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Home , Alvin Lucier, Claire Chase, Contrabass flute, Dai Fujikura, Du Yun, Flute concerto

Saturday, December 2, 2017, 4:30pm Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive , Density 2036

World-Premiere Marathon Performance Parts I-V (2013 –17)

with , percussion Pauchi Sasaki, violin and voice Levy Lorenzo, sound designer and live electronics

Density 2036: Part I (Prelude) is dedicated to . Density 2036: Part II (2014) is dedicated to Elise Mann. Density 2036: Part III (2015) is dedicated to Steven Schick. Density 2036: Part IV (2016) is dedicated to the loving memory of (1932 –2016).

Cal Performances’ 2017 –18 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

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Oskar Fischinger once told a young : stripped down, solitary warhorse herself, that “Everything in the world has a spirit that can be 1936 solo that singlehandedly changed the fate released through its sound.” Varèse unleashed of the flute, transforming it from an instrument this spirit for the flute, for the one all alone, in of incidental prettiness to one of raw, platinum these staggering four minutes of music. Did he potency and unbounded beauty. go as far as one could go, metaphorically and I had recorded all the individual parts of each otherwise? Of what will the Density of our time of these pieces myself, a kind of torturous be made? Of osmium? Of signal processing? Of exercise in solipsism—one so torturous that wood? Of carbon? Of flesh? Of air? I abandoned it several times before rounding —Claire Chase, up the courage to continue—and I had never excerpted from “In Search of the New Density,” imagined that the album, with all of its mani - in ’s ARCANA, Vol. 12 cured, rhythmic intricacy born of so many fits and starts in the studio, could live compellingly Density 2036 is a 23-year project begun by as a live show. But when it was finished, I Claire Chase in 2013 to commission an entirely wanted to see what would happen if I per - new body of repertory for solo flute each year formed Density the record from start to finish, until the 100th anniversary of Edgard Varèse’s without breaks, in a kind of woman-versus- groundbreaking 1936 flute solo, Density 21.5 . machine version, with the solo line from each Each season between 2014 and 2036, Chase track performed live over the pre-recorded will premiere a new full-length program of solo tracks, and with Varèse at the bitter end, bare flute work commissioned that year in a special and unadorned. performance at The Kitchen in City On October 3, 2013 at The Kitchen in New and on tour in select cities thereafter. Addi tion - York City, Levy Lorenzo and I played the show, ally, each cycle of works ( Density 2014, Density with lighting design by the visual artist and 2015, Density 2020 , etc.) will be released in director David Michalek, who in true low- annual world-premiere recordings, and scores, budget downtown experimental theater fashion perfor mance notes, and materials will be made constructed a brilliant, malleable light sculpture available digitally as educational resources for made up of parking-lot fluorescent tubes. The flutists everywhere. day after that concert, it was immediately clear This performance marks the first retrospec - to me that the album was just a prelude, or a tive event bringing together all of the Density muse—a toe-dip into a much deeper dive that repertoire created to date. was calling me to create expansive new environ - ments and experiences for the explo sion of the flute repertory, and for the explosion of this little PART I (2013, Prelude) tube of metal. Density 2036 was born. I call Part I the “prelude” because the project —Claire Chase was a seedling of an idea but hadn’t quite found its form yet. I had just released the album (b. 1936) Density , a sonic migration of progressively re - Pulitzer Prize-winning Steve Reich ceding flute-forces beginning with a mass of has been praised as “America’s greatest living 10 in Steve Reich’s frolicsome Vermont composer” ( The Village Voice ) and “…among Counterpoint (1982), to six bass flutes in Marcos the great of the century” ( The New Balter’s meditative Pessoa (2013) , to five flutes of York Times ). He is a leading pioneer of Mini - various sizes in ’s aching, pensive malism, and his music is known for steady Almost New York (2002), to two flutes in Philip pulse, repetition, and a fascination with canons. Glass’ ebullient Piece in the Shape of a Square From his early taped speech pieces It’s Gonna (1967), to one flute enhanced with electronics Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) to his in Mario Diaz de León’s raucous, heavy metal- and video artist Beryl Korot’s digital video inspired Luciform (2013), and finally to the Three Tales (2002), Reich’s path has em -

b PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES braced not only aspects of Western Classical chambe r chorus, which devoted much of its music, but the structures, harmonies, and time to the performance of new music. From rhythms of non-Western and American ver - 1970–2011, he was the John Spencer Camp Pro - nacular music, particularly . Reich gradu - fessor of Music at , where ated with honors in philosophy from Cornell he is professor emeritus. Lucier holds degrees University in 1957. He studied at the Juilliard from and Brandeis Uni versity, School of Music and received his master’s de - as well as an honorary doctorate from Ply - gree in music from . mouth University.

