Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents

Trio Chimera

Performing New Works by:

• Yuri Boguinia

• Florent Ghys

• Pascal Le Boeuf

• Steven Mackey

• Anna Pidgorna

• Chris Rogerson

Performed by:

• Trio Chimera

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Start time: 8:00 pm

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PSK presents TRIO CHIMERA with Eileen Mack, Clarinet performing new works by Princeton composers Yuri Boguinia, Florent Ghys, Pascal Le Boeuf, Steven Mackey, Anna Pidgorna, and Chris Rogerson at Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall on Tuesday, September 15, 2015, 8pm.

PROGRAM

CHRIS ROGERSON
River Songs
A Fish Will Rise
Swan Song

FLORENT GHYS
Étude for 11 Faces for piano, violin, cello and video featuring Mika Godbole, Yumi Tamashiro, Bora Yoon, Quinn Collins, Mike Mulshine, Dave Molk, Viet Cuong, Wally Gunn, Elliot Cole, and Brooks Frederickson.

White
Points
Rhythm
Melody
Words

Instead of using source material from bad-quality YouTube videos as I’ve done in the past, I wanted to use HD videos that I would film myself. And at some point I got tired of seeing my face on the screen, so I asked people around me to come in Studio B to get filmed and recorded. This piece also uses different musical ideas that I am currently interested in: speech melody, isorhythms, and random notes generators.

ANNA PIDGORNA
Like doves with grey wings embracing

This piece explores my emotional response to this mournfully beautiful Ukrainian folksong I found on a recording by the folk duo Dyke Pole (Дике Поле). In a truly ‘romantic’ fashion, the images and sentiments expressed in this song resonated with some turbulent events in my own life. Musically, this work transforms material from my piece Weeping for a dead love, which I recently performed with Sō Percussion. The strings draw on the folk-inspired vocal lines, while the piano expands on the sound of the four Noah bells, which magically fit themselves into my vocal melodies and suggested a surprising harmonic world.

— INTERMISSION —

PASCAL LE BOEUF
Obliquely Wrecked

By adapting language idiomatic of the acid house genre for piano trio, Obliquely Wrecked explores the idea that our quotidian behaviors within the sphere of human interaction can sometimes have drastic consequences that differ from our intentions.

STEVEN MACKEY
Prelude to the End

In 1992 I wrote a piece called Physical Property for electric guitar and string quartet. Its purpose was simply to share the joy of playing fast music and feeling the metaphorical wind in your hair. It was written very quickly which prohibited over thinking and the result is a 15-minute, unfettered romp. The members of Soli were fans of the piece and programmed it years ago, so when they asked me to write them a new piece the thought crossed my mind that I should try to recapture the energy of Physical Property. That was an all too familiar thought; several times in the last 20 years I have sought to take that fast ride again but I always fail because I am not the same person I was back then. In the intervening two decades I have lost both my parents, had two children, been divorced and remarried, lost energy, gained wisdom, lost innocence, gained sophistication—I’ve lived a normal life. It occurred to me that I should make that inevitable failure a feature of the piece and make the piece about the struggles and complications that make it impossible for me to re-write Physical Property. Beginning with unabashed ebullience, Prelude to the End can’t resist exploring darker expressive territory, more complicated harmonic paths, and precarious textures. Over 15 minutes, gravity and gravitas pulls the music into areas that could not be predicted by the opening. Well, that isn’t actually true because, to my ear, even the first gesture shows signs of mortality. The instrumentation—violin, clarinet, cello, and piano—is strongly associated with Messiaen’s landmark composition Quartet for the End of Time. Any such group would probably perform Messiaen many times; in fact, such groups were probably formed in order to play Messiaen. It occurred to me that the trajectory of my piece from goofy to grave would be a good set up for, a prelude to the Quartet for the End of Time, hence the title. The title also refers to the fact that at the premiere my work closed the program and as such functioned as a prelude to the end of the concert.

