PROGRAM NOTE
Brave Chicken was a character developed by Nina Frenkel, gifted illustrator, graphic artist, and beloved friend to many, who passed away at the age of 43 having lost a difficult battle with cancer. Her parents, Marcel and Anne Frenkel, approached me in May 2017 about composing a short work in Nina’s memory, suggesting that it be based on four delightful panels that Nina had painted in 2014 before she knew of the recurrence of the disease.
Titled Brave Chicken Meets the Ogre, Brave Chicken Fights the Ogre, Brave Chicken Flees to Safety, and Brave Chicken in the Healing Hut, the four panels depict a progression from darkness to light. And while my composition does not attempt to follow the four panels literally, I did aim to create two distinctly different musical characters who are posed against one another with one clearly perceived as dominant and threatening, and trace the evolving change in the balance of power, and with it the journey from darkness to light.
Inspired by the knowledge that Nina herself greatly enjoyed playing the clarinet, I decided to pair bass clarinet with piccolo, eventually switching the piccolo over to flute, with clarinet appearing in time for the work’s peaceful conclusion. Though I had never met Nina, I felt honored to compose this work in her memory.
—Shulamit Ran
INFORMATION
Commissioned by the family of Nina Frenkel
First performance:
December 11, 2018
Mayslake Peabody Estate,
Oak Brook, IL
Jennie Oh Brown, piccolo and flute
Andrea R. DiOrio, bass clarinet and Bb clarinet
Duration: c. 6’
SHEET MUSIC
Available from your favorite sheet music seller, or directly from Theodore Presser.