Wednesday, June 16, 7:30 PM Cirandada!

Wednesday, June 16 7:30 PM

KATE SOPER* - DOOR (2007)
for voice, flute, saxophone, electric guitar, and accordion
The Wet Ink Ensemble, with Kate Soper, vocals

MARK ZUCKERMAN - ON THE EDGES (1996)
Peter Vinograde, piano

RAOUL PLESKOW - DIALOGUE FOR PIANO AND 3 INSTRUMENTS (2009)
Lunatics at Large: Evi Jundt, piano;Jonathan Engle, flute; Ben Ringer, clarinet; Andrea Lee, cello; New York Premiere

MATTHEW WELCH* - Symphony of Drones No. 1 (2001),
for flute, saxophone, violin, piano/accordion, percussion, and vocalist,
The Wet Ink Ensemble.

ROBERT FLEISHER - LORETTO ALFRESCO (1970)
electroacoustic playback

FREDERICK TILLIS - SPIRITUAL FANTASY NO. 8 (Rev. 2009)
for piano, violin, and cello
Lunatics at Large, Evi Jundt, piano; Keats Dieffenbach, violin; Andrea Lee, cello; World Premiere

CLARICE ASSAD* - CIRANDADA, CLASSICAS CANTIGAS (2010) World Premiere
Kolot Ensemble: Voice - Clarice Assad, Violin - Keats Dieffenbach, Viola - Junah Chung, Bb Clarinet - Eileen Mack, Piano - Yael Manor, Percussion - Keita Ogawa

CONCERT LOCATION: LEONARD NIMOY THALIA AT SYMPHONY SPACE;
WED. June 16 7:30PM TICKETS LINK

PROGRAM NOTES

MARK ZUCKERMAN - ON THE EDGES (1996)
Peter Vinograde, piano

On the Edges goes by in six sections contrasting in pulse and energy. The first section is a toccata with two-handed arpeggios gradually turning into chords that get thicker and thicker before returning to the opening arpeggio motive. A dialogue follows where slow-moving chords are in counterpoint with quicker, arpeggiated figures derived from the toccata’s opening four notes. Then there’s a quiet lyrical reflection – again based on the opening motive – eliding into a cadenza with arpeggiated figures that increase in range and intensity before dissolving into a trill. The next section turns the toccata’s opening motive into the subject of a four-part invention, the first in a series of three linked by thematic rotation: the counter-subject of one invention becomes the subject for the next. This cycle completes as the subject of the first invention becomes the counter-subject of the last, and ends as the three subjects are combined, segueing into an extended return of the opening toccata.

Mark Zuckerman (b. 1948) has written extensively for virtuoso soloists, chamber ensembles, a cappella choir (including an internationally-recognized collection of Yiddish choral arrangements), wind ensemble, and string orchestra, with work acclaimed as “intriguing music of deceptive simplicity ... subtle, persuasive and, quite simply, beautiful” and “highly accessible … quite moving.”

A Princeton Ph.D. in composition and a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellow, he has taught at Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers and published numerous articles and a book drawn from his popular jazz survey course. He also played saxophone in stage bands; clarinet, sax, and keyboards in rock bands; washtub bass in bluegrass and jug bands; and sang in several Yiddish choirs. His recent commissions and awards include the American Music Center Live Music for Dance, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Renee B. Fisher Foundation, and the first Hal Campbell Composition Prize.

KATE SOPER* - DOOR (2007)
for voice, flute, saxophone, electric guitar, and accordion
Wet Ink Ensemble, with Kate Soper, vocals

Click here for text for "Door" by Martha Collins

Wet Ink:

Kate Soper, voice
Erin Lesser, flutes
Alex Mincek, saxophone
Eric Wubbels, piano/accordion
Joshua Modney, violin
Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, guitar
Alex Lipowski, percussion

Thumbing through a Paris Review in 2006, I was struck by my first encounter with the poetry of Martha Collins. Something about the spaciousness, the delicacy of language, and the keen yet somehow indefinite evocations of her writing seemed to me intensely musical. Both her suite of poems Door and my setting of it explore various ways in which words communicate: as direct conveyers of real meaning, as imprecise yet eloquent expressions of the indescribable, as collections of pure sounds, and as vehicles for pure sensuous beauty.

