2011 Next Wave Festival SEP 2011 Donald Baechler, Red + Blue Rose (detail), 2011 BAM 2011 Next Wave Festival sponsor Published by: BAM 2011 Next Wave Festival Brooklyn Academy of Music presents Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board Awakening: Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board A Musical Meditation Karen Brooks Hopkins, President on the Anniversary of 9/11 Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer BAM Howard Gilman Opera House Sep 21—24, 2011 at 7:30pm Approximate running time: 90 minutes, no intermission Kronos Quartet Violin David Harrington Violin John Sherba Viola Hank Dutt Cello Jeffrey Zeigler With special guest Brooklyn Youth Chorus, conducted by Dianne Berkun Scenic and lighting design by Laurence Neff Audio engineer Brian Mohr Technical associate Calvin Ll. Jones Awakening was first performed on September 11, 2006, at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, California. BAM 2011 Next Wave Festival sponsor The 2011 Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Award honors the Kronos Quartet and its production of Awakening. Leadership support for the Next Wave Festival is provided by The Ford Foundation. Leadership support for Awakening provided by Goldman Sachs Gives at the recommendation of R. Martin Chavez. Awakening A Musical Meditation on the Anniversary of 9/11 I. Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky Awakening* (Uzbekistan) Unknown (arr. Ljova & Kronos) Oh Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me+ (Iraq) Traditional (arr. Jacob Garchik) Lullaby+ (Iran) Ram Narayan (arr. Kronos, transc. Ljova) Raga Mishra Bhairavi: Alap+ (India) II. Einstürzende Neubauten Armenia+ (Germany) (arr. Paola Prestini & Kronos) John Oswald Spectre* (Canada) Michael Gordon Selections from The Sad Park* (United States) Part 1 two evil planes broke in little pieces and fire came Part 4 and all the persons that were in the airplane died III. Osvaldo Golijov & Gustavo Santaolalla Darkness 9/11* (Argentina) (from the film11’09”01) Terry Riley One Earth, One People, One Love* (United States) (from Sun Rings*) Traditional (arr. Kronos, transc. Ljova) Tusen Tankar (A Thousand Thoughts)+ (Sweden) Aulis Sallinen (arr. Kronos) Winter Was Hard+ (Finland) with special guest Brooklyn Youth Chorus Vladimir Martynov The Beatitudes+ (Russia) (re-scored for Kronos by Vladimir Martynov) Performed without intermission and played without pause. Program is subject to change. *Written for Kronos / +Arranged for Kronos Chorus Photo: Zoran Olric Brooklyn Youth Chorus Sarah Hill Arielle Negron Dianne Berkun, Artistic Director Milo Hughes Alivia Nielsen Genevieve Hynes Isabella Nigro Sarah Abramson Imani Isaac Venice Ohleyer Rachel Asaeda Leann James Violet Piper Josephine Attal Kei John Lily Pisano Lillian Avram Adar Johnson Teresa Sadowka Anthony Baldeosingh Camille Johnson Daniel Savelyev Asha Bell Lucinda Kahn Juliet Schlefer Yatzany Bell Olivia Knutsen Audrey Seery Taylor Boria Meghan Kouassi Madeline Smith Julia Cassidy Joyce Kouassi Maria Smith Michael Cassidy Juliana LoPiccolo Sarah Sotomayor Simone Chatham Lily Maass Isabella Stevenson Nell Compton Katherine Manternach Jacob Sutton Ciara Cornelius Veronica Marks Allison Tindel Essien Duke Maya Matunis Rachel Vales Sophia Fox Trina McGhee Gabriel Van Putten Talia Fuchs Anna McNeil Elahe Williams Miriam Gabay Mary Miller Jennifer Williams Lydia Green Jake Montagnino Violet Williams Nadia Grisaru Anthony Morales-Duran Gavin Yancey Miranda Halle Aryanna Myles Phoebe Yates Symone Henry Jillian Nedd Program notes Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky (b. 1963) these three is used in a ‘pure,’ recognizable way, Awakening (1993) each plays an important part in the structural organization of the musical fabric.” Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, born in Tashkent, Yanov-Yanovsky’s note on Awakening translated by Gerald Uzbekistan, is a composer of stage, orchestral, McBurney. chamber, vocal, and electroacoustic works that have been performed across Asia and Europe, Awakening was commissioned for the Kronos and is active in the promotion of contemporary Quartet by Mrs. Ralph I. Dorfman. music in Uzbekistan. He graduated in 1986 from Tashkent State Conservatory, where he took composition and instrumentation classes with his Unknown (Iraq) father, Felix Yanov-Yanovsky. He was a partici- “Oh Mother, The Handsome Man pant in master classes in Lerchenborg, Denmark, Tortures Me” (c. 1980s) with Poul Ruders and Edison Denisov, and took Arranged by Ljova & Kronos part in Summer Academia at IRCAM in Paris. To Western ears, North African and Lebanese He has won a number of awards for his musical recordings have chiefly defined Arabic music. compositions, including Second Prize at the But there are sounds less exported that remain international Concours de composition de mu- unique to their place of origin. The region sique sacrée in Fribourg, Switzerland (1991) for containing modern Iraq is no exception. In fact, his piece “Lacrymosa” (recorded by Kronos and Baghdad has been a leader of musical innova- soprano Dawn Upshaw on