Mika Pelo and Kurt Rohde, co-directors PERFORMERS Hrabba Atladottir, violin Kurt Rohde, viola Mary Artmann, cello Tod Brody, flute Peter Josheff, clarinet Michael Seth Orland, piano Matilda Hofman, conductor Fabián Panisello Composer Portrait 7 pm, Saturday, November 19, 2011 Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center, for the Performing Arts Pre-concert lecture and discussion at 6:15 pm with guest composers Tonight s concert is being performed in honor of Norman Jones and Jerome Rosen.
E m py r e a n E n s e m b l e Directors Mika Pelo Kurt Rohde Administrative & Production Staff Christina Acosta, editor Philip Daley, publicity manager Rudy Garibay, designer Joshua Paterson, production manager
The Department of Music presents The Empyrean Ensemble Mika Pelo and Kurt Rohde, co-directors Fabián Panisello Composer Portrait Program Piezas métricas for Flute, Fabián Panisello Clarinet, Violin, Viola, and Cello (b. 1963) Patterns Sancta Maria Metric Modulation Lento Hoquetus Tod Brody, flute Peter Josheff, clarinet Kurt Rohde, viola Mary Artmann, cello Cadenza for Solo Violin L ineluttabile di ogni cosa for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano Hrabba Atladottir, violin Tod Brody, flute Peter Josheff, clarinet Kurt Rohde, viola Mary Artmann, cello Michael Seth Orland, piano Matilda Hofman, conductor Intermission Panisello Panisello Duo for Violin and Piano Fred Lerdahl I. (b. 1943) II. Michael Seth Orland, piano L ineluttabile di ogni cosa for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano Tod Brody, flute Peter Josheff, clarinet Kurt Rohde, viola Mary Artmann, cello Michael Seth Orland, piano Matilda Hofman, conductor Panisello Saturday, November 19, 2011 7:00 pm Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center We ask that you be courteous to your fellow audience members and the performers. Please turn off your cell phones and refrain from texting. Audience members who are distracting to their neighbors or the performers in any way may be asked to leave at any time. Also, this performance is being professionally recorded for the university archive. Photography, audio, or audiovisual recording is prohibited during the performance.
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS Fabián Panisello(artist-in-residence) is a composer-conductor from Argentina and is based in Madrid. He is the founder and director of PluralEnsemble and academic director of the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía and the Instituto Internacional de Música de Cámara in Madrid. Panisello trained as a composer with Francisco Kröpfl in Buenos Aires and with Boguslaw Schaeffer at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and completed his formation in composition with Elliott Carter, Franco Donatoni, Brian Ferneyhough, and Luis de Pablo, and in conducting with Peter Eötvös. His work has been performed by artists such as Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Arditti Quartet, Susann Mälkki, Dimitri Vassilakis, Allison Bell, Marco Blaauw, Francesco D Orazio and by orchestras of the SWR (Baden Baden), DSO (Berlin), National Orchestra of Spain, the Mozarteum of Salzburg, the Comunidad de Madrid, and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. He has won prizes including the Mozarts Erben of the City of Salzburg and the Premio Iberoamericano Rodolfo Halffter de Composición, as well as scholarships by numerous foundations, including the scholarship of the Dean of the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Panisello is a member of the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes of Argentina. As composer and conductor, Panisello performs at the world s principal festivals dedicated to contemporary music, such as Wien Modern, Donaueschingen, Münchener Biennale, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Présences, Musica of Strasbourg, Ars Musica, Ultraschall, Aspekte, Manca, Spazio Musica and the Cycle of the WDR, Kalangspuren Tirol, as well as the Quincena Donostiarra and the International Festival of Alicante in Spain. He has participated as co-conductor in two world premieres by Karlheinz Stockhausen: Hoch-Zeiten and Mixtur-2003 with the WDR Orchestra of Cologne and the DSO of Berlin. He has premiered numerous works and recorded CDs for NEOS (Munich), Col Legno (Munich), Cyprès and Verso (Spain). His music is published by Edition Peters in Frankfurt. Composer Fred Lerdahl studied at Lawrence University, Princeton, and Tanglewood. He has taught at UC Berkeley, Harvard University, and University of Michigan, and since 1991 he has been Fritz Reiner Professor of Music at Columbia University. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has twice been finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in music. Among his other honors are the Koussevitzky Composition Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Classical Recording Foundation s Composer of the Year Award. Commissions have come from the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Spoleto Festival, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, Chamber Music America, and others. Among the organizations that have performed his works are the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, eighth blackbird, Speculum Musicae, Collage, Antares, Juilliard Quartet, Pro Arte Quartet, Daedalus Quartet, Ensemble XXI, Lontano, and the Venice Biennale. He has been in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival, IRCAM, the Wellesley Composers Conference, American Academy in Rome, Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, Yellow Barn Music Festival, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Lerdahl is also prominent as a music theorist. He has written two books, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (with linguist Ray Jackendoff) and Tonal Pitch Space, both of which model musical listening from the perspective of cognitive science. 4
ABOUT THE ARTISTS Cellist Mary Artmann joined the Veronika String Quartet, in residence at Colorado State University, Pueblo, in 2006. Currently engaged in building the string and chamber music program at the university, she has a thriving cello studio. Artmann graduated with high distinction from UC Berkeley and received her Master of Music degree from the University of Southern California. She completed postgraduate work at Oberlin College Conservatory and Kent State University. She was twice the recipient of the Alfred Hertz Memorial Traveling Fellowship. Artmann is a champion of new music and also has an interest in early music performing on viola da gamba with the University of Southern California Early Music Ensemble, the Oberlin Consort, and the Buffalo Consort of Viols. Principal cellist with the Pueblo Symphony, she has also performed with the Buffalo and Rochester Philharmonics and is a former member of the Slee Sinfonietta and the Scandinavian Chamber Orchestra of New York. Icelandic violinist Hrabba Atladottir studied in Berlin with Axel Gerhardt. After finishing her studies, she worked as a freelance violinist in Berlin for five years, regularly playing with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Oper, and Deutsche Symphonieorchester. She also participated in a world tour with the Icelandic pop artist Björk, and a Germany tour with violinist Nigel Kennedy. In 2004 she moved to New York and continued to freelance, playing on a regular basis with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Orchestra of St. Luke s, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She also plays a lot of new music, most recently with the Either/Or ensemble in New York in connection with their Helmut Lachenmann festival. Since August 2008, she has been based in Berkeley, California, where she performs with various ensembles, such as the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Empyrean Ensemble, and the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players to name a few. Atladottir is also a violin lecturer at UC Berkeley. Tod Brody, flute, has enjoyed a career of great variety. He was a member of the Sacramento Symphony for many years, where he was a frequent soloist on both flute and piccolo. He currently teaches flute and chamber music at UC Davis, where he performs with the Empyrean Ensemble. As a member of Empyrean, Earplay, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Brody has participated in many world premieres and has been recorded on the Arabesque, Capstone, Centaur, CRI, Magnon, and New World labels. When not performing contemporary music, he often can be found in the orchestras of the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Ballet, and in other chamber and orchestral settings throughout Northern California. In addition to his activities as a performer and teacher, Brody is the director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the American Composers Forum, an organization dedicated to linking communities, composers, and performers, encouraging the making, playing, and enjoyment of new music. Matilda Hofman s work as a conductor ranges widely from opera and the symphonic repertoire to her keen interest in contemporary music. She studied at Cambridge University, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Eastman School of Music. She works in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom and was recently invited to conduct the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in their New Music Festival, which was broadcast on CBC radio. Operas conducted include Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Turn of the Screw, as well as contemporary commissions. She has worked with the BBC Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Nash Ensemble, and Southbank Sinfonia, among others. She is passionate about bringing music to young people and to underprivileged communities. While studying at Eastman, she was music director of the New Eastman Outreach Orchestra, which aims to make classical music available to everyone in the Rochester community. During her tenure she developed a long-term program with the inner-city School of the Arts, which involved regular mentoring, education concerts, and side-by-sides. She has also studied with David Zinman as a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, with Sir Colin Davis, Martyn Brabbins, and Kurt Masur. Over the past twenty-five years Peter Josheff has established a solid reputation as a composer, clarinetist, and advocate of contemporary music. He has premiered hundreds of works by a wide range of composers and has had numerous pieces composed for him. He has appeared on many recordings, concert series, and festivals, both nationally and internationally. He performs with Earplay, a San Francisco-based new music ensemble he cofounded in 1985, is a member of the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the Empyrean Ensemble, and the Eco Ensemble, appears frequently with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Ensemble Parallele, and Composers Inc., and has performed and toured with Melody of China. He is cofounder of Sonic Harvest, a concert series dedicated to new vocal and instrumental music, now in its tenth season. He has worked extensively with young composers, performing their music, and has given presentations about writing for the clarinet at UC Berkeley and UC Davis, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, and Sacramento State University. In 2006 Josheff presented a workshop called Clarinet for Composers for the American Composers Forum in San Francisco and has been on the faculty at San Francisco State University. 5
ABOUT THE ARTISTS Violinist and composer Gloria Justen is equally at home in several very different musical settings: the traditional world of Western classical music and the experimental realm of improvisation; the popular music recording studio and her own composition studio. She has performed with many kinds of ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia (as concertmaster, 2004 11), and many contemporary music groups. Justen has worked with composers such as Tan Dun, Philip Glass, Jennifer Higdon, Andrea Clearfield, and Peter Price and recorded for numerous popular music stars including Justin Timberlake, Vivian Green, Janet Jackson, and Timbaland in the Studio of Larry Gold. She currently performs with contemporary music ensembles and orchestras in the San Francisco Bay Area and teaches violin at Mills College in Oakland. As both composer and performer, she has released a CD of original works called Four-Stringed Voice: Music for Solo Violin. Michael Seth Orland has appeared extensively in the Bay Area as a chamber musician, playing with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Earplay, Empyrean Ensemble, Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, New Music Theater, Other Minds, and in the San Francisco Symphony s New and Unusual Music series. He has performed modern works throughout California, including UC campuses at San Diego, Davis, and Santa Cruz, at Sacramento State University, and Cal Arts. He has also played at June in Buffalo (NY), the Mendocino Music Festival, and in the Gund Series at Kenyon College. Orland may be heard on recordings of contemporary music released by CRI, Centaur, and Capstone. Orland studied piano with Margaret Kohn in Claremont, CA, and is a graduate of the UC Berkeley music department, where he studied harpsichord with Davitt Moroney and composition with Gérard Grisey. He later continued his study of composition with David Sheinfeld. Orland has appeared often as a freelance symphony musician, and has performed many times as a pianist in vocal recitals, as well as in vocal master classes by artists such as Frederica von Stade. Orland teaches in the music departments at UC Berkeley and UC Davis. NOTES Piezas métricas (five metrical pieces) (2000) is a study about different topics of time organization, a very important aspect of my compositional world in general. In this case I work with the metrical and micrometrical organization, with hockets and with metric modulations in very concentrated and short pieces. Cadenza (2002) is a dramatic solo violin work. It is in fact the cadenza from my Violin Concerto taken out of the concerto and made to be performed as a stand-alone, solo work. The Violin Concerto will be