C4 : The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective
1 on 1
Thursday, November 13, Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY
Saturday, November 15, Church of St. Luke in the Fields, New York, NY

Works on the Program

*Take Me Bach                                    Timothy Brown (b. 1963)
Perry Townsend, conductor
Nicholas Gallas, clarinet

*Spectrum                                            Lisa Whitson Burns (b. 1983)
1. I should be thinking sunshine
2. Not quite verdant yet
3. Like painter’s water
4. Swallow me whole Charybdis
5. Eddies in the backyard creek
6. You diffuse like Alka-Seltzer
7. I never really knew my grandfather
8. It wants to Be lace
9. You, you are Chiclets
10. Make your hair nest, Bird-of-Paradise
13. Primarily
Daniel Andor-Ardó, conductor
Melissa Bybee, Natalie Chamat, Perry Townsend,
Brian Mountford, solo voices; Jonathan Singer, vibraphone

Tihei, Mauri Ora                                Christopher Marshall (b. 1956)He Karakia
He Peruperu
He Himine
VI. He Karakia (reprise)
Colin Britt, conductor
Fahad Siadat, solo in He Himine; Nicholas Gallas, clarinet

Intermission

*The Day the Saucers Came                Bettina Sheppard (b. 1961)
Karen Siegel, conductor
Bettina Sheppard, theremin

Lamentations for a City                        Lisa Bielawa (b. 1968)
Timothy Brown, conductor
Karen Birch Blundell, English Horn

Shar Ki Ri                                            Andrea Clearfield (b. 1960)
Martha Sullivan, conductor
Jonathan Singer, vibraphone

*Bubbles                                            Bill Heigen (b. 1980)
Fahad Siadat, conductor
Anastasia Wiebe, dancer and bubbles

* Premiere

Program Notes and Texts

2014–2015 is C4’s tenth season! To mark
the occasion, we have programmed three
cycles of music that reflect the idea of
number in some way.
The first is 1 on 1. Music for choir plus
one instrument opens up expressive
possibilities not available to a cappella
choir. At its best, it allows the instrument
to say things that voices alone—even
with text—cannot. Certainly Lisa Bielawa’s
“Lamentations for a City” accomplishes
this with the cries of the English horn
embodying the composer’s grief (and our
own) after 9/11. Bettina Sheppard gives
voice to strangeness by using the theremin,
since no human voice can ever sound like
its home is somewhere other than Earth.
And Bill Heigen’s “Bubbles” explores how
far voices can take a metaphor, and what
happens when one term of the metaphor
is made real.

An accompanying instrument can also
weave through a vocal texture and create
coherence, leading the ear into the music.
Tim Brown exploits this deftly with the
wandering clarinet in “Take Me Bach”; Lisa
Whitson Burns uses the vibraphone to the
same end in a very different set of short
pieces, “Spectrum.” And Andrea Clearfield’s
“Shar Ki Ri” strips the vibraphone part
down to a single note around which
women’s voices weave their texture.
Christopher Marshall’s “Tihei, Mauri Ora”
does both: Sometimes the clarinet weaves
its way into chanted textures and binds
them together; at other times, it sings a
line that diverges from a simple men’s
choral texture so sharply that we know the
truth in our bones: Some things cannot be
said, cannot even be sung.
- Martha Sullivan

* * * * *

Take Me Bach
Timothy Brown

(without text)

Two seasons ago, I wrote a piece for C4 that
expressed my personal anxiety over the sheer
magnitude in our world of communication
through words, both aural and written. Those
anxieties are mirrored for me in the sheer
volume of music constantly swirling around us,
pouring in from all sides. I’m disheartened at
times by the seeming impossibility of having
something original to say, of speaking in a
musical voice that is wholly my own.
So, in “Take Me Bach” I’ve abandoned any
attempt at originality, using an old favorite
prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book
1 (the 22nd in B-flat minor). I allowed myself
to stick to tonality and to meander between
simplicity and complexity, fun and fury, angst
and bliss. You’ll hear many passages that are
note-for-note from the Bach source. In other
segments the material is abstracted. But I’ve
strayed not at all from the harmonic language
Bach reveled in back in 1722.

The clarinet’s role in the piece is like an actor
wandering around the stage having forgotten
his lines. He isn’t really sure if the mood of the
moment is serious, and he seems to be trying
for silly. His attempt to jazz things up leads to
an entire passage that’s a nod to the Swingle
Singers—another non-original (but fun) idea.
It’s my hope that you’ll join me in taking the
piece not at all seriously, but simply enjoy
hearing Bach’s great voice translated by a
seriously confused contemporary composer.
MANY THANKS to my colleagues of C4 for
taking the piece on.
—Timothy Brown

Spectrum
Lisa Whitson Burns
text by Christopher Staskel

1.
I should be thinking sunshine,
But all I see is imperfection.
Jaundiced skin, raised and reaching.
Sickly lemon bruises, sinking.
I should be thinking sunshine,
But all I see is imperfection.

