NEWMUSIC NEWHAVEN christopher theofanidis & hannah lash 路 artistic directors
featuring faculty composers
EZRA LADERMAN INGRAM MARSHALL CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS and music by graduate composers Morse Recital Hall 路 March 6, 2014
Robert Blocker, Dean
Christopher Theofanidis & Hannah Lash, Artistic Directors Thursday, March 6, 2014 路 8:00 pm 路 Morse Recital Hall Jesse Limbacher b. 1991
Reactions Hye Jin Koh, violin Samuel Bobinski, bass Tianyu Zhang, clarinet Robert Moser, trumpet Douglas Perry, vibraphone Paul Kerekes, celeste Maximillian Holman, conductor
Christopher Theofanidis b. 1967
Birichino for solo piano (2013) Sean Chen, piano
Brendon Randall-Myers b. 1986
Nausea Gleb Kanasevich, bass clarinet
Era Laderman b. 1924
June 29 th Ransom Wilson, flute
intermission
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.
Paul Kerekes b. 1988
spark Jonathan Allen, percussion Peter Klimo, piano
Ian Gottlieb b. 1990
Turbo Totter Nathan Lesser, violin Ian Gottlieb, cello Daniel Schlosberg, piano
Ingram Marshall b. 1942
Soe-pa for amplified classical guitar with digital delays and loops Benjamin Verdery, guitar
Profiles + PROGRAM NOTES biography Ezra Laderman Ezra Laderman is a distinguished and widely performed composer. His twelve string quartets, eleven concertos, and eight symphonies are notable contributions to the repertory. His commissions have included works for the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony; and for the orchestras of Minnesota, Dallas, Louisville, Houston, Detroit, Albany, Denver, New Jersey, Indianapolis, Syracuse, and New Haven. He has written music for two Academy Award-winning films, six dramatic oratorios, music for dance, and seven operas, including Marilyn, based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, which premiered at New York City Opera in 1993. He has written for such chamber ensembles as the Tokyo, Juilliard, Concord, Colorado, Lenox, Vermeer, Audubon, and Composers quartets and for soloists Yo-Yo Ma, Judith Raskin, Elmar Oliveira, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Samuel Baron, Sherrill Milnes, Emanuel Ax, Eugene List, Ronald Roseman, Bernard Garfield, and Ilana Vered, among many others. Laderman was Dean of the Yale School of Music 1989–1995 and is currently Professor of Music. He has been chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts composer-librettist 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 and the Rome Prize, and has had residencies at the Bennington Composers
Conference, the American Academy in Rome, and at the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio.
program note June 29 th Ezra Laderman composed June 29th in 1986 for the flutist Carol Wincenc. The title is a nod to their shared birthday.
biography Ingram Marshall Ingram Marshall, composer, 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. He studied at Columbia University and California Institute of the Arts, where he received an MFA, and has been a student of Indonesian gamelan music, the influence of which may be heard in the slowed-down sense of time and use of melodic repetition found in many of his pieces. In the mid-seventies, he developed a series of “live electronic” pieces such as Fragility Cycles, Gradual Requiem, and Alcatraz in which he blended tape collages, extended vocal techniques, Indonesian flutes, and keyboards. He performed widely in the United States and Europe with these works. 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 the Theater of Voices, Kronos Quartet, Bang on a Can AllStars, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and the American Composers Orchestra. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, Fromm Foundation, and the
Profiles + PROGRAM NOTES American Academy of Arts and Letters. Recent recordings are on Nonesuch (Kingdom Come) and New Albion (Savage Altars). Among recent chamber works are Muddy Waters, which was commissioned and performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and In Deserto (Smoke Creek), commissioned by Chamber Music America for the ensemble Clogs. January 2004 saw the premiere of Bright Kingdoms, commissioned by Magnum Opus/Meet the Composer, and performed by the Oakland-East Bay Symphony under Michael Morgan. The American Composers Orchestra in New York premiered his new concerto for two guitars and orchestra, Dark Florescence, at Carnegie Hall in February 2005. Orphic Memories, commissioned by the Cheswatyr Foundation, was composed for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and premiered in Carnegie Hall in April 2007.
program note Soe-pa I never would have written a piece for guitar without the encouragement and help of my dear friend, Ben Verdery. Ben’s fearless wading into the murky waters of pedal-operated effects hardware in real time allowed me to compose for him in my own eccentric manner of employing rather old-fashioned digital delay tactics. But the music is not about the technology at all; with much valor and hope, it leaves all that in the dust and becomes simply a musical statement. Therefore, I shall say no more about the actual electronics employed! Soe-pa is a Tibetan word for “patience.” Soe-pa was composed in 1999, on commission from Benjamin Verdery with assistance from the Gilmore Music Library at Yale University.
