Third Angle presents An Evening with Jennifer Higdon May 15th, 7:30pm Old Church Portland OR Program Celestial Hymns (2000) by Jennifer Higdon Brian Quincey, viola Rhyme (2005) by Zhou Tian I. Adagio Allegro assai II. Andante pesante III. Allegro String Poetic (2006) by Jennifer Higdon I. Jagged Climb II. Nocturne III. Blue Hills of Mist IV. Maze Mechanical V. Climb Jagged Intermission Four Autumn Landscapes (2007) by Chris Rogerson I. A Cold, Clear Dawn II. Maple Creek III. Scattered Leaves IV. December Woods Momentum (1998) by Daniel Kellogg Zaka (2003) by Jennifer Higdon Georgeanne Ries, flute Gordon Rencher, percussion
Composer biographies Jennifer Higdon (b. Brooklyn, NY, December 31, 1962) is one of America's most frequently performed composers. She is the recipient of many awards, including a Pew Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and two awards from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. The Telarc release of Higdon: Concerto for Orchestra / City Scape won a Grammy award in 2005. In fall of 2006, NAXOS released a CD of Higdon's chamber works and Cedille released eighth blackbird's Strange Imaginary Animals, which includes Higdon's work Zaka. The latter won a GrammyTM award in 2008. Her work blue cathedral is one of the most-performed orchestral works by a living composer (150 orchestras have performed the work since its 2000 premiere). Some of her recent commissions include works for The Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Chicago Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, eighth blackbird, Tokyo String Quartet, and Ying Quartet. Upcoming projects include a new violin concerto for Hilary Hahn. A solo disc of her chamber music was recently released by Naxos. She is on the composition faculty at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she holds the Milton L. Rock Chair in Compositional Studies. Zhou Tian, a native of China, is an award-winning young composer who s music has been played by the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, the St. Cloud Symphony, Curtis Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony, the Arditti Quartet, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Zhou earned music degrees from both Curtis and Juilliard and is a first-prize winner of the Washington International Composers Competition and a three-time winner of ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composer Award. Zhou s compositions have received multiple performances in venues such as the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Zhou's current projects include a flute sonata commissioned by Jeffery Khaner, the principle flautist of Philadelphia Orchestra, and a new orchestral piece commissioned by The Green Bay Symphony. For more information, please visit www.zhoutian.org. Daniel Kellogg s oratorio The Fiery Furnace, commissioned by Soli Deo Gloria, Inc., was premiered in April 2008 by the San Diego Symphony, conducted by Jahja Ling. In March 2007, Mr. Kellogg s Pyramus and Thisbe received its premiere performance to rave reviews. Commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Leonard Slatkin as part of the citywide Shakespeare in Washington Festival, the work was written in collaboration with Tony Award-winning librettist Mark O Donnell, and narrated by renowned actor John Lithgow. The National Symphony then commissioned another work from him to be premiered in April 2009. His other upcoming projects include a work for the Borromeo String Quartet, to be premiered in December 2008 in the Young Concert Artists Series, and a commission from a Five-School Consortium for a work for string quartet and wind ensemble, to be premiered by the Takács Quartet and the University of Colorado Wind Symphony. In November 2005, The Philadelphia Orchestra premiered Mr. Kellogg s work, Ben, commemorating the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin, conducted by Christoph
Eschenbach. His music has been premiered by the Ying Quartet, the President s Own United States Marine Band, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the Yale Philharmonic, cellist Fred Sherry, flutist Catherine Ramirez, and eighth blackbird. His works have been performed at Carnegie s Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian s Hirshhorn Museum and the National Gallery of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Caramoor Music Festival, and broadcast on National Public Radio s Performance Today, New York s WQXR, and China National Radio. Born in Wilton, Connecticut in 1976, Mr. Kellogg received his Bachelor s degree from the Curtis Institute and Master s and Doctoral degrees from the Yale School of Music. He has studied at Indiana University, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. His teachers have included Don Freund, Ned Rorem, Jennifer Higdon, Joseph Schwantner, Ezra Laderman, and Martin Bresnick. Mr. Kellogg served as composer-in-residence at the University of Connecticut in 2000-2001, and has since returned as a visiting lecturer. He currently holds the post of Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Colorado at Boulder and resides in Colorado with his wife, pianist Hsing-ay Hsu Kellogg, and their daughter, Kaela Li. For more information, go to www.danielkellogg.com Celestial Hymns (2000) by Jennifer Higdon [clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano] While working on another work, I came upon a book with some wonderful paintings by Monet, which turned out to be studies of cathedrals. I started thinking about the way painters often will do many studies of one scene or subject. This fascinated me, because composers don t really use this process in composing. So I decided to try replicating this process through music. I took musical materials for a work of mine called blue cathedral and created a new work using some of those materials. And I decided that I would focus my attention on a visual detail, from the overall picture that I imagined while writing the earlier work. I wanted to create the beauty and intensity of what I imagined to be the stained glass windows that one might find in a glass cathedral in the sky. I pictured the figures in the window singing [a heavenly music], and that became the basis for Celestial Hymns. Commissioned by Hilde Howden and the Bruce E. Howden, Jr., American Composers Project, for Music from Angel Fire. Rhyme (2005) by Zhou Tian [solo cello] I. Adagio Allegro assai II. Andante pesante III. Allegro Rhyme is a nine-minute piece for cello solo completed in the fall of 2005. As a composer I have always thought that the ultimate challenge is to write a solo piece for a given instrument, and so when cellist Soo Bae asked me to compose a cello solo piece, I said yes without hesitation. The primary idea for this piece was to create something that
focuses on performance and musicianship, because to me the cello is one of the most communicative instruments, and a good performer never fails to communicate to his or her audience. Rhyme was designed to showcase the virtuosity of the performer, however more importantly it calls for a musical dialogue among composer, performer and audience. The work, consisting of three movements, begins slowly and softly but soon quickens to a fast pace. A slow andante follows, succeeded by a fast and rhythmic finale. String Poetic (2006) by Jennifer Higdon [violin, piano] Poetic songs sung in the voice of violin & piano each contributes to the story Jagged Climb Jagged run rise, running, sidle up the side of the climb-jagged-climb Nocturne that piece of night-night of peace Blue Hills of Mist in the glaze of light between dawn sunset, blue s hills have mist a covering of song and mystery that belongs not to any person, but to other places Maze Mechanical Amazing maze; maze that is mad; mechanical machine putzing and stalling along made to chug; amazed at the maze; steaming forward; stalling; racing; maniacal lost in the maze? mechanical maze Climb Jagged Rise above, in jagged climb climb, arise, in jagged run running, rise, jagged fun Commissioned for violinist, Jennifer Koh, by San Francisco Performances, San Francisco, CA; The Carlsen Center, Johnson City Community College, Overland Park, KS; 92nd Street Y, New York, NY; Oberlin Conservatory, Oberlin, OH; and The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA. Four Autumn Landscapes (2007) by Chris Rogerson This piece is drawn from several images of autumn I have from growing up in Buffalo, New York. The change of seasons, especially autumn and winter, is particularly pronounced in Buffalo. A Cold Clear Dawn describes a moment in morning in early fall when the air is mysterious and crisp. One thing is clear: summer has shifted into fall. When I was writing Maple Creek, I thought of trees lining a creek, their leaves totally changed. The title Scattered Leaves is pretty straightforward: I just imagined the wind picking up the leaves on the ground and in the air, and scattering them everywhere. The last movement, December Woods, is probably the most "programmatic" in nature. The transition from autumn to winter is an extraordinary time where I live. All at once, one anticipates the brutality and violence of winter, but also the incredible beauty and peace. This movement begins with pure stillness, out of which grows a storm. The storm quickly subsides and we are left with a total sense of calm: one may even be able to point out "the first snow." The very last section of the piece depicts a moment when the snow
has fallen, the air is still, and the last leaf falls from a lone tree. -Chris Rogerson, December 2007 Momentum (1998) by Daniel Kellogg [solo piano] Momentum was written specifically for Hsing-ay Hsu s exceptional pianistic abilities. I worked closely with her to create a piece she could bring to life in her unique way. The title describes the motion generated in the opening measures which changes and flourishes in a vibrant dance throughout the entire piece. From the thick and active textures of the beginning emerges a simple tune in the high register that carries its own unique pulse and flow. The tune comes back again and again in constantly varying forms. Finally, a series of canonic entrances push the piece to its height of chaotic flourishes after which the frenzy ceases and the melody is heard in its simplest and purest state. Momentum was commissioned by Hsing-Ay Hsu for the occasion of the 1998 Gilmore Keyboard Festival. Zaka (2003) by Jennifer Higdon za ka (zo ko) v. To do the following almost simultaneously and with great speed: zap, sock, race, turn, drop, sprint. See also: eighth blackbird Commissioned as part of the national series of works from Meet the Composer Commissioning Music/USA, which is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Helen F. Whitaker Fund, the Target Foundation,