New Music New Haven

Christopher Theofanidis 路 Artistic Director

NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN

FEBRUARY 7 Morse Recital Hall 路 Thursday, 8 pm Featured Composer Ezra Laderman Yale Graduate Composers Stephen Feigenbaum B谩lint Karosi Polina Nazaykinskaya James Rubino Matthew Welch

Robert Blocker, Dean

Christopher Theofanidis 路 Artistic Director

NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN Matthew Welch b. 1976

The Three Truths

James Rubino b. 1989

Thrice I. Unravel II. Rewind III. Exhale

Paolo Bortolameolli, conductor Anne Rhodes, soprano Jeffrey Gavett, baritone Ginevra Petrucci, flute Igal Levin, clarinet Crist贸bal Gajardo-Benitez, percussion Paul Kerekes, piano Brendon Randall-Myers, electric guitar

James Rubino, violin Cho-Long Kang, flute Brendon Randall-Myers, acoustic guitar

Stephen Feigenbaum b. 1989

Cliff Notes John Ehrenburg, trumpet Jean Laurenz, trumpet William Eisenberg, horn Hana Beloglavec, trombone Jens Peterson, tuba

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.

intermission Polina Nazaykinskaya b. 1987

Lamentation of the Bird

Bálint Karosi b. 1979

Poems of the Night I. El Sur II. La Pesadilla III. El Patio

Ashley Smith, clarinet Oliver Jia, piano

Bálint Karosi, conductor Virgina Warnken, soprano Cristóbal Gajardo-Benitez, percussion Jonathan Allen, percussion Lo-An Lin, piano Samuel Suggs, accordion

Ezra Laderman b. 1924

Partita for Solo Bassoon (2012) I. Con spirito II. Moderato III. Allegro spirito IV. Andante V. Vivace – Maestoso – Cantare VI. Moderato VII. Allegro Frank Morelli, bassoon

Ezra Laderman featured composer Ezra Laderman was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1924. He studied composition with Stefan Wolpe and with Otto Luening and Douglas Moore at Columbia University, where he earned the Master of Arts degree. Laderman incorporates a lyrical style into a contemporary context, using tonal material in combination with atonal, polytonal or aleatoric elements, while seeking out unusual formal structures for his music. Many of his works deal with the transformation of musical material. Whether it be enigmatic or declarative at the outset, the initial musical structure is intrinsic to all that follows.

His eleven string quartets and his eleven concertos for a variety of instruments are notable contributions to the repertory. His works for orchestra, including eight symphonies, have been conducted by Lawrence Leighton Smith, Eleazar de Carvalho, Riccardo Muti, André Previn, Alfredo Antonini, Carlo Maria Giulini, Mstislav Rostropovich, Eduardo Mata, Cristof Eschenbach, Sergio Commisiona, Herbert Bloomstedt, Michael Tilson Thomas, Hugh Wolff, André Kostelanetz, Günter Herbig, José Serebrier, and Dennis Russell Davies, among others.

He has also written music for the Academy Award winning films The Eleanor Roosevelt Story and Black Fox.

In addition to six dramatic oratorios and music for dance, he has written seven operas, including Marilyn, based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, which had its premiere at the New York City Opera in 1993.

Commissions have come from the orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, Denver, New Jersey, Saint Paul, Detroit, Columbus, and New Haven, the New York and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras, the National Symphony, and the American Composers Orchestra. He has written many works for CBS TV, the Library of Congress, the Koussevitsky and Barlow Foundations, Meet the Composer, and the National Endowment for the Arts in addition to commissions from such distinguished artists as David Shifrin,

Ransom Wilson, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Aldo Parisot, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Judith Raskin, Elmar Oliveira, Julius Baker, Robert Bloom, Nathaniel Rosen, Toby Appel, Leonard Arner, Eugene List, Erica Morini, Samuel Baron, and the Juilliard, Concord, Lenox, Composers, Tokyo, Audubon, Sequoia, Colorado and Alard Quartets. He has written for the Connecticut Trio, Antares, DaCapo Chamber players, New York Woodwind Quintet, and the Yale Cellos. In recent seasons, pieces have been written for Jesse Levine, Meghan Stoops, Patrick Jee, the Yale Brass Trio, the Miro String Quartet, Ransom Wilson, the Philadelphia Singers, and the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Laderman was Dean of the Yale School of Music from 1989-1995 and is currently Professor of Music. He has been chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts composerlibrettist program, president of the American Music Center, director of the music program of the National Endowment for the Arts, president of the National Music Council, chairman of the board of the American Composers Orchestra, and president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He has taught at Sarah Lawrence College and at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He has received three Guggenheim fellowships, the Rome Prize, and has had residencies at the Bennington Composers Conference, the American Academy in

Rome, and at the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio. He was the director of the Bennington Composers Conference, and was in residence with the Israel Philharmonic. Ezra Laderman’s extensive discography includes orchestral music recorded for the New World, CRI, Desto, and First Editions labels and chamber and piano music for Connoisseur, RCA Victor, and Albany. His music is now published exclusively by G. Schirmer.

