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DISCOVER AMERICA CONCERT SERIES The Chicago Ensemble’s 42nd Season

The Chicago Ensemble has always been devoted to the discovery and encouragement of American composers. The first Discover America call for scores took place in 1992. Pieces selected in Discover America I through VIII were presented in special new music concerts, as part of the regular subscription series and on live radio broadcasts. Several works were reprogrammed in subsequent seasons.

Discover America IX took place in the summer of 2017. From a record 430 submissions, the Artistic Director has chosen 24 pieces being performed during the 2018-2019 season in four programs devoted to these works. 14 of the pieces are by American composers; 10 are by composers world-wide. The composers range in age from 19 to 60+. The Winning Composers of Discover America IX:

John Allemeier, "4", for violin, viola, cello, and piano Krists Auznieks, Godspeed, for violin, cello, and piano Matthew Browne, On the Immortality of a Crab, for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano Fabio Massimo Capogrosso, Un Breve Raconto Notturno, for violin, cello, and piano Micah Clark, Ushabti Avenue, for flute, cello, and piano Robert S. Cohen, Parables, for soprano and piano Ryan Dodge, Somavine, for flute, bass clarinet, cello, and piano Douglas Fisk, Banjo and Shadows, for baritone and piano Gilbert Galindo, Echoes of the Divine, for violin, viola, cello, and piano Vladan Gecin, Mount Parnassus, for violin and piano Hendrik Hofmeyr, Dover Beach, for soprano, flute, cello, and piano Daniel Bonaventure Lim, Wish I May, Oh, Wish I Might, for soprano and piano Steve Locks, Rain, for violin, cello, and piano Paul Novak, #1 of Three Night Pieces, for flute and piano Matthew Peterson, Empire Builder, for flute, violin, cello, and piano Elliot Roman, Two of Willie's Dances, for flute, clarinet, cello, and piano Michael Schelle, Chords that Rhyme with your Eyes, for clarinet and piano Aaron Spotts, Inter-, for flute, clarinet, violin, and piano Ingrid Stölzel, The Gorgeous Nothings, for soprano, flute, oboe, and piano Anton Svetlichny, Left on Board, for violin and piano Joyce Wai-Chung Tang, Reflections on Arirang, for clarinet, violin, and piano Alexander Timofeev, Phoenix, for clarinet and piano Luzia Von Wyl, Autumn, for violin, cello, and piano

Performances of compositions by Krists Auznieks, Daniel Bonaventure Lim, Steve Locks, Aaron Spotts, and Ingrid Stölzel are being deferred to a subsequent concert season. Sungji Hong was a winner in Discover America VIII, but her piece, Bisbiglio for flute, clarinet, and piano is being performed as part of this Discover America IX series.

Discover America IX

Program A violin, viola, cello, and piano

Saturday, November 24, 2018 – 4:00pm

PianoForte - South Loop, 1335 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois

Eleanor Bartsch, violin Amy Hess, viola Andrew Snow, cello Gerald Rizzer, piano

John Allemeier "4"

For violin, viola, cello, and piano in four movements

Vladan Gecin Mount Parnassus For violin and piano Fabio Massimo Capogrosso Un Breve Racconto Notturno

For violin, cello, and piano

Intermission Ari Sussman Phantasms

For violin, viola, cello, and piano Gilbert Galindo Echoes of the Divine

For violin, viola, cello, and piano

Note: Please hold your applause for a brief silence after each piece. This will help everyone to enjoy every note.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

John Allemeier John Allemeier’s music has been described as having a “sweet sense of mystery” by Fanfare and as being “rapturous” by the American Record Guide. His music has been performed by Ethel, Boston New Music Initiative, Charleston Symphony, Assem3ly, Beo Quartet, Due East, Ebano Quartet, Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, Duo XXI, Kassia Ensemble, Low and Lower, Madison Park String Quartet, Terminus Ensemble, and on venues such as the Charlotte New Music Festival, TUTTI New Music Festival, the International Double Reed Society, International Clarinet Society

Conference, International Society of Bassist Convention, Piccolo Spoleto, the 5th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music in San Francisco, and the Spark Festival in Minneapolis. Mr. Allemeier received his Ph.D. in Composition from the University of Iowa, his MM in Composition from Northwestern University, and his BM in Performance from Augustana College. He is currently Professor of Composition at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. More information is available at www.johnallemeier.com. Program Note As a composer, I have a tendency to write longer single movement pieces. On the surface, “4” seems to break that tendency because it is a multi-movement work. Even though this piece is in four separate movements, each movement is an integral part of the whole piece. For me, the main challenge in writing this piece was to reconcile the relationships between the different movements. Movements one and two are contrasting ideas that are independent from one another. The first movement is based on material from my good-ideas-yet-to-be-used pile in my office. I had the opening few measures but nothing else. These ideas were old enough that they felt like the material of another composer. The process of composing this movement was similar to when a poet writes a poem with the starting line of another poet (After a line by…). The second movement limps along in 7/8. The cello and viola provide a pizzicato accompaniment to a solo melodic line in the highest register of the piano. This melody is played very high on the piano over a violin obligato. The third movement functions as the development section for the entire piece. This movement starts as a fugue but eventually combines motivic material from the first two movements. As the fugue develops, more and more material is drawn from the other movements. The last movement acts as a recapitulation for the whole piece. The chords from the first movement, which were played by the strings in a high register, are now transferred to the piano as a backdrop to the strings. Long legato string lines are reminiscent of the fugue from the third movement. The pizzicato accompaniment from the second movement returns in the violin and viola while the piano recalls its melody from the second movement.

Vladan Gecin Vladan Gecin (b. 1990) is a Serbian composer residing in Zrenjanin, Serbia. He studied composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade with the Serbian composer and member of Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, Isidora Žebeljan. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in 2014 and a Master’s degree in 2016. Mr. Gecin also plays accordion and piano and his works are regularly performed. He has written works for piano, accordion, organ, flute, chamber ensembles, choir, voice with instrumental accompaniment, and orchestra, as well as film music. Program Note The composition Mount Parnassus was written in May 2012 as a student work. It invokes the world of mythos, representing the author’s idyllic vision of ancient Parnassus through juxtaposition of lyricism and folk dance of imaginary ethnos, and Apollonian aesthetics embodied in traditional tonal and stylistic references.

Fabio Massimo Capogrosso Fabio Massimo Capogrosso, born in Perugia in 1984, is distinguishing himself as one of the more interesting Italian composers of his generation. He began piano studies at an early age. Turning to composition studies, he received top marks in 2008 in his academic studies with Sergio Prodigo. Mr. Capogrosso also studied film composition, working on sound tracks for several documentary films, and in 2009 won the IBLA Grand Prize in the composer category.

Mr. Capogrosso compositions have been performed in Italy, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Florida, and Michigan by renowned ensembles, including Sentieri Selvaggi, Sestetto Stradivari dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Quartetto Falstaff, Red4Quartet dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, President’s Trio dell’University of South Florida, Strings & Hammers, and Trio Solotarev. He has participated in international festival including Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, I concerti della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Suoni delle Dolomiti, San Francisco International Piano Festival, Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival, Villa Pennisi in Musica, Pietre che Cantano. Concert halls at which his works have been performed include Grande di Brescia, Parco della Musica (Rome), Cilea (Reggio), Palladium (Rome), Britton Recital Hall University of Michigan, and Barness Music Recital Hall at University of South Florida. Among the artists with whom he has worked are Carlo Boccadoro, Pamela Villoresi, Marius Bizau, and Gianfranco Rosi. Mr. Capogrosso’s compositions are published by Edizioni Curci (Milan) and Imagine Music (New York). He teaches at the Casella Conservatory in L’Aquila and at the European Academy of Music.

