The Florida International University School of Music presents
New Music Miami ISCM Festival 2018
Rand Steiger, Guest Composer NODUS Ensemble
Wednesday, February 7, 2018 Pre-concert Talk - 7:00pm Performance - 7:30pm
FIU Miami Beach Urban Studio 420 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, FL 33139
Program awhirl Rand Steiger Chen-Hui Jen, piano
*Country Roads Mike Frengel Federico Bonacossa, electric guitar
*Conciencia Pura de invención / Pure Consciousness Patricia Martinez Fixed media
…spaces the listen to from within (vi) Jacob Sudol Chen Hui Jen, piano
*la fleur du ciel Christopher Dietz Franz Felkl, violin Mari-Liis Pakk, viola Jason Calloway, cello
Glass Meets Water Paula Matthusen Fixed media
Oscurecimiento gradual/slowly darkening Orlando Jacinto Garcia Chen-Hui Jen, piano
Mourning fog Rand Steiger Jason Calloway, cello
*ISCM International Call for Scores Selected work
ABOUT COMPOSER RAND STEIGER
Rand Steiger’s music has been commissioned and performed by many ensembles, including the American Composers Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva, Ensemble Intercontemporain, International Contemporary Ensemble, Lontano, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, NYNME, Prism Quartet, San Diego Symphony, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Talea Ensemble, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he served as Composer Fellow. Soloists he has composed for include Matthew Barley, Maya Beiser, Claire Chase, Daniel Druckman, Peter Evans, Alan Feinberg, George Lewis, Mark Menzies, Susan Narucki, Vicki Ray, and Steven Schick.
Throughout his career, Steiger has been involved in computer music research, having held three residencies at IRCAM, and enjoying a long fruitful collaboration with Miller Puckette, the leading computer music researcher of his generation. He was Composer-in-Residence at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology from 2010 to 2013.
Many of Steiger’s works combine orchestral instruments with real-time digital audio signal processing. They also propose a hybrid approach to just and equal-tempered tuning, exploring the delicate perceptual cusp between a harmony and a timbre that occurs when tones are precisely tuned. Some examples of works deploying these techniques include: Ecosphere, developed during residencies at Ircam and premiered by the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris; Traversing, written for cellist Mathew Barley and premiered by the Southbank Sinfonia in London; Cryosphere, premiered by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, A Menacing Plume, premiered by the Talea Ensemble in New York, and the Coalescence Cycle, premiered on a portrait concert at Miller Theater in New York by the International Contemporary Ensemble in 2013. He is currently working on string quartets with electronics for the Flux and JACK quartets. Steiger was also active as a conductor specializing in contemporary works until deciding in 2010 to concentrate entirely on composition. He lead a series of critically acclaimed concerts with the Ensemble Sospeso in New York City in the early 2000's, and with the California EAR Unit at the Los Angeles County Museum in the 1980's and 90's. Among other groups he conducted were the Arditti Quartet, Aspen Chamber Ensemble, La Jolla Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, New York New Music Ensemble, and the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (Switzerland). Among his recordings as conductor are operas by Anne LeBaron, Hilda Paredes and Anthony Davis, and chamber works by Elliott Carter, George Lewis, Mark Osborn, Roger Reynolds, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morton Subotnick, Iannis Xenakis and Wadada Leo Smith. He has also conducted many world, New York and California premier performances, including works of Muhal Richard Abrams, Louis Andriessen, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez, Henry Brant, Elliott Carter, Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Gordon, Jonathan Harvey, Aaron Kernis, Scott Lindroth, James Newton, Luigi Nono, Augusta Read-Thomas, Roger Reynolds, Terry Riley, Poul Rudders, Frederick Rzewski, Kaija Saariaho, Giacinto Scelsi, Elliott Sharp, Julia Wolfe, Toru Takemitsu, Jon Tavener, and Erki-Sven Tuur.
His compositions and performances are recorded on the Centaur, CRI, Crystal, Einstein, Koch, Mode, New Albion, New Dynamic, New World, Nonesuch, and Tzadik labels. Recent works for instruments and electronics are available on Ecosphere a portrait CD/DVD on EMF, and A Menacing Plume, a portrait CD on New World Records.
Steiger is a Distinguished Professor, and holder of the Conrad Prebys Presidential Chair in the Music Department at U.C. San Diego, and is a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow. In 2009 he was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University.
ABOUT THE NODUS Ensemble
Initiated by FIU faculty composer in residence Orlando Jacinto García, NODUS is the professional contemporary chamber music ensemble in residence at Florida International University in Miami (FIU). Specializing in the cutting edge Art music of our time, the makeup of the ensemble varies for each concert depending on the works being presented. The ensemble’s repertoire includes recent music by composers from around the world, works written specifically for the ensemble, and works with electronics and/or video.
