Created in 2009, the Bowers Fader Duo performs both classical and contemporary repertoire. Their ongoing mission is to promote new American art songs for mezzo and guitar, through commissions, performances, and recordings. To date, they have presented 37 world premieres of works written for them. The Duo have been guest artists with Cygnus Ensemble, Taconic Music Festival, Poetica Musica, University of Indianapolis, Composers Concordance, Queens New Music Festival, Musical Chairs Ensemble, Bar Harbor Music Festival, and Lehigh University. This season they will be presenting their Fifth Annual New American Art Song Concert three times over the course of the year. Composers this year include Jeffrey Young, Richard Derby, Rebekah Driscoll, Larry Nelson, Louis Karchin, Randy Woolf, Paul Salerni, and Patrick Zimmerli. Last year, they released their debut album, “Between Us All” on New Focus Recordings, with songs by Paul Salerni, David Claman, Scott Wheeler, and Tim Mukherjee. They can also be heard on “Der Weg ins Freie”, a new album of music by William Kentner Anderson on Furious Artisans. Next year, they will release a full album of music written for the Duo by Paul Salerni.
Jessica Bowers has performed with Utah Opera, Anchorage Opera, Opera Boston, Central City Opera, and Ohio Light Opera. Roles include Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, and The Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music, Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann, and The Queen in John Harbison’s A Full Moon in March. Recently she has performed with Cygnus Ensemble, Taconic Music, Poetica Musica, L’Artiste Ordinaire, Dali Quartet, Composers Concordance, and Satori Ensemble. Last summer in Tokyo, she sang the Japanese premiere of Akemi Naito’s one-woman opera, “Emily Brontë”, which was written for her. This spring, she returned to Lehigh University, where she was a Horger Artist-in-Residence, to perform in Earl Kim’s opera, Footfalls. This year, she and her duo partner, Oren Fader, guitarist, will present their Fifth Annual New American Art Song Concert three times in New York City over the course of the season. Their debut album, Between Us All, was released last year on the Naxos label, through New Focus Recordings.
Oren Fader, guitarist, has performed hundreds of concerts in the U.S., Europe and Asia with a wide range of classical and new music groups, including the Met Chamber Ensemble, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mark Morris Dance Group, Da Capo Chamber Players, Talea Ensemble, New World Symphony, Absolute Ensemble, and Poetica Musica. Recent concerto performances include the “Aranjuez Concerto” with the New Jersey Symphony and Omaha Symphony orchestras. A champion of contemporary music, he has premiered over 300 works with guitar. He performs new music with the Cygnus Ensemble, and the Bowers Fader Duo. His solo recordings include “Another’s Fandango”, featuring 500 years of guitar music, and “First Flight”, a disc of 10 premiere solos written for Mr. Fader by New York City composers. Mr. Fader teaches classical guitar and chamber music at the Manhattan School of Music (since 1994), SUNY Purchase, Borough of Manhattan Community College, and Montclair State University.
Hailed as a composer of “fearless eloquence” (Andrew Porter, The New Yorker), Louis Karchin has been honored with performances of his music throughout the United States, Europe, and the Far East. He has been championed by such organizations as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Fort Worth Opera, the Center for Contemporary Opera, Tanglewood, the Guggenheim Museum, the Louisville Orchestra, the Group for Contemporary Music, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the New York New Music Ensemble, and many more. His music is recorded on Bridge, Naxos, New World, Albany and CRI labels, and his compositions are published by C. F. Peters Corporation and the American Composers Alliance. Mr. Karchin is the recipient of numerous awards for his work including Koussevitzky, Fromm and Barlow Foundation Commissions, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and three awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Active as a conductor, he has founded or co-founded noted performing ensembles including the Harvard Group for New Music, the Chamber Players of the League-ISCM, the Washington Square Ensemble, and most recently, the Orchestra of the League of Composers. He is Professor of Music at New York University.
Three Songs on Poems of Emily Dickinson - Louis Karchin
Recorded at home in New York, NY, October 2020
Jessica Bowers, mezzo-soprano
Oren Fader, guitar
Mastered by Alex Vourtsanis.
Property of Shelter Recording Project, American Composers Alliance.
