Program Notes for...
THE C4 2016-17 'COLLABORATION' SEASON opening concerts
Visual
Choral Works with Visual and Electronic Components
Thursday, November 10th and Saturday, November 12th at 8:00pm
Leonard Nimoy/Thalia Theater at Symphony Space, New York, NY
Program:
The Telegram* Illya Filshtinskiy (b.1986) aTonalHits
Ben Arendsen, conductor
Katha Zinn, violin (aTonalHits)
Christina Kay, Artemisz Polonyi, sopranos
Perry Townsend, typewriter
Dynamism* Martha Sullivan (b.1964)
Ben Arendsen, conductor
Soloist: Melissa Wozniak, soprano
Downfall* Brian Mountford (b.1964)
Jacob Gelber, conductor
A Colorado Offering* Jacob Gelber (b.1995)
Daniel Andor-Ardó, conductor
Intermission
Tag des Jahrs Kaija Saariaho (b.1952)
I. Der Frühling
II. Der Sommer
III. Der Herbst
IV. Der Winter
Nate Barnett, conductor
Sensation/Eternity* Jean-Baptiste Barrière (b.1958)
Karen Siegel, conductor
Art? Works!* Bettina Sheppard (b.1962)
Perry Townsend, conductor
David Wozniak, alto saxophone
Quartet 1: Christina Kay, soprano
Karl Saint Lucy, alto
Ben Arendsen, tenor
Brendan Littlefield, bass
Quartet 2: Artemisz Polonyi, soprano
Bettina Sheppard, alto
Grant Yosenick, tenor
Jacob Gelber, bass
* Premiere
- - - - - - - - - -
Note from the Facilitator
C4 begins its twelfth season exploring a
theme at the very heart of what and who
we are as an ensemble: collaboration. We
will be sharing music with you this season
that is visual (collaborating with visual and
electronic artists to expand the dimensions
of a traditional choral piece), emerging
(featuring music from the winners of our
composition competition), and electric
(where we will be combining forces with a
traditional rock band). As a group that acts
as a true collective, collaboration is what
makes everything from artistic decisions to
promotional flyers possible, and is a point
of pride within the ensemble. To choose a
season of music around this theme was, in
many ways, a natural decision.
The fall cycle, Visual, features music with
various extra-musical components. The
Telegram – a premiere by Illya Filshtinskiy of
aTonalHits featuring their violinist, Katha
Zinn — uses the choir and an amplified
typewriter to mimic sounds and gestures
of Morse Code; a video using stop-motion
animation and newspaper clippings round
out the ambiance of this whimsical yet
powerful piece. Dynamism is a work of true
collaboration between composer Martha
Sullivan and artist Gwyneth Leech. Ms.
Sullivan uses excerpts from an interview
about an exhibit by Ms. Leech, which
features a series of paintings showing the
construction of a new building in front of –
and ultimately, obstructing the view from –
her studio, and set this text to music. In turn,
Ms. Leech has animated these paintings
to accompany the composition, and help
underlie the sense of loss, nostalgia, and
constantly shifting perspective. Brian
Mountford’s Downfall takes a decisively
darker, yet colorful tone. The accompanying
film helps to emphasize the somber and
thorny text of Georg Trakl, while an ostinato
glockenspiel keeps the image of the ‘blind
clock hands’ in the foreground of the
listener's mind. Jacob Gelber’s A Colorado
Offering presents a vast and expansive
representation of Olivia Kapell’s beautiful
love letter to the mountains that inspired
her. The visual slides that accompany the
work help to reinforce the awe and spiritual
questioning felt at the sight of nature’s
vastness. Kaija Saariaho’s chilling and
vibrant Tag Des Jahrs combines electronics
with choir which presents a collaboration
on many levels; Ms. Saariaho’s setting of
Hölderin’s text enhances its vivid natural
pictures, while underlying the psyche
of the composer. Sensation/Eternity, by
Jean-Baptiste Barriére, has been an act of
collaboration between the composer and C4
from its inception. This adventurous work
features the choir interacting directly with
the visuals presented to the audience, and
the composer in turn reacting to the group's
performance with electronic renderings
of singers' voices as they perform in real
time. Our program closes with Bettina
Sheppard’s Art? Works!, with text provided
by our artist in residence for the 2016-
17 season, Zsuzsanna Ardó. We thank
you, the audience — our most important
collaborators — and hope you enjoy this
truly unique experience!
— Ben Arendsen
- - - - - - - - - -
Program Notes and Texts
The Telegram
Illya Filshtinskiy
Text: Katha Zinn
Visuals: Illya Filshtinskiy
This piece, for chorus, violin, and amplified
typewriter, is meant to emulate the sounds
and gestures of Morse code. All syllables
are chosen in reflection of the articulation.
A telegraph is a device for transmitting and
receiving messages over long distances; a
telegram is the resulting message. While a
typewriter has, historically speaking, not
much to do with telegraphy, it does convey
the feeling of the time and captures the
idea of Morse code in its staccato delivery
of sound. It also figures in well visually,
creating interesting possibilities in the film
accompaniment. In the second half of the
piece, there are occasional phrases that
should be whispered over the music. The
phrase ‘What hath God wrought?’ was
the first message delivered by a telegraph
machine, sent by Samuel Morse.
—Illya Filshtinskiy with Katha Zinn (aTonal
Hits)
Text:
What hath God wrought? The shadow dances
alongside its master…
As the universe is full of intent, so are we all
Dynamism
Martha Sullivan
Film: Gwyneth Leech
Text: Gwyneth Leech, transcribed by Martha Sullivan
The video component for Dynamism features
sequences of drawings and paintings done
from the window of my studio in Midtown
Manhattan. For years I have enjoyed a
panoramic cityscape from my 13th floor
studio; I have painted it in many seasons
and in ever-changing light. But now there is
a sense of impending loss—a new building
is being built that will block the view and
alter the light. There is grief and dread of
change.
However, as the structure grows over weeks
and months, I become engrossed watching
the process. I realize that a new floor rises
every two days! There is a construction
choreography, a set of discrete tasks
repeated over and over again in sequence by
the perfect number of workers. If there are
too few or too many, the system falls apart.
As the building rises to 42 storeys, it takes
on a character and a life of its own. I shift
my perspective outward and upward and
around, seeing new compositions, new light
effects, and new possibilities everywhere I
look. I feel connected to the fabric of the city
in a different way as I watch it transform
before my eyes, incrementally yet so fast.
—Gwyneth Leech
Gwyneth Leech’s paintings, taken as
sequences, evoke motion and change over
time, playing with varied timescales, from
changes in light over the course of a day
to changes in the skyline over months.
This suggests that musical change should
vary its scale accordingly, so I have written
choral material that shifts between light,
quick lines and glacial slides from harmony
to harmony. The texts of the choral work are
drawn from an interview with Leech during
the summer of 2016.
—Martha Sullivan
Text:
Nostalgia for the present.
Loss.
Feeling of imminent loss,
Shifting perspective as it grew:
First I’m looking down, then I’m looking
through.
It is as if they are blocking off a stage.
Coming to terms with the obstruction,
Over and over again.
With each floor,
They go through the process
Over and over,
Each of the elements repeating itself.
Over and over,
Loss.
Open.
Downfall
Brian Mountford
Text: Georg Trakl
Austrian poet Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)
lived a short, unhappy life which ended
in a cocaine overdose brought on by the
horrors of his experience as a medical
officer in World War I. In common with
many poets of that time, Trakl’s work
often features somber visions of a world
in decline. Thorns in particular are a
recurring image. In the words of Richard
Millington, “The powerful final image
of the poem..., in which the speaker and
the ‘brother’ he is addressing are cast
together as ‘blind clock hands’ climbing
towards midnight, is illustrative of
Trakl’s tendency to portray human
solidarity as a source of meaning and
solace in a disintegrating world.”
The video was created using iMovie,
Apple Motion, and custom animations
written using the Processing
environment.
—Brian Mountford
Text:
Untergang
Über den weißen Weiher
Sind die wilden Vögel fortgezogen.
Am Abend weht von unseren Sternen ein eisiger
Wind.
Über unsere Gräber
Beugt sich die zerbrochene Stirne der Nacht.
Unter Eichen schaukeln wir auf einem silbernen
Kahn.
Immer klingen die weißen Mauern der Stadt.
Unter Dornenbogen
O mein Bruder klimmen wir blinde Zeiger gen
Mitternacht.
(translation)
Downfall
Over the white pond
The wild birds have flown onward
In the evening, from our stars, blows an icy wind
Over our graves
Bends the broken brow of the night
Under oaks we sway in a silvery boat
Always resounding, the white walls of the city
Under arches of thorn
O my brother, we climb, blind clock hands,
toward midnight
A Colorado Offering
Jacob Gelber
Visuals: Wyatt D. Stevens
Text: Olivia Kapell
A Colorado Offering, composed in July 2016,
tells the story of someone finding peace
through communing with nature. Olivia
Kapell’s untitled poem was inspired by
waking up to the most astonishing sunrise
she had ever seen in Winter Park, Colorado.
This evoked a profound questioning of what
kind of spiritual role nature plays in our
daily lives and how we can better situate
ourselves within it. Visuals are by Wyatt
D. Stevens, created with photos taken by
Kapell in Winter Park.
—Jacob Gelber
Text:
I have found the place
where my soul stirs peacefully
....
