Chamber Music by Viet Cuong

CHAMBER MUSIC RECITAL

Viet Cuong, guest composer Glenn Michael Adcock, oboe Robin Bisho, suspended cymbal Jenna Bosnick, oboe Kyle Bruckmann, English horn Matthew Kulm, suspended cymbal

Jonathan Latta, snare drum Sonia Leong, piano Robert McCarl, suspended cymbal Mallory Norman, suspended cymbal Brittany Trotter, flute

Wednesday, October 25, 2023 7:30 pm Recital Hall

17TH PERFORMANCE OF 2023–24 ACADEMIC YEAR

OC TOBER 25, 2023, 7:30 PM Viet Cuong (b. 1990)

Suite (2010) Little Tango Gymnopedie Triple Cadenza Toccata Jenna Bosnick ’24, oboe Glenn Michael Adcock ’24, oboe Kyle Bruckmann, English horn

Cymbalisms (2018) Matthew Kulm ’24, suspended cymbal Robin Bisho ’24, suspended cymbal Mallory Norman ’24, suspended cymbal Robert McCarl ’26, suspended cymbal

Six Canadian Scenes (2009) Mountains Mount Robson from the Northeast Mist Fantasy (2020) Glenn Michael Adcock ’24, oboe

Well-Groomed (2019) Jonathan Latta, snare drum

Lacquer and Grit (2013) Brittany Trotter, flute Sonia Leong, piano

View a digital version of this program at issuu.com/MusicatPacific.

PROGRAM NOTES Called “alluring” and “wildly inventive” by the New York Times, the music of American composer Viet Cuong has been performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Eighth Blackbird, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sō Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, Atlanta Symphony, Sandbox Percussion, Albany Symphony, PRISM Quartet, and Dallas Winds, among many others. Cuong’s music has been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center, and his works for wind ensemble have amassed several hundreds of performances worldwide. Passionate about bringing these different facets of the contemporary music community together, Cuong recently composed a concerto for Eighth Blackbird with the United States Navy Band. Cuong also enjoys exploring the unexpected and whimsical, and he is often drawn to projects where he can make peculiar combinations and sounds feel enchanting or oddly satisfying. His works thus include a snare drum solo, percussion quartet concerto, and double oboe concerto.

He is currently the California Symphony’s Young American Composer-inResidence and the Pacific Symphony’s composer-in-residence, and he serves as assistant professor of music composition at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Cuong holds degrees from Princeton University, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

Notes by the composer Suite Winner of a 2013 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award The four distinct movements of this suite strive to showcase the beauty and versatility of the oboe and English horn. Suite was composed for and premiered by Trio La Milpa in Columbia, Maryland, on May 16, 2010. Thank you so much to Katherine Needleman, Sandra Gerster, and Michael Lisicky for creating this amazing opportunity and experience.

Lacquer and Grit As a novice flute player, I have always loved sound of overblown harmonics.

Though overblown harmonics on the flute can sound natural and peculiarly dazzling, they require persistence and great skill to control. I find that many intriguing performances and experiences exhibit this duality; it’s fascinating when a performer transcends technical difficulty to make something appear

PROGRAM NOTES or sound effortless. They always say that behind every shiny trophy lies the work that earned it. Lacquer and Grit attempts to highlight this connection between the cosmetic and profound, and to prove that such traits are not mutually exclusive.

For example, I associate “lacquer” with many things: sheen, fluidity, flashiness, hair gel, nail polish, chrome on hot rods . . . in the most literal sense, lacquer is a nonessential layer slathered on to a surface to either enhance its beauty or to create beauty where it does not yet exist. I find “grit” to be somewhat paradoxical. You often hear about these revolutionary cleaning products powerful enough to “blast away grit and grime, dirt and dust.” In this case, grit is undesirable. On the other hand, we associate grit with positive personality traits, such as resilience, resolve, and heart. Maybe a compromise between these two opposing definitions is persistence— caked-on dirt is quite resilient after all. From the plethora of overblown flute harmonics to the bizarre G-natural that so badly wants to sound right, persistence fills this piece. Interestingly enough, fine-grit sandpaper is the last step in perfecting a lacquer finish.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES Oboist and electronic musician Kyle Bruckmann tramples genre boundaries in widely ranging work as a composer/performer, educator and New Music specialist. His creative output—extending from conservatory-trained foundations into gray areas encompassing free jazz, post-punk rock, and the noise underground—can be heard on more than one hundred recordings. Three decades of chameleonic gigging have found him performing in settings including the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Venice Biennale, 924 Gilman, Berghain, a 12-foot diameter bomb shelter, and dangling 30 feet in the air by a harness from a crane.