2.
Not quite verdant yet,
You’re less like blades of grass pinched between my thumbs,
Emitting proud, but tiny elephant sounds,
And more like slips of Easter grass
My cat chokes on.

3.
Like painter’s water, cup of murky.
Garden hose, pinched.
You scream like a coked-up Julie Andrews on the Austrian hillside.

4.
Swallow me whole Charybdis,
You bloated-on-topaz Narcissus

5.
Eddies in the backyard creek
Crinkle like Saran wrap.

6.
You diffuse like Alka-Seltzer
And leave a fine silt behind.
I’ve pushed your crumbs to the foot of my bed.

7.
Eggplant, age spot.
Storm clouds, peacock, damp towels, full stop.
Cushions for a chair not for sitting on.
I never really knew my grandfather, but I knew
He held me when I was a baby.

8.
It wants to
Be lace, but
It plays too
Rough.

9.
You, you are Chiclets. You, you are scuzz breath.
I get you stuck in my head, cuz you are onetrack.
I get you stuck in my head, then blow my brains out.
Yeah, yeah, I splatter the wall with Pepto-Bismol.

10.
Make your hair nest, Bird-of-Paradise!
Frizz it out for social mixers!
Buy a treadmill! Wear leg warmers!
Serve your salad with grapefruit slices!

13.
Primarily--
Like highlighters want to be present, have merit,
And have their highlations be as important as
the words they illuminate,
Or like dogs urinate on fresh snow--
Primarily, we want to leave an impression.

Ellsworth Kelly’s Spectrum V, which is on display
in the Modern and Contemporary Art wing
of the Met (gallery 924), consists of thirteen
separate panels, each approximately seven feet
tall, and each painted a single color. (To see this
artwork, visit this website: http://tinyurl.com/
spectrum5). When Chris and I decided to write
a choral piece inspired by the work, we wanted
to capture both the distinct character of each
color and the sense of balance and cohesion of
the spectrum as a whole.

Musically, I undertook the experiment of
creating a harmonic spectrum. Just as each
panel in Kelly’s work has only one color of
paint, each miniature movement of “Spectrum”
is based on a single harmonic color, a six-note
chord type. For example, the first movement,
which corresponds to a blaring yellow panel,
uses a six-note chromatic cluster, a chord built
entirely of half-steps. And just as neighboring
panels in Spectrum V are most similar in color,
consecutive movements in “Spectrum” are
most closely related harmonically. By building
this progression, I hope to capture the overall
experience of a spectrum—that of traveling a
great distance in small steps, unaware in the
moment of the gradual changes that are taking
place within the harmony.

Looking back, I realize that Chris and I have not
created the choral equivalent of Spectrum V,
because while Kelly limited himself strictly to
varying only one element, color, from panel to
panel, our piece functions in many dimensions.
It is as though we took from Kelly’s work not a
series of painted canvases, but rather thirteen
blocks of brightly colored clay, which we
shaped freely into musical sculptures.
—Lisa Whitson Burns

Tihei, Mauri Ora
Christopher Marshall

Christopher Marshall’s “Tihei, Mauri Ora!” is
a cycle of settings of Māori texts, originally
performed by the Washington Men’s Camerata
in 2003. The Māori language and people are
native to New Zealand, and the four movements
performed by C4 are settings of anonymous
chants originally intended for various rites and
ceremonies from the native traditions.

“He Karakia” is thought originally to be a part of
the baptismal rite. Marshall’s setting captures
the exhilarating rush of energy and exuberance
expressed by the text, with sweeping glissandi
and broad parallel harmonies.

Breathe, life spirit in the light of day!
There is plenty inland,
Plenty in the sea,
Enough food even for a chief;
Breathe, living soul!

“He Peruperu” is an ancient war chant,
comparing the image of daylight conquering
darkness to a triumphant force on the
battlefield. The movement is completely
spoken and shouted, with the added element
of body percussion to heighten the dramatic
declamation of text. The clarinet further
articulates the warlike spirit with wild, primitive
sounding cries and trills.

I strike, you strike!
My weapon is strong in battle,
Where does it come from? From ancient times!
My club moves swiftly, it’s called Poroku!
Its thong was tied in darkness,
So my eyes would be like stars!
Oh! It is day, ah!

“He Himine” is an evening hymn, setting a text
coming from the Northland in the mid 19th
century. The only setting of the cycle to draw
on Christian imagery, it invokes the name of
Kiri, presumably a relative who has died,
encouraging her to follow Christ to the Mount
of Olives and eventually to paradise. While the
harmonies resemble a traditional Wesleyan
hymn, the clarinet joins in a half-step higher,
adding a tense and often jarring descant to the
tranquility of the choral harmonies. At the end,
during a final Amen, whistling from the choir
evokes the sound of native birds, the korimako
and tui, as heard near the city of Dunedin.

In the evening, I lie thinking in my bed;
How strong is my faith in prayer!
Let us embrace God’s law,
While angels watch over you.
Kiri, go forth to the Mount of Olives,
Where Jesus rose up into the sky.
I allowed you to go to Jehovah’s land,
And your spirit went up to Canaan.
Those who believe will receive God’s blessing;
Those who are evil will be punished by death.

