Roger Reynolds. Composer Portraits. Irvine Arditti, violin Ensemble Signal Brad Lubman, conductor. Saturday, February 22, 8:00 p.m.

Transcription

1 Miller Theatre at Columbia University th Anniversary Season Composer Portraits Roger Reynolds Irvine Arditti, violin Ensemble Signal Brad Lubman, conductor Saturday, February 22, 8:00 p.m.

2 Please note that photography and the use of recording devices are not permitted. Remember to turn off all cellular phones and pagers before tonight s performance begins. Miller Theatre is wheelchair accessible. Large print programs are available upon request. For more information or to arrange accommodations, please call

3 Miller Theatre at Columbia University th Anniversary Season Composer Portraits Roger Reynolds Irvine Arditti, violin Ensemble Signal Brad Lubman, conductor Saturday, February 22, 8:00 p.m. Kokoro (1993) Roger Reynolds (b. 1934) Irvine Arditti, solo violin Aspiration ( ) Solo violin and chamber orchestra INTERMISSION Onstage discussion with Roger Reynolds, Irvine Arditti, and Lauren Radnofsky Positings (2012) New York premiere Paul Hembree, computer musician, Kelli Kathman, piccolo, David Byrd-Marrow, horn, Oliver Hagen, piano, Chris Otto, violin, and Lauren Radnofsky, cello This program runs approximately one hour and forty-five minutes, including intermission. Major support for Composer Portraits is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts.

4 About the Program Introduction A true composition is not only a remark or stance or display, but a dimensional experience that either leads the listener along a path or proposes a landscape for exploration. Roger Reynolds It is not so easy to accept that Roger Reynolds will reach the age of eighty this coming July. True, the weight of achievement is there: an output going back to the beginning of the 1960s and including dozens of major works. But, as the most recent piece on tonight s program will show, this is someone who remains a young explorer. He has returned repeatedly to standard genres, especially the string quartet, with Irvine Arditti to prompt him. But he has also gone on looking for new ways in which music can energize space, interlock with electronics, and spill across into drama or do all of these at once, as most recently in his george WASHINGTON, introduced by the National Symphony Orchestra last fall. Many of his most striking pieces use these elements of space, electronics, and drama, from Traces for solo piano with flute, cello, and live modulation (1968) to Sanctuary for four percussion players (2003-7) and beyond. Reynolds spent much of the 1960s in Europe and Japan, returning to the United States in 1969 to take up a professorship at UCSD, which he established as one of the foremost schools for composers and for performers of new music. He founded one of the first computer-music facilities there in 1971, brought many lively colleagues to join him, and remains on the faculty. Among his recordings, two releases on the Mode label are outstanding: a double album of his complete piano works, including Yuji Takahishi in Traces; and a DVD of Sanctuary, as performed by Steven Schick and red fish blue fish. Kokoro (1992) To conclude his string quartet Visions (1991), the second of four collaborations with the Arditti Quartet, Reynolds composed a substantial solo for the group s leader, and from this came the idea of a big solo piece that would draw on the same materials and be intended for the same musician. For the title, Reynolds chose a Japanese word as defined by Daisetz T. Suzuki: Kokoro is a very comprehensive term. It first of all means the physical heart, and then the true heart (connotative and emotional), mind

