Interestingly, the work that tried to please the least was the most compelling. Hayes Biggs’ piece Ave Formosissima harkens back to the dance-mad, melismatic and slightly raucous music of the Middle Ages. But the score, with its zig-zagging lines and pungent dissonances, is genuinely contemporary.”

—New York Times

A Consuming Fire, a short, zesty trio by Hayes Biggs, led off the evening. The piece is framed by some engagingly angular rhythmic writing, with a lyrical nougat at the center.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

[The] most convincing and coherent performance [was] Hayes Biggs’ homage to his composer/pianist colleague Eric Moe, E.M. am Flügel, a short piece with romantic gestures and echoes of Berg and Stravinsky.”

—Aufbau

The Mass for All Saints would be an exciting challenge for those choirs skilled in precise intonation and rhythmic agility. Biggs writes with knowledge of and respect for the expressive capabilities of the human voice.”

—Choral Journal

Hayes Biggs’s wedding motet Tota Pulchra Es, here being sung for the first time, impressed by its quiet solemnity and neat working of its expressive opening motif: not empty fanfares but a reminder of the seriousness and privacy of love.”

—New York Times

Mass for All Saints by composer Hayes Biggs releases shadows transformed into tendrils of light by the arabesque of the vocal line. Contrapuntal procedures are used to their utmost expressive effect. [It] is a work of a melodist of talent in the manner of Puccini, or better yet, Respighi.”

—La Liberté

The Biggs song, Northeast Reservation Lines, is a real party piece... the sneakiness of the changes, the liveliness of the music and the verve of the performance worked handily... a potential recital hit in the vein of Bernstein’s I Hate Music cycle.”

—The Village Voice

All the works tried a return to tonality typical of the decade; the most successful made the return oblique and ambiguous. Hayes Biggs’ O Sacrum Convivium took off from the motet of Tallis, yet it handsomely reconfigured early modes in a modernistic scheme of free tonality.”

—New York Times

Hayes Biggs’ To Becalme His Fever... is a vivid evocation of anxiety, fits and repose. The language embraces pointillistic colors, romantic lines and prickly episodes when the demons hover. Biggs claims a forceful and subtle dramatic hand, along with a keen command of instrumental resources.”

—The Plain Dealer

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Concerts

Upcoming

 

October 24, 2015

“Be Thou My Vision” (Slane) and  “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” (Melita), from Three Hymn Tune Preludes (2010)

 

 

Walter Hilse, Organ

 

This will be organist Walter Hilse’s twenty-third consecutive annual recital as part of the Bach at St. Peter’s series. The program will also include Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D Major, Trio Sonata III in D Minor, and three chorales from the Orgelbüchlein, as well as one of William Bolcom’s gospel preludes, “Just as I Am.”

Saturday, October 24, 2015 at 3:00 PM

St. Peter’s Church
Lexington Avenue at East 54th Street, New York, NY

Information: walterhilse.com

 

 

 

 Past

 

March 5 and 7, 2015

Goe lovely Rose (2014)

 

C4 (The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective)

 

The official premiere performances of my Goe lovely Rose, composed for C4, along with premieres by Bora Park and C4 Commissioning Competition Winners Carlo Vincetti Frizzo, Texu Kim and Gordon Williamson, and music by Matthew Brown, Harry Einhorn, Ian David Moss, Malina Rauschenfels, and Joseph N. Rubinstein.

Thursday, March 5, 2015 at 8:00 PM

Church of the Transfiguration
1 East 29th Street (between 5th and Madison Avenues), New York, NY

Saturday, March 7, 2015 at 7:30 PM (PLEASE NOTE THE TIME!)

Leonard Nimoy Thalia, Symphony Space
2537 Broadway (entrance on West 95th Street), New York, NY

Information: c4ensemble.org

 

March 4, 2015

Inquieto (attraverso il rumore) (2015)

 

Rolf Schulte, violin, Stephen Gosling, piano

 

World premiere performance of Inquieto (attraverso il rumore) on a tribute concert in honor of Rolf Schulte presented by APNM (Association for the Promotion of New Music), along with works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Fred Lerdahl and John Peel.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 8:00 PM

Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center
129 West 67th Street, New York, NY

Information: (212) 501-3330

 

March 1, 2015

Goe lovely Rose (2014)

 

C4 (The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective)

 

Part of a joint concert by C4 and The Cecilia Chorus of New York (Mark Shapiro, Music Director), along with works by Matthew Brown, Harry Einhorn, Ian David Moss, Bora Park and Joseph N. Rubinstein.

