Kronos Quartet

Brooklyn Academy of Music Bruce C. Ratner Chairman of the Board

Harvey Lichtenstein President and Executive Producer

presents Kronos Quartet

A i

Running time: BAM Majestic Theater approximately one October 22, 1998 at 7:30pm hour and fifty minutes. There will be one Kronos Quartet intermission. Viol in David Harrington Violin John Sherba Viola Hank Dutt Cello Joan Jeanrenaud

Day of the Dead

Hamza EI Din (realized by Tohru Ueda) Escalay (Water Wheel)* with special guest, Hamza EI Din, tar

Terry Riley Requiem Quartets:* (New York premiere) 1) Lacrymosa-Remembering Kevin 2) Mario In Cielo

Traditional (arr. Osvaldo Golijov) Gloomy Sunday+ Alfred Schnittke (arr. Kronos Quartet) Collected Songs Where Every Verse is Filled with Grief+ INTERMISSION

Gabriela Ortiz Altar de Muertos* (New York premiere) I. Ofrenda II. Mictlan III. Danza Macabra IV. La Calaca

*written for Kronos +arranged for Krenos

Next Wave music programs are sponsored by A1QT ~ ----'--...-;...... The Quartet records exclusively for Nonesuch Records, and the catalogue includes Kronos Quartet-25 Years (1998), Kronos Quartet Performs Alfred Schnittke: The Complete String Quartets (1998), John Adams' John's Book of Alleged Dances / Gnarly Buttons (1998), Early Music (Lachrymae Antiquae) (1997)-which received a Grammy nomination for Best Chamber Music Performance, Tan Dun's Ghost Opera Photo: William Wegman (1997), Osvaldo Golijov's The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (1997), Howl, U. S. A. Since its inception in 1973 Kronos Quartet has (1996), Released 1985-1995 (1995), Kronos emerged as a leading voice for new work. Com Quartet Performs Philip Glass (1995), Night bining a unique musical vision with a fearless Prayers (1994), Bob Ostertag's All The Rage dedication to experimentation, Kronos has assem (1993), At The Grave of Richard Wagner (1993), bled a body of work unparalleled in its range and Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet scope of expression, and in the process, has cap (1993), Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki's String Quartets tured the attention of audiences world-wide. No.1 and 2 (1993), Short Stories (1993), Pieces of Africa (1992), Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki's Already More than 400 works have been written or It Is Dusk (1991), Astor Piazzolla's Five Tango arranged for Kronos, and its extensive repertoire Sensations (1991), Kevin Volans' Hunting: ranges from Shostakovich, Webern, Bartok and Gathering (1991), Witold Lutoslawski's String Ives to Astor Piazzolla, John Cage, Raymond Scott Quartet (1991), Black Angels (199Q)-which and Howlin' Wolf. In addition to working closely received a Grammy nomination for Best Chamber with modern masters such as Terry Riley and Music Performance, Salome Dances for Peace Henryk Gorecki, Kronos commissions new works (1989)-which received a Grammy nomination from today's most innovative composers from for Best Contemporary Composition, Different around the world, extending its reach as far as Trains (1989)-which received a Grammy Award Zimbabwe, Poland, Mexico, Australia, Japan, for Best Contemporary Composition, Winter Was Argentina and Azerbaijan. The Quartet is currently Hard (1988), White Man Sleeps (1987)-which working with many composers, including John received a Grammy nomination for Best Chamber Adams, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Diamanda Galas, Music Performance and Kronos Quartet (1986). Osvaldo Golijov, Ben Johnston, Steven Mackey, Akira Nishimura, Gabriela Ortiz, PQ. Phan, Steve Reich, Somei Satoh, Peteris Vasks and Kronos Quartet Guo Wenjing. Violin David Harrington Violin John Sherba Kronos performs annually'in many cities including Viola Hank Dutt San Francisco and New York, and tours extensive Cello Joan Jeanrenaud ly with more than 100 concerts each year in concert halls, clubs and at jazz festivals through Lighting Designer Larry Neff out the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Audio Engineer Scott Fraser Mexico, South America, New Zealand, Russia, Hong Kong and Australia. Recent tours have for the Kronos Quartet included appearances at the Concertgebouw in Managing Director Janet Cowperthwaite Amsterdam, Kennedy Center, Montreux Jazz Associate Director Laird Rodet Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Moscow's Business Manager Sandra Schaaf Tchaikovsky Hall, Sydney Opera House, Office Manager Leslie Dean Mainer Tanglewood, London's Royal Festival Hall, Teatro Assistant to the Managing Director Ave Maria Colon in Buenos Aires, La Scala, Theatre de la Hackett Ville in Paris and Chicago's Orchestra Hall. Recording Project Coordinator Sidney Chen Hamza EI Din (b. 1929) Recent concerts and festival performances include Escalay (Water Wheel) (1989) Tokyo, Vienna, Brussels, Boston, Cairo, New York, realized by Tohru Ueda Los Angeles, San Francisco, Barcelona and Mexico.

