OJAI AT BERKELEY VIJAY IYER, MusIC DIRECTOR

The four programs presented in Berkeley this month mark the seventh year of artistic partnership between the Ojai Music Festival and Cal Performances and represent the combined efforts of two great arts organizations committed to innovative and adventur- ous programming.

The New York Times observes, “There’s prob- ably no frame wide enough to encompass the creative output of the pianist Vijay Iyer.” Iyer has released 20 albums covering remarkably diverse terrain, most recently for the ECM label. The latest include A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke (2016), a collaboration with Iyer’s “hero, friend, and teacher,” Wadada Leo smith; Break Stuff (2015), featuring the Vijay Iyer Trio; Mutations (2014), featuring Iyer’s music for piano, string quartet, and electronics; and RADHE RADHE: Rites of Holi (2014), the score to a film by Prashant Bhargava, performed with the renowned International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). The Vijay Iyer Trio (Iyer, stephan Crump on bass, and Marcus Gilmore on drums) made its name with two acclaimed and influential albums. Acceler ando (2012) was named Jazz Album of the Year in three separate critics polls, by the Los Angeles Times, Amazon.com, and NPR. Hailed by PopMatters as “the best band in jazz,” the trio was named 2015 Jazz Group of the Year in the DownBeat poll, with Vijay Iyer (music director), the Grammy- Iyer having earlier received an unprecedented nominated composer-pianist, was described “quintuple crown” in their 2012 poll (Jazz by Pitchfork as “one of the most interesting Artist of the Year, Pianist of the Year, Jazz and vital young pianists in jazz today,” by the Album of the Year, Jazz Group of the Year, and LA Weekly as “a boundless and deeply impor- Rising star Composer). Historicity was a 2010 tant young star,” and by Minnesota Public Radio Grammy nominee and was named the top jazz as “an American treasure.” He has been voted album of 2009 by the New York Times, Los DownBeat magazine’s Artist of the Year three Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and numerous times —in 2016, 2015, and 2012—and was other publications. named DownBeat’s Pianist of the Year in 2014, Iyer’s 2013 collaboration with poet Mike a Mac Arthur Fellow in 2013, and a Doris Duke Ladd, Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Per forming Artist in 2012. In 2014 he began a Project, was hailed as the Jazz Album of the Year permanent appointment as the Franklin D. and by the Los Angeles Times. Along with their pre- Flo rence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts in the vious projects—In What Language? (2004) and Department of Music at Harvard university. Still Life with Commentator (2007)—Holding It

 OJAI AT BERKELEY

Down rounded out a trilogy of politically sear- Bennett served as CEO of worldwide pro- ing albums about post-9/11 American life. ductions for London-based Pearson Television, Iyer’s compositions have been commissioned as CEO of Los Angeles-based ACI television, and premiered by Bang on a Can All-stars, The and as a senior vice president at Disney’s Buena silk Road Ensemble, Ethel, Brentano Quartet, Vista Television Productions in Burbank. Prior Brooklyn Rider, Imani Winds, American Com - to working for the Disney Company, he worked posers Orchestra, ICE, Chamber Orch estra for CBs, including five years as general man- Leopoldinum, Matt Haimowitz, and Jennifer ager of KCBs-TV in Los Angeles. Koh. Iyer has performed, recorded, and collab- Bennett holds an MBA from Harvard uni - orated with musical pioneers steve Coleman, versity and a BA in political science from George Lewis, Butch Morris, Roscoe Mitchell, the university of California, Berkeley. He has Henry Threadgill, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Dr. served on the Public Television Advisory Board L. subramaniam, steve Lehman, Craig Taborn, at the Annenberg school at usC and on the Oliver Lake, Ambrose Akinmusire, Tyshawn boards of the National Environmental Trust sorey, Matana Roberts, poets Amiri Baraka and in Washington (DC), st. Nicholas Theatre in Mike Ladd, novelist Teju Cole, and rapper Chicago, and Marlborough school in Los Himanshu suri. Angeles, among others. Iyer is the director of The Banff Centre’s International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Thomas W. Morris was Music and the 2015–16 artist-in-residence at appointed artistic direc- the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He holds a tor of the Ojai Music doctorate in music cognition from the univer - Festival starting with sity of California, Berkeley, and his writings have the 2004 festival. Recog - appeared in Journal of Consciousness Studies, nized as one of the most Wire, Music Perception, JazzTimes, Journal of innovative leaders in the the Society for American Music, Critical Studies orchestra industry, he in Improvisation, and The Oxford Handbook of has served as the long- Critical Improvisation Studies. time chief executive of both the Cleveland Vijay Iyer is a steinway artist. Orchestra and the Boston symphony Orch - estra. Morris is currently active nationally and Before his appointment internationally as a consultant, lecturer, teacher, as president of the Ojai and writer. Music Festival in 2015, As artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival, Jamie Bennett was the Morris is responsible for artistic planning, and chief operating officer each year appoints a music director with whom of southern California he collaborates on shaping the Festival’s pro- Insti tute of Architecture gramming. During his tenure, audiences have (sCI-Arc) in Los Angeles increased and the scope of the festival has for six years. He has expanded, including the addition of Ojai at worked extensively in nonprofits and as an ex- Berkeley, a collaborative partnership with Cal ecutive in media companies in Los Angeles and Performances. London. Ben nett has also been a business ad- Morris was a founding director of spring visor, investor, and director with the Pasadena for Music, and served as the project’s artistic Angels, which specializes in local emerging director. He currently serves as a member of growth companies. the board of directors of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He is also an accomplished per- cussionist.

 PLAYBILL OJAI AT BERKELEY

OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL 1980 Lukas Foss MUSIC DIRECTORS 1981 Daniel Lewis 1982 Robert Craft 1947 Thor Johnson 1983 Daniel Lewis 1948 Thor Johnson 1984 Pierre Boulez Edward Rebner 1985 Kent Nagano 1949 Thor Johnson 1986 Kent Nagano 1950 Thor Johnson stephen Mosko 1951 William steinberg 1987 Lukas Foss 1952 Thor Johnson 1988 Nicholas McGegan 1953 Thor Johnson sir Peter Maxwell Davies 1954 Robert Craft Diane Wittry 1955 Robert Craft 1989 Pierre Boulez Igor stravinsky 1990 stephen Mosko 1956 Robert Craft 1991 John Harbison Igor stravinsky sir Peter Maxwell Davies 1957 Aaron Copland 1992 Pierre Boulez Ingolf Dahl 1993 John Adams 1958 Aaron Copland 1994 Michael Tilson Thomas 1959 Robert Craft 1995 Kent Nagano 1960 Henri Temianka 1996 Pierre Boulez 1961 Lukas Foss 1997 Emanuel Ax 1962 Lukas Foss Daniel Harding 1963 Lukas Foss 1998 Mitsuko uchida 1964 Ingolf Dahl David Zinman 1965 Ingolf Dahl 1999 Esa-Pekka salonen 1966 Ingolf Dahl 2000 sir simon Rattle 1967 Pierre Boulez 2001 Esa-Pekka salonen 1968 Robert LaMarchina 2002 Emerson string Quartet Lawrence Foster 2003 Pierre Boulez Michael Tilson Thomas 2004 Kent Nagano 1969 Michael Zearott 2005 Oliver Knussen stefan Minde 2006 Robert spano Michael Tilson Thomas 2007 Pierre-Laurent Aimard 1970 Pierre Boulez 2008 David Robertson 1971 Gerhard samuel 2009 Eighth Blackbird 1972 Michael Zearott 2010 George Benjamin 1973 Michael Tilson Thomas 2011 Dawn upshaw 1974 Michael Tilson Thomas 2012 Leif Ove Andsnes 1975 Michael Tilson Thomas 2013 Mark Morris 1976 Aaron Copland 2014 Jeremy Denk 1977 Michael Tilson Thomas 2015 steven schick 1978 Calvin simmons 2016 Peter sellars 1979 Lukas Foss 2017 Vijay Iyer

 A MESSAGE FROM MUSIC DIRECTOR Vijay Iyer hank you for joining us for these special This kind of empathic listening shakes us out selections from the Ojai Music Festival, of our habitual role as musical “consumers,” by Twhich took place last weekend, a few reminding us that music is the sound of human hundred miles south of here. It’s a special thrill action, and not a disembodied substance. It for me to return to uC Berkeley, where I did de-centers “the composer” as the primary actor my doctoral studies in the 1990s. Those years in music, and reorients us instead towards in the Bay Area made me the artist and person the shared present: being together in time. that I am today; what you’ll hear over these four Empathic listening begins to bring all of us in, concerts (selected from more than a dozen that music makers and observers alike, towards a I curated for Ojai) marks the return of several shared purpose. trajectories that first intersected here in the Bay Here we find common cause with Judith Area nearly a quarter century ago—creative col- Butler’s Notes Toward a Performative Theory of laborations across generations, traditions, and Assembly, her recent far-reaching meditations disciplines. I am honored to be a featured com- on the politics inherent in the act of gathering. poser and pianist throughout this festival, but When we, as assembled bodies, are able to the- I’d like you to know that, despite appearances, orize a common purpose—to reflect upon our- this festival is really not all about me; rather, it’s selves, or to dream together, if you prefer—that concerned with different notions of “us.” is the moment that we become political; that is Represented here are many ongoing relation- when we are first able to unite around some- ships: my 12-year partnership with Wadada thing larger than the self. In this sense, I would Leo smith; my more-than-20-year collaboration add, the moment we commit to empathetic lis- with Rudresh Mahanthappa; performances tening, to hearing one another as fellow human with my longtime associates Tyshawn sorey and beings, we immediately have the potential for stephan Crump; our 17th performance with not just community, but equality and justice, International Contemporary Ensemble of my through direct action and collective transfor- score to the film RADHE RADHE: Rites of mation. And I am certain that such moments, Holi by my dear friend, the late, great Prashant such purposeful shared presence—a power Bhargava. But also represented is a great deal of stronger than itself—will emerge, here, this week- new energy: Rudresh’s and my new project with end, with and among each other. two of our heroes, ustad Zakir Hussain and It is not news to anyone here that we are in a Padma shri Aruna sairam; the second per- tumultuous moment, marked by oppression, formance of my violin concerto, performed by danger, and rampant abuses of power. But there the brilliant Jennifer Koh; and the Bay Area pre- is a glimmer of something that music offers us. miere of my friend and mentor George Lewis’ It was Wadada Leo smith who said that the opera on the Association for the Advancement function of live music is “to transform that [ob- of Creative Musicians (AACM). server’s] life in just an instant, so that when they By now you might have heard or read my go back to the routine part of living, they carry suggestion that we should replace the word with them a little bit of something else.” This “genre” with “community”—a very different experiential residue, this embodied memory, word, concerned not with styles, but with peo- this unnamed “something else” that you will ple. I realize that “community” has become a carry back with you, represents our very future no-less-hackneyed term, too wishful, too forced, in a time of fierce urgency and precarity; it refers invoked far too often. My intent was only to un- to how we all choose to bring our newly forged derscore a simple truth about music: in listen- collective awareness forward into the world. ing to each other, we become connected. When so I thank you, once again, for assembling, done with patience and compassion, listening and for listening. can elicit recognition of the other as a version of one’s own self.

