RCSC

Annea Lockwood

Yumi Suehiro, piano

Annea Lockwood (b. NZ) is known for her explorations of the rich world of natural acoustic sounds and environments, in works ranging from sound art and installations to concert music. Her music has been performed in many venues and festivals including: MACBA Barcelona, the Other Minds Festival, San Francisco, the Walker Art Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, Sonic Acts XIII and the Tectonics Festival 2015, New York. Recent work includes Wild Energy, a collaboration with Bob Bielecki: A site-specific multi-channel installation focused on geophysical, atmospheric and mammalian infra and ultra sound sources, currently running in the exhibition, A Garden of Sonic Delights at the Caramoor Festival of the Arts. She is a recipient of the 2007 Henry Cowell Award and a professor emerita, Vassar College.

RCSC was commissioned by pianist Sarah Cahill in 2001 as one of a set of seven short pieces by women composers in honor of Ruth Crawford Seeger. The title is a near palindrome of their names and for its pitch content the piece draws on a ten note row from the final movement of Crawford Seeger's second string quartet.

Gone!

Attach balloons to a music box piano. Tether the piano to the strut or other part of a concert grand. At the end of the concert wind it up, cut the tether and set it loose.
Before you cut the tether and free the piano to float off into the hall, wind it up and start it playing, but I suggest you conceal its sound with some other sound as you release it, a glissando across the higher strings, for example, might be just right. With luck the audience will quiet down till they can hear it.

Mechanical Studies

Samuel Friedman

FACE THE MUSIC: Quartet: This Side Up

Sam Friedman is a 15-year-old composer and trumpet player. Sam Friedman started playing trumpet at PS40 in Manhattan and continued at Third Street Music Settlement with Micah Killian. He is currently taking lessons with Ray Riccomini at Mannes Prep. He has performed recently with Face The Music, the InterSchool Orchestras’ Symphonic Band, the Mannes Prep Philharmonic as well as with various ensembles at Kinhaven Senior Session and Special Music School High School where he is completing his sophomore year. Friedman began composing while at Third Street and has studied composition with Eleanor Cory and Nic Scherzinger at Mannes Prep. Sam has also collaborated on compositions with his friend Henry Nelson and their band “Broken Arms & Atheists”. Friedman’s main compositional influences are composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartok, and Olivier Messiaen, as well as jazz composers like Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. Friedman’s String Quartet, “Mechanical Studies,” is based around his interest in the melodic and rhythmic structures of machines, and their natural beauty.

The piece was inspired by a high-pitched melody I heard from a New York subway train, which became the musical line that opens the piece. What struck me as interesting was how strangely human the melody was, and that it was being produced from a mechanical source. I felt a string instrument could replicate the whispery and ghostlike quality of the sound, which is why I wrote the piece for string quartet. The melody that follows the opening is very different, as I wrote it as if it were a folk melody, influenced heavily Bartók. However, it is not a folk melody. It is this melody and the prior theme that weave their way throughout the rest of the piece.There are also many instances of what I would call “Mechanical Rhythms” throughout the piece, in which the rhythms are incredibly precise and focus down to the smallest groupings of notes. In contrast, there are also times where the piece kicks into motor-like rhythms, in which there is a specific pulse, much like the rhythms created by a train. The piece, in a way, is asking a musical question about the purpose of technological advancements in music, and if there is true beauty hidden within. It questions what is mechanical, and what is human.

Diary Mvts 1, 2, 3, 6, 7

Jeremy Beck

Hirona Amamiya, soprano

Roberta Michel, flute

Kenji Haba, guitar

Jeremy Beck’s music has been presented by New York City Opera, American Composers Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, the Albuquerque Symphony Orchestra, Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, the Moravian Philharmonic, Center for Contemporary Opera, Peabody Opera, Yale Opera, the Dallas Festival of Modern Music, IonSound Project, Pacific Serenades, the Nevsky String Quartet, the Da Kappo String Quartet, and the San Gabriel String Quartet, among others. The recipient of awards and grants from the Wellesley Composers Conference, Oregon Bach Festival, the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Composers Forum, Millay Colony for the Arts, and the arts councils of Iowa, California, and Kentucky, Beck holds degrees in composition from the Yale School of Music, Duke University, and the Mannes College of Music.

