Concert of Healing, Restoration, Perhaps Transformation

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Transportation for a journey of spiritual transcendence will be provided by pieces from some of America’s most influential contemporary composers during “Still Life After Death,” which comes to Cal State San Bernardino Friday, Jan. 27.

The 7:30 p.m. performance, which will be held in the CSUSB Performing Arts Building Recital Hall, features Stacey Fraser, soprano and CSUSB music professor.

Taking inspiration from the Dec. 2, 2015, terror attack in San Bernardino, the show is an evening of dramatic chamber works that will offer listeners “a kind of self-awareness and healing,” says Fraser, who also is coordinator for the university’s Opera Theatre Program.

“Although the works were composed at different times by composers of various cultural backgrounds, all five composers have created pieces that are socially conscious yet provide a sort of other worldliness through the use of various forms of media and instrumentation,” Fraser says.

The show, she hopes, will be “transformative” for performers and audience alike.

“Still Life After Death” also is the title of the first piece in the show, which is a collaboration between The Lotusflower New Music Project and CSUSB’s opera theatre. Critically acclaimed tenor and performance artist Timur Bekbosunov will stage direct “Still Life After Death,” a composition by Cambodian American composer, Chinary Ung.

Bekbosunov is well known in opera circle across the country and abroad. His company, The Opera of Timur Productions, is currently collaborating with Margaret Cho on a musical show, “Love, Honor, Obey.” Grammy-winning percussionist Nick Terry of the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet also will perform for this composition.

Also featured during the evening are works by UC Riverside composer Paulo C. Chagas and UCR scholar-in-residence Martin Jaroszewicz. Lifted from a larger work, “Trauma, Loss, and Transcendence,” the compositions “Too Much love” and “City in the Sea” are part of a multi-media show dedicated to the victims and survivors of the San Bernardino attack.

The works feature soprano, percussion and live electronics, and were composed specifically for Fraser and Grammy-nominated composer Justin Dehart, also of the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet.

Tickets for “Still Life After Death” are $15 for general admission, $12 for senior citizens, CSUSB faculty and staff, and $8 for students. Parking at CSUSB is $6. For more information, call the CSUSB music department at (909) 537-5859.