New season, New work

As the autumnal winds start blowing through the trees outside my apartment, I am reminded that indeed the season has started. Of course - the (painfully) sudden onslaught of practicing, part-making, rehearsing, meetings and emailing has also provided a clear cue as well.

Though I am having a tougher time than usual making this shift from summer to fall, I have particularly enjoyed our rehearsals so far for "Kalas". Having a brand new piece in front of you to discover is always exciting....especially when it is written for you and someone close to you in mind (clarinetist/hubby is my partner in this piece...and also in life).

It has its challenges as well - it's very much like having a mess of puzzle pieces in front of you... some fit, some look like they might fit but you can't figure out how they relate to the puzzle as a whole, and some you just have no idea what to do with them.

Thankfully, the composer Mohammed Fairouz lives just downtown from us, so we had the luxury of working directly with him to help realize the shape and nuances that are often impossible to really notate in the parts. Mohammed has a clear vision of what he wants and sings it for us (which thankfully saves us a lot of rehearsal time to be spent guessing what would be best). For those pieces that are not yet fitting, we play and play again, while also spending time brainstorming how to better interpret or amend what is on the page.

Having said all this, Ben and I are now looking forward to going back into the "studio" and making this piece truly our own as well as Mohammed's. Hope you can all make it on Saturday to see the premiere performance!

Messiaen and Me

I am so pleased that c)i will be performing Quartet for the End of Time next Saturday.  This piece, and the work of Olivier Messiaen in general, are very dear to me, having been present at the very beginning of my life as a composer.  My first composition teacher was Herman Weiss, who as a Fulbright Scholar was a student of Messiaen. He told me a story that he and Messiaen were at a concert with the Quartet on the program.  Herman knew he was coming down with something, and by the intermission felt quite ill.  He attempted to make his apologies to his teacher, but Messiaen told him, “Weiss, if you leave I will never speak to you again.”  Of course, Herman stayed, and fell into bed at the end of the concert.  After a week of the most horrible flu, he staggered to the window of his apartment, to see about some commotion he heard.  And there, on the street below, was a motorcade, and Richard Nixon going by in a convertible, waving. He could not feel sure whether this was a hallucination from the illness, or if it really was Nixon.

Anyway, I heard lots of stories about Messiaen and his music.  The Quartet was the first work I seriously studied “as a composer,” trying to analyze how Messiaen practiced such an economy, or perhaps such a unity, of material and at the same time created such a fantastic breadth of colors, characters, and expression.  He taught me how rhythm bears a strong impact on the perception of pitch. He could take the exact same string of pitches, and in one movement express something harsh, even violent, and then in another movement show it as furtive, quiet, imminent. The Quartet is a work I can go to again and again, and every time I give myself to it I discover something new. 

 And the best way to hear Quartet for the End of Time yourself is definitely to hear the counter)induction version.  As Messiaen would say, “Elle rocke.” Read what Allan Kozinn had to say in The New York Times the last time we performed it…

 MUSIC REVIEW; Beauty Despite Terror and Melancholy

By ALLAN KOZINN

Published: Friday, October 3, 2003

 A facile connection is often made between the apocalyptic vision of Olivier Messiaen's ''Quartet for the End of Time'' and the circumstances of its composition, in a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1941. The work's odd scoring -- piano, violin, clarinet and cello -- reflects the instruments available in Stalag 8A.

 Yet Messiaen's fascination with Catholic mysticism would probably have led him to write this work even if he were free and at peace. His inspiration was not the war but the imagery in Chapter 10 of the Revelation of St. John. And although parts of the score evoke both terrifying power and sublime melancholy, the work mainly strives to offer a glimpse of otherworldly beauty and eternal salvation.

 Given the vividness and variety of Messiaen's writing, it is easy for even an ad hoc chamber group to create an effect with this work. But conveying its full emotional weight and spiritual grandeur, as the new-music ensemble Counter)induction did on Tuesday evening at Christ and St. Stephen's Church in Manhattan, requires an uncommon combination of precision, suppleness and an almost choreographed interpretive approach.