Opposite: Vijay Iyer. Photo by Lena Adasheva.  Up, Against Walls

“It takes a village to raise a child.” by the fluid substance of sound itself. The best —Yoruba proverb of today’s hybrid, genre-defying musical idioms arise not from slipping into assumed identities, nd it takes a village to create a song. but from communication and exchange across Music grew out of shared activity and difference that reach toward the deep well- Aexperience: to mark, to celebrate, to springs of our shared experience. recall the rhythms of the seasons; the rituals of This, then, is a festival about communities, birth, life, and death; the representations of cul- including communities of like-minded per- tural identity. formers and ensembles like ICE—back for a But villages have changed. Families and clans third year as Ojai’s house band—whose cross- once clustered by a stream or a crossroads. With disciplinary concerts will feature recent works time, roads became highways, rail lines, flight by Vijay Iyer and George Lewis. Jennifer Koh routes, and web links. Our villages today are will perform the Bay Area premiere of Iyer’s global, our streams course along the internet. new violin concerto, and stravinsky’s Rite of so what about our songs? Do we sing now into Spring, heard in Cliff Colnot’s new chamber the ether? Are our clustered identities now arrangement for ICE, is refracted in Prashant defined by algorithms tracked and monetized Bhargava’s beguiling film about the Hindu rites by corporations? Ojai at Berkeley, a selection of Holi, RADHE RADHE, with a score by Iyer. of four programs from the 2017 Ojai Music A central work this weekend is George Lewis’ Festival, challenges this dystopian vision with Afterword, an opera—a celebration of the a simple avowal: that even in a global culture, Association for the Advancement of Creative music, like politics, is still local and involves Musicians (AACM), founded over 50 years ago real-time interaction between minds and bod- by African-American artists on the south side ies (sometimes even machines!). Call it, if you of Chicago. Lewis has described the AACM as will, a reaffirmation of the village. a mutual aid society, “a community of people Vijay Iyer prefers to speak of communities. who are all engaged in personal transformation, He discovered his as a graduate student right a practice of the self that looks outward toward here at uC Berkeley, playing in an Oakland club the community.” The AACM has been a major with older, more experienced players. And ever force in Vijay Iyer’s creative life and the opening- since, his own creative juices have been stimu- night Berkeley concert concludes with his im- lated by similar encounters across boundaries provisations with legendary trumpet player of difference: across generations and divisions Wadada Leo smith, one of the AACM’s most of gender, ethnicity, and background. Cultures prominent members, whose deep spirituality have always been nourished by difference, and and long involvement with the civil rights the dynamic flux of musical culture is animated struggle have guided his musical journey.

 PLAYBILL This year’s festival composers are bound less music, but to his audiences, to the space in by questions of style or musical pedigree than which music is made: “to everything in the by attitude and philosophy. Vijay Iyer resists room—to every body.” What he describes is labels, insisting that genres simply designate a listening at its most intense, a heightened sense community of people who share a sensibility. of the moment that demands of both players At the core of his common ground with and audience physical and emotional engage- the AACM is a commitment to cooperative ment, but fosters in turn deeper understanding structures and collective experimentalism, for and empathy. It is an aspirational, even utopian which improvisation is a key creative vehicle. idea of musical community. And it is this kind Improvisation, Iyer has written, is bound up of community that challenges enclaves of with the condition of our very being, the division and the walls that would enforce them means with which we negotiate the course of with the premise that his village—our village— our daily lives. It is a practice that is also central is humanity itself. to the notion of social discourse, of making —Christopher Hailey a space for others and finding our own. Improvisation takes center stage in saturday Christopher Haily is the author of a biography of afternoon’s concert, featuring Iyer, along with the composer Franz Schreker and an editor of the his friends Zakir Hussain, Aruna sairam, and correspondence between Alban Berg and Arnold Rudresh Mahan thappa. Schoenberg. He has taught at the Arnold Schoen - For Vijay Iyer musical time is shared time in berg Institute in Vienna and is the director of which both sound and listening are the curren- the Franz Schreker Foundation. Hailey was a co- cies of exchange. He listens, not only to the editor of the Journal of Musicology from 2011–15.

With both friendship and admiration, Cal Performances dedicates these adventurous programs to Ken Fischer, president of the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, on the occasion of his retirement and in celebration of his illustrious 30-year tenure. Armen Elliott International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) artists of ICE explore how new music inter- is an artist collective committed to transform- sects with communities across the world. ing the way music is created and experienced. The ensemble’s 35 members are featured as As performers, curators, and educators, the soloists, chamber musicians, commissioners,

 and collaborators with the foremost musical Rebekah Heller, bassoon artists of our time. Works by emerging com- David Byrd-Marrow, horn posers have anchored ICE’s programming Gareth Flowers, trumpet since its founding in 2001, and the group’s Michael Lormand, trombone recordings and digital platforms highlight the Luke storm, tuba many voices that weave music’s present. Gabriela Díaz, violin A recipient of the American Music Cen - Erica Dicker, violin ter’s Trailblazer Award and the Chamber Kyle Armbrust, viola Music America/AsCAP Award for Adven - Wendy Richman, viola tur ous Programming, ICE was also named Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello Musical America’s 2014 Ensemble of the Katinka Kleijn, cello Year. The group currently serves as artists-in- Randy Zigler, bass residence at Lincoln Center for the Per - Cory smythe, piano forming Arts’ Mostly Mozart Festival, and Ross Karre, percussion previously held a five-year residency at the Levy Lorenzo, percussion, live electronics Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. ICE Nicholas Houfek, lights has been featured at the Ojai Music Festival since 2015, and has appeared at festivals abroad Staff such as Acht Brücken Cologne and Musica Claire Chase, founder* nova Hel sinki. Other recent performance William McDaniel, executive director venues include the Park Avenue Armory, The Joshua Rubin, co-artistic director* stone, ice floes at Greenland’s Diskotek ses - Ross Karre, co-artistic director* sions, and boats on the Amazon River. New initiatives include OpenICE, made Jacob Greenberg, director of recordings possible with lead funding from The Andrew and digital outreach* W. Mellon Foundation, which offers free Rebekah Heller, director of individual giving* concerts and related programming wherever Ryan Muncy, director of institutional giving, ICE performs, and allows a working process and co-director, OpenICE* with composers to unfold in public settings. Alice Teyssier, artistic operations associate, DigitICE catalogues the ensemble’s perform- and co-director, OpenICE* ances in a free online streaming video library. Maciej Lewandowski, director of production ICE’s First Page program is a commissioning Meredith Morgan, general manager consortium that fosters close collaborations Levy Lorenzo, engineer and technical between performers, composers, and listen- associate* ers as new music is developed. EntICE, a side-by-side youth program, places ICE *denotes ICE musician musicians within youth orchestras as they premiere new commissioned works together. ICE’s appearance at Ojai at Berkeley is supported Inaugural EntICE partners include Youth by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Orchestra Los Angeles and The People’s Howard Gilman Foundation, the National Music school in Chicago. Yamaha Artist ser - Endowment for the Arts, The A.N. and Pearl vices New York is the exclusive piano provider G. Barnett Family Foundation, The Fan Fox for ICE. and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The Elizabeth International Contemporary F. Cheney Foundation, The Aaron Copland Ensemble (ICE) Fund for Music, The Francis Goelet Charitable Claire Chase, flute Lead Trusts, The Amphion Foundation, The Alice Teyssier, flute Pacific Harmony Foundation, The Ann and Nick Masterson, oboe Gordon Getty Foundation, The Alice M. Dit - Campbell MacDonald, clarinet son Fund of Columbia University, The Case - Joshua Rubin, clarinet ment Fund, and the BMI Foundation.

 PLAYBILL Thursday, June 15, 2017, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Vijay Iyer: Recent Works

Vijay IYER (b. 1971) Emergence for trio and chamber orchestra (2016) (Bay Area Premiere) Vijay Iyer, piano stephan Crump, bass Tyshawn sorey, drums International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) Claire Chase, flute; Nick Masterson, oboe; Campbell MacDonald, clarinet; Rebekah Heller, bassoon; David Byrd-Marrow, horn; Gareth Flowers, trumpet; Mike Lormand, trombone; Luke storm, tuba; Gabriela Díaz and Erica Dicker, violins; Kyle Armbrust and Wendy Richman, violas; Katinka Kleijn and Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cellos; Randy Zigler, double bass Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble Christa Cole, Tobias Elser, Adam Jeffreys, Dana Johnson, John Kirchenbauer, and Pok Yee (Pauline) Ng, violins; Jeremy Kreutz, cello; Benjamin Merte, bass; Corey Worley, viola steven schick, conductor IYER Trouble for violin and chamber orchestra (2017) (Bay Area Premiere) Prelude: Erasure Normale For Vincent Chin Cozening Interlude: Accretion Assembly Jennifer Koh, violin International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) Alice Teyssier, flute; Nick Masterson, oboe; Campbell MacDonald, clarinet; Rebekah Heller, bassoon; David Byrd-Marrow, horn; Gareth Flowers, trumpet; Mike Lormand, trombone; Luke storm, tuba; Ross Karre and Levy Lorenzo, percussion; Gabriela Díaz and Erica Dicker, violins; Kyle Armbrust and Wendy Richman, violas; Katinka Kleijn and Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cellos; Randy Zigler, double bass Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble Christa Cole, Tobias Elser, Adam Jeffreys, Dana Johnson, John Kirchenbauer, and Pok Yee (Pauline) Ng, violins; Jeremy Kreutz, cello; Benjamin Merte, bass; Corey Worley, viola; John Minor, timpani steven schick, conductor Commissioned by Cal Performances; Ojai Music Festival; and Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, music director

