World Premiere

Sisters of the Garden

A Portrait of the Mendelssohn and Boulanger Sisters

Written and Conceived by Harry Clark
with music by Mendelssohn and Boulanger

Sisters of the Garden is an exploration of the bonds between two pairs of sisters from remarkable musical families: Fanny & Rebekka Mendelssohn, and Nadia & Lili Boulanger.  Using historical documents, letters, memoirs and personal recollections, words and music are woven together to create a portrait of the people who created some of our most beloved music.  Sisters of the Garden shows us the four sisters at different times in their lives – Fanny at age 41 in Berlin; Lili at age 24 in Paris; Rebekka at age 36 in Berlin; and, Nadia at age 92 in Paris. The Boulangers’ and Mendelssohns’ lives never intersected— they were separated by time and place. The connective thread is neither Berlin nor Paris, but Rome’s Villa Medici, and the strongest ties are the gorgeous works for piano, voice and cello by Fanny, Lili and Nadia.