World Premiere: Ari Picker (of Lost in the Trees)
Lion and the Lamb

Friday, March 27, 2015 | 8:00 pm

Nelson Music Room

Ari Picker is best known as the front man for the acclaimed orchestral indie rock band Lost in the Trees, but the Chapel Hill native also distinguished himself studying composition at Berklee School of Music. The Huffington Post enthused, “Ari Picker has Nick Drake speaking to him in one ear and Handel whispering in the other.” For Lion and the Lamb, a Duke Performances commission, Picker assembles a superb local ensemble of both indie rock and classical musicians for a new work inspired by Book of Hours, Rainer Maria Rilke’s early masterpiece of devotional poetry.

Lion and the Lamb finds Picker expanding his compositional palette, drawing new inspiration from minimalism and jazz improvisation, while maintaining his knack for writing “extraordinary arrangements for strings and choral voices [that] find no precedent in rock and pop” (Wall Street Journal). For the world premiere of this piece — which will be performed in the round at the Nelson Music Room — Picker is joined by vocalists Skylar Gudasz and Phil Moore (Bowerbirds), saxophonist Matthew Douglas (Hiss Golden Messenger), percussionist Peter Lewis (Lost in the Trees), pianist Jesse Kapsha, and the New Music Raleigh String Quartet.

LION AND THE LAMB ENSEMBLE
Ari Picker — composer, bass
Phil Moore — lead vocals, opener
Skylar Gudasz — lead vocals
Matthew Douglas — saxophone
Peter Lewis — drums
Jesse Kapsha — piano
Michael Hrivnak — french horn

New Music Raleigh String Quartet
Karen Galvin — violin
Maria Evola Meyer — violin
Sam Gold — viola
David Meyer — cello