Acknowledgments 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: The David and Minnie Berk Foundation, Inc. Dodger Properties Nan Bases Michael David & Lauren Mitchell Tracy & Stanley Shopkorn The Jewish Communal Fund And for their contributions: Morgan Stanley Clarence & Sally Baum Francine Belkind Jennifer Borum Timothy Brown Nancy & Lee Corbin Zachary Cummings Orianne Yin Dutka Hugh & Kathryn Eddy Carol Garner & Martin Geller Martha Garner-Duhe Eileen & Arthur Hirsh Linnéa Johnson John Kander Sheldon Klenetsky Tania J. León Jodi & Stephen Leone Stanley Lieblein Patricia Lutz Elizabeth Marker Dan Martin & Michael Biello Edward & Rose Mermelstein Peter & Christine Metz
Jon Minikes & Susan Backstrom Ian Moss Ruth Mueller-Maerki Roberta & Michael Nassau Rochelle & Bernard Natt Elizabeth Vardin Newman Julianne Parolisi Raymond Penn Warren Prince Barry Putterman Amy Fonda Sara Ann & Richard Sarnoff Mina Seeman Larry & Pat Siegel Alan Silverman Carol Spencer Ellen Stafford-Sigg Daniel & Susan Stearns Kenneth & Jean Telljohann Deborah Teplow Mary Tsimenoglou Richard Walker Jessica & Markus Wichser
Special Thanks We also wish to express our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the following organizations and individuals for their support and assistance: The Rockefeller University Manhattan New Music Project Christian Smythe
C: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective Sopranos Franny Geller Karen Siegel Martha Sullivan
Altos June Severino Feldman Sally Fenley Jamie Klenetsky Elizabeth Marker
Tenors Christopher Baum Jonathan David David Rentz Joseph N. Rubinstein
Basses Daniel Andor James Bilodeau Timothy Brown Phillip Cheah* David Harris *Also sings soprano
C, 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.
C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective
Savage Dreams Saturday, 15 May 2010, Rockefeller University, Caspary Auditorium, New York, NY
Prologue: A Man Said to the Universe (2010)† Phillip Cheah, countertenor Karen Siegel, conductor
Joseph N. Rubinstein (b. 1986)
Displaced (2010)† Daniel Andor, conductor
Malina Rauschenfels (b. 1978)
Drip Dream (2008)† David Harris, conductor
Timothy Brown (b. 1963)
Ring of Bone (2010)† Stephan Moore, sound designer Christopher Baum, conductor
David Harris (b. 1974) and Jeremy Weinberg (b. 1973)
Please visit our website, www.c4ensemble.org. TEN-MINUTE INTERMISSION David Rentz (b. 1977)
I shall keep singing! (2005) § Karen Siegel, soprano Timothy Brown, conductor Piano (2010) † Phillip Cheah, conductor
Christopher Baum (b. 1974)
Savage Altars (1991) Phillip Cheah, countertenor Timothy Brown, bass Guy Figer, violin Amelia Hollander Ames, viola David Rentz, conductor
Ingram Marshall (b. 1942)
† World premiere § New York City Premiere
Drip Dream
Program Notes & Texts Prologue: A Man Said to the Universe “Prologue: A Man Said to the Universe” was written in the spring of 2010, and is dedicated to C4. The D flat drone that is heard throughout the piece is derived from acoustical waves that are generated by changes in the internal pressure of the Sun. These waves, which cause the entire Sun to vibrate like a bell, were detected by an instrument called the Michelson Doppler Imager that is attached to the SOHO spacecraft, which circles the Sun 1,000,000 miles from the Earth. These solar waves are normally found at frequencies too low for the human ear to hear, but researchers at Stanford University made them audible by speeding the waves up 42,000 times and then compressing 40 days of vibrations into a few seconds. I felt that this deep, sonorous drone from outer space provided a perfect “voice of the universe” for a musical setting of Stephen Crane’s short poem “A man said to the universe” from 1899. The setting I made is intended to reflect my two favorite things about this text – the poem is both a serious reminder of the insignificance of man, as well as a darkly humorous dialogue between a single human voice and an enormous, ponderous universe. The unique timbre of the solo countertenor represents the prototypical man or woman speaking to the universe, while the choir singing together intones the universes’ disinterested answer. Throughout the piece, the unchanging drone serves as a reminder of the universes’ eternal unresponsiveness to the goings on of man. The text is extremely brief and structurally balanced, and reminded me of a small, perfectly round soap bubble that emerges, floats for a few brief moments, and then pops, leaving no sign that it existed. Hence, the piece closes with a sharp “pop” sound created by the singers. I originally imaged this piece as a prologue to a larger multi-movement work,
