A loss for words mar 2012

Thursday March 1, 2012 Church of Saint Luke in the Fields 487 Hudson St. 8 PM

Saturday March 3, 2012 Tenri Cultural Institute 43 West 13th Street 8 PM

Acknowledgements Benefactors The activities of C4 are funded, in large part, by grants and generous contributions. We wish to thank and acknowledge: For their major support: Nan Bases Kit Smyth Basquin Michael David & Lauren Mitchell Tracy and Stanley Shopkorn Ellen Stafford-Sigg Meet the Composer/Cary New Music Performance Fund Francine Belkind Nathan Berkoff Michael Biello and Dan Martin Jennifer Borum Sandra Carlson Richard and Gillian Champlain Zachary P. Cummings Hugh D. and Kathryn Klein Eddy Jonathan David Nancy and Don Derham Mary Tacciole Devine Trevor Doherty Orianne Yin Dutka Kim Erle David Harris D.B. and S.M. Hayward Linnea C. Johnson Andrew Kadel & Paula Schaap Jeffrey M. and Kuniko K. Katz

Deborah Kilmer Jeanne and Paul Klainer Pamela Klainer Stanley Lieblein Patricia Marino Elizabeth Marker Edward Mermelstein Peter and Christine Metz Ruth Mueller-Maerki Jon Minikes and Sue Backstrom Ian David Moss Bernard and Rochelle Natt Susan Obel Raymond Penn Jonathan & Suzanne Rosenzweig Bruce Saylor Ann & Richard Sarnoff Pat & Larry Siegel Martha Sullivan Kenneth and Jean Telljohann

SPECIAL THANKS We also wish to express our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the following organizations and individuals for their support and assistance: Zahra Partovi Dodger Theatricals The Church of St. Luke in the Fields David Shuler Tenri Cultural Institute

a loss for words

Thursday March 1, 2012 Church of Saint Luke in the Fields, New York, NY Saturday March 3, 2012 Tenri Cultural Institute, New York, NY

Four2

John Cage (1912-1992)

Besh Besh Besh-m Sh’mo (Village Music for C4)* David Harris, Conductor Soloists: Timothy Brown, Karen Devine Fahad Siadat, Melissa Wozniak

Nursery Miniatures*

Martha Sullivan (b. 1964)

Karen Siegel (b. 1980)

No 1: Play No 2: Lullaby No 3: Sleep

Daniel Andor, Conductor

Catch*

Timothy Brown, Conductor Soloists: Jonathan David, David Harris, Rachel Samet, Suzanne Schwing

The Blue of Distance ‡

David Harris (b. 1974)

Žibuoklė Martinaitytė (b. 1978)

Hannah Carr, Conductor

Intermission Pseudo Yoik NT

Fahad Siadat, Conductor

Painting On a Square Canvas 1 Prelude, Chorale and Fugue*

Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (b. 1963) Thomas Stumpf (b. 1950)

Hannah Carr, Conductor

Without Words †

Rachel Samet, Conductor

Huang Ruo (b. 1976)

In So Many Words*

Timothy Brown (b. 1963)

Hee•Oo•Oom•Ha

Toby Twining (b. 1958)

Rachel Samet, Conductor

David Harris, Conductor Guest Soloist: Toby Twining

* World premiere † East Coast Premiere ‡ US Premiere

Program Notes and Texts When C4 began to rehearse this repertoire,

Four2

language. Singers typically take significant

O-r-e-g-o-n

singer how to engage emotionally, how loud

[We recommend reading the following

it became clear how tied people are to cues from the words in music. Words tell the to sing, phrase articulation, note color, etc.

Without text, the language of music becomes

John Cage

program note after you’ve heard the piece.]

a different animal to a singer, even different

Four2 belongs to a body of works called the

text to a vocalist becomes an abstraction, as

last 6 years of his life. There are over 50 of

than for an instrumentalist. Music without

the same mechanism used to create sound with words (the mouth,

“number pieces” which Cage wrote in the them. The number four refers to the number of performers or sections. The superscript two designates this as the

larynx,

second number piece written

etc.) is used when

for four parts. There are 6 pieces

no

words

are

the

context

of

the

range

of

The chorus sings from parts;

as

part contains anywhere from 3

entitled “Four.” There are 13

present. Without text,

called “One”. There’s a “108”.

however,

there is no unified score. Each

potential sounds increases

to 6 isolated single notes. Most

does the way we

of the number pieces utilize

approach making these

sounds.

The interest of

Cage’s “time bracket” method.

from “Catch” by David Harris The brackets can either be

the sounds themselves leaps to the fore,

fixed or, in this case, flexible. Each note is

Jackson Pollock painting or the color impact

1’00”-1’45”. The elegantly simple concept

offering a similar effect to the rhythm of a

of a Raushenburg. The compositions on this

program all disregard an essential ingredient in the typical communication process to delve into what makes communication

happen in the first place. Whether through the use of phonemes, created language,

metaphoric poetry or densely-layered text,

the pieces magnify the subtlety of language’s constrution points and turn our ears on their sides for the sake of understanding a little more deeply how we are put together.

assigned two sets of duration ranges, e.g., is that each section must begin each of its

notes anywhere within that note’s first set of durations and must end anywhere within

its second set. Cage leaves no instructions as to how these timing choices should be

made nor who should make them. They may be arrived at spontaneously during

performance, or pre-determined before performance by the section together, by a section leader, or by a single “director”

(though this last choice seems somewhat

counter to both the spirit of the piece and this particular collective ensemble…).