Marshall reprises his setting of “He Karakia,”
with added vocal harmonies and a turbulent
clarinet part that bring the cycle to a dramatic
finish. The resulting symmetry of the outer
movements create a satisfying cohesiveness to
the whole work, while capturing the breathless
wonderment of the Māori invocation.
— Colin Britt

The Day the Saucers Came
Bettina Sheppard
Text by Neil Gaiman

That Day, the saucers landed.
Hundreds of them, golden,
Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,
And the people of Earth stood and stared as they descended,
Waiting, dry-mouthed, to find out what waited inside for us
And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow
But you didn’t notice because
That day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,
Was the day that the graves gave up their dead
And the zombies pushed up through soft earth or erupted, shambling, dull-eyed, unstoppable,
Came towards us, the living, and we screamed and ran,
But you did not notice this because
On the saucer day, which was zombie day, it was
Ragnarok also, and the television screens showed us
A ship built of dead-men’s nails, a serpent, a wolf,
All bigger than the mind could hold, and the cameraman could
Not get far enough away, and then the Gods came out
But you did not see them coming because
On the saucer-zombie-battling-gods day the floodgates broke
And each of us was engulfed by genies and sprites
Offering us wishes and wonders and eternities
And charm and cleverness and true brave hearts and pots of gold
While giants feefofummed across the land and killer bees,
But you had no idea of any of this because
That day, the saucer day, the zombie day,
The Ragnarok and fairies day, the day the great winds came
And snows and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of the
Time Machine day,
You didn’t notice any of this because you were sitting in your room,
not doing anything not even reading, not really, just looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.

This setting of “The Day the Saucers Came”
was begun at the 2014 Composers’ Forum at
Lehigh University (ACDA sponsorship, mentors
Steven Sametz and Tania León). Neil Gaiman’s
text lends itself to playful theatricality, with its
comment on self-absorption in the midst of a
multitude of apocalyptic events. The logical
choice of accompaniment (if indeed it can
be called a “logical” instrument) is the otherworldly
theremin. My thanks to C4 for tackling
the Zombies!
—Bettina Sheppard

Lamentations for a City
Lisa Bielawa

A reading from the Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet:
ALEPH (1:1)
How lonely sits the city
That was full of people!
How like a widow has she become,
She that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the cities
Has become a vassal.
BETH (1:2)
She weeps bitterly in the night,
Tears on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers
She has none to comfort her;
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.
They have become her enemies.
DALETH (1:4)
The roads to Zion mourn,
For none come to the appointed feasts;
All her gates are desolate,
Her priests groan;
Her maidens have been dragged away,
And she herself suffers bitterly.
ZAYIN (1:7)
Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and bitterness
All the precious things that were hers from days of old…
ALEPH (4:1)
How the gold has grown dim,
How the pure gold is changed!
The holy stones lie scattered
At the head of every street.
YOD (2:10)
The elders of the daughter of Zion
Sit on the ground in silence;
They have cast dust on their heads
And put on sackcloth;
The maidens of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads to the ground.
KAPH (2:11)
My eyes are spent with weeping;
My soul is in tumult;
My heart is poured out in grief
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
MEM (2:13)
What can I say to you, to what compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For vast as the sea is your ruin;
Who can restore you?

Additional Texts: Paraphrased from web news sources around the world
(ALEPH)
no information about his condition is available
he said such meetings are commonplace
then they sent a tape that was supposed to contain their demands
even in cases where the cause was known,
records sometimes don’t specify
they offer moral support but no military training
he also urged national restraint
he urged them to show love and respect for foreigners
as the initial investigation showed
both buses departed from the central bus station in the city
they were also aboard the plane
higher authorities were aware of abuses
(BETH)
they observed a minute’s silence
refusing to cooperate for fear of their lives
refusing for years to cooperate
have been there for months without being charged
they can be held indefinitely
they were aware of abuses
they take all necessary measures
they observed a minute’s silence
(DALETH)
fighting broke out around 5
for sure there will be retaliation
found in the car further to the South
He said such meetings are commonplace
He vowed to take revenge for Thursday’s killings
He announced instead that he was firing all his ministers
He tried to return but was not allowed in
He hasn’t spoken since
He visited the center
He urged them to show love and respect
Hundreds of armed fighters
(ZAYIN)
relations between the two countries are so close
they routinely share classified information
they can be held indefinitely if considered a security threat
a danger looms that he could be held responsible
heightened regional tensions
raising the specter of a raid
before the woman reported him
the harsh criticism he received
(YOD)
these comments are a basis for mutiny
security forces will conduct multiple arrests
sending a huge column of smoke up into the air
a soldier must fulfill orders
security forces
sending smoke
sirens went off
soldiers escaping
because of the destruction
the soldiers felt their lives were at risk
no crime goes unpunished
I don’t know why this happened to us
you traitor, stop pretending and wait
the destruction of the daughter of my people
leave them out of this ugly game
sending a huge column of smoke into the air
the retaliation will be justified
hundreds of armed fighters are ready
for sure there will be retaliation
a soldier must fulfill orders
explosives were found in the car
I don’t want to describe what I saw
refusing for years to cooperate
witnesses refusing for fear of their lives
they are ready for future attacks
I don’t know why this happened
I don’t want to describe what I saw

