2008-10-28 New Music Festival [recital program]

              October 28-30, 2008
UNCG New Music Festival 2008 Schedule of Events
http://www.uncg.edu/mus/NewMusicFest/
Monday, October 27
Masterclass: Greg Beyer (DUE EAST), percussion
4:00-5:00 p.m.
UNCG School of Music, Percussion Studios
free
Tuesday, October 28, Greensboro
Works of Student Composers from NC, SC and beyond
5:30 p.m.
UNCG School of Music, Organ Hall
free
Concert I: Featuring percussion/flute duo Due East
Tuesday, October 28
UNCG School of Music, Recital Hall
7:30 p.m.
$10/6/4/3
Wednesday, October 29
Masterclass: Erin Lesser (DUE EAST), flute
10:00-12:00 a.m.
UNCG School of Music, Collins Lecture Hall (Room 217)
free
Lecture: John Howell Morrison (Longy School of Music)
UNCG School of Music, Room 115C (in the Music Library)
12:00 p.m.
free
CHT Forum: Lecture Ken Ueno (University of California, Berkeley)
UNCG School of Music, Collins Lecture Hall (Room 217)
4:00 p.m.
free
Wednesday, October 29, continued
Poetry Reading: Michael Basinski (SUNY Buffalo)
sponsored by the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts
UNCG School of Music, Collins Lecture Hall (Room 217)
6:30 p.m.
free
Concert II
UNC Greensboro School of Music, Recital Hall
7:30 p.m.
$10/6/4/3
Thursday, October 30
Round Table Discussion: “Outsider Art/Outsider Artists”
with artists and critics Aaron Allen, Michael Basinski, Eugene Chadbourne, Seth Ellis,
Elizabeth Keathley, Mark Smith-Soto.
UNCG, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Dillard Room
5:00
free
Reception
UNCG, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Atrium
6:00
free
Concert III
Co-sponsored by the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts
and the Weatherspoon Art Museum
UNCG, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Atrium and Auditorium
7:00 Concert
free
UNCG New Music Festival 2008 Concert Programs
Tuesday, October 28
Works of Student Composers from NC, SC, and beyond
UNCG School of Music, Organ Hall
5:30 pm
free
In memoriam patris mei Rafael Valle (ECU, Brazil)
(6:00) Brian Carter, violoncello
Bang A Nori Youngmi Cho (Duke)
(7:00) Shawn Marcinowski, percussion
Pretense M. Scott Johnson (UNCG)
(6:00) Brad McMillan, soprano saxophone
Dylan Smith, alto saxophone
Gordon Black, tenor saxophone
Jonathan Morrison, baritone saxophone
Soft Stings of a Cold Dead Image Thomas Royal (UF, UNCG)
(6:00) Thomas Royal, performer
computer
Mist Opportunities, Falls Hopes Christian Traylor (USC)
(6:00) Andre North, alto saxophone
Aimee Fincher, piano
Cave of the Lighted House George Fetner (USC)
(6:00) Matt Younglove, alto saxophone
digital media
Rush Me to Shadows Heather Stebbins (U. Richmond)
(7:00) Heather Stebbins, violoncello
digital media
Tuesday, Oct. 28
Concert I
Featuring percussion/flute duo Due East
UNCG School of Music, Recital Hall
7:30 pm
$10/6/4/3
Temper Mutations Carl Schimmel (b. 1975)
(16:00)
I.
II.
III.
Due East
Erin Lesser, flute
Greg Beyer, percussion
Tangling Shadows (world premiere) Nathan Daughtrey (b. 1975)
(8:00)
Eric Gargrave, soprano saxophone
Nathan Daughtrey, marimba
Etudes (2007) Leonard Mark Lewis (b. 1973)
(10:00)
I. Sudden and Still
II. Just Because of Distance
III. Carry and Forget
Ināra Zandmane, piano
Interval
Ilta David Maki (b. 1966)
(8:00)
Songs of Earth and Sky (2007) John Allemeier (b. 1970)
(11:00)
I.
II.
III.
Ligare Alexandre Lunsqui (b. 1969)
(8:00)
Due East
Erin Lesser, flute
Greg Beyer, percussion
Wednesday, October 29
Concert II
UNCG School of Music
7:30 pm
$10/6/4/3
Planctus for Solo Violin Francisco M. Toledo (b. 1967)
(10:00)
Fabián López, violin
Mirrors Nora Ponte (b.1970)
(18:00) texts by Ana Olagaray
I. Mirror
II. Broken Mirror
III. Black Mirror or the Mirror of Mourning
IV. Time Begins
Lorena Guillén, soprano
Nora Ponte, piano
Kage-Uta (2004, 2008) Ken Ueno (b. 1970)
for overtone singer and MaxMSP
Ken Ueno, voice
Interval
West Joseph Harchanko (b. 1971)
(12:00)
Dissipation of a Thought Jeff Herriott (b. 1972)
(10:00)
Two Duos (2008) Mark Engebretson (b. 1964)
(8:00)
I. Whack-a-Mole
II. Floam
Simultaneous Worlds (2008) Alejandro Rutty (b. 1967)
(8:00)
I. Loop Me Not, Please
II. Memories of Absent Spaces
III. Ouvido na rua
Due East
Erin Lesser, flute
Greg Beyer, percussion
Thursday, October 30
Weatherspoon Art Museum
free
5:00 - Round Table Discussion: “Outsider Art/Outsider Artists”
with artists and critics Aaron Allen, Michael Basinski, Eugene Chadbourne, Seth Ellis,
Elizabeth Keathley, and Mark Smith-Soto
6:00 - Reception
7:00 - Concert III
Deepening Groove Near Walden Pond John Howell Morrison (b. 1956)
(6:30)
UNCG New Music Festival Ensemble
Andrés Mila-Prats, conductor
Haejong Lee - flute, Tom Lowry - alto saxophone, Matthew Hanson - trombone, Aslan
Freeman - guitar, Sinthia Perez - harp, Kyle Blair - piano, Nick Stubbelefield - organ, Laura
Dawalt - soprano, Mary-Hannah Johnson - soprano, Laura Schuler - alto, Derrick Foskey -
violin, Corrie Franklin - viola, Eric Perreault - violoncello, Kit Polen - double bass
imagination dead imagine Tohm Judson (b. 1976)
(6:00)
Strength Bob Pritchard
(12:00) Steve Stusek, saxophone
Text, sound and light improvisation Michael Basinski
(duration unknown) Eugene Chadbourne
Seth Ellis
UNCG New Music Festival 2008 Program Notes and Biographies
Composers
Program Notes and Biographies for the NMF
John Allemeier received his Ph.D. in Composition from the University of Iowa, his Master
of Music in Composition from Northwestern University and his Bachelor of Music in
Performance from Augustana College. He has studied in Europe at the 41st and 42nd
Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany and the 6th
International Composition Course in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. His music has been
programmed on new music festivals such as 5th Annual Festival of New Music – San
Francisco, 3er Festival Internacional de Percusiones - Monterrey, Mexico, Russia-America:
Music of the XXI Century - Moscow Conservatory, the Seoul International Computer Music
Festival and the 7th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music, on national conferences of
the Society of Composers and the Society for Electro Acoustic Music in the United States,
and at regional conferences of the College Music Society and the Society of Composers.
John Allemeier’s music is published by Carl Fischer Music Publishers, C. Alan Publications,
M. Baker Publications and European American Music. Recordings of his music are
available on the Albany, Capstone and Vox Novus labels. He currently teaches
composition and music theory at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Songs of Earth and Sky is a three-movement piece composed for Erin Lesser and
Greg Beyer. The percussion part for this piece is written for berimbau and ceramic
pots. The berimbau is a musical bow with a single string played by striking the string
with a thin flexible stick. Songs of Earth and Sky used three different berimbau, each
with a different tuning. As a nontraditional concert instrument, the berimbau is the
antithesis of the modern flute. The title of this piece refers to the character of each of
these instruments. In the first and third movements, the flute soars over the sustained
pedals of the berimbau. Without the flute, the middle movement creates a contrast
with the outer movements with faster berimbau gestures articulated by the ceramic
pots.
Michael Basinski is the Assistant Curator of the Poetry/Rare Books Collection of the
University Libraries, SUNY at Buffalo.
His poems, articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including:
Proliferation, Terrible Work, Deluxe Rubber Chicken, Boxkite, The Mill Hunk Herald, Yellow
Silk, The Village Voice, Object, Oblek, Score, Generator, Juxta, Poetic Briefs, Another
Chicago Magazine, Sure: A Charles Bukowski Newsletter, Moody Street Irregulars: A Jack
Kerouac Newsletter, Kiosk, Earth's Daughters, Atticus Review, Mallife, Taproot, Transmog,
B-City, House Organ, First Intensity, Mirage No.4/Period(ical), Lower Limit Speech,
Texture, R/IFT, Chain, Antenym, Bullhead, Poetry New York, First Offence, and many
others.