Though Cage’s selection of notes certainly plays a role, the precise harmonies, and the length of their sounding, not to mention the inevitable silences, will depend largely

on the duration choices of the ensemble. As it’s highly unlikely any two ensembles will

make the same choices across all 4 sections, the results will differ from performance

to performance, a variability that was a hallmark of Cage’s philosophy.

The syllables sung are derived from the name of the state of Oregon, the home of the

high school chorus the piece was written for.

Happy John Cage Centennial! ~Jonathan David

from the classic recordings of more arranged

material such as the song Polegnala e Todora, the most obvious influence on Besh Besh Besh-m Sh’mo.

The piece was written for C4 specifically for

this program of invented or absent texts, so I created syllables designed to make this

style of singing easier. At times they sound

Italian, at times country Bavarian, at times Japanese, but seldom do they use consonant

clusters or sounds uncommon in English.

The piece should be fun to sing, and not too hard, and maybe slightly danceable.

It is written as a celebration and subtitled “Village Music for C4” with my thanks to this very special group for bringing so much that’s good to life. ~Martha Sullivan

Besh Besh Besh-m Sh’mo Martha Sullivan

Nursery Miniatures Karen Siegel

Besh Besh Besh-m Sh’mo plays with rhythms

Nursery Miniatures is inspired by my infant

that are skewed for dancing, because the Bulgarian dance music

son Ari, born last June, and was composed

I love takes its swing

from making some beats slightly

longer

than

others. If you know the genre, a

you

standard

will

hear

kopanica

rhythm as well as a

lesnoto. If not, you may find the

from “Nursery Miniatures No. 1” by Karen Siegel

very bright vocal style intriguing, and

when he was five months old.

the Mystère des Voix Bulgares phenomenon

and I make when playing together, including

vaguely familiar from sources like NPR or of the 1980s and 90s, or even the opening theme song of the old Xena: Warrior Princess

show. The singing back and forth between soloists and chorus is a direct steal both from rural singing styles in Bulgaria and

The first

miniature reflects the sounds that the baby

laughter. The second miniature is a lullaby

sung by the women. The simple melody is passed around from one part to another,

while the vowels gradually transform. The third miniature is loosely based on my

imagining of Ari’s dreams, and also involves

settling and soothing. By contrast, the more

focuses on a different musical element—first

and ordered sets like a tone row) feel

vowel transformations.

Each miniature

rhythm, then melody, and then harmony. ~Karen Siegel

Catch

David Harris

Freedom, sponteneity, self expression are

all inspiring concepts integral to personal life philosophy, politics, business and art

(as I write this, I’ve been singing Free Bird all morning and puzzling over the freqent

desire among artists to “be traveling on

now”). Restriction is often viewed as an enemy to living freely. Yet, no matter how hard people try to relieve themselves of restriction, it always comes back in some

way, generally more powerfully when ignored (e.g. the Republican party line on

heath care. By not paying for it up front, it costs more in the end).

As I played with verbal and musical language and the systems on which they

are built, I found that the physical feeling

restricting elements (explosive consonants,

slightly forced, constraining and difficult. I set about to force these contrasting feelings

into an abstract relationship by isolating and layering phonemes, and choosing a tone

row organized in three pentatonic scales.

In the 17th-century catch (also known as a round or canon), word combinations that

didn’t appear in the poetry would pop out from the canonic texture. An example being a catch by Henry Purcell in which the words “glass,” “the Pope” and “the

Devil” appear opposite one another and when sung in canon yield the prodestant slight “the Pope’s the Devil.” Though the sounds in my Catch are not complete words, the hope is that the abstraction of sounds

will yield some intelligable information,

all within the delightfully obtuse attempt

to comment on humanity’s arrogance and joyfulness, while making a nice tune. The phonemes are not completely random, but

are based on words suggested by friends on Facebook when asked “what are your

favorite words,” yielding

“paperclip,” “Sasquatch”

and the like. Thanks to all who participated.

Pseudo-Yoik NT Jaakko Mäntyjärvi This from “Psuedo Yoik” by Jaako Mäntyjärvi

created by the freest part of

Pseudo-Yoik

has

nothing to do with the genuine

traditional

Lappish or Saame Yoik

our verbal and musical systems (vowels and

(most directly translated as song), and

pentatonic scale) felt generally warmer, more

degree of authenticity as local color in bel

hummed consonants, and open sets like the

should thus be considered to have the same

canto opera. If a connection must be sought,

street signs, lyrics... a whole lot of blah blah

impression of a stereotype–the stereotype

give voice to the character who comments

I would prefer to describe this piece as an that most Finns associate with Lapland and its people.

The text exists merely to give form to the

blah which tries to overwhelm. The singers in exasperated strings of notes and chords

which are sometimes looped or delivered in a confused ad lib.

music and is meaningless, although the laws

I’m grateful that, in the end, I found my way

obscure South American Indian language in

humor in the work, allowing the character

of probability dictate that there must exist an which it makes perfectly good sense. ~Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

In So Many Words Timothy Brown The inspiration for In So Many Words came

back from near depression to the sense of

(read: all of us) to find relief from the cacophony and find a quiet place, free from words, except for one final punch line. ~Timothy Brown Sung text

from a t-shirt my daughter, Evann, brought

Oh, Ah! Blah!!

of my piece, “Your Lips Are Moving, But All

Babble, Gab

back from a trip. I took its text as the “hook”

I Can Hear Is Blah, Blah, Blah.” It’s a phrase that, though not new to most, is made no less hilarious to an 8-year-old!

