Damselfly is a soprano voice, flute, and harp trio based in the United States and Switzerland dedicated to the music of contemporary composers. Professor of Composition and Chair of the Composition Department Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon met the performers while directing the soundSCAPE music festival in Italy. He has since written and transcribed works for the trio, building a relationship that led him to invite the group to Eastman for a concert on Wednesday, February 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Hatch Recital Hall.
“It’s one of the very few ensembles for that configuration that I know,” says Zohn-Muldoon. “I deeply admire their musical interpretations and their sense of mission. They are very strongly an ‘artist driven’ group. What I mean by this is they are devoted to performing works to which they genuinely feel connected to.”
Included on the program are seminal works, such as George Crumb’s Federico’s Little Songs for Children and Ursula Mamlok’s Der Andreas Garten, along with works by Jesse Jones, Alfred Zimmerlin, Brittany Green, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León. They also perform Zohn-Muldoon’s Songs from Comala, a work he first transcribed for the trio but then extended due to their influence. Damselfly will record the full work while at Eastman. The trio also interacts with Eastman students at the George Walker Center and gives a presentation to composition students during its Eastman visit, which is supported by an Eastman Departmental Diversity Initiative grant. The concert on Wednesday is free and open to the public. Click here to learn more about this performance or tune into the livestream.
Hear a preview of Damselfly performing two of Zohn-Muldoon’s songs from Songs from Comal, “Junto a tu gente” and “El mar”:
