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welcome to the 2011 Look & Listen Festival, our landmark 10th anniversary season and our second time in the wonderful setting of the Chelsea Art Museum. In honor of the occasion 10we have increased our number of concerts from three to four and share these added ways to celebrate this milestone: • Commemorative visual art and music essays from Laurie Fendrich, Peter Plagens, and Bruce Hodges • Special video tribute from • Silent Auction • Champagne & Chocolate post-concert reception on Saturday evening • 10th anniversary tee shirts

We are also honored that the entire run of four concerts in this special season will be recorded for broadcast on WQXR’s Q2, ’s home for new music! www.wqxr.org/q2

Thank you for joining us! Top David Del Tredici and Marc Peloquin perform at Gary Snyder Project Space at the 2009 Festival.

Middle eighth blackbird warms up before a 2005 concert at Robert Miller Gallery

Bottom Steve Mackey and Fred Sherry at the 2003 Festi- val at Art In General

Top Panel Discussion with William Wegman, Carla Khilstedt, and Lisa Bielawa, hosted by John Schaefer at the Robert Miller Gallery in 2006

Middle Nancy Davidson, Steve Riech, and Fred Sherry on a 2006 panel discussion at Robert Miller Gallery

Bottom So Percussion and Percussion Discussion team up at the 2006 Festival at Robert Miller Gallery A Decade of Delight Laurie Fendrich and Peter Plagens are painters who are married and live and work in New York. Plagens, by Laurie Fendrich and Peter Plagens whose book on Bruce Nauman is forthcoming from Phaidon in 2012, was the former art critic for News- week Magazine. He writes frequently for Art in America and other publications. His most recent exhibition, A retrospective glance over the decade of the Look & Listen Festival reveals an astonishing in January 2011, was at Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York. Fendrich is a professor of fine arts at Hofstra depth and breadth of offerings in contemporary music at a variety of art venues, as well as University. Her twenty-year retrospective of paintings and drawings opened this past fall at the Williamson Art Gallery at Scripps College, in Claremont, California. She is represented by Gary Snyder Project Space in NY. a variety of lively symposia made up of artists, art critics, , and musicians. Each spring, for the past decade, the Festival welcomed performances by such composers and performers as , John Corigliano, , eighth blackbird, So Percussion, A Decade of Listening, Looking, and That Ampersand and . Audiences have listened to brilliant contemporary music while pondering the art of by Bruce Hodges artists ranging from Tim Hawkinson to Beatrice Mandleman, in such galleries as Ace, Robert Miller, Betty Cunningham, and the Gary Snyder Project Space. In 2002, the Look & Listen Festival broke new ground with contemporary music concerts in some of New York’s most prestigious art galleries, and actively encouraged audience mem- So, it would be tempting to mark the tenth anniversary simply by synopsizing all that has bers to combine their listening with the eclectic offerings on& the walls. But in an unofficial nod happened and offering deserved kudos to everyone who has made Look & Listen a reality. to (perhaps), neither the concerts nor the art were planned with the other in mind. Yet this occasion should also prompt us to return to the original (in both senses of that word) Cage’s famously disjunctive approach to the aural and visual often meant that one never quite premise of the festival—founding director David Gordon’s idea that serious new music (which knew what to expect, either in the brain’s process of assimilation, or in the way that it as- is to say, new serious music), presented in a setting of contemporary art, offers people the sembled the results. But as it turned out, more often than not, exhilaration was in store. chance to experience contemporary art and music in way that merges sights and sounds into evenings of double delights. Midway through Look & Listen’s ten years, I still recall the 2006 concert with So Percussion 10 hammering out ’s the so-called laws of nature—the final section played on flower Those drawn to contemporary art, and those drawn to contemporary music, are not neces- pots and crockery—while gazing at The Pace Gallery’s portraits by Alex Katz. Somehow sarily the same audience. Yet they have much in common. Both share a longing for art that Lang’s timbral fireworks gave Katz’s sophisticated habitués more three-dimensional person- reflects contemporary experiences. Both are alert to the unexpected and surprising in art, and alities, as if they were additional—if mute—members of the live audience. Conversely, Katz’s are hungry for the thrill that comes from new art. rows of deadpan onlookers made Lang’s percussive chorus shriek even louder. That same year at Robert Miller Gallery, the dark, David Lynch-esque environments of Australian photog- Sixty years ago, the idea that new music and new art were natural partners hardly needed rapher Bill Henson gave a more sinister cast to Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round, performed by iterating. In the 1950s, avant-garde artists regularly hosted music events in their studios, and the Biava and Daedalus String Quartets. But if one chose to focus more on the art, Golijov’s that haunting music you hear behind the images of Jackson Pollock in the short documen- explosiveness lent Henson’s mysterious landscapes an undercurrent of anxiety, even violence. tary, Pollock Painting, is Morton Feldman’s. Those responsive to art and music belonged to a single, small, tight-knit, avant-garde art community. In Lower Manhattan, for example, mem- Do we need to look at something while listening? Frankly, I hope for most people, the answer bers of the art community found it perfectly natural to move from an opening for an abstract is a resounding “no.” Today’s culture continually demands that both senses be engaged si- expressionist painter at the Tanager Gallery on Tenth Street to a John Cage performance at multaneously, reflecting the grip of film and television, as well as an insistence on multitasking Carnegie Hall. (even when ill-advised). But the fact is: we’re always visually evaluating, even if no formal art During the 1960s, new art forms other than painting and sculpture rose up—including, es- is on display. Even a pristine audiophile laboratory like Carnegie Hall—where music still holds pecially, performance-art pieces, such as the famous Robert-Rauschenberg/Billy-Kluver-led court over optical stimuli—nevertheless has creamy walls, scarlet upholstery and gilt trim, Experimements in Art and Technology collaboration, Nine Evenings in 1966, and video instal- which inevitably affect impressions of what is heard. Serendipitous confluences of what we lation art pieces. During the subsequent decades, art and artists made their ways increasingly hear and what we see can mesh—or clash—with intriguing results. In the past decade, Look out of isolated and private studios into the real world and onto, as it were, the street. But & Listen has zeroed in on that sometimes harmonious, sometimes gently chaotic relationship. rather paradoxically, audiences for contemporary art and music drifted apart. The “pluralism” How valuable a conjunction can be: that that took hold in the visual arts (i.e., everything from photorealist painting to earthworks in tiny ampersand – a locus of meaning – the desert could make equal claims to being avant-garde) did not lead as much as one might might be the most important part of the think to visual artists developing much interest in the explorations going on in contemporary Festival’s name.

music. Nor did the new developments in music translate into musicians and composers de- Bruce Hodges is North American Editor for veloping any particular openness to contemporary art. MusicWeb International, based in London, and writes a monthly column on recordings for The Look & Listen Festival reestablishes that connection, and provides a context in which The Juilliard Journal. His blog, Monotonous contemporary composers, musicians and artists, and their audiences, can delight in one Forest, focuses on music and art, and he has another’s endeavors. More profoundly, Look & Listen extends a greater tradition, transcend- also written for Lincoln Center, Playbill, ing the modern and contemporary, and reaching back to the Renaissance, where music and artcritical.com and others. art were seen as sister arts. Art and music audiences in New York are fortunate to have the Festival among us. With enthusiasm, support, and perhaps a little bit of luck, Look & Listen Festival founder David Gordon and will be with us for at least another decade to come. Suzanne Farrin at the 2003 Festival at Art in General. So Percussion 10th Anniversary Video Tribute listened to thusly. Microsonophones (a family of instruments) allow the player the luxury of privacy (even in a crowded room), with the commensurate benefits–you JASON TREUTING Life is good when you are at a Look & Listen concert can play whatever you’d like without suffering the judgement of others. Have at it! It’s sonic fingerpainting. The word “musician” is too often used discourage people We are happy to celebrate Look and Listen’s 10th Birthday with all of you from participating in their birthright as soundmakers. Be a soundmaker with tonight! In one form or another, we’ve been involved since the beginning a Microsonophone. and it amazing to see the festival grow. We’ve played loud things and soft things and huge percussion set-ups crammed into Recognized as a multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and instrument designer, Mark Stewart has been heard around the world performing old and new music. Since 1998 he has recorded, toured and galleries and sparse set-ups spread out around the galleries. This year, been Musical Director with . A founding member of the All-Stars, Mark is also a we are honored to be involved via video since we couldn’t make it in member of Steve Reich and Musicians and the manic duo Polygraph Lounge. He has worked with Anthony person. We hope this short piece serves as a good way to kick off the Braxton, , Cecil Taylor, Meredith Monk, Stevie Wonder, , Phillip Glass, and party. It is called life is (blank), but tonight we will call it Life is good , among others. Mr. Stewart is on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music. when you are at a Look & Listen concert. THE PHOTO RETROSPECTIVE Jason Treuting Ron Gordon wrote: When David first asked me to document the new Look & Listen Composer/performer/improviser Jason Treuting enjoys making pieces that trans- Festival that he was planning in New York, I didn’t even have a camera with me. lates numbers and letters into patterns of sound. He has made music with and for At the time, I was mainly photographing architecture and historic preservation and So Percussion, QQQ, Alligator Eats Fish, , Kneebody, Steve Mackey, Big working with large format equipment. Not knowing what I was getting into or how Farm, and many other experimental artists. He has been called “genre-busting” by successful the Festival would become, I said, “Sure, no problem.” Ten years and and his music has been called “rich and engrossing” by Time thousands of images later, this is what I have learned: Out New York. His first CD with So Percussion, Amid the Noise, was chosen as a I have learned a lot about New Music. I had no idea what it was or who was involved. top ten album of the year by All About . His music is recorded on Cantaloupe The quality and innovation of the composers, the performers, and the production con- Music and . tinues to impress me. From the early days when we all worked together to put up and So Percussion take down 100 chairs each night and move them to another venue, the Festival evolved Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting into a very sophisticated and well-oiled production with many dedicated volunteers. Since 1999, So Percussion has been creating music that explores all the extremes I learned that it is not easy to produce music in a location that is conducive to the of emotion and musical possibility. Called an “experimental powerhouse” by the viewing of art. Of course the lighting in these galleries is set up to enhance the art Village Voice, “astonishing and entrancing” by Billboard Magazine, and “brilliant” on the walls, but I hadn’t realized how little light fell on the performers. The walls by The New York Times, the Brooklyn based quartet’s innovative work with today’s are washed in beautiful light, but the performers are hidden in deep shadow. most exciting composers and their own original music has helped them forge a Getting a picture when all the musicians have the best expressions on their faces unique and diverse career. The members of So Percussion are co-directors of a new was one of my biggest challenges. With a building, all you have to do is wait for the percussion program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. They are also co- best light to fall on it. With musicians you have to anticipate the perfect moment. directors of the So Percussion Summer Institute at Princeton University. So would Oh, and you can’t make any noise. like to thank Pearl/Adams Instruments, Zildjian Cymbals, Drumsticks, Remo Drumheads, Black Swamp Accessories, and Estey Organs for their sponsorship. The photographs that you see on the walls at this tenth anniversary concert are small symbols of the enormous accomplishment of the Look & Listen Festival.

Ron Gordon’s photographs are in numerous permanent collections including The , Silent Auction Focus Infinity Fund, Chicago Historical Society, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Illinois State Museum, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Paris Art Center, and many private collections. To commemorate the 10th Annual Look & Listen Festival, renowned musician He has an extensive history of exhibitions, publications and photographic contributions in films such as The and frequent festival guest Mark Stewart has created an original instrument, the River Runs Through It, directed by Robert Redford, and The Music Box, directed by Costa-Garvas, and he Microsonophone. Esteemed photographer Ron Gordon has produced a limited recently appeared on ABC news in a feature on his pro bono work with learning disabled children. edition photo retrospective of the ten Festivals. Both works of art will be on display throughout the Festival. This is your chance to support the Festival and take home a piece of Look & Listen history! Left Mark Stewart THE MICROSONOPHONE Right Mark Stewart wrote: I like to say that there are two kinds of music: Public and Ron Gordon private. A Microsonophone is for private music making. There are many “small” Opposite page: sounds that, with the aid of a stethoscope, are quite beautiful and big when Jason Treuting The Chelsea Art Museum & Visual Artist Jean Miotte The 10th Anniversary Look & Listen Festival At-A-Glance ALL CONCERTS AT THE CHELSEA ART MUSEUM

Thursday, May 19 at 8 pm HOST WQXR/Q2’S NADIA SIROTA JACK Quartet performs ’s Dig Deep and ’ 5th , Tanya Bannister performs Sofia Gubaidulina’s Chaconne and Jan Radzynski’s Mazurka, No. 2, and Doug Perkins presents Michael Gordon’s XY.

Friday, May 20 at 8 pm Host WNYC’s John Schaefer Brooklyn Rider performs John Cage’s In a Landscape (arranged by Justin Messina) and Colin Jacobsen’s Achille’s Heel, harpist Bridget Kibbey presents excerpts from Murray Schaffer’s Crown of Ariadne and ’s Bariolage, and Split Second performs Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez’s Machinary and the world premiere of the two- Jean Miotte, Le débat, 1998, acrylic on canvas, 76” x 204” arrangement of John Musto’s Passacalgia.

Saturday, May 21 at 8 pm Host WQXR’s Terrance McKnight The Chelsea Art Museum serves as home to the Miotte Foundation, which is dedicated to conserving the work of Jean Miotte, continuing research and bringing Toy pianist Phyllis Chen performs the world premiere of The Little Thing by Angélica the work of Informel to American audiences. Negrón, David Lang’s Miracle Ear, and her own works, Colure and Double Helix, John Hollenbeck and the Claudia Quintet play works written by Mr. Hollenbeck for Jean Miotte, (b. 1926) came of artistic age in the decade after World War II when the Festival, and the Driving Force Trio (Jonathan Greenberg, Guy Klucevsek, and non-figurative gestural abstraction was emerging on both sides of the Atlantic as Eiot Gattegno) performs Zibuokie Martinaityte’s Driving Force. Ms. Martinaityte is the contemporary artistic language. The term L’Art Informel was coined by the the winner of the Look & Listen 2011 Festival Composers Competition. French critic, Michel Tapié, to connote “without form”. The negation of traditional Saturday evening’s concert is followed by Look & Listen’s 10th Anniversary form, a radical break from established notions of order and composition, was par- Champagne & Chocolate Reception. ticularly suited to a cultural environment born out of the circumstances of postwar Europe where abuse of morals and fascist ideology had led to such horror and destruction. Sunday, May 22 at 3 pm Host NPR contributor Lara Pellegrinelli

While Informel is often regarded as the European equivalent of Abstract Expres- Missy Mazzoli’s captivating quintet Victoire presents her own Cathedral City, The sionism, it is distinguished from its American counterpart by a loss of faith in prog- Driver, India City, and A Song for Mick Kelly, percussionist David Cossin of Bang On ress and the collective possibilities of an avant garde. Rather, the artists who came a Can plays the world premiere of a new work he has written for the Festival, and the to be grouped as Informel – Jean Miotte, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Emil Schumacher, Brasil Guitar Duo performs Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Fandango en Rondeau, Golli- and Kazuo Shiraga, among others – claimed an individual freedom embodied in the wogg’s Cakewalk by Claude Debussy, and Sete Aneis by Egberto Gismonti. spontaneity of the gestural, abstract language to create a bridge between cultures, to break beyond national barriers of geography or expression to form a truly eighth blackbird international language. performing Table Music at 2006 The power and transcultural appeal of this painting was soon seen in its interna- Festival tional reception. Miotte was invited to exhibit throughout Europe, America, and the Near and Far East long before the concept of globalization was current in artistic terms. But whereas globalization tends toward cultural uniformity, Miotte’s work fostered individual dialogue within each culture.

While Miotte’s work remains committed to the Utopian aspects of gestural abstraction, he has continued to grow, fighting the repetition of a signature style, constantly pushing the boundaries and possibilities of the line, the gesture and the liquidity of paint. CONCERT 1 Composers

Jason Treuting Ambient Music Thursday, May 19 at the Chelsea Art Museum Composer/performer/improviser Jason Treuting enjoys making pieces that translate Ambient Music numbers and letters into patterns of sound. He has made music with and for Jason Treuting So Percussion, QQQ, Alligator Eats Fish, Matmos, Kneebody, Steve Mackey, Big HOST Farm, among others. He has been called “genre-busting” by The New York Times Nadia Sirota and his music “rich and engrossing” by Time Out New York. His first CD with So Percussion, Amid the Noise, was chosen as a top 10 album of the year by All About Jazz. His music is recorded on and New Amsterdam Records. PROGRAM Philip Glass 5th String Quartet Michael Gordon XY Philip Glass (b. 1937) has had an extraordinary impact upon the musical and intel- Doug Perkins lectual life of our times. After studies at The , he moved to Europe where he studied with Nadia Boulanger and worked closely with Ravi Shankar. He interview returned to NY in 1967 and formed the Philip Glass Ensemble. The new musical style Michael Gordon that Glass was evolving was eventually dubbed “minimalism.” Glass himself never liked the term and preferred to speak of himself as a composer of “music with Jan Radzynski Mazurka, No. 2 repetitive structures.” Tanya Bannister The expansive 5th String Quartet (1991) is an epic journey full of dramatic contrasts Philip Glass 5th String Quartet and all of the composer’s trademark stylistic devices: self-propelling rhythms, JACK Quartet elemental harmonic progressions, and restless arpeggiated figures. Reflecting on his approach to the composition of the 5th String Quartet, Glass commented: “I was thinking that I had really gone beyond the need to write a serious string quartet INTERMISSION and that I could write a quartet that is about musicality, which in a certain way is the most serious subject.” Jason Treuting Life is good when you are at a Michael Gordon XY Look & Listen concert Michel Gordon (b. 1956) is co-founder and co-artistic director of the renowned So Percussion Chelsea Art Museum in 2010 Bang on a Can Festival. His music is an outgrowth of his experience with under- ground rock bands in New York and his formal training in composition at Yale with Sofia Gubaidulina Chaconne Martin Bresnick. Tuneful, rhythmic and raw, Gordon has embraced elements of dis- Tanya Bannister sonance, minimalism, modality, and popular culture in what has been considered by some people as a bold and direct sound. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from New interview York University and a Masters of Music from the Yale School of Music. Julia Wolfe From the composer XY is a percussion solo for five tuned drums. In XY, the right Julia Wolfe Dig Deep and left hand of the performer get louder and softer in reverse symmetry. That is, JACK Quartet while the right hand gets louder and louder, the left hand, which was loud, gets softer and softer, and so on. Eventually, each hand moves at different speeds. As the drumming of the right hand fades away, the drumming of the left hand emerges at a faster rate. Also, the length of time that the hands take to emerge and fade contracts and expands. I am speaking of the hands of the performer as if they were Jason Philip Michael Sophia Jan Julia Treuting glass GORDON GUBAIDULINA RADZYNSKI WOLFE independent beings, and indeed they practically are. When I was imagining the music of XY, I thought of the double helix of DNA, which wraps around itself and spirals upwards. Sofia Gubaidulina Chaconne Performers Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931) lived in Moscow until 1992. Since then, she has made her primary residence in Germany. Her compositional interests have been stimu- Tanya Bannister bannister JACK Quartet perkins Sirota lated by: the tactile exploration and improvisation with rare Russian, Caucasian, Lauded by and Asian folk and ritual instruments collected by the Astreia ensemble, of which The Washington Post for playing “…with intelligence,STEPHEN POFF poetry and proportion,” pia- she was a co-founder; the rapid absorption and personalization of contemporary nist Tanya Bannister’s debut recording, late piano sonatas of Muzio Clementi, was Western musical techniques (a characteristic, too, of other Soviet composers of the released in 2006 on the Naxos label. BBC Music Magazine declared: “Barenboim’s post-Stalin generation including Denisov and Schnittke); a deep-rooted belief in the EMI Beethoven sonata cycle is readily brought to mind. Yet although she pos- mystical properties of music. sesses enviable articulate and accurate fingers, she is also sensitive to the music’s The strong point of the Chaconne resides above all in the pleasing stylistic alter- many lyrical asides.” This is the story she began, a CD of solo piano music of living nation presented by each of the contrasting variations on the Chaconne, whose American composers (David Del Tredici, Christopher Theofanidis, Suzanne Farrin, deliberately rough and charicaturial theme comes from the 17th century dance. The and Sheila Silver), was released on Albany Records in February 2009. She is a comic theme of the Chaconne, as in tradition, appears in the finale and closes with winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition. a perturbing theme of a fast march, drowned out by a final sustained chord. -GILBERTO DALMONTE (TRANSLATION BY KEVIN O’NEILL) JACK Quartet Christopher Otto & Ari Streisfeld, ; John Pickford Richards, ; Jan Radzynski Mazurka, No. 2 Kevin McFarland, Polish composer Jan Radzynski studied composition with Krzysztof Penderecki and The JACK Quartet electrifies audiences worldwide with “explosive virtuosity” (Bos- Jacob Druckman at Yale University. He taught at Yale before joining Ohio State in ton Globe) and “viscerally exciting performances” (The New York Times). NPR listed 1994. His works have been performed by the Cleveland , Cracow Phil- their performance as one of “The Best New York Alt-Classical Concerts Of 2010.” harmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, West German Radio Orchestra, Mexico National JACK is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works, leading Orchestra, New Haven Symphony, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent com- them to work closely with composers Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág, Mat- missions are from the Haifa Symphony, the Concertante Chamber Players, and the thias Pintscher, Georg Friedrich Haas, James Dillon, Toshio Hosokawa, Wolfgang Israel Chamber Orchestra. Rihm, , Beat Furrer, Caleb Burhans, and Aaron Cassidy. The Quartet also offers fresh interpretations of early music, including works by Don Carlo Gesu- From the composer Mazurka, No. 2, Lento ma non troppo, composed in 2008 as aldo, Guillaume de Machaut, and Josquin des Prez. companion piece to Mazurka, No. 1, further explores the possibilities inherent in an encounter of two different musical cultures where Polish folk elements, like an open Doug Perkins fifth ostinato drone, are laced with augmented seconds, octatonic scales, and high chromaticism of the Jewish Ashkenazi and Sephardic melismatic style. Percussionist Doug Perkins has been described as “terrific, wide-awake and strik- ingly entertaining” by the Boston Globe and “brilliant” by The New York Times. He performs as a member of the Meehan/Perkins Duo, was a founder of So Percus- Julia Wolfe Dig Deep sion and collaborates with ICE, Signal, eighth blackbird, and composers David Drawing inspiration from folk, classical, and rock genres, Wolfe’s music is distin- Lang, Paul Lansky, John Luther Adams, Nathan Davis, and Larry Polansky. Perkins guished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers has been directing large-scale percussion concerts. His event Persephassa in to extremes and demands attention from the audience. She was a finalist for the Central Park Lake was one of NYCs Top Classical Events in Time Out New York 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Steel Hammer, written for the Bang On A Can All-Stars and and New York Magazine. He is on the faculty at and directs the Trio Mediaeval. In the words of the Wall Street Journal, Wolfe has “long inhabited Chosen Vale International Percussion Seminar. He performs with Vic Firth, a terrain of [her] own, a place where classical forms are recharged by the repetitive Pearl/Adams, and Black Swamp instruments. patterns of minimalism and the driving energy of rock.” Wolfe has been commis- sioned by the Lark, Ethel, Kronos, and Cassatt Quartets. Nadia Sirota host From the composer Dig Deep is the third of my string quartets. It is incessant and Hailed by The New York Times as “the violist of choice among downtown en- crazy driven. The music wrestles with itself - the bows dig deep into the strings for sembles these days,” violist Nadia Sirota has been praised for her “command and a thick reedy sound. Dense chords are cut up with frenzied tunes that sing at hyper eloquence,” in the Boston Globe. She is best known for her unique interpretations speed. The quartet is united and fractured - unified in odd metered attacks in an off of new scores and for commissioning and premiering works by Marcos Balter, beat pulse, interrupted by frenetic counterpoint - everyone playing together and not Caleb Burhans, Judd Greenstein, and . Her recent debut album, First together. The tunes interrupt and lengthen. While there is a clear tie to blues riffs, Things First (New Amsterdam Records), was declared “a collection of vital, imagi- by the end the harmony becomes almost Brahmsian in always leading somewhere native recent scores” by The New York Times and named a Times 2009 Record of but never landing. Dig Deep was commissioned by the with gener- the Year. Ms. Sirota also hosts “Nadia Sirota on Q2,” a weekday show devoted to ous support from Nora Norden. contemporary music on WQXR’s new internet radio stream Q2. CONCERT 2 Composers

