2010 Next Wave Festival DEC 2010

Elliott Puckette, Untitled, 2008

Published by: BAM 2010 Next Wave Festival is part of Diverse Voices at BAM sponsored by: 2010 Next Wave Festival

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board

Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer

presents Gravity Radio

Approximate BAM Harvey Theater running time: Dec 7, 9—11, 2010 at 7:30pm one hour, no intermission Conceived, written, and directed by Mikel Rouse

Set & video design by Jeffery Sugg Sound design by Christopher Ericson Lighting design by Hideaki Tsutsui Musical direction by Matthew Gandolfo

Commissioned by BAM for the 2010 Next Wave Festival

BAM 2010 Next Wave Festival is part of Diverse Voices at BAM sponsored by Time Warner Inc.

Leadership support for the Next Wave Festival provided by The Ford Foundation.

Endowment funding for Gravity Radio has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Opera and Music-Theater.

Additional support for Gravity Radio provided by The Cowles Charitable Trust, Amphion Foundation, and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music. Gravity Radio

Additional credits

Music and lyrics by Mikel Rouse Gravity Radio film produced and directed byMikel Rouse Gravity Radio film edited byJeff Carpenter Production manager William Knapp

Newsreader Claire Kenny Conductor/newsreader assistant/vocals Matthew Gandolfo Guitars and vocals Mikel Rouse Violin Kristi Helberg Violin Nanae Iwata Viola Kyle Armbrust Cello Julia Maclaine Vocals Sarah Emley Vocals Eryn Murman

Mikel Rouse appears by arrangement with: Double M Arts & Events, LLC PO Box 206 City Island, NY 10464-0206

Gravity Radio was commissioned by and made possible in part through the financial support of BAM, The Luminato Festival, The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and Carolina Performing Arts. Additional support for Gravity Radio was received from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, the Walton Arts Center, Juniata College, and Cuyahoga Community College. Thank you. Note

Claire Kenny & Mikel Rouse. Photo: Valerie Oliveiro

GRAVITY RADIO—A Song Cycle

Gravity Radio is a song cycle of 14 songs structurally interspersed with six actual radio reports utilizing stories taken from the AP Newswire, and is inspired by physicist Raymond Chiao’s experiments with superconductors and gravity waves—which exist in theory but have eluded detection. The song cycle is approximately 65 minutes in duration.

Instrumentation is modular ranging from one singer/guitarist, shortwave radio, newsreader, and string quartet to a larger ensemble of strings, brass, woodwinds, bass, drums, keyboard, and chorus. While it was necessary to create full scores for the string quartet, the recording incorporates various forms of improvisation.

Gravity Radio continues my interest in utilizing complex structures within the framework of vernacular music. Conventional tunings as well as open G and drop D tunings are used in the first half of the cycle, moving through A Major to arrive at B flat Major for the song “The Gravity of New Orleans.” The culmination of the song cycle re-harmonizes earlier material up a whole step to A Major and returning to open G for the final song. Similarly, identical metric patterns of 5, 7, and 9 are used to link songs in the cycle.

The radio reports’ musical function is to introduce this material in a retrograde fashion so that the reports and songs form an arc, which meets roughly in the middle (for the medley “Blue Book/Star Chamber/Rose Woods”). In a similar use of foreshadowing, key fragments of lyrics from the songs are folded into the actual radio reports thus anticipating their arrival later in the cycle. Because the radio reports change daily with each performance, multiple meanings and inferences are created in combi- nation with the stationary text/lyrics.

