C4 10 june 2015

C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective

10

Thursday, June 4, 2015, The Church of St. Luke in the Fields, New York, NY Saturday, June 6, 2015, Engleman Hall, Baruch Performing Arts Center, New York, NY

Panda Chant II

Meredith Monk (b.1942)

Joe Rubinstein, conductor

Judith Weir (b. 1954)

A Blue True Dream of Sky Fahad Siadat, conductor Mimi Goodman, soprano Maya Ben-Meir, alto Melissa Bybee, alto

*DADA NY ‘15

Daniel Andor-Ardó (b. 1978)

Perry Townsend, conductor

Flatland

Alex Hills (b. 1974)

Daniel Andor-Ardó, conductor

*Roethke Fragment

Brian Mountford (b.1964)

Perry Townsend, conductor

Die Erste Elegie

Eìnojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928)

Fahad Siadat, conductor

*Intermission* A Lover’s Complaint

James Lark (b.1979)

*How She Could Not Drive

Karen Siegel (b.1980)

World, I Cannot Hold Thee Close Enough

Colin Britt (b. 1985)

*North-West Passage

Mario Gullo (b.1973)

Karen Siegel, conductor Karl Michael Johnson, countertenor James Bilodeau, baritone

Timothy Brown, conductor

Melissa Wozniak, conductor

I.Good-Night II. Shadow March III. In Port

Nate Widelitz, conductor

*Hymn to Aethon The Bird-Headed, the Many Taloned Billy Janiszewski, conductor

* Premiere

Fahad Siadat (b. 1982)

Program Notes and Texts 4C4 & FRQFOXGHV LWV WHQWK VHDVRQ DQG ÀUVW decade with this program, titled simply “10.” The group’s trademark eclecticism and daring show in its choice of repertoire: the rhythmic drive of Meredith Monk’s Panda Chant II contrasts with the rich sonorities of Rautavaara’s setting of Rilke’s “Die Erste Elegie” and Alex Hills’ “Flatland”, a work that asks what a piece would be like if it had no vertical dimension (harmony) but a great many timbres. Works by James Lark and Judith Weir are also featured. C4 celebrates the diversity of its own members’ compositional voices by presenting new works of Daniel Andor-Ardó, Mario Gullo, Brian Mountford, Fahad Siadat, and Karen Siegel, plus a performance of Colin Britt’s “World, I Cannot Hold Thee Close Enough.”

This program reaches back through C4’s history to reveal works that match themes from past concerts; it reaches forward to a future that continues to embrace new voices.

Thank you for taking this journey with us; we are looking forward to the next decade and beyond!

Panda Chant II Meredith Monk

“Panda Chant” is a section from The Games: D VFLHQFH ÀFWLRQ RSHUD by Meredith Monk and Ping Chong, which was originally created for the Schaubühne Ensemble of West Berlin. Monk composed the music and also collaborated with Ping Chon on the scenario, choreography, and direction. Set on an imaginary planet, The Games takes place in a post-nuclear future where survivors and their descendants are involved in the repetition of ritual games re-enacting Earth’s culture in order to preserve the shards of civilisation. Coming at the middle of the opera, “Panda Chant” is an energetic ritual performed by the whole community as preparation for the third game, Memory.

The Games won the National Music Theatre Award in 1986.

A Blue True Dream of Sky Judith Weir

This short (3’30”) setting of a poem by e.e.cummings was written in 2003 in honour of the eminent choral director and organist 3KLOLS %UXQHOOH DQG ÀUVW SHUIRUPHG LQ $SULO 2004 during Philip’s 35th season as musical director of Plymouth Church Choir in Minneapolis. This a cappella choral anthem includes a prominent solo soprano part (written for another longtime colleague, Maria Jette) and a simpler background role for two solo altos whose music helps to bring the solo line and the choral harmony together.

Text: I thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for HYHU\WKLQJ ZKLFK LV QDWXUDO ZKLFK LV LQÀQLWH which is yes (I who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay great happening illimitably earth) how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any - lifted from the no of all nothing - human merely being doubt unimaginable You ? (now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened) -e.e.cummings

DADA NY ‘15

Daniel Andor-Ardó

&KDRV DQG FRQÁXHQFH 7KH FHOHEUDWLRQ RI the seemingly nonsensical.

These notions, which were my inspiration, also seem like apt symbols of C4 and its unique mission and organizational structure.

Using words by Zsuzsanna Ardó, which were in turn based on the C4 manifesto, the piece is implicitly and explicitly a celebration

of C4. The voices, of which there are two, three or four at any time, sometimes chase each other relentlessly and at other times come together in perfect homophony. With many moments requiring virtuosity, the music invites the choir to meet the challenge with C4’s characteristic exuberance. * Although Dadaism is sometimes seen as a European arts movement, from 1915 onwards New York was the centre of Dada in the US for about a decade, and its impact reverberated considerably longer. People involved in New York Dada included Man Ray, Picabia, Duchamp, Beatrice Wood, Stieglitz, and the Arensbergs.

