Composition Honors Recital 2.7.24

Belmont University School of Music presents

New Music Double Bill Composition Honors Recital & Hultgren-Mears

Belmont University School of Music

Composition Honors Recital As the Leaves Fall (2023)

Dylan Ahrens (b. 2005) Bojer Gibson, soprano saxophone Cross Brandon, alto saxophone Nicholas Domschke, tenor saxophone Garrett Brooks, baritone saxophone

Orbit (2023)

Soren Allen (b. 1999)

Henry Johnston, piano Sam Wood, piano The Three Lefties (2023)

Nathaniel Eulentrop (b. 1997) Nathaniel Eulentrop, piano

Winter’s Last Thaw (2023)

Colby Vines (b. 2001) Nathaniel Eulentrop, violin Ethan Collier, piano

Riddle (2023) WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2024 7:30 P.M.

MCAFEE CONCERT HALL

Sam Wood (b. 2001) Kara Schlenk, violin Madelyn Anderson, violin Heather Hess, viola JeNai O’Connor, cello

Hultgren-Mears Capriccio (1946)

Lukas Foss (1922-2009)

No Regrets (2023) II. Reminiscence

Mark Volker* (b. 1974)

Monodies (1999) I. Poco rubato, doloroso II. Moderately III. Cantabile with intensity IV. Freely, dramatically

Warren Gooch (b. 1953)

Mister Raggity’s Sublime Dance: A ragtime fantasy (2012)

Jerry Owen (b. 1944)

 Guest Performers Craig Hultgren, cello Perry Mears II, piano *School of Music Faculty

 Honors Composition Program Notes My first endeavor into the world of saxophone quartets is As The Leaves Fall. Inspiration for this chamber work comes from sitting at my desk at home and looking out the window during autumn.

The chilly but comforting wind, the deep golden brown of the trees, and of course, the falling leaves. As The Leaves Fall is my most adventurous work so far in regard to time signatures and key modulation. The piece combines a triplet ostinato with a melodic line that resides in an eighth note feel. The feelings of warmth and comfort are large contributors to the overall arc of this work. As The Leaves Fall is a piece of memory, comfort, and familiarity, while offering the listener and performers an exercise in mental aerobics.

Program notes by Dylan Ahrens, School of Music Student

Satelles (the Latin word for “satellite”) is a set of three piano duets that are musically inspired by the piano works of composer George Crumb. The entire set aims to capture the bleakness, the danger, and the unknown of outer space. Satelles I, or “Orbit,” represents two supermassive celestial

bodies slowly revolving around one another in the empty vacuum. “Orbit” allows for the two pianists to be free with both tempo and rhythm, at times only dictating one player to continue an ostinato-like pattern while the other plays various metered flourishes above.

Program notes by Soren Allen, School of Music Student

Though it may be hard to imagine, the first three children within my immediate family (all boys, including me) are left-handed. My parents should have quit while there were ahead.

As it turned out, our family concluded with 3 lefties and 3 righties. The piece I will play tonight sketches a music theme to an imaginary sitcom about us crazy boys of the family, The 3 Lefties.

Program notes by Nathaniel Eulentrop, School of Music Student

Winter's Last Thaw utilizes alternating chord qualities in chromatic descent. Along with the harmony, its sparse texture suggests the cold air as forest animals fare over the winter months – warm and snug or cold and hungry. The sun begins to melt the snow in big droplets, and animals stick out their heads. They have made it through winter. "Winter's Last Thaw" was originally written for strings and woodwinds and was adapted for violin and piano.

Program notes by Colby Vines, School of Music Student

The third movement of Riddle presented tonight is a concept piece. The strictly diatonic theme is initially presented in the Locrian mode; each subsequent restatement raises one pitch class by a semitone, which results in a transformation of the theme through each of the diatonic modes of the major scale.

Program notes by Sam Wood, School of Music Student

 Hultgren-Mears Program Notes Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany, Lukas Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons at the age of six. In 1937, he moved with his parents and brother to the United States. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music where he began a lifelong friendship with classmate Leonard Bernstein, who later described Foss as an "authentic genius." As a conductor, he was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. As a composer, he is grouped in the "Boston school" along with Arthur Berger, Irving Fine, Alexei Haieff, Harold Shapero, and Claudio Spies. In 2000, he was awarded a Gold Medal by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Capriccio, a short, virtuosic six-minute work for cello and piano, depicts the optimism of the Lukas Foss’ new life in America. The piece is a strenuous workout for the cellist. Written for Gregor Piatigorsky, Foss fully utilizes the whole gamut of the instrument by incorporating double stops across the four strings, adding special bowing effects, and featuring other extended techniques to create new, nontraditional sounds. These creative effects are influential in conveying the jubilant, fanfare mood of the work.

Professor of Music and Coordinator of Composition Studies, composer Mark Volker is known for his engaging combination of musical styles, utilizing electronic and traditional instrumentations.

