Princeton Sound Kitchen presents

‘Terrain’

An evening of new works, including final dissertation pieces by graduate student composers Florent Ghys and Matt McBane, and new works by graduate student composers Gulli Björnsson, Natalie Dietterich, Florent Ghys, James Moore, all written for visiting guest artists, cellist Ashley Bathgate, guitarist JIJI, and Mantra Percussion.

New works by

• Gulli Björnsson

• Natalie Dietterich

• Florent Ghys

• Matt McBane

• James Moore

Performed by

• Ashley Bathgate

• Florent Ghys

• JIJI

• LINÜ

• Mantra Percussion

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall at Princeton University
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Start Time: 8:00pm

Program

​​Gulli Björnsson
Dirrindi

LINÜ: Gulli Björnsson, electric guitar; JIJI, electric guitar

James Moore
Three Solo Guitar Pieces

JIJI, electric guitar

Natalie Dietterich
Abigail

JIJI, acoustic guitar

Florent Ghys
Selections from Ritournelles & Mosaïques

Florent Ghys, upright bass, electronics, video

INTERMISSION

Matt McBane
Terrain

Ashley Bathgate, cello; Ashley Bathgate, cello; Mantra Percussion: Joseph Bergen, percussion; Caitlin Cawley, percussion; David Friend, keyboards / percussion; Mika Godbole, percussion; Christopher Graham, percussion; Mark Utley, percussion

Princeton Sound Kitchen presents

Movie Night

A showcase of the intersection between modern composition and video projection, featuring new works by Princeton University composers.

Works by

• Florent Ghys

• Pascal Le Boeuf

• Andrew Lovett

• Gemma Peacocke

• Anna Pidgorna

• Annika Socolofsky

• Cleek Schrey

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall at Princeton University
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Start time: 8:00 pm

Program

Florent Ghys
The Four Suburban Seasons

1. Summer
2. Fall
3. Winter
4. Spring

Pascal Le Boeuf
Mirror Image

Music and lyrics by Pascal Le Boeuf; produced by Pascal Le Boeuf, Ian Chang, and Rafiq Bhatia (appearing courtesy of ANTI- Records)

Video by Four/Ten Media (Kevin Eikenberg and Evan Chapman); concept by Pascal Le Boeuf & Bec Plexus; Nicole Patrick, drummer in video

Bec Plexus, vocal; Pascal Le Boeuf, synthesizers, drums: Ian Chang, drums; JACK Quartet: Christopher Otto, violin; Ari Streisfeld, violin; John Pickford Richards, viola; Kevin McFarland, cello; Pascal Le Boeuf, vocals and synths; drums by Nathan Fox and Blake Hoffman (Elevator Music Company); Bec Plexus, additional vocals; Andy Taub, strings (Brooklyn Recording)

Mixing engineer: Dave Darlington (Bass Hit Studios); mastering engineer: Wouter Brandenburg

Andrew Lovett
Crossing Points

Film by Lucy Harris; music by Andrew Lovett; composed using samples by cellist Judith Mitchell

Florent Ghys
USA

INTERMISSION

Florent Ghys
The world’s best piano pieces

Pascal Le Boeuf, Keyboard

Gemma Peacocke
Lumen

Anna Pidgorna
On the courtship displays of Birds-of-Paradise

Annika Socolofsky
Turadh

Xuan, new media artist, filmmaker, and interdisciplinary collaborator; The Parhelion Trio: Sarah Carrier, flute; Ashleé Miller, clarinet; Andrea Christie, piano

Cleek Schrey
Daxophone Consort

The Daxophone Consort: Daniel Fishkin, Cleek Schrey, Ron Shalom

Princeton Sound Kitchen presents

Contemporaneous

New works by

• Florent Ghys

• Molly Herron

• James Moore

• Tom Morrison

• Annika Socolofsky

• Dan Trueman

Performed by

• Contemporaneous

• Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall at Princeton University
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Start time: 8:00 pm

