspired a wide range of composers from Lee Hyla (whose Howl pits the Kronos Quartet against a recording of Ginsberg reading his celebrated poem) to Philip Glass (whose Ginsberg settings include the eclectic Hydrogen Jukebox and Symphony #6 which is a Mahlerian adaptation of Ginsberg's Plutonian Ode). In terms of authenticity, however, all are trumped by Elodie Lauten, who actually was Ginsberg's roommate during the 1970s. Lauten's Waking in New York, a poly-stylistic musical melange residing somewhere between musical theatre and a requiem, is Lauten's moving memorial to her creative mentor who encouraged her to pursue a career as a composer." FJO, NEW MUSIC BOX

"Lauten reveals greater artistry the further you look beneath the surface, successfully marking the leaps in Ginsberg's own impressionistic narrative with appropriate changes in metre and key." Smith, GRAMOPHONE U.K.

"…strange but oddly compelling work... often wild and marvelously demented chord changes... this is a music of Gotham updated to our times, immortalized by one of its best poetic voices, and put in motion by a composer in tune with the pulse of her city." Gimbel, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

"A Libretto via Ginsberg captures a City's Spirit. Waking in New York is actually a lovely, effective and affecting song cycle for vocal ensemble and orchestra. Ms. Lauten has treated Ginsberg's poetry and its underlying spirit carefully, even reverently. She tucked its personal and sometimes diary-like texts into her own agreeably melodic and eclectic style, but she also appears to have listened carefully for traces of the music that animated Ginsberg's soul. When she found them, both in direct references and by implication, she incorporated them into her setting in the form of blues melodies, the soulful wail of the gospel singer, hints of jazz and the insistent rhythms and bright melodies of pop music. Perhaps most crucially, she presented Ginsberg's texts with clarity and directness, never obscuring his ideas or pacing for the sake of a purely musical effect." Kozinn, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Lauten's Music at the Hudson River Museum

River Meditations - Nature as Narrative is the theme for a video installation about the Hudson River by Rosalind Schneider, with music from the CD The Mystery of the Elements (Studio 21, 2002) has been on display for 8 months at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York until the end of May 2004.

Copyright Elodie Lauten 2005

Projects with The Queen's Chamber Band

The new CD released by The Queen's Chamber Band (Capstone, 2004) entitled: Harpsichord Alive, includes Lauten's The Architect. This fruitful collaboration culminates on June 2, 2004 (8PM) with the premiere OrfReo, a new chamber opera with libretto by Michael Andre, at Merkin Hall, featuring Elaine Comparone, harpsichordist, countertenor Marshall Coid in the leading role, soprano Meredith Borden, mezzo-soprano Charlotte Surkin and bass-baritone Peter Castaldi.

OrfReo, an unusual take on the myth of Orpheus explores the Orphic death of Ray Johnson, the conceptualist who invented mail art (he actually committed suicide by drowning). Ray is portrayed as OrfReo (Orf-Ray-o), about to cross the Lethe or river of forgetfulness, in order to bring Beatrice back from hell. In the search for his beloved, he encounters ambiguous characters including a Lion and a Crow who shapeshifts into Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, as well as Lethe, the River spirit, who both threaten and protect him but ultimately ensure the successful outcome of his search. The ambiguity of the libretto is expressed in the score by the subtlety and complexity of the moods, as if to reflect a double set of sub-texts. The piece is semi-staged, with minimal set and costumes. Lauten has had two previous collaborations with poet Michael Andre, `the multimedia version of S.O.S.W.T.C. and Sex and pre-anti-post-modernism for contrabass and voice.

Look for Lauten's article titled The Orpheus Complex at www.elodielauten.net under Concepts. Admission $25.00. Box office: 212-501-3330. Chamber music at

Hope College Residency

In September 2004 Lauten will be composer-in-residence at Hope College, MI. She will work with student performers to premiere several new chamber works written for the Hope College faculty and students. She plans to make this new program available in other schools.

Biographical summary

One of America's great maverick composers, Elodie Lauten creates operas, theater pieces, orchestral, chamber and instrumental music that reflect New York City's energy and diversity. She is widely recognized in North America and Europe as a pioneer of post-minimalism and a force on the new music scene with 19 CDs on a variety labels. Lauten has received awards from the NEA, ASCAP, Meet The Composer, AMC, and commissions from Lincoln Center, the Soho Baroque Opera, Harpsichord Unlimited and The Lark Ascending, to name a few.

Lauten's Symphony 2001, was premiered in February 2003 by the SEM Orchestra in New York. Lauten's Variations On The Orange Cycle (Lovely Music, 1998) was included in Chamber Music America's list of 100 best works of the 20th century.

Critics have hailed Lauten's music in the U.S. and abroad as "an extraordinary revelation…a fixture of future musical lexicons" (England), "wonderfully exciting music" (Netherlands), "food for the soul" (Canada), "elegiac melodies" (The New York Times), "grand work that we are likely to return to again and again" (21st Century Music), "mesmerizing" (Option Magazine), She has been called "a composer of enchanting music… a seminal figure…a major talent" (The Village Voice), "a force on the new music scene" (Fanfare).

Born in Paris, France, she was classically trained as a pianist since age 7. She received a Master's in composition from New York University where she studied Western composition with Dinu Ghezzo and Indian classical music with Ahkmal Parwez. From her father, jazz composer Errol Parker, she acquired a deep understanding of improvisation.

Elodie Lauten owns a recording label and publishing, Studio 21, and produces CDs for other artists on a regular basis.

Studio 21 upcoming productions

Recent releases include guitarist Jonathan Hirschman and poet/songwriter Steven Hall. Upcoming projects feature Duets by guitarist Jon Catler and soprano Meredith Borden; a first release for mezzo soprano Charlotte Surkin, Mostly Women, a collection of chamber music by women… and men - and its counterpart, Mostly Men, performed by the new chamber ensemble Neith; a first CD for French poet/diseuse Noelle Carruggi; and a meditation music CD for the Endless Mountain Zen Retreat.