Partita for Solo Bassoon notes Partita for Solo Bassoon, written for Frank Morelli, was completed in January of 2013.

Frank Morelli bassoon Frank Morelli studied with Stephen Maxym at the Manhattan School of Music and later became the first bassoonist to be awarded a doctorate by the Juilliard School. He has made nine appearances as soloist at Carnegie Hall playing concertos, sinfonias concertantes, and even a solo ballad with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. He joined the Yale faculty in 1994.

Morelli’s recent CD, Romance and Caprice, with pianist Gilbert Kalish, follows two previous solo CDs on MSR Classics: Bassoon Brasileiro with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Ben Verdery, and Baroque Fireworks, with harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper and oboist Stephen Taylor. The American Record Guide raved, “The bassoon playing on this recording is a good as it gets.” Of his DG recording of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with Orpheus, Fanfare wrote that this recording “reset a reviewer’s standards at too high a level for comfort in a world more productive of ordinary music making.” The Orpheus CD Shadow Dances, which features Morelli, won a 2001 Grammy Award.

A prolific chamber musician, Frank Morelli has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on numerous occasions. He has

participated in major music festivals including Norfolk, Marlboro, Banff, and Music@Menlo. He is a member of Festival Chamber Music and of the woodwind quintet Windscape, which is in residence at the Manhattan School of Music and with whom he has recorded two recent CDs. Mr. Morelli also serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and SUNY Stony Brook. He is editor of Stravinsky: Difficult Passages for Bassoon and has several transcriptions for bassoon and wood-wind quintet to his credit, published by Trevco Music. His popular website, www.morellibassoon.com, was designed and built by his son, Anthony.

Matthew Welch composer Regarded as “a composer possessed of both rich imagination and the skill to bring his fancies to life” by Time Out New York, composer and bagpipe virtuoso Matthew Welch (b. 1976) holds two degrees in music composition: a B.F.A. from Simon Fraser University (1999) and an M.A. from Wesleyan University (2001). He has studied with noted composers such as Barry Truax, Rodney Sharman, Alvin Lucier, and Anthony Braxton.

Since locating to New York City in 2001, he has worked with a host of other artists such as John Zorn, Julia Wolfe, Zeena Parkins, and Ikue Mori.

The eclectic breadth of his interests in Scottish bagpipe music, Balinese gamelan, minimalism, improvisation, and rock converges in compositional amalgams ranging from traditionallike bagpipe tunes to electronic pieces, improvisation strategies, and fully notated works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestra, and non-Western instruments. Since 2002, Mr. Welch has been running and composing for his own eclectic ensemble, Blarvuster, whose repertoire The New York Times has described as “border-busting music; original and catchy.” Mr. Welch has recorded for the Tzadik, Mode, Cantaloupe, Leo, Porter, Muud, Avian, Newsonic, and Parallactic record labels.

The Three Truths notes A tyrant robot imprisons a soothsaying robot and forces it to reveal the truth to enlighten the tyrant. Based on a Sufi tale. Libretto by Matthew Welch, featuring Anne Rhodes and Jeff Gavett. Directed by Louisa Proske.

James Rubino composer James Rubino is a graduate student at the Yale School of Music studying music composition, and is currently working with Christopher Theofanidis. Rubino graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor’s of Music Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Keith Fitch. Previously he studied with Mark Phillips, Ching-chu Hu, and David Tsimpidis.

He studied violin with Carol Ruzicka, Marjorie Bagley, Paul Kantor, and Deborah Price, and was part of the “opus.” string quartet for five years, winning the silver medal at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and performing at Carnegie Hall on the From the Top television show.

Thrice notes Thrice is a charming misfit: a crippled lullaby or a lighthearted dance tune. It could just as well be a shy folk song from another world or stand alongside welded steel statues in a museum. Or it could be a three movement long work for three instruments, each lasting just under three minutes.