which I hope to finish writing in the near future. Special thanks to Jim Bilodeau for his help enhancing the sound of the drone, and to Prof. Alexander Kosovichev of Stanford University for his permission to use it. — Joseph N. Rubinstein
A man said to the universe: “Sir I exist!” “However,” replied the universe, “The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation.” Stephen Crane, 1899
Displaced This piece is about homelessness. Although the words are Stanley’s, drawn from my interview with him, it is not meant to be “his” story. He is an incredibly positive person ready to tackle whatever problem is thrown his way. Instead this piece is meant to embody my views on all that I have read and heard about different people’s experiences in the past few years. When I think of homelessness I think of: some key “disaster” moment followed by a slow downward spiral, anxiety, invisibility, alienation, lack of voice, monotony, lack of freedom and purpose. This piece is about how easy it is to lose each subsequent opportunity because of what came before and thus how difficult it is to crawl out of the hole back to “middle class” once the slide has begun. Our laws seem set up to encourage this catastrophe. I believe this issue, and those connected to it such as education, health care and poverty, are the issues we must solve in the next few years or our country will fall apart. Special thanks to Stanley for the time he spent talking with me. — Malina Rauschenfels
If you’ve ever experienced having your dreams altered by an ambient noise, you’ll easily identify with Drip Dream. In just this way, the unsuspecting person in the story of the piece - on the way to sleep - is sent into a frenzied dreamscape of water. Drip Dream includes 16 parts devoted to a wide range of watery noises interpreted for the human voice. For this performance, these effects are prerecorded and accompany the sung material, which varies from 8 to 11 parts. The main motive of the piece is made up of linking 3-note groups which pass between the parts in rising and falling lines. Nothing too fancy, the text for the resulting “waves” of notes consists solely of the word “drip” and sounds such as “pita-pata”. The poor dreamer is represented variously in all sections of the choir. Once drawn in by a crescendo of drips, he/she loosely narrates the resulting trek: from the flooding bedroom, down the rushing stream, riding on a raging river, and out into the storm driven ocean before landing, finally, on a calm shore. I want to express a great many thanks to C4 for taking on the task of realizing Drip Dream - my debut work with the group; to David Harris for his excellent work on the piece; and, most of all, to our resident recording engineer, Jim Bilodeau. — Timothy Brown Drip drip drip... Drip drip drip... (etc.) Oh! What is that?! Where is it?!! Where is that coming from? Make it stop!!
Where is that? Stop it!! Pi-ta-pi-ta.../Ti-pa-ti-pa... Pa-ti-pa-ti.../Ta-pi-ta-pi... (etc.) Raining. Raining?! Can it be raining in my bedroom? Can it be rain? Ah! Rain? Raining? (sigh) Ah! Floating, I’ll soon be floating... Floating down the stream... When it rains, it pours! How will I stop this flooding?! I’ll wash away!!! White water rapids, Rushing all around, Bed for a boat, Under the covers... I’m... wet! Ah! Will someone save me?! Anyone?! Drip drip drip drip! Water water water water water water water!! Drift - - - ing sea... Oh! Rogue wave!
out
in - - - to
the
Oh-Ah! Tsunami!! Monsoon!!! Hurricane!!!! Typhoon!!!!! Oh!!!!!! .... Ooh... Washed up on the shore? Oh, well... I always enjoy the beach.
