2015-16 Season

This season is a big one! The Hubble Cantata will be released on VIA Records with the Washington Chorus, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and the amazing Norwegian 1B1 ensemble, starring soloists Nathan Gunn and Jessica Rivera (with text by Royce Vavrek, narration by astrophysicist Mario Livio and a Virtual Reality experience led by Eliza McNitt), and will premiere at Celebrate Brooklyn in the largest free opera + VR experience on August 6th! This summer I am also workshopping my new opera Gilgamesh in NYC and Boston with librettist Cerise Jacobs and director Michael Counts for the Cutler Majestic Theater (produced by Beth Morrison Projects) as part of Boston’s Celebrity Series to premiere in September 2016. Also in September, Oceanic Verses (as part of the reACT series) will celebrate the Watermill Center’s 10th anniversary! I am so excited to bring this piece back….My music-theater work Aging Magician is going to Broadway! It will premiere at the New Victory Theater in March 2017 and is also going to ASU’s Gammage Theater in January 2017. Murat Eyuboglu’s The Colorado, our film eco-cantata for Roomful of Teeth, Glenn Kotche and Jeffrey Zeigler (with text by conservationist and writer William deBuys) will travel to Stanford University’s Bing Theater on Earth Day. Lastly, my Mass with poet Brenda Shaughnessy (part of Trinity Church’s Mass Reimagining Series) will premiere as part of their Twelfth Night series. More dates coming soon, please check the calendar to your right!

2012-13 Season

This season is a big one. Many new works are in development, and I am working on opening a new space in Williamsburg, called Original Music Workshop. I am excited to be orchestrating Oceanic Verses for its European premiere at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, to premiere in May, 2013. Additionally, I finished a work for Opera America’s Songbook, and am working on several new pieces. Labyrinth, in its completed version will premiere at the Krannert Center and will feature Maya Beiser and Cornelius Dufallo with visuals by Erika Harrsch and Carmen Kordas. We are looking forward to a LMCC Governor’s Island Residency this winter, and will have a work in progress performance at the Atlas Theater in DC in January. Also at LMCC Governor’s Island Residency I will be working with Rinde Eckert, Julian Crouch, Mark Stewart and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus on Aging Magician, a new work that will premiere at the Prototype Festival in January 2013. I’ve uploaded a new track from Oceanic Verses below, in addition to our new promo, and my new American Song Book song featuring Chris Burchett in collaboration with Donna Di Novelli. Enjoy!

Lastly, I am honored to be listed on NPR’s The Mix: 100 Composers Under 40.

December 23, 2010

I was just chosen as one of the six finalists for the Opera Vista 2011 competition with my work, Oceanic Verses.

My new work Labyrinth written for Cornelius Dufallo will premiere at CSUF New Music Festival: Strings in the 21st Century on March 4, 2011.

April 7-9 2011 at the Kitchen in NYC, on VisionIntoArt’s, Beth Morrison Projects and Opera on Tap’s 21c Liederabend Festival, I will debut a new multimedia work based on An Aging Magician, Jonathan Safran Foer’s text, written for the wonderful Rinde Eckert and the great ensemble founded by cellist Clarice Jensen, ACME.

I am excited to take part in New York City Opera’s Words First program with novelist Donna DiNovelli. We are working on a new opera called, The Wheel. Stay tuned for more, and a performance on VOX Second Stage on May 15, 2011 at LPR.

On August 30, the Q2/WQXR website hosted a week-long composer introduction feature on me, and I am honored to take part in their August spotlight. Check out: http://www.wqxr.org for a free download!

The wonderful Gabriel Kahaine just commissioned a new work from me for a series he curated and performed on for the MATA Interval Concerts at Issue Project Room on November 17, 2010. He is truly spectacular and I was honored to write for him.

On December 13 2010, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MUSIC NOW series performed my work Spell. They were amazing!

09-10 Season Highlights:
This season, through VisionIntoArt, my company, I curated and co-produced a festival (FERUS) of new sounds of artists from around the world that I admire at Galapagos Art Space, and my own work premiered there on April 2 in an event co-produced with Beth Morrison Projects.