For more than twenty years he has performed his choral voice collages and sound texts
with his intermedia performance ensemble: The Ebma, which has released two Lps: SEA
and Enjambment.
His books include: Idyll (Juxta Press, 1996), Heebee-jeebies (Meow Press, 1996), SleVep
(Tailspin Press, 1995), Vessels (Texture Press, 1993), Cnyttan (Meow Press, 1993),
Mooon Bok (Leave Books, 1992) and Red Rain Too (1992) and Flight to the Moon (1993)
from Run Away Spoon Press.
The task of describing the life and work of Eugene Chadbourne (aka Dr. Chadula) is more
than daunting. His music is so unique, and his output over almost thirty years of music-making
is so vast, as to defy description To that must be added so many other skills and
important contributions to music. He is truly a Renaissance man, a rebel among rebels.
When I first thought about both an anniversary festival and a special focus on improvisation
and collaboration across traditions, Dr. Chad's name appeared in red neon letters..
He began playing guitar at an early age. Noticing that girls liked The Beatles, he thought
perhaps learning to play the guitar could lead to getting a girlfriend. Having rejected the
other two paths to this desirable outcome, beating people up and being good at sports, he
began to teach himself how to play. What began with a simple boyish dream and a
Herman's Hermits record turned into a musical odyssey that has connected the dots
between the Appalachians and the edges of the known musical universe. Along the way,
he's taught himself the banjo as well as piano, bass and drums.
Eugene is a music lover who listens to the world with an open mind, which is reflected in his
sets. A typical one could include the music of Thelonious Monk, Eric Satie, Merle Haggard,
Phil Ochs along with his own. Some of the departure points may be familiar, but even if you
have heard him play a song before, you won't hear it the same way again. Each
performance and each listening is unique. It has to be. To paraphrase an old saying "you
can't play the same note twice" and at the heart of improvisation is an awareness of music,
the instrument, the place and all that has led up to that moment. The improvisational music
scene can sometimes get a bit rarefied and oblique, but Eugene's guiding star is his
ongoing love for country music. It is not a repertoire customarily heard in New York's The
Knitting Factory or the avant-garde festivals of Europe, but Dr. Chad has made it so.
The list of artists he has collaborated with runs into pages. Henry Kaiser, John Zorn,
Charlie Haden, Jimmy Carl Black, and the Violent Femmes are just a handful, appearing in
clubs, galleries and festivals and in one case, a command performance with Tony Trischka
for William S. Burroughs.
He has also written widely about music, inventing the touring diary when he described his
travels with Shockabilly in 1984, and creating books including I Hate the Man Who Runs
This Bar. He is one of the founders of the "low-fi" or "low tech" movement that came to see
thousands of artists creating and releasing their own cassettes (and now CDs) on their own
labels. He has also inspired many as a creator of instruments. His electric rake has
motivated many artists to build new instruments and expand the sonic landscape. When
you combine all of the above with his penchant for speaking out loud and clear about what
exactly the hell seems to be going on, you have an unforgettable artist whose connection to
folk is both deep and wide.
Youngmi Cho is a composer in the Ph.D. program at Duke University, studying with Scott
Lindroth, Anthony Kelly, and Stephen Jaffe. She is interested in instrumental compositions
with rule-based system, genetic algorithmic composition, and mathematical models in
music. Her music has been performed in Korea and the US (South Central Graduate Music
Consortium, TIMARA workshop at Oberlin, and the CCRMA workshop). She received the
2004 Arts Technology Student Award for an audio and video installation. Before attending
Duke, Cho studied piano and composition at Seoul National University in Korea, and
earned a Master of Science in Arts Technology from Illinois State University.
Bang A Nori for Percussion Solo is inspired by a story about a poor musician in
medieval Korea. He had to patch and repatch his clothes. While mending them, he
sang a tune to the sound of a grist mill (in Korean, Bang A), sublimating his poverty
into joy. After the intro of drum’s tremolos, a hundred rhythmic patches are
enumerated, overlapped or superimposed. Each patch is based on the same
numerical idea, but has its own rhythmic ratio, timbre, register, and dynamics.
Composer and percussionist Nathan Daughtrey (b. 1975) has distinguished himself in
recent years as an artist of great range. Described as "fresh and imaginative" (Percussive
Notes) and "evocatively crafted" (Indiana University Herald Times), his works have been
performed by individuals and ensembles of all levels at festivals and venues around the
world, including the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the International
Double Reed Society Conference, and the Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic. With several
awards to his credit, Dr. Daughtrey is the only composer to win 2nd and 3rd Place the same
year in the Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest. He was also the recipient of 2007
and 2008 ASCAP Plus Awards. With over 50 publications for percussion, concert band, and
orchestra, he is in great demand for commissions and clinics.
Dr. Daughtrey is also extremely active and sought after as a solo marimba artist and
clinician. His performances have taken him throughout the United States and overseas to
Eastern Europe and Japan, appearing as featured soloist with orchestras such as the North
Carolina Symphony and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. His first CD, "Spiral
Passages," was released in 2001 and features original and adapted works for solo and
accompanied marimba. Other recent collaborative recordings include Emma Lou Diemer's
work "Concerto in One Movement for Marimba and Orchestra," Michael Udow's CD
"Footprints," and Daniel McCarthy's CD "Song of Middle Earth."
Dr. Daughtrey serves on the Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest Committee and
is the Director of Operations for the Classical Marimba League. He is a Performing Artist
and Clinician for Yamaha Corporation and Vic Firth, Inc. and all of his works are available
from C. Alan Publications.
Tangling Shadows was commissioned by oboist Amy Anderson and percussionist
Lisa Rogers, both professors in the School of Music at Texas Tech University. The 8-
minute work is based upon the Pablo Neruda poem, "Thinking, Tangling Shadows."
Originally written for oboe and vibraphone, this is the premiere of the reworked version
for soprano saxophone and marimba.
Thinking, Tangling Shadows
(Pensando, enredando sombras)
Thinking, tangling shadows in the deep solitude.
You are far away too, oh farther than anyone.
Thinking, freeing birds, dissolving images,
burying lamps.
Belfry of fogs, how far away up there!
Stifling laments, milling shadowy hopes,
Taciturn miller,
Night falls on your face downward, far from the city.
Your presence is foreign, as strange to me as a thing.
I think, I explore great tracts of my life before you.
My life before anyone, my harsh life.
The shout facing the sea, among the rocks,
running, free, mad, in the sea-spray.
The sad rage, the shout, the solitude of the sea.
Headlong, violent, stretched towards the sky.
You, woman, what were you there, what ray, what vane
of that immense fan? You were as far as you are now.
Fire in the forest! Burn in blue crosses.
Burn, burn, flame up, sparkle in trees of light.
It collapses, crackling, seared with curls of fire.
Who calls? What silence peopled with echoes?
Hour of nostalgia, hour of happiness, hour of solitude,
Hour that is mine from among them all!
Hunting horn through which the wind passes singing.
Such a passion of weeping tied to my body.
Shaking of all the roots,
Attack of all the waves!
My soul wandered, happy, sad, unending.
Thinking, burying lamps in the deep solitude.
Who are you, who are you?
--Pablo Neruda
Seth Ellis received his BA from Yale University, and his MFA from Columbia University.
Before coming to UNCG in 2003 he worked as a website developer for seven years, a
practice he continues now through professional consulting.
His work is primarily an exploration of visual text, usually, but not always, in narrative. The
final form of these projects is usually physical—digital prints and artist's books—but the
process behind them uses dynamic structures and computer programming, to determine
the shape and nature of both image and text. The text is often highly symbolic or allegorical
in nature; in thinking about visual text Seth draws heavily on medieval sources and the
tradition of illuminated manuscripts.
Mark Engebretson (b. 1964) is Assistant Professor of Composition and Electronic Music
at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A 2007 recipient of a commission from
Harvard University’s Fromm Music Foundation, his compositions have been presented at
festivals such as ICMC (International Computer Music Conference), Bowling Green Festival
of New Music and Art, Third Practice Festival (University of Richmond), Wien Modern
(Vienna), Gaida Festival (Vilnius, Lithuania), Sonoimagenes (Buenos Aires) Hörgänge
Festival (Vienna), Ny Musikk (Bergen, Norway), Indiana State University New Music
Festival (Terre Haute, Indiana), the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival, ISCM Festivals
(Tirana, Albania and Baku, Azerbaijan), the UNCG New Music Festival and World
Saxophone Congresses (Pesaro, Italy, Montreal, Canada, Minneapolis, Minnesota and
Ljubljana, Slovenia).
Recent performances include premieres by UNCG’s EastWind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall,
the SUNY Fredonia Wind Ensemble at a College Band Director’s National Organization
(CBDNA) regional conference, the Wroclaw (Poland) Philharmonic Orchestra, a
presentation by the Jacksonville Symphony and a three-night, sold out engagement
featuring Winter Ashes, with dance and video by John Gamble. Since it’s completion in
January 2006, SaxMax for saxophone and interactive electronics has received twelve
performances worldwide.