performed by violinist Hrabba Atladottir and the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Christian Baldini, tomorrow night. L ineluttabile destino di ogni cosa (The Inevitable fate of all things) (2003) was a short and intense reflection about causality: the piece represents how a single proposition or a tendency can provoke a huge effect if nothing intervenes, interrupts, or changes the intention or direction. One can also see that there is the metaphor of political manipulation to convince the population about the necessity of going to war. Fabián Panisello The Duo for Violin and Piano (2005) was commissioned by the McKim Fund and is dedicated to the violinist Rolf Schulte, who premiered the work with pianist James Winn at the Library of Congress in 2005. The Duo has two movements and lasts about 19 minutes. It is in two contrasting parts that share underlying motivic, harmonic, and gestural patterns. The first movement, after quiet introductory piano chords, is fast and aggressive. Its form employs a spiral technique in which an idea expands and becomes more complex with each cycle. Here process reverses about three-fifths of the way through, collapsing the music back to its starting point. At the same time, the material continues to proliferate while the form compresses, creating an explosive climax. The longer, more contemplative second movement is in binary form: ABC/A B C. This movement has an elegiac, passionate, and at times dirge-like expression that arose unbidden in response to the sudden deaths of two close friends and a student within the preceding two years. Fred Lerdahl
ABOUT EMPYREAN Through compelling performances and diverse programming, the Empyrean Ensemble offers audiences an opportunity to hear original works by emerging and established composers alike. It has premiered more than 200 works and performed throughout California, including appearances at many prominent music festivals and concert series. Empyrean has two full-length CDs released under the Centaur and Arabesque labels and has been the featured ensemble on others. Founded by composer Ross Bauer in 1988 as the ensemble-in-residence at UC Davis, the Empyrean Ensemble now consists of a core of seven of California s finest musicians with extensive experience in the field of contemporary music. The ensemble is co-directed by composers Mika Pelo and Kurt Rohde. ABOUT THE DIRECTORS Mika Pelo received his DMA from Columbia University under the supervision of Tristan Murail and studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, with Pär Lindgren, Sven-David Sandström, and Bent Sørensen. Pelo is assistant professor of composition and theory at UC Davis. He has received awards from the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden and the Thord Gray Memorial Award from the American-Scandinavian Foundation. Pelo has mostly written instrumental chamber music and music for orchestra but is also fluent in the electronic music language and occasionally uses live electronics and writes electro-acoustic music. Ensembles that have commissioned or performed his music include: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, North Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra, Flux Quartet (New York), the Swedish Concert Institute, Cecilia Zilliacus, Bengt Forsberg, Earplay, Red Light New Music (New York), the Barbad Chamber Orchestra (New York), Mika Takehara, Nya Stenhammarkvartetten, Musica Vitae, KammarensembleN, The Pearls Before Swine Experience, and the HUGO string quartet (Iceland). Composer and violist Kurt Rohde lives in San Francisco. His music has been described as being filled with exhilaration and dread. It s a mirror of our times (San Jose Mercury News). Recipient of the Charles Ives Fellowship and the Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and commission awards from the Koussevitzky Foundation of the Library of Congress, the Fromm Foundation of Harvard University, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Hanson Institute for American Music. He was a recipient of the Rome Prize Elliott Carter Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome and the Berlin Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Berlin. In 2012 13, he will be a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. His recent projects include a work for puppet theater, a violin concerto for Axel Strauss, and a work for eighth blackbird. He was the featured composer with Southwest Chamber Music for their Ascending Dragon project during the 2009 10 season. In 2010 11, he had new works performed by the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. From 2011 to 2013, he will have new works performed by eighth blackbird, Southwest Chamber Music (http://www. swmusic.org/home/home.html), Firebird