Max Richter with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble Performing Infra and the Blue Notebooks
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Friday, October 5, 2018, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Max Richter with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble performing Infra and The Blue Notebooks Max Richter, composer and keyboards American Contemporary Music Ensemble Clarice Jensen, cello Yuki Numata Resnick, violin Laura Lutzke, violin Caleb Burhans, viola Paul Wiancko, cello Special guest narrator to be announced Chris Ekers, technical director Dick Meredith, tour manager e performance will last approximately 75 minutes, and will include one intermission. Cal Performances’ 2018 –19 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. 19 ABOUT THE ARTISTS nfra resonates with Max Richter's charac - Hailed as one of the most influential composers teristic musical voice, minimalism com - of his generation, electroacoustic polymath Ibined with sweeping melodies and har - Max Richter defies easy categorization: accom - monic complexity. Originally composed for plished composer, but also pianist, producer, Wayne McGregor’s dance work of the same remixer, and collaborator, and beyond doubt name (premiered by the Royal Ballet in 2008), one of the most prolific of contemporary musi - Infra is a piece about traveling and a reaction cal artists. to the 7/7 bombings in London, a meditation Inspired equally by Bach, punk rock, and on the political state of the city and the tragedy ambient electronica, Richter’s sonic world com - of those events. bines a formal classical training (he graduated e Blue Notebooks is another attempt by from the Royal Academy of Music and was a Richter to comment, through music, on society pupil of renowned composer Luciano Berio) and to exist as an anti-violence statement. It is with modern technology. His unique and a subtle and peaceful protest against political, distinctive brand of heartbroken melodicism social, and personal brutality. Originally writ - forms a bridge between the great minimalist ten in 2003, Richter’s canon-defining work was composers, pioneering electronics, and the con - seen as radical at the time and is one of the first temporary digital music production multiverse. works of music to combine classical and elec - Time Out has remarked on the “overwhelming tronic elements with a post-rock sensibility. emotional power” of Richter’s work, and the e Blue Notebooks includes narrated texts New Statesman has noted its “astonishing depth taken from Franz Kaa’s Blue Octavo Note - and beauty,” while Classic FM and Pitchfork books —whose title Richter adapted for his suite have called it “stunning” and the Guardian, in order to “…reflect on my sense of the poli - “languorously transcendent.” tics of the time. Facts were beginning to be re - Over the years Richter has become best placed by subjective assertions in the build-up known for his genre-defining and highly influ - to the Iraq war, which seemed to be viewed as ential solo albums, which have given rise to— inevitable and justified in spite of all the evi - and are seen as “landmarks” ( e Independent, dence to the contrary. Kaa’s use of the absurd Pitchfork ) of—the ever-burgeoning neoclassi - to investigate power structures struck me as cal movement, but his monumental collabora - highly relevant. He is, of course, the patron saint tive output also encompasses concert music, of doubt, and doubt—about politics, and the operas, ballets, art and video installations, and way society was heading—was what I was look - multiple film, theater, and television scores. ing to express. e texts were specifically picked e over 50 films featuring Richter’s work because they refer to childhood, or to the pass - and his specifically written scores include Ari ing of time, when everything around is failing.” Folman’s multiple award-winning and devas - As Richter points out, this is something tating critique of war, Waltz with Bashir (for buried in e Blue Notebooks ’ very architecture. which Richter was awarded the European Film ‘‘ ‘On e Nature Of Daylight,’ the work’s sec - Prize), Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, and ond movement, uses a palindromic structure, Damon Lindelof’s first television project post- so that the present and the past coexist.” It has Lost , HBO’s e Leovers . eater productions since become the album’s best-known track, include Alan Cumming’s triumphant solo ver - due most notably to its pivotal inclusion in sion of Macbeth on Broadway, and the National Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and, more