acknowledgments indianapolis chamber orchestra PUBLISHERS new works by james aikman, derek bermel, michael-thomas foumai, christopher theofanidis James Aikman: Triptych: Musical Momentum — Christopher Theofanidis: Concerto for Bassoon Non Sequitur Music, 2112 Ontario Street, and Chamber Orchestra — Bill Holab Music, kirk trevor, music director Bellingham, WA 98229 (nonsequiturmusic.com) 377 Sterling Place, No. 4, Brooklyn, NY 11238 Derek Bermel: Ritornello: Concerto Grosso for Electric (billholabmusic.com) Guitar and String Orchestra — Peer Music Classical, 250 W. 57th Street, Suite 820, New York, NY 10107 Cover Art: Barbara Schneider, B. Schneider Studio (peermusicclassical.com) (bschneiderstudio.com) m Michael-Thomas Foumai: Lady Dark — Foumai Orchestra Photo: Rich Clark, Rich Clark Photography Foundation, 1631 Liholiho Street, Suite 203, (richclarkphoto.com) o Honolulu, HI 96822 (michaelfoumai.com) m e n n e w t m u u s m ic fo r 2 a 1 n e WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM w TROY1564 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 c TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 e ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD n TEL: 01539 824008 t © 2015 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA u DDD Kirk Trevor, Music Director r WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. y the story While momentum 21 certainly is a celebration and a milestone in the ICO’s growth and develop- ment, it is more about the forward momentum and direction of contemporary music composed for chamber orchestra, and about the dynamic talent that is adding to the body of music literature in the 21st century — the compositional talents of James Aikman, Derek Bermel, Michael-Thomas Foumai, and Christopher Theodanidis — and the performance talent exhibited by the guest artists, Maestro Kirk Trevor and the musicians of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. DEREK BERMEL At the beginning of the 2013-2014 Season, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra (ICO) was entering a crossroads in its (then) 29-year history. Music Director Kirk Trevor announced his retirement after 27 years, effective at the end of the 2014-15 season. The ICO changed the primary location of its concert performances and became the Professional Orchestra-In-Residence at the newly opened Schrott Center for the Arts. Additionally, the ICO appointed James Aikman as its first Composer-In- Residence, whose first task was to pen a work that would serve as a musical “snapshot” of the ICO JAMES AIKMAN as it navigated through these exciting changes. Triptych: Musical Momentum was the result. CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS As the organization readied to premiere Triptych: Musical Momentum, the idea of creating a recording of it emerged. Triptych: Musical Momentum was scheduled to premiere on a concert in April, 2014, that also featured what was already an iconic American work, Christopher Theofanidis’ Bassoon Concerto, with Martin Kuuskmann performing as soloist. These two works would become the anchors of the recording project, and the ICO decided to create the CD from the live concert recordings. Since the basis of the recording project was capturing live concert performances, Maestro Trevor selected two works to complete the CD that the Orchestra was performing at the annual Contemporary Music Festival (CMF) at Indiana State University in October, 2014. The ICO has a long history with the CMF, performing an annual concert there that features the Festival’s Composer-In-Residence and also features the winning piece from the ICO’s annual Contemporary Music Competition. In 2014, the Festival’s Composer-In-Residence was Derek Bermel and Maestro MICHAEL-THOMAS FOUMAI Trevor programmed his Ritornello: Concerto for Electric Guitar and String Orchestra, with Derek Johnson as the featured soloist. Michael-Thomas Foumai’s outstanding Lady Dark was chosen as the winner of the 2014 Competition, and this cutting edge work was the last piece to complete the quartet of works that has become momentum 21: new music for a new century. JAMES AIKMAN (b. 1959) DEREK BERMEL (b. 1967) Triptych: Musical Momentum (2014) Ritornello: Concerto for Electric Guitar and String Orchestra (2011) Triptych is in three main sections: I. Fanfare; II. The Particle Garden; III. String Fields. The As a teenager, I was an avid fan of the prog-rock band King Crimson in its second incarnation, Fanfare is in sonata-rondo form. It begins not with a fanfare statement, but grows triumphantly to which featured the great electric guitar duo Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew. When I set out to write this it, not only including the brass and percussion of a traditional fanfare, but the entire orchestra as concerto, their mesmerizing contrapuntal textures came to mind. As the piece evolved, the material well. The fanfare itself is a simple harmony pattern, each instrument rhythmically articulating the seemed connected to the Baroque concerto grosso, both in style and form (exemplified by composers harmonic domain! The timpani