undressing for a personal apocalypse.
Opus. 66
Instrumentation: Soprano + Piano
Duration: 6 minutes, one movement
Commissioned By: Paulina Swierczek
Poetry: Jessica Lynn Suchon
Cover Art: “Eternity” by Sasha Parfenova
Scroll down for program note, recording, perusal score,
purchase options, and commissioner biography
PROGRAM NOTE.
After admiring Paulina’s artistry for so long, I was over the moon to be able write this. The choice of this poem was a consensus between Jessica, Paulina, and myself. We hope this work speaks to you. I’ll not take up any more space here, and instead send you directly into Jessica’s poem:
POETRY.
UNDRESSING FOR A PERSONAL APOCALYPSE
We wear our callused skin
to bed, both of us armored
and starving. Feed me the honey
swelter of your skin, burnt
sugar iris, your shattered shell
of breastbone. I am sorry
for my mouth, tongue coated
in gunpowder, for knotting
hunger in our beggar chests.
You kiss my forehead
when you think I am
asleep. Never love me
in that familiar way.
I know the way I gift my body,
would let you harvest my ribs
and crack them open with hushed
hands. There is nothing for you
but salt crust and marrow.
There is barely enough for me.
- JESSICA LYNN SUCHON
Details // Concert Prep
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PDF Score + Part(s) sent via email within 2-3 business days. I’m excited to connect with you!
Purchase is for one copy only, just for you! Please don’t share or else I’ll be sad when I see it in my google alerts ; - )
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I want to meet you! Purchase of this pdf in the 23/24 season comes with a 30 min zoom session, if you’d appreciate that during your rehearsal process. You’ll receive scheduling instructions in the delivery email with your music.
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I’m excited to help promote your concert(s) on social media and include it on the website!
If you already have a concert date in mind, you’ll receive instructions on sending me concert info in the delivery email with your music.
Recording.
PERUSAL SCORE.
COMMISSIONER biography.
Praised by the Rochester City Newspaper for her "honeyed tone," the Milbrook Independent for her “attractive, comforting appeal” and by the Boston Globe for “a rich voice that could go in a blink from speaking to soaring” - as well as her “killer side-eye” - soprano Paulina Swierczek is gaining acclaim as vibrant story-teller, combining technical facility with a passion for communication.
Concert highlights include Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, Poulenc’s Gloria, and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. Favorite roles include Brunnhilde (Die Walkure, Siegfried), Therese (Les Mamelles du Tiresias), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), The New Prioress (Les dialogues des Carmelites), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), and the Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro). A Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center (‘17+’18), she has premiered works at the Festival of Contemporary Music, performed with the TMCO (Sieben fruhe Lieder, Chantefleurs et Chantefables) and has been featured in numerous cantatas of J. S. Bach under John Harbison.
Paulina’s 2018/19 season included debuts with the Broad Street Orchestra (Mozart’s Requiem) and The Orchestra Now (Beethoven’s Egmont, op. 84) as well as a Fellowship at Stephanie Blythe’s Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar. She has appeared numerous times with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, as Madame Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor, singing arias of Mozart and Wagner, and on their American Music Festival “Sing out, NY!” In Summer 2019 she was a Featured Artist in the Mastersinger Program at Pittsburgh Festival Opera with Jane Eaglen, appearing in scenes as Brunnhilde (Siegfried) and covering the title role in Die Walkure. She was also featured on Berkshire Opera Festival’s “Savor the Sound” bel canto gala singing excerpts from I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Giulietta), and alongside renowned pianist Anton Nel at the Fifth Canadian Chopin Piano Festival and Competition performing songs by Chopin and Viardot as well as excerpts of I Puritani (Elvira).
2019/20 engagements include Paulina’s debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy under Andris Nelsons, Strauss’s Four Songs, op. 27 with The Orchestra Now under Leon Botstein, and her role debut as Queen of the Night with the Little Orchestra Society. A native Polish speaker with much experience with Polish song literature and specifically the songs of Fryderyk Chopin, Paulina is thrilled to return to Rochester, NY, her second home, by invitation of the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies (University of Rochester) to perform some of his more well-known works.
Paulina holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and notable teachers include Rita Shane, Dr. Constance Haas, Anthony Dean Griffey and Sanford Sylvan. She currently studies with Michaela Martens.
Poet biography.
Jessica Lynn Suchon is a widely-published writer who has received fellowships and honors from the Aspen Institute, the Academy of American Poets, and the Tennessee Playwrights Studio. Her book scavenger is forthcoming in 2020 from yesyes books. Jessica's full-length play shopgirls made its debut at the Darkhorse Theater in Nashville, Tennessee in December 2019.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY.
Sasha Parfenova is a Boston based mixed media artist working primarily in collage. She received her MFA from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2015. Her work is inspired by the beauty and fragility of the natural world. Using intricately cut images of flora and fauna, hand-drawn or painted elements, found materials, she creates eclectic collages and installations.