“’s musical language lies at the intersection of three major streams of contemporary music—jazz and its offshoots, with all its harmonic and textural experimentation, and electronica. …. It exudes a sense of Americana for the 21st century (much as Dvorak’s music did in the 19th century, and Copland’s in the 20th).” Th e Wa s h i n g t o n Po s t MASON BATES • SELECTED REPERTOIRE FOR openers MUSIC FROM UNDERGROUND SPACES ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, Garages of the Valley for orchestra & laptop* 2008 15’ for orchestra & laptop* 2011 27’ for orchestra, 2014 10’ NEW An exploration of the worlds beneath our feet. As An ‘energy ’ that spans hundreds of years, Conjures the whirlwind energy of the early the piece progresses deeper in each movement, the work conjures the 19th Century junk- yard of workshops of Silicon Valley, this unplugged electronic beats mix with orchestral sonorities Henry Ford and subsequently moves through a opener draws on unusual orchestral effects to in both rhythmic and lyrical ways, with actual present-day particle accelerator, a future Chinese create a world of bytes. ­earthquake recordings appearing at the end. meltdown, and distant dystopian paradise. “Much of the score is driven by twitching for orchestra & laptop* 2011 10’ “A formidable and inventive new work... Its four ­-rhythms that periodically morph into quirky A fast-paced opener that imagines the ­orchestra as a movements offer a time-traveling montage, from aural surprises — , harp and ­celesta sparkling mothership ‘docked’ by virtuosic ­soloists. ­Premiered 1896 through the year 2222, that is alternately like a city of diamonds, double basses shuddering by the YouTube symphony at the Sydney whimsical, moving and eerie. It’s also Bates’ most like the shock waves from a temblor deep on the House before an online audience of millions, the ambitious and epically scaled work to date, and it ocean floor.”C h i c a g o Tr i b u n e shows his mastery of the orchestral landscape like piece showcases the orchestra’s top individual nothing before it.” Chronicle ­players in its brief solo passages. Attack Decay Sustain Release THE B-SIDES Violin for orchestra 2013 5’ for orchestra & laptop* 2009 23’ 24’ A curtain-raiser equally informed by early ­modernism for violin & orchestra 2012 This surreal suite touches down briefly onto five Conjuring the earliest bird / dinosaur hybrid, the and 1970’s funk. ­imaginative landscapes. From the ­bent-note ­lyricism concerto features the soloist in fiery and lyrical of Kauai to a setting of a NASA archival WHITE LIES FOR LOMAX ­writing in front of an earthy, indigenous orchestra. ­recording, The B-Sides is quite a trip. for orchestra 2009 7’ Afterlife A dreamy homage to the early, anonymous blues “The B-Sides emerged as a characteristically ­colorful 25’ musicians, many of whom were recorded by the for mezzo & orchestra 2012 and puckish score from a composer whose cheerful A setting of death poetry by three women, the song famed ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. disregard for stylistic boundaries is a ­godsend. … cycle explores the poignant, beautiful, and ­haunting The piece is vibrant and amusing….” Sa n Fr a n c i s c o aspects of departing. “Mason Bates’ White Lies for Lomax uses blues in Ch r o n i c l e much the same way his elders use jazz: as one of , many strands in an eclectic magpie nest of a style. reduced forces for orchestra & laptop* 2007 23’ Blues fragments and hints of Fats Waller-like stride The Rise of Exotic Computing Blurry symphonic textures glide over evolving piano move through the score, yet the work’s real for sinfonietta & laptop* 2013 12’ NEW ­electronica in this ‘water symphony’ enriched by the charm is in its tight structure.” Like a self-replicating synthetic computer, power and drama of electronic sounds. Beginning Th e Ne w Yo r k Ti m e s the ­material of this lean-and-mean new work with recordings of glaciers melting in Antarctica, ODE ­rapidly ­duplicates itself. Premiered by the ­Pittsburgh the work explores the beautiful & destructive sides for orchestra 2001 11’ Symphony at the club Static. of water on a large scale. “And never has a Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony ICARIAN RHAPSODY been so colored by the music that preceded it on “Bates’s Liquid Interface, an NSO commission that for string orchestra 1999 12’ the program.” Th e Ar i z o n a Re p u b l i c received its world ­premiere last night, surpassed in A long-lined, three-octave melody shatters sheer sonic beauty even the works by Mendelssohn in the stratosphere, sending its many shards and Tchaikovsky that rounded out the program.” tone poems ­pulsing throughout the ensemble. Th e Wa s h i n g t o n Po st Sea-Blue Circuitry “lovely to hear and ingeniously constructed…The for orchestra 2010 13’ piece gets under way with a convincing liftoff, as Grooves hiccup quietly from measure to measure as low, arching melodies come vaulting up ­gracefully rapidly as data on the silicon innards of a computer, from the cellos. As the music’s center of ­gravity yet the piece is entirely unplugged. Shattered, off- gets higher, the violins take over with skittering kilter jazz figuration. ­harmonics atop repetitive harmonic patterns. With . further repetitions, the rhythmic energy gets more for orchestra & laptop* 2006 13’ intense and the harmonic language simpler, until Imaginative electronics bring the buzzing white noise the music peaks and cascades earthward with a of Southern insects into the concert hall, pairing gentle flourish.”S a n Fr a n c i s c o Ch r o n i c l e these sounds with fluorescent orchestral textures in OMNIVOROUS FURNITURE this new spin on the pastoral. for sinfonietta & laptop* 2004 18’ A taut work for chamber orchestra and “You could feel the humidity, while ­luxuriating ­electronics, this work exists at the junction in Bates’ exquisite, almost Impressionistic, of morphing electronica rhythms and quirky, ­atmospherics.” Sa n Jo s e Me r c u r y Ne ws ­fast-changing musical sonorities.­ for orchestra 2010 14’ Evoking a helicopter flight over the Arizona ­landscape, the work superimposes a ‘machine T 212.584.7500 piece’ with the pastoral. opus3artists.com *All electro-acoustic works require only two house speakers and a few onstage monitors. 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