Matthew Welch, composition, October 13, 2016

Robert Blocker, Dean

doctor of musical arts recital

Matthew Welch composition

Morse Recital Hall October 13, 2016 • Thursday at 7:30 pm

Yale School of Music

Matthew Welch,

composition

October 13, 2016 • Morse Recital Hall

Matthew Welch b. 1976

Cumha Na Marbh – Requiem aeternam dona eis (2013) quartet metadata Hajnal K. Pivnick, Lynn Bechtold, violin Hannah Levinson, viola Jennifer DeVore, cello

Welch

12 Piano Etudes (2015) VI. Requiem Chorale VII. Waltz VIII. Mondrian’s Boogie-Woogie IX. Stars X. Stride-Polka XII. Bachapi Emily Manzo, piano

Welch

Scenes from SISYPHUS, an opera in one act (2015) 3. Burner 5. Golfman 7. General Tso 9. Painting 11. Hanging Frames 13. Dickens-Deadbolt 15. Leaving-Goldman 2 19. Damn it Brianna Locke: Kate Maroney, mezzo-soprano Meaghan Burke, cello Joe Bergen, vibraphone Shawn Lovato, bass

Doctor of Musical Arts Recital

Welch Libretto by Daniel Neer

Scenes from And Here We Are, an opera in progress (2015—16) 1. The Smuggled Radio 2. Clouds 3. Piano Lessons 4. Battle 5. Privacy 6. Resignation 7. The Pee Pee Song blarvuster Edgar Kneedler: Daniel Neer, baritone Ben Holmes, trumpet Joe Bergen, vibraphone Emily Manzo, piano Ian Riggs, bass Mike Pride, drums

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

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

This performance is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

Artist Profile • Notes on the Program

Matthew Welch is a composer of innovative opera and genre-resisting concert music. Mixing his backgrounds in bagpipes, gamelan, experimental, classical, rock, and improvised music, Welch’s compositional sound is worldly and eclectic in material, yet personal and seamless in style.

Praised by The New York Times as “exquisitely ethereal” and “border-busting; catchy,” Welch’s music has been performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

His ensemble, Blarvuster, has been based in New York City since 2002. Welch cofounded Experiments in Opera in 2011.

Cumha Na Marbh–Requiem aeternam dona eis (2013) My second String Quartet in one movement traces an extremely stretched snippet of the Requiem plainchant and builds new worlds out of an abstract chorale constructed around the buried cantus. Little lives pop up and die unexpectedly. Such is life. A melodic sensibility is inspired by the Highland Bagpipe Piobaireachd “Cumha Na Marbh” (“The Lament for the Dead”), and textures inspired by piping, gamelan, early polyphony, Ligeti, and Bartók.

12 Piano Etudes (2015) The set of 12 Etudes was composed in the summer of 2015 and premiered at The Stone on December 8, 2015. The etudes are short studies in compositional hybridity and pianistic styles.

Scenes from SISYPHUS, an opera in one act (2015) Brianna Locke, a successful painter, suffers from severe Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. She is trapped by purposing the useless reiterations symptomatic of her disease, and as such represents a modern day Sisyphus.

3. Burner

Brianna’s elaborately repeated rit uals of turning the stove off help stave

off possible fires, detrimental to her

collection of paintings and livelihood.

Notes on the Program

5. Golfman

Trapped at home, Brianna attempts

online dating.

7.

General Tso She orders the same thing from Chiu’s Garden every day.

9. Painting

Her OCD becomes effectively en twined with her art.

11. Hanging Frames

Anxious about her paintings, Brianna

compulsively organizes the crowded collection.

13. Dickens-Deadbolt

Reading with OCD, already slow

and cyclical, is thwarted by a merg ing obsession with whether her door

is locked.

15. Leaving-Goldman 2

Anxious to leave her apartment,

Brianna abandons a first date.

19.

Damn it Brianna loses concentration while painting and has to START ALL OVER AGAIN.

Scenes from And Here We Are, an opera in progress (2015-16) And Here We Are explores imprisonment and cultural collisions through the story of my maternal family’s interment in the Santo Tomas concentration camp in WWII Philippines. The libretto, by Daniel Neer, develops the horrifying memoirs of my great-uncle Edgar Kneedler, an opera singer isolated by his move to Asia and internment (1942-45).

1.

The Smuggled Radio Edgar’s dream of a radio he had as a child mingles with the real sound of a radio smuggled into the camp, the source of which is eventually discovered by the guards.

2. Clouds

Daydreaming is the preferred method

of leaving the misery of the camp life

behind, and although four walls sur round Edgar, the sky is open with

no barrier.

3.

Piano Lessons Edgar remembers his first major teacher, Mrs. Cook, who embodied patience and care during weekly piano lessons in Manila.

4. Battle

As Manila falls, Edgar unwittingly

mingles reality with fantasy, imagining

himself the hero of an opera amidst

the deafening madness of battle.

Notes on the Program

5. Privacy

Of the many jobs at the camp,

scrubbing the latrines is a study in

dichotomy: after cleaning, Edgar

enjoys the blissful privacy of a lock ed bathroom.

6. Resignation

As Manila explodes and burns on all

sides and inmates become devas-

tatingly malnourished, Edgar marvels

at the banal existence of the new normal.

7.

The Pee Pee Song The disease beriberi becomes more rampant in the camp, and the guards deride the inmates’ need for frequent urination.

Filmed live at Roulette, New York City, by Eric Paton, as part of Experiments in Opera’s Story Binge, April 2015.

PETER OUNDJIAN

BRENTANO STRING QUARTET

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Robert Blocker, Dean

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Upcoming Events Ravel, Nielsen, Sibelius & Rimsky-Korsakov

october 14 Yale Philharmonia Ravel: Alborada del gracioso; Nielsen Concerto for Flute with soloist Joanna Wu; Sibelius: Symphony No. 7; Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol; Peter Oundjian, principal conductor Woolsey Hall | Friday | 7:30 pm Tickets start at $10 • Students $5 $3 surcharge for purchases at the door

Voices

october 15 Faculty Artist Series Ezra Laderman’s last completed work, Voices, with a libretto by former U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky and based on Dante’s Inferno, is given its world premiere on a program featuring the Argus Quartet, soprano Nola Richardson, tenor Gene Stenger, and baritone Isaac Bray Morse Recital Hall | Saturday | 7:30 pm free admission

Wendy Sharp, violin

october 16 Faculty Artist Series School of Music faculty violinist Wendy Sharp performs works by Bach, Arthur Foote, YSM alumnus Kevin Puts, and YSM faculty composer Hannah Lash, with pianist Joel Wizansky Morse Recital Hall | Sunday | 3 pm free admission

Alan Held Master Class october 17

Doris Yarick Cross, artistic director Students from the Yale Opera studio will perform music by Mozart, Massenet, Bizet, and more.

Morse Recital Hall | Monday | 7 pm free admission

Works by Martin Bresnick

october 18 Faculty Artist Series In honor of School of Music faculty composer Martin Bresnick’s 70th birthday, the Yale Percussion Group, YSM faculty guitarist Benjamin Verdery, YSM alumnus Elly Toyoda, and pianist Lisa Moore perform Bresnick’s Joaquin is Dreaming, Bird as Prophet, Ishi’s Song, and Caprichos Enfáticos Morse Recital Hall | Tuesday | 7:30 pm free admission

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Robert Blocker, Dean