Wu-Shing

Douglas DaSilva

Tzu-En Lee, violin

Artistic Director of the Composer’s Voice concert series, and Director, Artistic Planning: Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame, Douglas DaSilva composes in various styles including jazz, pop, children’s music, chamber music and experimental. Much of his writing is influenced by Brazilian music and self-inflicted stress. His compositions have been described as “very individual, and to us has a very clear personality” in Classical Guitar Magazine. In 2013, DaSilva’s work was featured on the George Enescu festival in Bucharest by cellist Şerban Nichifor. In 2015, his octet Schuylkill was premiered by the Rosario Ensamble for the 26º SIMPOSIO DE MÚSICA CONTEMPORÁNEA in Argentina, and his commemoration to World I “DULCE ET DECORUM EST” was premiered by mezzo-soprano Abigail Wright & guitarist Kenji Haba at the National Opera Center, NYC.

Wu-Shing (The Five Elements) was inspired by and composed for violinist Tzu-En Lee. This is a multii-media work with copious program/performance/photographic notes for the performer (or any other “reader”) to experience in addition to the main focus, which is the music. Wu-Shing is primarily modern & Western understanding of the Five Elements and therefore does not offer any insight into the Wǔ–Xing tradition.

A Wind in the Leaves

Danny Leo

Christina Hourihan, soprano

Kyungmi Nam, piano

Musician, composer, and producer, Danny Leo is a product of both the American theater and punk scenes. His music is as widely defined, ranging from electro-acoustic soundscapes to large-scale works for extended orchestra. Danny cut his teeth in the utopian rock and noise scenes of 1990’s Lower East Side, and Providence, RI, with outfits such as Native Nod, Radio to Saturn, Sin-Eaters, and the Holy Childhood. His catalog includes releases by Vermiform, Gern Blandsten, Touch and Go, Lookout!, Shangrila, Kill Rock Stars, RVNG Intl., Arctic Rodeo, and other labels. He has performed extensively across the United States and Europe, penned works for film and television, and has been recognized as a BMI Composing for the Screen Fellow.

A wandering journey through a day in which meaning is both spontaneous and elusive.

Dos Palabras

Robert Voisey

Christina Hourihan, soprano

Sara Bong, piano

Composer, producer, singer, Robert Voisey has been described as “mad” by the New York Times and publications around the globe. The LA Times highlighted Voisey as a composer using creativity to get his work heard. His work has been heard in more than 40 countries in venues including Carnegie Hall, Winter Garden Atrium in New York City, London’s Stratford Circus, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Tompkins Park in New York City and Chashama’s street window on 37th street in New York City, as well as TV, radio, off-off broadway productions, movie screenings, bars, and a 3 story video installation projected against a building. Robert Voisey is the Executive Director of Vox Novus, a new music production and promotion company. Through Vox Novus, he founded and directs the performance projects: 60x60, Composer’s Voice, Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame, and Circuit Bridges resulting in more than 500 performances promoting thousands of composers, musicians, choreographers, dancers, and artists

Dos Palabras

Poet: Alfonsina Storni

Esta noche al oído me has dicho dos palabras comunes.
Dos palabras cansadas de ser dichas.
Palabras que de viejas son nuevas.

Dos palabras tan dulces,
Que la luna que andaba filtrando entre las ramas se detuvo en mi boca.

Tan dulces dos palabras
Que una hormiga pasea por mi cuello y no intento moverme para echarla.

Tan dulces dos palabras
Que digo sin quererlo—¡oh, qué bella, la vida!—

Tan dulces y tan mansas
Que aceites olorosos sobre el cuerpo derraman.