5 (intellectual), soul (in the sense of an animating principle), and spirit (metaphysical). This provided the cue for an eighteen-minute sequence of transformations of the original music, which is closest to the surface in the eighth section and is elsewhere turned in the direction of the spirit (second section), the physical heart (fourth section), the true heart (sixth section), the soul (tenth section), and the mind (twelfth section). Each section has its own title, as follows: 1. Staged Convergence. The convergence is between quick notes and sustained ones (or rests), through a succession of eight short subsections. As if absorbing energy from the stilled time, the quick flurries become faster, until the stationary moments have disappeared. 2. Unearthly. The feel, Reynolds suggests, is Apollonian elevated, pure, a dispassionate lyricism. 3. Intricate Alternation. Not only notes are alternated here but also, again, short durations and long ones, of which the latter suggest the stopping of the heart, with energy maintained through the pause. 4. Excitation, Recovery, Focus. The three-part process happens five times, the first four times focussing on a diminuendo to pppp, the last time ending with a threequarter-tone slide at a steady ff. 5. Tenuous, Trembling. Various tranquil states of being. 6. With Radiant Continuity. This relatively short element is a consummation of what was interrupted in the third section. 7. A Traversal of Sighs. 8. Ghostly, Evanescent, Elastic. Muted and very soft throughout, this section nevertheless keeps changing in character. 9. Luminous Murmurs. These are made of triple-stop tremolos and sustained swells. 10. Alternative Paths. Repeating notes are displaced by notes in extreme heights. 11. Augmented Throbbing. The demonic unwillingness to subside here demands a feverish and invariant tremolo. 12. Precisely, Implacably. This last segment proceeds at the work s principal, fast tempo almost to the end. Aspiration ( ) A little longer than either of the other works on this program, Aspiration has aspects of both. It is again a showpiece designed for Irvine Arditti, and even more challenging. It also has a sectional form in which two participants are involved: the violin and About the Program

6 an ensemble of fourteen players. The winds and strings of this ensemble are divided into two groups, of five upper instruments (flute, clarinet, trumpet, two violins) and seven lower (bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, trombone, viola, cello, double bass), which pursue separate but connected courses. Each group has its own harmonic repertory, of five-note and seven-note chords respectively, but in both the general movement is very slowly downward, whereas the solo violin moves in the opposite direction. Piano and percussion may be independent of these groups, or may join with one or both. There are six ensemble movements, linked by five solo cadenzas. The first movement, little more than a minute long, is introductory, and the soloist enters only as it ends, with the first cadenza. A sequence of long phrases is proposed, but tempo, rhythmic articulation, and dynamics are all left largely to the soloist. Greeted by swelling chords, the violin is then drawn into the second movement, a much fuller andante that pulls back to a climax and unleashes the rapid-fire second cadenza. Then comes a fast movement, from which springs the virtuoso third cadenza. Deservedly resting through most of the energetic fourth movement, the violin has a relatively short cadenza leading into the fifth movement, where again it is silent, until called on by piano and percussion to reply with its fifth cadenza. The finale, for everyone, is short and slow. Aspirations to rise, to settle, to join, to include have been achieved. Positings (2012) Commissioned for the twenty-fifth anniversary of Southwest Chamber Music, this piece is for five standard instruments flute (doubling piccolo), horn, violin, cello, and piano (doubling percussion) plus a sixth musician at a computer, manipulating and replaying recorded samples. Five posits, short and distinct miniatures for the quintet, are interleaved with somewhat longer computer responses, in which recordings of the instrumental music are transformed and remixed to elaborate the original potential. There is thus a verse-response form, but with the difference that, after the first pair, the responses follow a different order, as follows: P1 R1 P2 R3 P3 R5 P4 R2 P5 R4. Thus the third response comes immediately before the relevant posit, others at a greater remove, so that memory is called into play. In addition, the responses all contain enhancements from the live musicians, complicating a little the dialogue of quintet and computer. The last enhancement, much the longest, extends beyond the last response and brings the worlds of instruments and computer together. Program notes by Paul Griffiths

