Thursday, June 17th, 7:30pm As if a dream...

MARGARET FAIRLIE-KENNEDY - WIND QUINTET (1962) for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon.
Second Instrumental Unit

ROBERT CEELY - TRIO FOR HORN, FLUGELHORN, AND TROMBONE (2010) World Premiere
Second Instrumental Unit

RICHARD CAMERON-WOLFE  - ROERICH RHAPSODY: LIAISON (2010) United States Premiere
Lawrence Zoernig, cello; David Witten, piano

MATTHEW DAVIDSON - MUSIC FOR VIOLA AND PIANO (2006) New York Premiere
Rudolf Haken, viola; Robert Auler, piano

ALEXANDRA DU BOIS TRIO FOR PIANO, VIOLIN, AND CELLO: L'Apothéose d'un Rêve (Apotheosis of a Dream)(2004) New York Premiere
Second Instrumental Unit: David Fulmer, violin; Andrea Lee, cello; Molly Morkoski, piano.

CONCERT LOCATION: LEONARD NIMOY THALIA AT SYMPHONY
SPACE;

THURS. June
17, 7:30PM TICKETS LINK

PROGRAM NOTES

MARGARET FAIRLIE-KENNEDY - WIND QUINTET (1962) New York Premiere
Second
Instrumental Unit

Jonathan Engle, flute
Michelle Farah, oboe
Carol McGonnell, clarinet
Danielle Kuhlmann, horn
Adrian Morejon, bassoon
David Fulmer, conductor

 

WIND QUINTET, by Margaret Fairlie-Kennedy, composed for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon
was published in 2002 and has been widely performed throughout the USA.The first two movements are serially composed.

The first, Andante
Sostenuto, opens on a single pitch introducing all the instruments as they
alternate on this tone.  Later the three
upper winds begin an ascent which accelerates and crescendoes to a flute cut-off.
Eventually the movement ends with a return to the original pitch.  Movement II, a Scherzando, has an easily
followed contour. The third, and last movement is based on the single interval of a major 2nd. Beginning as Allegro giusto, it finally accelerates
to Molto Allegro with the entire ensemble furiously engaged.

RICHARD CAMERON-WOLFE - ROERICH RHAPSODY: LIAISON (2010) United States Premiere
Lawrence
Zoernig, cello; David Witten, piano

Roerich Rhapsody was written for the 2009 Festival
“Days of Modern Music in Astrakhan”.
Its thematic material is derived from the composer’s chamber opera Liaison,
with Roses. The opera celebrates the life and art of Nikolai Roerich,
as reflected in the poetry of a beautiful singer of old-style “romances”. The
character of Roerich is represented in pantomime, with a contrasting modern
musical accompaniment. In this Rhapsody, the two characters are
explored through their contrasting musical languages.

Composer-pianist Richard Cameron-Wolfe was born in
Cleveland,
Ohio, USA and received his music training at Oberlin College and Indiana
University. His principal piano teachers were Joseph Battista and
Menahem Pressler; his composition teachers included Bernard Heiden,
Iannis Xenakis, Juan Orrego-Salas, and John Eaton.

After brief
teaching engagements at Indiana University, Radford College (Virginia),
and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Cameron-Wolfe moved to New
York City, where he performed and composed for several major ballet and
modern dance companies, including the Joffrey Ballet and the Jose Limon
Company. In 1978 he began a 23-year Professorship at Purchase College,
State University of New York, teaching music theory and history,
composition, and music resources for choreographers. He resigned in 2002
- while he could still walk and think - in order to dedicate his life
to the piano and to composing.

As a composer, one
of his particular interests is micro-opera, a
very short
theatrical work of 5 to 15 minutes duration, developed through the
collaboration of composer, writer (preferably a poet), a scenic/costume
designer (preferably a visual artist), and a videographer. The work is
intended to be staged in small spaces and could be broadcast on
television or the web. See Cameron-Wolfe's Composition Catalogue
below, where his micro-operas are marked ***.

As a
pianist, Cameron-Wolfe has in recent years focused on the
"missing links", composers of the early 20th century who provided the
transition from late Romanticism into post-World War II "sound art" but
whose music is now seldom heard. Examples in his current repertoire
include works by Leo Ornstein, Dane Rudhyar (with whom he studied and
whose music he has recorded on the Furious Artisans label), and Charles
Ives.

