LMU Music presents

New Music on the Bluff 21 April 17, 2021 | 5:00 p.m. Program

Idle Seamus Michael Byrne Orange County School for the Arts Santa Ana, California Martha Masters, I am a classical guitarist and I really quite love to perform guitar pieces; however, I am relatively new to the world of composing. I wanted the piece to be framed by two voices then a dance-like middle section with a single voice: I really liked the kind of contrast.

Sh-outs Chloe Elise Garcia Villamayor The Buckley School Sherman Oaks, California Marisa De Silva, soprano Chloe Elise Villamayor is an eighteen-year-old composer, violinist, and songwriter who believes that music is not only a reflection of the world but a tool to heal those within it. “Sh-outs” for soprano and delay pedal recognizes childhood and memories as timeless and something that continues to live on within each of us. The piece features a 3+2+2+3 rhythmic pattern inspired by the Arabic 10 beat and nonsense syllables, which mimic carefree footsteps and the ,( هنيجرج ) rhythmic cycle, Jurjīnah whimsically mysterious childspeak idiomatic to children. Furthermore, the loudness in the meaning of the word “shout” juxtaposed with the sonically gentle attack of the word “sh” emulates the recklessness and softness children possess. Due to the use of the delay pedal, the vocalist sings with her past self allowing the vocalist to an extent, in Kurt Vonnegut’s words, become “unstuck in time.”

Words Are Last to Fall Asleep Madeline Clara Cheng Mountain View High School Mountain View, California Sara Andon, Madeline Clara Cheng (b. 2004) is a composer, saxophonist, and pianist from Mountain View High School. She was a Luna Composition Lab Fellow, the first-place winner of the 2020 National Federation of Music Clubs Junior Composers Contest, and a recipient of the 2021 ICEBERG New Music Young Composer Scholarship. Madeline’s compositions have been performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Project Saint Louis. Her works have received top awards from the Robert Avalon International Competition, the Golden Key Music Festival, Webster University, and the University of School of Music. This summer, she will be attending the Tanglewood Young Artists Composition Program on full scholarship. She also enjoys sushi, fashion, bubble wrap, musical theatre, and guinea pigs. Inspired by a late-night conversation with a close friend of mine, Words Are Last to Fall Asleep is about the resonating impact of an individual’s words on another person. This piece is set in the plane of threshold consciousness that exists between sleep and wakefulness, also known as the hypnagogic state. As they slowly drift off into sleep after talking to someone dear to them, the last things on the person’s mind are the spoken and unspoken words still floating from the conversation. Two Experiments Holden Mui I. Resonance Naperville North High School II. Fractals Naperville, Illinois Wojciech Kocyan, Holden Mui is currently a high school senior from Illinois at Naperville North High School. He enjoys learning mathematics, and has used mathematical ideas in his composition, Two Experiments for Piano. The first experiment, Resonance, explores the ideas of cycling and periodicity to phase through all possible harmonic combinations, and the second experiment, Fractals, uses self-similarity as a basis for register, shape, dynamics, and waveform.

Clouds Dmitri Volkov I. Wispy Ridgefield High School II. Translucent Ridgefield, Connecticut Robert Fleitz, piano Dmitri Volkov is an aspiring composer whose pursuit of music includes studying composition with Paul Frucht and with Jessica McNamara. He also plays trombone in several groups through Ridgefield High School. Other instruments he is exploring include: mandolin, bass, piano, and others. Compositionally, Dmitri was a national finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer competition, and a national runner-up in the National Federation of Music Clubs composition competition for his string quartet Growth. Lately, he has been experimenting with the use of microtones and electronics in his compositions. Besides music, Dmitri is interested in computer science and has published an app, metro.drone, to the App and Google Play stores. Dmitri is actively looking into audio programming and trying to find innovative and legitimately interesting ways to combine his two interests.

Among the Pines Noah Goddard Moorpark High School Moorpark, California Ken Aiso, violin Noah Godard is a 17 year-old composer, oboist, and jazz pianist from Moorpark, California. He was a 2021 YoungArts Finalist in music composition and has been a Composer Fellow since 2019. Noah studies composition with Brett Banducci, and has participated in the MATA Jr. Festival, Sunset Chamberfest Young Composers’ Workshop, and Idyllwild Arts Summer Composition Workshop. He has thrice been named a finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and received an Honorable Mention in the 2020 NextNotes High School Music Creator Awards. When he’s not playing or composing music, Noah enjoys growing bonsai, studying linguistics, and drinking tea. Among the Pines was written in August 2020, as part of the Idyllwild Arts Summer Composition Workshop. It was inspired by the beautiful landscape of Idyllwild, and the stark contrast between green pines and white rock formations. die Gestalt, for Olga Tytarenko Ziyi Tao Special Music School , New York Ken Aiso, violin Ziyi Tao was born in 2002 in Beijing, China. He is currently studying composition at the Special Music School High School at Lincoln Center, NYC, with Dr. Max Grafe. He has also studied with many other teachers, including Jon Deak, Molly Herron, Shedrick Mitchell, and Dr. Reiko Füting. Ziyi’s works have been performed by various ensembles and artists around the world, including soprano Lucy Shelton, pianist Peter Dugan, the Hypercube Ensemble, the Parhelion Trio, the New York Philharmonic, and the St.Petersburg Philharmonic. Ziyi is also involved in other musical activities: he has served as a church organist for several different churches, including the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Fort Hamilton, and the St.George Episcopal Historical Church in Flushing. Ziyi studied conducting under Mike Repper and Alan Buxbaum at the New York Youth Symphony, and has also served as a composition student mentor under Jon Deak at the New York Philharmonic. I had always been reluctant to write for the solo violin with a twofold reason: I don’t play strings, which seem to have more techniques than there are for most other instruments; my experience with the violin has always been somewhat oversaturated with ideals I don’t necessarily understand — violin seems to represent the perception of beauty, it seems to be a symbol for status — the concertmaster always gets to shake the hand of the conductors and composers (though there are historical reasons for this I still think it’s interesting why the timpanists are rarely given the same chance and attention), and that there are probably more violin pieces written than there are anything else. Though it bothers me a little bit that so many are constantly emphasizing the importance and greatness of Bach nonstop, I must admit that his music has probably had the greatest influence on me — some of my darkest times in the past have always been uplifted by his music, it was also through studying his fugues that I first began to learn how to write music myself. For a period of time, his shadow constantly comes through in my own compositions: it brings back so much of what I want to rid, but can’t; the harder I try, the harder it is. So this time I decided to confront him — by recognizing him through the quotation of his music and the distortion of this style that means so much to me. This piece has very little original material if at all; though the definition and validity of that idea itself is also called into question, especially when writing for the violin. This piece is written for, and dedicated to Olga Tytarenko.

Inspiration for Prayer in three movements Adah Kaplan Germantown Academy Fort Washington, Pennsylvania Ken Aiso, violin Valeria Morgovskaya, piano Adah Kaplan is a violinist and composer whose works draw inspiration from a variety of genres, including but not limited to: 70s rock, ancient Israeli folk tunes, and a kid rhythmically tapping their pencil in math class. Recently, her piece “whitewashed” for solo violin was performed by Lara St. John, Sarah Whitney, and Jennifer K. Curtis, and her piece “Beware of Road Hazards” for and looper pedal has been selected for workshopping with Thomas Kraines through his ACF Call for Scores. Adah plays in Philadelphia Sinfonia, Philadelphia Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra, and the Auger Ensemble — a string trio coached by Linda Reichert that exclusively works on contemporary music. “Inspiration for Prayer” is inspired by Rabbi Chaim Stern’s “Prayer Book Meditation,” which poetically describes the different types of people who enter the synagogue and what they each gain from prayer. To show these three very different emotions, I combined aspects of music that signify that particular emotion nowadays with what resembled that emotion in ancient Israeli folk music. In three movements, the violin and piano duet illustrates how prayer helps a happy person to spread positivity, a mourning person find solace, and can restore the faith of even the most cynical of people.

Lilly McCarty, host

Performer Bios

Martha Masters first achieved international recognition in 2000 when she won first prize in the Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition. That same year she also won the Andres Segovia International Competition in Linares, Spain, and was named a finalist in the Alexandre Tansman International Competition of Musical Personalities in Lodz, Poland. Since then, Ms. Masters has been active as a solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist around the world. Her appearances include festivals and concert series through the , Germany, Poland, Russia, and China. Masters received both the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Manuel Barrueco, and completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Southern California as a student of Scott Tennant. Ms. Masters is currently on the guitar faculty of Loyola Marymount University and California State University Fullerton, and is president of the Guitar Foundation of America. She has five recordings on the Naxos and GSP labels, and has published books three books with Mel Bay Publications and Alfred Music. For more information, visit www.marthamasters.com.

Soprano Marisa De Silva is an active performer, voice teacher, and Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique based in Southern California. She received her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California with emphases in early music performance, musicology, opera directing, and vocology. A versatile singer, her interests also include Iberian and Japanese song repertoires, new music, and working on session and recording projects. She has been a featured soloist with the USC Early Music Ensembles (Baroque Sinfonia and Collegium Workshop) at both the Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals. She was also a soprano soloist with the American Bach Soloists Academy and most recently performed as featured soloist with the Joe Hisaishi Symphonic Orchestra performances at Carnegie Hall and Microsoft Theater. Marisa is on faculty at Loyola Marymount University, where she teaches voice and Alexander Technique, and assists in the Sinatra Opera Workshop. Her research interests include Musician’s Performance Anxiety, Alexander Technique in music education, and rhetorical gestures used in performance practice. In 2016, she received a grant from the Early Arts Guild of Victoria to further study the art of gesture under the tutelage of Helga Hill, OAM in Victoria, Australia. She hopes to include ideas of rhetorical gestures in the creative process of future opera directing projects. She is a member of the American Society for the Alexander Technique, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and SAG-AFTRA. For more information, visit www.marisadesilva.com.

Sara Andon is an international soloist, recording artist and teacher based in Los Angeles and performs regularly in many music genres including solo, chamber, symphonic, opera, ballet, new music, jazz and Broadway. She has performed all over the world in major concert venues, TV and radio broadcasts, as well as on motion picture, TV and video game soundtracks, as well as for Disney Parks. She is the solo flutist with the Los Angeles cutting-edge contemporary music ensemble Brightwork New Music and is the principal flute with the Los Angeles Ballet Company, and Redlands Symphony with their newly appointed music director/conductor, Maestro Ransom Wilson. She has performed with many southern California orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and frequently records with the Hollywood Studio Orchestras, in all chairs, playing C flute, piccolo, alto flute, bass flute and ethnic instruments for TV and film. A few of her feature film and television and video game credits include Lady and The Tramp (Disney+), It and It: Chapter 2, Star Trek Discovery, Star Trek Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks, The Orville, Animaniacs 2020, Crazy Rich Asians, The Greatest Showman, Disney’s The Jungle Book (2016), Fast & Furious 7 & 8, The Wolverine, Tron, Straight Outta Compton, Fences, Rush Hour 3, X-Men: Apocalypse, World of Warcraft and Leagues of Legends. Andon has also become an international ambassador for the flute and for film music, being a featured soloist in a series Los Angeles concerts and international events beginning in 2013, performing the music of iconic film composers, premiering works especially arranged and dedicated to her. This past year, she performed with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to celebrate the Varèse Sarabande 40th Anniversary and premiered her new Ennio Morricone recital with world-renown Italian pianist and Van Cliburn Gold Medalist, Simone Pedroni in Italy. Sara’s newest album is CINEMA MORRICONE – AN INTIMATE CELEBRATION which is her debut recording as a soloist for Sony Classical. She is also a part of the elite faculty at the University of Redlands School of Music and Idyllwild Arts Academy as Artist Teacher of Flute. For more information, visit https://sara-andon.com/.

Wojciech Kocyan was praised for his “highly distinctive performances (…) superb, intelligent artistry (…)” (ClassicsToday.com) and “incisive temperament, impeccable technique and sumptuous tone” (Le Monde de la Musique.). He was born in Poland. He studied with two of the world’s most esteemed piano pedagogues: Andrzej Jasinski in Poland, where he received his Masters Degree and with John Perry at the University of Southern California, where he received a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree. He is a laureate of several international piano competitions, including F. Busoni and Viotti, as well as a special prizes winner of the XI International Chopin Competition and the First Prize winner of the Paderewski Piano Competition. He performed in Europe, America, Australia and Japan, participating in music festivals such as Musica Antiqua Europae Orientalis, Capri Festival, Bydgoszcz International Music Festival, H.M.Gorecki Festival, Beethovenfest, Paderewski Festival, Liszt Festival in Vienna, San Francisco Liszt Festival, Cervantino International Music Festival, Morelia International Music Festival and the Chopin Festival in Paris. He has recorded for television, radio and film and his performances were broadcast in Europe, United States and Australia. His solo and recordings can also be found on DUX label. He was a subject of press articles in Poland, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, United States and Japan. In September 2007 the Gramophone magazine, published in London and considered the world’s most prestigious classical music journal, chose Mr. Kocyan’s recording of Prokofiev, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff as one of 50 best classical recordings ever made, alongside recordings of such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein, Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau, Nicolaus Harnoncourt and Arthur Rubinstein. It also featured the cover headline “The genius of Wojciech Kocyan”. His latest CD, of music by Robert Schumann was released in June 2012. Dr. Kocyan is much in demand as an adjudicator and lecturer. He has been invited to give master classes in France, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Mexico and the United States, including such prestigious venues as the Colburn School. He is the Artistic Director of the Paderewski Music Society in Los Angeles and the Artistic Director of the American Paderewski Piano Competition in Los Angeles. Pianist and composer Robert Fleitz performs, commissions, and writes music to curate evocative, multi-disciplinary experiences for audiences. To this end, he has personally commissioned 120 solo, chamber and performance art pieces, and has given the world premiere to hundreds more, notably including composers Tan Dun and Paola Prestini. Praised for “mesmerizing” and “commanding” playing (The New York Times), and for musicality with “a delightful ease and lightness” (I Care If You Listen), his prolific career in performing both classical and new music has led to appearances in 24 US states and 13 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. He was the winner of the André Boucourechliev Prize in the 2020 International Piano Competition of Orléans. As a composer, Robert’s music has been described as “dreamy, flowing,” and having a “surreal glow” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Robert has been recently performed or commissioned by a diverse array of artists, including the Metropolis Ensemble (NYC), Orkest de Ereprijs (Netherlands), Jumblies Theatre (Toronto), the Druskomanija Festival (Lithuania), the Off-Broadway theatre piece Babel, and Hilary Easton Dance Company. As a curator, Robert has co-founded several initiatives that champion new works. He forms escapeVelocity with violinist Giancarlo Latta; the Swan City Piano Festival, a multifaceted concert series in his hometown Lakeland, FL; Artificial Dawn, an improvisation collective; and Wind-Up Elephant, a toy instrument duo with Carrie Frey. Finally, he founded PROMPTUS, a transdisciplinary performance collective that explores the intersection between devised theatre, contemporary music, and experimental choreographic practice. He has written digital curriculum for Juilliard Global Ventures and The New York Philharmonic, and is a member of interdisciplinary educational performance collective the Bridge Arts Ensemble. Robert Fleitz holds education from The Juilliard School (B.M. & M.M.), where he was one of ten graduates to receive the Career Advancement Grant. He studied piano with Hung-Kuan Chen and Julian Martin, and has also worked with Pi-hsien Chen, Tema Blackstone, Cory Smythe, Lydia Artimiyw, and Ching-Wen Hsiao. He studies composition with Eric Wubbels, and has also worked with Martijn Padding, Simon Frisch, and Molly Joyce. Robert grew up in Lakeland, Florida, where he began studying piano with his father Patrick Fleitz at age 4. He is now based in , where he lives with his partner, the composer Krists Auznieks. For more information, visit http://www.robertfleitz.com/.

Ken Aiso is internationally recognized as one of today’s most musical and versatile violinists. His playing is praised not only for his singularly beautiful tone, but also for the unique atmosphere of intimacy he evokes as he draws in his audiences. As recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Aiso has performed widely in Europe, the US and Japan with appearances at prestigious concert halls such as the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Musikverein (Vienna), Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls (London). He is a graduate of Royal Academy of Music in London, and is a prize winner of Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris and International Music Competition of Japan. In 2003 he was honoured to appear before the Emperor and Empress of Japan. In recent years, performing and teaching have also taken him to Georgia, Bolivia and Kazakhstan. Mr. Aiso has been invited to renowned music festivals in Europe, India and Bolivia, and has been a faculty member at Montecito Summer Music Festival in Southern California since 2008. He is an active performer in period instrument scene, and is a member of Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and has regularly performed with Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, as well as London Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber, English Chamber and Scottish Chamber Orchestras in all major concert venues in Europe and USA. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2005. Mr. Aiso currently teaches violin and and is the Director of String Ensemble at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and an Adjunct Faculty at La Sierra University in Riverside. He has co-founded Soundness Festival in the UK, bringing awareness of classical music as vibrational healing medium, working in music meditation and improvisation workshops. His holistic work includes music at hospitals and institutions for special needs children. Valeria Morgovskaya, pianist, graduated from the Kiev State Conservatory. Since her immigration to the US in 1990, Ms Morgovskaya has been in high demand as accompanist for singers and all orchestral instrumentalists. She has been an official accompanist to festivals and courses such as Piatigorsky Cello Seminar and Beverley Hills Music Festival, and has performed throughout the US, Germany and Japan, as well as on numerous radio broadcast. She has provided accompaniment for many national and international competitions, and was an official accompanist at Schoenfeld International String Competition in Hong Kong (2013) and Harbin (2014). Ms. Morgovskaya is currently staff accompanist at Loyola Marymount University and UCLA, and is often engaged in that capacity at USC, Cal State Long Beach, Colburn School, Montecito International Music Festival, Academy of the West and Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts.

Festival Faculty

David S. Carter is a composer, theorist, and teacher who serves as an Assistant Professor of Music Theory/Composition at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His works have been performed or recorded by the JACK Quartet, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Ensemble Dal Niente, Ensemble Court-Circuit, Ensemble Signal, and the Callithumpian Consort, among others. Composition prizes he has been awarded include first place in the 2012 Iron Composer competition at Baldwin Wallace University, ’s William T. Faricy Award, and second prize in the Rhenen (Netherlands) International Carillon Composition Competition. He has presented papers on the Rolling Stones and AABA form at venues such as the National Conference of the College Music Society and the annual conference of the U.S. branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US). He earned his doctorate in music composition at Northwestern, where he studied with Lee Hyla, Aaron Travers, and Jay Alan Yim, and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature at Yale University. For more information, visit http://davidcartercomposer.com/

Tomás Gueglio is an Argentine composer currently based in . His music has been described as ‘immediately captivating’ (I Care If You Listen), ‘touchingly harmonic’ (Chicago Classical Review) and of ‘an exquisite weight’ (Best of Bandcamp). In his creative work, Tomás strives to devise surreal and unique sound worlds through purposefully blending a variety of musical lineages and styles. Metaphors central to his recent work are private languages, the logic of dreams, and, as of late, melodramas and radio soap operas. His music has been performed across the Americas and Europe by renowned ensembles and soloists like Ensemble Dal Niente, eighth blackbird, MEI, Pacifica and Spektral string quartets, Nuntempe Ensamble, Latitude 49, Marco Fusi and Ben Melsky. Recent and upcoming projects include the devising of a piece with Delfos Danza presented as part of Dal Niente’s ‘Staged’ series, a trilogy of works based on Tango’s star Libertad Lamarque, and the release of his first portrait album, ‘Duermevela’, in the Fall of 2020. In addition to composing, he works as Ensemble Manager and Artistic Consultant for Chicago- based Ensemble Dal Niente, and as Music Theory and Aural Skills Lecturer at Northwestern University. Tomás holds a PhD in composition from the University of Chicago, a MMus from Syracuse University, and a BMus from the Universidad Católica Argentina. Born in Buenos Aires, a major influence in his musical upbringing was Gerardo Gandini whose workshop he attended between 2003 and 2007. For more information, visit http://tomasgueglio.com/ Eric Nathan’s (b. 1983) music has been called “as diverse as it is arresting” with a “constant vein of ingenuity and expressive depth” (San Francisco Chronicle), “thoughtful and inventive” (The New Yorker), and as a “marvel of musical logic” (Boston Classical Review). Nathan is a 2013 Rome Prize Fellow and 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, and has garnered acclaim internationally through performances by Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic’s Scharoun Ensemble, soprano Dawn Upshaw, violinist Jennifer Koh, at the New York Philharmonic’s 2014 and 2016 Biennials, and at the Tanglewood, Aspen, Aldeburgh, Cabrillo, Yellow Barn and MATA festivals. Nathan currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music in Composition-Theory at the Brown University Department of Music. For more information, visit http://www.ericnathanmusic.com/

Composer and sonic artist Nina C. Young (b.1984) creates works, ranging from acoustic concert pieces to interactive installations, that explore aural architectures, resonance, timbre, and the ephemeral. Her music has garnered international acclaim through performances by the American Composers Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Aizuri Quartet, Sixtrum, the JACK Quartet, and wild Up. Winner of the 2015-16 Rome Prize, Nina has received recognition from the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri, Fromm, the Montalvo Arts Center, and BMI. Recent commissions include “Tread softly” for the NYPhil’s Project 19, a violin concerto for Jennifer Koh with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and a multimedia performative installation piece for the American Brass Quintet and EMPAC’s wavefield synthesis spatial audio system. Young holds degrees from MIT, McGill, and Columbia, and is an Assistant Professor of Composition at USC’s Thornton School of Music. She serves as Co-Artistic Director of NY-based new music sinfonietta Ensemble Échappé. Her music is published by Peermusic Classical. For more information, visit http://www.ninacyoung.com/

Special Thanks Mnason Abrot Jeremy Lee Lilly McCarty Michelle Pak Monse Torres-Guillen Acknowledgements

Timothy Law Snyder Kate Shirley University President Associate Director, Academic Communications College of Communication & Fine Arts Thomas Poon Executive Vice President and Provost T.J. Harper, Chair Department of Music Bryant Keith Alexander, Dean College of Communication & Fine Arts Alexander Egger Technology Support Specialist Michele Hammers, Associate Dean College of Communication & Fine Arts David Yee Design and Technical Support Elaine Walker, Assistant Dean College of Communication & Fine Arts Tashi Cardinali Bateman Senior Administrative & Production Coordinator Department of Music

Upcoming Events View all our upcoming events here.

LMU Ensembles Concert Sunday, April 18, 2021 | 7:00 p.m.

Senior Composers Recital Friday, April 23, 2021 | 7:00 p.m.

56th Annual Spring Chorale - “Abide” Saturday, May 1, 2021 | 5:00 p.m.