NEWMUSIC NEWHAVEN hannah lash & christopher theofanidis 路 artistic directors
featuring
Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale Chamber Chorus of the Yale Camerata Woolsey Hall 路 December 11, 2014
Robert Blocker, Dean
Hannah Lash & Christopher Theofanidis, Artistic Directors
Katherine Balch b. 1991
aeiou Michael Weinberg, conductor
Tiange Zhou b. 1990
Lament for Adonis Marguerite Brooks, conductor
Natalie Dietterich b. 1992
Conversations with Strangers Marguerite Brooks, conductor Chamber Chorus of the Yale Camerata pause
Jesse Limbacher b. 1991
(but I dream in many places) Heejung Park, conductor
Michael Laurello b. 1981
Promises Shinik Hahm, conductor
Nicholas DiBerardino b. 1989
Asphodel Shinik Hahm, conductor Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale
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.
PROGRAM NOTES biography Katherine Balch Katherine Balch (b. 1991) is a composer whose work explores visual processes as a means to musical narrative and drama. Recognitions include an ascap Morton Gould Award, New England Conservatory’s Donald Martino prize, the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau’s prix du composition, and commissions from Collage New Music, the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and the New York Youth Symphony. An alumna of the Tufts/New England Conservatory double degree program, Katherine double majored in history and political science at Tufts and is a published author in the field of political theory. At NEC, she studied composition with Kati Agócs and Stratis Minakakis. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree at Yale School of Music, where she studies with Aaron Jay Kernis. Aside from composing, Katherine enjoys cooking, playing with her cat, Zarathustra, various combinations of espresso and steamed milk, and the outdoors. program note aeiou aeiou, for unaccompanied SSAA choir, explores shifts in color produced by changes in vowel sounds that take place as the voices expand outward from a central point. This piece is inspired by a passage from Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Essay on the Origin of Languages: “Since our natural voices are inarticulate, words would have few articulations; a few interspersed consonants eliminating the hiatus between vowels would suffice to make them fluid and easy to pronounce. On the other hand, its sounds would be extremely varied, and variety of accents
would multiply the same voices; quantity, rhythm would make possible still further combinations; so that since voices, sounds, accent, quantity, which are by nature, would leave little to be done by articulations, which are by convention, men would sing rather than speak…[this first language] would have many irregularities and anomalies, it would neglect grammatical analogy in favor of the euphony, variety, harmony, and beauty of sounds.” (Translated by Victor Gourevitch) 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 Lament for Adonis Lament for Adonis was composed during a journey in Greece in the summer of 2014. The composer, who grew up with deep influences of the Greek dramatic tradition,
PROGRAM NOTES was inspired by the mythological aesthetics and historical remains.
biography Natalie Dietterich
Adonis, in ancient Greek mythology, is the god of beauty and desire. The death of Adonis was fully developed in the circle of young girls around the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where Adonis is the son of Myrrha and her father Cinyras, Myrrha turned into a myrrh tree, and Lucina helped the tree to give birth to Adonis. In the myth, the contest between Aphrodite and Persephone for the possession of Adonis clearly reflects the struggle between love and death. When Adonis died, Aphrodite heard his cries and hastened to his side in her swan-drawn chariot. She cursed the Fates and Ares that had ordained his death. With Adonis still in her arms, Aphrodite turned the blood drops that fell from his wounds onto the soil into windflowers, as a memorial to their love.
Natalie Dietterich is an American composer from Lansdale, Pennsylvania. Her music has been performed at the highscore Festival (Pavia, Italy), the Charlotte New Music Festival (North Carolina), Spectrum (New York), and was recently featured on Q2 Music (WQXR, New York). She is a winner of two Philadelphia Composers’ Ink call for scores: “Airs of Other Planets” (2014) and “Songs of Metamorphosis” (2014).
text Sigh! Adonis! Adonis is dying. Dear Maidens, tears cloud your eyes. Oh, Adonis is dying. Beauty of love, Love of beauty. Shimmering, Aphrodite. Oh, Beauty! She leans on flowering branches. Oh, Goddess! Her memory is sweet and lovely. Her soul is sour and mournful. Oh, Adonis is dying. He died for beauty of love.
Natalie is currently an M.M. candidate at the Yale School of Music, studying with Christopher Theofanidis. She holds a dual degree in violin performance and composition from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where she ran the NOW Music Society new music concert series, coordinated Danza Symbiotica, a dance and composer collaboration, and was a member of the West Chester Laptop Ensemble. Her previous composition teachers include Robert Maggio, Larry Nelson, Mark Rimple, Adam Silverman, and Van Stiefel. program note Conversations with Strangers This text was assembled from fragments of conversations I had with people whom I had never previously met. I was moved by the deeply personal things people were willing to share, despite our lack of a direct relationship with one another. I have chosen phrases that follow three particular strangers I have met, and their hardship, representing the struggles of many that go unconsidered as we pass by and continue with our lives.