Devoted to the promotion of modern classical music (which
he prefers to call “sound art”), Cameron-Wolfe has served as an
administrator for several musical organizations: Friends of American
Music (1974 to the present), the New Mexico Music Festival (1978-82),
Music from Angel Fire (1984), The Charles Ives Center for American Music
(1990-92), and as Executive Director of the American branch of CESAME:
the Center for Soviet/American Musical Exchange (1989-93).

He
now lives in the mountains of northern New Mexico, where he teaches
piano and composition, occasionally writes music articles for Horse Fly,
a monthly journal of politics and culture [*ARTICLES REPRINTED HERE IN
MY BLOG*], and hosts a monthly three-hour, web-streaming “Sunday Morning
[Un]Classics” radio show (dominated by 20th-century music).

 

MATTHEW DAVIDSON - MUSIC FOR VIOLA AND PIANO (2006) New York Premiere
Rudolf
Haken, viola; Robert Auler, piano

I. Bulun Bat Eta Bulun Bi
II. Douce Dame Jolie
III. Kurkku-Viili Kastike

 In this work, the first movement uses two Basque melodies
(one of which is a Basque lullaby whose text contains only Basque nonsense
words) for the first group and a "Bulgarianized" version of a
Hungarian folk melody for the second in this short sonata form. The second movement is an arrangement of a 14th-century melody by Guillaume de
Machaut, and the last owes something to Scandinavian folk music (the obscure
title refers to a favorite Finnish dill-infused salad dressing that I like to
make on occasion).   It is dedicated to the violist,
Rudolf Haken and to John
Melby, my former counterpoint instructor.

Matthew de Lacey Davidson (b. 1964, Toronto, Canada; now res. Montreal,
Canada) holds degrees from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, the
University of Toronto, Canada, and the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. Apart from concertizing in Canada, New Zealand and the United
States, with ragtime, early jazz, “classical” and contemporary music concerts,
he actively promotes the work of other composers (both as performer and
impresario) and his work has received radio broadcasts in New Zealand, North
America, and Europe.

Dr. Davidson studied piano
privately with John Powell and Rae de Lisle in New Zealand (through whom a
lineage may be traced to Franz Liszt), with Bruce Greenfield and Phillipa Ward
at the Wellington Polytechnical Institute’s Executant Music Course in New
Zealand, privately with Lawrence Pitchko and Harold Heap in Canada and with
William Heiles at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United
States. As a composer, his works encompass almost every medium, including book,
music and lyrics for two musical comedies, chamber music, improvisatory works,
theater pieces, electronic and orchestral music.

Davidson is the recipient of
commissions and awards from Victoria University, the Queen Elizabeth II (New
Zealand national) arts council, the American (formerly Minnesota) Composers’
Forum, the University of Illinois, Meet the Composer/California, The Elgin
Cultural Arts Commission, and he has been associated with the New York piano
virtuoso of twentieth century music, Anthony De Mare, the Kronos Quartet, and
the Zukofsky Quartet. He has studied theory with Alexander Rapoport at the
Royal Toronto Conservatory of Music (through whom a lineage may be traced to
the Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna) and his principal composition teachers have
been Jack Body in New Zealand, John Beckwith in Canada (through whom a lineage
may be traced to Nadia Boulanger), and Salvatore Martirano in the United
States. His music is published by Honeyrock Publications in Everett,
Pennsylvania, and the Composers Association of New Zealand. His unpublished
works are distributed by the Canadian Music Centre, The American Composers
Alliance, SOUNZ, and the Bibliotheque Internationale de Musique Contemporaine
in Paris, France. His complete works are held in archive at the Canadian Music
Centre in Montreal, Quebec; and at the Alexander Turnbull Library division of
the New Zealand National Library.

Davidson also has a Masters
degree in Social Work, and has written a 200 page non-fiction novel about his
experiences in America’s Health Care system and social services.   He has published cartoons and short stories
in New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. 