Program

Florent Ghys
Brandi Loves Todd

Contemporaneous

Tom Morrison
Botanica

Contemporaneous

Molly Herron
An Opening Goodbye

Contemporaneous

Annika Socolofsky
“Little boy blue”

Contemporaneous

James Moore
Nocturnal Cyclops / Crystal Concubine

Contemporaneous

Dan Trueman
Work-in-Progress

Haw
Perhaps
Stromatolith
Lithic
I Can Feel It In My Bones

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, hardanger d’amore; Contemporaneous

Contemporaneous: Fanny Wyrick-Flax, flute; Vicente Alexim, clarinet; Evan Honse, trumpet; Daniel Linden, trombone; Adam Holmes, percussion; Robby Bowen, percussion; Milena Gligic, piano; Brendon Randall-Meyers, guitar; Kate Dreyfuss, violin; Josh Henderson, violin; Sarah Haines, viola; Dylan Mattingly, cello; Tristan Kasten-Krause, bass; David Bloom, conductor

Princeton Sound Kitchen presents

Sō Percussion

New works by

• Jenny Beck

• Christopher Douthitt

• Florent Ghys

• Pascal Le Boeuf

• Tom Morrison

• Gemma Peacocke

• Annika Socolofsky

Performed by

• Sō Percussion

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall at Princeton University
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Thursday, February 7, 2019
Start time: 8:00 pm

Program

Pascal Le Boeuf
Lamps

Christopher Douthitt
Set Adrift

Annika Socolofsky
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: ambedo

Gemma Peacocke
The Flight of Birds

Tom Morrison
Dystopia Etude no. 3

Jenny Beck
Turn Together

Florent Ghys
Big Dada

Sō Percussion: Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting

Princeton Sound Kitchen presents

Bearthoven

New works by

• Jenny Beck

• Florent Ghys

• Molly Herron

• Matt McBane

• Anna Meadors

• Gemma Peacocke

Performed by

• Bearthoven

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Start time: 8:00 pm

Program

Matt McBane
Submerge

Gemma Peacocke
Quiver

Molly Herron
Ebb Tide

INTERMISSION

Anna Meadors
Miniature Impulses

Jenny Beck
Sleepchains

Florent Ghys
Des Mots Superficiels

Bearthoven: Karl Larson, piano; Pat Swoboda, bass; Matt Evans, percussion

Princeton Sound Kitchen presents

Nick Photinos

Nick Photinos, cellist of Eighth Blackbird performing works for cello, electronics and video.

Works by

• Bryce Dessner

• Florent Ghys

• Molly Joyce

• Pascal Le Boeuf

• David T. Little

• Angélica Negrón

• Jacob TV

Performed by

• Nick Photinos

• Jason Treuting

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Tickets: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Start time: 8:00 pm

Program

Bryce Dessner
Lewisburg (2015)

Nick Photinos, cello

Molly Joyce
Sit and Dance (2012)

Nick Photinos, cello

Pascal Le Boeuf
Alpha (2016)

Nick Photinos, cello; Jason Treuting, Drums

Jacob TV
TATATATA (1998)

Nick Photinos, cello

David T. Little
and the sky was still there (2010)

Nick Photinos, cello

Angélica Negrón
Panorama (2012)

Nick Photinos, cello

Florent Ghys
Petits Artéfacts (2015)

Game
Information
Cuisine
Factory
Family
Flowers

Nick Photinos, cello

Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents

Shattered Glass

Performing New Works by:

• Rodrigo Batalha

• Florent Ghys

• Pascal Le Boeuf

• Molly Herron

• Annika Socolofsky

• Alyssa Weinberg

Performed by:

• Shattered Glass

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Start time: 8:00 pm

____

New works for string orchestra by Princeton composers

Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents

One Hundred Goodbyes

Performing New Works by:

• Leila Adu

• Donnacha Dennehy

• Amanda Feery

• Florent Ghys

• Jason Treuting

Performed by:

• One Hundred Goodbyes

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Start time: 8:00 pm

____

New works by Princeton composers for a variety of performers

A variety of musicians including Tigue, Courtney Orlando, Owen Weaver, Grey McMurray, and Amanda Gookin, perform new works by Princeton composers. These include ‘One Hundred Goodbyes' a song cycle by Donnacha Dennehy, a percussion trio by Jason Treuting, a percussion and video piece by Florent Ghys, and solo cello pieces by Leila Adu and Amanda Feery.

Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents

Dialogic - Generals Concert

Performing New Works by:

• Yuri Boguinia

• Florent Ghys

• Anna Pidgorna

• Kendall Williams

• Bora Yoon

Performed by:

• Dialogic

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Start time: 8:00 pm

____

PSK presents 'DIALOGIC,' various artists and ensembles performing new works by Princeton second year graduate student composers Yuri Boguinia, Florent Ghys, Anna Pidgorna, Kendall Williams and Bora Yoon, responding to work by composers from the ages, or established contemporary composers. This forms part of the students' General Examinations submission of original work. An annual event, this is always an extraordinary concert featuring old and new works. The concert is at Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall on Tuesday, April 19, 2016, 8pm.

Dan Trueman, Director (on sabbatical 2015 – 2016)

Dmitri Tymoczko, Acting Director

Michael Pratt, Resident Conductor

Responding to composers:

Anton Webern, Baligh Hamdi, Arvo Pärt, Ludwig Van Beethoven and Igor Stravinsky

Annika Socolofsky interviews the composers about their works:

PSK Q&A: Dialogic

Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents

Escher String Quartet

Performing New Works by:

• Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade

• Christopher Douthitt

• Florent Ghys

• Wally Gunn

• Pascal Le Boeuf

Performed by:

• Escher String Quartet

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Start time: 8:00 pm

____

PSK presents ESCHER STRING QUARTET performing new works by Princeton composers Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Christopher Douthitt, Florent Ghys, Wally Gunn and Pascal Le Boeuf at Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall on Tuesday, March 22, 2015, 8pm.

Dan Trueman, Director (on sabbatical 2015 – 2016)
Dmitri Tymoczko, Acting Director
Michael Pratt, Resident Conductor

Read an article about the concert by clicking on the link below
PSK Q&A Interview with composers

Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents

The Cimbalom

Performing New Works by:

• Leila Adu-Gilmore

• Quinn Collins

• Christopher Douthitt

• Florent Ghys

• Dave Molk

• Anna Pidgorna

• Juri Seo

• Annika Socolofsky

• Kendall Williams

Performed by:

• The Cimbalom

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

____

PSK presents THE CIMBALOM, works for the cimbalom and mixed ensemble, featuring Nick Tolle, cimbalom, Mark Eichenberger, percussion, Rosie Kaplan, voice and Courtney Orlando, violin, performing new works by Princeton composers Leila Adu-Gilmore, Quinn Collins, Christopher Douthitt, Florent Ghys, Dave Molk, Anna Pidgorna, Juri Seo, Annika Socolofsky, and Kendall Williams at Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall on Tuesday, December 8, 2015, 8pm.

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

____

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.

Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents

Movie Night

Performing New Works by:

• Yuri Boguinia

• Elliot Cole

• Florent Ghys

• Andrew Lovett

• David Molk

• Anna Pidgorna

• Jeff Snyder

• Bora Yoon

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Start time: 8:00 pm

____

PSK presents MOVIE NIGHT: an evening of new video, audio and multimedia works by Princeton composers Yuri Boguinia, Elliot Cole, Florent Ghys, Andrew Lovett, David Molk, Anna Pidgorna, Jeff Snyder, Bora Yoon at Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall on Tuesday, March 3, 2015, at 8:00pm.