Ring of Bone I once asked the question on Facebook, “what sound does yellow make” and got the reply “I’m not sure, but blue is definitely a sound.” Science tells us that our wires can get crossed, that we can hear sight and taste touch, but the thought of such things challenges our logical precepts. Perhaps, though, within the artistic part of our brains the associations are more easily understood. Synethseia: “A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color” (answers.com ). The idea to use dream-inspired images for “Ring of Bone” developed from the sense that dreams have a way of fluidly transmuting sensory experience. The composition is as much about eliciting cross-sensory reaction as it is about reflecting creative ideas. Hence, the co-creative aspects of a sound artist and choral improvisation are the piece’s primary vehicle. Even in the third scene’s strict canon, singers are given as little prescribed information as possible. The musicians have been asked to respond to the visual, to let it elicit sound and to experiment with
how color, line and shape impact auditory response. The background stories offer an understanding of the artistic instigation points, but the experience lies in letting your mind fall into the artwork, buoyed by aural reflections (and try not to “think” too much). “Ring of Bone” is in three scenes, based on the following: Jeremy’s dream: I am trusted with a beluga whale which I am guarding in a shallow pool. The sun is reflecting off the waves on the surface of the pool and the whale is swimming playfully around. There is some anxiety about being attacked by some smaller predator, but this is more an annoyance than a menace. David’s Dream: When I was younger, I had a recurring nightmare where I would walk down a hallway (I viewed from the side) lined with really green grass and sometimes perfectly situated flowers and a low bass drone filled my mind. At some point, I was face to face (perspective shift) with a friend of family member who was sitting in a big chair and we’d chat. Randomly and quickly, the chair would mangle them horribly and the drone would turn into an amazingly loud crash and I would wake up. — David Harris I saw myself a ring of bone in the clear stream of it all and vowed, always to be open to it that all of it might flow through
and then heard “ring of bone” where ring is what a bell does Lew Welch GUEST ARTISTS Jeremy Wineberg (b.1973) is a visual artist working in painting, drawing and sculpture media. His work has been shown across the United States and in 2008 was featured in the publication New American Paintings. His last three solo exhibitions in Denver and Madison, Wisconsin have dealt with mapping, synthenasia, psychogeography and chaos theory. In 2008 he froze an inverted model of Madison’s lakes in ice along their shores, for which he received a BLINK grant for temporary public art from the city of Madison, where he currently lives, works and teaches. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Delaware in 2005 and has been active in the Philadelphia art scene since 2000. Brooklyn-based sound artist Stephan Moore’s (b.1973) recent musical work centers around the collection and use of realworld sound, the creation and perception of sonic environments, and technological manifestations of improvisation and interactivity. His current ongoing collaborations include the Xenolinguistics performance project with visionary video artist Diana Reed Slattery, projects with choreographers Yanira Castro and Kimberly Young and performance artist Kyle DeCamp, sound design for the Nerve Tank theater collective, the band Volume (n) with Shelley Burgon, Maria Chavez and Suzanne Thorpe, and the performing/ recording duo Evidence with sound artist Scott Smallwood. He proudly serves on the Art Advisory Board of Issue Project Room in Brooklyn. From 2004 to 2010, he served as
the Music Coordinator and Sound Engineer of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and as one of its core touring musicians. As an improviser and performer, he has made music with Christian Wolff, John Paul Jones, Pauline Oliveros, William Winant, David Behrman, Alex Waterman, John King, Keith Rowe, Takehisa Kosugi, Michael Haleta, MV Carbon, Andrea Parkins, Troy Pohl, Curtis Bahn, David Linton, Mikel Rouse, Maria Chavez, Newton Armstrong, Seth Cluett, Ikue Mori, Kenta Nagai, Larry Polansky, Jesse Stiles and Joan La Barbara, among others. In the fall of 2010, he will begin his Ph.D. studies at Brown University, in the Computer Music and Multimedia Composition program. In August 2010, he will participate in his 8th consecutive Burning Man Festival.