So massive compared to I
My miniature form shrinks in their presence I
am wrapped in anxiety
but the mountains stand so
still
How dare I place anything
before Nature
Her arms wrap themselves around me she kisses
my cheek
“Listen” she says
and I hear only the quiet beauty
of Her figure
much more expansive than mine
She laughs at my
ego
but smiles at my soul as I begin to find peace in
Her
In these mountains
I lose my strict edges
that keep me locked outside of
Her warmth
and instead I feel myself expanding
a million miles wide
My chest bursts and my arms extend infinitely
The mountain air is in my every pore
Her embrace fills all of my being
with hope and with Beauty
I am the mountains
I N T E R M I S S I O N
Tag des Jahrs
Kaija Saariaho
I have been familiar with the late poems of
Hölderlin for some time now and used some
of them for several little pieces (Die Aussicht,
Überzeugung). The idea for Tag des Jahrs for
choir came to me a few years ago when
someone very dear to me suffered a cerebral
hemorrhage, and communication with her
acquired a new logic (or rather lack of it)
because she no longer had any sense of time
or place. I do not know what had happened
to Hölderlin, for he signed his poems under
different dates, decades, even centuries from
the time in which he lived, and under the
name of Scardanelli. I nevertheless acquired
a new insight into his poems as visions of
lived moments that pass in the twinkling
of an eye and then vanish or transform into
new, intensive moments. Our minds are full
of such clear, sensuous moments, and they
in fact make up our own experience of the
life we live.
The text begged to be given an archaic choral
treatment. I also wanted to expand the sound
world in the direction of the nature that is so
present in these poems. Hence, the material
consists not only of taped human voice, but
also of birds, the wind, and other nature
sounds. The electronic part was realized in
summer 2001 at the Civitella Ranieri studio,
Italy with Jean-Baptiste Barrière.
Tag des Jahrs is dedicated to my mother.
—Kaija Saariaho
Text:
Tag des Jahrs (Day of the Year)
poems by Friedrich Hölderlin
Der Frühling
Wenn neu das Licht der Erde sich gezeiget,
Von Frühlingsregen glänzt das grüne Thal und
munter
Der Blüthen Weiß am hellen Strom hinunter,
Nachdem ein heitrer Tag zu Menschen sich
geneiget.
Die Sichtbarkeit gewinnt von hellen
Unterschieden,
Der Frühlingshimmel weilt mit seinem Frieden,
Daß ungestört der Mensch des Jahres Reiz
betrachtet,
Und auf Vollkommenheit des Lebens achtet.
Mit Unterhänigkeit,
Scardanelli
d. 15. Merz 1842
(translation)
Spring
Whenever earth’s bright light reveals itself anew,
The verdant valley gleams with springtime rain,
and gaily
Snow-white blossoms breast the bright-toned
stream
Where once a cloudless day has bowed before
mankind.
Such varied colors heighten our perception,
The springtime heavens linger with their peace,
Allowing man to see the year’s attractions
undisturbed
And heed his life’s perfection.
With devotion,
Scardanelli
15 March 1842
Der Sommer
Die Tage gehn vorbei mit sanffter Lüffte
Rauschen,
Wenn mit der Wolke sie der Felder Pracht
vertauschen,
Des Thales Ende trifft der Berge Dämmerungen,
Dort, wo des Stromes Wellen sich
hinabgeschlungen.
Der Wälder Schatten sieht umhergebreitet,
Wo auch der Bach entfernt hinuntergleitet,
Und sichtbar ist der Ferne Bild in Stunden,
Wenn sich der Mensch zu diesem Sinn gefunden.
Scardanelli
d. 24. Mai 1758
(translation)
Summer
The days drift past with gentle breezes’ rustling,
Exchanging cloud for meadows’ splendor,
The mountains’ twilight strikes the valley’s end
There where the river’s waters have wound their
downward way.
The woodlands’ shadow lies there, spread around,
Where, far away, the brook glides downward
And the distant picture can be seen at times
When man collects his thoughts and to such
sense inclines.
Scardanelli
24 May 1758
Der Herbst
Das Glänzen der Natur is höheres Erscheinen,
Wo sich der Tag mit vielen Freuden endet,
Es ist das Jahr, das sich mit Pracht vollendet,
Wo Früchte sich mit frohem Glanz vereinen.
Das Erdenrund is so geschmückt, und selten
lärmet
Der Schall durchs offne Feld, die Sonne wärmet
Den Tag des Herbstes mild, die Felder stehen,
Als eine Aussicht weit, die Lüffte wehen
Die Zweig’ und Äste durch mit frohem Rauschen,
Wenn schon mit Leere sich die Felder dann
vertauschen,
Der ganze Sinn des hellen Bildes lebet
Als wie ein Bild, das goldne Pracht umschwebet.
d. 15ten Nov. 1759
(translation)
Autumn
The gleam of nature is a higher revelation
Where daylight ends with many joys.
It is the year in splendid consummation
Where fruits are merged with blithe resplendence.
The world is thus bedecked, are rarely
Does a sound transcend the open fields. How
mildly
Does the sunshine warm the autumn day, the
fields
Extend before us like a vista, breezes blow
Through twigs and branches with their cheerful
rustling
While all the fields give way to emptiness.
The total meaning of this bright-toned picture
lives
As if it were a picture framed in golden splendor.
15 November 1759
Der Winter
Wenn sich der Tag des Jahrs hinabgeneiget
Und rings das Feld mit den Gebirgen schweiget,
So glänzt das Blau des Himmels an den Tagen,
Die wie Gestirn in heitrer Höhe ragen.
Der Wechsel und die Pracht ist minder
umgebreitet,
Dort, wo ein Strom hinab mit Eile gleitet,
Der Ruhe Geist ist aber in den Stunden
Der prächtigen Natur mit Tiefigkeit verbunden.
Mit Unterhänigkeit,
Scardanelli
d. 24. Januar 1743
(translation)
Winter
When once the year’s last day has bent its head
And field and mountains all around fall mute,
The azure of the sky gleams brightly on those
days
Which soar aloft like stars to cloudless heights.
The changes and the splendor seem less
widespread
Where a river swiftly runs its downward course.
And yet the spirit of tranquility is merged
With depth at all those times when nature gleams
with splendor.
With devotion,
Scardanelli
24 January 1743
English translations by Stewart Spencer
Sensation/Eternity
Jean-Baptiste Barrière
Thomas Goepfer, sound designer
Sensation/Eternity is a piece for twentyfour
singers, electronics and video, based on
two poems, set in their English translations,
by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. It
involves what I am calling ‘dynamic scores’:
scores which are chosen and/or modified
and/or generated in real time during the
performance in the concert situation. The
singers indeed do not have a printed score;
instead musical fragments are displayed
in video on a large video projection screen
visible to both them and the audience.
They have to sight-read and and give an
interpretation of these fragments, and
sometimes also to improvise on them.
These dynamic scores are partly prepared
in advance, partly calculated in real time,
thanks to computer programs which
analyse all along the piece the singer’s
interpretation, and produce, according to
various musical constraints, next notated
fragments displayed immediately on
the screen. In parallel, these programs
controls also electronics transformations
of the singer’s voices which are then
spatialized through loudspeakers around
the audience. The singers themselves are
to be placed surrounding the audience,
allowing a de facto spatialization of the
singing parts, which is an other important
part of this piece. These technical and quite
experimental aspects should however not
prevent to concentrate on the enigmatic
beauty of Rimbaud’s text, which is the
real inspiration source for the music, and
which the piece tries modestly to prolongate
with its own terms. Sensation/Eternity is
dedicated to Karen Siegel, who initiated it,
helped tremendously all along its rehearsal
process, and who conducts C4 to bring it to
life.
—Jean-Baptiste Barrière
Text:
Sensation
Par les soirs bleus d’été, j’irai dans les
sentiers,
Picoté par les blés, fouler l’herbe menue :
Rêveur, j’en sentirai la fraîcheur à mes pieds.
Je laisserai le vent baigner ma tête nue.
Je ne parlerai pas, je ne penserai rien :
Mais l’amour infini me montera dans l’âme,
Et j’irai loin, bien loin, comme un bohémien,
Par la nature, heureux comme avec une
femme.
Sensation
(translation)
On the blue summer evenings, I shall go
down the paths,
Getting pricked by the corn, crushing the
short grass:
In a dream I shall feel its coolness on my feet.
I shall let the wind bathe my bare head.
I shall not speak, I shall think about nothing:
But endless love will mount in my soul;
And I shall travel far, very far, like a gypsy,
Through the countryside - as happy as if I
were with a woman.
L’Éternité
Elle est retrouvée.
Quoi? - L’Éternité.
C’est la mer allée
Avec le soleil.
Âme sentinelle,
Murmurons l’aveu
De la nuit si nulle
Et du jour en feu.
Des humains suffrages,
Des communs élans
Là tu te dégages
Et voles selon.
Puisque de vous seules,
Braises de satin,
Le Devoir s’exhale
Sans qu’on dise : enfin.
Là pas d’espérance,
Nul orietur.
Science avec patience,
Le supplice est sûr.
Elle est retrouvée.
Quoi ? - L’Éternité.
C’est la mer allée
Avec le soleil.
Eternity
(translation)
It has been found again.
What? – Eternity.
It is the sea fled away
With the sun.
Sentinel soul,
Let us whisper the confession
Of the night full of nothingness
And the day on fire.