This choice of text made it seem clear: I

Talk, Talk, Talk Jabber, Jaw

Yak, Blather

Your lips are moving, but all I hear is Blah, Blah, Blah!

would write a joke piece which would take

a completely different approach from the

other works on this “wordless” concert.

Though there would be ‘No Lack of Words’

(the working title), the piece would be about a failure to communicate. However,

as I started to compile text snippets from

the massive amounts of verbiage out there,

it dawned on me how not funny this fact of every day life can seem. It was almost

overwhelming to delve into the sheer volume of words.

The character in In So Many Words endures

it all: bits from television, newspapers, magazines, e-mails, household packaging,

from “In So Many Words” by Timothy Brown

Run on, Blab

the ear’s familiarity with development

Talk, Talk, Talk

bring us the pendulum-like rocking of

Ramble, Jaw

and forward motion in music, to instead

Chat, Banter

movement without melody and a deep inner pulse to which patterns of color and

Natter, Gnaw

Talk, Talk, Talk Rattle, Blab

Chit Chatter The words

keep coming,

but all I can see is Blah, Blah, Blah!

from “The Blue of Distance” by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė

Jabber, Rattle on

rhythm are subservient, creating what

Chatter on, Natter

self contained and existing without sense of

Blather, Babble, Gab

might be described as a sound sculpture,

Talk, Talk , Talk, Talk, Talk

beginning or end. ~Hannah Carr

Oh... AH!!!

When searching for the lyrics for my choral

(exhale)

piece, I encountered an alluring phrase “the

blue of distance.” It remained just a poetical-

Aaaah... (etc.)

philosophical hint since the text itself doesn’t

The Blue of Distance Žibuoklė Martinaitytė A

significant

shift

from

(2010)

conventional

poetic settings to music, The Blue Of Distance explores the deep murmurs of the

subconscious and mirrors the subtlety and

constancy of the mind’s meditation on this calm and beautiful poem. The layered pillars

of cluster chords create a rich sound wall in

get utilized at all. Instead, the function of the lyrics is given to a set of speech sounds

– mostly humming or the sung open vowels “a-e-i-o-u”. In one part of the piece these vowels-letters appear as chords, they determine the succession of entrances of choral voices and their interrelationships. ~Žibuoklė Martinaitytė The Blue of Distance (from Rebecca Solnit A Field Guide to Getting Lost)

which musical patterns and rhythms vary

The world is blue at its edges and in its

deep magnetism of the sea and the melting

mountain ranges, of anything far away.

in swells and pulls, masterfully evoking the of sea and sky into one rolling blue.

Overall, the effect of the work challenges

depths… that color of horizons, of remote

The color of that distance is the color of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire,

the color of there seen from here, the color of

wholly coherent musical language to a

you can never go. For the blue is not in the

that masterfully marries system and aurally

where you are not. And the color of where

place those miles away at the horizon, but in

the atmospheric distance between you and

the mountains… Blue is the color of longing for the distances you never arrive in, for the blue world…

Painting On A Square Canvas 1: Prelude, Chorale and Fugue Thomas Stumpf The title came from a long conversation I had

with a very good friend of mine, a painter

named David Fullam, who had just started painting on square canvases. He explained to me how much more focus that form requires

from both painter and spectator - there’s much less “narrative” and therefore there has to be something that keeps you more forcefully inside

conceptionally strict musical form in a way daring aesthetics. The contrived motives of the work turn on themselves in various

sequences of inversion and retrograde,

where self-contained figures playfully chain together in shifting melodic phrases, layered on a vertical harmony that hinges on an

excitingly dissonant, but structurally fluent contrapuntal texture. These compositional

choices reflect the idea behind the piece’s inception of the closed square canvas and creates a mood that is charged with energy,

starting from the tense sprung melodies of the prelude, to their development in the

twisting melodic clips of the choral. These

angular motivic figures appear in full fruition in the fugue, whose dual subject

and mirroring countersubject combine to playfully disguise the boundaries of theme

the canvas... Of course will

music

always

have a certain “narrative” form because it has to unfold in the dimension

of

time, but I was

really interested in the idea of that

relatively

from “Painting on a Square Canvas” by Thomas Stumpf

tight focus David was aiming for. Which is

and accompaniment, leaving the listener

boring theory classes... ~Thomas Stumpf

of melody and harmony, but a compositional

why I wrote my first fugue since the days of

The prelude, chorale and fugue explore the concept of focus in form without narrative by subjecting a highly original, and yet

with a nagging familiarity as to the patterns ingenuity that never quite lets us pin down its formula. ~Hannah Carr

Without Words Huang Ruo

Hee•oo•oom•ha Toby Twining

Without Words is written for double a

In 1987 the choreographer Melanie Bales

Alto I, Tenor I, Bass I, and Soprano II, Alto

used my voice. I had recently become taken

cappella choir in eight parts: Soprano I,

II, Tenor II, Bass II, with four pairs of finger bells. The entire piece runs around six and

a half minutes. The text is from a poem written by Li Hou Zhu (937-978) in the Tang Dynasty.

~ Huang Ruo

Wu Yan Du

Without words, alone …

Shang Xi Lou,

Walking up to the Western

Yue Ru Gou.

The moon is as a fading

pavilion. hook …

Ji Muo Wu Tong The Lonesome Wutong

Shen Yuan

Suo Qin Qiu.

throat singers. Further, I wanted to exploit the seemingly infinite variety of sounds possible for the human voice to achieve a range of orchestral color.

