Saturday, February 29, 2020, 8pm Hertz Hall Eco Ensemble David Milnes, conductor

Myra Melford Homogenous Infiltration (2019) Myra Melford, solo piano Tod Brody, flute Kyle Bruckmann, oboe and English horn Bill Kalinkos, clarinet Brendan Lai Tong, trombone Loren Mach, percussion Hrabba Atladottir, violin Ellen Ruth Rose, viola Felix Fan, cello Richard Worn, double bass David Milnes, conductor Jeremy Wagner, technical direction

Cindy Cox Lift-up-over sounding (2015) Peter Josheff, bass clarinet Loren Mach, percussion Jenny Chai, piano Leighton Fong, cello David Milnes, conductor

Cal Performances’ 2019–20 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

19 Keeril Maken After Forgetting (2009) Matt Ingalls, clarinet Loren Mach, percussion Jenny Chai, piano Dan Flanagan, violin Leighton Fong, cello David Milnes, conductor

INTERMISSION

Edmund Campion Late Bloomer (2019, West Coast Premiere) Marilyn Nonken, Manuel Laufer, piano Jeremy Wagner, technical direction and instrument building

Ken Ueno Zetsu (2014) Hrabba Atladottir, solo violin Matt Ingalls, Bill Kalinkos, clarinet and hookah saxophone Loren Mach, Haruka Fujii, percussion Leighton Fong, Felix Fan, cello Richard Worn, Andrew Butler, double bass David Milnes, conductor Jeremy Wagner, technical direction

Special thanks to the University of California, Berkeley Department of Music and the Center for New Music & Audio Technologies

Eco Ensemble David Milnes, artistic director Richard Andrews, executive director Amadeus Regucera, production director Jennifer Huang, production associate

20 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

Myra Melford Th e musical material alternates between large Homogenous Infi ltration expressive soliloquies played by the bass clar- Homogenous Infi ltration, for improvising pia- inet, and a cyclical set of repetitions played by nist, chamber ensemble, and fi xed media, aims the entire quartet. Th e piece is dedicated to John to make audible and reimagine many of the Campion, and the premiere performance was beautiful, and oft en very soft , sounds and col- made by the Earplay Ensemble. ors I like to draw out of the inside of the piano: —Cindy Cox rolling magnetic balls and vibrating towers of rare-earth magnets on the strings, rocking a Keeril Makan humbucker pick-up on the strings, rubbing and Aft er Forgetting stroking and bowing the strings with various Th e title, Aft er Forgetting, might refer to the men- implements (a copper bar, fi shing line, wooden tal confusion of feeling like you’ve just forgotten brushes). Th ese sounds are recorded, processed, something, the “it’s on the tip of my tongue” phe- orchestrated, re-orchestrated, and fi nally assem- nomenon. I go through a litany of techniques bled into a structure of sonic “environments” trying to grasp what I think I’ve forgotten— for the ensemble and myself to explore through recite the alphabet and hope that the correct fi rst improvisation. letter of the forgotten word or idea triggers the I want to express my deep gratitude to the memory; go over every previous thought and community here at UC Berkeley and in the Bay event in order, hoping this will lead me to the Area who have supported me in this process, forgotten memory; try not to remember and particularly Amadeus Regucera, Selim Gonçu, hope that it will pop into my head without my Jason Cress, David Milnes, my colleagues in the trying; rearrange my memories, hoping that an composition program, the wonderful perform- unusual juxtaposition will spark my memory; ers, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music or simply wrack my brain, trying through sheer Players, who originally commissioned the work. force of will to pull the memory from the depths Th is revised performance is lovingly dedicated to of my brain. Sometimes, though, I wonder if I the memory of David Wessel and his generous haven’t forgotten it at all, but the thing I’m trying enthusiasm, inspiration, and encouragement. to remember is so insignifi cant that it can’t be the —Myra Melford thing I’ve been trying to remember. Th ere may be diff erent levels of forgetting. Cindy Cox Sometimes you want to forget something so that Lift -up-over sounding you can move on in life. But it’s too important to My work for bass clarinet, cello, percussion, and forget at the deepest level; it just needs to be re- piano, Lift -up-over sounding, is based on two moved from the top level of your brain. Th e title lines from a poem by John Campion: “World a might also be referring to this. tuning fork/lift -up-over sounding.” Th e poem Aft er Forgetting is a Meet the Composer/ describes a living, canopied world of resonant Commissioning Music USA commission. It space in Papua New Guinea, and according to was written while in residence at the American Steven Feld, “Lift -up-over sounding” is a literal Academy in Rome. translation of the words “dulugu ganalan” in the —Keeril Makan Bosavi language. Th e piece is a reworking and re- casting of a composition from 2001 called World Edmund Campion A Tuning Fork, which was originally for ampli- Late Bloomer fi ed soprano saxophone, double bass, percus- Th e modern acoustic piano is optimally de- sion, piano, and fi xed media. I chose sonorities signed to be played by a single human performer. loosely based on the overtone series of the dou- Moreover, works composed for this instrument ble bass’ open strings (E, A, D, and G), and used are oft en intended to highlight the bravura of the the piano’s sostenuto pedal (the middle pedal) to soloist. I oft en wonder how the history of piano capture the lowest octave ringing throughout. literature and its instrument design might have