It was recorded and released on the New Albion Label in 2006.
biography Christopher Theofanidis Christopher Theofanidis is one of the more widely performed American composers of his generation. He regularly writes for a variety of musical genres, from orchestral and chamber music to opera and ballet. His work Rainbow Body which is loosely based on a melodic fragment of Hildegard of Bingen, is one of the most performed orchestral works of the past decade, and has been programmed by over 120 orchestras internationally. Mr. Theofanidis’ works have been performed by such groups as the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Moscow Soloists, and he has a longstanding relationship with the Atlanta Symphony and Maestro Robert Spano. Several of his works have been recorded by that ensemble on the Telarc label. In 2007, he was composer of the year for the Pittsburgh Symphony, for which he wrote a violin concerto with the soloist Sarah Chang. Mr. Theofanidis has written widely for the stage, from a work for the American Ballet Theatre, to multiple dramatic pieces, including The Refuge for the Houston Grand Opera and Heart of a Soldier for the San Francisco Opera. His largescale piece, The Here and Now, for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, based on poetry of Rumi, was nominated for a Grammy award in 2007. Mr. Theofanidis is currently on the faculty of Yale University and has taught at the Peabody Conservatory and the Juilliard School. He is also a fellow of the U.S.-Japan’s Leadership Program. Mr. Theofanidis’ upcoming works
Profiles + PROGRAM NOTES include a new work for the Miró String Quartet for Chamber Music Monterey Bay in collaboration with three other composers and the multi-media artist Bill Viola; an evening-length oratorio, called Creation/Creator, for the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus; and a work for the Grant Park Festival Orchestra with video collaboration from KV 265 and the Adler Planetarium. This summer, Mr. Theofanidis will serve as artist faculty at the Aspen Music Festival.
program note Birichino (2013) Commissioned by the Van Cliburn Competition for their 50 th anniversary year. Played by each of the twelve semi-finalists June 1–4, 2013. Birichino is the affectionate Italian term for ‘prankster,’ and it is often used to refer to slightly naughty children who like to play jokes on their unsuspecting parents. As I started working on my new piece for the Van Cliburn Competition, I realized that I was using the basic material of the work in a manner consistent with my own inner birichino—in a way that was quite trouble-making for the poor pianist, but hopefully a great deal of fun to play and listen to. This manifests itself not only in the techniques of playing reverse stride piano, interlocking hand motions, and extremely fast figurations, but also in much of the piece’s rhythmic timing. Birichino is dedicated to my daughter, Isabella, the original little prankster!
biography Brendon Randall-Myers Praised as “a unique musical voice” (Dustin Soiseth, The Loose Filter Project), Brendon Randall-Myers is a composer and guitarist
whose work spans the worlds of experimental rock, classical music and free improvisation. His music is viscerally direct, and challenges audiences to consider their boundaries and expectations by creating emotionally and physically charged performances. Brendon has received commissions from the Guitar Foundation of America, the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, and Guerilla Composers Guild, and from performers such as The Living Earth Show, TIGUE, New Keys, Friction Quartet, Nonsemble 6, Mobius Trio, and violinist Todd Reynolds. His work has received support from the American Composers Forum, and he was the recipient of a 2013 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award. An active guitarist, Brendon is a co-founder of the punk- and math rock-inflected composing/ improvising groups Grains and Marateck, and a frequent performer of contemporary music. He has appeared on the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the Switchboard Music Festival, with Experiments in Opera, and on the Flea Theater’s Music with a View series, among others. Brendon grew up home-schooled in rural West Virginia, attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Pomona College, and spent three years on the development staff of The Walden School in San Francisco. He is currently pursuing an MM degree in composition at the Yale School of Music, where he has studied with David Lang and Martin Bresnick. When not coaxing notes of his brain or guitar, he enjoys running, eating burritos, and consuming questionable Sci-Fi.