Dan Trueman, Director

Michael Pratt, Resident Conductor

Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents

Black Box Project

Performed by:

• Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade

• Florent Ghys

• Wally Gunn

• Dave Molk

• Josh Quillen

• Jason Treuting

Location: Class of 1970 Theater, Whitman College
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Start time: 8:00 pm

____

PSK presents composers Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Florent Ghys, Wally Gunn, Dave Molk, Josh Quillen and Jason Treuting showing newly devised performance works in a black box theater with director Laura Sheedy on Tuesday, September 16, 2014 at 8:00pm.

Dan Trueman, Director

Michael Pratt, Resident Conductor

THE BLACK BOX PROJECT

Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Florent Ghys, Wally Gunn, Dave Molk, Josh Quillen and Jason Treuting showing newly devised performance works in a black box theater.

Director: Laura Sheedy

Producer Manager, Princeton Sound Kitchen: Wally Gunn

Production Manager, Department of Music: Henry Valoris

PROGRAM

NINFEA CRUTTWELL-READE

Marionettes

Spencer Evans, performer

SPENCER EVANS, WALLY GUNN & LAURA SHEEDY

It’s me, me, pistol optional

Spencer Evans, performer

Wally Gunn, composer

Laura Sheedy, performer

Sō Percussion

FLORENT GHYS

Brandi Loves Todd

Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, cello

Florent Ghys, double bass

Wally Gunn, voice

Dave Molk, guitar

DAVE MOLK

More Time For Coffee

Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, performer

Spencer Evans, performer

Florent Ghys, performer

Wally Gunn, performer

Dave Molk, performer

Ryan Sarno, performer

Sō Percussion

JOSH QUILLEN

Redacted Interludes 1, 2, 3

Sō Percussion

DANIELLE AUBERT, KATY DIDDEN & JASON TREUTING

BASED ON DOUBLE MUSIC BY JOHN CAGE & LOU HARRISON

Continuously Festive

Katy Didden, text

Danielle Aubert, images

Sō Percussion

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Danielle Aubert is a graphic designer and a Fellow in the Creative and Performing Arts at the Lewis Center

Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade is a second-year graduate student in Composition at Princeton University. She studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, where she produced music for theater, and later completed postgraduate studies in cello performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Spencer Evans is very pleased to be a part of the Princeton Black Box Project. As a company member of Nothing To See Here, he very much enjoys creating work with Ms. Sheedy and Mr. Gunn. He was recently seen in San Francisco based BrickaBrack’s production of Never Fall So Heavily Again.

Florent Ghys is a French composer and double bass player from Bordeaux, France. His music has been described as “post-minimal chamber music” by John Schaefer. The label Cantaloupe has released two albums of Florent’s music, and a third one Télévision is in the works for November 14. Florent likes collecting hair dryers and would like to be a weather man.

Wally Gunn is from a rural town in Australia’s southeast. He first began making music in his early teens, writing on a Casiotone for his electronic dance band, which never played a gig. After high school, he moved to Melbourne to join rock bands, and spent several years writing songs and gigging around the country, then enrolled in the Victorian College of the Arts composition program. After graduating, Wally worked with friends and fellow composers Kate Neal and Biddy Connor in Dead Horse Productions to stage concerts of their own and other composers’ new music in warehouses, underground parking lots, cinemas, and other unusual spaces. He also composed original music for several Melbourne theatre companies, including The Eleventh Hour, The Shrimp Company, Itch Productions and Platform Youth Theatre, and contributed songs to cabaret star Wes Snelling’s autobiographical show Kiosk. Wally moved to New York in 2008 to begin a masters degree in composition at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Julia Wolfe. Since relocating, Wally has composed original music for Manhattan company The Actors Company Theatre and has become a company member of the Brooklyn-based Nothing To See Here, under the artistic direction of Laura Sheedy. Wally’s concert music has been performed in Australia by Atticus String Quartet, The Dead Horse Ensemble, Silo String Quartet, Speak Percussion, and Three Shades Black, and in the US by Mobius Percussion, Red Shift, Roomful of Teeth, and Sō Percussion. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University. www.wallygunn.com

Dave Molk is in his 4th year at Princeton. He writes mainly for pitched and non-pitched percussion, combining an energized rhythmic propulsion, sinuous chromaticism, and a love of glitch. His current research efforts are in software coding and EDM. He previously studied composition at Berklee College of Music under John Bavicchi and at Tufts University under John McDonald.