Sean Carson Ambient Music Friday, May 20 at the Chelsea Art Museum Sean Carson helped found the Look and Listen Festival with David Gordon and Ambient Music received his PhD in music theory and composition from NYU in 2003. He currently Sean Carson CARSON lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and runs a performance series at the Berkeley HOST Art Museum. John Schaefer John Cage In A Landscape 20th century conceptual artist John Cage (1912-1992) famously “composed” the PROGRAM piano piece entitled 4’33” (1952), which called for the pianist to sit at a piano and SCHAFER not play for exactly 4 minutes and 33 seconds. The son of an inventor, Cage spent Murray Schafer Crown of Ariadne time in Europe as a young man, absorbing culture and studying with composer Bridget Kibbey Arnold Schoenberg. He returned to the in the 1930s as a composer with an avant-garde approach, composing pieces for percussion groups and for interview what was called “prepared piano”–a piano with various objects inserted between Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez the strings for percussive effects. Some consider Cage little more than a charlatan, SANCHEZ GUTIERREZ but his idea that “everything we do is music” has undoubtedly influenced Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez Machinary for piano duo modern composers. NEW YORK PREMIERE OF I, II, III and V; WORLD PREMIERE of IV VIDEO BY ARTHUR GANSON Nicholas Cords wrote: In A Landscape, a beautifully meditative and gently melis- Split Second matic work, suggests a much wider world than it would seem from a cursory glance at the score. Writing about the String Quartet in Four Parts from 1949, Cage John Cage In a Landscape expresses a sentiment which could easily apply to In A Landscape: “This piece is Brooklyn Rider CAGE like the opening of another door; the possibilities implied are unlimited.” Originally for solo piano or harp, Justin Messina arranged In a Landscape for string quartet in 2009. Reflecting on his treatment of this work, Justin writes: “When I play In A INTERMISSION Landscape at the piano, the thing that strikes me most is how different it is from other piano music. Cage specifies that the pedal is to remain depressed through- Jason Treuting Life is good when you are at a out, resulting in a rich, almost atmospheric quality. The ensuing musical language is one where the focus shifts away from the notes and phrases and centers on the Look & Listen concert Treuting So Percussion resonance that emerges beneath them. In this arrangement I endeavored to accen- tuate and animate that resonance.”

Elliott Carter Bariolage Eclipse Quartet Bridget Kibbey at Robert Miller Gallery in 2007 interview John Musto & Colin Jacobsen CARTER

John Musto Passacaglia WORLD PREMIERE OF THE ARRANGEMENT FOR TWO BY THE COMPOSER Split Second

MUSTO Colin Jacobsen Achille’s Heel Brooklyn Rider

JACOBSEN Elliott Carter Bariolage Colin Jacobsen Achille’s Heel Born in 1908 in , Elliott Carter began to be seriously interested in Colin Jacobsen’s work as a composer grows naturally from his involvement with music in high school and was encouraged at that time by Charles Ives. He at- the Silk Road Ensemble, Brooklyn Rider and The Knights. Recently chosen by tended where he studied with Walter Piston and later went to NPR listeners as one of the top 100 composers under 40, his compositions include Paris where he studied with Nadia Boulanger. Carter has been the recipient of the Brooklesca, an homage to his hometown of Brooklyn, Beloved, do not let me highest honors a composer can receive: the Gold Medal for Music awarded by the be discouraged… written for and Brooklyn Rider’s recording for National Institute of Arts and Letters, the National Medal of Arts, membership in Harmonia Mundi’s World Village label, and Achille’s Heel, heard tonight and on the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts Brooklyn Rider’s CD Dominant Curve. He has written music for dance and theater and Sciences. Hailed by as “one of America’s most distinguished as well, including Compagnia de’ Colombari’s production of Walt Whitman’s Song creative artists in any field,” Carter has received two Pulitzer Prizes and of Myself. commissions from many prestigious organizations. From the composer For years, I found it difficult to imagine the act of “compos- Bridget Kibbey wrote: Having just celebrated his 100th birthday, Elliott Carter is ing.” With the weight of the entire canon looming large, I couldn’t regarded as one of the most innovative, prolific composers of our time. With both see myself coming up with anything new worth anything to anybody. Largely men living in NYC, Carter became a friend and admirer of the harpist Carlos through my work within the Silk Road Ensemble, the patient support of my friends Salzedo. Fascinated by the sounds Salzedo was producing on the harp, Carter in Brooklyn Rider, and the example of composers like Claude-Achille Debussy, makes a point to add special effects for the instrument in his works for harp. In I realized that it was possible to put notes together as a child plays: with seri- fact, Carter’s compositions for the harp challenge the player to new heights of ous intent, joy when something works, and with the idea, as Debussy put it, that technique and expression on the instrument. Bariolage is one such display of color “pleasure is the law.” So Achille’s Heel (4 mvts: Lydia’s Reflection, Second Bounce, and sound, and is the middle movement of Trilogy, a three-movement work for harp Loveland, Shur Landing) is above all a celebration of Play; childlike and un-inhibit- which Carter wrote for Heinz and Ursula Holliger. ed, yet filled with rules and boundaries. This was well exhibited in the interplay of gods and mortals in ancient Greek mythology and, as William Shakespeare put it, Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez Machinary “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women mere players.”

Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez was born in Mexico City in 1964 and now lives in the New John Musto Passacaglia York Tundra, where he teaches at the Eastman School of Music. He studied with Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Steven Mackey, and Henri Dutilleux at Yale, Princ- Now known as one of our busiest opera composers, John Musto’s reputation as eton, and Tanglewood, respectively. He has received many of the standard awards a master of the concert song has long been secure, both as composer and as a in the field (e.g. Barlow, Guggenheim, Fulbright, Koussevitzky, Fromm, American performer at the piano. His highly refined playing is featured in song recitals (often Academy of Arts and Letters). Mr. Gutierrez co-directs the Eastman BroadBand En- with the soprano Amy Burton), , concertos, and solo works. Last semble. He likes machines with hiccups and spiders with missing legs, looks at Paul season, Mr. Musto embarked on a recording project with conductor Glen Cortese Klee’s Notebooks every day, hasn’t grown much since he reached adulthood at age and the Greeley Philharmonic to perform and record both his piano concerti for 14, and tries to use the same set of ears to listen to Bach, , or Ligeti. Bridge records. He also served as composer-in-residence at the Mannes College The New School for Music. Since 2004, he has seen the production of three new From the composer These pieces, five out of a growing collection of miniatures operas, with a fourth, The Inspector, to premiere at the Wolf Trap Opera company written for piano-duo, are part-homage, part-commentary on the awesome ma- in April 2011, and at Boston Lyric Opera in 2012. Wolf Trap’s recording of his first chines built by the American artist Arthur Ganson, a self-described cross between opera, Volpone, was nominated for a 2010 Grammy. a mechanical engineer and a choreographer. Ganson’s machines are simple and profound, quiet and eloquent, high-tech and low-tech, finite and eternal.