7 About the Artists Irvine Arditti was born in London in 1953 and studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where the Arditti Quartet was formed in Both in the quartet and as soloist, he has performed throughout the world in most leading concert halls and festivals promoting the most challenging new music. He has given world premieres of hundreds of works, including Roger Reynolds solo peice Kokoro, which was also written for him; Xenakis Dox Orkh and Hosokawa s Landscape III, both for violin and orchestra; as well as Ferneyhough s Terrain, Francesconi s Riti Neurali and Body Electric, Dillon s Vernal Showers, Harvey s Scena, Pauset s Vita Nova, Sciarrino s Le Stagioni Artificiali, and Roger Reynolds Aspiration, all for violin and ensemble. Arditti s name is synonymous with the highest level of quality and dedication in the performance of new music. The list of composers with whom he has worked reads like a who s who of 20th and 21st century music, and also includes hundreds of younger composers whom he has helped. He has released more than 200 CDs, both with the quartet and as soloist. In 1999, as leader of the quartet, he accepted the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. This prize for lifetime achievement in music began in 1974 and is typically given to individuals; the Arditti Quartet remains to this day the only ensemble ever to receive it. Brad Lubman, conductor/composer, is founding co-artistic Director and Music Director of Ensemble Signal, hailed by The New York Times as one of the most vital groups of its kind. Since his conducting debut in 1984, he has gained widespread recognition for his versatility, commanding technique, and insightful interpretations. His guest conducting engagements include major orchestras such as the DSO Berlin, Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie, Residentie Orchestra Den Haag, WDR Symphony Cologne, NDR Symphony Hamburg, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Deutschland Radio Philharmonie, American Composers Orchestra, and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, performing repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary orchestral works. He has worked with some of the most important ensembles for contemporary music, including London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien,

8 musikfabrik, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, and Steve Reich and Musicians. He has recorded for AEON, Albany, BMG/RCA, Bridge, Cantaloupe, CRI, Kairos, Koch, Mode, New World, NEOS, Nonesuch, Orange Mountain, and Tzadik. Lubman s own compositions have been performed in the USA and Europe and can be heard on his CD, insomniac, on Tzadik. Lubman is Associate Professor of Conducting and Ensembles at the Eastman School of Music since 1997, where he directs the Musica Nova ensemble, and is on the faculty of the Bang-on-a-Can Summer Institute. He is represented by Karsten Witt Musik Management. Paul Hembree s (b. 1982) acoustic and computer music compositions synthesize the expressive power of polyphonic music in the Western classical tradition with modern experimental and electroacoustic techniques to create a visceral and communicative sound. At the University of California, San Diego, Hembree currently pursues a Ph.D with advisor Roger Reynolds; he has also studied with Philippe Manoury, Chinary Ung, and Lei Liang. Hembree works as a teaching assistant for music theory courses, and as a videography, web-design, and computer music research assistant for Edwin Harkins and Reynolds. Hembree earned a Master of Music degree with an emphasis in technology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His master s thesis composition, The Antikythera Mechanism (2009), is a 35-minute polywork for chamber orchestra, computer controlled piano, live digital video, and 8.1 channel audio. He also has a Bachelor of Music in Composition, magna cum laude, from the University of Oregon, where in 2005 he co-founded the contemporary music-focused New Frontiers Chamber Symphony. Ensemble Signal, described by the New York Times as one of the most vital groups of its kind, is a NY-based ensemble offering the broadest possible audience access to a diverse range of contemporary works through performance, commissioning, recording, and education. Since its debut in 2008, the Ensemble has performed over 90 concerts, has given the NY, world, or U.S. premieres of over 20 works, and co-produced five recordings. Signal was founded by Co-Artistic/ Executive Director Lauren Radnofsky and Co-Artistic Director/Conductor Brad Lubman. A new music dream team, (TimeOutNY), Signal regularly performs with Lubman and features a supergroup of independent artists from the modern music scene. Signal is flexible in size and instrumentation everything from solo to large contemporary ensemble in any possible combination enabling it to meet

