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ABOUT DARK SKY SOLILOQUY.
op. 08 | STRING ORCHESTRA
And as the hosts spin round and round
the ethereal sound of the heavens is spun
the melody, in fourths and thirds
is given in ancient tempo
A few months before writing this piece, I had the opportunity this spring to visit my one and only childhood best friend, Jane, for the first time in 10 years. Jane and her mother Mary have both been tremendously influential in my artistic endeavors, and at the time they had something very special in common: they both studied the stars; Mary as a brilliant astrologer and Jane as an NYU Gallatin School astronomy student. This piece is both dedicated to their influence and inspired by their shared fascination with our universe. This piece was aptly written over four consecutive late spring evenings in my childhood bedroom with the windows open, letting in the eerie voices of the highway close by. I grew up listening to that night choir of the highway, hearing its melodies and eagerly absorbing its unearthly harmonies, many of which have been incorporated into this piece
KRISTO KONDAKCI, CONDUCTOR
Kristo Kondakçi occupies a unique platform as a conductor, creative entrepreneur, and speaker. He made his professional conducting debut with the Albanian National Orchestra in fall 2014 and his opera debut with the Vienna Summer Music Festival Opera in summer 2018.
Based in Boston, MA (USA), Kristo is the music director of the Kendall Square Orchestra, the Narragansett Bay Symphony, and Eureka Ensemble and has distinguished himself as a talented young conductor of symphonic and operatic repertoire. His January 2020 appearances with Boston’s Enigma Chamber Opera, featuring sold-out performances of Benjamin Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw”, received critical acclaim from the Boston Globe, stating that “Kondakçi commanded a keen chamber orchestra and deftly balanced its dynamics with the singers.”
The first conductor to be officially hired by a biotech company, Kristo helped form the Kendall Square Orchestra (K²O) in 2018 with cofounders Elena Spencer and Kelly Clark, building a roster of over 70 musicians representing 50+ companies. In 2019, Kristo conducted K²O’s inaugural Symphony for Science at Boston’s Symphony Hall, featuring Boston Symphony Musicians Michael Wayne, Richard Ranti, Jason Snider, and Keith Lockhart on piano. Since its founding, K²O has raised over $100k to benefit local charities.
Kristo launched Eureka Ensemble in 2017 with cofounder and cellist Alan Toda–Ambaras to nurture social impact through music, partnering with artists such as violist Kim Kashkashian and violinist Midori. Through community intensive programming and performances, such as The Women’s Chorus (2018) and Boston Hope Music (2020), Eureka’s work has been praised by the Boston Globe, PBS, NPR, among others, and a NowThis News video of The Women’s Chorus has been viewed by millions on facebook and twitter.
As a teacher, Kristo served as interim director of orchestral studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2019). He has also made a significant contribution to Mahler research through his reconstruction of the original version of Mahler's 1st Symphony (2012). He currently teaches young conductors in a private studio and coaches chamber music at Harvard University as a non-resident music tutor with Pforzheimer House.
As a speaker and leadership coach, Kristo has worked with corporate and executive leaders from around the globe on leadership development in collaboration with Kendall Square Orchestra. He has given a TEDxBoston talk on the power of classical music to enact social change (2018), presented on the role of the orchestra and community at the national conference of the League of American Orchestras (2019), and makes regular appearances at schools, companies, and other institutions. Kondakçi serves on the TEDxYouth@BeaconStreet Advisory Board, where he coaches young speakers in preparation for their TED talks. He also sits on the Arts Advisory Council for BioMed Realty’s 585 Third Street complex in Cambridge.
Kristo currently resides in Boston, MA with his fiancé, Chloe, and cat, Alma, and spends his free time gardening, hiking, and reading.
narragansett bay symphony
NaBSCO was founded as the Rhode Island Philharmonic Community Orchestra (RIPCO) in 2006. Our founding Music Director, John Eells, worked with interested Providence-area musicians and gained support from the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School to create an all-volunteer orchestra for adults who love to play symphonic music at a high level of musicianship.
In 2013, as John prepared to move to California, we began our transition to an independent nonprofit organization with our new name, Narragansett Bay Symphony Community Orchestra.
Many of our members—including some of our Board members—have been with us since RIPCO’s premiere performance, while others are in their first season with us. NaBSCO members include professional freelance musicians and others who work in a variety of fields. We live in almost every town and city in Rhode Island (as well as several of our MA and CT neighbors). Our current Music Director, Kristo Kondakçi, formally joined our team in June 2020.
STEPHANIE ANN BOYD, COMPOSER
Michigan-born, Manhattan-based American composer Stephanie Ann Boyd (b. 1990) writes melodic music about women’s memoirs and the natural world for symphonic and chamber ensembles. Her work has been performed in nearly all 50 states and has been commissioned by musicians and organizations in 37 countries. Boyd’s five ballets include works choreographed by New York City Ballet principal dancers Lauren Lovette, Ashley Bouder, NYCB soloist Peter Walker, and XAOC Contemporary Ballet’s Eryn Renee Young. Eero, a ballet commissioned by Access Contemporary Music and Open House New York, was written for the grand opening of the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport. Her music has been praised as “attractive lyricism” (Gramophone), “[with] ethereal dissonances” (Boston Globe), “[music that] didn’t let itself be eclipsed” (Texas Classical Review), “arrestingly poetic” (BMOP), and “wide ranging, imaginative” (Portland Press Herald).
Boyd’s music has been commissioned and performed by concertmasters of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony, the Faroe Islands Symphony, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Smith Symphony, the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, and principal players in the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Her music has been commissioned and/or played by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the New England Conservatory Philharmonic, the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, the New York Jazzharmonic, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, the Roosevelt University Orchestra, the Eureka Ensemble, the JVL Festival Orchestra, the Texas State University Symphony, the Cremona International Academy Orchestra, the UW La Crosse Symphony, the Detroit Civic Orchestra, and the El Paso Youth Symphony. Her work has been presented by the Thalia and her Sisters concert series, the Moirae Ensemble, and Sandcastle New Music in New York City; Æpex Contemporary Music in Michigan; Juventas New Music, Collage New Music, and the New Gallery Concert Series in Boston; Cincinnati Soundbox, and others. Stephanie has worked with conductors such as Andrew Litton, Lina Gonzales, Earl Lee, Nathan Aspinall, Cliff Colnot, Gill Rose, Julian Benichou, Kristo Kondakci, and Kevin Fitzgerald.
The 2020/2021 season includes commissions from the Wyoming Symphony, Astral Artists with cellist Tommy Mesa, violinist Megan Healy, pianists Lara Downes, Lise de la Salle, Marta Aznavoorian, Lucille Chung, Susie Maddocks, Adrienne Park, Diane Kaztenburg Braun and Music Street, Sarah Bob and the New Gallery Concert Series, Holly Roadfeldt, Marianne Parker, Eunbi Kim, the Kurganov-Finehouse Duo, and others. This season also includes performances by the Lincoln Trio, Juventas New Music, Jennifer Reason, Lisa Pegher, Shouthouse, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, including concerts at the Kaufman Center, the Boston New Music Festival, the Festival of New American Music, Pianoforte in Chicago, live on Chicago’s WFMT radio station, and elsewhere.
Stephanie holds degrees from Roosevelt University and New England Conservatory, and she was one of the last violin students of renowned pedagogue John Kendall.