Painting ay Joseph La Piana at the 2008 Festival at Robert Miller Gallery So Percussion at Pace/Wildenstein in 2006 Murray Schafer Crown of Ariadne Performers R. Murray Schafer (b. 1933) is a composer, educator, environmentalist, scholar, and visual artist. Schafer’s involvement in music education led to his booklets, The Bridget Kibbey KIBBEY BROOKLYN RIDER SPLIT SECOND SCHAEFER Composer in the Classroom, Ear Cleaning, The New Soundscape, When Words Harpist Bridget Kibbey Sing, and Rhinoceros in the Classroom. These illustrate his experiences with captivates audiences with masterpieces and new works that stretch the boundaries students and are among the first introductions to John Cage’s concepts of cre- of her instrument. She has premiered works by Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Au- ative hearing and sensory awareness into the Canadian classroom. As the ‘father gusta Read-Thomas, and Kaija Saariaho, and she has appeared at Carnegie Hall, of acoustic ecology’, Schafer has been concerned about the damaging effects of Lincoln Center, the Kimmel Center, and the Tanglewood, Spoleto, and Lucerne Fes- noise on people, especially dwellers of the ‘sonic sewers’ of the city. His booklets tivals. Ms. Kibbey can be heard on the Deutsche Grammaphon label with soprano The Book of Noise and The Voices of Tyranny are pleas for anti-noise legislation Dawn Upshaw in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre and Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs. Her CD of and urban soundscape improvements. 20th century repertoire, Love is Come Again, was proclaimed “a strong contender Crowne of Ariadne depicts the myths of Theseus, Ariadne, and the Minotaur. The for this year’s most distinguished debut CD” by Time Out New York. Ms Kibbey is harpist represents Ariadne, and uses a wide range of percussion instruments to do the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, a winner of the Concert Artists Guild so, most notably ankle bells. In the myth, Ariadne and other maidens were cho- International Competition, and the Astral Artistic Services Auditions. sen to be sacrificed to the Minotaur and are thrown into a complex maze with the Minotaur waiting on the other end. Ariadne and Theseus (with whom she is in love), Brooklyn Rider lead the group out of the maze by unfolding thread and slaying the Minotaur. This Johnny Gandelsman & Colin Jacobsen, violins; Nicholas Cords, viola; whimsical work was written for Judy Loman in 1979. Eric Jacobsen, cello The adventurous, genre-defying string quartet Brooklyn Rider combines a wildly eclectic repertoire with a gripping performance style. NPR credits Brooklyn Rider with “recreating the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble.” The musicians play in concert halls and clubs, in venues as varied as Joe’s Pub in NYC, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Todai-ji Temple in Japan, the Library of Congress, and the South By Southwest Festival. Through creative programming and global collaborations, Brooklyn Rider illuminates music for its audiences in ways that are “stunningly imaginative” (Lucid Culture).

Split Second Robert Miller Roberto Hidalgo & Marc Peloquin Gallery in 2005 Ethel and Split Second explores a wide range of the piano ensemble repertoire: from Mo- So Percussion zart to Stravinsky, from Argentinean tango to , as well as important team up at the 2007 Festival scores by Adams, Rzewski, Bolcom, and Errollyn Wallen, among many others. A at Betty Split Second performance in Mexico City was cited in Reforma as “one of the best Cuningham chamber music events of the year.” Recent engagements include performances Gallery at Bennington College, Tenri Cultural Institute, Bargemusic, the Bellas Artes and Anfiteatro Simón Bolívar in Mexico City, and the Cultural Center at Roubaix, France. This concert is the ensemble’s third appearance at Look & Listen.

John Schaefer host John Schaefer is the host of WNYC’s innovative music/talk show “Soundcheck”, which features live performances and interviews with a variety of guests. Schaefer has also hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series “New Sounds” since 1982, called “The #1 radio show for the Global Village” (Billboard), and the New Sounds Live concert series since 1986. Schaefer has written extensively about music, including: the book New Sounds: A Listener’s Guide to New Music (Harper & Row, NY, 1987; Virgin Books, London, 1990); The Cambridge Companion to Singing: World Music (Cambridge University Press, U.K., 2000); and the TV program Bravo Profile: Bobby McFerrin (Bravo Television, 2003). CONCERT 3 Composers

David Gordon Tribeca Saturday, May 21 at the Chelsea Art Museum David Gordon is the founder and director of the Look & Listen Festival and Ambient Music president of the League of Composers/ISCM. He also founded and is president of David Gordon Pinnacle Prep, a test prep company with over 35 employees that provides tutoring HOST in students’ homes throughout the tri-state area. Mr. Gordon taught on the faculty Terrance McKnight of NYU and Hofstra University. His music has been performed by WSCMS, NY Virtuoso Singers, the League/ISCM, Talujon, and others, and he composed the music for, filmed, and edited Mitia, a documentary on the life of Matthew Ditlove, a French WWII veteran. Mitia was selected for archive by the Spertis Museum in PROGRAM Chicago to be used for educational purposes and as a presentation to Holocaust David Lang at Pace/Wildenstein Colure & Double Helix Gallery in 2007 survivor groups. Phyllis Chen In 1980, the composer moved to Tribeca, an emerging neighborhood with spacious, raw lofts, ideal for artists leaving the rapidly changing SoHo. Over the interview next 20 years, Tribeca changed, becoming barely recognizable to those who were Phyllis Chen & John Hollenbeck familiar with it. Tribeca harkens to the fading charm of the old familiar territory. GORDON John Hollenbeck Untitled WORLD PREMIERE Claudia Quintet Phyllis Chen Colure & Double Helix From the composer After hunting down composers to write for the toy piano, I interview realized that there were a lot of pieces that I wanted to write for myself. My com- Zibuokle Martinaityte positions use unconventional instruments and sound-making devices that become integral to the visual and aural components of the work. In the last couple of years, Zibuokle Martinaityte Driving Force FOR TROMBONE, SAX, ACCORDION CHEN I have composed several miniature works using toy pianos, music boxes and 2011 L&L COMPETITION WINNER bowls. Only in retrospect have I discovered that many of them have been inspired Driving Force Trio by a circular gesture that has often been said to characterize my piano playing. Colure & Double Helix were composed using mixing bowls performed with my left hand. I found several of the bowls while I was living in Indiana and completed my INTERMISSION percussion set at a housewares store in Tokyo. Both works appear on my mini-disc HOLLENBECK Mesmers. Time Out Chicago captured my compositional voice describing it as “a Jason Treuting Life is good when you are at a quirky music world that simultaneously haunts and inspires.” Look & Listen concert So Percussion John Hollenbeck Untitled Genre-crossing composer/percussionist John Hollenbeck has gained widespread David Lang Miracle Ear recognition as the driving force behind the unclassifiable Claudia Quintet and the Phyllis Chen LANG ambitious John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, groups with roots in jazz, world music, and contemporary composition. His Large Ensemble’s albums, A Blessing interview (Omnitone) and eternal interlude (Sunnyside Records), both received Grammy Angélica Negrón nominations, and in 2007, he was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. Angélica Negrón The Little Thing WORLD PREMIERE Hollenbeck is known for his collaboration Phyllis Chen with Meredith Monk, and commissions from MARTINAITYTE Bang on a Can All-Stars, Gotham Wind John Hollenbeck Untitled WORLD PREMIERE Symphony, Ethos Percussion Group, and the Claudia Quintet & Theo Bleckmann Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia. Tonight’s pieces are fresh off the press, Post-concert Champagne & Chocolate Reception so there are no notes.

NEGRÓN Phyllis Chen in 2010 at Gary Snyder Project Space Dave Lang Miracle Ear Performers Passionate, prolific, and complicated, composer David Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention. Lang is at the same time deeply versed in the classical tradition Phyllis Chen CHEN Claudia Quintet McKnight and committed to music that resists categorization, constantly creating new forms. Describing Phyllis Chen, In the words of The New Yorker, “With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for the Little The Oregonian declared: “…her captivating performance was animated by un- Match Girl Passion, Lang, once a postminimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his bridled inventiveness, the kind of joyous creativity that playing with toys is meant to standing as an American master.” Many of Lang’s pieces resemble each other only inspire.” A CAG New Music/New Places fellow, Ms. Chen’s artistic pursuits take her in the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision that inform their structures. His cata- in numerous directions as a pianist, toy pianist, composer and performance artist. logue is extensive, and his opera, orchestra, chamber and solo works are by turns She is studying for her doctorate at Indiana University with André Watts. ominous, ethereal, urgent, hypnotic, unsettling and very emotionally direct.

