We are pleased to share that Melinda Wagner was awarded the Prince Pierre de Monaco Coup de Coeur des Jeunes Mélomanes Prize for her composition Limbic Fragments, which was commissioned, workshopped, and premiered by the Grossman Ensemble in March 2024.
Augusta Read Thomas, the Ensemble’s Founder and Director said, “Bravo tutti! The always dimensional, virtuosic, and stylish performances by the Grossman Ensemble are inspiring. Melinda’s Limbic Fragments is an energized, beautifully heard and crafted series of alluring unfoldings and outgrowths that illuminate her personal, nuanced musical materials.”
Melinda Wagner said, “I am deeply honored to announce that I have been awarded the Prince Pierre de Monaco Coup de Coeur des Jeunes Mélomanes Prize for the composition of Limbic Fragments, a piece commissioned by, and dedicated to, the Grossman Ensemble at the University of Chicago. I am immeasurably grateful to Augusta Read Thomas, to the members of this fine ensemble, and to composer David Dzubay, who conducted its premiere."
Learn more about Limbic Fragments in our 2024 interview with the composer, and listen to the piece below.
PROGRAM NOTE
The limbic system is an immensely elegant and sophisticated network of interconnected brain structures that regulate certain features of human behavior, emotions, motivation, and arousal— as well as the formation and storage of memory.
I am intrigued by the notion that episodic memories, when connected to strong emotions, become eligible for long-term storage in the brain, while other less “important” memories tend to fall victim to routine neurological “housekeeping.” I have come to believe that stored ideas are very much alive, and continue to evolve, independent of us, even while we are performing mundane tasks—or sleeping. This miracle is an essential part of the creative process: composers in particular must remember not only the sounds around them, but also their own incipient, evolving ideas—while creating a new piece.
Limbic Fragments seemed an apt title for a work that involves a series of energetic, yet largely inconclusive episodes, whose “loose ends,” I hope, serve to increase the momentum of the music from one section to the next—similar, perhaps, to the way memories sometimes come at us, cascading and tumbling over each other, fast and furious.
– Melinda Wagner