Josh Quillen has forged a unique identity in the contemporary music world as all-around percussionist, expert steel drum performer (lauded as “softly sophisticated” by the New York Times), and composer. His collaborations with other composers frequently incorporate the steel drums as a core element. A member of the acclaimed ensemble Sō Percussion since 2006, Josh has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Lincoln Center Festival, Stanford Lively Arts, and dozens of other venues in the United States. In that time, Sō Percussion has toured Russia, Spain, Australia, Italy, Germany, and Scotland. He has had the opportunity to work closely with Steve Reich, Steve Mackey, Paul Lansky, David Lang, Matmos, Dan Deacon, and many others. Josh started performing on the steel drums at Dover High School in Ohio, an interest that continued at the University of Akron, where Dr. Larry Snider founded one of the first collegiate steel bands in the United States. He traveled to Trinidad & Tobago in 2002, performing with the Phase II Pan Groove ensemble under Len “Boogsie” Sharpe. This interest in the traditional steel drum music of Trinidad ran in parallel with Josh’s education in western music, first at Akron, and then at the Yale School of Music with marimba soloist Robert Van Sice, where he received his Masters degree in 2006. These parallel interests led Josh to break ground in the use of the steel drums in contemporary classical music. To date, he has commissioned over a dozen pieces for steel drums from composers such as Stuart Saunders Smith, Roger Zahab, Dan Trueman, and Paul Lansky. In 2010, Steven Mackey’s quartet It Is Time—commissioned for Sō Percussion by Carnegie Hall and Chamber Music America—featured Josh on a new microtonal lead pan in its Carnegie Hall premiere, receiving rave reviews in the New York Times. Josh’s compositions for Sō Percussion are featured in Imaginary City, an evening length work that appeared on the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2009 Next Wave Festival, as well as the site-specific Music for Trains in Southern Vermont. Other ensembles to play his pieces and arrangements include Matmos, PLork, The Janus Trio, Adele Meyers and Dancers, The University of Akron Steel Band, and the New York University Steel Band. An avid educator, Josh is co-director of the Sō Percussion Summer Institute, an intensive workshop for college-aged percussionists on the campus of Princeton University. He is also co-director of a new percussion program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, where Sō Percussion is ensemble in residence beginning fall of 2011, and is the director of the New York University Steel Band.

Ryan Sarno is a musician, DJ, and more famously, a coffee maker at Small World in Princeton. You can follow his projects on Ananalog Records’ bandcamp and tumblr pages.

