Robert Blocker, Dean
new music new haven Aaron Jay Kernis, artistic director Featuring music by
Hannah Lash & Christopher Theofanidis and Yale School of Music graduate-student composers Thursday, October 3, 2019 | 7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall
Eli Greenhoe b. 1994
Raven Cameron Cullen, flute Amy Hur, clarinet Jessie Chen, violin Sophie Yu, cello Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner, piano Shiqi Zhong, percussion
Ryan Lindveit b. 1994
Triobanger Beatrice Hsieh, violin Claudia Ng, clarinet Kevin Zetina, percussion
Alexis Lamb b. 1993
For Marsha Liz Hanna, soprano I Joy Wang, soprano II Madeleine Woodworth, alto I Chloe Schaaf, alto II Hannah Goodwillie, conductor
As a courtesy to others, please silence all devices. Photography and recording of any kind is strictly prohibited. Please do not leave the hall during musical selections. Thank you.
Program, cont. Frances Pollock b. 1990
I am the Man Frances Pollock, soprano Leah Brzyski, soprano Xiaoxuan Shi, violin Yebeen Seo, violin James Yoon, viola Yun Han, cello
intermission
Hannah Lash b. 1981
Folksongs Lucas Guedes Oliveria, piccolo Hannah Lash, harp Russell Fisher, percussion
Christopher Theofanidis b. 1967
Quintet for clarinet and string quartet II. Aria for a lost beauty III. Fire and magic Kate Arndt, violin Elena Kawazu, violin Emma Wernig, viola Atticus Mellor-Goldman, cello Juan Martinez, clarinet
Paul Mortilla b. 1995
p u e r a e t e r n u s // s i m u l a c r u m CATHEXIS Matthew Woodard Camilla Tassi Isobel Anthony Liam Bellman-Sharpe Bel Ben Manoun David Lackner Paul Mortilla Max Mulpagano
Faculty Profiles
Student Profiles
Hannah Lash, composer
Eli Greenhoe ’18MM ’24DMA Student of Martin Bresnick eligreenhoe.com
Hailed by The New York Times as “striking and resourceful… handsomely brooding,” Hannah Lash’s music has been performed at major venues throughout the United States. In the 2017–2018 season, Jeremy Denk and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra premiered Lash’s Piano Concerto No. 1, In Pursuit of Flying; the Atlantic Classical Orchestra debuted Facets of Motion; and Music for Nine, Ringing was performed at the Music Academy of the West. In the 2018–2019 season, Lash’s Songs of Imagined Love was premiered at Carnegie Hall. Christopher Theofanidis, composer Christopher Theofanidis writes regularly for a variety of musical genres, from orchestral and chamber music to opera and ballet. His works have been performed by such groups as the New York Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and he has a long-standing relationship with the Atlanta Symphony and Maestro Robert Spano. Theofanidis is currently on the faculty of the Yale School of Music and has taught at the Peabody Conservatory and The Juilliard School, and is also a fellow of the US-Japan Leadership Program.
Ryan Lindveit ’19MM ’20MMA Student of Christopher Theofanidis lindveit.com Alexis Lamb ’20MM Student of Hannah Lash alexislamb.com Frances Pollock ’19MM ’24DMA Student of Martin Bresnick francespollock.com Paul Mortilla ’20MM Student of David Lang
Staff Manager Jeffrey M. Mistri Music Librarian Samuel Bobinski Conducting Fellow Ryan Tani
Program Notes by the composers Eli Greenhoe “Raven” by Robert Macfarlane Rock rasps, what are you? I am Raven! of the blue-black jacket and the boxer’s swagger, stronger and older than peak and than boulder, raps Raven in reply. Air asks, what are you? I am Raven! Prince of Play, King of Guile, grin-on-face base-jumper, twice as agile as the wind, thrice as fast as any gale, rasps Raven in reply. Vixen ventures, what are you? I am Raven! Solver of problems, picker of locks, who can often outsmart stoat and always out-think fox, scoffs Raven in reply. Earth enquires, what are you? I am Raven? I have followed men from forest edge to city scarp: black shadow, dark familiar, hexes Raven in reply. Nothing knows what you are. Not true! For I am Raven, who nothing cannot know. I steal eggs the better to grow, I eat eyes the better to see, I pluck wings the better to fly, riddles Raven in reply.
Alexis Lamb Marsha P. Johnson was a black, transgender woman at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots in 1969. Johnson was heavily involved with the LGBTQ+ rights movement in New York following Stonewall until her mysterious death in 1992. In this 50th anniversary year of Stonewall, Aiden K.
