New Music New Haven

april 12, 2012 Morse Recital Hall Thursday at 8 pm artistic director Christopher Theofanidis featured composer Kaija Saariaho and music of Stephen Feigenbaum Jordan Kuspa Daniel Schlosberg Justin Tierney Fay Wang

Robert Blocker, Dean

PROGRAM

Stephen Feigenbaum

Sonata for Double Bass and Piano Matthew Rosenthal, double bass Lee Dionne, piano

Daniel Schlosberg

pocket guide to you + me Shawn Moore, violin • Colin Brookes, viola

Jordan Kuspa

Picaresque Episodes I. Dark March II. Rapscallions III. Katabasis IV. Brash Passage handsome dans trombone quartet Benjamin Firer, Hana Beloglavec, Timothy Hilgert, Jeffery Arredondo

Fay Wang

Monodrama of Old Haven 1. Intro 2.  Street 3. Red Castle + Mini Sheep 4. Saint George 5. The Bunny Theme 6. Dwight Street 7. We Go Home Paolo Bortolameolli, conductor Shannon Hayden, Mo Mo, cello Gleb Kanasevich, clarinet Cristobal Gajardo-Benitez, Leonardo Gorosito, Adam Rosenblatt, percussion Maura Valenti, harp Daniel Schlosberg, piano Ian O’Sullivan, Graham Banfield, guitar

PROGRAM

intermission Kaija Saariaho

Terrestre I. L’Oiseau dansant II. L’Oiseau, un satellite infime Yang Jiao, conductor Ginevra Petrucci, solo flute Joohye Lim, violin Jurrian van der Zanden, cello Victor Caccese, percussion Yue Guo, harp

Justin Tierney

Escritura del Dios (The God’s Script) Scene 13: A Formula of Fourteen Words Scene 14: I Let the Days Obliterate Me Dashon Burton, voice Eunchan Kim, Ronny Michael, piano

Saariaho

Serenatas I. Agitato II. Delicato III. Dolce IV. Languido V. Misterioso Hannah Collins, cello Paul Kerekes, piano Michael Compitello, percussion

As a courtesy to the performers and audience, turn off cell phones and pagers. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.

PROFILES + NOTES

KAIJA SAARIAHO featured composer Born in 1952 in Finland, Kaija Saariaho lived a childhood embedded in music, playing several instruments. In parallel to musical studies, she started art studies, at the Fine Arts School of Helsinki, that she quickly quit to concentrate on music. At the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, she received the composition teachings of Paavo Heininen, before to follow, in Darmstadt then in Fribourg, the courses of Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber.

Characterizing her works of the eighties, her sensual writing, descriptive and lyrical, unfold subtle transformations. Her research of new timbres stimulated her study of new techniques in the instrumental as well as the computer domain, for which starting in 1982, she initiated herself at ircam. This practice constitutes an important element of her compositions. She confirmed her international notoriety with works such as Verblendungen for orchestra and tape (1982–84), Lichtbogen for chamber ensemble and live electronics (1985–86), and Nymphéa (1987), commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet.

Starting in the nineties, her music became more expressive, often faster in its melodic fluctuations. Rhythmical elements became stronger, in spite of regular rhythmic pulsations. Timbre and colors stay central. Her principal works include a violin concerto, Graal théâtre, written for Gidon Kremer in 1995; two works dedicated to Dawn Upshaw: Château de l’âme premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 1996, and Lonh, for soprano and electronics, premiered

at the Wien Modern Festival in 1996; Oltra mar for orchestra and mixed choir, premiered in 1999 by the New York Philharmonic; a flute concerto, Aile du songe, composed for Camilla Hoitenga (2001); Nymphea Reflexion for string orchestra, dedicated to Christoph Eschenbach (2001); Orion for the Cleveland Orchestra (2002); Quatre Instants, for soprano and piano/ orchestra, for Karita Mattila, premiered in 2003.