re - eatre of Scotland’s internationally acclaimed cently, Denis Ville neuve’s award-winning film Black Watch . Ballets include his many collabo - Arrival , whose palindromic narrative, ideas on rative ventures with maverick Royal Ballet non-linear time, and blurred visions of experi - resident choreographer Wayne McGregor, ence, match Richter’s music perfectly. with his works also being used by companies • • • including the Joffrey Ballet, Neder lands Dans PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS eater, Lucinda Childs Dance Company, Monk as part of Lincoln Center’s White New York City Ballet, American Ballet eatre, Light Festival and concerts presented by the Dutch National Ballet, Dresden Semper Oper, Festival of New American Music at Sacramento Ballet du Rhin, and Northern Ballet. State, Kennesaw State’s Festival of New Music, Art collaborations include work with pho - the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Ken - tographer Darren Almond at the White Cube, nedy Center. with Julian Opie on McGregor’s ballet Infra , and ACME has performed at leading interna - with visual art collective Random International tional venues including Carnegie Hall, the on Rain Room at the Barbican and MoMA and Brook lyn Academy of Music, the Metropolitan Future Self at Lunds Konsthall in Sweden. Museum of Art, e Kitchen, (Le) Poisson Signed as an exclusive artist to Deutsche Rouge, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Symphony Space, Grammophon, Richter’s recent projects include the Morgan Library, the Joyce eater, Chi - the albums Sleep (2015) and ree Worlds: cago’s Millennium Park, the Library of Con - Music from “Woolf Works” (2017), which fol - gress in Washington (DC), Melbourne Recital lowed his bestselling Recomposed by Max Hall and Sydney Opera House in Australia, and Richter: Vivaldi—e Four Seasons ( ECHO at festivals including the Sacrum Profanum Klassik Award, 2013). In 2015 Richter also saw Festival in Poland, All Tomorrow’s Parties in the premiere of Woolf Works , a full-length bal - England, and Big Ears in Knoxville (TN). let by choreographer Wayne McGregor for the World premieres performed by ACME in - Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, based on the clude Ingram Marshall’s Psalmbook , Jóhann life and works of Virginia Woolf and set to Jóhan nsson’s Drone Mass , Caroline Shaw’s Ritor - Richter’s score. nello , Phil Kline’s Out Cold , William Brittelle’s Loving the Chambered Nautilus , Timo Andres’ e American Contemporary Music Ensem - Senior and rive on Routine , Caleb Burhans’ ble (ACME), led by artistic director Clarice Jahrzeit , and many more. In 2016 at e Kitchen, Jensen, is dedicated to the outstanding per - ACME premiered Clarice Jen sen’s transcription formance of masterworks from the 20th and of Julius Eastman’s e Holy Presence of Joan 21st centuries, primarily the work of American d’Arc for 10 cellos, the score of which had been composers. e flexible ensemble presents fresh lost since the premiere in 1981. Jensen tran - work by living composers alongside the classics scribed a recording of the work to recreate the of the contemporary. ACME’s dedication to score. ACME has since performed Joan at the new music extends across genres and has Met Breuer and at the Kennedy Center. earned the group a strong reputation among ACME’s recordings appear on the Deutsche both classical and rock crowds. NPR calls them Grammophon, New World, Butterscotch, and “contemporary music dynamos,” and Strings New Amsterdam labels. e group released its reports, “ACME’s absorbing playing pulsed with first portrait album on Sono Luminus in 2017, warm energy… Shared glances and inhales trig - featuring works by members Caroline Shaw, gered transitions in a flow so seamless it seemed Timo Andres, and Caleb Burhans, along with learned in a Jedi temple.” ACME was honored music by John Luther Adams. by the American Society of Composers, Authors, ACME’s many collaborators have included and Publishers (ASCAP) during its 10th an - the Richard Alston Dance Company, Wayne niversary season in 2015, for the “virtuosity, McGregor’s Random Dance, Gibney Dance, passion, and commitment with which it per - Satellite Ballet, Jóhann Jóhannsson, actress forms and champions American composers.” Barbara Sukowa, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, ACME’s instrumentation is flexible and Blonde Redhead, Grizzly Bear, Low, Matmos, features some of New York’s most sought-aer Jeff Mangum, A Winged Victory for the musicians. Notable highlights from recent Sullen, Roomful of Teeth, Lionheart, and eo seasons include a performance with Meredith Bleck mann. 1.