Tai Murray, violin, December 3, 2023

José García-León, Dean

faculty artist series

Tai Murray, violin Sunday, December 3, 2023 | 3:00 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Béla Bartók 1881–1945

Sonata for Solo Violin (1944) I. Tempo di ciaccona II. Fuga III. Melodia IV. Presto pause

Clancy Newman b. 1977

Palindromic Variations (2020) World premiere Theme Variation 1 Variation 2 Variation 3 Variation 4 Variation 5 Variation 6 Coda-adoC 6 noitairaV 5 noitairaV 4 noitairaV 3 noitairaV 2 noitairaV 1 noitairaV emehT Tai Murray, violin Ettore Causa, viola Clancy Newman, cello pause

Program cont.

Gabriela Lena Frank b. 1972

Suite Mestiza (2017) I. Haillí II. Vendedora Cholita III. Charanguista Viejo IV. Pinkillo Llorando V. Tarqeuada VI. Canto de la Hoja VII. Luciérnagas

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.

Artist Profiles Tai Murray, violin

Ettore Causa, viola

Violinist Tai Murray has been described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a violinist with more than technique on her mind” and a musician of “exceptional assurance and style.” A winner of the 2004 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Murray has appeared in recital and with major ensembles around the world including the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. She has been named a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and has been a member of Chamber Music Society II at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

In addition to touring with Musicians from Marlboro, Murray has performed at the BBC Proms, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, IMS Prussia Cove, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and West Cork Chamber Music Festival.

Awarded both the P. Schidlof Prize and the J. Barbirolli Prize for “the most beautiful sound” at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in 2000, Italian-born violist Ettore Causa has been praised for his exceptional artistry, passionate intelligence, and complete musicianship.

He has made solo and recital appearances in major venues around the world, and has collaborated extensively with internationally renowned chamber musicians.

A 2012 recipient of the Sphinx Organization’s Sphinx Medal of Excellence, Murray is dedicated to championing music by living composers. Her recordings include an album of Ysaÿe sonatas (harmonia mundi), 20th Century: The American Scene (eaSonus), and a recording of Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium) on the Mirare label.

Causa has published CDs on the Claves label. His recording Romantic Transcriptions for Viola and Piano, on which he performs his own transcriptions, was awarded “5 Diapasons” by the French magazine Diapason.

Murray is an assistant professor (adjunct) of violin at the Yale School of Music, where she teaches applied violin and coaches chamber music. She earned artist diplomas from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and the Juilliard School.

At the Yale School of Music, Causa teaches graduate-level viola students and coaches chamber ensembles. Before he joined the faculty in 2009, Causa taught both viola and chamber music at the International Menuhin Music Academy. He attended the International Menuhin Music Academy, where he studied with Alberto Lysy and Johannes Eskar, and the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Michael Tree.

In 2015, Causa was an honored guest at the 43rd International Viola Congress, where he performed his own arrangement of the Schumann Cello Concerto. He is an honorary member of British Viola Society, and he performs on a viola made for him

by Frederic Chaudière in 2003.

Artist Profiles cont.

Clancy Newman, cello

and Piano, and Four Seasons of Life for cello and string orchestra. His “PopUnpopped” project, where he writes solo cello caprices based on pop songs, has been ongoing since 2014 and has led to an exploration of cello techniques heretofore unimagined.

Cellist Clancy Newman has enjoyed an extraordinarily wide-ranging career, not only as a cellist, but also as a composer, producer, writer, teacher, and guest lecturer. He has won numerous competitions as a cellist, including the Juilliard School Cello Competition, the National Federation of Music Clubs competition, the Astral Artists National Auditions, and the Walter W. Naumburg International Competition.

Newman has performed as soloist around the world. A recipient of an Avery Fisher career grant, he can often be heard on NPR’s Performance Today and has been featured on A&E and PBS. A sought-after chamber musician, he is a former member of the Weiss-Kaplan-Newman trio, and he has toured as a member of Musicians from Marlboro and performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Newman has guest-lectured on the Golden Ratio Method, a method of composition he invented, and has been featured on series by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Chicago Chamber Musicians. In March 2019 his piano quintet, commissioned by the Ryuji Ueno Foundation, was premiered at the opening ceremony of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. His piano trio, Juxt-Opposition, is available on Bridge Records.

Newman holds an M.M. from Juilliard and a B.A. in English from Columbia. His teachers have included David Gibson, Joel Krosnick, and Harvey Shapiro.

Newman wrote first piece, for solo cello, at age seven. Since then, he has greatly expanded the cello repertoire with his Four Pieces for Solo Cello, Sonata for Cello

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Tai Murray, violin December 3, 2023 | 3:00 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Program Note Note by the composer Palindromic Variations For Tai Murray Within the realm of music, there is one thing that is more mysterious, more awe-inspiring to me than anything else: a simple tune. Why do we find one particular assemblage of notes so catchy, whereas another leaves us nonplussed? And why do most famous melodies, instantly recognizable, sound like gibberish when played backwards?

This last question has intrigued me for a long time.

Are there any melodies that don’t sound like gibberish when played backwards?

With this piece, I think I found one. The first half is a standard theme and variations. But then, at the end of the Coda — and at the precise center of the piece — the cellist and violinist snap their fingers, and the «adoC» begins. Now everything is played in reverse, and the piece ends as it began, with the Theme backwards (the «emehT»).

Although the piece is precisely the same forwards and backwards, my hope is that it is tuneful throughout.

And, in spite of all the predictability baked into the structure, perhaps there might still be some room for surprises along the way?

— Clancy Newman (2023)

Theme Variation 1 Variation 2 Variation 3 Variation 4 Variation 5 Variation 6 Coda-adoC 6 noitairaV 5 noitairaV 4 noitairaV 3 noitairaV 2 noitairaV 1 noitairaV emehT