Great Barrington — At Saint James Place on February 11, the Avalon String Quartet and mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley gave a deeply heartfelt performance of Chicago composer Stacy Garrop’s timely “For Such a Time as This,” along with rock-solid readings of works by Puccini and Mendelssohn. A rapt audience was clearly pleased with Garrop’s multi-movement work, themed on the Book of Esther, with libretto by Jerre Dye, and presented by Close Encounters with Music.
Stacy Garrop would like to be known as a composer with a story to tell. Once you know that about her, then it is easy to detect the thread that runs through everything she writes, which includes works for orchestra, opera, oratorio, wind ensemble, choir, art song, and various sized chamber ensembles. That thread is her intention to connect with her audience and communicate, which makes her a little like John Williams and nothing at all like Milton Babbitt. She is certainly capable of playing Babbitt’s game, but she has her own distinctive, harmonic vocabulary, which, like Williams, she tends to employ in support of some kind of narrative. Attesting to this are compositions with titles like “My Dearest Ruth,” “The Lovely Sirens,” “Phoenix Rising,” “The Transformation of Jane Doe,” and “Thunderwalker.”
Garrop wrote “For Such a Time as This” in 2022, on commission from SDG Music Foundation. In league with Jerre Dye’s libretto, Garrop tells the story underlying the Jewish festival of Purim, a celebration she took part in as a child at her local synagogue: As Esther violates norms and risks her life to save her people from genocide, Garrop’s music gets inside the characters’ heads, reflecting their emotional states through deft harmonic sleight of hand—dissonant when appropriate, sweet and lyrical when the action requires it. In fact, Garrop works so hard to tell her story that many commentators have described her music as “cinematic.” Indeed, one gets the feeling at various points in this piece that Garrop could have composed the score to “Psycho.”
The Avalon Quartet’s repertoire is vast, ranging from Haydn’s orderly dance numbers to Augusta-Read-Thomas’s modernist excursions. Having given the premier performance of Garrop’s “For Such a Time as This” in January, 2023, it is no surprise that the ensemble on February 11 demonstrated such mastery of Garrop’s score, which is quite demanding.
The Avalon String Quartet is quartet-in-residence at the Northern Illinois University School of Music, a position formerly held by the Vermeer Quartet. As professional educators, members of the Avalon have taught at the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute, Interlochen Advanced Quartet Program, Madeline Island Music Camp, and the Britten-Pears School in England. The group has conducted masterclasses at universities and conservatories throughout the United States, including to young audiences in under-resourced schools and communities. The group has appeared in such New York venues as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Merkin Hall, and Bargemusic. They have given concerts at the Library of Congress; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; Wigmore Hall in London; and Munich’s Herkulessaal. Festival appearances have included the Bath International Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Caramoor, La Jolla, and Ravinia. The group has given performances of the complete quartet cycles of Beethoven, Bartok, and Brahms at Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Jerre Dye is a Chicago-based playwright, opera librettist, director, and actor. His opera librettos include “Ghosts of Crosstown,” “The Parksville Murders,” “The Falling and Rising,” “Chautauqua Stories,” “By/In,” and “Taking Up Serpents.”
Associate professor of voice at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Ind., mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley has appeared in leading operatic roles, including Carmen, Rosina, Dorabella, Despina, and both Rossini and Massenet Cinderellas. She has been a featured soloist with orchestras led by George Manahan, Raymond Leppard, Oliver Knussen, Robert Shaw, and Pierre Boulez.
