On Thursday, April 9th, 2020, 8pm, the Interpretations Series continues its 31st season with founder Thomas Buckner interpreting world premieres. Held at Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY, tickets are $20 for adults / $15 for students & seniors, and available on Roulette.org and Interpretations.info.
Soo Yeon Lyuh with her haegeum
Baritone Thomas Buckner presents his 31st annual concert premiering newly commissioned works. This concert features performers/composers who use varying degrees of improvisation in their works. All composers featured will perform – Earl Howard (synthesizer and saxophones); String Noise’s Pauline Kim Harris (violin); JD Parran (woodwinds); and Buckner himself.
They will be joined by Conrad Harris (violin). Soo Yeon Lyuh (haegeum, a two-stringed Korean bowed instrument); Andrew Drury (percussion).
“Composers who have remained active performers share a quality of spontaneity and individuality that I find particularly appealing,” states Buckner. “The composers on this program have improvised and performed written music with me over many years, and understand through experience how I work, and my particular strengths as a singer. Each has responded to the challenge of writing specifically for me in an original and challenging way.”
WORKS ARE:
Pauline Kim Harris (String Noise)
※ Pauline Kim Harris’s Gold/Crack, a new large-scale composition by violinist/composer Pauline Kim Harris. Written specially for baritone, Thomas Buckner and violin duo, String Noise, it is a trilogy that may be performed in single movements, in pairs or as a whole. The work is inspired by the Korean word “geum,” which means both “gold” and “crack,” evoking the belief that strength comes with imperfection by mending and rebuilding brokenness. Gold/Crack is also inspired by sculptor Yeesookyung’s Translated Vase: a Moon Jar made from discarded fragments of other Moon Jars, held together with 24k gold leaf epoxy; and by a John Ashbury poem, Untitled. The text is interspersed throughout as a reflection of memory and echo of the most inner subconscious.
Earl Howard
※ Earl Howard – “Particle Bey” – for baritone, electronics and live processing, and haegeum is a structured improvisation where the structures are clearly defined, Particle Bey uses binary time (call and response), very slow measured time (where the distance between pulses is long enough to be forgotten), undulating time (flows and splatters), with live electronic processing by the composer.
JD Parran
※ JD Parran – All Most the Blues– for baritone, electronics and live processing, winds, and percussion. Featuring poetry by Michael Castro, a former poet laureate of St. Louis, Missouri. Castro’s words are set to music that combines and juxtaposes both composition and improvisation in order to express the organic, humanistic energy of the poetry.
※ Thomas Buckner’s Declaration of Independence – for baritone, electronics and live processing, winds, haegeum, two violins, drums and percussion is a work that gives shape and form to spontaneous group improvisation.
Listen to Buckner’s singing with this clip from his solo release Inner Journey:
UPCOMING SERIES FINALE PERFORMANCE
※ THURSDAY MAY 7, 2020, 8pm: Mélanie Genin / Mari Kimura – Genin performs new music for harp by Christian Dachez, Michael Greba, Saad Haddad, Pauline Kim Harris, Mantovani, and Ricardo Romaneiro. / Kimura presents her latest motion sensor system MUGIC™ with works by Dai Fujikura, Chinary Ung and a new work of her own.
Highly virtuosic and athletic, the suite seamlessly combines classical and jazz aesthetics, boldly conjuring the spirits of great composers like Kapustin, Gershwin, Gismonti, Hersch, Hancock, Corea, and Mehldau. Playful, romantic, thoughtful, and personal, these Perpetual Motion Etudes present an ambitious journey through modern piano music.
[1] An album:
Recorded at the Yamaha Artist Salon in New York City, the albumwill be released on the Outside In Music label on March 30th, 2020.
Recorded on a Yamaha CFX, a nine-foot concert grand, and funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign, the album features nine new compositions.
Physical and digital distribution for Perpetual Motion Etudes for Solo Piano is through the Outside in Music label, and is available through all major music platforms. The album was engineered by Aaron Ross, and mastered by Joe Patrych.