These

were

the

ideas

that

inspired

Hee•oo•oom•ha, my first large work for

unaccompanied voices, which set me on a lifelong creative path in choral music. ~Toby Twining

Enclosed with dismal Autumn.

Shi Li Chou.

Is this sorrow of

Bie Shi Yi Fan

of the BaBenzele Pygmies and Mongolian

In the deep courtyard,

Unbreakable;

with world vocal music, particularly that

tree,

Jian Bu Duan, Li Hai Luan,

asked me to compose a piece for her that

yet, impossible to sort, leaving…

Deepening in my heart,

Zi Wei Zai Xin Tou.An unspeakable feeling

from “Hee-oo-oom-ha” by Toby Twining

Composers Europe, USA and Asia by Nouvel Ensemble

J-o-h-n C-a-G-e

Moderne (Canada), The Smith Quartet (UK), ERGO Ensemble (Canada), The Orchestra

Žibuoklė Martinaitytė

of Mons Royal Conservatoire (Belgium),

(zhih-BWAH-kleh martin-ay-TEE-teh)

The Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, The

Residing in New York City, Lithuanian-born Žibuoklė Martinaitytė is a composer on an

international scale. Although primarily

centralized in Europe, her activity is gaining

momentum in the USA. In 2008, she was commissioned by MATA festival on their 10th

anniversary premiering her piece Polarities

by The Knights Chamber Orchestra. In 2009

and 2011 she was awarded a fellowship for residency at the MacDowell Colony for Artists

in

New

Hampshire

and

was

granted the award for residency at the

Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and others. Her scores are published by

Musikproduktion Hoflich and Karthause-

Schmülling (Germany). Her most current

work for symphony orchestra A Thousand Doors To The World (2009) was commissioned

by Lithuanian Radio on the occasion of “Vilnius – Culture Capital of Europe 2009”

and was broadcast by Euroradio in many European countries. It also received the Lithuanian Composers Union Award as Best Orchestral Performance for 2009.

Aaron Copland house in 2010. Her most

Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

Composer Fellowship (San Francisco, CA)

Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, born 1963 in Turku,

“Look&Listen”

the University of Helsinki, graduating with

recent activities include the “Other Minds” for the spring of 2011 and receiving the Composers

Competition

Prize (NYC) for the piece Driving Force.

Martinaitytė studied composition at the Lithuanian Music Academy (BM, MA) with

Bronius Kutavičius and Julius Juzeliūnas.

Since 1998 she has participated in numerous

composition courses in Europe including

the Darmstadt New Music Summer Course, Centre

Acanthes/Ircam,

Royaumont,

The 6th International Academy for New

Composition and Audio Art, Stavanger and others studying with Brian Ferneyhough,

Boguslaw Schaffer, Magnus Lindberg, Tristan Murail and Jonathan Harvey. In 2001 she received a creative residency at Kunstlerhaus

Lukas der Stiftung Kulturfonds, Germany.

Her music has been performed throughout

Finland, studied English and Linguistics at

a MA degree in 1991. He has studied music theory and choir conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, completing a level B

examination in choir conducting in 1992.

He is a timpanist, a pianist, a choral singer, and a conductor. As a composer, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi describes himself as an eclectic

traditionalist: eclectic in that he adopts

influences from a number of styles and

periods, fusing them into his own idiom; traditionalist in that his musical language is

based on a traditional approach and uses the resources of modern music only sparingly.

Because he is himself active in making music, his music is extremely practically oriented.

Huang Ruo

Chinese Folk Voice, was released on Albany

Awarded First Prize by the prestigious

Divergence came out on Koch International

Prize, Huang Ruo has been cited by the

Corners, performed by Future In REverse,

of

Asian-American

Huang Ruo is currently a member of the

musical voice draws equal inspiration

more information about Huang Ruo and his

Records with his own singing in 2008; and Composition

in 2009. Huang Ruo’s latest CD To The Four

New Yorker as “one of the most intriguing

was recently released on NaxosRecords.

composers.” His vibrant and inventive

composition faculty at SUNY Purchase. For

from Chinese folk, Western avant-garde,

music, please visit huangruo.com.

integration using a compositional technique

Toby Twining

writing spans from orchestra, chamber

Raised in Texas, with family roots in

to

multi-media,

has traveled musically from playing for rock

film. Ensembles who have premiered and

at the University of Illinois in Urbana, where

Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San

1985. His group Toby Twining Music has

Hong Kong Philharmonic, Chamber Music

the United States and parts of Europe. Their

Nieuw Ensemble, Quatuor Diotima, Dutch

1994), The Little Match Girl and Emily

and under conductors such as Wolfgang

Home Companion 20th Anniversary Album

Davies, Ed Spanjaard, Xian Zhang, and Ilan

and Eurydice (Cantaloupe Music, 2002 and

Luxembourg

the

new

International

crop

of

rock, and jazz to create a seamless, organic

he calls “dimensionalism.” Huang Ruo’s music, opera, theater, and modern dance,

country-swing and gospel, Toby Twining

experimental improvisation, folk rock, and

and jazz bands to experimental composition

performed his music include the New York

he earned his Bachelor of Music degree in

Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony,

performed in music halls and festivals across

Society of Lincoln Center, Asko Ensemble,

recordings include Shaman (BMG Classics,

Vocal Laboratory, and the Tang Quartet,

Dickinson’s Birthday Pizza on A Prairie

Sawallisch, James Conlon, Dennis Russell

(Highbridge, 1996), Chrysalid Requiem

Volkov. Huang Ruo has received awards

2011).

Presser Foundation, Jerome Foundation,

Twining’s instrumental works have been

Meet The Composer, NYSCA, Chamber

Blues, Anthem, Oxingale, 2002) and pianist

Aaron Copland Award, and Alice M.

Piano, Point/Universal 1997 and An American

Kozinn listed his concert as the second on

Twining is the recipient of a Pew Fellowship,

of 2003.” Huang Ruo’sChamber Concerto

Original Music, a Guggenheim Fellowship

2007; Leaving Sao, a work for orchestra and

Music/USA award.

sound

installation,

and grants from the ASCAP Foundation, Argosy Foundation, Greenwall Foundation,

recorded by cellist Matt Haimovitz (9:11

Music America, American Music Center,

Margaret Leng Tan (Satie Blues, The Art of Toy

Ditson Award. New York Times critic Allan

in Buenos Aires, She Herself Alone, Mode, 2011).

the list of his “Top Ten Classical Moments

the Barrymore Award for Outstanding

Cycle was released on Naxos in February

and a Meet the Composer Commissioning

C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective Daniel Andor started playing piano at

by the Riverside Symphony, received its first

The Purcell School of Music, London. His

Rothman in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully

four and studied composition and piano at

compositions won a number of awards and have been performed internationally, and he

was featured by the Society for the Promotion of New Music during 2000–2002. As he felt

drawn to making music with others, he took

up trombone and conducting. Orchestral conducting kept him busy during his years at the University of Cambridge, where he lingered vigorously until he received his

PhD in physics in 2005. Daniel continued his research at the Rockefeller University in

New York, contemplating the receiving end of music: researching hearing and its neurophysiology. He recently joined the research group of a New York tech startup.

Hayes Biggs was born in Huntsville, Alabama and raised in Helena, Arkansas.

He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from Columbia University.

His teachers have included Don Freund, Mario Davidovsky, Jack Beeson, Fred Lerdahl and Donald Erb. Biggs has been

a fellow in composition at the Composers

performance under the direction of George

Hall in February of 2010. C4 gave the first performances of a setting of Gerard Manley

Hopkins’s The Caged Skylark in November of 2011. Biggs’s song cycle on religious poetry,

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, was premiered at Manhattan School of Music in

January 2012 by soprano Susan Narucki and pianist Christopher Oldfather. That same

month his Three Hymn Tune Preludes were given their first performance by Gail Archer at St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University.

In December of 2006 his String Quartet: O Sapientia/Steal Away (2004) was given its premiere at New York City’s Merkin Concert

Hall by the Avalon String Quartet as part of the 2006-2007 season of the Washington

Square Contemporary Music Society; it was

recorded by the Avalon String Quartet in 2008, and was recently released on Albany Records. Biggs’s music is published by C. F. Peters Corporation, APNM (Association for the Promotion of New Music) and Margun Music, Inc. www.hayesbiggs.com

Conference and Chamber Music Center

Timothy Brown completed his BA at the

Center, at Yaddo, the Virginia Center for

choral professional for more than 30 years,

at Wellesley, at the Tanglewood Music the Creative Arts, the Millay Colony for the

Arts and at the MacDowell Colony. Among his honors are a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, as well as the 2001 Aaron Copland Award, which afforded

him the opportunity to live and compose at Copland House in upstate New York during the summer of 2002. Since 1992 he has been

on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. His Symphonia brevis, commissioned

University of North Texas and has been a

directing and singing with high school,

community, and chamber choirs. As a

composer, Tim focused for a time on music for the theatre. His Curious George toured

nationally for over ten years and his songs were showcased at the West Bank Theatre, the BMI Workshop, and in the Donnell Library

‘Songbook,’ and - most recently - in A Trace

of Love, an evening devoted entirely to his music with 6 collaborating lyricists. Tim also

studied at the Manhattan School of Music

(first prize) for her composition portfolio.

Suite was premiered at Merkin Concert Hall,

in Choral Conducting with Peter Erdei at

with Nils Vigeland. His Incidental Dance and Epitaph: Songs on Poems of Dorothy

Parker was recorded by Metropolitan Opera

mezzo, Theadora Hanslowe. Tim’s church

music includes Christ Our Passover, and

Eloi, Lama Sabbachtani, both commissioned and premiered through The Church of the Heavenly Rest, New York.

Kristopher Burke has earned degrees in

music education from Shepherd University

and Vocal Performance from Shenandoah Conservatory. Kristopher sang as soloist

She went on to take an advanced diploma the Kodály Institute in Hungary and was given a presentation upon completion for

outstanding academic acheivement. She has won various prizes for piano performance

and received the highest bursary prize awarded by the Irish Arts Council to an

individual for travel and training in both

2009 and 2010. She has performed in classical music as an organist, pianist and singer,

as well as in groups from Traditional Irish music to Funk and other popular styles.

and section leader with the St. James Choir

New York composer Jonathan David has

chorister with the City Choir of Washington

2011-12 season, five of these commissions:

in Leesburg, VA for five years and as a under conductor Robert Shafer. He has also performed the roles of Sam Kaplan in Weill’s Street Scene, Don Basilio in Mozart’s

Le Nozze di Figaro, and Flute in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Kristopher moved to New York a year ago from West Virginia,

and now works as an arts administrator for the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

