New Music New Haven, Nov 20

NEWMUSIC NEWHAVEN hannah lash & christopher theofanidis 路 artistic directors

featuring

MARTIN BRESNICK AARON JAY KERNIS CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS and music by Yale graduate composers Morse Recital Hall 路 November 20, 2014

Robert Blocker, Dean

Hannah Lash & Christopher Theofanidis, Artistic Directors

Tiange Zhou b. 1990

The Peony Pavilion, a Glance Heejung Park, conductor Nathan Lesser, Marina Aikawa, Jing Yang Barbora Kolarova, violin David Mason, Danielle Wiebe, viola Chang Pan, Zhilin Wang, Bora Kim, cello Will Robbins, bass Christina Hughes, Joanna Wu, flute Sol Jee Park, oboe Eric Fung, clarinet Bogdan Dumitriu, bassoon Michael Laurello, celeste/percussion

Liliya Ugay b. 1990

Third World Fable Dae Hee Ahn, violin Ji Eun Lee, cello Liliya Ugay, piano brief 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.

Christopher Theofanidis b. 1967

Kaoru

Aaron Jay Kernis b. 1960

Second Ballad

Martin Bresnick b. 1946

Prayers Remain Forever

Andrew Robson, Victor Wang, flute

TwoSense Ashley Bathgate, cello Lisa Moore, piano

TwoSense

PROGRAM NOTES

biography Tiange Zhou Born in China in 1990, Tiange Zhou is a composer, playwright, and improv dancer.

Her music is performed across Asia, Europe, and North America, and has been programmed at the Highscore Music Festival (Pavia, Italy) and the Ostrava New Music Days. Zhou has collaborated with musicians from Mivos Quartet, ICE, S.E.M Ensemble, and Philip Glass Ensemble. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, including one year of study at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, Germany. Currently, she is pursuing her Master of Music degree at the Yale School of Music, studying with Hannah Lash. She has previously studied with Reiko Fueting, Nils Vigeland, Caspar Johannes Walter, and Marco Stroppa. Ms. Zhou focuses on dramatic music writing and collaborative creation with visual art, theater, and dance. program note The Peony Pavilion, a Glance The Peony Pavilion is a play written by Tang Xianzu in the Ming Dynasty and first performed in 1598 at the Pavilion of Prince Teng. One of Tang's “Four Dreams,” it has traditionally been performed as a Kunqu opera. However, this ensemble piece is not storytelling music but rather a glance to days gone by, looking through a contemporary kaleidoscope. biography Liliya Ugay Liliya Ugay is an award-winning pianist and composer whose works have been

performed in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and the United States. Originally from Uzbekistan, she graduated from the Uspensky Special Music School for gifted children studying piano with G. Ardashirova and composition with P. Medyulyanova and F. Yanov-Yanovsky. While in Tashkent, Liliya collaborated regularly with the contemporary music ensemble “Omnibus,” in which she participated both as a pianist and composer. In 2010, Liliya was awarded the Woodruff scholarship at Columbus State University to study piano under the tutelage of Alexander Kobrin. In Columbus, her works were premiered by the CSU Philharmonic orchestra led by Paul Hostetter and several student recitals. Her compositions were featured in several festivals including 45th Darmstadt International Summer Courses of New Music, 52nd Venice Biennale, International Trumpet Guild and Convergence New Music festivals. Presently, Liliya is pursuing her Master of Music degree in composition at Yale School of Music studying with Martin Bresnick. Among Liliya’s competition prizes are: first prizes at the National MTNA Young Artist and DeKalb Choral Guild composition competitions, second prize at the 3rd International Piano competition “Verfemte Musik” (Germany), honorable mention at Pre-Art International composition competition (Switzerland), second prize at the Crystal Camerton Composition Competition (supported by the Union of Composers of Russia and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory), the Esta Kirkey award at the 14th International Beethoven Piano Sonata Competition, and many more.

PROGRAM NOTES

biography Christopher Theofanidis

length oratorio, called Creation/Creator, for the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus.