For over a decade, Sō Percussion has redefined the modern percussion ensemble as a flexible, omnivorous entity, pushing its voice to the forefront of American musical culture. Praised by The New Yorker for their “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam,” Sō’s adventurous spirit is written into the DNA passed down from composers like John Cage and Steve Reich, as well as from pioneering ensembles like the Kronos Quartet and Nexus Percussion. Sō Percussion’s career now encompasses 13 albums, touring throughout the USA and around the world, a dizzying array of collaborative projects, several ambitious educational programs, and a steady output of their own music. When the founding members of Sō Percussion convened as graduate students at the Yale School of Music, their initial goal was to present an exciting repertoire of pieces by 20th century luminaries such as Cage, Reich, and Iannis Xenakis. An encounter with David Lang, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and co-founder of New York’s Bang on a Can organization, yielded their first commissioned piece: the 36 minute, three movement the so-called laws of nature. Since that first major new work, Sō has commissioned some of the greatest American composers of our time to build a new repertoire, including Steve Reich, Steve Mackey, Paul Lansky, Martin Bresnick, and many others. Over time, an appetite for boundless creativity led the group to branch out beyond the composer/interpreter paradigm. Since 2006 with group member Jason Treuting’s amid the noise, the members of Sō Percussion have been composing in their own right within the group and for others. In 2012 their third evening-length work Where (we) Live premieres at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, travelling to the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 30th Next Wave Festival and the Myrna Loy Center in Helena, MT. Where (we) Live follows on the heels of 2009’s Imaginary City, a fully staged sonic meditation on urban soundscapes. In 2011, Sō was commissioned by Shen Wei Dance Arts to compose Undivided Divided, a 30-minute work conceived for Manhattan’s massive Park Avenue Armory. Sō Percussion’s artistic circle extends beyond their contemporary classical roots. They first expanded this boundary with the prolific duo Matmos, whom The New York Times called “ideal collaborators” on their 2010 combined album Treasure State. Further projects and appearances with Wham City shaman Dan Deacon, legendary drummer Bobby Previte, jam band kings Medeski, Martin, and Wood, and Wilco’s Glenn Kotche drew the circle even wider. In 2011, the rock band The National invited Sō to open one of their sold-out shows at New York’s Beacon Theater. Sō’s recording of the so-called laws of nature became the cornerstone of their self-titled debut album on Cantaloupe Music (the record label from the founders of Bang on a Can) in 2004. In subsequent years, this relationship blossomed into a growing catalogue of exciting records. In 2011, Sō released six new albums, ranging from their definitive recording of Steve Reich’s Mallet Quartet¾composed for them in 2009¾on Nonesuch Records, to Steve Mackey’s epic quartet It Is Time on Cantaloupe, to their collaborative album Bad Mango with jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas on Greenleaf Music. The BBC raved of Sō’s performance of Mallet Quartet that they “have it nailed, finding both the inner glow and the outer edge, and never letting the tapestry lapse into the flat or routine.” Sō Percussion is heavily involved in mentoring young musicians. Its members are co-directors of a new percussion department at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. This top-flight undergraduate program enrolls each student in a double-degree (Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts) course in the Conservatory and Bard College, equipping them with elite conservatory training and a broad liberal arts education. In 2009, they created the annual Sō Percussion Summer Institute on the campus of Princeton University. The Institute is an intensive two-week chamber music seminar for college-age percussionists featuring the four members of Sō as faculty in rehearsal, performance, and discussion of contemporary music for students from around the world. During the 2011-2012 academic year, Sō was an ensemble-in-residence at Princeton University, teaching seminars and collaborating extensively with talented student composers. Sō has been featured at many of the major venues in the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Stanford Lively Arts, Texas Performing Arts, and many others. In addition, a recent residency at London’s Barbican Centre, as well as tours to Western Europe, South America, Russia, and Australia have brought them international acclaim.

Laura Sheedy is a director from Melbourne, Australia, now living in New York. Laura has directed work for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Melbourne Fringe and Adelaide Fringe, La Trobe and Princeton Universities and Manhattan School of Music. Laura has directed solo works by Miss Behave, Captain Frodo, Amy G and Kurt Braunohler. She has been a directorial advisor to such companies as Circus Oz, La Clique, Suitcase Royale and composers Kate Neal and Wally Gunn. In February 2012, along with SITI Company’s Barney O’Hanlon, she presented a creative development showing of a new work, The Weight of Distance, for the World Theatre Festival, Australia. Most recently, Laura directed Charles Mee Jr’s, Big Love, was Anne Bogart’s Assistant Director on the SITI Company’s Steel Hammer for the Humana Festival of New American Plays, and created two new works for the Princeton Sound Kitchen with her theatre company, Nothing To See Here.

Jason Treuting is a performer and composer. He plays with and writes most often for his quartet Sō Percussion and now lives in Princeton as one of two inaugural Lewis Center Fellows in the Arts.