Text: chorus as and conductors who chorus is its ensemble ongoing the the collectively its only conductors the operated a in and chorus of the is by functioning its ongoing is collectively only right also chorus and -Zsuzsanna Ardó

Flatland

Alex Hills

E.A Abbott’s remarkable proto - science ÀFWLRQ QRYHO RI Flatland, imagines a two-dimensional world constituted only RI ÁDW VKDSHV +RZ ZRXOG WKLV (XFOLGLDQ hallucination work – he creates a brutally satirical social hierarchy based on the number of sides one has, and the regularity of those sides – and what would happen when its inhabitants encountered a third, vertical, dimension, or the one- and twodimensional nightmares of Line- and Pointland? This piece tries to embody this, both as sets of restrictions placed on PXVLFDO PDWHULDOV ZKDW PDNHV PXVLF ÁDW" and as a structural narrative, exploring how dimensions might be introduced and withdrawn. I’m enormously grateful to the generosity of Peter Corcoran and Timothy +LOO LQ VXSSRUWLQJ WKLV SLHFH DQG LWV ÀUVW performance.

-Alex Hills Text: A Square Equilateral Triangle Line Isosceles Triangle Three Pentagon

Five A Rectangle Four Circle Octagon Eight Six Hexagon A Cube Tetrahedron Pyramid A Sphere Irregular Pyramid Cuboid Octahedron Point One

Roethke Fragement Brian Mountford

7KLV LV D VHWWLQJ RI WKH IRXUWK DQG ÀQDO stanza of the 1953 poem, “The Vigil”, by the American poet Theodore Roethke. I encountered this stanza many years ago, quoted in Frank Herbert’s book Heretics of Dune. It made a strong impression on me, compressing into six short lines an entire manifesto of transcendent self-annihilation.

The poet dismisses the world, and the so-called living who are meekly content to inhabit it. He has passed through the darkness and reached beyond, not by meditatively transcending his earthly desires, but by riding those desires like a rocket into the heart of the sun, a fusion reaction of love and connectedness that simultaneously consumes and liberates.

I wrote this piece several years ago with C4 LQ PLQG ,·P YHU\ SOHDVHG WR VHH LW ÀQDOO\ come to life.

-Brian Mountford Text: The world is for the living. Who are they?

We dared the dark to reach the white and warm.

She was the wind when wind was in my way; Alive at noon, I perished in her form. :KR ULVH IURP ÁHVK WR VSLULW NQRZ WKH IDOO The word outleaps the world, and light is all.

Die Erste Elegie

Einojuhani Rautavaara

My youthful encounter with the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke turned out to be quite a discovery, not only in literary terms but also for the development of my world view. I still associate it strongly with the mysticism surrounding the ruins of postwar Vienna. It was there that I composed my Fünf Sonette an Orpheus, and two years later in Cologne I started writing the song cycle Die Liebenden to Rilke’s texts. From that time onward I continued to carry with me – both mentally and in my suitcase – the Duino Elegies, Rilke’s seminal work. Over WKH \HDUV , ZRXOG WDNH LW RXW ÀQGLQJ P\VHOI SDUWLFXODUO\ GUDZQ WR WKH ÀUVW HOHJ\ ZKRVH DQJHO ÀJXUH WRRN RQ WKH UROH RI D SHUVRQDO “animus”. My orchestral works Angels and Visitations, Angel of Dusk, and Playgrounds for Angels DUH DOO PXVLFDO SHUVRQLÀFDWLRQV RI WKLV ÀJXUH 2QO\ DV UHFHQWO\ DV KRZHYHU when the international choral body “Europa Cantat” wanted to commission a large-scale choral work from me, did I feel that the time had come to set an angel elegy. It had evidently matured in my subconscious in the interim, since the process of composing WKH ZRUN ZDV VZLIW HDJHU DQG ÁXHQWO\ VHOI assured. The basic pitch material is derived from four triads which together form a twelve-note row. The way this material is applied, however, stands in considerable contrast to methods usually used for atonal music. In consequence, the tone of the work is mellow even it its most dramatic: poetic, yet expressive.

-Einojuhani Rautavaara, translation by Andrew Bentley Text: Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen? und gesetzt selbst, es nähme einer mich plötzlich ans Herz: ich verginge von seinemstärkeren Dasein.

Denn das Schöne ist nichtsals des Schrecklichen Anfang, den wir noch gradeertragen, und wir bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht, uns zu zerstören.

Ein jeder Engel ist schrecklich.

Ach, wen vermögen wir denn zu brauchen?

Engel nicht, Menschen nicht, XQG GLH ÀQGLJHQ 7LHUH PHUNHQ HV VFKRQ daß wir nicht

sehr verläßlich zu Haus sind in der gedeuteten Welt.

Und es bleibt uns irgend ein Baum an dem Abhang, dass vir in täglich wiedersähen.

Es bleibt uns die Straße von gestern, O und die Nacht, die Nacht, wenn der Wind voller Weltraum uns am Angesicht zehrt. Wem bliebe sie nicht, d ie ersehnte, sanft enttäuschende, welche dem einzelnen Herzen mühsam bevorsteht.

Ja, die Frühlinge brauchten dich wohl.

Es mutetenmanche Sterne dir zu, daß du sie spürtest.

Es hob sich eine Woge heran im Vergangenen, oder da du vorüberkamst DP JH|ͿQHWHQ )HQVWHU gab eine Geige sich hin.