From human approbation,
From common urges
You diverge here
And fly off as you may.
Since from you alone,
Satiny embers,
Duty breathes
Without anyone saying: at last.
Here is no hope,
No orietur.
Knowledge and fortitude,
Torture is certain.
It has been found again.
What? – Eternity.
It is the sea fled away
With the sun.
—Poems by Arthur Rimbaud
Art? Works!
Bettina Sheppard
Text: Zsuzsanna Ardó
Video Production and
Choreography: Danielle LaRauf
Film: Kariim Charlier
This collaboration, based on the theme
that art inspires art, is a playful look at the
interdependence of creativity. LaRauf’s
video reveals various artists overhearing
or seeing other artists at work and creating
their own interpretation. In her poem, Ardó
skillfully weaves the word play of one art
form gradually morphing to another, while
paying homage to a quote of Leonardo. The
music’s first inspiration is a solo saxophone
line represented in the video, developed
in imitation by the two quartets singing
the Leonardo quotation, while the choir
illustrates the morphing words of the poem.
—Bettina Sheppard
- - - - - - - - - -
Composers
and Collaborators
(in alphabetical order)
aTonal Hits
Since aTonalHits’ formation in 2011, the
group has been dedicated to bringing
contemporary and lesser known works of
music to light. Its founding members are
Illya Filshtinskiy (piano) and Katha Zinn
(violin), although aTonalHits has swollen its
ranks with many collaborators in music,
film, design, composition, etc.
Beyond the standard violin and piano
repertoire, Illya and Katha first found
a taste for newer music in the work of
Alfred Schnittke. They have released an
album of Schnittke Sonatas, as well as an
album entitled “1910-1920”, which focuses
on a variety of different violin and piano
music within that decade. The latter was
funded through an extremely successful
Kickstarter campaign, in which the group
raised 233% of their original goal. Their
newest recording, ORIGINS: aTonalHit plays
New Music is a compilation of premieres by
young composers from around the globe.
aTonalHits has performed in numerous
styles of venue, from outreach to the concert
hall, to conducting masterclasses and a
TEDx event. They play regularly around
the globe, including a tour of both Holland
and Turkey, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan,
Germany, Mexico- and closer to home at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall,
Liederkranz Hall, Symphony Space, and
Spectrum among others. aTonalHits has also
worked closely with the Société de Musique
Contemporaine du Québec, presenting
a recital with three of Québec’s foremost
composers, including a premiere of Jean
Lesage’s “Portrait of a Sentimental Musician
in a Distorting Mirror”. Largely dedicated
to new music, they have premiered over 100
works.
The group has also recently designed and
composed two books for beginning violin
and piano students- Toogo’s Piano/Violin
Adventures on Earth, and Toogo Goes
Home. The books take beginners through
Toogo’s adventures with the help of creative
illustrations and by introducing interesting
techniques. Composition has played an
increasingly large part in aTonalHits as
original works by Illya have been added to
their repertoire. They have also collaborated
with other groups to create larger
compositions involving film.
aTonalHits has been featured artists on the
websites of the Juilliard School, Mannes
the New School for Music, MySpace, and
Avaloch Farm Residencies. Aside from
performing, the group regularly focuses
on video and music work, producing
many classical and new music films, as
well as a documentary focusing on John
Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes and Sofia
Gubaidulina’s Dancer on a Tightrope.
aTonalHits also reaches beyond live
performance to the halls of the internet.
Videos of their work are posted regularly on
their YouTube and Vimeo sites, with footage
not only of them playing, but of their
animation, artwork, and video art. Katha
plays a 1776 Guadagnini, on loan from the
ChiMei Foundation.
To learn more about aTonalHits
please visit www.atonalhits.com
Jean-Baptiste Barrière
Jean-Baptiste Barrière was born in Paris in
1958. His studies included music, art
history, mathematical logic and philosophy
(Doctorat at Sorbonne). In 1998, he joined
IRCAM in Paris, directing successively
Musical Research, Education, and
Production; and left in 1998 to concentrate
on personal projects focusing on the
interaction between music and image.
His piece Chréode (1983) won the Prix de
la Musique Numérique of the Concours
International of Bourges in 1983 (CD
Wergo). He composed the music of several
multimedia shows, including 100 Objects to
Represent the World by Peter Greenaway,
which premiered at the Salzburg Festival in
1997. Barrière has also composed the music
of several virtual reality and interactive
installations by Maurice Benayoun,
including Worldskin (Prix Ars Electronica
1998). He developed Reality Checks, a
cycle of installations and performances
questioning the concept of identity in
the digital age. He directed the CDROM,
Prisma: The Musical Universe of Kaija
Saariaho (Grand Prix Multimédia Charles
Cros 2000), and regularly realizes visual
concerts of Saariaho’s music, including
her opera L’Amour de loin, performed in
Berlin and Paris in 2006 by Kent Nagano
and Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin.
He directed visuals for concert versions of
operas such as Olivier Messiaen’s Saint
François d’Assise with Kent Nagano and
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (Grand
Prix du Conseil des Arts of Montréal), and
with Myung Whun Chung and Orchestre
Philharmonique de Radio-France in 2008;
and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck with Esa-Pekka
Salonen and the Philharmonia of London in
2009. In 1997-98, he taught computer music
composition at the Sibelius Academy in
Helsinki, and in 2011–2012, he was Visiting
Professor in the Music Department of
Columbia University, and was in 2015 the
first grantee of the David Wessel‘s Music &
Science Grant of the Center for New Music
& Audio Technologies, Music Department
of the University of California Berkeley.
Latest major performances include in 2014 a
portrait concert at the Miller Theatre, New
York, and in 2015 at Schoenberg Theater in
Los Angeles as part of a Californian tour; the
same year, video for The Tempest Songbook
multimedia show on music by Purcell and
Saariaho at the Metropolitan Museum of
New York with the Martha Graham Dance
Company and The Gotham Chamber Opera
with stage direction by Luca Veggetti, and
a large interactive installation with George
Lewis and Carrol Blue at the Contemporary
Art Museum of Houston; the Premiere
by Jennifer Koh of Palimpsest Capriccio for
violin and electronics at National Sawdust in
May 2016; the video and electronics for the
multimedia event Circle Map at the Park
Avenue Armory dedicated to the music
of Kaija Saariaho, performed by the New
York Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka
Salonen this last October. He also started this
Fall an artist residency at the New School
in New York to realize an interdisciplinary
project involving several departments of
this university.
Jacob Gelber
Jacob Gelber is a conductor, composer,
and vocalist studying music and
composition in the Columbia-Juilliard
Exchange. Jacob enjoys writing choral and
instrumental music and collaborating with
choreographers and visual artists. His
compositions have received awards through
the ACDA, the Cantate Chamber Singers,
the Harmonium Choral Society, and the
ASCAP Young Composers Awards. He has
studied through the European-American
Musical Alliance in Paris, the Lehigh
Choral Composers Forum, the Atlantic
Music Festival, Manhattan School of Music
Precollege, and Westminster Choir College.
His composition teachers have included
Samuel Adler and the late Steven Stucky.
Jacob currently studies composition with
Melinda Wagner at the Juilliard School.
Gwyneth Leech
New York City artist Gwyneth Leech has
exhibited her drawings, paintings and
installations across the United States and
the United Kingdom in a wide variety of
museum, commercial gallery, public art, and
alternative spaces. Since the middle of 2015,
she has been focused on documenting in oil
paintings and ink drawings the progress at
numerous interior and exterior construction
sites in Midtown Manhattan as the area
undergoes major physical and demographic
changes. “Construction Series”, her first
exhibition of this new artwork, is currently
on view at the headquarters of Sciame, a
major building company in New York City.
Leech received a BA from the University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, and a BFA
and Post Graduate DA from Edinburgh
College of Art, Edinburgh, UK. The recipient
of numerous awards and grants, including
several Scottish Arts Council awards, a
University of Colorado’s President’s Fund
Grant, an Elizabeth Greenshields Memorial
Award, and a Thouron Fellowship, Leech
has created artwork that resides in important
private and public collections.
Brian Mountford
Brian Mountford studied music and
electrical engineering at Yale and UC
Berkeley. He sings with the New York City
Master Chorale as well as C4, and composes
occasionally. http://www.mountford.net/
music
Kaija Saariaho
Kaija Saariaho is a prominent member of a
group of Finnish composers and performers
who are now, in mid-career, making a
worldwide impact. Born in Helsinki in 1952,
she studied at the Sibelius Academy with
the pioneering modernist Paavo Heininen
and, with Magnus Lindberg and others, she
founded the progressive ‘Ears Open’ group.
She continued her studies in Freiburg with
Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber, at the
Darmstadt summer courses, and, from 1982,
at the IRCAM research institute in Paris –
the city which has most often been her home
ever since.
At IRCAM, Saariaho developed techniques
of computer-assisted composition and
acquired fluency in working on tape and with
live electronics. This experience influenced
her approach to writing for orchestra,
with its emphasis on the shaping of dense
masses of sound in slow transformations.
Significantly, her first orchestral piece,
Verblendungen (1984), involves a gradual
exchange of roles and character between
orchestra and tape. And even the titles of
her next linked pair of orchestral works,
Du Cristal (1989) and …à la Fumée (1990) –
the latter with solo alto flute and cello, and
both with live electronics – suggest their
preoccupation with color and texture.
Later, Saariaho turned to opera, with
outstanding success. L’Amour de loin, with a
libretto by Amin Maalouf based on an early
biography of the twelfth-century troubadour
Jaufré Rudel, received widespread acclaim
in its premiere production directed by
Peter Sellars at the 2000 Salzburg Festival,
and won the composer a prestigious
Grawemeyer Award. Adriana Mater, on
an original libretto by Maalouf, mixing
gritty present-day reality and dreams,
followed, again directed by Sellars, at
the Opéra Bastille in Paris in March 2006.
Emilie, an opera and monodrama for Karita
Mattila had its premiere in Lyon in March
2010, and Only the Sound Remains, with
Philippe Jarousky, had its world premiere in
Amsterdam in 2016.
The experience of writing for voices has
led to some clarification of Saariaho’s
language, with a new vein of modallyoriented
melody accompanied by more
regular repeating patterns. In the profusion
of large and small works which Saariaho
has produced in recent years, two features
which have marked her whole career
continue to stand out. One is a close and
productive association with individual
artists, including Amin Maalouf and Peter
Sellars, as well as the conductor Esa-Pekka
Salonen, the flautist Camilla Hoitenga, the
cellist Anssi Karttunen, the soprano Dawn
Upshaw and, the pianists Emmanuel Ax and
Tuija Hakkila. The other is a concern, shown
equally in her choice of subject matter and
texts and in the profusion of expression
marks in her scores, to make her music not
a working-out of abstract processes but an
urgent communication from composer to
listener of ideas, images and emotions.
Saariaho has claimed such major composing
awards as The Grawemeyer Award, The
Wihuri Prize, and The Nemmers Prize,
The Sonning Prize, and the Polar Music
Prize. In 2015 she was the judge of the Toru
Takemitsu Composition Award. Always
keen on strong educational programs, Kaija
Saariaho is in residence at the Mannes
School of Music for the Fall of 2016, as part
of Mannes’ centennial celebration.
In 2012, Circle Map was commissioned by
the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg
Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de
France, Royal Scottish National Orchestra,
and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. The
piece was inspired by six poems of Rumi,
which, recited in Persian, are used as the
material for the electronic part. Circle Map
was premiered by Amsterdam’s Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by
Susanna Mälkki at the Westergasfabriek
Gashouder in Amsterdam on June 22, 2012.
In 2015 the song cycle True Fire was
premiered by Gerald Finley and the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo
Dudamel. Her opera, Only the Sound
Remains, was premiered in March 2016 at
The Dutch National Opera. In December
2016, the Metropolitan Opera will present a
new production of her first opera, L’amour
de Loin.
The music of Kaija Saariaho is published
exclusively by Chester Music and Edition
Wilhelm Hansen, part of the Music Sales
Group of Companies.
Bettina Sheppard
Bettina Sheppard, composer and vocalist,
holds graduate degrees from both
University of Virginia and CUNY, where
she studied composition with Chris
Theofanidis and Shafer Mahoney, as well
as composition studies at Juilliard with
Conrad Cummings. Some of her 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; Stillwaters, a one-act opera, 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; 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. Current
projects include 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
in-house 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, with members including
Grammy Award winner David Darling,
the late Don Campbell, John Beaulieu, and
Silvia Nakkach. Bettina is the author of
The Everything Singing Book, published
by Adams Media, and is on faculty at City
College CUNY and Broadway Dance Center.
Wyatt D. Stevens
Wyatt D. Stevens is a multi-disciplinary
artist working in the mediums of film,
music, and visual arts. Born in the Hudson
Valley and currently based in New York
City, Stevens focuses on subtle occurrences
in modern youth culture through the
medium of stop motion. Stevens would like
to thank Debora Levy for her assistance in
this project.
Martha Sullivan
Martha Sullivan explores the narrative
strategies of music from many standpoints,
as a composer of vocal music, as a singer,
and as a scholar working on musical topic
theory and semiotics—she uses the tools of
feminist criticism, gender theory, vocality,
and embodiment theory. She has presented
papers at three international conferences in
the last year; sung and conducted with C4;
taught at Rutgers and Westminster Choir
College; and won the Sorel Medallion for
Women Composers.
- - - - - - - - - -
We wish to thank and acknowledge our donors:
Concert Sponsors -
Nan Bases
Susan M. Orzel-Biggs & Hayes Biggs
Jonathan David
Lauren Mitchell & Michael David
Charles Natt
Constance Beavon & Bruce Saylor
Ellen Stafford-Sigg & Daniel Sigg
Cutting-Edge Circle
Melissa Bybee
David Hurd
Creative Circle
Kit Smyth Basquin*
Helen Bell
Vic and Jan Bilodeau
Jennifer Blessing
Lewis Brown
Nancy & Lee Corbin
John Evans
Joseph Fong
Don & Sally Hayward
Ira & Becky Horowitz
Kamilah Jackson
Phyllis Kubey
Linda & Leslie Libow
Americanna Magness
Joan Malczewski
Mary Meyer
Sue Backstrom & Jon Minikes
Phil & Pat Morehead
Louis & Sharon Mountford
Bosiljka Raditsa
Linda Schrank*
Kenneth and Jean Telljohann
Ira Wolfman
Anonymous (1)
Contemporary Circle -
Arianne Abela
Richard Adams
Isabel Aleman
Nick Allardice
Aaron Alter
László Andor
Ben Arendsen
Tom Baker
Nathaniel Barnett
Brian Baum
Maya Ben-Meir
Shareeza Bhola
Vicki Bloom
Craig and Loren Blum
Lauren & Michael Blumenfeld
Linda Britt
Jeffrey Brown
Margaret Brown
Danielle Buonaiuto
Lisa Burns
Ching Chang
Barbara Charles
Martin and Lisa Cohen
Brooke Collins
Charles Crow
Michael Dellaira
Alex DeLuca
David & Mary Dreyfus
Sue Feingold
Kenny Felder
Jonathan Fisher
Vincent FitzGerald*
Visha Fox
David Gelber
Ellen Gesmer
Grace Goodman
Naomi Goodman
Beth Gordon
Diane Gottlieb
Catherine Guthrie
Rob Gutmann
Jeanine Hartnett
Harriet Davidson & Jerry Hirniak*
Rochele Hirsch
Madeline Hogan
David McCorkle & Ernest Hood*
Ling Hsiao
Jeffrey James
Ludmilla Trigos & Paul Judicke
Charles Katz
Janet Keogan
David Keyes
Jordan Kinsey
Janet & Robert Klump
Kermit Komm
Susan Koshewa
Cheryl and Jacob Krugel-Lee and Lee
Jim and Lynne Kruszka
Jon and Miriam Lafferty
Patricia Larkin
The Levin-Delsons
Tania León
Deborah Linehan
Lyn Liston
Marie-Louise Stegall
Thomas Stumpf
Martha Sullivan
Neil Sumner
Anne Thulin*
Mary Ellen Townsend
Perry Townsend
Evelyn & Socrates Triantafillou
Bill Tribby
Mary Tsimenoglou
Jennifer Wentworth
Gordon Williamson
Alice Wu
Ruth Zeiner
James Stephen Longo
Peter Lurye
Michael Biello & Dan Martin
Donald McCloskey
Maria McCumiskey
Stella McKeown
Angela Menghraj
Peter & Christine Metz
Juliet Milhofer
Mackenzie Millar
Jay D. Lane and Jean Monroe
Ruth Mueller-Maerki
Rochelle & Bernard Natt
Marjorie Naughton
Lisa Niedermeyer
Valerie Norton
Francesco Piattelli Palmarini
Leslie Palmer
Zahra Partovi*
Janet Pascal
Rob Paterson
Jane Penn
Helen Price
Bethany Reeves
David Rentz
Debra Rich
Mona Ring
Brett Roelofs
Jonathan & Suzanne Rosenzweig
Joseph Rubinstein
Sharon Lee Ryder
Maria Santos
Christine Schadeberg
Ronnie Scharfman
Peter Schmitt
Katherine Schoonover
Phillip Schroeder
David See
Mark Shapiro
Bettina Sheppard
Ike Silver
Nancy Smardz
Carolyn Smith
Marcia Sofley
Martin & Barbara Solomon
Milton Sonday*
Samhitha Sreenivasan
* Friend of C4
Includes donations from 11/2/15 to 11/2/16. Concert
Sponsor: $1,000-$4,999; Cutting-Edge Circle: $600-999;
Innovative Circle: $350-599; Creative Circle: $125-349;
Contemporary Circle: $1-$124. If we have made an
error, please accept our apologies and notify us at info@
c4ensemble.org.
- - - - - - - - - -
Special Thanks
David Castaneda
Timothy Brown
Symphony Space
C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective
Sopranos
Rebecca Ehren
Noele Flowers
Christina Kay
Artemisz Polonyi
Karen Siegel
Melissa Wozniak
Altos
Maya Ben-Meir
Erin Halpin
Rachael Lansang
Leonore Nelson
Karl Saint Lucy
Bettina Sheppard
Tenors
Ben Arendsen
Nate Barnett
Mario Gullo
Joseph Prestamo
Perry Townsend
Richard Tucker
Grant Yosenick
Basses
Daniel Andor-Ardó
Hayes Biggs
Jacob Gelber
Brendan Littlefield
Brian Mountford
David See
photographer: Keith Goldstein
For information on
C4 members, visit
our website:
c4ensemble.org/theensemble.
html
Visual
Choral Works with Visual and Electronic Components
Thursday, November 10th and Saturday, November 12th at 8:00pm
Leonard Nimoy/Thalia Theater at Symphony Space, New York, NY
Program:
The Telegram* Illya Filshtinskiy (b.1986) aTonalHits
Ben Arendsen, conductor
Katha Zinn, violin (aTonalHits)
Christina Kay, Artemisz Polonyi, sopranos
Perry Townsend, typewriter
Dynamism* Martha Sullivan (b.1964)
Ben Arendsen, conductor
Soloist: Melissa Wozniak, soprano
Downfall* Brian Mountford (b.1964)
Jacob Gelber, conductor
A Colorado Offering* Jacob Gelber (b.1995)
Daniel Andor-Ardó, conductor
Intermission
Tag des Jahrs Kaija Saariaho (b.1952)
I. Der Frühling
II. Der Sommer
III. Der Herbst
IV. Der Winter
Nate Barnett, conductor
Sensation/Eternity* Jean-Baptiste Barrière (b.1958)
Karen Siegel, conductor
Art? Works!* Bettina Sheppard (b.1962)
Perry Townsend, conductor
David Wozniak, alto saxophone
Quartet 1: Christina Kay, soprano
Karl Saint Lucy, alto
Ben Arendsen, tenor
Brendan Littlefield, bass
Quartet 2: Artemisz Polonyi, soprano
Bettina Sheppard, alto
Grant Yosenick, tenor
Jacob Gelber, bass
* Premiere
- - - - - - - - - -
Note from the Facilitator
C4 begins its twelfth season exploring a
theme at the very heart of what and who
we are as an ensemble: collaboration. We
will be sharing music with you this season
that is visual (collaborating with visual and
electronic artists to expand the dimensions
of a traditional choral piece), emerging
(featuring music from the winners of our
composition competition), and electric
(where we will be combining forces with a
traditional rock band). As a group that acts
as a true collective, collaboration is what
makes everything from artistic decisions to
promotional flyers possible, and is a point
of pride within the ensemble. To choose a
season of music around this theme was, in
many ways, a natural decision.
The fall cycle, Visual, features music with
various extra-musical components. The
Telegram – a premiere by Illya Filshtinskiy of
aTonalHits featuring their violinist, Katha
Zinn — uses the choir and an amplified
typewriter to mimic sounds and gestures
of Morse Code; a video using stop-motion
animation and newspaper clippings round
out the ambiance of this whimsical yet
powerful piece. Dynamism is a work of true
collaboration between composer Martha
Sullivan and artist Gwyneth Leech. Ms.
Sullivan uses excerpts from an interview
about an exhibit by Ms. Leech, which
features a series of paintings showing the
construction of a new building in front of –
and ultimately, obstructing the view from –
her studio, and set this text to music. In turn,
Ms. Leech has animated these paintings
to accompany the composition, and help
underlie the sense of loss, nostalgia, and
constantly shifting perspective. Brian
Mountford’s Downfall takes a decisively
darker, yet colorful tone. The accompanying
film helps to emphasize the somber and
thorny text of Georg Trakl, while an ostinato
glockenspiel keeps the image of the ‘blind
clock hands’ in the foreground of the
listener's mind. Jacob Gelber’s A Colorado
Offering presents a vast and expansive
representation of Olivia Kapell’s beautiful
love letter to the mountains that inspired
her. The visual slides that accompany the
work help to reinforce the awe and spiritual
questioning felt at the sight of nature’s
vastness. Kaija Saariaho’s chilling and
vibrant Tag Des Jahrs combines electronics
with choir which presents a collaboration
on many levels; Ms. Saariaho’s setting of
Hölderin’s text enhances its vivid natural
pictures, while underlying the psyche
of the composer. Sensation/Eternity, by
Jean-Baptiste Barriére, has been an act of
collaboration between the composer and C4
from its inception. This adventurous work
features the choir interacting directly with
the visuals presented to the audience, and
the composer in turn reacting to the group's
performance with electronic renderings
of singers' voices as they perform in real
time. Our program closes with Bettina
Sheppard’s Art? Works!, with text provided
by our artist in residence for the 2016-
17 season, Zsuzsanna Ardó. We thank
you, the audience — our most important
collaborators — and hope you enjoy this
truly unique experience!
— Ben Arendsen
- - - - - - - - - -
Program Notes and Texts
The Telegram
Illya Filshtinskiy
Text: Katha Zinn
Visuals: Illya Filshtinskiy
This piece, for chorus, violin, and amplified
typewriter, is meant to emulate the sounds
and gestures of Morse code. All syllables
are chosen in reflection of the articulation.
A telegraph is a device for transmitting and
receiving messages over long distances; a
telegram is the resulting message. While a
typewriter has, historically speaking, not
much to do with telegraphy, it does convey
the feeling of the time and captures the
idea of Morse code in its staccato delivery
of sound. It also figures in well visually,
creating interesting possibilities in the film
accompaniment. In the second half of the
piece, there are occasional phrases that
should be whispered over the music. The
phrase ‘What hath God wrought?’ was
the first message delivered by a telegraph
machine, sent by Samuel Morse.
—Illya Filshtinskiy with Katha Zinn (aTonal
Hits)
Text:
What hath God wrought? The shadow dances
alongside its master…
As the universe is full of intent, so are we all
Dynamism
Martha Sullivan
Film: Gwyneth Leech
Text: Gwyneth Leech, transcribed by Martha Sullivan
The video component for Dynamism features
sequences of drawings and paintings done
from the window of my studio in Midtown
Manhattan. For years I have enjoyed a
panoramic cityscape from my 13th floor
studio; I have painted it in many seasons
and in ever-changing light. But now there is
a sense of impending loss—a new building
is being built that will block the view and
alter the light. There is grief and dread of
change.
However, as the structure grows over weeks
and months, I become engrossed watching
the process. I realize that a new floor rises
every two days! There is a construction
choreography, a set of discrete tasks
repeated over and over again in sequence by
the perfect number of workers. If there are
too few or too many, the system falls apart.
As the building rises to 42 storeys, it takes
on a character and a life of its own. I shift
my perspective outward and upward and
around, seeing new compositions, new light
effects, and new possibilities everywhere I
look. I feel connected to the fabric of the city
in a different way as I watch it transform
before my eyes, incrementally yet so fast.
—Gwyneth Leech
Gwyneth Leech’s paintings, taken as
sequences, evoke motion and change over
time, playing with varied timescales, from
changes in light over the course of a day
to changes in the skyline over months.
This suggests that musical change should
vary its scale accordingly, so I have written
choral material that shifts between light,
quick lines and glacial slides from harmony
to harmony. The texts of the choral work are
drawn from an interview with Leech during
the summer of 2016.
—Martha Sullivan
Text:
Nostalgia for the present.
Loss.
Feeling of imminent loss,
Shifting perspective as it grew:
First I’m looking down, then I’m looking
through.
It is as if they are blocking off a stage.
Coming to terms with the obstruction,
Over and over again.
With each floor,
They go through the process
Over and over,
Each of the elements repeating itself.
Over and over,
Loss.
Open.
Downfall
Brian Mountford
Text: Georg Trakl
Austrian poet Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)
lived a short, unhappy life which ended
in a cocaine overdose brought on by the
horrors of his experience as a medical
officer in World War I. In common with
many poets of that time, Trakl’s work
often features somber visions of a world
in decline. Thorns in particular are a
recurring image. In the words of Richard
Millington, “The powerful final image
of the poem..., in which the speaker and
the ‘brother’ he is addressing are cast
together as ‘blind clock hands’ climbing
towards midnight, is illustrative of
Trakl’s tendency to portray human
solidarity as a source of meaning and
solace in a disintegrating world.”
The video was created using iMovie,
Apple Motion, and custom animations
written using the Processing
environment.
—Brian Mountford
Text:
Untergang
Über den weißen Weiher
Sind die wilden Vögel fortgezogen.
Am Abend weht von unseren Sternen ein eisiger
Wind.
Über unsere Gräber
Beugt sich die zerbrochene Stirne der Nacht.
Unter Eichen schaukeln wir auf einem silbernen
Kahn.
Immer klingen die weißen Mauern der Stadt.
Unter Dornenbogen
O mein Bruder klimmen wir blinde Zeiger gen
Mitternacht.
(translation)
Downfall
Over the white pond
The wild birds have flown onward
In the evening, from our stars, blows an icy wind
Over our graves
Bends the broken brow of the night
Under oaks we sway in a silvery boat
Always resounding, the white walls of the city
Under arches of thorn
O my brother, we climb, blind clock hands,
toward midnight
A Colorado Offering
Jacob Gelber
Visuals: Wyatt D. Stevens
Text: Olivia Kapell
A Colorado Offering, composed in July 2016,
tells the story of someone finding peace
through communing with nature. Olivia
Kapell’s untitled poem was inspired by
waking up to the most astonishing sunrise
she had ever seen in Winter Park, Colorado.
This evoked a profound questioning of what
kind of spiritual role nature plays in our
daily lives and how we can better situate
ourselves within it. Visuals are by Wyatt
D. Stevens, created with photos taken by
Kapell in Winter Park.
—Jacob Gelber
Text:
I have found the place
where my soul stirs peacefully
....