Profiles + PROGRAM NOTES program note Nausea
program note Reactions
Nausea takes a bunch of short ideas inspired equally by grindcore and new complexity, throws them at each other at high velocity, and watches them bounce around crazily. It was written for Gleb Kanasevich, whose personality (and amazing clarinet covers of death metal songs) helped inspire the piece.
Reactions is a densely textural journey to bizarre places, inspired by my love of unusual combinations of timbres, long melodic lines, and surreal experiences. Treating each instrument as an important character in the dramatic scope, the logic of the piece is based on each character reinterpreting material that another instrument has already presented. Thus, the flow of the piece, though only abstractly programmatic, is influenced by imagery of chain reactions like the combustion of chemicals that creates something unique, complex, and unified, though organically related to their respective origins.
biography Jesse Limbacher Jesse Limbacher is an award-winning composer of lyrical, dramatic concert music that draws on a multitude of ever changing influences. Honors include an ASCAP Morton Gould Award and the Donald Erb Prize for Excellence in Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Limbacher’s music has been performed throughout the country by ensembles such as the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and Fifth House Ensemble and at such venues as the Ravinia Festival, the University of Wisconsin, Roosevelt University, and the Chicago Fine Arts Building. He has received commissions from Latitude 49, Andrew Williams, Eric Snoza, and the Fresh Inc Festival. Mr. Limbacher’s woodwind trio, Air, will be released this spring on an album by Fifth House Ensemble on Cedille Records. Jesse received a BM in composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he was a student of Keith Fitch. He has presented his work in masterclasses with Steven Stucky, Augusta Read Thomas, and Derek Bermel, among others. He is currently a graduate student at the Yale School of Music where he has worked with David Lang and Hannah Lash.
biography Paul Kerekes Paul Kerekes was born in Huntington, New York. His music has been described as “striking …ecstatic…dramatic” (WQXR), “highly eloquent” (New Haven Advocate), and able to create “an almost tactile picture” (The New York Times). He has had the privilege of hearing his music performed by many outstanding ensembles, including TwoSense, American Composers Orchestra, and Dinosaur Annex, in such venues as (le) poisson rouge, The Dimenna Center, and Symphony Space. He has also attended notable programs such as Aspen Music Festival, MusicX, Yale’s New Music Workshop in Norfolk, Connecticut; California Summer Music, the Young Artists Piano Program at Tanglewood, and Stony Brook Summer Music Festival. Additionally, he has participated in master classes both as a composer and pianist with Lisa Moore, Lisa Kaplan, Steven Stucky, and John Corigliano. In June 2012, Paul joined forces with five of New York City’s top pianists to form Grand
Profiles + PROGRAM NOTES Band, whose debut was featured on Bang on a Can’s annual marathon. Grand Band has been described by the New York Times as “The Travelling Wilbury’s of the city’s new music piano scene.” Paul is currently pursuing an MMA degree at the Yale School of Music and received his undergraduate degree from Queens College.
program note spark spark was commissioned by Dr. Faustus. The musical characteristics of the piece are derived from images of frenzied sparks flying. Shreds of light randomly dart in every direction, a glowing tail is drawn through swirling gestures, and when put out, smoke slowly rises like incense.
biography Ian Gottlieb Ian Gottlieb grew up in Los Angeles, California, where he studied classical and jazz cello at the Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences. He graduated in 2012 from Boston University as a student of Marc Johnson, receiving his Bachelor’s degree in music composition and cello performance magna cum laude. His music has been performed by various ensembles throughout North America, notably Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble dal Niente, the Triple Helix Trio, and The Palaver Strings. Ian has received commissions from renowned artist Dennis Kim (concertmaster of the Tampere Philharmonic) as well as Boston University faculty Bayla Keyes and Michelle Lacourse. In 2013, he received a Morton Gould Honorable Mention for his composition Medium for solo
cello. As a cellist, Ian has participated in master classes, most notably with Pieter Wispelwey and Marco Pereira. He is an avid performer of new music and has performed with numerous pop artists including tours with the TransSiberian Orchestra and Air Traffic Controller at major venues such as the House of Blues (Los Angeles), the Coliseum (Hampton, VA), Mohegun Sun (CT), and the Verizon Arena (NH). Ian currently attends the Yale School of Music in pursuit of his master’s degree in composition, studying with Aaron Jay Kernis and Hannah Lash.