This Spring also saw the premiere of Listen, Quiet, a new work for percussion, cello and electronics commissioned by Juilliard on March 17-20, 2010, at the Willson Theater at Juilliard, for Beyond the Machine’s 10th anniversary festival.
http://newyork.timeout.com

An excerpt from my multimedia work Sounds, a collaboration with German video artist Carmen Kordas, premiered with the Claremont trio and Claire Chase with Hila Plitmann at the Laguna Beach Music Festival in January.

I co-produced (with Beth Morrison and Anne Ricci) and was featured in 21c Liederabend, at Galapagos on November 19, 2009. This concert was named Top Ten Concert of the Year by TONY. Check it out! www.nytimes.com and www.timeoutny.com

Paola just won the 2009 New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Award!

Additionally, my work, Oceanic Verses, is part of New York City Opera’s 2010 VOX series, and my piece, Nightsong, recorded by Sam Solomon on my Body Maps album, won first place in the 2009 Classical Marimba League Composition Competition.

Paola will be featured in Drome’s Time 2009 issue. http://www.dromemagazine.com DROME magazine is a prestigious, alternative and cosmopolitan Italian quarterly that deals with the contemporary world of art and culture, taking on a different theme in every issue.

Pianist Alejandro Vela is performing “Deja Que Salga” (written for him) in Rome on March 3, 2010 and will record the work subsequently for his debut album.

VIA held it’s CD release at Galapagos on November 22! Traveling Songs and Sounds were presented, with music by Paola Prestini, Milica Paranosic and Pablo Rieppi. Spoken word by Nuyorican prize winner Roger Bonair-Agard, and film by German experimentalist Carmen Kordas. With improv sensation Helga Davis, and the famed jazz chanteuse, Magos Herrera.

Paola was featured at the Green Space, WNYC’s new space, on May 27th at 8pm. The evening broadcasted live (works featured from new Tzadik album)! Listen here: http://www.thegreenespace.org

Body Maps, Paola’s multi-media collaboration will premiere in Europe at HOT ART ’09, June 10 – 14 2009, Basel, Switzerland.

Paola’s Carnegie Hall commission Oceanic Verses was premiered at Zankel Hall on May 9th.

Paola took part in The American Composers Orchestra Immigrant Heritage Week with the work, “Without” for string quartet in April 2009.

Paola Prestini was recently commissioned by WNYC, listen here: http://www.wnyc.org, and by Cory Hills for a solo percussion piece to be premiered in 2009.

Paola was recently commissioned by Carnegie Hall/Weill Institute Professional Training Workshops for the Dawn Upsaw/Osvaldo Goljiov workshops and will be creating a new work for a May 2009 premiere.

A new work “VioLens”, was commissioned by Concert Artist Guild and the Cary Trust for a VisionIntoArt (VIA) 2009 premiere.

A new work, “Cut Him out in Little Stars…” inspired by Sicilian folk melodies, was commissioned by Concert Artist Guild for a January 2009 Carnegie Hall premiere with soprano Sarah Wolfson.

New film score for the film “Without” by Brent Bishop and Gregory Tuzin. This work will be performed and recorded by the Kronos Quartet in August 2008.

This month, writings on collaboration and life will deput on Zorn’s Arcana, Musician’s on Music collection of essays, along with a new CD, “Body Maps” on the Tzadik label, with a commissioned cover painting by friend and collaborator, Erika Harrsch.

December 1, 2010

My new work: Yoani, is a new work based on the real life story of Yoani Sanchez, a Cuban philologist and blogger. Named “Time 100 Most Influential People” Yoani has achieved international fame and multiple international awards for her critical portrayal of life in Cuba under its current government. From the shortage of lemons to the dark nights of male prostitutes, this chamber opera will celebrate the life of a silent revolutionary.

With lyricist Royce Vavrek and film.

December 12, 2010 at Joe’s Pub with Le Coterie.

April 20, 2010

My opera, Oceanic Verses, a collaboration with filmmaker Ali Hossaini, (which stems from my recent Carnegie Hall commission) was selected to be part of New York City Opera’s VOX series at the Skirball Center in NY.
Click here to see and listen!
http://www.nycopera.com

To listen to Oceanic Verses, opera version on Q2, go here:
http://www.wqxr.org

To listen to Oceanic Verses, chamber version:
http://www.carnegiehall.org