Critical praise for Davidson
has come from such diverse sources as Gramophone Magazine (”…a remarkably
talented pianist…as a performer Davidson has few peers…”), to Steve O’Keefe in
Cadence Magazine (”…this disk by…Matthew Davidson is extraordinary.”), to
recording artist for Vanguard, Epic, New World Records and Omega Classics, Max
Morath (”…his [Davidson’s] stunning premier performances… mark… this pianist
for landmark status and accolades – adjectives for which one reaches for the
Thesaurus: prodigious, consummate, mighty. Well – sublime.”). Mauro Carli, in ALIAS, praised Davidson’s compositions
as “…simultaneously complex and communicative, very original, and with a
well-defined identity. [Davidson is] a young composer who merits attention in
the world of new music.”  Of his latest album, Talencourt, www.hbdirect.com said: ”He has…achieved a
fine reputation as a concert pianist…and…his chamber music experience has given
him exceptional insight into the workings of solo and chamber string music.”
Prominent violinist of the violinfutura project, Piotr Szewczyk, has described
Davidson’s compositions as “…very charming, sophisticated, and very
innovative…”.

He is currently working on
a singspiel for singer/actors and orchestra based on "The Tragical History
of Doctor Faustus" by Christopher Marlowe, for which he is also writing
the text in blank verse, and lyrics in Rennaissance poetic forms.

ALEXANDRA DU BOIS*
 Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello: L'apothéose d'un rêve (Apotheosis of a Dream) (2005)  New York Premiere
Second Instrumental Unit: David Fulmer, violin; Andrea Lee, cello; Molly Morkoski, piano

I. Introduction
II. Adagio cantabile, semplice
III. Molto vivo – Misterioso
IV. Andante cantabile – Passionato
V. Misterioso – Adagio cantabile, semplice

 

Piano Trio: L'apothéose d'un rêve (2005) was commissioned by pianist Menahem Pressler for the Beaux Arts Trio and was premiered by the Beaux Arts Trio at The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on 16 January 2006 with consecutive performances throughout the Netherlands during the Trio's 50th anniversary season. Composed during Autumn 2005 and inspired, initially, by the breadth, length and depth of the Beaux Arts Trio's presence, the composition of the work began to internalize certain influences; Cathedral bells at Notre Dame de Paris on several storm-filled afternoons; Indiana's countryside--where I was based while pursing my Bachelor's degree while writing this piece, and other flat, Midwestern, land-locked landscapes.

At the heart of the piano trio is an emotionally suspended D-Minor theme that occurs, in its purest form, during the two Adagio cantabile, semplice movements near the beginning and at the very end of the work. The theme is first passed from cello to violin. The emotional differences in these two instruments' tessitura and the order in which the theme is heard represent specific meaning. The second time it is reversed: violin passes to cello--which is then interrupted by "bells" and the final notes. Throughout the middle movements, variations of this theme meander through different memories, atmospheres and times in my life in the five main sections made up of eight movements--all of which were composed and felt as if it were a dream.

Born 16 August 1981, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Alexandra du Bois grew up in
Cambridge, Massachusetts where she studied full-time at the University of
Massachusetts-Boston and the Longy School of Music and while still in high school.
She then received her Bachelor of Music degree in Composition and Violin from the
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where she was the recipient the Dean’s
Prize in Composition, the Kuttner Quartet Composition Award, the Dean’s Award
Scholarship and the Emma E. Clause Scholarship. Alexandra du Bois then received her
Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School where she studied with Christopher
Rouse and was the recipient of the Sylvia and Milton Babbitt Scholarship, the Piser
Scholarship and the E. & J. Brenner Scholarship. Her teachers in composition include
Sven-David Sandström, Christopher Rouse, Claude Baker, Don Freund, Osvaldo Golijov,
Howard Frazin and David Patterson. Her teachers in violin have been Federico
Agostini, Henryk Kowalski, Lynn Chang, Peter Haase and Suzanne Schreck.

Alexandra du Bois’ music has been performed on five continents and has been
commissioned by ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet, Bargemusic, Orchestra of St.
Luke’s, The Beaux Arts Trio, Merkin Concert Hall, The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra,
Southwest Chamber Music, Present Music with the Milwaukee Choral Artists and the
Milwaukee Children’s Choir, The Piano Project at the Kaufman Center in New York, The
Savannah Music Festival, Bang on a Can Festival, Ascending Dragon Music Festival,
Azure Ensemble, The University Chorus and Chamber Singers at the University of
Massachusetts-Boston, Duo Diez, MAYA, as well as musicians including Daniel Hope,
Menahem Pressler, Wendy Sutter, Sato Moughalian, Mary Rowell, DaXun Zhang, Carson
Cooman, Espen Jensen, Zefir Brezeanu, Aurélie Entringer, Sergio Puccini, Ian Ding,
Randall Craig Fleischer and many others. Further performances of her music have been
presented by ensembles such as JACK Quartet, Felici Trio, Southwest Chamber Music
and American Modern Ensemble.

