PIERROT PLUS ENSEMBLE of Music
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presents PIERROT PLUS ENSEMBLE DAVID COLSON, conductor Tuesday, February 16, 1988 8:00 p.m. in the Shepherd School Recital Hall RICE UNIVERSITY sfkteberd Sc~ol Of Music PROGRAM Third Construction (1943) John Cage (b. 1912) Continuum Percussion Quartet The Last Contrabass in Las Vegas (1974) Eugene Kurtz A Musical Sketch for a Man, a Woman and a Contrabass (b. 1923) Isabelle Ganz, actress Kenneth Harper, contrabass The Garden with Paths that Part, Op. 86 (1982) lb Nr!Jrholm (b. 1931) Pierrot Plus Ensemble David Colson, conductor INTERMISSION Immanence, Sonata for solo flute, Op. 87 (1982) lb Nr!Jrholm I. II. III. Marilyn Mead, flute Logo I (1979) Eugene Kurtz Introduction and Breakdown Richard Nunemaker, clarinet David Nale, piano Continuum Percussion Quartet David Colson, conductor In consideration of the performing artists and members ofthe audience, those who must leave before the end ofthe performance are asked to do so during intermission. • The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are prohibited. PIERROT PLUS ENSEMBLE Marilyn Mead, flute Paul Orkiszewski, guitar and piccolo and bass guitar Margaret Beard, clarinet William Chandler, violin and bass clarinet and viola Haley Simons, piano Laurie Reisig-Riss, cello Gabriel Dionne, percussion David Colson, conductor CONTINUUM PERCUSSION QUARTET ~. · Gabriel Dionne Richard Skains J. Riely Francis Christopher Rose BIOGRAPHIES JOHN CAGE was born in Los Angeles in 1912. He is Musical Advisor for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, having been associated with Merce r< Cunningham since 1943. Cage was elected to the Institute ofthe American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1968, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978. He has been a Fellow of the Centers for Advanced Studies at Wesleyan University and at the University ofIllinois, and Composer-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati and the University of California at Davis. Recent commissions include Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras (1981) for the Orchestre de Lorraine and the Centre Europeen pour la Recherche Musicale, and Dance/4 Orchestras (1981) for the 1982 Cabrillo Festival, Aptos, California. Cage is the author of Silence (1961), A Year from Monday (1968), M (1973), Empty Words (1979), all published by the Wesleyan University Press; Notations (with Alison Knowles, 1969) published by Something Else Press; Writings through Finnegans Wake, published by Marian Boyars; Another Song (accompanying photographs by Susan Barron) and Mud Book (with illustrations by Lois Long), both published by Callaway Editions; and Themes and Variations, published by the Station Hill Press, 1982. DAVID COLSON received the Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Michigan where he studied percussion with Charles Owen and composition with George Balch Wilson; he received the Halik Composition Award and the Earle V. Moore Scholarship. He was also the founder and conductor ofthe Current and Modem Consort, a new music ensemble based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa where he was a member of .. the Center for New Music; he studied composition with William Hibbard and received the University's Philip Greeley Clapp Composition Award. At Rice University, , where he is studying for a Doctorate of Musical Arts, Mr. Colson formed ''Pierrot Plus", the University's contemporary music ensemble. In 1986, he was awarded the Sallie Shepherd Perkins prize for ''highest achievement in music'' at Rice University. Mr. Colson has performed and taught extensively. He has been a member of the Music Faculty at Coe College, Cornell College and has taught at the University of Iowa and Rice University. In addition, he was a member of the Toledo Sylfl phony and the Northwood Orchestra. In 1982, he was a winner of the Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest. Lyric mezzo-soprano ISABELLE GANZ is head of the Voice Department of Houston Community College, Westchester Campus, as well as Musical Director and Composer for the Young Company of the Alley Theatre, and an artist-teacher for the Texas Institute for the Arts in Education. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice and Music Literature from the Eastman School of Music, where she was a student ofJan DeGaetani. Twice monthly she officiates as Cantor of the Rossmoor Jewish Congregation in Jamesburg, New Jersey and concertizes in the New York area. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. Ganz has premiered numerous works, including John Cage's Ryoanji for Voice and Percussion, which she recorded for Mode Records. Her recent solo appearances have ranged from tours of Greece, Roumania, and Korea, to the Grand Teton and Aspen Music Festivals. This season her performing schedule will take her to Buffalo, Atlanta, Miami, and Los Angeles. During the week of February 22-27 she will perform three works by John Cage at the Cage Festival-Symposium at Wesleyan University. Mr. Cage has asked her to perform several of his vocal works as part of his Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University next season. In January 1989 Ms. Ganz will perform George Crumb's Ancient Voice of Children with the Portland (Maine) Symphony, con ducted by Toshiyuki Shimada. Her Sephardic music trio, Alhambra has been in vited to perform in London in October 1988. The group will present a solo con cert in Weill (Carnegie) Recital Hall this April 17th, and will appear next season with the New York City Symphony at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. Ms. Ganz has recorded for Opus One, Mode, Global Village, Spectrum, and Prestige/Inter national Records. KENNETH HARPER began studying the double bass during his freshman year at James Madison University with Samuel Cross. While there, he won the Virginia Music Teachers Association Concerto Competition as well as the state and regional ... divisions ofthe Music Teachers National Association/Wurlitzer Young Artist Com petition. He began work on his Master's degree at The Shepherd School of Music with Paul Ellison in 1985. Mr. Harper is a member ofthe Houston Ballet Orchestra. f': American composer EUGENE KURIZ has made his home in Paris for many years. He studied there with Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and Max Deutsch and has since returned to the United States on different occasions to teach at the University ofMichigan, the Eastman School ofMusic (his alma mater), the Univer sity ofIllinois and the University of Texas. In Paris, Kurtz has written for the theater, radio, television and the cinema. His works for orchestra and chamber ensembles have been widely performed both in the United States and in Europe. He is the recipient of commissions from the Musical Arts Association of Cleveland, Radio France and the French Ministry of Cultural Affairs. In 1982 he was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant. Currently, he is Visiting Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan. A native ofTexas, MARILYN MEAD has performed extensively throughout North America, North Africa, France, and England as a soloist and chamber musician. As a "Harriet Hale Woolley Scholar", Ms. Mead studied with Michel Debost, world-renowned flutist ofof the Orchestre de Paris. Ms. Mead was named a "Young Concert Artist of the Year'' by •'Hi-Fidelity'' magazine. She is also the winner ofthe Judith Randal Chamber Music Award, the National Arts Club Young Artists Competition, and the I. Olshan Grand Award. As a first-prize winner in the Artist International Competition, Ms. Mead was presented in her Carnegie Recital Hall debut. Ms. Mead is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music in New York City where she received her Bachelor ofMusic and Master ofMusic degrees. In chamber music, she has coached with Marcel Moyse, Gary Graffman, Simon Streatfield, John Cage, and Elliott Carter. Ms. Mead has received fellowships from the Aspen, Waterloo, and Banff Centre music festivals. Ms. Mead is presently on the faculty of Houston Community College and the Texas Institute for the Arts. Ms. Mead has been selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for their •'Arts America'' 1988-1989 international touring program. She has been invited to Ihe Netherlands to join the research team ofthe Centre for Contemporary Musick in Amsterdam. Additionally, Dutch flutist Barrie Starreveldt invited her to study at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in preparation for the International Geadeamus Competition in Amsterdam. DAVID NALE, a relative newcomer to Houston, is rapidly establishing himself as a coach/accompanist and conductor. He is the organist/conductor at Lakewood United Methodist Church, accompanies the Houston Choral Union at Houston Com munity College- Westchester, and is active as a recital accompanist in the area. Mr. Nale holds a Bachelors degree in Music Education from Northern Arizona University and a Masters degree in Opera Conducting from The University of Texas at Austin. He taught public school in Corpus Christi for three years. IB Na?.HOLM had as his compositional point ofdeparture the Danish folk song of the Carl Nielsen tradition, which he developed in his vocal compositions of the 50's. His exposure to Central European music towards the end of the 50's led to a complete change of style. His works from the early 60's are composed using serial technique, but he also added elements of collage and instrumental theatre to his style. This period of NQ)rholm 's production finds its most extreme expres sion in the fluxus-inspired Direction: inconnue, opus 26 for solo violin. A new change of style took place in the latter half of the 60's, when NQ)rholm developed collage technique into a pluralistic style, in which both traditional and avant garde elements are found. With this synthesis of styles Norholm has created a personal style which is seen in works such as Den unge Park (The Young Park) and the symphonies Isola Bella, Days Nightmare and Modskabelse (Countercreation).