“simply magical”

Fanfare Magazine

“dramatic and deeply moving”

Star Tribune, Minneapolis/St. Paul

Jocelyn Hagen: The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

The Charlotte Master Chorale Chamber Singers present Art and Science, a meeting at the intersection of creativity and design anchored by the North Carolina premiere of Jocelyn Hagen’s multimedia symphony,The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, which utilizes the latest in video syncing technology to bring Leonardo’s words and drawings to life.

Because da Vinci’s intricate handwriting and sketches are stunningly beautiful, it would be odd not to include them as a visual component to this project. As a writer, da Vinci wrote from right to left, backwards, as if in a mirror. These beautifully scribed words scroll above the musicians and add a wonderful texture to the performance. Many sketches in the notebooks are of the human form, corresponding perfectly to his observations on the proportions of the body. 

Art & Science

Leonardo Dreams of a Flying Machine
Music by Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)
Text by Charles Anthony Silvestri (b. 1965)

Michelangelo’s On Beauty
Kurt Knecht (b. 1971)
Text by Michelangelo di Ludovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564)

A Silence Haunts Me
Jake Runestad (b. 1986)
after Beethoven’s Heiligenstadt Testament by Todd Boss (b. 1968)

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (North Carolina Premiere)
Jocelyn Hagen (b. 1980)
The libretto was crafted by Jocelyn Hagen using various public domain English translations from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook pages.

About the Composer

Jocelyn Hagen composes music that has been described as “simply magical” (Fanfare Magazine) and “dramatic and deeply moving” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis/St. Paul). She is a pioneer in the field of composition, pushing the expectations of musicians and audiences with large-scale multimedia works, electro-acoustic music, dance, opera, and publishing. Her first forays into composition were via songwriting, still very evident in her work. The majority of her compositions are for the voice: solo, chamber and choral. Her melodic music is rhythmically driven and texturally complex, rich in color and deeply heartfelt. In 2019 and 2020, choirs and orchestras across the country premiered her multimedia symphony The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci that includes video projections created by a team of visual artists, highlighting da Vinci’s spectacular drawings, inventions, and texts. Hagen describes her process of composing for choir, orchestra and film simultaneously in a Tedx Talk given at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, now available on YouTube. Hagen’s commissions include Conspirare, the Minnesota Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, Voces8, the International Federation of Choral Music, the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota, Georgia, Connecticut and Texas, the North Dakota Music Teachers Association, Cantus, the Boston Brass, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the St. Olaf Band, among many others. Her work is independently published through JH Music, as well as through Graphite Publishing, G. Schirmer, EC Schirmer, Fred Bock Music Publishing, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and Boosey and Hawkes.