Program Note I wrote Un Breve Racconto Notturno in December 2013. The piece is based on the contrast between the oniric atmosphere of the first part and a second part structured around continuous rhythmical changing and percussion elements. There are some influences underlying this piece, in particular, Ravel and Stravinsky. Ari Sussman Praised for his “sophisticated writing...and intriguing rhythms” (GTM), Ari Sussman (b. 1993) is an award-winning Philadelphia-born and Boston-based pianist and composer of vocal, chamber, orchestral, choral, and electronic music. His music has been performed by ensembles such as the KC VITAs Chamber Choir, the AMF Contemporary Ensemble, Juventas New Music Ensemble, American Modern Ensemble, Inventio Music, Zemer Chai, among others. Kabbalah, nature, cosmology, meditation, metaphysics, and poetry are among Sussman's non-musical influences and interests. As a result, Mr. Sussman's music illustrates equivocal worlds of sounds that are ethereal and euphonious in nature. Mr. Sussman won the American Composers Forum: Philadelphia Chapter: Young Composers Scholarship, two Honorable Mentions for the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Young Composers Initiative, the ‘Shalshelet’ 6th International Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music, and the KC VITAs Chamber Choir Composition Competition. Mr. Sussman is a two-time finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, and his orchestral work Kol Galgal was a recipient of a 2018 BMI Student Composer Award. An accomplished pianist, Mr. Sussman has performed concerts in the Philadelphia and Boston areas. With a fondness for musical theater, he has held music directorships for productions of Hairspray, Les Misérables, and The Last Five Years. In 2016, Sussman was selected as a judge for Kol HaOlam: The Annual Collegiate Jewish A Cappella Championship Competition. Ari Sussman studied piano with Joel Rothstein and Ellen Bildersee and composition with Daniel Shapiro. He received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music with Honors in Composition from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Michael Gandolfi and Kati Agócs and received the Donald Martino Award for Excellence in Composition. He is pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition at the University of Michigan where he studies with Evan Chambers. Program Note I have always been fascinated with and in awe of our ability to dream while we sleep. We can see and experience color, shape, nature, emotion, sound, people, stories, and anecdotal incidents-and-episodes that may be true or untrue, a brief moment from the past or a glimpse into a

potential moment in the future that may be completely legitimate and warranted or utterly preposterous and nonsensical. Many scholars and philosophers have attempted to study our ability to dream and study the science of interpreting dreams. I was once taught as an adolescent by a respected and learned intellectual that some scholars before our day interpreted our ‘good’ dreams to be ‘bad’ dreams, and our ‘bad’ dreams to be ‘good’ dreams. Although I initially found that interpretation to be quite captivating, the vagueness of that particular interpretation made it difficult for me to fully grasp its potentially deeper meaning (or meanings). However, I nevertheless remain fascinated, as I still dwell on and consider the interpretation when attempting to decipher my own dreams. I often times feel a sense of enchantment when I vividly remember a dream when I awaken. I believe even more so when any remaining fragments of a dream quickly disappear at an awakening as in the sound or sight of a breath slowly fading away. The empty spaces and voids all throughout these fragmented and dying visions of our minds is what may be the most challenging, and quite possibly the most interesting remnants to remember, grasp, and re-embrace. Phantasms was not composed with any specific or personal images or phantasms in mind, but rather the idea of these illusionary and mysterious images and constructs of our imagination were transformed into the foundational musical elements of the piece. Phantasms was commissioned by violinist Léo Marillier and Inventio. It is dedicated in celebration and gratitude to Léo Marillier and the foundation of ‘Inventio.’

Gilbert Galindo Born in 1982, Gilbert Galindo’s compositions offer the listener a kaleidoscope of textures, sounds, challenging harmonies, and crisp and vibrant melodies. He has written for multi-combinations of instruments, solos, duets, trios, small ensembles to full-blown symphonic orchestral music, as well as songs for voice and piano. A native of west Texas who studied composition at Northwestern University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, his music has been performed by such groups as Ensemble Dal Niente, the Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, the New Thread Quartet, newEar, and Parthenia.

Mr. Galindo has received recognition and awards from the American Music Center, BMI, Meet The Composer, New Music USA, and Northwestern University. Gilbert Galindo is Artistic Director of Random Access Music, a composer and performer collective based in Queens, New York. Along with working on new instrumental projects for performances later this year, he will begin planning his first opera. His music is available from Cuicatl Publications (BMI) on www.gilbertgalindo.com. Program Note Imagine if you will, the highest power of the universe, the most perfect source, the grand design of existence that drives the entire cosmos, the divine essence from which everything emanates.

Everything created, known, unknown, visible, and invisible reflects, mirrors, and echoes this essence by either being with it, going toward it, or going away from it. This piece reflects what may come out of the beginning chord, music that reflects, mirrors, or echoes the first sound, going along with it, going toward it, or going away from it. Echoes of the Divine was written in 2014-2015 for the RAM Players. It premiered Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at The Little Secret Theatre in Long Island City, New York under the program title "Perceptions of Beauty" with RAM Players, Karen Kim, violin; Robert Meyer, viola; Kate Dillingham, cello; and Amir Khosrowpour, piano. Please like our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/thechicagoensemble Please follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @theceweb Let’s Trend this extraordinary 42nd Season with the following hashtags: #TheChicagoEnsemble #42ndseason #MusicalAdventure #DiscoverAmerica #ChamberMUSICwithFRIENDS

Discover America IX

Program B clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Saturday, February 2, 2019 – 4:00pm


Elizandro Garcia-Montoya, clarinet Eleanor Bartsch, violin Alexa Muhly, cello Gerald Rizzer, piano

Matthew Browne On the Immortality of a Crab For clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Racing Thoughts Miles Away Off the Rails

Roger Zare Telescopic Variations For violin, cello, and piano Alexander Timofeev Phoenix

For clarinet and piano

Intermission Joyce Wai-chung Tang Reflections on Ariram

For clarinet, violin, and piano Luzia von Wyl Autumn

For violin, cello, and piano



Matthew Browne New York-based composer Matthew Browne (b. 1988) strives to create music that meets Sergei Diaghilev’s famous challenge to Jean Cocteau: “Astonish me!”, through incorporating such eclectic influences as the timbral imagination and playfulness of György Ligeti, the shocking and humorous eclecticism of Alfred Schnittke, and the relentless rhythmic energy of Igor Stravinsky. His music has been praised for its “unbridled humor” (New Music Box) and described as “witty” (The Strad) and “beautifully crafted and considered” (What’s On London). Mr. Browne has collaborated with such ensembles as the Minnesota Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, Albany Symphony, Harold Rosenbaum and the New York Virtuoso Singers, New Jersey Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, the New England Philharmonic, the Villiers Quartet, the Donald Sinta Quartet, the Tesla Quartet, the PUBLIQuartet, and SEVEN)SUNS. Recently, Mr. Browne’s music has received honors such as winner of the ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize (2017), an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers award (2014), a BMI Student Composer award (2015), a residency at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, winner of the New England Philharmonic Call for Scores (2014), a residency at the Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute (2016), winner of the American Viola Society’s Maurice Gardner Composition award (2014), and a residency at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s First Annual Composers Institute (2013). Mr. Browne holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Music Composition from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Previous teachers include Michael Daugherty, Kristin Kuster, Carter Pann, and Daniel Kellogg. Visit his website at www.matthewbrownecomposer.com. Program Note “Thinking about the immortality of a crab” is a Spanish idiom meaning to let one’s mind wander or “daydream.” The three short movements of this piece evoke different ways in which one’s mind wanders; rapid succession of thoughts running through one’s mind, inattention due to one’s mind being on other things, and the interruption of one’s “train of thought.” This work was composed for CULTIVATE 2017, Copland House’s emerging composers’ institute, and was premiered by the Music from Copland House ensemble at the Merestead estate in Mount Kisco, New York on June 11, 2017.