MEET THE PERFORMERS

Called “a sensitive performer” by The New York Times and “especially impressive” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, James Johnson enjoys an active and varied career as a pianist, keyboardist, composer, and arranger. A graduate of The Juilliard School and Yale University, James’s recent performance highlights include premieres of Tyondai Braxton’s Central Market with the London Sinfonietta and LA Philharmonic, a Centennial performance of Pierrot Lunaire with the Proteus Ensemble at the Five Boroughs Music Festival, and performances of John Adams’ Gnarley Buttons and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 at the 2014 Vail Festival. Recent concerto appearances include Mozart K. 453 (with original cadenzas) with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto (on Harpsichord) with the Manhattan School of Music orchestra. A winner in both the Yellow Springs and Fischoff National Chamber Music Competitions with the Proteus Ensemble, James has performed in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Whitney Museum, Ford’s Theater, The Library of Congress, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Heinz Hall, Disney Hall, and The Walter Reade Theater as part of the Great Performers at Lincoln Center series. James is also a founding member of Newspeak, Electric Kompany, and Trio Chimera, and has performed with eighth blackbird, the Orion Quartet, the Ethel Quartet, Zephyros Winds, Either/Or, the Wordless Orchestra, Oneida, PNME, the Artemis Ensemble, and the Fireworks Ensemble. An active performer/promoter of new music, James served as the pianist as part of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble from 2001–2003 and has worked with Poul Ruders, Steven Stucky, Jacob TerVeldhuis, David Rakowski, David del Tredici, and Marc Mellits on new works. James’s recent compositions include Fuzzy Math for cellist Brian Snow, Pecking Order for flutist Liz Jenzen, and Tongue Tied for violinists Melissa Tong and Esther Noh, as well as various electronic tracks as part of De Snakes. Arrangements for his ensembles include Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Webern’s transcription of Bach’s Ricercar from The Musical Offering, Eric Dolphy’s Hat and Beard, and We Won’t Get Fooled Again by the Who. James recently received his doctoral degree at the Manhattan School of Music and currently lives in New York.

Clarinetist Eileen Mack grew up in Australia and is now based in New York City. She is a member of post-minimalist band Victoire and amplified ensemble Newspeak (which she also co-directs), and has performed with many other New York new music groups including Wet Ink, Alarm Will Sound, Signal Ensemble, the Bang on a Can All Stars, and the Wordless Music Orchestra. She has performed in venues around the world including Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and London’s Royal Albert Hall, with conductors including Pierre Boulez, Oliver Knussen, Brad Lubman, and Alan Pierson, and has appeared as soloist at the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival and the Bang on a Can Marathon. Her discography ranges from work on the Crocodile Hunter TV and movie soundtracks to releases on New Amsterdam Records, Tzadik, Innova, and Warp Records. Eileen holds degrees from Stony Brook University, the Manhattan School of Music and the Queensland Conservatorium.

Heralded by The New York Times as a violinist of “tireless energy and bright tone” and by The Washington Post as “dangerously gifted,” Courtney Orlando specializes in the performance of contemporary and crossover music. She is a founding member of the acclaimed new music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, which has premiered works by and collaborated with some of the foremost composers of our time, including John Adams, Donnacha Dennehy, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, and Augusta Read Thomas. Performances with AWS include those at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Disney Hall, the Kimmel Center, London’s Barbican Theatre, and venues in Germany, Poland, Italy, and Russia. She is also a member of Ensemble Signal, Trio Chimera, and Deviant Septet, and performs regularly with Ireland’s Crash Ensemble. Crossover projects include those with jazz musicians Theo Bleckmann, Uri Caine, Michael Formanek, and Joshua Redman. Other performances include those with Björk, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Sigur Rós’s Jónsi, and Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. Courtney has recorded for Bridge, Cantaloupe, Chandos, ECM, Harmonia Mundi, Nonesuch, Tzadik, and Winter and Winter. Courtney is currently on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory, where she is the artistic director of the school’s new music ensemble, Now Hear This. She resides in Princeton, NJ, with three lovely Irish lads.

Praised by The Boston Globe for his “pugnacious, eloquent, self-assurance,” cellist Brian Snow pursues a varied performing career, appearing at many of New York’s most important venues including Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Bargemusic, and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Brian is a member of Newspeak, OMNI Ensemble, and Proteus Ensemble, and has performed and recorded with a variety of artists including Meredith Monk, The National, Björk, John Legend, and the Emerson String Quartet. A strong advocate for contemporary music, Brian has worked closely with composers including Nico Muhly, David T. Little, and Martin Bresnick, premiering dozens of new works, and has performed with many important contemporary music ensembles, including Alarm Will Sound, ACME, and Talea Ensemble. Along with violinist Caroline Chin, he recently released a CD of music for violin and cello by Elliott Carter on Centaur Records which was included in new music blog Sequenza 21’s list of “most memorable recordings of 2013.” He has also appeared on recordings on the New Amsterdam, Innova, Cantaloupe, and Naxos labels. Brian received a Doctorate in Music from Stony Brook University, a Master’s from Yale, and also holds degrees from Hartt and Longy Schools of Music. His teachers have included Aldo Parisot, David Finckel, and Colin Carr. Brian is an adjunct faculty member at Western Connecticut State University and an affiliate artist and cello teacher at Sarah Lawrence College.