Hannah Carr’s interest in music began with writing pop songs on the piano for

no one to hear. She was chorister and head girl in a cathedral choir for six years in her native Limerick, Ireland while still in

school, and here she developed a love of choral and sacred music. She then took her

undergraduate degree in Music and French

with a composition major under Donnacha Dennehy at Trinity College Dublin, where she

cofounded and conducted the official Music Department Chamber Choir, Campanile Consort and won the Gerard Victory prize

eight world premieres scheduled during the

The Tightened String, a 9/11 memorial work for NYC’s Central City Chorus (Dec. 2011);

a Stabat Mater for Carroll University (WI) (April 2012; Italian tour in May); Little Drops of Water for the Marble Collegiate Church

Cherub Choir (May 2012); Azrael, a song for Jay Barksdale to honor the 10th anniversary

of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Foundation (Oct. 2011, UK premiere in June 2012); and Gitchee Gumee, for baritone Daniel Neer and

harp (April 2012). Cantaria, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Asheville premiered A Shepherd’s

Nativity in December, 2011. Jonathan also has premieres upcoming by the Young Men’s Ensemble of the Brooklyn Youth

Chorus Academy, and C4 with members of the Fireworks Ensemble. The 2010-11

season featured premieres by the Juilliard Pre-College Chorus, Mountainside Master

Chorale (CA), Pueri Cantores San Gabriel Valley, and the Shoreline Community Chorale

(finalist

in

the

“Celebrating

Connecticut’s Composers” competition).

Jonathan’s choral music has also been

Mario Gullo has been seen in New York at

Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, Cerddorion

Guild and the Barrow Street Theater. His

Singers (commission) and the Thanks-

Barbara Cook in concert at Carnegie Hall.

has served as Composer-in-Residence for

the Theater of Youth, Tri-State Center for

Director for the chamber chorus, Howl!, His

Philharmonic. He has had pieces performed

Americas Vocal Ensemble, and the Global

Bridges Vocal Ensemble.

Wesleyan University, Jonathan studied with

David

Berklee College of Music. He is published

himself that he is a rare find in the musical

also available through his website, www.

nature whose unique talents rattle the cage

performed by the Princeton Singers, the

Alice Tully Hall, City Center, the Dramatist’s

Vocal Ensemble, the New York Treble

favorite so far has been appearing with

Giving Foundation (commission) et al. He

Regionally, he has performed at Artpart,

The Greenwich Village Singers and Music

the Performing Arts and the Hudson Valley

music has received awards from ASCAP, the

by the New York City Master Chorale and

Network of Conservatories. A graduate of

Harris,

like

most

conductor/

John Bavicchi and Don McDonnell at the

composer/singers, would like to say of

by Oxford University Press. His music is

world,

jonathandavidmusic.com.

of tradition and establish a new line of

Karen Devine has been fortunate to sing with

truth is that he’s pretty good at what he does,

an

industry-changing

force

demarcation for time immemorium.

of

The

many esteemed choruses and conductors

enjoys making a living as a musician and

to the list this year. Highlights include: Mrs.

in a range of groups (C4, The Brearley

Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr.

Youth Chorus and the efforvescent 7/8

voice and conducting while completing

other engagements). Music is about people,

Amuse. She currently studies voice with

by our definition, and accomplishment,

believes that her (two) accordion(s) will

happens one experience at a time. www.

throughout her life, and is thrilled to add C4

working with some delightful performers

Comber’s 4th grade choir, Kenyon College

Singers, Columbia Glee Club, Brooklyn

Benjamin Locke (with whom she also studied

Chorus of Collegiate, plus some random

her B.A. in Music), Cantori New York, and

after all, for without us there is none, at least

Evelyn Troester and, like most Brooklynites,

to

undoubtably lead to fame and fortune. After

davidharrismusic.net

(helping to bring the world Britney Spears

Mezzo-soprano Amanda Keil is a current

atone for her sins by becoming a massage

been seen as Nerone in L’Incoronazione di

therapist - perhaps, in part, because clients

Queen in Iolanthe, and as Hillary Clinton

or Yanni during their massage.

Say it Ain’t so Joe, by Curtis K. Hughes,

dabbling a bit in the business side of music

this

conductor/composer/singer,

and The Backstreet Boys), Karen decided to

Resident Artist with Dicapo Opera, and has

therapist.

She is now a highly-regarded

Poppea, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, the Fairy

can rest assured they will never hear Enya

and Gwen Ifill in the world premiere of which will be released on CD in 2011. In

2008 she toured with The Boston Camerata,

As Research Director for Fractured Atlas,

and Isolde in Paris and Boston. Amanda

agencies, and others support the arts more

performing the medieval story of Tristan is the founder of Musica Nuova, which invigorates

early

music

performances

with staging, movement, and storytelling.

Amanda holds a masters degree in voice and historical performance from Boston University and a bachelors degree in French horn performance from The Hartt School.

Elizabeth Marker is an accomplished musician who has devoted the major portion of her career to the advancement of choral

Ian David Moss helps funders, government effectively by harnessing the power of

data to drive informed decision-making.

A serial entrepreneur, Ian is the founder of

the acclaimed arts policy blog Createquity, a hybrid electric chamber group/experimental

rock band called Capital M, and C4 itself. He has twice been named by his peers among the

“25 most powerful and influential leaders”

in the nonprofit arts sector, and holds BA and MBA degrees from Yale University.

music. She holds a Master of Music in Voice

Rachel Samet spent the last four years

she studied with Mary Davenport and

served as Director of Choral Activities at

Performance from Boston University where coached with Alan Rodgers. In New York she studies with Maria Farnworth. She has sung with many notable choral groups including

Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the Russian Chamber Chorus and Cantori New York.

In 1987, Elizabeth was invited to sing with

the Oregon Repertory Singers representing

the United States at the 26th Choral Singing

Festival in Kärnten, Austria where the group won both the Folk and Classical Repertoire

competitions. Elizabeth performed in many Robert Shaw Choral Workshops at Carnegie Hall and was a member of the Robert Shaw

Festival Singers. She has served as section leader at The Church of the Good Shepherd

(Episcopal) and been a member of the professional choir at St. Ignatius of Antioch (Episcopal). As a soloist, Elizabeth can be

heard on two recordings: My Heart is Ready,

music of Yuri Yukechev (Russian Chamber

Chorus), and, as the Mother of Iseut, in Le vin herbé by Frank Martin (I Cantori di New York).

in the middle of the Pacific, where she

the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa. She

coordinated and led the UH Chamber Singers’

first

educational/performance

tour of the Hawaiian Islands, and prepared

the Chamber Singers to perform with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

for several Masterworks concerts, including Duruflé’s

Requiem,

and Carmina Burana.

Fauré’s

Requiem,

She has led choral

workshops with dozens of choirs from across the U.S. and Canada, and is sought after as a

clinician and adjudicator with festivals such as Heritage Festivals.

At the University

of Colorado at Boulder, she prepared the

Collegiate Chorale to perform Britten’s War Requiem under the baton of Marin Alsop, and

was invited to conduct the same ensemble at the American Music Research Center’s

International Musicological Symposium: Nadia

Boulanger

& American

Music.

Equally at home in the world of theater, she has served as musical director for numerous

stage productions such as Menotti’s Amahl

and the Night Visitors at the Rocky Mountain

Center for Musical Arts in Colorado and

Singers, she has also recorded for the Sony

The Opera House at Boothbay Harbor in

Classics, and Parma labels.

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change! at Maine. She contributed several biographies

Classical, RCA Victor, Koch International

of African American choral musicians to

The 2010-2011 season brought Suzanne

New Grove Dictionary of American Music.

of Leonard Bernstein’s A Quiet Place,

the forthcoming updated edition of The Rachel holds degrees from the University

of Colorado at Boulder (DMA), Boston University (MM), and Oberlin College (BA).

Mezzo-soprano Suzanne Schwing was

originally trained for the stage at LAMDA and subsequently received her musical training

at Boston University and Manhattan School of Music. Having begun her professional

performing arts career in the theatre at the age of 13, Suzanne is now active as an actress, classical singer, opera critic, stage director, and Shakespeare coach.

back to NYCO for the New York premiere

followed by a return to the Choral Society

of the Hamptons as Alto soloist for Part 1 of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.

Other

projects of note in 2011 were performances

as Alto soloist in Rachmaninoff’s Vespers, choral concerts at the Verbier Festival under

Gábor Takács-Nagy, Manfred Honeck, and

Gianandrea Noseda, and Handel’s Messiah as Alto soloist with the Choral Society of the Hamptons.

Upcoming performances

include appearances with the New York

Virtuoso Singers and the Collegiate Chorale Singers at Bard College and Carnegie Hall.

As an actress, she has performed in the US

Karen Siegel grew up harmonizing doo-

as Rosalind in As You Like It, Lady Bracknell

to study voice, piano, cello, and eventually

and the UK, appearing in such diverse roles

in The Importance of Being Earnest, and as the Marquise de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

As a singer, Suzanne has

performed in solo and/or choral capacities at such venues as New York City Opera

(NYCO), Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Tanglewood,

the Kennedy Center, the “Kitara” Concert Hall in Sapporo, Japan, and in the General

Assembly Hall of the United Nations with conductors Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur,

Mstislav Rostropovich, James Levine, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, George Manahan, Keith Lockhart, James Conlon, Sir Simon

Rattle, and many others. As a member of

the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the John Oliver Chorale, and the New York Virtuoso

wop tunes with her family, and went on

composition. She holds a Master’s degree in Composition from NYU, where she studied

with Marc Antonio Consoli, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Yale. Additional

studies include coursework with Conrad Cummings at the Juilliard Evening Division

and vocal instruction with Lavinia Bertotti and Claudine Ansermet at the Fondazione Italiana di Musica Antica in Urbino, Italy.

Her works have been commissioned by

the Manhattan Choral Ensemble, Trio Eos, and the Matrix Music Collaborators, and

performed by the new music ensemble Cygnus. Currently, Karen is a PhD candidate

in composition at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she studies with Tania León. www.KarenSiegel.com

Bettina Sheppard works extensively now as

He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the

years spent in dramatic and musical theatre.

Performance and Composition with a focus

a singer, pianist, and composer, after many She holds graduate degrees from both

University of Virginia and CUNY, where she

studied composition with Chris Theofanidis and Shafer Mahoney, as well as composition

studies at Juilliard with Conrad Cummings.

