Pre-Concert Talk from 6:45-7:30pm

The concert program showcases Derek David’s recent expansive works for solo viola and string quartet, featuring guest musician Jesse Morrison, violist of the Calgary Philharmonic, local freelance ensemble Semiosis Quartet, and the composer as vocalist. The central theme of the concert highlights the incorporation and reflection on Yiddish folk songs as a rich musical and linguistic medium, based on ongoing studies with the renowned Yiddish folksong scholar and practitioner Ethel Raim.

The recent compositions and musical output of Derek David are informed by active studies of Yiddish music, culture, and language, integrating these elements into a historically informed concert compositional voice.

Preceding the concert, guest musicians will engage the students in music theory, world music, and masterclasses through discussions and demonstrations. 

Derek David’s collaboration with ethnomusicologist and MIT lecturer Joseph Maurer, a folk song specialist, concludes with  a pre-concert discussion on the Yiddish folk song tradition and its influence on contemporary musical practice, including topics of performance techniques and 18th-century Partimento compositional pedagogy.

Di Fayerike Libe – Passionate Love – די פֿײַערדיקע ליב is supported by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and co-presented with the MIT Music and Theater Arts.