sign in sign up
<<
Home , Adam Nussbaum, Concert in the Garden, Jay Anderson, Jeff Hirshfield, Kaija Saariaho, Katie Noonan

CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS

June 13–18, 2011 Monday, June 13, 2011, 8pm Zellerbach Hall & Playhouse Zellerbach Hall

Ojai North! Ojai North! Maria Schneider Orchestra Maria Schneider, conductor Thomas W. Morris Artistic Director, Music Director, 2011 Ojai Music Festival Reeds Matías Tarnopolsky Director, Cal Performances Steve Wilson Charles Pillow 2 FESTIVAL PROGRAM 2 Donny McCaslin Scott Robinson Monday, June 13, 2011 Maria Schneider Orchestra Maria Schneider, conductor Trumpets August Haas Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Australian Chamber Orchestra Richard Tognetti, artistic director & lead violin Laurie Frink Dawn Upshaw, soprano Frank Greene

Trombones Thursday June 16, 2011 The Winds of Destiny Keith O’Quinn Saturday, June 18, 2011 Dawn Upshaw, soprano Gilbert Kalish, piano Tim Albright red fish blue fish with Steven Schick, percussion George Flynn , director Ustad Farida Mahwash, vocals Rhythm Sakhi Ensemble with Homayoun Sakhi, rubâb Victor Prieto accordion Lage Lund guitar piano bass Clarence Penn drums Ojai North! is a co-production of the Ojai Music Festival and Cal Performances. Ken Jablonski sound technician

Ms. Schneider will announce the program from the stage. Ojai North! is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Liz and Greg Lutz.

Cal Performances’ 2010–2011 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

4 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 5 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES

A Niche

A lovely thing to find, a niche. Just the spot that gut. She liked and his feel for or- piano and accordion with pizzicato accents from suits your talent, skill, and inclination. The very chestration, his translucent color, and Bob the bass, tiny pools of deep resonance, with best, of course, make that slot their own, shape Brookmeyer’s sense of theme and form. But shimmering glints of light in the upper registers. it through their gifts. But there’s another kind there is much else besides: Brazilian music, with Then something new: a kind of chordal coales- of niche, one you cannot find. It’s the one you its sensuous physicality, Spanish rhythms, a bit cence in the piano, almost like a hymn, taken create yourself. of blues and soul, and underneath it all that up by brass, around which we hear small flights Maria Schneider did much the same. She’s a foundation in the classics. This is not to say this of solo fancy. This leads into a laidback shuffle press agent’s nightmare. What is it that she does? is with classical allures, that fabled “Third and another surprise—a sinewy vocal solo—be- She conducts, of course—composes, too—and Stream” utopia. She can’t stand the term and a fore the sax gives its wailing benediction above she’s got a band. But what to call it? OK, it’s jazz, lot of what it produced. No, her classical chops a blended mass of brass and reeds. We’re there, but there’s classical and world music, too, with are in her textures and ideas, the sense for devel- look around, look up, blue sky, birds in flight. lots of room for improvisation. Maria Schneider, opment and structure, in sophisticated timbres This is music—beautiful in shape and form, ex- is all about collaboration. When she gives a and the subtle balance of colors, in the interplay quisite in its textures—that is direct, evocative concert, it feels to her as if she’s hosting a party. of lines. This accounts for the sound of her or- and from the heart. Listen and watch. Imagine, though, a party in which everyone is chestra. Lots of mutes, for instance, and quirky Maria Schneider has been performing with actually listening to one another, and not just combinations. It’s not sectional, the traditional her orchestra since 1988—nearly a quarter cen- listening but watching, too. This is where it all big-band sound—reeds here, brass, percussion, tury—and almost half the players have been began, how a Minnesota girl discovered jazz— keyboards there. They play across sections, trad- there since the beginning. These players have by watching it happen, grow and blossom. ing off ideas. That’s what makes this music so become a part of her and her music is infused There were music lessons, of course: pia- difficult to play. You have to know each other, with their creative voices. When she writes, she no, clarinet, violin, the classics, a bit of stride. know when to give, when to take, catch the cue, writes with them in mind: their skills, their per- Music theory gave promise of unlocking se- follow the lead, provoke a response, be ready for sonalities, the way they work together. It’s all crets. What makes music tick? How does the surprise. You need to know how to create that about trust, merging egos, and doing what the germ develop into a theme, a theme undergo seamless flow between reading and improvisa- music needs to do. There’s nothing quite like it. variation and unfold into larger forms? But then tion, between individual spontaneity and en- So in the end Maria Schneider created a she asked why music makes us feel the way it semble discipline. niche of her own—with room enough to hold does? About light, color and emotion. And why Take a work like Cerulean Skies. It opens her friends. the need for passports at the borders between quietly—broken chords on the piano, a chorus styles, between tonal and atonal, popular and of bird calls. Listen to the way the flute, bass, ac- Christopher Hailey classical, North and South? Why this relentless cordion and muted trumpet seem to appear out search for smuggled contraband? Tall orders for of nowhere, creating a gossamer weave of sound analysis and textbook program notes learning. through a wash of polytonal harmonies. As this That’s when she realized the jazz world was sim- introduction dissolves, the music hits an easy ply more open-minded, that here Debussy and stride, strong lines in the brass, reeds with con- Ravel could mix it up with Gil Evans—and Bill tinuing echoes of that haunting introduction. Evans, too; that here there were no artificial bar- The central section opens up onto a freewheel- riers between performing and creating. It was all ing sax solo that goes, swirling, where it will. about the music and how you make it. Does any of this sound familiar? Sure, but listen “Nobody taught me how to be a jazz com- again to the intricate counterpoint of expressive poser,” she has said, “I learned by watching.” lines, the layering of textures. That’s something University jazz bands, late night combos, greats else again. What follows has the feel of a fitful on tour. Watching, listening, and trusting her interlude, fragmented wisps of dialogue between

6 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 7 CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM

Tuesday, June 14, 2011, 8pm Zellerbach Hall

Ojai North! Maria Schneider (b. 1960) (2011) (Bay Area Premiere) Australian Chamber Orchestra Texts by Ted Kooser Richard Tognetti, artistic director & lead violin “Perfectly Still This Solstice Morning” Dawn Upshaw, soprano “When I Switched On a Light” “Walking by Flashlight” “I Saw a Dust Devil This Morning” PROGRAM “My Wife and I Walk the Cold Road” “All Night, in Gusty Winds” Anton Webern (1883–1945) Five Movements for , Op. 5 (1909; version for string orch. 1928; rev. 1929) “Our Finch Feeder” I. Heftig bewegt “Spring, the Sky Rippled with Geese” George Crumb (b. 1929) Black Angels (1971) “How Important It Must Be” 1. Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects Dawn Upshaw soprano Webern Five Movements for String Quartet Scott Robinson alto clarinet & bass clarinet II. Sehr langsam Frank Kimbrough piano Jay Anderson bass Crumb Black Angels 2. Sounds of Bones and Flutes Winter Morning Walks was co-commissioned by the Ojai Music Festival, Cal Performances and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Webern Five Movements for String Quartet III. Sehr lebhaft Winter Morning Walks is generously supported by Diane and Michael Gorfaine and Anne and Stephen J.M. Morris. Crumb Black Angels 8. Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura

Webern Five Movements for String Quartet INTERMISSION IV. Sehr langsam

Crumb Black Angels 10. God-music Timo-Veikko Valve, cello

Webern Five Movements for String Quartet V. In zarter Bewegung

Pieces are performed without pause.

