Department of Music | Stanford University

presents

Sax & Electronics

David Wegehaupt & Sean Patayanikorn

CCRMA Stage | Tuesday, March 8, 2011, 8:00 pm CONCERT PROGRAM

a Stanford/Berkeley exchange concert

Chopper (2009), by Chris Chafe (*)

Três Fontes (2008), by Bruno Ruviaro

Let It Begin With Me (2010-2011), by Liza White

is the same... is not the same (2004), by Rob Hamilton

Métal Re-sculpté II (2010), by Heather Frasch

David Wegehaupt and Sean Patayanikorn, saxophones

(*) Special participation: Matthew Burtner and Justin Yang playing saxophones over the network from Virginia and Belfast.

please turn off all your electronic devices PROGRAM NOTES

Chopper (2009)

This is a portrait in sound to remember: a still space in time, flying in a helicopter over a raging natural disaster, sitting in my kitchen at a laptop. Extended at least an hour, it was utterly quiet save for the background from the ventilation in our apartment. Raw news stream, global access, great lens, Santa Barbara, Banff, satellites... now it's a chance to add rotors in retrospect and slow down again to the pace of that unfolding. In this portrait, also a reflection on those who already work this way, every day. Chris Chafe is a composer, improvisor, cellist, and music researcher with an interest in computers and interactive performance. He has been a long-term denizen of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics where he is the center's director and teaches courses. Three year-long periods have been spent at IRCAM, Paris, and The Banff Centre making music and developing methods for computer sound synthesis. The SoundWIRE project launched in 2000 involves real- time Internet concertizing with collaborators the world over. New tools for playing music together and research into latency factors are current goals. An active performer either on the net or physically present, his music is heard in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The five countries "Resonations" concert was hosted by the United Nations in Nov., 2009. CD's of works are available from Centaur Records. Gallery and museum music installations are continuing into their second decade with biological, medical and environmental "musifications" featured as the result of collaborations with artists, scientists and MD's. Upcoming new works include "Electrode" for Laptop , TQ01 "tomato quintet" for the San Jose Biennial and "Siren Cloud" for CO2 sensors, duo guitar / piano and audience breath at the 2010 MiTo Festival.

Três Fontes (2008)

What do you get when you mix saxophone fragments of Webern, Debussy, and Pousseur in one same algorithmic cauldron, in a bucolic park in Turin, Italy? This piece provides one possible answer to that question. Três Fontes, in Portuguese, can be translated as "three sources", but also "three fountains". You are free to use, study, remix, and share this piece as you see fit. Bruno Ruviaro, composer and pianist from São Paulo, Brazil, was born in 1976, and has lived in 21 different places: Rua Theodureto Souto, Rua Cajati, Casa do Seu Demétrio, Rua São Borja, Rua James Adam, Alameda dos Uirapurus, Avenida Modesto Fernandes, Avenida Santa Izabel, Rua Nuno Álvares Pereira, Rua Prof. Djalma Bento, Rua Dr. Nestor Esteves Natividade, Rua Major Diogo, North Park Street, Jericho Street, Olmsted Road, Thoburn Court, Comstock Circle, Via Parma, Rue de l’Hôtel de Ville, Greenoaks Drive, Miramar Street.

Let It Begin With Me (2010-2011)

The inspiration for Let It Begin With Me, for tenor saxophone, electronics, and electronic percussion, comes from the year I spent teaching general music in several Boston public elementary schools. The schools where I taught had mostly low- income students, and a lot of them had social or behavioral issues. One school had a fifth grade class that was extremely difficult. It was constantly gaining and losing students, many of whom had failed to thrive in other schools or came from a nearby childrens' home. Several were on special education plans, and most struggled with anger or low self-esteem. Their classroom teachers and principal seemed afraid of this class and failed to challenge them or enforce standards of conduct. In this class, my students learned a song called "Peace", by Tom Paxton. The lyrics, with some repetition omitted, go like this:

Peace will come. Let it begin with me. We need peace. Let it begin with me. Oh, my own life is all I can hope to control. Oh, let my life be lived for the good of us all. Let it bring peace, sweet peace. Peace will come. Let it begin with me.

