Miller Theatre at Columbia University 2014-15 | 26th Season

Composer Portraits Anna Clyne Ensemble Signal Brad Lubman, conductor

Thursday, April 23, 8:00 p.m. From the Executive Director

Tonight, we’ll celebrate Anna Clyne in the final concert of this season’s Composer Portraits series. Clyne is a dynamic composer who has been on my wish list (and many others, I’m sure) for years. The works on the program span a decade, a fitting showcase of her riveting compositions.

We kicked off April with a musical tour-de-force pairing Helmut Lachenmann and J.S. Bach. We challenged Ensemble Signal to perform repertoire that bridges the centuries. The soloists Lauren Radnofsky and Ari Streisfeld took the challenge to its most extreme; the result was stunning.

We’ll close the Bach, Revisited series – and Miller’s 2014-15 season – with Sofia Gubaidulina + Bach on May 8. The pairing is a natural fit: Gubaidulina has expressed a devotion to Bach, and the music of both blends compositional rigor and emotional transcendence.

I’m delighted to say that our doors will stay open into June for our Pop-Up Concerts series. On June 2, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble will present works by fast-rising star Timo Andres, followed on June 3 by the long-awaited Pop-Up featuring piano trios by John Zorn.

It’s been an incredible 2014-15 season at Miller Theatre! Whether you joined us at the sold-out opening night with eight blackbird in September, a new work premiere during Composer Portraits, or a free Pop-Up concert, it has been a great pleasure sharing incredible music with you. Of course, I can’t wait to share the 2015-16 season! We’ll announce the news to our email list very soon, so be sure to sign up on our website. Thank you for being part of our adventurous community.

Melissa Smey Executive Director Miller Theatre at Columbia University 2014-15 | 26th Season

Composer Portraits Thursday, April 23, 8:00 p.m. Anna Clyne Ensemble Signal Brad Lubman, conductor

Fits + Starts (2003) Anna Clyne (b. 1980)

Lauren Radnofsky, cello

1987 (2008) Kelli Kathman, bass flute; Olivia De Prato, violin Lauren Radnofsky, cello; Adrián Sandí, bass clarinet

Rapture (2005) Adrián Sandí, clarinet

INTERMISSION

Onstage discussion with Anna Clyne and Brad Lubman

As Sudden Shut (2012-present) 1. “As Sudden Shut” 2. “The Lost Thought” 3. “Postponeless Creature”

Mellissa Hughes, Jamie Jordan, Kirsten Sollek, vocals

This program runs approximately ninety minutes, including intermission.

Major support for Composer Portraits is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts.

Please note that photography and the use of recording devices are not permitted. Remember to turn off all cellular phones and pagers before tonight’s performance begins. Miller Theatre is ADA accessible. Large print programs are available upon request. For more information or to arrange accommodations, please call 212-854-7799. About the Program

Introduction by Paul Griffiths

“My passion is collaborating with innovative and risk-taking musicians, film-makers, visual artists and, in particular, choreographers. Creating new works through a fluid artistic dialogue has consistently fueled my music from new perspectives and has maintained a fresh and exciting creative environment. Inspired by visual images and physical movement, my intention is to create music that complements and interacts with other art-forms, and that impacts performers and audiences alike.” — Anna Clyne

It would be easy to think of a piece by Anna Clyne as a landscape with a strange machine in one corner, or perhaps as a strange machine generating a landscape. It is the immediate sense of a scene – a scene of danger, perhaps, a scene of desire, a scene of memory. And it is how all these things, so human, are manifested by something manifestly artificial: a sound world aglow with electronics. And it is how that dichotomy, of human and artificial, is at once and constantly challenged. How can we think, in the twenty-first century, that circuits are different in kind from wooden boxes with strings stretched across them?

Narrative force is a key point, too – how the music tells a story, and takes us with it as it does so. This, as much as Clyne’s collaborative disposition, is what has made her contacts so fruitful with artists in the domains of dance, theatre, and film – though there is something also in her creative personality that inclines her music to spill over into other art forms. A fascinating clip posted by the Chicago Symphony shows her working on her orchestral piece Night Ferry with, tacked to the wall, a collage of her own making, in which a broad line snakes through color fields and Gustave Doré illustrations. Image is part of this music as well as narrative.