I shall keep singing! I wrote I shall keep singing! in 2005 for Pro Musica, the chamber chorus of the Yale Camerata (directed by Marguerite Brooks). The poem seems to me to be Dickinson’s musing on the condition of watching and waiting expectantly while others grow and move on. I hope that the music captures, in some small way, both the bittersweetness and the eventual serenity of the poem and its resolution. — David Rentz I shall keep singing! Birds will pass me On their way to Yellower Climes— Each—with a Robin’s expectation— I—with my Redbreast— And my Rhymes— Late—when I take my place in summer— But—I shall bring a fuller tune— Vespers—are sweeter than Matins— Signor— Morning—only the seed of Noon— Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Piano When C4 kindly chose to revive my Two Miniatures for their “Greatest and Latest” concert in November 2009, I thought it would be nice to add a third piece to the set. The result was “Piano”, although I did not complete it in time for the November program. To the expanded suite I gave the accurate if not very imaginative title Three Poems of D.H. Lawrence. — Christopher Baum Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings. In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide. So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour With the great black piano appassionato The glamour Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past. D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)
Savage Altars Tacitus, in his Annals, Book I, chronicles the Roman campaign against the German tribes and their devastating defeat at the hands of the Cheruscan soldiers under the fabled Arminius in the Teutoburgian forest. He describes the discovery, six years after the fact, of the remains—the bleached out bones, splintered spears and debris—of three legions of massacred Roman soldiers. In the woods, near the battle scene, are found the enemy’s “barbarae arae,” their savage altars. This piece was written in 1991 under commission from the Dartmouth College Chamber Choir. The First Gulf War was underway, and although it turned out to be relatively short, compared to its recent second act, it seemed to me that the country was in the grip of a militarist mindset.
I had wanted to set the beautiful comforting but admonitory words of the Marian hymn Magnificat, but I was drawn to these words of Tacitus; by interpolating the Latin text of Tacitus into the verses of the Latin hymn, I had a “language” around which I could create my musical statements. A third text crept in as well, the famous 13th-Century Reading Rota, the “Sumer is i cumen in” canon, which is thought to be the oldest notated polyphonic music. I used the Middle English text as well as the Latin text “Perpice Christicola” in different meters. Savage Altars is scored for SATB choir with violin and viola obbligati and electronic interludes. — Ingram Marshall Ingram Marshall lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1973 to 1985 and in Washington State, where he taught at Evergreen State College, until 1989. His current base is Connecticut. In recent years he has concentrated on music combining tape and electronic processing with ensembles and soloists. His music has been performed by ensembles and orchestras such as Theatre of Voices, the Kronos Quartet, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and the American Composers Orchestra. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Fromm Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Recent recordings are on Nonesuch (Kingdom Come) and New Albion (Savage Altars). — David Rentz 1.Magnificat Magnificat anima mea Dominum, et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo. My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my savior. Et misericoria ejus a progenie in
progenies timentibus eum. And his mercy is on them that fear him through all generations. Fecit potentiam in brachio suo; dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. He hath shown the might of his arm. Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles. He hath cast down the mighty from their thrones and hath exalted the humble. Esurientes implevit bonis, et divites dimisit inanes. The hungry he hath filled with good things, and the rich hath sent away empty. 2. Tacitus, Annals Book I ….haud procul Teutoburgiensi saltu, in quo reliquiae Veri legionumque insepultae dicenbatur. ….they were now not far from the Teutoburgian forest, where, it was said, the remains of Varus and his legions lay unburied 3. Magnificat Magnificat anima mea… My soul doth magnify… Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae; ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes. For he hath regarded the lowliness of his servant; henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est; et sanctum nomen ejus. For he who is mighty hath magnified me; and holy is his name. Magnificat anime mea Dominum My soul doth magnify the Lord et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo. and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my savior
