Lansing McLoskey The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble What We Do Is Secret Eric Hewitt, conductor The Madding Crowd Triton Brass So to Speak Keith Kusterer of patina Justin Barish Machine Music

www.albanyrecords.com TROY1442 albany records u.s. 915 broadway, albany, ny 12207 tel: 518.436.8814 fax: 518.436.0643 albany records u.k. box 137, kendal, cumbria la8 0xd tel: 01539 824008 © 2013 Albany Records made in the usa DDD warning: copyright subsists in all recordings issued under this label. Lansing McLoskey (b.1964) has been described as “a major talent and a deep thinker with a great Lansing McLoskey: What We Do Is Secret (2011) ear” by the American Composers Orchestra, “an I came to the world of composition via a somewhat unorthodox route. The proverbial “Three B’s” for engaging, gifted composer writing smart, com- me were not Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, but rather The Beatles, Bauhaus and Black Flag. My first pelling and fascinating music…with a bluesy experiences at writing music were not exercises in counterpoint, but as the guitarist and songwriter edge and infectious punch” by Gramophone for punk rock bands in San Francisco in the early 1980’s. It was actually through these years in the Magazine, and “a unique musical voice which is visceral world of punk that I first developed a love for (but that’s another story). clear and distinctive” by the American Academy What We Do Is Secret draws its title from the seminal 1978 album by the early punk band The of Arts and Letters. McLoskey’s music has been Germs. Likewise, each movement is titled after the name of a song from an early Los Angeles punk performed to critical acclaim across the U.S. and in fourteen other countries on six continents, and has band; respectively, “Strange Notes” by The Germs, “The Unheard Music” by X, “’s Alright an emotional intensity that appeals to academic and amateur alike, defying traditional stylistic (…If You Like Saxophones)” by Fear, and “Rise Above” by Black Flag. The concerto is an homage to pigeonholes. He has won more than two dozen national and international awards, including the pres- these groundbreaking and influential bands and countless others like them, who despite being lost tigious Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, awarded to a in oblivion to the mainstream and having never achieved any semblance of commercial success, “composer of exceptional gifts.” Among his many commissions are those from the Barlow Endowment, nevertheless gave voice to the frustrations of a generation and ultimately changed the face of popular Meet The Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Fromm music. Rising from the ashes of the decadent, self-indulgent ’70s, this was “alternative rock” before Foundation, the soundSCAPE Festival (Italy), King’s Chapel (Boston), and many others. He has written the term was co-opted by corporate record labels, MTV, Hot Topics and Abercrombie & Fitch. for such ensembles as The Hilliard Ensemble, Triton Brass, Atlantic Brass, newEar Ensemble, Dinosaur It’s important to note, however, that the piece is in no way an attempt at a “punk concerto” and Annex, The New Millennium Ensemble, Speculum Musicæ, violist Leticia Oaks Strong of the Los Angeles does not quote any of the actual music in a cheap, postmodern pastiche, but rather uses the song titles Philharmonic, The Calyx Trio, Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble and The Crossing Choir. alone as touchstones and points of inspiration and departure. In addition to his compositional activities, McLoskey spent many years playing in punk/experimental/ What We Do Is Secret was commissioned for Triton Brass and The Boston Conservatory Wind surf/noise bands, owned a skateboard company, wrote a research book on 20th century Danish music, Ensemble by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University. I would like and spent two decades performing early music as a singer and conductor. These diverse experiences to give special thanks to Triton Brass and Eric Hewitt for their unrelenting dedication to music as a and interests from medieval and Renaissance music to Danish music, jazz and experimental/alt rock living art form. converge in McLoskey’s own work; at times in an overt fashion, but more often as influences rippling —Lansing McLoskey underneath the surface of the music, like water flowing under the ice of a frozen river. McLoskey completed a Ph.D. at Harvard University, and holds degrees with honors from UC Santa Barbara and the USC Thornton School of Music, with additional studies at The Royal Danish Academy of Music. On the faculty at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, McLoskey’s music is published by the Theodore Presser Company, American Composers Alliance Press, Mostly Marimba, Reed Music, Subito Music, and Odhecaton Z Music. www.lansingmcloskey.com Nico Muhly: So to Speak (After Thomas Tallis) (2004) Born in and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, Muhly graduated from So to Speak (After Thomas Tallis) is an extended meditation on an anthem for Pentecost by Thomas Tallis with a degree in English Literature. In 2004, he received a Masters in Music from the , entitled Loquebantur Variis Linguis (“they spoke in many tongues”). After organizing the material for where he studied under Christopher Rouse and . From his sophomore year of college, the piece, I wrote a melody that works against, underneath, and above Tallis’s lines to create counterpoint Muhly worked for as a MIDI programmer and editor for six years. www.nicomuhly.com made of old and new elements. Patterns of aggressive woodwind scales and ornaments evoke some of the hysteria inherent in glossolalia (ecstatic speaking in tongues). The central section of the piece gestures Keith Kusterer: of patina (2013) towards an insect-like musical and religious fervor. So to Speak is dedicated to Amiel Melnick. The The word ‘patina’ refers to any fading, darkening or other signs of age (often concerning metals transcription for wind ensemble was done for Eric Hewitt and the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble. such as copper or bronze), which are felt to be natural and unavoidable. Ironically, the unavoidable —Nico Muhly weathering is viewed as special and aesthetically appealing; soft, hidden beauty lies beneath the most vibrant and booming of matters. Similarly, the compositional process with this work for wind ensemble Nico Muhly (b.1981) is one of the most successful composers of his generation. embodied a ‘wearing down’ from a meaty original conception, the actual scored remnants simplified He first drew broad notice for his collaboration with singer Björk on her 2004 and an orchestration left seemingly skeletal. An element of slow, accumulated change in surface and DVD Oceania, and was soon on a meteoric ascent. Muhly’s orchestral works color (like oxidation/other chemical reactions) is often activated by the combined metallic timbres of have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston harps and percussion with the growing ‘gusts’ of the ensemble. Pops, American Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, —Keith Kusterer the Seattle Symphony, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and Aurora Orchestra. He has composed a wide scope of work for ensembles, soloists and Keith Kusterer (b.1981) is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, organizations including the American Ballet Theater, Carnegie Hall, violinist conductor, producer and arranger of various forms of sonic , Gotham Chamber Opera, choreographer , art. He writes music for both the concert stage and interdis- Ballet, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opéra Ballet, ciplinary performance projects, collaborating with artists in soprano Jessica Rivera, The Royal Ballet, Saint Thomas Church in New York the fields of theater, film and dance. As a younger musician, City, Nederlands Ballet, and the Five Browns. Muhly has also lent his skills as he received an award from the 2000 Songwriting performer, arranger and conductor to , Bonnie “Prince” Competition, several years later became the recipient of the Billy, , Grizzly Bear, Jónsi of the band Sigur Rós, and . 2008 Allen-Turner Award in Composition and was selected as Muhly’s first full-scale opera, , was commissioned by the , Lincoln the Winner of the 2012 Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble Center Theater and the . Among Muhly’s most frequent collaborators are his Competition. Keith holds degrees in composition from the colleagues at , an artist-run label headed by Icelandic musician Valgeir Boston Conservatory (M.M 2013) and Columbia College Chicago (Valedictorian, B.M 2011), studying Sigurðsson. Muhly’s film credits include scores for Joshua (2007), Margaret (2009) and Best Picture with celebrated composers such as Marcos Balter, Ilya Levinson, Marti Epstein and Curtis Hughes. In nominee The Reader (2008); all have been recorded and released commercially. collaboration with Columbia College-Chicago and Fujitsu Ten’s ‘Eclipse Master-Class,’ he served as assistant to Stephen Burns, the Artistic Director of Fulcrum Point New Music Project (2010-2011) and also conducted an original film score recording with the studio orchestra at Capitol Records. Keith has well as participating in masterclasses with Simon Bainbridge and Samuel Adler. His accolades include performed as a member of several Chicago and Boston based musical outfits including the spaghetti- winner of the 2011 Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble Composition Competition and the 2012 Roger western, country/surf rock sounds of Mar Caribe, the traditional folk/bluegrass styles of The DogPatch Sessions Memorial Award for Composition. Ramblers and his own music survey project, Keith Kusterer and The Goods. www.keithkusterer.com A passionate advocate for the performance of new and contemporary music, he has performed as a percussionist in the Boston Conservatory New Music Festival and has conducted performances Justin Barish: Machine Music (2011) ranging from Haydn to over a dozen world premieres. Futurism was an art movement that originated in Italy in the early part of the 20th century. It glorified the machine, speed, violence, youth, and the industrial aesthetic. The soundworld of Machine Music Lansing McLoskey: The Madding Crowd (2007) comes from Luigi Russolo’s The Art of Noises, written in 1913. Machine Music is divided into three Commissioned by Meet The Composer for Triton Brass, The Madding Crowd is a sort of hybrid, revolving sections or “gears” as they’re called in the work. Each “gear” occupies a soundworld of families of concerto for . Though it unfolds in one continuous movement, it is divided into an introduction noises that Russolo categorizes in The Art of Noises. “First Gear” deals with the first two families of and five distinct sections, in which each player is featured as a soloist. Most of the solos include an noises: Roars, thundering, explosions, bangs, hissing, whistling, etc. “Second Gear” takes the form improvisational component, and are often in senza misura, i.e free time, not coordinating precisely with of a passacaglia and uses sounds from the third family: Whispers, murmurs, and gurgling. The final the rest of the ensemble, which is playing in a strict meter. Thus every performance is slightly different, “Third Gear” contains the last three noise families: Screeching, buzzing, noises from metals, screams, and the solos have a fluid yet virtuosic character. shouts, wails, and so on. For me, the idea of the machine has always been an attractive artistic con- —Lansing McLoskey cept; the idea of the physical, sometimes super-physical relationship between player and instrument as an apparatus and the same physical relationship between notation and bodily execution. Machine Music is written for and dedicated to Eric Hewitt and The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble for their enthusiasm, fearlessness, and curiosity. —Justin Barish

Justin Barish (b.1990) is a composer of contemporary art music whose work, characterized by its violent textures and extreme sound worlds, finds itself focused on the visceral relationship between performance and complex notational situations. His work has been performed by artists such as The Ludovico New Music Ensemble, The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, Eric Hewitt, Marti Epstein, Bethanne Walker, Jeffrey Means, Transient Canvas, Kevin Price, and Kent O’Doherty as well as being featured at the 2012 Boston Conservatory New Music Festival “Focus Under 40.” He is a graduate of The Boston Conservatory with academic honors, studying with Dalit Warshaw, Marti Epstein, and Andy Vores as Triton Brass Quintet Hailed as “one of the finest quintets The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble in North America,” Triton Brass has By focusing on the performance of unique newly commissioned works as well as masterworks by been changing the way audiences master composers and the tradition of operatic and orchestral transcriptions, The Boston Conservatory experience chamber music since Wind Ensemble is on a mission to revolutionize the American wind band repertoire. Since 2005 the their formation in Boston in 2001. ensemble has commissioned and premiered more than 15 new works by composers such as Lansing Artists-in-residence at The Boston McLoskey, Nico Muhly, Adam Roberts, Marcos Balter, Marti Epstein, Ken Ueno, Peter Gilbert, Ryan Conservatory, Boston College and Streber, Chris Honett, and many others. With the vision and leadership of Eric Hewitt, the Boston MIT, Triton became winners at the Conservatory Wind Ensemble is committed to a vocational life in music, artistic excellence, challenging Lyon International Chamber Music established aesthetics, and the expression of the shared human experience embodied in music from Competition, the Fischoff International every era. www.bostonconservatory.edu Chamber Music Competition, and Eric Hewitt, Music Director The Concert Artists Guild Competition Eric Hewitt is a saxophonist, conductor, and educator who enjoys an active before they had been together four years. Triton Brass has served as faculty at the Boston University and diverse musical career that has taken him to stages and podiums Tanglewood Institute, the renowned Atlantic Brass Quintet International Summer Seminar, and presented throughout the world. He is the Chair of The Boston Conservatory Woodwind recitals and masterclasses at conservatories, colleges and universities all over the United States. Department and the Music Director of The Boston Conservatory Wind Fiercely committed to new music, Triton has sponsored numerous commissions, performed dozens of Ensemble, Sinfonietta, and New Music Festival. He also serves as the premieres, and continues to seek out new works from living composers. Their live performances are Director of the Sinfonia Orchestra at Phillips Exeter Academy, the Director simultaneously electrifying and intimate, presenting both standard and new repertoire with a unique of the Boston College High School Big Band, and regularly guest conducts and unforgettable interpretation. www.tritonbrass.org many of the leading ensembles in the New England region and beyond. A founding member of the Radnofsky Sax Quartet, the Yesaroun’ Duo and Music Director of White Rabbit (an avant-garde chamber music ensemble, in residence at Harvard University from 2005-2010), Hewitt is known as a champion of the music of our time, presenting more than 50 premieres by dozens of composers from around the world. Hewitt is committed to challenging established musical aesthetics and regularly stimulates musicians and audiences alike by programming cutting edge music in the context of our inherited musical tradition. Producers: Lansing McLoskey, Eric Hewitt Mixing/mastering: Ryan Streber/Oktaven Audio (www.oktavenaudio.com) All live concert recordings. What We Do Is Secret: 10/9/11, The Boston Conservatory Theater So to Speak: 4/9/10, Fenway Center, Boston Machine Music: 2/3/12, Fenway Center, Boston of patina: 2/22/13, Old South Church, Boston The Madding Crowd: 7/16/07, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Trinity Church, Lenox, MA

