Robert Blocker, Dean
new music new haven Aaron Jay Kernis, Artistic Director
Christopher Theofanidis faculty composer
Thursday, February 10, 2022 | 7:30 p.m. Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall
Program Christopher Theofanidis b. 1967
Wake Up, Called the Voice (2015) Robert Blocker, piano
Jack Frerer b. 1995
Twirling Aimlessly (2022) Elvin Schlanger, flute Will Stevens, oboe Lloyd Van’t Hoff, clarinet Andy Sledge, bassoon Salome Jordania, piano
Udi Perlman b. 1990
Material as Metaphor/Plus = Minus (2022) Molly McGuire, mezzo-soprano Matthew Newhouse, tenor
Matīss Čudars b. 1991
Drive (2022) Rachel Breen, piano
Lila Meretzky b. 1998
Music for a Dance (2022) Sungu Kang, piano Emily Coates, dancer
pause Audience members are asked to refrain from mingling.
Theofanidis
Birichino (2013) Yi-Chen Feng, piano
Theofanidis
January Echo (1997/2011) Barbie Matthews, guitar
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.
Faculty Profile
Student Profiles
Christopher Theofanidis, faculty composer
Jack Frerer ’22MM Student of David Lang » jackfrerer.com
Christopher Theofanidis regularly writes for a variety of musical genres, from orchestral and chamber music to opera and ballet. His works have been programmed by the world’s most celebrated orchestras, operas, and ballet companies. Theofanidis is currently on the faculty of the Yale School of Music, where he is the coordinator of composition studies and teaches a studio of graduate-level composers. His works are often featured on Yale’s Faculty Artist Series and New Music New Haven concert series. Theofanidis is also currently the composer-in-residence and co-director of the composition program at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He previously taught at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University and at The Juilliard School. Theofanidis holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, and the University of Houston.
Udi Perlman ’26DMA Student of Christopher Theofanidis » udiperlman.com Matīss Čudars ’23MM Student of Christopher Theofanidis » matisscudars.com Lila Meretzky ’22MM Student of David Lang » soundcloud.com/lila-meretzky
Staff Manager Jeffrey M. Mistri Music Librarian Samuel Bobinski office assistant Matthew Matheny
Program Notes by the composers Wake Up, Called the Voice CHristopher Theofanidis
Material as Metaphor/Plus = Minus Udi Perlman
Wake Up, Called the Voice, is a short, fiveminute work that is a kind of fantasyprelude on the chorale tune Wachtet auf, ruft uns die Stimme by J.S. Bach, which itself is based on a hymn by Philipp Nicolai. My earliest memory of that melody was hearing it as a young boy when my father played the Busoni choral prelude version of it, and even then, it made a wonderful and lasting impression on me for its jubilant, noble, and soaring nature – qualities found both in its more grand moments but also in its more intimate ones. My piece tries to balance those two affects in the rhapsodic elaboration of the melody.
My piece Material as Metaphor/Plus = Minus is a short, polytextual song for two unaccompanied singers based on texts by Josef Albers (1888–1976) and Anni Albers (1899–1994), influential Bauhaus artists who emigrated from Germany to the United States and settled in Connecticut. The tenor sings Josef Albers’ poem “Plus = Minus,” describing the cyclical process of water evaporating, while the mezzosoprano sings excerpts from Anni Albers’ lecture “Material as Metaphor,” considering the connection between material and expression in life and art. The two texts could be seen as emblems of the Albers’ creative personalities: Josef, with his abstract geometric paintings (most famously the Homages to the Square series); Anni, with her intricate, crisscrossing textiles and prints. Material as Metaphor/Plus = Minus is, therefore, rather than a dramatic scene from a marriage, a polyphonic exploration of how two creative spirits can live side by side.
This piece is dedicated to Robert Blocker, in friendship and admiration. Twirling Aimlessly jack frerer Twirling Aimlessly is a short celebration of wind instruments and the musical materials they regularly encounter. The title is taken from a poem by Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz – “A spiral twirling aimlessly, seeking a rest you will never find” – which also served as inspiration for the organization (or disorganization) of the piece.