Hamza EI Din was born in Nubia, along the Nile For Escalay, Hamza drew upon both the musical River near the southern Egyptian border (Aswan). and the cultural traditions of his homeland. "Our While studying engineering in Cairo, he took up music system is Afro-Aralr-we are a bridge, musi the oud, the precursor of the lute and a principal cally and culturally between Africa and the Middle instrument of Arabic classical music. Later, while East," he says. "I wanted the Quartet to represent holding down full-time jobs, he began studying the sound of my instrument, the oud. The chal music at the Conservatory of Music in Cairo. During lenge was to make audible the overtones that only this time and during subsequent study at the the musician can hear from a solo instrument Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome, his work began the 'unheard' voice. Amazingly, Kronos perform to combine elements of Nubian and Egyptian it as if they are from that place." traditional music within Western formal structures. "I was in New York when the Aswan dam was fin In 1964 Hamza made his first recording, Music ished. I lost my village. When I went back and saw of Nubia, on Vanguard Recordings and embarked my village and my people in a different place, I on his first concert tour of the United States. Since saw in their eyes the loss. I saw my people were then he has been traveling, performing and teach lost. They had moved to an almost semi-desert ing music in North America, Europe, the Middle place. When I came back I was lost myself. I was East, Asia and Australia. In 1981 he went to playi ng my oud, doi ng noth ing except repeati ng a Japan to make a comparative study of biwa phrase. I was on the water wheel, the oldest sur (Japanese lute) and oud, funded by a grant from viving machine in our land. Whoever sits on that the Japan Foundation. Impressed with the country machine will become hypnotized by that noise. and its people, he performed there frequently. Hamza now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area "Terry Riley introduced me to Kronos who asked and continues to teach, record and perform his me to write a piece for them. They Iiked the idea music around the world. of the water wheel. Everyone who sits beh ind the oxen which help the water wheel go round will Performing on the oud and the tar (the ancient express himself according to his age. If it's a child, single-skinned frame drum of the upper Nile), he'll sing a children's song. If it's a woman or a along with his gentle voice and original compo man, they'll sing a love song. If it's an older man, sitions, Hamza combines the subtleties of Arabic he'll sing a religious song. I wrote this as the sound music with the indigenous music of his native of the older man, so with Kronos it becomes a reli Nubia. First discovered by the Western aurnences gious song." through his performance at the Newport Folk Festival and Vanguard recordings in 1964, his Escalay wa's commissioned for the Kronos Quartet 1970 Nonesuch recording, Escalay: The Water by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and is Wheel is legendary among musicians and connois included on the Quartet's Nonesuch recording seurs. His best known recording in the United Pieces of Africa. States is Eclipse, produced and engineered by Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart. Hamza's Program note by Derk Richardson music has also appeared in movie soundtracks such as the Francis Ford Coppola film, The Black Terry Riley (b. 1935) Stallion, You Are What You Eat, and the Japanese Requiem Quartets (1998) film, The Robinson's Garden. During 1993 he 1) Lacrymosa-Remembering Kevin scored and performed in The Persians, directed by 2) Mario In Cielo Peter Sellers, which played at the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals, the Los Angeles Music Center, Terry Riley, who studied composition at the MC93/ Bobigny (Paris) and Hebbel Theater (Berlin). University of California at Berkeley, first came to prom inence in 1964 when he fou nd a way to tets beca me more soph isticated th rough his work subvert the world of tightly organized atonal com with Kronos, and as Kronos became more com position then in academic fashion. With the fortable with the breadth of Riley's musical world, groundbreaking In C-a work built upon steady he was able to combine rigorous compositional pulse throughout; short, simple repeated melodic ideas with his more performance-oriented approach motives; and static harmonies-Riley achieved an to music making. But Riley's quartets were also elegant and non-nostalgic return to tonality in art examples of his devotion to music as a spiritual music. He demonstrated the hypnotic allure of endeavor. A gentle and wise man, Riley has an making complex musical patterns out of basic oracular presence. Storytelling is among his gifts, means. And in so doing, he produced the seminal and like his music, Riley's stories are cross-cultural. work of the so-called "minimal" school. Three Requiem Quartets (Lacrymosa Born in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern Remembering Kevin, Mario in Cielo, Requiem California, where he still lives and composes for Adam) were commissioned for the Kronos amidst surroundings of striking natural beauty and Quartet by Sydney and Frances Lewis, Margaret spectacular night skies, Riley developed