His highly expressive music invites listeners in with clear but unpredictable sounds. As a conductor, Mark directs the Belmont University New Music Ensemble, the Nashville Composers Collective, and regularly serves as a guest conductor. He is also an active classical guitarist, specializing in the performance of new music for classical guitar in chamber settings. He is a member of Luna Nova and has premiered numerous chamber and solo works and performs regularly in a duo with New York City Opera flutist John McMurtery. A native of Buffalo, New York, Mark holds degrees from the Ithaca College School of Music (BM), the Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music (MM), and the University of Chicago (PhD). He has studied composition with Greg Woodward, Dana Wilson, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Darrell Handel, Shulamit Ran, Samuel Adler, and Marta Ptaszynska, electroacoustic music with Howard Sandroff and Mara Helmuth.

Reminiscence is the second of three movements for cello and piano in the suite No Regrets.

Written especially for Craig Hultgren and Perry Mears, each movement conveys the emotional experience of looking back on one’s life without reproach, but with humor, wistfulness, and pride.

Reminiscence takes particular advantage of Hultgren’s quasi-vocal artistry with both unaccompanied and accompanied arias for the cello, as well as Mears’ potent combination of sensitivity and power to paint moods that are both potent and subtle. The opening bell-like calls of the piano elicit a contemplation of memories from the cello, by turns melancholy, fondly satisfied, and resolute.

Warren Gooch's music has been performed throughout North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. A native of Duluth, Minnesota, Gooch is Professor Emeritus of Music Theory/ Composition (Truman State University). He is a past recipient of that university's "Educator of the Year" award and of the Governor's Award for Excellence in Education from the State of Missouri.

Monodies consists of four brief, intense, introspective movements, dedicated in memory of Gooch’s father. The compositional goal for this work was to compose very concise pieces derived from basic motivic material. The first three movements were originally part of a suite completed during a difficult time when the composer’s father was slowly succumbing to cancer. Later, these movements were revised and a fourth movement was added. The final movement draws on musical material from another composition from that same time period.

Jerry M. Owen is the Alma A. Turechek Professor Emeritus of Music at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Holding the Ph.D. in composition from the University of Iowa, he is retired from a 38-year-long teaching career. He has a B.M.E. from the University of Evansville and a M.M. in composition from DePauw University. His principal composition teachers have been Richard Hervig, Peter Tod Lewis, and Donald H. White. In addition to conducting the Coe College Symphony Orchestra, he directed the music theory/composition area at Coe and served as the music department technologist. He is a composer of vocal, choral, symphonic, chamber and electronic/computer music. He served as the Chair of the Iowa Composers Forum for two different terms. His Piano Concerto was recently performed by Miko Kominami with Orchestra Iowa.

Mister Raggity’s Sublime Dance was commissioned by the Murasaki Duo, Erik Kutz – cello and Miko Kominami – piano, for a tour of colleges and universities in the eastern United States. Owen was asked to create something “jazzy” for the tour to counterbalance an already weighty program.

Mister Raggity’s (not Raggedy) dance is reflective of the influence that the art of ragtime has had on the art of jazz, thus a sublime dance between the two arts.

Program notes by Craig Hultgren, guest artist

About the Guest Performers Cellist Craig Hultgren now resides outside of Decorah, Iowa as the farmer-cellist. The New York Classical Review commented that he, "…played with impressive poise and sensitivity…" for Dorothy Hindman's 2016 chamber music retrospective at Carnegie Hall. Hultgren recently received a 2022 Performance Award from the Doug Davis Endowment for the video of his performance of Lukas Foss’s Capriccio. A recipient of two Artist Fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, Hultgren is featured in four solo CD recordings including UK composer Craig Vear’s hyper-media concerto Black Cats and Blues on Métier Recordings. Currently, he is President of the Oneota Valley Community Orchestra Board of Directors in Decorah and also serves as Secretary for the Iowa Composers Forum after recently completing three years as Chair.

Noted for his ability to play “with clarity and ease,” pianist Dr. Perry Mears performs regularly across the country as a soloist, accompanist, and chamber musician. His recent performances include a program of music by living American women at Carnegie Hall, numerous college and university appearances, and collaborations with the Iowa Composers Forum, Luna Nova Music, Vocal Ensemble QC, and members of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. In demand as a teacher, clinician, and adjudicator, Perry is currently on the faculty at Missouri State University.

Biographies provided by Craig Hultgren, guest artist

 Upcoming Concerts and Events Piano Masterclass with Chih-Long Hu Friday, February 9, 9:00 a.m.

Harton Recital Hall Guest Artist, classical piano - Chih-Long Hu Friday, February 9, 7:30 p.m.

McAfee Concert Hall Bass Ensemble Wednesday, February 14, 10:00 a.m.

Massey Concert Hall University Symphony Orchestra and String Chamber Orchestra Saturday, February 17, 7:30 p.m.

Fisher Center for the Performing Arts This is a ticketed event. Tickets must be purchased through the Belmont Box Office.

 For more information on upcoming concerts and events, please visit www.belmont.edu/cmpa or “like” Belmont University School of Music on Facebook.