Night Prayers) and tion for millennia. Iraq’s unique brand of maqam the ALEA III International Prize in Boston (1992) styles and emotive orchestral epics have been for his work “Presentiment.” In addition, he won reasonably well documented, yet a wealth of the Special Award of Nantes at the Cannes Film Iraqi sounds remain that haven’t been show- Festival (1992) for his score to the film Kammie. cased abroad, including the outstanding folk and pop music styles produced by Iraqis—styles In 1993–94, Yanov-Yanovsky performed with known as much for their rhythms as they are for Kronos on the chang, a small Central Asian cimba- their accompanying dances. lom, in his piece Chang-Music V, and in 2000, he and harpsichordist Elisabeth Chojnacka per- “Oh Mother, The Handsome Man Tortures Me” formed and recorded his piece Music of Dreams. is an example of the infamous Iraqi choubi—a In 1996, he founded the International Festival festive, driving rhythmic style that can fea- of Contemporary Music ILKHOM-XX in Tashkent ture fiddles, double reed instruments, bass, and is now an artistic director of the festival. keyboards, and oud over its signature beat. What really defines the Iraqi sound are the crisp, About Awakening, Yanov-Yanovsky writes: rapid-fire machine-gun-style rhythms set atop the “Awakening was written in 1993 in response to main beat. They sound almost electronic—and a request from David Harrington for a piece for sometimes they are, but usually this is the work the Kronos Quartet. of a unique hand drum of nomadic origin called a khishba—also known as the zanbour, Arabic “In my ensemble work ‘Presentiment’ (1992), I for wasp—which appears in many styles of Iraqi was curious to experiment with the adhân (the music today. Kronos’ arrangement is based on a Muslim call to prayer chanted from the minaret) recording produced sometime during the Saddam and multi-track tape. Awakening allowed me the period between the 1980s and 2002. opportunity to do so again, this time under the conditions of chamber music-making and count- Arranger Ljova (Lev Zhurbin) was born in 1978 ing on the unique ensemble possibilities of the in Moscow and moved to New York in 1990. He Kronos Quartet. divides his time performing as a violist, studying and arranging music for Yo-Yo Ma, Kronos Quar- “Fundamental to the piece is the idea of combin- tet, Jay-Z, and others, and composing original ing here different compositional techniques: music for film, TV, dance, and the concert stage. modal, serial, and aleatoric. Although none of In 2005, Ljova was one of six composers invited Program notes to participate in the Sundance Institute’s Film The group Jahlé is based in Bandar Abbas, Iran’s Composers Lab. In 2008, Ljova was a guest largest port city, where there’s a sizable com- faculty member at the Banff Centre in Canada, munity of black Iranians descended from Arabian focusing equally on composition, arranging, and traders and African slaves. Jahlé’s performance viola performance. With his main performing of this traditional lullaby—which inspired Kronos’ ensemble, Ljova and the Kontraband, Ljova has version—was recorded by the BBC’s James appeared at the Kennedy Center, BAM (as part Birtwistle when Andy Kershaw was gathering of the Sundance Film Festival), and MoMA. He material for a program on Iran in 2004. With released his solo debut recording, Vjola: World vocals by Isa Baluchestani, guitar from Hamid on Four Strings, in 2006. Ljova is a graduate of Saeed, and the plangent nay jofti (double flute) the Juilliard School. playing of Ghanbar Rastgoo, Jahlé’s performance is quite mesmerizing. The double-flute player Program note adapted from liner notes to the album Choubi! Rastgoo is also a Baba Zar—a man who leads Choubi! Folk & Pop Songs From Iraq, written by Mark Gergis. Printed courtesy of Sublime Frequencies. the ecstatic zar rituals practiced by the black Iranians of the region. This arrangement of “Oh Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me” by Ljova and Kronos Quartet Trombonist and composer Jacob Garchik, born was commissioned for Kronos by Deborah and in San Francisco, has lived in New York since Creig Hoyt. Kronos’ recording is available on 1994. He has toured Europe and North America Floodplain, released on Nonesuch Records. extensively with the acclaimed Lee Konitz New Nonet, and has played with Konitz since 1997. Since 2006 Garchik has contributed dozens of Traditional arrangements and transcriptions of music from Lullaby (arr. 2006) all over the world for Kronos Quartet. An active Arranged by Jacob Garchik (b. 1976) freelance trombonist, he plays with groups including the Ohad Talmor/Steve Swallow Sextet, For most people, Iran won’t conjure up a musi- the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, Slavic cal image—the way India or Turkey does. It’s Soul Party!, and the Four Bags. His second CD, partly because the political agenda of and media Romance, was hailed by The New York Times as portrayal by the West are preoccupied with “odd and excellent... taut with paradox... slow fundamentalist mullahs, oil reserves, and nuclear and beautiful art songs.” proliferation.