SOWINGS & AFFINITIES
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
8:00 PM 10:00 PM
Unversity Settlement House
184 Eldridge StreetNew York, NY, 10002
PROGRAM
Hannah Kendall Tuxedo: Crown; Sun King (2021) violin solo
Jō Kondō Forme semée (1982) trombone & piano
Inga Chinilina Wear And Tear (2020) percussion solo
Kaija Saariaho Dolce Tormento (2004) piccolo solo
Leroy Jenkins Thar He (2002) violin & piano
Joanna Ward A London plane tree hid me from the sun (2022)* tutti
* US Premiere
COMPOSER BIOS
Inga Chinilina is a composer, improviser, and pianist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Her work includes music for acoustic instruments from solo to orchestra, electronic music, and a mix of both. In addition to stand-alone music pieces, Inga also makes installations, music for dance and film. Ensembles that have performed Inga C’s music include Either/Or, The Empyrean, Dal Niente, Jack Quartet, ICE Ensemble, line upon line percussion trio, Loadbang, Longleash Trio, Lydian String Quartet, Neave Trio, No Exit, Sound Icon, Russia State Academic Russian Folk Ensemble, Splice, Talea, and Yarn/Wire.
Inga is a PhD candidate in “Music and Multimedia Composition” at Brown University. Her dissertation explores how composers represent sound entities that bare emotional meaning and possess complex timbre through the use of Western-European instruments. Inga holds a BM in Composition and Performance from Berklee College of Music and an MFA in Theory and Composition from Brandeis University.
Hannah Kendall, born in London in 1984, is based in New York City as a Doctoral Fellow in composition at Columbia University with Georg Friedrich Haas and George E. Lewis. She majored in vocal studies and composition at the University of Exeter and gained a master’s at the Royal College of Music. Kendall is the recipient of the 2022 Hindemith Prize for music composition.
Known for her attentive arrangements and immersive world-building, Hannah Kendall’s music looks beyond the boundaries of composition: “Conjuring evocative imagery within dramatic constructs form the main components of my compositional style. I sometimes draw on aspects of my African-Caribbean-European heritage; finding ways to garner a deeper understanding of how musical engagement through cultural discovery might influence my music’s aesthetics.”
Her recent premieres include shouting forever into the receiver for Ensemble Modern at Donaueschinger Musiktage 2022, …I may turn to salt for the New Century Chamber Orchestra in California, May 2023, and O flower of fire for London Symphony Orchestra , October 2023.
Born in Tokyo in 1947, Jo Kondo graduated from the composition department of Tokyo University of Arts in 1972. He spent a year studying in New York on a scholarship from the John D. Rockefeller III Fund in 1977-78. In 1979, he taught as guest lecturer at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, invited by the Canada Council, and in 1986 resided in London as a British Council Senior Fellow. In 1987, he was a composer in residence at Hartt School of Music, Hartford, Connecticut, USA and in 1987 and 2000 he taught at Dartington International Summer School in England. He was a professor at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo and Elisabeth University of Music in Hiroshima for many years. At present, he is a professor at Showa University of Music, Kawasaki, Japan and professor emeritus at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo. Kondo founded and was Artistic Director of the Musica Practica Ensemble (1980-1991), a chamber orchestra devoted to contemporary music.
He has written more than 160 compositions, ranging from solo pieces to orchestral and electronic works, which have been widely performed in Japan, North America, and Europe. These were recorded on Hat Art, Wergo, ALM, Fontec, Deutsche Grammophon, and other labels. He has received commissions from numerous organizations, ensembles and musicians. His music has been featured at many international music festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Performers associated with his music include the conductor Paul Zukofsky, Oliver Knussen, the pianist Satoko Inoue, the Ives and Nieuw Ensembles in the Netherlands, the London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in the UK, and many others.
Kondo has written extensively on musical matters and since 1979 he has published many books explaining in detail his own aesthetic and compositional ideas. He is also an associate editor of the Contemporary Music Review. He received the Odaka Prize (the best Japanese orchestra work in the year) for his orchestra piece In the Woods in 1991, and the Nakajima Kenzo Prize for his achievements in Japanese contemporary music in 2005. Jo Kondo was elected as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2012. In 2018, he was awarded “the 68th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize”. The Chairman of Japan Society for Contemporary Music (The International Society for Contemporary Music – Japanese Section).