From the composer Miracle Ear was written for Margaret Leng Tan and is dedicat- Driving Force Trio ed to my father Daniel Lang, in honor of his 70th birthday. Miracle Ear is the name Eliot Gattegno, saxophone; Jonathan Greenberg, bass trombone; of a brand of hearing aid that advertises on late-night TV. I wanted to create a piece Guy Klucevsek, accordion that was an appropriate gift for my father - something about the passage of time Eliot Gattegno is the only saxophonist to win the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis, widely but not too morbid. My father now wears hearing aids in both ears and apparently considered the most prestigious prize for the interpretation of new music. He has they can create as many listening problems as they solve. In particular, hearing aids worked with James Levine, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Kurt Masur at festivals may not make listening to music any easier because they tend to boost the back- such as Marlboro, Tanglewood, Shanghai, Prague, and Spoleto. He is currently a ground noises and sounds associated with making music-breathing, attack, room Fellow at Harvard University and resides in NYC. noise, etc-more than the music itself. Through the hearing aid, notes that were too soft to hear unaided become drowned out by all the other louder noises. In Miracle Jonathan Greenberg, a native of Brooklyn, is a founding member of the St. Luke’s Ear, gentle and subtle rhythms in the toy piano are accompanied by the sharp Trombone Quartet, bass trombonist with Absolute Ensemble and Mike Longo’s attacks of metal pipes. This makes the music very difficult to hear. New York Jazz Orchestra, and he is a frequent performer with Manhattan Brass. Other collaborations include performing and recording with the Manhattan Jazz Or- Zibuokle Martinaityte Driving Force chestra, with Keely Smith, Frank Sinatra, Jr., and Toshiko Akiyoshi, among others. VivaVoce Magazine declared of the composer: “Virtuosity and a convincingly alluring Guy Klucevsek is a composer/accordionist who has performed and/or recorded with rhetoric in her music are synthesized with intuitivism and existential pathos. Like an Laurie Anderson, Brave Combo, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, the Kronos Quartet, Natalie illusionist, the composer crafts an inner space filled with high tension controlled by Merchant, and . He has premiered over 50 solo accordion pieces, released her alone. Then one becomes the prisoner of the author, sometimes forced to float 20+ recordings as soloist/leader, and can be heard on John Williams film scores. in that inner space between reality and transcendental states.” Ms. Martinaityte favors unconventional blends of timbres and intense utilization of extreme instru- Claudia Quintet mental registers, which often stretch the boundaries and technical capabilities of the Drew Gress, bass; Matt Moran, vibraphone; Ted Reichman, accordion; performers. She gives exceptional roles to oft-underused instruments such as tuba, Chris Speed, & tenor saxophone; special guest Matt Mitchell, piano trombone, accordion, or bassoon. In 2008, Ms. Martinaityte was commissioned by The Claudia Quintet’s music demonstrates that “innovative jazz does not have to be the MATA Festival, where The Knights Chamber Orchestra premiered her Polarities. harsh, angry, loud, shrill or grating; it can be delicate, witty, ethereal and radiantly From the composer Upon receiving a commission to write Driving Force for this lyric, as the Claudia Quintet pointed out…” [Chicago Tribune]. Formed by John rather peculiar combination of instruments, I was perplexed by how to approach it Hollenbeck in 1997, the ensemble’s unique sound has inspired dancing hippie girls and especially how to utilize the accordion. My memory was cluttered by so many at a New Mexico noise festival, the avant-garde cognoscenti in the concert halls of clichés of conventional usage of accordion, ranging from various folk traditions and Vienna and Sao Paolo, and a generation of young musicians worldwide. French chansons to Piazzolla’s tangos that some of them unconsciously sneaked into the piece. Thanks to the wonderful accordion player Raimondas Sviackevicius Terrance McKnight host (Lithuania), I was introduced to a whole new vocabulary of extended techniques, At WQXR, Terrance McKnight is host on weekday evenings and for the Saturday which became a part of the sound palette of the work. What is the engine of the evening program, “All Ears with Terrance McKnight”, which was honored with an music? What is the driving force of music? Is it rhythm, melos, harmony, polyphony, ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award in December 2010. McKnight’s musi- timbre or an inner impulse? In the process of writing Driving Force, I was consciously cal experiences – from glee club soloist and accomplished pianist, to professor at trying to grasp where the driving force of this work emanates from. Unexpectedly, Morehouse College, and finally as producer/radio host – have consistently champi- I was inspired by the harmony of Baroque cadences as well as Baroque melismas, oned the juxtaposition of the European Classical tradition alongside the American which are easily detectable in the composition. ‘Classical’ tradition – jazz, gospel, African American spirituals and other musical genres. McKnight was first heard in New York in 2008 when he joined the staff of WNYC and moved to WQXR in 2009. CONCERT 4 Composers

Milton Babbitt Occasional Variations Sunday, May 22 at the Chelsea Art Museum The compositional and intellectual wisdom of (1916 – 2011) influ- Ambient Music enced a wide range of contemporary musicians. Babbitt was also renowned for his Milton Babbitt great talent, instinct for jazz, and his astonishing command of American popular HOST music. Babbitt studied composition privately with . The recipient Lara Pellegrinelli of numerous honors, commissions, and awards, including a MacArthur Fellow- ship and a Pulitzer Prize Citation for his “life’s work as a distinguished and seminal American composer,” Babbitt was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. PROGRAM Babbitt composed this piece on the legendary RCA Mark II Synthesizer at the Co- Missy Mazzoli Cathedral City & The Driver lumbia-Princeton Electronic Music Studio between 1968 and 1971. With this piece, Victoire one of a handful of all-electronic works he created at the studio during the sixties and early seventies, Babbitt put into music his research on the limits of musical and Jason Treuting Life is good when conceptual perception. Occasional Variations is divided into three parallel sections you are at a Look & Listen concert that re-visit the traditional idea of musical variation in a uniquely electronic manner. So Percussion

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Fandango en Rondeau FROM SONATINA CANONICA, OP. 196 interview David Cossin The composer met Andres Segovia in 1932. Though he was a pianist by training, this initial interaction led Castelnuovo-Tedesco to write over 100 works for guitar, David Cossin Untitled WORLD PREMIERE making him a central figure of 20th century guitar. Though Sonatina Cononica, David Cossin written in 1961, may by its title suggest a genre that pays tribute to past styles, it is actually a thoroughly contemporary work, lyrical and sometimes humorous in na- ture, with three contrasting movements. The last movement of this work, Fandango INTERMISSION Patricia Spencer at ACE Gallery in 2002 en Rondeau, ritmico e deciso (rhythmical and decisive), is an energetic dance yet with some moments of introspection, including a brief melody indicated as ‘expressive and a little passionate’ before the main theme returns with its vivacity interview and excitement. - GRAHAM WADE Jean Miotte

Castelnuovo-Tedesco Fandango en Rondeau David Cossin Untitled Debussy Golliwogg’s Cakewalk (ARRANGED BY JOÃO LUIZ) David Cossin was born and raised in Queens, New York, and studied classical percus- Gismonti Sete Aneis sion at the Manhattan School of Music. His interest in classical percussion, drum set, Brasil Guitar Duo non-western hand drumming, composition, and improvisation has led to performances across a broad spectrum of musical styles. Cossin has written for many performers interview and groups including The Shanghai National Dance Company, Talujon Percussion Missy Mazzoli Quartet, Michael Lipsey, Doudou Huang, Tom Kolor, and the C3 percussion Group. Since 1999, his sonic installations have been presented in New York, Italy and Germa- Missy Mazzoli India Whiskey ny. He wrote, performed and recorded music for the documentary film Vertical Traveler A Song for Mick Kelly and was invited to be artist in residence at the Loop Gallery in Italy. Victoire