—Mikel Rouse Who’s Who

Mikel Rouse (creator) is a New York-based Matthew Gandolfo (musical director) scored the composer, director, performer, and recording art- off-Broadway musical Dressingroom in 2001, ist hailed by The New York Times as “a composer which led to a position as resident composer many believe to be the best of his generation.” with Castle Shakespeare Repertory where he His works include 25 records, seven films, and scored dozens of productions from The Velveteen a trilogy of media operas: Failing Kansas, Dennis Rabbit to Oedipus (The Players Theatre, New Cleveland, and The End Of Cinematics (BAM York). Having toured with Rouse as vocal director 2006 Next Wave). His work has frequently for The End Of Cinematics (BAM 2006 Next appeared on Top Ten lists around the country. Wave Festival) and Dennis Cleveland (Luminato In 1995, Rouse premiered and directed the Festival, 2008), Gandolfo is honored to again be first opera in his trilogy, Failing Kansas, inspired a part of Rouse’s work. by ’s In Cold Blood. This led to an emerging art form he calls “counterpoetry,” Kyle Armbrust (violist) has performed as soloist which involves the use of multiple unpitched with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, St. voices in counterpoint. In 1996 Rouse pre- Petersburg Philharmonic, Lake George Cham- miered and directed the modern talk show opera ber Orchestra, Maple City Chamber Orchestra, Dennis Cleveland, hailed by the Village Voice Musica Bella Orchestra, Woodstock Festival as “the most exciting and innovative new opera Orchestra, and with Kurt Masur and the Juilliard since Einstein on the Beach.” The third opera Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall. He has been in his trilogy, The End Of Cinematics, premiered described as “assured, brilliant, and stylish” in at the Krannert Center in the fall of 2005. In The New York Times and “musically mature” and fall 2006, Rouse embarked on a major tour of “technically sound” in the New York Post. An ac- The End Of Cinematics. In addition to BAM, tive chamber musician, Armbrust has performed stops included Carolina Performing Arts, the at Bargemusic, Caramoor, Charlottesville Cham- University of Florida at Gainesville, Liverpool, ber Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, and the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. Rouse Moritzburg Festival, Thurnauer Chamber Music has also operated on a more intimate scale Society, and Ravinia. As a founding member of as a solo live performer, traversing the globe the Phaedrus String Quartet he gave recitals at with a song-and-video storytelling piece called the Aix en Provence, Schleswig Holstein, and Music For Minorities. A new piece for the Merce Verbier Festivals and collaborated with Nicholas Cunningham Dance Company premiered in Angelich, Yuri Bashmet, Joshua Bell, Dimut in 2006. The piece was scored Poppen, and Yevgeny Sudbin. In 2005 Armbrust for multiple iPods set to “shuffle” so that each was invited to perform with Itzhak Perlman and audience member had a different realization of Yo-Yo Ma at the Neue Gallery in New York. He the score. The music for the piece, International has also worked with Herbie Hancock, Lauren Cloud Atlas, was released on iTunes and was Hill, Mya, and Sting and made his first small available for download prior to the premiere. screen appearance on the second season of the Rouse has received commissions from BAM, show 30 Rock. In addition to his solo and cham- Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, and the Meet ber music activities, Armbrust was recently the Composer/Reader’s Digest Commissioning named principal viola of the Westchester Program. His compositions have been performed Philharmonic as well as assistant principal viola at , David H. Koch Theater, Alice of the New Jersey Symphony. He served as Tully Hall, and throughout the US and Europe. principal viola of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra More information is available at mikelrouse.com. during the 2008—09 season and is currently a Mikel Rouse’s music is available on iTunes. substitute member of the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. He also performs with the Knights Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of the League of Composers. Armbrust Who’s Who was awarded first prize in the Chicago Viola Nanae Iwata (violinist), from Japan, has been a Society, Midwest Young Artists, and Juilliard veteran of the stage since the age of three. She Competitions, as well as the Faber Prize at the has gone on to give performances across four 2003 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competi- continents in venues such as Carnegie Hall, tion. He received his bachelor’s, master’s, and Alice Tully Hall, Paul Hall, Jordan Hall, Amadeo artist diploma from the Juilliard School where Roldand Hall in Cuba, Old University Auditorium he studied with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, in Austria, and Denki Bunka-Kaikan in Japan. and Michael Tree. “Iwata performed with the ideal contrast of rhythmical bite and expansive lyricism. The Sarah Emley (vocalist) earned her BBA from the opening cadenza of Ravel’s Tzigane was rivet- McCombs School of Business at the University ing and exquisitely done, with lovely nuances of Texas and is a former president of the UT of sound and phrasing,” (Anthony Aibel, New Concert Chorale. After graduation she worked York Concert Review). Iwata has also made ap- for Clear Channel Radio, Emmis Austin