9 the ever-changing demands on the 21st century performing ensemble. At home in concert halls, clubs, and international festivals alike, Signal has performed at Lincoln Center Festival, Ojai Music Festival, Carnegie Hall s Zankel Hall, Miller Theatre, (le)poisson Rouge, The Tanglewood Music Festival of Contemporary Music, Cleveland Museum of Art, The Wordless Music Series, and the Bang on a Can Marathon. Signal s fearless programming ranges from minimalism or pop-influenced to the iconoclastic European avantgarde. Signal has worked with artists and composers including Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Irvine Arditti, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Oliver Knussen, Hilda Paredes, and Charles Wuorinen. Their educational activities have included workshops with emerging composers at the June in Buffalo Festival, where they are a resident ensemble. Signal s recording are available on Philip Glass s Orange Mountain, New Amsterdam Records, Mode, and Cantaloupe. Recent highlights include performing in the 2013 Lincoln Center Festival s production of Monkey: Journey to The West. Upcoming highlights include the co-commission of a new work for large ensemble by Steve Reich. including Composer Portraits of Georg Friedich Haas (2013), Hilda Paredes (2012), and Helmut Lachenmann (2010) as well as numerous programs of smaller-scale works on Miller s Pop-Up Concert series. This spring, Signal will perform in the upcoming Composer Portrait of Unsuk Chin on March 13 and Reich + Bach in the Bach, Revisited series on May 15. Ensemble Signal s season is made possible in part by support from New Music USA s Cary New Music Performance Fund and The Amphion Foundation. Tonight s performers: Paul Coleman, sound director Kelli Kathman, flute Nick Gallas, clarinet Adrian Sandi, bass clarinet Brad Balliett, bassoon/contrabassoon David Byrd-Marrow, horn Mike Gurfield, trumpet Jerry Hou, trombone Bill Solomon, percussion Oliver Hagen, piano Ari Streisfeld, violin Chris Otto, violin Victor Lowrie, viola Lauren Radnofsky, cello Greg Chudzik, bass Ensemble Signal are regular guests on the Miller Stage, with previous apperances About the Artists

10 About Miller Theatre Miller Theatre at Columbia University is the leading presenter of new music in New York City and one of the most vital forces nationwide for innovative programming. In partnership with Columbia University School of the Arts, Miller is dedicated to producing and presenting unique events, with a focus on contemporary and early music, jazz, opera, and multimedia performances. Founded in 1988, Miller has helped launch the careers of myriad composers and ensembles over the past 25 years, serving as an incubator for emerging artists and a champion of those not yet well known in the United States. A three-time recipient of the ASCAP/ Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming, Miller Theatre continues to meet the high expectations set forth by its founders to present innovative programs, support the development of new work, and connect creative artists with adventurous audiences. 25th Anniversary Committee Regula Aregger Eric Johnson Mercedes I. Armillas Fred Lerdahl Rima Ayas George Lewis Paul D. Carter Philip V. Mindlin Mary Sharp Cronson* Linda Nochlin Stephanie French* Margo Viscusi* Marcella Tarozzi Goldsmith Marian M. Warden Maureen Gupta Cecille Wasserman* Karen Hagberg Elke Weber Mark Jackson * Miller Theatre Advisory Board member Miller Theatre Staff Melissa Smey Executive Director Charlotte Levitt Director of Marketing and Outreach Beth Silvestrini Associate Director of Artistic and Production Administration Brenna St. George Jones Director of Production James Hirschfeld Business Manager Megan Harrold Audience Services Manager Bryan Logan Production Coordinator Nora Sørena Casey Marketing and Communications Associate Rhiannon McClintock Executive Assistant Aleba & Co. Public Relations The Heads of State Graphic Design Columbia University School of the Arts Carol Becker Dean of Faculty Jana Hart Wright Dean of Academic Administration Columbia University Trustees William V. Campbell Co-Chair Jonathan D. Schiller Co-Chair A Lelia Bundles Vice Chair Mark E. Kingdon Vice Chair Esta Stecher Vice Chair Rolando T. Acosta Armen A. Avanessians Lee C. Bollinger President of the University Lisa Carnoy Kenneth Forde Noam Gottesman Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. James Harden Benjamin Horowitz Ann F. Kaplan Jonathan Lavine Charles Li Paul J. Maddon Vikram Pandit Michael B. Rothfeld Claire Shipman Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Faye Wattleton