pattern Lyon and Jim and Jeanne Newman. music in response to his love for such natural design. But his facility for complex pattern making Gloomy Sunday (traditional) (arr. 1998) also proved the product of his virtuosity as a Arranged by Osvaldo Golijov (b.1960) keyboard improviser. Riley quit formal composition altogether following In C in order to concentrate Born in La Plata, Argentina, Osvaldo Golijov lived on improvisation, and in the late 60s and early there and in Jerusalem before moving to the 70s, he built a reputation for weaving dazzlingly United States in 1986. He studied with George intricate skeins of music during all-night impro Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania (PhD), visations on organ and synthesizer. and with Lukas Foss and Oliver Knussen at Tanglewood, where he received the Koussevitzky Also in the early 70s, Riley began to devote him Composition Prize. He has been teaching at the self to the study of North Indian vocal techniques College of the Holy Cross since 1991. Golijov has under the guidance of the legendary Pandit Pran twice won the first prize at the Kennedy Center's Nath and a new element gradually entered his Friedheim Awards competition for chamber music music: long-limbed melody. From his work in composition: in 1993 for Yiddishbbuk; and in Indian music, he also developed an interest in the 1995 for The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the subtle distinctions of tuning that would be hard Blind. He has received many commissions and to achieve with a traditional classical ensemble. performers of international reputation frequently Riley decided to notate music again in 1979 present Golijov1s music. when both he and the Kronos Quartet were on the faculty at Mills College in Oakland. By collaborat About his arrangement, Golijov writes, "This is a ing extensively with Kronos, with whom he soon transcription of the recording of this song made developed a close relationship, Riley began to by a gypsy band in the early 1930s, probably in discover the degree to which his various musical Paris. The tune and its lyrics capture perfectly passions could be integrated, not as pastiche, but well and freeze forever the abysmal gloom that as different sides of similar musical impulses that Sundays brought during the depression years. still maintained something of the oral performing Billie Holiday used to sing it frequently and also traditions of India and jazz. Riley began to consider recorded it. In England the BBC banned its the string quartet in general, and Kronos Quartet broadcast after it was found that many people in particular, as the ideal medium for his evolving would commit suicide right after hearing the musical language. And that meant approaching song. But I think that the gypsy version, purely the string quartet in an entirely new way. instru menta I, is the most gri ppi ng: the words left their desolate, fossil-like imprint in the fragile Riley's first quartets were inspired by his keyboard line of the fiddle, and the chromatic bass and improvisations, but his knowledge of string quar- harmony bring no hope." Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) Stravinsky, Berio, Bartok, Webern and Ligeti, Collected Songs Where Every Verse is Filled among others) and occasionally collaborated with with Grief (1984-85/ arr. 1997) the Studio of Electronic Music in Moscow. In 1981 Arranged by Kronos Quartet he was elected member of Akademie der Kunste of the German Democratic Republic, as well as of Russian composer Alfred Schnittke was widely Munich Bayerische Akademie der Sch6nen Kunste. regarded as the leading modern composer of the former Soviet Union. Only a handful of his con Collected Songs Where Every Verse is Filled with temporaries, notably Sofia Gubaidulina, were Grief is from Schnittke's chamber vocal work described in the same way-as imaginative cre Concerto for Mixed Chorus in Four Movements. ative composers who have ·found remarkably Kronos' recording of Collected Songs Where Every original paths to musical expression in a culture Verse is Filled with Grief is available on Nonesuch that, until recently, officially frowned on novelty releases Early Music (Lachrymae AntiquaeJ and and innovation. For years, Schnittke was granted Kronos Quartet Performs Alfred Schnittke: The premieres in out of the way places in order to Complete String Quartets. diminish the visibility of his work. Composed between 1969 and 1972, his Symphony NO.1 Gabriela Ortiz (b. 1964) received its premiere in 1974 in Gorky, which is Altar de Muertos (1997) a great distance from the "cultural center" of the I.Ofrenda country. In spite of the unusual location of the pre II. Mictlan miere, the piece received a great deal of attention. III. Danza Macabra IV. La Calaca Schnittke wrote, "I was born on November 24, 1934, in Engels on the Volga, in the Saratov Born in Mexico City, Gabriela Ortiz Torres studied province. I have my German name from my par composition with Mario Lavista at the National ents: my father, a Jew born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Conservatory of Music and with Federico Ibarra at came to the Soviet Union in 1926 with his parents the National University of Mexico. In 1990 she was -who were, however, of Russian origin-and awarded The British Council Fellowship to study in there married a German woman born in