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3-25-2009 , percussion, with Department of Music, University of Richmond

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Recommended Citation Department of Music, University of Richmond, "Glenn Kotche, percussion, with eighth blackbird" (2009). Music Department Concert Programs. 475. https://scholarship.richmond.edu/all-music-programs/475

This Program is brought to you for free and open access by the Music at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Music Department Concert Programs by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Modlin Center for the Arts Wednesday • March 25,2009 • 7:30 p.m. Camp Concert Hall Glenn Kotche percussion

eighth blackbird Tim Munro, flutes Michael J. Maccaferri, clarinets Matt Albert, violin and viola Nicholas Photinos, cello Matthew Duvall, percussion Lisa Kaplan, piono

Steve Reich Clapping Music ( 1972) Reich • Glenn Kotche, arr. Music for Pieces ofWood ( 1973) Lynn/West/Oyewole/Hassan/Moore • Kotche, arr. The Corner (2007) Glenn Kotche Monkey Chant (2004), film: Nathaniel Murphy Still Life with Avalanche* (2008) World premiere

intermission

Kotche Projections of (what) Might (2005) Kotche Individual Trains (2005) Kotche Double Fantasy (2008) Worker's Union ( 1975)

*Still Ufe with Avalanche was commissioned by eighth blackbird through the generous support of Frederica and James R. Rosenfield, Kathleen Johnson and Paul Browning, Kirk Johnson and William Johnson.

This performance is sponsored in f>~r:.t by the Department of Music.

Join the artists in the performance hall for a Talk Back session following tonight's event. Exclusive management for Glenn Kotche: Tony Margherita Management • 1140 Broadway# 1603 • New York, NY • I 000 I Exclusive management for eighth blackbird: Opus 3 Artists • 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor North • New York, NY • I 0016

Please silence cell phones, digital watches and paging devices before the concert The use of any recording device (either audio or video) and the taking of photographs (with or without a flash) are strictly prohibited.

The Modlin Center for the Arts thanks Style Weekly for media sponsorship of the 2008-2009 season. Glenn Kotche

eralded by The Tribune for ranked as one of the "U.S. Top H his "unfailing taste, technique and 5" on the Billboard. The CD, nominated discipline," percussionist Glenn Kotche for a Grammy in the "Best Rock Album" has explored the creative potential of category, was declared by the Boston rhythm and space in his performances and Phoenix to be "an outright masterpiece." compositions for the past 18 years. Born in Beyond , Kotche records and 1970 in Roselle, , Kotche graduated performs regularly with the jazz summa cum laude with a bachelor's experimental duo On Fillmore. Their latest degree in music performance from the recording Sleeps with Fishes (Drag City, 2003 prestigious University of Kentucky where and Columbia Music Entertainment, 2007) he studied with James Campbell. earned the ensemble an appearance at the Kotche's collaborations with groups and prestigious 2005 Percussion Pan Festival ensembles have resulted in more than in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, Brazil. 80 albums to date, including the solo On Fillmore has collaborated with the recordings Introducing and Next. His third Brazilian trio Moreno Veloso+2 at Chicago's solo effort Mobile was released in 2006 Museum of Contemporary Art and created on the Nonesuch label. Kotche appeared the score for the cult film S&MAN. Kotche on the cover of the August 2007 issue of is also a member-with Jim O'Rourke Modern Drummer magazine and is featured and -of the trio . in the 2006 Modern Drummer Festival DVD. Commissioned by the , Kotche joined the rock band Wilco in 2001. Kotche composed the 25-minute, seven­ Since that time, Wilco's accomplishments movement work Anomaly which premiered include the gold-selling album Yankee Hotel at the San Francisco Jazz Festival in 2007. Foxtrot, the Grammy-winning and the live double recording Kicking -continued Television. The band's most recent release Glenn Kotche (continued)

In 2008, Kotche's Snap-commissioned November of 2008. The Chicago Sun­ for the Bang on a Can All-Stars-received Times prefaced its review with "Glenn its world premiere at the University Kotche is not your average rock-and-roll of North Carolina's Memorial Hall. percussionist. Eighth blackbird is not On March 3, 2009, Kotche appeared your average classical music sextet. Put with the Bang on a Can All-Stars in a the two together, and the result is a vastly sold-out concert at Alice Tully Hall. His above-average night in the concert hall" performance of Mobile was described by and went on to descnbe the collaboration as "bright-edged [and] as a union of "kindred musical souls" vigorously syncopated." whose performances "ranged from subtle lyricism to raw ferocity." Kotche and eighth blackbird recently joined forces, to audience and critical acclaim, at Chicago's Harris Theater in