Radio pearances at festivals such as the Aspen Music Broadcasting, Austin Music Network, and Festival, the Mozarteum Acadamie, and the assisted major global investment analysts with Saito Kinen Festival. In 2005, by personal invi- their research at Gerson Lehrman Group. In ad- tation of Seiji Ozawa, Iwata played in the Tokyo dition to performing back-up vocals on a number Opera no Mori Orchestra receiving recognition of projects for artists such as Muchos Backflips, as its youngest member. Her recent perfor- Whitman, Caldwell Shine, and Scott Rotge, she mances include a Carnegie Hall debut recital, has opened for major musicians such as Bob Mozart’s D Major Violin Concerto with both the Schneider and Lee Ann Womack. Emley contin- Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra and Ichinomiya ues to sing classical, contemporary, and operatic Chamber Orchestra (Japan), and Bach’s Con- solos for private weddings and events across the certo for Oboe and Violin with the Lake George country and has performed at Carnegie Hall. Chamber Orchestra. Iwata earned both her BM Emley’s greatest accomplishment will be the and MM at the Juilliard School where she was release of her first full-length album titled Sarah- a full-scholarship student under the tutelage of monies in the winter of 2010. She is married to Masao Kawasaki and Ronald Copes. She has Stephen Simpson. coached with world-renowned teachers such as Jacob Lateiner, Igor Ozim, Robert Mann, Earl Kristi Helberg (violinist) enjoys spanning many Carlyss, Sadao Harada, Bonnie Hampton, and musical and cultural settings, from performing in Jonathon Feldman. Currently, she is a mem- Austria’s Salzburg Festival under the patron- ber of the Knights, an imaginative and diverse age of the Vienna Philharmonic to the context ensemble that performs programs ranging from of living and performing on a biodynamic farm chamber ensemble works to full-scale sympho- in Canada with Symphony in the Barn. With nies. In October 2008, the Knights completed a tendency toward the experimental, she has a Grammy-nominated recording of American premiered over 30 compositions including col- works featuring Copland, Ives, and Dvorak (Sony laborations with Alarm Will Sound and MATA’s Classical). NOW! Festival. Helberg wears several hats as a performer, including violinist of the New York- Claire Kenny (newsreader) is thrilled to return based ensemble the Knights and the Caravel to Gravity Radio, following her appearance in String Quartet, and she has performed regularly January’s world premiere tour. As a member of with the Houston Symphony, New Jersey Sym- Dog Run Rep, Kenny appeared in Twelfth Night phony, and Sarasota Opera. She earned a BM and as Peaseblossom in A Midsummer Night’s and MM from Rice University and furthered her Dream, as well as workshopping their world professional studies at the Manhattan School of premiere of Hilary Bettis’ American Girls. Other Music with Glenn Dicterow. favorite ventures include Ophelia in York Shake- Who’s Who speare’s Hamlet; Deborah in Sexual Perversity in Lortel Awards) and The Truth: A Tragedy Chicago; A Christmas Carol and The Secret Gar- (production design, Soho Rep). He has also den with the Hampstead Players; and the short worked with many renowned companies and films Circle and Pretzel Time. artists including Laurie Anderson, Lee Breuer, Richard Foreman, and The Wooster Group. Julia Maclaine (cellist) is from Canada and has been praised by The New York Times for her “rich Christopher Ericson (sound designer) is an tone,” “sweet, throbbing vibrato,” and “superb assistant professor of theater at the University playing.” She has performed at Carnegie Hall as of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also serves a member of Ensemble ACJW and as a soloist as the audio director for Krannert Center for the and chamber musician throughout Europe, Performing Arts. Previously, Ericson was the North and South America, and Iceland. As well production manager for Carolina Performing Arts as being a co-founder of the Ikarus Chamber at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Players, Maclaine is a member of the Knights, Music for Farms, and the Tres Americas Project. Hideaki Tsutsui (lighting designer) has worked She has performed with many other New York- in New York as the lighting designer for Osvaldo based ensembles including Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Golijov’s La Pasión Según San Marcos, Moscow Ensemble, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Circus USA tour, and Mikel Rouse’s The End Of Center, and the International Contemporary Cinematics, which was featured in Live Design Ensemble (ICE). Magazine. Tsutsui was the lighting designer and VP of operations for Eggshell Lighting in Hawaii, Eryn Murman (vocalist) is thrilled to perform where he designed numerous corporate events, with Mikel Rouse in Gravity Radio at BAM. Her concerts, and television shows. He was recently recent credits include Spring Awakening on appointed as lighting designer for Tony Award- Broadway and Iphigenia in a new adaptation of winning choreographer Garth Fagan Dance. Gravity Iphigenia at Aulis in Toronto. Murman also con- Radio is his fifth show working with Rouse. ceived, directed, choreographed, and performed Tsutsui is the assistant professor of lighting in Caught in the Threshold at the Peter J. Sharp design at the University of Texas at El Paso and Theatre in New York. erynmurman.com continues to work for clients around the world.