Russia. London with Robert Saxton at The Guildhall School From childhood on I have spoken German-the of Music and Drama. Two years later, she received 'Volga-German' of my mother." a University of Mexico scholarship to complete PhD studies in electroacoustic music composition with Schnittke's father was a journalist and translator Simon Emmerson at The City University in London. and his mother was a German teacher who later wrote for the German language newspaper tveues Ortiz has written works for solo instruments, cham Leben. He began studying piano and composition ber groups, symphony orchestra and electroa in 1946 in Vienna, the city where his father wrote coustic ensembles, which have been heard in for a Soviet German language newspaper. In 1948 concert halls and international festivals in Europe, he moved to Moscow, where he took his diploma Mexico and the United States. Her music has won as a choirmaster. From 1953 to 1958 he studied a number of awards and has been broadcast by counterpoint and composition with Yevgeny the BBC (United Kingdom), National Radio of Golubev and instrumentation with Nikolay Rakov Spain, Swedish Radio and Mexican Radio and at the Moscow Conservatory. He was particularly Television, and can be heard on record labels such encouraged by Philipp Herschkowitz, a disciple as Cenidim (Mexico), Dorian Recordings (USA) of Webern who lived in the Soviet capital. and Urtext Classics. In 1994 she wrote the score for the award winning film Frontierland, produced In 1962, after three years of preparation, Schnittke and directed by Ruben Ortiz and Jessie Lerner. was appointed as an instrumentation teacher at the Moscow Conservatory, a post in which he About Altar de Muertos Ortiz writes, "Mexican cul remained until 1972. He published many musi ture developed principally under two major influ cological essays (on Shostakovich, Prokofiev, ences: the heritage of European culture brought by the Spanish, and pre-Hispanic culture inherited "Mexicans assume a number of different attitudes from the nations who lived in Mexican territory for in relation to death and celebrate it in many differ thousands of years before the arrival of the Spanish. ent ways. For example, during this time (Nov. 1 Contemporary Mexican culture still shows a strong and 2) there is a second way of remembering and influence of customs and traditions of pre-Hispanic celebrati ng deceased persons-in private homes origin. One of the strongest manifestations of this people set up beautiful offerings made of flowers, infl uence is fou nd in the concept of death. To ta Ik fruits, candles, food and drinks, all of it displayed about death in Mexico is to refer to something we on a table resembling an altar. The purpose of this Iive with at every moment of ou r existence-it is offering, called Altar de Muertos, allows the spirits something that is with us all the time: in our music, of the deceased to pay a visit and help themselves our poetry, our fiestas, our games, our loves, our to their favorite food, drinks and anything that they thoughts and all our attitudes towards life. Death liked and enjoyed in their previous life. In order for is present everywhere; we are fascinated by death. the dead to find their way to the altar, a path of 'cempoaxochitl' petals is traced from the entrance "Unlike European culture, death for the Mexican of the house to the altar. people is approached in such a way that is not considered only a tragic event. The passing away liThe tradition described above has given me strong of a relative or friend is sad indeed, but sad ness is ideas to develop a piece of music which shares only one of the many feelings experienced during many of the elements (both real and surreal) found this occasion. When someone dies there is celebra in the celebration of the Day of the Dead. Just as tion which is, in fact, a celebration of life-the life with the altar of the dead, when we remember our that the deceased one is about to start, and the people by offering goods that they symbolically life still present in all those who shared his or her share with us, the piece Altar de Muertos is also company previously. an offering with much symbolic meaning. It is a jou rney of exploration seeki ng the roots of the con "Mexicans have an important celebration called Ora ception of dead in Mexico from past to the present. de Muertos (the Day of the Dead). This important Its ideas could reflect the internal search between date could be considered as the 'birthday' of dead the real and the magic, a duality always present people, and with such an occasion (as in any birth in Mexican culture, from the past to the present." day) there is a celebration in wh ich friends gather in the graveyards where their relatives are buried. Altar de Muertos was commissioned for the Flowers of 'cempoaxochitl' (which means 'flower of Kronos Quartet by Inroads, a program of Arts the dead'), food, music, 'copal' (a kind of incense International with funds from The Ford Foundation; which has come down from the pre-Hispanic cul The Multi-Arts Production Fund of The Rockefeller ture) is also burnt, and company are brought Foundation; and the Festival Internacional together and the spirit of absent person is felt by Cervantino, and is dedicated to Kronos. everyone attending this party. Brooklyn Academy of Music Bruce C. Ratner Chairman of the Board

Harvey Lichtenstein President and Executive Producer

presents Kronos Quartet III I

Running time: BAM Majestic Theater approximately two October 23, 1998 at 7:30pm hours. There will be one intermission. Kronos Quartet Violin David Harrington Violin John Sherba Viola Hank Dutt Cello Joan Jeanrenaud

Visions and Visionaries

Harry Partch (arr. Ben Johnston) U. S. Highball + (New York premiere) with special guest David Barron, vocalist

Steve Reich Different Trains *

INTERMISSION

Igor Stravinsky (arr. John Geist) The Rite of Spring + (New York premiere) with special guest Margaret Kampmeier, piano

*written for Kronos +arranged for Kronos

Next Wave music programs are sponsored by A1&.T ~ Harry Partch (1901-1974) instruments, Partch turned in the 1950s and U. S. Highball: A Musical Account of Slim's 1960s to large-scale theatrical and dramatic com Transcontinental Hobo Trip (1943/ arr. 1998) positions that extended his concept of corporeality. Arranged by Ben Johnston (b. 1926) Ben Johnston was born in Macon, Georgia in Self-taught as a theorist, living on the margins of 1926 and attended the College of William and society and ignored by most musical institutions, Mary in Richmond, Virginia. After Navy service Harry Partch sought musical inspiration and mate in World War II, he received his masters degree rials outside the European tradition and came to in music from Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. be recognized as one of the most innovative, icon His self-professed "fascination with sound from oclastic and genuinely American composers of our a scientific point of view" was manifested in century. Partch's lifelong effort-begun in the accelerating interest in acoustics. After reading a 1920s-was to create a monophonic music that book by Partch, Johnston struck up a correspon returned to what he believed was the primal, rit dence and eventually moved to California to ualistic, corporeal state that music had long ago study with him. Johnston worked with Partch abandoned: a music arising from human speech for six months in 1950 and performed for and the natural acoustic musical intervals generat Partch's recordings. Through Partch, Johnston ed by sounding bodies. met Darius Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland and received a second masters there. Johnston Partch grew up hearing music from many cultures. went on to a position at the University of Illinois, Born in 1901 in Oakland, California, Partch's Urbana-Champaign. While there, Johnston helped childhood was spent in California, New Mexico to obtain sponsorship for some of Partch's later and Arizona. Along with his early introduction to productions at the University. the local Mexican and Yaqui Indian music in southeastern Arizona, Partch learned to play mail This arrangement of U. S. Highball: A Musical order musical instruments and by age fourteen, Account of Slim's Transcontinental Hobo Trip he was composing prolifically for piano. was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Madison In 1920 Partch briefly enrolled in USC's School of Civic Center, the South Bank Centre, and the Music. After a couple of years, not feeling that he National Endowment for the Arts. was learning from his teachers, Partch left USC and moved to San Francisco where he frequented David Barron (vocalist) was born and raised in Mandarin theaters. Giving up on both private Texas. The son of an Army man, he began singing music teachers and music schools, Partch began in the Baptist church and his first music lessons to read more about music in public libraries and were on the accordion. He graduated from Baylor to compose without academic restrictions. Around University and received his masters degree in 1923 Partch began his rejection of European con composition at Yale University where he studied cert music and its system of twelve-tone equal with' Elliott Carter. While on the opera and music temperament. Partch's rejection of the twelve-tone theory faculty at University of Illinois, he earned system and adoption of the principles of just into a doctorate in music theory, specializing in experi nation led him to use a scale with forty-three tones mental music, and was active in performances at to the octave, which in turn forced him to invent their Festival of Contemporary Arts. Since 1974 new musical instruments. Partch's decisive break he has resided in Brooklyn performing in opera with European tradition came in 1930 when he and in musical and legitimate theatre. burned fourteen years worth of his own music. His performances include premieres of operas by Partch's works from the 1930s and 1940s used Richard Wargo, the role of Judge Turpin in the his own instruments in small-scale, intimate bardic Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, the title role settings of Chinese poems, biblical verses, scenes in the premiere of William Blake in Hell by Huib and songs from Shakespeare and American hobo Emmer with Theatergroep Hollandia and numer texts. As he invented original percussion and string ous performances of the John Cage Songbooks. Steve Reich (b. 1936) of abduction and competition, their worship of the Different Trains (1988) earth, and, ultimately, their sacrifice of a maiden to the god of spring-the pair conjured up a pri "When I was one year old," Steve Reich recalls, mordial world, where people were at one with "my parents separated, with my mother going to themselves and with nature. In this fanciful, sav Los Angeles and my father staying in New York. age collectivity, Stravinsky and Roerich sought an Since they arranged divided custody, I used to intoxicating antidote to Russia's cultural malaise, to travel back and forth by train frequently between a prosperous Petersburg sated with self-satisfaction. New York and Los Angeles, from 1939 to 1942, accompanied by my governess. While these trips What shocked contemporaries about the work, and were exciting and romantic at the time, I now look what continues to shock today, was its brutality, back and think that, as a Jew, if I had been in its refusal to remain in the ghetto of decorative, Europe during this period I would have had to ride pretty ballet music. But the violence is only half very different trains." the Rite. Though the frenzied action continually th reatens to spi n out of control, it never tu rns Such is the historical subtext for Reich's Different apocalyptic. Primeval "barbarism" is funneled Trains, a composition in three movements commis through the ordered discipline of religious ritual. sioned by Betty Freeman for the Kronos Quartet. These rituals were meticulously researched by Whatever the strength of its philosophical inquiry, Stravinsky and Roerich, and the composer culled the musical impact of this work will be greater, ethnographic sources to find songs those ancient because it represents a turning point in Reich's art. Russians might actually have sung. To construct Different Trains, Reich first made a series of tape recordings: of his governess, Virginia, Composer / arranger John Geist has received com now in her 70s, remembering the cross-country missions from a number of Bay Area ensembles train trips; of Lawrence Davis, a retired Pullman including the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, porter who regularly made the NY-LA run, remi Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Chanticleer, niscing about his life; of Rachella, Paul and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Rachel, three Holocaust survivors (and Reich Festival and Kronos. Geist has been a California contemporaries) who now live in America; and Arts Council artist in residence, a composer in of American and European train sounds of the residence with the Briarcombe Foundation, and 30s and 40s. Reich then selected small speech has received several ASCAP awards. samples and notated the musical pitches of these fragments, using the resultant melodies as the Program note by Gregory Dubinsky basis of the composition. Pianist Margaret Kampmeier is active as a soloist, These melodies were performed and then over chamber musician, orchestral keyboardist and dubbed on tape by Kronos, so that as many as teacher of piano. She is a founding member of the three "Kronos Quartets" are heard at one time. New Millennium Ensemble, a mixed chamber Reich next used sampling keyboards and a com group which won the 1995 Walter W. Naumburg puter to mix in the original speech samples and Chamber Music Award and has performed train sounds. Kronos appears on stage to perform throughout the United States as well as in Canada, with the prepared tape. Mexico, Europe and Asia. She also performs regu larly with both the Orchestra of St. Luke's and Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. A native of Rochester, The Rite of Spring (1913/ arr. 1980) New York, Ms. Kampmeier received her early Arranged by John Geist ( b. 1949) training at the Eastman School of Music's prepara tory division. She continued her studies at the The scenario for the ballet The Rite of Spring Eastman School with pianist Bary Snyrder, and (1911-1913) was worked out jointly by Igor received her master's and doctoral degrees from Stravinsky and the painter Nikolay Roerich. In SUNY Stony Brook in 1990, where she studied these scenes from pagan Russia-with their games with pianist Gilbert Kalish. Brooklyn Academy of Music Bruce C. Ratner Chairman of the Board