INTERMISSION

IYER A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke (2015) and Wadada Leo sMITH (b. 1941) Vijay Iyer, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, electronics Wadada Leo smith, trumpet



PROGRAM NOTES

Or to take up arms against a sea of troubles ity of the score and the composer. These recon- And by opposing end them? siderations of authority and agency are key —Hamlet, Act III, scene 1 questions for me as a composer and improviser. Here, as in all of Iyer’s writing, terms like The only cats worth anything “authority,” “agency,” “community,” and “collab- are the cats that take chances. oration” point to his understanding that music —Thelonious Monk can serve as an analogue and laboratory for social formation and action. We see it in the ot so long ago Vijay Iyer said that “to abstract in Emergence; in Trouble it is explicit: succeed in America is, somehow, to be Ncomplicit with the idea of America— “Good trouble,” “necessary trouble”—these are which means that at some level you’ve made favorite phrases of us Representative John peace with its rather ugly past.” Iyer went on Lewis, referring to the strategies and tactics to urge his audience not to allow this ugly past of the Civil Rights Movement and the ongoing struggles for equality and justice in the last six to determine our future. “What I humbly ask decades. of you, and of myself,” he concluded, “is that we constantly interrogate our own complicity When meeting with Jennifer Koh over the past year to discuss the details of this piece, I often with excess, that we always remain vigilant to found it difficult to focus; typically we found notions of community that might—perhaps ourselves instead recoiling in horror at the against our best intentions, sometimes— events of any given day. This pattern has only embrace a system of domination at the expense intensified since January 20th, as we find our of others.” This concert explores three contexts communities, our country, and our planet in for this kind of balanced creative interaction: greater peril with each passing hour. In creat- between differently constituted ensembles; ing the piece I found myself both channeling between a soloist and an orchestra; and between and pushing against the sensation of extreme precarity that pervades our moment. two artists across generations. Iyer has written of Emergence: Here, too, is a work that explores the rela- tionship between musical forces, though Emergence is a composition for my group, Iyer sought to avoid the clichés of the virtuoso the Vijay Iyer Trio, plus chamber orchestra. This piece situates our trio’s collaborative im- concerto: provisational language in the context of a clas- I didn’t want to rehash the typical narrative sical ensemble. In juxtaposing the respective positioning a heroic individual over or against powers of these very different ensembles, and a multitude. Ms. Koh told me that the soloist featuring them separately and together, we could instead be viewed as someone willing to explore how these two contrasting perspectives be vulnerable, to publicly venture where most on music might coexist. The trio’s specialized people won’t, to accept a role that no one else skills of internal rhythmic synchronization and will accept, to bear the unbearable. In other organic creative embellishment exist in relief words, the soloist can embody the relationship against the orchestra’s interpretive powers, of an artist to her community: not so much a range of colors, and sheer physical spread of “leader” or “hero,” but something more like a sound. In this piece, the trio should not be shaman, a conduit for the forces in motion featured up front in a typical “concerto” for- around us. mation, but rather in the rear of the orchestra, driving the energy from within the ensemble. Although Trouble is not a programmatic At times this “rhythm section” function may work it is informed by the experience of its challenge the role of the conductor, since the time. “The short second movement,” Iyer sense of pulse is often guided sonically by the trio. In addition, at certain moments, the or- writes, “is dedicated to Vincent Chin, whose chestral players are asked to make choices in murder in the early 1980s signaled an ongoing real time, sometimes by listening and respond- pattern of violent hate crimes against people of ing to each other, which challenges the central- color. His death became a watershed moment

Opposite: Jennifer Koh 

PROGRAM NOTES for antiracist activism, which is as urgently formal links. In the process, a space of possibil- needed today as it has ever been.” ity emerged that introduced me to other sys- • • • tems of music-making. “If you look at my collaborations,” Iyer has said, Their special chemistry bore fruit in a joint “it is very much in line with all these others album, A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke in the sense that it is a building of community, (2016), which has been lauded by critics for particularly among artists of color. This is what its “charismatic delicacy and subtle force” and I learned from the example of elder African- an “awareness and acuity between the players American artists, which is where it is all coming that overlaps and breaks away on razor-thin from; to refuse to be silenced.” margins.” Wadada Leo smith has not been silent. He Like Iyer, smith believes that music is a re- came of age during the 1950s and was a witness flection of and means for engaging with social of the great civil rights battles of the 1960s. His and political experience. Music, he has said, Ten Freedom Summers was a finalist for the “allows the person a moment to reflect minus 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, described by the distraction of living and being involved in the jury as “an expansive jazz work that memo- living. And that reflection allows them that lit- rialized 10 key moments in the history of civil tle moment with themselves so that they can rights in America, fusing composed and impro - figure out the best way to maneuver through vised passages into powerful, eloquent music.” this maze of a society.” People’s problems may The power and eloquence of smith’s voice is felt still be there, he concedes, “but they have expe- across a range of activities, including compos- rienced a few moments of liberation to give ing, performing, improvising, teaching, and them enough energy to carry on until the next writing. For Vijay Iyer he is “a hero, friend, and challenge comes.” teacher” of the past two decades, in particular “You run through your life,” he concludes, through his own participation in smith’s “and you hope that you can show something Golden Quartet: that enlightens somebody at some point in time. And if that happens, then that is really The group’s broad palette included “pure” tones leading to a better humanity, a better society.” and distorted sound, motion and stillness, melody and noise. In quartet performances, Words and music for the sea of troubles Wadada and I often became a unit-within-the- ahead. unit, generating spontaneous duo episodes as —Christopher Hailey

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Vijay Iyer (piano) is the music director of the temporary styles and genres: from minimal- 2017 Ojai Music Festival. For a full biography, ism to serialism, to electronic, cross genre, please see p. 13. mixed media, and beyond. CME has worked with many prominent For background on the International Con - composers, including George Crumb, sir temp orary Ensemble (ICE), please see p. 19. Harrison Birtwistle, stephen Hartke, Helmut Lachenmann, David Lang, Joan Tower, and The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble Frederic Rzewski, and has premiered many of (CME), deemed “a hotbed of contemporary- their works. CME also regularly premieres classical players” and a “rural experimental works by Oberlin faculty, student, and alumni haven” (The New York Times), cultivates composers. innovation in its students. In its six annual Each year, some of the most well-regarded full-concert cycles, the ensemble, directed contemporary music icons perform as by Timothy Weiss, performs music of all con- solo ists with CME, including Jennifer Koh

Opposite: Wadada Leo Smith. Photo by Steve Gunther.  ABOUT THE ARTISTS

(Oberlin College 1997), Claire Chase (Oberlin Stephan Crump (bass), Conservatory 2001), David Bowlin (Oberlin from Memphis, is a Conservatory 2000), Tony Arnold (Oberlin rising star on the New Conservatory 1990), Marilyn Nonken, York music scene. He has ste phen Drury, steven schick, and ursula performed and recorded Op pens. Distinguished students receive in the united states and oppor tunities to perform as soloists with the across the globe with a ensemble as well. diverse list of artists— CME presents an annual concert series at the from late blues legend Cleveland Museum of Art and regularly tours Johnny Clyde Copeland to Portishead’s Dave the united states. In recent years, the group has McDonald, Patti Austin, The Violent Femmes’ performed at the Winter Garden, Miller Thea - Gordon Gano, Big Ass Truck, Dave Liebman, ter, Merkin Concert Hall, DiMenna Center, Billy Hart, sonny Fortune, Greg Osby, Kenny Harvard university, Benaroya Hall, Palace of Werner, The Maha vishnu Project, and Bobby Fine Arts, and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Previte, among others. As a longtime collabo- Hall. CME has also been featured on a number rator with adventurous jazz composers (since of commercial recordings, including John 1999 with Vijay Iyer) as well as guitar wizard Luther Adams’ In the White Silence (New Jim Campilongo and radiant singer-songwriter World Records), Lewis Nielson’s Écritures: Jen Chapin, he has become known for the ele- St. Francis Preaches to the Birds (Centaur gance and purposeful groove of his acoustic and Records), and in several releases on the Oberlin electric bass playing. Crump’s compositions Music label. can be heard in numerous films and on his six Timothy Weiss has been music director of critically lauded albums, the latest of which, the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble Reclamation, featuring his all-string Rosetta for more than two decades and has brought Trio, has been praised by The New Yorker the group to a level of artistry and virtuosity for its “ingenious originals,” named one of the in performance that rivals the finest new year’s best by NPR, and declared “a low-key music groups. A committed educator, Weiss marvel” by JazzTimes. Crump has also released is professor of conducting and chair of the duo recordings with alto saxophonist steve Division of Contemporary Music at the Lehman and pianist James Carney, and two Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he albums with secret Keeper, his duo with vi- helped create and mentor both Eighth Black - sionary guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson. bird and the International Con temporary Ensemble (ICE). He has gained critical ac- Jennifer Koh (violin) is recognized for her in- claim for his performances and programming tense, commanding performances, delivered throughout the united states and abroad. with dazzling virtuosity and technical assur- Weiss’ repertoire in contemporary music ance. An adventurous musician, she collabo- is vast and fearless, including masterworks, rates with artists of multiple disciplines, curates very recent compositions, and an impressive projects that find connections within music of number of premieres and commissions. His all eras from traditional to contemporary, and work has been honored with an Adventurous has premiered more than 60 works written es- Programming Award from the League of pecially for her. American Orchestras. Musical America’s 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year, Koh has been heard with leading orchestras including the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; the Cleveland, Mari - insky, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Philhar - monia (London) orchestras; and the Atlanta, BBC, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, National,

 PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

New World, NHK, RAI (Torino), and singa - Steven Schick (conduc- pore symphonies. This season, she played with tor), a percussionist, con- the Baltimore, Cincinnati, New Jersey, and ductor, and author, was saint Louis symphonies, among others; the born in Iowa and raised New York string Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; in a farming family. premiered a new violin concerto by Chris - Hailed by Alex Ross in topher Rountree with Wild Up; and focused The New Yorker as, “one on the music of Kaija saariaho in recital, of our supreme living chamber music, and concerto performances. virtuosos, not just of Koh has curated numerous projects includ- percussion but of any instrument,” he has ing Shared Madness, comprising more than 30 championed contemporary percussion music short solo works that explore virtuosity for the by commissioning or premiering more than violin in the 21st century; Bridge to Beethoven, 150 new works. The most important of these a recital series that pairs Beethoven’s sonatas have become core repertory for solo percussion. for violin and piano with new works by schick was inducted into the Percussive Arts composers Vijay Iyer, Andrew Norman, and society Hall of Fame in 2014. Anthony Cheung; Bach and Beyond, which schick is artistic director of the La Jolla traces the history of the solo violin repertoire symphony and Chorus and the san Francisco from Bach’s six sonatas and Partitas to con- Contemporary Music Players. As a conductor, temporary composers; and Two x Four, ex- he has appeared with the BBC scottish ploring mentorship and collaboration between sym phony Orchestra, the saint Paul Chamber teacher and student, performed with her for- Orch estra, the Milwaukee symphony, Ensem - mer teacher Jaime Laredo. Her latest project, ble Modern, the International Contemporary Mixtape, asks composers to engage with Amer - Ensemble (ICE), and Amsterdam’s Asko/ ican contemporary musical culture integral to schönberg Ensemble. their own lives and includes new violin con- schick’s publications include a book, The certos by Vijay Iyer (a work that received its Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams, world premiere last week at the Ojai Music and many articles. He has released numerous Festival), Andrew Norman, and Chris Cerrone. recordings, including the Percussion Works of Her recent album of Tchaikovsky’s complete Iannis Xenakis (2010) and its companion, The works for violin and orchestra, performed with Complete Early Percussion Works of Karlheinz the Odense symphony Orchestra under Stockhausen (2014), both on Mode Records. Alexander Vedernikov, is her 11th recording He received the Diapason d’Or as conductor for Chicago-based Cedille Records. (Xenakis Ensemble Music with ICE) and the Koh made her debut with the Chicago sym - Deutscheschallplattenkritikpreis, as percus- phony Orchestra at age 11 and went on to win sionist (stockhausen), each for the best new the International Tchaikovsky Competition in music release of 2015. Moscow, the Concert Artists Guild Compe - schick is Distinguished Professor of Music tition, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. she and holds the Reed Family Presidential Chair has a degree in English literature from Oberlin at the university of California, san Diego. He College and studied at the Curtis Institute, was music director of the 2015 Ojai Music where she worked with Jaime Laredo and Felix Festival and starting in 2017 will be co-artistic Galimir. director, with Claire Chase, of the summer Jennifer Koh is artistic director of arco col- music program at the Banff Centre. laborative, an artist-driven nonprofit that fosters a better understanding of our world Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet), a trumpeter, through a musical dialogue inspired by ideas multi-instrumentalist, composer, and impro- and the communities around us. viser, is one of the most acclaimed creative artists

 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

of his time, both for his music and his writings. sorey’s work has been For the last five decades, smith has been a mem- favorably reviewed in ber of the legendary AACM collective. He dis- Traps, Jazz Times, The tinctly defines his music as “Creative Music” and Village Voice, The Wire, his diverse discography reveals a recorded The New York Times, and history centered around important issues that DownBeat magazine, as have impacted his world. well as on National Public smith was a 2013 finalist for the Pulitzer Radio and WKCR-FM. Prize in Music and is a recipient of the 2016 His forthcoming article Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and in Arcana 4 (John Zorn, ed.), entitled “Music the Hammer Museum’s 2016 Mohn Career and Meaning,” examines his approach to both Achieve ment Award. Other recent accolades composition and improvisation. sorey received include the Trumpeter of the Year (2016), Com - his bachelor’s degree (2004) in jazz studies and poser of the Year (2015), and Musician of the performance from William Paterson university. Year (2013) awards presented by the Jazz Jour - In 2009 he began his studies with composer- nalists Association. performer Anthony Braxton, Jay Hoggard, and The prestigious DownBeat magazine selected Alvin Lucier, which culminated in earning his smith for its November 2016 cover story. Pre - MA in composition from Wesleyan university. viously, he was named Composer of the Year in He recently received his Doctor of Musical Arts DownBeat’s 61st Critics Poll. JazzTimes’ 2016 from Columbia university, with a concentration critics’ poll named him the Artist of the Year in composition, studying primarily under Fred and Composer of the Year, and smith was run- Lerdahl and George Lewis, and he will join ner-up for Trumpeter of the Year. the faculty at Wesleyan university this fall. sorey has also conducted and participated in various Tyshawn Sorey (drums) is a composer, per- lectures and master classes on improvisation, former, educator, and scholar who works across contemporary drumming, ensemble playing, an extensive range of musical idioms. As a per- and critical theory. cussionist, trombonist, and pianist, sorey has As a composer, Tyshawn sorey has received performed and/or recorded nationally and commissions from the Van Lier Fellowship, internationally with his own ensembles and Rou lette Inter medium, and, most recently, the with those led by Muhal Richard Abrams, steve International Con temp o rary Ensemble, whose Coleman, “Butch” Morris, Peter Evans, Roscoe large-scale work premiered in 2012. sorey is Mitchell, Misha Mengelberg, John Zorn, Vijay a private instructor in composition and im- Iyer, Wadada Leo smith, Dave Douglas, An - provisation for The New school for Jazz and thony Braxton, steve Lehman, and Tim Berne, Con temporary Music, and the school of among many others. Improvi sational Music.

 PLAYBILL Friday, June 16, 2017, 8pm Zellerbach Playhouse Afterword, an opera by George Lewis

Joelle Lamarre, soprano Gwendolyn Brown, contralto Julian Terrell Otis, tenor International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) Alice Teyssier, flute; Campbell MacDonald, clarinet; David Byrd-Marrow, horn; Erica Dicker, violin; Katinka Kliejn, cello; Cory smythe, piano; Ross Karre, percussion sean Griffin, director steven schick, conductor

ACT I scene 1 Down South scene 2 Up North scene 3 The Cemetery scene 4 First Meeting scene 5 Naming

INTERMISSION

ACT II scene 1 Ariae scene 2 The Split scene 3 Death scene 4 Paris scene 5 Afterword

Narda E. Alcorn, production stage manager Daniel schlosberg, répétiteur sean Griffin and Catherine sullivan, costumes

 PROGRAM NOTES

George Lewis (b. 1952) from the interviews I conducted for the book, as Afterword, an opera (2015) well as transcripts of audio recordings of form- Founded on the south side of Chicago in 1965, ative AACM meetings made by Muhal Richard the Association for the Advancement of Crea - Abrams in 1965 and 1966. The opera includes tive Musicians has long played an internation- remembrances from family histories and the ally recognized role in American experimental Great Migration, daily observations jotted down music. The AACM’s unique combination of in diaries, and descriptions of Paris in the wake artistic communitarianism, personal and col- of the tumultuous events of 1968. The lively lective self-determination, and ardent experi- dissonance of the orchestration functions as a mentalism animates the Afterword project. musical commentary on these recounted his- However, Afterword is not a history of the torical and psychic moments, encouraging AACM, but a “Bildungsoper”—a coming-of-age us to listen in on the fast-moving, creative sonic opera of ideas, positionality, and testament. The imagination animated inside the minds of the challenge here was to create an opera around characters as they calculate their collective cre- a collective that remains noted for its diversity ative powers. of approaches to creative practice, while es- As the action unfolds, we witness young chewing direct character representation of black experimentalists interrogating many AACM artists. The opera eschews a conception issues: of power, authority, identity, representa- in which fixed, authorial characters pose as tion, culture, economics, politics, and aesthet- what Michel Foucault calls “historical figure[s] ics; self-fashioning, self-determination, and at the crossroads of a certain number of events” self-governance; personal, professional, and in favor of having music, text, and movement collective aspiration; race, gender, and sexual- deploy a tricksterish displacement of character ity; and tradition, innovation, change, spiritual onto metaphysical collectivities. sung and spo- growth, death, and rebirth. ken voices, instrumental music, and movement Building upon AACM ideas that are now become heteroglossic avatars, in a process part of the legacy of experimental practice con- described by Toni Morrison and others as the stitutes a vital touchstone for operatic experi- expression of a community voice. In some ence. The goal of Afterword is to combine scenes, that voice presents remembrances and aesthetic exploration with critical examination testimony; in others, clashes between subject of the multiple, overlapping, and fundamentally positions allow audiences to eavesdrop on his- human motivations that affect us all. tory as it is being made in real, human time, bringing us face to face with contingency, em- pathy, and wonder. In a sense, the community SYNOPSIS voices adopted by the avatars could also consti- tute externalizations of the conflicts within a Act I single complex human life. The opera takes its title from the concluding chapter of my history Scene 1: Down South of the AACM, A Power Stronger Than Itself: Reminiscences of black life in the southern The AACM and American Experimental Music united states, from antebellum days to the early (university of Chicago Press, 2008). The “After - Great Migration and the first stirrings of the word” chapter selected quotes from nearly 100 Civil Rights Movement. We hear stories of loss interviews with AACM members to fashion an and dispossession—but also of magic, mojo, imagined intergenerational dialogue about mirthful tall tales, and self-determination. overarching social, cultural, and aesthetic issues that the organization and its individual mem- Scene 2: Up North bers faced over the decades. The founding and original members of the Afterword’s direction and movement take AACM were all born between 1927 and 1932. their form from the libretto, which is drawn These children of migrants from the south who

 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES settled in Chicago found matters very different saturday afternoon at the Abraham Lincoln indeed from the glowing reports of life in the Center in Chicago, where the fledgling AACM North they had received from their relatives held meetings, rehearsals, and concerts. “I was and friends who were already there. Despite writing it as it was happening,” Myers recalled, their struggles with housing, money, drugs, and and what we hear from the central figure, much more, we hear strains of nostalgia for the soprano, is a kind of agape, as the AACM community, and the desire for a better life. members go about their creative business in an optimistic and playful spirit, intertwined Scene 3: The Cemetery with explorations of the new individual and A depiction of the hoodoo-tinged origin story collective identities they were forging. of the AACM. Meeting in a local Chicago cemetery, two future AACM founders express Scene 2: The Split sadness at the state of their community, and end Drawn from an audio recording of another with a call for action in which the interlocking 1965 AACM meeting. We witness a breakdown powers of music and collective action would of the sense of camaraderie shown in the establish a better future for themselves and their earlier scene. In a heated debate over the age- community. old conflict between tradition and innovation, positions are staked out, and resolution is not Scene 4: First Meeting forthcoming despite a too-hasty adjournment. The sung texts are drawn largely from the audio recording of the founding AACM meeting Scene 3: Death in May 1965. As the musicians speak frankly The untimely passing of two AACM members among themselves, hopes, fears, aspirations, in the prime of their youth is remembered and and a gradual self-realization dovetail with a mourned. The feeling turns toward an under- general understanding, sung by the tenor, that standing that life is fleeting, and that mobility music composed by the members themselves is power. could play a major role in reconnecting them to their ancestors, as well as fostering social, Scene 4: Paris political, and cultural change. The initial wonderment of living in France gradually becomes tempered by the realization Scene 5: Naming that like the North, Paris was not necessarily This naming meeting, drawn from an audio a race-neutral haven for these young black recording of another 1965 AACM meeting, experimentalists. As their pleas for expanded highlights the role played by spiritual conceits understanding sometimes go unheard, local such as numerology in establishing a baseline difficulties in bridging cultural difference, com- of understanding, as the participants declare bined with a lack of interest in assimilation, lead themselves ready to move forward to advance to their realization that the world is open for each other as well as their music. them to explore.