Some completed works include a song cycle of Emily Dickinson poetry performed at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall; settings

of Millay poetry commissioned for the American Cathedral in Paris; a song cycle of Kaneko poetry; stage productions, including TraumNovela

(Barrow

Street

Theatre,

Barcelona, Dallas); 365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks at Barrow Street Theatre

and the Public Theater; The Picture of Dorian

Grey; Kindly Direct Me To Hell: An Evening

With Dorothy Parker. She created the new group Bridges Vocal Ensemble, presenting her compositions of various cultures and

time periods, in venues such as Carnegie Hall and City Center. Bettina is presently

working on the new opera Stillwaters. Also

in the works is an opera based on Welsh folk tales of The Mabinogian. Solus, her CD

California Institute of the Arts in Music on Vocal Music, and a Bachelor’s of Music in Theory and Composition from Vanderbilt

University’s Blair School of Music. Fahad has composed for a variety of ensembles,

dance, and theater companies: the California

EAR Unit, New Century Players, CalArts Singer’s Collective, TOCCATA Orchestra,

and Warrior Poet Theater Group, as well as public schools along the west coast. He

has most recently performed with the C4 Vocal Ensemble, Choral Chameleon, and

Polyhmnia in New York, the TOCCATA Orchestra and as a guest vocalist with

PARTCH in Los Angeles. He serves as

composer-in-residence for the TOCCATA Orchestra in Lake Tahoe and Warrior Poet

Theater Productions in Los Angeles. He is

also an active performer of Brazilian music and dance and has performed with Capoeira Narahari and Raizes do Brasil, is a rockclimbing enthusiast, and a tri-athlete. For more information about his current work visit www.fahadsiadat.com

of original material was released under her

Martha Sullivan has written for many of

and performed with numerous vocal groups

the Dale Warland Singers, the Gregg Smith

Welsh name, Brythonwen. She has directed from madrigal to rock, and created the jazz harmony group Satin Dolls.

Bettina is

the author of The Everything Singing Book, published by Adams Media, and is on faculty at City College CUNY.

Fahad Siadat specializes in theatrical music for vocal ensembles. His work explores the

differing sound possibilities of the voice, using

both

standard

notation/singing

as well as extended vocal techniques.

America’s leading choral groups, including

Singers (with whom she was a resident

composer for several years), and the Esoterics (Seattle). Her work has been published by Laurendale and G. Schirmer, and recorded by the Esoterics and Chicago A Cappella.

She was one of three winners of the Sorel

Medallion for women composers in 2009, so

her music was performed at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, and she won the Dale Warland Singers’ Choral Ventures competition in 2003.

She is also a professional singer in the New

York area, with a focus on the new and the

Candide. In 2009, Melissa was the recipient of

Bard Summerscape, and new operas on City

Grant which enabled her to live and study

obscure—she has sung neglected operas for Opera’s VOX showcase for new work. Other highlights as a soloist include premieres

by Toby Twining (Chrysalid Requiem, performances and recording on Cantaloupe) and John Zorn (several premieres and a

recording). She has also performed Steve

Reich’s Tehillim with the Boston Modern

Orchestra Project and Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel with Vox Vocal Ensemble.

She has also sung as a chorister with many of New York’s professional choral groups

and opera companies over the last decade, allowing her the chance to travel widely

(Switzerland, Israel, Japan) and to sing under many notable conductors, including Robert Shaw, Robert Spano, Zubin Mehta, and James Levine.

Melissa Wozniak is working as the School Programs Administrator at New York City

Opera while she works on her thesis for her M.M. in Music History and Literature from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Her thesis topic concerns settings of Emily Dickinson poetry. In addition to teaching

Music Appreciation in Mississippi, she

appeared as a soprano soloist in Bach’s Magnificat, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, and Derr’s I Never Saw Another Butterfly. Melissa has performed with the Southern Chorale,

the Southern Mississippi Chamber Singers,

and the Hattiesburg (MS) Civic Chorale The Meistersingers, as well as the USM Vocal Jazz Ensemble. In 2005 Melissa earned a

B.M.E. in Music Education from SUNY Fredonia. Onstage performances include L’Orfeo (Fury), and choral roles in I Pagliacci,

The Merry Widow, L’Elisir d’Amore, and

both the DAAD Intensive Language Course in Berlin for 8 weeks, and the Sigma Alpha Iota

Professional

Development

Grant,

which provided assistance for three weeks

of musicological study in Vienna with

her mentor Edward Hafer. Melissa’s past

voice teachers include J. Taylor Hightower, Kimberley Davis and Margaret Kuhl. She

is a member of the American Musicological Society and Sigma Alpha Iota International

Music Fraternity. She is now living and teaching on Long Island with her husband David, a saxophonist.

C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective Sopranos Hannah Carr Rachel Samet Karen Siegel Martha Sullivan Melissa Wozniak

Altos Karen Devine Amanda Keil Elizabeth Marker Suzanne Schwing Bettina Sheppard

Tenors Kris Burke Jonathan David Mario Gullo David Harris Fahad Siadat

Basses Daniel Andor Hayes Biggs Timothy Brown Ian David Moss

C4, the world’s first Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, is a unique vocal ensemble in New York City dedicated to performing music written in the last twenty-five years. A collaborative project of its singing members, it functions not only as a presenting ensemble in its own right, with a threeprogram, six-concert season, but also as an ongoing workshop and recital chorus for the emerging composers and conductors who form the core of the group. It is, as far as we know, the first ensemble of its kind.

Please visit our website, www.c4ensemble.org.

Upcoming C4 Concerts

C4 in collaboration with the indie-classical band, The Fireworks Ensemble June 2nd Manhattan Movement and Art Center 8:00 PM Second venue and date TBD Featuring an evening of world premieres including Brian Coughlin’s Requiem and works by C4 composers Jonathan David (The Hounds of Spring), Karen Siegel (Impermanence), and Martha Sullivan (Dia | Logos)