program note Turbo Totter I liken Turbo Totter to a person with a stutter who has the hiccups and a limp but was formerly an Olympic runner and therefore accustomed to moving really fast. Despite many valiant attempts, the music fails to march to the beat of its own drum. Based on a lop-sided rhythmic sequence, voices act erratically, constantly conflicting with their own meter. In a passage in 7/16, the bass line moves into 2/4, but the melody doesn’t get the memo, and stubbornly persists in the former meter. The piece is essentially a succession of monophonic phrases, but with registral and timbrel displacements taking place every 16th note, preventing the melody from having any coherence. Commissioned by Bayla Keyes for the Triple Helix Trio, this composition was originally intended to be premiered at a concert of jazzinfluenced classical music. As I am a mediocre jazz player at best, I was at first quite intimidated, feeling hardly well-versed enough in the jazz idiom to uniquely comment on it through my own music. Whether or not the music has any audibly apparent relation to jazz is inconsequential
Profiles + PROGRAM NOTES to me. Nonetheless, the process of seeking out, discovering, and studying various jazz artists was an inspirational experience that greatly informed how I wrote the piece. Among the many bands I studied in the early phases of composing this piece is the avant-garde jazz trio, the Bad Plus, to which Turbo Totter is greatly indebted.
new music new haven Artistic Directors Hannah Lash Christopher Theofanidis Manager Andrew W. Parker Music Librarian Roberta Senatore Production Assistant Brent LaFlam Office Assistant Timothy Gocklin Assistant Conductors Jonathan Brandani Louis Lohraseb
Stage Crew Jonathan Allen Garrett Arney Patrick Durbin Jonathan Hammonds Christopher Hwang Stephen Ivany Fiona Last Louis Lohraseb Thomas Park Douglas Perry Zachary Quortrup Elisabeth Shafer Daniel Stone Terrence Sweeney Georgi Videnov Mari Yoshinaga
Music Librarians Batmyagmar Erdenebat Darren Hicks Matheus Garcia Sardinha Souza Allan Hon Choha Kim Hye Jin Koh Fiona Last Michael Laurello David Mason Nicole Percifield Rachel Perfecto
UPCOMING EVENTS
Miró String Quartet
Peter Oundjian, guest conductor
march 25 Oneppo Chamber Music Series Morse Recital Hall | Tuesday | 8 pm Beethoven: Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6, “La Malinconia”; Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit; Schubert: Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810, “Death and the Maiden.” Tickets start at $25 · Students $12
april 4 Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale Woolsey Hall | Friday | 8 pm Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor with Robert Blocker, piano; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Christopher Theofanidis: Rainbow Body Free Admission
Boris Berman, piano
Brentano String Quartet
march 26 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 8 pm Horowitz Piano Series Brahms late piano pieces: Opp. 116, 117, 118, and 119; Schoenberg: Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19. Tickets start at $12, Students $6
april 8 Oneppo Chamber Music Series Morse Recital Hall | Tuesday | 8 pm Quartets by Haydn and Mendelssohn, and short pieces by Dvořák, Shostakovich, Carter, Ives, and more. Tickets start at $25 · Students $12
The Soldier’s Tale
Yale Cellos
april 1 Yale in New York Preview Concert Morse Recital Hall | Tuesday | 8 pm Presented in collaboration with the Yale School of Drama. Tony-award winning actor, Michael Cerveris narrates a new, fully-staged production of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with a new translation and stage direction by Liz Diamond. Music direction by David Shifrin. Tickets start at $25 • Students $15
april 9 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 8 pm Music by Barber, Haydn, Bach, Vivaldi, Ezra Laderman, and others. Aldo Parisot, director. Tickets start at $10 • Students $5
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