Marcos Balter (b. 1974) (b. 1937) Praised by the Chicago Tribune as “minutely One of America’s most celebrated composers, crafted” and “utterly lovely,” Philip Glass applied his musical encounters in as “whimsical” and “surreal,” and the Washing - India, North Africa, and the Hima layas to his ton Post as “dark and deeply poetic,” the music own compositions and, by 1974, had created a of Marcos Balter is at once emo tionally visceral large body of work in a distinct idiom. His early and intellectually complex, primarily rooted in music inspired pieces by the Mabou Mines the - experimental manipula tions of timbre and ater company, which he co-founded; he later hyper-dramatization of live performance. His formed his own performing group, the Philip works have been featured world wide in venues Glass Ensemble. This marked a period that such as , Köln Philharmonie, the reached its apogee with Einstein on the Beach , a French Academy at Villa Medici, Teatro de landmark in 20th-century music-theater. Glass’ Madrid, Tokyo Bunka Kaykan, Baryshnikov work since that groundbreaking piece has in - Arts Center, and the Museum of Contemporary cluded opera, film scores, dance music, sym - Art of Chicago. During the current season, he is phonic work, string quartets, and unclassifiable featured in a Composer Portrait at the Miller work such as The Photographer/Far From the Theater in New York and has a premiere on the Truth and 1000 Airplanes on the Roof . He stud - ’s Green Umbrella ied at the University of Chicago and the Juilliard series. Recent collaborators include the rock School of Music. band Deer hoof, , Civic Or chestra of Chicago, Chicago Composers Or- Mario Diaz de León (b. 1979) chestra, Orquestra Experimental da Amazonas Mario Diaz de León is a composer and per - Filarmonica, American Contemporary Music former whose output encompasses modern Ensemble, and Chicago Q Ensemble. Born in classical and experimental , , Balter is currently an associate and extreme metal. His debut album as a com - professor of music composition at Montclair poser, Enter Houses Of, was released in 2009 on State Uni ver sity, and lives in . John Zorn’s Tzadik label and praised by the New York Times for its “hallucinatory intensity.” A Alvin Lucier (b. 1931) second album, The Soul is the Arena , was re - Alvin Lucier, a native of Nashua, New Hamp- leased in 2015 on the Denovali label and was shire, is widely considered one of the most in - named a notable recording of 2015 by The New fluential composers of the 20th century. Lucier Yorker magazine. His work has received recent actively performs, lectures, and exhibits his performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall, sound installations in the US, Europe, and Asia. Don aufestival (Austria), CTM Festival (Berlin), He was a founding member—along with Ro- Chicago Symphony Center, Venice Biennale, bert Ashley, , and Gordon Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), Musica Nova Mumma—of the , a collective Helsinki, National Gallery of Art (DC), and of experimental musicians that was active be - the Ojai Music Festival, and he has received tween 1966–76. Lucier taught at Brandeis com missions from the Los Angeles Philhar - Uni versity, where he conducted the university’s monic, International Con t emporary Ensemble

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(ICE), Talea, and Cham ber Music America. From symbols. I asked Mend-Ooyo: “How do you cre - 2012 –16, his solo elect ronic project Onei rogen ate such incredible calligraphies?” He re plied, (o-NI-ro-jen) toured internationally and released “Meditation, meditation, meditation for a very three full-length LPs and two EPs on the Deno - long time…then calligraphy with one quick ges - vali label. Since 2015 he has led the metal band ture.” I found the approach extremely poetic. Luminous Vault as vocalist and guitarist (Pro - The following week, Claire Chase arrived at found Lore Re cords). Born in Minnesota in 1979, the castle to work with me on Parábolas na he has lived in New York City since 2004. Caverna and play a solo concert. I planned to present Mend-Ooyo with a small piece, as a Edgard Varèse (1883 –1965) gesture of my gratitude. I decided that I would Edgard Varèse was a French composer who “meditate” or imagine the general character of spent the greater part of his career in the United a solo work for an entire evening, then States. Varèse’s music emphasizes timbre and wake up and write it in less than 30 minutes. rhythm, and he coined the term “organized The work uses the letters of G. Mend-Ooyo’s sound” in reference to his own musical aes - name as a starting point for the pitch material: thetic. Although his complete surviving works G (sol), Me (E-flat, from solfege), D (re), Do only last about three hours, he has been recog - (C). The vowel sounds from his name are also nized as an influence by several major com - used to modulate the flute when and posers of the late 20th century. Varèse saw playing simultaneously are required. potential in using electronic mediums for —Felipe Lara sound production, and his use of new instru - ments and electronic resources led to his being Lara known as the “Father of Electronic Music.” Parábolas na Caverna for amplified flute (2013 –14) The title refers to Plato’s “Parable of the Cave,” PART II (2014) a dialogue between Plato’s brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates, who is the narrator. In a Felipe Lara nut shell, Socrates describes a group of people Meditation and Calligraphy for bass flute who have been chained to the wall of a cave their From April to June 2014, I was fortunate to take entire lives, without ever experiencing reality. part in a residency at Civitella Ranieri, a 15th- The prisoners watch the shadows projected on century castle-turned-foundation and residence the wall of the cave by a fire behind them and in Umbria, Italy. One former fellow, G. Mend- ascribe names and meanings to the distorted Ooyo, a Mongolian poet and calligrapher, par - shadows of various objects and passers-by out - ticularly caught my attention. He was born and side of the cave. For (Plato’s) Socrates, the shad - raised by a nomadic herding family, on the ows are as true a view that the prisoners will ever Mongolian steppe; his work has been translated see of reality. For him, philosophy (as well as into 40 languages. knowledge and education) helps us liberate our - I asked him to show me some of his work and selves from such a cave, thus leading to a better he invited me to visit his studio in order to see understanding of the world. Parábolas was writ - the work he had produced during the residency ten for Claire Chase and is dedicated to Andreas at Civitella. Mend-Ooyo’s calligraphy particu - Waldburg-Wolfegg, Claire’s mentor and the larly impressed me. The bold gestures, ele - chair man of ICE’s board from 2007 –13. men tal lyricism, and minute details were —Felipe Lara astounding. The following afternoon, Mend- Ooyo presented me with two wonderful calli - Felipe Lara (b. 1979) gra phies, both in black and red pencil over a Praised by the New York Times as “a gifted Bra - yellow and gold paper; one with the Mongolian zilian-American modernist” whose works are symbol for music, the other with fire and water “brilliantly realized,” “technically formidable,