She Sings, She Screams for alto saxophone and digital media has been performed
countless times worldwide, and has been released on three commercial compact disc
recordings, two of which are on the Innova label. Other works on CD include Nesseln
(Arizona University Recordings American’s Millennium Tribute to Adolphe Sax, Volume VIII,
AUR CD 3121); Duo Concertante (recorded twice); and Events (to be included on FEMF
vol. 2 proceedings disc). A composer-feature disc of chamber music was released in 2007
(Innova 645).
Dr. Engebretson taught composition at the University of Florida, music theory at the SUNY
Fredonia and 20th-century music history at the Eastman School of Music. He studied at the
University of Minnesota (graduating Summa cum Laude), the Conservatoire de Bordeaux
(as a Fulbright Scholar), and Northwestern University, where he received the Doctor of
Music degree. At Northwestern he studied composition with M. William Karlins, Pauline
Oliveros, Marta Ptaszynska, Michael Pisaro, Stephen Syverud and Jay Alan Yim and
saxophone with Frederick Hemke. His teachers in France were Michel Fuste-Lambezat and
Jean-Marie Londeix.
Two Duos was composed for the ensemble Due East (Erin Lesser, flute and Greg
Beyer, percussion) in the course of a composition/performance/recording collaboration
involving the duo and composers David Maki, Mark Engebretson, Alejandro Rutty,
Carl Schimmel, Jeff Heriott and John Allemeier.
The movement titles are taken, respectively, from the name of a game and a toy.
Whac-a-Mole is an arcade game in which players use plastic mallets to hit figures of
moles when they pop up from holes. Listeners will undoubtedly understand the
meaning of the title when they hear the music. See http://whacamole.com for more
information and links to online versions of the game. According to the extremely
entertaining web site http://www.floamit.com, Floam is a microbead modeling
compound. It’s kind of like a space-age Play-Doh made of small Styrofoam beads
(such as you might find in a beanbag chair) that are colored and sticky. You can make
sculptures out of Floam, but it doesn’t dry out, so it can be re-shaped over and over
again. The music is appropriately sticky and gooey. Be sure to check out the
“Floambot” video.
On a more serious level, both movements, and especially Floam, represent a renewed
attempt to discover and develop means of working with harmony in ways that are both
somewhat “traditional” and at the same time, appropriate to our time and place. Whac-a-
Mole further tries to maximally exploit a minimum of percussion instruments (snare
drum, bass drum and hi-hat) in a virtuosic context (especially for the flute), along with
metric modulations for both.
George Fetner is a composer, performer, and songwriter from South Carolina. He holds a
Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of South Carolina. There, he studied
composition with Dr. John Fitz Rogers, electronic composition with Dr. Reginald Bain and
classical guitar with Christopher Berg. He currently is the singer and guitarist for local
Columbia, SC rock band Pinna .
Mr. Fetner has composed pieces for solo saxophone with computer generated track, solo
basson with guitar effects pedals, trombone-saxophone octet, vibraphone and saxophone
duo, "Messiaen" quartet, orchestra, guitar quartet, percussion ensemble, solo piano,
woodwind trio, rock band, and computer generated sound.
In 2007, I composed my first piece for computer generated sound called Troglobite. I
used digital representations of analog synthesizers in the computer program Reason,
and arranged and edited them in ProTools. I did not think it sounded complete, but I
did think it evoked a mysterious and almost alien atmosphere that was unlike anything
I had written before. This is the reason I titled the piece Troglobite (which means any
cave-dwelling creature) since caves evoke a similar atmosphere. I let it sit for a while
and upon speaking with Matt Younglove about a collaboration, I thought this would be
the perfect piece in which to integrate a saxophone. Because the saxophone is such
a flexible instrument and has the ability to make a wide arrange of sounds (not "notes";
this piece is solely about "sounds") I was excited about the enhancement a saxophone
would bring to my computer generated piece. Part of the fun of composing this piece
also had to do with notating it. I decided that bar lines and meters would imply an
underlying groove that isn't in the electronic part, so I used time cues instead on a
meter-less and bar-less staff. I also used visual representations (arrows, blobs, and
squiggly lines) to notate the computer-generated track so that the performer would be
able to visually follow it. I felt that traditional notation would misrepresent the
mysterious and alien like sounds. The title Cave of the Lighted House comes from
the name of a cave in Mexico that is composed of toxic gases and sulfuric acid instead
of water, which all of its troglobites have adapted to. I believe the atmosphere of this
piece evokes such a cave.
Joseph Harchanko has written extensively for traditional instruments, large ensembles,
and digital media. His music has been described as both "energetic and exhilarating" and
"mystically alluring."* A cellist by training, his interest in percussion music was sparked
while working as a percussion mover to support himself through graduate school. Dr.
Harchanko is also an active electric cellist. His music is available on the INNOVA record
label and through Latham Music Publishing and Keyboard Percussion
Publications. Harchanko lives in Salem, Oregon where many of his works are inspired by
the western landscape. He is an Assistant Professor of Composition, Theory, and
Violoncello at Western Oregon University. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor and
iCommunications fellow at Ball State University where work is primarily centered at Ball
State's Music Technology Studio and with the Digital Media minor. He received his D.M.A.
in composition at The University of Texas and holds masters degrees in cello and
composition from The Florida State University. He has been awarded fellowships from
ASCAP, the Aspen Music Festival, the Lilly Endowment, and UT. His works have been
performed across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia including performances at
New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Colourscape installation, France’s Bourges and
Videoformes festivals, and New Music Tasmania.
West is an exploration of the role of timbre and rhythm in the indigenous music of
several cultures around the world, linking it to the rhythmic and timbral idioms of early
21st century art music. I see the West as the great confluence of world cultures - a
meeting point of European and African cultures from the east, Asian cultures
immigrating (confusingly) from the west, among the rich cultural traditions of the
indigenous peoples that continue to flourish here today. Further, the landscapes of
the west contain a power all their own that permeates and vibrates among those who
live here today.
West utilizes a poem by the São Paulo based poet, Sérgio Alcides. Entitled, Suite
Camaraê, it is written in the form of traditional lyrics from Capoeira Angola, the Afro-
Brazilian martial art in which the berimbau finds its home. The inspiration for the
poem came from a collaboration with DUE EAST percussionist, Greg Beyer, whose
voice is heard in the piece both live and pre-recorded. Here is the ladainha from Suite
Camaraê:
Ele é magro, ele é um raio, He is thin, he is a ray,
berimbau de beribá. berimbau of beribá-wood.
Ele aguenta com firmeza, olhaí He supports with firmness, olhaí
o puxão que o arame dá. the tension of the wire.
Ele quer voltar pr'Angola He wants to return to Angola
chocalhando o caxixi. rattling the caxixi.
Toda vez que o arame toca Every time the wire plays,
a cabaça está pensando em Zumbi. the cabaça is thinking of Zumbi.
Meia-lua, voa-pé, “Half-moon”, “flying-foot”,
capoeira de Angola. Capoeira from Angola.
Berimbau imita a vida, é assim: The berimbau imitates life:
verga sem arrebentar. a stick bends but does not break.
Ele toca porque sabe He plays because he knows
que a peleja não tem fim. that the battle is never ending.
No terreiro do perdidio In the terrain of the lost souls
nunca mais cresceu capim. never again will the grass grow.
-- Sérgio Alcides
As a composer, Jeff Herriott (b. 1972) uses recording and computing technology to
enhance and augment the natural sounds of instruments, with a goal of creating inviting
aural spaces. His pieces have been performed and commissioned by ensembles and
players including bass clarinetist Michael Lowenstern, the Electronic Hammer,
percussionist Greg Beyer, clarinetist Guido Arbonelli, Due East, Arraymusic, duo Contour,
and CONTACT contemporary music, and have been heard at a number of different
festivals and venues in North America and abroad, including ICMC, The Stone, Electronic
Music Midwest, Bowling Green Festival of New Music and Art, Soundings, New Music
Miami, UK Microfest, and the MATA Festival. Jeff has received awards and grants
including a MATA Festival commission through the Jerome Foundation, a McKnight Visiting
Composer Residency, the American Music Center Composers Assistance Program, the
University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, and the Mark Diamond Research Fund.
Herriott is currently an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin at
Whitewater, where he teaches courses in audio, multimedia, music technology, and
composition. Jeff completed the Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo (principal studies with
composer Cort Lippe), having previously received degrees from Florida International
University and Middlebury College.
dissipation of a thought functions conceptually for me on both musical and personal
levels. I’m always fascinated by the way musical ideas change at different stages
during the creative process, a situation that was perhaps more pronounced than usual
in the composition of this piece. I started by focusing a tremendous amount of energy
in the creation of the electronic part, from which I built the whole premise of the
musical form, even though the electronics are not audibly prominent in the final result.
In some ways this piece is an exemplar of how I do all sorts of things, as energies and
efforts and emotions shift and change and expand, or dissipate.
