D'Arcy Reynolds is a well known composer on the West Coast where her compositions have been premiered at numerous concert halls and music festivals. In recognition for her outstanding work D'Arcy has won several grants from such prestigious organizations as the American Composers Forum, the American Music Center and Meet the Composer.
She has written works for Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Chorus, Chamber Ensemble, Voice and Piano. She has completed three song cycles for soprano and chamber ensemble (The Past Keeps Changing, Beyond Dreaming, and Listening to Winter), all of which have been written in collaboration with living poets. Recent premieres include Cloven Dreams, performed by Tessa Brinckman & the East/West Continuo in Portland, Oregon, Elegy by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, 21 for piano, and The Past Keeps Changing, performed at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA.
In addition to her work as a composer and pianist, D’Arcy Reynolds is the founding Director of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Composers Forum. The Chapter became an important arts organization for artists throughout Northern California, and as Director of the San Francisco Chapter, Ms. Reynolds developed an innovative Composer in the Schools Program, held salons with new works by Northern California Composers and administered interdisciplinary granting programs with composers, poets and choreographers.
She received a 2004 Meet the Composer Global Connections grant and is traveling to South Africa where the Sontonga String Quartet will perform her string quartet Cloven Dreams at the University of Cape Town.
|
|
|
|
|
Sunday, March 27, 2005
27 March in Sea Pointe
I must have brought the rain with me from California - the long drought in
Cape Town was finally relieved by an afternoon shower today. This is Easter Sunday, and the hymns in the churches create a cool kind of 'Ivesian' backdrop to the hip hop that the Africans are playing.
I'm staying in Sea Pointe, which is just outside of Cape Town. There is a long
Promenade along the Atlantic Ocean that leads to the Waterfront area. I found the "Lions Head Lodge" from the Lonely Planet Guide, and they must have used a very wide angle lens on the photo of the pool on their Website. Not quite the hotel that I'd had in mind, so I may move to a either the faculty housing or a B&B.
As for costs here - it pays to bargain-hunt for everything from internet access
to the price of an egg. The best rate for on-line access today was 10 Rands an
hour - just under $2. As for breakfast, you could easily spend 26-32 Rands, but let
your eye drift down the page a bit, and there is the egg-over-toast for 9 Rands. Hiring
a cell phone, and buying time on a Sim card are the next items to negotiate.
I ran into an Afrikaaner couple in Green Pointe that had read
about the upcoming concert of my music at University of Cape
Town with the Sontonga String Quartet. While the wife understood my Californian
English fairly well, the husband could not make out much of what I said -
At University of Cape Town (UCT) they have just had their fall break and Easter vacation, so I hope it is easier to get in touch with the faculty next week. Gillian Linders is the concert manager, and it appears that she is also in charge of housing for visiting composers. She will set me up with rehearsal space, and we can work out the details for publicity, programs, and outreach while I am in Cape Town.
We all know that Africa is a big continent, but I can say after the experience of disembarking in Jo'burg - Africa is truly vast.
posted by D'Arcy Reynolds
11:52 PM
| |