Premiere: November 14, 2004,
Cerddorian Vocal Ensemble,
conducted by Kristina Boerger

The poet of the Lamentations of Jeremiah was
witness to the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BCE.
His descriptions of the details of suffering are
painfully vivid, and his passionate eulogy to the
wounded city takes its literary place alongside
Euripides’s heartbreaking verses to the fallen
Troy or W.G. Sebald’s searching inquiries into
the rubble of Dresden.

When I wrote these Lamentations I was on
retreat in Umbria, a valley of walled cities
with ghosts at every gate. The now-serene
and quaint countryside has a deep history of
brutality. When we see Renaissance paintings
of cities, they appear abstracted to us, little
units cradled, perhaps, in a saint’s hand. But in
Umbria these pictures seemed not so far from
the truth. There I saw cities as they had been
for millennia, until relatively recently: jewels on
hilltops, elegantly poised for self-defense but
mercilessly vulnerable when penetrated.

Troy, Jerusalem, Perugia, Dresden, Hiroshima,
New York, Baghdad, Beslan, Jerusalem again.
Sometimes great poets witness the raping of
great cities. But in September 2004 I turned
instead to the hemorrhaging web media for
crisis reports from cities all over the world. This
language appears as background texture in
Lamentations for a City to give testimony to
the vitality of the human tradition of bringing
cities to their knees through cruelty, treason,
humiliation and destruction.
—Lisa Bielawa

Shar Ki Ri
Andrea Clearfield
Translation by Katey Blumenthal, Karma Wangyal Gurung, and Sienna Craig

Do not look toward the eastern mountain--
Look instead toward the western mountain.
Look up to the heights, and down to the depths of the mountain,
Toward the places of wealth, the pure treasure of the dharma.
Do not look toward the eastern mountain--
Look instead toward the western mountain,
For this is the root place, the copper-colored paradise of Guru Rinpoche.
Do not look to the hills of India--
Instead look to the place of pure treasure and excellent perception,
A place of future accomplishment for sentient beings.
May we be prosperous!

The Venerable Losang Sampten, Spiritual
Director, Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Center of
Philadelphia, interprets the text:
“Do not destroy the culture (life) of the Tibetan
people. The underlying meaning is that one
should not look to the past (i.e., the East, where
the sun has already risen), but instead look to
the future (i.e., the West, where the sun has
not yet set). One should do good and build a
profound spiritual practice.”

“Shar Ki Ri” is excerpted from my large-scale
2012 cantata Tse Go La (At the Threshold of
This Life), scored for SATB and SSA choruses,
chamber orchestra, and electronics. The work
is inspired by my fieldwork in the restricted,
remote Himalayan region of Lo Monthang
in Upper Mustang, Nepal. There I recorded
and documented indigenous folk music with
Katey Blumenthal, ethnomusicologist and
anthropologist.

The people of this region, just over the border
of Tibet, are ethnically Tibetan. This ancient
horse culture is threatened, and efforts are
being made to help preserve its music, dance,
medicine, religion, language, and art. Under
the auspices of the Rubin Foundation, Katey
and I recorded 130 songs that had not been
previously documented. Our recordings are
now part of the University of Cambridge
World Oral Literature Project, an “urgent global
initiative to document and make accessible
endangered oral literatures before they
disappear without record.” Some of the original
songs that we recorded (including “Shar Ki Ri”)
are being taught to Mustangi children in New
York City as part of a Himalayan language and
culture preservation initiative.

“Shar Ki Ri” is a tro-glu song (common folk song
that often includes dance). Three women from
the community, Kheng Lhamo, Yandol Dolkar,
and Pena Dolkar, had a vast knowledge of troglu
they learned from their elders. “Shar Ki Ri”
was one of many songs they performed for us.
I incorporated the traditional text, melody, and
rhythm into a contemporary framework.
The Tse Go La cantata was co-commissioned
by the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia,
Alan Harler, Artistic Director, and Pennsylvania
Girlchoir, member choir of Commonwealth
Youthchoirs, Susan Ashbaker, Executive
Director, as a way to bring these songs for the
first time to the United States. This commission
was made possible through the Mendelssohn
Club Alan Harler New Ventures Fund; a gift of
the Pennsylvania Girlchoir Class of 2010; a gift
from Emily Carr, in memory of Margaret Owen;
and the Archie W. and Grace Berry Foundation;
it was also supported, in part, by a grant from
the American Composers Forum, Philadelphia
Chapter. Tse Go La was premiered at Holy Trinity
Church, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA,
on April 29, 2012.