Stephen Feigenbaum composer Stephen Feigenbaum is an awardwinning 24-year-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, Kathryn Alexander, and Rodney Lister.

Polina Nazaykinskaya composer Polina Nazaykinskaya was born in Togliatti, Russia on January 20, 1987 and has been studying music since the age of four. After graduating with honors from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia with concentrations in violin and composition, Polina earned her Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music. Her professors at Yale included Christopher Theofanidis and Ezra Laderman. Currently Polina is pursuing her Artist Diploma in composition at the Yale School of Music.

In the last four years her music has been performed by the Russian National Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, Youth Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Metro Opera, and others. Polina’s music has garnered numerous national and international awards and received rave reviews in the press.

In 2010, Sony Music Russia label released a CD that featured Polina’s symphonic poem Winter Bells. In addition to being a composer, Polina is an active violinist and a conductor.

Lamentation of the Bird notes Lamentation of the Bird is not a composition that lends itself easily to a

literal interpretation. Rather, the musical piece represents a symbolic exploration of one’s self, a metaphysical voyage into the depth of one’s memories and awareness. In the mythology of the world, a bird has been a symbol of freedom and divine power that links human beings to the realm of the spirit, transcending human experience. In the pursuit to reach a place of absolute harmony that lies beyond human suffering and ego, the piece is a meditation on the sadness of loss and the inability to attain love. Just as the Nightingale (in the famous Oscar Wilde story) was able to weave the moonlight into a rose with her song and stain the flower with her own heart’s blood pressed against the thorns in the name of Love, the Lamentation of the Bird is a dedication to love and to the ultimate sacrifice.

Bálint Karosi composer Hailing from a musical family in Budapest, Hungary, Bálint Karosi is a doctoral candidate in composition at the Yale School of Music. Karosi’s compositional work draws on improvisation, modal and atonal elements, early music, and Hungarian folk music. Thanks to his mother, opera singer Julia Pászthy, he has a long-standing interest in vocal music.

His recently performed works include an organ concerto and cantata commissioned by the National Concert Hall in Budapest. An expert in Baroque improvisation, Károsi was featured at the same hall in 2012 in a live improvisation duel with Dutch organist Sietze deVries.

He studied organ, clarinet and composition in Budapest, Geneva, and at the Oberlin Conservatory. He has won first prize at numerous international music competitions, including the 16th International J. S. Bach Organ Competition in Leipzig, Germany, and he continues to maintain a serious performing career.

Since 2012 Károsi has served on the faculty at Boston University and UMass Boston, teaching baroque improvisation and organ. He also plays historical clarinet.

Poems of the Night notes In the Poems of the Night I used the text of three early poems by Jorge L. Borges.

El Sur (The South) and El Patio (The Patio) express peaceful beauty as inspired by the exotic smells, sounds and the light of stars of a hot summer night in a friend’s weekend house somewhere near Buenos Aires. La Pesadilla (Nightmare) depicts a nightmare of an ancient king from the North, with a large sword, sitting on an iron chair and wearing an iron crown.

The vision of the king evokes haunting memories in the poet as he stands up and judges him.

NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN

Yale School of Music 203 432-4158 concerts@yale.edu concert programs & box office Krista Johnson Carol Jackson Julie Blindauer communications Dana Astmann Monica Ong Reed Austin Kase operations Tara Deming Christopher Melillo piano curators Brian Daley William Harold recording studio Eugene Kimball technology Jack Vees

music.yale.edu

artistic director Christopher Theofanidis manager Andrew W. Parker music librarian Roberta Senatore production assistant Kate Gonzales conducting fellows Paolo Bortolameolli Jonathan Brandani office assistants Jean Laurenz music librarians Michael Hollaway • Paolo Bortolameolli Leonard Chiang • Cristóbal Gajardo-Benitez Michael Gilbertson • Darren Hicks Elisa Rodriguez Sadaba • Hye Jin Koh Qizhen Liu • Yuan Ma • Alan Ohkubo Rachel Perfecto • Matthew Rosenthal Matheus Souza stage crew John Allen • Jonathan Allen Jeffery Arredondo • Colin Brookes Phil Browne • Jonathan Hammonds Timothy Hilgert • Lauren Hunt Stephen Ivany • Gerardo Mata Jonathan McWilliams •Shawn Moore Robert Moser • David Perry • Doug Perry Zach Quortrup • Matthew Rosenthal Gerald Villella • Phillip Browne

Robert Blocker, Dean