Roger Zare Roger Zare holds a DMA (2012) from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty, Paul Schoenfield, Bright Sheng, and Kristin Kuster. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory (MM 2009) and the University of Southern California (BM 2007), and his previous teachers include Christopher Theofanidis, Derek Bermel, David Smooke, Donald Crockett, Tamar Diesendruck, Fredrick Lesemann, and Morten Lauridsen. Mr. Zare currently serves as an instructional assistant professor of music theory and

composition at Illinois State University. Mr. Zare submitted winning works in two of The Chicago Ensemble's previous Discover America competitions. Program Note When I titled this work Telescopic Variations, the word "telescopic" refers not to seeing great distances, but to the physical unfolding characteristic of antique refracting telescopes. Constructed out of a series of concentric tubular sections, these telescopes, and certainly many other common objects today like radio antennae and umbrellas, are able to expand from a condensed form into a much larger form with minimal effort. Likewise, this work is a set of variations that begins small and contained and gradually expands, step by step, into a much larger musical statement towards the conclusion. The theme is introduced by the whole ensemble, and then the first three variations feature only one instrument at a time. The next three variations combine two instruments in all ways as the rhythmic energy gradually builds. The final variation is for the whole trio and is structured as a passacaglia with a repeated chord progression in the piano over which the violin and cello play soaring melodies. Finally, the tension breaks and the opening of the introduction is reprised. Alexander Timofeev Alexander Timofeev (b. 1983) is the finalist of the American Composers Orchestra's 2017 Underwood New Music Readings and Commission, the winner of the 2016 Richard Weerts Composition Competition, and the finalist of the 2016 Thailand International Composition Competition. He debuted as a pianist-composer at age 19 performing his Piano Concerto (2003) with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Moldova. He received awards for his compositions at international competitions Valasske Mezirici (Czech Republic), Sergey Slonimsky (Russia), Carl Filtsch (Romania), and premiered his works at the Oxford Piano Festival (UK), Thailand International Composition Festival, Hariclea Darclee Festival (Romania), Novye Imena (Russia), and Northern Lights Festival (USA). Mr. Timofeev compositions have been broadcast on WQXR - New York's Classical Music Station and presented in live performances on Pro TV (Romania) and Tele-Radio Moldova. His recent premieres include the Concerto for Two Pianos and Chamber Orchestra (2014), and Concerto for Cimbalom and Orchestra (2013). As a pianist, Mr. Timofeev won the First Prize at Niš International Piano Competition, Serbia (2006). Mr. Timofeev completed his doctoral studies at the University of Maryland (2012). He holds a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music (2008) and B.M. degree from Rowan University (2006). He studied composition with Lawrence Moss, Harold Oliver and Zlata Tkach. Mr. Timofeev currently resides in Philadelphia; he is an Artist-in-Residence at Rowan University.

Program Note A flight in a dark, mysterious and infinite space... The musical idea that inspired Phoenix was a representation of a nocturnal journey without end. a flight from one’s own self. Some years ago, I set to music a poem by Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin; in it, in just a few words he has described his life philosophy as “the goal is nothing, the direction is everything.” Since I first read these lines, the phrase was imprinted in my memory. In addition to the perpetuum mobile idea, I had a special interest in exploring the clarinet’s unique timbre and technical agility, creating a piece of virtuoso quality. In my mind, there is no other instrument that could better represent a show of flames, bursts of fire, fiery yet sensitive beauty of the mythical Phoenix dying in its own sacred fire. The clarinet breathes life into the described act of self-immolation, a sacrifice that leads to a rebirth and a new beginning. In the middle section, the Bird of Flames arrives to heavenly Paradise, where colors and a beautiful, other-worldly landscape take hold of one’s imagination. This elusive vision ends abruptly just like a dream, but the Phoenix does not succumb into darkness.

Joyce Wai-chung Tang Joyce Wai-chung Tang’s works have been described by Ablaze Records as "incisive and brilliant … terrific and fresh compositional voice," and have been premiered and performed worldwide. Her works span orchestral, chamber, solo, vocal, choral, electro-acoustic, and theatrical genres. Being one of the most active composers in Hong Kong, Ms. Tang has attracted numerous commissions from performing groups including the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble,

Trio Morisot, Western District Ensemble, Korean Traditional Performing Arts Foundation, HKU, Contemporary Musiking, Shakespeare4All Hong Kong, AFTEC, and pianist Mary Wu. She was also a featured composer in the 2010 Hell Hot! New Music Festival in Hong Kong and the 2012 Manhattan-Hong Kong Music Festival. Ms. Tang received her master's degrees in both composition and electro-acoustic music at Hong Kong Baptist University. She received a PhD in musicology at The University of Hong Kong. Program Note Reflections on Arirang makes use of fragments of several Arirang folk tunes as the rhythmic, melodic and harmonic basis of the piece. The piece aims at reflecting the composer’s impressions of the Arirang folk tunes. This piece was dedicated to the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble and was commissioned by Korean Traditional Performing Arts Foundation for "Arirang, the New Waves" concert on 10 December 2013, Hong Kong Jockey Club Ampitheatre, HKAPA.

Luzia von Wyl Born in 1985, Luzia von Wyl studied piano and composition at the Bern University of the Arts, the Zürich University of the Arts, and the University of Music in Lucerne, completing her studies in 2011 with master’s degrees in both piano and composition. In 2014, Ms. von Wyl earned her third master’s degree in arts management at the University of Zürich. The Swiss pianist and composer writes for her own group, the Luzia von Wyl Ensemble, which is a small contemporary jazz orchestra with strings, woodwinds, and a rhythm section. Besides her own projects, she regularly writes music for other musicians, ensembles, and orchestras. Ms. von Wyl has participated in music festivals in Switzerland and abroad. Among them are the Swiss Days Dubai, the Reset Festival Luxembourg, the Lucerne Festival, the Schaffhauser Jazzfestival, the London New Wind Festival, and the Jazzwerkstatt Bern. Her compositions have been premiered in London, New York, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Dubai, Luxembourg, and Zürich. Ms. von Wyl was a winner of the “Orchestra of Our Time” competition in New York. Program Note Rhythmic drive, a jazzy chromatic motive – sharply accented and played in octaves – which is utilized throughout the piece, and a haunting melody heard at several points characterize Luzia von Wyl’s piano trio, "Autumn."

Please like our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/thechicagoensemble Please follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @theceweb Let’s Trend this extraordinary 42nd Season with the following hashtags: #TheChicagoEnsemble #42ndseason #MusicalAdventure #DiscoverAmerica #ChamberMUSICwithFRIENDS

Discover America IX

Program C soprano, flute, violin, cello, and piano

Saturday, March 30, 2019 – 4:00pm


Michelle Areyzaga, soprano Shanna Gutierrez, flute Eleanor Bartsch, violin Alexa Muhly, cello Gerald Rizzer, piano

Micah Clark Ushabti Avenue For flute, cello, and piano Hendrik Hofmeyr Dover Beach For soprano, flute, cello, and piano Anton Svetlichny Left on Board

For violin and piano Paul Novak No. 1 of Three Night Pieces

For flute and piano

Intermission Robert S. Cohen Parable

For soprano and piano Black Cloudbank Broken Arise from Sleep, Old Cat Gathering May Rains Ah Me, I Am the One Interlude: See, See, See! Oh See A Lost Child Crying White Moth, Flutter Off Rainy Month Fever Felled Halfway Epilogue: Three Loveliest Things

Matthew Peterson Empire Builder

For flute, violin, cello, and piano



Dover Beach, a poem by Matthew Arnold (1867) The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies far Upon the straits; - on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another, for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Parable Black cloudbank broken Scattered in the Night Now see, moonlighted mountains. (Basho) Arise from sleep old cat And with great yawns Amble out for love. (Isso) Gathering May rains From cold streamlets for the sea: Murmuring Mogami. (Basho) Ah me, I am the one Who spends his little breakfast Morning-glory gazing. (Basho) See, see, see! Oh see Oh, what to say Ah, Yoshino, mountain all abloom (Teishitsu) A lost child crying Stumbling over the dark fields Catching fireflies. (Ryusui) White moth, flutter off Fly back into my breast now quickly My own soul (Wafu) Rainy month dripping on and on As I lie abed; Ah, old man's memories. (Buson) Fever felled halfway My dreams arose to march again Into a hollow land. (Basho) Three lovliest things Moonlight, Cherry bloom..... Now I go, seeking silent snow. (Rippo)

Micah Clark Micah Clark is an award-winning composer and cellist active in the Chicago area. He graduated from Wheaton College in 2010 with a Bachelor of Music in Composition. While at Wheaton, he won the Presidential Scholarship in Music, Alumni Composition Prize, Josephine Halvorsen Composition Prize, Chamber Music Competition, Best Original Score at the Wheaton College Film Festival, and was inducted into the Wheaton College Scholastic Honor Society.

