Wednesday, Sep 20, 2023
8:00 PM
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018
PROGRAM
The Atlas (New York Premiere) Richard Carrick
for piano and string quartet
Compass
Seagliss
Penumbra (la terre inconnue)
Expanse
Interlude
la terre
Solo
Cartographers
Journey through the Spheres
Either/Or is:
Richard Carrick, Piano
Jennifer Choi, Violin
Pala Garcia, Violin
John Popham, Cello
Kal Sugatski, Viola
PROGRAM NOTES
Maps suggest explanations, and while explanations reassure us, they also inspire us to ask more questions, consider other possibilities. To ask for a map is to say, “Tell me a story”
Peter Turchi, from Maps of the Imagination
The Atlas is an hour long concert work for piano and string quartet in six full movements and multiple shorter interludes. The Atlas sonifies tales of exploring, belonging, revisiting, longing and blissful enjoyment. It is inspired by stories about the individual, community, ancestry and unknown people and places. And it sonically traverses the ocean, desert, forest, city and Home. Some of these themes were starting points for particular movements, whereas most emerged during the composition process.
The piece begins with Compass - a piece that prompts reorientation within the piano. What happens when one uses a range of objects inside the piano? How do we hear the piano differently? What kind of music can one write when traditional tools (harmony, melody, form) as well as physical tools (hands, strings, mallets, mutes, etc) are different and less familiar? Where does it take the music?
SeaGliss is graphically notated, and provides different opportunities for performer interpretation. Improvisation is a strand throughout the work, invoked in different ways (small passages, embellishments during repetition, enhancing interactions, etc) throughout most movements and freely in Solo/Cartographers.
Penumbra (la terre inconnue) a title inspired by a painting recently viewed at the Frank Bowling’s America exhibit at the MFA, references the outer shadow of an object, which is a metaphor to my relationship to my maternal ancestral land of Algeria, which I know only through the recordings and words of others. The central melody, as well as the basic 6/4 rhythm, references the music in the film El Gusto, which tells the story of an Algerian Chaabi band in the 1950’s made up of Muslims and Jews that were reunited in Paris 50 years later.
La terre is a transcription of a piano piece I improvised with three separate tracks (for an upcoming CD). It does away entirely with using the keyboard and fully embraces the piano as a percussive instrument. Expanse unifies the instruments and opens a brief window to fully resonant piano and strings. Interlude is a mosaic of sound that digs deep into the resonance of the low piano strings. Journey through the Spheres references the spectral beauty of the harmonic spheres, presented tonight as the final version of a piece I premiered with my students in Neither/Nor in November 2021. Additional threads embedded in this piece include the music of Tom Waits, EDM, Jean-Philippe Rameau, John Cage, Henry Cowell, and Iancu Dumitrescu. It explores the ways in which the mechanics of the piano can blend with the strings (of both the piano and string quartet).
Composing music for non-traditional sounds in The Atlas presented an analogy to the two step process of creating maps outlined by Peter Turchi: namely that of explorer (to identify and understand the land) and of guide (to lead others through it). The land in this case is experimenting with a combination of the sonic possibilities of inside-the-piano techniques, the vast landscape of piano repertoire in contemporary and classical music, and avant-garde, experimental, and improvised musics, alongside the string quartet immense possibilities. And then, when sitting down to write the piece “at some point, we turn from the role of Explorer to take on that of Guide.” (Turchi).
My sincerest gratitude to Berklee College of Music for offering me a sabbatical to focus on composing and MacDowell for offering me a Fellowship in January-February 2023 to write this work.
Bios
Praised by The New York Times as "an ensemble that plays by its own rules" and "a trustworthy purveyor of new sounds,” Either/Or has been at the forefront of New York's contemporary music scene since 2004. Winner of the 2015 CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, Either/Or focuses on new, recently composed, and rare works for various and often times unconventional instrumentations. Programmed by Director Richard Carrick and Curator Christopher McIntyre, the group’s projects are brought to life by its roster of a dozen world-class musicians and special guests.
Either/Or has performed throughout the Northeast at venues including Philadelphia Museum of Art, ICA Boston, Miller Theatre, The Kitchen, as well as California and Swedish tours and frequent appearances at local experimental music venues such as The Stone, Roulette, and ISSUE Project Room.
Either/Or’s programming is aesthetically inclusive, ranging from the American Experimental tradition (Cage, Feldman, Lucier, Ashley) to the historical and contemporary European avant-garde, with a special emphasis on composers working outside the institutional mainstream. The group has premiered more than 300 works since its inception, in addition to dozens of student compositions. They have worked closely with many leaders in contemporary composition including George Lewis, Zeena Parkins, Beat Furrer, John Zorn, Miya Masaoka, Elliott Sharp, Helmut Lachenmann, Anthony Coleman, Keeril Makan and Thomas Meadowcroft. Either/Or has received great acclaim for its numerous career-spanning portrait concerts, all of which were firsts in the US. Portrait composers include Iancu Dumitrescu, Ana Maria Avram, Chaya Czernowin, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Horatiu Radulescu, Karin Rehnqvist, Rebecca Saunders, Hans Thomalla, and Raphaël Cendo. The group brought many of these composers to New York City for public lectures and teaching engagements.
Either/Or has released ten full-length recordings of works commissioned or premiered by them on New World Records, Edition Moderne, Starkland, and Sterling labels.
www.eitherormusic.org
Richard Carrick
Composer, conductor and pianist Richard Carrick writes music of spatial depth and robust stasis, characterized by the evocation of profound human experiences. Described as "organic and restless" by The New York Times, Carrick's music has been presented internationally at festivals and venues including NYPHIL Biennial, ISCM World Music Days, Enescu Festival, Wein’s Konzerthaus, released on numerous critically acclaimed CDs, and published by PSNY. His music spans solo, chamber and orchestral compositions as well as works incorporating dance, graphic scores, electronics, video projection, and conducted group improvisation.
Carrick has been awarded Guggenheim & MacDowell Fellowships, commissions from Fromm Foundation & Chamber Music America and more. He has presented concerts, master classes and lectures throughout the US, Europe, Israel, Japan, and South Korea, where he was a Korean Gugak Fellow in 2015. He lived in Rwanda 2015-2016, working on an arrangement of the National Anthem, and he remains engaged, currently working on the music curriculum for their public schools. He serves as Chair of Composition at Berklee College of Music, with former faculty appointments at Columbia and New York Universities and as New York Philharmonic Teaching Artist. Carrick co-found Either/Or in 2004 and has premiered over 300 world premieres by leading composers as conductor or pianist.
Born in Paris of Algerian and Scottish/Welsh descent, Carrick received his BA from Columbia University, PhD from the University of California-San Diego, and pursued further studies at IRCAM and the Koninklijk Conservatorium.
www.richardcarrick.com
Performers
Jennifer Choi www.jenniferchoi.com
Pala Garcia http://www.palagarcia.com
Kal Sugatski www.kallieviola.com
John Popham http://johnpatrickpopham.com/
Either/Or's 2022-23 Concert Season is made possible by the generous support of the BMI Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts (a New York State agency), and by our private donors. Either/Or is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Jennifer Choi
Violinist Jennifer Choi has charted a career that breaks through the conventional boundaries of solo violin, chamber music, and the art of improvisation. One of the most sought after violinists by prominent composers of today, she has been hailed multiple times by The New York Times as an “excellent violinist,” "soulful, compelling,” and by Time Out New York as “passionate,” and “adventurous.” Since giving her recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall in 2000, Jennifer has performed regularly in venues far and wide including the Stone NYC, Roulette, WQXR’s Cafe Concerts, LPR, the Library of Congress in Washington D. C., RAI National Radio in Rome, and Cite de la Musique in Paris. Jennifer has premiered and performed Wadada Leo Smith’s violin concerto Afrikana 2, Orlando Garcia’s Una Marea Cresciente, and numerous solo and chamber works by John Zorn, Susie Ibarra, Richard Carrick, Randall Woolf, Annie Gosfield, and U. S. premieres of Jacob TV and Helmut Lachenmann. She can be heard on over a dozen albums for TZADIK, Starkland, and New Focus Records. www.jenniferchoi.com
Pala Garcia
Pala Garcia is a critically acclaimed violinist, balancing performing, commissioning and recording with her work as an educator and advocate of socially conscious artistry. As a contemporary music specialist, she is the co-founder of Longleash, an “expert young trio” (Strad Magazine) that recently added two highly acclaimed releases to their discography: a debut album, Passage, that earned them Sequenza 21’s Best New Recording Artist of 2017, and a work on the album Soft Aberration, named a Notable Recording of 2017 by The New Yorker.
Their work has been recognized and supported by Chamber Music America, the Alice K. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Amphion Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Puffin Foundation, the Atherton Family Foundation, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Grants from the Music Academy of the West.
Pala has performed as a featured artist throughout Asia, Europe and North America, and has also performed as a regular guest in some of the world’s most respected ensembles, including the the International Contemporary Ensemble, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, her longstanding involvement with Carnegie Hall’s social impact programs has led to meaningful artistic collaborations with New Yorkers from all walks of life, making music, celebrating creativity and building community in prisons, shelters and hospitals.
A debut solo album featuring the music of Peter Kramer will forthcoming in 2023 on New Focus Recordings, with support from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.
Pala serves on the violin faculties of the Juilliard School’s Preparatory Division and Hunter College, and was a Senior Teaching Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center. As a co-director of Longleash’s Loretto Project, Pala also leads its Pathways Initiative, a high-school composition workshop invested in addressing issues of gender justice and representation. She is an alum of the Juilliard School and is currently a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she was also recently granted a certificate in Women’s Studies.
http://www.palagarcia.com/
JOHN POPHAM
John Popham, “a very fine artist” (Fanfare), is a critically acclaimed cellist, educator, and musical organizer based in Brooklyn, NY. A versatile and dynamic performer, Mr. Popham has collaborated with a wide-range of composers, musicians, and performing artists both within the United States and abroad. His “brilliant” and “virtuosic” (Kronen Zeitung) playing can be heard on numerous solo and chamber music releases on Tzadik, Carrier, New Focus Recordings, Albany, and Arte Nova record labels.
Mr. Popham is a founding member of Longleash, an “expert young trio” praised for its “subtle and meticulous musicianship” (Strad magazine). The trio has performed at venues including the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (Troy, NY), San Francisco’s Center for New Music, National Sawdust, and internationally. Their debut album Passage earned wide critical acclaim. In 2017, they were named Best New Recording Artist by Sequenza21, and were included in The New Yorker’s list of “Notable Recordings and Performances.”
In addition to his work with Longleash, Mr. Popham is a current member of Either/Or Ensemble, and has performed with Klangforum Wien, Talea Ensemble, the Wet Ink Ensemble, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, and ECCE. Recent festival appearances include Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), reMusik (St. Petersburg), Beijing Modern Music Festival (China), Brücken (Austria), Internationales Musikfest Hamburg (Germany), and the Contemporary Classical Music Festival (Peru).
As an educator and arts advocate, Mr. Popham is committed to a holistic and socially engaged approach to musical instruction, at Juilliard and with The Loretto Project, an annual composition seminar and new music festival held at the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Kentucky.
http://johnpatrickpopham.com
Kal Sugastki
Kal Sugatski performs with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, NYCBallet, International Contemporary Ensemble, and on Broadway. They have also appeared with Stevie Wonder, Ben Folds, Andrea Bocelli, and The National. Their playing can be heard on over 50 recordings, including Judas and the Black Messiah, and other grammy-winning albums.
Kal was named Mainer of the Year for their newest project Vigorous Tenderness, an immersive outdoor concert series in Maine centered around composers of color and other marginalized voices in classical music (ig: @vigorous.tenderness). Their season highlights include performances with the New York Philharmonic, concerts with ChamberQUEER, international touring with American Contemporary Music Ensemble and Max Richter, and community concerts all over NYC with Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
They are a native of Portland, Maine and hold degrees from Oberlin and Manhattan School of Music. In their spare time they are a winter hiker, ocean swimmer, and nature enthusiast.
www.kallieviola.com