Kaija Saariaho has participated in numerous multimedia productions, such as the ballet Maa (1992), choreographed by Carolyn Carlson, and Prisma, a cd-rom dedicated to her work (Prix multimédia Charles Cros, 2000). Her first opera, L’Amour de loin (libretto by Amin Maalouf and staging by Peter Sellars), was a fantastic success at its premiere at the Salzburg Festival in 2000, and won the Grawemeyer Composition Award in 2003. Among the many awards and prizes she received are the Prix Italia, the Musical Award of the North Council, and the Musical America Composer of the Year 2008.

PROFILES + NOTES

Her second opera, Adriana Mater (original libretto by Amin Maalouf ), was also staged

by Peter Sellars, at Opéra Bastille in 2006.

Saariaho has written an oratorio, La Passion de Simone, commissioned by the Wien Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Barbican, and Lincoln Center and premiered in 2006 in Vienna.

The world premiere of Mirage for soprano, cello and orchestra, written for Karita Mattila and Anssi Karttunen, took place at Salle Pleyel with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Christoph Eschenbach in 2008. Laterna Magica, an orchestral work for the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Simon Rattle, was premiered in 2009 in Berlin and Lucerne. Her third opera, Emilie, was premiered in 2010 at the Opéra de Lyon, then immediately after at the Amsterdam Opera. D’om le vrai sens, a clarinet concerto for Kari Krikku, was commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Serenatas notes This work is a collection of five small pieces which are played in the order chosen by the performers. The names of the sections describe their general musical character: Agitato, Delicato, Dolce, Languido, Misterioso.

The musical material here is related to two of my recent works: Mirage and Notes on Light. I became attached to some details and musical ideas, developed them here further or put them in a new context. The starting point for these pieces is emotional. The title reflects my attitude to this material: the music is sometimes sweet, sometimes tormented. I would like the attitude of the musicians playing it to be as

devoted as they would be when playing a serenade to a lover…

Terrestre notes Terrestre is a reworking of the second movement of the two-movement flute concerto dedicated to Camilla Hoitenga, Aile du songe (Wing of Dream). The titles of the two works derive from the collection of poems by SaintJohn Perse, Oiseaux (Birds), which already served as a source of inspiration in the solo flute piece Laconisme de l’aile. The poet speaks of the birds’ flight and uses the rich metaphor of the bird to describe life’s mysteries through an abstract and multidimensional language.

Unlike Olivier Messiaen, Saariaho is more interested in the idea of the bird than in its singing. Terrestre falls into two parts. The first, Oiseau dansant (Dancing Bird), refers to an aboriginal tale in which a virtuosic dancing bird teaches a whole village how to dance. The second section, L’Oiseau, un satellite infime, is a synthesis of the previous parts of the concerto.

In the poet’s words, the bird is a small satellite in a universal orbit. That poetic image brings to mind words that Saariaho wrote at the beginning of her career: “My wish is to go further, and deeper.” © 2003 by the Carnegie Hall Corporation

STEPHEN FEIGENBAUM composer Stephen Feigenbaum is an award-winning 23year-old composer of music for the concert hall and the theater. When he was 19, his Serenade for Strings was recorded by the Cincinnati Pops under Erich Kunzel and released on a CD by Telarc. Stephen is a past winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer award and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble competition.

Recently he won the Albany Symphony Orchestra’s Composer to Center Stage competition, which resulted in a reading of his work and mentoring by John Corigliano. The National Public Radio show From the Top has featured Stephen as a composer, and he has appeared as an a cappella singer on The Martha Stewart Show and NBC’s The Sing-Off. Stephen’s music has been heard at Lincoln Center and Le Poisson Rouge in New York, Jordan Hall and the Hatch Shell in Boston, the Green Room in San Francisco, and in several international venues. It has received performances by musicians including the JACK Quartet, TwoSense (Lisa Moore and Ashley Bathgate), and Grammy-nominee violinist Caroline Goulding. Stephen was the 2010 ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Fellow at the Bowdoin International Music Festival and is a past fellow at the Norfolk (Connecticut) Chamber Music Festival.

At Yale, Stephen has created several theatrical productions that incorporate all-original instrumental music, stage lighting, elaborate sets and media effects, tied together with loose narratives to tell musical stories that have

attracted diverse audiences. He has also written the music for two full-length original musicals at Yale and has orchestrated, music directed, and conducted others.