8 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 9 PROGRAM PROGRAM NOTES

The Company You Keep

No composer can expect to be performed in night, where each performance is truly Béla Bartók (1881–1945) Five Hungarian Folk Songs for Soprano and isolation, least of all Webern, whose miniatures a creative collaboration. String Orchestra can scarcely stand alone or suffice to sustain an (arr. for string orchestra by Richard Tognetti) Toward this end, Schneider has called evening (though an evening would do to survey on three longtime collaborators—Frank his entire published œuvre). Music lives through “Annyi bánat az szűvemen” from 8 Hungarian Kimbrough, Scott Robinson and Jay the company it keeps—what it draws from the Folk Songs, Sz. 64, No. 4 (1907) Anderson—whose improvisational abilities past, what it shares with its time, and what it extend far beyond the language of jazz. They “Régi keserves” from 20 Hungarian Folk Songs, anticipates about the future. Webern’s riches lie join the Australian Chamber Orchestra, whose Sz. 92, No. 2 (1929) in such connections; his music takes flight when members play without a conductor and are thus, programmed with Schubert, Bach or Messiaen “Párosító I” from 20 Hungarian Folk Songs, like jazz musicians, deeply attuned to listening to bring out its lyricism, contrapuntal rigor or Sz. 92, No. 11 (1929) and responding to each other. Together they mystic inwardness. These movements for string provide a special setting for the soloist: “Eddig való dolgom” from 8 Hungarian Folk quartet were his first purely instrumental forays Songs, Sz. 64, No. 7 (1917) into atonality and his first essays in aphoristic In this piece, Dawn is able to vary the brevity. Nothing could have seemed more radi- rhythms from performance to perfor- “‘Hatforintos’ nóta” from 20 Hungarian Folk cal when they were premiered in 1910 and they mance, to move or to wait in accordance Songs, Sz. 92, No. 8 (1929) continue to feel new a century later. But when with what she is hearing and feeling interwoven with four even shorter movements around her. In the end, it becomes un- from George Crumb’s Black Angels, Webern’s clear who is really leading or follow- pieces sound expansive, even lushly Romantic, ing—they all just relate to one another Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27 (1877–1878) and their programmatic associations, normally in the environment created by the (arr. for string orchestra by Richard Tognetti) hidden from view, seem to rise to the surface. and the collective experience. (Bay Area Premiere) Crumb, for his part, makes no secret of his pro- The texts forWinter Morning Walks are by grammatic intent. Black Angels, written during Un poco andante — Allegro molto ed agitato Ted Kooser, a poet for whom the composer has the Vietnam War, was “conceived as a kind of a special affinity: Romanze. Andantino — Allegro agitato parable on our troubled contemporary world” and its three parts—Departure (from which His metaphors bring such powerful feel- Intermezzo. Allegro molto marcato — Night of the Electric Insects and Sounds of Bones ing to this “seemingly basic” Midwest Più vivo e scherzando and Flutes are drawn), Absence (Sarabanda de la landscape and illuminate the depth of Finale. Lento — Presto al Saltarello Muerte Oscura) and Return (God-music)—repre- feeling I’ve always felt for the prairie sent “the voyage of the soul.” Webern’s pieces are country we share. Perhaps I am continu- teeming with unusual string effects, but Crumb ally putting something similar into my goes still further to include sounds produced by music without knowing or trying. In any voices and a variety of percussion instruments. event these poems, set in Midwest win- In this company, Webern is not so much a ter landscapes, moving from the winter prophet of the future as an anchor of the past. solstice to the vernal equinox, feel like Maria Schneider’s new work began with an home to me and became a natural inspi- idea about the company Dawn Upshaw keeps: ration for my own musical voice. After premiering my first work with The kind of inspiration that Maria Dawn Upshaw I had the feeling that if Schneider, Ted Kooser—and Dawn Upshaw, for I ever wrote for her again, I might like that matter—draw from their Midwestern roots to place her in a setting where she would is not so very different from the way region and have improvisation around her. I wanted landscape influenced the music of Edvard Grieg her to feel the excitement I feel when my and Béla Bartók. Both were products of that music is approached differently every surge of 19th-century nationalism that sought

10 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 11 PROGRAM NOTES ORCHESTRA ROSTER

to invigorate concert music with an infusion of found in each of the quartet’s movements and folk elements: the rhythms, dance,and impro- is especially prominent at the outset of the first visational forms, motivic and melodic patterns, and third movements. The G-minor String and harmonic idiosyncrasies that gave each re- Quartet is an ambitious, grandly scaled work, gion and ethnic group its distinctive identity. whose bold gestures and frequent use of string No composer was more assiduous in collecting double stops suggests an almost symphonic tex- and studying folk sources than Bartók. The ture. Some early critics reproached Grieg on this songs presented here are drawn from three col- account, claiming that this quartet was chamber lections made between 1907 and 1929 and to- music in name only. This may be the reason the taling 48 songs, a small fraction of the nearly piece works so well in an arrangement for string 9,000 melodies that Bartók and his colleague orchestra, which is to say: a quartet with just a Zoltán Kodály collected and catalogued across bit of company. Hungary, the Balkans and even North Africa. 2011 Jon2011 Frank

Edvard Grieg, like Bartók, was classically Christopher Hailey © trained and, after several years’ study in Leipzig, well acquainted with German musical mod- Australian Chamber Orchestra els. And like Bartók, Grieg discovered his own n the autumn of 1998, during my recovery voice in the company of his countrymen. For from surgery and radiation for cancer, I began I Richard Tognetti artistic director & lead violin Grieg it was the great Norwegian violinist Ole taking a two-mile walk each morning. I’d been Bull, who introduced him the folk music of his told by my radiation oncologist to stay out of Julianne Lee guest principal second violin native Norway: the sun for a year because of skin sensitivity, Satu Vänskä assistant leader so I exercised before dawn, hiking the isolated Madeleine Boud violin He played for me the trollish Norwegian country roads near where I live, sometimes with Alice Evans violin melodies that so strongly fascinated me, my wife but most often alone. and awakened the desire to have them Ilya Isakovich violin During the previous summer, depressed as the basis for my own melodies. He Christopher Moore principal viola by my illness, preoccupied by the routines of opened my eyes to the beauty and origi- Nicole Divall viola my treatment, and feeling miserably sorry for nality in Norwegian music. Through Timo-Veikko Valve principal cello myself, I’d all but given up on reading and him I became acquainted with many Melissa Barnard cello writing. Then, as autumn began to fade and forgotten folk songs and, above all, with winter came on, my health began to improve. Maxime Bibeau principal double bass my own nature. One morning in November, following my walk, Timothy Calnin executive director Elements of such music are readily appar- I surprised myself by trying my hand at a poem. Erin McNamara tour manager ent in Grieg’s best-known works, including the Soon I was writing every day. Michael Stevens head of artistic planning and operations incidental music to Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, his Piano Several years before, my friend Jim Harrison Concerto, and his String Quartet in G minor. and I had carried on a correspondence in haiku. One particularly characteristic motive, familiar As a variation on this, I began pasting my from the beginning of the Piano Concerto, is morning poems on postcards and sending them Get Social with the falling second followed by a third. It is also to Jim, whose generosity, patience and good a prominent feature of the song “Spillemænd” humor are here acknowledged. What follows is a Cal Performances! (on a text by Ibsen) whose melody provides the selection of 100 of those postcards. Follow us on Facebook, lyric second theme of the quartet’s first move- YouTube and Twitter. ment. The song’s opening motive, however, is Ted Kooser (spring 1999)

12 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 13 TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

Maria Schneider the genie whose swirls out of the bottle, Winter Morning Walks eager to grant one wish to each of us. I had a hundred thousand wishes then. 1. Perfectly Still This Solstice Morning 5. My Wife and I Walk the Cold Road Perfectly still this solstice morning, in bone-cracking cold. Nothing moving, My wife and I walk the cold road or so one might think, but as I walk the road, in silence, asking for thirty more years. the wind held in the heart of every tree There’s a pink and blue sunrise flows to the end of each twig and forms a bud. with an accent of red: a hunter’s cap burns like a coal in the yellow-gray eye of the woods. 2. When I Switched On a Light

When I switched on a light in the barn loft 6. All Night, in Gusty Winds late last night, I frightened four flickers hanging inside, peering out through their holes. All night, in gusty winds, Confused by the light, they began to fly the house has cupped its hands around wildly from one end to the other, the steady candle of our marriage, their yellow wings slapping the tin sheets the two of us braided together in sleep, of the roof, striking the walls, scrabbling and burning, yes, but slowly, and falling. I cut the light giving off just enough light so that one of us, and stumbled down and out the door and stood awakening frightened in darkness, in the silent dominion of starlight can see. till all five of our hearts settled down. 7. Our Finch Feeder 3. Walking by Flashlight Our finch feeder, full of thistle seed Walking by flashlight oily and black as ammunition, at six in the morning, swings wildly in the wind, and the finches my circle of light on the gravel in olive drab like little commandos swinging side to side, cling to the perches, six birds at a time, coyote, raccoon, field mouse, sparrow, ignoring the difficult ride. each watching from darkness this man with the moon on a leash. 8. Spring, the Sky Rippled with Geese

4. I Saw a Dust Devil This Morning Spring, the sky rippled with geese, but the green comes on slowly, I saw a dust devil this morning, timed to the ticking of downspouts. doing a dance with veils of cornshucks The pond, still numb from months in front of an empty farmhouse, of ice, reflects just one enthusiast a magical thing, and I remembered this morning, a budding maple walking the beans in hot midsummer, whose every twig is strung with beads how we’d see one swirling toward us of carved cinnabar, bittersweet red. over the field, a spiral of flying leaves forty or fifty feet high, clear as a glass 9. How Important It Must Be of cold water just out of reach, and we’d drop our hoes and run to catch it, How important it must be shouting and laughing, hurdling the beans, to someone and if one of us was fast enough, that I am alive, and walking, and lucky, he’d run along inside the funnel, and that I have written where the air was strangely cool and still, these poems. the soul and center of the thing, This morning the sun stood

14 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 15 TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS right at the end of the road Ugye Jani, szép is vagyok, Am I not the prettiest, Jani? and waited for me. Éppen neked való vagyok, Am I not just right for you? Huzsedáré huzsedom. Huzsedáré huzsedom. “Perfectly Still This Solstice Morning,” “When I Switched On a Light,” “Walking by Flashlight,” “I Saw a Dust Devil This Morning,” Translator’s note: The last lines of every verse in the song—Huzsedáré “My Wife and I Walk the Cold Road,” “All Night, in Gusty Winds,” huzsedom—are made-up words with no meaning in any language, so they “Our Finch Feeder,” “Spring, the Sky Rippled with Geese” and “How cannot be translated. Important It Must Be” are used by permission of their author, Ted Kooser, and are from his book, Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison, published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. Eddig való dolgom Till Now

Bela Bartók Eddig való dolgom a tavaszi szántás, Till now my job was ploughing in the spring, Five Hungarian Folk Songs Kertekbe, rétekbe füvet lekaszálás; Making hay in the fields and meadows; Immár ökröm hejjin lovam a nyeregbe, Now instead of my ox I take my pony’s saddle, Szíjostorom hejjin kantárszár kezembe. In place of my whip I have the reins in my hand. Annyi bánat az szűvemen So Much Grief Eljött már az a nap, melyben kell indulni, This is the day I have to hit the road, Annyi bánat az szűvemen There is so much grief in my heart Házamtól, hazámtól bús szivvel távozni, With a sad heart take leave of my home and country, Kétrét hajlott az egeken. It’s bent double on the blue. Kedves szüleimtöl sirva elbúcsuzni, Take a tearful leave of my parents, Ha még egyet hajlott volna; Had it just bent a little more; Kedves hitestársam árván itt kell hagyni. Leave my beloved wife all alone. Szüvem ketté hasadt volna. It would have broken clean in half.

Én elmegyek közülletek, I am leaving all of you behind, „Hatforintos” nóta The “Six-Forint” Song Isten maradjon veletek. God be with you all. Töllem több panaszt nem hallasz, You will have no more from me, A cseroldalt öszszejártam, I have roamed the oak woods, Kit hallottál, avval maradsz. What you had will stay with you ever. Sehol párom nem találtam. But did not find my love there. Ez a hatforintos nóta, This is the six-forint song, Kinek tetszik, járja reá, járja reá. If you like it you can dance to its tune, Régi keserves Old Dance to its tune.

Olyan árva vagyok, mint út melett az ág, I am lonesome like a tree branch on the roadside, Kinek nincsen hat forintja, If you don’t have six forints, Kinek minden ember nekimenyen slevág; That is knocked about and cut down by every creature; Erre bizony nem járhatja; You cannot dance to this tune; Hat forintját ki sajnálja, If you begrudge your six forints, Az én éltemnek es most úgy vagyon sorsa, My life is akin to that branch on the roadside, Erre bizony ne is járja, ne járja. You should not dance to its tune either, Mer bokros búbánat azt igen futkossa. A lot of grief is tearing me asunder. Dance to it either.

Hervadni kezdettem, mint öszszel a rózsa, I am like a fading rose in autumn, Eddig vendég jól mulattál, All you guests had a good time in here, Kinek nincsen sohutt semmi pártfogója; One who cannot find a protector anywhere; Ha tetszenék, elindulnál! It is now time to go on your way! Uecu gazda, kerülj botra, Hey host, grab your staff, Addig menyek, addig a kerek ég alatt, I will roam the world under the blue sky, A vendéget indítsd útra. Send the guests on their way. Valamíg megnyugszom fekete föd alatt. Until I come to rest under the black soil. Hej, Kinek nincsen hat forintja, If you don’t have six forints. Párosító I Pairing Song Erre bizony nem járhatja; You cannot not dance to this tune; Hat forintját ki sajnálja, If you begrudge your six forints, Sárga csikó, csengö rajta, The golden colt has bells around his neck, Erre bizony ne is járja! You should not dance to its tune either! Vajjon hová megyünkrajta? Where should I ride on him? Huzsedáré huzsedom. Huzsedáré huzsedom. Translation by SBS Language Services Majd elmegyünk valahova: I will ride him some day: Kocsis Róza udvarára, To Kocsis Róza’s courtyard, Huzsedáré huzsedom. Huzsedáré huzsedom.

Betekintünk az ablakon: We will look through the window, Ki kártyázik az asztalon? See who is playing the cards on the table? Huzsedáré huzsedom. Huzsedáré huzsedom.

16 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 17 CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM

Thursday, June 16, 2011, 8pm Saturday, June 18, 2011, 8pm Zellerbach Playhouse PROGRAM

Ojai North! I.

George Crumb (b. 1929) The Winds of Destiny (American Songbook IV) The Winds of Destiny (2004) (Bay Area Premiere Staging) Dawn Upshaw, soprano I. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory Gilbert Kalish, piano II. When Johnny Comes Marching Home III. Lonesome Road red fish blue fish, percussion IV. Twelve Gates to the City Steven Schick, artistic director Dustin Donahue V. De Profundis: A Psalm for the Night- Jennifer Torrence Wanderer (instrumental interlude) Bonnie Whiting Smith VI. All My Trials (Death’s Lullaby) VII. Go Tell It on the Mountain! Peter Sellars, director VIII. The Enchanted Valley Production Team IX. Shenandoah Dunya Ramicova costume designer James F. Ingalls lighting designer Diane J. Malecki producer INTERMISSION Pamela Salling production stage manager Lisa Logan assistant to costume designer II.

Music of Afghanistan Music of Afghanistan Selections will be announced from the stage. Ustad Farida Mahwash, vocals

Sakhi Ensemble Homayoun Sakhi, artistic director, rubâb The Winds of Destiny is a co-production by the Ojai Music Festival and Cal Performances. featuring Zmarai Aref tabla, dohlak Khalil Ragheb harmonium Pervez Sakhi tula

18 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 19 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES

Director’s Note questions before us. Those questions are not me- own organizations such as SWAN, the Service generations—“spirituals,” they were called, vi- chanical and logistical and their answers cannot Women’s Action Network, which is testifying sions of peace and rest realized by people who The story of war and the trauma that follows in be violent. before Congress and attempting to introduce knew neither. This music moves beyond the cul- its wake is an old one, but it has new dimensions In Afghanistan women Marines have in- new legislation that protects women from harm ture of complaint or victimhood and carries its in our generation with the development of an creasingly seen duty at checkpoints, interacting within their own ranks. call for justice to the other side of the grave, to all-volunteer military and the presence of wom- with Afghan women, participating in house- George Crumb’s most recently completed future lives and future generations. We are those en serving across all the branches of our armed to-house raids and interrogations, again in- song cycle, The Winds of Destiny, is a setting future generations. forces. Women in the heart of the war machine terfacing with women, and beginning to learn of Civil War songs filled with echoes, rattles, This year the United States will spend $121 have brought different perspectives, different in- what lies behind the veil in a foreign culture. memories and unexpected violence that reaches billion in Afghanistan, in addition to the in- sights and different issues to bear on the pursuit The basis for understanding and for misunder- back and reaches forward across time. All of the calculable toll of human lives, American and of war and the male club that was military life. standing between an occupying army and a ci- symptoms of post-traumatic stress are in this Afghan. The price is high. We know at least the Current research tells us that women are capable vilian population is huge, and the hair trigger music: the cycling back and reliving of experi- numbers of American casualties, but the num- of greater endurance of pain in battlefield and cultural blunder which leads to violence and ences over and over again; the eerie mental land- bers of Afghan dead or damaged remain untal- emergency conditions, but also that they are pointless destruction is always lying in wait. The scape disturbed by memories and hyper-alert lied. After the initial helpful gesture of removing more likely to return home with post-traumatic stakes for good communication are very high. to every noise; every noise a trigger for another the Taliban from power, the American presence stress. And in the last year the suicide rate for Increasingly the U.S. military is understanding round of internal or external violence. The mu- stretching across nine years is now serving to female soldiers has tripled, while it is still lower that in Afghanistan building, not destruction, is sic is alive to strange presences and painful ab- motivate the Taliban’s resurgence. Meanwhile, than for the men serving next to them. what is needed, and increasingly women soldiers sences: the presence of brain trauma, shrapnel American Talibans, intolerant of culture, mi- Post-traumatic stress has been desig- have taken the lead in some of the more positive or metal plates in your bones, or the absence of nority viewpoints, self-expression and diverse nated a disorder by the American Psychiatric aspects of the U.S. occupation. Ultimately what limbs, children, families, friends, honor or self- life choices are on the rise in the United States. Association. This is not a helpful label because needs to be solved cannot and will not be solved respect. The hallmark of post-traumatic stress is One of the positive dimensions of the inter- perhaps a lifelong psychological scar from a ter- at gunpoint. that the battleground moves inward and occu- twined destinies of our two countries is the pres- rible incident in which your comrades are killed, Meanwhile, the contradictions of the oc- pies the interior of a person. ence of extraordinary Afghan communities in or a case in which you are a witness or partici- cupation sear themselves into the lives of U.S. The image of being at war with ourselves the United States, and several generations of ex- pant to an act of injustice and spend years with soldiers and Afghan citizens alike. The misun- is of course the trauma and the truth of the traordinary Afghan artists who are making new a restless conscience—these responses dem- derstandings are lethal, and the points of un- Civil War. The Civil War was never concluded homes in America. We are honored to share the onstrate that your human equipment is in fact derstanding are few. The result is a lot of frus- in America, and it is back in our generation as platform tonight with some of the most distin- functioning very well and very deeply. Perhaps tration and aggression on all sides which will fierce as ever, reconstituted as a culture war with guished of these generations. Ustad Mahwash is it is the inability to repress and to ignore pro- unfortunately find an outlet. While one of the sad and terrifying political and economic reper- a beloved singer whose voice takes Afghan au- foundly troubling questions and experiences, priorities of the U.S. agenda in Afghanistan is cussions and an ongoing resistance to rewriting diences back to an earlier time in Kabul, when and the ability to be haunted by the roads not raising the status of women in Afghan society, the Constitution and our social contract to in- music was in the air and life was sweet, and the taken and actions not acted upon which are the our own women in uniform are paying a terrible clude what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. presence of a female singer on the radio was part very signals and affirmations of our abiding hu- price: one in three women in the U.S. armed would call 400 years of unpaid wages of slav- of the texture of life in the capitol. She is now manity. That soldiers with post-traumatic stress forces is sexually assaulted or raped by a fellow ery. In setting Civil War songs George Crumb a resident of California and her concerts touch are suffering is very clear, and the reality of their American soldier. touches a raw nerve buried deep in the American a deep well of emotion in Afghan people and suffering is undeniable. Perhaps their suffering Frequently women are too frightened to re- psyche that is newly exposed in the era of the evoke better times. Homayoun Sakhi, artistic does not need to be stigmatized, and the suf- port the assault, not wanting to risk their careers Obama Presidency. These songs carry us along director of the Sakhi Ensemble, is a dynamic, ferers are not, in fact, the problem but they are by disrupting the chain of command; sometimes deep emotional currents, the flow of history, re- daring and inspired virtuoso who represents pointing us towards a larger picture that is not as they are intimidated, and sometimes the very gret and aspiration, alternately muddying and the future of Afghan music, pioneering new it should be and a series of situations which are women who have been violated are censured purifying the waters. techniques on the rubâb and integrating many morally suspect or possibly, simply wrong. and given dishonorable discharges. Women who Of course these songs derive much of their musics and their possibilities into the flow of Earlier this year, in his State of the Union become pregnant while serving are sent home original power from being written by deter- traditional Afghan musical language, stunning address, the President called upon young immediately. Until very recently these topics mined abolitionists who deepened their ideal- us by taking an already rich, deeply synthesiz- Americans to go into mathematics and science, have been almost impossible to air. In recent ism with powerful conviction and serious activ- ing musical culture and making it culturally which is good as far as it goes. But is it too late years the military establishment has begun to ism, such as Julia Ward Howe, whose “Battle even richer. to suggest that the humanities hold insights that develop protocols and has begun to offer treat- Hymn of the Republic” never fails to stir us 150 This evening’s concert is a report on the state we are missing as our civilization goes further ment to women who are suffering from sexual years later. The other source of deep power in of the world from the front lines with messages and further off course, as we find ourselves in- trauma. Women are beginning to speak up these songs is the fact that many of them were that can only be delivered by music. creasingly unprepared to respond to the bigger and are finding their voices and forming their composed by slaves in a collective voice, across Peter Sellars

20 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 21 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES

George Crumb (b. 1929) tune from the 1850s; in Crumb’s setting, this of Destiny is a purely instrumental interlude, Clearly, the crossroads metaphor is apt as it The Winds of Destiny (American stirring vision of spiritual triumph takes on the De Profundis: A Psalm for the Night-Wanderer, mirrors the reality of Afghanistan as a regional Songbook IV, 2004) quality of a slow-motion dirge punctuated by whose eerie stillness conjures the enigmas that hub of cultural and social activity. More than what might be the implacable rattle and thud lie at the heart of so many of Crumb’s works. the wars by which it is too often defined, the George Crumb is a master of the uncanny, that of distant death. The rousing “When Johnny Theatrical gestures are an important compo- country is home to a stunning array of musical moment which Freud described as an encounter Comes Marching Home,” first published 1863, nent of Crumb’s music, yet another instance of genres. Each is distinct, yet they all share a vi- with the familiar in an unfamiliar guise. The was sung in both the North and the South. This the uncanny in which he de-familiarizes the fa- brancy and depth indicative of their importance experience can be disorienting, even disturbing, same tune, however, was used for the Irish anti- miliar rituals of concert performance. Tonight’s in the larger fabric of society. because it can alienate us from the comfort of war song “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye” and in the staging by Peter Sellars is wholly in keeping with The lasting significance of the ghazals, folk the known. Crumb’s textures and sonorities— last portion of this movement Crumb touches the composer’s aesthetic intentions, for it serves songs, and traditional melodies featured in this rich, colorful and arresting—often shroud us on this irony when Johnny’s homecoming takes to underscore the ways in which the experienc- concert reflect their ability to speak to our very in a gauzy haze, and there, through those mists, on the astringent edge of a Kurt Weill song in- es that gave rise to these “songs of strife, love, human need for love, grace, and transcendence. is that familiar half-remembered something. It terspersed with bitonal snippets from the funeral mystery and exultation” continue to haunt our For example, the ghazal is a poetic song-form might be an instrument, such as the toy piano march of Mahler’s first symphony. lives today. greatly influenced by Sufi mysticism that blurs in Ancient Voices of Children, a sound from na- Modern revisionists notwithstanding, the the boundaries between the erotic and the sa- ture, a fragment of text, or a scrap of tonality, debate over slavery was the defining issue of Christopher Hailey cred. The most cherished poets are heralded for like a flimsy raft in a swirling atonal vortex; not the Civil War and at the heart of The Winds of their skill at rendering the divine as love, lover, infrequently it is a quotation from the work of Destiny are four spirituals (although two of the and beloved. The most honored singers are the another composer—Bach or Schubert, for in- four are of more recent origin) that evoke the Music of Afghanistan ones able to open our hearts to that love. The stance—or an allusion to non-Western music. African-American experience. In “Lonesome most prized listeners are those who welcome the Crumb’s music haunts us because through the Road,” written in 1927 by Nathaniel Shilkret, Sawol-jawab—the interplay of questions and possibility of transcendence. “now” of his beguiling surfaces we are led ever Crumb’s melody is isolated and unadorned, as answers—is the foundation upon which much Long considered “ of Afghanistan,” further into an excavation of our past. But these if the voice and instruments existed on two in- of Afghan music rests. With applications far Ustad Mahwash is celebrated around the globe are not the memories of an individual, nor have dependent planes. “All My Trials,” a Bahamian beyond the stage, it posits that only the most for her ghazal repertoire. Her personal story, like they to do with the tug of fond nostalgia that lullaby made popular in the 1950s and ’60s, is thoughtfully constructed questions have the that of so many Afghan women, is one of un- might enfold us in their warmth. Rather, these presented with an understated simplicity that is possibility of eliciting meaningful answers. In yielding perseverance (as witnessed by the great are collective memories that, through strata of punctuated by sometimes aggressive percussive concert halls around the world, this notion is personal risk she encountered by performing in shared cultural experience, tell us something outbursts. “Twelve Gates to the City” and “Go regularly—and beautifully—tested by the great public during the early years of Taliban rule). profound about where we have been and where Tell It on the Mountain” are authentic spirituals vocalist Ustad Farida Mahwash and the master Ustad is joined by the Sakhi Ensemble, which we are going. of the mid–19th century and Crumb captures musicians who comprise the Sakhi Ensemble. features some the most distinguished Afghan In The Winds of Destiny, the fourth instal- the celebratory uplift of their promise with exu- For tonight’s program, which has been com- musicians in the Diaspora. Under the artistic lation of his multi-volume American Songbook, berant melismas in the voice; in the percussion missioned by the Ojai Music Festival and Cal direction of rubâb virtuoso Homayoun Sakhi, Crumb conjures up memories of the American there are bells and bright mallet instruments, Performances, artistic director Homayoun this program is offered to all as an exquisite re- Civil War, a cataclysm that began 150 years ago and pentatonic sonorities in the harmony. Sakhi created an acoustically rich crossroads in minder of the tenacious presence of love that no this year. It was a traumatic experience for the “The Enchanted Valley” has the freest vocal which the musicians explore the interconnect- war could ever crush. still-young nation, not least, as Drew Gilpin treatment, moving back and forth between qui- edness between seeker and sought, sacred and Faust’s remarkable This Republic of Suffering et lyricism and a kind of gentle Schoenbergian secular, traditional and contemporary. Sabrina Lynn Motley, Motley Arts Consulting makes clear, because of the unprecedented scale Sprechstimme. The cycle concludes with and brutality of the slaughter. “Shenandoah,” a poignant song of homesick Among the artifacts documenting the pas- yearning from the early 19th century. Crumb’s sions and the agonies, the aspirations and the setting seems to float, untethered, toward that anguish of this bloody time is its music, from longed-for home. The soprano soloist inThe anthems and marching songs, to parlor ballads Winds of Destiny is joined by a quartet of per- and spirituals. cussionists who are asked to sing, whistle, even At the very outset of the Civil War, Julia Ward imitate a hooting owl, as well as play a battery Howe gave the North its battle hymn, when she of several dozen traditional and exotic instru- penned the verses “Mine Eyes Have Seen the ments ranging from vibraphone, bells and gongs Glory” and set them to a popular abolitionist to amplified piano. The central axis of The Winds

22 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 23 FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS

Joining a rare natural Artistic Partner with the Saint Paul Chamber Music, Allegheny College and Illinois Wesleyan EMI, Hyperion, Chandos and ABC Classics warmth with a fierce Orchestra, with whom she appeared last University. She began her career as a 1984 win- and appears in the television series Classical commitment to the month at Carnegie Hall in the New York pre- ner of the Young Concert Artists Auditions and Destinations II and the films Musical Renegades transforming commu- miere of Maria Schneider’s Carlos Drummond the 1985 Walter W. Naumburg Competition, and Musica Surfica. nicative power of mu- de Andrade Stories. Ms. Upshaw is featured on and was a member of the Metropolitan In 2005, the ACO inaugurated an ambitious sic, soprano Dawn a new Nonesuch recording in music of Irish Young Artist Development Program. national education program, which includes Upshaw (2011 Ojai composer Donnacha Dennehy; That the Night outreach activities and mentoring of outstand- Festival Music Director) Come, with text by W. B. Yeats, was premiered Internationally renowned for inspired program- ing young musicians, including the formation has achieved world- in Dublin with the Crash Ensemble last fall. ming and the rapturous response of audiences of ACO2, an elite training orchestra that tours wide celebrity as a Next season, Ms. Upshaw and the SPCO will and critics, the Australian Chamber Orchestra regional centers. For more information on the singer of opera and concert repertoire ranging premiere a new work by Mr. Dennehy, and she (ACO) is a product of its country’s vibrant, Australian Chamber Orchestra visit aco.com.au. from the sacred works of Bach to the freshest will undertake an eight-city North American adventurous, and enquiring spirit. Richard sounds of today. Her ability to reach to the heart tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra Tognetti was appointed Artistic Director and Bassist and composer Jay of music and text has earned her both the devo- (ACO) featuring Maria Schneider’s Winter Lead Violin in 1989. Under his inspiring lead- Anderson is among the most tion of an exceptionally diverse audience and the Morning Walks (commissioned by Ojai Music ership, the ACO has performed as a flexible versatile and respected jazz awards and distinctions accorded to only the Festival, Cal Performances and the ACO), and versatile “ensemble of soloists,” on mod- artists performing today. He most distinguished of artists. In 2007, she was among other highlights. ern and period instruments, as a small cham- has performed and/or record- named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, It says much about Dawn Upshaw’s sensi- ber group, a small symphony orchestra, and ed with a wide variety of jazz the first vocal artist to be awarded the five-year bilities as an artist and colleague that she is a as an electro-acoustic collective. The ACO’s artists, including Woody “genius” prize, and in 2008 she was named a favored partner of many leading musicians, in- unique artistic style encompasses not only the Herman, Carmen McRae, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and cluding Richard Goode, the , masterworks of the classical repertoire, but in- , , Sciences. Her acclaimed performances on the James Levine and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In her novative cross-artform projects and a vigorous , John Abercrombie, , opera stage comprise the great Mozart roles work as a recitalist, and particularly in her work commissioning program. , Maria Schneider, , Mike (Pamina, Ilia, Susanna, Despina) as well as with composers, Dawn Upshaw has become a More than 40 international tours to Europe, Stern, , Kenny Wheeler and modern works by Stravinsky, Poulenc and generative force in concert music, having pre- the United States and Asia have included regular Jay Clayton, and non-jazz artists such as Osvaldo Messiaen. From Salzburg, Paris and miered more than 25 works in the past decade. appearances at the world’s prestigious concert Golijov, Michael Franks, , Tom Glyndebourne to the , From Carnegie Hall to large and small venues halls, including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Waits, Chaka Khan, Michel Legrand, Allen where she began her career in 1984 and has since throughout the world she regularly presents spe- London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Ginsberg and Celine Dion. He has been fea- made nearly 300 appearances, Dawn Upshaw cially designed programs composed of lieder, Hall and , ’s Musikverein, tured on over 300 recordings, three of which has also championed numerous new works cre- unusual contemporary works in many languag- and Washington’s Kennedy Center. Festival have received a Grammy Award. He has con- ated for her, including The Great Gatsby by John es, and folk and popular music. She furthers appearances include the BBC Proms, ducted clinics around the world and is a Harbison; the -winning op- this work in master classes and workshops with Tanglewood, Ravinia, Interlochen and New Professor of Jazz Bass Studies at the Manhattan era L’Amour de Loin and the oratorio La Passion young singers at major music festivals, conser- York’s Mostly Mozart. Regular collaborators in- School of Music in . Mr. Anderson de Simone by ; ’s vatories and liberal arts colleges. She is artistic clude Emmanuel Pahud, Steven Isserlis, Dawn has been the recipient of the NEA grant for com- Nativity oratorio El Niño; and Osvaldo Golijov’s director of the Vocal Arts Program at the Bard Upshaw and Pieter Wispelwey, as well as artists position and two Meet the Composer grants. He chamber opera Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre. College Conservatory of Music and a faculty from other musical genres and art forms. currently co-leads the critically acclaimed group Ms. Upshaw’s 2010–2011 season opened member of the Tanglewood Music Center. Several of the ACO’s principal musicians BANN featuring Seamus Blake, Oz Noy and with the Boston Symphony in performances A four-time Grammy Award-winner, Dawn perform with spectacularly fine instruments. Adam Nussbaum. of Golijov and Canteloube at the Tanglewood Upshaw is featured on more than 50 recordings, Tognetti plays a 1743 Guarneri del Gesù (ex Music Festival. She toured Europe in Peter including the million-selling Symphony No. 3 Carrodus) violin, and Principal Cello Timo- George Crumb’s reputa- Sellars’s acclaimed production of Kurtág’s Kafka by Henryk Gó��������������������������������recki.������������������������������� Her discography also in- Vekko Valve plays a 1729 Giuseppe Guarneri tion as a composer of Fragments and reprised her celebrated role in cludes full-length opera recordings of Mozart’s Filius Andreae cello, both on loan from anony- hauntingly beautiful scores John Adams’s El Niño with the San Francisco Le Nozze di Figaro; Messiaen’s St. François mous benefactors. In a nod to past traditions, has made him one of the Symphony. She premiered chamber works by d’Assise; Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress; Adams’s only the cellists are seated—the resulting sense most frequently performed Gabriela Lena Frank (St. Paul), Pablo Ortiz El Niño; two volumes of Canteloube’s Songs of of energy and individuality is one of the most composers in today’s musi- (Prague) and (New York), bring- the Auvergne; and a dozen recital recordings. commented-upon elements of an ACO concert. cal world. His music first ing to a dozen the number of new works written Dawn Upshaw holds honorary doctoral The ACO has an extensive, award-winning came to wider attention in the 1960s and 1970s for her since 2007. She began a second term as degrees from Yale, the Manhattan School of discography on labels including BIS, Sony, through a series of highly influential pieces

24 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 25 FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS based on the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, His 30-year partnership with the great mezzo compositions and was named as one of the top 1991, with her family in tow she moved to including Ancient Voices of Children (1970), soprano Jan De Gaetani was universally recog- ten jazz releases of 2008 by Slate magazine. His Pakistan where she took refuge from the two Madrigals, Books 1–4 (1965, 1969) and Songs, nized as one of the most remarkable artistic col- playing has been cited by the Down Beat Critics warring sides of the time, each of whom urged Drones and Refrains of Death (1968). Other ma- laborations of our time. He maintains long- Poll each year since 2001. Mr. Kimbrough is her to sing for their cause or face assassination. jor works from this period include Black Angels standing duos with the cellists Timothy Eddy currently on the jazz studies faculty at the Worn and exhausted, she applied for asylum (1970), for electric string quartet, and Music for and Joel Krosnick, and he appears frequently Juilliard School, and previously taught at the abroad. Eventually, her plight was recognized by a Summer Evening (1974), for two amplified pia- with soprano Dawn Upshaw. New School University and New York the United Nations High Commissioner for nos and percussion (heard at Ojai in 2009). As an educator, Mr. Kalish is Distinguished University. He is a founding member and com- Refugees, and she was granted political asylum Among Mr. Crumb’s most significant recent Professor and Head of Performance Activities at poser-in-residence of the Jazz Composers in the United States. works is the four-part song cycle, American the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Collective (1992–2005), a not-for-profit, musi- Ustad Mahwash has gone on to become the Songbook (The River of Life, A Journey Beyond From 1969 to 1997, he was a faculty member of cian-run organization dedicated to presenting “voice of Afghanistan,” sharing the country’s Time, Unto the Hills, The Winds of Destiny) the Tanglewood Music Center, and he served as original works by its resident and guest compos- rich musical heritage in critically acclaimed per- (2001–2004). Mr. Crumb’s music often juxta- chair of the faculty at Tanglewood from 1985 ers. He has played with the Maria Schneider formances and recordings. In 2003, she received poses contrasting musical styles with references to 1997. Mr. Kalish often serves as guest artist Orchestra since 1993, and is prominently fea- a prestigious BBC Radio 3 World Music Award, ranging from works of the Western art-music at such distinguished music institutions as the tured on her Grammy-winning CD Concert in which was issued for artistic excellence as well tradition, to hymns and folk music, to non- Banff Centre, the Steans Institute at Ravinia the Garden. He’s toured and recorded with saxo- as for her work speaking on behalf of thousands Western musics. Many of his works include pro- and the Marlboro Festival. He is renowned for phone legend Dewey Redman, vocalist Kendra of orphaned Afghan children. Through it all, grammatic, symbolic, mystical and theatrical his master-class presentations. Shank, and with fellow JCC composers-in-resi- she remains a powerful vocalist and passionate elements, which are often reflected in his metic- Mr. Kalish’s discography of some 100 re- dence Ben Allison, Ted Nash, Michael Blake champion of refined yet haunting music in the ulously notated scores. A shy, yet warmly elo- cordings encompasses classical repertory, 20th and Ron Horton, among others. service of a peace-filled Afghanistan. quent personality, Mr. Crumb retired from his century masterworks and new compositions. Of teaching position at the University of special note are his solo recordings of Charles Ustad Farida Mahwash after more than 30 years of service, Ives’s “Concord” Sonata and Sonatas of Joseph was born into a conserva- but continues to compose. He is the winner of a Haydn, immense discography of vocal music tive Afghan family. Her 2001 Grammy Award and the 1968 Pulitzer with Ms. De Gaetani, and landmarks of the mother was a Quran Prize in Music, and is the subject of an ongoing 20th-century by such composers as Carter, teacher and religion series of “Complete Crumb” recordings, super- Crumb, Shapey and Schoenberg. In 1995, he was loomed large throughout

vised by the composer, on Bridge Records. presented with the Paul Fromm Award by the her upbringing. For many Clippel de Catherine University of Chicago Music Department for years, her interest in music was suppressed as, at Gilbert Kalish leads a mu- distinguished service to the music of our time. the time, female singers and musicians were sical life of unusual variety deemed socially unacceptable. Upon completion and breadth. His profound Pianist and composer Frank of her studies, Farida accepted a position in the red fish blue fish is the resident percussion en- influence on the musical Kimbrough has been active Kabul Radio Station. There, she was discovered semble of UC San Diego, and functions as a community as educator, on New York’s jazz scene for by the station’s director who encouraged her to laboratory for the development of new percus- and as pianist in myriad nearly 30 years. He is cur- pursue singing as a career. Ustad Mahwash took sion techniques, sounds, and music. The group performances and record- rently a Palmetto Records art- music and singing lessons under the scholarship has toured widely, including performances at ings, has established him as ist, with previous recordings of Ustad Mohammad Hashem Cheshti. An es- Lincoln Center and the Henry Street Settlement a major figure in American as a leader for OmniTone, tablished maestro, he quickly put the protégé in New York City, the Agora Festival (Paris), the Nonesuch RecordsNonesuch music making. A native New Yorker and gradu- Soul Note and Mapleshade, under a rigorous training regime. Most of the ’s Green Umbrella ate of Columbia College, Mr. Kalish studied and nearly 50 more as a sideman. His latest CD lessons, which were based on North Indian clas- Series, the National Gallery of Art, the Centro with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and is Rumors, with bassist Masa Kamaguchi and sical music, are still used today to train Afghan des Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Percussive Isabella Vengerova. He was pianist of the Boston drummer . His previous trio CD, singers. In 1977, Ustad Mahwash was conferred Arts Society International Convention and the Symphony Chamber Players for 30 years and Play, with Masa Kamaguchi and Paul Motian, the title of Maestra by Ustad Sarahang, a con- Taipei International Percussion Conference, in was a founding member of the Contemporary was released in May 2006. It was named one of troversial move as, until that point, it was an addition to a regular series of concerts at UC San Chamber Ensemble, a group devoted to new the top 10 CDs of 2006 by the Wall Street honor reserved for men. In 1977, she received Diego. The group has recorded for Tzadik and music that flourished during the 1960s and ‘70s. Journal, New York Newsday and the Sydney the title of Ustad (master). After the political Mode Records. A recently released a three-CD He is a frequent guest artist with many of the (Australia) Morning Herald. Air, his solo piano turmoil of the late 1970s and 1980s, Ustad set of the complete percussion works of Iannis world’s most distinguished chamber ensembles. debut on Palmetto, features original Mahwash was forced to leave Afghanistan. In Xenakis on Mode Records was received with

26 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 27 FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS great critical acclaim. A DVD of Roger he devoted his career not only survived but Percussionist, conductor and Ms. Schneider’s music blurs the lines between Reynolds’s Sanctuary for percussion quartet and reached new creative heights. Mr. Sakhi was author Steven Schick was genres, and as a result, her long list of commis- soloist was released by Mode Records in late born in Kabul into one of Afghanistan’s leading born in Iowa and raised in a sioners have slowly become quite varied. They 2010, and another DVD of the entire early per- musical families, studying from the age of ten farming family. For the past include: the Norrbotten Big Band and Danish cussion music of will be with his father, Ghulam Sakhi. The elder Sakhi 30 years he has championed Radio Orchestra with Toots Thielemans and Ivan released by red fish blue fish on Mode Records was a disciple and brother-in-law of Ustad contemporary percussion Lins, Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra (El Viento), in 2011. Mohammad Omar, the much-revered heir to a music as a performer and Monterey Jazz Festival (Scenes from Childhood, musical lineage that had begun in the teacher, by commissioning Willow Lake), The American Dance Festival (for Multi-instrumentalist and com- 1860s. Mr. Sakhi’s studies were interrupted in and premiering more than 100 new works for dance company, Pilobolus–Dissolution), Hunter poser Scott Robinson has been 1992, when his family moved to the Pakistani percussion. Mr. Schick is Distinguished College (, Sky Blue), Jazz a highly active presence on the city of Peshawar, a place of refuge for many Professor of Music at UC San Diego and a at Lincoln Center (Buleria, Soleá y Rumba), New York–based jazz scene for Afghans from the political chaos and violence Consulting Artist in Percussion at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (Aires more than 25 years, appearing that enveloped their country in the years follow- Manhattan School of Music. He was the percus- de Lando), Peter Sellars’s New Crowned Hope on some 200 CDs. He has been ing the Soviet invasion of 1979. sionist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars of New Festival (Vienna’s Mozart Festival, Cerulean

heard on tenor sax with Buck Richard Conde After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, many York City from 1992 to 2002, and from 2000 to Skies), Kronos Quartet (String Quartet No. 1) Clayton, on alto clarinet with Paquito D’Rivera, Afghan musicians in Peshawar returned to 2004 served as artistic director of the Centre and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with on trumpet with , and on bass Kabul, but by this time Mr. Sakhi was on his International de Percussion de Genève in soprano Dawn Upshaw (Carlos Drummond de sax with the New York City Opera, along with way to Fremont, California. He brought with Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. Schick is founder and Andrade Stories). performances alongside as diverse a group of art- him the sophisticated and original style that artistic director of the percussion group red fish Ms. Schneider and her orchestra have ists as Anthony Braxton, Ruby Braff, Ella he had developed during his years in Pakistan, blue fish, and director of Roots and Rhizomes, a a distinguished recording career with nine Fitzgerald, , Bob Brookmeyer, Frank but little else. Fremont, a city of some 200,000 summer course on contemporary percussion Grammy nominations and two Grammy Wess and Roscoe Mitchell. In 2001, he per- that lies southeast of San Francisco, claims the music hosted at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In Awards. Concert in the Garden (Best Large formed in eleven West African nations during largest concentration of Afghans in the United 2007, he assumed the post of music director and Ensemble Album), released only through her an eight-week tour as a U.S. Jazz Ambassador. States. There, just as in Peshawar, Mr. Sakhi conductor of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, ArtistShare website, became historic as the and is the principal guest conductor of the first record to win a Grammy with Internet- Mr. Robinson has been the winner of a number quickly established himself as a leader of the lo- International Contemporary Ensemble. only sales. The second Grammy was awarded of Down Beat Critics Polls and Jazz Journalists cal musical community. In addition to his popu- for Ms. Schneider’s composition Cerulean Skies Association awards in recent years. As a com- lar classes, workshops and solo performances, he Maria Schneider’s (Best Instrumental Composition). poser, he has created large-scale multimedia is also co-founder of and composer for S.A.R.A, music has been hailed Unique funding of projects has continued works in collaboration with sculptor and videog- Sounds and Rhythms of Afghanistan. by critics as “evocative, for Ms. Schneider, as she has recently composed rapher Rob Fisher and choreographer Larue majestic, magical, two works for her own orchestra with the in- Allen, in addition to his jazz works, which have Composed of some of the most sought-after heart-stoppingly gor- volvement of commissioners, not from arts or- been recorded by a number of artists. Several of Afghan musicians living in the United States, geous, and beyond cat- ganizations, but directly from her ArtistShare Sakhi Ensemble his large-scale works have been performed and the made it concert debut at egorization.” She and fan base. For these projects, she documented her recorded by the Gotham Wind Symphony, and the Ojai Music Festival. Under the artistic di- her orchestra became process of creating the two new works for partic- his chamber works include the ongoing series rection of its founder, acclaimed rubâb master widely known starting ipating fans. The commissioners are Christophe Immensities for Large Instruments. Homayoun Sakhi, the ensemble features Zmarai in 1994, when they re- Asselineau (), Bill and Carol Aref (tabla, dohlak), Khalil Ragheb (harmonium) leased their first recording, Evanescence. With Bloemer, Justin Freed, Paul James and John Homayoun Sakhi is and Pervez Sakhi (tula). In addition to artistic that recording, Ms. Schneider began to develop Koerber (Lembrança). widely considered the excellence, these musicians share a commitment her personal way of writing for her 17-member foremost Afghan rubâb to nurturing the next generation of musicians collective, tailoring her compositions to dis- (lute) player of his gen- both here and in Afghanistan. The Ensemble tinctly highlight the unique voices of the group. eration. During the wishes to extend its warm appreciation to Peter The Maria Schneider Orchestra has since per- country’s long years of Sellars and Dawn Upshaw for inviting them to formed at festivals and concert halls worldwide. armed conflict, when participate in this very special evening of music. She herself has received numerous commissions music was heavily con- and guest conducting invites, working with over trolled, censored and, 85 groups from over 30 countries spanning finally, banned, the Europe, South America, Australia, Asia and classical style to which North America. 28 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 29 FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS

Opera, theater and festival Festivals, the 2002 Adelaide Arts Festival Mozart’s Mitridate for the Sydney Festival and from Edsberg in 2006 and from the Sibelius director Peter Sellars is one in Australia and the 2003 Venice Biennale gave the Australian premiere of Ligeti’s Violin Academy in 2007 focusing on chamber music in of the most innovative and International Festival of Theater in Italy. In Concerto with the Sydney Symphony. both institutions. powerful forces in the per- 2006, he was Artistic Director of New Crowned Mr. Tognetti has collaborated with col- Mr. Valve has performed as a soloist with the forming arts in America Hope, a monthlong festival in Vienna for which leagues from across various art forms and ar- Filharmonia, Finnish Radio Symphony and abroad. A visionary art- he invited international artists from diverse cul- tistic styles, including Joseph Tawadros, Dawn Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti Tampere Filharmonia ist, Mr. Sellars is known for tural backgrounds to create new work in the Upshaw, James Crabb, Emmanuel Pahud, and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, groundbreaking interpreta- fields of music, theater, dance, film, the visual Jack Thompson, Katie Noonan, Neil Finn, among others. He has also appeared broadly tions of classic works. arts and architecture for the city of Vienna’s Tim Freedman, Paul Capsis, Bill Henson and both as a soloist and a chamber musician in Whether it is Mozart, Mozart Year celebrating the 250th anniversary Michael Leunig. Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States. Handel, Shakespeare, or the 16th- of Mozart’s birth. In 2003, Mr. Tognetti was co-composer of Mr. Valve has appeared at the Helsinki century Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu, Peter Mr. Sellars is a professor in the Department the score for Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: Festival, Kemiö Music Festival, Musica Nova Sellars strikes a universal chord with audiences, of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and The Far Side of the World; violin tutor for its Helsinki, Kuhmo Chamber Music, Lahti engaging and illuminating contemporary social Resident Curator of the Telluride Film Festival. star, Russell Crowe; and can also be heard per- Sibelius Festival, Järvenpää Sibelius Festival and and political issues. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, forming on the award-winning soundtrack. In many other festivals abroad. He records regular- Mr. Sellars has staged at the Chicago the Erasmus Prize, the Sundance Institute Risk- 2005, he co-composed the soundtrack to Tom ly for the Finnish Broadcasting Company and Lyric Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Takers Award and the Gish Prize, and was re- Carroll’s surf film Horrorscopes and, in 2008, cre- has given world premiere performances of youth Netherlands Opera, the Opera National de cently elected to the American Academy of Arts ated The Red Tree, inspired by illustrator Shaun works by and many other works by Paris, the and San Francisco and Sciences. Tan’s book. He co-created and starred in the contemporary composers. Opera, among others, establishing a reputation 2008 documentary film Musica Surfica, which In 2006, he was appointed principal cello of for bringing 20th-century and contemporary Australian violinist, con- won best film awards at surf film festivals in the the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He appears operas to the stage, including works by Olivier ductor and composer United States, Brazil, France and South Africa. as a soloist with his own orchestra frequently. Messiaen, and György Ligeti. Richard Tognetti has es- Inspired by the compositions of Kaija Saariaho, tablished an international In addition to directing numerous record- Valve is also a guest teacher at the Australian Osvaldo Golijov and , he has guided reputation for his compel- ings by the ACO, Mr. Tognetti has recorded National Academy of Music and a founding the creation of productions of their work that ling performances and ar- Bach’s solo violin works for ABC Classics, win- member of Jousia Ensemble and Jousia Quartet. have expanded the repertoire of modern op- tistic individualism. He ning three consecutive ARIA awards, and the He also performs regularly with pianist Joonas era. Mr. Sellars has been a driving force in the studied at the Sydney Dvořák and Mozart violin concertos for BIS. Ahonen and accordionist Veli Kujala. Concerts creation of many new works with longtime Conservatorium with Alice A passionate advocate for music education, in 2010 included the Schumann concerto with collaborator John Adams, including Nixon in Henderson Paul Waten, in his home town of Mr. Tognetti established the ACO’s Education the Adelaide Symphony and the ACO, as well as China, , El Niño, Doctor Wollongong with William Primrose, and at the and Emerging Artists programs in 2005. world premieres of concertos by Olli Virtaperko Atomic and . Recent Sellars Berne Conservatory (Switzerland) with Igor Richard Tognetti was appointed an Officer and . Mr. Valve plays a Giuseppe projects have included a staging of Stravinsky’s Ozim, where he was awarded the Tschumi Prize of the Order of Australia in 2010. He holds hon- Guarneri Filius Andreae cello from 1729. Oedipus Rex/Symphony of Psalms for the Los as the top graduate soloist in 1989. Later that orary doctorates from three Australian universi- Angeles Philharmonic and the Sydney Festival; year he was appointed Leader of the Australian ties and was made a National Living Treasure in a production of Shakespeare’s seen in Chamber Orchestra and subsequently became 1999. He performs on a 1743 Guarneri del Gesù Winds of Destiny Production Team Vienna, Bochum (Germany) and New York; Artistic Director. He is also Artistic Director of violin, lent to him by an anonymous Australian a critically acclaimed concert staging of J. S. the Maribor Festival in Slovenia. private benefactor. James F. Ingalls’s work with Peter Sellars Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion with the Berlin Mr. Tognetti performs on period, modern spans 30 years and includes many produc- Philharmonic Orchestra performed in Salzburg and electric instruments. His numerous ar- Timo-Veikko Valve began his tions with Dawn Upshaw: Kaija Saariaho’s La and Berlin, and, earlier this year, a staging of rangements, compositions and transcriptions studies at the West Helsinki Passion De Simone and L’Amour de Loin, John for the Metropolitan Opera have expanded the chamber orchestra repertoire Music Institute when he was six Adams’s El Niño, Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, and Handel’s for the Lyric Opera of and been performed throughout the world. years old. In 1997, he moved to György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments, Stravinsky’s Chicago. Mr. Sellars’s productions featuring As director or soloist, Mr. Tognetti has the . His main The Rake’s Progress and Messiaen’s Saint Dawn Upshaw have included Messaien’s Saint appeared with the Handel & Haydn Society teachers were Heikki Rautasalo, François d’Assise. François d’Assise, Adams’s El Niño, Saariaho’s (Boston), Hong Kong Philharmonic, Camerata Marko Ylönen and Teemu Other highlights include Adams’s Doctor L’Amour de Loin, Golijov’s Ainadamar and Salzburg, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Irish Chamber Kupiainen. Valve continued on Atomic, The Death of Klinghoffer and Nixon in Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments. Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du to study in Edsberg, Stockholm, with Torleif China; Saariaho’s ; Wagner’s Mr. Sellars has led several major arts festi- Luxembourg, Nordic Chamber Orchestra and Thedéen and Mats Zetterqvist. He graduated Tristan and Isolde; Handel’s Hercules, , vals, including the 1990 and 1993 Los Angeles Australian symphony orchestras. He conducted

30 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 31 FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS

Giulio Cesare and ; Bach Cantatas with worked with many and diverse creative and in- ; and Stravinsky’s terpretative artists. Oedipus Rex/Symphony of Psalms. Mr. Ingalls has also worked with the Ojai Born in Czechoslovakia, Dunya Ramicova Festival’s 2013 Music Director Mark Morris and studied at the Yale School of Drama. She has de- the Mark Morris Dance Group on works in- signed costumes for opera and theatre companies cluding Mozart Dances, The Hard Nut, Dido and in the United States and Europe. Her most recent Aeneas and L’Allegro Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato. work includes the Los Angeles Philharmonic For San Francisco Ballet, he designed ten works production of Stravinsky’s Oedipus, also seen for the 75th anniversary New Works Festival as at Sydney Festival, and Hercules at the Chicago well as Silver Ladders and The Nutcracker, both Lyric Opera. She is a long-time collaborator of choreographed by Helgi Tomasson. Other work director Peter Sellars. Their work together in- in dance includes Brief Encounters with the Paul cludes the world premieres of Nixon in China Taylor Dance Company, Split Sides and Fluid and The Death of Klinghoffer, as well as El Niño Canvas with the Merce Cunningham Dance also by John Adams, the Mozart/Da Ponte Cycle, Company, among many others. Theodora, Saint François d’Assise, The Magic Flute, Recent projects include ’s , Tannhauser, Ajax, The Merchant Desdemona (Vienna Festival and Flemish of Venice and many others. Ms. Ramicova is a National Theatre, Brussels), Sarah Ruhl’s Stage founding faculty member of UC Merced. Kiss (Goodman Theatre, Chicago), Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County (Oregon Shakespeare Pamela Salling first worked with Peter Sellars Festival), Wozzeck (Metropolitan Opera), The and Dawn Upshaw in 2006 with the opera People in the Picture (Roundabout Theatre , co-commissioned by Company and Studio 54, New York) and the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna. Hercules (Lyric Opera of Chicago). Since then, she has had the great opportu- nity to continue presenting this piece, first in Diane J. Malecki has produced the work of New York at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Peter Sellars for more than 25 years. She served Festival and then in Los Angeles with the Los for several years as Artistic Administrator of Angeles Philharmonic. Ms. Salling has also the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, worked with Peter Sellars on Othello, for the Minnesota, where she first worked with Wiener Festwochen, Schauspielhaus Bochum Mr. Sellars. She was subsequently invited by him (Germany) and Public Theater (in co-produc- to become Executive Director of the American tion with LAByrinth Theater Company) in National Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center New York. She is based in New York, where her for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., select credits include: Thinner Than Water and where Mr. Sellars had been appointed Artistic Massacre (Sing to Your Children) (LAByrinth Director. In 1987, Ms. Malecki was appointed Theater Co.);Knickerbocker , That Hopey Changey Producing Director of the newly formed BAM Thing, Neighbors (Public Theater); Martha Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Since Clarke’s Garden of Earthly Delights; The Music 1990, she has worked as an independent produc- Teacher (The New Group); Good Heif, The er, collaborating primarily with Mr. Sellars on Beauty Inside, Three Seconds in the Key (New the development, production, and touring of his Georges); Rus, Disposable Men (HERE Arts theater, opera, film and video, and festival work. Center); Communion, Clocks and Whistles, End Ms. Malecki has been engaged by numerous or- of Lines (Origin Theatre Company). Touring ganizations, including the Salzburg Festival, the productions include: Cloudless, Sawdust Palace Barbican Centre, the Vienna Festival, Lincoln (Susan Marshall & Co.); Songs of the Dragons Center, the Holland Festival, San Francisco Flying to Heaven (Young Jean Lee’s Theatre Opera and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, to Company); Disposable Men (HERE Art Center); produce Mr. Sellars’s productions, and she has and the National Tour of Miss Saigon.

32 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 33