Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble

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�� Oberlin�� Contemporary Music �� Ensemble �� Timothy Weiss, conductor �� Benjamin�� Roidl-Ward, bassoon�� Alice Teyssier, soprano �� David�� Bowlin, violin �� Saturday,�� March 7, 2015, 2:00 p.m. �� Gartner�� Auditorium, the Cleveland Museum�� of Art �� Concerto�� for Bassoon Sofia Gubaidulina �� and�� Low Strings (1975) �� (b. 1931) �� I �� II �� III �� IV �� V �� , bassoon �� Benjamin Roidl-Ward �� Aaron Wolff, Maurice Cohn, Nikita Annenkov,�� Christopher Egerton, cello ��Kevin Sullivan, Casey Karr, Dominique Castro, bass �� Pause�� Snow Requiem (2015) Aaron Helgeson PROGRAM NOTES (Cleveland premiere) (b. 1982)

Prologue (“Budeiesull Frå Brimisætra”) Concerto for Bassoon and Low Strings (1975) January 12, 1888 — 6:00AM, 19°F, 24 mph by Sofia Gubaidulina (b. Chistopol, Tatar Autonomous Republic January 12, 1888 — 11:00AM, -2°F, 42 mph [Russia, Soviet Union], 1931) January 12, 1888 — 2:00PM, -10°F, 60 mph Instrumentation: solo bassoon, 4 cellos, 3 double basses. January 12, 1888 — 10:00PM, -17°F, 22 mph January 13, 1888 — 6:00AM, -25°F, 3 mph (“Svein i’ Sy Gårde”) Life in the Soviet Union in the 1970s meant—in addition to (movements performed continuously) contending with chronic shortages in housing and basic goods—abiding fear of the government which imposed severe restrictions not only on the movements of the citizens but on Alice Teyssier, soprano • David Bowlin, violin the information they had access to; any dissent with the official Yuri Popowycz, Rebecca Telford-Marx, Sophia Bernitz, Francesca Fetten, Communist ideology was liable to punishment. Artists were Thomas Cooper, Mana Imaizumi, Henry Allison, Flora Hollifeld, Cecilie expected to adhere to the principles of “socialist realism” which Balling, Kimberly Bill, Mwakudua Wangure, Toby Elser, violin forbade all experimentation with Western modernism. The relative Daniel Orsen, Eleanor Freed, Marlea Simpson, Margaret Klucznik, viola “thaw” after Stalin’s death in 1953 was followed by a new “freeze” Maurice Cohn, Aaron Wolff, Nikita Annenkov, Christopher Egerton, cello under Leonid Brezhnev who, as General Secretary of the Soviet Kevin Sullivan, Casey Karr, Dominique Castro, bass Communist Party from 1964 to 1982, presided over a period of Joseph Williams, piano • Caitlin Mehrtens, harp extreme orthodoxy in all areas of life. Justin Gunter, Louis Pino, Michael Mazzullo, Hunter Brown, percussion Composers who were seeking to free themselves from these Rachel Rossello, Katherine Lerner Lee, Dorothy Klement, soprano shackles were facing stiff opposition. If their works were not Tian Yoon Teh, Prudence Poon, Caroline Scheibe, Abigail Peterson, alto banned entirely, they were subject to approval from the powerful Daniel Hautzinger, Leonardo Ziporyn, Yizhang Liu, tenor Union of Composers that controlled what could be performed Milo Talwani, John Kearin, Justin Weiss, Geoffrey King, baritone and where. Even if approval was granted and a performance took place, there could always be reprisals after the fact, endangering Pause any future performances. It was under these circumstances that a Russian avant-garde Wheel of Emptiness (1997) Jonathan Harvey appeared in the late sixties, with Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, (1939–2012) and Sofia Gubaidulina as its most prominent representatives. Candy Chang, flute • Regina Brady, oboe These composers studied the ideologically highly suspect Alexander Dergal, clarinet • Benjamin Roidl-Ward, bassoon twelve-tone technique, obtained new scores by Stockhausen, Kevin Grasel, horn • Ashley Hale, trumpet Boulez, and other Western contemporaries through entirely Zoe Cutler, trombone • Joseph Williams, piano unofficial channels, and began openly to challenge the rigid Justin Gunter, Louis Pino, percussion norms of socialist realism. The backlash was not slow to come: Rebecca Telford-Marx, Sophia Bernitz, violin when Gubaidulina’s Concerto for Bassoon and Low Strings was Daniel Orsen, viola • Maurice Cohn, cello • Casey Karr, bass presented to the Composers Union, one of its high officials Sage Jensen, electronics declared: “This branch must be hacked off!” The work was Fabian Fuertes, personnel & operations manager eventually performed once under the auspices of the Union, but Michael Roest, librarian further performances were blocked by the apparatchiks.