Kate Soper (b.1981) is New York City-based composer and performer with a diverse background. Her current compositional interests include the integration of drama and rhetoric into musical structure, the transformation of visceral gestures in and out of time, and the potential of the human voice to communicate abstractly (or not). She has received awards from the Fromm Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Music Theory Society of New York State, and has been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Museum of Biblical Art, Yarn/Wire, and the Kenners. Her music has been played by ensembles such as the BUTI wind orchestra, the Knights string orchestra, Dinosaur Annex, the Due East Ensemble, the Second Instrumental Unit, and Newspeak. As a singer with experience in Western Classical and Indian Carnatik music, pop music, and improvisation, she performs frequently as a new music soprano and has performed in US and world premieres of works by Beat Furrer, Caroline Mallonée, Alex Mincek, and Richard Carrick, among others. She is Managing Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble.

RAOUL PLESKOW - DIALOGUE FOR PIANO AND 3 INSTRUMENTS (2009) New York Premiere

Lunatics at Large

Jonathan Engle, flute
Ben Ringer, clarinet
Andrea Lee, cello
Evi Jundt, piano

Dialogue for Piano and Three Instruments is a chamber piano concerto in miniature. It is in four short movements. The pitch palette is highly chromatic and essentially atonal. The interval of the tritone is used almost thematically and along with minor seconds, dominates the work.

Raoul Pleskow, composer, was born in Vienna and educated in New York. His principal teachers in composition were Karol Rathaus, Otto Luening, and Stefan Wolpe. He has been recipient of many honors, the most recent of which include awards by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. His works have been performed by the Cleveland Philharmonic, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, the Plainfield Symphony, the Orchestra de Camera, the South Dakota Symphony, the Pierrot Consort, the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, the Queens Symphony Orchestra and many others. Commissions include those by the Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center, the Aeolian Chamber Players, the New York Virtuosi, Camarata, the North/South Consonance and the Unitarian Church of All Souls. He was Chairman of the music department at C.W. Post University from the late 1960s until 1994. His work can be found on CRI, Serenus, Ars Nova-Ars Antiqua, Golden Crest, Centaur, CRS, Capstone, and North-South Records.

ROBERT FLEISHER - LORETTO ALFRESCO (1970)
electroacoustic playback

Loretto Alfresco was unearthed in response to a recent wave of interest in musical miniatures, after resting comfortably in my (reel-to-reel) tape archives for nearly four decades. Sound sources include assorted pots, pans, pipes, and other objects played by my childhood friend, Thomas Loretto, under a tree on the small Wisconsin farm owned at the time by my sister. Modifications of these sounds were limited solely to overdubbing and tape speed manipulation, and the original recording required only minimal editing. At its very end, two tiny signature artifacts—Tom's voice and birdsong—may (or may not) be heard. Loretto Alfresco received its world premiere during the first annual New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival in 2009. It has since been heard at several other festivals in the U.S. and U.K., most recently (in a still shorter form) as part of “360 degrees of 60x60,” during the International Computer Music Conference in NYC and at Stony Brook University earlier this month.

Robert Fleisher (b. 1953), a native New Yorker, attended the High School of Music and Art, graduated with honors from the University of Colorado and earned the M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in composition at the University of Illinois. He is currently professor and coordinator of music theory and composition at Northern Illinois University (DeKalb). The recipient of artist fellowships at Yaddo, Millay Colony, Virginia Center, Hambidge Center, Montalvo Center and Mishkenot Sha’ananim, his work has also received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Foundation for Jewish Culture, Illinois Arts Council, and Ruttenberg Arts Foundation. The author of Twenty Israeli Composers (1997), he is also a participating composer and essayist in Theresa Sauer’s Notations 21 (2009), an anthology of new music scores. His music appears on Centaur and Capstone labels and has been heard in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and throughout the United States.