So massive compared to I
My miniature form shrinks in their presence I
am wrapped in anxiety
but the mountains stand so
still
How dare I place anything
before Nature
Her arms wrap themselves around me she kisses
my cheek
“Listen” she says
and I hear only the quiet beauty
of Her figure
much more expansive than mine
She laughs at my
ego
but smiles at my soul as I begin to find peace in
Her
In these mountains
I lose my strict edges
that keep me locked outside of
Her warmth
and instead I feel myself expanding
a million miles wide
My chest bursts and my arms extend infinitely
The mountain air is in my every pore
Her embrace fills all of my being
with hope and with Beauty
I am the mountains
I N T E R M I S S I O N
Tag des Jahrs
Kaija Saariaho
I have been familiar with the late poems of
Hölderlin for some time now and used some
of them for several little pieces (Die Aussicht,
Überzeugung). The idea for Tag des Jahrs for
choir came to me a few years ago when
someone very dear to me suffered a cerebral
hemorrhage, and communication with her
acquired a new logic (or rather lack of it)
because she no longer had any sense of time
or place. I do not know what had happened
to Hölderlin, for he signed his poems under
different dates, decades, even centuries from
the time in which he lived, and under the
name of Scardanelli. I nevertheless acquired
a new insight into his poems as visions of
lived moments that pass in the twinkling
of an eye and then vanish or transform into
new, intensive moments. Our minds are full
of such clear, sensuous moments, and they
in fact make up our own experience of the
life we live.
The text begged to be given an archaic choral
treatment. I also wanted to expand the sound
world in the direction of the nature that is so
present in these poems. Hence, the material
consists not only of taped human voice, but
also of birds, the wind, and other nature
sounds. The electronic part was realized in
summer 2001 at the Civitella Ranieri studio,
Italy with Jean-Baptiste Barrière.
Tag des Jahrs is dedicated to my mother.
—Kaija Saariaho
Text:
Tag des Jahrs (Day of the Year)
poems by Friedrich Hölderlin
Der Frühling
Wenn neu das Licht der Erde sich gezeiget,
Von Frühlingsregen glänzt das grüne Thal und
munter
Der Blüthen Weiß am hellen Strom hinunter,
Nachdem ein heitrer Tag zu Menschen sich
geneiget.
Die Sichtbarkeit gewinnt von hellen
Unterschieden,
Der Frühlingshimmel weilt mit seinem Frieden,
Daß ungestört der Mensch des Jahres Reiz
betrachtet,
Und auf Vollkommenheit des Lebens achtet.
Mit Unterhänigkeit,
Scardanelli
d. 15. Merz 1842
(translation)
Spring
Whenever earth’s bright light reveals itself anew,
The verdant valley gleams with springtime rain,
and gaily
Snow-white blossoms breast the bright-toned
stream
Where once a cloudless day has bowed before
mankind.
Such varied colors heighten our perception,
The springtime heavens linger with their peace,
Allowing man to see the year’s attractions
undisturbed
And heed his life’s perfection.
With devotion,
Scardanelli
15 March 1842
Der Sommer
Die Tage gehn vorbei mit sanffter Lüffte
Rauschen,
Wenn mit der Wolke sie der Felder Pracht
vertauschen,
Des Thales Ende trifft der Berge Dämmerungen,
Dort, wo des Stromes Wellen sich
hinabgeschlungen.
Der Wälder Schatten sieht umhergebreitet,
Wo auch der Bach entfernt hinuntergleitet,
Und sichtbar ist der Ferne Bild in Stunden,
Wenn sich der Mensch zu diesem Sinn gefunden.
Scardanelli
d. 24. Mai 1758
(translation)
Summer
The days drift past with gentle breezes’ rustling,
Exchanging cloud for meadows’ splendor,
The mountains’ twilight strikes the valley’s end
There where the river’s waters have wound their
downward way.
The woodlands’ shadow lies there, spread around,
Where, far away, the brook glides downward
And the distant picture can be seen at times
When man collects his thoughts and to such
sense inclines.
Scardanelli
24 May 1758
Der Herbst
Das Glänzen der Natur is höheres Erscheinen,
Wo sich der Tag mit vielen Freuden endet,
Es ist das Jahr, das sich mit Pracht vollendet,
Wo Früchte sich mit frohem Glanz vereinen.
Das Erdenrund is so geschmückt, und selten
lärmet
Der Schall durchs offne Feld, die Sonne wärmet
Den Tag des Herbstes mild, die Felder stehen,
Als eine Aussicht weit, die Lüffte wehen
Die Zweig’ und Äste durch mit frohem Rauschen,
Wenn schon mit Leere sich die Felder dann
vertauschen,
Der ganze Sinn des hellen Bildes lebet
Als wie ein Bild, das goldne Pracht umschwebet.
d. 15ten Nov. 1759
(translation)
Autumn
The gleam of nature is a higher revelation
Where daylight ends with many joys.
It is the year in splendid consummation
Where fruits are merged with blithe resplendence.
The world is thus bedecked, are rarely
Does a sound transcend the open fields. How
mildly
Does the sunshine warm the autumn day, the
fields
Extend before us like a vista, breezes blow
Through twigs and branches with their cheerful
rustling
While all the fields give way to emptiness.
The total meaning of this bright-toned picture
lives
As if it were a picture framed in golden splendor.
15 November 1759
Der Winter
Wenn sich der Tag des Jahrs hinabgeneiget
Und rings das Feld mit den Gebirgen schweiget,
So glänzt das Blau des Himmels an den Tagen,
Die wie Gestirn in heitrer Höhe ragen.
Der Wechsel und die Pracht ist minder
umgebreitet,
Dort, wo ein Strom hinab mit Eile gleitet,
Der Ruhe Geist ist aber in den Stunden
Der prächtigen Natur mit Tiefigkeit verbunden.
Mit Unterhänigkeit,
Scardanelli
d. 24. Januar 1743
(translation)
Winter
When once the year’s last day has bent its head
And field and mountains all around fall mute,
The azure of the sky gleams brightly on those
days
Which soar aloft like stars to cloudless heights.
The changes and the splendor seem less
widespread
Where a river swiftly runs its downward course.
And yet the spirit of tranquility is merged
With depth at all those times when nature gleams
with splendor.
With devotion,
Scardanelli
24 January 1743
English translations by Stewart Spencer
Sensation/Eternity
Jean-Baptiste Barrière
Thomas Goepfer, sound designer
Sensation/Eternity is a piece for twentyfour
singers, electronics and video, based on
two poems, set in their English translations,
by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. It
involves what I am calling ‘dynamic scores’:
scores which are chosen and/or modified
and/or generated in real time during the
performance in the concert situation. The
singers indeed do not have a printed score;
instead musical fragments are displayed
in video on a large video projection screen
visible to both them and the audience.
They have to sight-read and and give an
interpretation of these fragments, and
sometimes also to improvise on them.
These dynamic scores are partly prepared
in advance, partly calculated in real time,
thanks to computer programs which
analyse all along the piece the singer’s
interpretation, and produce, according to
various musical constraints, next notated
fragments displayed immediately on
the screen. In parallel, these programs
controls also electronics transformations
of the singer’s voices which are then
spatialized through loudspeakers around
the audience. The singers themselves are
to be placed surrounding the audience,
allowing a de facto spatialization of the
singing parts, which is an other important
part of this piece. These technical and quite
experimental aspects should however not
prevent to concentrate on the enigmatic
beauty of Rimbaud’s text, which is the
real inspiration source for the music, and
which the piece tries modestly to prolongate
with its own terms. Sensation/Eternity is
dedicated to Karen Siegel, who initiated it,
helped tremendously all along its rehearsal
process, and who conducts C4 to bring it to
life.
—Jean-Baptiste Barrière
Text:
Sensation
Par les soirs bleus d’été, j’irai dans les
sentiers,
Picoté par les blés, fouler l’herbe menue :
Rêveur, j’en sentirai la fraîcheur à mes pieds.
Je laisserai le vent baigner ma tête nue.
Je ne parlerai pas, je ne penserai rien :
Mais l’amour infini me montera dans l’âme,
Et j’irai loin, bien loin, comme un bohémien,
Par la nature, heureux comme avec une
femme.
Sensation
(translation)
On the blue summer evenings, I shall go
down the paths,
Getting pricked by the corn, crushing the
short grass:
In a dream I shall feel its coolness on my feet.
I shall let the wind bathe my bare head.
I shall not speak, I shall think about nothing:
But endless love will mount in my soul;
And I shall travel far, very far, like a gypsy,
Through the countryside - as happy as if I
were with a woman.
L’Éternité
Elle est retrouvée.
Quoi? - L’Éternité.
C’est la mer allée
Avec le soleil.
Âme sentinelle,
Murmurons l’aveu
De la nuit si nulle
Et du jour en feu.
Des humains suffrages,
Des communs élans
Là tu te dégages
Et voles selon.
Puisque de vous seules,
Braises de satin,
Le Devoir s’exhale
Sans qu’on dise : enfin.
Là pas d’espérance,
Nul orietur.
Science avec patience,
Le supplice est sûr.
Elle est retrouvée.
Quoi ? - L’Éternité.
C’est la mer allée
Avec le soleil.
Eternity
(translation)
It has been found again.
What? – Eternity.
It is the sea fled away
With the sun.
Sentinel soul,
Let us whisper the confession
Of the night full of nothingness
And the day on fire.
From human approbation,
From common urges
You diverge here
And fly off as you may.
Since from you alone,
Satiny embers,
Duty breathes
Without anyone saying: at last.