Scene 5: Afterword Act II The AACM members take stock—of their achievements, and of the problems remaining Scene 1: Ariae to be faced. Again, music, collectivity, ethical The basis for this scene is an unpublished action, and self-realization become keys to autoethnographic journal/narrative by pianist the future. Claudine Myers, written in 1966 and set on a —George Lewis

 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

George E. Lewis (composer) is the Edwin tive Musicians (AACM) since 1971, Lewis’ work H. Case Professor of American Music at in electronic and computer music, computer- Columbia university. A Fellow of the based multimedia installations, and notated American Academy of Arts and sciences and a and improvisative forms is documented on Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, more than 150 recordings. His work has Lewis’ other honors include a MacArthur been presented by the BBC scottish symphony Fellowship (2002), a Guggenheim Fellowship Orchestra, London Philharmonia Orchestra, (2015), a united states Artists Walker Fellow - Radio-sinfonieorchester stuttgart, Mivos Quar - ship (2011), an Alpert Award in the Arts tet, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, London (1999), and fellowships from the National sinfonietta, spektral Quartet, Talea Ensemble, Endowment for the Arts. Dinosaur Annex, Ensemble Pample mousse, Lewis studied composition with Muhal Wet Ink Ensemble, Ensemble Erik satie, Eco Richard Abrams at the AACM school of Music Ensemble, and others. Lewis has re ceived com- and trombone with Dean Hey. A member of missions from American Com posers Orch - the Association for the Advancement of Crea - estra, International Contemporary Ensemble

 PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

(ICE), Harvestworks, Ensemble Either/Or, beginning of her career up to her final per- Orkestra Futura, Turning Point Ensemble, formance of the opera Aida at the Metropolitan san Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Opera House in 1985. Through the ingenious IRCAM, and Glasgow Improvisers Orch estra, use of projections and voice, Lamarre portrays among others. the life of a true iconic American. Lewis has served as Fromm Visiting Pro - Last fall, she played the role of Harriet in a fessor of Music, Harvard university; Ernest new opera written by Nkeiru Okoye, Harriet Bloch Visiting Professor of Music, university of Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom, California, Berkeley; Paul Fromm Composer in with south shore Opera Company of Chicago. Residence, American Academy in Rome; Resi - It tells the story of Harriet Tubman, who, a dent scholar, Center for Disciplinary Innova - century and a half ago, escaped from slavery tion, university of Chicago; and CAC Fitt Artist and led others to freedom. Again, with south in Residence, Brown university. He received the shore Opera Company of Chicago, Lamarre 2012 sEAMus Award from the society for performed the role of Celeste in William Grant- Electro-Acoustic Music in the united states, still’s Troubled Island. and his book A Power Stronger Than Itself: Known for her powerful performances, The AACM and American Experimental Music Lamarre has appeared in such productions (university of Chicago Press, 2008) received the as Dead Man Walking, Porgy and Bess, and American Book Award and the American Madama Butterfly with the American Chamber Musicological society’s Music in American Opera, in a unique take that set the production Culture Award; Lewis was elected to honorary in Mombasa, Kenya. she is known for her membership in the society in 2016. extensive background in classical concert works Lewis is the co-editor of the two-volume and her talents in musical theater. Her awards Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation include the BRAVO award from the Bel Canto Studies (2016), and his opera Afterword (2015), Foundation, the AnneMarie Gerts Award from commissioned by the Gray Center for Arts and the Musicians Club of Women, and several Inquiry at the university of Chicago, has vocal scholarships for VoicExperience. been performed in the united states, united King dom, and the Czech Republic. In 2015 Gwendolyn Brown’s (con t- Lewis received the degree of Doctor of Music ralto) operatic perform- (DMus, honoris causa) from the university of ances of traditional, 20th- Edinburgh. century, American art song, Negro spiritual, For background on the International Con - and the avant-garde have temp orary Ensemble (ICE), please see p. 19. earned her consistent critical acclaim. Her deep Earlier this year, with contralto “showed aston- south shore Opera ishing range and timbre, a stern voice of cer- Com pany of Chicago, tainty” (Huddersfield Examiner) and she has Joelle Lamarre (soprano) been hailed as “a transfixing force of nature” presented a work of her (Mark swed, Los Angeles Times). own, The Violet Hour, Brown’s recent performances in George which explores the career Lewis’ Afterword, an opera were met with crit- of internationally ac- ical acclaim in the united states and abroad. claimed soprano Leon - Other critically acclaimed highlights of con- tyne Price and how she rose to prominence temporary works include creating the lead role during the 1950s and ’60s, despite the segrega- of Marie Laveau in Anne LeBaron’s Crescent tion and discrimination prevalent in America. City for Los Angeles’ The Industry. Brown has The Violet Hour traces Price’s journey from the performed for many of the top opera compa-

 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

nies and orchestras throughout the united Intuitive and experimen- states as well as in Australia, Germany, Italy, tal music practices lie at spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium. she has the foundation of Sean received critical acclaim in character roles in- Griffin’s (director) work, cluding the Principessa in Suor Angelica and whether by inventing a Zita in Gianni Schicchi. she has performed her Neanderthal language signature role of Maria in Porgy and Bess with or composing hysteric the Lyric Opera of Chicago, seattle Opera, choreographic and choral Boston symphony Orchestra, Toronto sym - methodologies used in phony Orchestra, and Washington National films and installations, concert works, film Opera as well as in Germany, the Netherlands, scores, operas, music theater, or hundreds of nu- Belgium, and with the sydney symphony merically conceived collages and drawings. Orchestra in Australia. Griffin’s polyphonic strategies emerge from over Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, 20 years of international productions in experi- Gwendolyn Brown studied music at Fisk uni - mental theater, film, opera, installation, and versity, the university of Memphis, and the performance art. With Opera Povera, the per- American Conservatory of Music. she partici- formance/design consortium he founded in Los pated in the young artist programs of Des Angeles in 2010, Griffin collaboratively com- Moines Metro Opera and Lyric Opera of Chi - bines ethnographic, archival, and historical cago Center for American Artists. Brown is research with critical artistic inquiry and im- an assistant professor of music at her alma provisation. Mixing performance with sculptural mater, Fisk university. sets, inspirational discards, assembled utilitarian objects, and inter active technology, he has been Julian Terrell Otis active throughout the united states, Mexico, (tenor) is proud to re- Asia, and Europe directing opera, designing unite with “this trio of productions and installations, and arranging, impressive vocal soloists” recording, and conducting. (The New York Times) for Griffin received an MFA from CalArts and a the first West Coast per- PhD from uCsD, and is currently an associate formances of Afterword, professor at the university of Guanajuato, Cam - an opera. His vocal im- pus Irapuato-salamanca, Mexico. With Opera provisations have been Povera, Griffin has created new works with called “instrumental” and highly sensitive to the Charles Gaines, George Lewis, Anne LeBaron, ensemble’s texture. Otis has become an enthu- and Pauline Oliveros, and is a longtime collab- siastic interpreter of contemporary music, most orator with Catherine sullivan, Juliana snapper, recently lending his ringing tenor sound to Aiyun Huang, stacy Ellen Rich, and Carolyn Anthony R. Green’s …I Shall Shake His Hand… Benjamin. Griffin’s work has been featured at curated by Fulcrum Point New Music Project MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, RedCat, LACMA, and Nkeiru Okoye’s Harriet Tubman: When I MAK Center at the schindler House, Volks - Crossed That Line to Freedom (south shore bühne, secession Vienna, EMPAC, the 56th Opera Company). As a student, he explored the Venice Biennial, Chicago’s MCA and Trap Door choral works of Ted Hearne, James MacMillan, Theatre, Ostrava Days, Tate Modern, Royal sebastian Currier, and other contemporary Academy of Arts, June in Buffalo, Huddersfield composers under the baton of Donald Nally. Contemporary Music Festival, Gwangju Bien - Otis continues to explore the limitless possibil- nial, seoul’s Festival BO:M, and Taipei’s Forum ities of his instrument’s expressive capacity Music. Griffin is a winner of the 2017 Fellows of through a wide variety of song, improvisation, Contemporary Art Award Fellowship. and theatrical works. For a biography of conductor Stephen Schick, please see p. 27.  PLAYBILL LIBRETTO

George Lewis C: Biscuits with sorghum molasses and butter Afterword, an opera sausages for everybody They gave us the hog bladder ACT ONE Blow it up like a balloon You never heard of that? Scene 1: Down South s: Had a well with a bucket Tenor (T): Took a bath in a big old gray tub My Great Great Grandparents Lee and Kitty Lived in Coontown T: Had a radio Joined the union Army When Joe Louis was fighting People stood outside our window to listen Contralto (C): They killed my grand uncle Floyd C: The church had Heaven and Hell parties Derry got all the property Ice Cream was heaven He said I got documents Chili was hell Ain’t nobody gonna get our land stories about Lazarus Black folks did not issue ultimatums Baby and the to white folks in Mississippi Three Wise Men We had to get out We had to get out s: At Easter I always had a big part I knew my place Soprano (s): My father had a college degree T: Down south they’re known for mojo Wasn’t worth ten cents for a black man If they don’t like you in Mississippi They go to one of those doctors He was a Pullman porter Fixing people, they call it Everybody knew their place I’ll fix ya! I thought I was fixed T: My grandfather always grew his own food The doctor gave me a little packet His deal was It got me unfixed Never work for nobody I no longer knew my place We were philosophers That was our philosophy s: We walked into Woolworth’s We made our own caskets The TV man shouted Happy in our world Here they come! The white fountain They have on dresses! The black fountain They have on suits! We came together when fires broke out Everybody knew their place C: We had heard they would be waiting for you s: Picked cotton till October Wild plums T: spitting on you Green apples Tried to milk the cow s: Beating on you I couldn’t get the rhythm Chickens and pigs in the yard ALL: We just sat there They knew their place We knew our place