11 Thanks to Our Donors Miller Theatre acknowledges with deep appreciation and gratitude the following organizations, individuals, and government agencies whose extraordinary support makes our programming possible. $25,000 and above Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts Dow Jones Foundation Ernst Von Siemens Foundation $10,000 - $24,999 William V. Campbell The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Mary Sharp Cronson The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation $5,000 - $9,999 The Amphion Foundation French American Cultural Exchange Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation $1,000 - $4,999 Paul D. Carter Hester Diamond R. H. Rackstraw Downes Claude Ghez Marcella Tarozzi Goldsmith Christine and Thomas Griesa Carol Avery Haber/ Haber Family Charitable Fund $500 - $999 Oliver Allen Regula Aregger Mercedes Armillas ASCAP Rima Ayas Barbara Batcheler Elaine S. Bernstein Gerry H. F. Lenfest National Endowment for the Arts New York State Council on the Arts The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation CLC Kramer Foundation Fritz Reiner Center for Contemporary Music at Columbia University Karen Hagberg and Mark Jackson Donella and David Held Elizabeth and Dean Kehler Roger Lehecka Philip Mindlin Linda Nochlin Jeanine and Roland Plottel Jessie and Charles Price Mary and Gordon Gould Marian M. Warden Fund of the Foundation for Enhancing Communities Maureen Gupta John Kander Mark Kempson and Janet Greenberg Frederick Peters The Evelyn Sharp Foundation Margo and Anthony Viscusi Craig Silverstein Peter Pohly Christopher Rothko Cecille Wasserman Elke Weber and Eric Johnson Anonymous Mark Ptashne James Sharp Timothy Shepard and Andra Georges J. P. Sullivan Cia Toscanini Kathryn Yatrakis Janet Waterhouse $100 - $499 Gail and James Addiss Qais Al-Awqati, M.D. Edward Albee Florence Tatischeff Amzallag Roger Bagnall Stephen Blum Jim Boorstein Adam and Eileen Boxer Elizabeth and Ralph Brown Jim Buckley Kerrie Buitrage Richard Carrick and Nomi Levy-Carrick Ginger Chinn Jennifer Choi Gregory Cokorinos Noah Creshevsky Kristine DelFausse David Demnitz Randy Ezratty Peter and Joan Faber Stephanie French Marc Gilman June O. Goldberg Lauren and Jack Gorman Richard Gray James P. Hanbury Bernard Hoffer Alan Houston and Lisa DeLange Frank Immler and Andrew Tunnick Burton Kassell Rebecca Kennison L. Wilson Kidd, Jr. Nikki Kowalski Daniel Lee Barbara and Kenneth Leish Arthur S. Leonard Stephen Leventis Richard H. Levy and Lorraine Gallard Peter C. Lincoln Helen Little Sarah Lowengard Anthony and Caroline Lukaszewski Lawrence Madison Marc Maltz Gerald McGee Bannon and Barnabas McHenry Rolf Meyershon Susan Narucki Susan and Sheldon Nash Mary Pinkowitz Carol Robbins Lisa Rubin Mariam Said Eliisa Salmi-Saslaw Mary Salpukas James Schamus and Nancy Kricorian Elliot Schwartz Anita Shapolsky Leila Shakour and Michael Thorne Karlan and Gary Sick Paul Sperry Gilbert Spitzer and Janet Glaser Spitzer Rand Steiger and Rebecca Jo Plant Peter Strauss Jim Strawhorn as of Jan. 17, 2014

12 Upcoming Events Saturday, March 1, 8:00 p.m. JAZZ Miguel Zenón Quartet Tuesday, March 4, 6:00 p.m. POP-UP CONCERT Ekmeles Saturday, March 8, 8:00 p.m. EARLY MUSIC Stile Antico: The Phoenix Rising Church of St. Mary the Virgin Thursday, March 13, 8:00 p.m. COMPOSER PORTRAITS Unsuk Chin Rachel Calloway, mezzo-soprano Oliver Hagen, piano Bill Solomon, percussion Ning Yu, piano Ensemble Signal Brad Lubman, conductor on Twitter 2960 Broadway at 116th Street, MC 1801, New York, NY 10027