Claude Debussy Golliwogg’s Cakewalk FROM CHILDREN’S CORNER (ARR. BY JOÃO LUIZ) Jason CASTELNUOVO- Michael Sophia Jan Julia BABBITT TEDESCO COSSIN DEBUSSY GISMONTI MAZZOLI Children’s Corner is a set of six pieces published in 1908 and written by Debussy for his daughter Emma-Claude, known in the family as Chou-Chou and born in 1905. She was to outlive her father by barely a year. The English titles of the pieces are a reflection of Debussy’s anglophilia, echoed also in his habit of taking strong tea for breakfast and in a liking for whisky, and evidence of the influence on Chou- Chou of her English governess, Miss Gibbs. The well known Golliwogg’s Cakewalk is a light-hearted version of a dance that Performers had been popularized in the music-halls of the 1890s. Children’s Corner was first performed in Paris at the Cercle Musical by the American pianist Harold Bauer. The Victoire Suite was later orchestrated by Andre Caplet. Missy Mazzoli, VICTOIRE COSSIN BRASIL GUITAR DUO PELLEGRINELLI composer/piano; Olivia De Prato, ; Eileen Mack, clarinet; Egberto Gismonti Sete Aneis (SEVEN RINGS) Lorna Krier, keyboards; Eleonore Oppenheim, Gismonti (b. 1947) began his formal music studies on the piano in . He Victoire was recently dubbed “an all-star, all-female quintet” by Time Out New York, studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and composer Jean Barraqué, a disciple of and was described by as “so good... a pleasingly accessible entrée into Schoenberg and Webern. He was attracted by Ravel’s ideas of orchestration and the world of pseudo-classical music.” Victoire performs Mazzoli’s distinct blend of chord voicings, as well as by choro. To play this music Gismonti made the transi- dreamy post rock, quirky minimalism and rich romanticism. Since forming in 2008 tion from piano to guitar, listening to musicians as wide-ranging as Django Rein- they have shared the stage with Tortoise, Twi the Humble Feather, Redhooker and hardt and Jimi Hendrix. For him, Hendrix’s achievements were proof that “popular” many others, performing at many top venues including New York’s Le Poisson and “serious” idioms need not remain opposite poles. Rouge, Galapagos, Roulette, The Stone and the Whitney Museum, Chicago’s Mil- Sete Aneis is a modern choro, heard in a transcription by João Luiz, and the light, lennium Park, and the Bang on a Can Marathon. In spring of 2009 they became the delicate texture perfectly complements its lively, joyful melody. first classical group to be featured on “eMusic.com Selects”.

Missy Mazzoli The Diver, Cathedral City, India Whiskey, A Song for Mick Kelly David Cossin Missy Mazzoli was recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, David has worked across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms to surprising composers now working in New York” by The New York Times. 2011 incorporate new media with percussion. He has recorded and performed with includes the premiere of a new orchestral work for the Orchestra of the League of composers and ensembles including the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich and Composers at Miller Theatre and a new solo work for violinist Jennifer Koh, com- Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon missioned by the LA Philharmonic. From 2007-2010 Ms. Mazzoli was executive Percussion Quartet, and the trio, Real Quiet. Numerous theater projects include director of the MATA Festival. Victoire’s debut album Cathedral City, was released collaborations with Blue Man Group, Mabou Mines, and director Peter Sellars. Da- on New Amsterdam Records in 2010 and was named one of the year’s best classi- vid was featured as the percussion soloist in Tan Dun’s Grammy and Oscar winning cal albums by The New York Times, Time Out New York, NPR and the New Yorker. score to Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Most recently, he joined for his world tour, Symphonicities. From the composer The Diver began life as a section of my chamber opera-in- progress, Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt. In this Brasil Guitar Duo instrumental version a repetitive line, played by the keyboards, becomes consumed Douglas Lora & João Luiz in a flood of strings and looped electronics. Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the Brasil Guitar Duo Cathedral City, the title track from our 2010 album, includes vocal samples from is equally at home on a Classical or World Music series. Its innovative programs soprano Mellissa Hughes, as well as hundreds of other sampled power tools, feature a seamless blend of traditional and Brazilian works. The Daytona-Beach hedge clippers, washing machines and skipping CDs. The text was inspired by an News Journal exclaimed: “...there are two new kids on the classical guitar block – account from the neurologist Oliver Sacks, in which he describes a man who, at they’re from Brazil, and they’re armed and ready with the music of São age fifty, learns to see after having been blind since birth. Paulo’s streets.” India Whiskey features the amazing Eleonore Oppenheim playing an improvised double bass solo. This work also includes samples from The Conet Project, a Lara Pellegrinelli host compilation of recordings from number stations, short wave radio transmissions of Dr. Lara Pellegrinelli is an arts journalist and scholar. She received her Ph.D. in mysterious origin that usually consist of a woman repeating a series of seemingly ethnomusicology from Harvard University in 2005, focusing on jazz studies. Ms. random numbers. While it is now generally agreed that these transmissions are Pellegrinelli currently teaches at Princeton University. Her writing has appeared in codes for spies, it doesn’t make them any less creepy. numerous publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Village A Song for Mick Kelly was inspired by a character in Carson McCullers’ novel The Voice, and Time Out New York. She contributes arts and culture pieces on a wide Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Mick Kelly is a young girl living in 1930’s Georgia. She variety of topics to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Weekend wants desperately to be a composer, but must content herself with making a violin Edition. Her long list of interview subjects includes Edward James Almos, Jo out of a cigar box and to wander around the neighborhood listening to Beethoven Boobs, Asha Bhosle, Wafaa Bilal, Vince Clarke, Eileen Fulton, James Galway, Ed symphonies through her neighbors’ windows. In this work I imagined the kind of Koch, Wynton Marsalis, Sara McLachlan, Meredith Monk, Michael Musto, Bobbie music she would make if given a chance to compose. This piece includes text by Lee Nelson, Anita O’Day, Penny Palfrey, Angie Pontani, and Jacques Pepin. Farnoosh Fathi, sung from Mick’s point of view. ABOUT LOOK & LISTEN

Mission The Look & Listen Festival is an annual event dedicated to presenting new music in art galleries. Both artists and audiences enjoy performances by musicians of the highest caliber, who present concerts in New York City’s most prestigious art galleries. We are excited to continue to promote and encourage the appreciation of contemporary visual art and concert music.