With gratitude to the Rockefeller Foundation’s
Bellagio Center, the MacDowell Colony, the
Ragdale Foundation, and the Virginia Center
for the Creative Arts for providing invaluable
time and space to compose this work.
—Andrea Clearfield

Bubbles
Bill Heigen

Bubble. Life is like a bubble.
Born from the breath of Time,
And hovers aimlessly through the sky.
Travels among the stars joining other bubbles
Or sometimes all alone.
But it never stops.
And suddenly, just like a short breath, it dies.
Many are born and die, and life keeps moving, finite and eternally.
Fly bubble, fly. Your life is brief.
Your time is now.
Fly.

“Bubbles” was composed in New York City in
2014. The text is an attempt to compare life
with a bubble. A bubble has a brief life, and
during its journey can meet other bubbles,
can be taken anywhere by the wind, can hover
high or low, fast or slow, and all of a sudden can
simply “die”. So as our lives. The message is to
live your life now, because it is short.
The texture is varied with distinct moments
of vocal representations of bubbles, male
and female choirs, double mixed choir,
improvisation based on real bubbles, and
changes of keys, dynamics, rhythms, and
tempos.

* * * * *

Composer on the Program

Lisa Bielawa

Composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa is a 2009 Rome
Prize winner in Musical Composition. She takes
inspiration for her work from literary sources
and close artistic collaborations. Gramophone
reports, “Bielawa is gaining gale force as a
composer, churning out impeccably groomed
works that at once evoke the layered precision
of Vermeer and the conscious recklessness
of Jackson Pollock,” and The New York Times
describes her music as, “ruminative, pointillistic
and harmonically slightly tart.”

Born in San Francisco into a musical family, Lisa
Bielawa played the violin and piano, sang, and
wrote music from early childhood. She moved
to New York two weeks after receiving her
B.A. in Literature in 1990 from Yale University,
and became an active participant in New York
musical life. She began touring with the Philip
Glass Ensemble in 1992, and has also premiered
and toured works by John Zorn, Anthony
Braxton, and Michael Gordon. In 1997 she cofounded
the MATA Festival, which celebrates
the work of young composers. Bielawa was
appointed Artistic Director of the acclaimed
San Francisco Girls Chorus in 2013 and is an
artist-in-residence at Grand Central Art Center
in Santa Ana, California.

Recent premieres include a Radio France
commission for Ensemble Variances – the new
15-minute work was performed in Paris, Rouen,
and Metz as part of a program called Cri Selon
Cri or “Cry by Cry” which explores the idea that
the cry is a primary sound shared by animals
and humans from all cultures of the world.
Other recent highlights include the world
premieres of Rondolette by the string quartet
Brooklyn Rider and pianist Bruce Levingston,
Double Duet by the Washington Saxophone
Quartet (with subsequent performances by the
Prism Saxophone Quartet), Graffiti dell’amante
by Bielawa with the Chicago Chamber
Musicians in Chicago and with Brooklyn Rider
in New York, Harrisburg, and Rome.

Bielawa’s work Chance Encounter comprises
songs and arias constructed of speech
overheard in transient public spaces, and was
premiered by soprano Susan Narucki and The
Knights in Lower Manhattan’s Seward Park. A
project of Creative Capital, the 35-minute work
for roving soprano and chamber ensemble has
since been performed at the Whitney Museum
of American Art in New York, in Vancouver,
Venice, and in Rome on the banks of the Tiber
River in partnership with urban placemaker
Robert Hammond, a founder of The High Line
in New York.

Bielawa’s latest work for performance in
public places is Airfield Broadcasts, a massive
60-minute work for hundreds of musicians
that premiered on the tarmac of the former
Tempelhof Airport in Berlin (May 2013) and
was later performed at Crissy Field in San
Francisco (October 2013). Bielawa turns these
former airfields into vast musical canvases, as
professional, amateur and student musicians
execute a spatial symphony.

Bielawa’s discography includes A Handful of
World (Tzadik); The Trojan Women on a disc
entitled First Takes (TROY); Hildegurls: Electric
Ordo Virtutum, (Innova); The Trojan Women
in a version for string quartet performed by
the Miami on The NYFA Collection (Innova);
In medias res(BMOP/sound), a double-disc
set of Bielawa’s solo and orchestral works; the
world premiere recording of Chance Encounter
(Orange Mountain Music), and Elegy-Portrait
on pianist Bruce Levingston’s 2011 album,
Heart Shadow (Sono Luminus).

For more information, please visit www.lisabielawa.net.

Timothy Brown

Timothy Brown completed his BA at the
University of North Texas and has been a choral
professional for more than 30 years, directing
and singing with high school, community, and
chamber choirs. As a composer, Tim focused
for a time on music for the theatre. His Curious
George toured nationally for over ten years,
and his songs were showcased at the West Bank
Theatre, the BMI Workshop, and in the Donnell
Library ‘Songbook,’ and—most recently—in A
Trace of Love, an evening devoted entirely to
his music with six collaborating lyricists. Tim
also studied at the Manhattan School of Music
with Nils Vigeland. His Incidental Dance Suite
was premiered at Merkin Concert Hall, and
Epitaph: Songs on Poems of Dorothy Parker
was recorded by Metropolitan Opera mezzosoprano
Theadora Hanslowe. Tim’s church
music includes Christ Our Passover and Eloi,
Lama Sabbachtani, both commissioned and
premiered through The Church of the Heavenly
Rest, New York.

