We Lived Happily During the War: world premiere by Mathew Rosenblum

TALUJON and Jamie Jordon give the world premiere of Mathew Rosenblum’s We Lived Happily During the War for soprano and six percussionists. Based on a poem by Ilya Kaminsky, it is also a meditation on the composer’s family history, especially his grandmother’s escape from Ukraine after the massacre in her town during the 1919 pandemic. The piece takes on a devastating new meaning in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The program also features Paula Matthusen’s The Days are Nouns, with Jamie Jordan, and Frederic Rzewski’s stirring classic, Coming Together, with narrator Franz Nicolay.

Mathew Rosenblum’s We Lived Happily During the War was made possible by a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation and written for soprano Jamie Jordon and Talujon.