*Young Composer Project participant, with funding provided by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.

PERFORMING ARTISTS FOR THIS CONCERT:

 

R. Haken by Armgard Haken 208Rudolf Haken has been on the music
faculty of the
University of Illinois since 1996, previously having served as viola
professor
at West Virginia University.

 A CD of concertos composed by Rudolf Haken was chosen as an
American Record Guide “Critics’ Choice” for 2007. The CD (Centaur 2826)
features oboist Nancy Ambrose King, clarinetist Bill King, conductor
Julien
Benichou, as well as Professor Haken playing a five-string
“Pellegrina” viola pomposa built by David Rivinus. According to The
Clarinet
(journal of the International Clarinet Society), “This disc is
highly
recommended not only for the clarinet work, but also for Haken’s
exuberant
Americana fiddling style of the viola work and the beautiful and
engaging Oboe Concerto.........a joy to experi­ence.
This is a winner – guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.” 

Having conducted his first orchestral works at the
age of
ten, Rudolf Haken studied composition and piano privately for ten years
with
Hubert Kessler, and viola with Guillermo Perich. Professor Charles
DeLaney also
had a great influence on Haken’s musical development.

As a composer, he has received commissions for compositions in a
great variety of styles. Violinist Rachel Barton Pine commissioned his
solo
violin work “Faust”, in heavy metal style. Korean conductor Maestro
Nanse Gum
has commissioned Haken to compose an orchestral work based on Korean
traditional music. In 1996, Professor Haken was commissioned by the
Radiological Consultants Association to compose a trumpet concerto,
which was
premiered by Paul Merkelo, principal trumpet of the Montreal
Symphony.
Haken has composed commissioned solo works for violinist Stefan
Milenkovich,
flutist Jean Ferrandis, Nobel Prize laureate Paul Lauterbur and numerous
others. Rudolf Haken’s compositions, recordings and teaching
materials can be found on his website, www.rudolfhaken.com.

ROBERT
MARSHALL AULER is an award-winning American concert pianist who
maintains
a national and international performing career. Auler has won
numerous
competitions, including the Society of American Musicians
First
Prize. Following his success in the Young Keyboard Artists’
Association Piano Competition, Auler was invited to perform
throughout
Germany, France, the Netherlands and Denmark. He has also
presented concerts
throughout Venezuela, most notably at Caracas’ Festival A
Tiempo.
In April 2008, Auler presented concerts throughout Austria,
including
an appearance on the Alte-Shmeide Gallery Series in
Vienna, as
well as a concert at the international Ignaz Pleyel Musuem
in
Ruppersthal.
He is a keen advocate of new music, having worked with William Bolcom,
Steve Reich, Leslie Bassett, Martin Bresnick, Rudolf Haken, and
Frederic
Rzewski, Jonathan Pieslak and Carter Pann. Festival performances
have
included appearances at the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy
of the
West, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, the MUSIC 200x Series in
Cincinnati, and
Brave New Works-Ann Arbor. His recent compact disc release, American

Century, features music of the last 100 years influenced by
the American
vernacular.

 

Residing
in New York City, the Second Instrumental Unit is currently in the midst of
their sixth season.  Throughout past
seasons, the Unit has been featured both as Resident-ensemble, and as
Guest-artists at Queens College, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Rutgers,
Ball State University, Bates College, University of Western Michigan,
University of California San Diego, Juilliard, the New England Conservatory,
and the Boston Conservatory.  The Unit
has developed a very special relationship with Queens College (Aaron Copland
School of Music), where they have just completed their fifth season as
ensemble-in-residence for the composition department, astonishingly
commissioning and premiering over 120 new works by student composers. The Unit has also had an annual engagement at the Monadnock
Music Festival.  In the late summer of
2007, the Unit was invited to lecture, present, and perform in Porto Alegra,
Brazil at the Universidad.  As a result
of the tour to Brazil, the Arts Council and Minister of Education of Brazil
issued a special citation to David Fulmer and Eliot Gattegno (co-directors) for
their outstanding artistic excellence. The Unit made its Carnegie Hall debut at
Weill Recital Hall in the spring of 2006 in a 90^th birthday celebration
concert in tribute of American composer Milton Babbitt.  The American Composers Alliance (ACA) has
also embraced the ensemble, choosing to showcase the Second Instrumental Unit
at their annual festival for the past four years.

 

 

Pianist
David Witten’s international career has included numerous concert
tours in Ireland, Finland, Russia,
Ukraine, Europe, Mexico and South America.
As the recipient of a 1990 Fulbright Scholar Award Witten spent five months
teaching and concertizing throughout Brazil, and he is frequently invited back
to give concerts and master classes. Closer to home Witten’s performances have included solo
appearances with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and
various chamber music collaborations with members of the New York Philharmonic
and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Witten has
recorded the piano music of Nicholas Van Slyck (Titanic Records) and has
commissioned over a dozen new works for Soli Espri, a chamber trio he founded
in Boston with
clarinetist Chester Brezniak and mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato. With flutist
Sue Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin, Witten
formed Duo Clasico: their recording is available on the Musical Heritage
Society label. Most recently Marco Polo records released Witten’s solo album, Piano Music of Manuel M.
Ponce.

 

Lawrence Zoernig has been principal 'cellist of many New York symphony
and chamber orchestras, including New York Chamber Orchestra, Bachanalia and Opera Manhattan. Mr.Zoernig premièred Lars-Erik Larsson’s Concertino for 'Cello and String Orchestra at Trinity Church with the New York Scandia Symphony, for which he is also principal 'cellist. As a chamber musician, he has performed frequently with the Goliard Ensemble and Bachanalia. He has appeared as soloist and chamber musician at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall in New
York and the Phillips Collection and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.. As a concert artist on the international scene, Mr. Zoernig has been presented at theTeatro Amazones in Manaus, Brazil and the World Expo in Seville, Spain. Lawrence Zoernig received a Bachelor of Music degree from theCleveland Institute of Music where he studied with Alan Harris, and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School where he studied with Harvey Shapiro.

 

Composer,violinist David FulmerACA Festival 2009

Composer,
violinist, and conductor David Fulmer
maintains a unique position in today’s musical world.  His audacious compositional style, courageous programming, and thrilling performing abilities have garnered him numerous
international accolades.  He was just
announced the winner of the 14th International Edvard Grieg
Competition for Composers; the first American ever to receive the award.  He has also been named a winner of the
56th annual BMI Composer Awards, and was recently presented the prestigious
Charles Ives Award (Scholarship) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
for his original compositions.

Other honors and awards include a special
citation from the Minister of Education of Brazil for his cycle of musical
lectures and presentation, the Hannah Komanoff Scholarship in Composition
(2006-07) and the 2005 Dorothy Hill Klotzman Grant from the Juilliard School,
and the highly coveted 2004 George Whitefield Chadwick Gold Medal from the New
England Conservatory.  David graduated from the Masters program at
Juilliard pursuing studies in composition with Milton Babbitt and violin with
Robert Mann, and is currently completing his studies there as a C.V. Starr
Doctoral Fellow.  He appears frequently and records often with the
premiere new music ensembles Speculum Musicae, the Group for Contemporary
Music, the New York New Music Ensemble, and also with the Second Instrumental
Unit, an ensemble that he co-founded and directs. Upcoming performances of his
music will be featured this summer at the Grieg Festival in Oslo, the Mozarteum
Summer Festival in Salzburg, and numerous festivals across the United
States.  After the success of his recent
Violin Concerto (2010), commissioned and written for the New Juilliard Ensemble,
David is now working on a number of recently commissioned projects, including a
cello concerto for Fred Sherry, to be premiered in the fall of 2010. 

While just having premiered his Fourth String
Quartet (June, 2010), another quartet is already being sketched for the iO
Quartet; In the fall of 2010, the iO’s will present a showcase concert
exclusively of David’s quartet cycle, including the newly commissioned work
that is made possible through support from Meet The Composer.  The Quartet will record his complete string
quartets for commercial release later this year. Other upcoming commissions
include a song cycle for mezzo-soprano and string ensemble for the Monadnock
Music Festival, a new work for the MuSE Ensemble, and a new work for violinist
Stefan Jackiw.  In addition to academic
and performing engagements, he often presents lectures on myriad musical topics
around the globe, with recent appearances at the Philadelphia Modern Languages
Association Conference; International Society of the Arts, Mathematics, and
Architecture (Germany); BRIDGES International Mathematics Conference
(Maryland); Banff Centre; Hildegard Von Bingen Society. 
David was just appointed to serve on the faculty of
Columbia University where he will teach violin performance and chamber music.