6b PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES wildly varied,” Felipe Lara’s work— which in - was at the time in Paris. His body became so cludes orchestral, chamber, vocal, film, elec tro - light, so immaterial, so evanescent that sud - acoustic, and popular music—engages in denly, limb by limb, he disintegrated and flew pro ducing new musical contexts by means of away toward Paris, where he was reconstructed, (re)interpreting and translating acoustical and as though all his being had become spirit.” extra-musical properties of familiar source —George Lewis sonorities into project-specific forces. His music has been recently commissioned by leading so - George Lewis (b. 1952) lo ists, ensembles, and institutions such as the George E. Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor Arditti Quartet, Brentano Quartet (with Hsin- of American Music at . A Yung Huang), Claire Chase, Conrad Tao, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Ensemble Inter Con temporain, Ensemble Mo - Sciences and a corresponding fellow of the Bri - dern, Helsinki Philharmonic , ICE, tish Academy, Lewis’ other honors include a Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Rebekah Heller. Mac Arthur Fellowship (2002), a Guggenheim Having previously taught at New York Uni ver - Fellowship (2015), a Artists Walk - sity’s Faculty of Arts and Science, he has been er Fellowship (2011), an Alpert Award in the visiting lecturer at Federal University of Bahia Arts (1999), and fellowships from the National (Salva dor, ) and currently teaches at Berk - Endowment for the Arts. Lewis studied com- lee College of Music’s Boston Conser va tory, po sition with at the Johns Hopkins Univer sity’s Peabody Insti tute, AACM School of Music, and with and , where he was awarded Dean Hey. A member of the Association for the a Harvard Excellence in Teaching Award (2017). Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) • • • since 1971, his work in electronic and computer George Lewis music, computer-based multimedia installa - Emergent for flute and electronics tions, and notated and improvisative forms is This work, written for Claire Chase’s Density documented on more than 150 recordings. 2036 project, addresses Edgard Varèse’s avowed Lewis received the 2012 SEAMUS Award from preference for sound-producing machines over the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the sound-reproducing ones by productively con - United States, and his book, A Power Stronger flating the two. The combination of relatively Than Itself: The AACM and American Experi - long digital delays, interactive digital spatializa - mental Music (University of Chicago Press, tion, and timbre transformation changes the 2008), received the American Book Award and fully scored flute material into a virtual, quasi- the American Musicological Society’s Music improvisative orchestral space, creating a dance in American Culture Award. He was elected among multiple flutists following diverse yet in - to honorary membership in the society in 2016. tersecting trajectories in which nonlinearity is Lewis is the co-editor of the two-volume Oxford invoked and uncertainty is assured. Rather than Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies presenting the redundant truism of a composer (2016), and his opera Afterword (2015) has “working with time,” this work is created in di - been performed in the United States (including a logue with my deliberate misprision of Varèse’s here at Cal Performances), United Kingdom, stated intention for his 1958 Poème électron - and Czech Republic. ique to introduce “a fourth [dimension], that of • • • sound projection,” to music. Varèse’s statement Matthias Pintscher seems to obliquely invoke the notion of space - Beyond (A System of Passing) time, an interpretation supported by a 1968 This work was written for account of one of the composer’s dreams that and Claire Chase, and was premiered by Pahud suggests the related notion of quantum telepor - at the Lucerne Festival in August 2013 and by tation as well as the sound of my piece: “He was Chase at The Kitchen in October 2014. Chase in a telephone booth talking to his wife, who describes it as a “21st-century Sequenza …the

