Percussion Ensemble Concert 11/16/21

UOPercussion Ensemble Tuesday, November 16, 2021 7:30 p.m.

Faye Spanos Concert Hall

Director: Michael Downing

20TH PERFORMANCE OF 2021-22 ACADEMIC YEAR

CO N CER T P ROG R A M , N OV EM B ER 1 6 , 2 0 2 1 , 7 : 3 0 P M North of Nysa (2013) 1. Water

2. Flora

3. Celestial

4. Underworld

5. Land Vertical River (2003)

Blake Tyson (b. 1969)

Agape (2000)

Sabrina Pena Young (b. 1977)

Troy (2014)

Vous aves du feu? (2001)

Gary D. Smith (b. 1983)

Cecilia Livingston (b. 1984)

Emmanuel Séjourné (b. 1961)

Jazz on Saturn (2018)

Casey Cangelosi (b. 1982)

P ER F OR M ER S A N D CON DU C TO R B I O

UOPercussion

Robin Bisho Huey Chan Leonard Cox Daniel Harrison Jonathan Herbers

Mallory Norman Samantha Sanchez Ravyn Stanford Emily Winsatt

Michael Downing is section percussionist with the Sacramento Philharmonic and the Stockton Symphony, as well as the founder of Orphic Percussion Quartet. He is Visiting Lecturer of Percussion at University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. An active freelance musician, Michael has performed with virtually every orchestra in Central California. In 2012, as a member of the California Chapter of PAS, Michael was instrumental in re-establishing the competitive festival and solo competition which had not been held in California for nearly 30 years.

Michael has performed as a soloist with both the Phoenix Symphony and the Stockton Symphony performing Uzu and Muzu from Kakaruzu. The double percussion concerto written by Avner Dorman was premiered by Michael and fellow percussionist Graham Thompson in 2012. He has also been a soloist with several other orchestras performing the third movement of Eric Ewazen’s Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra, most recently presenting the exciting finale for the prestigious Music al Parcs concert series in Barcelona, Spain. He has been featured as the vibraphone soloist for John Williams’ Escapades with both the Adrian Symphony and Sequoia Symphony.

P ROGR A M N OT E S North of Nysa In Greek mythology, Nysa is the mountainous home of a majority of the numerous nymph deities. The piece is built around the five types of nymphs: water, plant, celestial, underworld, and land. Each type of nymph is responsible for bringing life to the objects of the given world, in turn creating a sound-scape represented by the music of each movement.

Untouched by absolutes, much like objects in different worlds, the piece demonstrates the influence each world has on each other through instrument selection, rhythmic motive, and stylistic characteristics.

Vertical River Vertical River by Blake Tyson is written for Vibraphone and Marimba duet.

It was inspired by Tyson’s rafting adventure with John Parks on the Boise River. This piece depicts the beauty, excitement, and occasional feeling of UPCOMING CONSERVATORY EVENTS losing control that they experienced in the raft that day.

“I wrote this piece on a commission from John Parks. The piece is a reflection of the great times that John and I had a few years ago rafting down the Boise River. John and I premiered it at Florida State University in the Fall of 2003. We recorded it for John’s CD, Dusk: Percussion Music from the Heartland.”

Agape This work was composed for the University of South Florida Marimba Quartet and premiered at the Tampa Contemporary Music Festival in 2000. Agape is a marimba quartet meant to sonically represent the Passion week, complete with crucifixion and resurrection. The work uses extended techniques for marimba, and optionally requires one five octave marimba.

P ROGR A M N OT E S Troy I wrote Troy during my residency as a Fellow at Bang on a Can’s 2014 Summer Music Festival. Four of BOAC’s ready-for-anything percussionists let me explore my growing love of the vibraphone, my interest in its dramatic possibilities, and my fascination with the physical demands of playing one.

Vibraphone performance involves so much of the body (three of the four limbs of a standing player) and I wanted to explore that too: could the performers’ bodies be as dramatic as the instruments’ sound?

Troy responds to Teresita Fernandez’ lustrous gold-and-black abstract landscapes and to Anselm Kiefer’s paintings of war, with their many references to ancient Greece. The shining, shimmering, seductive sound of the vibraphone, with its metallic brilliancy, can pierce the ears as light reflected from armor dazzles the eyes. In the opening the vibraphones are relentlessly aggressive, revealing themselves to be, at heart, pieces of metal. The players’ bodies join in the threatening theatre of the piece, as they stamp their feet and slap their mallet sticks together in troop-like unison.

Complex feelings and images surround war: aggression, fear, adrenalized bravura, the still tension of waiting for attack and to attack, the horizon of the battlefield, mourning, grief, loss, hope, tenderness, and despair. Troy has several large sections, each focusing on some different play of these ideas; at the end the music simply passes by and disappears into the distance, like every army into history.

Vous aver de feu?

Written by Emmanuel Séjourné, this is a piece written for four performers with very unorthodox instruments: lighters! Throughout the piece each player will create different effects with their lighters, all in an interesting rhythm.

Jazz on Saturn Prolific composer Casey Cangelosi doesn’t disappoint with this high energy work for percussion quintet. The primary motive can be heard in various iterations throughout the work, thus creating a binding rhythmic center to bring us back from some of the more distinct departures. Always one to add a little flair, Cangelosi finishes the piece with a bang; both musically and visually!

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UPCOMING CONSERVATORY EVENTS Nov. 19 | 1:00pm Conservatory Concert Hour Recital Hall

Nov. 22 | 7:30pm Pacific Chamber Music Recital Recital Hall

Nov. 21 | 2:00pm Mahler at Pacific Faye Spanos Concert Hall

Nov. 29 | 7:30pm Pacific Chamber Music Recital Recital Hall

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