Saturday, November 5, 2016 Saturday, 5, November Music Ensemble Music Oberlin Contemporary

ROGER MASTROIANNI Welcome to the Cleveland Performing Arts Museum of Art cma.org/performingarts The Cleveland Museum of Art’s performing arts series #CMAperformingarts brings together thoughtful, fascinating, and beautiful experiences, comprising a concert calendar notable for CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Emmanuel Arakélian its boundless multiplicity. This year we look forward to Wednesday, October 5, 6:00 Sunday, February 19, 2:00 visits from old friends and new, bringing us music from Fretwork Oberlin Contemporary Music around the globe and spanning many centuries. Here Wednesday, October 12, 7:30 Ensemble Sunday, February 26, 2:00 is the place where performance is intended to explore Vijay Iyer with International connections of cultures, the heart, the human spirit. Contemporary Ensemble CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Wednesday, October 19, 7:30 Wednesday, March 1, 6:00 In the Galleries CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program CIM Organ Studio Elegance and Intrigue: Wednesday, November 2, 6:00 Sunday, March 12, 2:00 French Society in 18th-Century Prints and Drawings Oberlin Contemporary Music Quince Through November 6, 2016 Ensemble Wednesday, March 22, 7:30 Saturday, November 5, 2:00 Frode Haltli & Emilia Amper Dan Graham/Rocks Jean-Baptiste Monnot Wednesday, March 29, 7:30 (at Transformer Station, W. 29th St.) Sunday, November 13, 2:00 Through December 4, 2016 CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Oberlin Contemporary Music Wednesday, April 5, 6:00 The Ecstasy of St. Kara: Kara Walker, New Work Ensemble Sunday, December 4, 2:00 Oberlin Contemporary Music Through December 31, 2016 Ensemble CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Sunday, April 9, 2:00 Cheating Death: Portrait Photography’s First Half Century Wednesday, December 7, 6:00 Through February 5, 2017 Zakir Hussain & Rahul Sharma Francesco D’Orazio Wednesday, April 12, 7:30 Myth and Mystique: Cleveland’s Gothic Table Fountain Friday, December 9, 7:30 Jeffrey Zeigler Through February 26, 2017 CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Wednesday, April 26, 7:30 Wednesday, January 4, 6:00 Albert Oehlen: Woods near Oehle CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program December 4–March 12, 2017 The Crossing: Wednesday, May 3, 6:00 David Lang’s Lifespan Opulent Fashion in the Church Friday–Sunday, January 6–8 Brandee Younger & Courtney Bryan Wednesday, May 10, 7:30 Through September 24, 2017 The “Qatsi” Trilogy Friday–Sunday, January 27–29 CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Please turn off all electronic devices before entering Wednesday, February 1, 6:00 the performance hall.

Photography and audio/video recording in the performance hall are prohibited. Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble Saturday, November 5, 2016, 2:00 p.m. Gartner Auditorium, the Cleveland Museum of Art

PROGRAM

Lightenings (2016) Elizabeth Ogonek (b. 1989)

Silvio Guitian, clarinet • John Kirchenbauer, violin Natasha Gwirceman, • Justin Gunter, percussion

— Pause —

Willow Run (2016/World Premiere) Stephen Hartke (b. 1952)

Noah Getz, alto/baritone saxophone

Tanavi Prabhu, English horn • Silvio Guitian, clarinet Wyeth Aleksei, flugelhorn • Ina McCormack, harp Stephen Feld, Robert Earle, bass Justin Gunter, Kelsey Bannon, Carson Fratus, percussion

— Pause —

…as others see us… (1990) James MacMillan (b. 1959) 1. Henry VIII (1491–1547) Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1536–37) 2. John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) Unknown artist (c. 1665–70) 3. John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722) Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt (1706) 4. George Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788–1824) and William Wordsworth (1770–1850) Thomas Phillips (c. 1835); Benjamin Robert Haydon (1842) 5. T S Eliot (1888–1965) Patrick Heron (1949) 6. Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994) Maggi Hambling (1985)

Amanda Dame, flute/piccolo • Silvio Guitian, clarinet/bass clarinet Shelly Li, bassoon/contrabassoon • Wyeth Aleksei, trumpet Justin Gunter, percussion • John Kirchenbauer, violin Corey Worley, viola • Jeremy Kreutz, cello Robert Earle, bass