FREDERICK TILLIS - SPIRITUAL FANTASY NO. 8
"GO DOWN MOSES" (Rev. 2009) World Premiere

Lunatics at Large,
Keats Dieffenbach, violin
Andrea Lee, cello
Evi Jundt, piano

Spiritual Fantasy No. 8 is based on the Spiritual, "Go Down Moses". The biblical text, "Go and tell the Pharaoh King of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his land" Exodus 6:10-11. The opening phrase of the piece is sung: When Israel was in Egypt's land, (Chorus) "Let my people go!" The work was commissioned in part by the 1984 Composers Commissioning Program and funded by the Jerome Foundation. The work was revised in 2009 and this will be its world premiere.

Frederick Tillis was born in Galveston, Texas on January 5, 1930. He is a graduate of Wiley College and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of Iowa. His catalog includes more than 125 compositions and commissions, spanning both jazz and classical European traditions in various media - orchestral, jazz, instrumental, choral, chamber music, and vocal works. Melodic and harmonic textures reflect elements of various musics of the world, including Asian and Western cultures, as well as natural outgrowths of his ethnic and cultural background.

Tillis' music is performed nationally and abroad. Among his commissioned compositions are "A Symphony of Songs," a choral/orchestral work based on poems by Wallace Stevens and commissioned by The Hartford Chorale, Inc. (1999); "A Festival Journey," (1992) and "Ring Shout Concerto," (1974) for percussion, written for Max Roach and premiered by Max Roach and symphony orchestra; and "Concerto for Piano" (Jazz Trio) and symphony orchestra (1983) written for Billy Taylor and performed with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he has composed over thirty Spritual Fantasies, all based on various African-American Spirituals, which are heard clearly evident in some of the Fantasies, and in others, more hidden.

Dr. Tillis has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the 1997 Commonwealth Award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and an award for outstanding service from the International Association of Jazz Educators. As Professor of Music at the University of Massachusetts, he taught music composition and a survey course in the history of Afro-American Music & Musicians. Active as a jazz saxophonist, he has traveled with the Tillis-Holmes Jazz Duo and the Tradewinds Jazz Ensemble all over the world.

In addition, he recently visited the University of Fort Hare in South Africa, served as a Master Artist in residence at the Akiyoshidai International Art Village in Yamaguchi, Japan and conducted a three-week residency on behalf of the United States Information Agency at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand in 1991 to help the school establish a major in jazz.

Dr. Tillis is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Music and Dance and serves as Director Emeritus of the University Fine Arts Center and Director of the Jazz in July Workshops in Improvisation at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

(portrait of the composer by Jack Coughlin)

MATTHEW WELCH* - SYMPHONY OF DRONES NO. 1 (2001) for flute, saxophone, violin, piano/accordion, percussion, and vocalist.
The Wet Ink Ensemble
Matthew Welch, conductor

Symphony of Drones #1 (2001) is a symphony in the most literal meaning of the word, a collection of sounds, in this case, those centered around a drone mentality. It is a conducted, graphically notated piece designed for any collection of four or more pitched instruments. It is in a three -movement form, and each movement addresses various indeterminate and structured improvisational concepts that explore textures that ornament, enhance and disrupt a fused and continuous ensemble timbre.

The music of Matthew Tobin Welch (b.1976), Composer/Multi-instrumentalist, stems from a multi-faceted foundation. As a virtuoso of the Highland Bagpipe, he studied traditional music with Gold Medalist masters such as Colin MacLellan, Jack Lee, Angus MacLellan and Andrew Wright. Matthew also was a member of the four - time World Champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, winning with them in 1999 and 2001.