Mr. Clark received a scholarship to pursue a Master’s in Music Composition at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he studied with Roger Redgate. While there, he co-founded the Goldsmiths Improvising Composers Ensemble and co-taught a student lecture series on current issues and subjects in New Music. He graduated with merit in 2012. Since then, Mr. Clark has enjoyed a wide range of jobs in music education, church music, sales, and advertising. In March of 2017, he presented a paper on the film music of 1970s Evangelical Cinema at Calvin College’s Festival of Faith and Music. Mr. Clark currently serves on the auxiliary board for Fulcrum Point New Music Project and teaches composition at his alma mater, Wheaton College. Program Note The title “Ushabti Avenue” comes from a vision I had of a nighttime drive down a modern city street lined with ancient tombs. After 4-5 aborted attempts to write for this instrumentation, I finally settled on an opening theme inspired by James Blake’s remix of an Untold song called “Stop What You’re Doing.” Once the unison passage ends, the developments of the middle sections reach outward and pull in, using motives from the first five bars and the closing piano adagio. Hendrik Hofmeyr South African composer Hendrik Hofmeyr's first major success as a composer came in 1988 with the performance at the State Theatre of The Fall of the House of Usher, which won the South African Opera Competition and was also awarded the Nederburg Opera Prize. In the same year, Mr. Hofmeyr, who was furthering his studies in Italy during ten years of self-imposed exile as a conscientious objector, obtained first prize in an international competition with music for a short film by Wim Wenders. In 1992 he accepted a post as lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch, and in 1997 won two further international competitions, the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium (with Raptus for violin and orchestra) and the Dimitri Mitropoulos Competition in Athens (with Byzantium for high voice and orchestra). His Incantesimo for flute was chosen to represent South Africa at the Congress of the International Society of Contemporary Music in Croatia in 2005. In 2008 he was honoured with

a Kanna Award by the Kleinkaroo National Arts Festival. Mr. Hofmeyr, whose oeuvre includes more than a hundred commissioned works, is currently Professor and Head of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Cape Town, where he obtained his Doctorate in 1999. Program Note The atmosphere evoked by Matthew Arnold in the opening lines of Dover Beach, an atmosphere of moonlight on a calm sea, and of the sad and distant roar of waves on a pebbled strand, is suggested in the instrumental introduction by motifs that will play an important role in the rest of the setting. The introduction also features a lyrical idea, associated with the bygone age of faith; this theme is recalled in the second stanza, but fades into the reprise of the opening motifs that heralds the melancholy conclusion of the poem.

Anton Svetlichny Born in 1982, Anton Svetlichny is a Russian composer. He studied with Vitaly Khodosh at the Rostov Conservatory. Mr. Svetlichny was a participant in the All‐Russian young composers meeting supervised by Viktor Ekimovsky. He attended master‐classes of Louis Andriessen, Martijn Padding, Roderick de Man (Netherlands), Philippe Hurel (France), Eva Furrer, Lorelei Dowling (Austria), and Vladimir Tarnopolsky (Russia) at the

Studio for New Music Ensemble (Russia). He also studied with Franck Bedrossian, Pierluigi Billone, Beat Furrer, Raphaël Cendo, and Peter Ablinger at International Academies of Moscow Contemporary Music. Mr. Svetlichny's music has been performed in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Georgia, Argentina, USA, Japan, and Hong Kong, being a part of such events as ISCM World Music Days, Summer Courses for New music in Darmstadt, Avignon Theater Festival, Gaudeamus Musiekweek, Forum Wallis, SIRGA Festival, Projecte Rafel Festival, Arena Festival, Tbilisi Contemporary Music Evenings, Festival de Nueva Opera de Buenos Aires, and 26th International Review of Composers. He participated in the ‘russia.project’ (Russia‐Switzerland), ‘Gamlet Machine’ (Moscow Art Theatre), ‘Exposition’, ‘Other Space’, ‘Tax Free’, ‘Music of Shades’, and ‘From the Avant‐garde to the Present Day.’ Among performers who have played Mr. Svetlichny’s music are ensembles such as ums'n'jip (Switzerland), Platypus Ensemble (Austria), Shallfeld Ensemble (Austria), Motocontrario Ensemble (Italy), dissonArt (Greece), Construction Site Contemporary Music Ensemble (Serbia), Synchromy (USA), Hong Kong Camerata (Hong Kong), Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, Studio for New Music, eNsemble, GAM‐Ensemble, MolOt‐Ensemble, {instead} ensemble (Russia), Ensemble Nostri Temporis, and Ensemble Ricochet (Ukraine), as well as soloists like Natalya Pshenichnikova(voice), Sergey Chirkov (accordion), Natalia Solovieva (piano), Alexey Shmurak (piano), and Peter Katina (accordion). Mr. Svetlichny was the first prize winner in the First Virtual Composers Competition ‘Tribune for New Music’ (2006) and was the winner (prizes of both audience and musicians) of the

‘Pythian Games’ composers competition (2007). He is a member of ‘Structural Resistance’, a composers group. Mr. Svetlichny’s current activities include, apart from compositional projects, extensive teaching duties in musical education facilities, regular lectures about contemporary music, and performances as a keyboard player in several local bands, including contemporary music collective ‘InEnsemble’. Program Note At first, I was writing completely another piece instead of this. It was intended to be three times longer and for much larger instrumental forces. After flight back home from one of my travels, I accidentally left the score (almost finished) in the aircraft cabin. Now I know (better than I'd like to) that any kind of paper found by cleaning service in such situations is considered garbage, even if it looks like a manuscript of musical score some dozens of pages long. There were parts of the lost piece that I could remember. So, I decided to make another one from these splinters. The result is a bit nervous at first glance, but inherently it is quiet and melancholic - something halfway between summary and ‘tombeau.’ Paul Novak Paul Novak (b. 1998) is currently pursuing his undergraduate studies in composition at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he has studied with Anthony Brandt and Karim Al-Zand. He writes music that is lyrical but fragmented, exploring the subtleties of instrumental color and drawing influence from literature, art, and poetry. Novak’s orchestral and chamber works have been performed by ensembles including the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of USA, Worcester Chamber Music Society, and Face the Music. Mr. Novak has been selected as the recipient of numerous national awards, most recently from the Frost Composition Competition, Texas Young Composer’s Competition, Tribeca New Music, Webster University Competition, Young Composer’s Challenge, YoungArts Foundation, MATA Jr. Festival, and APU/J.W. Pepper Competition. In 2016, he was selected as one of two Composer Apprentices to the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, where he studied with Sean Shepherd, and has also participated in summer programs and festivals at Atlantic Music Festival, fresh inc festival, Burapha University, Boston University Tanglewood Institute (where he was selected as the Honors Recipient), Oberlin Conservatory, and Boston Conservatory. Notable upcoming concerts include performances of his pierrot piece blimunda songs by the Frost New Music Ensemble in February and of his orchestral work on buoyancy by the Austin Symphony during their 2017-18 season. Also an accomplished flutist and advocate for contemporary music, Mr. Novak was the founder and director of the Reno-based Artemisia Chamber Ensemble, a collective of the area’s top high school players that specializes in contemporary music.

Program Note This is the first of three pieces making up a set. Virtuosic, yet lyrical, it shows complete familiarity with idiomatic flute writing, in a somewhat French-sounding style. The piano accompaniment presents a gently flowing, even-rhythmed series of different pitches which are sustained in the pedal and reordered.