Virginia Arts &: Letters LIVE! With host Carl Kasell from NPR's Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me! Virginia actors perform short stories by Virginia writers, accompanied by Virginia musicians. Saturday, March 28, 8:00 pm The Historic Empire Theatre, 114 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA Ticket Info: 804-344-8040 • www.jamesriverwriters.org eighth blacl

escribed by The New Yorker as Profiled in The New York Times and D "friendly, unpretentious, idealistic NPR's All Things Considered, the sextet and highly skilled," eighth blackbird has also been featured on Bloomberg promises -and delivers-provocative TV's Muse, CBS News Sunday Morning, and engaging performances to its ever­ St. Paul Sunday, Weekend America and growing audience. Combining bracing The Next Big Thing, among others. The virtuosity with a refreshing panache, the group is in residence at the University of sextet debunks the myth that today's serious Richmond and the University of Chicago. music is composed solely for those steeped Highlights of the current season have in an academic lexicon. Its performances included collaborations and performances and recordings sparkle with wit and pound with conservatory students from Oberlin with energy. New fans become drawn into and Los Angeles's Colburn School; debuts eighth blackbird's evolving soundworld of in the U.K. (Liverpool), Rotterdam and new music-a realm that the group inhabits Australia (Melbourne); "hometown" and explores with comfort, conviction and concerts at Chicago's Harris Theater with infectious enthusiasm. The New York Times this evening's percussionist Glenn Kotche noted "eighth blackbird's performances are and the Hilliard Ensemble; and appearances the picture of polish and precision and they at the Modlin Center for the Arts. seem to be thoroughly engaged ...by music This June, the ensemble takes the reins as in a broad range of contemporary styles." collective Music Director of the famed Ojai In 2008, the group's strange imaginary Music Festival. Soon afterwards, eighth animals was awarded the Grarnrny for blackbird makes its debut at the Santa "Best Chamber Music Performance." Fe Chamber Music Festival where it will Its producer Judith Sherman received perform a new work, written in its honor, a Grarnrny for "Best Producer of the by Mark-Anthony Turnage. Year" in the classical category. -continued eighth blackbird (continued)

The sextet has appeared in Canada, Mexico, Since its founding in 1996, eighth blackbird the Netherlands and South Korea; and the has actively commissioned and recorded major concert venues in North America. new works from such eminent composers Performances include those· at Carnegie as , George Perle, Frederic Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Rzewski and Joseph Schwantner and has Museum, Kennedy Center, Library of commissioned groundbreaking works from Congress, Cleveland Museum of Art and a younger generation (Jennifer Higdon, La Jolla Chamber Music Society; and Stephen Hartke, Derek Bermel, David has been concert soloist with the Utah Schober, Daniel Kellogg and Carlos Sanchez­ Symphony and the American Composers Gutierrez). The group was honored in 2007 Orchestra. During the summers, the group with the American Music Center's Trailblazer has appeared several times at Cincinnati's Award and a Meet The Composer Award. Music X, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, also performing at Tanglewood, Ojai, New York's 20th annual Bang on a Can Marathon and Bravo! Vail.

~~fhtS:;t~iv -•m~~ HAMPDEN-SYDNEY, VIRGINIA Ethan Sloane, Artistic Director 2009 Concerts May 22-23 & May 29-30 FESTIVAL ARTISTS SHMUEL ASHKENASI, violin ° MARC jOHNSON, cello jAMES Kmn, piano • MICHAEL KLoTz, :viola ELIZAVETA KOPELMAN, piano • NANCY ALLEN LUNDY, soprano ETHAN SLOANE, clarinet • MISHA VITENSON, violin THE FINE ARTS QuARTET For concert tickets & weekend packages please call (434) 223-6273 or visit www.hsc.edujmusicfestival

CONCERT SERIES SPONSOR: MEDIA SPONSOR: THE MANOR RESORT WCVES iln'p'rr SPA & RESIDENTIAL ESTATE At Hi;toric Poplar Hill Farm Program Notes