And yet what she creates is, after all, music, and its stories and images are first and foremost musical: stories and images about the orchestra, about the violin (Prince of Clouds, her concerto for two solo violins and strings), about the string quartet (Primula vulgaris). And though a lot of her pieces involve electronics, a lot, too, are thoroughly traditional in their resources. Night Ferry, Prince of Clouds, and Primula vulgaris, all works of the last five years, are significant examples. Born in London in 1980, Clyne has effectively been a U.S. composer since she moved to this country in 2002 to take a master’s course at the Manhattan School, where her teachers were Julia Wolfe and Nils Vigeland. She found many of her early opportunities in downtown venues in New York, and has retained a foot there while, since 2011, pursuing an association with the Chicago Symphony, which next month gives the first performance of her violin concerto The Seamstress, with Jennifer Koh as soloist. A portrait CD on the Tzadik label includes several of the pieces on tonight’s program.

Program Notes by Anna Clyne Fits + Starts for amplified cello and tape (2003) Fits + Starts was commissioned by the Hysterica Dance Co. of Los Angeles. The original tape version was premiered at the DUMBO Dance Festival, New York, in 2003, and the live version was premiered by cellist Benjamin Elton Capps at Greenfield Hall, New York, in 2004. The tape part comprises acoustic recordings of harpsichord, cello, and viola, which have been layered, manipulated, and transformed to create a backdrop for the solo cellist.

1987 for bass flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, and tape (2008) Memories tucked away and tangled in threads of beads in the corner of her glass box. The tape part for 1987 comprises a melody and winding sounds from a music box that my father gave my mother in their early days of courting, and the sounds of the carousel and pebbles at Brighton Beach in the South of England – a place of fond memories. The vocals were recorded by engineer Alan Labiner with vocalists Caleb Burhans and Martha Cluver at Carfax Abbey Studios, Brooklyn. 1987 was commissioned and premiered by the Seattle Chamber Players at “Ice Breaker IV: The American Future,” a concert curated by Alex Ross at On the Boards, Seattle.

Rapture for clarinet and tape (2005) Rapture was composed for Australian clarinetist Eileen Mack and was premiered at Symphony Space in New York City with live visuals created by Joshue Ott and his custom program, superDraw.

In performance, the live clarinetist is processed in real time with a combination of effects often associated with electric guitars; namely distortion and reverb. The transformed sound of the clarinet is supported with an intense tape part that comprises vocal recordings and recordings of Mack playing sounds that range from sustained tones to multiphonics. In a similar process to painting, these recordings were then spliced, manipulated, and layered to create the music of the tape part.

About the Program from As Sudden Shut for three female voices and ensemble (2012-present) 1. “As Sudden Shut” 2. “The Lost Thought” 3. “Postponeless Creature” Set for three female voices and chamber ensemble, these are the first three of five poems by Emily Dickinson intended for a multi-disciplinary evening. The complete cycle is being created in collaboration with animators/visual artists, a choreographer, and a librettist. There are moments in the music where room is left for the other elements to be explored, and this balance will likely be further exaggerated as the work develops to completion.

Through the settings of these poems, Dickinson is portrayed alone in her room; a confined space wherein magical worlds are imagined, remembered, and incarnated. They breathe into the space, and bleed through the walls and windows to the sky. The instrumentation was selected to create an intimate unveiling of, and window into, Dickinson’s world.

On the surface, the two opening movements are marked by simplicity and a sense of playfulness, through lilting melodic cells and buoyant rhythms, but with a sinister undertone always lurking and never too far away. At moments, the music fractures to reveal more chaotic passages or outbursts, guided by the text, both the image and the articulation and sound of the words. Pre-recorded electro-acoustic layers are eventually incorporated within the chamber ensemble, as the depths of the poet’s psyche are unveiled.

After writing her poem “The Lost Thought,” Dickinson revised it, capitalizing key words, adding her signature dashes, which would often indicate missing words or gasps, and even changing words, most notably replacing “reach” with “Sound.” These revisions dramatically alter the poem, both in meaning, and also in terms of how the poem appears visually on the page and how it is heard in recitation. Dickinson went on to write another, much more dramatically different version of this poem ten years later, at the request of her sister. It is the first two versions that are explored in this setting.

