Sabbatical Final Report 16
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SPRING 2016 TYPE A SABBATICAL LEAVE FINAL REPORT Kurt Erickson Professor of Music Cosumnes River College October 1, 2016 ONE PAGE ABSTRACT During the spring 2016 semester, I was fortunate to be granted a Type A sabbatical to pursue uninterrupted work on a unique composing project to create a large scale work for soprano and orchestra to be premiered in subsequent seasons by lead orchestra Central Ohio Symphony and a consortium of orchestras across the country. During the sabbatical I selected a set of poetic texts to set to music by Syrian expatriate poet Maram al-Masri - living in Paris, she is widely viewed as the female voice of the ongoing Syrian conflict. To shepherd this project along, I have worked with Central Ohio Symphony Executive Director Warren Hyer, Ohio based soprano Laura Portune, Dean Artist Management VP Alison Pybus, and soprano Heidi Moss. My project has expanded in scope and timeline, with orchestras interested in performing the new work in a series of rolling premieres during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons. The piano vocal score has been completed and is being rehearsed with soprano Heidi Moss. Prior to these large scale performances, portions of the work will be performed in a soprano/piano format on December 9, 2016 on the Fall 2016 CRC Guest Artist Recital featuring soprano Heidi Moss (I’ll be accompanying her on the recital). In addition, my sabbatical leave provided me with an opportunity to complete work that fell in additional areas related to the development of my career as a professional composer: created additional new musical compositions, created specially designed arrangements of pre-existing works for public performances, planned and created an evening recital of works for voice and piano with soprano Heidi Moss, took part in public performances and/or premiere performances of my work, traveled to San Jose to witness rehearsals and performances of the contemporary opera Streetcar Named Desire by acclaimed composer Andre Previn at San Jose Opera, and a performance at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. In unexpected fashion, I also discovered that the sabbatical break afforded me the opportunity to develop a completely new approach to the classroom (unexpected only because the primary focus of my sabbatical leave was for professional development reasons and not pedagogical refocusing). My sabbatical leave results and new works will be shared with the the CRC community in a multiplicity of ways: in talks with music majors, in talks with the CRC Composers Ensemble members, public performances of the works on the December 12th and 13th performances of the CRC Composers Ensemble, in performance December 9th on the CRC Guest Artist Recital Series while performing with soprano Heidi Moss, in performances on a January 27, 2017 Erickson / Mozart Birthday Fest Concert at San Francisco’s Noe Valley Ministry Concert Series, and through assorted social media postings of audio and video from performances. NEW WORK FOR SOPRANO AND ORCHESTRA: A RED CHERRY ON A WHITE TILED FLOOR - POEMS BY SYRIAN EXPATRIATE POET MARAM AL-MASRI Creative Work My Spring 2016 sabbatical focused on writing a new 11-minute work for soprano and orchestra, using poems by acclaimed Syrian expatriate poet Maram al-Massri. The new multi-movement work will be premiered by a consortium of approximately 10-15 orchestras from within the US and internationally. Performances of individual movements of the work in a soprano/piano arrangement will occur in Sacramento and San Francisco during the 2016-17 season, with rolling premiere performances by the orchestras expected during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons. Syrian poet Maram al-Massri writes disarmingly sensual and evocative verses that captivate a worldwide audience. For my orchestral set I chose poems from her groundbreaking book A Red Cherry on a White Tiled Floor, selecting and setting the following poems: “She Bequeathed” “I am the Thief of Sweetmeats” “Like Grains of Salt they Shone” “They’re all Hers” Working at the piano, my process for writing this piece consisted of spending countless hours improvising accompaniments and setting the texts to music while creating multiple handwritten drafts. Keeping a journal while score studying similar works in the voice and orchestra genre helped to coalesce my thoughts as I worked out the form and structure of the piece, both on the micro and macro levels. Playing samples of the work for and with soprano Heidi Moss as she sang along from the handwritten scores allowed me to hear the work in real time, making adjustments according to what I heard. The poems of Maram al-Masri are short, epigrammatic, and confessional. The challenge was to create a unified set of pieces to match the grander, more epic scale of the orchestra. With orchestral performances scheduled for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, I will have additional time to further edit and modify the works based on the experiences of the soprano/ piano performances during the 2016-17 season. The opportunity to live