Everything was right: the second, sixth and seventh movements, meant to convey the rainbow coloration and mysterious presence of the angel who announces the end of time, was played with a fiery ensemble virtuosity. Benjamin Fingland's clarinet playing gave substance to Messiaen's depiction of the celestial birds in ''Abîme des Oiseaux.'' And with the steady, perfectly measured support of Blair McMillen's piano, the group's cellist, Sumire Kudo, and its violinist, Asmira Woodward-Page, played the two meditative slow movements with a transforming intensity and beauty of tone.

 The performance was almost shattering enough to make a listener forget all that had gone before it. But the first half of the program was equally worthy. Kyle Bartlett, one of the ensemble's two resident composers (the other is Douglas Boyce), contributed ''Sown Under the Skin of Her Hands,'' a brief, tactile string trio that begins as a study in pianissimo textures but quickly gains thematic coherence and heft. Jukka Tiensuu's ''Beat'' entertainingly explores the tensions between sliding microtonal clarinet and violin lines and the fixed pitch of the piano. And Jessica Meyer, the ensemble's violist, gave a focused, beautifully centered account of Krzysztof Penderecki's unaccompanied Cadenza.

counter)induction: it goes up to eleven.

We’re psyched to announce our 09-10 season—our eleventh! c)i is presenting an exciting and  wide-reaching year of music both brand-new and timeless.   We’re also happy to be playing three out-of-town gigs—two in Philadelphia and one in Syracuse.   

finis terrae

SAT SEP 19 2009, 08:00PM

TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE 

FINIS TERRAE presents renderings of the perimeters of being, its beginning and end, and the space between the real and the notional. Gorecki’s string trio Genesis I imagines the energy and tumult of the foundation of the world, while Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time muses upon its apotheosis and what comes after. Mohammed Fairouz’s new work Kālas, for clarinet and viola, considers the famous line: kālo ‘smi lokakşayakŗt pravŗddho’ (I am time, the mighty destroyer of worlds) from the eleventh chapter of the Bagavad Gita, exploring the connection between enlightenment and mortality.  

c)i @ upenn

SUN NOV 22 2009, 08:00PM 

counter)induction returns to its spawning grounds of the University of Pennsylvania, featuring performances of works from our decade of concert making.  Douglas Boyce’s monumental Deixo | Sonata for viola and piano keeps company with Salvatore Sciarrino’s arresting Centauro Marino, while Eric Moe’s sardonic Dead Cat Bounce, written just for c)i, counterpoints Kyle Bartlett’s transfixing adagio sostenuto.  

codex

SUN MAR 28 2010, 08:00PM

TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE 

THU APR 1 2010, 08:00PM

RED HOUSE ARTS CENTER

CODEX will present an evening of music engaging with the mechanisms and mythologies of musical traditions and their creation, and the possibility of inspirations from sources real and imagined. Starting with a singular, enigmatic, and historically / culturally isolated source, a collection of late-medieval polyphony contained in the codex Torino J.II.9, five composers imagine what a centuries-long tradition flowing from the works and practices of the codex might sound like, producing real works in a fictional tradition.  New works by Peter Gilbert, Christopher Jon Honett, Douglas Boyce, Kyle Bartlett and Ryan Streber will be featured.  

the child is father to the man

SUN MAY 16 2010, 02:00PM

PHILADELPHIA CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY 

FRI MAY 21 2010, 08:00PM

TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE 

THE CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN examines two seminal 20th century composers by presenting their works with those of their students, metaphorically searching for hidden traits expressed in the musical genetics of the next generation. Iannis Xenakis and George Crumb are presented here not as remote figures of genius, but as mentors and master craftsman, shaping the future through their connections with younger composers. Xenakis’s indomitable Ikhoor is balanced by Trio Rombach of Pascal Dusapin, his only recognized student.  Kyle Bartlett, one of Crumb’s last pupils, will present a world premiere companion to Crumb’s timeless Eleven Echoes of Autumn. 