21 PROGRAM NOTES

evolved if humans were born with four hands poser), some serendipitous. Th ese systems, or and 20 fi ngers instead of two hands and 10 fi n- situations, or amalgams, begin with sound itself: gers? Th at said, a soloist with four hands and 20 Ueno pushes instruments beyond traditional fi ngers is not the same as a duo with two hands performance methods to achieve sonic realities and 10 fi ngers each. Th e piano four-hand piece of visceral and evocative power. As a performer Late Bloomer was inspired by this idea—the two himself—a one-time rock guitarist and now a pianists are treated as one individual. Th e more I vocalist using extended throat-singing tech- thought about the untapped possibilities of mul- niques—he anchors the musical gestures of his tiple-hand piano music, the more I wanted to music in an awareness of the intense physical compose for this arrangement. I became excited and emotional demands of performance. Ueno’s by what two humans can accomplish together in extraordinarily broad cultural interests, which the production of a single sound-world. With this include architecture, fi lm, and other visual arts, imaginary scenario of the hybrid four-handed, literature, sociology, philosophy, and cuisine (the 20-fi ngered pianist, I was able to reimagine the latter suggesting a concern for “applied” art), en- idea of virtuosity and to attempt a music where rich the already lively musical details of his work. the entire keyboard is used in a way that makes all He continually seeks out, and is sought himself registers readily available and at all times. by, performers and collaborators who share his In Late Bloomer, I thought of each key on sense of challenge and exploration. the piano as a distinct “bell” set to ring at a spe- Zetsu, Ueno’s chamber concerto for violin cifi c time, in and out of phase with other “bells.” and small ensemble, was composed for his Oft en in the piece, anywhere from three to 12 longtime colleague Gabriela Diaz and the San canonic lines are collapsed into a single, contin- Francisco Contemporary Music Players (with uous line distributed between four hands. Th e which the composer has worked closely in re- music was composed with computer-assisted cent years), and continues his interest in what he techniques using the CNMAT-OM library calls “person-specifi c” works. Th ese draw on the conceived by Edmund Campion and written performance characteristics of particular per- by Matthew Schumaker, using IRCAM’s Open formers, resulting in music rooted inextricably Music program. Researcher Jean Bresson, who in personal relationships. As a vocalist, for exam- has maintained and been the primary devel- ple, he is his own most extreme case. His vocal oper of Open Music, contributed key graphic concerto On a Suffi cient Condition for Existence objects and provided council for the creation of of Most Specifi c Hypothesis not only features the the CNMAT-OM library. In addition, CNMAT composer as soloist: the entire harmonic world Researcher and composer Jeremy Wagner de- of the orchestra is derived from the timbral signed and built a bank of magnetic resonators qualities of the vocal part. His cello concerto that cause the strings of the piano to ring without Hapax Legomenon emerged organically from touching the strings themselves. Th ese magnetic the possibilities of the two-bow cello technique resonators are installed and used in this evening’s of Frances-Marie Uitti. To date, the most ambi- performance. Th e piece is dedicated to David tious and contextually broad of these works is Wessel (1942–2014), a friend who never ceased Ueno’s 2014 opera Gallo, composed for Boston’s to explore new ways of thinking about all things. Guerrilla Opera, in which his own libretto con- —Edmund Campion nects the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, Roman ar- chaeology, 21st-century consumer culture, and Ken Ueno the devastating 2011 Fukushima earthquake and Zetsu tsunami. Th e bewilderingly diverse range of its (For Rob Amory and Steven Schick) music, tailored to the company and touching on Ken Ueno’s music sets up systems of multiva- Baroque pastiche, sultry torch-song, virtuosic lent resonance, combining sympathetic sources modernism, and the clash of equal-tempered of expressive energy to catalyze new artistic and Bohlen-Pierce scales, miraculously coalesces possibilities, some predictable (by the com- into a coherently poignant whole.

22 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

Zetsu takes its title from a 2003 art ceramic by In addition to a solo violin part that celebrates the Japanese sculptor Nishida Jun (1977–2005), Diaz’s relationship to the violin—her extensive now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts experience as a performer of new music as well in Boston. TenFourteen Project commissioner as of standard repertoire—Zetsu generalizes the Rob Amory alerted Ueno to this piece, in which situation-specifi c idea with the creation of new Nishida Jun created a work of protean form, instruments: percussion idiophones using mi- combining careful structure and the chaotically crotonal tunings unique to the harmonic spectra amorphous results of experimental material and of the piece, and the “hookah sax,” played via a kiln techniques. Th e beautiful, enigmatic result- tube inserted in its bell. Knowing his performers, ing pieces analogize processes of the formation Ueno taps into their senses of humor as well as of the earth itself. Nishida Jun’s willingness to of adventure. Formally, Zetsu pushes and pulls push traditional ceramics beyond what could be gestures and textures to extremes: the slowly considered failure was not only artistically but evolving shimmer in the solo violin of the open- also physically dangerous. At age 28, two years ing gives way to discrete, rhythmically clarifi ed aft er the creation of Zetsu No. 8, he was killed in polyphony for the ensemble. Th e soloist returns a kiln explosion while working with traditional with an intricate part ranging widely in articula- potters on Bali. tion and tessitura, microtonal contours lending an organic, improvised, very human intensity. —Robert Kirzinger

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The pianist, composer, bandleader, and UC Transparent yet intricate, the compositions of Berkeley professor Myra Melford—whom the Cindy Cox synthesize old and new musical de- New Yorker called “a stalwart of the new-jazz signs. Th e natural world and ecological concerns movement”—has spent the last three decades inspire many of the special harmonies and tex- making original music that is equally challeng- tural colorations in her works. ing and engaging. She has explored an array of Cox is active as a pianist and has performed formats, among them ruminative solo-piano and recorded many of her own compositions, recitals, deeply interactive combos, and ambi- including the large-scale Hierosgamos and Sylvan tious multidisciplinary programs, probing the Pieces. A number of her works feature technolo- space shared between dynamic small-group gies developed at UC Berkeley’s Center for New jazz and contemporary chamber music. Since Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT), such debuting on record as a bandleader in 1990, as Pianos and the Etudes for piano sampler key- she has built a discography of more than 25 al- boards. Her compositions with text such as Sing- bums as a leader or co-leader, and has received ing the lines, Th e Other Side of the World, and Th e numerous DownBeat poll placings, a 2000 Ful– Shape of the Shell evolved through collaboration bright Scholarship, a 2012 Alpert Award in the with her husband, poet John Campion. Together Arts for Music and, between 2013 and 2016, a they are currently collaborating on a musical- Guggenheim Fellowship, the Doris Duke Artist theater project, Th e Road to Xibalba, based on the Award, and the Doris Duke Residency to Build ancient Mayan myth of creation Th e Popol Vuh. Demand for the Arts. Th e Other Side of Air, She has received awards and commissions the most recent release by her quintet Snowy from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Egret, was named one of the best jazz record- the Fromm Foundation, the National Endow- ings of 2018 by the New York Times and one of ment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, NPR Music’s “50 Best Albums of 2018.” “Th is is the American Composers Forum, ASCAP, Meet music with an endless capacity for elasticity and the Composer, the Fulbright Foundation, the surprise,” NPR wrote, “along with an affi rming Mellon Foundation, and the Toulmin Founda- spirit of coherence.” tion with the League of American Orchestras.