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work stretches the limits of the instrument— Let yourself be silently drawn the instrument’s register in both directions, by the stronger pull of what you really love. its harmonic and chordal possibilities—and —Rumi evokes the extreme virtuosity (and humor) of Berio’s 1951 classic.” Over the years, I have written quite a few pieces for Claire, and each of them reflects who we Matthias Pintscher (b. 1971) were at the time, as well as our evolving under - Matthias Pintscher is the music director of the standing of each other. Ensemble Intercontemporain and principal As of late, I have been going back to relearn conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy. He the classical forms. Growing up, playing any of also continues his partnerships with the BBC the Sarabandes from Bach’s suites was one of Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Danish my favorite things to do. The playing always National Symphony Orchestra. Praised for his accompanied a sense of meditation, grief, be - interpretations of contemporary music, he reave ment, and transcendence. developed an affinity for repertoire of the late Historically, however, the sarabande had a 19th and early 20th centuries—Bruckner, the rather provocative and coquettish beginning. It French Romantic masters, Beethoven, Ber lioz, was said to have received its name in Seville Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, and the Second from a fiend in the form of a woman. The dance Vien nese School—along with a rich variety of was a group dance, mainly done by women, and contemporary scores. Pintscher works regularly was considered wild in manner and a highly with leading contemporary music ensembles sexual pantomime in nature, with undulations such as the , Klangforum of the body, massive hip movements, flirtations, Wien, Ensemble contrechamps, Avanti (Helsin- indecent song lyrics, and women using casta nets. ki), remix (Porto), and the Scharoun Ensemble. When it was introduced to France, the dance in - He joined the composition faculty at the Juilli - cluded men. They would occasionally use the ard School in 2014 and makes his home in New tambourine, which was considered effeminate York and Paris. in those days. People who sang it were arrested, • • • lashed, and exiled. In the piece, I also looked into the orthodox An Empty Garlic for bass flute and electronics 5th-century chant Xenia of Rome, and Her Two Female Slaves . In the hints of Bach’s famous You miss the garden, Sarabande (from the A-minor Partita for solo because you want a small fig from a random flute) that you hear at the beginning (and which tree. is present throughout the piece) we wordlessly You don’t meet the beautiful woman. discover a story told between Claire and a be - You are joking with an old crone. loved friend who had recently passed away. It makes me want to cry how she detains you, I often wonder about bereavement. When stinking mouthed, with a hundred talons, and how it pauses, recharges, morphs, and re - putting her head over the roof edge to call starts. Along the way, we possibly also hold down, bereavement reserved for ourselves. tasteless fig, fold over fold, empty I am so close to you, I am distant, I am so as dry-rotten garlic. mingled with you, I am apart, I am so open, I am hidden, I am so strong, I totter. She has you tight by the belt, This is a fruit of life to me: intoxicating, in even though there’s no flower and no milk exile, and always at home. inside her body. Written for Claire Chase, in memoriam Elise Death will open your eyes Mann. to what her face is: leather spine —Du Yun of a black lizard. No more advice.

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Du Yun (b. 1977) pression of what a low-range big flute, like con - Born and raised in , , and cur- tra or bass flute, does. rently based in New York City, Du Yun is a The title Lila means “play” in Sanskrit. composer, multi-instrumentalist and perfor - —Dai Fujikura mance artist. Her music exists at an artistic cross roads of orchestral, , thea - Dai Fujikura (b. 1977) ter, opera, cabaret, storytelling, , visu- Dai Fujikura was born in , Japan, and was al arts, and noise. In 2017 she won the Pulitzer 15 when he moved to the UK to complete his Prize for her opera Angel’s Bone , with a libretto secondary education. His works include , by , and National Public Radio orchestral pieces, ensemble works, chamber (USA) recently voted her as one of 100 signifi - music, and film scores. Fujikura has received cant compo sers under 40. Hailed by the New nu merous international co-commissions, and York Times as a leading figure in China’s new his music has been performed in Europe, Asia, generation of composers, Du Yun and her music and North and South America. He re cently held are championed by some of today’s finest the composer-in-residence position at Nagoya per forming artists, ensem bles, , and Philharmonic Orchestra. Fujikura has received or gan izations. As a performance artist, solo two BBC Proms commissions, his Double Bass engage ments include the 2012 Guangzhou Art was premiered by the Triennial (China) at the Guangzhou Opera Sinfonietta, and in 2013 the BBC Symphony House, and the National Academy Museum Orchestra gave the UK premiere of his Atom . (USA). Her ongoing colla borations of instal - Fujikura’s Tocar y Luchar was pre miered under lation-performance-video with the Pakistani the baton of Gustavo Dudamel with the Simón visual artist Shahzia Sikander have been on view Bolívar Youth Orchestra in Venezuela in 2011. in China, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zea land, He was recently named the artistic director of Turkey, Bangladesh, the United Arab Em irates, the Born Creative Festival in Tokyo Metro - and the United States. ArtForum describes the politan Theater for 2017, as well as composer- collaboration as “standout, sound utilized to its in-residence at the Orchestre natio nal d’Île-de- best effect.” Since 2014 she has been the artistic France and artist-in-residence at the Philhar - director of MATA Festival, an organi zation monic Chorus of Tokyo. dedi cated to commis sioning and pre senting • • • young composers from around the world. Francesca Verunelli The Famous Box Trick for bass flute and electronics PART III (2015) The Famous Box Trick (Illusions Fantasma - goriques) is a French short black-and-white Dai Fujikura silent trick film from 1898, directed by Georges Lila for flute, bass flute, and flute Méliès. In the words of writer Michael Brooke, This piece is based on the solo part of the flute the film “harks back to stage magic.” concerto that I have also written for Claire Chase. I found fascinating the hybrid texture of the Lila , as well as the , tells a story “trick,” which allows the spectator to position from the flute player’s point of view, starting himself in between the physical magic of the with a light poetic variety of sounds that are stage and the virtual “magic” of cinema—the produced and related by the player’s articula - corporeal vs. the incorporeal, biological time vs. tions, then dance-like cascades. After that there machine time. is a sensual romantic melodic line with quarter The spectator is suspended in between the tones, then a part with bass flute (or belief in the trick and the conscious awareness of ) overblowing, for which I it. This is not the case in modern cinema, where wanted to make fast rhythmic music that I the spectator is cut out from the “illusion” and thought would be an opposite to the usual im - can only believe in it from the “outside.”

