acknowledgments indianapolis chamber orchestra PUBLISHERS new works by james aikman, derek bermel, michael-thomas foumai, christopher theofanidis James Aikman: Triptych: Musical Momentum — Christopher Theofanidis: Concerto for Bassoon Non Sequitur Music, 2112 Ontario Street, and Chamber Orchestra — Bill Holab Music, kirk trevor, music director Bellingham, WA 98229 (nonsequiturmusic.com) 377 Sterling Place, No. 4, Brooklyn, NY 11238 Derek Bermel: Ritornello: Concerto Grosso for Electric (billholabmusic.com) Guitar and String Orchestra — Peer Music Classical, 250 W. 57th Street, Suite 820, New York, NY 10107 Cover Art: Barbara Schneider, B. Schneider Studio (peermusicclassical.com) (bschneiderstudio.com) m Michael-Thomas Foumai: Lady Dark — Foumai Orchestra Photo: Rich Clark, Rich Clark Photography Foundation, 1631 Liholiho Street, Suite 203, (richclarkphoto.com) o Honolulu, HI 96822 (michaelfoumai.com) m e n n e w t m u u s m ic

fo r 2 a 1 n e WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM w TROY1564 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 c TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 e ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD n TEL: 01539 824008 t © 2015 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA u DDD Kirk Trevor, Music Director r WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. y the story

While momentum 21 certainly is a celebration and a milestone in the ICO’s growth and develop- ment, it is more about the forward momentum and direction of contemporary music composed for chamber orchestra, and about the dynamic talent that is adding to the body of music literature in the 21st century — the compositional talents of James Aikman, Derek Bermel, Michael-Thomas Foumai, and Christopher Theodanidis — and the performance talent exhibited by the guest artists, Maestro Kirk Trevor and the musicians of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.

DEREK BERMEL At the beginning of the 2013-2014 Season, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra (ICO) was entering a crossroads in its (then) 29-year history. Music Director Kirk Trevor announced his retirement after 27 years, effective at the end of the 2014-15 season. The ICO changed the primary location of its concert performances and became the Professional Orchestra-In-Residence at the newly opened Schrott Center for the Arts. Additionally, the ICO appointed James Aikman as its first Composer-In- Residence, whose first task was to pen a work that would serve as a musical “snapshot” of the ICO JAMES AIKMAN as it navigated through these exciting changes. Triptych: Musical Momentum was the result.

CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS As the organization readied to premiere Triptych: Musical Momentum, the idea of creating a recording of it emerged. Triptych: Musical Momentum was scheduled to premiere on a concert in April, 2014, that also featured what was already an iconic American work, Christopher Theofanidis’ Bassoon Concerto, with Martin Kuuskmann performing as soloist. These two works would become the anchors of the recording project, and the ICO decided to create the CD from the live concert recordings. Since the basis of the recording project was capturing live concert performances, Maestro Trevor selected two works to complete the CD that the Orchestra was performing at the annual Contemporary Music Festival (CMF) at Indiana State University in October, 2014. The ICO has a long history with the CMF, performing an annual concert there that features the Festival’s Composer-In-Residence and also features the winning piece from the ICO’s annual Contemporary Music Competition. In 2014, the Festival’s Composer-In-Residence was Derek Bermel and Maestro MICHAEL-THOMAS FOUMAI Trevor programmed his Ritornello: Concerto for Electric Guitar and String Orchestra, with Derek Johnson as the featured soloist. Michael-Thomas Foumai’s outstanding Lady Dark was chosen as the winner of the 2014 Competition, and this cutting edge work was the last piece to complete the quartet of works that has become momentum 21: new music for a new century. JAMES AIKMAN (b. 1959) DEREK BERMEL (b. 1967) Triptych: Musical Momentum (2014) Ritornello: Concerto for Electric Guitar and String Orchestra (2011) Triptych is in three main sections: I. Fanfare; II. The Particle Garden; III. String Fields. The As a teenager, I was an avid fan of the prog-rock band King Crimson in its second incarnation, Fanfare is in sonata-rondo form. It begins not with a fanfare statement, but grows triumphantly to which featured the great electric guitar duo Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew. When I set out to write this it, not only including the brass and percussion of a traditional fanfare, but the entire orchestra as concerto, their mesmerizing contrapuntal textures came to mind. As the piece evolved, the material well. The fanfare itself is a simple harmony pattern, each instrument rhythmically articulating the seemed connected to the Baroque concerto grosso, both in style and form (exemplified by composers harmonic domain! The timpani pounds out the fanfare rhythm while literal hammering on a 2-by-4 such as Corelli and Vivaldi). wood plank is an important part of the musical construction, pun intended! Originally written for Wiek Hijmans, a formidable improviser, the piece leaves room for the The second movement of Triptych is slower and lyric, a themtronic music created from musical soloist to explore musical possibilities, separating the ritornello sections with French Overture elements of the live, written parts, and interactive with the orchestra. The musical particles throughout interludes (exemplified by composers such as Lully), the second one overlaid with a thrash-metal are related; I contacted my esteemed colleague at the University of Michigan, Gordon Kane. Prof. Kane (Metallica, Slayer, et al) solo that likewise evokes the Baroque aesthetic in its mannered, epic style. is a remarkable physicist, has researched and published voluminously, and is sought after by the media for his ability to directly address complex concepts in a way that non-physicists can understand. His — Derek Bermel book, The Particle Garden, is a great introduction, one of the very best on current physics. I contacted him and asked if he would mind me stealing his title for this piece, to which he replied he would be Derek Bermel is an American composer, clarinetist, and conductor whose music blends various honored! I am the honored one. facets of world music, funk, and jazz with largely classical performing forces and musical String Fields is a type of variations structure. It is also a self-imposed orchestration challenge, vocabulary. He is the recipient of various awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the modeled after Ravel and Honneger. Variations, one of Beethoven’s favorite forms, is at the heart prestigious Rome Prize awarded to American artists for a year-long residency in Rome. Mr. Bermel of this movement, and the entire Triptych. It is my hope that the spirit of celebration and musical earned his B.A. degree at Yale University and later studied at the University of Michigan. He is meaning that permeates the entire piece, written for this special, musician-founded orchestra of my also an accomplished clarinetist and plays classical repertoire, as well as rock and funk. He home town, will be heard by all. has premiered and performed numerous pieces with major orchestras around the U.S.