pounds out the fanfare rhythm while literal hammering on a 2-by-4 such as Corelli and Vivaldi). wood plank is an important part of the musical construction, pun intended! Originally written for Wiek Hijmans, a formidable improviser, the piece leaves room for the The second movement of Triptych is slower and lyric, a themtronic music created from musical soloist to explore musical possibilities, separating the ritornello sections with French Overture elements of the live, written parts, and interactive with the orchestra. The musical particles throughout interludes (exemplified by composers such as Lully), the second one overlaid with a thrash-metal are related; I contacted my esteemed colleague at the University of Michigan, Gordon Kane. Prof. Kane (Metallica, Slayer, et al) solo that likewise evokes the Baroque aesthetic in its mannered, epic style. is a remarkable physicist, has researched and published voluminously, and is sought after by the media for his ability to directly address complex concepts in a way that non-physicists can understand. His — DEREK BERMEL book, The Particle Garden, is a great introduction, one of the very best on current physics. I contacted him and asked if he would mind me stealing his title for this piece, to which he replied he would be Derek Bermel is an American composer, clarinetist, and conductor whose music blends various honored! I am the honored one. facets of world music, funk, and jazz with largely classical performing forces and musical String Fields is a type of variations structure. It is also a self-imposed orchestration challenge, vocabulary. He is the recipient of various awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the modeled after Ravel and Honneger. Variations, one of Beethoven’s favorite forms, is at the heart prestigious Rome Prize awarded to American artists for a year-long residency in Rome. Mr. Bermel of this movement, and the entire Triptych. It is my hope that the spirit of celebration and musical earned his B.A. degree at Yale University and later studied at the University of Michigan. He is meaning that permeates the entire piece, written for this special, musician-founded orchestra of my also an accomplished clarinetist and plays classical repertoire, as well as rock and funk. He home town, will be heard by all. has premiered and performed numerous pieces with major orchestras around the U.S. — JAMES AIKMAN Composer James Aikman was born in Indianapolis and received his musical foundation in Indiana. He attended Butler University, and earned graduate degrees from Indiana University. Mr. Aikman feels strongly about conveying the continuum of musical history and can trace his own compositional lineage back through Beethoven to J. S. Bach. Mr. Aikman has taught at Indiana University, Butler University, and the University of Michigan, as well as directing the composition program for the San Miguel International Chamber Music Festival. MICHAEL-THOMAS FOUMAI (b. 1987) CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS (b. 1967) Lady Dark (2013) Concerto for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra (2002) Lady Dark takes its title from a set of sonnets (nos. 127–152) by William Shakespeare that are known I wrote my bassoon concerto for my good friend Martin Kuuskmann, whom I have known since 1992 as the Dark Lady Sonnets. Unlike Shakespeare’s Fair Youth Sonnets, the Dark Lady Sonnets are much from my days as a student at Yale. Martin always seemed to have an obsessive zeal for mastering more sexual and passionate. They are named The Dark Lady because the poems portray a female figure the bassoon, and he was determined to build a repertory and to represent it in the most visible way. with black hair and shadowy skin. The piece is cast into four continuous movements. Each movement A few years later, Martin was playing with the Absolute Ensemble in New York, and was able explores the myriad of complex emotions of desire, lust, and forbidden love that are expressed in to commission a new work from them, and that is how my piece came to be. At that time, I wrote just Shakespeare’s sonnets. Lady Dark is the winner of the 2014 ICO Contemporary Music Competition. a two-movement piece – the now outer two movements of this version. But later in 2002, when we were offered the possibility of programming it again, I added the current middle movement, which — MICHAEL-THOMAS FOUMAI incorporated elements that had become part of my writing in the interim. The opening movement starts with an introspective cadenza, which then opens into a fast Composer Michael-Thomas Foumai holds degrees in Composition from the University of Hawaii and restless first movement that makes use of several of the materials from the opening cadenza. (B.M.) and the University of Michigan (M.M. and D.M.A.). He has worked with Christopher Rouse, The second movement is based on a kind of melodic ornamentation that one would hear in the Greek Augusta Read Thomas, Robert Beaser, and Steven Stucky, and his composition teachers were Orthodox church – fast inflections of long tones that keep the notes ‘alive’ in time.