Fabian Fuertes, personnel & operations manager Elaine Li, librarian

4 PROGRAM NOTES

Lightenings (2016) by Elizabeth Ogonek (b. Anoka, MN, 1989)

Lightenings was initially inspired by Seamus Heaney’s set of twelve poems of the same name. Part of a larger collection entitled “Squarings,” the poems that make up “Lightenings” are meditations on the relationship between ordinary, everyday life and transcendence. In 2003, a limited edition of “Squarings” was published alongside 48 six-inch, square, line drawings by American artist Sol LeWitt. Heaney described these drawings as having “confident pounce and delicate shimmer.” The formal simplicity but visual complexity of these images beautifully illuminates an understanding of each poem individually as well as its relationship to the set as a whole. Just as LeWitt commented upon Heaney’s poetry through his drawings, this piece is a musical response to both bodies of work.

A set of nine variations, Lightenings is based on the ancient Christian hymn Phos Hilaron, which gives thanks for light and is meant to accompany the illumination of lamps at sundown. As Heaney says in the twelfth poem:

“And lightening? One meaning of that Beyond the usual sense of alleviation, Illumination, and so on, is this:

A phenomenal instant when the spirit flares With pure exhilaration before death - The good thief in us harking to the promise! …

Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”

5 Lightenings was commissioned by the Santa Fe Festival and was premiered on July 28, 2016 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. —Elizabeth Ogonek

Willow Run (2016) by Stephen Hartke (b. Orange, NJ, 1952)

Willow Run is the name of both a small stream near Detroit, Michigan, and the site of a World War II bomber factory designed by the great industrial architect, Albert Kahn. On the eve of its demolition in late 2013, his granddaughter, the photographer Ernestine Ruben, visited the building not only to document it in hundreds of pictures, but also to take the raw material of these images and transform them into a narrative of birth, death, and rebirth. With the help of saxophonist Noah Getz, she then sought me out to compose a large chamber ensemble piece that would reflect in its own way on this sequence of images, both realistic and recomposed through layering. Ultimately this score will serve as the musical accompaniment to a to be realized by both Ernestine and videographer Seth Bernstein. My piece seeks at its outset to evoke the vastness of the structure itself, which, in its time was the largest single space enclosed under a single roof. Then there are more topical references—the Morse Code rhythm for the words “Willow Run” appear, as well as Ernestine’s name and mine. In a later section, three arrays of unpitched percussion suggest the echoes of the factory’s assembly line as the saxophone progresses through the musical landscape. The ending evokes the resonances of this enormous space with bright flourishes from the winds and a pair of vibraphones over slowly oscillating mechanical figures in the basses. —Stephen Hartke

6 ...as others see us... (1990) by James MacMillan (b. Kilwinning, Scotland, 1959)

...as others see us..., by the pre-eminent Scottish James MacMillan, was first performed at London’s National Portrait Gallery on May 4, 1990. The Scottish Chamber was conducted by the composer, who offered the following comments on his work:

Robert Burns craved the gift “to see ourselves as others see us” and it can indeed be an illuminating, if even devastating experience to see or hear how one is perceived by others. This must especially be the case when one’s characteristics are captured on canvas, in print, or in music. In composing these ‘sound paintings’ of prominent figures whose portraits hang in the National Portrait Gallery I was attempting an objective character analysis of each one, from my own particular perspective. In order to maintain this distance throughout, I use an old Scottish dance tune which is transformed from one piece to the next to capture the character and the historical context of each portrait.

1. Henry VIII (1491–1547) Over a driving riff the Scottish tune is blared out in parallel harmonic layering in a raw parody of a Tudor dance. The music is butch, macho, and has an almost bullying manner. Gradually other elements intrude to convey the brutality and egotistical madness of this misogynistic tyrant. For example, Henry’s famous composition Greensleeves which, over the next few centuries, was performed at public executions in England and in Europe—an apt use of a tune whose composer callously sent wives, friends, and countless subjects to their deaths.

