Contemporary Music Ensemble

Suffolk County Community College • Music Department • Ammerman Campus Presents Contemporary Music Ensemble Spring Concert May 11, 2002 7:30 PM Islip Arts Building, Shea Theatre Contemporary Music Ensemble William Ryan, Director ________________________________________________ Electric Counterpoint (1987) Steve Reich (b. 1936) Gerry Rulon-Maxwell, electric guitar Pat Metheny, recorded electric guitars Original Blend (2002) William Ryan (b. 1968) World Premiere Todd Reynolds, violin Michael Lowenstern, bass clarinet Frank Monastero, piano Justin Cunningham, percussion Monkey Forest (2002) Evan Ziporyn (b. 1959) Commissioned by the SCCC Contemporary Music Ensemble Lauren Kasper, flute Brett Colangelo, percussion Anne McInerney, flute Michael Clark, electric guitar Antoinette Blaikie, english horn Keith DeMaio, piano Jennifer Decaneo, clarinet Lisa Casal, violin Lauren Kohler, clarinet Miyo Davis, violin Marissa Sampson, baritone saxophone Malachy Gately, violin Duane Haynes, trumpet Laura Khalil, violin Michael Sarling, trumpet Jamie Carrillo, viola Hector Minaya, trombone Gerry Rulon-Maxwell, electric bass Justin Cunningham, percussion Robert Tavolaro, electric bass featuring special guests Michael Lowenstern, clarinet Todd Reynolds, violin _________________________________________________________________ Special thanks to Chris Kerensky for providing the english horn for Monkey Forest. Guest Performer Biographies Considered the pre-eminent bass clarinetist of his generation, Michael Lowenstern has performed to critical and popular acclaim throughout the Americas and Europe. He has performed, recorded and toured the U.S. and abroad with ensembles of every variety including The Klezmatics, The Steve Reich Ensemble, The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, with whom he will be touring throughout the summer and fall of 2001. In September 2000, Lowenstern accepted an appointment with the New Jersey Symphony. Also active as a composer, Lowenstern has written music for concert, recordings, dance, film, CD-ROM, and his own performing ensembles. He is currently working as the head composer for Grey Advertising’s e-Marketing division, writing internet or “e-jingles” for clients such as Oracle, Warner Brothers, Chase Manhattan Bank and British Airways. Actively involved with new technology in sound and music, Lowenstern is one of this country's leading producers of creative electro-acoustic music, both for his own works and in collaboration with other composers. To date he has been recorded on over thirty CDs; he has two solo recordings, the critically acclaimed “Spasm” (1996) on New World Records, and his newest “1985” (2000) on Capstone Records. In 1989, Lowenstern was the recipient of a Fulbright grant to study in Amsterdam, and in 1991 was the top prizewinner at the International Gaudeamus Competition in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Featured in the 20th Anniversary issue of Keyboard magazine, Titus Levi wrote, “Lowenstern's fierce bass clarinet playing always injects a sense of urgency into the mix.” In addition to performing his own works, during the past decade, Lowenstern has contributed significantly to an instrument that remains underrepresented in American solo literature by commissioning over twenty American composers to write solo works for the bass clarinet. He received his training from the Eastman School of Music (BM, Performer’s Certificate), the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam (Artist’s Certificate), and the State University of New York at Stony Brook (MM, DMA), studying clarinet and bass clarinet with Charles Neidich, Harry Sparnaay, Richard MacDowell and John Bruce Yeh, and composition with Daniel Weymouth. Lowenstern is on the faculty of the Juilliard School. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife Katherine and daughter Ariel. Todd Reynolds is violinist and assistant conductor for Steve Reich and Musicians and The Walter Thompson Orchestra. He was a student of the late Jascha Heifetz, a student at the Eastman School of Music, former Principal Second Violin of the Rochester Philharmonic, and holds a Master's degree from SUNY at Stony Brook. As an improvisor and solo interpreter of new musics from classical to jazz and pop, Mr. Reynolds has appeared and/or recorded with such artists as Anthony Braxton, Uri Caine, John Cale, Steve Coleman, Joe Jackson , Dave Liebman, Graham Nash, Greg Osby, Steve Reich, Marcus Roberts, Wayne Shorter and Cassandra Wilson. In addition to his solo appearances at home and abroad, Mr. Reynolds appears as guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is often featured as violin soloist and chamber musician with Bang On A Can. Mr. Reynolds has premiered countless numbers of compositions by composers including Michael Gordon, John King, Steve Reich, Elliot Sharp, Julia Wolfe, and Randall Wolff, and recently appeared as soloist with Yo Yo Ma in Tan Dun's Water Passion after St. Matthew at the Barbican Center in London. He is a co-founder of Ethel, New York's hippest string quartet, and as composer/performer, Mr. Reynolds is currently developing Still Life With Mic, a theater piece which incorporates with his own composed and improvised music, elements of video and theater arts. He has recorded for Nonesuch, CRI, and Atlantic Records and can also be heard on Tan Dun's soundtrack for the film Fallen, starring Denzel Washington. On Broadway, he originated the role of "The Fiddler", playing and dancing on stage in the Tony Award-winning revival of Irving Berlin's Annie, Get Your Gun, starring Bernadette Peters and Reba McEntire. Currently he tours as part of the Mahavishnu Project, a five-piece jazz-fusion band which centers around the music of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, performs often with The Betty Buckley Band, alongside Kenny Werner, Billy Drewes, Tony Marino, Jamey Haddad, and, of course, Ms. Buckley herself. Mr. Reynolds recently returned from a week of educational residencies in our nation's capitol with Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Project, performing and teaching with composer Bright Sheng, ethnomusicologist Ted Levin, and Yo Yo Ma, culminating in a season opening performance at the Kennedy Center..

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