Robert Honstein, composition

robert honstein composition

doctor of musical arts recital December 5, 2013 • Morse Recital Hall

Robert Blocker, Dean

Doctor of Musical Arts Recital

robert honstein · composition Thursday, December 5, 2013 · 8:00pm · Morse Recital Hall

Robert Honstein b. 1980

Alone Together (2012) Lisa Dowling, bass, vocals, and backing tracks

RE: You (2011) 1.

Better find those little blue pills if you plan on giving

her more than lip service 2.

Halfway?

3.

I am hidden my dear for you!!!!!!

Domenica Fossati, flute Lisa Dowling, bass Owen Weaver, percussion

intermission

Is it Auburn?

1.

Just please let me know and that’s all I ask from you 2.

Is it Auburn?

Tema Watstein, violin Mariel Roberts, cello Owen Weaver, percussion Karl Larson, piano

As a courtesy to the performers and audience, silence all electronic devices.

Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.

Robert Honstein b. 1980

An Index of Possibility 1.

Repose 2.

Flicker 3.

Flow 4.

Repose 5.

Burst 6. Repose TIGUE Matt Evans, Amy Garapic, Carson Moody, percussion

Artist Profile

biography Robert Honstein Robert Honstein (b. 1980) is a composer of orchestral, chamber, and vocal music. Praised for his “roiling, insistent orchestral figuration” (New York Times) and “glittery, percussive pieces” (Toronto Globe and Mail) Robert is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at the Yale School of Music where he has studied under Martin Bresnick, David Lang and Christopher Theofanidis.

Robert’s music has been performed by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Ensemble ACJW, the Mivos Quartet, the Deviant Septet, New Morse Code, Quince, the Color Field Ensemble, Concert Black, the Heavy Hands Quartet, the Sebastians, the Young New Yorkers Chorus, the Fireworks Ensemble, the Mana Quartet, the Bel Cuore Saxophone Quartet, the Yale Philharmonia, the UT Austin New Music Ensemble, the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, the Bard College Orchestra, the Hunter Symphony, the Mannes Prep Orchestra, and the Mount Holyoke Symphony, Robert has received awards, grants and recognition from Carnegie Hall, Copland House, the New York Youth Symphony, ASCAP, SCI, the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Young New Yorkers Chorus, the Lake George Music Festival, the Boston New Music Initiative, the Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra, and New Music USA. His work has been featured at numerous festivals including the The Tanglewood Music Center, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Bang on a Can Summer Institute, the Bowling Green New Music Festival, the

Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Tutti New Music Festival. He has also received residencies at Copland House, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center and I-Park.

Robert co-founded Fast Forward Austin, an annual marathon new music festival in Austin, TX. Described as “the first ever classical music event in Austin to make its own beer koozies” (Austin American Statesmen), Fast Forward Austin features local and national, cutting-edge artists in a “welcomingly relaxed venue... [that] tapped into what is so great about the Austin vibe: a community of people who are artistically curious, non- doctrinaire, and unpretentious” (NewMusicBox).

Robert is also a founding member of the New York based composer collective Sleeping Giant, a group of “five talented guys” (The New Yorker) that are “rapidly gaining notice for their daring innovations, stylistic range and acute attention to instrumental nuance” (WQXR). Recent seasons have seen collaborations with Ensemble ACJW and the Deviant Septet. In coming seasons Sleeping Giant will be composers in residence with the Albany Symphony Orchestra as part of New Music USA’s Music Alive program.

Upcoming projects include commissions from Eighth Blackbird, cellist Ashley Bathgate, and a consortium of nine pianists for a solo piano work.

Notes on the Program

Alone Together There has been much talk about the internet and social media being both a great connector and divider of people. The feeling is that these conduits of information bring with them a kind of alienation and disconnect, that we are simultaneously with people and without people. I had been thinking about these things and the image that stuck with me was the physical reality of how we spend so much of our internet time: alone, by ourselves, tucked away in our apartments and homes. My music comes from that place, the quiet times when we commune with our screens and networks. Full disclosure, the title Alone Together takes its cue from the Sherry Turkle book of the same name and not the legendary Arthur Schwarz and Howard Dietz song. Alone Together was commissioned by the Heavy Hands Bass Quartet. It is being presented tonight in a new version for solo bass and track.

their original context the lines become elusive, strangely poetic phrases. They are oblique questions with no clear answers.

Is it Auburn?

Is it Auburn? is also an excerpt from the Email Songs collection. In this set for piano, violin, cello, and percussion, I use two lines from the emails, corresponding to the first and second movements respectively: Just please let me know and that’s all I ask from you and Is it Auburn? As is now clear these ‘songs’ have no words, instead they are songs without words, evocative character pieces offering musical portraits of the anonymous lovers. See the RE: You note for more about Email Songs.

An Index of Possibility RE: You RE: You is an excerpt from Email Songs, a conceptual song cycle based on a mysterious collection of emails. A couple years ago a friend of mine mistakenly received about 100 emails.

The emails contained a meticulous record of every communication some unknown person had sent or received within a popular online dating site. Featuring eight pieces and over 40 minutes of music, Email Songs imagines the emotional impetus behind this misdirected correspondence.

Each piece in the cycle takes its title from a line in the emails. The titles, not surprisingly, are unusual—Halfway?, Better find those little Blue Pills, Is it Auburn?, My friend, I understand 100% I have no girlfriend, to name a few. Divorced from

An Index of Possibility is about the possibility of sound in everyday objects. Commissioned by Tigue, Smoke and Mirrors, and Sonore Percussion the work uses simple, easy to acquire instruments to create rich and varied textures.

With the exception of the drums, all instruments are found objects, homemade constructions, or inexpensive toys. There are six movements: three rhythmically intense movements, and one shorter, atmospheric movement that returns twice, a kind of refrain. The music requires virtuosic ensemble playing, featuring extended periods of wild unisons as well as intricate interweaving of parts.

Upcoming Events Bill Charlap Trio

New Music for Orchestra

december 6 Morse Recital Hall| Friday | 8 pm Ellington Jazz Series Bill Charlap, piano; Peter Washington, bass; and Kenny Washington, drums Tickets start at $20, Students $10

december 12 Woolsey Hall | Thursday | 8 pm New Music New Haven & Yale Philharmonia Shinik Hahm, conductor. Music by graduate composers Michael Holloway, Bálint Karosi, Brendon Randall-Myers, James Rubino, and Benjamin Wallace.

Free Admission

Yale Baroque Ensemble december 8 Morse Recital Hall | Sunday | 3 pm Elaborate and virtuosic music of the French Baroque, including Couperin’s “L’Imperiale” from Les Nations, as well as brilliant sonatas

by Leclair, Barrières, and others.

Free Admission

Music of Christopher Ceronne december 19 Morse Recital Hall | Thursday | 8 pm Doctor of Musical Arts Recital Free Admission

Beethoven Concerti december 11 Morse Recital Hall| Wednesday | 8 pm Horowitz Piano Series Faculty pianists Hung-Kuan Chen, Melvin Chen, and Wei-Yi Yang are the soloists in three Beethoven concerti. With the Yale Philharmonia, conducted by Shinik Hahm.

Tickets start at $15, Students $8

Concert Programs & Box Office: Krista Johnson, Carol Jackson Communications: Dana Astmann, Monica Ong Reed, Austin Kase Operations: Tara Deming, Chris Melillo Piano Curators: Brian Daley, William Harold Recording Studio: Eugene Kimball P.O. Box 208246, New Haven, CT · 203 432-4158

music.yale.edu

Robert Blocker, Dean