The Anchoress Hyunah Yu, Mimi Stillman, PRISM Quartet & Piffaro, The Renaissance Band

• David Serkin Ludwig (b. 1974): The Anchoress:
• 1 The Anchoress: I. What Is My Life? 03:53
• 2 The Anchoress: II. Once a Woman Went Down the Hill 03:35
• 3 The Anchoress: III. What Are We to Make of Visions Lit? 04:22
• 4 The Anchoress: IV. This Is the Four Burns of the Soul 03:00
• 5 The Anchoress: V. One Night in Particular 04:26
• 6 The Anchoress: VI. A Woman of the Village 01:50
• 7 The Anchoress: VII. Be Not Assured 02:24
• 8 The Anchoress: VIII. When I Woke Up Sighing 05:20
• 3 Anchoress Songs:
• 9 3 Anchoress Songs: No. 1, Virelai 02:08
• 10 3 Anchoress Songs: No. 2, Ballade 02:25
• 11 3 Anchoress Songs: No. 3, Rondeau 03:41
• Total Runtime 37:04

Info for The Anchoress

Soprano Hyunah Yu, the PRISM Quartet, and Piffaro, The Renaissance Band present a one-woman monodrama by composer David Serkin Ludwig and poet Katie Ford that explores struggles with faith, alienation, gender, and social power through the imagined person of an anchoress, a medieval mystic who spent her life confined to a cell attached to a church. In her liner notes, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim describes the anchoress as “a paradoxical figure: Buried alive, she is sought out for her wisdom. Encased in perpetual darkness, she is considered clairvoyant. Dead to the world, she becomes a pillar of her community.” The album includes Three Anchoress Songs, a companion piece performed by flutist Mimi Stillman and saxophonist Matthew Levy in which Ludwig imagines music the anchoress heard wafting into her cell from the outside world.

“David Ludwig and Katie Ford’s one woman opera...conjures a time of medieval mysticism, but the social dynamic it highlights one that honors women only by relegating them is not bound by any era.” (Oussama Zahr, The New Yorker)

Hyunah Yu, soprano
Mimi Stillman, flute
PRISM Quartet
Piffaro, The Renaissance Band
Mimi Stillman, flute, piccolo
Matthew Levy, tenor saxophone

Hyunah Yu
Soprano Hyunah Yu holds an Artist Diploma along with Graduate Performance Diploma, Masters and Bachelors degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. She was a prize-winner in the 1999 Naumburg International Competition and a finalist in the Dutch International Vocal Competition and the Concert Artist Guild International Competition. In 2003 Ms. Yu won Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award nominated by eminent pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Since 2000 she has been a regular at the Marlboro Music Festival, and has been a frequent recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with such prestigious organizations as the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the West Deutsche Rundfunk, Concerto Köln, Salzburg Camerata, the Aspen Music Festival, the Boston Baroque, the Seattle Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Vancouver Recital Society, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Musicians from Marlboro. During Spring and Summer 2006, Ms. Yu sang the title role in Mozart’s Zaide in New York, Vienna, and London w/ Peter Sellars and Louis Langree. She has recorded two solo recitals in UK for BBC Radio and her EMI Debut disc of Mozart and Bach arias was released worldwide in January 2007. She also holds a molecular biology degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mimi Stillman
acclaimed by The New York Times as “not only a consummate and charismatic performer, but also a scholar whose programs tend to activate ear, heart, and brain”, is renowned for her virtuosity, insightful interpretation, and adventurous programming. As soloist, she has appeared with orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Bach Collegium Stuttgart, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, and Orchestra 2001, and as recitalist and chamber musician at venues including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Sawdust, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Brooklyn’s Roulette, Symphony Space, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, The Kimmel Center, The Verbier Festival, and Kol HaMusica.

Ms. Stillman is the founding Artistic Director of the popular Dolce Suono Ensemble, “one of the most dynamic groups in the US” (The Huffington Post), performing Baroque to new music with 54 world premieres in 14 seasons in Philadelphia and on tour. At the invitation of Plácido Domingo, Ms. Stillman and Dolce Suono Ensemble enjoy a partnership with the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program.

A wide-ranging and innovative artist, Ms. Stillman celebrates the canon while deeply exploring new music and Latin genres. She is highly regarded for expanding the repertoire through her commissions and arrangements. She can be heard on several recordings including Odyssey: 11 American Premieres for Flute and Piano and Freedom, both with her longstanding duo pianist Charles Abramovic, and American Canvas performed by her Dolce Suono Trio (Innova). Her Syrinx Journey project, a tribute to Claude Debussy on his 150thanniversary, garnered an international following.

Mimi Stillman made the leap from child prodigy to inimitable artist. At age 12, she was the youngest wind player ever admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with the legendary Julius Baker and Jeffrey Khaner and earned her Bachelor of Music degree. She holds a MA in History from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a published author on music and history.

Mimi Stillman has won numerous competitions and awards including Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Bärenreiter Prize for Best Historical Performance for Winds, Astral Artists Auditions, and the Philadelphia Women in the Arts Award. Her Dolce Suono Ensemble has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, William Penn Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and other prestigious organizations. A Yamaha Performing Artist and Clinician, strongly committed to excellence in education, she has taught masterclasses at institutions including the National Flute Association, Eastman School of Music, Cornell University, Southern Methodist University, Indiana University, Penn State University, Michigan State University, Haverford College, Bryn Mawr College, the universities of Texas, California, Virginia, Florida, and Arizona, and at conservatories worldwide.

A Spanish-speaker, Ms. Stillman won the Knight Foundation grant for her Música en tus Manos (Music in Your Hands) project to introduce chamber music to the Latino community of Philadelphia. She is on faculty at Temple University, Curtis Summerfest, and Music for All National Festival.

Piffaro, The Renaissance Band
brings to its audiences historically informed performances of music from the late Medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque periods, in the manner of the civic, court and chapel wind bands, which existed roughly between the years 1450-1650. The aim of Piffaro is to entertain and educate others in the music itself, in its role in the culture of those periods, and in its link to music of our day. To that end Piffaro conducts extensive research and inquiry into the music, history, and performance practices of the Renaissance period.

PRISM Quartet
Intriguing programs of great beauty and breadth have distinguished the PRISM Quartet as one of America’s foremost chamber ensembles. “A bold ensemble that set the standard for contemporary-classical saxophone quartets” (The New York Times), PRISM has been presented by Carnegie Hall, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and throughout Latin America, China, and Russia under the auspices of USIA and USArtists International. PRISM has also appeared as soloists with the Detroit Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra, and conducted residencies at the nation’s leading conservatories, including the Curtis Institute and the Oberlin Conservatory. Two-time recipients of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, PRISM has commissioned nearly 300 works by eminent composers, including Pulitzer Prize-winners Julia Wolfe, William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon, Zhou Long, and Bernard Rands; MacArthur “Genius” Award recipients Tyshawn Sorey, Bright Sheng, and Miguel Zenón; and US Artists Fellow Susie Ibarra. PRISM’s discography is extensive, with releases on Albany, BMOP/Sound, ECM, innova, Koch, Naxos, New Dynamic, New Focus, and its own label, XAS Records. The Fifth Century, PRISM’s ECM recording with The Crossing, was awarded a 2018 Grammy for Best Choral Performance. In 2016, PRISM was named by its alma mater, the University of Michigan, as the first recipient of the Christopher Kendall Award in recognition of its work in “collaboration, entrepreneurship, and community engagement.” The PRISM Quartet performs exclusively on Selmer saxophones.

Booklet for The Anchoress