Robert S. Cohen Robert S. Cohen has written music for chorus, orchestra, chamber ensemble, dance, and theatre and has been the recipient of numerous awards and commissions, including a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, an American Music Center Grant, a Meet the Composer Award, New York Composer’s Circle Award, the 2011 New England String Quartet International Composition Competition, and several grants from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

His works have been performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall, Symphony Space, Bargemusic, and the Sofia Opera House. Alzheimer’s Stories for soloists, chorus, and large ensemble with a libretto by 2012 Grammy winner Herschel Garfein was commissioned and premiered by the Susquehanna Chorale in 2009 and has been performed in major cities throughout the U.S. and received its European premiere in Vienna June 2014; Of Eternity Considered as a Closed System for soloists, chorus and orchestra was premiered at Carnegie Hall by the Pro Arte Chorale and Westfield Symphony, and the Bulgarian National Opera Orchestra and Chorus. His monodrama Edison Invents for baritone and orchestra with a libretto also by Herschel Garfein was commissioned and premiered by the Westfield Symphony in 2007. Other works include String Quartet #2 (A Day in the Life), The Mysterious Transformation of Johann B., Five Nights in Sofia for violin and piano inspired by Bulgarian folk music, Dream Journal for brass quintet, Homeland Security Suite for percussion, and a ballet, Tiktaalik and an extensive catalogue of choral works including: Genesis Part I: Creation for soloists, chorus, brass, and percussion, Sleep, Little Baby, Sleep, Christmas Eve, Before, The Road Back, The Beauty of Life, Three Spirituals, Night Cadence, Sprig of Lilac, Sing with Me for chorus and small ensemble, Peter Quince at the Clavier, Sonnet 128, Stay in Time, Lullaby, Evening Star, and God’s Whisper. He is published by Edition Peters, Hal Leonard, Shawnee Press, Absolute Brass, Dramatic Publishing, HoneyRock Music, and his own Leapfrog Productions. In addition, Mr. Cohen co-authored the book and composed the score for the 2000 Richard Rodgers Award winning Off-Broadway musical Suburb. Bob received his A.B. in music from Brown University where he studied with Ron Nelson; his M.A. in Composition from Queens College; and was in the doctoral program at Columbia University. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Program Note As a composer who has straddled the worlds of both musical theatre and concert music, I feel that the primary role of music is to move people. I believe that music should tell a story whether that story is expressed in a literal or abstract form; to take his audience on an emotional and intellectual journey. The means by which I do this draws on many sources – primarily 20th Century symphonic, choral and theatrical music. I also employ techniques drawn from minimalism and multimedia with my compositional focus on the creation of striking and memorable melodic and harmonic structures within a primarily tonal framework. Having written a great deal of work to text, I look for a musical approach that both supports the material and, at the same time, takes us to a place beyond the mere words. In theatre, it is the exploration of character and situation; in concert music, it is the creation of a musical poetry which both supports and expands the meaning of the underlying text; often juxtaposing elements of pathos, irony and humor; but always striving for accessibility. I worry that our current culture has lost sight of the power of originality to communicate and has either relegated music to a support position, or worse, turned to recycling the music of the past without any additional contemporary contextual perspective. To a certain extent our educational system has been remiss in exposing young students to the joys of concert, theatre and jazz forms and too readily given in to the enormous lure of the lowest common denominator in contemporary pop culture. We should not be afraid to expose the young to more sophisticated and powerful forms of art even if the rewards are not immediately evident. I hope that as my compositional voice excites me it will excite and move others. My greatest joy when I have affected someone’s perception of themselves or the world around them. Matthew Peterson Since moving from North Dakota to Sweden in 2008, the Swedish/American composer Matthew Peterson has swiftly made his mark as an independent, vital new voice in composition, with his “mastery of vocal writing and colorful orchestration” (Classical Voice America) and his operas that have been described as “truly beautiful” (The Washington Post) “darkly brilliant” (Texas Classical Review) and “startlingly immediate” (Wall Street Journal). Born in 1984 in Grand Forks, North Dakota, he graduated from Gotland Composer School (A.D. ‘09), Indiana University (M.M. ’08), and St. Olaf College (B.M. ’06), where his teachers included Sven-David Sandström and Mary Ellen Childs. Peterson has taught composition and related subjects at institutions including Gotlands tonsättarskola, Indiana University, and Lilla Akademien. Mr. Peterson’s work has been awarded numerous prizes in the US and Sweden, including the ASCAP Nissim Prize for best orchestral work, grand prize in the Uppsala Composer Competition, and the Fort Worth Frontiers award for new opera. He has received grants and funding from US Fulbright, STIM, ASCAP, Svensk Musik, Swedish Arts Council, and FST (Swedish Composers

Association). His chamber and solo music has been featured on festivals Svensk Musikvår, Ljudvågor, and Sound of Stockholm (Sweden), Boston Ahts (USA) and Purpur (South Africa). Recent world premieres of works by Mr. Peterson include Washington National Opera’s January 2017 world premiere of the chamber opera Lifeboat (a John F. Kennedy Center Commission), Fort Worth Opera’s April/May ‘17 world premiere production of the chamber opera Voir Dire, the Oct. ‘17 world premiere of Lux Aeterna by Gustav Sjökvist Chamber Choir, Nov. ‘17 world premiere of “smooth fat nasty” by saxophonist Linn Persson, March ‘18 premiere of Peregrinations by guitarist Mårten Falk, and the June ’18 premiere of Södergran Dikter by Uppsala Vokalensemble. Program Note "Give me snuff, whiskey and Swedes, and I will build a railway to hell."

- attributed to James J. Hill Between 1883 and 1889, "Empire Builder" James J. Hill's railroad crews frantically laid track across Minnesota and Dakota Territory. By 1893 the newly formed Great Northern Railway reached the Pacific Ocean at Seattle. James J. Hill preferred Swedes and other Scandinavians to build his railway lines and homestead along them. Several of my ancestors worked for his railroads in exchange for a paid voyage across the Atlantic. I grew up near the old Great Northern rail yard in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Every day I could hear the freight cars crashing, grinding, and squealing. The railroads and steam engines pushed materials to their physical limit. Muscle and bone drove iron spikes with steel hammers. Dynamite blew apart stone so that the iron horse could ride through mountains on steel track. In the engine, coal became fire and smoke, heating water which became steam which made power. This piece hopes to capture this energy, pushing the instruments to their limit.

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Discover America IX

Program D baritone, flute, clarinet, cello, and piano

Saturday, April 20, 2019 – 2:00pm


Ryan Cox, baritone Shanna Gutierrez, flute Elizandro Garcia-Montoya, clarinet Andrew Snow, cello Gerald Rizzer, piano

Ryan Dodge Somarvine For flute, bass clarinet, cello, and piano Douglas Fisk Banjo and Shadows For baritone and piano

Losses Window Monotone From the Shore Kreisler

Sungji Hong Bisbiglio

For flute, clarinet, and piano

Intermission Gerald Rizzer Settings of Housman Poetry

For baritone and piano The First of May In Valleys Green and Still Bredon Hill

Michael Schelle Chords that Rhyme with your Eyes For clarinet and piano

Elliot Roman “Two of Willie’s Dances”

For flute, clarinet, cello, and piano Willie's Pas de deux Willie's Waltz

Note: Please hold your applause for a brief silence after each piece.

This will help everyone to enjoy every note. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

1. LOSSES

I HAVE love And a child, A banjo And shadows. (Losses of God, All will go And one day We will hold Only the shadows.

~ Carl Sandburg, from Chicago Poems Copyright 1916 by Henry Holt and Co., Public Domain

2. WINDOW

NIGHT from a railroad car window Is a great, dark, soft thing Broken across with slashes of light.


3. MONOTONE

THE monotone of the rain is beautiful, And the sudden rise and slow relapse Of the long multitudinous rain. The sun on the hills is beautiful, Or a captured sunset sea-flung, Bannered with fire and gold. A face I know is beautiful— With fire and gold of sky and sea, And the peace of long warm rain.


4. FROM THE SHORE

A LONE gray bird, Dim-dipping, far-flying, Alone in the shadows and grandeurs and tumults Of night and the sea And the stars and storms. Out over the darkness it wavers and hovers, Out into the gloom it swings and batters, Out into the wind and the rain and the vast, Out into the pit of a great black world, Where fogs are at battle, sky-driven, sea-blown, Love of mist and rapture of flight, Glories of chance and hazards of death

On its eager and palpitant wings. Out into the deep of the great dark world, Beyond the long borders where foam and drift Of the sundering waves are lost and gone On the tides that plunge and rear and crumble.


