Contemporary
Chamber Players
Monday, April 10, 2006
7:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
Program
Solo Sonata for Soprano Saxophone (world premiere) Dana Dimitri Richardson
Allegro scherzando - Appasionatamente - Allegro scherzando - (b. 1953)
Appasionatamente - Allegro scherzando
Adagio lamentoso
Fuga - Allegro scherzando - Fuga
Susan Fancher, soprano saxophone
Listening Set (world premiere) Adam Josephson
(b. 1981)
LaTannia Ellerbe, violin
Michael Haldeman, marimba
Thomas Lowry, soprano saxophone
a focused expanse of evolving experience Jeffrey Mumford
(b. 1955)
Debra Reuter-Pivetta, flute
John Fadial, violin
Scott Rawls, viola
Brooks Whitehouse, cello
Ināra Zandmane, piano
Kevin Geraldi, conductor
Intermission
Whistler’s Lament (world premiere) Timothy Daoust
(b. 1981)
Amanda Robbins, flute
LaTannia Ellerbe, violin
Meaghan Skogen, cello
a window of resonant light Jeffrey Mumford
Brian Howard, cello
David Fry, percussion
David Neild, piano
Robert Gutter, conductor
Fantasia per oboe e jazzo continuo (world premiere) Daniel Pappas
(b. 1981)
Thomas Pappas, oboe
Rebecca McNair, harpsichord
Ryan Mack, double bass
_____
The hall is equipped with a listening assistance system.
Patrons needing such assistance should contact an usher in the lobby.
PERFORMERS:
The Contemporary Chamber Players is UNCG’s resident new music ensemble, under the
leadership of Robert Gutter and Mark Engebretson, with guest conductor this evening Kevin
Geraldi. CCP presents one concert per semester, often performing music of visiting composers.
The performers are for the most part faculty and students at UNCG.
We are especially thankful to guest performers Debra Reuter-Pivetta and Brian Howard for their
participation in this concert.
Hailed for her breathtaking technical skill, intoxicating musicality and deep interpretational
understanding, flutist Debra Reuter-Pivetta enjoys a diverse career as soloist, chamber artist,
orchestral player, and teacher. A winner in the 1999 Concert Artists Guild Competition, she was
the first ever recipient of the Community Concerts Performance Prize. Her other honors include
top prizes in numerous competitions including the Louise D. McMahon International Music
Competition, the National Flute Association’s Young Artist Competition and the Flute Talk
Competition.
Ms. Reuter-Pivetta has performed as concerto soloist with many orchestras including the
International Music Program Orchestra on a tour of Italy, Switzerland and Germany, the Western
Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, the Lawton (OK) Philharmonic, the Winston-Salem Symphony
and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. Dedicated to the performance of contemporary music
and rarely-heard works, Debra Reuter-Pivetta has given many premiers both as soloist and
chamber artist. Most recently she gave the world premier of a work by Margaret Vardell
Sandresky. Other premiers include chamber works by Robert Dick and Lawrence Dillon.
Debra Reuter-Pivetta has recorded works by Böhm, Bozza, Saint-Saëns, Guiot and Burton with
her husband, pianist Federico Pivetta. Their critically acclaimed CD is entitled "Passion and
Romance", and has aired frequently on public radio stations across the country. American Record
Guide says, "they play beautifully together." The couple performs extensively together. Recent
highlights for the Pivetta Duo include the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago,
Community Concerts showcases in New York City and Charlotte, recitals in northern Italy and an
extensive concert tour performing in 75 cities nationwide.
Debra Reuter-Pivetta is the principal flutist with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and the
flute instructor at Salem College and Guilford College. Ms. Reuter-Pivetta is a graduate of the
North Carolina School of the Arts where she studied with Philip Dunigan.
Brian Howard, cello - A recent graduate of Oberlin College/Conservatory with degrees in Cello
Performance and English Literature, Brian is an advocate for and frequent performer of new
music. As a member of Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, he gave performances at the
Cleveland Museum of Art as well as at Merkin Hall and Miller Theatre in New York. He has also
collaborated in residencies with several composers including Joan Tower, Lewis Nielson, Daniel
Pinkham, Oliver Knussen, and Sir Harrison Birtwistle. Brian has a particular interest in the music
of Morton Feldman and, in December of 2005, he performed and recorded Feldman’s Patterns in
a Chromatic Field (1981), a 100-minute continuous work for cello and piano. In addition to new
music, Brian has a strong interest in historical performance practice and often performs on period
instruments. He studied modern and baroque cello with Catherina Meints, one of the nation?s
most sought after baroque specialists and a long time member of the Cleveland Orchestra.
NOTES:
Solo Sonata for Soprano Saxophone
In the first movement, a scherzo, characterized by a grace note idea alternates with a lyrical,
passionate section whose first four notes become the beginning of the fugue subject in the third
movement. The second movement is a lament in bipartite form; the return of the opening
measure an octave lower is the important formal demarcation point. The last movement attempts
a fugue in one line in which the two voices are distinguished by register. In addition to the link
between the subject and the appassionatamente material of the first movement, the last
movement is also bound to the first by the return of the scherzo idea in its middle section.
Although this is a work for a solo instrument, the lines project the continuity of syntonal harmony.
The Sonata is dedicated to Susan Fancher who will be performing it in its world premiere.
Listening Set began as an exercise in listening. I approached the composition of this piece as a
listener/composer. These three small pieces existed in my mind and I simply transcribed them
into traditional music notation without the aide of computer software or a piano – two devices
often used to allow a composer to physically hear music while writing it. After I wrote the piece, I
noted that each movement is longer than the one that precedes it. This wasn’t an initial idea of
the piece, but I think that because I was thinking as a listener during the creation I subconsciously
composed a “warm-up” for listeners. Finally, it should also probably be noted that I was thinking
a lot about Morton Feldman’s music (and I’m still thinking a lot about it) while I composed these.
Many aspects of these pieces are not Feldman-esque, but I suppose a few of his ideas did sneak
in or influence the way that I “heard” these pieces.
a focused expanse of evolving experience was commissioned by the Empyrean Ensemble
which is in residence at the University of California, Davis and it dedicated to its former director,
Ross Bauer with great respect.
Scored for flute, string trio and piano, the work casts the flute prevailingly as a soloist within a
fabric of ever-changing instrumental commentary. Often the strings (particularly the violin) will
extend and reflect upon the flute's material. Largely, the piano acts both as a timbral extension of
the flute and strings and as a resonating chamber reinforcing material presented by them. As the
work unfolds, the flute's music which is at times urgently capricious, becomes progressively and
incrementally sparse culminating in a brief distant echo of the opening scherzando-like flourishes
that characterize much of the flute's personality.
The title refers to my experience of several photographs I encountered a couple of years ago in a
wonderful book about the Grand Canyon. Of particular fascination for me was a photograph in
which the wide and periodic expanses of the canyon recede into a diffuse and distant horizon of
orange-blue sky.
Whistler's lament is based on the song of a blue jay in mid-winter. The bird's melody is played
by the flute and accompanied by a cello and a violin playing contrapuntally at first. Each
instrument conforms to its own set of pitches, which share no more than one common pitch at a
time. Throughout the piece, the bird song mutates as the other two melodic lines attempt to
mimic it. As they only share one pitch they only come close to playing the same thing once in the
entire piece. This is symbolic of man's fruitless attempts to capture natural beauty and put it on
display.
a window of resonant light was commissioned by the CORE Ensemble, the Duncan Theater at
Palm Beach Community College, the Mid America Center for Contemporary Music at Bowling
Green State University, and the Boston Conservatory of Music, as part of the national series of
works from Meet the Composer/Arts Endowment Commissioning Music/ USA, with support from
the Helen F. Whitaker Fund.
Cast in eight movements, the work concerns itself with the exploration of differing timbral
combinations within the context of an ongoing set of variations of the opening material. With the
exception of the second movement, which is dedicated to my daughter, the movement titles
suggest my experience of the unique aspects of certain times of day, and the fleeting, yet distinct
qualities of light which define them.
Fantasia per oboe e jazzo continuo is the direct result of a commission by the oboist Thomas
Pappas seeking to expand the repertoire of challenging 21st oboe literature. This composition
signals the beginning of a series of works that are concerned with what I like to term as rhythmic
counterpoint. ‘Fantasia’ is not jazz and was at no point in time conceived as jazz, but I wanted to
take advantage of certain properties inherent to that genre and integrate them into this piece. The
idea of licks, a walking bass line and the jazz ensemble can all be found in a modified state.
Although a close study of the score will show the intricate workings of the individual lines I was
also concerned with creating a surface level that, for a lack of a better word, ‘grooves’, and if you
listen closely you might even hear a groovy fugue.
COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES:
Dana Dimitri Richardson is a leading composer/theorist, whose essay on his originally system
for musical composition Syntonality is published online by the prestigious Goldberg Stiftung. Dr.
Richardson holds the distinction of being the first-ever recipient of the Ph.D. in music composition
from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences New York University. His works have been
performed around the world, most notably in Greece, where he has frequent artistic activities. He
is also a published poet whose Aphrodite and Other Poems is available on Amazon.com. His
music is available at richardson_dana@ hotmail.com. For more information on Dana Richardson,
please go to www.danarichardson.org.
Adam Josephson is a masters student in composition at UNCG.
Jeffrey Mumford was born in Washington, D.C. in 1955, composer Jeffrey Mumford has
received numerous fellowships, grants, awards and commissions, including the "Academy Award
in Music" from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a Fellowship from the Guggenheim
Foundation, a Fellowship to the Composers' Conference, Johnson, Vermont and an ASCAP
Aaron Copland Scholarship. He was also the winner of the inaugural National Black Arts
Festival/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition.
Mumford's most notable commissions include those from violinist Ole Bohn, the Haydn Trio
Eisenstadt (Vienna), the Network for New Music, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, a consortium of presenters consisting of the Krannert Center for the
Performing Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Chamber Music Columbus (OH.)
and Omus Hirshbein (New York) (for the Pacifica Quartet and pianist Amy Dissanayake) ,
Cleveland radio station WCLV, violist Wendy Richman, the Nancy Ruyle Dodge Charitable Trust
(for the Corigliano Quartet), a consortium of presenters consisting of the Phillips Collection
(Washington, D.C.), Miller Theatre (New York) and the Schubert Club ( St. Paul, MN.) (for pianist
Margaret Kampmeier), the Contemporary Music Forum of Washington, D.C. and Philip Berlin,
Sonia and Louis Rothschild (for the Opus 3 Trio), the Theatre Chamber Players, the Meet the
Composer/Arts Endowment Commissioning Music/USA program (for the CORE Ensemble), the
National Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati radio station WGUC, 'cellist Joshua Gordon, the Walter
W. Naumburg Foundation , the Fromm Music Foundation, the Amphion Foundation (for the Da
Capo Chamber Players), the New York New Music Ensemble, the McKim Fund in the Library of
Congress, the Aspen Wind Quintet, and 'cellist Fred Sherry.
Mumford's works have been extensively performed both in the United States and abroad,
including Miller Theatre, the Library of Congress, the Aspen Music Festival, the Bang On A Can
Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, San Migel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico,
London's Purcell Room, Finland's prestigious Helsinki Festival, and the Musica nel Nostro Tempo
Festival, in Milan. His works have been performed by such major orchestras as the National, and
Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and
the American Composers' Orchestra. His chamber works have been performed by major
ensembles such as the Pacifica, Corigliano, Maia and Borromeo Quartets, the Mann Duo, the
CORE Ensemble, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Amelia Piano Trio, the Los Angeles Philharmonic
New Music Ensemble, Voices of Change, the New Music Consort, the New York New Music
Ensemble, the Aspen Wind Quintet, the Group for Contemporary Music, the Da Capo Chamber
Players. Among the prominent soloists who have performed his music have been violinists Ole
Bohn and Lina Bahn, 'cellists Frances-Marie Uitti, Joshua Gordon and Fred Sherry, violist Misha
Amory, and pianists Amy Dissanayake, Eliza Garth., Margaret Kampmeier and Sarah Cahill.
Mumford is also a composer-member of the Washington, D.C. based Contemporary Music
Forum, which has performed his music many times.
Forthcoming performances include toward the deepening stillness beyond visible light (a
piano quintet for the Pacifica Quartet and pianist Amy Dissanayake co-commissioned by the
Krannert Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Chamber Music Columbus [OH.]
and Omus Hirshbein) at the Krannert Center in Urbana-Champaign, Ill., the milliner's fancy
(solo alto saxophone) by saxophonist Rhonda Taylor, premiere performances of an expanding
distance of multiple voices (solo violin) by Lina Bahn in Washington, D.C., Paris and Oberlin,
OH., eight musings . . . revisiting memories (solo violin) by violinist Ole Bohn, and in the
community of encompassing hours (piano trio) by the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt at the
Musikverein in Vienna. In addition, the CORE ensemble will also give several performances
nationwide of a window of resonant light (‘cello, piano, percussion) as part of their touring
program entitled “Of Ebony Embers”.
Current projects include a newly commissioned piece for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
entitled through dancing echoes spreading softly, a work commissioned by the Cleveland
Orchestra celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King and which commemorates Severance Hall
entitled the comfort of his voice, a piano trio entitled in the company of encompassing hours
for the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt. (Vienna, Austria) and two haiku settings for soprano, ‘cello and
percussion (to texts of Sonia Sanchez and commissioned by the Philadelphia based Network for
New Music). He has also just completed a work for solo violin entitled an expanding distance of
multiple voices for Lina Bahn which was commissioned by a consortium in Washington, D.C.,
as well as two more short musings for violinist Ole Bohn. Recent CDs featuring Mumford's works
include. the promise of the far horizon, containing five recent chamber works was just issued
on the Albany Records label (TROY 698) and "Telling Tales" (on Capstone Records and
sponsored by the Cleveland Composers Guild) which includes pianist Tuyen Tonnu's
performance of barbaglio dal manca.
Mr. Mumford is presently Composer In Residence at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He is
published by Theodore Presser Co. and represented by AIM Int’l. Artists Mgmt.
Timothy Daoust is a masters student in composition at UNCG.
Daniel C Pappas (*1981) is currently a graduate composition student at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro where he studies with Dr. Mark Engebretson. Daniel received his
undergraduate degree from Grace College, Indiana in violin performance. There he studied violin
with Olga Yurkova and theory with Verna May Feltz. Having grown up in Southern Germany he
received training in violin, piano, the recorder and theory/composition from an early age at the
Musikschule Aalen. His teachers include Stefan Kueling and the composer Henning Brauel.
Daniel’s first notable performance took place in Heubach, Germany with the Rosenstein
Kammerorcherster in 2004, which has recently commissioned an orchestral suite to be performed
in the fall of 2006. Upon completion of his Master’s degree at UNCG he will enter into a doctoral
program for composition.
