Cellist Inbal Segev
Legend of Sigh
Composed by Gity Razaz
Visuals by Carmen Kordas
Part of VisionIntoArt’s FERUS Festival 2015
Workshop Performance
Saturday, May 30, 2015 at 5pm
Pioneer Works | 159 Pioneer St. | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: $15 at www.visionintoart.com
Inbal Segev: www.inbalsegev.com
New York, NY – On Saturday, May 30, 2015 at 5pm cellist Inbal Segev, known for her “warm, pure and beautiful tone” (Strings Magazine) will give a workshop performance of Legend of Sigh, a brand new multimedia, immersive piece for cello and electronics written for her by composer Gity Razaz with video and projection design by filmmaker Carmen Kordas. Legend of Sigh is part of VisionIntoArt’s second annual FERUS Festival, VIA’s designated incubation period that highlights new projects in a workshop performance setting, held this year at Pioneer Works (159 Pioneer St., Brooklyn) on May 29 and 30.
Legend of Sigh explores the themes of birth, transformation, and death through the retelling of an old Azerbaijani folktale about a mysterious being, Sigh, who appears every time someone lets out a heartfelt sigh, unknowingly calling out to him. In composer Gity Razaz’s adapted version, the main character is a widow, who despite her wealth and social status, lives in isolation and loneliness. Overwhelmed with discontent and a desire to end her life, she unknowingly calls upon Sigh. With his help, she is transformed into the body of another woman, receiving another chance at life only to become disillusioned again. With the help of Sigh, the woman travels through numerous lives, learning more about the human spirit each time through her experiences.
Of working with Razaz and Kordas on this new piece, Inbal Segev says, “The collaboration among Gity, Carmen, and me felt right from the very beginning, perhaps due to the fact that we are all expatriates and perhaps because we are all strong women and the subject matter of the piece has a lot to do with that,” said Segev. “I am thrilled with the end result and with Legend of Sigh, my first multimedia collaboration.”
About FERUS Festival: Highlighting some of the most exciting creators of music and theatre, the 2015 FERUS Festival is a two-day extravaganza of new music, theatre, sound and visual worlds. In addition to Segev, Razaz, and Kordas, featured composers/performers are Cornelius Dufallo (violin), Molly Joyce, Mikael Karlsson, Hafez Modirzadeh (alto saxophone), Agata Zubel (voice), Leo Genovese (piano), Lucy Dhegrae (soprano), Ariadne Greif (soprano), Patrick Jones (pianoforte), and Jeffrey Zeigler (cello), with production collaborators Caroline Park, Austin Regan, and featured librettist Royce Vavrek.
About Inbal Segev: Inbal Segev’s playing has been described as “characterized by a strong and warm tone . . . delivered with impressive fluency and style,” by The Strad and “first class,” “richly inspired,” and “very moving indeed,” by Gramophone. Equally committed to new repertoire for the cello and known masterworks, Segev brings interpretations that are both unreservedly natural and insightful to the vast range of solo and chamber music that she performs.
Segev is currently recording all of Bach’s cello suites at the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City for release in September 2015. Audiences will have the opportunity to look behind the scenes at the making of Segev’s album through a companion documentary currently being filmed about her journey through the music of Bach. In February 2015, she made the world premiere recording of Lucas Richman’s Three Pieces for Cello and Orchestra with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for release in fall 2015. Segev’s discography also includes Sonatas by Beethoven and Boccherini (Opus One), Nigun (Vox), and Max Schubel’s Concerto for Cello (Opus One). With the Amerigo Trio she has recorded serenades by Dohnányi (Navona).
Segev’s repertoire includes all of the standard concerti and solo works for cello, as well as new pieces and rarely performed gems. She has premiered cello concertos by Avner Dorman, Max Schubel, Maximo Flugelman, and Lucas Richman. Composer Gity Razaz is currently at work on a new multimedia piece for Segev, which will premiere in spring 2015. She has performed as soloist with orchestras including the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Radio Symphony of Helsinki, Reutlingen Symphony, Dortmund Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Bangkok Symphony, and with all the major orchestras of Israel. She made debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic, led by Zubin Mehta, at age 17.
Segev is a founding member of the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus. In addition, Segev has collaborated with artists such as Emanuel Ax, Agustin Dumay, Pamela Frank, Gilbert Kalish, Michael Tree, and the Vogler Quartet at venues and festivals across North America, Europe, and Israel. She has toured the US with the American Chamber Players since 2003 and previously played with the Jupiter Chamber Players.
Segev’s many honors include the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship and top prizes at the Pablo Casals International Competition, the Paulo International Competition, and the Washington International Competition. She began playing the cello in Israel at age five and at 16 was invited by Isaac Stern to come to the U.S. to continue her studies. Segev earned a Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School and a Master’s degree from Yale University, studying with noted masters Joel Krosnick, Harvey Shapiro, Aldo Parisot, and Bernhard Greenhouse.
Inbal Segev (pronounced Inn-BAHL SEH-gehv) lives in New York with her husband, and three young children. Segev performs on a cello made by Francesco Rugeri in 1673. She is managed by Barrett Vantage Artists. For more information, visit www.inbalsegev.com.
About Gity Razaz: Hailed by the New York Times as “ravishing and engulfing,” composer Gity Razaz’s music ranges from concert solo pieces to large symphonic works. She is an active collaborator involved in projects across disciplines from modern dance to electro-acoustic soundscapes. Razaz’s music has been commissioned and performed by VisionIntoArt, Metropolis Ensemble, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler formerly of the Kronos Quartet, National Ballet School of Canada, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, Plurimo ensemble and Agimus Venezia, New York Choreographic Institute, American Festival for the Arts, Amsterdam Cello Biennale, and Sirius String Quartet among others. Her compositions have earned numerous national and international awards, such as the 2013 Jerome Foundation award, the Libby Larsen Prize in 28th International Search for New Music Competition, Juilliard Composers’ Orchestra Competition, three ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards, Juilliard’s Palmer Dixon Award, as well as special recognition from the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, ASCAP, the Brian Israel Composition Prize, Margaret Blackburn Memorial Competition, the League of Composers (ISCM), and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Razaz attended The Juilliard School on full scholarship, and received her Bachelor and Master of Music in Composition under the tutelage of Samuel Adler, Robert Beaser and John Corigliano. For more information, visit www.gityrazaz.com.
About Carmen Kordas: Carmen Kordas was born in Germany and has been based in New York since 1998. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and Europe. Coming out of video installations, her work has now developed into a wide range of disciplines: multimedia art and video projection for theater, opera and performance. Her work has been exhibited in VideoFestival in Munich, Freiberg, Berlin, Bochum, Dresden, and Arnheim, Netherlands. Kordas holds a MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin where she studied visual communication, digital editing, and three dimensional video sculpting with Valie Export. For more information, visit www.videoartcarmenkordas.com.
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