5. KREISLER

SELL me a violin, mister, of old mysterious wood. Sell me a fiddle that has kissed dark nights on the forehead where men

kiss sisters they love. Sell me dried wood that has ached with passion clutching the knees and

arms of a storm. Sell me horsehair and rosin that has sucked at the breasts of the morning

sun for milk. Sell me something crushed in the heartsblood of pain readier than ever

for one more song. ~ Carl Sandburg, from Cornhuskers Copyright 1918 by Henry Holt and Co., Public Domain

Poems of A. E. Housman THE FIRST OF MAY

The orchards half the way From home to Ludlow fair Flowered on the first of May In Mays when I was there; And seen from stile or turning The plume of smoke would show Where fires were burning That went out long ago. The plum broke forth in green, The pear stood high and snowed, My friends and I between Would take the Ludlow road; Dressed to the nines and drinking And light in heart and limb, And each chap thinking The fair was held for him.

Between the trees in flower New friends at fairtime tread The way where Ludlow tower Stands planted on the dead.

Our thoughts, a long while after, They think, our words they say; Theirs now's the laughter, The fair, the first of May. Ay, yonder lads are yet The fools that we were then; For oh, the sons we get Are still the sons of men. The sumless tale of sorrow Is all unrolled in vain: May comes to-morrow And Ludlow fair again.

IN VALLEYS GREEN AND STILL

In valleys green and still Where lovers wander maying They hear from over hill A music playing. Behind the drum and fife, Past hawthornwood and hollow, Through earth and out of life The soldiers follow. The soldier's is the trade: In any wind or weather He steals the heart of maid And man together. The lover and his lass Beneath the hawthorn lying Have heard the soldiers pass, And both are sighing. And down the distance they With dying note and swelling Walk the resounding way To the still dwelling.

BREDON HILL

In summertime on Bredon The bells they sound so clear; Round both the shires they ring them In steeples far and near, A happy noise to hear.

Here of a Sunday morning My love and I would lie, And see the coloured counties, And hear the larks so high About us in the sky. The bells would ring to call her In valleys miles away: "Come all to church, good people; Good people, come and pray." But here my love would stay. And I would turn and answer Among the springing thyme, "Oh, peal upon our wedding, And we will hear the chime, And come to church in time." But when the snows at Christmas On Bredon top were strown, My love rose up so early And stole out unbeknown And went to church alone. They tolled the one bell only, Groom there was none to see, The mourners followed after, And so to church went she, And would not wait for me. The bells they sound on Bredon And still the steeples hum. "Come all to church, good people,"-- Oh, noisy bells, be dumb; I hear you, I will come.

Ryan Dodge Writing music that “resonates with edginess and modernity” (La Voz Latina Regional), composer and performer Ryan Dodge is a composer of both secular and sacred music, whose compositions have been heard in Lincoln Center, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (New York), the Bob Carr Center for the Performing Arts (home of the Orlando Philharmonic), and the Vatican. Recently, Mr. Dodge's music has been performed at the New Music on the Bayou Festival and at the American Guild of Organists (AGO) National Convention. In late 2017, Michael Hey (organist at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral) recorded his Psalm 30: For You have turned my mourning [...] into dancing; for JAV Recordings; it has been played on NPR’s Pipedreams. Last November, Ryan was interviewed by the UK’s Choir and Organ Magazine in a feature which included the publication of his Fanfare on “Ding, Dong Merrily on High” a joint-commission between Choir and Organ Magazine and St. Thomas Church, 5th Avenue in NYC. A graduate of the Juilliard School Mr. Dodge's teachers and mentors include composers Samuel Adler and Kenneth Frazelle, and Grammy-winning organist Paul Jacobs. In addition to his work as a composer, he is a multi-instrumentalist who has concertized and has been seen on EWTN (Eternal Word Network), New York’s News 12—Brooklyn, and the Grenada Broadcasting Network in the Caribbean. Mr. Dodge is currently the music director of the St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn. For more information and samples of his work, visit: ryandodgemusic.com. Program Note Somavine was originally conceived as a collaboration with the choreographer Taylor Drury. As partners in the Juilliard School’s Choreo-Comp program (which pairs young composers and choreographers to spark creative collaboration), Drury and Dodge created a piece that was both carnal and earthy, deriving its title from the prefix soma- (meaning “of the body,” e.g. somatic) and vines. The dancers, clad in verdant green spandex bodysuits, employed a wide variety of natural and markedly unnatural movement—from simple pacing to full-body writhing contortions. Musically, the piece is cast in a traditional Rondo form with a brief introduction. Despite being in a modern atonal idiom, the tunefulness of the main theme and its recurrent presentation make the structure rather clear and memorable—in stark contrast to the often amorphous and anti-melodic style of much post-War atonal music. Indeed, the piece was written as a response to Schoenberg’s hopeful prediction that someday concertgoers would “leave whistling [his] tunes.”.

Douglas Fisk Douglas Fisk is active as a composer, pianist, and teacher. His music has been performed by members of the New York New Music Ensemble, percussionist Gwendolyn Burgett, baritone Malcolm Merriweather, and Sospiro Winds. He began compositional studies with Paul Barsom and Bruce Trinkley at the Pennsylvania State University before studying with Martin Bresnick and Ezra Laderman at the Yale School of Music. He has attended the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, the June in Buffalo festival, the European American Musical Alliance program in Paris, France, where he studied with

Claude Baker, and been in residence at the Millay Colony for the Arts. He has presented his music in master classes with Narcis Bonet, David Felder, Joel Hoffman, Bernard Rands, Augusta Reed Thomas, and Charles Wuorinen. Mr. Fisk is the co-director of the Composers/Pianists Concert Series, a series in which composer/pianists perform their own solo piano works and ensemble pieces with piano; concerts have been presented at Merkin Hall, Tenri Cultural Institute, the Longy School of Music, and Firehouse12. His Impromptu for solo marimba appears on the Gwendolyn Burgett recording: Boomslang: New Music for Marimba. Program Note Carl Sandburg was the first poet that ever really captured my attention – growing up, I’d regularly return to a book of his collected poems; even if I was sometimes too young to understand the meaning, the rhythms and stresses left a lasting impression. I naturally gravitated to his work when, years later, I was looking for poems to set to music. This cycle of five songs draws from two of Sandburg’s earliest published collections: Chicago Poems (1916) and Cornhuskers (1918). Though a little hard to put into words, these poems and their settings for me create a certain arc, beginning with the stillness of “Losses,” through the motion of the final poem/song, “Kreisler,” which references the great violinist Fritz Kreisler. Sungji Hong Sungji Hong’s music has been described as “a work of iridescent freshness” (BBC Music Magazine), “the sound is utterly luminous” (Fanfare Magazine). Her music has been performed in over 42 countries throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia. Ms. Hong's music is recorded on the Soundbrush, Elektramusic, Atoll, and Dutton labels, and by ECM Records. Her creative output ranges from works for solo instruments to full orchestra, as well as choral, ballet and electroacoustic music. Ms. Hong’s works have been commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation (Harvard University), the Tongyoung International Music Festival (Korea), the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (Korea), the Keumho Asiana Cultural Foundation (Korea), the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music (USA), the International Isang Yun Music Society (Germany), and the MATA Festival (USA). She has won the Franz Josef Reinl-Stiftung (1st Prize), the Magistralia

(1st Prize), the Seoul Spring Festival Composition Competition (1st Prize), the Jesus Villa-Rojo (1st Prize), the European Competition of the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki (1st Prize), the Temple Music Composition Prize (1st Prize), the Crwth Competition (1st Prize), the international competition for original ballet music at the ISCM World Music Days – Slovenia (1st Prize), the Montserrat International Camera Music Composition Competition (1st Prize), the Theodore Front Prize (IAWM), and the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize (ACL). Ms. Hong studied composition in Seoul before moving to England where she completed her Master in Music at the Royal Academy of Music in London and a PhD in composition with Nicola LeFanu at the University of York in the UK. She currently is on the faculty of the University of North Texas. Program Note The title Bisbiglio (whispering) reflects the behavior of the music in the work. In Bisbiglio, emphasis was given to structural development and morphological coherence throughout the work. The piece is characterized by recurring elements that function as structural material for the development of the work. Bisbiglio was completed in July 2011 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The work was written for the International Contemporary Music Festival in Cyprus to be performed by Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble.