Here is no hope,
No orietur.
Knowledge and fortitude,
Torture is certain.
It has been found again.
What? – Eternity.
It is the sea fled away
With the sun.
—Poems by Arthur Rimbaud
Art? Works!
Bettina Sheppard
Text: Zsuzsanna Ardó
Video Production and
Choreography: Danielle LaRauf
Film: Kariim Charlier
This collaboration, based on the theme
that art inspires art, is a playful look at the
interdependence of creativity. LaRauf’s
video reveals various artists overhearing
or seeing other artists at work and creating
their own interpretation. In her poem, Ardó
skillfully weaves the word play of one art
form gradually morphing to another, while
paying homage to a quote of Leonardo. The
music’s first inspiration is a solo saxophone
line represented in the video, developed
in imitation by the two quartets singing
the Leonardo quotation, while the choir
illustrates the morphing words of the poem.
—Bettina Sheppard
- - - - - - - - - -
Composers
and Collaborators
(in alphabetical order)
aTonal Hits
Since aTonalHits’ formation in 2011, the
group has been dedicated to bringing
contemporary and lesser known works of
music to light. Its founding members are
Illya Filshtinskiy (piano) and Katha Zinn
(violin), although aTonalHits has swollen its
ranks with many collaborators in music,
film, design, composition, etc.
Beyond the standard violin and piano
repertoire, Illya and Katha first found
a taste for newer music in the work of
Alfred Schnittke. They have released an
album of Schnittke Sonatas, as well as an
album entitled “1910-1920”, which focuses
on a variety of different violin and piano
music within that decade. The latter was
funded through an extremely successful
Kickstarter campaign, in which the group
raised 233% of their original goal. Their
newest recording, ORIGINS: aTonalHit plays
New Music is a compilation of premieres by
young composers from around the globe.
aTonalHits has performed in numerous
styles of venue, from outreach to the concert
hall, to conducting masterclasses and a
TEDx event. They play regularly around
the globe, including a tour of both Holland
and Turkey, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan,
Germany, Mexico- and closer to home at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall,
Liederkranz Hall, Symphony Space, and
Spectrum among others. aTonalHits has also
worked closely with the Société de Musique
Contemporaine du Québec, presenting
a recital with three of Québec’s foremost
composers, including a premiere of Jean
Lesage’s “Portrait of a Sentimental Musician
in a Distorting Mirror”. Largely dedicated
to new music, they have premiered over 100
works.
The group has also recently designed and
composed two books for beginning violin
and piano students- Toogo’s Piano/Violin
Adventures on Earth, and Toogo Goes
Home. The books take beginners through
Toogo’s adventures with the help of creative
illustrations and by introducing interesting
techniques. Composition has played an
increasingly large part in aTonalHits as
original works by Illya have been added to
their repertoire. They have also collaborated
with other groups to create larger
compositions involving film.
aTonalHits has been featured artists on the
websites of the Juilliard School, Mannes
the New School for Music, MySpace, and
Avaloch Farm Residencies. Aside from
performing, the group regularly focuses
on video and music work, producing
many classical and new music films, as
well as a documentary focusing on John
Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes and Sofia
Gubaidulina’s Dancer on a Tightrope.
aTonalHits also reaches beyond live
performance to the halls of the internet.
Videos of their work are posted regularly on
their YouTube and Vimeo sites, with footage
not only of them playing, but of their
animation, artwork, and video art. Katha
plays a 1776 Guadagnini, on loan from the
ChiMei Foundation.
To learn more about aTonalHits
please visit www.atonalhits.com
Jean-Baptiste Barrière
Jean-Baptiste Barrière was born in Paris in
1958. His studies included music, art
history, mathematical logic and philosophy
(Doctorat at Sorbonne). In 1998, he joined
IRCAM in Paris, directing successively
Musical Research, Education, and
Production; and left in 1998 to concentrate
on personal projects focusing on the
interaction between music and image.
His piece Chréode (1983) won the Prix de
la Musique Numérique of the Concours
International of Bourges in 1983 (CD
Wergo). He composed the music of several
multimedia shows, including 100 Objects to
Represent the World by Peter Greenaway,
which premiered at the Salzburg Festival in
1997. Barrière has also composed the music
of several virtual reality and interactive
installations by Maurice Benayoun,
including Worldskin (Prix Ars Electronica
1998). He developed Reality Checks, a
cycle of installations and performances
questioning the concept of identity in
the digital age. He directed the CDROM,
Prisma: The Musical Universe of Kaija
Saariaho (Grand Prix Multimédia Charles
Cros 2000), and regularly realizes visual
concerts of Saariaho’s music, including
her opera L’Amour de loin, performed in
Berlin and Paris in 2006 by Kent Nagano
and Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin.
He directed visuals for concert versions of
operas such as Olivier Messiaen’s Saint
François d’Assise with Kent Nagano and
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (Grand
Prix du Conseil des Arts of Montréal), and
with Myung Whun Chung and Orchestre
Philharmonique de Radio-France in 2008;
and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck with Esa-Pekka
Salonen and the Philharmonia of London in
2009. In 1997-98, he taught computer music
composition at the Sibelius Academy in
Helsinki, and in 2011–2012, he was Visiting
Professor in the Music Department of
Columbia University, and was in 2015 the
first grantee of the David Wessel‘s Music &
Science Grant of the Center for New Music
& Audio Technologies, Music Department
of the University of California Berkeley.
Latest major performances include in 2014 a
portrait concert at the Miller Theatre, New
York, and in 2015 at Schoenberg Theater in
Los Angeles as part of a Californian tour; the
same year, video for The Tempest Songbook
multimedia show on music by Purcell and
Saariaho at the Metropolitan Museum of
New York with the Martha Graham Dance
Company and The Gotham Chamber Opera
with stage direction by Luca Veggetti, and
a large interactive installation with George
Lewis and Carrol Blue at the Contemporary
Art Museum of Houston; the Premiere
by Jennifer Koh of Palimpsest Capriccio for
violin and electronics at National Sawdust in
May 2016; the video and electronics for the
multimedia event Circle Map at the Park
Avenue Armory dedicated to the music
of Kaija Saariaho, performed by the New
York Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka
Salonen this last October. He also started this
Fall an artist residency at the New School
in New York to realize an interdisciplinary
project involving several departments of
this university.
Jacob Gelber
Jacob Gelber is a conductor, composer,
and vocalist studying music and
composition in the Columbia-Juilliard
Exchange. Jacob enjoys writing choral and
instrumental music and collaborating with
choreographers and visual artists. His
compositions have received awards through
the ACDA, the Cantate Chamber Singers,
the Harmonium Choral Society, and the
ASCAP Young Composers Awards. He has
studied through the European-American
Musical Alliance in Paris, the Lehigh
Choral Composers Forum, the Atlantic
Music Festival, Manhattan School of Music
Precollege, and Westminster Choir College.
His composition teachers have included
Samuel Adler and the late Steven Stucky.
Jacob currently studies composition with
Melinda Wagner at the Juilliard School.
Gwyneth Leech
New York City artist Gwyneth Leech has
exhibited her drawings, paintings and
installations across the United States and
the United Kingdom in a wide variety of
museum, commercial gallery, public art, and
alternative spaces. Since the middle of 2015,
she has been focused on documenting in oil
paintings and ink drawings the progress at
numerous interior and exterior construction
sites in Midtown Manhattan as the area
undergoes major physical and demographic
changes. “Construction Series”, her first
exhibition of this new artwork, is currently
on view at the headquarters of Sciame, a
major building company in New York City.
Leech received a BA from the University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, and a BFA
and Post Graduate DA from Edinburgh
College of Art, Edinburgh, UK. The recipient
of numerous awards and grants, including
several Scottish Arts Council awards, a
University of Colorado’s President’s Fund
Grant, an Elizabeth Greenshields Memorial
Award, and a Thouron Fellowship, Leech
has created artwork that resides in important
private and public collections.
Brian Mountford
Brian Mountford studied music and
electrical engineering at Yale and UC
Berkeley. He sings with the New York City
Master Chorale as well as C4, and composes
occasionally. http://www.mountford.net/
music
Kaija Saariaho
Kaija Saariaho is a prominent member of a
group of Finnish composers and performers
who are now, in mid-career, making a
worldwide impact. Born in Helsinki in 1952,
she studied at the Sibelius Academy with
the pioneering modernist Paavo Heininen
and, with Magnus Lindberg and others, she
founded the progressive ‘Ears Open’ group.
She continued her studies in Freiburg with
Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber, at the
Darmstadt summer courses, and, from 1982,
at the IRCAM research institute in Paris –
the city which has most often been her home
ever since.
At IRCAM, Saariaho developed techniques
of computer-assisted composition and
acquired fluency in working on tape and with
live electronics. This experience influenced
her approach to writing for orchestra,
with its emphasis on the shaping of dense
masses of sound in slow transformations.
Significantly, her first orchestral piece,
Verblendungen (1984), involves a gradual
exchange of roles and character between
orchestra and tape. And even the titles of
her next linked pair of orchestral works,
Du Cristal (1989) and …à la Fumée (1990) –
the latter with solo alto flute and cello, and
both with live electronics – suggest their
preoccupation with color and texture.