with the piece and allow the work to grow and expand after many performances is a great gift, as the creative process is in many ways predicated on such experiences. The works and project have garnered a significant amount of interest - I am currently in discussions for performances with Oakland East Bay Symphony, Central Ohio Symphony, Livermore Amador Symphony, Central Wisconsin Symphony, South Bend Symphony Orchestra, Plymouth Symphony Orchestra, Clermont Philharmonic, and Hamilton Fairfield Symphony Orchestra (additional orchestras have yet to be approached). Additionally, soprano Karen Slack based in Lexington, Kentucky is interested in performing the work during the 2017-18 season in a social-justice themed recital Wisconsin. I anticipate that more singers will program the work once a recording is made available after the Sacramento and San Francisco performances. Administrative Project Management Soliciting conductors and executive directors of orchestras to join a consortium of ensembles from across the country for performances 2-3 years in advance takes planning and assistance from a diverse set of collaborators. To help bring this project to fruition, I’ve received great help from the following collaborators: Warren Hyer (Central Ohio Symphony Executive Director), Laura Portune (soprano soloist based in Ohio), Heidi Moss (soprano soloist based in the San Francisco Bay Area), Alison Pybus (VP of Dean Artists based in Toronto, Canada), and Nancy Quinn (proprietor of Nancy Quinn and Associates Arts Management). The idea for the consortium stemmed from a desire to create a new work that could be shared by a multiplicity of orchestras. The sabbatical leave provided me with the time to write the work and the decision to not ask for commissioning fees from the orchestras involved has drastically lowered the bar to participation. The work deals with a timely subject matter, namely Syria and the rights of women in the Middle East. Consulting with San Francisco arts consultant Nancy Quinn (Nancy Quinn and Associates), we came up with a plan to market the piece to fit the following programmatic themes: • Music from and Influenced by the Middle East • Music of Love and Desire • Celebrating Women • 20th Century and Contemporary Melodic Composers • Music to Resist Repression and Tyranny • Music Inspired by Poetry & Literature ACTIVITIES , RESEARCH, AND TRAVEL DURING SABBATICAL Additional Works Created During Sabbatical While the bulk of my work focused on my orchestral commissioning project, the Spring 2016 semester sabbatical leave provided me with the time and energy to work on additional creative projects. As such, I had the opportunity to start and finish new compositions, finish half-written works previously attempted, make new arrangements of existing works for specific performers, and completely revise the scores and notation of works in inferior conditions. A sampling of works completed includes the following: We Three Kings - Completed new 3-minute a cappella treble chorus work to be premiered at Davies Symphony Hall (2,700 seat hall) on December 19, 2016 by the Grammy Award winning San Francisco Girls Chorus The Procuress - Created a new 5-minute work for tenor Rufus Muller, to be performed during the 2016-17 season at Bard University (NY) Jagermeisterlieder: A Song Set for Manly Men - Created a new 12-minute arrangement for tenor Rob Chafin, to be performed in New York at the 92nd Street Y, November 2016 Jagermeisterlieder: A Song Set for Manly Men - Created a second 12-minute tenor arrangement for tenor Chris Nichols, to be performed in San Francisco in February 2017 on the Lieder Alive! concert series at Noe Valley Ministries Jagermeisterlieder: A Song Set for Manly Men - Created a 12-minute baritone arrangement for baritone Zachary Lennox, performed on August 31, 2016 in Portland, OR and in Portland location TBA September 2016. Food Porn 15-minute song set for baritone voice and piano to be completed winter 2016. Approximately twelve separate singers from across the US and Europe have requested copies to perform on upcoming recitals. • It Will Last Longer - 3 minute work completed during sabbatical • For Adults of Average Build - 2 minute work completed during sabbatical • Eat your Colours - 3 minute work completed during sabbatical • Some Fall in Love with Tuscany - 4 minute work completed during sabbatical • Spanish Pork Sausage - 3 minute work completed during sabbatical CALENDAR OF ACTIVITIES January 2016 witnessed the premiere performance of my new work for soprano, chorus, and orchestra to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra. The 12-minute work used texts by Pulitzer Prize winning poet and former US Poet Laureate Robert Haas (pictured here along with soprano Heidi Moss), Caroline Kizer, and Frank O’Hara. February 2016 saw the premiere performance of my new work When Numbers and Figures No Longer. Written as part of my composer residency with San Francisco’s Lieder Alive!, the work was premiered by violist Paul Yarbrough (Alexander String Quartet), Anthony Striplen (SF Opera Orchestra), mezzo soprano Kindra Scharich, and pianist Jeff LaDeur on the Noe Valley Ministry Gala Concert.