Gerald Rizzer Gerald Rizzer, The Chicago Ensemble's artistic director and pianist, appears on this series of concerts ex officio, having reviewed 430 composers' submissions and chosen the winning works. Also see the Performers’ profiles. Program Note These are three of ten settings of A. E. Housman’s poetry which I wrote in 2015. I am drawn to the themes of nostalgic regret that run through many of

Housman's poems. For the most part, I had not previously written art songs set to poems, but rather songs for musical theater. Michael Schelle Michael Schelle was born in 1950. For over 30 years he has been Composer in Residence at Butler University in Indianapolis. His music has been commissioned has been commissioned and/or performed by over 350 orchestras, symphonic bands, and professional chamber ensembles across the US and abroad, including the Chicago Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the major orchestras of Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Louisville, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Cleveland, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Urban Elektra (Phoenix), ISIS (Dallas), and XTET (Los Angeles). Recent international performances of his music have included Kammerorchester Basel (Switzerland), the St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Orchestra, the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra

(Moscow), the Czestochowa Philharmonic (Poland), Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica), the Koenig Ensemble of London, the Banff Centre (Canada), the Beijing Opera House, CoMET (Tokyo), the Firenza New Music Festival (Italy), Zimbabwe, and the Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Mr. Schelle has received composition grants and awards from over 30 prestigious arts organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, American Symphony Orchestra League (NYC), National Band Association (2012 Revelli Composition Prize), the Barlow Foundation, New York State Arts Council, Great Lakes Arts Alliance, New England Arts Foundation, the Welsh Arts Council (Cardiff), and the American Pianists Association, and has held extended composition residencies at dozens of leading American universities and new music festivals, Spoleto USA, Wolf Trap, the MacDowell Colony (NH), and in Europe, China, and Japan, including Nagoya Imperial University. Mr. Schelle spent the summers of 1998-2003 in Los Angeles, writing a book about film music (The Score, published in 2000 by Silman-James Press) and composing original scores for Hollywood movies. Program Note The first piece I wrote after an extended hospital stay involving two life-threatening thoracic surgeries in March 2017, Chords That Rhyme With Your Eyes is a gentle, peaceful mediation reflecting on that medical experience. I also simply had very little post-op energy, but a deadline to finish a clarinet/piano piece for Thomas Piercy and his critically-acclaimed “Tokyo to New York” concert series. Although worlds apart from my typically wild, frenetic, and bombastic music, Chords That Rhyme With Your Eyes was very sincere, and represented a wake-up call to the fragility of life, spirit, and soul.

Elliot Roman Elliot Roman (b. 1999) is an undergraduate composition major at the Manhattan School of Music, as well as an accomplished pianist and flutist. As a performer, in 2016 he played harpsichord at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall as a co-soloist with StringJam, a New Jersey based, conductor-less student string ensemble. He won his high school’s concerto competitions in 2015 (piano) and 2017 (flute). In addition, Mr. Roman has performed as part of ensembles in the New York metropolitan area such as the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra (flute and piano), VP Opera NYC

(flute/piccolo), the Handel Festival Orchestra (harpsichord), and Face the Music NYC (piano). Program Note Two of Willie’s Dances is a two-movement piece inspired by the ever-present problem of bullying in our schools.

Within the movements, I articulated the warped and distorted emotions present in the person who commits the act of bullying. The first movement, “Willie’s Pas de deux,” translating to Willie's dance for two, is full of rich timbres, with the melody line being passed from instrument to instrument and often shared between two instruments, referring to the movement's title. The second movement, “Willie’s Waltz,” presents a frenetic mood and is in ABA form. The music includes an annoying, repetitive figure in the flute line, a temper tantrum in the piano line, and metric changes that surprise the listener.

PERFORMERS Discover America IX

The Chicago Ensemble, 42nd Season 2018-2019

Gerald Rizzer, piano, is the founder and artistic director of The Chicago Ensemble. He holds degrees from the University of Chicago and Yale, and he also attended Juilliard. Mr. Rizzer teaches piano, theory and ensemble at Sherwood Community Music School. For many years, he taught music appreciation courses at DePaul. Mr. Rizzer composed the music for several shows performed at Theater Building Chicago. He has recorded two CDs of his Songs Without Words for piano. Michelle Areyzaga, soprano, has performed with Chicago Opera Theater, Lyric Opera’s “In the Neighborhoods”, New York City Opera, Chicago Light Opera Works, and Orquestra Sinfonica del Estado de México. Her Pamina, part of Chicago’s Silk Road Festival, was aired on public television. Additional roles include Cunegonde, Sophie (Werther), Mimi and Musetta, Adele, and Belinda. She appears regularly with Chamber Music Society Lincoln Center as well as the New York Festival of Song. She performed Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music under John Rutter. Oratorio solos include the Brahms Requiem and the Poulenc Gloria. Ms. Areyzaga recorded CDs of music by Gwyneth Walker, Lita Grier, and William Ferris. She has been heard frequently in WFMT live broadcasts. Eleanor Bartsch, violin, is concertmaster of the Dubuque Symphony and associate concertmaster of the Elgin Symphony. As a chamber musician, she plays with Madison, Wisconsin’s Willy Street Chamber Players, of which she is a founding member, and the Chicago-based Apas Piano Trio. Ms. Bartsch is a champion of new music and has appeared with Spektral Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, and Milwaukee-based Present Music. She has been a guest performer on many chamber music concert series including those of Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, both in Madison; the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota; Midsummer Music, in Door County, Wisconsin; Caroga Lake (NY) Music Festival; and Chamber Music on the Fox, in Elgin. Ms. Bartsch holds a BA and masters from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, from which she also has a graduate certificate in Entrepreneurship from the School of Business. She is on the faculty of the Barrington Music Academy, the Chicago School of Music and UW – Madison Summer Music Clinic.

Ryan Cox, baritone, has been a professional member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and Grant Park Choruses since 2003. In 2010 Mr. Cox was the baritone soloist in William Schuman’s A Free Song for Grant Park Music Festival’s “Pulitzer Project,” which was recorded by the Cedille label. He recently was the bass soloist cover for Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass and Britten’s War Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2013 Mr. Cox sang Schubert lieder on the CSO Chamber Music Series: “Rivers.” He has also been featured on the Music Now series, singing the Chicago premiere of Mason Bates’ Sirens. Additional solo appearances on the concert stage include Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Handel’s Messiah, the Fauré, Brahms and Mozart Requiems, Schubert’s Mass in G, Dubois’ Seven Last Words, Mozart's Grabmusik, Pontifex in Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and several Bach cantatas. Operatic roles include Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, the Count in La Nozze di Figaro, and the title role in Gianni Schicchi, as well as numerous short operas and scenes. He is the music director at First Congregational Church in LaGrange, Illinois where he directs all of the vocal and instrumental ensembles and is also the Director and Voice Instructor of the First Conservatory of Music. Mr. Cox is a graduate of Millikin University with degrees in Vocal Performance and Business Management. Elizandro Garcia-Montoya, born in Costa Rica, has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, and the State of Mexico Orchestra. A prizewinner in the 1999 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, he has played with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Fulcrim Point, Pilgrim Chamber Players, and Spektral Quartet. Mr. Garcia-Montoya has performed with several music Festivals including Tanglewood, National Repertory Orchestra, International Festival at Round Top, Spoleto/USA, and Yale’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. He holds a bachelors from Baylor University and a masters from Rice University. He also has a professional studies diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music and he has pursued additional post-graduate studies at DePaul University. Mr. Garcia-Montoya is principal clarinetist of the New Hampshire Music Festival, and the New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago. He teaches at DePaul Community Music School, People’s Music School, Elmhurst College, and the Arts Academy. Shanna Gutierrez, flute, has specialized in contemporary performance practice and techniques. She has helped commission and has presented premieres of more than 100 works. Ms. Gutierrez is co-founder of FluteXpansions, an online resource for contemporary flute performance practice, and founder of Sonic Sculptures: A Journey in Sound, through which she presents concerts and workshops in the US and abroad. Among Ms. Gutierrez’ awards are prizes at the Stockhausen Courses and at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for new music, and she is the recipient of a project grant from NewMusicUSA. She has appeared at numerous new music festivals, often performing works written for her. Currently, she is recording flute music of Claus-Steffen Mohnkopf. Chamber music collaborations have been with Collect/Project and Sonic Hedgehog, and she has been a guest with Collegium Novum Zurich, ensemble interface, ensemble TZARA, and Fonema Consort. Ms. Gutierrez holds a bachelors from the University of Michigan and a masters from Northwestern. She teaches at the Music Institute of Chicago. Amy Hess, viola, is a member of Lyric Opera Orchestra. Formerly, she was principal viola of the Civic Orchestra and a member of the Northwest Indiana Symphony. Recently Ms. Hess