Bruckmann is assistant professor of practice and program director of Varied Ensembles at Pacific. He freelances throughout the greater Bay Area’s Euro-classical music scene while actively producing experimental solo and collaborative work within an international community of improvisers and sound artists. His current ensemble affiliations include Splinter Reeds, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Quinteto Latino, Eco Ensemble, sfSound, and the Stockton Symphony.

Jonathan Latta has been at University of the Pacific since 2014. During this time he has maintained an active performing career as a percussionist, having performed with the Stockton Symphony, Modesto Symphony, and Sacramento Philharmonic and serving as principal for the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra in Durango, Colorado. Prior to moving to California in 2014, Latta was director of percussion studies for six years at Fort Lewis College in Durango, teaching applied percussion, percussion ensemble, non-Western music, orchestration, and jazz. Jonathan was chair of the University Pedagogy Committee for the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) for six years and also was a member of the PAS Education Committee.

From 2002 to 2006, Latta was a member of the United States Air Force Band of the Golden West, performing in over three hundred performances on percussion/timpani for the Concert Band, drum set for the Commanders Jazz Ensemble, marching percussion for the Ceremonial Band, and drum

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES set for the Golden West Dixie Ramblers. Performances included the 2003 Tournament of Roses Parade, the 2004 Sacramento Jazz Jubilee and the interment of former President Ronald W. Reagan. He has performed as a chamber musician in the Durango Chamber Music Festival, the Animas Music Festival, and at the Percussive Arts Society International Conference.

In 2019, Dr. Latta performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall as a soloist with the University of the Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

These performances included the 2003 Tournament of Roses Parade, the 2004 Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, and the interment of former President Ronald W. Reagan. Latta has performed as a chamber musician in the Durango Chamber Music Festival, the Animas Music Festival, and at the Percussive Arts Society International Conference. In 2019 Latta performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall with the University of the Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

Sonia Leong, a founding member of University of the Pacific’s Trio 180, has performed as both a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Canada, and in Mexico, Hong Kong, Switzerland, England, and Romania. She has appeared with the Filarmonica de Stat Dinu Lipatti in Satu Mare (Romania), the St. John and Zion Chamber Orchestras in Stockton, the Banff Festival Orchestra, and the Stockton Symphony. She has also performed live on Radio Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland.

The St. Galler Tagblatt (Switzerland) wrote of Leong’s “richly colorful and tender playing,” saying “she balances intelligence and sensitivity, revealing the depths of each score.” The San Francisco Classical Voice described her “sensitive and accomplished touch” and wrote, “Leong . . . played the brilliant piano part effortlessly and with a great deal of flair.”

Leong studied at the University of British Columbia, the Peabody Institute, and the Université de Montréal, as well as at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) on a Commonwealth Scholarship, where she received a Concert Recital Diploma. Her principal teachers include Robert Silverman, Julian Martin, Alexander Volkov, and Marc Durand. She has participated in festivals at the Banff Centre; Orford, Quebec; Scotia Festival; Ladevie, France; and Ernen, Switzerland (with György Sebök).

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES Prizewinning flutist Brittany Trotter leads a diverse career as an educator, soloist, and collaborator.

She joined the faculty of University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music in the fall of 2021. Trotter previously served on the faculties of Dickinson College, West Virginia Wesleyan College, and Duquesne University. She is program chair of the Mid-Atlantic Flute convention, competition coordinator for the National Flute Association (NFA)’s Junior Soloist Competition (also serving on the development committee of the Umoja Flute Institute, NFA’s career and artistic development committee), and publicity chair for the Flute New Music Consortium.

Trotter has been awarded first prize in numerous national and regional competitions including the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition in woodwinds in the states of West Virginia (2017, 2016), Wyoming (2015, 2014), and Mississippi (2009). She has also competed as a semifinalist in the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Trotter has performed in the flute sections of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, and Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, among others. Equally versed in post-classical contemporary and experimental music as well as electroacoustic music and interdisciplinary works, she has performed and premiered new works with the Pittsburgh-based new music ensemble Alia Musica.

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Coming soon . . .

Oct. 28, 7:30 pm, Faye Spanos Concert Hall Pacific Wind Bands Vu Nguyen, conductor Viet Cuong, composer-in-residence Bích Vân, guest soprano Oct. 29, 2:30 pm, Faye Spanos Concert Hall Friends of Chamber Music: Tesla Quartet Nov. 3, 12:30 pm, Recital Hall Conservatory Concert Hour Nov. 6, 7:30 pm, Recital Hall Elise Blatchford, flute

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