Look & Listen Festival By presenting contemporary classical music in art galleries, the Look & Listen Festival Daedalus at the Robert Miller Gallery provides a visual context for music and an aural context for visual art, thereby en- hancing the appreciation of both. Concerts feature a range of 20th and 21st century classical music by established composers alongside newer works by younger, emerg- Look & Listen Festival Prize ing composers performed by the finest new music specialists. The Festival is also dedicated to promoting contemporary visual artists and the galleries that feature them. The Look & Listen Festival Prize, an annual competition, offers composers the op- portunity to win a New York City premiere at the Festival as well as a cash award. Look & Listen has recently enjoyed enthusiastic attention from the press: NY1 featured Each year, one piece is selected by a jury comprised of members of the Look & the Festival in its Your Weekend Starts Now segment as a “great thing to do;” in its Listen Composers Collective. The competition is open internationally to emerging preview of the week’s cultural “happenings,” The New York Times said, “Both eyes and composers working in a variety of mediums. Look & Listen Festival Prize winners ears are catered to at the annual Look & Listen Festival;” and Steve Smith described have been: the Festival in his review (part of a two-page color spread!) as a “lively annual event;” WQXR’s Q2, called the Festival “one of New York’s best new music events;” The New 2003 Mei-Fang Lin Interaction Yorker highlighted the Festival in its Goings On About Town, saying it “stimulates 2004 Peter Gilbert Ricochet the eyes as well as the ears;” Time Out New York declared, “This eagerly anticipated 2005 Panayiotis Kokoras Paranormal celebration of new music, words, and visual art returns for three nights of genre- 2006 Erin Gee Yama Mouthpieces mashing exploration;” and WNYC featured excerpts of the Festival on New Sounds. 2007 Izzi Ramkissoon Sub-ter-ain Frequencies Composer Interviews 2008 Nathan Davis Keybyar Untai 2009 Paul Leary I Have a Past Life Memory from the War that Blew the Fifth Integral to the Festival are interviews with composers, performers, and visual Planet into the Asteroid Belt artists. Special guest hosts conduct the interviews, which explore the creative 2010 Dan Visconti Love Bleeds Radiant process from the varied perspectives of the different fields. 2011 Zibuokle Martinaityte Driving Force Ambient Music Pre-concert presentations of ‘ambient compositions’ are a specialty of the Festival. History These pre-taped works are often written by emerging composers and premiered in In 2001, while enjoying one of ’s Second Helpings concerts at the DIA the gallery prior to each evening’s full-length concert and at intermission. Audience Center, David Gordon was struck by the intimacy between audience and per- members are free to listen, have conversations, or stroll around the gallery taking in formers as well as the effect of extended viewing of the visual art. Interested in the visual art during this time, while being enveloped in ambient music. providing audiences with more concerts in such settings, he approached fellow NYU composer and Ph.D. student Sean Carson with the idea. Sean immediately Commissioning & Premiering committed to the project, and together, they and third original board member Sarah Through commissioning and premiering, Look & Listen strives to spark new works Snider contacted all the performers, composers, and galleries they knew, hop- by dynamic and compelling composers. In 2010, Look & Listen commissioned its ing to put on a Festival in 2003. Everything fell into place when Ace Gallery owner first new work, a piece by Dr. Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez for the prominent sextet Douglas Christmas told David, “If you guys are supporting new music, I’m willing to eighth blackbird, who premiered the work at the Festival. Dr. Sanchez Gutierrez won support new music.” Fortunately, everyone, from graduate students to professors the prestigious Fromm commission to help fund the new piece. This year’s Festival to performers to friends and family, loved the concept and volunteered ideas and boasts numerous premieres, and future commissions and premieres are in the works! time, making a Festival in the spring of 2002, a year earlier than planned, a reality. Held in TriBeCa’s Ace Gallery, the 2002 Look & Listen Festival paired contempo- rary music with Tim Hawkinson’s indescribably unique installation, Überorgan. The 2003 Festival moved to Art In General and featured appearances by composer George Crumb, sculptor Donald Lipski, and cellist Fred Sherry. In 2004, Robert Miller Gallery hosted Look & Listen for what would be the first of five consecu- tive years, and amidst the large-scale, contemplative photographs of Bill Henson, prominent composers Martin Bresnick, John Corigliano, Steve Reich, and Joan Tower joined the renowned painter Philip Pearlstein in panel discussions. Meredith Monk, original Kronos member Joan Jeanrenaud, eighth blackbird, So Percussion, and others performed in front of works by the Canadian surrealist painter Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and the famed Wil- liam Wegman joined panel discussions hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer. The 2006 Festival featured a different gallery each night: Robert Miller Gallery, Betty Cuningham Gallery, and Pace/Wildenstein. The variegated surroundings en- hanced a star-studded lineup that included headliners eighth blackbird, So Percus- sion, and Ethel. Lively panels hosted by John Schaefer and Bruce Hodges featured Keynote speakers David Lang and Suzanne Bocanegra, photographer Bill Henson, and painter Judy Glantzman. Look & Listen 2007 took place amidst the provoca- tive paintings by Michael Kalmbach at the Robert Miller Gallery and in front of Abby Leigh’s playful paintings at the Betty Cuningham Gallery. Another wide array of performers included ICE, John Zorn’s Sappho Ensemble, Ethel, and So Percus- sion. Mr. Zorn’s work was written specifically for and premiered at the Festival. In 2008, the Festival returned to Robert Miller Gallery with the striking paintings of Joseph La Piana and OK Harris with the fascinating sculptures of Marilynn Gelf- man. Festival hosts John Schaefer, Sara Fishko, and Molly Sheridan interviewed facing page , Mark Stewart, and others. Mr. Stewart delighted audiences Boards & Staff Meridionalis conducted by Sebastian Zubieta in 2010 at with his invented instruments and endless creativity; Ethel and Electric Kompany’s Founder, President Gary Snyder/Project Space joined forces with Mr. Stewart for the Festival Finale – a rendition of Chuck Berry’s David Gordon Maybelline, arranged by Mr. Stewart; So Percussion and Zeena Parkins teamed up to perform a Jason Treuting piece from his recent CD; and the exciting 2 Foot Advisory Board Yard energized the Festival audience. The 2009 Festival was hosted by OK Harris, Martin Bresnick, George Crumb, Mario Davidovsky, Laurie Fendrich, Ron Gordon, where contemplative paintings of Mark Aronson and life-size, totemic sculptures of Doug Hilson, Aaron J. Kernis, Paul Lansky, Donald Lipski, Steven Mackey, Meredith Robert Rohm provided the backdrop, and Gary Snyder/Project Space, where Leon Monk, Philip Pearlstein, Peter Plagens, John Schaefer, Fred Sherry, Mark Stewart, Berkowitz’ paintings illuminated the space. Performer headliners included Bang on Joan Tower a Can, the League/ISCM, So Percussion, David Del Tredici, Marc Pelouquin, Todd Reynolds, and Split Second. Board of Directors Sean Carson, Amanda Cooper (Treasurer), Suzanne Farrin, Amy Frawley (Chair), Chelsea Art Museum and Gary Snyder/Project Space hosted the 2010 Festival, David Gordon (President), Kristin Hevner, Laurel Marx, Danny Mefford, where Jean Miotte’s and Beatrice Mandelman’s colorful paintings enlivened the Sebastian Zubieta, (Vice President) respective spaces. WNYC’s John Schaefer, WQXR’s Terrance McKnight, and NPR contributor Lara Pellegrinelli hosted the concerts, renowned composers John Cori- Consultants gliano, Missy Mazzoli, and Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez were on hand to speak about Amanda Alic (web), Robert Edelman (visual art), Jennifer Keiser Gordon (strategic their works – Mr. Sanchez Gutierrez’ happened to be L&L’s first commission, and planning and legal), Bruce Hodges (musical), Ron Gordon (photography), Bill Seig- virtuosic performers So Percussion, eighth blackbird, JACK Quartet, Phyllis Chen, mund (Q2 recording and sound), Jason Treuting (musical) and Face the Music played before standing-room only crowds each night. Administration Stephanie Coleman (Director), Cleek Schrey

Look & Listen Festival Composers Collective Sean Carson, Suzanne Farrin, David Gordon, Sebastian Zubieta –Composers of Ambient Music Special Thanks Enough cannot be said of the cooperation and support of 2011 Look & Listen Festival host Chelsea Art Museum. Melissa Netecke, Ivan Gaete, and Cheryl Chan were tremendously helpful during the many months of planning. Thank you so much! Thank you to John & Naomi of The Chocolate Room and Heather of Long’s Wines & Liquors, who donated fine chocolates and bubbly for the Champagne & Chocolate Reception. What a wonderfully generous gesture! Thank you to Yamaha Artists Services, New York, for the sponsorship of a piano and to the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York for its sponsorship of Split Second. Thank you to Bill Siegmund of Digital Island Studios, NYC for excelent sound engineering. Thank you to Laurel Marx Design and Town Crier Printing. CONTRIBUTORS Look & Listen is a non-profit organization and is made possible with generous financial support from public and private foundations and individuals. We greatly appreciate every contribution and thank all of our supporters deeply. FOUNDATIONS Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Alice M. Ditson Fund of , Amphion Foun- dation, BMI Foundation, Cary New Music Performance Fund, Eastman’s Hanson Institute for American Music, Edward T. Cone Foundation, Jewish Communal Fund, the Mexican Cultural Institute, Shana Alexander Charitable Foundation PUBLIC SUPPORT This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts CORPORATE SUPPORT Pinnacle Prep BENEFACTOR Augusta Gross & Leslie Samuels PATRONS Doug & Danielle Hilson, Joanne Witty & Eugene Keilin DONORS Amy & Mark Frawley, Suzanne Farrin & Sebastian Zubieta FRIENDS Laurie Fendrich & Peter Plagens, Martin Bresnick, Matthea Marquart, Nancy & Kenneth Falchuk, Jean-David Beyer, Ilene & Lester Bliwise, Louis Karchin, Herb Deutsch, Doris S. Lewis, Marjorie Saltzberg, Katherine A. Lemire, Carol D. Browne, Jo Hammerman & Donald Coleman, Laurel Marx Design

Judith Raphael & Tony Phillips, •

Mr. & Mrs. Sanford M. Sorkin, Felice Mendell & Marc Cooper, Christopher Tordini, Gina Genova, Richard & Ellen Farren, Amanda L. Cooper Ron Gordon

Donations received after April 1, 2011 will be acknowledged in the 2012 program. Yamaha Piano provided courtesy of Yamaha Artist Services, NY. Additional support for Split Second provided by the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York. PHOTOGRAPHY

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