In her new collaborative project cellist Stephanie Winters creates an original soundtrack of cello music that excerpts the Sarabande dance movement from each of the Six Cello Suites by J.S. Bach, and contextualizes these iconic solo-cello works with original compositions where she plays up to 59 cello parts, resulting in a magical and lush musical cello-choir soundscape. Working with collaborator and composer Chris Rosser, this new musical work aims to uplift and calm the soul of the listener. Stephanie performed her new work at Dedee Shattuck Gallery on Saturday May 28th. The film portion of her work will premiere in Fall of 2022 on Westport Now, the Westport Cultural Council’s online magazine.
Could you please give us a little background on your career as a cellist?
Stephanie Winters: My passion as a cellist is to reach diverse audiences and invite them to connect deep within themselves through the beauty and sonorous tones of the cello. I love performing because in a matter of minutes, the audience and I go from being a room full of strangers to having a shared experience.
I am a classically trained cellist but had a long career playing other kinds of music, primarily in the world of the singer-songwriter. Highlights include touring and recording with Woodstock legend Richie Havens and accompanying Ellie Goulding for her Saturday Night Live debut. My most memorable projects include Lincoln Center commissioning me in 2012 to co-write a historically accurate theatrical work called Titanic Tales, while in March 2020, the Bach Cello Suites Festival – which I conceived, produced and performed in – played to a sold-out house at Carnegie Hall. Most recently, I am focusing on crafting programs that help people shift towards calm so that they can better navigate these challenging times of rapid change.
I have trained as a trauma-informed coach and I now have a private practice working with high-level professionals and organizations to help people reach their goals with more energy, ease, and enjoyment. In December 2021, I won the CEO Award from the National Institutes of Health for my well-being programs for hospital workers and first responders dealing with the stresses of the pandemic. My passion is to use the performing arts to create calming experiences on a larger scale. The new project I am calling Bach to Calm is the culmination of my work in the arts, plus all of this training in health and wellbeing.
What made you choose the Bach Cello Suites as source material to work with, and how have you altered the original works?
SW: I chose the Cello Suites by J.S. Bach because of the shared consensus among cellists that it is the most wonderful music ever written for our instrument. Cellists play these suites when we are young and we continue to explore them our entire lives; there is always something new to discover in this deep and rich music. Three hundred years ago, Bach set the bar for solo cello writing and no composer has surpassed him.
Please tell us what a Sarabande is, and why you chose to extract the six of them from the Bach Cello Suites and only work with them?
SW: A Sarabande is a slow dance that forms the centerpiece of each suite, and is considered the heart and soul of the work. I like to call the Sarabandes the “philosophers’ dance”; although they feel reflective, they also have a distinct lilt to them. For years, I have liked to listen to the six Sarabandes side by side, as a way to rediscover them and explore their differences. Despite the fact there are hundreds of recordings of the suites, I wanted to do something original that nobody had heard before, and so here we are!
Can you describe to me what the “Reflections” are and what inspired them?
SW: The Reflections are a collection of original compositions Chris Rosser and I developed to contextualize, contrast and compliment the Sarabandes. The Reflections are created by layering up to 59 cello parts, all played by me. They were inspired by my desire to create a calm and almost mystical feeling from the music.
Early on in this project, the photographer Merri Cyr told me she was inspired by the movie Orpheus by Jean Cocteau. I loved how the characters in that film moved between two worlds: a relatively normal world dissolves, as the characters pass through a mirror into another, timeless world, where gravity works differently. The idea of moving between two worlds helped to inspire the structure of the Bach to Calm music, as the listener moves back and forth between the original Bach Sarabandes and the watery, undulating world of the musical Reflections.
Please describe how the video portion of this project will enhance the music?
SW: I imagine viewers will be drawn into a surrealistic world that allows their hearts and souls to travel to new and wonderful places.
Can you tell us what you presented at the Shattuck Gallery when you visited Westport?
SW: It was part live performance, and part discussion, along with a sneak preview of the recorded work. I enjoyed meeting and interacting with the people of Westport. I wish to thank the Westport Cultural Council and Dedee Shattuck Gallery for supporting this project, which was made possible in part by the Helen Ellis Trust, Bank of America, N.A. Trustee. Thank you!
An excerpt of the Soundtrack can be found at SoundCloud – Public Link to Bach to Calm Excerpt
For more info about what she’s up to, please click here to visit Stephanie’s website.