Kaija Saariaho (1952 - 2023) was a prominent member of a generation of Finnish composers and performers making a worldwide impact. She studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg, and Paris, where she lived from 1982. Her studies and research at IRCAM had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by combining live music and electronics. Although much of her catalog comprises chamber works, from the mid-nineties she turned increasingly to larger forces and broader structures, notably numerous opera’s including L’Amour de Loin (2000), Adriana Mater (2005), Emilie (2008), Only The Sound Remains (2015), and Innocence (2018). Saariaho received many awards throughout her career including The Grawemeyer Award, The Wihuri Prize, The Nemmers Prize,The Sonning Prize, and The Polar Music Prize.
Born in Chicago, composer and violinist Leroy Jenkins (1932–2007) was one of the most important musicians to emerge from the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), the legendary collective of which he was a member until his death in 2007. Like many of the Association's members, Jenkins studied under the legendary Walter Dyett at DuSable High School, where he learned the alto saxophone.
He received a music degree (in violin) from Florida A&M University, where he studied composition and the classical masters of the violin. Subsequently, he taught music both in Mobile, Alabama (1961-5) and in the Chicago schools (1965-9). During the latter period, Jenkins joined the AACM. He made his first recording with Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, and Leo Smith in the sixties before achieving international acclaim in Paris along with Braxton, Smith, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. In 1970 Jenkins moved to New York, where he founded the Revolutionary Ensemble, the critically acclaimed ensemble which recorded 7 albums and toured North America and Europe.
When many of the AACM musicians left during 1969, Jenkins went to Europe with Anthony Braxton & Leo Smith. There, with drummer Steve McCall, they were called the Creative Construction Company. He also played with Ornette Coleman, whose house he & Braxton stayed at when they subsequently moved to New York City.
Playing with Taylor (1970) and Braxton (1969-72), he also worked with Albert Ayler, Cal Massey, Alice Coltrane, Archie Shepp & Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Between 1971-7, he played in his Revolutionary Ensemble, a trio featuring Sirone (Norris Jones) on bass & trombone, and drummer/pianist Jerome Cooper. Thereafter, he toured the US & Europe, led the Mixed Quintet (Jenkins and 4 woodwind players), a blues-based band called Sting, and again played with Cecil Taylor.
Jenkins continually reinvented his own language in music. His was an extraordinary bonding of a variety of sounds associated with the black music tradition, while simultaneously bridging with European styles. His intermeshing of jazz and classical influences left critics wondering at his musical identity; however, as one San Francisco Chronicle critic said, "Jenkins is a master who cuts across all categories."
Jenkins received a number of major commissions and was in demand for experimental and theater-based work. Mother of Three Sons, a dance-opera collaboration with Bill T. Jones, premiered in Aachaen, Germany and had ten performances. The Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and Mutable Music awarded him numerous commissioning funds and grants to support several new theater works. Among them are Fresh Faust (a jazz-rap opera), which was performed in workshops in Boston at the Institute of Contemporary Arts; The Negro Burial Ground (a cantata), performed at The Kitchen, New York City; and The Three Willies (a multimedia opera), performed at the Painted Bride, Philadelphia. He was also commissioned to create new works for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, the Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Relâche, and the Kronos Quartet.
Among his recordings are Anthony Braxton’s 3 Compositions of New Jazz (1968; Delmark); Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill (1973; JCOA Records); For Players Only (1975; JCOA Records); Lifelong Ambitions (1977; Black Saint); Space Minds, New Worlds, Survival America (1978; Tomato); Mixed Quintet (1983; Black Saint); Live (1992, Black Saint); Themes & Improvisations on the Blues (1994; CRI eXchange).
Leroy Jenkins died on February 24, 2007, in Brooklyn, NY.
Joanna Ward (b. 1998) is a composer, performer, and writer from Newcastle upon Tyne, currently based in London.
She was a Junior Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, learning with Amber Priestley, in 2021-22. She was also a Britten Pears Young Artist for 2021-22. Recent projects have included creating works for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Zubin Kanga's Cyborg Soloists project, the Aldeburgh Festival 2022, EXAUDI for the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Natalie Burch for her upcoming album on Delphian Records, and a co-creation project with Newcastle Youth Choir for the Newcastle Sings Festival 2022. Upcoming projects include for the Marian Consort with Britten Pears Arts, and for Zeitgeist Online Gallery.
She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a Masters in Composition in 2021. She graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA in Music (Class I) in 2019.
Joanna makes scores, sounds, and films, very often in collaboration with other performers, composers, and artists. Her work ranges from the relatively conventional to the very open, and recent projects have been additionally contextualized by research around 'anti-work' compositional ethics and aesthetics. Her writing has recently been published by I Care If You Listen and TEMPO New Music Journal.