Keep your browsers pointed to counter)induction on Facebook, the counter)induction YouTube channel, on our blog, and the website, for updates, concert footage, podcasts, and more!  See you on September 19th!

Review in the Times and Upcoming NYC Season!

Hello counter)induction fans!

I hope everyone is having a great summer, and wanted to give everyone an update on everything c)i.

Our 10th anniversary show was a great success, and we were so happy to open the paper a few days after to find this review in the NY Times. CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK

All in all, it was an inspiring end to our decade, and a wonderful incentive to make our upcoming one even more exciting.

Sadly, our violinist Sharon Roffman has had to leave us - but for very good reasons. She is now living abroad and is in the middle of deciding which of the plum jobs offered to her she should take. However, we are more than pleased to announce that Miranda Cuckson will be joining us for our season this year. Miranda is no stranger to c)i, and you can hear her playing with Sumi and I on Doug Boyce's "102nd and Amsterdam" in our web site's Listening Room.

Also listed is our upcoming season here in NYC, so put the dates in your book now! Stay tuned for more news about our upcoming concerts in Syracuse and Philadelphia....

'Deixo | Sonata' performance video

A video of Jessica Meyer and Steve Beck playing my 'Deixo | Sonata' at Merkin Hall in June; an extraordinary performance!

More video clips from our Merkin Hall show will become available in the next few weeks, and we'll post them all here!

Finally, my first post as a member of c)i!

It's so exciting on so many levels for me to be involved with the RW>>FFWD program.  I'm still getting my bearings in general as the newest member of the band, so the fact that the first c)i concert with which I'll be involved as an "official member" also happens to be the 10th anniversary concert is an honor and a thrill.  I've been lucky to work with c)i in various capacities over the past couple of years, first as a composer, then as an engineer and recordist, then as a curator for a new program (stay tuned for more!) and now as a part of the family.    I continue to be amazed by the abilities, energy, and intellect of everyone in the group, and I can only hope to contribute something to this already wonderful and singular ensemble.  

Of course, a part of my excitement in advance of Monday evening derives from Sumi's US premiere of my Partita for solo cello. I wrote it for her in 2007 for a premiere in Japan, and I still haven't heard the piece live myself.  Hearing the recording of the premiere, and especially listening to her play through it more recently, I am blown away by how easily and beautifully she brings the various strands of the piece to life, giving each voice in the work's dialogue its own distinctive character while maintaining the unity of the whole structure.   It's so rare as a composer to put a new piece in front of a performer and almost immediately hear back exactly what you had in mind.  I'm fortunate to have had such an experience with Sumi and Partita, and I can't thank her enough for it. Beyond this one piece, though, I really have Sumi to thank for introducing me to c)i and being such a strong advocate for my involvement.  

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Monday and throughout the upcoming c)i season! 

SONATA: TAKE 2

It is not often that I get another shot at performing a piece in the same town so soon - and at this moment, when logistical details of our big 10th Anniversary show are swirling around me, I am so very glad that I gave a preview of Douglas's piece last month at the New York Viola Society's collegial concert. It gives a chance for not only the performers, but the piece itself to get a rest in between and an opportunity for reflection and revision before being launched into sonic space again.

Rehearsals now are a bit different as well. Instead of wondering, "what do you have there? how does this fit together?", we are able to concentrate on more of the nuances and flow of the piece. However, since Doug did do a slew of little revisions that are not very obvious to the scanning eye at first, there were certainly a bunch of moments when Steve and I looked at each other and said "was this a 7/8 bar before?, what ARE you playing over there?".

It is also fascinating for me to see what my muscles remember a month later and to subtly train them to make these changes while simultaneously exploring how these new ideas effect the phrasing and pacing of this piece - and ultimately, how I feel when playing it. 30 days of just plain living has passed in that time, and just that alone can make a piece different...and hopefully better.