Ensemble (http://www.firebirdensemble.com), Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and Sequitur (http://www.sequitur.org). A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, the Curtis Institute of Music, and SUNY Stony Brook, Rohde studied composition with Donald Erb, Ned Rorem, and Andrew Imbrie, and viola with Karen Tuttle, John Graham and Caroline Levine. He is former artistic director of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, co-director of the Empyrean Ensemble (http://music.ucdavis.edu/empyrean), and teaches composition and theory at UC Davis. He has taught composition at UC Santa Barbara and was composer-in-residence at the Yellow Barn Music Festival and guest composer at the Wellesley Composers Conference. Rohde plays with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Visit Rohde s web site: http://www.kurtrohde.com. SUPPORT THE EMPYREAN ENSEMBLE Please consider supporting the Empyrean Ensemble. Our future performances, recording, commissions, and educational programs can be realized and expanded only through your generous contributions. Your fully taxdeductible donation is greatly appreciated. We also encourage matching grants. Please send your checks, payable to UC Regents, specifying Empyrean Ensemble Fund in the memo field, to Empyrean Ensemble Fund, Department of Music, One Shields Avenue, UC Davis, Davis, CA 95616. Thank you again for your support. music.ucdavis.edu/empyrean
EMPYREAN ENSEMBLE FUND Anonymous Timothy Allen Ross Bauer * Simon Bauer Bill Beck & Yu-Hui Chang Anna Maria Busse Berger Hayes Biggs Martin Boykan Richard Mix & Ann Callaway Eric and Barbara Chasalow Mary Chun Jonathan & Mickey Elkus Adam Frey Pattie Glennon & Ed Jacobs Karen Gottlieb Paul Grant Udo Greinacher Anne M. Guzzo Mark Haiman & Ellen Ruth Rose Ellen Harrison D. Kern and Elizabeth Holoman * Martha Callison Horst Brenda Hutchinson Andrew & Barbara Imbrie Norman Jones Caralee Kahn Louis and Julie Karchin Marcia & Kurt Keith Maya Kunkel Garretta Lamore Gerald and Ulla McDaniel Hilary and Harold Meltzer Dr. Maria A. Neiderberger John and Phoebe Nichols Pablo Ortiz and Ana Peluffo Jessie Ann Owens & Anne Hoffman Can Ozbal and Teresa Wright Stacey Pelinka and Jan Lustig Wayne Peterson David Rakowski & Beth Wiemann Sheila Ranganath & Jim Fessenden Kurt Rohde Joan and Art Rose Jerome W. & Sylvia Rosen * Karen Rosenak * Marianne Ryan Marilyn San Martin Michael San Martin Dan Scharlin David E. Schneider Allen Shearer Ellen Sherman * Magen Solomon Henry Spiller & Michael Orland Sherman & Hannah Stein Larry and Rosalie Vanderhoef * Prof. and Mrs. Olly Wilson Yehudi Wyner Bank of America * Aaron Copland Fund for Music * Alice M. Ditson Fund, Columbia University ** Forrests Music Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation ** * = $1,000 or more ** = $5,000 or more P l e a s e join us for our 2011 12 Empyrean Ensemble Season Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center Sunday, January 22, 2012 7:00 pm Concert II Ross Bauer Composer Portrait Bauer: Piano Quartet Bauer: The Near Beyond for Clarinet and String Trio Ross Bauer s compositions consistently reveal clarity of form coupled with expressive elegance and a distinct musical trajectory that rewards the listener with its internal logic and compelling conclusions. His music has been performed and recorded by the Radio Orchestras of Hilversum and Slovakia, the Alexander and Arianna Quartets, Speculum Musicae, the New York New Music Ensemble, Sequitur, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, sopranos Susan Narucki and Christine Schadeberg, violinist Curt Macomber, Paul Hillier, and others. He is also the founder and former director of the Empyrean Ensemble. His work is published primarily by C. F. Peters, New York, and recorded on the GM, Centaur, New World, and Albany labels. Pre-concert lecture and discussion at 6:15 pm with guest composers. $8 Students and Children, $20 Adults Classical Cabaret Seating Sunday, April 22, 2012 7:00 pm Concert III Songs, Whispers, Tales and Utterances New Works for Voice Haleh Abghari, soprano Chris Froh, percussion Gee: Mouthpiece Nichols: Three Songs (text includes writings by Emily Brontë, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, and a riddle from the Exeter Book) San Martin: Conference of Birds Unfeathered Pre-concert lecture and discussion at 6:15 pm with guest composers. $8 Students and Children, $20 Adults Standard Seating Monday, June 4, 2012 7:00 pm Concert IV New Music from Davis Composers include Gabriel Bolaños Chamorro, William Cooper, Alex Van Gils, Bryce Cannel, Scott Perry, Garrett Shatzer, Ben Irwin, and Hendel Almétus. Pre-concert lecture and discussion at 6:15 pm with guest composers. $8 Students and Children, $20 Adults Classical Cabaret Seating