Tan dulces y tan bellas
Que nerviosos, mis dedos, se mueven hacia el cielo imitando tijeras.

Oh, mis dedos quisieran cortar estrellas.



Señor, mi queja es ésta,
Tú me comprenderás:
De amor me estoy muriendo,
Pero no puedo amar.

Persigo lo perfecto
En mí y en los demás,
Persigo lo perfecto
Para poder amar.

Me consumo en mi fuego,
¡Señor, piedad, piedad!
De amor me estoy muriendo,
¡Pero no puedo amar!



English Translation By Agueda Abad-Pages and Robert Voisey

Tonight you have said two words to my ear, which are
Common, Two words tired of being said.
Words which being so old are new.

Two words so sweet
That the moon, filtered through branches, stop in my lips,

Two sweet words
That an ant walks along my neck
and I don't even try to move to shake it off.

Two sweet words
Tat I say unwillingly: Oh, how beautiful life is!

So sweet and so tame
That they spill as aromatic oils on my body.

So sweet and so beautiful
That nervous my fingers move towards heaven like scissors.

Oh! my fingers wish they could cut stars.



Lord, my complaint is this,
You will understand me:
Of love I'm dying,
But I cannot love.

I pursue perfection
In myself and in others,
I pursue perfection
To be able to love.

I consume myself in my fire,
Lord, piety, piety!
Of love I am dying,
But I cannot love!

Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame Into the Chaotic Dreams with Yumi Suehiro

Yumi Suehiro, piano

Pianist Yumi Suehiro began studying both piano and marimba at an early age. In her native Japan, Ms. Suehiro won numerous competitions, including the top prize at the Kobe International Competition as the youngest winner. As a pianist, she has performed at New York City’s Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie) as an AMTL Audition Winner, and at Steinway Hall, presented by the Amati Music Festival. She also was the featured marimba player in Latin percussionist Victor Rendon's recording of “Fiesta Percussiva”. Ms. Suehiro graduated from Lehman College (CUNY) and the Manhattan School of Music. While at Manhattan, she won second prize in the school’s 2010 piano concerto competition, and in 2011 was chosen to perform Richard Wilson’s “Flashback” for Pierre Aimard’s master class. Her teachers have included Morris Lang, John Corigliano, Peter Vinograde, and Zenon Fishbein.

Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame is 15 one-minute works by different composers written for a specific performer or ensemble. The theme of this Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame is “Into the Chaotic Dreams” The collections of 15 works seeks an answer to an imaginary question: How can one define oneself in the surreal world?

Chaotic Dream

Saman Shahi

Saman Shahi is a professional musician in Toronto. His music has been read and performed by many ensembles and renowned performers across Canada ( National Ballet of Canada), United States as well as France, Germany and Malaysia. His Music has also been broadcast on BBC Farsi and CBC.

This short piece uses perfect intervals to create dissonance, that is perfect, diminished and augmented 4th and 5ths. The piece has a sense of terror in it, even when it slows down in the middle. Charles Ives and Vincent Persichetti were huge influences on the harmonic language of this piece.

Estudio sobre líneas

Francisco del Pino

A former student of Fernando Maglia and Gerardo Gandini, Francisco del Pino (*1980) is a composer born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His work spans from solo to symphonic music and has been awarded several national and international prizes.

In this short piece, the instrumental writing is constrained to the extent of using the piano only in a monophonic manner. The pitch material is entirely derived from the first seven notes of the piano part of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which are directly quoted towards the end of the work.

Episode XVII

Anthony Donofrio

Anthony Donofrio currently teaches composition, theory, and new music at the University of Nebraska Kearney. His artistic influences include the relationship between literary structure and music, evening-length pieces, and the music of Morton Feldman. More information can be found at www.donofrio-music.com.

When prompted by this call to create a "daring and challenging work," I wanted to make a piece that went against the usual ideas of what is "daring and challenging." s of the piece lies in its simplicity, as both the left and right hands play the same rhythm throughout and only in dyads. Martin Watt is a South African composer, currently lecturing in musical analysis, composition and orchestration at the South African College of Music in Cape Town. He has composed over 50 works and his music has been performed, recorded and broadcast in many European countries, The US and The East.

Water Crystals

Mathieu Daniel Polak

Mathieu Daniël Polak (born 1972) obtained two Master Degrees in Composition namely at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven (Belgium) and at the Utrecht School of Arts in Utrecht (The Netherlands). At both schools he studied with Dr. Jeroen D’hoe. Moreover, Mathieu studied carillon at the Netherlands Carillon School in Amersfoort.

The six corners of the water crystal are symbolized by the use of the whole – tone scale. The intervals used, are fifths, seconds and octave transformations. The resulting number 5/2/8 is pointing to the final note of the composition, C2, which (in pure intonation) has a frequency of 528

Like Clockwork

James Gaddas

James Gaddas is an emerging composer based in Cardiff (UK). They attended Cardiff University, graduating in 2015, having studied composition with Arlene Sierra.

Like Clockwork is a short work for solo piano which seeks to summon a vision of the inner workings of a clock. Following a quick wind up, the clock initially keeps time before beginning to slip in a variety of ways.

Prelude (Taken By Storm)

Gabriele Toia

Italian pianist, harpsichordist and composer. He graduated from the Conservatory of Milan. His music has been performed in Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Holland, USA, New Zealand and Australia. He has recorded contemporary and ancient music for Ducale, MDS Records Zurich and participated in broadcasts of Italian and Swiss national radios.

It's a sort of paradiddle piece for drums adapted to the piano. The title alludes to the frantic search for a tonal center.

Prelude Y

Steven Aprahamian

Steven Aprahamian has composed music for theater productions, concert performances, and art installations throughout the United States and abroad. Born in Manhattan, he graduated from Rutgers College (English, honors) and later studied composition with Charles Wuorinen and Charles Fussel. His latest musical theater piece is The Fountain of Youth (foymusical.com).

Prelude Y, composed for Yumi Suehiro, demonstrates the composer’s interest in post-romantic harmony, as well as sparse textures and syncopated rhythms that propel ethnic and popular music.

Anche il vento

Luca Vanneschi

Luca Vanneschi’s music was awarded prizes in more than twenty International competitions and it has been performed by some of the more qualified musicians all over the world. Hans Werner Henze said about his music: “… it is an intelligent, non conformist, elegant and full of grace music.”

After having burnt each evocative and narrative aspect, the Anche il vento musical structure gives a concrete form to a space lacking in time, where the pure sound is the unique presence and the unique voice.

Capriccio

Martin Watt

Martin Watt is a South African composer, currently lecturing in musical analysis, composition and orchestration at the South African College of Music in Cape Town. He has composed over 50 works and his music has been performed, recorded and broadcast in many European countries, The US and The East.

This short piano piece is built from small melodic sells and when woven together, create interesting melodic lines. The effectiveness of the piece lies in its simplicity, as both the left and right hands play the same rhythm throughout and only in dyads.

Will-o'-the-wisp

Tomàs Peire

Born in Barcelona, Tomàs Peire is a music composer based in Los Angeles. He studied composition in Barcelona, Helsinki at Sibelius Academy, and New York, where he earned a Master’s degree in Composition (NYU). He writes both concert and film music and is pursuing a PhD in Composition at UCLA.

For a long time I’ve been fascinated by this beautiful phenomena that triggers the imagination and has generated tales, legends and superstitions. This project is the perfect excuse for that piece, a fleeting interpretation on Will-o’-the-wisp that tries to capture its magic instability by a trembling and flickering musical device.

ART NO WAR 5

Luigi Morleo

Luigi Morleo (born 16 November 1970 in Mesagne, Province of Brindisi) is an Italian percussionist and composer of contemporary music, who lives in Bari and teaches in Bari at the Niccolò Piccinni Conservatory. He appears in varied musical and artistic styles like rock-cross-over, folk-popular, jazz and DJ; however actors,

Sottolineare

Jean-Patrick Besingrand

Jean-Patrick Besingrand is a French composer living in the US. He holds a Master in Music and Conservatory prizes in Composition, Soundpainting, Musical analysis, Harmony, Counterpoint, and Fugue. He is working on his thesis at the Sorbonne, and studies composition at CUNY the Graduate Center.

Sottolineare is a piece constructed around pivot notes influenced by Indian music, and a percussive effect. These two polarities interact with each other along a miniature arch form that has the note F in the central pivot with the percussive effect of the prepared piano in Bb.

Ragtime Two Step

Edward Strauman

Edward Strauman, a Yamaha Artist/Educator and a Eubie and Marion Blake Scholar, earned his Ph.D. in music composition from New York University. He studied composition with David Berger, Edward Green, Justin Dello Joio and Deniz Hughes. Dr. Strauman is an Associate Professor of Music at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.

Ragtime Two Step is intended as a frolicking dance piece reminiscent of the Ragtime Era. Melodically and harmonically, the work juxtaposes black and white keys, as well as rhythmic foot stomping and knuckle knocking.

Prelude IV

Fabian Beltran

Fabian Beltran was originally born in Bogota, Colombia and recently received a B.A in Music Composition from the University of Texas. As an undergraduate student, he was the recipient of multiple awards. In the Fall of 2015, Fabian will begin his M.M composition studies at the Manhattan School of Music.

Prelude IV consist of a single frantic monophonic idea with no tonal center. This motive is primarily built around triads and it quickly encompasses the entire range of the piano. In addition, the motive contains multiple contour and articulation accents that generate syncopations and meter ambiguity.

After Bartok

Steven Harry Markowitz

Steven attended Dick Grove school of music in Studio City California. He enjoys improvising at the keyboard employing stylings which blend classical and jazz influences. His compositions have been world premiered in Romania, New York and Boston.

Composed in a single sitting, this piece has a primitive expressionistic feel reminiscent of Bela Bartok.

Lame and Useless Words

Gene Pritsker

Thomas Piercy, hichiriki and clarinet

Sara Bong, piano

Gene Pritsker has written over five hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. All of his compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles and are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures. He is the founder and leader of the eclectic ensemble: Sound Liberation, as well as being the co-director of Composers Concordance. Gene's music has been performed all over the world at various festivals and by many ensembles and performers. The New York Times described him as "...audacious...multitalented." www.genepritsker.com

The title Lame and Useless Words comes from a paragraph from James Joyce's 'The Dead'. The paragraph touches on something I have been going through recently, the inadequacy of words to express loss

slowly changing morning

Lucas Oickle

Thomas Piercy, hichiriki and clarinet

Sara Bong, piano

Lucas Oickle is an award-winning Nova Scotian artist based in Vancouver. His accolades include being a 2014 recipient of the "2011 Canada Games Artist of Excellence Award", a 2015 SOCAN award, and a nomination for best short film score at the 2015 Portsmouth International Film Festival. He currently sits on the board of directors for Vancouver Pro Musica.

"slowly changing mornings" is a reflection of my time spent in Yokohama last summer after marrying my fiancée in Tokushima. As the weeks progressed, I was fascinated to hear how the intensity of the cicadas incrementally increased with each passing morning, and similarly how they then began to fade away during the last days of August.

Chestnut and Mulberry

Danny Leo

Thomas Piercy, hichiriki and clarinet

Sara Bong, piano

Musician, composer, and producer, Danny Leo is a product of both the American theater and punk scenes. His music is as widely defined, ranging from electro-acoustic soundscapes to large-scale works for extended orchestra. Danny cut his teeth in the utopian rock and noise scenes of 1990’s Lower East Side, and Providence, RI, with outfits such as Native Nod, Radio to Saturn, Sin-Eaters, and the Holy Childhood. His catalog includes releases by Vermiform, Gern Blandsten, Touch and Go, Lookout!, Shangrila, Kill Rock Stars, RVNG Intl., Arctic Rodeo, and other labels. He has performed extensively across the United States and Europe, penned works for film and television, and has been recognized as a BMI Composing for the Screen Fellow.

The new episode in an evolving cycle of brief duets written for clarinetist Tom Piercy

Impulse

Cindi Hsu

Thomas Piercy, hichiriki and clarinet

Sara Bong, piano

Cindi Hsu’s powerful music has incredible depth and perception into the human soul. It is poetry without words.” Her music has been performed in Asia, Europe, and the United States in many venues including Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. Originally from Taiwan, Ms. Hsu currently resides in NYC where she is on the composition and piano faculty of the Music Conservatory of Westchester. Impulse” captures a young woman’s wildly compulsive, unrestrained love of dance. It begins with her irresistible, unreflective urge and burning desire to dance with unguarded, passionate abandon. This opening section then resolves into a contrasting peaceful middle section,. But, the “fever” for the dance abruptly reawakens with the reoccurrence of the impetuous opening theme that possesses the woman’s soul, and brings Impulse to its driven conclusion.

Lockjaw

Brandon Maahs

NAUTILUS BRASS QUINTET

Brandon Maahs is a composer from Dallas, Texas. What started as a fabricated one-man rock band in primary school to get the attention of girls, has developed into multiple awards, premieres and commissions in the state of Texas and across the country, including the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Wind Symphony, the UNT Green Brigade and the Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps. He currently studies at the University of North Texas with Kirsten Broberg. Maahs aims to meld in his music the tonal and atonal in a way that's both academically satisfactory and enjoyable to the common listener.

Lockjaw: a prolonged tonic spasm of the muscles of the jaw.

The Kraken

Max Stannard

NAUTILUS BRASS QUINTET

Max Stannard studied Music at Lancaster University, graduating with First Class Honours. His principal study is the trombone with a background in brass bands. He has performed with and composed for a wide variety of ensembles and now works as a school teacher.

Kraken is inspired by the Nautilus name and tells the story of a Kraken's attack on an unsuspecting ship. The introduction introduces the Kraken. The horn theme see a ship set sail but there is a sense of foreboding created by the trumpets. After a murmuring approach, a fanfare sounds as the Kraken is spotted. Themes collide as the battle with the Kraken ensues, but ultimately the ship is dragged down to the murky depths and the music fades away as the Kraken disappears into nothing.

Daybreak

Blair Whittington

NAUTILUS BRASS QUINTET

Blair Whittington is a native Los Angeles composer of chamber and orchestral music. Guitar was his first serious instrument but he now spends most of his free time composing. He studied composition with Byong-kon Kim. For the last two decades he has worked as music librarian at the Brand Library & Art Center and also directs the Brand Library chamber music series. His music has been performed by Mark Robson, Maksim Velichkin, Yumi Suehiro, the UK Guitar Quartet and the Bateira Trio.

Daybreak is festive piece in AAB form. The exciting first part is more rhythmic and layered, and the contrasting majestic section emphasizes harmony.

With A Huff and a Puff

Etienne Rolin

NAUTILUS BRASS QUINTET

Etienne Rolin is a French-Amercian composer-conductor instrumentalist and teacher working in Bordeaux France. After studies with Nadia Boulanger O.Messiaen and I.Xenakis as well as his practice of jazz and free improvisation, his style has evolved into a very complex genre of musical composition. His scores range from soloist to chamber music and opera. He conducted Soundpainting performances in France, Austria, and in the United States. He present recitals of Hindustani music on the Bansuri flute in traditional and contemporary settings.

With a Huff and a Puff explores polytonal triadic harmony and subtle rhythmic phrasing. The form is clearly structured in two parts: Jazz like vertical harmonies with exchanging dialogues between first trumpet and tuba, followed by a galloping contrapuntal passage using many polymetric patterns over the basic 9/16 cycle.