MEET THE COMPOSERS

FLORENT GHYS is a European citizen and a second-year graduate student who is currently interested in filming people and objects and making music out of it.

Described as “sleek, new” and “hyper-fluent” by The New York Times, PASCAL LE BOEUF is a pianist-composer and electronic artist whose interests range from modern improvised music to cross-breeding classical with production-based technology. Le Boeuf’s most recent awards include the 2015 ASCAP Foundation Johnny Mandel Prize, a 2015 New Music USA Grant in collaboration with RighteousGIRLS, Independent Music Awards in “Jazz,” “Eclectic,” and “Electronica” categories, and a 2015 New Jazz Works Commission from Chamber Music America in collaboration with JACK Quartet. He composed music for the 2008 Emmy Award-winning movie King Lines, and won first place in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition. Pascal performs and records regularly with the piano trio Pascal’s Triangle, featuring bassist Linda Oh and drummer Justin Brown. As a keyboardist, Pascal has opened for Dangelo (Black Messiah tour), British electronic group Clean Bandit (Rather Be Tour), and regularly performs with Australian pop artist Meg Mac. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Music Composition at Princeton University as a Naumburg Doctoral Fellow.

STEVEN MACKEY has been on the faculty in the Music Department at Princeton since 1985.

Anna Pidgorna is a Ukrainian-born, Canadian-raised composer and media artist who combines sound, visual arts, writing and carpentry to create works that are dramatic and picturesque. Her music has been performed throughout Canada, as well as in Italy, Austria, Germany, Uruguay, and the United States. Anna’s fascination with Ukrainian folk singing took her on a journey through Ukrainian villages in the fall of 2012 and 2013, with generous funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. These experiences have resulted in numerous instrumental pieces and have inspired her to learn this particular singing style herself. Her part-time work on a heritage house renovation in Vancouver led to the creation of Through closed doors, a violin duo inscribed on a restored antique door, which was premiered by the Thin Edge New Music Collective in Toronto in September 2014. Anna is a recipient of two SOCAN Foundation Emerging Composers’ awards and has taken part in composition workshops at Carnegie Hall with Kaija Saariaho, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre with Gary Kulesha and Chen Yi, and Toronto’s Soundstreams with R. Murray Schafer and Juliet Palmer. Her Light-play through curtain holes represented Canada at the ISCM World New Music Days 2013 Festival in Vienna. Anna holds an MMus from the University of Calgary, where she studied with David Eagle, and a BA from Mount Allison University. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies at Princeton University.

Hailed as a “confident, fully-grown composing talent” (The Washington Post), Chris Rogerson’s music has been praised for its “virtuosic exuberance” and “haunting beauty” (The New York Times). He has received commissions and performances from the Atlanta Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony, among others. His music has been heard in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, and Symphony Center in Chicago. As Composer-in-Residence of the Amarillo Symphony, he will compose two new works over the next two years for the orchestra; he also serves as the Composer-in-Residence for the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival in Florida. Chris’s 2014 – 2015 season also included performances by the Charlotte Symphony, Spokane Symphony, and Opus One Piano Quartet. In 2012, Chris received a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has also won awards from ASCAP, BMI, the Theodore Presser Foundation, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, the National Association for Music Education, the New York Art Ensemble, and the Aspen Music Festival (Jacob Druckman Award). Chris has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Ucross Foundation. He has also been Composer-in-Residence for the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, Young Composer-in-Residence at Music from Angel Fire, and a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, the Cabrillo Festival, and the Norfolk New Music Workshop. Born in 1988, he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Yale School of Music with Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Martin Bresnick, and is currently a doctoral fellow at Princeton University. Chris is represented by Young Concert Artists, Inc.