[2] An accompanying book of sheet music:
Self published by Siskind and edited by concert pianist Spencer Myer, the book is now available for sale in both hard copy and PDF versions at jeremysiskind.com.
Each piece is presented in a through-composed version designed for classical pianists plus additional instructions for each piece intended for improvisors.
[3] A concert tour from MARCH 15 – April 9:
Siskind with Angelin Chang
Siskind will debut Perpetual Motion Etudes in the US.
From March 19th onward, he will be joined by, and performing with, GRAMMY®-winning pianist Angelin Chang.
※ Orange County: March 15, 2020, 5 pm, Wilshire Auditorium 315 E Wilshire Ave, Fullerton, CA ※ Cleveland: March 19, 2020, 7:30 pm, Drinko Recital Hall, Cleveland State University 2001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH ※ Fort Wayne: March 20, 2020, Sweetwater Performance Theater 5501 US-30, Fort Wayne, IN ※ Kalamazoo: March 21, 2020, Kalamazoo College 200 Academy Street, Kalamazoo, MI ※ Chicago: March 22, 2020, 7:00 pm, PianoForte Chicago 1335 South Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL — Free admission ※ New York: March 25, 2020, 7:00 pm, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall 154 W 57th St., New York, NY — Tickets are $35 online via Carnegie Hall ※ Philadelphia: March 27, 2020, 7:30 pm, @exuberance 1220 N Mascher St., Philadelphia, PA
※ Natick: March 28, 2020, 7:30 pm, Falcetti Pianos 579 Worcester St., Natick, MA ※ Los Angeles: April 9, 2020, 9:00 pm, Blue Whale 123 Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka St. #301, Los Angeles, CA — $25 admission
See a full list of performance and teaching dates here.
Siskind says, “I’m a bit obsessed with finding the most orchestral, diverse, and innovative ways to use the piano. Each piece represents a journey into the outer limits of the possibilities of the piano.” He goes on to define ‘perpetual motion’ as having “the pianist’s left hand and right hand work in tandem to fill in any space left by the other – the ceaseless music fits together like gears in an infernal clock.” The impetus for the music came by way of combating anxiety, and to compose through concentration and flow; to be present, expressive, and fluid through the piano. “Although these pieces can’t eliminate [self-negativity], they effectively ‘force’ the issue because they’re written in perpetual motion. There are no rests or breaks between the two hands, which fit together precisely, like the blocks in a well-played game of Tetris or like two dancers dancing intricate steps in a tight space.”
GRAMMY AWARD WINNER, 2019- Songs of Orpheus 61st Annual Grammy Awards
“Superlative music-making… European stylishness combined with American can-do entrepreneurialism” –The Daily Telegraph, London
“At long last, Apollo’s Fire has descended on Chicago. This was as exciting as Baroque music gets.” –Chicago Classical Review (review of Apollo’s Fire’s Chicago debut concert, 2016)
GRAMMY® Award winners Apollo’s Fire and Jeannette Sorrell launch a new semi-annual residency in the Chicago area, beginning with Sorrell’s groundbreaking program, O Jerusalem! – Crossroads of Three Faiths at Northwestern University’s Galvin Recital Hall in Evanston, Illinois, on Thursday, March 12, 2020, 7:30pm. Tickets are $10-60, with discounts for students, seniors, and subscribers of Music of the Baroque and Newberry Consort. Tickets by phone: 1.800.314.2535.
The week before, Apollo’s Fire and Sorrell will bring the same program to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on March 7, 2020 as guests on the Museum’s series for the fifth time.
