Mira Benjamin
Verses
Another Timbre presents Verses, five chamber and solo works by the Canadian composer Barbara Monk Feldman. "I have been thinking about what is inside and what is outside. The everyday life and tragedy of what goes on around you, and the fact that to accomplish anything you need the isolation in the studio - I think about this moral issue. And then on another level, I think about an inside and an outside for art itself, and how ephemeral that is.... What I am looking for is a way to notate the mo…
Windfell
British composer James Weeks (b.1978) presents windfell, an hour long composition for violin and voice written for and performed by Canadian violinist Mira Benjamin. Released by Another Timbre in May 2019, this extended solo work evokes the image of a violin alone on a remote hill, played only by the wind. Benjamin requested Weeks write a long duration piece for her. The challenge of making something for a single player over the span of an hour led Weeks to find ways to enrich the timbral and ha…
Dirt Road
Dirt Road stands as a milestone in Linda Catlin Smith's catalogue - a single work expanding over an hour, composed in 2005 and commissioned for dance. Performed by Mira Benjamin (violin) and Simon Limbrick (percussion), the piece moves through fifteen loosely connected movements, each open to interpretation and marked by Smith’s trademark transparency. The violin floats above sparse percussion gestures - wood, metal, vibraphone, and bowls - sometimes in suspended dialogue, sometimes drifting acr…