A native of Winchester, Massachusetts, Stephen majored in music at Yale College and is pursuing a master’s degree at the Yale School of Music. He is a student of Ezra Laderman, and has studied with Martin Bresnick, Christopher Theofanidis, Samuel Adler, Claude Baker, and Kathryn Alexander.

JORDAN KUSPA composer For more about Jordan, and to hear many recorded performances from previous New Music New Haven concerts, please visit: » musicians.yale.edu/jordankuspa

PROFILES + NOTES

Picaresque Episodes notes Tonight’s premiere of Picaresque Episodes marks the eighteenth and final presentation of my music on the New Music New Haven concert series during my time as a Yale student, and closes a chapter of my creative life. Over the past four years, I have worked with dozens of wonderful performers and have enjoyed the repeated thrill of hearing new works brought to life through their brilliant efforts. New Music New Haven represents the vibrant creativity of a community of which I feel so fortunate to be a part. To hear my pieces performed alongside those of my Yale mentors and student colleagues, whom I believe to be among the finest composers working in the world today, has been the greatest honor of my musical life. For these concerts, and for the composers, performers, and all the people behind the scenes who have made them so inspiring, I am immensely grateful.

Picaresque Episodes was written at the request of John Miller in the fall of 2010. To me, John always seemed the quintessential trombonist: energetic, good-humored, and fun-loving. In writing this trombone quartet, I looked to John’s personality and tried to write music that expressed something of the essential nature of the trombone itself. The four movements each represent my take on a different facet of the inherent qualities of the trombone. “Dark March” is a blaring, dissonant, and relentless aural assault; it doesn’t conclude so much as it expires. “Rapscallions” shows a more impish side of the trombone, one given both to mockery and sarcasm. “Katabasis” implies a

descent, especially a descent to the underworld.

In this movement I attempted to demonstrate the incredible pathos and gravity of the lyrical trombone. Finally, “Brash Passage” concludes the work with a game of reckless abandon, in which all four players must navigate treacherous runs and wild dynamic contrasts at breakneck speed, all done with that irrepressible trombone spirit of fun.

On September 15, 2011, John Miller passed away in tragic circumstances. He never heard this piece, which is dedicated to him and had been so shaped by his personality. I composed Picaresque Episodes for a friend who seemed in the prime of his life, and whose boundless enthusiasm for music and music education continues to be an inspiration. It is my hope that those who knew and loved John might recognize in this music some small reflection of his humor, his infectious energy, and his wonderful spirit.

DANIEL SCHLOSBERG composer Originally from Philadelphia, composer and pianist Daniel Schlosberg has had works premiered by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Encompass New Opera Theater, counter) induction, the Lorelei Ensemble, and New Triad for Collaborative Arts. He has won awards and honors from Yale, ASCAP, ACO, and NFAA. Five Stuck, his first work for large orchestra, was commissioned and premiered by the Yale Symphony Orchestra in October 2010. In February, the re-orchestrated first movement, Grosse Concerto, was read by the Buffalo Philharmonic as part of American Composers Orchestra’s EarShot series. His chamber opera, A Country Doctor, was premiered in a semistaged version in March 2009. His current projects include a new music-theater piece for the Yale Cabaret and the New Morse Code Ensemble. He will also be writing a new opera for Center City Opera Theater in Philadelphia.

Daniel regularly performs as a solo and collaborative pianist, and remains dedicated to performing works of his contemporaries. He has played Barber’s Piano Concerto and Scriabin’s Prometheus with the Yale Symphony Orchestra, as well as numerous solo recitals featuring music from Scarlatti to Ustvolskaya. In addition, he has a passion for music directing and has conducted Hansel and Gretel, Dialogues of the Carmelites, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Carousel, and Sondheim’s Passion. Recently, he was the rehearsal pianist for Sondheim’s Follies at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. before its transfer to Broadway.

Daniel graduated with a B.A. from Yale College in 2010 and is now in his first year at the Yale School of Music. He has worked with Christopher Theofanidis and currently studies composition with Aaron Jay Kernis and piano with Hung-Kuan Chen.