Steve Reich • Clapping Music ( 1972) continue this until the second performer Steve Reich (b. 1936) has been described has shifted 12 eighth notes and the two are as "our greatest living composer" (The in unison once again. New York Times), "Arnerica'ey~greatest Steve Reich/Glenn Kotche, arr. • Music for living composer." (The Village Voice) and Pieces o(Wood ( 1973) "the most original musical thinker of our Music for Pieces of Wood carne out of the time" (The New Yorker). From his early desire to make music with the simplest taped speech pieces It's Gonna Rain (1965) instruments possible-in this case claves (a and Come Out (1966) to his collaboration wooden percussion instrument)-played with video artist Beryl Korot, the digital by five performers. Reich writes: "The video opera (2002), Reich has rhythmic structure is based entirely on the pursued a creative path that embraces process of rhythmic buildups (the gradual not only aspects of Western classical substitution of beats for rests) and is in music, but the structures, harmonies and three sections of decreasing pattern length: rhythms of non-Western and American 6/4, 4/4 and 3/4." Bang on Can All-Stars vernacular music, particularly jazz. He has percussionist David Cossin arranged won numerous honors, including several the piece for himself and me to play as a Grarnmy Awards and his music has been drum duo. Inspired by his arrangement, I commissioned, performed and recorded created a solo version in which the steady by orchestras and ensembles around the pulse of the original is heard as a loop world. For his 70th birthday year (2006), on piano board (a type of thumb piano) concerts were presented throughout and the other parts are played live on Europe, North America and Asia and amplified drums (with effects) and hi-hat. Nonesuch Records released its second box -Glenn Kotche set of Reich's works, Phases: A Nonesuch Lynn, West, Oyewole, Hassan, Moore/ Retrospective, a five-CD collection spanning Kotche, arr. • The Corner (2007) the 20 years of his time on the label. The Corner is an arrangement for solo Clapping Music was originally written for piano of a song from the recording Be by two performers. Reich wanted to "create a Chicago rapper Common. This version piece of music that needed no instruments incorporates rhythmic and melodic hooks beyond the human body" using a from the track and mirrors the contour of simplified form of his "phasing technique" the vocal lines. Departures have been taken (in which the same gesture is played by to create a new formal structure, which two performers in steady but not identical better utilizes the tonal possibilities of the tempo, so that the two gradually shift out piano and focuses on the use of space. of unison). In the work, one performer -Glenn Kotche claps a basic rhythm for the entirety of the piece, while the other claps the same pattern shifts ahead by one eighth note -continued every few repetitions. The two performers Program Notes

Glenn Kotche o Monkey Chant (2004) In 2006 Mazzoli was a featured composer Monkey Chant is a loose retelling of the at Merkin Hall in and monkey army's battle story from the Hindu at the Gaudeamus New Music Festival epic tale, the Ramayana. My version follows in Amsterdam. She is a recipient of a the narrative of this story, often attempting Fulbright Grant to the Netherlands, a literal representation of certain parts (such the 2007 and 2008 ASCAP Morton as some character interactions) and at other Gould Young Composers Award, a times metaphorically representing events Charles Ives Scholarship from the (e.g. in the final battle between Rama and American Academy of Arts and Letters Ravana). Specific drum kit instruments are and grants from the American Music assigned to various roles in the drama. I use Center and the Jerome Foundation. percussive elements from several recorded Mazzoli taught beginning composition versions of the Kecak or "Monkey Chant'' at in 2006 and is now (the Balinese performance artwork that Executive Director of the MATA Festival is set to the Ramayana). For example, the of New Music in New York Gty, an cricket boxes are directly inspired by insects organization founded by Philip Glass heard in recordings of early performances. dedicated to commissioning and promoting The accompanying film was created by new works by young composers. artist Nathaniel Murphy with assistance Mazzoli is also active as a pianist and from Amanda Beyer and Brian Henry. often performs with Victoire, an "all- -Glenn Kotche star, all-female quintet" (Time Out Missy Mazzoli o Still Life with Avalanche New York) dedicated exclusively to (2008) Mazzoli's own compositions. Victoire Missy Mazzoli was born in 1980 in has been performing in venues Pennsylvania and studied composition at throughout New York City since 2008. the , Mazzoli's recent projects include the and the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. premiere of Sound of the Light, a new work Mazzoli's music has been heard throughout commissioned by Carnegie Hall, and the world in performances by the South two performances of These Worlds In Us Carolina Philharmonic, the Minnesota by the Minnesota Orchestra. Upcoming Orchestra, the Spokane Symphony, performances include the premiere of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, NOW new works commissioned by the Kronos Ensemble, the Da Capo Chamber Players Quartet, eighth blackbird, the Whitney and many others. She has produced Museum of Art and the Santa Fe New commissioned works for Kronos Quartet, Music Ensemble. The composer also eighth blackbird, the Whitney Museum received a Jerome Foundation Grant and Carnegie Hall. Mazzoli's compositions for Song from the Uproar, a large-scale were recently performed at the Bang on multimedia work featuring NOW a Can Marathon and the 2007 Cabrillo Ensemble and filmmaker Stephen Taylor Festival of New Music. that premieres in New York City this May. Program Notes

