Nevada County Composers Cooperative presents a spectacular program of new music by five California based composers on Sunday, April 26, 2:00 pm at Trabucco Ranch in Nevada City.
Antioch composer and pianist, Nancy Bachmann, is premiering her “Songs from 2025” with Bay Area soprano, Ellen St. Thomas. These five, short, charming, songs reflect Bachmann’s love of nature as well as both her wit and serious sides.
Berkeley composer and pianist, Bruce Nalezny is premiering “Poetic Visions”, inspired by two poems written by Berkeley poet, Nellie Hill, “Darkness” and “The Game”. He writes, “I have composed numerous songs using Hill’s lyrics. In 2025 I decided to transcribe “Darkness” and “The Game” for solo piano giving them a new title: “Poetic Visions”. I sent a copy to Lynn Schugren for some feedback and was more than pleasantly surprised when she offered to perform them at today’s concert.”
Alrich, Hsieh and Vance have all written clarinet quintets (clarinet, 2 violins, cello and piano). To be performed by musicians: Sandra McPherson, clarinet; Rick Shinozaki and Miriana Self, violins; Durwynne Hsieh, cello; Alexis Alrich and Lynn Schugren, pianists.
Oregon House composer, pianist, Alexis Alrich’s quintet “The Waterslides is one movement from a projected full-length work commissioned by Ralph Henson and others. The full piece is entitled Tuolumne Suite, and is inspired by the landscape of Tuolumne Meadows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This movement is pure word-painting. There are many spectacular features in Tuolumne Meadows, including waterslides. This piece intends to evoke the breathtaking feeling of a waterslide’s endless cascade over granite and the exhilaration of slipping down the rocks on a hot summer day. In the words of Ralph Henson, “Music merging with the ear is magic. Water meeting and flowing over steep, smooth granite likewise is cool, liquid magic.”
Antioch composer and cellist, Durwynne Hsieh, is premiering his new quintet called “Floating Freely Dancing Dreaming”. Hsieh writes, “On a recent drive, I encountered the aftermath of wreck after wreck, so many emergency vehicles with lights flashing, injured people on stretchers, mangled metal parts littering the roadway, all an apt reflection of how life in general feels these days. I have tried to write a piece that is a respite from this, a piece that envisions things as I would like them to be.”
Nevada City composer, Mark Vance, is premiering his new quintet, “Three Songs Without Words”. He writes, “There is nothing like singing voice. But… instruments have beautiful singing voices too. These three songs explore these gorgeous lyric qualities. 1. Conversation, 2. The Lover Betrayed, 3. Does She Stay or Does She Go?”
For directions and more info please see: composerscooperative.info
Tickets are available at the door
Who: Nevada County Composers Cooperative
What: Spring Concert 2026
When: Sunday, April 26, 2026, 2 pm
Where: Trabucco Ranch, 14328 Barr Ranch Road, Nevada City