What We Do Is Secret published by Odhecaton Z Music (BMI), and available from the composer (www.lansingmcloskey.com) So to Speak is published by St. Rose Music Publishing (G. Schirmer) of patina and Machine Music are available from the composers The Madding Crowd published by Odhecaton Z Music and available from Subito Music (http://store.subitomusic.com)

Graphic design: Lansing McLoskey Photo credits: Chase Elliott Clark (photo of Keith Kusterer) Roxanne Hidalgo (photo of Justin Barish) Matthew Murphy (photo of Nico Muhly) Raniero Tazzi, (www.ranierotazzi.com) (photo of Lansing McLoskey) Matt Wan (photo of Eric Hewitt) Cover image of Hypnos, ©Trustees of the British Museum, used with permission.

This CD was made possible by a grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. Justin Barish 7 Machine Music (2011) [9:49] The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble Eric Hewitt, conductor

Lansing McLoskey The Madding Crowd (2007) 8 Intro [2:29] 9 Part 1. ( solo) [2:53] Lansing McLoskey 10 Part 2. (cornet solo) [3:42] What We Do Is Secret (2011) 11 Part 3. (horn solo) [2:28[ 1 I. Strange Notes [6:03] 12 Part 4. ( solo) [4:12] 2 II. The Unheard Music [6:46] 13 Part 5. ( solo) [2:47] 3 III. New York’s Alright Triton Brass (…If You Like Saxophones) [3:25] 4 IV. Rise Above [5:33] World Premiere Recordings Triton Brass, soloists The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble Total Time = 66:24 Eric Hewitt, conductor Triton Brass Nico Muhly Shelagh Abate, horn 5 So to Speak (2004) [7:30] Stephen Banzaert, trumpet Wesley Hopper, trombone Keith Kusterer Andrew Sorg, trumpet 6 of patina (2013) [8:47] Jobey Wilson, tuba

www.albanyrecords.com TROY1442 albany records u.s. 915 broadway, albany, ny 12207 tel: 518.436.8814 fax: 518.436.0643 albany records u.k. box 137, kendal, cumbria la8 0xd tel: 01539 824008 © 2013 Albany Records made in the usa DDD warning: copyright subsists in all recordings issued under this label.