Feltkamp’s text is a beautiful and heartbreaking homage to Johnson’s efforts that show the actionable changes made since 1969, but also that represents how much work there still is to do in our society for the LGBTQ+ community. Feltkamp’s words invite us to imagine new pathways forward. “For Marsha (P. Johnson)” text written by Aiden K. Feltkamp Dear one, did you imagine that one day you could marry the one you loved with all your heart and wear whatever you damn well pleased without facing the greedy, toothed maw of the New York City jail? Did you imagine it When you threw that fateful glass? I didn’t imagine it when my parents threw that fateful stone straight through their glass front door. Sister, why didn’t we imagine it?
Frances Pollock In Twelfth Night, the protagonist, Viola, disguises herself as a man and accidentally attracts the admiration of beautiful, witty Olivia. When Viola realizes what happened, she expresses sympathy for Olivia, as the romance, of course, could never happen between two women. In I Am the Man, we re-contextualize the encounter, influenced by our contemporary understanding of sexuality and, more importantly, of the often horrifying New York City dating
scene — imagining that Viola might give the possibilities that Olivia presents a bit more consideration.
Hannah Lash Folksongs is a piece about transformation and dichotomy. Its premise is to use very simple, almost homely materials, and to transform and manipulate them in complex ways.
material is drawn from a simple 9-note scale in an E-based mode. The melodic pattern is stated three times at varying speeds in the piccolo, which is joined by a mensuration canon in the harp in the middle of the movement. This piece was premiered by the MAYA trio, for whom it was commissioned and written.
Christopher Theofanidis The first movement uses a melody that sounds like a traditional Celtic or English pennywhistle tune, with a rhythmic pattern of non-metrically placed accents in the Doumbek, underneath all of which nontonal and lush harmonies are spun out in the harp. These three strata change places instrumentally throughout the movement. The second movement draws inspiration from a choir singing homophonic music — the collective force of rhythmic unison. Here, the two patterns are rhythmic and melodic: a color and a talea of differing lengths, so that the movement’s completion is not reached until these elements’ ends coincide. The third movement is a piccolo solo, with three punctuating notes at various points from the harp and gong. It is a simple, songful melody: a shepherd playing for himself on a lonely hill.
The fourth and final movement is similar to the first in the non-metrically placed accents in the rhythmic patterns of the harp and tongue-drum. The melodic
My piece has three movements, and the piece lasts around 20 minutes. It has something of a psychological arc. The first movement is titled “The war in heaven,” and alternates between a volatile fast musical language and a music which is slower, more pained. Their materials come together in dialogue throughout the movement. Its core in a way centers around an existential psychological battle. The second movement, “Aria for a lost beauty,” takes place in a kind of spiritual aftermath of the first — remembering a time of beauty before the crisis, but with a great sense of nostalgia. There are extended passages in this movement with just the string quartet alone, though the clarinet is still very integral to the ‘voice’ of the aria. The third movement, “Fire and magic,” moves on from this opening two movement grouping but has in it a sense of running — maybe away from, maybe toward something which is not entirely known. The quintet was written for the Ariel Quartet with Alex Fiterstein on clarinet for the Manchester Music Festival.
New Music New Haven
2019-2020 Season nov 7
Aaron Jay Kernis and David Lang, faculty composers Kernis composes with “fearless originality” (The New York Times) and Lang is “an American master” (The New Yorker).
dec 12
New Music for Orchestra* A program of new orchestral music by the School’s student composers performed by the Yale Philharmonia in Woolsey Hall
feb 6
Frederic Rzewski, guest composer “Thought-provoking, heartwrenching music” — The New York Times
mar 5
John Zorn, guest composer “Sensational and evocative” — The New York Times
apr 16
Tania Leon, guest composer “Fueled by a humanist curiosity” — NBC News Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Morse Recital Hall free unless otherwise indicated
Upcoming Events OCT 10 Sean Kennard, piano DMA Recitals Music by Debussy, Berg, Ravel, and Prokofiev. 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall free Carol Jantsch, tuba Faculty Artist Series Giancarlo Castro’s Sonatina for Tuba, and arrangments of music by Brahms, Faure, Korngold, and Raymond Scott. 3:00 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall free OCT 13
oct 22 Akropolis Reed Quintet Oneppo Chamber Music Series New works by Jeff Scott and Steven Snowden, as well as arrangements of Rameau and Gershwin. 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $28, students $13
oct 25 Ludovic Morlot, guest conductor Yale Philharmonia Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1, with Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition winner Jung Eun Kang. 7:30 p.m. | Woolsey Hall Tickets start at $12, Yale faculty/ staff $8, students $5 $3 surcharge at the door Nov 1-2 Fall Scenes Yale Opera A variety of scenes from beloved comic and tragic operas. 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $12, students $5 Boris Berman, piano Horowitz Piano Series A performance of Schubert’s Piano Sonata No. 20, D. 959, and music by Chopin, including the Barcarolle, Op. 60, and the Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61. 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $15, students $7 nov 6
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