4 5 To be sure, the work was shocking on many levels. First Snow Requiem (2015) of all, the instrumentation—solo bassoon with four cellos and by Aaron Helgeson ’05 (b. Eugene, Oregon, 1982) three double basses—was highly unusual. Second, the work was filled with such modernisms as an utterly unconventional tonal “This is the hour of lead—remembered, if outlived, as freezing language (including quarter-tones), contrasting with a memorable, persons recollect the snow—first chill—then stupor—then the recurrent theme consisting only of the notes of the G-major letting go.” triad. Gubaidulina uses polyrhythms, aleatoric passages with —Emily Dickinson no rhythmic coordination among the players; she also employs a wide array of extended techniques, including fluttertongues I began writing Snow Requiem two years ago, after being haunted and multiphonics and an imitation of the “saxophone laugh” for by author David Laskin’s account of one of the deadliest winter the bassoon, as well as sul tasto, sul ponticello, glissando, and storms in U.S. history. Dubbed the Children’s Blizzard by the press, complex harmonics for the strings. But even that was not all. For the storm’s name reflects the disproportionately affected children Gubaidulina had inherited from Shostakovich (who died the same who had rushed to far-away schoolhouses in the morning while year this piece was written) the gift of conveying drama through weather was good, only to find themselves trapped indoors by entirely musical means: even an unsympathetic listener had to mid-afternoon without food and water...or worse, frozen on the sense the conflict between the soloist and the accompanying prairie as they tried to flee. It was a blizzard that saw wind speeds septet. The string instruments interrupt, contradict, ridicule, of up to 80 mph, single-day temperature drops of as much as 55 and finally defeat the soloist, whose jolly “swing-like” melody is degrees Fahrenheit, and snow drifts of 10–20 feet, all over the literally crushed to death by the opponents. Commentators have course of 8 hours. tended to identify the bassoon with the “little guy” of Charlie Such a sudden shift in weather brought an onslaught of Chaplin’s movies, and like to note that the Russian word for “low” unprecedented conditions in a region accustomed to extreme in “low strings” (nizki) can also mean “low” in a moral sense. weather. Tiny ice crystals as sharp as daggers flung themselves at The work is in five movements, of which the first, third, the eyes of their victims and froze them shut. Bolts of electricity and fifth together outline a modified sonata form, with No. 1 appeared in mid-air, standing onlookers’ hair on end and sparking functioning as the “exposition,” No. 3 as “development,” and ablaze any metal object within the storm’s wake. Snow powder, No. 5 as “recapitulation.” The even-numbered movements are as fine as flour flew in such thick masses that you literally couldn’t “intermezzi,” No. 2 focusing on the “sinister” strings, while No. 4 see your hand in front of your face. As one resident described, is, for the most part, a spectacular cadenza for the bassoon. The recounting the experience of his family during the storm: latter culminates in a mysterious sound indicated in the score only as “quasi clamore” (“clamorously”); at least one bassoonist has The air itself seemed to be streaming sideways in billows of interpreted this to mean a vocal shout, which would not be out of grit. The snow felt like frozen sand against their eyelids and character at this moment of dramatic climax. nostrils and lips. They couldn’t face into the wind or open their The concerto was dedicated to bassoonist Valeri Popov, eyes, even for a second. The wind was blowing so hard that if whose playing inspired the composer and who first introduced the you fell you couldn’t get up again. work in Moscow. Though its title may suggest it, Snow Requiem (completed —Peter Laki just shy of the Children’s Blizzard’s 125th anniversary) is not program music in the conventional sense. It tells no story. Instead, it draws together disparate sources in an attempt to transcribe (in symphonic sound) an event that left no aural recordings.