PROGRAM NOTES text it will be four years in May her addiction’s a quick fix to feeling better, feeling normal every once in awhile she comes back I took eighteen of them I don’t know if I was really trying to kill myself these hands, they sleep I was there for three years off and on she wants everything at some point you have to live biography Jesse Limbacher Jesse Limbacher is an award-winning composer of acoustic music that draws from an eclectic and ever-changing variety of influences. His honors include an ascap Morton Gould Young Composer Award and the Donald Erb Prize in Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music. His music has been commissioned by the Chamber Music Institute of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the fresh inc. festival, violinist Andrew Williams, Latitude 49, and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. His reed trio Air was released this fall on Fifth House Ensemble’s debut CD Excelsior, on Cedille Records. Jesse received a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music and is currently a graduate student at Yale. He is grateful for the support of his mentors Keith Fitch, Martin Bresnick, Hannah Lash, and David Lang.
program note (but I dream in many places) This piece creates its language by the irrational juxtaposition of musical materials across time (it is is not one thing alone, but rather a sequence of related events). The desired effect is to open our ears and imaginations to a personal way of listening and perceiving (we are blissfully unaware of why these dissociative events are cohesive). This continuous reverie in sound is fit for our concert hall (when we dream there, nothing seems impossible). We often explore our unconscious thoughts in the safest spaces (but I dream in many places). biography Michael Laurello Michael Laurello is an American composer and pianist. He has written for ensembles and soloists such as So Percussion, Sound Icon, the 15.19 Ensemble, NotaRiotous/The Boston Microtonal Society, guitarist Flavio Virzì, soprano Sarah Pelletier, pianist/composer John McDonald, and clarinetist and linguist/music theorist Ray Jackendoff. Upcoming collaborations include this new orchestral work for the Yale Philharmonia (December 2014) and a new percussion quartet for Sandbox Percussion (March 2015). Laurello is an Artist Diploma candidate in composition at the Yale School of Music, where he received the Jacob Druckman Scholarship and the Rena Greenwald Memorial Scholarship for 2014–2015. His primary composition teachers are David Lang and Christopher Theofanidis. He holds an M.A. in composition from Tufts
PROGRAM NOTES
University, where he studied under John McDonald, and a B.Mus. in Music Synthesis (Electronic Production and Design) from the Berklee College of Music. Recent honors include a commission from the American Composers Forum (ACF) to write a new work for So Percussion, and an Emerging Artist Award from the St. Botolph Club Foundation (Boston, MA). He has attended composition festivals at highSCORE (Pavia, Italy) and Etchings (Auvillar, France). In addition to his work as a composer and performer, Laurello is a teaching fellow at Yale University. biography Nicholas DiBerardino Nick DiBerardino (b. 1989), hailed as a “bright young star” and a “first-rate talent” by the Portland Press Herald, has recently enjoyed performances of his music around the world, including a premiere at London’s Barbican Centre. His concert music has received recognition from MTNA, the National Federation of Music Clubs, the New York Art Ensemble, BNMI, and ascap, and in 2013 he was named the overall winner of the Portland Chamber Music Festival Composition Competition and the recipient of the soundSCAPE Composition Prize. Nick received his bachelor’s degree at Princeton University, where he founded the Undergraduate Composers Collective, was elected early to Phi Beta Kappa, and was awarded the Edward T. Cone Memorial Prize for excellence in music theory and composition. He then attended the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he earned an M.Phil with distinction, cofounded and chaired the Oxford Laptop Orchestra, and was awarded the John
Lowell Osgood Memorial Prize for composition. Consistent with his belief in the transformative power of music, Nick also served as co-founder and director of Back in Tune, an initiative designed to provide underserved students in Bridgeport, Connecticut with musical instruction and to collect, refurbish, and distribute used instruments on their behalf. program note Asphodel Asphodel takes its name from a Mediterranean flower. Though it blooms near the sea to this day, the asphodel is most famous for its symbolic role in Homer’s Odyssey: Homer tells us that the asphodel covers the meadows of the afterlife. My piece peripherally ponders the ancients’ notion of afterlife by responding to three of the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, moral edicts meant to guide mortals toward godhood. The first section of Asphodel is titled “it is ordained by destiny;” the full phrase in Pythagoras reads, “It is ordained by destiny that all men shall die.” The second section is titled “support your lot with patience,” a phrase Pythagoras intends as an edict not to complain about misfortune. The final section, “the nature of this universe is in all things alike,” reflects upon Pythagoras’ declamation of a deep knowledge of the spiritual mysteries of the world.