Later, Saariaho turned to opera, with
outstanding success. L’Amour de loin, with a
libretto by Amin Maalouf based on an early
biography of the twelfth-century troubadour
Jaufré Rudel, received widespread acclaim
in its premiere production directed by
Peter Sellars at the 2000 Salzburg Festival,
and won the composer a prestigious
Grawemeyer Award. Adriana Mater, on
an original libretto by Maalouf, mixing
gritty present-day reality and dreams,
followed, again directed by Sellars, at
the Opéra Bastille in Paris in March 2006.
Emilie, an opera and monodrama for Karita
Mattila had its premiere in Lyon in March
2010, and Only the Sound Remains, with
Philippe Jarousky, had its world premiere in
Amsterdam in 2016.
The experience of writing for voices has
led to some clarification of Saariaho’s
language, with a new vein of modallyoriented
melody accompanied by more
regular repeating patterns. In the profusion
of large and small works which Saariaho
has produced in recent years, two features
which have marked her whole career
continue to stand out. One is a close and
productive association with individual
artists, including Amin Maalouf and Peter
Sellars, as well as the conductor Esa-Pekka
Salonen, the flautist Camilla Hoitenga, the
cellist Anssi Karttunen, the soprano Dawn
Upshaw and, the pianists Emmanuel Ax and
Tuija Hakkila. The other is a concern, shown
equally in her choice of subject matter and
texts and in the profusion of expression
marks in her scores, to make her music not
a working-out of abstract processes but an
urgent communication from composer to
listener of ideas, images and emotions.
Saariaho has claimed such major composing
awards as The Grawemeyer Award, The
Wihuri Prize, and The Nemmers Prize,
The Sonning Prize, and the Polar Music
Prize. In 2015 she was the judge of the Toru
Takemitsu Composition Award. Always
keen on strong educational programs, Kaija
Saariaho is in residence at the Mannes
School of Music for the Fall of 2016, as part
of Mannes’ centennial celebration.
In 2012, Circle Map was commissioned by
the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg
Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de
France, Royal Scottish National Orchestra,
and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. The
piece was inspired by six poems of Rumi,
which, recited in Persian, are used as the
material for the electronic part. Circle Map
was premiered by Amsterdam’s Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by
Susanna Mälkki at the Westergasfabriek
Gashouder in Amsterdam on June 22, 2012.
In 2015 the song cycle True Fire was
premiered by Gerald Finley and the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo
Dudamel. Her opera, Only the Sound
Remains, was premiered in March 2016 at
The Dutch National Opera. In December
2016, the Metropolitan Opera will present a
new production of her first opera, L’amour
de Loin.
The music of Kaija Saariaho is published
exclusively by Chester Music and Edition
Wilhelm Hansen, part of the Music Sales
Group of Companies.
Bettina Sheppard
Bettina Sheppard, composer and vocalist,
holds graduate degrees from both
University of Virginia and CUNY, where
she studied composition with Chris
Theofanidis and Shafer Mahoney, as well
as composition studies at Juilliard with
Conrad Cummings. Some of her 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; Stillwaters, a one-act opera, 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; 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. Current
projects include 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
in-house 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, with members including
Grammy Award winner David Darling,
the late Don Campbell, John Beaulieu, and
Silvia Nakkach. Bettina is the author of
The Everything Singing Book, published
by Adams Media, and is on faculty at City
College CUNY and Broadway Dance Center.
Wyatt D. Stevens
Wyatt D. Stevens is a multi-disciplinary
artist working in the mediums of film,
music, and visual arts. Born in the Hudson
Valley and currently based in New York
City, Stevens focuses on subtle occurrences
in modern youth culture through the
medium of stop motion. Stevens would like
to thank Debora Levy for her assistance in
this project.
Martha Sullivan
Martha Sullivan explores the narrative
strategies of music from many standpoints,
as a composer of vocal music, as a singer,
and as a scholar working on musical topic
theory and semiotics—she uses the tools of
feminist criticism, gender theory, vocality,
and embodiment theory. She has presented
papers at three international conferences in
the last year; sung and conducted with C4;
taught at Rutgers and Westminster Choir
College; and won the Sorel Medallion for
Women Composers.
- - - - - - - - - -
We wish to thank and acknowledge our donors:
Concert Sponsors -
Nan Bases
Susan M. Orzel-Biggs & Hayes Biggs
Jonathan David
Lauren Mitchell & Michael David
Charles Natt
Constance Beavon & Bruce Saylor
Ellen Stafford-Sigg & Daniel Sigg
Cutting-Edge Circle
Melissa Bybee
David Hurd
Creative Circle
Kit Smyth Basquin*
Helen Bell
Vic and Jan Bilodeau
Jennifer Blessing
Lewis Brown
Nancy & Lee Corbin
John Evans
Joseph Fong
Don & Sally Hayward
Ira & Becky Horowitz
Kamilah Jackson
Phyllis Kubey
Linda & Leslie Libow
Americanna Magness
Joan Malczewski
Mary Meyer
Sue Backstrom & Jon Minikes
Phil & Pat Morehead
Louis & Sharon Mountford
Bosiljka Raditsa
Linda Schrank*
Kenneth and Jean Telljohann
Ira Wolfman
Anonymous (1)
Contemporary Circle -
Arianne Abela
Richard Adams
Isabel Aleman
Nick Allardice
Aaron Alter
László Andor
Ben Arendsen
Tom Baker
Nathaniel Barnett
Brian Baum
Maya Ben-Meir
Shareeza Bhola
Vicki Bloom
Craig and Loren Blum
Lauren & Michael Blumenfeld
Linda Britt
Jeffrey Brown
Margaret Brown
Danielle Buonaiuto
Lisa Burns
Ching Chang
Barbara Charles
Martin and Lisa Cohen
Brooke Collins
Charles Crow
Michael Dellaira
Alex DeLuca
David & Mary Dreyfus
Sue Feingold
Kenny Felder
Jonathan Fisher
Vincent FitzGerald*
Visha Fox
David Gelber
Ellen Gesmer
Grace Goodman
Naomi Goodman
Beth Gordon
Diane Gottlieb
Catherine Guthrie
Rob Gutmann
Jeanine Hartnett
Harriet Davidson & Jerry Hirniak*
Rochele Hirsch
Madeline Hogan
David McCorkle & Ernest Hood*
Ling Hsiao
Jeffrey James
Ludmilla Trigos & Paul Judicke
Charles Katz
Janet Keogan
David Keyes
Jordan Kinsey
Janet & Robert Klump
Kermit Komm
Susan Koshewa
Cheryl and Jacob Krugel-Lee and Lee
Jim and Lynne Kruszka
Jon and Miriam Lafferty
Patricia Larkin
The Levin-Delsons
Tania León
Deborah Linehan
Lyn Liston
Marie-Louise Stegall
Thomas Stumpf
Martha Sullivan
Neil Sumner
Anne Thulin*
Mary Ellen Townsend
Perry Townsend
Evelyn & Socrates Triantafillou
Bill Tribby
Mary Tsimenoglou
Jennifer Wentworth
Gordon Williamson
Alice Wu
Ruth Zeiner
James Stephen Longo
Peter Lurye
Michael Biello & Dan Martin
Donald McCloskey
Maria McCumiskey
Stella McKeown
Angela Menghraj
Peter & Christine Metz
Juliet Milhofer
Mackenzie Millar
Jay D. Lane and Jean Monroe
Ruth Mueller-Maerki
Rochelle & Bernard Natt
Marjorie Naughton
Lisa Niedermeyer
Valerie Norton
Francesco Piattelli Palmarini
Leslie Palmer
Zahra Partovi*
Janet Pascal
Rob Paterson
Jane Penn
Helen Price
Bethany Reeves
David Rentz
Debra Rich
Mona Ring
Brett Roelofs
Jonathan & Suzanne Rosenzweig
Joseph Rubinstein
Sharon Lee Ryder
Maria Santos
Christine Schadeberg
Ronnie Scharfman
Peter Schmitt
Katherine Schoonover
Phillip Schroeder
David See
Mark Shapiro
Bettina Sheppard
Ike Silver
Nancy Smardz
Carolyn Smith
Marcia Sofley
Martin & Barbara Solomon
Milton Sonday*
Samhitha Sreenivasan
* Friend of C4
Includes donations from 11/2/15 to 11/2/16. Concert
Sponsor: $1,000-$4,999; Cutting-Edge Circle: $600-999;
Innovative Circle: $350-599; Creative Circle: $125-349;
Contemporary Circle: $1-$124. If we have made an
error, please accept our apologies and notify us at info@
c4ensemble.org.
- - - - - - - - - -
Special Thanks
David Castaneda
Timothy Brown
Symphony Space
C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective
Sopranos
Rebecca Ehren
Noele Flowers
Christina Kay
Artemisz Polonyi
Karen Siegel
Melissa Wozniak
Altos
Maya Ben-Meir
Erin Halpin
Rachael Lansang
Leonore Nelson
Karl Saint Lucy
Bettina Sheppard
Tenors
Ben Arendsen
Nate Barnett
Mario Gullo
Joseph Prestamo
Perry Townsend
Richard Tucker
Grant Yosenick
Basses
Daniel Andor-Ardó
Hayes Biggs
Jacob Gelber
Brendan Littlefield
Brian Mountford
David See
photographer: Keith Goldstein
For information on
C4 members, visit
our website:
c4ensemble.org/theensemble.
html
|
C4 is funded in part by:
C4 is a proud member of:
New York Choral Consortium |
Receive our newsletter:
Support C4's Mission!
|