Harvey Lichtenstein President and Executive Producer

presents Kronos Quartet 11II I

Running time: BAM Majestic Theater approximately two October 24, 1998 at 7:30pm hours. There will be one intermission. Kronos Quartet Violin David Harrington Violin John Sherba Viola Hank Dutt Cello Joan Jeanrenaud

Ghost Opera

R Q. Phan Len dong (Raising Shadow)* (New York premiere)

Philip Glass work in progress* (New York premiere)

Steve Mackey String Theory* (New York premiere)

Carlos Paredes (arr.Osvaldo Golijov) Romance No. 1+ (New York premiere) Canc;ao Verdes Afios+ (New York premiere) Variacoes sobre uma Danca Popular+ (New York premiere)

INTERMISSION

Tan Dun Ghost Opera* with special guest Wu Man, pipa

*written for Krenos +arranged for Kronos

The Kronos Quartet is a 1998/99 participant in Chamber Music America's Music Performance Program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Andrew W Mellon Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Next Wave music programs are sponsored by -=- ATs.T RQ. Phan (b. 1962) many existing musical characteristics including Len dong (Raising Shadow) (1997) court opera (hat boi), folk theater (hat cheo), and ritual music (hat chau van). Its initial amateur per PQ. Phan was born in Vietnam. He became inter forming practices became its noticeable and ested in music while studying architecture in the remarkable established musical characters. These late 1970s, and taught himself to play the piano, characters are reflected through those interpreta compose and orchestrate. In 1982 Phan immigrat tions of the unevenly played all 'eight-note' pas ed to the United States and began formal musical sages, and the application of nonformal instru training. He graduated from the University of ments, such as ceramic rice bowls, water buffalo Southern California and received a doctorate horns, coin clappers and pot lids. In short, the degree in com position from the University of 'accompanists' would use anything they could find Michigan. Phan is currently an assistant professor that was most suitable to the purpose of provoking in composition at the University of Illinois at the medium. However, bowed and plucked string Urbana-Champagne. Phan's music has been per instruments, drums and reed instruments were formed throughout the United States, Europe and normally found in the ensemble. In addition, the Japan. His honors include the 1997 Rome Prize medium normally used a gold bell, which is for Musical Composition, several ASCAP awards believed to have a special power to call the deaths. and commissions from ensembles including the American Composers Orchestra, the Cleveland "This composition is not the description of the Chamber Symphony and the Pittsburgh New seance. However, through this composition, Music Ensemble. I hope to recreate the above described actual event, in which the string quartet presents the About Len dong, the composer writes, "My home medium (violin 1) and his accompanists (the in Vietnam was located next to a small cemetery. rest), and the audience is the body part finder. But this was not like any typical cemetery, because The music progresses from a moderated atmos it was only used to bury body parts and small phere to an extremely urgent and agitated situa babies. As a matter of fact, this cemetery would tion. It starts with ease and slowly becomes agi not have existed without the connection with its tated when the medium is in a trance. The owner-the 'medium shop'. The regular customers medium performs a series of 'out of characteris of the shop were those who had found an tics' passages at times, particularly when he is unknown 'body part' and wished to make its iden possessed. These 'out of characters' musical tification with their missing relative. The body-part passages reflect the voice of the found spirit. founders would normally bring offerings such as The accompanists constantly encourage the money, fruits, gifts and a required symbolic banana medium to approach possession by yelling, tree skin boat (to carry a soul to the world of the screaming, and speeding the tempo of the music. deaths) to the medium in trading with a perfor The use of incense is always neccessary during mance of a seance. These people would normally the seance. In addition, the medium wore many wish that the medium would identify the body part layers of colorful clothing and progressively undid as originating from their relative. The medium's his clothes. He normally started with bright blue statement would settle the long frustrated search of and green outfit, which symbolized tranquility, a missing person. then proceded to bright gold, which symbolized the entering point of the possession, then finally "This seance might last all day. During this event, wore only dark red at the time he became fully the medium constantly sang and drank alcohol possessed. The body pa rt presenters eventua Ily while whirling in an attempt to contact with the became agitated by the music and the over world of the deaths in order for him (a gay male whelming impact of the seance and finally joined would be a preferred medium) to identify the soul the medium in an exhausted whirling dance until or the ghost of the body part. Music was the most they fa inted ." important part of this ritual. This type of music was considered most unorthodox, because it did not Len dong was commissioned for the Kronos reflect any particular genre but it was a sum of Quartet by Alice Wingwall. Philip Glass (b. 1937) University. As a physics major at the University of Work in progress (1998) California at Davis, but unsure of his prospects as a theoretical physicist, he decided to take an intro Philip Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland. ductory music course taught by Bay Area pianist He discovered music in his father's radio repair Marvin Tartak. Mackey studied with Andrew Frank, shop, and began studying violin at six and flute Richard Swift and the late William Valente. He at eight. During his second year in high school he continued his education at the State University of applied for admission to the University of Chicago. New York at Stony Brook and at Brandeis, where He was admitted and with his parents encourage he earned his PhD. His early training was in ment, Glass moved to Chicago where he support performance as a classical and electrical guitarist ed himself with part-time jobs. He graduated at and as a Renaissance and Baroque lutenist. nineteen, and moved to New York to study com position at the Juilliard School with Vincent Steven Mackey says of String Theory, "I was a Persichetti and William Bergsma, and studied pri physics major in college and still check in on sci vately with Darius Milhaud, Nadia Boulanger and entific cosmology from time to time. This interest Allah Rakha. Glass first composed works in both led me to a lecture for laypersons on the topic of twelve-tone and modern tonal idioms. In Paris in string theory, an idea not yet formulated when I the mid-1960s, he became interested in Indian was in school. The lecturer, Brian Greene, used music, which profoundly influenced the develop virtually no mathematics to explicate a view of the ment of his work. universe that was invented to resolve mathematical paradoxes. At the time, I actually felt as though In 1967 Glass formed his own ensemble to per I had an intuitive sense for what he was saying, form his work, and the group continues to perform although all that remains now are scattered, and record. Glass' celebrated operas, Einstein on impression istic recollections of ten dimensions the Beach, Akhnaten and Satyagraha, have time plus nine spatial dimensions-eoiled up like become three of the most performed and highly pieces of string such that a casual sweep of the regarded operas of the twentieth-century. Glass hand passes imperceptibly through them. Our has written several film scores, including Mishima three-dimensional minds translate the movements and Koyannisquatsi and Glass continues to collab into our evolved / adapted modes of perception orate with other artists on theatrical productions. Frankly, my clearest memory is of a familiar exhil aration over the notion that we actively construct Recent projects include three collaborations with our realities rather than perceive them. I had the Robert Wilson: White Raven, an opera commis same feeling digesting curved space, an expanding sioned by Portugal to celebrate its history of dis universe, and the space-time continuum when covery; Monsters of Grace, a music/theater work relativity was taught in college. with the Philip Glass Ensemble; and TSE, a music theater installation. Heroes Symphony, based on "Being an artist, not a scientist, my sense of the the David Bowie and Brian Eno LP Heroes, was whole business of the universe is more psychedelic released by Point Music and choreographer Twyla than scientific, and it could be said that all my Tharp created a dance piece for Heroes Symphony. music springs from this simultaneous fear and Kundun, a film directed by Martin Scorsese and excitement at the incomprehensible possibilities scored by Philip Glass, was released in 1997. of reality, whether stimulated by a star-filled sky or a physics lecture. However, this dalliance with Steven Mackey (b. 1956) string theory did inspire a particular approach to String Theory (1998) material "a re-thinking of the nature and sound of the string quartet, and as a result, this piece Steven Mackey was born in Frankfurt, Germany, represents a new direction for me. to American parents, while his father was in the civil service there. He grew up in Marysville, "String Theory is also about motion and energy in California, and now lives in Princeton, New Jersey, this way, but instead of a large but finite number where he is a professor of music at Princeton of materials, there is either one material, or perhaps no material. The piece uses only downward Synopsis water strings of notes-scales. Except for the chordal opening the scales are relentlessly in the fore ground. However, on a more fundamental level, scales are perhaps too basic, too raw and uncooked in comparison to contoured melodies and themes, to be considered material at all. They are only material in the sense of Istuff,' and the inventor comes in their movement and flow in metal paper relation to one another."

String Theory was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts and was written for the Kronos Quartet.

Carlos Paredes (b. 1925) stones Romance No. 1 arr. 1998 Canc;ao Verdes Anos arr. 1998 Ghost Opera is a five movement work for string Variacoes sobre uma Danca Popular arr. 1998 quartet and pipa, with water, metal, stone and arranged by Osvaldo Golijov (b. 1960) paper. The composer describes this work as a reflection on human spirituality which is too-often Portuguese guitarist Carlos Paredes was born into buried in the bombardment of urban culture and a family of guitar masters. His grandfather, Goncalo the rapid advances of technology. It is a cross Paredes, was one of the most respected composers temporal, cross-cultural and cross-media dialouge in the traditional style. His father, Artur Paredes, which touches on the past, present, future and the developed a far more aggressive, dramatic and eternal; employs elements from Chinese, Tibetan, sophisticated approach. In the Paredes' home city English and American cultures; and combines per of Coimbra, Artur Paredes literally reinvented and formance traditions of the European classical con rebuilt the instrument to open more options for cert, Ch inese shadow pu ppet theater, visua I art himself as a guitarist. Carlos Paredes was discour installations, folk music, dramatic theater and aged as a child from learning the Portuguese gui shamanistic ritual. tar and was steered by his father to study violin and piano. At age twelve, Carlos recovered a In composing Ghost Opera, Tan was inspired by Portuguese guitar that his father has discarded childhood memories of the shamanistic IIghost because of a crack in the wood and it became his operas" of the Chinese peasant culture. In this preferred instrument. tradition, which is over 4,000 years old, humans and spirits of the future, the past, and nature These arrangements were commissioned for the communicate with each other. Tan's Ghost Opera Kronos Quartet by the Lisbon Expo 1998. embraces this tradition, calling on the spirits of Bach (in the form of counterpoint quotation from the Prelude in c sharp-minor of Book II of The Tan Dun (b. 1957) music, text and installation Well-Tempered Clavier), Shakespeare (setting Ghost Opera (1994) brief excerpts from The Tempest), ancient folk For string quartet and pipa with water, stone, tradition and earth / nature (represented by the paper and metal Chinese folk song Little Cabbage). The Bach