Regarded as "a composer possessed of both rich imagination and the skill to bring his fancies to life" by Time Out New York, composer and bagpipe virtuoso Matthew Welch (b.1976) holds two degrees in Music Composition, a BFA from Simon Fraser University (1999), and an MA from Wesleyan University (2001), having studied with noted composers such as Barry Truax, Rodney Sharman, Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton. After locating to New York City in 2001, he has worked with a host of other artists such as John Zorn, Julia Wolfe, Zeena Parkins, and Ikue Mori. The eclectic breadth of his interests in Scottish bagpipe music, Balinese gamelan, minimalism, improvisation and rock converge in compositional amalgams ranging from traditional-like bagpipe tunes to electronic pieces, improvisation strategies and fully notated works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestra and non-western instruments. Since 2002, Mr. Welch has been running and composing for his own eclectic ensemble, Blarvuster, whose repertoire the New York Times has claimed as "border-busting music; original and catchy." Mr. Welch has recorded for the Tzadik, Mode, Cantaloupe, Leo, Porter, Muud, Avian, Newsonic and Parallactic record labels.

CLARICE ASSAD* - CIRANDADA, CLASSICAS CANTIGAS
(2010) World Premiere
Kolot Ensemble with Clarice Assad, vocals

Voice - Clarice Assad
Violin - Keats Dieffenbach
Viola - Junah Chung
Bb Clarinet - Eileen Mack
Piano - Yael Manor
Percussion - Keita Ogawa

CIRANDADA, Clássicas Cantigas
(Dedicated to Maciel da Silva & Luisa Peclat)

"CIRANDADA" is a word play on the term "CIRANDA" which is a type of music and dance from the Northeastern part of Brazil. Although not all of the songs included in this piece are from that region, the word "CIRANDA" is also characterized by the formation of a small or large circle of people, who gather to perform this music by singing, playing and dancing.

The folk music of Brazil is also largely associated with children, for its simplistic and playful nature. They may have nursery rhymes, or may be related to fun and games such as tongue-twisters, and occasionally, have spooky characteristics. However, much of this tradition has been fading away. Children hardly play in those settings anymore, instead they sit in front of TVs, video games and computers.

As I believe it is important to maintain these melodies alive in our minds, I have created a piece in which fuses more than ten folk Brazilian songs, arranged in extremely contrasting ways as to their original form. Typically performed by unaccompanied voices, or accompanied by instruments of a particular region, this piece blends the traditional and the new by weaving layers of sonorities which can be associated with many different musical styles such as Brazilian music, jazz, pop, rap, and classical music. The melodies, however, have remained intact.

CIRANDADA is a world premiere, written by Ms. Assad for the 2010 ACA Festival.

A native of Rio de Janeiro, Ms. Assad was born into one of Brazil's most famous musical families and has performed professionally since the age of seven. Formal piano studies began with Sheila Zagury in Brazil; she then studied with Natalie Fortin and had additional instruction in jazz and Brazilian piano with Leandro Braga.

Ms. Assad holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Chicago College of the Performing Arts, Roosevelt University, in Chicago, Illinois, and a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Honors and awards include the Aaron Copland Award, the Franklin Honor Society Award, and ASCAP's Morton Gould Young Composer Award.

A versatile artist of musical depth and sophistication, Clarice Assad is making her mark as a pianist, vocalist, and composer. She has appeared throughout Brazil, giving performances at São Paulo's Espaco Promom and Sesc, Rio de Janeiro's Teatro Vanucci, Mistura Fina, and Teatro Ipanema, among others. In the US, Ms. Assad has performed at venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Centennial Hall in Arizona, and Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in California.

As a vocalist, Ms. Assad sings in Portuguese, French, Italian, and English. She has been featured on Brazilian, American, and European radio numerous times, including NPR’s All Songs Considered as a favorite of the week, Marshal Vente's show on WDCB, WLUW with Steve Shroeder in Chicago, and WHCR with host Nelson Radhames.