 LIBRETTO

Scene 2: Up North C: Fruit man

T: This was a different time T: Ice man On a big holiday if you were all alone somebody would take you in s: Nice man Give you a meal Help you along your way T: Coal man

C: On the West side C: Old man Mother Father sister and Brother T: Cats comin’ through the alley uncle and Grandmother and Grandfather s: Lookin for mice ALL: All in one little room C: Insurance cat s: When people came south They had rings on s: Laundry cat

C: They looked good T: Numbers cat

T: They said C: Put a dollar on three six seven

ALL: It was paradise s: Daddy played

s: uncle Buck T: Mama played Didn’t have train fare Hopped a freight C: Auntie played Got to Chicago uncle played

ALL: It was war ALL: All the mice played

T: Cockroaches C: Potbellied stove

C: Bedbugs T: Wood and coal

s: Mice s: Time for a bath

C: Eat right through the wall T: Get that pot

s: You killed cockroaches C: Heat that water

ALL: The normal way s: Pour it in the bathtub

C: Horses in the alley ALL: Make yourself at home Vegetable man s: Coal stove T: Ragman ALL: Went out s: Junk man

 PLAYBILL LIBRETTO s: Icebox T: Be glad you’re black Being black is hip ALL: Disappeared Otherwise You’d be square s: Gas stove s: unless you went under that viaduct ALL: Came in The dividing line Apartment Or go down town No better sit at that lunch counter

T: We played on pots and buckets ALL: Forever s: singing s: Lots of time to think

C: Dancing T: Grandfather worked at the stockyards Forty-three years found dead in the toilet T: Pass the hat C: Got to thinkin ALL: The police came ALL: What do we really s: Got to thinkin

ALL: What do I really want to do? Scene 3: The Cemetery s: Got to thinkin s: If you’re try’n to find A certain Negro ALL: Got to thinkin ALL: In Chicago T: People say at first They didn’t feel it C: stand on the corner I did Of 47th and south Park Peewees Bombers T: You’re bound to see him strange people Blood running out of their arms ALL: Or go to Oakwood Cemetery s & C: A church boy’s doing it T: The bus isn’t coming Plays the violin The bus isn’t coming It’s a long way home C: Get on the bus so cold Go to work The cemetery gate is open! Every mornin Maybe I can cut through Picking pockets Richard! self-employment C: Phil!

ALL: Talent counts T: What a nice place to meet!

C: We haven’t seen each other in a long time I’ve been thinking

 LIBRETTO

T: You’re always thinking C & T: We are under tight control Like the great musicians of the past C: Those old jam sessions Twenty-four hours a day C: You know some cats

T: Right by the El T: You know some cats

C: start out for work C & T: Let’s get together

T: Hear the cats playing Scene 4: First Meeting C & T: Don’t go to Work that day C: Let the meeting begin Robert’s Rules of Order T: The music was overwhelming Look at the post cards for our agenda Number one is C: Like stepping into paradise Original music Only C & T: We looked up one day This will have to be voted on All that was snatched away We had been robbed s: We thought of all the things we are We were nothing What everybody would like to do Nomads We spoke of furthering creative music We’ve all been talking about it C: Too much noise down there so get to what you really feel We’re laying a foundation T: Cleaned it up For something that will be permanent

C: Wiped it away C: What point are we on now? Original music? C & T: We’re giving you Negroes more power We are creative musicians gathered here to form an association s: More power To realize our dreams This is the highest purpose C & T: More education We’re all denied the privilege of expressing what is in us s: More education s: This involves a great deal of sacrifice C & T: Mo money I don’t want to sacrifice for any standard music s: Mo money T: But are the concerts only creative music? C & T: Mo money she creates her own so let’s take your culture He creates his own and everything is creative? C: No place to play the music in our hearts I may not care to play my own music A time will come when that originality T: Our desires Must be sacrificed

 PLAYBILL LIBRETTO

C: You don’t have to compromise with As we learn more of other systems anyone but yourself around the world We found there is expression on a much T: The Duke told us there are two types higher level than we had been led of music to believe Good and bad Original means Original music sound-conscious musicians That’s not my mood Getting closer to the music our ancestors All the time played Finding a complete new system that s: The other music is already being presented expresses us Record companies We will be locked up in this system Disk jockeys for the rest of our days Everyone is promoting it unless we find ourselves as a people

C: It’s time for musicians to let go of the s: We’re gonna take a vote right now others and start finding themselves stretch out as far as we can C: All in favor of promoting ourselves Most people here do want to play their own music s: Presenting our own music They don’t get a chance someone else is in control C: signify by saying Aye

T: All of us would gladly play original ALL: Aye! music But is that all we will allow? That will not make us free We will be slaves to original music Scene 5: Naming

C: This association cannot enslave us T: We need a name But it can free us I have a name To contribute something new Association of Dedicated Creative Artists But I wonder T: Do people even know what original Could it be put in another way music is? I don’t s: It said on the card “A meeting for the advancement of creative music.” C: Originality That sounded good Originate Association for the Advancement Origin of Creative Music Direct source Original compositions T: What initials would that give? Originating from ourselves C: A is one s: Now is the time M is four C is three This is an awakening M and C make seven. Two A’s are one a piece T: I think I see it now That makes nine The system we’re locked up with now in this society T: We will be the A. A. C. M. It’s what we learned  LIBRETTO

C: A Number Nine Organization C: You have your very own concert Playing Now’s The Time s: That’s as high as you can go They snatch you right off the stage What are we calling it? Where’s your music? Creative Music? Get yourself some music Or Musicians? This concert’s over

C: We can all create music s: stub walks in somebody else can take it and use it You people are really cleaning up! We’ve been advancing creative music No one has been advancing us ALL: We’re creating individuals Not an assembly line ALL: To advance Creative Musicians! We can take anything Make anything out of it

ACT TWO s: Anthony came down with his contrabass clarinet Scene 1: Ariae T: Rock had his bass sax s: Hmmm… What do I call this? C: Fonnie and Ariae sang and played piano A day… in my life No… A day in THE life T: Man your hair is nappier than mine! By… Claudine… Where’s that big horn you got? No What name should I use? Who am I? C: Watch what you say Ariae Claudine’s copying everything I’ll be Ariae Ajaramu and Ariae saw Mal and Lester s: My name is Ariae on their way downtown C: Better be cool C: Bring me a sandwich? Gonna tell on yourself You had a blonde wig T: Goin’ downtown to see a man ain’t got time to shake your hand s: I don’t anymore

s: Walked in the auditorium T: We started the day facing the East stub playing piano What’s the faith here? Leo cleaning the office Is it Islamic? Anthony sweeping C: That was for prayer purposes C: Ariae proceeded to the desk of the Rock The planet rotates to the East she told him she was going to learn his When you face the East theories on notation You’re standing proudly Life feeds out of the East into the West T: Get your own thing It returns to the East You don’t need someone else’s It returns home We’re not dealing with style It shows us each day We’re dealing with music What we are here to do

 PLAYBILL LIBRETTO

Among many other explanations s: The people are not expecting to hear There could be quite a few anything familiar Africa is a mixture of a lot of things We are trying to awaken the psyche What’s important is not a physical Where does heritage come from? homecoming Their psyche was awakened to the But a mental return vibrations in the air eternal Beyond intuition emotion and science s: I’ve been happy all day Painting T: A good ballad puts everyone on familiar Writing, Composing, Playing, Poetry ground Totally involved in art After that I might be ready for something signed, Ariae foreign Everyone is not as hip as you are

Scene 2: The Split C: I don’t care how we play or what we play We are extracting thoughts that are s: Let the meeting come to order already there Our purpose is to play original music C: Our agenda is clear If this will not stand The new musicians have a need for I will have to step out mind expansion Fed up with the lies they’ve been told T: This music has been going on since the They want to break out beginning Way beyond the intellect It is almost impossible for a young jazz Your psyche is more vast than anything musician you see in this world s & C: We’re not really jazz musicians s: Original music restores us through adherence T: It is almost impossible for a young To natural laws and spiritual applications musician to play We hope to present this heirloom If you have no knowledge of your history Left to us by the great black scientists A tree without roots has no foundation Of our ancient heritage C: We are in the midst of a revolution T: My purpose It’s time for some new music Is to awaken my people to the music I have no concern about how you are of our heritage going to feel Why can’t I play the Harlem Blues? I’m concerned with how I feel Can’t I play What I feel? T: Why do you play in public? You could just play by yourself C: There is no limitation unless you feel that our purpose itself s: We have an audience as big as the universe is limited We play to draw people of like mind The purpose of this Association is to This music has a lot to do with play original music disrupting any status quo or system Those who cannot go along We’re not asking you to stay C: But our purpose is to awaken the psyche

 LIBRETTO

s: There are people in the audience T: I took him to the hospital that hear what you hear I asked They can’t describe it When did he want me to pick him up When you do it He said They hear it Don’t worry about it I don’t think I’ll be coming home C: All the music of the past Leads us to create new sounds s: He was going to India

s: Our musical heritage C: To study with his teacher Is with us all the time We don’t have to worry ALL: When we came into his room His mother said Christopher C: Mister Chairman Was gone to India I make a motion to adjourn C: I can accept death now but these were my friends Scene 3: Death my age Both of them died in the same year s: Warm something died in me Handsome I didn’t want to play anymore Calm sweet as he could be T: After Charles and Christopher died Charles did wonders with his music There was an exodus He was having headaches ALL: We got to get out of here T: If you saw him We are dying You saw me We got to get out Tagging along We got to get out Growing up We got to get out

s: Charles was finally doing what he wanted to do Scene 4: Paris They called me. He had died. ALL: Ils sont noirs! Ils sont noirs! ALL: We loved Charles They are black! Ils sont noirs! We loved his music Ils ont débarqué We loved his personality They have arrived! They are black! T: Reminded me of Christopher Ils sont noirs!