M. Scott Johnson is a second year Masters student at UNCG. With his works, Johnson
attempts to create music that bridges the gap between popular and art music, spanning a
variety of genres and styles. When not composing, Johnson is the minister of music at
Fairview Christian Church in Lynchburg, VA.
The cello is often considered one of the more elegant instruments; even so, it is capable of
making harsh, often obtrusive, noise. Rush Me to Shadows explores both facets of the
instrument exclusively and in union by juxtaposing pre-recorded samples and composed,
live acoustic cello. The piece begins with a chaotic rush of sound in both the electronic and
acoustic components. They eventually settle into an ambient exploration of tone color, but
this mellow sound-world is soon transformed into another chaotic dive into the cello's more
unnatural side.
Pretense is a fast-paced work for saxophone quartet that employs several modern
saxophone techniques. Throughout the course of the piece, the quartet imitates a
variety of different genres and timbres, while presenting chromatic melodies
juxtaposed to one another.
Tohm Judson (b. 1976) received his PhD from the University of Iowa where he studied
composition with David Gompper and Lawrence Fritts. He received his MM from the
University of Florida where he studied with James Paul Sain, Paul Richards, and Budd
Udell. His music has been performed in the UK, France, Italy, the Sudan and throughout
the United States, including the SEAMUS National Conference, SCI, Electronic Music
Midwest, the Festival of New American Music and was a featured artist at the EMIT festival
in Tampa, Florida. Mr. Judson has worked with many forms of interactive media including
audio, video, installation, and dance, collaborating with artists such as K.T. Nelson of ODC
San Francisco, Robert Dick, Holland Hopson, Owen Roberts and most recently with
Christopher Cozier for a commission for the University of Iowa Museum of Art. He is a
recipient of the Pelzer Fellowship for Composition at the University of Iowa. He currently
teaches Music Business and Recording at Winston Salem State University, North Carolina.
imagination dead imagine is based on the short story by Samuel Beckett.
Composer Leonard Mark Lewis (b. 1973, Great Yarmouth, England) (D.M.A.,
Composition, University of Texas; M.M., Composition, University of Houston) is a
composer, conductor and pianist specializing in new music. Lewis, a member of B.M.I., is
the recipient of awards from ASCAP (Morton Gould Young Composer Award), B.M.I.,
Columbia University (Bearns Prize), Voices of Change (Russell Horn Young Composers
Award), and MACRO. While on the faculty at the University of Missouri, Lewis was named
Missouri’s Composer of the Year (2002) by Missouri Music Teacher’s Association (MMTA).
His Concerto for Orchestra, was chosen for inclusion in the 2001 American Composers
Orchestra Whitaker New Music Readings series, and was conducted by Dennis Russell
Davies. In addition to his catalog of solo works, compositions by Lewis have been
commissioned and performed by an array of ensembles including the North/South
Consonance, Truman State Orchestra, AURA (University of Houston), Symposium for New
Band Music, University of Texas Composer’s Orchestra, University of Texas Wind
Ensemble, New Music Camerata (East Carolina University), NACUSA, Concordia Trio,
University of Missouri Symphonic Band and Hyperion Ensemble. In addition, compositions
of Lewis have been premiered at The Kennedy Center and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
Lewis’s main composition teachers were Dan Welcher (University of Texas) and Carlisle
Floyd (University of Houston). Lewis has served on the faculty at the University of
Missouri-Columbia (Assistant Professor of Composition/Theory) and Cy-Fair College (Chair
and Associate Professor of Music). Dr. Lewis is currently Assistant Professor of
Composition/Theory at Winthrop University.
Etudes for Piano—This set of etudes for piano was written for Matthew Manwarren in
the fall of 2007. While these movements were inspired by the Chopin tradition of
etudes, each “study” does not explore one particular technique. The study is more on
gesture and general character. The subtitles for each etude are both a musical and an
extra musical reference (I. Sudden and Still, II. Just because of Distance, III. Carry and
Forget). The etudes may be played individually or as a set in any order.
Alexandre Lunsqui was born in Brazil and now lives in New York City. After studying
engineering and music at University of Campinas, he pursued postgraduate studies in
composition at University of Iowa, Columbia University, and IRCAM. His main teachers
were Augusto Mannis, Jeremy Dale-Roberts, Fred Lerdahl, and Tristan Murail. His music
background includes Brazilian music, jazz and contemporary improvisation. He has
participated in Festivals such as Gaudeamus Music Week, Manca, Darmstadt,
CrossDrumming, Aspekte, Time of Music, Musica Nova, Beijing Modern, Music at the
Anthology, Creative Music Festival, PASIC, and Resonances. He has been awarded the
Virtuose Prize given by the Ministry of Culture of Brazil. Recent engagements include works
for Ensemble Aleph (France), Ensemble Piano Possibile (Germany), and Ensemble
L’Arsenale (Italy). Among his forthcoming activities is the release of a monographic CD with
his chamber music, the publication of an article on Music and Globalization for the Revue
Filigrane (Paris), and two new works for the Luxembourg Festival 2007. For more
information, please visit http://www.lunsqui.com.
The western flute and percussion families have natural counterparts in folkloric music
the world over. Afro-Brazilian music is no exception. In Ligare, ('linked'), Brazilian
composer Alexandre Lunsqui utilizes this natural affinity to great advantage. Ligare is
a piece that literally links the two instrumental colors into a rapid flow of singular
gestures. The performers are frequently connected in rhythmic unisons and such
figures are clearly informed by the Afro-Brazilian rhythmic vocabulary. Yet Lunsqui is
not writing in imitation of such music; if anything, he transcends it with a sculptured
sonic sensibility that is unmistakably modern and individual. Ligare links the
contemporary with the folkloric, and in doing so succeeds in a beautiful fusion
representative of the celebratory aspects of musical globalization.
David Maki (b. 1966) is Assistant Professor of music theory and composition at Northern
Illinois University. His music has been performed widely throughout the U.S. at national and
regional venues by ensembles such as the University of Iowa Center For New Music,
Mosaic, Prime Directive, Contemporary Directions, and the Indiana University
Contemporary Vocal Ensemble. Recently, his composition, Lake Sonata, was recorded by
pianist Stacey Barelos for commercial release in 2009. Maki also is active as a performer of
new music, and with pianist Ashlee Mack recently presented a concert tour featuring new
works for two pianos. He holds degrees in composition from Northern Illinois University
(B.M.), the University of Iowa (M.A.) and the University of Michigan (D.M.A.).
Ilta opens with gongs, alto flute and vibes in a slowly unfolding texture based on the
spectrum of pitches contained in the low C# and E gongs. It is largely consonant in a
somewhat modal-sounding area of three or four sharps. The solo flute introduces a
more angular, less tonal sounding music that, after a few interruptions, provides the
basis for the active middle section featuring C flute and glockenspiel. Slowly, the
glockenspiel reintroduces the pitch collection from the first section; after a brief
transition, the low gong marks the last section as the opening texture returns, but with
C flute. This last section, along with the modal inflections of the entire piece, brought
to my mind a specific image. I was in Finland with my dad one summer and each
evening the sun would dip just below the horizon and the night would take on a
glowing, quiet light, never getting completely dark. Ilta is the Finnish word for night or
evening. Thanks to Greg and Erin for their enthusiastic commitment to new music and
to this project.
John Howell Morrison (b. 1956) is a native of rural North Carolina. He began his study of
music with piano at age 9, but gained his most influential experiences playing the trumpet.
As a high school student attending the Governor's School of North Carolina in instrumental
music, John played entirely music of the twentieth century, laying the foundation for a life as
a composer.
Undergraduate musical studies were at Davidson College. It was only after college that
John began to study composition, and he eventually completed a master of music in
composition at the University of Tennessee. His principal teachers there were John
Anthony Lennon, Kenneth Jacobs and Allen Johnson. Doctoral studies at the University of
Michigan were funded by the university's most prestigious award, the Regents Fellowship.
Teachers at Michigan included William Bolcom, William Albright, Nicholas Thorne, George
Wilson, and Leslie Bassett. John served as a teaching fellow during that time, and his
degree was completed with the aid of a Predoctoral Fellowship. Teaching posts have
followed, at Tennessee State University, Luther College, Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland State University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Oberlin College. John has
served on the board of directors of the Iowa Composers Forum, and was elected president
of the Cleveland Composers Guild. Now residing in Newton, Massachusetts, John is chair
of composition and theory at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge.
Morrison has composed for a wide range of ensembles, solo instruments and chorus. He
has been commissioned by the Radnofsky Quartet, Intergalactic Contemporary Ensemble
(ICE), the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, the Detroit
Chamber Winds, Antiqua Nova, the Galhano/Montgomery Duo, Davidson College, the
Cleveland Composers Guild, Longy School of Music, and several individual performers.