Christopher Theofanidis (b. 1967) 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, 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, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and he has a long-standing relationship with the Atlanta Symphony and Maestro Robert Spano. His Symphony No. 1 has just been released by that orchestra on disc.

program note Kaoru

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 with Donna DiNovelli for the San Francisco Opera. His large-scale 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 US-Japan Leadership Program. Mr. Theofanidis’ upcoming works include the opera Siddhartha, for the Houston Grand Opera, a new work for the Miro String Quartet for Chamber Music Monterey Bay in collaboration with the multimedia artist, Bill Viola, a solo piano work for the fiftieth anniversary of the Van Cliburn Competition, and an evening-

I wrote Kaoru for my classmate at Yale, Kaoru Hinata, who had asked me to write a solo piece for flute. I found myself frustrated by my inability to create a strong harmonic sense on that instrument, and came back with a two-flute work for her and her friend Christopher Vaneman.

The work is highly heterophonic – the two parts are inextricably intertwined through each of the three movements – mostly creating a kind of merged superline. The first movement proceeds in fits and starts as one flute chases the other.

The second movement was inspired by the expressive pitch bending of shakuhachi flute playing. The third movement is a perpetual motion achieved by a parcing up of the running line. Kaoru is approximately twelve minutes long. biography Aaron J. Kernis Aaron Jay Kernis is winner of the coveted 2012 Nemmers Prize and 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and one of the youngest composers ever awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Since 2003 he has taught composition at the Yale School of Music, where he is Professor (Adjunct) of Composition.

Kernis’s music is featured prominently on orchestral, chamber, and recital programs worldwide, and he has been commissioned by many of America’s foremost performing artists, including sopranos Renée Fleming and Dawn Upshaw, violinists Joshua Bell and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg,

PROGRAM NOTES and guitarist Sharon Isbin, and by institutions including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Minnesota Orchestra, the Los Angeles and Saint Paul chamber orchestras, Walt Disney Company, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Rose Center for Earth and Space at the Museum of Natural History in New York.

Kernis was awarded the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Rome Prize, and he received Grammy nominations for Air and his Second Symphony.

His music is widely available on CDs, including the labels Naxos, Decca, Koch, Dorian, Phoenix, Virgin Classics, New Albion, Cedille, Nonesuch, Arabesque, and Innova.

Kernis served as new music adviser to the Minnesota Orchestra for ten years and is chairman and director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute. In 2011 he was named to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. program note Second Ballad Both Second Ballad (for cello and piano) and the first Ballad from 2003 are essentially touched by jazz harmony, phrasing, and even hints of lounge jazz. But while the first is elegiac and deeply mournful, this compact new piece is made of contrasted sections of reflective music and highly charged agitation. Second Ballad was written in 2013 as a secret 50th birthday present for cellist David Mollenauer, of the Soli ensemble in San Antonio, and was commissioned by his wife Stephanie Key and friends.

biography Martin Bresnick Composer Martin Bresnick was born in New York City in 1946 and is presently Professor of Composition and Coordinator of Composition at the Yale School of Music.

He was educated at the High School of Music and Art, the University of Hartford (B.A.), Stanford University (M.A., D.M.A.), and the Akademie für Musik, Vienna. His principal teachers include György Ligeti, John Chowning, and Gottfried von Einem.

Mr. Bresnick has taught in the United States and Europe, including at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music, New College in Oxford, and the Royal Academy of Music in London, among others. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Mr. Bresnick’s orchestral music has been performed by major symphonies around the world, including the San Francisco Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Münster Philharmonic, Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo, and Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka. His chamber music has been performed by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Da Capo Chamber Players, Bang on A Can All Stars, and MusicWorks!, among others. His music has been heard at numerous festivals, including Prague Spring, Tanglewood, Banff, New Music America, and New Horizons.

He has also received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fromm Foundation, Lincoln Center Chamber Players, Meet-the-Composer, and Chamber Music America. His many prizes include the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP Foundation’s

PROGRAM NOTES Aaron Copland Prize for teaching, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Mr. Bresnick has written music for films, two of which were nominated for Academy Awards in the documentary category. Mr. Bresnick’s music has been recorded by Cantaloupe Records, CRI, Centaur, New World Records, Artifact Music, and Albany Records and is published by Carl Fischer Music (NY), Bote and Bock Berlin, and CommonMuse Music Publishers, New Haven. program note Prayers Remain Forever When I first read the poem “Gods Come and Go, Prayers Remain Forever” by the great Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, I was deeply moved. Although Amichai surely meant to calm and console us by the gentle wisdom and beauty of his words, I now also hear a strain of existential reproach.