7 2. John Wilmot (1647–1680) In this portrait the outrageous court poet bestows his laurels on a monkey who is busily destroying the poet’s verses. The opening slow, sustained, dignified string music represents ‘The Muse’; the darting, scurrying material on wind and percussion represents the cheek of the monkey. Gradually the two musics influence each other, and after passing through the rhythms of the French overture (popular in the court at this time), the Poet becomes Monkey and Monkey becomes Poet.

3. John Churchill (1650–1722) The central figure here is the conquering martial hero whose physical strength and power are conveyed on trumpet and percussion. Subservient to him is Hercules portrayed by clarinet and bassoon. Swirling floating figures above are represented by big repetitive material on flute, violin, and viola, and the disheveled figure of Discord being trampled into the ground is given appropriate music on cello and double bass.

4. George Byron (1788–1824) and William Wordsworth (1770–1850) The dashing, romantic figure of Byron (an Anglophile Scot) is represented by energetic material which at time gives some inkling of 19th-century romantic musical heroes—Wagner’s Lohengrin and Strauss’s Don Juan. Wordsworth is more brooding and reflective in character and if there is any allusion to 19th-century music then it is to the poignant slow movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony.

8 5. T S Eliot (1888–1965) I attempt to capture the split personality of this poet, seen in this cubist portrait by Patrick Heron. I took the two profiles to refer to his dual national characteristics—this American who was fascinated by England and especially by High Anglican ritual. Therefore, his Englishness is captured by a quasi- liturgical music, and his American-ness is presented in a 1920s style for which he was reputed to have a keen interest.

6. Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994) As if to indicate the depth of this woman’s intellect I have the strings playing a solemn and serene series of chords over which I attempt to achieve a gradual synthesis of two separate processes. It is as if she is trying to find some scientific solution of which the two basic elements are: a) a melodic interaction between violin and clarinet and b) an imploding durational process on piccolo, trumpet, and contrabassoon. The two processes, as if by chemical reaction, gradually merge to become one single element.

—Peter Laki

9 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

NOAH GETZ is a jazz and classical saxophonist based in Washington, D.C. Hailed as a “highly skillful and an even more highly adventurous player” (Washington City Paper) with “virtuosity, sensitivity, and beauty of tone” (Fanfare), Getz has performed and lectured worldwide, including appearances at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Carnegie Hall, Zilkha Hall, The Phillips Collection, and the 2012 Polish Woodwind Festival in Wolsztyn, Poland. An avid chamber musician, Getz is a member of the National Gallery New Music Ensemble and Interference/Intermedia, and has performed with the 21st Century Consort, PostClassical Ensemble, the Empyrean Ensemble, and members of the International Contemporary Ensemble. He received a first-round Grammy Award nomination with the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet. Getz has performed frequently with throughout the country including the New World Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, Manhattan School of Music Orchestra, Oberlin Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony, and the Columbia University Orchestra. His concerto performance of Ode to Lord Buckley is featured in the movie “David Amram: The First 80 Years” and his Crosscurrents, exploring the intersection of jazz and , and Still Life were released to rave reviews and are available through Albany Records. Getz is committed to commissioning and premiering new works. His premiere of in every way I remember you at the National Gallery of Art was acclaimed as “spectacular and wonderfully provocative” (Washington Post). Getz was the first saxophonist given permission to perform Henry Brant’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra in 50 years after extensive work with the composer. Getz has presented master classes, recitals, and lectures across the country, including at Peabody

10 Conservatory, Mannes-The New School of Music, and the Aaron Copland School of Music. In 2014, he presented a performance of the piano reduction of Henry Brant’s Concerto at the University of Illinois in conjunction with the release of this version by Carl Fischer for which he wrote the foreword. He is a musician-in-residence at American University in Washington, D.C.

Conductor TIMOTHY WEISS has gained critical acclaim for his performances and brave, adventurous programming throughout the United States and abroad. His repertoire in contemporary music is vast and fearless, including masterworks, recent compositions, and an impressive number of premieres and commissions. Recently, he was the recipient of the Adventurous Programming Award from the American Symphony Orchestra League. As a guest conductor, upcoming and recent engagements include the Artic Philharmonic in Bodø, Norway, Orchestra 2001 in Philadelphia, the Eastman Broadband Ensemble, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Britten Sinfonia in London, and the Melbourne Symphony in Australia. In his 23 years as music director of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, he has brought the group to a level of artistry and virtuosity in performance that rivals the finest new music groups. During his tenure with the CME at Oberlin, he has mentored the ensembles eighth blackbird and ICE as well as many other leading performers in the field of contemporary music. As a committed educator, he is Professor of and Chair of the Division of Contemporary Music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, Belgium, Northwestern University, and the University of Michigan.