6 7 Its musical unfolding is structured from temperature and wind Wheel of Emptiness (1997) readings taken during the storm from the weather station in by Jonathan Harvey (Sutton Coldfield, England, 1939 – Lewes, Huron, South Dakota, and bookended by my own transcription England, 2012) of two Norwegian folk songs from the Homestead-era immigrant Instrumentation: flute (doubling piccolo and alto flute), oboe, clarinet communities in the affected areas. The first comes from the (doubling bass clarinet), bassoon (doubling contrabassoon), horn, tradition of tralling, a form of nonsense-syllable singing that is trumpet, trombone, percussion (2 players: marimba, 2 suspended particularly prevalent in children’s music. The second comes from cymbals, cowbell, small bell, guiro, slide whistle, 5 temple blocks, 2 the Hardanger fiddle repertoire, a violin-like instrument with woodblocks, tam-tam, 5 button gong, crotales, lion’s roar), keyboard sympathetic strings inside its body that resonate the notes of (2 players: piano, sampler, electronic keyboard), 2 violins, viola, cello, the bowed strings. These two songs form a hidden structure that double bass. repeats throughout, sometimes obscured by clouds of orchestral noise, sometimes highlighted by textless vocal chorales, always Mighty surges, pensive isolated notes, anguished repeated patterns, present in the conductor’s beating of time. lush orchestration with shimmering piano and percussion, and Ultimately, this music is and isn’t a requiem. It shares a haunting exploration of the extreme ranges with piccolo and similarities with previous attempts at the form (Machaut, Mozart, contrabassoon—the soundscape of Wheel of Emptiness is far from Brahms, Ligeti) while bearing no relation to the Catholic Mass. empty. The “emptiness” refers to a Buddhist concept which, as It has no words, yet it has a text. It is no epitaph. Rather, it’s a British musicologist Arnold Whittall puts it in his book on Jonathan collage of sonic elements in proximity to the storm and those Harvey, has “less to do with negative associations of absence and who suffered through it: the folk songs of May Hunt that kept loss than with the attainment of freedom from egocentric suffering, her schoolchildren’s spirits up while they waited out the night and with the dissolving of concrete, striving entities into a kind underneath a frozen haystack they had burrowed into with their of blissful flux.” Harvey, profoundly marked by the teachings of bare hands; the hypothermia-induced aural hallucinations of Buddhism and of Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy, had earlier (1986) Peter Graber that gradually subsided as the temperature of his written Forms of Emptiness, for a cappella choir, on words by E. E. prairie-trapped body fell below 87 degrees; the wordless hymns of Cummings and the Heart Sutra. Like that work, Wheel of Emptiness Etta Shattuck that lulled her to sleep on her deathbed weeks after was dedicated to James Wood, the brilliant English percussionist, being trapped in the blizzard; the deafening roar of the wind and composer, and conductor. snow as it rolled across the plains, and the even more deafening Harvey combined a background of “high modernism”—including quiet that surrounded it. extensive work in the electronic studio—with a deep spirituality that transcends the boundaries of any given religion. He used many Special thanks to the U.S. National Archives and Records extended playing techniques in Wheel of Emptiness such as circular Administration for their help in researching weather data and bowing and woodwind multiphonics; he also introduced complex accounts of the Children’s Blizzard as well as the past of my own polyrhythms and mixes acoustic and electronic sounds with the help Norwegian-American homesteader ancestors, David Laskin for of a sampler controlled by a MIDI keyboard. Harvey considered the pointing me in the right direction, Alice Teyssier and David Bowlin sampler “just another instrument of the group,” which completes the for their inspiring artistry, Steven Plank for his help in putting ensemble of acoustic instruments. together a wordless chorus, and Tim Weiss for his endless support The inner freedom of “emptiness” is realized by means of a and encouragement. free association of musical ideas, almost stream-of-consciousness fashion. It is expressed most poignantly, perhaps, at the end of the —Aaron Helgeson ’05 work, where a series of intense outbursts in the brass, dominated by the trumpet in fluttertongue, suddenly dissolves in the clear and

8 9 transparent sound of the crotales, coming to us like bells from a Lazkano and Lewis Nielson. As a vocal soloist, she will join the peaceful and welcoming temple. Underneath, the distant rumble of Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble in a new work by Aaron the lower strings and electronics grows softer and softer until, finally, Helgeson and will be singing the role of Maddalena in Händel’s La it becomes completely inaudible. Resurrezione with the Bach Collegium. Wheel of Emptiness was commissioned by the Brussels-based A uniquely gifted advocate for new music, Teysseir seeks out Ictus Ensemble, which gave the first performance on January 22, collaborations with composers to develop unique and transcendent 1998, under the direction of Georges-Elie Octors. works for the flute and for the singing voice. She has given residencies for composers and performers of new music at such —Peter Laki universities as Harvard, Leeds, Huddersfield, and SUNY-Buffalo. BIOGRAPHIES In 2008, Teyssier was “haunting” in the United States premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s opera Lost Highway, after the David Lynch film, at Bassoonist is currently a senior at Oberlin, where Ben Roidl-Ward Columbia University’s Miller Theater; she has since presented modern he studies with George Sakakeeny. A native of Tacoma, WA, he operas by Viktor Ullman and Anthony Davis. previously studied with Francine Peterson for seven years in the Teyssier is also devoted to historically informed and technically Seattle area. At Oberlin, Ben has performed on tours to New York sound performances of early music. She performs regularly with the City’s World Financial Center with the Contemporary Music Ensemble Bach Collegium, San Diego, the Pacific Bach Project, and is a core (2012) and to Carnegie Hall with the Oberlin Orchestra (2013). He member of the Musical Oratory. In Europe, her chamber ensemble has also performed in the Kennedy Center’s Conservatory Project La Perla Bizzarra was invited to the Händelfestspiel in Göttingen Series (2013), Oberlin’s Danenberg Honors Recital and Oakton Series, (Germany). In her choice of dramatic cantatas from the 17th and 18th and as the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings’ Young Ensemble-in- centuries, Teysseir has been praised for her “dark, wide-ranging” Residence (2013-14) with his reed trio Third Rail. In January of 2015, voice and “expressive coloratura.” Roidl-Ward toured with the string trio Chartreuse, presenting new The Australian-born musician has lived in France, the United works by living composers in concerts in Oberlin, Cleveland, Chicago, States, and Germany and continues to perform on all continents. and New York City. Third prizewinner of the 2013 International She has earned degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music (BM, Double Reed Society Young Artist Competition, Roidl-Ward has MM Opera Theater), the Conservatoire de Strasbourg (Specialization appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony, the Oberlin Diploma), and is currently in the dissertation phase of the Doctorate Contemporary Music Ensemble, and several regional orchestras of Musical Arts at the University of California-San Diego, where she throughout the United States. studies with Susan Narucki.

Flutist and lyric soprano Alice Teyssier ’06 brings “something new, Violinist David Bowlin ’00 has won critical acclaim for his solo and something fresh, but also something uncommonly beautiful” to her chamber music performances from the New York Times, Chicago performances. Hailed as possessing a voice with “unusual depth,” Tribune, and the Chicago Sun-Times, among numerous other sources. Teyssier’s mission is to share lesser-known masterpieces and develop He is an accomplished performer of a broad range of repertoire, a rich and vibrant repertoire that reflects our era. This season, she and has performed recitals and concertos across the United States. is on tour with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) to Among these are dozens of premieres, including the Weill Hall Washington, D.C., Nashville, Los Angeles, San Diego, and will be a world premiere of Mahagoni, a violin concerto written for Bowlin by mainstay of the group’s residency at the Ojai Festival. Austrian composer Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin. Accolades Teyssier plays the music of Chaya Czernowin and Bernard include the 2007 Samuel Baron Prize from Stony Brook University Rands on Miller Theatre’s portrait concert series and returns to and first prize in violin at the 2003 Washington International Monday Evening Concerts twice this season with music by Ramón Competition.