The composer writes: "Still Life with Glenn Kotche •Individual Trains (2005) Avalanche is a pile of melodies collapsing The formal structure of Individual Trains is a in a chaotic free-fall. The players layer stretched or expanded version of the first bursts of sound over the st9,tic drones of original drum beat that I came up with ham1onicas, sketching out a strange and when I was 15. I took each subdivision of evocative sonic landscape. I wrote this the beat and stretched it several times in piece while in-residence at Blue Mountain duration. Then each voice of its opposite Center, a beautiful artist colony in upstate rhythm was substituted with a more New York Halfway through my stay there rhythmically complex texture. This results I received a phone call telling me my cousin in the feeling of concurrent individual had passed away very suddenly. There's a events with a hidden connection. In the moment in this piece when you can hear version heard tonight, members of eighth that phone call, when the piece changes blackbird mirror the complex constructions direction, when the shock of real life of the track. The film was created from works its way into tl1e music's joyful and overlapping images or glimpses of Oricago exuberant exterior. This is a piece about (some very close to the Harris Theater). finding beauty in chaos and vice versa. It These diverse clips of our city either is dedicated to the Qoyful, exuberant and directly or irnpressionistically relate to the shocking) memory of Andrew Rose." sonic elements of the accompanying track. Glenn Kotche • Projections of (what) Might -Glenn Kotche (2005) Glenn Kotche • Double Fantasy (2008) Projections oj(what) Might was inspired by This piece began as an idea to arrange two of my favorite percussionists: Nigerian my vibraphone solo, Fantasy On A Shona master drummer and Afro beat legend Theme, for eighth blackbird. I quickly Tony Allen and jazz legend Ed Blackwell. I realized that the arrangement was taking transcribed some of their drum grooves, on a life of its own, in a way keeping in augmented and orchestrated them on an accordance with one prominent method expanded drumkit, then arranged these used for writing new pieces for the grooves using the sequence of events from traditional mbira - through accidental a "master groove," which acts as a template discovery while playing. My original or score for the piece. This created an version was inspired by the beauty of the interlocking duet of grooves. The sounds interlocking mbira (a type of African thumb were enhanced electronically to give the piano) melodies found in Shona music. · piece a different character. For tonight's The cyclical melodies of the vibraphone performance I'll add a third, live part. The solo are retained in the opening section result will be a trio of interlocking drun1set of Double Fantasy. These eventually give grooves in homage to Tony Allen and way to dense and powerful impressions Ed Blackwell. of the vocal timbres of the Shona singers. -Glenn Kotche -continued Program Notes

The metric feel throughout is often Andriessen's compositions have attracted ambiguous due to overlapping, many leading exponents of contemporary independent pulses of the circuitous music, including the two Dutch groups melodic lines. named after his works: De Volharding and -Glenn Kotche Hoketus. Other eminent Dutch performers

LouisAildriessen • Worker's Union (1975) include the Schoenberg Ensemble, Louis Andriessen was born in Utrecht, the ASKO Ensemble, the Netherlands Netherlands in 1939 into a musical family: Chamber Choir, the Schoenberg Quartet, his father Hendrik and his brother Juriaan pianists Gerard Bouwhuis and Cees were established composers in their van Zeeland and conductors Reinbert own right. Andriessen studied with his de Leeuw and Edo de Waart. Groups father and Kees van Baaren at the Hague outside the Netherlands who have Conservatory and between 1962 and 1964 commissioned or performed his works undertook further studies in Milan and include the San Francisco Symphony,. Berlin with Luciano Berio. Since 1974 he BBC Symphony Orchestra, Kronos has combined teaching with his work as a Quartet, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble composer and pianist. He is now widely Modem, Ensemble InterContemporain, regarded as the leading composer working Icebreaker, the Bang on a Can All in the Netherlands today and is a central Stars and the California EAR Unit. figure in the international new music scene. Recent commissions include La Passione From a background of jazz and avant­ for the London Sinfonietta, Racconto dall' garde composition, Andriessen has evolved inferno for MusikFabrik and La Commedia, a style employing elemental harmonic, a setting of Dante's Divine Comedy, melodic and rhythmic materials, heard for Netherlands Opera. in totally distinctive instrumentation. His The composer writes: "Workers Union acknowledged admiration for Stravinsky (for any loud sounding instruments) was is illustrated by a parallel vigor, clarity originally written for the orchestra De of expression and acute ear for color. Volharding (Perseverance), an ensemble The range of Andriessen's inspiration is comprised mainly of brass instruments wide, from the music of Charles Ives in in which I myself figured as a pianist at Anachronie I, the art of Mondriaan in De Stijl that time. This piece is a combination of and medieval poetic visions in Hadewijch, to individual freedom and severe discipline: writings on shipbuilding and atomic theory its rhythm is exactly fixed; the pitch, in De Materie Part I. He has tackled complex on the other hand, is indicated only creative issues, exploring the relation approximately,. on a single-lined stave. It between music and politics in De Staat, the is difficult to play in an ensemble and to nature of time and velocity in De Tijd and remain in step, sort of thing like organising De Snelheid and questions of mortality in and carrying on political action." Trilogy of the Last Day. -Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes