BAM 2014 Next Wave Festival #BlackMountainSongs Brooklyn Academy of Music Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board Karen Brooks Hopkins, Black President Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer Mountain Songs BAM Harvey Theater Nov 20—22 at 7:30pm; Nov 23 at 3pm Running time: one hour and 30 minutes, no intermission Brooklyn Youth Chorus Choral director and conductor Dianne Berkun-Menaker Creator Bryce Dessner Co-curators Bryce Dessner & Richard Reed Parry Director Maureen Towey Season Sponsor: Music composers Jherek Bischoff, Bryce Dessner, Tim Hecker, John King, Nico Muhly, Richard Reed Parry, Caroline Shaw, and Aleksandra Vrebalov Time Warner is the BAM 2014 Choreographer Jenny Shore Butler Next Wave Festival Sponsor Filmmaker Matt Wolf Set designer Mimi Lien Viacom is the BAM 2014 Music Sponsor Costume designer Sarah Maiorino Major support for Black Mountain Songs provided Lighting designer Ben Stanton by Robert L. Turner Sound designer Jamie McElhinney Video & projection designer Grant McDonald Support of works by women composers provided Dramaturgy Anne Erbe by Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Leadership support for music at BAM provided by: Co-commissioned by BAM and Brooklyn Youth Chorus Frances Bermanzohn & Alan Roseman for the 2014 Next Wave Festival Pablo J. Salame This engagement is dedicated to the late Mary The 2014 Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Award honors Anne Yancey, former Board Chair of Brooklyn Brooklyn Youth Chorus and the production of Black Youth Chorus and long-standing BAM supporter. Mountain Songs. Black Mountain Songs PERFORMERS BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS Conductor Margaret Grabar Sage Isabella Nigro Dianne Berkun-Menaker Julia Harbutt Sophia Partow Natalie Hawkins Aisha Perez Meaghan Accarino Akiya Henry Lily Pisano Kristina Adolphe Symone Henry Juliet Schlefer Emily Ahn Julia Holman Maya Sequira Rachel Asaeda Camille Johnson Madelaine Smith Josephine Attal Olivia Knutsen Maria Smith Gabriella Babolcsay Adrian Korin Sarah Sotomayor Taylor Boria Joyce Kouassi Isabella Stevenson Julia Cassidy Meghan Kouassi Jacob Sutton Nell Compton Ona Linna-Hipp Allison Tindel Ciara Cornelius Trina McGhee Josette Tolliver-Shaw Fannie Feynberg Maeve McNamara Rachel Vales Kierra Foster-Bagley Anna McNeil Nikolay Vartsaba Zoe Frazer-Klotz Jake Montagnino Jennifer Williams Nathaniel Goodyear Jillian Nedd Deanna Goudelias Stephanie Negron Guitar Bryce Dessner Guitar, Bass Richard Reed Parry Viola Caroline Shaw Violin Miranda Cuckson Violin Elena Moon Park Cello Paul Wiancko Piano Ning Yu Percussion David Cossin Dancer Gus Solomons, jr Dancer Adam Gauzza Narrator Basil King CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION TEAM Line producer Laura Roumanos Production manager Neal Wilkinson Stage manager Aislinn Curry Film segment producer Mandy Mandelstein Additional video animations Grant McDonald Cinematographer Greta Zozula Archival research Michael Dolan, Sarah Dunlap Official film sponsor C41 Media Costume assistant Isabelle Coler Set Design Assistant Brittany Vasta Chorus Manager Sheila Carroll PROGRAM JOHN KING ars imitatur naturam text by St. Thomas Aquinas BRYCE DESSNER Black Mountain Song text by Robert Creeley RICHARD REED PARRY there is a sound text by Parry, with excerpts by John Cage CAROLINE SHAW Its Motion Keeps text from a traditional hymn from The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion BRYCE DESSNER My World text by Josef Albers ALEKSANDRA VREBALOV Bubbles text by Robert Creeley and John Cage JHEREK BISCHOFF Childhood’s Dreams text by Robert Duncan NICO MUHLY Fielding Dawson in Franz Kline’s Studio text by Fielding Dawson BRYCE DESSNER Maximus text by Charles Olson RICHARD REED PARRY Spaceship Earth text by Parry, with excerpts by Buckminster Fuller CAROLINE SHAW Anni’s Constant text by Shaw and Anni Albers RICHARD REED PARRY Their Passing in Time text by Parry Additional music: TIM HECKER and BRYCE DESSNER M.C. Richards text by M.C. Richards Narrative text by Fielding Dawson, The Black Mountain Book: A New Edition,” North Carolina Wesleyan College Press, 1991. Courtesy of the Estate of Fielding Dawson Who’sBlack MountainWho Songs NOTE FROM BRYCE DESSNER Because the identity of Black Mountain was so diverse and creatively expansive, we allowed I’ve been interested in Black Mountain College each composer and collaborator to explore for many years. I went to summer camp in North the ideas and characters of the place on their Carolina as a kid just a few miles from the site of own. In the spirit of the college we wanted this the college and actually learned to play music in process to be inspiring for each composer and those same mountains that spawned some of the to reflect a process of individual self-discovery. greatest artists and art movements of the 20th The music was written over a three-year period century. I first learned about Black Mountain and commissions were rolled out on different College through the well known and long- timelines, which allowed us to steer artists running John Cage and Merce Cunningham towards exploring different ideas and texts collaboration, which was in its early years