23 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Cox has been a Fellow at Tanglewood, Aspen, the Th rough Us (New World) include performances MacDowell Colony, Civitella Ranieri, and Giar- by the Kronos Quartet, Either/Or, and the Inter- dini La Mortella. national Contemporary Ensemble. Persona, his Recent performances have taken place at the opera, commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects Venice Biennale, the Festival de la Habana in and National Sawdust, is an adaptation of Ingmar Cuba, the American Academy in Rome, Car- Bergman’s classic fi lm, with a libretto by Jay negie and Merkin Halls in New York City, the Scheib. Makan was raised in New Jersey by par- National Gallery in Washington, the Library of ents of South African Indian and Russian Jewish Congress, the Kennedy Center, and the Biblio- descent. Aft er training as a violinist, he received teca National in Buenos Aires. Cox’s music has degrees in composition and religion from Oberlin been performed by the Kronos Quartet, the Na- and completed his PhD in composition at UC tional Symphony, the California Symphony, the Berkeley, with additional studies in Helsinki and Alexander Quartet, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Paris. Makan makes his home in Cambridge, MA, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, where he is the Michael (1949) and Sonja Koerner and the Eco Ensemble. Th ere are fi ve monograph Music Composition Professor at MIT. recordings of Cox’s music, and her scores are published by World a Tuning Fork Press (www. Edmund Campion has been active as a composer, cacox.com). performing artist, collaborating artist, and educa- Her music may also be accessed on https:// tor for over 25 years. His major solo performing soundcloud.com/cindy-cox. Cindy Cox is a pro- career began in 1996 with a commission from fessor and chair of the Music Department at the IRCAM at the Pompidou Center in Paris, where University of California at Berkeley. he developed and premiered the fi rst version of NatSel, a computer/piano hybrid instrument Keeril Makan has been described by Th e N e w that he has continued to develop through the Yorker as “empowered by modern technology decades. Campion has received major recogni- but haunted by a spirit of immemorial dark- tion for his work, including the American Rome ness,” and by the Boston Globe as a composer Prize, the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from “whose music deserves to be more widely the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and heard.” Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship commissions from leading ensembles including and the Luciano Berio Rome Prize from the the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Berkeley American Academy in Rome, he has also re- Symphony, the Santa Rosa Symphony, and the ceived awards from the American Academy of San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. In Arts and Letters, the Howard Foundation, the 2016, Campion received a commission from the Fromm Foundation, Meet the Composer, the National Gugak Orchestra in Korea to compose a Aaron Copland House, the Utah Arts Festival, piece for a full orchestra of ancient Korean instru- the Fulbright Program, and ASCAP. His work ments. With a Guggenheim Fellowship, he was has been commissioned by the Bang on a Can able to travel to Korea to study the instruments All-Stars, American Composers Orchestra, Har- in preparation for the composition. Th e piece vard Musical Association, Pacifi ca Quartet, and was premiered at the Pacifi c Rim Festival in 2018 Carnegie Hall, among others. Ensembles that and was taken up again by the orchestra this past have performed his work include the Chamber fall at the National Gugak Center in Seoul. Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Scharoun Campion currently serves as Director of CNMAT Ensemble Berlin, the Boston Modern Orchestra at UC Berkeley, where he helps develop emerging Project, the New Juilliard Ensemble, the Nouvel technologies for music creation and artistic col- Ensemble Moderne, and the Boston Chamber laboration. Music Society. Makan’s music was featured at a Miller Th eatre Composer Portraits concert. A recipient of the Rome Prize and the Berlin His CDs In Sound (Tzadik), Target (Starkland), Prize, Ken Ueno is a composer/vocalist/sound Afterglow (Mode), and Letting Time Circle artist who is currently a professor at UC Berkeley,