4. Tacitus …medio campi albentia ossa, ut fugerant, ut restiterant, disiecta vel aggerata. Adiacebant fragmina telorum, equorumque artus, simul truncis arborum antefixa ora: lucis propinque barbarae arae… …in the plains between were bleaching bones, scattered or in little heaps, as the men had fallen, fleeing or standing fast. Hard by lay splintered spears and limbs of horses, while human skulls were nailed prominently on the tree trunks. In the neighboring groves stood the savage altars… 5. Magnificat Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles. He hath cast down the mighty from their thrones and hath exalted the humble. Magnificat anima mea Dominum, et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo. My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my savior. 6. Reading Rota Sumer is i-cumen in Lhude sing cu-cu Groweth sed and bloweth me and spring the woods a nu. Sing cu-cu. Perspice Christicola que dignatio Caelicus agricola pro vicis vicio. Filio. Observe, Christian, such honor! The heavenly farmer
due to a defect in the vine. Son. 7. Tacitus …igitur Romanys, qui aderat, exercitus, sextum post cladis annum, trium legionum ossa, nullo noscente, alienas reliquias an suorum humo tegeret, omnes, ut consanguineous, eucta in hostem ira, moesti simul et infensi condbant… …And so, six years after the fatal field, a Roman army buried the bones of three legions, and no man know whether he consigned to earth the remains of a stranger or a kinsman, but all thought of all as friends and members of one family…
C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective Daniel Andor started playing piano at four and studied composition and piano at The Purcell School of Music, London. His 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 now finds himself in New York, contemplating the receiving end of music: researching hearing and its neuro-physiology. In addition to conducting, singing and occasionally composing for C4, Christopher Baum is the Music Director of the Manhattan Wind Ensemble, an Associate Conductor of Columbia Summer Winds, and a member of the artistic staff of New Music New York. He received his BA in Classical Guitar from San Jose State University and his MM in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Denver. Upcoming performances include a Manhattan Wind Ensemble concert on May 24 and, in the fall, a concert of chamber music for flute and guitar. James Bilodeau grew up in the Adirondacks and spent his youth singing in church choirs, school choruses and several musicals. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Production and Technology from the Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, CT. At Hartt he also studied choral arts and conducting with Dr. Edward Bolkovac and voice with Janine Hawley and Janet Alcorn. Since moving to New York, James has sung with the Empire City Men’s Chorus under Dr. Jonathan Babcock and with C4. Professionally, he works as a Talk Radio Imaging Producer for Sirius XM Radio.
Timothy Brown completed his BA at the University of North Texas and has been a choral professional for over 20 years, 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’ . Tim later studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Nils Vigeland. His Incidental Dance Suite was premiered at Merkin Concert Hall, 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 Phillip Cheah is a member of the professional choir at the Church of St Luke in the Fields, the Bach Choir of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, and the medieval music consort of voices, Guildsingers. He has sung under the batons of Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, and Esa-Pekka Salonen with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and American Symphony Orchestra. A tireless champion of contemporary music, he has performed and premièred works by Ralph Shapey, Joe Manieri, John Eaton, and David Lang, including the US premières of Paul McCartney’s Ecce Cor Meum and John Tavener’s monumental all-night vigil The Veil of the Temple. Phillip has conducted the Handel Society of Dartmouth, Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble, the Indiana University Opera Theatre, and the Amato Opera, where he was also a répétiteur. He has given recitals with pianist Trudy Chan in unique programmes showcasing his unusually large vocal range of almost three-and-a-half
octaves, most recently as a featured artist on the 21st century Schizoid Music Series at Cornelia Street Café. As an accompanist, he has given recitals with the Aguavã New Music Studio, the Millennium Wagner Opera Company, and the Opera Collective of New York. He has recorded on the Pro Organo and Tzadik labels. A guest lecturer at the Manhattan School of Music and Barnard College, Phillip has held teaching appointments at the Putney School and Cathedral High School where he was the Director of Music. He has worked for the Music Department at Oxford University Press and has also been the personal assistant to the composer/satirist Peter Schickele. He holds both B.M. and M.M. degrees from Indiana University where he studied piano, conducting, and opera coaching with Jan Harrington, Thomas Dunn, John Poole, Carmen Téllez, Christopher Harding, and Reiko Shigeoka-Neriki. Jonathan David has been described as “an important emerging musical voice” in the worlds of choral music, music-theatre, and art song. He has served as Composer-inResidence for The Greenwich Village Singers and Music Director for the Morningside Heights-based chorus, Howl! Recent premieres include Titania’s Garage Sale by C4, Flocks Feed by Darkness, a commission from Glass Menagerie, and Hopkins Songs, a cycle for soprano Amy Bartram. Upcoming commissions include Even in Darkness from the Packer Collegiate Concert Chorus, and a work for baritone Daniel Neer and harp. Past commissions have come from the New York Treble Singers and the Thanks-Giving Foundation. David’s choral music has also been performed by the Princeton Singers, the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, and Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble, among many others. Current projects include a large-scale song cycle, Winter Birds, for sopranist Phillip Cheah, to texts by poet David Brendan Hopes. Stage works include Bronx Express, which ran to critical acclaim at the 2005
New York International Fringe Festival. His music has received awards from ASCAP, the Americas Vocal Ensemble, and the Global Network of Conservatories. A graduate of Wesleyan University, he studied with John Bavicchi and Don McDonnell at the Berklee College of Music. He is published by Oxford University Press. June Severino Feldman is a native New Yorker. She’s been an instrumental musician since childhood and currently plays piano, clarinet and guitar. She is the alto section leader of the Riverdale Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir and has sung with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic under the batons of William Steinberg and Michael Tilson Thomas. She recently completed 3 seasons singing with Polyhymnia, an early music ensemble conducted by John Bradley, and is currently an alto with both C4 and Canticum Novum. June studies voice with Marcia Young and lives in Manhattan with her beloved family and her new Plott Hound named Delta. A native of the New York City area, Sally Fenley graduated from Barnard College with Honors in Music. She continued her musical studies with Nadia Boulanger and Annette Dieudonne in Paris, and returned to New York and got her Master’s Degree in Music Composition from N.Y.U. She has taught music for over 25 years, at the Wooster School, Abington Friends School, Nyack High School, Bloomingdale School of Music, and the Collegiate School. She is also a church musician, having served for many years as organist-choir director at Cresskill Congregational Church in New Jersey, and in the professional choir of St. Ignatius of Antioch in New York City. She is currently musical director of the vocal jazz ensemble, the Uptown Sound. Franny Geller is a boy soprano in a dress and an aspiring ornithologist. A choral
addict since childhood, Franny has passed through such New York City ensembles as Trinity Wall Street Choir, St. Bartholomew’s Choir, the Pharos Music Project, Canticum Novum Singers, and Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble, with whom she appears on two recent releases: Lisa Bielawa’s A Handful of World and Yumiko Matsuoka’s To Every Thing There is a Season. She is currently a member of the Bach Vespers Choir at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, and of Guildsingers, a quartet devoted to Medieval music. Franny has also pulled a couple of musical all-nighters, once for the New York premiere of John Tavener’s Veil of the Temple, and again to close the 2008 Bang On a Can Summer Marathon with Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Stimmung, as a member of Toby Twining Music. David Harris, BSE, MM, DMA is a freelance musician living in Manhattan. He is the director for the Columbia Glee Club, a member of C4 the Choral Composer/ Conductor Collective, assistant director for Canticum Novum and teaches for the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music. In addition to conducting and teaching, David composes a variety of music and is currently working on several projects, among them a musical, a ballet and some choral pieces. This year he released three CDs: I Want To Be Ready, a live recording of Jubilate in Carnegie Hall, Old Time Religion, gospel favorites and St. Bartholomew and The Frail Stag, a live recording in Denver of the premiere of three of his multi-movement works. Each is available on iTunes and CDBaby. He moved to New York from Colorado where he began and directed Jubilate, a 55-voice a cappella choir, for 8 years. Prior to that, he lived in Birmingham and taught high school in addition to working with the Birmingham Boys Choir. David often serves as a clinician and fulfills composition commissions throughout the year. He is a current member of the American Composers Forum and the American Music Center. David co-
authored the book In The Good Old Summer Time with Thomas Riis in 2006. He holds degrees from the Universities of Alabama, Oklahoma, and Colorado. He received the Marinus Smith Recognition Award for Teaching Excellence in 2003 from the University of Colorado Parents Association for his work with the CU Collegiate Chorale. Jamie Klenetsky is a composer, singer and web designer residing in Morristown, NJ. Jamie was the second-place winner of the San Fransisco Choral Artists’ 2007 “New Voices” competition, and a finalist in the Karen Sokolof Javitch 2008 “Emerging Jewish Composer” competition. Her electronic piece Space Music was featured by New Music Hartford at their September concert. C4 premiered her latest piece, An Ever-Fixed Mark, in its February concent. Currently, Jamie sings professionally with the Seton Hall Chapel Choir and will attend the Vermont Composition Workshop held by composer Jon Appleton this summer. Professionally, she works as the web designer of the county government of Morris County, NJ. Elizabeth Marker is an accomplished musician who has devoted the major portion of her career to the advancement of choral music. She holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from Boston University where she studied with Mary Davenport and 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 addition to his work with C4, David Rentz directs Guildsingers, an early music ensemble. He also directs the choruses at the Brearley School and has served as assistant conductor for the New Amsterdam Singers. He has earned graduate degrees in choral conducting from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and, most recently, Yale University, where he was co-director of the University Chapel Choir. David is also an active composer whose works have been performed by, among others, the Madison (WI) Youth Choirs, the Washington University Chamber Chorus, the Milwaukee Young Artists Festival Ensemble, and the Yale Camerata. Joseph N. Rubinstein sings tenor with C4. He is a passionate supporter of contemporary music and has been involved in many premieres of pieces by young and emerging composers. A composer himself, his works have been featured at festivals such as the Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Yale Summer Festival at Norfolk, and by groups including the Columbia University Bach Society, the International Vocal Arts Workshop, C4, the Young New Yorker’s Chorus, the Norfolk Contemporary Ensemble, and WorldMuse. Recent awards include Second Place in the 2009 SACRA / PROFANA Composer Competition and Region II finalist status in the 2008 SCI / ASCAP Student Commission Competition. Joe studied composition at Columbia University with Joseph Dubiel, Sebastian Currier, and Fred Lerdahl, and
currently works on composer and new music promotion for a major music publisher. Karen Siegel grew up harmonizing doowop tunes with her family, and went on to study voice, piano, cello, and eventually 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 and was recently awarded the Robert Starer Award for composition. She is also Adjunct Lecturer in Music at City College. Martha Sullivan’s music has been praised as “vibrant” and “a singer’s favorite”. She has been commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers, the Gregg Smith Singers, the Esoterics and numerous others, in cities as far-flung as Tokyo, Reno, Dallas, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, and Zurich. She has received several Meet the Composer grants for her work with Gregg Smith and recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts for her work with the Esoterics. She was a medalist in the Sorel Medallion competition in 2009, in which Voices of Ascension premiered her music at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, and she won the Dale Warland Singers’ Choral Ventures competition in its final year (2003). She has never studied composition formally, but she has studied voice with such notable divas as Phyllis Curtin and Lili Chookasian, at Boston University and Yale. She has sung
and recorded premieres by such innovators as Toby Twining and John Zorn, so she’s been heard on WNYC’s “New Sounds” a number of times; she has also appeared on New York City Opera’s VOX program of new operas twice, in Gordon Beeferman’s The Rat Land. She has sung with numerous ensembles in New York and elsewhere, under conductors such as Sarah Caldwell, Robert Shaw, and James Levine. Singing with C4, however, is unique, in that its members’ interests and experience are at least as eclectic as her own.