Grants from the Fromm Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council (2002 Individual Artist
Fellowship), American Composers Forum (Composers Commissioning Project and
Performance Incentive Fund), Meet the Composer, Iowa Arts Council, Luther College, and
the American Music Center (Margaret Fairbank-Jory Copying Assistance) have supported
his work. John has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, I-Park Artists'
Enclave, the Schweitzer Institute (Festival at Sandpoint), June in Buffalo and the Charles
Ives Center for American Music.
John's music has been performed throughout the U.S., including significant exposure on
the 1999 U.S. tour by ICE, which featured stops in New York and Los Angeles, among
others. Other highlights include performances by the San Francisco Contemporary Music
Players, at two annual conferences of the North American Saxophone Alliance, national
conferences of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the U.S. and the Society of
Composers, Inc., and of course by all the commissioning ensembles already mentioned.
In addition to the recently released Innova Recording #584, John's music appears on
compact disc on Arizona University Recordings #3098 and Ten Thousand Lakes SC 114.
His music is available from Arizona University Publications and M. Baker Publications.
Deepening Groove Near Walden Pond was commissioned and premiered by the
music department of the Concord Academy, located in Concord, Massachusetts. A
combination of having long loved the so-called Concord Sonata by Charles Ives, my
fascination with glaciers, and the nature of the musical content led to the title.
The music is derived from a piece attributed to J.S. Bach and played by generations of
young pianists, the Minuet in G from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. My son
had been playing the piece for a period spanning a couple of months, and we had
developed the habit of improvising crazily around the piece. What emerged as I
began to compose Deepening Groove was coming directly from those improvisations,
so I went fully with them, and managed to construct everything you will hear from the
opening phrase of the source. As the music unfolds, the groove established in the
opening grows more and more complex.
The story related to glaciers is one based on Native American legend, which
according to geologists might well be true. It seems that long ago, before European
settlers came to New England, a group was encamped on what was then a mountain.
Overnight, the mountain collapsed, consuming the group and leaving a good-sized
hole in the earth which became what we know today as Walden Pond.
Besides the reference to the town where such writers as Thoreau and Emerson lived,
a more subtle connection to my piece lies in what Ives wrote about his piece in his
Essays Before a Sonata. In that essay, he describes the sense he attempts to
capture in The Alcotts, and conjures up the image of walking down a street and up to
the Alcott house, hearing someone practice the piano. That image has stayed with
me for years, and seems to connect the grind (for a child) of practicing piano with a
sense of the wonders it might create when transferred to other contexts.
Winner of the first “Christoph Delz International Composition Competition” (Basel,
Switzerland) with an outstanding jury formed by Jonathan Harvey, Henri Pousseur and
Luciano Berio, Nora Ponte holds among her awards the Dissertation Fellowship Award
from the School of Arts and Sciences of the State University of New York at Buffalo, an
Argentine Catholic University Chamber Music Composition Competition Prize, First Prize in
The Scherzo Strings Orchestra Young Composers Competition, Young Art Biennial of
Buenos Aires Composition Prize, and the Municipal Prize of Composition of Buenos Aires.
She received grants from the State University of New York at Buffalo, the Composers
Conference at Wellesley College, the Antorchas Foundation, the Italian Government, and
the Italian Institute of Culture. Ponte’s works have been performed in Argentina, Mexico,
Belgium, Norway, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, and throughout the U.S.
She has received commissions from, among others, Accademia Santa Cecilia Youth
Orchestra, Chiasmo Ensemble, Matiegka Trio, Antorchas Foundation, and Duquesne
University. Some of her pieces are published by Edition Gravis (Germany).
Ponte has earned a Ph. D. in Music Composition from the State University of New York at
Buffalo and a BA degree from the Argentine Catholic University at Buenos Aires. She has a
Diploma of Composition from the Fiesole School of Music (Florence, Italy), where she
studied with Giacomo Manzoni and a Diploma of Electronic Music from the Santa Cecilia
School of Music (Rome, Italy). In January 2008 she joined the faculty of the University of
Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, San Juan as an Assistant Professor of Composition and
Director of the Electronic Music Laboratory, having previously taught at the Argentine
Catholic University and, as a Teaching Assistant, at the State University of New York.
The cycle Mirrors was written in collaboration with the poet Ana Olagaray. The text
triggers a string of images, which become the abstract thematic elements that shape
and anchor the poems: flying, falling, disintegrating, growing, etc. Mirrors depicts four
different aspects of a woman in her relationship between self and other. In Mirror (1),
love, fantasy, eroticism and feelings introduce a woman who is focused on herself. In
Broken Mirror (2), the fear of losing herself into other, losing her freedom, disguises
her psyche. Her worries about everything drive her to obsession. In Black Mirror or the
Mirror of Mourning (3) the obsession becomes death, and she is incapable of thinking,
breathing, loving, etc. Time Begins (4) is the reconstruction of the woman. She is
reborn and gradually acquires all her body again. She is ready to return to the world.
Bob Pritchard writes acoustic, electroacoustic, and interactive works, often combining
Modernist and post-Modernist influences through quotation, reference, and stylistic
juxtaposition. His pieces can be demanding and virtuosic, exploring the edges of
performance and perception, and his solo works Breathe On Me, and Escape, My Soul, as
well as Time Clips, Primitive, are examples of this direction.
He has received numerous commissions from The Canada Council, The Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, The Ontario Arts Council, and The British Columbia Cultural
Fund, writing for performers such as the Standing Wave Ensemble, Barbara Pritchard and
Beverley Johnston, the Hard Rubber Orchestra, and Kathryn Cernauskas. He has also
received performances from the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Okanagan
Symphony Orchestra. As well, he has been involved with installation pieces, working with
visual artists Richard Prince, Robert Creighton, Murray Kropf, Merijean Morrissey, and
Anne Severs.
Dr. Pritchard's piece Strength was chosen as a representative Canadian chamber work for
submission to the ISCM 2007 jury in Switzerland. Strength was written for saxophonist Julia
Nolan with cinematography by Cathryn Robertson and received a Unique Award of Merit
from the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.
Dr. Pritchard teaches in the UBC School of Music, and is involved in interactive
performance research with the UBC Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive
Systems (ICICS) and the Media And Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC). In 2007
he, Sid Fels, and Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson received a Canada Council for the Arts/Natural
Sciences and Humanities Research Council New Media Initiative grant for the development
of Digital Ventriloquized Actors (DIVAs). In 2004 he was the recipient of a three-year Artist-
Researcher grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of
Canada, for work in interactive speech synthesis and performance.
In 2005 he was awarded a Killam Teaching Prize in recognition of his abilities and
innovations in classroom teaching. He is a member of the Canadian Music Centre and the
Canadian League of Composers.
Strength is a convergence of the metallic and the human, the durable and the
impermanent, combined in the aural and visual domains. Throughout the piece the
saxophone’s sound prepares us for – and then comments on and unites – the male
body images and the sounds of unseen machinery. Like most of my work it is a
commentary on life and death, and/or on loss and discovery. In Strength this is
represented by glimpses of images contrasted with multiple slow motion pans, and by
the instrumental sound contrasted with sound files and processing. While the ending
of this work is introspective, I consider this to be a positive piece, a reflection on life,
beauty, and knowledge.
The music of Thomas Royal (b. 1979) is concerned with the dissolution and combination of
musical identities through traditional and experimental compositional techniques and
technologies. His electronic works explore humankind's relationship to technology through
creative inclusions of the human voice. In addition to this, he has been investigating
alternative performance paradigms made possible through the use of custom electronic
controllers and novel performance interfaces.
His music has been performed at various regional and national conferences. His piece Soft
Stings of a Cold Dead Image was recently performed at the 2008 SEAMUS (Society for
Electroacoustic Music in the United States) National Conference. His music was performed
at the 2007 conference of the South Eastern Composers League and he has won first prize
in the Austin Peay State University 2007 Young Composer's Competition. He earned his
B.S. in Music Composition from Austin Peay State University under Jeffrey Wood and an
M.M. in Music Composition at UNC Greensboro, where he studied with Alejandro Rutty and
Mark Engebretson. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in music composition under the
tutelage of James Paul Sain and Paul Koonce.
Soft Stings of a Cold Dead Image, for live electronics and speaker, explores the
boundaries between self and other, life and death, and autonomy and control. The
speaker performs the text of the title in a very slow, fragmented manner based on
instructions given on the computer display. The pacing of this reading is more or less
precisely directed by the computer. The direction of control creates an inversion of the
instrument performer relationship: rather than the performer being the player of the
instrument, the instrument, in a sense, is the player of the performer. While the piece
is performed live, its fixed set of durations makes it temporally dead in the sense that
film, for example, is temporally dead or fixed.
The point of maximum irony occurs towards the end of the piece when the speaker
utters the word "dead" without any computer processing. This happens at a point
precisely given by the computer. This climax of sorts is the point in which what the
performer speaks is most understood. But since the point at which it occurs is
controlled precisely by the computer, the origin of the message is obscured. At this
point, the "self" of the performer gradually begins to disappear. The sound of the
breathing of the performer, presented rather statically in the beginning, is processed
by the computer in such a way as to sound as if it is the computer who is breathing;
the original, human breath sound is stolen and destroyed.