Stimmen, Stimmen. Höre, mein Herz, wie sonst nur Heilige hörten: daß sie der riesige Rufaufhob vom Boden Es rauscht jetzt von jenen jungen Toten zu dir.

Freilich ist es seltsam, die Erde nicht mehr zu bewohnen, kaum erlernte Gebräuche nicht mehr zu üben Rosen, und andern eigens versprechenden Dingen nicht die Bedeutung menschlicher Zukunft zu geben; und selbst den eigenen Namen wegzulassen wie ein zerbrochenes Spielzeug, DOOHV VR ORVH LP 5lXPH ÁDWWHUQ ]X VHKHQ Aber Lebendige machen alle den Fehler, daß sie zu stark unterscheiden.

Engel wüßten oft nicht, ob sie unter Lebenden gehn oder Toten.

Die ewige Strömung reißt durch beide Bereiche alle Alter immer mit sich und übertönt sie in beiden.

Ist die Sage umsonst, daß einst in der Klage um Linos wagende erste Musik dürre Erstarrung durchdrang; daß erst im erschrockenen Raum, dem ein beinahgöttlicher Jüngling plötzlich für immer enttrat, das Leere in jene Schwingung geriet,

die uns jetzt hinreißt und tröstetund hilft.

-Rainer Maria Rilke English: Who among the host of angels would hear me, were I to cry out? And serenely yet, were one of them to clasp me to his bosom, I would be lost to his stronger presence.

The beautiful is but the start of the terror which we can barely endure, and we admire it, for it refrains from destroying us.

Each and every angel is terrifying.

Alas, to whom should we turn in our need?

Not angels then, nor men either, and even uncanny animals realize that we are not so secure in the interpreted world.

There only remains a tree on the slope, perhaps, to be encountered daily, and the street of yesterday. ah, and the night, when the wind ZKLFK ÀOOV WKH ÀUPDPHQW rushes against the face. Whom would it leave untouched, that hankered-after night, gentle yet treacherous which painfully waits on the lonely heart?

Indeed, the springtimes had need of you.

Many stars beckoned you to seek them out.

A wave swelled up from the past, or when you passed by an open window: a violin surrendered to your ear.

Voices, voices. Hear, my heart, as only The hallowed may hear: those whom the gargantuan cry wrenched up from the bedrock.

A whine reaches you, emanating from the young dead.

Certainly it is strange to no longer inhabit the earth, to have forsaken the customs one learnt only yesterday: not to see roses nor other tokens of promise which lend meaning to man’s future; to discard one’s name like a broken toy, WR VHH DOO IRUPHUO\ UHODWHG WKLQJV ÁXWWHU loosely in space.

But the living fall foul of making too forceful a distinction.

The angels (so it is said) often do not know whether it is the dead or the living among whom they pass.

7KH HWHUQDO VWUHDP ÁRZV WKURXJK both domains, sucking all with it, their voices drowned in its roar.

It is a wasted tale, the one which tells of music’s birth midst the mourning for Linos?

0XVLF ZKLFK ZDV ÀUVW WR EROGO\ penetrate the numbness, ÀUVW LQWR WKDW EHZLOGHUHG URRP IURP ZKLFK the almost godly youth had suddenly stepped into eternity, the emptiness touched by those same vibrations which now appeal to us, support us, give us succor.

-translation by Andrew Bentley

A Lover’s Complaint James Lark

“A Lover’s Complaint” was commissioned by the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham and premiered at St. Andrew’s Holborn in 2005. In it, James Lark combines two GLͿHUHQW WH[WV ERWK NQRZQ LQ GLͿHUHQW WLPHV as the “Walsingham Ballad,” and referring to the story of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. The one often referred to as “The Pynson Ballad,” written around 1460 by an unknown author and printed by Richard Pynson in 1465, gives an account of visions of the Virgin Mary described by Lady Richeldis in 1061. Lark sets only the last of the 21 verses, a hymn to “Our Lady” on behalf of the pilgrims to Walsingham.

The other Walsingham Ballad, in circulation in the late 1500’s, is often credited to Sir Walter Raleigh, though it may be an adaptation of a folk text. Originally untitled, it has been titled “A Lover’s Complaint” (among other titles) by some editors. The shrine had been destroyed in 1538, and this later Walsingham Ballad is one of a number of “laments” that circulated at the time.

Originally in the form of a dialogue between the narrator and another person, Lark sets only the verses spoken by the narrator.

7KH WZR EDOODGV KDYH YHU\ GLͿHUHQW perspectives on the Walsingham Shrine. The

ÀUVW LV D GHYRXW H[SUHVVLRQ RI D VDFUHG W\SH of love, that of a religious pilgrim for the Virgin Mary. The second is only tangentially related to the Walsingham Shrine, and refers more to the history of pilgrimage to WKH VKULQH WKDQ WR WKH UHOLJLRXV VLJQLÀFDQFH of the shrine itself. It is an expression of secular love, that of the narrator for a fellow pilgrim. Lark keeps these two poems separate, having the countertenor soloist sing “A Lover’s Complaint” and the chorus sing “The Pynson Ballad.” Furthermore, he emphasizes the discord between the perspectives of the two poems by creating VXEWOH UK\WKPLF DQG KDUPRQLF FRQÁLFWV between the soloist and choir. In this work, sacred and secular love coexist in tension with each other.

