Hila sings Del Tredici

Nic and I had the great good fortune to see my very dear friend Hila Plitmann sing at a concert featuring the music of David Del Tredici last night. She was invited by the Chicago Chamber Players to be a part of this concert series at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. Hila has an amazing voice, a great presence onstage, and a wonderful gift for digging into of the music to not only find the composer's intentions, but also her own self-expression. She sang a piece called "Visitations", with Del Tredici accompanying her on piano, and also "Haddock's Eyes", with Del Tredici conducting.

I was doing grad work at Cleveland State University when I was first introduced to David's music. He came in to do a concert and lecture, and spoke to all of us grad composition majors. I found him to be very open and inspiring, and it was the high point of my short academic career at CSU. And I remember he used "Haddock's Eyes" as an example of his work -- he played a CD of it as we all greedily poured over the score he'd brought with him. It was a rare experience to be sitting in this concert, hearing Hila's expressive performance, and remembering my first experience with this work... where I was then, where I am now...