24 PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS where he holds the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings An enthusiastic proponent of new music, pia- Chambers Distinguished Professorship in Music. nist Manuel Laufer has presented world pre- Ensembles and performers who have champi- mieres at Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, Le oned his music include Kim Kashkashian and Poisson Rouge, Bang on a Can, June in Buff alo, Robyn Schulkowsky, Wendy Richman, Greg and Festival Atempo (Caracas and Paris), and Oakes, BMOP, Alarm Will Sound, Steve Schick has collaborated with a wide range of com- and SFCMP, and Frances-Marie Uitti. Ueno’s posers, including Edmund Campion, Helmut piece for the Hilliard Ensemble, Shiroi Ishi, was Lachenmann, and Diógenes Rivas. Laufer has featured in that ensemble’s repertoire for over been a visiting artist at Harvard University’s 10 years. Another work, Pharmakon, was per- Radcliff e Institute for Advanced Studies, the formed dozens of times nationally by Eighth Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Uni- Blackbird during its 2001–03 seasons. As a vo- versity at Buffalo’s Creative Arts Initiative. calist, Ueno specializes in extended techniques He serves on the Screening Committee of Festival (overtones, throat-singing, multiphonics, ex- Atempo and as president of the Piano Teachers treme registers, circular singing) and has per- Congress of New York, whose 20th/21st- formed as soloist in his vocal concerto with Century Music Festival he co-chairs. Formerly orchestras in Boston, New York, Warsaw, Vilnius, on staff as a collaborative pianist at UC Irvine, Bangkok, Sacramento, Stony Brook, Pittsburgh, he is currently a member of the artist faculty of and North Carolina. His sound installations have NYU Steinhardt Piano Studies, where he holds been featured at MUAC (Mexico City), Beijing, the position of Director of Collaborative Piano. the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the Shenzhen Bienniale, and Art Basel. Ueno holds a PhD Eco Ensemble, under the direction of David from Harvard University. A monograph CD of Milnes, is a group of prominent Bay Area mu- his three orchestral concertos was released on sicians who are passionate about exploring and the Bmop/sound label. His biography appears in performing contemporary works. Its mission is the Grove Dictionary of American Music. http:// to enrich and serve the Bay Area’s cultural life kenueno.com. through the creation, performance, and dissemi- nation of new music by composers from Berkeley Marilyn Nonken is recognized as “one of the and around the world. Called a “dream team of greatest interpreters of new music” (American local musicians who embody a high point in the Record Guide). Her more than 30 releases in- Bay Area’s vibrant contemporary music scene” clude Tristan Murail: The Complete Piano by the New York Times, Eco Ensemble has been Music and Voix Voilées: Spectral Music for featured at festivals such the Venice Biennale Piano; her writings include Th e Spectral Piano: and the Festival of New American Music and From Liszt, Scriabin and Debussy to the Digital has worked closely with renowned composers Age (Cambridge, 2014) and Identity and Diversity including Kaija Saariaho, Beat Furrer, Philippe in New Music: Th e New Complexities (Routledge, Leroux, George Lewis, Erin Gee, and Ivan Fedele. 2019). Forthcoming releases include music of Th e group is the ensemble-in-residence at UC Richard Carrick, Nina C. Young, and Edmund Berkeley’s Department of Music and CNMAT. Campion, as well as the complete works for As the university’s principal performance outlet piano and violoncello by Morton Feldman, for performers and composers of new music, Eco with Stephen Marotto. Th is summer, she looks Ensemble commissions and premieres works forward to curating a weeklong course for pia- from UC Berkeley composers. Members of the nists at the Time of Music Festival (Viitasaari). ensemble work extensively with undergraduate A graduate of the Eastman School and student and graduate musicians in new-music studies of David Burge, Nonken received her PhD from and are developing a comprehensive program Columbia University. A Steinway Artist, she is for new-music performance. Eco Ensemble’s the director of piano studies and an associate unique collaboration with CNMAT inspires professor of music at New York University. works that are informed by contemporary ex-