— James Aikman

Composer James Aikman was born in Indianapolis and received his musical foundation in Indiana. He attended Butler University, and earned graduate degrees from Indiana University. Mr. Aikman feels strongly about conveying the continuum of musical history and can trace his own compositional lineage back through Beethoven to J. S. Bach. Mr. Aikman has taught at Indiana University, Butler University, and the University of Michigan, as well as directing the composition program for the San Miguel International Chamber Music Festival. MICHAEL-THOMAS FOUMAI (b. 1987) CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS (b. 1967) Lady Dark (2013) Concerto for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra (2002) Lady Dark takes its title from a set of sonnets (nos. 127–152) by William Shakespeare that are known I wrote my bassoon concerto for my good friend Martin Kuuskmann, whom I have known since 1992 as the Dark Lady Sonnets. Unlike Shakespeare’s Fair Youth Sonnets, the Dark Lady Sonnets are much from my days as a student at Yale. Martin always seemed to have an obsessive zeal for mastering more sexual and passionate. They are named The Dark Lady because the poems portray a female figure the bassoon, and he was determined to build a repertory and to represent it in the most visible way. with black hair and shadowy skin. The piece is cast into four continuous movements. Each movement A few years later, Martin was playing with the Absolute Ensemble in New York, and was able explores the myriad of complex emotions of desire, lust, and forbidden love that are expressed in to commission a new work from them, and that is how my piece came to be. At that time, I wrote just Shakespeare’s sonnets. Lady Dark is the winner of the 2014 ICO Contemporary Music Competition. a two-movement piece – the now outer two movements of this version. But later in 2002, when we were offered the possibility of programming it again, I added the current middle movement, which — Michael-Thomas Foumai incorporated elements that had become part of my writing in the interim. The opening movement starts with an introspective cadenza, which then opens into a fast Composer Michael-Thomas Foumai holds degrees in Composition from the University of Hawaii and restless first movement that makes use of several of the materials from the opening cadenza. (B.M.) and the University of Michigan (M.M. and D.M.A.). He has worked with Christopher Rouse, The second movement is based on a kind of melodic ornamentation that one would hear in the Greek Augusta Read Thomas, Robert Beaser, and Steven Stucky, and his composition teachers were Orthodox church – fast inflections of long tones that keep the notes ‘alive’ in time. It is also a style Bright Sheng, Michael Daugherty, Syd Hodkinson, Paul Schoenfeld, Erik Santos, Peter Askim, of ornamentation that one finds throughout the Balkan region. The third movement is based on Byron K. Yasui, Donald Reid Womack, Takeo Kudo, and Thomas Osborne. His music has been a fast pattern of sixes in the bassoon line and a slower background harmonic progression that is recognized with numerous awards, including three BMI composer awards, a Presser Foundation eventually revealed clearly near the end of the work as the faster notes peel away. Award, and competition prizes from the American String Teachers Association, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Dolce Suono Ensemble, the Chicago — Christopher Theofanidis Ensemble, the Michigan Music Teachers Association, New Music USA, and Meet the Composer. Christopher Theofanidis is an American composer whose works have been performed by leading orchestras from around the world. Mr. Theofanidis holds degrees from Yale University, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston, and has been the recipient of the International Masterprize (hosted at the Barbican Centre in London), the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, six ASCAP Gould Prizes, a Fulbright Fellowship to France, a Tanglewood Fellowship, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Charles Ives Fellowship. In 2007 he was nominated for a Grammy for best composition for his chorus and orchestra work, The Here and Now, based on the poetry of Jala¯l ad-Dı¯n Muhammad Ru¯mı¯. the performers INDIANAPOLIS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Kirk Trevor, music director Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra (ICO) made its debut on November 18, 1984 as Musicians VIOLIN I DOUBLE BASS TRUMPET of the Cloister at Trinity Episcopal Church in Indianapolis. In 1987 the name “Indianapolis Chamber Emily Glover, concertmaster David Murray, principal Edmund Cord Orchestra” was adopted. Davis Brooks, asst. concertmaster Emmet Hanick Daniel Golando The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra advances and promotes music composed for the small Deborah Rodin Joseph Everett Allen Miller orchestra through professional performances and education programs. Comprised of 34 professional Thomas Watkins musicians, the ICO annually presents a series of ‘Intimate-Classic-Original’ concerts in a variety of Pamela Close FLUTE TROMBONE Anne Reynolds, principal Loy Hetrick formats. In addition to presenting the full breadth of chamber orchestra repertoire, the ICO concert Irina Mueller series features internationally recognized concert artists as well as superior local talent, presents Suzanne Farley Mary Kothman TIMPANI aspiring young soloists, and showcases the talents of contemporary composers. ICO performances OBOE Jimmy Finnie are made available to central Indiana audiences via weekly public radio broadcasts. VIOLIN II Pamela French, acting principal Lisa Brooks, principal The ICO has commissioned several new works and has performed a number of world and American Leonid Sirotkin PERCUSSION premieres. The ICO sponsors a competition for the composition of new works for chamber orchestra Alfred Abel, asst. principal Thomas Harvey through its annual collaboration with the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival. Ginny Womack CLARINET Jeffrey Nearpass ICO education programs engage the community and student populations with the vitality of Shoshana Kay Eli Eban, principal Arthur Reiner live performances through interaction with music professionals, live concerts on location in area Candice Kiser VIOLA HARP schools, and the opportunity to participate in performance ensembles. Csaba Erdélyi, principal BASSOON Wendy Muston, principal Operating support for the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra comes from private and government Colette Abel Kara Stolle, principal granting agencies, a supportive corporate community, and a loyal base of individual contributors Byron Plexico Matthew Hogan PIANO who appreciate the organization’s significant place in Indiana’s multi-dimensional cultural climate. Rebecca Sorley Donna Lively Clark Kelly Swensson The ICO is governed by a Board of Directors drawn from the professional, business, and education Susan Chan PERSONNEL MANAGER sectors, and has a professionally managed endowment. HORN Daniel Golando CELLO Kent Leslie Marjorie Lange Hanna, principal Suzanne Rice For more information about the LIBRARIAN Nancy Smith Darin Sorley Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and Amylou Porter Dennis McCafferty its programs, please visit icomusic.org. Anna Thompson-Danilova MAESTRO KIRK TREVOR the soloists Internationally known conductor, recording artist, and educator Kirk Trevor was appointed Music Director of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra in 1988. A regular guest conductor in the world’s most Guitarist Derek Johnson is a composer, performer, and educator prestigious concert halls, Maestro Trevor was Music Director of the Knoxville active in the world of contemporary concert music and beyond. A native Symphony Orchestra from 1985 until 2003. In 2000 he was appointed Music of Boulder, Colorado, he began his college training as an electric guitarist Director of the Missouri Symphony. at Columbia College in Chicago and completed graduate studies in Born and educated in England, Mr. Trevor studied at London’s composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Deeply Guildhall School of Music where he graduated cum laude in Cello engaged in the emerging position of the electric guitar in concert music, Performance and Conducting. He then came to the U.S. on a Fulbright Mr. Johnson is active as a both a soloist and chamber musician. His Exchange Grant. It was in the U.S. that his conducting skills led him to the compositions been performed throughout the United States and Canada position of Resident Conductor of the Dallas Symphony. In 1990 he was rec- by leading soloists and ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW and ognized as one of America’s outstanding young conductors, winning the Montreal’s Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. He has served as a faculty member in the music department of American Symphony Orchestra League’s Leonard Bernstein Conducting Competition. Columbia College (Chicago), as an associate instructor of composition at Indiana University’s Jacobs Maestro Trevor has been widely recognized as one of the leading conducting teachers in School of Music, and as member of the chamber music faculty at the Bang On A Can Summer Institute. the world. He has been a master teacher for the League of American Orchestras, as well as the Conductor’s Guild. In 1991 he co-founded, and has been Artistic Director of, the International Bassoon virtuoso Martin Kuuskmann is a native of Tallinn, Estonia. Upon Workshop for Conductors held each summer in the Czech Republic. He has worked with young moving to the United States, he pursued musical studies at the Manhattan conductors around the world in master classes and workshops. School of Music and the Yale University School of Music. Mr. Kuuskmann has In 2000 Mr. Trevor forged a new relationship with the famed Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra established himself as a commanding force bent on redefining the bassoon as in Bratislava. With the SRSO he began a new series of recordings of American music for a consor- a top-caliber solo instrument. His charismatic and entertaining performances tium of independent record companies. In 2006 Mr. Trevor began a new collaboration with Naxos throughout the world have earned him recognition as one of the leading solo Records to record the works of 19th-century violin composers, as well as American composers in the instrumentalists of his generation. As a recording artist, Mr. Kuuskmann American Classics series. With over 100 releases since 1997, Kirk Trevor is one of the world’s most received a 2007 Grammy Nomination for his recording of David Chesky’s recorded conductors. Bassoon Concerto. Mr. Kuuskmann’s 2012 release of reconstructed bassoon concertos by J.S. Bach As a guest conductor Mr. Trevor has appeared with more than 40 orchestras in twelve was released on Simax Records. His acclaimed solo CD Nonstop and other albums are available on countries, including the Orchestra Sinfonica Sao Paolo, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Bern the ERP, Erdenklang, CCn’C, and Chesky record labels. An avid educator, Mr. Kuuskmann taught in Chamber Orchestra. In 2003 he made his London Symphony Orchestra debut, and in 2007 his the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program from 2007 until 2012. Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Chamber Orchestra. momentum 21: new music for a century