Born in Argentina, composer Alejandro Rutty’s output includes orchestral, chamber and
mixed-media music, arrangements of Argentine traditional music, and innovative outreach
musical projects. In his music, Rutty attempts an engaging blend of traditional subtlety,
experimental sophistication, and explosive energy.
The Boston Globe wrote about The Conscious Sleepwalker Loops “…the result is a blaring,
multi-channel, gleefully vernacular carnival. It made a terrific curtain-raiser." The New York
Times said: "Alejandro Rutty’s amusing “Conscious Sleepwalker Loops” offered an
immediate test of the ensemble’s mettle…”. Other pieces generated similarly positive
reactions: “… in every respect, an impressive listening experience." Osnabrüker Zeitung
(About L'accordeoniste) and the Minnesota Star Tribune (About Tango Loops 2B) “…in
Alejandro Rutty's wonderful "Tango Loops 2B,"… a sexy, somewhat inebriated tango pokes
through the orchestral fabric every now and then, as if perceived in memory”
A unique feature of Rutty’s music is its affection for textures suggested by modern
recording processing techniques, and the use of Tango - a genre he performs as a pianist-and
other South American genres as part of the music’s surface.
Rutty’s compositions and arrangements have been played by the Minnesota Symphony
Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Argentina, National Symphony Orchestra of
Brazil, Boston Modern Orchestra Project., New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Linköping
Symphony Orchestra, Kiev Philharmonic, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Amherst
Saxophone Quartet, and the Cassatt String Quartet among other groups. Recordings of his
music have been released by Capstone Records, Arizona University Recordings, and ERM
Media
First Prize Winner of the 2008 Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra Competition, recent and
upcoming events include chamber and symphonic performances in North America, South
America and Asia
Rutty’s appearances as conductor include the National Symphony Orchestra of Brazil
(UFF), the UNCUYO Symphony Orchestra, Hey, Mozart! Orchestra, June in Buffalo
Festival Chamber Orchestra, Catskill Choral Society, Albuquerque Philharmonic Orchestra,
American Opera and Musical Theatre Company, Orpheus Theatre Company and Grand
Opera Theatre.
Founder and Artistic Director of the Hey, Mozart! Project, Rutty's activities have included his
work as conductor for numerous organizations, and arranger and pianist for Argentine-
Tango performances. He has been Artistic Director of the Hartwick College Summer Music
Festival for the 2006 and 2007 seasons
Alejandro Rutty (Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo) is currently Assistant Professor of Music at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Simultaneous Worlds, for flute and percussion, explores three different ways of
experiencing time. The first piece –Loop Me Not, Please- uses Argentine
improvisational urban folk styles as a template for imitating looping techniques, where
the flow of time is subject to artificial manipulation. Ouvido na rua, (an elaboration of
an earlier piece) brings Brazilian rhythms in forward motion and constant movement,
but out of their instrumental context. Memories of Absent Spaces brings time as
perceived in a distant imaginary space.
Winner of the 1999 Bearns Prize, Carl Schimmel has received honors and awards from
the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Yale School of Music,
Duke University, the Seoul International Composition Competition, the Craig Hultgren
Competition, the Renee B. Fisher Composer Awards, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
Composition Competition, the National Federation of Music Clubs, the New York Youth
Symphony First Music Awards, NACWPI, SCI, and ASCAP. His works have been
performed throughout the United States, from Alaska to Rhode Island, as well as in
Canada, Japan, Korea, Germany, Mexico, and the Netherlands. He has received
performances and commissions from the California EAR Unit, Quintet Attacca, bass
clarinetist Henri Bok, North/South Consonance, the University of North Carolina Wind
Ensemble, Cross Sound Music Festival, and others. He is a graduate of Case Western
Reserve University (B.A., Mathematics and Music), the Yale School of Music (M.M. Music
Composition), and Duke University (Ph.D. Music Composition), and has twice attended the
Aspen School of Music. His most recent works have explored humor and absurdity, set
theoretical approaches, diatonicism, and short forms. He has taught at the Yale School of
Music, Duke University, Northern Illinois University, and Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa,
where he currently resides. For more information or to hear excerpts of his music, please
visit http://www.carlschimmel.com.
A permutation is an ordered set. Temper Mutations is a set of ten permutations.
More specifically, the four scales used repeatedly in each movement are arranged in a
different order each time, in a special way such that they are termed “derangements.”
This seemed appropriate, given that my music is occasionally deranged.
Suppose we consider the four emotions anger, sadness, contentment, and joy. There
are twelve ways to move from one emotion to another – from anger to sadness, from
sadness to joy, from joy to contentment, etc. Each of the ten movements of Temper
Mutations presents one of these emotional shifts. Perhaps you can track the
changes…Can you tell which two were left out? In my opinion they are the most
improbable of the twelve. In addition to the mood mutations that take place throughout
the work, a single tortuous motive is morphed in multiple ways to derive the melodic
material. I’d like to thank Yaddo for providing a pleasant and forested working
environment during the creation of this piece – it is in homage to Yaddo that a bright
woodland passerine sings in the ninth movement.
Heather Stebbins (b. 1987) is currently a senior at the University of Richmond where she
is studying music theory and composition under Benjamin Broening. She is also interested
in philosophy, mathematics, and cello performance and has studied cello with Pei Lu of the
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Jason McComb of the Richmond Symphony. She was
a recipient of the IAWM Search for New Music 2007 Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize for her
piece, Confessions, Reactions. Her music has been performed at the Third Practice
Electroacoustic Music Festival at the University of Richmond and at the Florida
Electroacoustic Music Festival at the University of Florida.
The cello is often considered one of the more elegant instruments; even so, it is
capable of making harsh, often obtrusive, noise. Rush Me to Shadows explores both
facets of the instrument exclusively and in union by juxtaposing pre-recorded samples
and composed, live acoustic cello. The piece begins with a chaotic rush of sound in
both the electronic and acoustic components. They eventually settle into an ambient
exploration of tone color, but this mellow sound-world is soon transformed into another
chaotic dive into the cello's more unnatural side.
Francisco M. Toledo was born in Puerto Real, Cádiz in 1967. He studied at the
Conservatorio Superior de Música “Manuel Castillo” of Seville with Antonio J. Flores and L.
Ignacio Marín. He was sponsored by the Junta de Andalucía to be part of the “Manuel de
Falla” Composition Forums where he studied with Javier Darias. He studied further more
with composers such as: Cristóbal Haffter, Orlando J. García, Tomás Marco, and Mauricio
Sotelo. He is a member of the composer’s collective ECCA. As one of the leading Spanish
composers of his generation, he was the recipient of the XIX Composers Competition
“Frederic Mompou” International Award in Barcelona and obtained the 2nd Prize in the
“Eduardo Ocón” Competition of the Diputación de Málaga. During the 1999 season he was
voted “Young Composer of the Year” by the Xarxa of Classic Music of Catalunna.
His music has been premiered in Festivals and Cycles such as: Torroella de Montgrí,
Contemporary Spanish Music in Europe, Cycle of Contemporary Music of Seville and
Málaga, Festival Archaeus of Bucarest, 14th World Saxophone Congress in Ljubljana,
Festival of Spanish Music of Cádiz, etc. His orchestral compositions have been conducted
by: Liviu Danceanu, Francisco de Gálvez, José Luis López-Aranda, José Luis Temes, and
Juan de Udaeta. His works Muiwashaha and Alma de Vidrio are to be found in CD´s by
EMEC.
The title of the piece, Planctus, comes from the Latin word planto (weep). It is a type
of elegy from the Middle Ages, in which the poet grieved the lost of a beloved one. In
castellan poetry there are numerous examples of funeral elegies or planto. In the XX
Century the genre went through a revitalization process with the intention of unite the
traditional with the vanguard, having as an example the Elegy to Ramón Sijé by
Miguel Hernandez, from where the parameters for this piece are taken. The poem is
structured in 16 strophes of 3 hendecasyllabic verses, and from this point is where the
composition has developed. Written for solo violin, it is structured in three movements
without solution of continuity, or connected, well differentiated between them. The first
two movements generate the material that is employed in the third and last. Each one
of them has the following subtitle, I Deplorare, II Horror Vacui, and III Lamentum. The
composition is a commission by the violinist Fabián López, to whom it is dedicated
and it is a planto for the death of Antonio Falcón.
Christian Traylor is a student at the University of South Carolina where he works with
Reginald Bain and John Fitz Rogers.
The North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) is, as the title suggests, a large
group of saxophonists from the Americas, and in the Spring of 2008, they held their
biennial conference at the University of South Carolina. Andre North was looking for a
new piece to play, and overhearing him in his search, I offered to write a piece for him.
From that short conversation, Mist Opportunities, Falls Hopes was born. The piece
has two large sections, with a louder, robust opening section, which moves to a softer,
but more intense ending section. The obvious play on words in the title has many
more meanings than just the obvious, but I'll leave that part up to you.