On the day that I introduced the song, we had a class discussion in which, amazingly, all of the students paid attention and many spoke. They defined peace as it relates to mental state and surrounding environment. They were prolific on how their school lacked peace. When neighborhood violence was discussed, one student, a girl who rarely talked in class on most days except to be disrespectful, said repeatedly, "You don't even know. You don't know anything about what we've seen." The students had many ideas on how peace can begin with oneself. But the question of why it's important to work for peace, even when one can only control one's own behavior, was more elusive for them. Let It Begin With Me deals with the words that my students sang, as they might apply to a person in an inner city neighborhood who is trying to lead a fulfilling, productive life and improve his community. In the piece, the tenor saxophone and saxophone- related sounds represent such a person, and the percussive electronics evoke an outside world that threatens to deprive that person of self-confidence, ambition, and zeal for life. There is some gray area between the two types of sounds which could also be symbolic in various ways. Let It Begin With Me represents a growing desire for my music to lend visibility to social justice concerns. I grew up with abundant opportunity, but I was sheltered from knowing much about poor inhabitants of inner cities, and the many ways in which the society that has done so much for me works against them. In wealthier communities like my home town, there is a lot of guilt about this disparity. It is tempting to bury it by believing that all individuals are responsible for their own success or failure, or by choosing to remain ignorant. But if this country truly cares about equal opportunity and peace in all of its forms, we need to acknowledge that change is needed, and that it must begin with each of us. Liza White writes music that combines influences from all over the musical spectrum, exploring concepts of expressive beauty, rhythmic drive, and meditative order. Her work has been performed by leading ensembles such as ALEA III under the direction of Gunther Schuller, the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble under the direction of Craig Kirchoff, the Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble under the direction of Eric Hewitt, and the Charlestown Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet. Liza has won numerous awards and honors including the Craig and Janet Swan Prize, the Margaret Blackburn Biennial Composition Competition, and an Emil and Ruth Beyer Award from the National Federation of Music Clubs. She has been invited to attend the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Norfolk Festival, California Summer Music, the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, and the Composers’ Conference at Wellesley College, and has held residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. Liza received her Master of Music degree in Composition from the New England Conservatory of Music and her Bachelor of Music degree in Composition and Trombone Performance from Boston University. She has also studied at the Royal College of Music in London, England. Her principal teachers have included Edmund Campion, Ken Ueno, Franck Bedrossian, Michael Gandolfi, Lee Hyla, Ketty Nez, Theodore Antoniou, Martin Amlin, Huw Watkins, and Samuel Headrick. Liza co-founded and co-directed Embryonic NOISE!, a Boston area concert series featuring works by emerging composers, in 2008-2009, and is now on the staff of the Eco Ensemble, a professional contemporary music ensemble in residence at the Center for New Music and Audio Technology in Berkeley, California. She is currently working toward a PhD in Composition at the University of California at Berkeley.

is the same… is not the same (2004)

is the same… is not the same – commissioned by saxophonist and composer C.R. Kasprzyk – is a multi-leveled development of a five-note theme from Paul Creston’s Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano. Written in the Fall of 2004, the piece draws inspiration and its title from the words of composer Narcis Bonet. Through rhythmic and harmonic variation of the saxophone part, coupled with real-time and pre-recorded transformations of pitched and unpitched sound materials, is the same… is not the same, attempts to create a continuously shifting sound world where the interactions between saxophonist and computer can range from complementary and harmonic to confrontational and antagonistic. is the same… is not the same was realized at the CCMIX studios in Paris, France. Sounds generated for the piece were created using a variety of tools, including /MSP, UPIC and KYMA. Composer Robert Hamilton (b.1973) is actively engaged in the composition of contemporary electroacoustic musics as well as the development of interactive musical systems for performance and composition. Mr. Hamilton holds degrees from Stanford University, Dartmouth College, and the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University with additional studies at Le Centre de Création Musicale de (CCMIX) and L'Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with the EAMA. He has been the recipient of the Johns Hopkins Technology Fellowship, First Prize Winner of the Peabody Prix d'Ete competition, two Peabody Career Development Awards and two ASCAPPlus awards. Mr. Hamilton is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer- based Music Theory and Acoustics at Stanford University's CCRMA working with Chris Chafe. His research interests include novel platforms for electroacoustic composition and performance, the definition and implementation of flexible parameter-spaces for interactive musical systems, and systems for real-time musical data- exchange, translation and notation display.

