Fulcrum Point 22nd Annual Concert for Peace: “For the Fallen” Wednesday, December 16, 2020, 7 PM Presented virtually on YouTube, Facebook Live and Zoom We dedicate this concert to the 1 million+ victims of COVID-19 & the nurses, doctors, healthcare, and essential people who work every day to heal, provide and create community. 1 Program For the Fallen (2012) Judith Shatin Stephen Burns, trumpet 3x1-1 (2013) Patrick Grant Kuang-Hao Huang, piano Steve Roberts, electric guitar Laconisme de l’aile (1982) Kaija Saariaho Dalia Chin, flute String Quartet #8 (1960) Dmitri Shostakovich Rika Seko & Kathleen Carter, violin Claudia Lasareff-Mironoff, viola Paula Kosower, cello I. Largo II. Allegro Molto III. Allegretto IV. Largo V. Largo Intuitive Music (2020) Sistas of the Nitty Gritty Angel Bat Dawid, clarinet/vocals Brooklynn Skye Scott, bass Anaiet, piano/vocals 2 Notes Welcome to the 22nd Annual Concert for Peace. Over the decades we have celebrated the holidays with interfaith concerts and mourned the broken bodies of 9/11. We’ve bridged cultures to build peace, explored the rites of ecstasy and devotion and asked the provocative question: What is The Price of Peace? Through music and poetry, improvisation and film, our performances present the richness of new art music in powerful contexts. Tonight we honor the fallen and celebrate the heroes of the Covid-19 pandemic; over 300,000 Americans have died and millions impacted worldwide. We dedicate our concert to the essential people who brave the virus and bring us food, energy, transport, healthcare and so much more. Thank you for your courage, sacrifice, and generosity. For the Fallen, for amplified trumpet and electronics, was commissioned by Italian trumpeter Ivano Ascari, and premiered at the Mondi Sonori, XV Edizione in Trento, Italy. For the Fallen was inspired by, and the electronics made from, the Maria Dolens bell in Rovereto, Italy. Originally cast from cannons melted after World War I, this bell is one of the largest ringing bells in the world. Built between 1918 and 1925 to commemorate the fallen in all wars, it is rung every day in their memory. While the political situation changes in the particulars, the topic is still all too timely. The original recordings were kindly provided by sound engineer Marco Olivotto. For more information visit www.judithshatin.com –J.S. “Three Times One Minus One” or “3x1-1” was created for the 2013 Tribeca New Music Festival and was premiered by James Moore (electric guitar) and Kathleen Supove (piano) and a backing track played through a sound system. In 2017 a commercially released version of the piece was made and retitled “To Find a Form That Accommodates the Mess” or “TFFTATM.” The guitarist is left to find their own sounds as they see fit for the piece and their instrument. The piano is amplified in stereo if possible. The track emulates trap set drums, electric bass, and other instruments, it should at least be loud as their real life equivalents would be and loud enough to balance with the live players. - P.G. 3 Laconisme de l’aile (Brevity of the wing) was composed by Kaija Saariaho in 1982. Based on a scale of tonal colors ranging from brilliant and pure to coarse and harsh this haunting electroacoustic work starts with spoken text: Ignorant Ignorant of their, shadow and not knowing of death, of death, that which consumes immortality. in the noise far from the great waters. They pass by, leaving us and we are never more the same. They are space… traversed by one sole thought. Saint-Jean Perse (translation by Stephen Burns) The composer writes: “The possibility to move from secret whispers into clear, beautiful and ‘abstract’ sound was one of the starting points for Laconisme de l’aile. Another important image on which I focused my mind when writing this piece was that of birds, not really their song, but rather the lines they draw in the sky when flying. I had already started the piece when I felt the need to add a text in the beginning, which would in fact be the source for the musical material. The book Oiseaux (Birds) by Saint-Jean Perse (French poet, diplomat, and Nobel prize-winner) got into my hands in the public library of Freiburg, and I found a passage in this collection of poems that described somehow the images that I had in my mind: that of birds, fighting gravity, flying away, secret and immortal.” - K.S. Dmitri Shostakovich composed his String Quartet No. 8 in Dresden in 1960 with the dedication: “In memory of victims of fascism and war.” There is much controversy as to the underlying meaning or message in this neo-romantic, post-modern work; some interpret it to be a political protest against Stalinist totalitarianism, while others intuit autobiographical content, since he quotes liberally from his own works (Cello Concerto, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Symphony #10, 2nd Piano Trio) and the primary motif based on his initials DSCH (D, Eb, C, B natural in German terms.) 