Kate Soper (b. 1981)

Started by Crudblud, August 18, 2019, 04:54:16 AM

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Crudblud

Probably my favourite living composer, and one of my own generation (we are separated by about eight years), the US soprano Kate Soper has been creating some truly excellent and exciting works over the past ten years (at least). I did a quick search for a thread about her, and finding no such thread thought I would make one myself. Her style strikes me as a meeting point of Robert Ashley's spoken word "opera" and the dense, showy phantasmagoria of Luciano Berio's vocal works, but bringing a certain something of her own which I haven't really been able to pinpoint—I think my love of mystery is precisely what draws me to uniquely characterful composers like Soper.

https://www.youtube.com/v/LCAt4mKhCpY

Crudblud


San Antone

I agree that Kate Soper is a noteworthy  composer.  You might be interested in the profile/interview I did with her in 2016.

Crudblud

That's cool, San Antone, thanks for sharing!

bhodges

Today found this 2012 performance of "Only the Words Mean What They Say," recorded at EMPAC, the state-of-the art facility at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Kate Soper is joined by Erin Lesser on flute.

Soper's facility with words and sounds (not to mention, a bit of choreography) is like no one else working today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNTHcINa000

--Bruce

T. D.

Thanks to all posters.
Not familiar with her work, but invocation of the names Ashley and Berio* means that I must investigate!

*Massive Robert Ashley fan and I love Berio's vocal music (though kinda lukewarm on his instrumental works).

San Antone

#6
Happy to see some activity in this thread. 

IPSA DIXIT: I. Poetics (Kate Soper)

https://www.youtube.com/v/qFLqzJkKSJM

For voice, flute, violin and percussion
I. Poetics
Text by Aristotle (abr. Soper) and Sophocles

Live at EMPAC December 9, 2016
Kate Soper (soprano), Erin Lesser (flute), Josh Modney (violin), Ian Antonio (percussion)



Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say

https://www.youtube.com/v/hVWHGx-LRL4

performed by The Wet Ink Ensemble (Kate Soper, soprano and Erin Lesser, flutes)


Crudblud

I'm heartened to see a couple of newcomers to this composer's wonderful music.

Mirror Image

I listened to one of Soper's works and my reaction was "Meh". It wasn't anything special and totally lacked musical substance. I'll stick with the post-WWII avant-garde. 8)

bhodges

Quote from: San Antone on April 10, 2020, 01:31:27 AM
I agree that Kate Soper is a noteworthy  composer.  You might be interested in the profile/interview I did with her in 2016.

Finally read your excellent interview, San Antone, thanks. You elicited some interesting comments from her, which I hadn't seen elsewhere.

Quote from: Crudblud on February 14, 2022, 04:37:27 AM
I'm heartened to see a couple of newcomers to this composer's wonderful music.

And thanks again, Crudblud, for starting this thread. Soper is worth paying attention to (as is her ensemble, Wet Ink).

--Bruce

bhodges

A new Kate Soper recording, The Understanding of All Things, with "poetic and philosophical texts by Franz Kafka, George Berkeley, Parmenides, William Butler Yeats, Robert Frost, and herself." Her electronics collaborator is Sam Pluta, also of the Wet Ink Ensemble, and known for his technical wizardry.

https://www.newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue/kate-soper-sam-pluta-the-understanding-of-all-things/



--Bruce

brewski

Yesterday I saw Here Be Sirens (2013), Kate Soper's opera exploring the origins of the three mythological sirens, one of the overwhelming offerings from this year's Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Excellent vocalists — Megnot Toggia, Melanie Culhane and Rachel DiBlasio — had a blast, performing on a sculptural set designed by Marley Edelman, all directed by Anastassia Vertjanova.

You can see the original 2014 production (with the composer among the singers) here.

-Bruce

"I set down a beautiful chord on paper—and suddenly it rusts."
—Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)