11 Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble Deemed by the New York Times as “a hotbed of contemporary-classical players” and a “rural experimental haven,” Oberlin Conservatory of Music cultivates innovation in its students. In its six annual full-concert cycles, Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME), directed by Timothy Weiss, performs music of all contemporary styles and genres: from minimalism to serialism, to electronic, cross genre, mixed media, and beyond. CME has worked with many prominent , including Aaron Helgeson, George Crumb, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Stephen Hartke, Helmut Lachenmann, David Lang, Joan Tower, Frederic Rzewski, and others, and has premiered many of their works. CME also regularly premieres works by Oberlin faculty, student, and alumni composers. Each year, some of the most well-regarded contemporary music icons perform as soloists with CME, including Jennifer Koh, Claire Chase, David Bowlin, Tony Arnold, Marilyn Nonken, Stephen Drury, Steven Schick, and Ursula Oppens. Distinguished students regularly receive opportunities to perform as soloists with the ensemble as well, a luxury that is seldom afforded at other institutions. CME regularly performs in Cleveland and tours the states. In recent years, the group has performed at the Winter Garden, Miller Theater, Merkin Concert Hall, DiMenna Center, Harvard University, Benaroya Hall, Palace of Fine Arts, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and in numerous partner concerts with the Cleveland Museum of Art. CME has been featured on a number of commercial recordings, including John Luther Adams’ In the White Silence (New World Records), Lewis Nielson’s Écritures: St. Francis Preaches to the Birds (Centaur Records), and on the Oberlin Music record label.

12 UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

Jean-Baptiste Monnot Sunday, November 13, 2:00 p.m. Gartner Auditorium

Jean-Baptiste Monnot is currently the titular organist of the Cavaillé-Coll organ at St. Ouen Church in Rouen. Born in 1984 in France, he started the Conservatoire national de région de Rouen at age 15. He gained entrance to the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris in 2004, receiving a master’s degree in organ with firstclass honors, then went on to study with Bernhard Haas at the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik. In 2010–11 Monnot was appointed as artist-in-residence at the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, New Orleans. As a soloist, he performs regularly with ensembles and orchestras all over the world. He performs a program entitled “Russian Fireworks,” featuring works by Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Scriabin transcribed for organ. Free; no ticket required. cma.org/monnot

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble Sunday, December 4, 2:00 p.m. Gartner Auditorium

The Oberlin CME returns for the second concert this season in a performance featuring Haewon Song, solo piano (Weir). The concert coincides with the annual Holiday CircleFest in University Circle.

Program: Jacob Druckman, Counterpoise (1995); Judith Weir, Piano Concerto (1997); and Augusta Read Thomas, Selene (Moon Chariot Rituals) (2014) $10; CMA members and students, free. cma.org/OCME

13 CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Wednesday, December 7, 6:00 p.m. CMA Galleries The CWRU Collegium Musicum and Early Music Singers present a program of 14th-century French music by Guillaume de Machaut and his contemporaries in conjunction with the exhibition Myth and Mystique: Cleveland’s Gothic Table Fountain. Free, no tickets required. cma.org/cim

Francesco D’Orazio Friday, December 9, 7:30 p.m. Transformer Station Violinist Francesco D’Orazio (b. Bari, ) was awarded the Premio Abbiati as Best Soloist of the year by the Italian National Music Critics Association in 2010. His large repertoire includes works ranging from early to classic, romantic and contemporary music. He is a favorite of many composers and premiered violin and orchestra works by Terry Riley, Michael Nyman, Ivan Fedele, Michele dall’Ongaro, Lorenzo Ferrero, Gilberto Bosco, Raffaele Bellafronte, Marco Betta, Nicola Campogrande, Fabian Panisello and Flavio Emilio Scogna. D’Orazio plays a violin by Giuseppe Guarneri, “Comte de Cabriac,” Cremona 1711. In his Cleveland debut, he performs works for solo violin and electronics by Luciano Berio, Sequenza VIII (1976); Curt Cacioppo, Elegy (2015); Salvatore Sciarrino, Capricci nos. 1 and 4 (1975); Ivan Fedele, Suite Francese II (2010); Nicola Sani, Raw (2005); Luciano Chessa, “Sarabanda” and “Corrente” from the Partita for solo violin (1987–2013); and Michele Dall’Ongaro, La Musica di E. Z. (1999) $25, CMA members $22 cma.org/dorazio

14 Welcome to the Cleveland Performing Arts Museum of Art cma.org/performingarts The Cleveland Museum of Art’s performing arts series #CMAperformingarts brings together thoughtful, fascinating, and beautiful experiences, comprising a concert calendar notable for CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Emmanuel Arakélian its boundless multiplicity. This year we look forward to Wednesday, October 5, 6:00 Sunday, February 19, 2:00 visits from old friends and new, bringing us music from Fretwork Oberlin Contemporary Music around the globe and spanning many centuries. Here Wednesday, October 12, 7:30 Ensemble Sunday, February 26, 2:00 is the place where performance is intended to explore Vijay Iyer with International connections of cultures, the heart, the human spirit. Contemporary Ensemble CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Wednesday, October 19, 7:30 Wednesday, March 1, 6:00 In the Galleries CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program CIM Organ Studio Elegance and Intrigue: Wednesday, November 2, 6:00 Sunday, March 12, 2:00 French Society in 18th-Century Prints and Drawings Oberlin Contemporary Music Quince Through November 6, 2016 Ensemble Wednesday, March 22, 7:30 Saturday, November 5, 2:00 Frode Haltli & Emilia Amper Dan Graham/Rocks Jean-Baptiste Monnot Wednesday, March 29, 7:30 (at Transformer Station, W. 29th St.) Sunday, November 13, 2:00 Through December 4, 2016 CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Oberlin Contemporary Music Wednesday, April 5, 6:00 The Ecstasy of St. Kara: Kara Walker, New Work Ensemble Sunday, December 4, 2:00 Oberlin Contemporary Music Through December 31, 2016 Ensemble CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Sunday, April 9, 2:00 Cheating Death: Portrait Photography’s First Half Century Wednesday, December 7, 6:00 Through February 5, 2017 Zakir Hussain & Rahul Sharma Francesco D’Orazio Wednesday, April 12, 7:30 Myth and Mystique: Cleveland’s Gothic Table Fountain Friday, December 9, 7:30 Jeffrey Zeigler Through February 26, 2017 CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Wednesday, April 26, 7:30 Wednesday, January 4, 6:00 Albert Oehlen: Woods near Oehle CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program December 4–March 12, 2017 The Crossing: Wednesday, May 3, 6:00 David Lang’s Lifespan Opulent Fashion in the Church Friday–Sunday, January 6–8 Brandee Younger & Courtney Bryan Wednesday, May 10, 7:30 Through September 24, 2017 The “Qatsi” Trilogy Friday–Sunday, January 27–29 CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Please turn off all electronic devices before entering Wednesday, February 1, 6:00 the performance hall.

Photography and audio/video recording in the performance hall are prohibited. Please turn off all electronic Photography and audio/video recording devices before entering the in the performance hall are prohibited. performance hall. JACK Quartet

DEPARTMENT OF These performances are made possible in part by: PERFORMING ARTS, MUSIC, The P. J. McMyler Musical Endowment Fund AND FILM The Ernest L. and Louise M. Gartner Fund The Cleveland Museum of Art The Anton and Rose Zverina Music Fund 11150 East Boulevard The Frank and Margaret Hyncik Memorial Fund Cleveland, Ohio 44106–1797 The Adolph Benedict and Ila Roberts Schneider Fund The Arthur, Asenath, and Walter H. Blodgett Memorial Fund [email protected] The Dorothy Humel Hovorka Endowment Fund cma.org/performingarts The Albertha T. Jennings Musical Arts Fund #CMAperformingarts

Programs are subject to change.

Series sponsors:

Wednesday, March 2, 2016 TICKETS 1–888–CMA–0033 cma.org/performingarts