His music has been described as “somewhat akin to eating a warm chocolate chip cookie.” pocket guide to you + me notes This is a story of innocence, of love, of infatuation, and of desolation.

PROFILES + NOTES

JUSTIN TIERNEY composer Justin Tierney (b. 1984, New Haven, the son of an electrician and brother of a plumber) is completing an Artist Diploma at Yale University studying with Martin Bresnick.

His music was declared “superb, robust, and grand” by the Boston Globe, which avowed that “Tierney’s dark-hued music has polished, ominous richness and sound-worlds that are cogent and immediate.” Regarding his aesthetic, Tierney has stated that “natural phenomenon can be admired from either a scientific or aesthetic view, yet the coupling of the two modalities creates an experience greater than their sum.”

Before dedicating himself to music, Tierney raced BMX competitively, becoming CT State Champion. In high school, he wandered into an orchestral concert for the first time and felt “a dam break inside of me.” Later, a performance of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps pushed him over the edge to give up his career in BMX, and abandon his philosophy major to devote himself to music.

Tierney is currently Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Bridgeport and a Teaching Fellow at Yale College. He lives in West Haven with his wife Michiko and their two retired greyhounds.

Escritura del dios notes Tzinacán, an imprisoned Aztec mystic, contemplates his fate as the last priest of his falling

empire. Although he is sentenced to darkness, light breaks into his cell during his daily meal – allowing glimpses of a jaguar.

He recalls how “on the first morning of time, God confided his message to the living skin of jaguars, who would love and reproduce without end, in order that the last men might receive it.” Tzinacán devotes himself to divining this script. In a burst of illumination, the whirling fabric of the cosmos is revealed.

Understanding all, he possesses the potential for infinite power…

Escritura del Dios, based on the story of Jorge Borges, was conceived as a 50-minute drama for narrator and ensemble. In that form it was premiered by the Firebird Ensemble in 2009.

In Ezra Laderman’s Music Drama Workshop, I recomposed the drama for baritone voice.

Tonight we hear the last two scenes.

Escritura del dios libretto 13) A Formula of 14 Words It is a formula of fourteen random words and to utter it in a loud voice would suffice to make me all powerful.

To say it would suffice to abolish this stone prison, to have daylight break into my night, to be young, to be immortal, to have the tiger’s jaws crush Alvarado, to sink the sacred knife into the breasts of Spaniards, to reconstruct the pyramid, to reconstruct the empire. Forty syllables, fourteen words, and I, Tzinacán, would rule the lands Moctezuma ruled. But I know I shall never say those words, because I no longer remember Tzinacán.

14) I Let the Days Obliterate Me May the mystery lettered on the tigers die with me. Whoever has seen the universe, whoever has beheld the fiery designs of the universe, cannot think in terms of one man, of that man’s trivial fortunes or misfortunes, though he be that very man. What is the life of that other to him, the nation of that other to him, if he, now, is no one. This is why I do not pronounce the formula, why, lying here in the darkness, I let the days obliterate me.

FAY (FEINAN) WANG composer Fay Wang (b. 1986) is a composer and performer from Beijing, part of the new generation of cutting-edge Chinese artists. Her works have been performed in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Musikverlag Doblinger, Vienna, publishes her sheet music. Her album Pisces Monodrama – Selections of Works by Fay Wang has been released in China. She has received numerous honors and awards, including the ASCAP Young Composer Award, Ezra Laderman Prize (Yale School of Music), and China’s Golden Bell Award, Governmental Award, and New Century Cup Award.

Her many commissions include the Classic Euro Young Festival, Roger Shapiro Fund, Beijing Modern Music Festivals, Beijing Chamber Music Festival, Beijing Dance Academy, and the Cantonese Song and Dance Troupe.

Her works are performed by ensembles including the RIAS Youth Orchestra (Gerd Albrecht),

PROFILES + NOTES

Yale Philharmonic, Dinosaur Annex, Ensemble De Reihe, Galatea Quartett and loadbang. Her compositions are performed at concert halls including Arnold Schoenberg Center, Berlin Concert House, the Flea Theater, Yale’s Woolsey Hall, Zurich University of the Arts, Beijing Concert Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, and Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater.

