IN SHORT
Contemporaneous and Choral Chameleon join forces for a collaborative evening centered around the world premiere of Composer, Collaborator, Vocalist, Laptop Player, and dear friend to both organizations Zachary Ritter’s new work, HEAPS. This 40-minute sound collage of Imogen Heap’s iconic track Hide and Seek melds choir, chamber orchestra, electronics, and live processed solo vocals by Amber Evans. The program also includes shorter performance sets for both ensembles.
If you're unable to attend a performance in person, we'll be hosting a free livestream for our 8pm performance which you can register for below:
MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Contemporaneous joins vocal innovators Choral Chameleon for an evening centered around the WORLD PREMIERE of Composer, Collaborator, Vocalist, Laptop Player, and dear friend of the ensemble Zachary Ritter's newest work, HEAPS. The piece, built out from a 40-minute sound collage of composer Imogen Heap's iconic track Hide and Seek, includes a melding of choir, chamber orchestra, electronics, and live processed solo vocals.
"I started this project in 2020 as a way to explore both new methods of collaboration and a shift in artistic direction toward gentle, soothing music," says Ritter. "At the core of this kind of art is a profound desire to connect, for my music to be useful...”
Ritter’s ambient work aims to put more significance in calm, rest and mindfulness, with “spectral stretching” being a large throughline in his practice – expanding a musical moment temporally to make an idea so huge and all-consuming that it resembles “houses that you can walk through, or sit down in for a while.”
The choice of orchestrating for both Contemporaneous and Choral Chameleon honors Ritter’s time with both organizations and their impact on his artistic experiences in NYC. “I started singing with Chameleon six years ago, and started working for Contemporaneous just a few months later… When I began to imagine what expanding this project beyond fixed media would look like, it immediately crystallized that this would be the perfect opportunity to bring these incredible forces together.”
“I also felt the need for some sort of mediator between the electronics and acoustic instruments, especially given the nature of the original, a cappella/vocoder track. Amber Evans is one of the strongest, most expressive, and versatile musicians I know, and my collaborations with her in the past have been so rich and rewarding… she would be the right person to tie all of these pieces together. She also produced one of the first concerts I saw in the city… so the combined forces represent a real cross-section of my musical world here.”
The program also includes shorter performance sets for both Choral Chameleon Chorus and Contemporaneous.
Program
Contemporaneous set:
Gold Leaf – Linda Catlin Smith
Tell Me Everything – Julia Wolfe
Choral Chameleon set:
In Civitate Domini – Arnold von Bruck
New York Revisited – Will Healy
Brooklyn Bridge at Sunset – Sandra Garner
Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell, arr. Podd Brothers
The Moment I Said It – Imogen Heap, arr. McMillan
About Zachary James Ritter
Zachary James Ritter (he/they) is a composer who wants to work with you. Driven by making music with his friends and making friends with his music, Ritter strives to create works that resonate with his collaborators and audience through shared human experience. Zach's work incorporates the voice, electronics, and the quintessential human aesthetics of failure. He is influenced most by electronica, minimalism, and traditional music of Ireland and America. Spare, raw musical landscapes invite calm, meditative listening experiences punctuated by layered textures with playfully unpredictable rhythms. He likes to make music people want to listen to, music made in sincerity.
As a performer, Zach has performed electronics for world premieres at MoMA, National Sawdust, and Brooklyn’s finest basements. Ritter holds an MM in classical composition from Purchase Conservatory and a BA in Music from Binghamton University. He has collaborated with ensembles including Unheard-of//Ensemble, ModernMedieval, Momenta Quartet, and Yarn/Wire.
About Choral Chameleon
Choral Chameleon is a next-gen choral music company championing new music and embracing immersive performance with visual art, movement, taste, texture, and more. Its interdisciplinary artistic collaborations invite all to take part and experience the shared human connections of music. Composed of a professional ensemble, a chorus of avocational and professional singers, and an Institute for composers and conductors of choral music, Choral Chameleon is on a mission to reinvent and broaden the boundaries of choral music to create new possibilities with the artistic community at large. Since its inception, Choral Chameleon has premiered 250+ original compositions and arrangements.
This performance is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.