at based on what others already covered. For Black Mountain (both were teachers at the instance, once we had a couple of Cage and college). I learned more about the college later Creeley inspired works, we suggested that in reading about the many profoundly important other composers look elsewhere. In the end we visual artists who came through there either as touched only a fraction of the vast community teachers, visiting lecturers, or students (Robert of the college. The songs and narration woven Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Robert Motherwell, throughout the show set texts or ideas from Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, and Franz John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Josef and Kline, to name a few). But the decision to create Anni Albers, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, a staged work for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Buckminster Fuller, Robert Duncan, Fielding reflecting on Black Mountain was born out of a Dawson (including a song set in Franz Kline’s more recent exploration of the school of Black studio), Ruth Asawa (who inspired the stage Mountain Poets. Poets like Robert Creeley and design), Basil King, and MC Richards. It is Charles Olson (also the last rector of the College) particularly rewarding that the piece premieres in were hugely influential American writers and the Harvey Theater, considering that Harvey integral to the Black Mountain story. My original Lichtenstein is a Black Mountain alumnus. idea was to set poems by the Black Mountain Poets; this idea expanded to embrace the ethos Our team has spent the last year immersed in of community and collaboration which was so Black Mountain research, visiting the former essential to the college. The spirit of learning campus with its beautiful rolling hills, drawing through doing and emphasis on self-exploration inspiration from its community of hard-working for both teachers and students seemed like a artists. But, perhaps Fielding Dawson said it perfect vehicle to create a collaborative work that best: “All the interviewing of former students would be meaningful to both the young singers and faculty are but shallow reminders, dim of the chorus, as well as the creative community reflections. It is too bad, and may seem unfair, of composers and artists who we embraced for but so Black Mountain was, and if you weren’t the project. there, you will never know, or understand. Unless you create it. That’s the catch. If you never were there, you’ll have to create it.” Archival Stills and Footage courtesy of: Claude Stoller Jonathan Williams from the Yale Collection of Beaumont Newhall Estate American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center Manuscript Collection Cape Ann Museum Photographs by Josef Albers copyright and cour- Charles Olson Research Collection, Archives and tesy the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Special Collections at the Thomas J.Dodd Western Regional Archives, State Archives of Research Center, University of Connecticut North Carolina Libraries. “Charles Olson, 1965—66” footage courtesy of The Poetry Center & American Poetry Archives, San Francisco State University Who’s Who BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS and master classes for New York University, New Now in its 23rd season, the Grammy Award- York State School Music Association, American winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, under the Choral Directors Association, and the New York direction of Founder & Artistic Director Dianne City Department of Education. She is the creator Berkun-Menaker, is one of the country’s leading of the Chorus’ Cross-Choral Training® program, youth choruses and the ensemble of choice for a proven holistic and experiential approach to de- internationally renowned orchestras and artists, veloping singers in a group setting encompassing including the New York Philharmonic, London both voice and musicianship pedagogy. and Atlanta symphonies, Mariinsky Orchestra, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Grizzly Bear, and BRYCE DESSNER (creator, co-curator, compos- Glen Hansard. The Chorus’ television appear- er) is a Brooklyn-based composer, guitarist, and ances include Late Night with David Letterman, curator who is also a member of the Grammy Saturday Night Live, Late Show with Conan Award-nominated band the National. In addition O’Brien, and on commercials for Taylor Made to his work with the National, Dessner has made Gold Clubs and Santander Bank. The Chorus a name for himself as an acclaimed composer, won a Grammy Award for the world premiere live working with some of the world’s most creative recording of John Adams’ On the Transmigra- and respected musicians. Dessner’s recent tion of Souls with the New York Philharmonic in commissions include pieces for the Los Angeles 2005 and appears on Bryce Dessner and Kronos Philharmonic, the National Audiovisual Institute Quartet’s 2013 release Aheym. The New York of Poland, the Grammy Award-winning Kronos Times has hailed them as “remarkable young Quartet, and the new music ensemble eighth singers,” and recently described the Chorus as blackbird, among others.