collaborated with bassist Edgar Meyer at Aspen. She received a masters from Northwestern University, where she was selected to be soloist with the orchestra. She holds bachelors degrees in both French and violin from Oberlin, spending a semester in Paris studying violin and musicology. Alexa Muhly, cello, holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music. Her major teachers include Aldo Parisot, and Alan Harris. She has performed extensively in the United States, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, and Lithuania, and is an active orchestral and chamber musician in the Chicago area. In recent seasons, she was the principal cellist of the Kalamazoo Symphony, and also appeared with the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Pine Mountain Music Festival. Ms. Muhly received early recognition as first-prize winner in the Iowa Center for the Arts competition as well as prize winner in the Jugend Musiziert national competition in Germany. Other honors include a long-term residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Calgary, Alberta and awards from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Yale University, and the Aspen Music Festival. She was the cellist for the new music ensemble Opus 21 with whom she has performed at Symphony Space and Carnegie Hall in New York City. She recently has performed in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. She currently teaches cello performance and music theory at Oakton Community College. Andrew Snow, cello, is active as a recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral musician. He has been with The Chicago Ensemble for more than a decade. Mr. Snow holds degrees from Northern Illinois University and Southern Methodist University. He has performed several recitals in Mexico with his wife, pianist Beatriz Helguera-Snow, and they have recently recorded a CD, “Voices of Mexico Past and Present”, made possible by a grant from the Mexican National Foundation of Arts and Culture. Mr. Snow was formerly the cellist of the Lyra Quartet. Currently, he is a member of Chicago Sinfonietta, Lake Forest Symphony, and the Chicago Philharmonic. He was principal cellist of the Kenosha Symphony and Chicago Symphonic Pops, with whom he toured the Far East. He has played with of the Milwaukee Symphony, Grant Park Symphony, Lyric Opera, Joffrey Ballet, and Ars Viva, as well as with Fulcrum Point and Contemporary Chamber Players. He teaches privately and adjudicates student competitions. The Chicago Ensemble programs are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. International House concerts are co-sponsored by the University of Chicago International House Global Voices Program.

Mail: The Chicago Ensemble

PO Box 409048 Chicago, IL 60640

Phone: (773) 558-3448 Email: [email protected]

Please like our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/thechicagoensemble Please follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @theceweb Let’s Trend this extraordinary 42nd Season with the following hashtags: #TheChicagoEnsemble #42ndseason #MusicalAdventure #DiscoverAmerica #ChamberMUSICwithFRIENDS Highlights CD Set: A two-CD set of highlights from performances of The Chicago Ensemble 2009-2012 is available for $30 at the ticket table or by ordering online. Request for volunteers: Please contact us if you or someone you suggest may be interested in joining the Board or in providing other assistance to The Chicago Ensemble. Board Members: Thomas Davison, Michelle Gray, Lori Granger, Miriam Lahey, Michael Looby, Richard Melson, Edward Soderstrom, and Eileen Soderstrom.

Recording Engineer: Richard Werner Piano Tuner: Ken Orgel (International House) Page Turner: Greg Tufts Ticket table volunteers: Henry Arkin, Bart Collopy, Richard Melson, and The Saints Reception: Bernie’s Catering Website and Social Media updates: Alford Enterprises – Bonniejean Alford Printing: Post Net – Michael Looby

Contributions to The Chicago Ensemble Contributions listed are for the 41st season up to October 2018. Please call our attention to any omissions. Bravissimo ($1000 and up) 2 Anonymous Mr. Henry and Mrs. Rhoda Bernstein Illinois Arts Council Mr. Bart Collopy and Ms. Miriam Lahey Ms. Louise Smith Mr. Ross Sweeny and Ms. Helen Epstein Con brio ($300-$999) Mrs. Walter D. Fackler Mr. Philip and Mrs. Elizabeth Fertik Mr. Norman and Mrs. Barbara Gold Mr. Howard and Mrs. Natalie Goldberg Mrs. Paula Golden Ms. Lori Granger Ms. Sharon Madison Dr. Richard J. Miller Drs. Michael and Karen O’Mara Mr. Gary Ossewaarde Mr. Richard Melson Mr. Edward and Mrs. Eileen Soderstrom Mr. Charles and Mrs. Joan Staples Mr. Charles Tausche Dr. Marylou Witz Vivace ($100-$299) Dr. Robert Alter and Ms. Sherry Siegel Mr. Henry Arkin and Ms. Barbara Cronin Mr. Thomas Bachtell in memory of Andrew

Patner Mr. Andrew Beretvas Mr. Ralph Block Ms. Vicki Cheng Mr. Charlie and Mrs. Nancy Cunov Mr. Thomas Davison Mr. Bernard Deir Mr. Harvey and Mrs. Barbara Dershin Ms. Olga Erwin Mr. Arthur and Mrs. Fern Fischer Mr. Chris and Mrs. Christine Frank

Mr. Julian and Mrs. Katherine Harvey Mr. James Houston Mr. Akira and Mrs. Mitsuko Iriye Ms. April Kenfield Mr. Glenn Kleczka Mr. Raymond and Mrs. Alma Kuby Mr. Stephen and Mrs. Beth Landsman Mr. John and Mrs. Linda LaPlante Dr. Marshall and Mrs. Jacqueline

Lindheimer Mr. Gerald and Mrs. Evelyn Marsh Mr. Bruce Nelson and Mr. Axel Kunzmann Mr. Nick Petros Mr. Harry Poffenbarger Dr. Rosamund V. Potter Ms. Lee Price Dr. Ann Ressetar Mr. Joshua and Mrs. Nancy Rolock Mr. Warren and Mrs. Jan Rouse The Saints matching gift Mr. James and Mrs. Joan Shapiro Mr. Mark Sherkow Dr. Marshall Sparberg Mr. James Sullivan Mrs. Helen Williams Dr. Ruth Yanagi Ms. Jacquelyn Zevin Con spirito (up to $99) 5 Anonymous Ms. Ruth Baerman Ms. Mary Bartholomaus Ms. Taposhi Bentley Mr. R. Stephen and Mrs. Carla F. Berry Ms. Constance Bradley Ms. Ruth Bradley Mr. Peter Buchheit Mr. Ira Carp Mr. Leroy Conley Mr. Ralph and Mrs. Sarah Cruz

Con spirito (up to $99) cont… Mr. Charlie and Mrs. Nancy Cunov Ms. Margaret Duggar Mr. Efrat Gerlich Mr. Les and Mrs. Janet Glickman Ms. Sharon Hartridge Ms. Nina Helstein Ms. Ethelle Katz Ms. April Kenfield Ms. Romana Khan Ms. Renee Latronica Mr. Hector Lopez Mr. Richard Malette

Mr. Bernardo Muñoz Ms. Carleta Phillips Mr. Harry Poffenbarger Mr. Howard Raik and Ms. Terry Tennes Ms. Heather Refetoff Ms. Sandra A. Remis Dr. Ann Ressetar Mr. George Rosenbaum Mr. Santi Rukvidtayasas Ms. Elaine E. Stern Ms. Doris Thomasoma Ms. Maya Tolbert Mr. James D. Tucker

Thank you for your support of The Chicago Ensemble.

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