Tombstones crumble, words come and go, words are forgotten, The lips that uttered them turned to dust, Tongues die like people, other tongues come to life, Gods in the sky change, gods come and go, Prayers remain forever.

In my work, Prayers Remain Forever, I join my prayer to his.

Commissioned for TwoSense by Ashley Bathgate and Lisa Moore • Dedicated to Aldo Parisot

biography Ashley Bathgate Cellist Ashley Bathgate has gained international renown as both a soloist and chamber musician. The New York Times writes, “Ms.

Bathgate’s rich tone, fluid dynamics and imaginative phrasing captured the magic.”

Equally at home in both the concert hall and the rock club, Ashley is a member of the award-winning, internationally acclaimed Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Metropolis Ensemble, and three chamber groups of which she is a founding member: TwoSense, Bonjour, and Samadhi. She has recorded for Nonesuch, Naxos, Cantaloupe Music, Albany Records, and La-La Land Records.

Ashley received her bachelor’s degree from Bard College and a master’s degree from Yale, where she studied with Aldo Parisot. » www.ashleybathgate.com biography Lisa Moore Lisa Moore is a freelance pianist who has been crowned by The New Yorker as “New York’s queen of avant-garde piano.” She has collaborated with a diverse range of musicians, ensembles, and artists – the London Sinfonietta, Bang on a Can, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Australian Chamber Orchestra, So Percussion, Grand Band, and the Paul Dresher Double Duo. She was the founding pianist for the Bang On A Can All-Stars.

Lisa has worked with composers ranging from Iannis Xenakis, Elliot Carter, Philip Glass, and Frederic Rzewski to Ornette Coleman, Meredith Monk, Thurston Moore, Hannah Lash, and Martin Bresnick.

Lisa Moore has released seven solo discs (on Cantaloupe and Tall Poppies) and over 30 collaborative discs. Her new solo Philip Glass recording Mad Rush will be released in January 2015. » www.lisamoore.org

UPCOMING EVENTS Lunchtime Chamber Music

Yale Baroque Ensemble

december 3 Yale Center for British Art | 1080 Chapel St Wednesday | 12:30 pm YSM Student Ensembles Chamber music for a variety of ensembles Wendy Sharp, director Free Admission

december 6 Morse Recital Hall | Saturday | 4 pm Early Music Sprezzatura: Virtuoso music of the Italian seventeenth century Robert Mealy, director Free Admission

Songs from the Koch Collection

Liederabend

december 4 Morse Recital Hall | Thursday | 7:30 pm Yale Opera • Yale in New York preview Singers of Yale Opera perform music from the Frederick R. Koch Collection in Yale’s Beinecke Library. Featuring art songs by Debussy, Duparc, Mahler, Schumann, and Sibelius Tickets $10–$20 • Students $5

december 6 Morse Recital Hall | Saturday | 7:30 pm Yale Opera An evening of Russian song. Emily Olin, musical preparation and accompaniment Free Admission

Angélique Kidjo december 6 Woolsey Hall | Saturday | 3 pm Special Events Afro-pop star Angélique Kidjo performs a special benefit concert with the Yale Percussion Group, Shades, and members of the Yale Concert Band. Proceeds will benefit the Yale Africa Initiative Student Scholarships Tickets $15–$25 • Students $5

Vista: Music and Commentary december 7 Morse Recital Hall | Sunday | 4 pm YSM Student Ensembles Outstanding chamber ensembles share a personal take on the music they perform Wendy Sharp, director Free Admission

Concert Programs & Box Office: Krista Johnson, Donna Yoo Communications: Dana Astmann, Monica Ong Reed, Austin Kase Operations: Tara Deming, Chris Melillo Piano Curators: Brian Daley, William Harold Recording Studio: Eugene Kimball connect with us:

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If you do not intend to save your program, please recycle it in the baskets at the exit doors.

Robert Blocker, Dean