25 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

plorations into the intersection between sci- Music Players, with whom he commissioned ence and music. Th e group seeks to expand and premiered many new works from around the possibilities for new music by working with the world. He has made recordings of music by CNMAT faculty, students, and researchers to John Anthony Lennon, James Newton, Edmund develop new instruments, new applications of Campion, Jorge Liderman, and Pablo Ortiz. technologies for composition and performance, and new modes of expression. With a focus on The Center for New Music and Audio education for both experienced audiences and Technologies (CNMAT) houses a dynamic novices, Eco Ensemble’s public outreach eff orts group of educational, performance, and research include lectures, demonstrations, workshops, programs focused on the creative interaction and composer residencies. between new music and emerging technologies. Th e center combines technical science-based David Milnes serves as music director of the research with a humanistic critical perspective Eco Ensemble, UC Berkeley’s in-residence and practical investigation into the process and professional new-music ensemble, as well as possibility for new-music creation. At CNMAT, (since 1996) music director of the UC Berkeley the laboratory and stage merge to push the Symphony Orchestra. In his early years, he boundaries of present-day music making. In studied piano, organ, clarinet, cello, and voice, addition to three decades of published research, and briefl y entertained a career as a jazz pianist, CNMAT continues to support the software appearing with Chuck Mangione, Gene Krupa, tools that it has pioneered since its founding in Billy Taylor, and John Pizzarelli. Aft er receiving the late 1980s. CNMAT collaborates with all of advanced degrees in conducting from SUNY UC Berkeley’s disciplines dedicated to the study Stony Brook and the Yale School of Music, and or creative use of sound. studying with Otto Werner Muller, Herbert CNMAT was conceived and established Blomstedt, Erich Leinsdorf, and Leonard by composer and professor emeritus Richard Bern stein, Milnes won the prestigious Exxon Felciano in the 1980s with a focus on the cre- Assistant Conductor position with the San ative interaction between music and technology. Francisco Symphony, where he also served as Professor David Wessel, a pioneer in com- music director of the acclaimed San Francisco puter music and music cognition, directed the Symphony Youth Orchestra (which he led on center until his death in 2014. During these its fi rst European tour in 1986). Milnes has con- years, Research Director Adrian Freed organized ducted frequently in Russia and the Baltics, serv- an ambitious research agenda that produced ing as music director of the Riga Independent concrete, practical developments in music- Opera Company and as a principal guest con- related technologies, including widely adopted ductor of the Latvian National Symphony. innovations such as Open Sound Control Recent engagements include appearances at (OSC), the Sound Description Interchange the MANCA Festival in Nice, France, with the Format (SDIF), the CNMAT tools for Max/ Philharmonic Orchestra of Nice; in Mexico, MSP, and the recent cross-platform “odot” pro- at the Festival “El Callejón del Ruido” with gramming objects. the Guanajauto Symphony Orchestra; and Today’s CNMAT works with leading artists, in Russia, with the Novosibirsk Symphony performers, composers, and improvisers to con- Orchestra. He has collaborated in performances tinue in the spirit of its history. In addition to with Frederica von Stade, Dawn Upshaw, Bill its robust research agenda, CNMAT produces T. Jones, Paul Hillier, James Newton, David numerous concerts, lectures, and symposia. Starobin, and Chanticleer, and appeared at the Th e Eco Ensemble, a leading Bay Area new- Santa Fe, Tanglewood, Aspen, and Monadnock music ensemble, is in permanent residence at music festivals. A dedicated proponent of new CNMAT. music, from 2002 to 2009 Milnes was music To learn more about CNMAT, visit the cen- director of the San Francisco Contemporary ter’s web site at cnmat.berkeley.edu

26 PLAYBILL