Lisa Whitson Burns

Lisa Whitson Burns is a composer, dramatist,
and educator, originally from Honolulu, Hawaii.
She holds a BA from Harvard University and an
MFA from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing
Program at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. In
addition to creating new work, Lisa is passionate
about exploring music and theatre with youth
in underserved communities internationally,
through the non-profit organization she
founded, Far Corners Community Musical
Theatre (www.farcornersmusicals.org).

Andrea Clearfield

Andrea Clearfield is an award-winning
composer of music for orchestra, chorus,
chamber ensemble, dance, and multimedia
collaborations. She has been praised by
the New York Times for her “graceful tracery
and lively, rhythmically vital writing”, the
Philadelphia Inquirer for her “compositional
wizardry” and “mastery with large choral and
instrumental forces”, the L.A. Times for her “fluid
and glistening orchestration” and by Opera
News for her “vivid and galvanizing” music of
“timeless beauty”. Her works are performed
widely in the U.S. and abroad. Among her 100
works are ten cantatas, including one for The
Philadelphia Orchestra. Her cantata Tse Go La,
for double chorus, electronics and chamber
orchestra, incorporates Tibetan melodies that
she was documenting in the remote Himalayan
region of Lo Monthang, Nepal. She is currently
writing an opera on the life of the Tibetan
yogi Milarepa to a libretto by Jean-Claude van
Itallie and Lois Walden, commissioned by Gene
Kaufman and Terry Eder, to premiere in 2015.
Dr. Clearfield was awarded fellowships at the
American Academy in Rome, the Rockefeller
Foundation’s Bellagio Center, Civitella Ranieri,
Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, among
others. She was recently visiting composer
at the University of Chicago, the College of
William and Mary, the University of Texas at
Austin, and the St. Petersburg Conservatory
in Russia; she is the featured composer in the
2014 Women Composers Festival of Hartford.
She is in demand as a curator, speaker, music
panelist, and adjudicator. She earned her
DMA from Temple University, where she was
honored as a distinguished alumna, an MM
from the University of the Arts, and a BA from
Muhlenberg College, where she received the
Alumni Achievement in the Arts Award. She
is the pianist in the Relâche Ensemble and the
founder and host of the renowned Philadelphia
Salon concert series, now celebrating its
27th year featuring contemporary, classical,
jazz, electronic, dance, and world music,
and winner of Philadelphia Magazine’s 2008
“Best of Philadelphia” award.

More at www.andreaclearfield.com.

Bill Heigen

Bill Heigen is a composer, singer, arranger,
and musical director. He has received national
awards in Brazil for his vocal arrangements
and his choral directing. He has composed
some musical theater shows, been the
musical director of multiple vocal groups,
and performed in many other professional a
cappella ensembles, singing many musical
styles—from bossa nova and Brazilian popular
music to Renaissance repertoire. He is also
a voice teacher/vocal coach and has taught
music theory courses at various conservatories
and universities in Brazil. He now lives in New
York City, finishing his Master’s degree in
Composition at Hunter College.

More at www.billheigen.com

Christopher Marshall

Christopher Marshall is a New Zealand freelance
composer, born in France and currently based
in Florida, as composer-in-residence at the
University of Central Florida in Orlando. His
music has been commissioned and performed
by such groups as the New Zealand Symphony
Orchestra, the Verdehr Trio, and some of the
world’s finest choirs and wind ensembles. His
choral and, more recently, his wind ensemble
works are responsible for a rapidly growing
international reputation.

Marshall’s music is notable for the importance
it attaches to memorable, singable melody.
Many influences can be detected, including
the traditional music of the Maori and other
cultures of the South Pacific. His works for
wind ensemble or symphonic band include
Okaoka (C. Alan Publications), Aue!, L’Homme
Armé: Variations, and Resonance (all published
by Maecenas U.K.), U Trau (E.C. Schirmer),
and a concerto for piano and wind ensemble
awaiting publication. Christopher Marshall
holds a Fellowship in Composition from Trinity
College, London (FTCL) and a Master of Music
with Honours from Auckland University in
New Zealand. He was awarded the Mozart
Fellowship at the University of Otago for two
years from 1994 and was a Fulbright Composer
in Residence at the Eastman School from 1996
to 1997.