Sunday, March 1, 2015 at 3:00 PM

The Church of the Holy Trinity
316 East 88th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues), New York, NY

Information: c4ensemble.org

 

May 29 & 31, 2014

Wedding Motet: Tota pulchra es/Set me as a seal upon thine heart (1998)

 

C4 (The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective)

 

Two performances of my work, along with music by Eric Banks, Abbie Betinis, Elizabeth Hanna, David Hurd, Ian David Moss, Bruce Saylor, Fahad Siadat, Steven Stucky, Thomas Stumpf, and Perry Townsend.

Thursday, May 29, 2014 at 8:00 PM

Engleman Recital Hall/Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Hudson Lexington Avenue (enter on East 25th Street, between Lexington and 3rd Avenues), New York, NY

Saturday, May 31, 2014 at 8:00 PM

Church of St. Luke in the Fields
487 Hudson Street (south of Christopher Street), New York, NY

 

January 18, 2014

Prelude & Freund’s Fuguing Tune in E (Noch einmal nach Bach) (2012) (World Premiere)

 

Don Freund, piano

 

Featuring the first performance of Hayes Biggs’s Prelude and Freund’s Fuguing Tune in E (Noch einmal nach Bach), along with the last eight Preludes and Fugues from Book II of J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

Saturday, January 18, 2014 at 8:00 PM

Auer Hall, Simon Music Center, Indiana University
200 Jordan Avenue, Bloomington, IN

 

December 8, 2013

The Trill Is Gone (2013)

 

Andrew Steinberg, Saxophone

 

Manhattan School of Music MM Recital

 

Featuring Hayes Biggs’s The Trill Is Gone, for Tenor Saxophone solo, along with works by Edison Denisov, Paul Hindemith, Karel Husa, Zdenek Lukas and Karel Reiner.

Sunday, December 8, 2013 at 1:00 PM
Mikowsky Hall, Manhattan School of Music
120 Claremont Avenue, New York, NY

Admission to this event is free.

 

June 11, 2013

The Caged Skylark (2011)

 

C4 (The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective) CD Release Event (Concert and Party)

 

Presented by St. Peter’s Church Classical Music Series

Featuring music from our upcoming debut studio album: C4, Volume 1: Uncaged (4Tay Records, CD 4038), including The Caged Skylark, by Hayes Biggs, music by Jonathan David, Ted Hearne, Huang Ruo, Karen Siegel and Toby Twining. Other music from this season will also be heard, including Christian Carey’s My Kiss is a Journey, as well as additional works by C4 composers. A party will follow the performance and everyone in attendance will receive a free copy of the CD.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013 at 8:00 PM
St. Peter’s Church
619 Lexington Avenue (at 54th Street)

 

June 9, 2013

The Caged Skylark (2011)

 

C4 (The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective) Sigma Alpha Iota, Annual Benefit Concert

 

Presented by Sigma Alpha Iota

On this program C4 will feature music by women composers, among them C4’s own Karen Siegel and Bettina Sheppard, as well as other current C4 repertory conducted by women of the ensemble, including Hayes Biggs’s The Caged Skylark, led by Hannah Carr.

All proceeds go to SAI Philanthropies and local charities.

Sunday, June 9, 2013 at 4:00 PM
Church For All Nations
417 W. 57th Street (west of 9th Avenue)

 

April 12, 2013

The Trill is Gone (2013) (World Premiere)

 

Amphibian Performance Series
Aaron Stewart, saxophones

 

Featuring the first performance of Hayes Biggs’s The Trill Is Gone(2013), for solo tenor saxophone, along with works by Luciano Berio, Matthew Greenbaum, Melissa Pausina, Stewart Ryerse, and  Joelle Shefts.

Friday at 8:00 PM
Hi Art! Gallery
227 West 29th Street, New York, NY, 4th Floor
ADMISSION: $15/$10

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