Premiered last year to sold-out crowds in Cleveland, O Jerusalem! is Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell’s evocation of ancient Jerusalem through the music and poetry of the Jewish, Christian, Arab, and Armenian quarters of the Old City. Selections from Monteverdi’s great Vespers of 1610 echo with Arabic love songs and rapturous singing of Jewish cantors. Stunning projected images designed by Camilla Tassi use 17th-century paintings to bring the Old City to life in visual splendor. At a time of ever-increasing tensions in the Middle East, 25 unique artists from Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim, and Christian backgrounds come together to join in celebration of brotherhood and sisterhood. The sounds of oud, theorbo, medieval harp, vielle, qanoon, strings, wooden flutes, and exotic percussion join with human voices in a celebration of love and shared humanity. Featured performers are Jeannette Sorrell, direction and harpsichord; Amanda Powell, soprano; Jeffrey Strauss and Sorab Wadia, baritones; Zafer Tawil, oud and qanun; Daphna Mor, winds.
Additional videos, photos and program details for “O Jerusalem!” may be found at the Apollo’s Fire website.
With 26 commercial CDs, five European tours to date, and over 3.5 million views of its Youtube videos, Apollo’s Fire is the internationally renowned period-instrument orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire have built in Cleveland one of the nation’s three largest audiences for baroque music – along with Boston and San Francisco. Apollo’s Fire is not only hailed as “the USA’s hottest baroque band” (Classical Music Magazine, UK), but is also the USA’s busiest touring baroque orchestra. The ensemble has played at such venues as Carnegie Hall; the BBC Proms; the Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Aspen Festivals; the Royal Theatre of Madrid; the National Concert Hall of Ireland (Dublin); the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Library of Congress, and many others.
A CHICAGO LOVE-AFFAIR
The March 12 performance at Northwestern University marks the launch of a new semi-annual residency by Apollo’s Fire in the Chicago area. Apollo’s Fire plans to play twice a year in the Windy City, through a combination of partnerships with Chicago-based institutions. In 2020, Apollo’s Fire performs at Northwestern University and the Ravinia Festival. Apollo’s Fire will return to Ravinia for the third time on July 7 to perform J.S. Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos. The ensemble plans additional Chicago-area concerts in November 2020 and March 2021.
“O Jerusalem!” was conceived as a sequel to Sephardic Journey, Sorrell’s previous Jewish program which the Chicago Tribune named as one of its “Best 10 Classical Albums of the Year,” calling it “an absorbing collection of early music, beautifully performed” (2016). Apollo’s Fire made its long-awaited Chicago debut in 2016 on the University of Chicago Presents series, followed by a sold-out debut at the Ravinia Festival in 2017 and a return to Ravinia in 2018.
Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell explained that a regular Chicago residency has been a strategic goal of Apollo’s Fire ever since the 2016 debut. “At the end of our Chicago debut concert at the University of Chicago, we were mobbed by enthusiastic patrons who told us they had been waiting for years to hear the group live, and that we must return twice a year. So we spent a couple of years figuring out how to make that work, and how to do it in the right way,” Sorrell said. “We discussed it with Chicago-based colleagues such as Karen Fishman (former Executive Director of Music of the Baroque, now retired). We wanted to do this in a way that can be beneficial to all of our excellent early music colleagues in Chicago, including Newberry, Haymarket, and Music of the Baroque. We picked a month when none of these groups are performing, in order to launch this residency in a collegial way. Our goal is to build audiences for early music – as we have done in Cleveland – and to do so for the benefit ALL early music ensembles.”
Apollo’s Fire Public Relations Manager Angela Mortellaro said that Apollo’s Fire is collaborating with Music of the Baroque and Newberry on marketing. “Newberry and MOB are kindly helping to promote this concert for us, and we are helping promote some of their concerts.” In addition, Apollo’s Fire is offering ticket discounts to MOB and Newberry subscribers.
REVIEWS FROM THE PREMIERE OF “O JERUSALEM!” – Cleveland, 2018
“A voyage of faith for the 21st century… The entire evening was delivered with urgency, polish, and flair. An ensemble at the peak of their powers.”
–Seen & Heard International
“Captivating… a ravishing musical landscape. A high level of artistry and passionate music-making… gorgeous and stylish. Sorrell should be proud of this enjoyable and unity-striving evening in a time when human divisions are stoked to achieve dangerous ends.”