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The flute inhabits corporeal sounds, includ - timbre and sonority” ( The New York Times ), ing the family of vocal sounds obtained by the elucidating the acoustics of instruments and the complex interactions of the voice with the in - fragile athleticism of playing them. He has strument. These are, paradoxically, made to written many works for ICE and its members, sound “fake” by a sound world of completely and has received commissions from Steven synthetic sounds realized by electronic means. Schick, the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, The result, like Meliès’ absurdist irony, is the Miller Theatre, the Ojai Music Festival (for reciprocal estrangement of the ontological na - Eighth Blackbird and an installation by sound- ture of each sound world. sculptor Trimpin), the , the La —Francesca Verunelli Jolla Symphony Chorus, SO Percussion, and Yarn/Wire. Albums of Davis’ music are avail - Francesca Verunelli (b. 1979) able on New Focus, Bridge, Tundra, and Stark - Francesca Verunelli studied composition with land, including On the Nature of Thingness and Rosario Mirigliano and with Stefano The Bright and Hollow Sky (performed by ICE). Fiuzzi at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in An active percussionist, Davis has pre miered Florence. She concluded her studies at the hundreds of pieces, working with established Acca demia Santa Cecilia with Azio Corghi. musicians and fostering emerging composers. Verunelli has received commissions from im- He has appeared as a concerto soloist with the portant musical institutions and festivals such , Tokyo Symphony, and Na - as IRCAM, NeueVocalsolisten Stuttgart, La goya Philharmonic. Biennale di Venezia, Orchestre Philarmo nique • • • de Radio France, Milano Musica, Accen tus Jason Eckardt Cham ber Choir, Lucerne Symphonic Orches - The Silenced – a monodrama for solo flute tra, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, The Silenced is a meditation on those who are Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and ICE. Upcom - muted, by force or by political, economic, or so - ing projects include new works for the Luxem - cial circumstances, yet still struggle to be heard. bourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Béla While composing the work, I was concerned Quartet and pianist Bertrand Chamayou, as with the ideas of trauma and self-expression well as her third string quartet, for Quatuor during and after a traumatic experience. This is Diotima. manifested musically by gagged, stifled sounds • • • that are perpetually in transition towards a Nathan Davis clearer articulation that is never fully reached. Limn for bass flute, contrabass flute, Significantly, it is the flute, not the voice, that and electronics comes closest to realizing a kind of expressive Written for Claire Chase for bass and contra - “purity,” free of the noise and interference that bass flute, Limn intimates the instrument by typify so much of multilayered sound strata in illuminating its edges. Its primary materials are the piece. tones—fragile and unstable sounds that The Silenced is dedicated with great love and dance around the overtone series of a phantom admiration to Claire Chase for her Density 2036 fundamental—and key mechanics, both flut - project. tering and brutal. These are sewn together with —Jason Eckardt Claire’s voice, aspirated and exhaled, and ex - tended with electronic processing. Jason Eckardt (b. 1971) —Nathan Davis Jason Eckardt played guitar in jazz and metal bands until, upon first hearing the music of Nathan Davis (b. 1973) Webern, he immediately devoted himself to Inspired by natural phenomena and the ab - composition. Since then, his music has been straction of simple stories, Nathan Davis “writes influenced by his interests in perceptual com - music that deals deftly and poetically with plex ity, the physical and psychological dimen -

8b PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES sions of performance, political activism, and her design. Oliveros performed extensively— self-organizing processes in the natural world. locally and in many parts of the world—in a va - He has been recognized through commissions riety of venues. Her music is performed widely from Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, the Kousse - by many notable musicians and ensembles. vitzky Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum, Oliveros’ works are recorded and available the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, through download sites, cassette, CD, DVD, New Music USA, Chamber Music America, the and vinyl releases. Compositions include Con - New York State Music Fund, Meet the Com - certo for Bass Drum and Ensemble commis - poser, the Oberlin Conservatory, and percus - sioned by ICE and performed in New York at sionist Evelyn Glennie; and awards from the in August 2013. /ISCM (National Prize), Deutschen Musikrat-Stadt Wesel (Symposium NRW Prize), the Fund, the PART IV (2016) New York State Council on the Arts, ASCAP, the University of Illinois (Martirano Prize), the Edgard Varèse Alice M. Ditson Fund, and Columbia Univer - Density 21.5 (1936), with a movement sity (Rapoport Prize). score (2016) by Julie Beauvais (version one) • • • For comments on Edgard Varèse and Density Pauline Oliveros 21.5 , please see p. 15b and p. 16b. Intensity 20.15: Grace Chase for Claire and the Expanded Instrument System (EIS) Julie Beauvais (b. 1978) Intensity 20.15 is inspired by text written by Julie Beauvais’ work is driven by her interests in Grace Chase, grandmother of Claire Chase, and embodied experience and elevation. She con - by the virtuosity and flexibility of Claire Chase centra tes on exploring the relationship between the performer. music, movement, and space. Beau vais’ diverse In addition to the text and many small per - works—in theater, opera, and installation— cussion instruments, the piece incorporates the have been performed and exhibited in many use of the Expanded Instrument System (EIS), coun tries. Not limited to the confines of the - a computer-controlled sound interface that I aters, her practice engages the broader public have designed and continued to evolve since sphere through hybrids of opera and monu - 1963. Sounds are picked up by microphone and mental installation art in public space. fed to different processing modules in the com - Beauvais is a Swiss artist who began her di - puter, then output to a multichannel sound recting career in the United States, producing array that distributes sound around the per - cho reographic works after graduating from the formance space. All sounds heard during the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. For seven years, performance are originated from the sounds she toured internationally, exploring different performed by Chase. EIS transforms sounds forms of epic theater in diverse political con - and plays them back. EIS is performative and is texts, leading to collaborations with Brazilian, played by Levy Lorenzo. Mongolian, and Nicaraguan artists and compa - —Pauline Oliveros nies. Since 2006 she has focused on the dynam - ics that lyrical voice provokes in the singer’s Pauline Oliveros (1932 –2016) body and, by extension, in the performing space. Pauline Oliveros was a composer and impro - In 2013 Beauvais founded BadNewsFrom - viser. She played a custom Titano acoustic ac - The Stars*, wh ose mission is to generate Ba - cordion and the Roland V Accor dion FR7X in roque and contemporary music works that are her solo and ensemble improvisations as well shared with audiences via installations, perfor- as the Expanded Instrument System (EIS), an mance art, or films. ever-evolving electroacoustic processing unit of

9 PROGRAM NOTES

Suzanne Farrin Mezzadri to Laura Cocks, Nicole Mitchell, and The Stimulus of Loss Claire Chase—all individuals who continue to for glissando headjoint and ondes Martenot stretch beyond the limits of that instrument in A friend introduced me to Emily Dickinson’s their own, personal way. I am indebted to all of letters. He quoted a phrase in a talk that I found these masters for their inspiration and courage astounding (“to multiply the harbors does not to further my writing for the flute. diminish the sea”). As I went searching for that Which brings u s to ’s Lair , a n explo - phrase, I began to read other letters along the sive tour-de-force written exclusively for Chase way, each with its own sparkling revelation of and myself (on drum set or unpitched percus - her genius. sion) that further exemplifies my penchant in —Suzanne Farrin exploring the improvisation-composition con - tinuum, as evidenced in my Trio for Harold Suzanne Farrin Budd (2012) and Ornations (2014). Suzanne Farrin’s music explores the interior One of the rarer members of the woodwind worlds of instruments and the visceral potenti - family, the instrument lovingly known as Bertha alities of sound. Her music has been performed (after whom this work is named) is anything but by some of today’s finest musicians on stages simply a contrabass flute; ostensibly there exists across Europe and North and South America. a seemingly vast amount of readily available Tim Page, the former critic of sonic possibilities to explore. However, I also , wrote: “If you can imagine found it necessary to create a work for this in - the dense, perfumed chords of Messiaen’s piano strument that is full of high, raucous energy— music combined with the clangorous, insistent, to write music that is counterintuitive to using near-pictorial tone-clusters of Frederic Rzew- certain “effects” that are more customary for the ski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, you will instrument (that is, to avoid as much as possi - have some idea of what Farrin’s work sounds ble the use of long, quiet, mysterious sounds, like. Yet it transcends its derivations to leave the whistle tones, etc.)—and focus more on shape, distinct impression of its own.” In addition to line, color, texture, ritual, and, most of all, composing, Farrin is a performer of the ondes the physicality of live performance on this par - Martenot, an early electronic instrument crea - ticular instrument. This avoidance principle is ted by the engineer Maurice Martenot in France strictly adhered to until the very last system of in the 1920s as a response to the simultaneous the composition. destruction and technological advances of WWI. This work is dedicated to the late Pauline Farrin performed a solo recital at the Abrons Oliveros, who was the first to compose a piece Art Center in New York City in March 2016 for Bertha to be performed by Chase, and who that included works by Sean Harold (USA), named the instrument at first hearing. Lars Peter Hagen (Norway), Alvin Lucier, Jacob —Tyshawn Sorey Kirke gaard (Denmark, co-composed with Far - rin), and Oliver Messiaen. Tyshawn Sorey (b. 1980) • • • Born and raised in Newark, NJ, Tyshawn Sorey Tyshawn Sorey blends composition and improvisation across a Bertha’s Lair for contrabass flute and drums variety of styles and genres. As an instru men - A colorful instrument of myriad possibilities talist, he is known for his skillful, open, groove- and beauty, the flute is an instrument that has oriented, and through-composed forms and for been central to much of the work that I have his virtuosity on drums, piano, and trombone. produced during recent years. The International Contemporary Ensemble, It has been a tre mendous honor for me to Spektral Quartet, and TAK En sem ble have have collaborated with some of the most bril - performed his compositions, which integrate liantly virtuosic practitioners on the flute, from African diasporic, Western classical, and avant- Margaret Lan caster, Alice Teyssier, and Malik garde musical forms. As a band leader, he has