As a vocalist and pianist, she has performed in numerous events and places including the Lincoln Center and the Steinway piano launch in Shanghai. She has also performed vocals in other composers’ works with various singing styles. Her music has been broadcast on China Central Television, Austrian National Broadcast and on “Music for Internets”.

Fay Wang holds degrees from the Central Conservatory of Music (’08ba) and the Yale School of Music (’10mm). She is now at Yale receiving her Artist Diploma (’12ad). Her major teachers include Ezra Laderman, Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, and Xiaogang Ye. Monodrama of Old Haven notes After Pisces Monodrama and Yaf ’s Monodrama, Monodrama of Old Haven continues the series.

Many people have asked me what my word Monodrama means. If you consider an opera or a music theater as a film, the Monodrama could be a long trailer, or alternatively, a montage scene that doesn’t have a particular storyline but reveals hidden relations between each passage. Mono- also indicates multiple characters presented by single performer. In

Old Haven, other lyricists and I who used to live in New Haven created our sub-real characters, the inner world or surreal dreams of the characters, and the abstractions of some personal or social events that happened in the area. I would like to extend my appreciation to my friends Samuel Adams, Chris Cerrone, Richard Harrold, and Adrian Knight for contributing the texts for this piece.

Monodrama of Old Haven texts Intro (Text by Fay Wang) April / York Street / I found a pair of pink glasses under a tree / A little boy with a horse mask lived in the glasses / He was holding a white bunny / And an owl sitting on his shoulder // He asked me: Where are you going? / The bunny will bring you back to the Pisces age / the owl is blind… // I threw the owl in the air / Forgot he couldn’t fly / While he was falling down / I saw in his eyes – the reflection of Scorpio and the end of the street… // I lost my balance // The bunny disappeared. // I heard the boy’s voice in the distance: The owl will let you stay at the moment of total eclipse. // There’s only red in front of my eyes / Two pine trees covered with snow were growing on my head. // Snowing? I don’t feel cold

PROFILES + NOTES

*** Street (text by Christopher Cerrone) I remember / Quite clearly / I seem / To remember quite clearly / About how I felt at the time / But at the same time // Real memory seems largely im-possible. Not because I // can’t remember / But because I would / remember a universe / that was a different size // York Street was larger then / than it is now / Comparatively Red Castle + Mini Sheep (Text by Richard Harrold) Scraggy sheep-pups / slobber wet-snout / fern-mulch / turf-sods / Then plucked / slung with a rasp and a slap / are soused and lugged on tallow prods / Yapping shrill… / Their glut-red mini-gourds echo the clot pash / The castle, the coil, the gauze / and cocked: his aXe Saint George (Text by Adrian Knight) We all lived more on the edge / When Annie disappeared. / Egyptian-SpanishAustralian-Italian-American family ties. / My new American brother / Poured milk in the titty-mug. // Candy says my body is a trash can. / Trash was the word of the day. / In May, we saluted Saint George in the backyard / As the sweet potatoes turned as black as our lungs. // On the hidden patio / The Millionth World War came on. // My friend’s grandmother / And my grandmother / Met a thousand times / But never said hello. // In 2011, everyone bought a gun and shot someone. / I made for the nearest French exit. / But I remember Mitchell, and I remember Annie.

The Bunny Theme (Text by Fay Wang) You found her ears / Not far from here / Their souls were seared / With Frozen tears // I burnt his sight / In (the) flaming night / He bled pale white / On neck and tie Dwight Street (Text by Samuel Adams) Old Haven shudders. / Light on Green, Dark on Street. // The city, rectilinear in its poverty. / Poor in its curvature, you love it. // Skinny “breezes” and the homeless, too. / Old Haven extends. Split on side, scad in stiletti. // The city, yardsaled. / The Great synchronicity, spread eagle. // The life-iest of all events: Dwight Street. // “Brian Redd is the cousin of DeWayne Redd.”

