Extraordinary Measures 2020-2021 Season

Peace in Extraordinary Times

36th Season 17 April 2021, 7:30 pm Virtual Concert Network Ensemble Members

Piano Violin Charles Abramovic Hirono Oka

Extraordinary Measures • April 17, 2021 Peace in Extraordinary Times PROGRAM ❧

Introduction by Tomas Schuttenhelm, Artistic Director

'Relaxed Groove' from Road Movies (1995) John Adams

Peace (2020) Jessie Montgomery

Winter Light (2012) Heidi Jacob

Distance de Fée (1951) Toru Takemitsu Biographies and notes

ohn Adams: Composer, conductor, and creative J thinker—John Adams occupies a unique position in the world of American music. His works stand out among contemporary classical compositions for their depth of expression, brilliance of sound, and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes. Winner of the 1993 Grawemeyer Award for his Violin Concerto and the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for On the Transmigration of Souls, Adams has additionally received honorary doctorates from Harvard, Yale, Northwestern University, Cambridge University, the Juilliard School. Since 2009 he has held the position of Creative Chair with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Te title Road Movies is total whimsy, probably suggested by the "groove" in the piano part, all of which is required to be played in a "swing" mode (second and fourth of every group of four notes are played slightly late). Movement I is a relaxed drive down a not unfamiliar road.

essie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard J Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, language, and social justice, placing her squarely as one of the most relevant interpreters of 21st- century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (Te Washington Post). Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated to the hotbed of artistic experimentation and community development. Her parents – her father a musician, her mother a theater artist and storyteller – were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy.

Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with Te Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latinx string players. She currently serves as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Organization’s fagship professional touring ensemble. She was a two-time laureate of the annual Sphinx Competition and was awarded a generous MPower grant to assist in the development of her debut album, Strum: Music for Strings (Azica Records). She has received additional grants and awards from the ASCAP Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Composers Orchestra, the Joyce Foundation, and the Sorel Organization.

Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Some recent highlights include Five Slave Songs (2018) commissioned for soprano Julia Bullock by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Records from a Vanishing City (2016) for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Caught by the Wind (2016) for the Albany Symphony and the American Music Festival, and Banner (2014) – written to mark the 200th anniversary of Te Star-Spangled Banner – for Te Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation.

Te New York Philharmonic has selected Jessie as one of the featured composers for their Project 19, which marks the centennial of the ratifcation of the 19th Amendment, granting equal voting rights in the United States to women. Other forthcoming works include a nonet inspired by the Great Migration, told from the perspective of Montgomery’s great-grandfather William McCauley and to be performed by Imani Winds and the Catalyst Quartet; a cello concerto for Tomas Mesa jointly commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, and Te Sphinx Organization; and a new orchestral work for the National Symphony.

Jessie began her violin studies, at the Tird Street Music School Settlement, one of the oldest community organizations in the country. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and currently a member of the Catalyst Quartet, she continues to maintain an active performance career as a violinist appearing regularly with her own ensembles, as well as with the Silkroad Ensemble and Sphinx Virtuosi. Written just a month after the Great Sadness of the frst quarantine orders due to COVID-19, facing the shock felt by the whole globe as well as personal crisis, I fnd myself struggling to defne what actually brings me joy. And I’m at a stage of making peace with sadness as it comes and goes like any other emotion. I’m learning to observe sadness for the frst time not as a negative emotion, but as a necessary dynamic to the human experience. — Jessie Montgomery, May 12, 2020

omposer, cellist, and conductor, Heidi Jacob is Professor of Music at C Haverford College. Born in Orinda, California, Heidi Jacob has studied at both the Curtis Institute of Music and Te Juilliard School. Her conducting teachers have included Harold Farberman, Daniel Lewis and Robert Page. Appointed Music Director of Te Haverford-Bryn Mawr College Orchestra in 1996, she was Music Director of Te De Paul Chamber Orchestra from 1994 to 1998. In addition to serving as music director of several university orchestras, Ms. Jacob has also been guest conductor of the Lansdowne Symphony. She was selected in 1993 as a conductor in performance as part of the American Conductors Composers Seminar at Hartt College of Music. As a cellist, Ms. Jacob has distinguished herself both as a soloist and in chamber music. At the age of 17 she won critical acclaim for her performances of Bloch's "Schelomo," with performances in California and Germany, where it was broadcast over German television. A guest artist at the 1981 Chopin festival in Miami, Florida, she has also appeared as soloist at the San Francisco Bach Festival, the Temple University Summer Festival, and on WQXR in New York City. In 1986, she toured Spain, performing cello-piano duos with her husband, pianist Charles Abramovic. As a member of the Janus Trio, Ms. Jacob has performed throughout the United States including the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Bedford Springs Festival, "Mozart on the Square" in Philadelphia, and on National Public Radio. Te group has toured both Spain and the former Yugoslavia, where they performed at the Dubrovnik festival. Ms. Jacob has recorded for CRS records, with a C.D. of trios by Ernest Pelligrini and Michael Zak with former Philadelphia Orchestra harpist Marilyn Costello. She was featured on WRTI's "Notes from Philadelphia," conducting performances of the Chamber Orchestra of Bryn Mawr in works by Haverford Professor Curt Cacioppo and Ferruccio Busoni. In a recording for Capstone Records she conducts the Ensemble Solarium in Curt Cacioppo’s Concerto for Oboe and String Chamber Orchestra with Harpsichord, featuring Philadelphia Orchestra oboist Jonathan Blumenfeld. She has recorded solo cello and chamber music works by Larry Nelson for Albany Records, as well as the Cello and Piano Sonatas by John Davison with pianist Charles Abramovic. She has performed as cellist with Orchestra 2001, Penn Contemporary Players, the Davidsbund Chamber Players, and has performed as principal cellist for Opera North, Te Choral Arts Society and Orchestra 2001.