4 This haunting work has five-movements played without pause and ingeniously includes references of the Dies Irae chant, Russian Revolutionary songs, and Jewish folk music, which had powerful impact on Shostakovich. He commented: “It can appear to be happy while it is tragic. It's almost always laughter through tears. This quality… is close to my ideas of what music should be. There should always be two layers in music. Jews were tormented so long that they learned to hide their despair. They express despair in dance music.” - D.S. The opening and closing movements are wistful, elegiac and tragic, while the quartet’s contrasting inner-movements are playfully surreal and maniacally menacing. As with all abstract art music, the underlying meaning is a personal experience in the heart of each listener. Sistas of the Nitty Gritty (named by Artist/Musician Lonnie Holley) are Clarinetist/Vocalist Angel Bat Dawid, Pianist/Vocalist Anaiet Sivad and Bassist Brooklynn Skye Scott. Emerging from the Great Black music traditions of Chicago, this group comes together with a myriad of musical backgrounds, textures and sounds relying heavily on spontaneous compositions and improvisation. This ensemble has performed for Elastic Arts 3rd Annual Benefit Concert, Merkin Concert Hall at the Kauffman Center of the Performing Arts annual Ecstatic Music Festival in New York, and recently featured at New Music Circle Festival in St Louis. Bios Composer, clarinetist, vocalist & spiritual jazz soothsayer Angel Bat Dawid descended into Chicago’s improvised music scene in 2016. In a very short time Angel become ubiquitous in Chicago’s avant-garde performing with Bel LaMar Gay, Damon Locks, Jaimie Branch, Matthew Lux and the legendary Roscoe Mitchell. In 2019 The Guardian named her “2019’s brightest new jazz star.” Her acclaimed albums, The Oracle and Transitions East, feature her myriad talents of performing, overdubbing, and mixing all instruments and voices by herself using her cell phone in various location from London to Capetown; but primarily from her residency in the attic of the historic Radcliffe Hunter mansion in Bronzeville, Southside, Chicago. Angel is the 2020-21 co- curator with Dalia Chin of Fulcrum Point’s Aux In: Connected & Discoveries: Hear & Be 5 Heard series. Conductor, composer and trumpeter Stephen Burns is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Fulcrum Point New Music Project in Chicago. He has been acclaimed on four continents for his virtuosity and interpretative depth in recitals, orchestral appearances, chamber music, and multi-media performances. He has worked closely with composers John Corigliano, Osvaldo Golijov, Gunther Schuller, Jacob TV, and La Monte Young. He won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Avery Fisher Career Grant, the NEA Recital Grant, the Naumburg Award, the Charles Colin Award, the Meier Arts Achievement Award, and the Maurice André Concours International de Paris. Mr. Burns is on faculty at DePaul University’s School of Music and The Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. CDs at Naxos, MHS, Dorian, Delos, Essay, Kleos, & Innova. Stephen Burns is a Yamaha performing artist. Violinist Kate Carter made her Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2014. She has frequently appeared as soloist with the Elmhurst Symphony, where she serves as Associate Concertmaster. She has performed internationally as a member of Camerata Chicago and with the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated in performances at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Sunday Salon Series, Chicago Philharmonic Chamber Music Series, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Sounds of the South Loop, David Adler Music and Arts Center, and she frequently performs in recital with pianist Louise Chan. Her musical education spans from the Eastman School of Music in New York to Northwestern University in Chicago, where she earned the Doctorate of Music in Violin Performance. She is currently on the artist/teaching faculties of Lake Forest College and the Merit School of Music, and she writes a blog about performance psychology at www.fearlessfiddler.com Dalia Chin is a Costa Rican flutist specializing in new art music. Currently living in Chicago, Chin is Co-Curator with Angel Bat Dawid of Fulcrum Point’s Aux In: Connected & Discoveries: Hear & Be Heard series. She’s founding member of the ensemble Fonema Consort with which she has played at the New Music Miami Festival, Visiones Sonoras in Morelia and Mexico DF, Interfaz Festival in Monterrey, Chihuahua International Festival, and Omaha Under the Radar New Music Festival. As 6 an individual artist, Chin is often commissioning, collaborating and premiering pieces by new music composers. This led her to curate her last project “in the same breath” for which she earned the DCASE individual artist program grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.