We go Home (Text by Fay Wang) I wave hello to the wolves on the Siberian Plain / I hear lives in the Dead Sea / I yearn for the cows that leaped off the cliffs in Lauterbrunnen / I release the fireflies in my pocket over the Arctic Ocean / I never stop by your homeland I land in the lighthouse / I hear you telling me a place called home is not a place // My blood turns into seawater / My hair turns into seaweed / My hands turn into sea stars / My teeth turn into corals… // We fall / We dive / We sink / We flow / We dissolve / We disappear / We... / disappear // We go home / We go home / We go home…

PROFILES + NOTES

Dashon Burton voice Bass-baritone Dashon Burton is a native of Bronx, NY. Praised for his “nobility and rich tone” (New York Times) and hailed as “excellent” (Akron Beacon Journal) and “robust,” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), he is active in a wide range of repertoire and feels privileged to have worked with artists and ensembles all across the U.S. as well as in Cameroon, Canada, Italy, and Germany.

Recent collaborations include Pierre Boulez, Masaaki Suzuki, and Steven Smith. He began his professional studies at Case Western Reserve University and graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Immediately upon graduation, he was invited to join Cantus, a professional men’s classical vocal ensemble based in Minneapolis. The nine-member ensemble travels across the United States performing concerts, teaching clinics about ensemble singing to students of all ages, and collaborating with renowned organizations and artists including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Boston Pops, James Sewell Ballet, and Bobby McFerrin. He appears on albums recorded with the ensemble, including the eponymous album Cantus, one of National Public Radio’s top ten recordings of 2007.

After completing his tenure with Cantus in 2009, Dashon completed his Master of Music degree at Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music, studying voice with James Taylor. His solo repertoire includes such diverse works as

Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Superintendent Bud in Britten’s opera Albert Herring, and Ned Rorem’s song cycle War Scenes. Dashon is also an avid performer of new music; he has premiered works by Edie Hill and William Brittelle, and is a founding member of Roomful of Teeth (under the direction of Brad Wells), an ensemble devoted to new compositions using the fullest possible range of vocal techniques.

NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN

artistic director Christopher Theofanidis managing director Krista Johnson music librarian Roberta Senatore production assistant Kate Gonzales conducting fellows Paolo Bortolameoli Yang Jiao assistant Benjamin Firer

music.yale.edu

music librarians Cristobal Gajardo-Benitez Timothy Hilgert Wai Lau Oizhen Liu Rachel Perfecto Holly Piccoli Matthew Rosenthal Kathryn Salfelder Kaitlin Taylor stage crew John Allen Jonathan Allen Jeffery Arredondo Colin Brookes Timothy Hilgert Michael Levin Jonathan McWilliams Shawn Moore Matthew Rosenthal Aaron Sorensen Gerald Villella

COMING UP

Yale Baroque Ensemble Yale School of Music 203 432-4158 concerts@yale.edu music.yale.edu

concerts & public relations Dana Astmann Danielle Heller Dashon Burton new media Monica Ong Reed Austin Kase operations Tara Deming Christopher Melillo piano curators Brian Daley William Harold recording studio Eugene Kimball

april 18 Collection of Musical Instruments | Wed, 8 pm Free but ticketed From Galant to Classical: chamber music of Couperin, C.P.E. Bach, and Haydn.

Robert Mealy, director.

Yale Philharmonia april 20 Woolsey Hall | Fri, 8 pm | Free Jahja Ling, guest conductor. Brahms: Academic Festival Overture; Ginastera: Harp Concerto, with soloist Kristan Toczko; Dvorák: Symphony No. 8 in G major.

Donations for famine relief in the Horn of Africa will be accepted through the Office for Diversity and Equal Opportunity at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

The Rape of Lucretia april 27 & 28 Morse Recital Hall | Fri & Sat, 8 pm Tickets $10–$15 | Students $5 Yale Opera presents a new production of Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia.

Vera Calabria, stage director; Douglas Dickson, musical director; William Warfel, lighting designer; Jennifer Salim, costume designer; and Paul Lieber, projection designer.