NODUS debut at the FIU Festival of the Arts in November 1998 and shortly thereafter was featured at the January 1999 New Music Miami Festival. Subsequent performances have included the 1999, 2000, and 2001 FIU Music Festival, the 2001 Music of the Americas Festival, the 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 2012, 2013 New Music Miami ISCM Festival, the 2004 International Computer Music Conference, the 2006 International Association of Women in Music Conference, and other concerts held at a variety of South Florida venues over the past several seasons. In 2009-10 NODUS was featured at the International New Music Festival in Lima, Peru. During the fall of 2010 the ensemble performed 2 concerts at the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico receiving high critical recognition for both.
NODUS has been featured at the Norton Museum, Wertheim Performing Arts Center, the Wolfsonian, the Spanish Cultural Center, Miami Art Central, Miami Art Museum, von Hartz Gallery, Dorsch Gallery, Gusman Concert Hall, among other performing spaces in the region. In the summer of 2010 Innova Recordings released sonidos cubanos, the ensembles’ first CD. The album includes the works of 4 Cuban composers Tania Leon, Sergio Barroso, Ileana Perez Velazquez, and Orlando Jacinto Garcia. The works by Garcia and Leon were nominated for a Latin Grammy in the fall of 2010.
The musicians in NODUS include internationally acclaimed performers, flutist Elissa Lakofsky, clarinetist Jesse Gilday, pianist Chen-Hui Jen, percussionist Karlyn Vina, violinist Mari-Liis Pakk, violist Michael Klotz, cellist Jason Calloway, contrabassist Luis Gomez Imbert, among others. For more information about NODUS please visit the ensembles’ web sites: https://www.facebook.com/nodusensemble/ www.orlandojacintogarcia.com
ABOUT THE NEW MUSIC MIAMI FESTIVAL
The New Music Miami Festival began in 1993 as the May in Miami Music Festival, an annual, week-long festival occurring every May founded by composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia in collaboration with Florida International University and the New World Symphony Orchestra. The festival featured nightly concerts with performances by performers from the New World Symphony and FIU faculty of renowned, emerging, and student composers. In 1997, the festival expanded its scope and became the New Music Miami Festival. At this point the festival was no longer just for young composers and master artists and instead the repertoire was opened to include works from all composers internationally many of whom attend the festival and present their work for FIU and other students and the South Florida community at large. This followed another change in format in 2002 when the festival became the New Music Miami ISCM Festival, reflecting FIU’s status as an associated chapter of the International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM) which afforded the festival even wider recognition. The festival has continued to expand and in 2009 changed from a 1 – 2 week event to a 12 concert festival spread out over a 3 month period of time, often featuring new concerts for acoustic and electro-acoustic instrumentations as well as video both in concert settings such as the Wertheim Performing Arts Center and unique venues such as out-of-doors concerts at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Art Museum and most recently the Miami Beach Urban Studios located on Miami Beach. Throughout this, New Music Miami has developed numerous partnerships with presenting institutions, such as the Forum for New Music from Latin America, the Cervantino Festival, and Music of the Americas Festival and a host of local institutions. In addition to championing music from the US, the festival has enabled composers and performers to participate and present their work from countries such as Canada, Cuba, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Germany, England, and France. Special guest performers have included Joan La Barbara, Evan Ziporyn, Margaret Lancaster, Todd Reynolds, Kathleen Supové, Cristina Valdes, Jennifer Choi, Mari Kimura, Luis Gomez Imbert, Madeline Shapirio, Jaime Marquez, Saul Bitran, Daniella Strasfogel, Laura Wilcox, the NODUS Ensemble, and the FIU Symphony Orchestra and FIU Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Distinguished, featured composers include (but are not limited to) Earle Brown, Morton Subotnick, Jonathan Kramer, Tania Leon, Donald Martino, Pauline Oliveros, Bernard Rands, George Crumb, Olly Wilson, Tomas Marco, Lukas Foss, Mario Lavista, Don Erb, Chinary Ung, Mario Lavista, Judith Shatin, Javier Alvarez, Todd Reynolds, Evan Ziporyn, Matthew Burtner, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Fredrick Kaufman among others. In its 21st year, the festival continues to be directed by composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia http://www.orlandojacintogarcia.com/ with co-directors composers Jacob Sudol http://www.jacobsudol.com/ and Paula Matthusen http://www.paulamatthusen.com/
Upcoming New Music Miami Concert
All events take place at the FIU Miami Beach Urban Studios and are free and open to the public
3/21 Greg Stuart virtuoso percussionist performing the works of Pisaro and others http://www.sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/music/faculty-staff/Stuart.php (MBUS)
3/28 Sarah Cahill virtuoso pianist performing the music of Lou Harrison and others http://sarahcahill.com/ (MBUS)
4/4 Keith Kirchoff virtuoso pianist performing works with electronics http://www.keithkirchoff.com/ (MBUS)
4/11 Holocaust remembrance concert with the Amernet string quartet performing the music of guest composer Joel Hoffman and the premiere of a new quartet by FIU composer in residence Orlando Jacinto Garcia http://amernetquartet.com/ http://www.joelhoffman.net/ http://www.orlandojacintogarcia.com/