At first glance, Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and young American composer Gabriela Lena Frank appear to have little in common. Shostakovich’s Soviet-era portraits are a world away from Frank’s depictions of Peruvian indigenous culture. But violinist Shem Guibbory thinks the two are a perfect match.
“Both are looking at what happens to people who are squished by dominating forces,” Guibbory explained, speaking from the stage at Joe’s Pub during a June 27 release concert for his new CD, Voice of the People, which features both composers.
At the event, Guibbory played a 2006 violin made by New York-based luthier Charles Rufino, and presented an amalgam of musicians and art. The musical offerings went from the standard—piano preludes by Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich—to exuberant and folksy Venezuelan and Peruvian songs for combinations of percussion, piano, violin, flute and hammered dulcimer. Guibbory also premiered Douglas Cuomo’s “Slowly She Turned” with percussionist Rex Benincasa.
Throughout the event, Guibbory’s collaborators included jazz guitarist Sean Harkness, flautist Marco Granados and pianist Sonia Rubinsky. Alice Nakhimovsky, a professor of Russian studies at Colgate University, also spoke about two Russian statues, and Peruvian photographs were projected on a screen behind the stage.
The CD was recorded on the MSR classics label and begins with Frank’s “Sueños de Chambi” (2002), pieces for violin and piano based on the work of Peruvian photographer Martin Chambi. Also by Frank, “Cuatro Canciones Andinas” (1999) are songs for voice and piano with Peruvian influence.
The CD concludes with the Shostakovich violin sonata. While many consider the piece an enigma, Guibbory said he views it as a story about Shostakovich and violinist David Oistrakh. “They’re walking together as artists, trying to survive the minefield of politics and arts in the Stalin and post-Stalin years,” Guibbory explained when he was reached later by phone.
In addition to Guibbory, artists on the album include soprano Susanna Eyton-Jones and pianists Elizaveta Kopelman, Craig Ketter and Sonia Rubinsky.
Guibbory, who has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1978 and was the original violinist of the Steve Reich ensemble, said that the event was representative of his goals as an artist. “My work lies in creating artistic communities, both in a small sense—like bringing together artists on a CD—and a larger sense of something like what you saw at Joe’s Pub,” he said. He is especially interested in multimedia work, and integrating video, photos and the visual arts with music. The website of his company, Innovative Music Programs, for example, features mini-documentaries about the music on the CD.
According to Guibbory, his next project was figuring out how to take events like the Joe’s Pub show to a larger level. “How do you capture this for a larger audience? Do we package it, market it and do it at 10 venues around the country?” he asked rhetorically. But his goals are much larger.
“I think ultimately you can heal some of the suffering that seems to be at the root of the human experience in our world today,” he said. “I don’t mean this in a namby-pamby way, but in a pragmatic way… Through music and shared experiences, you can gain a greater sense of hope and possibility.”
>
For more information visit www.innovativemusicprograms.com.