10 11 In 2007, Bowlin joined the violin faculty of the Oberlin active as a guest conductor and has appeared recently with the Conservatory of Music, having previously taught at the Juilliard Melbourne Symphony in Australia, the BBC Scottish Symphony in School as assistant to Ronald Copes. He has taught on the faculties Glasgow, Scotland, and the Britten Sinfonia in London. of the Okemo Young Artist Program, the Green Mountain Chamber Weiss is committed to exploring the probing connections Music Festival, the Madeleine Island Chamber Music Camp, and the within and between pieces in his performances and searching for Mannes Beethoven Institute. He has given master classes at Stony similarities of voice between different composers from seemingly Brook University, Cornell University, the North Carolina School for the different genres, periods, and backgrounds. Accordingly, his Arts, Beijing’s Central Conservatory, the Music Institute of Chicago, programs often present rare and revealing juxtapositions, offering and the Conservatorio de las Rosas in Morelia, Mexico. a broad range of works from the minimalists to the maximalists, Bowlin is a founding member of the International Contemporary from the old to the new, and from the mainstream to the unheard of. Ensemble (ICE), which tours in the United States and abroad. He’s His repertoire in contemporary music is vast and fearless, including had educational residencies at New York University, Northwestern masterworks, very recent compositions, and an impressive number University, and other institutions. He is a member of the Oberlin Trio of premieres and commissions. Recently, he was the recipient of the with conservatory faculty members Haewon Song and Amir Eldan, Adventurous Programming Award from the American Symphony and is a former member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Orchestra League. Chamber Players, whose recording of music by Chinary Ung was In his 23 years as music director of the Oberlin Contemporary named one of NPR’s Top 5 Best American Classical Albums of the Music Ensemble, he has brought the group to a level of artistry year in 2010. and virtuosity in performance that rivals the finest new music Bowlin’s extensive chamber music performances include groups. After a concert with the ensemble in Carnegie Hall, concerts in New York at Weill Recital Hall, Zankel Hall, Alice Tully Anthony Aibel wrote in a review, “under the direction of Timothy Hall, the 92nd St. Y, Bargemusic, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Weiss [the ensemble] presented unbelievably polished, superb Merkin Concert Hall, Miller Theater, and Symphony Space. He has performances—impeccable performances—of extremely challenging performed and recorded with members of the Chamber Music recent music…Their level of preparation eclipses the highest Society of Lincoln Center, as well as toured in major East Coast cities standard…Each work on the program had something vital to say, with Musicians from Marlboro. Recording credits include works of something profound, and [Weiss] was able to communicate the Stravinsky, Webern, Xenakis, Roger Sessions, George Crumb, Huang music’s message with vitality and insight, despite its extreme Ruo, Chinary Ung, Ursula Mamlok, Du Yun, Su Lian Tan, and others difficulty and somewhat foreign language. Weiss conducted with for the Bridge, Naxos, New Focus, Arsis, and Mode labels. economy of gesture—never over conducting, never distracting from Bowlin is also artistic director of Chamber Music Quad-Cities, the music…the performance…cohered like one instrument with an organization that brings chamber music performances to the perfection thanks to the expert preparation by Timothy Weiss.” community in eastern Iowa and western Illinois where Bowlin is a As a committed educator, he is professor of conducting and native. Major teachers include Roland and Almita Vamos, Ronald chair of the Division of Conducting and Ensembles at the Oberlin Copes, Pamela Frank, Philip Setzer, Ani Kavafian, and Stephen and Conservatory of Music, where he helped create and mentored the Kimberly Sims. ensembles eighth blackbird and ICE. Weiss holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, Northwestern University, Conductor Timothy Weiss has gained critical acclaim for his and the University of Michigan. performances and brave, adventurous programming throughout the United States and abroad. Today’s performance is being broadcast live Since 2005, he has served as music director for the Newark on WRUW-FM 91.1 Granville Symphony Orchestra near Columbus, Ohio. He remains

12 13 UPCOMING PERFORMANCES �� Matthias�� Ziegler Thursday,�� March 19, 7:30 p.m. Transformer Station �� One ��of the world’s most versatile and innovative flutists, Ziegler is committed�� both to the traditional literature for flute as well as �� to contemporary�� music and concepts that cross the boandaries �� between�� classical and jazz. He has broadened the expressive �� potential of the traditional flute as well as the electroacoustically �� amplified�� contrabass flute. “Virtuoso Ziegler’s vision of a solo �� polyphonic music makes the flute sound like the wind, or like �� any number of instruments. A beguiling and extraordinary �� achievement.”–��The Wire. $20, CMA members $18. cma.org/ziegler �� Roomful of Teeth �� Friday, March 20, 7:30 p.m. �� Gartner�� Auditorium �� Founded in 2009, Roomful of Teeth is a vocal project dedicated to �� mining�� the expressive potential of the human voice. Through study �� with masters from nonclassical traditions the world over (e.g., Tuvan �� throat singing, Korean P’ansori, Georgian singing, and Sardinian �� cantu a tenore), the eight-voice ensemble continually expands its �� vocabulary�� of singing techniques and invites today’s composers to �� create a repertoire without borders. Their eponymous debut album �� was included on many Best of 2012 lists and was deemed “fiercely �� beautiful�� and breavely, utterly exposed” (NPR). �� $45–$33,�� CMA members $40–$30. cma.org/roomful �� Mivos Quartet �� Saturday,�� March 28, 7:30 p.m. �� Transformer�� Station �� “One of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles” �� (The Chicago Reader), the Mivos Quartet has performed the works �� of emerging and established international composers who represent �� varied aesthetics of contemporary classical composition. Program: �� Alex�� Mincek, String Quartet No. 3; Martin Stauning,�� Atmende Steine; �� Helmut�� Lachenmann,�� String Quartet No. 3, “Grido.” �� $20; CMA members $18. cma.org/mivos ��

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