AUGUSTA – A Forest of Glass, a Kaleidoscope, a Dream is a new composition by UMA Professor of Music Richard Nelson which sets to music three poems by UMA Professor of English Ellen Taylor. This piece will be a featured work in a concert by the Resinosa Ensemble to be held in Jewett Auditorium at the University of Maine at Augusta on Saturday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m.
In his composition, Nelson has crafted vivid settings of Taylor’s poems “There’s something sad about September”, “Ice”, and “Song to the Fog”. He draws on what these poems bring forth about our shared humanity and on their evocations of the strongly flavored, starkly contrasting seasons here in Maine. Nelson and Taylor’s work will be part of an eclectic and engaging mix of 20th- and 21st-century music on the program, composers from Maine and beyond: Daniel Sonenberg, Nancy Gunn, André Previn, Lukas Foss, and Bunita Marcus. In addition to Taylor’s poems, the concert additionally includes settings of poems by Toni Morrison, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Elizabeth Spires.
The outstanding Resinosa Ensemble is a chamber trio of three Maine-based women: Joëlle Morris, mezzo-soprano, Eliza Meyer, cello, and Bridget Convey, piano. In the group’s own words, “This ensemble came together out of a love to perform chamber music, working with living composers, and generally offer music slightly off the beaten path.” Resinosa has performed throughout Maine, at venues such as Bowdoin College’s Studzinski Recital Hall; Bates College’s Olin Arts Center; Colby College’s Museum of Art; and was a featured ensemble at the Back Cove New Music Festival 2018. Resinosa is looking forward to performing at new venues throughout greater New England and New York in the coming seasons.