Ms. Jacob’s solo and chamber music works have been performed at the Kimmel Center as part of Network for New Music’s Poetry Project, Tania León's 2014 Composers Now Festival, Summer Stars Classics series in Ocean Grove New Jersey, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Rutgers University’s Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art installation, Amphibian; New Music and Video HIArt Gallery, New York City and by Te Argento Ensemble, the Opus One: Berks Chamber Choir and the Hildegard Chamber Players. Her works have been performed by violinists Miranda Cuckson and Barbara Govatos, cellists Jeffrey Solow, Michal Schmidt and cellist Talia Moore of Earplay, futists Mimi Stillman, Adeline Tomasone, Jeffrey Khaner, pianist Charles Abramovic, bassoonist Pascal Gallois and by Temple University’s Contemporary Music Ensemble. Ms Her String Quartet, “…on enameled tablets,” was premiered at Te Stone in New York City by the Momenta String Quartet. As a winner of Network for New Music’s Poetry Project her song Rosetta Stone for Soprano, Cello and Piano was premiered at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia in January of 2008. She was also a winner of the American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter’s Pascal Gallois bassoon composition competition and won an Honorable Mention in the International Alliance for Women in Music Competition (Judith Lang Zaimont Prize division) for her work for piano; Regard a Schubert: a Fantasy Impromptu.

Winter Light, for violin and piano, was inspired in part by Ingmar Bergman’s 1962 flm of the same title. Said to be his favorite flm, Bergman’s “Winter Light” consolidates his recurring themes concerning the nature of existence, God’s silence, and the nature of love.

Tis composition is not meant to refect in any programmatic way the narrative of the flm, though it begins and ends with the same musical material in the violin, just as the flm begins and ends with two church scenes. Te flm’s symbolic nature, and its evocative title, were a jumping off point for the musical narrative.—Heidi Jacob oru Takemitsu (1931-1996) was a self-taught Japanese composer who T combined elements of Eastern and Western music and philosophy to create a unique sound world. Some of his early infuences were the sonorities of Debussy, and Messiaen's use of nature imagery and modal scales. Tere is a certain infuence of Webern in Takemitsu's use of silence, and Cage in his compositional philosophy, but his overall style is uniquely his own. Takemitsu believed in music as a means of ordering or contextualizing everyday sound in order to make it meaningful or comprehensible. His philosophy of "sound as life" lay behind his incorporation of natural sounds, as well as his desire to juxtapose and reconcile opposing elements such as Orient and Occident, sound and silence, and tradition and innovation. From the beginning, Takemitsu wrote highly experimental music involving improvisation, graphic notation, unusual combinations of instruments and recorded sounds. Te result is music of great beauty and originality. It is usually slowly paced and quiet, but also capable of great intensity. Te variety, quantity and consistency of Takemitsu's output are remarkable considering that he never worked within any kind of conventional framework or genre. In addition to the several hundred independent works of music, he scored over ninety flms and published twenty books.

Takemitsu must have been inspired by Messiaen when he composed Distance de Fée. Te chords in the piano, for example, follow Messiaen's use of the octatonic scale and have a similar lyric style as Messiaen's Le baiser de I' Enfant Jesus from the large-scale piano cycle Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jesus (1945). Over the soft piano chords the violin performs a broad melody, built like a set of uncomplicated variations. Charles Abramovic, piano

ianist Charles Abramovic has won critical acclaim for his international P performances as soloist, chamber musician and collaborator with leading instrumentalists and singers. As a solo recitalist, he has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, and has played at major festivals in Salzburg, Berlin, Bermuda, Dubrovnik, Vancouver, Aspen, and Newport. He made his solo orchestral debut at the age of fourteen with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Since then he has appeared with numerous orchestras and collaborated with such artists as Midori, Viktoria Mullova, Kim Kashkashian and Jeffrey Khaner. Charles Abramovic has recorded for EMI Classics with Sarah Chang and for Avie Recordings with Jeffrey Khaner, and his recording of the solo piano works of Delius on the DTR label has won high praise in both the United States and Europe. He is highly dedicated to performing and recording contemporary music and has recorded works by Milton Babbitt, Gunther Schuller, Joseph Schwanter and others. Charles Abramovic is actively involved in the musical life of Philadelphia, performing regularly with groups such as Network for New Music and Orchestra 2001. In 1997 he won the Career Development Award from the Philadelphia Musical Fund Society and recently received the Faculty Award for Creative Achievement from Temple University, where he is currently Professor and Interim Department Chair at the Boyer College of Music and Dance. His teachers have included Natalie Phillips, Leon Fleisher, Eleanor Sokoloff, and Harvey Wedeen. Hirono Oka, Violin

irono Oka joined the frst violin section of Te Philadelphia H Orchestra in 1990. She made her frst public appearance in her native Japan at the age of 11 with the Tokyo Symphony. After winning numerous competitions and awards in Japan, she came to the United States to continue her studies at the San Francisco Conservatory and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her teachers have included Ivan Galamian, Jaime Laredo, Arnold Steinhardt, Felix Galimir, and Stuart Canin.

Ms. Oka has appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Chamber Ensemble, the Utica Symphony, and numerous orchestras in the Philadelphia area. As a chamber musician, she has appeared with the Marlboro Music Festival, Chamber Music West in San Francisco, the Teatre Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Network for New Music, the Delaware Chamber Music Festival, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. She has also toured throughout the United States with the Brandenburg Ensemble and Music from Marlboro.

Ms. Oka has performed and collaborated with such world renowned artists as Mr. Laredo, Alexander Schneider, Leon Fleischer, Yefm Bronfman, and Murray Perahia. In addition to teaching privately, Ms. Oka is a faculty member of Temple University and its Music Preparatory Division and of Rutgers University. LINDA REICHERT COMMISSIONING FUND Gifts and Pledges (Fiscal Year 2021 - September 1, 2020 - April 16, 2021)

In 2014, Network celebrated 30 years of commissioning, performing and promoting new music. To mark this milestone, a Network for New Music Commissioning Fund was established to underscore the essence of Network's mission and contribute to its sustainability. Te name of the fund was changed in 2018, in honor of Co-Founder and Artistic Director Emerita, Linda Reichert.

NETWORK CIRCLE

ENSEMBLE ($1,000-2,499) FRIEND ($0-49) Robert Black Barbara Govatos Anne Silvers Lee & Wynn Lee Alan Harler Richard C. Brodhead & Joellen A. Meglin Mary Loiselle Anthony Orlando MUSICIAN ($500-999) Jeff Sultar Ingrid Arauco Frank Van Riper Doris Dabrowski Nancy Drye Linda Reichert & Mark Putnam

NEW MUSIC CIRCLE

BENEFACTOR ($250-499) Melinda Whiting & John Burrows Edwina Nowicki

SUSTAINER ($100-249) Len Rieser & Fernando Chang-Muy Deenah Loeb & Walt Crimm In Honor of Linda Reichert Jonathan Harmon & Martha Lask In Memory of Hilde Reichert Jennifer Higdon & Cheryl Lawson Gerald Levinson

PATRON ($50-99) Maurice W. Wright & Dacy Boyd CHEN Yi & ZHOU Long In Honor of Fran Richard Marna Sternbach & Dave Davies Paul Dellevigne Mark Seidman & Vicki Jenkins In Memory of Booka, the cat John Johnson In Honor of Jan Krzywicki Gary King & Eleanor Kazdan John Levenson & Jan Clark-Levenson Joseph & Jeanne McGinn In Honor of Lourdes Demers & Melinda Whiting Hirono Oka In Honor of Linda Reichert Gary White Network for New Music extends its sincerest thanks to the following individuals for their support.

NETWORK FOR NEW MUSIC ANNUAL FUND Gifts and Pledges (Fiscal Year 2021 - September 1, 2020 - April 16, 2021)