As a vocalist and performer she is interested in contemporary and experimental repertoires as well as songwriting and improvisation. She notably performs in a duo with fellow composer/performer Omri Kochavi, and experimental choral collective Musarc.
PERFORMER BIOS
JENNIFER CHOI - VIOLIN
Jennifer Choi has charted a career that breaks through the conventional boundaries of solo violin, chamber music, and the art of creative improvisation. Since giving her New York debut at Carnegie Hall in 2000, she has performed in venues worldwide like the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., Alice Tully Hall, the Mozartsaal in Vienna, and the RAI National Radio in Rome. She has premiered and performed over 50 new music works and has collaborated with composers like John Zorn, Christian Wolfe, Leo Wadada Smith, Elliott Sharp, Randall Woolf, and Susie Ibarra. A prominent chamber musician, Ms. Choi was a founding member of the Miró String Quartet; with her involvement, the group won Grand Prize at the the 1996 Fischoff and Coleman chamber music competitions. She has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, Caramoor Music Festival, Barge Music, as well as the Santa Fe and La Jolla Chamber Music Festivals, Banff Centre for the Arts, and the Aspen Music Festival. www.jenniferchoi.com
MARGARET LANCASTER - FLUTES
“New-music luminary” (The New York Times), Margaret Lancaster has premiered well over 100 pieces and built a large repertoire of new works composed specifically for her. Performance highlights include Lincoln Center Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Santa Fe New Music, Whitney Museum, Edinburgh Festival and Festival D’Automne. She has recorded on New World Records, OO Discs, Innova, Naxos and Tzadik, and was selected for Meet the Composer’s New Works for Soloist Champions project. Noted for her inter-disciplinary performances, Lancaster, who also works as an actor, choreographer, dancer, and amateur furniture designer, presents solo and chamber music concerts worldwide and acts in Lee Breuer’s OBIE-winning Mabou Mines Dollhouse. margaretlancaster.com
CHRISTOPHER MCINTYRE - TROMBONE & CURATOR
Christopher McIntyre leads a multi-faceted career as performer, composer, and curator/producer. The diversity of his activities led Time Out New York to note that "...with every passing week, trombonist-composer Chris McIntyre becomes more central to the new-music experience in New York." (Nov. '09) He interprets and improvises on trombone and synthesizer in projects including TILT Brass Band and SIXtet, Ne(x)tworks, and 7X7 Trombone Band. His playing is heard on recordings released by the Tzadik, New World, and Mode labels. He has contributed compositions to Lotet, TILT, Ne(x)tworks, 7X7 (for choreographer Yoshiko Chuma), Flexible Orchestra, and B3+ brass trio. McIntyre is also active as a curator and concert producer, with independent projects at venues including The Kitchen, Issue Project Room, and The Stone (June 2007), and as Artistic Director of the MATA Festival (07-10). www.cmcintyre.com
JOHN POPHAM - CELLO
Cellist John Popham was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. The New York Times has described his playing as “warm but variegated” and “finely polished”. About his recent premiere of Vincent Raikhel’s cello concerto, Cirques and Moraines, the New York Times wrote that he played “with energy and a touch of poetry.” John holds a BM and MM from the Manhattan School of Music where he was a student of David Geber and David Soyer. An active chamber musician, he is the resident cellist of Red Light New Music and a member of the Toomai String Quintet. John has performed throughout North America, South America, and Europe with ensembles such as the Argento Chamber Ensemble and the Talea Ensemble. He has recorded for Tzadik, Carrier, and Arte Nova Records and teaches in the Mason Gross School of Music’s Young Artist Program at Rutgers University. www.johnpatrickpopham.com
RUSSELL GREENBERG - PERCUSSION
Queens-based percussionist Russell Greenberg specializes in music of the 20th and 21st centuries that spans a wide variety of styles. His breadth of experience as an international performer has led to a unique approach and viewpoint on contemporary music and teaching, and he strives to share this experience with varied audiences. As a founding member of the piano and percussion quartet, Yarn/Wire, Russell has collaborated with many of today’s leading composers to craft a body of new, wide-reaching and vital repertoire. At the vanguard of contemporary music, Yarn/Wire frequently tours the United States and performances have been labeled as “fearless” (TimeOutNY), and “intrepid/engrossing” (The New York Times). In addition to his work with contemporary music ensembles, Russell performs and records with the innovative bands Seaven Teares. www.russellgreenberg.net
KATHLEEN SUPOVÉ - PIANO (SPECIAL GUEST)
In May 2012, Kathleen Supové received the John Cage Award from ASCAP for “the artistry and passion with which she performs, commissions, records, and champions the music of our time.” Kathleen Supové is one of America’s most acclaimed and versatile new music pianists, continually redefining the pianist/keyboardist/performance artist in today’s world. Ms. Supové presents solo concerts under the moniker THE EXPLODING PIANO. A striking presence onstage, she has performed with computers, boxing gloves, robots, and laptop orchestra.