Jeff Sugg (video and set designer) is a New William Knapp (production manager) is a York-based artist, designer, and technical advisor. production manager and lighting director working He is a co-founding member of the performance primarily in dance. In addition to his work with group Accinosco with Cynthia Hopkins and Jim Mikel Rouse, Knapp has worked with Merce Findlay and co-designed their critically acclaimed Cunningham, Martha Clarke, Michael Moschen, Accidental Trilogy (2007 Bessie Award). Other Shen Wei, Susan Marshall, Richard Foreman, theater designs include: 33 Variations (projec- Big Dance Theater, and many more. He is very tions, Broadway; 2009 Henry Hewes Award), honored to be back working on Gravity Radio Brooklyn Omnibus (co-design: set and projec- with Mikel Rouse. tions, BAM 2010 Next Wave), Compulsion (projections, Berkeley Rep), Making It (co- design: set and projections, St. Ann’s Ware- house), As You Like It (projections, Shakespeare Theatre), The Book of Grace (projections, The Public), ¡El Conquistador! (lights, New York Theatre Workshop), The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island (co-design, set and projections, Vineyard Theatre; 2008 Henry Hewes, Obie, and Lucille Lyrics

Report 1 As if history turned a page With opportunity all the rage it seemed Wait For Me Well, everybody she knows is tight If I get hypnotized And in recovery for the night and day Slack jawed before your eyes But they’ll be serving a world at war If I met Lucifer About a minute and nothing more to say Here’s what I’d say to her: And every morning before the sun Lift up your skirt Before reality has begun in bars What could it hurt? Take a number and get in line For a day of what’s yours and mine and ours Love comes to those who wait Those who wait for me When I’m bored I can’t be bored with you Love comes to those who wait for me (Black cracker, black cracker Oooo) When I’m blown I can’t be blown in two And if you get mystified (Black cracker, black cracker Oooo) Pedaling side by side You’d be a sweet hotel When I wonder what I wouldn’t do Perfect for shaken well (Black cracker, black cracker Oooo) I will wait in single file for you Lift up your skirt (Black cracker, black cracker Oooo) What could it hurt? When I’m bored I can’t be bored with you Love comes to those who wait When I’m blown I can’t be blown in two Those who wait for me When I wonder what I wouldn’t do Love comes to those who wait for me I will wait in single file for you

