Contemporary Piano Music S Y D N E Y I N T E R N a T I O N a L C O M P O S E R S C O N C E R T S 2020
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CONTEMPORARY PIANO MUSIC S Y D N E Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L C O M P O S E R S C O N C E R T S 2020 7:30 Friday, 18 December 2020 TLC Theatre Baulkham Hills High School Sydney Australia INTRODUCTION MAYORAL MESSAGE Welcome to Welcome to the the Sydney Sydney International Contemporary Composers Orchestra’s Concerts 2020 program. 2020! I am very glad that we can I’m thrilled that realise this we are now in a event during position where these can once again difficult come together times. I and enjoy would like to wonderful thank the music, produced Hills Shire by our talented Council and locals. Baulkham Hills High School for their great support physically It’s been a tough and financially. year, but it’s been a year that has really made us stop, think and reconsider our actions. Due to COVID restrictions, we have postponed the Contemporary Chamber Music Concert and It’s been a year, where we’ve reclaimed some of the Contemporary Orchestral Music Concert to our time and really focused on reconnecting with 2021. This year, we will only host two concerts: others. Contemporary Piano Music 2020 and And it’s also been a year, where some of us have Contemporary String Quartets 2020. discovered new talents, learnt new skills or Contemporary Piano Music 2020 will be pursued new hobbies. performed by celebrated Sydney based pianist I want to thank the Sydney Contemporary Benjamin Kopp. He will premiere 5 contemporary Orchestra for their tenacity throughout the compositions contributed by composers from COVID-19 pandemic, and for discovering new Italy, USA, Taiwan and Australia. ways of sharing their music with others. Contemporary String Quartets 2020 will feature 4 I also want to thank event organisers, the talented contemporary compositions by composers from musicians and everyone else who has contributed China, Mexico, Italy and Australia. All of these to making tonight a very special evening. dreamlike new works will be premiered by the wonderful musicians of the Sydney Contemporary Finally, I would like to wish you all a very Merry Orchestra, featuring the fabulous soprano, Laura Christmas and a very happy New Year. Wachsmann. Thank you. I continue to be inspired and encouraged by those composers and musicians who dedicate themselves to the creation of new music. You are welcome to join us at these concerts in a celebration of new musical ideas, new compositional techniques, and different cultural Mayor of The Hills Shire experiences. Dr Michelle Byrne Dr Brian Chatpo Koo Artistic Director Sydney Contemporary Orchestra 2 Contemporary Piano Music 2020 3 PIANIST PROGRAM Benjamin Kopp CONTEMPORARY PIANO MUSIC 2020 Pianist SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL COMPOSERS CONCERTS 2020 Benjamin SCO CONCERT No.13 Kopp has performed as soloist with PIANIST many major BEJIAMIN KOPP Australian orchestras, including The Metropolitan Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Mutazioni Orchestra, Melbourne Matteo Tundo (Italy) Symphony graspinginFINity Orchestra, Orchestra Zaq Latino (USA) Victoria and Three Moods for Piano WASO. In 2007 he was the winner of the Brian T Field (USA) keyboard section of the Symphony Australia Young Performer’s Awards. In 2009, Benjamin co-founded the Streeton Trio, I N T E R V A L an all-Australian piano trio. As part of this trio, he has released four CDs (Mendelssohn Complete Piano Trios, Brahms/Ravel, Haydn/ Impromptu for Piano Beethoven/Smalley, Kats-Chernin) which Brian Chatpo Koo (Australia) received favourable reviews in Limelight Magazine. The trio also received positive Piano Sonata: Psychiatric Interview reviews in The Strad magazine. In 2014 the trio Chen-Hsin Su (Taiwan) performed in Wigmore Hall in London. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, China, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Scandinavia, New Zealand and Australia. While living in Europe, Benjamin performed with the Lemanic Modern Ensemble, Ensemble Contrechamps, and as part of the European Chamber Music Academy. Recently, Benjamin has also been performing with Ensemble Offspring, Umberto Clerici, Daniel Herscovitch and the Sydney Chamber Opera. Benjamin has studied with Daniel Herscovitch, Pascal Devoyon, Avedis Kouyoumdjian, Rita 7:30 Friday, 18 December 2020 Reichman and Jennifer Hammond. TLC Theatre Benjamin moved back to Australia in 2013 to Baulkham Hills High School follow his dream of building a straw-bale home Sydney Australia with a chamber music hall in the Blue Mountains. He now lives there with his young family. 4 Contemporary Piano Music 2020 5 Matteo Tundo (Italy) MUTAZIONI, for piano Matteo Tundo is an Italian composer. His In these studies for piano the term primary interest in composition is the “mutation" (mutazione) refers not so much perception and cognition of the sound event, to the musical material itself, but to the the neural mechanisms that lead to the perception that this process activates in signification of sound. His work is focused on the listener. The possibilities of mutation the application of the neuroaesthetic in music are explored through the repetition of well composition. After his early studies in classical recognizable figures, which undergo guitar, he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Jazz changes sometimes evident, sometimes guitar, studying with Umberto Fiorentino at the hidden. The form of the studies arises from Conservatory “Luigi Cherubini” in Florence and the activated mutation processes, with then a Master's degree in Music and New some external elements that momentarily Technologies. Later he specialized in the interrupt the flow by varying its Master Sound Technologies and Music development. Composition at the Conservatory “Arrigo Boito” in Parma. He studied with Marco Ligabue, Alfonso Belfiore, Javier Torres Maldonado, Alvise Vidolin, Laura Zattra, Giorgio Colombo Taccani, Angelo Farina, Esther Lamneck, Emilio Ghezzi and many others. He attended master classes in composition with Yan Maresz, Achim Bornhoeft, Daniel D'Adamo, Inaki Estrada, Karlheinz Essl, Gianvincenzo Cresta and others. His music has been played in several Countries: Italy, Germany, Spain, United States, Iran, Korea, Japan and He participated as composer at international music festivals: Mise-En Festival (2019), Labirinti Sonori (2018), Diffrazioni Festival (2014, 2016), Estate Fiesolana (2016), Cluster Music Festival (2018), MUSLAB (2018), OUA-EMF (2017), New Music Day (2017), Mise- En Festival (2019), IlSuono Contemporary Music Week (2019). Matteo is a member of ESCOM (European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music). He has released three albums: Acatalepsy (Music Republic 2014), Zero Brane (Aut Records 2015) and Equilibrio di Hardy-Weinberg (Antimateria Lab 2017). 6 Contemporary Piano Music 2020 7 grasping inFINity Zaq Latino (USA) for solo piano Zaq is an artist of many mediums, originally from Philadelphia, who is making waves in the New grasping inFINity take sits name from the York City music, art, and alternative-performance phenomenal Ada Limon poem, T he scenes. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree Noisiness of Sleep. The first stanza reads as from Ithaca College in Composition and Voice follows... and often jokes about having 'half a Masters' Careful of what I carry from Boston University. In my head and in my hollow As composer, Zaq has had pieces performed in New York City; Brunswick and Waterville, Maine; I’ve been a long time worried about Saratoga Springs and Ithaca, New York; grasping infinity Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and St. Petersburg, and coaxing some calm Russia. Zaq’s sound is genre-bending and unique, combining his love of metal, alternative out of the softest part rock, and Indian Hindustani music with his of the pins and needles Western-Classical training. He makes music for the sake of music; for the excitement of of me. discovering, exploring and organizing sound; Even now as I cite this stanza I have tears in and for the joy it brings audiences. Most recently, my eyes— this is my favorite poem I have he collaborated with YouTube personality, “The ever heard. This idea of forever grasping for Cello Doll” on a mutli-commission project something just out of reach, or grasping for entitled dollHauz: f our non-piano trios for the everything that is all around us, clung to violin and cello . T he collection will be me and loosely inspired the composition of performed in its entirety and recorded in New this piece, not in terms of programaticism but York City summer of 2020. in ideal, in feeling. The repeating parts are Zaq will be completing his Master of Arts degree never exactly the same upon their return; from Colorado State University this coming there is something always dynamic, shifting, August. and evolving within this music. Originally written for the Sigma Alpha Iota Piano Composition Competition in 2018, this piece has remained in my performance repertoire and is one of the few pieces of my own I can [attempt to] play. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and thank you for listening. 8 Contemporary Piano Music 2020 9 Compositions by Dr Field have been Brian T. Field (USA) performed by the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra: Dr. Brian Field’s music is an eclectic fusion of From the Clash of Race and Creed in Sydney lyricism and driving rhythm that brings together International Composers Concerts 2018 - elements of post- romanticism, minimalism and Contemporary Orchestra Music jazz. He has received a host of awards, including "A Letter from Camp" A Civil-War Tableau the RMN Classical recording prize, the Benenti for Soprano and Orchestra in Sydney Foundation recording prize; First Prize, Briar Cliff International Composers Concerts 2020 - Choral Music Competition; and First Prize, Victor Contemporary Orchestra Music Herbert ASCAP Young Composers’ Contest among many others. Dr. Field began his musical endeavors at age Three Moods for Piano in Sydney eight with the study of piano, and began his first International Composers Concerts 2020 - serious compositional efforts at sixteen, earning Contemporary Piano Music his undergraduate degree in music and English Thee compositions by Brian T Field have literature from Connecticut College, where he been performed by the Sydney graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa.