This week’s Classical Californian is conductor Nicole Paiement, the Founder and Artistic Director of the Bay Area’s Opera Parallèle, which spotlights brand-new and lesser-known works. In addition to premiering operas, they have also been responsible for creating chamber versions of new works (like John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby and Terence Blanchard’s Champion) that allow the pieces to reach a wider audience. Paiement is also Principal Guest Conductor at the Dallas Opera, where she’s a mentor at the Hart Institute for Women Conductors.

She’s selected a symphonic and jazz hybrid piece by Terence Blanchard inspired by Hurricane Katrina; a raucous work for organ and percussion by Lou Harrison; the haunting finale of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites; a meditative choral work by Joby Talbot; and an art song by Benjamin Britten that perfectly tells a story in 3 minutes.

She begins with a work about Hurricane Katrina by Terence Blanchard that brings jazz and symphonic styles together. Click the play button to hear her introduction!

Then it’s some raucous music by Lou Harrison, the finale of his Organ Concerto…

For the harrowing and haunting finale of the opera Dialogues of the Carmelites, Francis Poulenc recreates the sound of the falling blade of the guillotine as the nuns who refuse to renounce their faith are executed by France’s Reign of Terror.

British composer Joby Talbot wrote the meditative Path Of Miracles, a choral work inspired by the pilgrimage in Spain known as the Camino Santiago – the faithful walk from one holy site to another…

Her last selection is a perfect ‘mini-opera’ art song by Benjamin Britten: “The Choirmaster’s Burial” from Winter Words:

And some closing thoughts…