PROFILES
yale philharmonia The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale is one of America’s foremost music school ensembles. The largest performing group at the Yale School of Music, the Philharmonia offers superb training in orchestral playing and repertoire. Performances include an annual series of concerts in Woolsey Hall, as well as Yale Opera productions in New Haven’s historic Shubert Theater. The Yale Philharmonia has performed on numerous occasions in Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 2008, the Philharmonia undertook its first tour of Asia, with acclaimed performances in the Seoul Arts Center, the Shanghai Grand Theatre, and Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall and National Center for the Performing Arts. The beginnings of the Yale Philharmonia can be traced to 1894, when an orchestra was organized under the leadership of the School’s first dean, Horatio Parker. The orchestra became known as the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale in 1973, with the appointment of Otto-Werner Mueller as resident conductor and William Steinberg, then music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony, as Sanford Professor of Music. Brazilian conductor Eleazar di Carvalho became music director in 1987, and Gunther Herbig joined the conducting staff as guest conductor and director of the Affiliate Artists Conductors program in 1990. Lawrence Leighton Smith, music director of the Louisville Symphony Orchestra, conducted the Philharmonia for a decade, until his retirement in 2004. Currently Peter Oundjian is the principal guest conductor, and Shinik Hahm is the resident conductor.
conductor Shinik Hahm Shinik Hahm has established himself as one of the most dynamic and exciting conductors of his generation. His guest-conducting appearances include engagements in North and South America, Europe and Asia. He has led orchestras in the world’s most prestigious concert halls, such as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Verizon Hall in Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, Boston Symphony Hall, Rudolfinum in Prague, the Seoul Arts Center, Tokyo Opera City Hall, and the National Theater of China. As music director and chief conductor of the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Hahm led the orchestra on tour with concerts at the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall, the last of which was hailed by the New York Times as “warm, sympathetic” and “altogether respectable.” Hahm previously served as music director of the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra from 2001 to 2006, during which time the orchestra earned national attention and international acclaim through concert tours in the United States and Japan. Committed to the pedagogy of conducting, Maestro Hahm has been a member of the conducting faculty at the Yale University School of Music since 1995. His students from Yale’s conducting program have won top prizes at the Besançon, Pedrotti, Toscanini, and China National conducting
PROFILES
competitions, and are active at the helm of various orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Maestro Hahm studied conducting at Rice University, where he received the Shepherd Society Award, and the Eastman School of Music, where he earned the Walter Hagen Conducting Prize. In 1991, Hahm won the prestigious Gregor Fitelberg Competition for Conductors, and in 1995, Maestro Hahm was decorated by the Korean government with the Arts and Culture Medal for his significant contributions to classical music. He is an energetic and avid soccer player. yale camerata Founded in 1985 by its conductor, Marguerite L. Brooks, the Camerata is a vocal ensemble sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. The group’s approximately sixty singers are Yale graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, staff, and experienced singers from the New Haven community. The Camerata performs a widely varied spectrum of choral literature, with a specific commitment to recently composed choral music. Admission is by audition; singers commit to an active schedule of rehearsals and performances. The Camerata has collaborated with the Yale Glee Club, Yale Philharmonia, Yale Symphony, Yale Band, Yale Chamber Players, Yale Collegium Musicum, New Haven, Norwalk, and Hartford Symphony Orchestras, and the New Haven Chorale. The ensemble has also performed for Yale Music Spectrum and New Music New Haven. The Camerata has been heard on
Connecticut Public Radio and national broadcasts of National Public Radio’s program “Performance Today.” Guest conductors have included Robert Shaw, Jaap Schröder, George Guest, Sir David Willcocks, Krzyzstof Penderecki, Sir Neville Marriner, and Helmuth Rilling. With the Institute of Sacred Music, the Camerata has commissioned and premiered works of Martin Bresnick, Daniel Kellogg, Stephen Paulus, Daniel Pinkham, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, among others. conductor Marguerite L. Brooks Marguerite Brooks, choral conductor, holds degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Temple University. She has served on the faculties of Smith and Amherst College and was also director of choral music at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The conductor of the Yale Camerata and Yale Pro Musica, Brooks joined the Yale faculty in 1985 as the director of the choral conducting program at the School of Music and the director of choral music at the Institute of Sacred Music. She is active as a guest conductor and gives master classes sponsored by the American Choral Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference, and the American Guild of Organists, and is director of music at the Church of the Redeemer in New Haven.
PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE
Violin I Shuaili Du Melanie Clapies Avi Nagin Ludomil Wojtkowski Suliman Tekalli Jinyou Lee Yena Lee Michael Duffett Yuri Mitsuhashi Ethan Hoppe Ryan Truby Xi Liao Violin II Do Hyung Kim Barbora Kolarova Nathan Lesser Yite Xu Celia Zhang Jessica Oddie Marie Oka Marina Aikawa Zou Yu Sarah Arnold Viola Daniel Stone Ryan Davis Batmyagmar Erdenebat Julia Clancy Yejin Han Hee-Sun Yang David Mason Xinyi Xu
Cello Jiwon Kang Bora Kim Pall Kalmansson Zhilin Wang Miyoung Jeong Ji Eun Lee Chang Pan Yifan Wu Bass Levi Jones Samuel Bobinski Luke Stence Ha Young Jung Will Robbins Flute Jacob Mende-Fridkis Victor Wang Oboe Timothy Gocklin Fiona Last Clarinet Kenta Akaogi William Kennedy Bassoon Barbara Bentley Yen-Chen Wu
Horn Sarah Boxmeyer Chuta Chulavalaivong Cody Halquist Thomas Park Trumpet Aaron Krumsieg Daniel Venora Carl Stanley Trombone Curtis Biggs Omar Dejesus Jr. Bass Trombone Johnathan Weisgerber Tuba John Caughman John Leibensperger Percussion Yifei Fu Matthew Keown Milan Kramer Jeffrey Stern Terrence Sweeney Georgi Videnov Piano Liliya Ugay Harp Haley Rhodeside NoĂŤl Wan
PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE
Conductor in Residence Shinik Hahm Manager Andrew W. Parker Music Librarian Roberta Senatore Production Assistant Brent LaFlam Conducting Fellows Louis Lohraseb Heejung Park Assistants Timothy Gocklin Heejung Park
Music Librarians Nicholas DiBerardino Allan Hon Matthew Keown Fiona Last Michael Laurello Richard Liverano David Mason Marie Oka Yefim Romanov Stage Crew Samuel Bobinski John Caughman Patrick Durbin Batmyagmar Erdenebat Julia Fu Yifei Fu Julia Ghica Matthew Keown John Kossler Fiona Last Christopher Lettie Thomas Park Elisabeth Shafer Terrence Sweeney Georgi Videnov Johnathan Weisgerber
CAMERATA CHAMBER CHORUS
Marguerite Brooks, Music Director Melissa Rooklidge, Manager Soprano I Helen Barnstable Hayley McCullough Molly van Dams Stephanie Tubiolo Soprano II Tawnie Olson Katie Jones Sarah Paquet Sarah Reed Angharad Rebholz Alto I Abigail Smith Katherine Blossom Joyce Hsiang Eleanor Muise Mary Copeley Alto II Laurie Ongley Samantha Ostrowski Lauren Ann Metskas
Tenor I Christian Crocker TJ Fitzgerald Michael Racine Tenor II Max Holman Patrick Murray Henry Park Bass I Patrick Holland Michel Ledizet Peter Thompson Michael Weinberg Lawrence Zukof Bass II Mark Biggins Nathan Kloczko Aaron Peisner Michael Blaakman
UPCOMING EVENTS Bassoonarama
Piano Studio Recital
december 15 Sudler Recital Hall | Monday | 5 pm YSM Student Ensembles Students in the studio of Frank Morelli perform works featuring the bassoon Free Admission
january 15 Morse Recital Hall | Thursday | 7:30 pm YSM Student Ensembles Featuring piano students in the studio of Hung-Kuan Chen Free Admission
David Shifrin, clarinet, and friends
Arthur Haas, harpsichord
december 15 Morse Recital Hall | Monday | 7:30 pm Faculty Artist Series With Yevgeny Yontov, piano; Suliman Tekalli, violin; and Alan Ohkubo, cello. Music by Debussy, Messiaen, and more Free Admission
january 21 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 7:30 pm Faculty Artist Series The Glorious Year 1685: Music by J.S. Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Pasquini, and others Free Admission
Yongyan Hu, guest conductor Peter Frankl, piano january 14 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 7:30 pm Horowitz Piano Series Music of Beethoven and Schumann, including Beethoven’s “Les Adieux,” Schumann’s Waldszenen, and more Tickets start at $13 • Students $7
january 23 Woolsey Hall | Friday | 7:30 pm Yale Philharmonia Ravel: La Valse and Bolero; Debussy: La Mer; X. Montsalvatge: Cinco canciones negras, with Woolsey Competition winner Aleksandra Romano, mezzo-soprano Tickets start at $10 • Students $5
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Robert Blocker, Dean