(Love comes to those, wait for me) Me and this girl was talkin’ loud (Love comes to those, wait for me) About America stickin’ out of reach As if history turned a page If I get Easter-bound With opportunity all the rage it seemed Crosses to dance around When I met Lucifer Well, everybody she knows is tight Here’s what I said to her: And in recovery for the night and day But they’ll be serving a world at war Lift up your skirt About a minute and nothing more to say What could it hurt? When I’m bored I can’t be bored with you Love comes to those who wait (Black cracker, black cracker Oooo) Those who wait for me When I’m blown I can’t be blown in two Love comes to those who wait for me (Black cracker, black cracker Oooo)

When I wonder what I wouldn’t do Black Cracker (Black cracker, black cracker Oooo) I will wait in single file for you Me and this girl was talkin’ loud (Black cracker, black cracker Oooo) About America stickin’ out of reach Lyrics

And every morning before the sun I traded knowledge for tape decks and beer Before reality has begun in bars Caroling cocktails and all I hold dear Take a number and get in line Now the world’s ending did you ever hear For a day of what’s yours and mine and ours You should stay in school?

Carry over, sitting sober Report 2 As the money rolls away Take the last holiday Silence Of Sound Can you spot me half a century? If I’m broken, I’m broken beside you If I’m in your thoughts today And when I’m looking for someone to run to Give me the right of way And if you’re thinkin’: I’m sinkin’ slowly To have an hold you my one and if only… Glossing over Casanova Sitting in the last café You could be here hangin’ around Feeling my age each day Year after year near to the ground Silence of sound I convinced everyone nothing is free Left out the part that was all about me And if I wander, I wander around you Now the world’s ending did I ever see A semicircle of heaven and hell too You should stay in school? A karaoke machine that won’t quit A song to nowhere, hit after hit and if… Report 3 You could be here hangin’ around Watching the waves near to the ground I’m So Blue Silence of sound Take the pillowcases, baby take the sheets And if I’m able I’ll manage a phone call Maybe I don’t want them To check your ankle and catch your free fall And maybe you could meet me half way in the The kitchen’s crowded, the blender’s a riot middle ‘Cause here in Clinton, we keep things quiet The middle where I’m bound to be If we’re stuck in cement, nothing near sublime If you could be here hanging around Giving up to reason, patterns over time Year after year, silence of sound It took years for us to shape them Near to the ground, silence of sound Years to leave the love behind

But I’m so blue Stay in School That I love you

Casanova, roll right over Yes I’m going crazy, I’ve been there before Sitting in the last café Standing by for mercy Acting my age half way One foot out the door where I was when you forgot me Cars exploding, markets folding Where I’ll be when you’re alone No one shops here anyway Calvary meets Chevrolet Gift imagination’s possibility Blowin’ dreams that blossom Lyrics

Insecurity inside a reputation Star Chamber A never land that’s unredeemed Well it’s a star chamber for every stranger But I’m so blue Take good money off the table That I love you Turn it down and spread it ‘round – everybody sing! Through the rear view mirror as you wave goodbye It’s a star chamber, every wafer Did you ever wonder Take communion slap a savior When I learned to drive myself over my reactions Take time off for good behavior – everybody sing! Over my mind gone blind Well it’s a Star Chamber, slippery banker And when you go to garden, leveling your guide Miss the boat and miss the manger Catching conversation, making love to life Take time off for good behavior – everybody sing! It goes on about its business It don’t suffer for its crimes It’s a star chamber from every angle Take a break from either angel But I’m so blue Take one down, pass it ‘round – everybody sing! That I love you Yes I’m so blue That I love you Rose Woods

And when you think the worst is over Blue Book You know the worst has just begun And if you’re livin’ for the loophole Everybody reads my Blue Book Well, I was one Everybody reads my Blue Book yeah Whatever you’ve done becomes undone