Material as metaphor “A short while ago I had a visit from a ten-week-old baby who looked at me wide eyed [...] and somewhat puzzled and was struggling as if trying to tell me something and did not know how. [...] Most of our lives we lived closed up in ourselves with a longing not to be alone [...] To make it visible and tangible, we need light and material, any material. And any material can take the burden of what had been brewing in our [...] dreams.” —Anni Albers, “Material as Metaphor,” 1982 © 2021 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation
Program Notes, cont. PLUS = MINUS The more / the sun shines / the more / water evaporates / clouds appear / and the sun / shines less // The less / the sun shines / the less / water evaporates / clouds diminish / and the sun / shines more. —Josef Albers, “PLUS = MINUS” Published in Josef Albers: Poems and Drawings, 1958 © 2021 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Drive Matiss Cudars Drive was composed for and premiered by a friend of mine, Latvian pianist and Yale School of Music alumnus Reinis Zarinš, whose sense of focus, immaculate virtuosity and determination, that I had always admired, served as the affective starting point for the composition process of this work, hence the title, Drive. A fan of words with multiple interpretations I attempt to explore the different meanings word “drive” can have. Music for a Dance Lila Meretzky Music for a Dance was created in collaboration with the wonderful choreographer, dancer, and Yale College professor Emily Coates. Our shared interest in small pieces of choreographic and musical material that spin out in various iterations and combinations drove this piece. We presented an initial version of the work at the end of the fall semester at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, with YSM Dean Melvin Chen at the piano. Tonight, the work is slightly different
from that initial presentation, with Emily’s semi-improvised movements changing and a new interpretation of the musical score in reaction. Birichino Christopher Theofanidis I was asked to write the semi-final qualifying round piece for the Van Cliburn competition a few years ago, and Birichino was the result. The pianists in that competition can all play just about anything, so I decided to turn my attention toward comic timing as a focused way to have them distinguish themselves. “Birichino” is the affectionate Italian word for “prankster,” and it is often used to refer to children who like to play jokes on their unsuspecting parents. As I started my work for the Van Cliburn Competition, I realized that I was using the basic material of the piece in a kind of “cat and mouse” way, employing certain physical techniques in a manner that was both fun to play but also quite trouble-making for the poor pianist. This manifests itself not only in the techniques of playing reverse stride piano, interlocking hand motion, and extremely fast figurations, but also in some of the piece’s particular rhythmic timing. My goal was to challenge the performer and make them also laugh at the same time, all the while showing off a sparkling sense of comic timing and wit. Birichino is inspired by my daughter, Isabella – the original little prankster!
January Echo Christopher Theofanidis Benjamin Verdery asked me in 2011 to adapt my 1997 solo viola work Flow, my tears for guitar. The original work was written in memoriam Jacob Druckman, who passed away after a fight with cancer the year before in 1996. Mr. Druckman was a wonderful and important composer, and he was a crucial mentor to many of us. I always felt like the field of new music was a better place because of his generosity and musical citizenship – he found endless fascination in styles so very different from his own, and he supported a great variety of composers with these different stylistic stripes at a time when those boundaries were much more rigid. There is a small reference to his 1989 work, Nor Spell, Nor Charm, which he had written in dedication to Jan De Gaetani, the wonderful singer who had died earlier that same year from leukemia. The reference is a series of falling open fifth sonorities which occur relatively early in my piece and again at the end.
Upcoming Events at YSM FEb 11
Yale Opera with Yale Philharmonia Louis Lohraseb ’15MM, guest conductor 7:30 p.m. | Woolsey Hall
feb 16
Lunchtime Chamber Music 12:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall
mar 2
Lunchtime Chamber Music 12:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall
mar 9
Yale Percussion Group 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall
mar 10 New Music New Haven Martin Bresnick, faculty composer 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall mar 30 Lunchtime Chamber Music 12:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Apr 6
Lunchtime Chamber Music 12:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall
YSM Audience Policy spring 2022 Due to University COVID-19 policies, in-person concert attendance for YSM events is currently limited to the following audiences: only current Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music students, faculty, and staff. All other individuals are invited to view concert livestreams at music.yale.edu/live.
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