Ms. Assad’s commissions include the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, commissioned by violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg; Brazilian Fanfare, a work for full orchestra commissioned by conductor Bob Bernhardt and premiered in March 2006; Three Sketches, a set of works for two guitars and violin; Bluezilian, a work for four guitars, commissioned and dedicated to the Los Angles Guitar Quartet.

PERFORMING ARTISTS FOR THIS CONCERT:

New York pianist Peter Vinograde has developed a reputation as an outstanding interpreter of J.S. Bach and contemporary composers. He annually tours the U.S., Canada, and Asia. World premiere performances have included Nicolas Flagello's Concerto #3 with Nicholas Palmer and the Owensboro (KY) Symphony, Hal Campbell's Piano Concerto in Utah, and Mark Zuckerman's On the Edges in Taiwan. He teaches at the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a student of Zenon Fishbein, and at Lehman College (CUNY). He has recorded for Phoenix USA, Catalina, CBC, and Albany Records.

Founded in 1998, the Wet Ink Ensemble is a New York-based new music collective committed to the presentation of innovative programs of contemporary music, with a focus on creating, promoting, and organizing adventurous American music. The group's repertoire ranges from scores of rigorous notational complexity to indeterminate and improvisational music, from the American experimental tradition to the contemporary European avant-garde, and from acoustic to amplified to electronic works and works for homemade instruments. Wet Ink has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Puffin Foundation, the Fromm Foundation, the Argosy Fund, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and Meet the Composer. Past and upcoming events include collaborations with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and with the Columbia University Jazz Studies Center/American Composers Orchestra, and residencies at Dartmouth College, Amherst College, and the University of California San Diego. Wet Ink's self-titled debut CD was released on the Carrier Records label in 2009. For more information please visit www.wetink.org.

Lunatics at Large was formed in 2007 to explore the timbral possibilities of the 20th- and 21st-century chamber repertoire. In thematic concerts, the group's programs juxtapose standard repertoire and works from established composers of the 20th century with more recent works. Lunatics at Large thus encourages listeners to appreciate the sound-worlds of very recent compositions in the perspective of the evolution of classical music over the last 110 years. Lunatics at Large is committed to working closely with living composers and commissioning new pieces for its expanded Pierrot instrumentation.

The group also embraces collaborative projects with artists from other art forms and is planning to organize several interdisciplinary performances involving poets, living composers and visual artists in upcoming seasons. Initially a group of Mannes students eager to learn Schönberg's modernist masterpiece Pierrot lunaire, Lunatics at Large was recently called "young, energetic and highly polished" by Allan Kozinn of the New York Times.

Yael Manor, pianist and artistic supervisor for the ACA festival 2010: Born in 1979, pianist and Kolot Ensemble director Yael Manor earned both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees with honors from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel‐Aviv University. A winner of the America‐Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship for the years 2004‐2006, Manor also received several Excellence Awards from the Buchmann‐Mehta School of Music. While studying with the late pianist Alexander Volkov, Manor appeared in Israel and in the USA as a solo recitalist and as a chamber musician in works ranging from early Baroque to 20th century classics. From a young age she took part in many master classes in Israel and abroad; among them are the Suzuki International Piano Master Classes for Young Artists in Canada, Mannes Keyboard Festival in New‐York, Master Classes at the Buchmann‐Mehta School of Music and the Tel‐Hai International Master Classes in Israel, where she received a special award for her performances. Her teachers were Naum Shtarkman, Ruth Laredo, Ronan O'Hora, Donald Berman, Bruce Brubaker, Daniel Hoxter, and Vladimir Shakin, among others. Most recently, she returned to Carnegie Hall for a commissioning project led by composer Osvaldo Golijov and soprano Dawn Upshaw, featuring eight contemporary composers under the age of 35. These commissions were premiered at Carnegie Hall in May 2009. In addition, she has led Kolot as one of the featured ensembles at the Mannes College's Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance