Voice of the Whale places George Crumb’s iconic trio alongside newer works for small combinations of instruments. Drawing inspiration from the natural world and the actions we take within it, this program celebrates the marvelous variety of approaches to melody, harmony, and drama.

In Crumb’s 1971 trio, Vox Balaenae, the flutist, cellist, and pianist don black masks to perform a dramatic ritual inspired by whale song. Conjuring something ancient and otherworldly, Crumb’s mesmerizing music transports the listener to a vast, watery realm that feels both familiar and surreal.

In Nadiya, which means ‘rivers’ in Hindi, Reena Esmail applies two Hindustani melodic modes to the flute and cello, suggesting the many moods and textures of braided streams. The two instruments of this duet align and relalign constantly throughout the piece. Sam Suggs explores precisely the opposite idea by maintaining exact alignment in his cello and double bass duet, Giant Hummingbirds.
The cello and bass bounce their bows on the strings, evoking the sound of beating wings, to form one gentle super-instrument.

Conrad Winslow takes yet another notion of alignment as the basis of Way Down by creating one composite melodic line by ricocheting the notes among the piano, cello and bass. The players of this trio finish each other’s sentences while grooving together, constantly exchanging the roles of leader and follower.

drip / spin by Katherine Balch’ combines solemn, delicate sounds with playful, dizzy cycles as flute and piano build an inventive, fascinating musical world while exploring textures and gestures suggested by dripping and spinning.

Hungarian composer and pianist György Kurtág’s Bagatelles
comprises pithy, crystalline movements full of clever references and quotations that bring familiar themes from older composers such as Debussy and Bach into a new light.

Shaker Loops showcases inventive
approaches to building musical structures. Culminating in John Adams’ propulsive and groundbreaking septet, this program grows from two players to seven as it showcases voices young and old, each with a unique take on constructing a piece.

In his piano trio, Spell, Per Nørgård crafts a musical language from just a handful of notes, treating them like building blocks in a ritual of transformation. Through repetition and variation, these elements are reshaped into shifting musical textures that feel both precise and mysterious. The result is a sound world that speaks with the clarity of craft and the intrigue of incantation.

Andrew Norman’s Sonnets for piano and double bass presents a completely different conception of musical form: five miniatures inspired by the Italian sonetto, or “little song/sound.” Each song evokes a uniquely specific character, from the nearly inaudible stutters of “my tongue-tied muse”, to the rapid, light, bouncing bow strokes of “to be so tickled”.

“String Quartet No. 1: For Roger”, by Michelle Barzel Ross, is written in memory of the violist Roger Tapping of the Juilliard Quartet. The quartet unfolds as a gentle, heartfelt conversation among the four instruments. Instead of following a strict musical form, repeated melodic gestures drift in and out, much like memories that surface unexpectedly.

Inspired by the surreal imagery of early 20th-century painting, Alyssa Weinberg’s This is the color of my dreams for string trio shapes sound with a painter’s sensitivity to tone and texture. Gentle dissonances, shimmering timbres, and layered dynamics evoke dreamlike states where colors seem to float and blur. Here, Weinberg’s craftsmanship is displayed through these otherworldly yet native sounds evoked from the three string players.

The program concludes with John Adams’ seminal string septet, Shaker Loops. Constructed by looping minimalist patterns that gradually evolve into waves of kinetic motion, Adams composes with precise layering and rhythmic drive. Here, Adams’ compositional craft transforms mechanistic repetition into an epiphany of physical and spiritual transcendence.

Works by young American composers reflecting on community dynamics, spaces, and practices, featuring a world premiere for strings, clarinet, cimbalom and piano by Maine composer Conrad Winslow and music by Carlos Simon, inti figgis-vizueta, and Gabriella Smith.

Wednesday July 17, 2024 at 7:00 pm / Stonington Opera House, Stonington

Thursday July 18, 2024 at 7:30 pm / St. Mary’s by-the-Sea, Northeast Harbor

Sunday July 21, 2024 at 7:30 pm / Waldo Theater, Waldoboro

Music inspired by the poetry of Petrarch, Dorothy Parker and Anna Akhmatova, featuring Suzanne Farrin’s corpo di terra, Sarah Gibson’s The Boys are There, and Sir John Tavener’s Akhmatova Songs.

Wednesday July 10, 2024 at 6:30 pm / Jesup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor

Thursday July 11, 2024 at 7:30 pm / St. Mary’s by-the-Sea, Northeast Harbor

featuring Brett Dean’s “Voices of Angels,” Stephen Hartke’s “King of the Sun,” Libby Larsen’s “Up, Where the Air Gets Thin,” and a world premiere by DownEast New Music pianist Danny Holt.

Friday July 14, 2023 at 7:30 pm / Blue Hill Congregational Church, Blue Hill

Saturday July 15, 2023 at 3:30 pm / Jesup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor

featuring Caroline Shaw’s in manus tuas, Mikhail Johnson “Evil's Peak,” György Kurtág’s “Scenes from a Novel,” and Jessie Montgomery’s Duo for violin and cello.

Friday July 7, 2023 at 7:30 pm / St. Mary’s Church, Northeast Harbor

Saturday July 8, 2023 at 7:30 pm / Blue Hill Congregational Church, Blue Hill