Helia’s Collaboration with Natalie Raney

Regular readers probably know by now that I have been doing my best to report on the activities of the Helia Music Collective, co-founded by composers Emma Logan and Julie Barwick. Their mission is to support the creative endeavors of women in music throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, my last attempt to write about their efforts took place at the beginning of this past November, when they curated a solo violin recital by Robert Simonds for Old First Concerts (O1C) consisting entirely of works by women composed between 1990 and 2019.

Poster design for the program being announced (from the C4NM event page)

Following that performance, Logan and Barwick have been working with cellist Natalie Raney on a project entitled Catalyst: A Musical Collaboration. Raney provided a foretaste of this project this past June, when O1C live-streamed a solo recital she had prepared. That program included the first movement of Bloom, a suite recently composed by Dorothy Chang. The full Catalyst program has not yet been announced; but the Center for New Music (C4NM) has already committed to hosting its performance and live-streaming the event. The current plan is to include newly commissioned works by Elizabeth A. Baker (“stringDefinition” for speaking cellist) and Belinda Reynolds (“Moments”), as well as recent works by both of the Helia co-founders, Logan (“Desert Aesthetic”) and Barwick (“Counterbalance”). Raney is also planning to begin the program with Kaija Saariaho’s “Près,” scored to solo cello and live electronics. (If necessary, this article will be updated to reflect any changes in program content.)

As of this writing, C4NM has created an entry for this event on its Calendar Web page. The performance is scheduled to take place at 8 p.m. on Friday, September 4. This will not be a free event, but a hyperlink has been created for the advance purchase of tickets. [updated 8/3, 6:25 a.m.: Change in ticket prices: The fee will be a familiar one, $10 for general admission with a $5 rate for C4NM members and students.] Tickets will be available until 7:15 p.m. At 7:30 p.m. all ticket holders will be sent the private link for streaming the performance.