Bettina Sheppard

Bettina works extensively now as a singer,
pianist, and composer, after many years spent
in dramatic and musical theatre. She holds
graduate degrees from both the University
of Virginia and CUNY, where she studied
composition with Chris Theofanidis and Shafer
Mahoney; she has also studied composition
at Juilliard with Conrad Cummings. Some
completed works include a song cycle of Emily
Dickinson poetry performed at Lincoln Center’s
Alice Tully Hall; settings of Millay poetry
commissioned for the American Cathedral
in Paris; a song cycle of Kaneko poetry;
stage productions, including TraumNovela
(Barrow Street Theatre, Barcelona, Dallas); 365
Days/365 Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks at Barrow
Street Theatre and The Public Theater; Hell
(dance production at City Center); The Picture
of Dorian Grey; and Kindly Direct Me To Hell: An
Evening With Dorothy Parker. She created the
new group Bridges Vocal Ensemble, presenting
her compositions of various cultures and
time periods, in venues such as Carnegie Hall
and City Center. Bettina is presently working
on the new opera Stillwaters. Also in the
works is an opera based on Welsh folk tales
of The Mabinogian. Solus, her CD of original
material, was released under her Welsh name,
Brythonwen. Serving as musical director for
numerous theatrical productions, she has
also directed and performed with many vocal
groups from madrigal to rock, and created the
jazz harmony group Satin Dolls. She is the inhouse
composer for New York Open Center, and
a member of The Sound and Music Institute, an
innovative group of multicultural musicians
who are exploring the effects of both archaic
and modern music in today’s world. Members
include Grammy Award winner David Darling,
the late Don Campbell, John Beaulieu, Silvia
Nakkach, Layne Redmond, and Pat Moffit
Cook. Bettina is the author of The Everything
Singing Book, published by Adams Media, and
is on faculty at City College CUNY.


Guest Artists on the Program

Karen Birch Blundell (english horn)

Karen Birch Blundell, oboe and English
horn, freelances in New York City, where
she has performed with the American
Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic,
North Eastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic,
Westchester Philharmonic, and Long Island
Philharmonic. She is also a member of
the Exponential Ensemble, participating
in community engagement programs
throughout the city in a variety of venues.
During the summer she performs with Eastern
Festival Orchestra as English horn/Associate
Principal and is a member of the Eastern Music
Festival oboe faculty.

Karen spent four years as the Second Oboe
for the Sarasota Orchestra. Prior to that
appointment, she was Co-Principal Oboe/
English horn with the New World Symphony
under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.
She has also served as the Principal oboist for
the Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria in Mexico City
and has performed with the Florida Orchestra,
Naples Philharmonic, Florida Philharmonic,
National Repertory Orchestra, Houston Ballet,
Houston Symphony, New Sousa Band, and the
Festival dei due Mondi (Spoleto, Italy). She has
appeared internationally in France, Germany,
Russia, China, Japan, Italy, Mexico, the Cayman
Islands and Panama. In April of 2007 she was
invited to be an Artist-in-Residence for the
Whim Museum concert series in St. Croix. As
part of this project, she commissioned and
premiered “Before Spring” for English horn and
piano by composer Philip Rothman.

In addition to her extensive concert
career, Karen is a dedicated teaching artist,
specializing in the development of adult
education programs and mentoring for young
performers. She is the former Director of
Community Engagement for the New World
Symphony, where her programs reached
thousands of children and adults throughout
the greater Miami-Metro area.

She holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory
and The Hartt School, where she studied
with James Caldwell and Humbert Lucarelli,
respectively.

Nicholas Gallas (clarinet)

Clarinetist Nicholas Gallas has performed
with a diverse range of artists and ensembles,
including Opera Slavica, American Modern
Ensemble, Ensemble Signal, the Axiom
Ensemble, Decoda, Symphony in C, the
Washington Ballet Orchestra, the National
Repertory Orchestra, Argento Chamber
Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra of New York,
the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas,
the Westfield Symphony, Stamford Symphony,
Capital City Concerts, Scrag Mountain Music,
Metropolis Ensemble, Ensemble Pi, Red {an
Orchestra}, Duncan Sheik (U.S. Tour), Natasha,
Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Sympho,
Ensemble 54, the St. Petersburg Chamber
Philharmonic, the Asia-Pacific United Orchestra,
Con Vivo, Either/Or, Mimesis Ensemble, Syzygy
New Music, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and as
a substitute with the Cleveland Orchestra. He
has also taught and performed in Mexico with
Cultures in Harmony, an international cultural
diplomacy project.

In 2009 he became a member of the Quintet
of the Americas, a woodwind quintet currently
ensemble in residence at New York University.
As a member of the quintet, Nicholas has
collaborated with the Colorado Quartet,
Cuarteto Latinoamericano, and renowned
Bandonéon player Daniel Binelli.

Nicholas has performed at MoMA, Avery
Fisher Hall, Miller Theatre, Carnegie Hall, the
United Nations, and Symphony Space. He has
performed in festivals including the Norfolk
Chamber Music Festival, the Focus! Festival for
Contemporary Music, Aurora Music Festival
(Sweden), the National Repertory Orchestra,
the Chelsea Music Festival, and the Sarasota,
Hot Springs, and Kent Blossom festivals.
Nicholas received his Master of Music degree
from The Juilliard School and his Bachelor of
Music degree from the Cleveland Institute
of Music, where his principal teachers were
Charles Neidich and Franklin Cohen.