-Karen Siegel Texts: From “The Pynson Ballad:” O gracious Lady, glory of Jerusalem, Cypresse of Zion and Joy of Israel, Rose of Jericho and Star of Bethlehem, O glorious Lady, our asking not repel, In mercy all women o’er thou dost excel, Therefore, blessed Lady, grant thou thy great grace To all that thee devoutedly visit in this place.

—author unknown From “A Lover’s Complaint:” As you came from the holy land Of Walsingham, Met you not with my true love By the way as you came?

She is neyther white, nor browne, But as the heavens fayre; There is none hathe a form so divine In the earth, or the ayre.

She hath left me here all alone, All alone, as unknowne, Who sometimes did me lead with herselfe, And me lovde as her owne.

I have lovde her all my youth; But now old, as you see, Love lykes not the fallyng fruit From the wythered tree: Know that Love is a careless chylld, And forgets promise paste; +H LV EO\QG KH LV GHDͿ ZKHQ KH O\VW And in faythe never faste.

His desire is a dureless contente, And a trustless joye: He is wonn with a world of despayre, And is lost with a toye.

Of womankynde such indeed is the love, Or the word Love abus’d, Under which many chyldysh desires And conceytes are excus’d. %XW«ORYH LV D GXUDEOH ÀUH In the mynde ever burnynge, Never sycke, never old, never dead, Never from itself turning.

-Attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh (15521618)

How She Could Not Drive Karen Siegel

Lydia Davis’ short story “How She Could Not Drive” captures subtle variations on a sometimes anxiety-inducing situation, driving a car, in lyrical prose that elevates a mundane experience into something extraordinary. My setting of this story often evokes anxiety with sustained trills and RͿ VHW UK\WKPV LQ WKH EDFNJURXQG ZKLOH WKH VWRU\ ÁXLGO\ XQIROGV LQ WKH IRUHJURXQG Then there is the additional layer of the À[HG DXGLR WUDFN LQ ZKLFK KLJKZD\ VRXQGV are heard sometimes naturalistically and at other times in rhythmicized form. Taken all together, I hope that the musical work transforms the text in a similar way as the text transforms the experience it relates.

Thank you to Lydia Davis for permission to set the story, to Tim Brown for bringing it to life, and to Jim Bilodeau for technical DVVLVWDQFH ZLWK WKH À[HG DXGLR -Karen Siegel Text: She could not drive if there were too many clouds in the sky. Or rather, if she could drive with many clouds in the sky, she could not have music playing if there were also passengers in the car. If there were two passengers, as well as a small caged animal, and many clouds in the sky, she could listen but not speak. If a wind blew shavings from the small animal’s cage over her shoulder and lap as well as the shoulder and lap of the man next to her, she could not speak to anyone or listen, even if there were very few clouds in the sky. If the small boy was quiet, reading his book in the back seat, but

the man next to her opened his newspaper so wide that its edge touched the gearshift DQG WKH VXQOLJKW VKRQH RͿ LWV ZKLWH SDJH into her eyes, then she could not speak or listen while trying to enter a large highway full of fast-moving cars, even if there were no clouds in the sky.

Then, if it was night and the boy was not in the car, and the small caged animal was not in the car, and the car was empty of boxes and suitcases where before it had been full, and the man next to her was not reading a newspaper but looking out the window straight ahead, and the sky was dark so that she could see no clouds, she could listen but not talk, and she could have no music playing, if a motel brightly illuminated above her on a dark hill some distance DKHDG DQG WR WKH OHIW VHHPHG WR EH ÁRDWLQJ across the highway in front as she drove at high speed between dotted lines with headlights coming at her on the left and up behind her in the rearview mirror and taillights ahead in a gentle curve around to the right underneath the massive airship RI PRWHO OLJKWV ÁRDWLQJ DFURVV WKH KLJKZD\ from left to right in front of her, or could talk, but only to say one thing, which went unanswered.

— “How She Could Not Drive” from Varieties of Disturbance (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007). Copyright © 2007 by Lydia Davis. Used with permission of the Denise Shannon Literary Agency, Inc. and the author.

World, I Cannot Hold Thee Close Enough Colin Britt

After growing up in Maine, Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) received her education at Vassar and then settled in Greenwich Village, New York City. Like much of her poetry, “God’s World” is both euphoric and nostalgic, expressing a bittersweet melancholy at the ephemeral beauty and incomprehensible expanse of the world.

“World, I Cannot Hold Thee Close Enough “is the third piece in my trilogy of choral settings of Millay poems, after the similarly exuberant “Afternoon on a Hill” and the more pained and poignant “The Dream.”

Thus, musical themes and quotations from the earlier settings are woven into the piece.

Like Millay’s poem, the piece is divided LQWR WZR VHFWLRQV WKH ÀUVW DQ H[KLODUDWHG

exclamation of joy, and the second, a quieter expression of wonderment and awe.

-Colin Britt Text: O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!

Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!

Thy mists that roll and rise!

Thy woods this autumn day, that ache and sag And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag 7R FUXVK 7R OLIW WKH OHDQ RI WKDW EODFN EOXͿ World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!

Long have I known a glory in it all, But never knew I this; Here such a passion is As stretcheth me apart, -- Lord, I do fear Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year; My soul is all but out of me, -- let fall No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

North-West Passage Mario Gullo

Long ago, in a far and distant land (thirty PLOHV VRXWK RI %XͿDOR 1< D \RXQJ PDQ penniless, was in need of a gift for the birth a child. Not knowing what to do, and before becoming acquainted with the great Hayes Biggs and his holiday tradition, he decided to set a poem from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses for the tyke. There are now EIGHT bundles of awesomeness in my family!!

7KH ÀUVW PRYHPHQW LV GHGLFDWHG WR Sarah LaMoine Wilcox Witt, the blonde enchantress of SoCo. The second to Liam Christopher Matney, my Godchild from the same afore mentioned far and distant land; and third for Charles Albert Bernhardt, the rambunctious one from central Ohio. The RWKHU ÀYH SLHFHV ZLOO DSSHDU LQ D ODUJHU ZRUN down the road. ´*RRG 1LJKWµ ZDV ÀUVW KHDUG DW $OLFH 7XOO\ Hall on March 10, 2007. It was performed by the New York City Master Chorale, under the direction of Thea Kano. Tonight is the premiere of the completed cycle.

Three lullabies for three precious children in my life. What more can I say.

Brought to you by the letters TMSUM (Tickle Me Super Uncle Mario) -Mario Gullo Text: I. Good-Night Then the bright lamp is carried in, The sunless hours again begin; 2·HU DOO ZLWKRXW LQ ÀHOG DQG ODQH The haunted night returns again.

1RZ ZH EHKROG WKH HPEHUV ÁHH $ERXW WKH ÀUHOLW KHDUWK DQG VHH Our faces painted as we pass, Like pictures, on the window glass.

Must we to bed indeed? Well then, Let us arise and go like men, And face with an undaunted tread The long black passage up to bed.

Farewell, O brother, sister, sire!

2 SOHDVDQW SDUW\ URXQG WKH ÀUH The songs you sing, the tales you tell, Till far to-morrow, fare you well!

II. Shadow March All around the house is the jet-black night; It stares through the window-pane; It crawls in the corners, hiding from the light, $QG LW PRYHV ZLWK WKH PRYLQJ ÁDPH Now my little heart goes a beating like a drum, With the breath of the Bogies in my hair; And all around the candle and the crooked shadows come, And go marching along up the stair.

The shadow of the balusters, the shadow of the lamp, The shadow of the child that goes to bed-All the wicked shadows coming tramp, tramp, tramp, With the black night overhead.

III. In Port Last, to the chamber where I lie My fearful footsteps patter nigh, And come out from the cold and gloom Into my warm and cheerful room.

There, safe arrived, we turn about To keep the coming shadows out, And close the happy door at last

On all the perils that we past.

Then, when mamma goes by to bed, She shall come in with tip-toe tread, And see me lying warm and fast And in the land of Nod at last.

-Robert Louis Stevenson

Hymn to Aethon, the BirdHeaded, the Many-Taloned Fahad Siadat

“....For the gods are jealous and guard their power from the recklessness of man. You, who grace Prometheus, the Titan, the fallen one, with your daily retribution, grant us your mercy and judgement. Revile the lightbringer who brought radiance to the living!

Let his fate warn those who put themselves above the gods. Punish those who defy the will of Olympus and save us from our endless ambition. Soar, great bird, and from your lofty vantage watch the follies of the world. We live in awesome terror of your VXEOLPH ZUDWK 6KDFNOHG WR WKHVH FOLͿV ZH reveal our greatest sins to your watchful gaze and await the ecstasy of your divine talons.”

- Excerpted from the sermons of Pséftis, High Priest of the Aethonians -Fahad Siadat

Composers (in alphabetical order)

Daniel Andor-Ardó

Daniel Andor-Ardó’s most recent composition, “DADA NY ’15,” was written for C4 in celebration of its tenth anniversary season. Daniel is a long-time member of C4, and had his choral composition, Pitter Patter, Pitter Patter, And Then premiered

by C4 in 2013. Daniel studied composition and piano at The Purcell School of Music, London. His compositions won numerous awards, and were featured by the Society for the Promotion of New Music during 2000–2002. While studying at the University of Cambridge, his conducting engagements included regular appearances with the university ensemble Sforzando Brass as well as his college orchestra. His other big passion—besides music—is science.

He moved to New York City to work in

neuroscience research at the Rockefeller University and currently realizes his dual passions by working at Google on the one hand and making music with C4 on the other.

Colin Britt

Colin Britt, originally from Maine, holds a bachelor’s degree in music composition from the Hartt School and a master’s degree in choral conducting from the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

His compositions have been performed by ensembles in Connecticut, including Voce, CONCORA, and the Yale Schola Cantorum, and by ensembles across the country and on four continents. Also active in musical theater, Mr. Britt has directed music for productions with the West Hartford Summer Arts Festival, the Summer Place Players, and Playhouse on Park in Connecticut. He has served as music director of Marquand Chapel at Yale, on the adjunct conducting faculty at Hartt, as the conductor of the Hartford Chorale Chamber Singers, and as the assistant music director at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, and he currently serves as music director for Grace Church Van Vorst in Jersey City, New Jersey. He is pursuing a DMA in Choral Conducting with Patrick Gardner at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, where he also teaches undergraduate conducting and directs the Rutgers University Choir. He and his wife, Victoria, live in Jersey City.

Mario Gullo

Mario has performed in and around New York City at Alice Tully Hall, City Center, Theatre 80, Barrow Street Theater, La MaMa and Arlene’s Grocery. By far, his favorite was appearing with Barbara Cook at Carnegie Hall. Regionally, he has performed at Artpark, the Theater of Youth, Tri-State Center for the Performing Arts, the Depot Theater and with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. His music has been performed by the New York City Master Chorale, the Larchmont Avenue Church Chancel Choir, Bridges Vocal Ensemble and C4.

Alex Hills

Recently described in Tempo as “a composer of interesting and considerable gifts”, Alex Hills is based in London, where he is a lecturer at the Royal Academy of

Music, directing the theory and analysis programme. His music has been played at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and the South Bank Center to the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and the German SWR, featured on the BBC4 Classic Britannia series and recorded on the American Innova label. He has worked with a wide range of ensembles worldwide, recently including Plus-Minus, EXAUDI, Vertix Sonore and Mosaik in Europe, and Earplay and Either/Or in America. He especially enjoys developing long-term projects with performers, recently including violinist Aisha Orazbayeva, cellist Lucy Railton and pianist Roderick Chadwick. These collaborations formed a PDMRU SDUW RI KLV ÀUVW SRUWUDLW &' IHDWXULQJ chamber music from 2008-13, released last year on Carrier Records. www.alexhills.com

James Lark

James Lark studied composition with Robin Holloway at Cambridge University.

His music has been performed by English Voices, the choirs of St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, the choirs of Trinity College, Cambridge and Vivamus, with recordings by the choirs of Girton and Selwyn colleges. Recent commissions include music for Graham Johnson and the Songmakers’ Almanac A Night in Venice at the Wigmore Hall, two songs for collaborative song cycle “Voices of London” for Song in the City, music for internationally renowned organist Guy Bovet, two organ voluntaries for a special service in King’s College Cambridge celebrating the university’s 800th anniversary, and an anthem for James Bowman with the Chiesa Consort, the last of which won the 2006 Choir and Organ magazine carol competition. Between 2008 and 2011 James was composer-in-residence at Bedford school, he has taught composition and 20th century music topics at Cambridge University and he is currently Director of Music at Westminster Abbey Choir School.

Theatre music includes Io Theatre Company’s recent adaptation of The Snow Spider and new musical Miracles at Short Notice (MusicalTalk’s pick of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe). He wrote the awardwinning 2007 total Fringe sell-out show Tony Blair – the Musical (“runs the melodic gamut from near-Weillian severity to knowingly schmaltzy balladry, and is packed with rich, tight harmonies” - The Daily Telegraph)

and performed in 2006 one-man musical The Rise and Fall of Deon Vonniget (“very funny…fantastically skewed” – the New York Times). Other productions, as both a composer and musical director, include Theophilus Scatterdust’s Magical Gift and The Borrowers (Dreamshed Theatre), With Blacks (collaboration with Jack Thorne for the Alight Here Festival), Lysistrata (Watford Palace Theatre), NewsRevue (Canal Cafe Theatre) and a setting of new words by Andrew Motion for Bush Theatre’s SixtySix Books. He has also scored several short ÀOPV LQFOXGLQJ The Ghost of Kirkton Fell and Summer’s End (Hired Thugs Productions), A Cake for Jim Broadbent and Hide and Seek (Talk to Rex Productions) and Savage Mountain (Steve Warne).

and sang in the Yale Glee Club as an undergraduate. He sings with the New York City Master Chorale as well as C4, and plays piano and organ. He spends his time as a computer programmer and composes occasionally, dreaming of the day that his chamber opera will receive the reception it deserves, or perhaps a better one.

Einojuhani Rautavaara

Einojuhani Rautavaara was born in Helsinki LQ +H ÀUVW FDPH WR LQWHUQDWLRQDO attention in 1955 when the neo-classical A Requiem in Our Time for brass and percussion won the Thor Johnson Composer’s Competition in Cincinnati.

He studied serialism and soon integrated twelve note techniques, without displacing his essential Romanticism. In the late Meredith Monk Meredith Monk (b. November 20, 1942, New 1960s Rautavaara distanced himself from York, NY) is a composer, singer, director/ serialism and his mystical character came choreographer and creator of new opera, more to the fore in music of rich colour and PXVLF WKHDWHU ZRUNV ÀOPV DQG LQVWDOODWLRQV VZHHSLQJ PHORGLF SURÀOH DW RQFH DFFHVVLEOH A pioneer in what is now called “extended and evocative. Recent works by Rautavaara vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary include the orchestral work Tapestry of performance,” Monk creates works that Life (2007), the concertos Incantations for thrive at the intersection of music and percussionist Colin Currie (2008), Towards movement, image and object, light and the Horizon for cellist Truls Mork (2008-09), VRXQG LQ DQ HͿRUW WR GLVFRYHU DQG ZHDYH and Summer Thoughts(2008) toured by together new modes of perception. Her violinist Midori. Rautavaara’s music has groundbreaking exploration of the voice been recorded on the Ondine, Finlandia and as an instrument, as an eloquent language Naxos labels and DVDs have been released in and of itself, expands the boundaries of of his operas The Gift of the Magi, Alexis Kivi musical composition, creating landscapes and Rasputin. of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which there are no Fahad Siadat ZRUGV 2YHU WKH ODVW ÀIW\ \HDUV VKH KDV Fahad Siadat specializes in contemporary been hailed as “a magician of the voice” and experimental music, particularly and “one of America’s coolest composers”. improvisation and the use of extended Celebrated internationally, Monk’s work vocal techniques. As a composer, he focuses has been presented by BAM, Lincoln Center on music for the voice, but has written for Festival, Houston Grand Opera, London’s just about everything from Brazilian handBarbican Centre, and at major venues in percussion to works for the symphony. countries from Brazil to Syria. Among her He is co-artistic director of The Resonance many accolades, she was recently named Collective in New York, an interdisciplinary DQ 2΀FHU RI WKH 2UGHU RI $UWV DQG /HWWHUV music/dance ensemble with collaborator by the Republic of France, and the 2012 Andre Megerdichian and is a co-conductor Composer of the Year by Musical America. of C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Monk is also one of NPR’s 50 Great Voices, Collective. He has also worked as a and has received a 2012 Doris Duke Artist conductor with the Columbia University Award and a 2011 Yoko Ono Lennon Glee Club and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and as voice faculty at the Capezio Dance Courage Award for the Arts.

Center. In 2012, he founded See-A-Dot Music Publishing, Inc., a company devoted Brian Mountford Brian Mountford studied music and to the advocacy of new choral works and electrical engineering at UC Berkeley, emerging composers. He is currently a DMA candidate at the California Institute

of the Arts Performer/Composer Program.

Karen Siegel

Composer Karen Siegel draws on her experience as a vocalist in her creation of innovative choral and vocal works. She is the winner of the 2014-2015 POLYPHONOS Choral Composition Competition, in the National Composer category. This prize is awarded by The Esoterics vocal ensemble, resulting in the commission of a new work to be premiered by the ensemble in Seattle. Karen was recently named a winner of Khorikos’ 2015 ORTUS International New Music Competition for Shirei Shira, premiered by C4 last season; and she was awarded Boston Metro Opera’s 2014 Merit Prize for her song cycle 5HÁHFWLRQV on (VSLRQDJH 6KH UHFHLYHG ÀUVW SUL]H LQ WKH New York Virtuoso Singers 2013 Choral Composition Competition for her humorous a capella choral work from 2006, Confessions from the Blogosphere, which sets excerpts from online blogs. Other honors include the CUNY Graduate Center 2009 Starer Award and being a winner of the 2008 Manhattan Choral Ensemble Commissioning Project Competition, which resulted in the work Saguaro, inspired by the desert landscape and history of Tucson, Arizona. Saguaro was recorded by C4 on the album Volume 1: Uncaged.

A founding member of C4, Karen has EHQHÀWWHG IURP \HDUV RI PHQWRULQJ E\ her conductor colleagues in the ensemble and is active as a conductor both within C4 and in performances of her own works. Karen recently received a PhD in composition from the CUNY Graduate Center, where she studied with Tania León.

Karen also holds degrees from Yale (BA in psychology) and NYU Steinhardt (MM in composition), where she studied with MarcAntonio Consoli. Additional education includes composition studies with Conrad Cummings at the Juilliard Evening Division and choral conducting studies with Péter Erdei at the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét.

Karen is currently on the faculty at Drew University. Her works are both published

by See-A-Dot Music Publishing and selfpublished through Chestnutoak Press on her website, www.KarenSiegel.com. Karen lives in Hoboken, New Jersey with her husband and son.

Judith Weir

Judith Weir’s interests in narrative, folklore and theatre have found expression in a broad range of musical invention. She is the composer and librettist of several widely performed operas whose diverse sources include Icelandic sagas, Chinese Yuan Dynasty drama and German Romanticism.

Folk music from the British Isles and EH\RQG KDV LQÁXHQFHG KHU PXVLF IRU solo instruments, and she has had strong links with performers from non-classical traditions. She was resident composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and has also written music for the Boston Symphony, BBC Symphony and Minnesota Orchestras. In recent years she has worked intensively on commissions from choirs of many kinds.

In July 2014 she was appointed to the 388year old royal post of Master of the Queen’s Music, in succession to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Recent and forthcoming premieres include Ave Regina Caelorum (Merton College Choir/Cheltenham Festival 2014) Day Break Shadows Flee (Benjamin Grosvenor/BBC Proms 2014) and Good Morning, Midnight (Alice Coote, Aurora Orchestra/Wigmore Hall 2015). Weir will take up the position of Associate Composer with the BBC Singers in 2015.