The incredibly eerie poem “Postponeless Creature” is set sparsely to create space for the other visual and staging elements to be explored. Texts and Translations

by Emily Dickinson

As Sudden Shut The Lost Thought (revised)

A door just opened on a street– I felt a Cleaving in my Mind— I, lost, was passing by– As if my Brain had split— An instant's width of warmth disclosed I tried to match it—Seam by Seam— And wealth, and company. But could not make it fit.

The door as sudden shut, and I, The thought behind, I strove to join I, lost, was passing by,– Unto the thought before— Lost doubly, but by contrast most, But Sequence ravelled out of Sound Enlightening misery. Like Balls—upon a Floor.

The Lost Thought (original) It's coming—the postponeless Creature I felt a cleaving in my mind As if my brain had split; It's coming—the postponeless Creature— I tried to match it, seam by seam, It gains the Block—and now—it gains the But could not make them fit. Door— Chooses its latch, from all the other The thought behind I strove to join fastenings— Unto the thought before, Enters—with a "You know Me—Sir"? But sequence ravelled out of reach Like balls upon a floor. Simple Salute—and certain Recognition— Bold—were it Enemy—Brief—were it friend— Dresses each House in Crape, and Icicle— And carries one—out of it—to God—

About the Artists

Lauren Radnofsky is founding cellist Signal, loadbang, and Periapsis Music & and co-Artistic/Executive director of En- Dance. An avid performer of new music, semble Signal. In this three-part role, she he regularly plays works by living com- manages all aspects of Signal’s varied sea- posers and has had the opportunity to son, including repertoire, program design, collaborate with Oliver Knussen, Tristan and project management, in addition to Murail, Steve Reich, John Zorn, Charles being a regular performer in the ensemble. Wourinen and Hilda Paredes. As an active With Signal, she has worked with com- solo recitalist, Adrián has given numerous posers including Helmut Lachenmann, chamber music and solo performances Steve Reich, Oliver Knussen, Michael throughout his musical career in differ- Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe and ent cities in Costa Rica, Panama, USA, has appeared at venues and festivals in- Canada, and China. cluding Lincoln Center Festival, Tangle- wood, Ojai Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, Brad Lubman, conductor/composer, is (le) Poisson Rouge, and the Bang on a Can founding Co-Artistic Director and Music Marathon. As a soloist, she has appeared Director of Ensemble Signal. Conducting with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra a broad range of repertoire from clas- performing Kaija Saariaho’s Amers and sical to contemporary works, Lubman the Wordless Music Orchestra in Jonny has led major orchestras including the Greenwood’s Doghouse for string trio and NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, DSO orchestra. She can be heard with Signal Berlin, RSO Stuttgart, St. Paul Chamber on recordings issued by Harmonia Mundi, Orchestra, and the National Symphony. Cantaloupe, New Amsterdam, and Orange He has worked with some of the most Mountain; she recently recorded Lachen- important ensembles for contemporary man’s Pression for Mode records. music, including Ensemble Modern, Lon- don Sinfonietta, Musik Fabrik, LA Phil Born and raised in San José, Costa Rica, New Music Group, Chicago Symphony Adrián Sandí is a freelancer in the NYC MusicNOW, and Steve Reich and Musi- metro area. He holds degrees from East- cians. Lubman has conducted at new- man School of Music, DePaul University, music festivals across Europe, including and Virginia Commonwealth Univer- those in Lucerne, Salzburg, Berlin, Paris, sity. Adrián is a member of Ensemble Cologne, Frankfurt, and Oslo. Lubman has conducted numerous world premieres, in- Lang, Julia Wolfe, Oliver Knussen, Hilda cluding Steve Reich’s Three Tales, Daniel Paredes, and Charles Wuorinen. Signal’s Variations, Radio Rewrite, and Variations recordings are available on Cantaloupe, for Vibes, Pianos and Strings, Helmut Mode, Orange Mountain, and New Lachenmann’s Concertini, Michael Gor- Amsterdam Records. don/David Lang/Julia Wolfe’s Shelter, and works by Philip Glass, Charles Wuorinen, Upcoming highlights include the co- John Zorn, and Hilda Paredes. His own commission of a new work by Steve music has been performed in the USA Reich; the performance of Reich’s video and Europe, and can be heard on his CD, opera Three Tales; and the performance Insomniac, on Tzadik. Brad Lubman is on of David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia faculty at the Eastman School of Music Wolfe’s video opera Shelter at Walt Disney and the Bang on a Can Summer Institute. Concert Hall in May 2015. Additionally, Signal makes its Harmonia Mundi debut Ensemble Signal, described by the in May 2015 with Music for 18 Musicians. New York Times as “one of the most vital groups of its kind,” is a New York- Tonight’s Performers: based ensemble. Since its debut in 2008, Mellissa Hughes, voice the Ensemble has performed over 100 Jamie Jordan, voice concerts and has given the New York, Kirsten Sollek, voice world, or U.S. premieres of over 20 works. Kelli Kathman, flutes Signal was founded by Co-Artistic/ Alice Teyssier, flute Executive Director Lauren Radnofsky Katie Cox, flute and Co-Artistic Director/Conductor Brad Adrián Sandí, clarinets Lubman. A “new music dream team” Brad Balliett, contrabassoon (Time Out New York), Signal regularly Bridget Kibbey, harp performs with Lubman and features a David Friend, harpsichord supergroup of independent artists from Bill Solomon, percussion the modern music scene. Signal has Carson Moody, percussion performed at Lincoln Center Festival, BIG Olivia De Prato, violin EARS Festival, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Will Knuth, violin Hall, Ojai Music Festival, Miller Theatre, Victor Lowrie, viola Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Bang Lauren Radnofsky, cello on a Can Marathon. Signal has worked Greg Chudzik, bass with artists and composers including Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Irvine Paul Coleman, sound director Arditti, Kristian Bezuidenhout, David Brad Lubman, conductor

About the Artists About Miller Theatre

Miller Theatre at Columbia University is the leading presenter of new music in New York City and one of the most vital forces nationwide for innovative programming. In partnership with Columbia University School of the Arts, Miller is dedicated to producing and presenting unique events, with a focus on contemporary and early music, jazz, and multimedia. Founded in 1988, Miller has helped launch the careers of myriad composers and ensembles, serving as an incubator for emerging artists and a champion of those not yet well known in the U.S. A four- time recipient of the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming, Miller continues to meet the high expectations set forth by its founders—to present innovative programs, support new work, and connect creative artists with adventurous audiences.

Advisory Committee Paul D. Carter Mark Jackson Margo Viscusi* Mary Sharp Cronson* Eric Johnson Mr. and Mrs. George Votis* Stephanie French* Philip Mindlin Cecille Wasserman* Marcella Tarozzi Goldsmith Linda Nochlin Elke Weber Karen Hagberg Peter Pohly I. Peter Wolff* * Miller Theatre Advisory Board member Columbia University Trustees Jonathan D. Schiller, Chair Lee C. Bollinger, Benjamin Horowitz A’Lelia Bundles, Vice Chair President of the University Ann F. Kaplan Noam Gottesman, Vice Chair William V. Campbell, Jonathan Lavine Mark E. Kingdon, Vice Chair Chair Emeritus Charles Li Esta Stecher, Vice Chair Lisa Carnoy Paul J. Maddon Rolando T. Acosta Kenneth Forde Vikram Pandit Armen A. Avanessians Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. Michael B. Rothfeld Andrew F. Barth James Harden Claire Shipman Marc Holliday Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Columbia University School of the Arts Carol Becker Dean of Faculty Jana Hart Wright Dean of Academic Administration Miller Theatre Staff Melissa Smey Executive Director Charlotte Levitt Director of Marketing & Outreach Brenna St. George Jones Director of Production James Hirschfeld Business Manager Nora Sørena Casey Marketing & Communications Associate Megan Harrold Audience Services Manager Katherine Bergstrom Artistic Administrator Taylor Riccio Production Coordinator Rhiannon McClintock Executive Assistant

Aleba & Co. Public Relations The Heads of State Graphic Design Thanks to Our Donors Miller Theatre acknowledges with deep appreciation and gratitude the following organizations, individuals, and government agencies whose extraordinary support makes our programming possible.

$25,000 and above Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts Dow Jones Foundation H. F. (Gerry) Lenfest National Endowment for the Arts

$10,000 - $24,999 William V. Campbell Fritz Reiner Center for Contemporary Music The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation The Aaron Copland Fund for Music at Columbia University The Evelyn Sharp Foundation Mary Sharp Cronson The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Margo and Anthony Viscusi New York State Council on the Arts $5,000 - $9,999 The Amphion Foundation CLC Kramer Foundation Craig Silverstein Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation

$1,000 - $4,999 Rima Ayas Carol Avery Haber / Haber Family Jessie and Charles Price Barbara Batcheler Charitable Fund Peter Pohly Susan Boynton Karen Hagberg and Mark Jackson Christopher Rothko Paul D. Carter Donella and David Held J. P. Sullivan Hester Diamond Roger Lehecka Cecille Wasserman R. H. Rackstraw Downes Philip Mindlin Janet C. Waterhouse Marcella Tarozzi Goldsmith Linda Nochlin Elke Weber and Eric Johnson Christine and Thomas Griesa Jeanine and Roland Plottel Anonymous

$500 - $999 Oliver Allen Stephanie French Marian M. Warden Fund of the Foundation for Regula Aregger Claude Ghez Enhancing Communities Mercedes Armillas Mary and Gordon Gould Katharina Pistor ASCAP James P. Hanbury James Sharp Elaine S. Bernstein John Kander Cia Toscanini Cedomir Crnkovic / Cavali Foundation Mark Kempson and Janet Greenberg Kathryn Yatrakis Kristine and Joseph Delfausse Paul J. Maddon

$100 - $499 Gail and James Addiss June O. Goldberg Mary and Andrew Pinkowitz Edward Albee Richard Gray Edmée B. Reit Roger Bagnall Barbara Harris Monique Rinere in honor of James F. Rinere Sandra and Marc Bernstein Frances and Raymond Hoobler Carol Robbins Andrew Birsh Bernard Hoffer Esther Rosenberg and Michael Ostroff Jim Boorstein Alan Houston and Lisa DeLange William Ryall Alexandra Bowie and Daniel Richman Frank Immler and Andrew Tunick Mariam Said Elizabeth and Ralph Brown Sandra and Malcolm Jones Eliisa Salmi-Saslaw Caplan Family Foundation William Josephson James Schamus and Nancy Kricorian Richard Carrick and Nomi Levy-Carrick Rebecca Kennison Elliot Schwartz Rashmy Chatterjee L. Wilson Kidd, Jr. Anita Shapolsky Ginger Chinn and Reggie Spooner Sandra Kincaid Timothy C. Shepard and Andra Georges Gregory Cokorinos Barbara and Kenneth Leish Gilbert Spitzer and Janet Glaser Spitzer Merry Conway Arthur S. Leonard Peter Strauss Norma Cote Richard H. Levy and Lorraine Gallard Jim Strawhorn David Demnitz Peter C. Lincoln Larry Wehr Vishakha Desai and Robert Oxnam Patricia Lowy and Daniel Frank Seymour Weingarten Rosamund Else-Mitchell Caroline and Anthony Lukaszewski Ila and Dennis Weiss Peter and Joan Faber Marghretta McBean Elizabeth Wheeler Ruth Gallo Gerald McGee Anonymous Marc Gilman Susan Narucki as of January 20, 2015 Upcoming Events Friday, May 8, 8:00 p.m. BACH, REVISITED Sofia Gubaidulina + Bach

Tuesday, June 2 doors at 5:30 p.m., music at 6:00 p.m. POP-UP CONCERTS American Contemporary Music Ensemble

Wednesday, June 3 doors at 5:30 p.m., music at 6:00 p.m. POP-UP CONCERTS Trios by Zorn

Save the Date Tuesday, May 5, 7:00 p.m. SPRING SOIRÉE to benefit Miller Theatre Hosted by Jeanine & Roland Plottel The Cosmopolitan Club For more infomation email [email protected]

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