Winner of the 2006-2007 Rome Prize, Ken Ueno, is a composer and vocalist whose wide
range of innovative works have been thrilling audiences around the world. Of a
performance in Atlanta, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has said: “The evening was
redeemed by the last work, ". . . Blood Blossoms. . .," composed last year by Boston-based
Ken Ueno...a young composer worth following...” The Boston Globe remarked upon the
premiere of his overtone concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, “It was the
evening's far-out highlight.” Informed by his experience as an electric guitarist and overtone
singer, his music fuses the culture of Japanese underground electronic music with an
awareness of European modernism. In an effort to feature inherent qualities of sound such
as beatings, overtones, and artifacts of production noise, Ken’s music is often amplified and
uses electronics. The dramatic discourse of his music is based on the juxtaposition of
extremes: visceral energy versus contemplative repose, hyperactivity versus stillness. He
engages with multiple modes of music making: as a composer of acoustic works, as an
electronic musician, and as an improviser specializing in extended vocal techniques.
Ueno’s compositional process involves considerable research into extending instrumental
possibilities. First, sounds are imagined and then “worked out” with collaborating
performers to realize these sounds on their instruments. These sounds are then analyzed
using software in order to derive parametric data that will inform the structure of the music.
The music created in this way (which he calls “person-specific” music) has depended upon
his long-term collaborations with some of the most remarkable younger generation of
hyper-virtuosic performers, who have developed fluency in specific timbral control (e.g.
overtones, multiphonics, microtones, etc.), as well as have the speed, the physical
endurance, the patience, and, most of all, the determination to master techniques unique to
this music. These performers include: Wendy Richman, Tim Feeney, Hillary Zipper, Nathan
Davis, Kyoko Kawamura, Brian Sacawa, Laura Carmichael, Naomi Sato, Greg Oakes, Eric
Hewitt, Sam Solomon, Michael Norsworthy, Eduardo Leandro, Guy Livingston, Jocelyn
Clark, Andrew Russo, Biliana Voutchkova, and Gilberto Bernardes.
Ensembles and performers who have played Ken’s music include Kim Kashkashian and
Robyn Schulkowsky, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Nieuw Ensemble, Frances-
Marie Uitti, the American Composers Orchestra (Whitaker Reading Session), the Cassatt
Quartet, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Prism
Saxophone Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Atlas Ensemble,
Relâche, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Dogs of Desire, the Orkest de Ereprijs, and the
So Percussion Ensemble. His music has been performed at such venues as Lincoln
Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MusikTriennale Köln
Festival, the Muziekgebouw, the Hopkins Center, Spoleto USA, Steim, and at the Norfolk
Music Festival, where he was guest composer/lecturer. Ken’s piece for the Hilliard
Ensemble, Shiroi Ishi, continues to be featured in their repertoire, recently being performed
at Queen Elizabeth Hall in England, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and aired on Italian national
radio, RAI 3. Another work, Pharmakon, was performed dozens of times nationally by
Eighth Blackbird during their 2001-2003 seasons.
Awards and grants that Ken has received include those from the American Academy in
Rome, the Fromm Music Foundation (2), the Aaron Copland House, the Aaron Copland
Fund for Music Recording, Meet the Composer (4), the National Endowment for the Arts,
the Belgian-American Education Foundation, Sonic Circuits X, First Prize in the 25th “Luigi
Russolo” competition, and Harvard University. Upcoming projects include a timpani
concerto for Sam Solomon, a work with live electronics for the violinist Lina Bahn, and a
duo for Mayumi Miyata (sho) and Teodoro Anzellotti (accordion) commissioned by the
Takefu Music Festival. Recently, he performed as soloist in the premieres of his concerto
for overtone singer and orchestra with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project to wide
acclaim in Boston and New York.
A former ski patrol and West Point cadet, Ken holds degrees from Berklee College of
Music, Boston University, the Yale School of Music, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
He is a co-founder/co-director of the Minimum Security Composers Collective. As a vocalist
specializing in extended techniques (overtones, multiphonics, extreme extended registers,
circular breathing), he performs with the experimental improvisation group Onda and the
noise/avant-rock group Blood Money. Currently, Ken is an Assistant Professor at the
University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor and the
Director of the Electronic Music Studios at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Kage-Uta translates from the Japanese as "Shadow Song". This piece features the
interaction between my live singing (overtones and multiphonics) and an instrument I
built with Max/Msp. The structure of the piece is a large-scale cross-fade between the
live voice and the electronics. As the piece progresses, my vocal signal is feed into a
buffer, which is spatialized quadraphonically, and manipulated with controllers which
transform parameters such as the buffer size, the rate of reading through the buffer,
rate of randomness reading within the buffer, etc. My aim in building the Max
instrument was twofold: to create sounds which clearly evolve out of my vocal
performance and to create sounds electronically which I could then mimic myself – a
discourse in which, if the sounds were likened to shadows, it is unclear which are the
shadows and which are the shadows of shadows.
Rafael Valle's work, recently published by the Spanish publisher Periferia Sheet Music,
reflects a language whose grammar is not only a combination between Classical and Pop
Music, but the connection between Studio Procedures and Acoustic Music. In 2008 he was
awarded a Scholarship to study in the USA. Currently, he is taking Composition classes
with Dr. Edward Jacobs and conducting classes with Dr. Richter, both faculty from ECU.
In memoriam patris mei was written in the memory of my dear father who passed
away 10 years ago.
Performers
Gordon Black studies saxophone at UNCG with Dr. Steve Stusek.
Brian Carter is a freelance cellist in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. He has
earned a BM from the Crane School of Music, in Potsdam, NY; a MM from UNC-Greensboro,
and is currently a DMA student at UNC-Greensboro. Brian's main teachers
have included Matthias Wexler, Brooks Whitehouse, and Alexander Ezerman. He teaches
privately in Greensboro and Durham, NC, and is on the faculty at Guilford College
(Greensboro), teaching cello and conducting a chamber orchestra. Brian is also a certified
Suzuki instructor, and he specializes in starting beginners.
As a performer, Brian Carter is a member of the Oleander Chamber Orchestra (Wilmington,
NC), the Salisbury Symphony (Salisbury, NC), and occasionally subs with the Winston-
Salem Symphony (Winston-Salem, NC). He has been a featured artist on many local recital
programs including: The Triad Chamber Music Society's 07-08 season, Concerts at St.
Stephen's (Durham), and the Mosaic of Music Series at St. Andrew's (Greensboro).
Due East has performed in Brazil, Europe, Canada and the USA at venues such as the
Warsaw Crossdrumming Festival, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the State University of São
Paulo, and the Percussive Arts Society International Conventions in Texas, Tennessee and
Ohio. Most recently, they were named winners of the 2008 National Flute Association
Chamber Music Competition, held in Kansas City.
The duo has given recitals at universities across the United States, including Southern and
Western Oregon Universities, Lewis and Clark College, Lawrence University, Northern
Illinois University, Manhattan School of Music, Columbia University and Concordia College
in Bronxville, NY. In the summer of 2005, DUE EAST was invited to be an ensemble-in-residence
at the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival.
DUE EAST actively promotes new music, and has commissioned several works. They have
premiered works for Wet Ink Musics (NYC), Composer’s Concordance (NYC), Columbia
University Composers Ensemble, Princeton University Composer’s Ensemble, and the 21st
Century Schizoid Music Series at Cornelia Street Café (NYC). In conjunction with
performance, Lesser and Beyer are frequently asked to present workshops for composers
and instrumentalists on contemporary music and its various extended techniques for their
respective instruments.
Hailed a “fine percussionist” in the New York Times, Greg Beyer specializes in
repertoire that places non-western instruments into the context of contemporary
musical thought. Second-prize winner of the 2002 Geneva International Music
Competition, Beyer has given solo performances and masterclasses throughout the
United States, Europe, South America and in China. Beyer is an Assistant Professor
of Percussion at Northern Illinois University, and endorses Bosphorus cymbals,
Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets, and Pearl/Adams percussion instruments.
Recently called a “superb flutist” in The New York Times, Erin Lesser has performed
as soloist and chamber musician throughout Canada, Europe, China, Brazil and the
USA. She is a founding member of Argento Chamber Ensemble, Due East, and
Scarborough Trio, and also performs regularly with Wet Ink Ensemble. Festival
appearances include: Shanghai Electroacoustic Music Festival, Kilkenny Music
Festival, Holland Festival, Ojai Music Festival (CA), International Spectral Music
Festival (Istanbul), and Sounds French Festival (NYC). Erin is currently a fellow of
The Academy, a program run by Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill
Music Institute and a doctoral candidate at the Manhattan School of Music. . Ms.
Lesser is a Pearl Flute Performing Artist.