NETWORK CIRCLE

COMPOSER ($2500 and above) Eric Moe Anonymous (2) David Richman & Janet Perry Anonymous Laurie Olin & Victoria Steiger In Honor Ed Schultz and his service to the Richard Woodhams Network for New Music community as both a In Honor of Richard & Bea Wernick performer and board member Peter Benoliel & Willo Carey SUSTAINER ($100-249) Nancy Drye Nathalie F. Anderson Carolee & Daniel Asia ENSEMBLE ($1,000-2,499) Lawrence & Diane Blum Anonymous Ulrich Boeckheler Anne Silvers Lee & Wynn Lee James E. Brown Jan Krzywicki & Susan Nowicki Peter & Miriam Burwasser Richard C. Brodhead & Joellen A. Meglin Len Rieser & Fernando Chang-Muy CHEN Yi & ZHOU Long NEW MUSIC CIRCLE In Honor of Fran Richard Dr. & Mrs. Harris Clearfeld MUSICIAN ($500-999) Sid Curtiss Ingrid Arauco In Memory of Shirley Curtiss Melinda Whiting & John Burrows Marc Di Nardo & Elizabeth Drum Doris Dabrowski In Honor of Tom Di Nardo Cynthia Folio Nancy Drye Christopher Burns & Mary Francis In Honor of David Webber Greg Fulkerson Carolyn & Norman Ellman In Honor of Paul and Taka Kling In Honor of David Webber Katharine Sokoloff & William B. McLaughlin Dan Rothermel & Michael Hairston In Honor of Pat Manley Richard & Judith Hurtig Linda Reichert & Mark Putnam Stephen Jaffe, In Honor of Richard Lisa Miller & Ron Sarachan Wernick's 87th birthday & the staff & Tomas Schuttenhelm musicians of NNM Richard & Beatrice Wernick Gary King & Eleanor Kazdan Paul & Joan Krzywicki Matthew Levy BENEFACTOR ($250-499) Erik Lundborg Anonymous Donald W. Maloney, M.D. Carol & Baird Brown Philip & Wendy Maneval Paul R. Demers and Lourdes Starr Demers Joseph & Jeanne McGinn Mark & Jean Gilbert In Honor of Lourdes Demers & Pat Manley & Michael Harrington Melinda Whiting Mark & Karen Hite Judith Mendelsohn Ken Hutchins Brian H. Peterson & Helen Mirkil Tomas Kraines & Juliette Kang Lambert & Jan Orkis FRIEND ($0-49) Edward Schultz & Beth Parke Vera Shonell Ayala Jamuna Samuel Marcantonio G. Barone Henry & Yumi Scott Martin Bresnick Rheta Smith Andrea Clearfeld Jeff Sultar Roberto Pace & Eve Friedman David W. & Jeannine Webber Yovianna Garcia Vera & John Wilson Alan Harler Janet M. Yamron Lisa Joy Hogg Stephen & Jane Zegestowsky Anne Minicozzi Charlie Peck PATRON ($50-99) Marguerita & Larry Alan Smith Dr. George E. Allen Matthew Bengtson Maurice W. Wright & Dacy Boyd Eliza Brown Uri & Jan Caine Eric Chasalow & Barbara Cassidy Marna Sternbach & Dave Davies Paul Dellevigne Karen & Christopher DiSanto Pierre Ravacon & Debbie Eastwood Paul Epstein Clipper Erickson Marsha Hogan Barbara Jaffe & Rahel Inniger Mark Seidman & Vicki Jenkins, In Memory of Booka, the cat John Johnson In Honor of Jan Krzywicki Jonathon Hodgson & Andrea Knox John Levenson and Jan Clark-Levenson Joyce Lindorff Laura Madeleine Nancy Bartley & John Matthews Hirono Oka Anthony Orlando Mary Ellen Scheckenbach Bert & Lynne Strieb

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Network for New Music would like to thank the many people and institutions who help make our work possible through their generous in-kind support. Special thanks for this concert go out to: Bill and Gabrielle Rinaldi & Jacobs Music, George Blood, LP, and, as always, NNM’s board of directors and volunteers.

In addition, NNM would like to thank the following for their support: Te Aaron Copland Fund, Te Amphion Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund, Te Daniel W. Dietrich II Foundation, Independence Foundation, Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, Te Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Te Presser Foundation, Robert Black Foundation Trust, and William Penn Foundation. Network for New Music also receives state arts funding through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. NETWORK FOR NEW MUSIC STAFF Tomas Schuttenhelm, Artistic Director Karen DiSanto, Executive Director Rachel Browne, Media/Concert Production Associate

BOARD OF DIRECTORS David Webber, chair Jamuna Samuel, vice chair Nancy Drye, treasurer Ingrid Arauco Richard Brodhead Lourdes Starr Demers Naomi Gonzalez Jan Krzywicki Anne Silvers Lee Patricia Manley Edward Schultz Melinda Whiting Tomas Whitman

NETWORK FOR NEW MUSIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE Eliza Brown Chen Yi Gene Coleman George Crumb Jeremy Gill Matthew Greenbaum John Harbison Jennifer Higdon Aaron Jay Kernis Libby Larsen Andrew McPherson Jeffrey Mumford Joo Won Park James Primosch Bernard Rands Linda Reichert Augusta Read Tomas Joan Tower Melinda Wagner Gregory Walker Karen Walwyn Richard Wernick

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