Métal Re-sculpté II (2010)

Métal Re-sculpté II, for two bass saxophones and electronics in five movements, sculpts, combines and reshapes the sounds of the saxophone to create new sonic objects. The nuanced changes in the interaction with the electronics, as well as the experimental notational systems, draw out the possible variations an object can have while maintaining its identity. Each of the movements examines a variety of possible relationships between each object. Heather Frasch is a composer of acoustic and electro- acoustic music, improviser and experimental flutist. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley where she studies composition with Edmund Campion and Cindy Cox, and works on interactive at CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technologies) with David Wessel. Her music has been performed at festivals and concerts worldwide such as: SICMF in Korea, Acanthes Festival in Luxembourg, and the Electroacoustic Listening Room Project, among others. Heather holds a Silver Medal from the Conservatoire Nationale de Region de Lyon and a Bachelor of Arts from Temple University.

PERFORMERS

David Wegehaupt is a saxophonist passionate about the promotion and development of contemporary music. As a soloist and chamber musician, David has been active in commissioning and performing new music for saxophone. His world premiere performances include pieces by Aaron Einbond, Gael Tissot, Mikel Kuehn, and Claudio Gabriele and his regional premieres include works by Bruno Mantovani, Thierry Alla, Ivan Fedele, and Vincent Bouchot. He has played recitals as a soloist and a chamber musician around the United States, in Belgium, Greece, Germany, France, Canada, and Thailand. He has been invited to perform at festivals worldwide, including Synthermeia Music Festival in Thessoloniki, Greece, MANCA New Music Festival in Nice, France, and Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften in Berlin, Germany. In April 2010, David organized and performed the North American premiere of Bruno Mantovani’s saxophone concerto Troisième Round with the Arizona Contemporary Music Ensemble. David was the only American to reach the semi-final round of the 4th International Adolphe Sax Competition in Dinant, Belgium in November 2006. In May 2007 David graduated from Bowling Green State University with a BM in Music Performance and a minor in recording technology. While there, he studied with Dr. John Sampen. He was a Fulbright grant recipient in 2007-2008 during which he studied at Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne- Billancourt with Jean-Michel Goury. In May 2010 he completed a MM in Music Performance at Arizona State University where he studied with Tim McAllister. He is currently based in Chicago. David is a founding member of the Anubis Quartet, a new generation modular saxophone ensemble committed to the creation, progression and performance of new music. Musicians of Anubis Quartet regularly perform on all members of the saxophone family, resulting in engaging and varied performances which exponentially increase the possibilities of expression through sound. The current season includes a performance at the Festival Internacional Chihuahua in Mexica and as a guest artist for the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music's "Music At The Forefront" Concert Series and the first performance of RYOT PROJECT, a collaboration between composers and performers in an attempt to investigate boundaries between improvised and composed music, including new music by Thierry Alla, Marcos Balter, Daniel Biro, Aaron Einbond, Lee Hyla, Urs Leimgruber, Robert Lemay, Philippe Leroux, and David Reminick.

Sean Patayanikorn is a young Canadian saxophonist committed to the creation and performance of contemporary music. Sean has been involved in many different world and regional premiers in Europe and the United States from composers such as Pablo Santiago Chin, Aristides Llaneza, Dai Fujikura, Mikel Kuehn and Claudio Gabriele. Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Sean is currently pursuing a Doctor of Music degree at Northwestern University with Frederick Hemke. He has also studied with John Sampen, William Street and Jean-Michel Goury. After gaining international recognition by making the finals of the 2nd International Jean-Marie Londeix Saxophone Competition in Bangkok, Thailand in 2008, Sean has begun a playing career that has taken him to Germany, France, Greece, Mexico, Thailand and Qatar as well numerous engagements in Canada and the United States. He was also recently featured at the Kennedy Center as part of the Conservatory Project. Sean is a member of the Anubis Quartet, a new-generation modular saxophone quartet committed to the advancement of contemporary art music.

No food, drink or smoking is permitted in the building. Cameras and other recording equipment may not mix well with some types of saxophone. Please ensure that your pager, cellular phone and watch alarm are turned off.

http://ccrma.stanford.edu/concerts/