20 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES released five critically acclaimed recordings of (b. 1971) his work. Sorey has been selected as a Danish Composer-pianist Vijay Iyer is the Franklin D. International Visiting Artist (2013) and for the and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts Other Minds Residency (2012). He has lectured at Harvard University. He was voted Downbeat on composition and improv i sation at Columbia magazine’s Jazz Artist of the Year for 2012, University, Banff Work shop in Jazz and Crea - 2015, and 2016, and has received a MacArthur tive Music, and the Hoch schule für Musik Köln, Fel low ship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist among other institutions. A 2015 Doris Duke Award, and a Grammy nomination. His 21 Impact Award re cipient, Sorey performs per - recordings include A Cosmic Rhythm with Each cussion, trombone, and piano nationally and Stroke (ECM, 2016) with , internationally with his ow n ensembles, and and Break Stuff (ECM, 2015) with his trio. Iyer with artists including Muhal Richard Abrams, serves as director of the Banff International , John Zorn, , Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, and was , Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo the music director for the 2017 Ojai Music Smith, , , Tim Festival. Berne, and . Sorey teaches at • • • Wesleyan University and in 2017 received a Pauchi Sasaki MacArthur “Genius” grant. Gama XV: Piece for Two Speaker Dresses • • • for flute, violin, electronic live processing, Vijay Iyer two vocals, and two speaker dresses Five Empty Chambers for tape Gama XV: Piece for Two Speaker Dresses ex - Every sound you hear in this piece will be gen - plores the relationship between air as sound erated by Claire Chase. My initial idea was to source, body as a medium of sound’s amplifica - build a piece for live flute and pre-recorded tion, and space as the container of the element’s audio. I asked Claire to record herself playing interaction. This composition features a new non-pitched material so that I could build some creation: Speaker Dress No. 2 (SD2), which is accompanying rhythms and textures. inspired by Claire Chase’s personal interpreta - I specified almost nothing about what I tion of the flute. As performers, we uncon - needed, and so what she sent me were not iso - sciously develop a body language around our lated individual sounds, but a series of virtu - instruments. Our bodies “dance” while playing, osic pitch-free impromptus on five different searching for pathways to fuse sound’s emis - flutes (contrabass flute, , flute, , sion with our gesture and physicality. In this and ). She displayed a different person - sense, my intention is to provide Claire with a ality on each instrument; it was like listening new experience of sound embodiment. In the to a cypher of whisper-quiet battle emcees, or first half of the piece, the body is able to be - perhaps a series of encounters with various in - come the instrument itself by wearing the SD, sect-robots, whirring and buz zing in the air in evidencing at the same time the movement’s front of you. lexicon of the performers. The second half of I decided I would treat each of her improvi - the composition integrates performers’ tradi - sations as an episode. I built a specific environ - tional instrumentation. ment around each one, and ran them through While in SD1, a usually soundless skin be - effects so that her extemporaneous rhythms comes the sound source for the dress; in SD2, were triggering other sounds. The more I sat respiration and unintelligible vocal sounds with the results, the more I realized that addi - shape the sonic palette. I wanted to visually in - tional flute might not be necessary. So I decided tegrate air into the design of SD2, since Claire’s to give Claire a break for this round. Thank you breathing performance is the inspiration of for listening. the sculpture. This visual manifestation was —Vijay Iyer achieved by the design of an accessory: a mask

2 PROGRAM NOTES

with several tubes connected to a purse that performer, and improviser who collaborates emanates negative ions, becoming an emulation active ly on projects linked to film, dance, thea - of an ar tificial “lung system.” Another functional ter, installation, and site-specific and inter disci - aspect of the mask is to isolate the headset’s re - plinary performances, Pauchi has performed ception of the sound amplified by the dress, internationally in Peru, Japan, Spain, Chile, avoiding any chance of feedback during the live Colombia, Switzerland, and the US. Her work processing. also focuses on the development of real-time —Pauchi Sasaki interactive music and self-designed instruments using Max Msp and circuit bend ing. This Pauchi Sasaki branch of her work seeks the em bodiment of Described by The Wire as an artist “unafraid of electronic music performance integrating the working within different disciplines and stylis - emission of electronic sounds with corporal tic constraints,” Pauchi Sasaki’s interdisciplinary expressivity. An act ive film scorer, Sasaki’s approach integrates musical composition with music is featured in more than 30 fea ture and the design of multimedia performances and the short films. application of new technologies. A composer,