C: I met Christopher when he came out C: When we arrived of the Army We wandered the streets He wasn’t no normal piano player They found us a home at Maison Blanche An insane asylum s: He was living in a basement Petit dejeuner ev’ryday Patients wandering around C: He got sick We were like patients too

 PLAYBILL LIBRETTO

ALL: Ils sont noirs! s: At times they only saw our blackness Ils ont débarqué! Création! Human meanings often went unheard Révolution! Perhaps I could be successful as an unusual exotic item T: Paris was twenty-four hours a day Like a Venus Hottentot Like the south side of old People from around the world ALL: They are black! Even from Africa Révolution! Terroristes subversifs! All: Ils sont noirs! Des nouvelles têtes de la nouvelle C: Different customs different food musique! I couldn’t speak the language Rupture! surprise! Austére! Violent! It wears on you Painted faces But I was not convinced that it was time Masks of terror to go Then one day on the radio s: For the very first time we could see They called us revolutionaries The police came ALL: What our music means to the world ALL: Got to thinkin’ s: We did new music ev’ry time we played What do we really want to do?

ALL: We were popular T: We were young and open to explore A whole lot more of the world to see s: They asked us And we liked being American Negroes “Does the A.A.C.M. have anything to do What about New York? with Black Power?” ALL: What about the world? ALL: We told them:

C: We are representing History Scene 5: Afterword Ancient to the Future A continuum with Africa T: This brother told me Our music is composed You musicians should use black names A hundred years from now people will T: Improvised think Duke Ellington was white You need a name from Africa s: Free I made up my name Ajaramu ALL: Difficult It means “A drummer” Like your life We told them C: “A drummer” s: We want you to invent a whole new way s: “A drummer” of thinking ALL: Their names had no love only power T: Heroes gods and masters do not exist in We named ourselves to chart our future our sight

 LIBRETTO

s: This sister told me C: We are here as change You’re a singer Change is synonymous with any You’re Iqua conception of deity A woman who sings I changed my name Or one whose mother has sung for her It means “Number One” Or prayed for her Those who survived the cotton fields My European name always seem’d of death had no idea at first a little stern How long it takes to come into your own My brother started calling me Iqua survival by any means necessary My husband started calling me Iqua The idea of an all-black organization Everyone was calling me Iqua has a great deal of vitality Except my mother When you are struggling to create an identity T: somebody told me You cast down your bucket where you are Ajaramu is a hard name to remember You build up your strength That don’t make no dif’rence But the road that you take must not be a If they love you direct reaction to the brutality that They’ll remember it has been placed upon you A thousand years from today You’re acting in defense against injustice No telling what kind of people will be here If you become a perpetrator of injustice If there are people here at all You join your enemy against yourself They ain’t gonna care Was he black or white ALL: We know now that we come from somewhere greater than all of us s: We’ve been together for half a century We were never concerned with how In Paris New York and the world it was going to happen Ev’ry thing was fast ev’ry thing was loud Innovation cannot be stopped from when we came along getting to its rightful place We would drop a silence bigger than Nothing can go wrong a building Because there’s nothing to compare What could they say? Gimme another it with drink? We were a glitch Faith and strength give us the power A mutation To easily slip into another world so much sacrifice so many things taken away from us ALL: stop trying to be like others We’re still segregated here Follow the thought of who you are even as a global community is within We’re still a part of the power that’s our grasp stronger than itself Great Black Music brought us into Forever existence To stand up for ourselves Our Great Blackness is our real power.

Afterword, an opera was developed in partnership with the Chicago Performance Lab through the Theatre and Performance studies Program at the university of Chicago, and a Design Residency of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago’s New Works Initiative, with support from the MCA stage New Works Initiative with lead funding from Elizabeth A. Liebman; a Mellon Collaborative Fellowship for Arts Practice and scholarship at the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the university of Chicago; the Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the Edwin H. Case Chair in American Music, Columbia university; and a John simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Music Composition.

 PLAYBILL saturday, June 17, 2017, 2pm Zellerbach Hall Vijay Iyer and Friends: Confluence

Zakir Hussain, tabla Vijay Iyer, piano Rudresh Mahanthappa, saxophone Aruna sairam, vocalist

This afternoon’s program will be announced from the stage and will include one intermission.

Photo of Zakir Hussain by Susana Millman.  PROGRAM NOTES

Use it if you can, but use it with respect, fined and deep and had so much to offer. with the reverence that it deserves. I started to see so many things I needed to —Batá master Milton Corona learn in order to make my playing better and (to Zakir Hussain) expand my repertoire. […] What I saw among Afro-Cuban, Latin percus- ijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa met sion instruments: The tonalities were being dis- in 1995. “We both immediately knew,” covered, the singing was part of the musicality VIyer recalled, “that this would be an of the instrument, and you heard not only the important connection”: rhythms being played, but melodies coming out of the instrument and each area of the instru- We were two south Asian Americans of the ment was being discovered, being found, being same age [born in 1971], trying to gain a caressed to express itself. And suddenly it was foothold in the world of creative improvised like a revelation. music, and trying to address issues of identity, community, and history through our work, such revelations have likewise shaped the while negotiating the pitfalls of pigeonholing music of Aruna sairam. Like Zakir Hussain, and self-exoticization. Our many collabora- she is a classically trained artist, although tions—as the duo Raw Materials, in the Mano - her roots are in south Indian Carnatic music dharma Trio with south Indian percussionist which, though likewise built on talas and ragas, Trichy sankaran, in each other’s quartets, and in other ensemble formats—have provided a is primarily vocal with a rich vocabulary of crucial space for our ongoing creative inquiry, embellishments. sairam has also been drawn as improvisors sitting at a particular intersec- to explore what she calls the alchemy of cross- tion of composite realities. cultural exchange, including a dialogue with North Indian music, with its Persian and Children of immigrants—members of any Islamic genealogies, as well as collaborations diasporic community—are constantly negoti- with artists across a range of styles and reperto- ating multiple identities, and nowhere is ries from Gregorian chant to Moroccan sufi that negotiation more fluid than in music. But and Arab-Andalusian traditions. today virtually all creative musicians find solid technical mastery rooted in years of themselves at this intersection of composite re- study have enabled sairam and Hussain to use alities. In 1971, the year Vijay Iyer and Rudresh their instrumental and vocal virtuosity to Mahanthappa were born, Zakir Hussain, son engage as well with contemporary musical and student of the legendary tabla master practices, including the jazz-inflected improvi- ustad Alla Rakha, had been in the united sational styles of which Iyer and Mahanthappa states two years. At 20, he had already em- are a part. Indeed, at Iyer’s invitation, both Hus - barked on an international career that included sain and sairam have served as faculty mem- touring with Ravi shankar, then riding the bers at the International Jazz Convention at crest of Western interest in North Indian the Banff Centre in Canada. The concerts here classical music with its centuries-old repertory and in Ojai mark the group’s first appearances of metrical and melodic patterns (talas and as a quartet. ragas). In a recent discussion with Vijay Iyer, Vijay Iyer uses music to create communities, Hussain recalled his humbling encounter with especially communities forged out of difference. other musical cultures: He and Mahanthappa have studied Indian music, whose elements are present in their own I arrived thinking that “I am representing a works, but the differences here are nonetheless 2,000-year-old history, a very refined tradi- stark. They are cultural and generational; a tion that I am bringing, and so we should contrast of classical and contemporary; of an- be teaching people what to do.” I had no clue cient traditions of voice and percussion against that there were other traditions in the world that were just as old if not older and just as re- two upstarts, piano and saxophone; of intricate

 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES metrical and melodic vocabularies against between revered traditions of Indian music and styles infused by a Western harmonic language an improvisational language with roots in jazz, with very dissimilar rhythmic and tonal the European avant-garde, and American ex- premises. Bridging these differences involves perimentalism, this kind of temporal experi- more than creative interaction; it is also a re- ence is transformed. The moment, laden thick conception of time. with history, is funneled into something slen- All music resonates with the cultural, social, der and fragile, an ephemeral intersection of religious, and philosophical practices that gave sounds, that may draw on but does not require it birth. For conversant musicians and audi- cultural context for understanding. It is instead ences such layers of meaning infuse each musi- something new, a shared composite reality— cal moment; for those outside the culture they and one that may, in time, give birth to histo- are usually lost in translation. In this meeting ries of its own. —Christopher Hailey

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Zakir Hussain, the preeminent classical tabla Republic of India) and the National Heritage virtuoso of our time, is appreciated both in the Fellowship, and was named an Officier in field of percussion and in the music world at France’s Order of Arts and Letters. In 2015 large as an international phenomenon. A na- Hussain was voted “Best Percussionist” by both tional treasure in his native India, he is the DownBeat critics’ poll and Modern Drum - one of the world’s most esteemed and influen- mer’s readers’ poll. tial musicians, renowned for his genre-defying As an educator, Hussain conducts several collaborations. workshops and lectures each year, has been in Widely considered a chief architect of the residence at Princeton university and stanford contemporary world music movement, Hus - university, and in 2015 was appointed Regents sain’s contribution has been unique, with many Lecturer at university of California, Berkeley. historic and groundbreaking collaborations He is the founder and president of Moment including shakti, Remember shakti, Masters Records, an independent record label present- of Percussion, the Diga Rhythm Band, Planet ing rare live concert recordings of Indian clas- Drum, Tabla Beat science, sangam with sical music and world music. Zakir Hussain was Charles Lloyd and Eric Harland, in trio with resident artistic director at sFJazz from 2013 Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer, and most recently, until 2016. with Herbie Hancock. The foremost disciple of his father, the legendary ustad Allarakha, Vijay Iyer (piano) is the music director of the Hus sain was a child prodigy who began his 2017 Ojai Music Festival. For a full biography, professional career at the age of 12 and was please see p. 13. touring internationally with great success by the age of 18. Few musicians share the ability of alto saxo- As a composer, Hussain has scored music for phonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa to numerous feature films, major events, and pro- embody the expansive possibilities of his music ductions. He has composed two concertos and with his culture. What has materialized is a his third, the first-ever concerto for tabla and sound that hybridizes progressive jazz and orchestra, was premiered in India in september south Indian classical music in a fluid and 2015, in Europe and the uK in 2016, and in forward-looking form that reflects Mahan - the united states earlier this year. A Grammy thappa’s own experience growing up a second- winner, he is the recipient of countless other generation Indian-American. The current awards and honors, including the Padma manifestations of that trajectory include his lat- Bhushan (the third highest civilian award in the est project, Bird Calls (2015), which was named