Jonathan Singer (vibraphone)

Included among the Village Voice’s “Best of
New York,” percussionist Jonathan Singer
has been praised for his “superb four-mallet
technique” (the New York Times) and described
as an “artistic assault on the sensory order of
nitrous oxide.” His solo appearances include
performances with the Detroit Symphony and
Grammy®-winning Nighthawks.
As the leader of the Brooklyn-based novelty
ragtime band Xylopholks, Mr. Singer has
performed across the United State, India,
Japan, Brazil, and Canada and on the stages of
Alice Tully Hall, City Center, the 92nd Street Y,
and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has
been heard on WNYC and Air America and has
made on-screen appearances in Boardwalk
Empire, Royal Pains, and David Grubin’s
Downtown Express.
Mr. Singer is the recipient of a Fulbright
Fellowship and Queens College grant to
study in India. Singer is currently on faculty at
Queensborough Community College; previous
faculty appointments include Queens College
and Brooklyn College. He is a graduate of the
Interlochen Arts Academy, Berklee College of
Music, and Queens College and is currently
a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate
Center.


C4 and the Artist

C4 has begun to feature artworks by members
of our Friends of C4 in our concert and publicity
materials. This season, we’re pleased to feature
the works of Jerry Hirniak, as shown on the
cover of this program, on our season brochure,
and online at c4.ensemble.org.

Jerry writes, “My recent work reflects on
the implications of the massive numbers
of photographs that can be captured and
displayed in a digital environment. My goal
is both to force the viewer to rethink what
an image is and to create the possibility for
me as a photographer to maintain a constant
questioning of the representational possibilities
and limitations of the photographic medium. I
am interested in a hybrid practice where the
photographic image does not exist solely as
a discreet framed element, solidifying one
perspective, but opens up to the complexity
of many perspectives and the possibilities of
other ways of understanding the world.”

Watch for a special benefit auction of Jerry
Hirniak’s work later this season, for a chance
to own unique art and support C4 at the same
time.

C4 Board of Directors

C4 could not function without the dedicated
work of its board of directors. We are very
grateful to:

Gregory Eaton, chair
Hayes Biggs
Jonathan David
David Hurd
Karen Siegel
and Melissa Wozniak

We wish to thank and acknowledge our donors:
Morgan Stanley
Daniel and Ellen Stafford-Sigg

Kit Smyth Basquin*
Susan Biggs
Peter and Katharine Darrow*
Ian David Moss
Tammie Murphy

Richard Adams
Shawn Aller
Daniel Andor
Laura Barger
Bruce Saylor and Constance Beavon
Jim Bilodeau
Vic and Jan Bilodeau
Kristina Boerger
Brenda Brown
Margaret Brown
Melissa Bybee
I Cantori di New York, Inc.
Nabil and Judith Chamat
Martin and Lisa Cohen
Lauren Crow
Kathy Klein Eddy
Vincent Fitzgerald*
Reyna Franco
Ellen Gesmer
Leila Ghaznavi
Byron Gibbs*
Martha Minetree Grasty
Mike Haller
Jeanine Hartnett
Don and Sally Hayward
Harriet Davidson
and Jerry Hirniak*
Eileen and Arthur Hirsh
Susan Koshewa
Linda and Leslie Libow
Peter Lurye
Beth Marker
Edward & Rose Mermelstein
Juliet Milhofer
Brian Mountford
Michael and Roberta Nassau
Rochelle and Bernard Natt
Charles Natt
Lisa Niedermeyer
Tarik O’Regan
Susan Obel
Wilma PaganZahra Partovi*
Jane Penn
Raymond Penn
Jeffrey Ramras
Daniel Reid
Jonathan and
Suzanne Rosenzweig
Christine Schadeberg
Katherine Schoonover
Linda Schrank*
Phillip Schroeder
Bettina Sheppard
Edward Shiner
Patricia and Lawrence Siegel
Bob Sweeney
Kenneth and
Jean Telljohann
Perry Townsend
Ira Wolfman
David Wozniak
Anonymous (1)

Special thanks for their time and resources: *indicates Friends of C4
Noa Ain*
Nathan Allman*
Jim Bassi*
Vivian Bower
Stephen Burrow*
Ernest Hood*
Fran Kaufman*
Susan Weil and
Bernard Kirschenbaum*
Ellen Kruger*
David McCorkle*
Ivana Mestrovic*
Ami Ronnberg*
Tana Ross*
Thomas Simpson
Milton Sonday*
Gina Speirs*
Anne Thulin*
Judith Walz*

This listing reflects contributions made from November 1, 2013 through October 31, 2014.
If we have made an error, please accept our apologies and notify us by emailing [email protected].

And special thanks to Jerry Hirniak for the donation of his artwork
Suzanne Schwing for her work on social media
and
Galapagos Art Space and The Church of St. Luke in the Fields