excerpt acts as lIa seed from which grows a new Cast counterpoint of different ages, different sound worlds and different cultures." In the final move Now String Quartet and pipa ment the gradual transformation of the counter Past Bach, folksong, monks, Shakespeare point brings the spirits of Bach and Shakespeare, Forever Water, stones, metal, paper the civilized world and rational mind-llthis insubstantial pageant"-into the eternal Earth. soloist in his own works.

The installation employs paper, shadow, and Tan Dun was born in 1957 in Si Mao village in watergong basins placed around the theater. central Hunan, China and spent his early child The performers' movements among the seven hood with his grandmother, growing up amidst the positions reflect the back and forth movement ancient culture of a rural Chinese village. After between different time frames and spiritual planting rice for two years during the Cultural realms which is characteristic of the "ghost Revolution, and then working as a fiddle player opera" tradition. and arranger for a provicial Peking Opera troupe, Tan was selected for the Central Conservatory of Tan Dun, one of the most celebrated composers of Beijing where he spent eight years. He came to his generation, unites Chinese shamanistic tradi New York City in 1986 to take up a fellowship tions with the western avant-garde. Tan's distinc at Columbia University, and completed the doctoral tive music reaches large audiences throughout the program in composition, studying with Chou, world at prestigious venues such as the Concert Davidowsky and Edwards. His music is published gebouw in Amsterdam, Lincoln Center in New by G. Schirmer. York, Suntory Hall in Japan, the Proms and at Royal Festival Hall in London, and the Bastille in Program note by Peggy Monastra Paris. Tan's opera Marco Polo, commissioned by the Edinburgh Festival, with a libretto by Paul Ghost Opera was commissioned for the Kronos Griffiths, premiered in May 1996 at the Munich Quartet and Wu Man by Brooklyn Academy of Biennale, with subsequent performances at the Music, National Endowment for the Arts and Holland Festival and Hong Kong Festival. Tan's Hancher Auditorium / University of Iowa. Kronos' guitar concerto, YP, received its first performance recording of Ghost Opera is available on Nonesuch. in October 1996 with Sharon Isbin at the Donaueschingen Music Festival; Red Forecast Born in Hangzhou, China, Wu Man began her (Orchestral Theatre III) premiered in November professional music training at the age of ten. In 1996 with soprano Susan Botti at the Huddersfield 1977 she entered the Central Conservatory of .Music Festival and was then televised by the BBC. Music in Beijing, winning first place in the nation In July, 1997 Tan premiered excerpts from a major wide entry exam. At the Central Conservatory she new work at ceremonies commemorating the his studied with Lin Shicheng, the distinguished mas toric transfer of Hong Kong to China. Commis ter of the Pudong School of pipa playing, and the sioned by the ,"Association for Celebration of well-known pipa soloist Liu Dehai. Wu Man became Reunification of Hong Kong with China," Tan's the first recipient of a master's degree in pipa. seventy-minute Symphony r 1997 (Heaven Earth Mankind) featured cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Hong Kong In China, she took part in many groundbreaking Philharmonic and Asian Youth Orchestra, the performances by an exciting new generation of Imperial Bells Ensemble (playing a set of sixty-four composers. Since moving to the United States she 2500-year-old Chinese bells), and Yips' Children's has continued to champion new works by com Choir, with Tan Dun conducting. The world pre posers such as Tan Dun, Bun-Ching Lam, Liu miere of the complete Symphony 1997 took place Sola, Zhou Long, Chen Yi and others. In over 300 in Hong Kong on July 4th, and the concert was concert appearances Wu Man has collaborated repeated the following night in Beijing, at the with the Kronos Quartet the New York Music Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square. Consort, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble the A recording of the work has been released on Sony BBC-Scotland Ensemble, the Austria (ORF) Radio Classical. In addition to his classical compositions, Symphony Orchestra and the Nieuw Ensemble in Tan Dun is known for his experimental projects Holland. Wu Man's recent appearances include such as his music for ceramics, for water, for several world premieres: Lou Harrison's Pipa paper and for stones, and often collaborates with Concerto with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and visual and performance artists, choreographers, Bun-Ching Lam's Sudden Thunder at-Carnegie theater and film directors. He also performs as a Hall with the American Composers Orchestra.