JAMES AIKMAN Triptych: Musical Momentum (2014)* um 21 1 I. Fanfare [6:01] t en w century 2 II. The Particle Garden [4:28] r a ne omsic fo 3 III. String Fields [5:55] mu TROY1564 mnew DEREK BERMEL 4 Ritornello: Concerto Grosso for Electric Guitar & String Orchestra (2011)† [14:59] Derek Johnson, electric guitar

MICHAEL-THOMAS FOUMAI Kirk Trevor, Music Director 5 Lady Dark (2013)† [16:36] CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS Concerto for Bassoon & Chamber Orchestra (2002)* Executive Producer: Elaine F. Eckhart Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra 6 I. alone, inward [8:58] Project Manager: Charles Manning 7 II. beautiful [6:35] Operations Manager: Amylou Porter 8 III. threatening, fast [5:43] Marketing Manager: Bethany R. Daugherty Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra Martin Kuuskmann, bassoon Personnel Manager: Daniel Golando Music Director Assistants: David Glover & Adam Bodony Total Time = 69:31 Audio Engineer: George Benn, BennDavid Communications

Recorded live in concert: * Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts UNDERWRITING SUPPORT (Indianapolis, Indiana) on April 11, 2014 FOR THIS RECORDING WAS † Tilson Auditorium PROVIDED BY (Terre Haute, Indiana) on October 23, 2014

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