CONCERT III: Kaleidoscope – Reflections in Sounds
PROGRAM:
ALVIN SINGLETON Greed Machine for vibraphone and piano (2003)
JÉRÉMY JOLLEY (contro-)clessidra I for violin and electric guitar (2015)
CHEN-HUI JEN across & between II: into the chasm for electric guitar and portable percussion (2015) – Seattle Premiere
HELENA TULVE lumineux/opaque for violin, cello, piano, 3 wine glasses (2002)
CHRISTIAN WOLFF For Bob II for violin, cello, percussion, piano (2015)
PERFORMERS:
Mikhail Shmidt violin
Ha-Yang Kim cello
Michael Nicolella electric guitar
Bonnie Whiting percussion
Cristina Valdés piano
Our third concert will be a live broadcast from Town Hall Seattle. SMO will present a kaleidoscope of sound and drama in works for duo, trio, and quartet ensembles, featuring works by Alvin Singleton, SMO co-Artistic Director Jérémy Jolley, Chen-Hui Jen, Helena Tulve, and Christian Wolff. A selection of pieces that focus on the qualities of sound through rich resonances and explorative performance techniques; all of which express a reflection of our inner experience.
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ABOUT OUR FEATURED COMPOSERS:
Alvin Singleton, composer
Alvin Singleton was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended New York University and Yale. As a Fulbright Scholar, he studied with Goffredo Petrassi at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy. After living and working in Europe for fourteen years, Singleton returned to the United States to become Composer-in-Residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (1985-88). He subsequently served as Resident Composer at Spelman College in Atlanta (1988-91), as UNISYS Composer-in-Residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1996-97), and was the 2002–03 Composer-in-Residence with the Ritz Chamber Players of Jacksonville, Florida. In addition, he has served as Visiting Professor of Composition at the Yale University School of Music. Read more…
Jérémy Jolley, Composer
French-American composer Jérémy Jolley was born in Lyon, France, and grew up in the French Alps where he played guitar in rock and fusion bands. He moved to Seattle in 1997 and pursued composition studies and received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music degrees in Composition from the University of Washington, studying with Joël-François Durand, electronic music with Juan Pampin, and classical guitar with Steven Novacek. His music has been played by celebrated contemporary music performers such as the Dutch pianist and ensemble ASKO|SHOENBERG member René Eckhart, cellist Séverine Ballon, violinist Graeme Jennings, and clarinetist Carol Robinson. He attended the master classes of Brian Ferneyhough, Chaya Czernowin, Pierluigi Billone, and Mark André at the Darmstadt Internationalen Ferienkurse. Since 2010, he is the co-Artistic Director of the new music ensemble, Seattle Modern Orchestra. He is Interim Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Seattle Symphony leading numerous community centered initiative including community composition projects with Derek Bermel, Alexander Gardner, Charles Corey, Janice Giteck, Swil Kanim, and Paul Chiyokten Wagner.
Chen-Hui Jen, composer
Chen-Hui Jen is a composer, poet, and pianist, whose music presents an imaginative, spiritual, and poetic space with subtlety and sophistication. She writes music for orchestra, chorus, and chamber music for western and Asian instruments, with and without electronics. Chen-Hui Jen’s music works reflect an angle of contemporary art music that integrates time, sound, color, and poetry. She earned a Ph.D. degree in music at the University of California, San Diego, and currently serves part time at the Florida International University as an instructor and as the pianist in the NODUS New Music Ensemble. Read more…
Helena Tulve, composer
Helena Tulve is an Estonian composer whose music is characterised by constant change and continuous processes. Her music grows out from simple primary impulses, being influenced by natural patterns, organics and synchronicity. No sound can be excluded from Tulve’s music: it can always find its meaningful time and place. Besides composition she has thoroughly studied Gregorian chant and various oral musical traditions are still her subject of interest. Read more…
Christian Wolff, composer
Christian Wolff was born in 1934 in Nice, France, but has lived mostly in the U.S. since 1941. He studied piano with Grete Sultan and, briefly, composition with John Cage. Though mostly self-taught as a composer, associations with John Cage, Morton Feldman, David Tudor, Earle Brown, Frederic Rzewski and Cornelius Cardew have been important for him. A particular feature of his music has been to allow performers various degrees of freedom and interaction at the actual time of performance. His music is published by C.F. Peters, New York, and a good portion of it has been recorded. A number of pieces have been used by Merce Cunningham and the Cunningham Dance Company, starting in 1953.
Thank you to the Royal Room for the support on this concert!
Technical coordination provided by DXARTS.