–Cleveland Classic
On Thursday, December 5th, 2019, 8pm, the Interpretations Series continues it 31st season with composers Elizabeth Brown and Frances White with the Momenta Quartet (momentaquartet.com). Held at Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY, tickets are $20 for adults / $15 for students & seniors, and available on Roulette.org and Interpretations.info. The Momenta Quartet joins forces with composers Elizabeth Brown and Frances White in a multimedia evening fusing Western contemporary music with Japanese aesthetics, literary references, and a video/sculpture installation by artist Lothar Osterburg. This dynamic program features Momenta alongside baritone/narrator Thomas Buckner and Elizabeth Brown in her equal capacity as a master of the shakuhachi: a traditional Japanese flute. The concert includes two new works written specifically for this concert, with commission funds provided by The Sparkplug Foundation and a New Music USA Project Grant.
The NY premiere of Brown’s Dialect for solo shakuhachi, which uses repeating, morphing phrases to trace the evolution of a unique language. Then the world premiere of Babel continues the linguistic theme in a positive spin of the myth, celebrating NYC as a living organism, using multilingual pages and recordings of Emma Lazarus’ verse from the Statue of Liberty. Unlike the traditional story, nothing here is destroyed; instead, it is cumulative, with its architectural history visible, its constant influx of immigrants the source of its life and beauty. And White’s The book of evening for quartet and shakuhachi (also aworld premiere) is drawn from the Mark Strand poem Moon, with the musical arrangement evoking “the moon between the clouds.” Strand’s moon creates a path to “those places where what you had wished for happens.” The music reflects that, evoking a longing for that place, vanishing as the book of evening closes.
Dedicated to the Momenta Quartet, Brown’s Just Visible in the Distancedraws its title, inspiration, and form from W.G. Sebald’s book The Rings of Saturn. The piece, inspired by Sebald’s continuous narrative arc, consists of intuitively-assembled small movements, each flowing into the next.Then White’s And so the heavens turned, for quartet and narrator, contemplates the mystery of storytelling itself. A collaboration with writer James Pritchett and inspired by the 11th-century Persian epic Shahnameh, the text is read before the music and during its closing, evoking at times the anguish and passion of the epic’s mythic lovers, at others a questioning stillness.
Interpretations continues its tradition of playing host to composers, interpreters, and improvisers — artists of both local and international scale, with myriads of approaches to music. On the heels of last year’s acclaimed 30th anniversary, the Interpretations Series is dedicated to nurturing the relationship of innovative composers with the growing community of new music virtuoso performers. “When we started, this was a real need, especially for the more experimental new music,” says Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Buckner. “Now we are experiencing a blossoming of new music groups and solo performers, which makes the series necessary in a new way. There are so many exceptional composers and performers who need a great place to perform.”
※ THURSDAY APRIL 9, 2020: THOMAS BUCKNER Baritone Thomas Buckner presents his 31st annual concert of newly commissioned pieces with works by Earl Howard, JD Parran, Buckner himself — including Gold/Crack, a Mutable Music commissioned work by Pauline Kim-Harris, and performed with String Noise (Kim-Harris and Conrad Harris). The evening also includes performers Soo Yeon Lyuh (haegeum, a two-stringed Korean bowed instrument); Andrew Drury (percussion); Earl Howard (synthesizer and saxophone); JD Parran (reeds).
※ THURSDAY MAY 7, 2020: MÉLANIE GENIN | ENSEMBLE L’ART POUR L’ART Mélanie Genin performs new music for harp by Christian Dachez, Michael Greba, Saad Haddad, Pauline Kim Harris, Mantovani, and Ricardo Romaneiro. / Ensemble L’Art Pour L’Art perform works by Matthias Kawl, Stephan Streich, Killian Schwoon and others. With Matthias Kawl (percussion); Astrid Smelik (flute). Michael Shorder (guitar); plus special guest Thomas Buckner (baritone voice).
For audio and video, and background on composers Brown and White, click here.
For more general information, please visit interpretations.info
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