Everybody reads the morning paper But they get sick and tired of you Everybody got the same advice And Rose Woods wonders what to do Everybody loses what they wager Everybody got the lowest price I wasn’t clumsy, not by nature I wasn’t beating on a drum Everybody wants to read - everybody reads my But when they took the bread and butter Blue Book Well, I was hung Everybody wants to read - everybody reads my About time the law had won Blue Book yeah But they will break your heart in two Everybody signs the same agreement And Rose Woods wonders what to do Everybody sleepwalks loud and long Yes they will break your heart in two Everybody pitches for the same team And Rose Woods wonders what to do Everybody wonders what went wrong

Everybody wants to read - everybody reads my Blue Book Everybody wants to read - everybody reads my Blue Book yeah Lyrics

Report 4 Slip into your low rent Slip into your low rent The Gravity Of New Orleans I’ll be there waiting with colorful savings Or silent investors and broken defectors If life was a nickel and death was a dime For every room I’d spend all my money all of the time A fistful of dollars to squander at will And hurricane glasses waiting to fill Report 5

Up and down when they fall apart Yawn Factory ‘Round and ‘round when they fall apart Move over, move over The gravity of New Orleans Move over, move over The gravity of New Orleans When you get tired of life If wishes were horses then bankers would ride When you cannot think twice On half-hearted levies with nowhere to hide Melting a welfare dime The future of family forgot and for sale Drifting from time to time With memory markers and fate out on bail I say half day I say no way Up and down when they fall apart Yawn factory wish you were me ‘Round and ‘round when they fall apart I say half day I say NO

The gravity of New Orleans The gravity of New Orleans Age Of Toys

Your business sense is late; I can’t wait Low Rent Your love affairs go wrong, tag along Your life’s a mystery date; I can’t wait I am waiting for some sign of life to appear But the end of this wait is drawing near Heaven told me you was lonely Dropping anchor just to thank her Slip into your low rent For all the noise, the age of toys Slip into your low rent I’ll be there waiting with colorful savings Drink ‘til you’re full of hate; I can’t wait For every room Your grown-up toys hang out all about Leaving you at the gate; I can’t wait I was wrong to shake this hand What if nothing in this world can stand? Heaven told me you was lonely Dropping anchor just to thank her Slip into your low rent For all the noise age of toys Slip into your low rent I’ll be there waiting with colorful savings Or silent investors and broken defectors For every room

I am empty as the light of day I lived lonely and I never found my way Lyrics

Love Bombing Well the world go away World got a way with me Love bombing and side winding If everybody could hold on tightly Away my self doubt Maybe I’d fly the plane for you Away my no clout And maybe I’d drop a bob or two for Away my longing And what’s gone wrong in me? Love bombing and my timing Is really a way to keep from deciding And why I’m dying What I’d do with a different view And why I wander Maybe I’d fall in love with you and And while I’m at it What’s gone wrong with me? When I’m bored I can’t be bored with you When I’m blown I can’t be blown in two Pick my poison like my friends Makes life wonder where it ends And love bombing and love bombing And love bombing and love bombing Take this body, take this soul For the magic that we stole When I wonder what I wouldn’t do I will wait in single file for you The world got away The world got away with me And love bombing and love bombing The world got away And love bombing and love bombing The world got away with me Well the world go away The world got a way with me The World Got Away Closing Report When I’m bothered, can’t be calmed down I will tumble in this dead town Lost in Heaven, lost my dreams © 2009 Mikel Rouse Like a beggar on her knees All rights reserved Published by Club Soda Music (ASCAP) The world got away The world got away with me The world got away The world got away with me Well the world go away The world got a way with me

Wear my mornings up my sleeve And my evenings can’t believe What I wasted, all the years Stuck in neutral, stuck in fear

The world got away The world got away with me The world got away The world got away with me