 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

the top album of the year by both DownBeat sairam was the first to introduce the Abhang, and NPR Music’s jazz critics’ poll. a distinctive folk music form from Western India, Hailed by the New York Times as possessing into a traditional southern Indian Carnatic “a roving intellect and a bladelike articulation,” concert. she has also collaborated with leading Mahanthappa has been awarded a Guggenheim musicians across genres, including Dominique Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Vel lard of France (classical liturgical, medieval, Fellowship, and commissions from the Rocke - and Gregorian chants); Nou reddine Tahiri of feller Foundation MAP Fund, Chamber Music Morocco (Arabic-Andalusian music); Christian America, and the American Composers Forum. Bollmann of Germany (neo-classical music); He was named alto saxophonist of the year for Bollywood singer shankar Mahadevan; man- three years running in DownBeat’s interna- dolin virtuoso u. srinivas; dancer Chandra - tional critics’ polls (2011–13) and again in 2015 lekha; and multi-instrumentalist Ranjit Barot. and 2016, and for five years running by the Jazz The BBC Proms invited sairam to perform at Journalists’ Association (2009–13) and again in the Royal Albert Hall in 2011 as the first south 2016. He also was named alto saxophonist of Indian classical musician in the Proms’ 117-year the year in the 2016 JazzTimes magazine critics’ history. Other venues where she has per formed poll. In April 2013 Mahanthappa received a include Carnegie Hall (New York), Le Théâtre Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, one of de la Ville (Paris), Royce Hall (Los Angeles), the the most prominent arts awards in the world. Festival of World sacred Music (Morocco), and In 2015 he was named a united states Artists the Music Academy (Chennai). Fellow, and in 2016 he became the director of Among the many recognitions bestowed jazz and the associate director of the program upon her are the Padma shri, the highest honor in musical performance at Princeton university. awarded by the Indian government to civilians Mahanthappa is a Yamaha artist and uses Van - of merit, and the us Con gress Proclamation of doren reeds exclusively. Excellence. Her work has led her to undertake various worldwide mentoring programs, in- Padma Shri Aruna Sairam (vocalist), a re - cluding the BBC World Routes Academy Pro - nowned music ambassador from India, is one ject. The Aruna sairam Foundation is dedicated of her country’s great classical music vocalists. to imparting knowledge of music to young and Her style is rooted in tradition, yet continues to aspiring musicians, creating performance op- evolve. she belongs to the Veenai Dhanammal portunities for budding artists, and rewarding school of Carnatic music, known for its strict senior music gurus in the community. sairam is adherence to tradition and form. After her ini- currently the vice chairperson of the sangeet tial instruction from her mother, who was Natak Akademi, the national Academy of India, herself a classical singer, sairam, at the age of which helps the Indian government formulate 10, became a disciple of the legendary T. Brinda policies, implement programs, and foster cul- (who came from the family of T. Balasa raswathi tural interchange between regions in India, and and T. Viswanathan—pioneers who helped between India and the world. introduce south Indian classical music to audi- ences in the united states).

 PLAYBILL saturday, June 17, 2017, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Stravinsky & Iyer

Igor sTRAVINsKY (1882–1971) Le Sacre du Printemps (1913; 2016) (arr. Cliff COLNOT) Part I: Adoration of the Earth Introduction The Augurs of spring Ritual of Abduction spring Rounds Games of the Two Rival Tribes Procession of the sage: The sage Dance of the Earth Part II: The sacrifice Introduction Mystic Circle of the Young Girls Glorification of the Chosen One Evocation of the Ancestors Ritual Action of the Ancestors sacrificial Dance International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) Alice Teyssier, flute; Joshua Rubin, clarinet; Rebekah Heller, bassoon; Gareth Flowers, trumpet; Gabriela Díaz, violin; Kyle Armbrust, viola; Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello; Randy Zigler, double bass; Cory smythe, piano; Ross Karre and Levy Lorenzo, percussion; John Minor, timpani steven schick, conductor

INTERMISSION

 Prashant Bhargava/Craig Marsden Bhargava/Craig Prashant

Vijay IYER (b. 1971) RADHE RADHE: Rites of Holi (2014) Film directed, edited, and designed by Prashant Bhargava (1973–2015) Part I: Adoration Dawn Promise summoning spring Fever Procession Colors Part II: Transcendence Thirst Intoxication Exaltation spirits Rituals Purging Rites

Vijay Iyer, piano Tyshawn sorey, drums International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) Alice Teyssier, flute; Joshua Rubin, clarinet; Rebekah Heller, bassoon; Gareth Flowers, trumpet; Gabriela Díaz, violin; Kyle Armbrust, viola; Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello; Randy Zigler, double bass; Cory smythe, piano; Ross Karre, percussion steven schick, conductor sven Furberg, projections Levy Lorenzo, live sound

 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

The one true comment about a piece of music with the very experience of this piece. Our love is another piece of music. of The Rite of Spring, its grip upon our imagi- —Igor stravinsky nation more than a century after its premiere, has less to do with honoring a hypnotic icon travinsky got it right: Only music can that glares down from the darkened walls of comment on music, as these concerts music history than with surrendering to its sfrom the Ojai Music Festival have demon- immersive, enravishing power. Perhaps this ex- strated. But tonight’s works are something plains why this one work has inspired so many different. If Varèse, Bach, and Mozart sent com- versions and arrangements, from Walt Disney posers hurtling off in new directions (and one to The Bad Plus to Cliff Colnot. It is as if we might say the same of improvisation, which is at can’t get enough. Reliving the experience of this every moment taking off from the moment be- work from every possible angle—a recurring fore), the two halves of this concert are more ritual of its own—is to recapture afresh that ini- akin to a lingering embrace. stravinsky’s Rite of tial seduction. Memory and recall fuel the em- Spring has been prominent in recent Ojai festi- bers of desire. vals, appearing in 2005 and 2012 in versions • • • for one and two pianos (Bugallo-Williams; When Prashant Bhargava first contemplated Andsnes/Hamelin), and in 2013, the Rite’s cen- commemorating The Rite of Spring through a tennial year, in an arrangement for piano, bass, film about the Hindu rites of Holi, he was skep- and drums (The Bad Plus), a gradual expansion tical: “The Rite of Spring is a dark, dissonant of performing forces that indicates we may hear work, and Holi is a joyous festival. Where could the composer’s full orchestra original sometime the two meet?” Holi, the heady spring festival late in the next century (!). These stripped-down that marks the carnal union of the goddess versions captured the Rite’s rhythms and har- Radha with Lord Krishna, is a festival of color— monies with fierce energy and skeletal clarity, clouds of color that fill the air and cover every- but this year, in an arrangement for an ensemble thing and everyone. Here, too, is spring as of 12 (suggesting a certain acceleration of our explosion, as passion unleashed by forces of timetable) we’ll get something more: color. nature that subsume individuals in communal It is striking how memories of the Rite are celebration. But whereas stravin sky’s Rite traces linked to its colors—the pinched bassoon solo an arc from violence to sacrifice, Bhargava’s of the opening bars, undulating strings, pun- RADHE RADHE passes through chaos to gent clarinets, snarling trumpets, shrieking transcendence. flutes and piccolos, thumping bass and percus- For all its violence, The Rite of Spring was sion—an orchestra of sharply etched primary born in the quiet seclusion of Clarens, switzer - colors, intense, explosive. This was how stra - land, the alpine town where stravinsky had vinsky remembered the eruption of spring, rented a home and a studio to compose his announced by the cracking ice of the Neva ballet. Bhargava, on the other hand, took his River in st. Petersburg: bursts of color out of cameras to the Braj region of uttar Pradesh in the monochrome of winter; a sudden, violent northern India, the mythological home of awakening at once exhilarating and menacing. Krishna and Radha. Here, he recalled, “they stravinsky’s ballet conjures this experience celebrated for eight days and it was primal and of spring through an ancient, primitive rite, violent and sexual and celebration and they lost strange and alien. But like any rite, it draws us all their inhibition; it was a true kind of emerg- into its sway, as if the very idea of annual recur- ing of springtime in such a beautiful way.” rence overwhelms and submerges individual Rather than attempting a sober documentary identity into shared, communal experience. narrative, Bhargava immersed himself in the We’ve transformed the horror of its culminating frenetic, uninhibited crowds: “shooting was sacrifice into a cathartic abstraction, a symbol chaotic and cathartic: Every evening for eight of frenzied abandon, a yielding that is coupled days, our crew returned drenched in color,

 PROGRAM NOTES

beaten and exhausted, only to be swept back Our lingering embrace of a work like stra - up in more feverish celebrations the next morn- vinsky’s Rite of Spring, whether through faith- ing.” He assembled his footage along the emo- ful arrangement, free adaptation, or creative tional arc of stravinsky’s ballet—a structure of variation, pays tribute to its power as a cultural 12 episodes in two halves—shaping each sec- artifact. It also says something about our ca- tion according to stravinsky’s music, quite lit- pacity for transforming such objects of desire erally “sculpting the edit” around the episodes into vehicles of discovery. If Cliff Colnot has of the original scenario, such as the procession translated stravinsky’s score into the textures of of the wise elders, the spring rounds, and the a contemporary ensemble, if Prashant Bhargava sacrificial dance. In the process, Bhargava’s use and Vijay Iyer have established a cross-cultural of montage mirrors the disjointed block-like dialogue with the ballet’s scenario, these are structure of stravinsky’s score. means by which culture reflects upon itself, the In composing his own score, Vijay Iyer found “true comments,” the ones that matter. it necessary to mute Bhargava’s stravinskian —Christopher Hailey “temp track” and let himself be “guided by the film’s inherent pulses—the rhythms of a people Vijay Iyer (piano) is the music director of the in transformation.” This included taking cues 2017 Ojai Music Festival. For a full biography, from the music and sounds recorded in the please see p. 13. original footage: “There is music everywhere— different bands of roving troupes of drummers For background on the International Con - and singers worshiping and singing devotional temp orary Ensemble (ICE), please see p. 19. songs.” The structural template, then, remained stravinsky, but aside from a prominent bassoon For a biography of Tyshawn Sorey (drums), solo there are no obvious allusions to stra - please see p. 28. vinsky’s music. Instead, Iyer’s goal was to take viewers through the “series of energies” cap- For a biography of conductor Stephen Schick, tured in the film. please see p. 27.

 PLAYBILL