A native of Chicago, Eric Gargrave holds the Doctorate in Saxophone Performance from
the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Additionally, he has degrees in saxophone
and clarinet performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, from where
he also received the Performer's Certificate. As an educator, Eric has been on the faculty
of universities in Missouri, Virginia, and North Carolina, as well as maintaining a fruitful
career nurturing young learners. His performances have been well-received across the
United States, in Europe, and Australia. Eric rounds out life enjoying activities with his wife
and three children, reading and studying in areas ranging from finance to Christian
apologetics, and competitive running.
The Washington-Post has described Lorena Guillén as a “delicate soprano” and praised
her ”...polished performance of ...French cabaret song...(and her)...total mastery of the
difficult Sprechtstimme...”
She studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Argentina and holds a MM in Vocal
Performance and a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology and Music Theory from SUNY at Buffalo.
Guillén has received scholarships from the Britten-Pears Institute (England), and worked
closely to Karlheinz Stockhausen in his Summer Festival at Kürten, Germany, later touring
with his Indianerlieder around US, Canada and Argentina.
As an active performer of contemporary music, she has appeared in venues such as the
Chautauqua Institution, “New Music New Haven” of Yale University, June in Buffalo
Festival, Museo Fernández Blanco, Music Gallery at Toronto (Canada), Contemporary
Music Festival UNCG, Catskills Choral Society, Washington’s Shakespeare Theater with
Music Aperta, and the Music-at-The-Forefront Concert Series of Bowling Green State
University. She has recorded for University of Arizona Recordings and Innova Records. A
founding member of the word/music experimental group Lake Affect (1999-2002), for the
past four years, she has been a regular soloist of the multidisciplinary concerts of the
ensemble Musica Aperta in Washington DC.
From 2003 to 2006, Guillén was a Resident Artist at Hartwick College, in Oneonta, NY, and
currently she teaches at University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Wake Forest
University.
Fabián López, Assistant Professor of Violin at UNCG, is a native of Málaga, Spain. He
started playing violin at the age of eleven. Upon graduation from the Conservatorio Superior
de Música de Málaga, he received a scholarship from the Hispanic-American Joint
Commitee/Fullbright Commission, to study further at Colgate University. This was the
beginning of an ongoing process that has lasted for ten years. His principal teachers have
been: Nicolae Duca, Laura Klugherz, Kevork Mardirossian, and Camilla Wicks.Fabián has
appeared as soloist with orchestras such as: Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville,
Orquesta Ciudad de Córdoba, Chamber Orchestra of Andalucía, Orquesta Filarmónia de
Málaga, Orquesta Ciudad de Almeria, “Manuel de Falla” Chamber Orchestra, etc. In the
pedagogical terrain, Fabián has given courses and master classes for the Youth Orchestra
of Andalucía (O.J.A.), and in Granada, Adra, Cartagena, West Virginia University, Mercer
University, Louisiana State University, and Hebert Springs. As a jury member he has been
in the I International Violin Competition “Violines por la Paz”, in Jaen, Auditions for Violin
Professors in Spanish National Conservatories, and The Concerto Competition of the
Superior Conservatory of Music of Granada. Fabián taught at the Royal Conservatory of
Music “Manuel de Falla” of Cádiz, Spain (1999-2004). During his studies at the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music, Fabián had the opportunity of playing a concert with the
Guarnerius del Gesu that belonged to J. Heifetz. He is the lucky owner of a violin by Ioan
Guillami, 1726, which is called “little strad” among friends. He graduated from Baylor
University (M.M.), studying with Bruce Berg, and from The University of Michigan (D.M.A.),
studying with Andrew Jennings. He is happily married and lives with his wife, Sinthia Pérez,
a terrific harpist, and his dog Max.
Shawn Marcinowski is an active performer and educator in the North Carolina percussion
world with experience in many different genres of music. As an educator, Mr. Marcinowski
is a current percussion instructor at Holly Springs High School in Holly Springs, NC, and
Athens Drive High School in Raleigh, NC, the latter of which has just been accepted to
perform at the prestigious Music for All National Percussion Festival in Indianapolis,
Indiana.
As a freelance performer, he has performed across the state, including solo and chamber
performances at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Athens Drive High
School. He is a founding member of the Anima Percussion Group, which will begin its
inaugural season in early 2009. Mr. Marcinowski holds a degree in Percussion
Performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Sinthia Pérez Martínez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She began her study of the
harp at age twelve at the Children’s String Program of the Conservatory of Puerto Rico.
She later moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana where she earned her Bachelor degree in
Music Performance in Harp from Louisiana State University (1998) while studying with Ann
Benjamin. She recently received her Masters Degree from the University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor where she worked with Lynne Aspnes. Sinthia has focused a great part of her
education on chamber music and orchestral literature. She has extensive orchestral
experience having performed as Principal and Second Harpist with the Puerto Rico
Symphony Orchestra, the Baton Rouge Symphony, La Orquesta Provincial de Malaga and
the Jackson Symphony among others. She is a passionate chamber music enthusiast and
regularly performs the literature for violin and harp duo with her husband, Fabian Lopez.
Brad McMillan studies saxophone at UNCG with Dr. Steve Stusek.
Andrés Milá-Prats was born in Buenos Aires in 1976. He received his first degree in
Orchestral Conducting from the Catholic University of Argentina where he studied
Orchestral Conducting with Guillermo Scarabino, Choral Conducting with Néstor
Andrennacci and Guillermo Opitz, and Composition with Marta Lambertini and Julio Viera.
He also participated in Master classes and Conducting Workshops with Charles Dutoit,
Ovidiu Balan (Romania) and Luis Gorelik (Argentina), and has conducted several
Orchestras and Ensembles in Argentina, Chile, USA and Romania. He received a National
Fellowship in Argentina for further studies in Conducting with Bruno D’Astoli and Musical
Analysis with Federico Wiman. In addition, Mr. Milá-Prats has carried out several projects
that included premieres of New Music from young composers. He has also taken forward
an interesting activity as a composer, and many of his pieces were premiered. He is now
pursuing a Master’s degree in Music Performance at UNCG where he studies with Robert
Gutter.
Jonathan Morrison studies saxophone at UNCG with Dr. Steve Stusek.
Dylan Smith studies saxophone at UNCG with Dr. Steve Stusek.
Steve Stusek is Assistant Professor of Saxophone at the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro. He performs frequently with Dutch accordion player Otine van Erp in the duo
2Track, was director of Big Band Utrecht and is a founding member of the Bozza Mansion
Project, an Amsterdam-based new music ensemble. The list of composers who have
written music for him include Academy Award winner John Addison. His many awards
include a Medaille d'Or in Saxophone Performance from teh Conservatoire de la Région de
Paris, winner of the Saxohone Concerto competition at Indiana University, Semi-finalist in
the Concert Artists Guild Competition, Vermont Council on the Arts prize for Artistic
Excellence, and Finalist in the Nederlands Impressariaat Concours for ensembles. His
teachers include Daniel Deffayet, Jean-Yves Formeau, Eugene Rousseau, David Baker,
Joseph Wytko and Larry Teal.
Matt Younglove is a professional saxophonist who performs in a variety of venues. He has
played with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, The Jimmy Farr Orchestra, the Columbia
Jazz Orchestra, the Capital City Big Band, Left Band Big Band, USC Symphonic Band,
Assembly Saxophone Quartet, and the Younglove-Fincher Duo. He plays jazz, classical,
and popular music. Mr. Younglove is also the saxophonist in Zach Fowler and the
Essentials.
Born in the capital of Latvia, Riga, Ināra Zandmane started to play piano at the age of six.
Ms. Zandmane holds BM and MM from Latvian Academy of Music, MM in piano
performance from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and DMA in piano
performance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She has been the staff
accompanist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro since 2003, performing up to
fifty recitals per year. Ms. Zandmane is frequently invited to serve as an official
accompanist at national competitions and conferences, among them the North American
Saxophone Alliance conference and the MTNA National competition since 2004. Ms.
Zandmane has been presented in solo recitals in St. Paul, Kansas City, Cleveland, St.
Louis, and New York, as well as in many Republics of former Soviet Union. In April 2000,
she was invited to perform at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. Ināra Zandmane has
appeared as a soloist with the Latvian National Orchestra, Liepaja Symphony, Latvian
Academy of Music Student Orchestra, SIU Symphony, and UMKC Conservatory Symphony
and Chamber orchestras. She has performed with various chamber ensembles at the
International Chamber Music Festivals in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Helsinki (Finland), and
Norrtelje (Sweden). Ms. Zandmane has collaborated with such musicians as Martin Storey,
Paul Coletti, Branford Marsalis, Michel Debost, Kelly Burke, Steven Stusek, and Susan
Fancher. For a few last years, Ināra Zandmane has worked together with Latvian composer
Peteris Vasks. She has given Latvian premieres of his two latest piano pieces, Landscapes
of the Burnt-out Earth and The Spring Music, and recorded the first of them on the Conifer
Classics label. Solo recordings include the piano works by Maurice Ravel, recorded
together with her husband, Vincent van Gelder, and the complete Sonatas for piano by
Alexander Scriabin. She also can be heard on various chamber music CDs.