THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
EChO
Electric Chamber Orchestra
Eren Gümrükçüoğlu, Director
with special guest
Evan Jones, Cello
Friday, November 14, 2025 7:30 p.m. | Lindsay Recital Hall
PROGRAM
Cyclone (2013) – for clarinet and digital signal processing
Kuan-Yu Yang, clarinet
Shadow Play (2019) – for trombone and fixed media
Ian Schwalbe, trombone
Doppelgänger Streets (2021) – for violin and fixed media
Emelia Ulrich, violin
Nabla (2019) – for violin, clarinet, trombone, piano and electronics
Emelia Ulrich, violin; Kuan-Yu Yang, clarinet
Ian Schwalbe, trombone; Daniel Farias, piano
Rebound (2020) – for metal box, cardboard box and electronics
Kuan-Yu Yang, metal box; Raúl Parra, cardboard box
Binary Data IV (2022) – for piano and real-time delays
Ian Schwalbe, piano
Rand Steiger (b. 1957)
Gregory Youtz (b. 1956)
Bobby Ge (b. 1996)
Gustavo Díaz-Jerez (b. 1970)
Merve Erez (b. 1986)
Alfonso Peduto (b. 1987)
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
Passacaglia (2025) – for cello and fixed media
— World Premiere — Evan Jones, cello
Manuel Torralba Quevedo (b. 2001)
Eternal Chandelier (2023) – for flute, piano, fixed electronics (ft. vocaloid and video) Delyth Maiya Field (b. 2001)
Raúl Parra, flute
Daniel Farias, piano
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
Steiger: Cyclone
Around the time I began this piece, two tornadoes touched down in Brooklyn (not far from ICE headquarters). Having grown up in nearby Queens, I was struck by the almost comic novelty of a tornado in Brooklyn and momentarily seized with the sense of excitement that dramatic weather can induce before its real danger becomes apparent. I envisioned the electronics in this piece sweeping up and spinning the musical material the clarinetist plays, just as a tornado sweeps up and churns out everything in its path. Later, as I contemplated using Cyclone as a title, I realized that it would carry a different—and equally specific—meaning to Brooklyn residents, for whom the huge roller coaster at Coney Island is a looming and iconic presence. In the end, the title refers to both cyclones, which gives some clue as to what to expect from the signal processing.
Youtz: Shadow Play
In Shadow Play, the trombone is placed in a meditative context, quietly drifting in thought surrounded with bells in a kind of dream state. As the bells become deeper, it follows them down into lower registers. The bells become darker, less pitch-oriented, more metallic and the trombone becomes more chromatic and agitated. The title is a loose reference to Indonesian shadow puppet theater and sounds of gamelan instruments can be heard in the middle sections of the piece. I like the idea of the shadow puppet theater allowing the viewer to see both the shadow side (all black and white) as well as the colorful puppet master’s side. The shadow play thus seems to ask the question: which side of the theater (and thus life) is real?
The pitches of the aggregate are divided into three pitch sets: the first is based on the higher partials of the trombone’s natural Bb series: Ab, Bb, C, D, F; the second is a set based on E or C#: G, B, C#, E, F#; The final two pitches form a tritone: A-Eb.
The melody line alternates back and forth between these pitch sets, and the bells freely explore these with the trombone. The marimba sometimes imitates the trombone- the closet real interplay between it and the bells. Later in the piece, these three sets begin to overlap with each other, creating more dissonant collections and more chromatic melodies. In the end, the original Bb-based pitch set re-establishes itself for closure.
Ge: Doppelgänger Streets
Cities can mean vastly different things for different people. Glimmering masses of glass, steel, and concrete, such urban centers often see some of the world’s richest occupying the same spaces as the poorest. For some, city streets might represent glamor, thrill, and culture; for others, they are a grim and unforgiving purgatory. I would always feel a touch of the surreal as I took walks through the various metropolitan centers I had lived in, passing soiled back alleys near gaudy concert halls, parched soup kitchens set against ostentatious skyscrapers. Somehow, it felt as though these worlds should not be able to coincide.
Doppelgänger Streets draws its inspiration from China Miéville’s smoky noir, The City and the City. Ostensibly a murder mystery, the novel explores a peculiar world in which two different cities quite literally occupy the same physical space, unable (or perhaps unwilling) to perceive one another. The idiosyncratic setting and intoxicating prose left a strong impression, stylishly evoking the paradoxical dualities of urban environments.
To explore these themes, I wanted violin and electronics to feel dimly related yet foreign to one another, occasionally intertwining with analogous gestures. The violin plays searchingly through chiaroscuro soundscapes, drifting in and out of focus as it explores fragments of a melody. Halfway through the piece, crackling glitches begin to break up the sound, suggesting sights of things that should have remained unseen. Eventually, the violin manages to realize its ruminative melody, bringing a touch of warmth to a world otherwise coldly aloof.
This piece would not have been possible without the dedication of Dr. Wendy Case, whose humor, kindness, and enthusiasm made her a wonderful collaborator to work with.
Díaz-Jerez: Nabla
The word Nabla (“Phoenician harp”) derives from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Nebel, a stringed instrument used by the ancient Hebrew people. It is also the origin of the mathematical symbol ∇, used extensively in vector calculus and differential geometry. My composition creates a connection between these two universes, drawing musical material and inspiration from mathematical sources. In addition, the Nabla symbol is also used to represent indeterminacy in philosophical logic. This indeterminacy, I believe, is also an inherent part of the artistic creative process.
Erez: Rebound
What is bouncing inside these isolated rooms? Same,
The same-old thing, or something new within the emptiness of that alien space!
Peduto: Binary Data IV
Binary Data is a collection of works written with a specific aim. The music for each piece is completely determined by the following two sets of ‘data’:
(1) a piano part and (2) one or more chosen specified time-displacements: delays.
The overall musical work is then the result of the notated music together with a superimposed copy (or copies) of the same material, time-delayed by the specified amount(s) - a sort of canonic writing.
Torralba: Passacaglia
Although historical tradition states that a passacaglia must have variations on the bass, the cornerstone of this piece is the trill. It ranges from a clear statement at the beginning to a more subtle, wide “quasi tremolo” with harmonics and natural notes. The cello solo creates liminal spaces and shapes, while the electronics use the cello’s resonant residue to complement the texture.
Field: Eternal Chandelier
Eternal Chandelier is an audio-visual piece that reflect on augmented reality and the bridge between online world and real life. The title comes from Yayoi Kusama’s installation “Chandelier of Grief,” a hexagonal room filled with mirrors giving an illusion of a never-ending space. This piece attempts to capture the boundless space of cyber communication and technology present in our lives. Artificial sounds (virtual computer-generated singer and electronic backing track) are fused with live musicians.