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Claire Chase is a soloist, collaborative artist, cu - In 2015 she was honored with the prestigious rator, and advocate for new and experimental American Composers Forum Cham pion of music. Over the past decade she has given the New Music Award. world premieres of hundreds of new works Chase founded the International Con tempo- for the flute in performances throughout the rary Ensemble (ICE)—described as the United Amer icas, Europe, and Asia, and she has cham - States’ “foremost new-music ensemble” ( The pioned new music throughout the world by New Yorker )—in 2001, and is active as an en - building organizations, forming alliances, pio - semble member in ICE projects throughout the neering commissioning initiatives, and sup - world. ICE has premiered more than 800 works porting educational programs that reach new since its inception and has spearheaded an audiences. Chase was named a MacArthur Fel- artist-driven organizational model that earned low in 2012, and in 2017 was awarded the Avery the ensemble the Trailblazer Award from the Fisher Prize. Amer ican Music Center in 2010 and the En - Chase has released three celebrated solo al - semble of the Year Award in 2014 from Musical bums— Aliento (2010), Terrestre (2012), and America Worldwide. ICE can be heard in Density (2013)—and in 2014 launched Density dozens of recordings on the Tzadik, Mode, 2036 , a 22-year commissioning project to create Naxos, Bridge, New , New Focus, an entirely new body of repertory for solo flute Samadhi Sound, and Nonesuch labels, as well between 2014 and 2036, the centenary of Ed - as on its own online, streaming video library of gard Varèse’s groundbreaking 1936 flute solo, live performances, DigitICE. Densi ty 21.5. Later this month, she will release A deeply committed educator, Chase has world-premiere recordings of the 2014, 2015, overseen the development and implementation and 2016 Density cycles on a triple-album in of education programs such as The Listening collaboration with Meyer Sound Laboratories Room (for K –6 schoolchildren with no musi - in Berkeley. Chase was the 2009 Grand Prize cal background), EntICE (for middle-school Winner of the Concert Ar tists Guild Interna- and high-school youth orchestras in under - tional Competition, and made her critically served areas of New York City, Chicago, and acclaimed Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2010. Los Angeles), and a wide variety of collegiate

22 PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS and pre-professional training programs. She is Levy Lorenzo (sound designer and live electron - also the new co-artistic director, with her long - ics ), a Filipino-American born in Bucharest, time collaborator Steven Schick, of the Summer Romania, works at the inter section of music, Music Program at the Banff Centre for Arts and art, and technology. His work spans custom Creativity in Canada. In 2014 Chase was named electronics design, sound engineering, instru - an inaugural Fellow at Project&: Cultural Pro - ment building, installation art, free improvisa - duction with Social Impact. With Project&, she tion, and classical percussion. With a primary will develop several large-scale new works focus on inventing new instruments, he proto - exploring the relationship between language, types, composes, and performs new electronic ritual, and music. In 2015 Chase was music di - music. As an electronic art consultant, he de - rector and soloist in Salvatore Sciarrino’s Il signs interactive electronics ranging from small Cerchio Tagliato dei Suoni for 104 flutes, for sculptures to large public installations with which the Los Angeles Times praised her as a artists such as Alvin Lucier, Christine Sun Kim, “staggering virtuoso with the assurance of a Ligorano-Reese, and Leo Villareal. As a percus - rock star.” Last season, she led several perform - sionist, he co-founded the experimental the - ances of t his immersive 60-minute piece, fusing ater/electronics duo Radical 2 with Dennis contemporary performance and com munity Sullivan and is a member of the engagement. Septet. As a sound engineer, he specializes in Recent projects include solo tours in Asia, performing electro-acoustic concerts with non- Australia, and the Middle East; a residency with traditional configurations. He is also a member the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; perform - of the International Contemporary Ensemble. ances of Dai Fujikura’s new flute concerto; and Lorenzo’s work has been featured at STEIM, the release of a new double album in collabora - Harvestworks, MIT Media Lab, Ensemble tion with Meyer Sound Studios in early 2017. Modern, , BBC, Burning Man, and At home in New York, she will perform at the many other venues. He has collaborated with Brooklyn Academy of Music and Lincoln Cen - dancers, video artists, public artists, mathe - ter, as well as with ICE in community venues, maticians, sculptors, architects, and dra - public spaces, and elementary schools as part maturgs. Lorenzo holds an advanced degree in of the OpenICE initiative. electrical and computer engineering from Chase grew up in Leucadia (CA) with the Cornell, and a doctorate in percussion per - childhood dream of becoming a professional formance from Stony Brook University. He baseball player, before she discovered the flute. teaches at Hunter College and at CUNY College She received her BM from the of Technology. This season, he is scheduled to Conservatory of Music in the studio of Michel release the iLophone , a new chamber app in - Debost. Her other principal teachers were John strument for iPhone. Fonville and Damian Bursill-Hall.

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