For more than half of Richard Cameron-Wolfe's creative life, his "second home" as a composer has been Eastern Europe, and 2016 is no exception. His song "O minstrel..." will be performedby the very gifted young Ukrainian artists Anna Bychkova (mezzo-soprano) and Sergey Gorkusha (guitar) on the February 20 "New Sound Space" concert in the Grand Hall of the Kharkov National University of the Arts."O minstrel...", the setting of a text by 13th-century Sufi poet Fakhruddin Iraqi, is in fact the opening section of Cameron-Wolfe's 7-part, 30-minute cantata "Breathless", which is scheduled for a premiere tour of several Ukrainian cities in early June. (The cantata, scored for mezzo-soprano, cello, and guitar quartet, sets ancient mystical poetry from various religions and philosophies.)
Additionally, another section of the cantata, "Gazelle in my Garden", with text by the 11th-century Jewish woman poet Quasmuna Bint Isma'il Al-Yahudi (scored for voice and two guitars), will be premiered in April (date & venue TBA) by Ms. Bychkova, Mr. Gorkusha, and Maxim Trianov.