Recent projects include two solo CDs: THE DEBUSSY EFFECT, on New Focus Recordings (La Barbara-Clark-Marks-Felsenfeld-Woolf-Gosfield-Cooper), the result of a multi-composer commissioning project; and EYE TO IVORY, (Childs-Woolf-Barash-Didkovsky-Naphtali), with vocalizing, extended techniques, Yamaha Disklavier, and noise-based effects, to be released on Starkland in 2018. Visit www.supove.com or follow on Facebook.
PROGRAM NOTES
UK-NYC composer Hannah Kendall’s Tuxedo: Crown; Sun King for solo violin is a meditation on visual artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1983 silkscreen-on-canvas work Tuxedo. Third in a series inspired by the Basquiat, Kendall evokes the imagery and text of the work (inverted to black background/white text during the silk screening process) in various ways. The two middle strings of the instrument are “wrapped” by a dreadlock cuff, profoundly destabilizing their sound and execution. The intent of the preparation is manifold. According to Kendall, she is “trying to combine the Afrological and the Eurological. The fact that something that’s so specific and associated with Afro hair is wrapped around this very Western instrument is something that I was going for; …[I’m] trying to blend things together… mix up the space and… the idea of what a piece for solo violin can be.” EO has entrusted this music to the veteran expertise of its phenomenal violinist Jennifer Choi.
EO percussionist Russell Greenberg will give the first real-space performance Inga Chinilina’s Wear and Tear. Created for Greenberg during the COVID shutdown, Chinilina’s note indicates that in this work, “The traditional instrument is taken away and performer becomes the subject and the instrument simultaneously.” On an amplified surface and 3 score pages, the player is asked to use their knuckles, fingernails, palms, etc. to execute the work while “[going] through a false visual liberation from the score while still following it.”
Using text from a sonnet by the 14th century Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarca, Kaija Saariaho’s (1952-2023) Dolce Tormento for piccolo (performed by stellar flutist and longtime EO member Margaret Lancaster) asks the player to literally whisper/sing the sonnet’s words while also executing air sounds, controlled vibrato, glissandi, trills, and multiphonics. The members of EO share a deep respect for Ms. Saariaho and her important contributions to the field and present this work in honor of her passing in June 2023.
EO’s programming of Leroy Jenkins’ (1932-2007) Thar He for violin and piano in this concert is the opening salvo of an ongoing dialog with the work of this remarkable, distinguished artist's music. Performing this challenging work is Ms. Choi on violin and very special guest Kathleen Supové on piano, reprising their world premiere performance in 2005 with Mr. Jenkins in the audience. About the Thar He, Mr. Jenkins wrote:
In August 1955, a fourteen year old Negro youth went to visit relatives near Money, Mississippi. Intelligent and bold, he had experienced segregation in his hometown, Chicago, but was unaccustomed to the severe segregation he encountered in Mississippi. While in Money, one of his friends said “hey there’s a white girl in the store, I bet you won’t go in there and talk to her.” Emmitt went in and bought some candy and as he left said, “bye baby” to that girl, the owner's wife. As a result he was brutally murdered by the woman’s husband and an accomplice. At the trial, the prosecution had trouble getting witnesses to testify. Emmitt’s uncle Mose Wright stepped forward and pointed to one of the defendants and said “Thar He.” This piece reflects the sassiness of the boy, the bravery of the uncle, and the horror of the crime. It has improvisation sections.
Not likely heard in NYC since 1984, eminent Japanese composer Jō Kondō’s Forme semée from 1982 is a very particular iteration of his unmistakable musical language. Its singularity derives in part from the sound of bucket-muted trombone and piano moving through Kondō’s acerbic harmonies and unusual rhythmic phrasing in duo. With a penchant for internal references, Forme semée exhibits an uncommon range of behavior in the composer’s oeuvre. Of the work Kondō said, “I believe that each sound in music has its own entity and life. The scattered distribution of sounds in Forme semée only emphasizes this quality of the sound.”
EO began its relationship with talented UK composer Joanna Ward’s inclusive work in May 2023. It continues exploring her thoughtful approach to collective, spontaneous creation within a predetermined context with the composition A London plane tree hid me from the sun from 2022. Originally designed for a site-determined performance in London by the ensemble Treephonia, EO translates its arboreal mindfulness to the generous and sonorous performance area of Speyer Hall.