" an acknowledged chamber-music master." – THE NEW YORKER American composer Pierre Jalbert has been recognized for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores and “music of fierce and delicate inventiveness [with] kaleidoscope of moods and effects.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) Painting vibrant and picturesque sonic portraits for the listener, he has developed a musical language that is engaging, expressive, and deeply personal. Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, BBC Masterprize, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Stoeger Award, given biennially "in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music repertory," and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jalbert’s work has drawn inspiration from a variety of sources ranging from plainchant melodies to natural phenomena, and his French-Canadian heritage, hearing English folk songs and Catholic liturgical music growing up. He has earned a reputation for his mastery of color, in both his chamber and orchestral scores, creating timbres that are vivid yet refined and tonally centered, combining modal, tonal, and dissonant sonorities as it travels new and unusual paths, while retaining a sense of harmonic motion culminating in a completed journey. His music has been commissioned and performed worldwide, including the St. Paul and Los Angeles Chamber orchestras, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Symphonies of Houston, Vermont, Albany, Budapest, London, Boston and Milwaukee, the National Symphony, Cabrillo and Eastern Festival Orchestras. He received two Meet the Composer grants, including one for its “Magnum Opus Project.” Jalbert served as Composer-in-Residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, California Symphony and Chicago's Music in the Loft. Hailed as “an acknowledged chamber-music master" by The New Yorker, his chamber music has been performed by Midori, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Emerson, Escher, Ying, Borromeo, and Chiara String Quartets, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Music from Copland House, and at the Caramoor Festival. Recent and upcoming are his third commission for the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, with co-commissioners La Jolla Summerfest, and Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth; a violin concerto for a consortium of the Los Angeles and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras and Milwaukee Symphony; a new work for the Colorado Springs Philharmonic; and a new work for the Cincinnati Symphony. Jalbert’s orchestral work In Aeternam, which has been performed internationally by the Seattle and London Symphony Orchestras among others, garnered the highly prestigious BBC Masterprize. His discography features recordings by David Finckel and Wu Han, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Ying Quartet, the Pro Arte Quartet and most recently, a disc of his chamber music with the Music from Copland House ensemble. His recordings can be heard on the ArtistLed, Cedille, Albany, New Dynamic, Gasparo, Helicon, Summit Records labels, and most recently an album of his chamber music by the Music from Copland House ensemble on its label Copland House Blend. Born in Manchester, NH into a family with roots in Quebec, Jalbert grew up in northern Vermont. At age 5, he began piano lessons and immersed himself in the classical repertoire. Following undergraduate studies in piano and composition at Oberlin Conservatory, Jalbert earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with George Crumb. Jalbert is Professor of Composition and Theory at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Houston, where he has taught since 1996, and currently serves as Co-Artistic Director of Musiqa, a locally based contemporary chamber ensemble. His music is published by Schott Helicon Music Corporation (BMI), New York. http://www.schott-music.com/ Photo: Richard Bowditch PRESS NEW YORK TIMES “His tautly modernist score [Big Sky] avoided folkloric clichés. As for showing off the orchestra, it did that exceptionally, giving every section (most notably the percussion) a thorough workout. PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE “L’oeil ecoute (The Eye Listens) gave the audience much to think about. Like every other piece of Jalbert I’ve heard. L’oeil ecoute is a pleasure to hear because the strong profile of its materials is handled with lucidity and rhythmic vitality.” SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER “In Aeternam (Forever) was the most poignant work on the program. And the most beautiful, as well it should be, for it is a memorial to the composer’s niece, who died at birth. The work often is dreamy in a melancholy way, sometimes austere, never maudlin and quiet.” ARIZONA DAILY STAR “Jalbert’s score (The Invention of the Saxophone) is sublime, with virtuosi turns for the saxophone. It’s a colorful work that pulsates with dramatic….Jalbert has you all but forget your notions about the sax’s dominant role in jazz. He redefines the instrument as a powerful voice in classical music, with superbly controlled phrases that don’t wander into jazz’s improvisational waters. But Jalbert doesn’t rob the sax of its sex appeal….” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE The program opened with “Les espace infinis,” a moody, lovely 10-minute mediation. The piece opens and closes with slow, sweet-toned clouds of string harmonies, punctuated in Mahlerian fashion by the harp. In between, these clouds coalesce into an emotionally charged upwelling before dissipating again, creating a simple, satisfying arch. The performance was aptly tender and sensitive. NEWARK STAR LEDGER “darkly lyrical” cello sonata PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER “…a soulful violin solo [Wild Ambrosia], floats through a dreamy passage, and emerges into a galloping anxiety. Jalbert said he wrote the piece with the performers in mind - a gesture the players reciprocated with generous exactitude and high spirit.” DALLAS NEWS “This [String Quartet No. 4] proved an appealing and dramatic four-movement essay in modernist gestures.” NEW YORK TIMES “Mr. Jalbert provided a smooth replica of the hedonistic colors and brassy angst [Joyful Mysteries] so popular in orchestra writing these days AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS "Pierre Jalbert’s music immediately captures one’s attention with its strong gesture and vitality. Rich in instrumental color and harmonically engaging, its narrative is dramatically compelling yet always logical in its flow. In the orchestral Chamber Symphony, big sky, and Fire and Ice, and in numerous chamber compositions, he synthesizes an array of current musical resources into bold, deeply satisfying, personal statements that surprise and delight." NEW MUSIC CONNOISSEUR "Jalbert shows superb craftsmanship combined with an imaginative mind... Here's hoping we hear much more from him." 4 questions with composer Pierre Jalbert By Pamela Espeland | 06/07/17 Something else the SPCO is known for: the world premiere of a newly commissioned work. Houston-based composer Pierre Jalbert’s Violin Concerto was co-commissioned by the SPCO, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony to showcase their concertmasters – in our case, Steven Copes. It will be performed here first. The season finale concerts will also be the last ones led by conductor and violinist Thomas Zehetmair in his role as one of the SPCO’s artistic partners. Don’t worry, he’ll be back, just not as artistic partner. We asked Kim to give us some background on the commission. What did the SPCO see in Jalbert and his music that seemed like a good fit for the orchestra? “One is his sense of color and orchestration,” Kim said. “He has really beautiful textures and colors, and he’s really accomplished in terms of his writing. Especially when we’re closing the season, it’s nice to have complete confidence that we’re going to get something sparkly and great. He also writes beautifully for strings. It will be a nice contrast to the rest of the program and a great way to end our season.” Then we spoke with Jalbert about his new work. A prolific composer who studied under George Crumb and has won several prestigious awards, including the Rome Prize and the BBC Masterprize, Jalbert is a professor of composition and theory at Rice University. His works have been performed by orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Symphony, the Boston Symphony and many others. MinnPost: Tell us about your first violin concerto. Pierre Jalbert: It’s not the traditional three movements. It’s two movements, but the first is two movements in one. It begins with a sort of ethereal music in the strings and percussion that the violinist [Copes] floats above. That brings out the lyrical qualities of the violin. Then it builds to a much faster, almost scherzo-like section, which brings out the more playful, skittering characteristics of the violin. Then the ethereal music comes back at the end of the first movement. The second movement is more free. Again, two musics play off each another. A pulse-oriented music returns again and again and eventually takes over the piece. In between are short bursts of free, still, slow-moving music. The two musics go back and forth fairly rapidly, like a kaleidoscopic form, or a mosaic form. The pulse- oriented music leads to a virtuosic, fiery cadenza toward the end of the piece. MP: How would you describe the emotional content? What do you want us to feel? PJ: For me, the opening movement has a spiritual mysteriousness. In some of my other works, I’ve used Gregorian chant. There are no quotes from chant in this piece, but I think it’s the same kind of spiritual longing. The more pulse-oriented music is just meant to be exciting and challenging for the orchestra and soloist. I wanted the orchestra not just to be the accompanist, but an integral part. So there are certain sections where the orchestra takes over as the main protagonist. I should also say that in the second movement, there’s a sort of pitch- bending, where the violin soloist is playing in between the notes.