We wish to thank and acknowledge our donors: Concert Sponsor Contemporary Circle Michael David and Lauren Mitchell Daniel Sigg and Ellen Stafford-Sigg

Cutting-Edge Circle Nathan Berkoff

Innovative Circle

Kit Smyth Basquin* Susan M. Orzel-Biggs Melissa Bybee Beth Marker Ian David Moss and Debby Katz Patricia Siegel

Creative Circle Amanda Almon

Daniel Andor-Ardó

Helen Bell Saul Ostrow and Susan Bowman Mr. and Mrs. Lewis R. Brown Andy Loose and Jill Garland David Handler Don and Sally Hayward Ira and Becky Horowitz Albert Hudspeth Leslie and Linda Libow John Lovegren Edward and Rose Mermelstein Mile Square Insurance Agency Sue Backstrom and Jon Minikes Brian Mountford Bob and Helen Natt Charles Natt George and Lois Orzel Katherine Schoonorer Linda Schrank* Bettina Sheppard Martha Sullivan Kenneth and Jean Telljohann David Wozniak

Shawn Aller Jim Bilodeau Beth Blatt Judith Blazer Craig and Loren Blum Margaret Brown Sandra C. Carlson Henry Clapp Martin and Lisa Cohen Michael Conley Lee and Nancy Corbin Elissa Desani John Evans Vincent Fitzgerald* Reyna Franco Ellen Gesmer Byron Gibbs* Grace Goodman Lisa Gwasda Jeanine Hartnett John Hastings Brook Hersey Justin and Renee Herz Arthur and Eileen Hirsh Ernest Hood* David Hurd Linnéa Johnson William Barto Jones Marisa Karchin Charlie Katz Amanda Keil Hugh and Kathy Klein Eddy Susan Kokot Susan Koshewa Jacob Lee and Chery Krugel-Lee Jon and Miriam Lafferty Tania León Steven and Jodi Leone Stanley Lieblein Sara Linger Evelyn Liston

*indicates Friends of C4 Includes donations from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015. Concert Sponsor-$1,000-$4,999; Cutting-Edge Circle-$600-899; Innovative Circle-$350-599; Creative Circle-$125-349; Contemporary Circle-$1-$124 If we have made an error, please accept our apologies and notify us by emailing info@c4ensemble.org.

C4 Board of Directors

Contemporary Circle (con’t.)

Peter Lurye Russell and Diana Maltz Peter and Christine Metz Mary Meyer Juliet Milhofer Nancy Morrison Ruth Mueller-Maerki Akemi Naito Bernard and Rochelle Natt Marge Naughton Lisa Niedermeyer Michelle Quirk Tarik O’Regan Ronnie Scharfman Zahra Partovi* Inna Patterson Jeffrey Ramras Jonathan and Suzanne Rosenzweig Ronnie Scharfman Mina K. Seeman Barry and Allison Shapiro Fahad Siadat Carolyn Smith Lynda Spongberg

C4 could not function without the dedicated work of its board of directors. We are very grateful to: Jonathan David, Chair Hayes Biggs Karen Siegel Larry Siegel Melissa Wozniak, Treasurer

Special thanks for their time and resources: Jerry Hirniak, artist for the 10th Season The Church of St. Luke in the Fields Baruch College

C4’s activities are funded in part with the generous assistance of:

C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective Sopranos

Altos

Tenors

Basses

Brooke Collins Mimi Goodman Karen Siegel Susanna Su Joy Tamayo Melissa Wozniak

Maya Ben-Meir Melissa Bybee Karl Michael Johnson Rachael Lansang Beth Marker Bettina Sheppard

Mario Gullo Billy Janiszewski Joe Rubinstein Fahad Siadat Perry Townsend Nate Widelitz

Daniel Andor-Ardó Hayes Biggs James Bilodeau Timothy Brown Brian Mountford

& WKH ZRUOG·V ÀUVW &KRUDO &RPSRVHU &RQGXFWRU &ROOHFWLYH LV D XQLTXH YRFDO ensemble in New York City dedicated to performing music written in the last WZHQW\ ÀYH \HDUV $ FROODERUDWLYH SURMHFW RI LWV VLQJLQJ PHPEHUV LW IXQFWLRQV QRW only as a presenting ensemble in its own right, with a three-program, 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 NQRZ WKH ÀUVW HQVHPEOH RI LWV NLQG ZZZ F HQVHPEOH RUJ

photographer: Keith Goldstein

For information on C4 members, visit our website c4ensemble.org/theensemble.html

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Jerry Hirniak

Works Available!

THIS EVENING !

C4’s 2014-15 Season Artwork Contributor

through Silent Auction!

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We hope you’ve enjoyed the beautiful art featured on this season’s promotional materials. We’re pleased that they’ve come to us through what is becoming a tradition of featuring works by our “Friends of C4.” !

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The contributing artist for our “By the Numbers” 10th season is award-winning artist, Jerry Hirniak. Jerry utilizes contact sheets containing literally thousands of photographic images to produce completely scalable works that range from palmsized to larger than life.!

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In his own words: "My recent work reflects on the implications of the massive numbers of photographs that can be captured and displayed in a digital environment. My goal is both to force the viewer to rethink what an image is and to create the possibility for me as a photographer to maintain a constant questioning of the representational possibilities and limitations of the photographic medium.”!

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The four images that Jerry created for our use this season, beautifully mounted, are available THIS EVENING for purchase through our silent auction which will close after the reception following the June 6th performance.!

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MANY THANKS to Jerry for his generosity, and ongoing dedication to C4.! ! !

NYC/Sky!

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5 Pointz!

Occupy Wall Street ! !

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Whitney

Please take this opportunity to view these beautiful works and keep in mind that! your winning bid will be entirely for the benefit of C4.