The Harmonic Series - 2009-2010 Edward T. Cone Concert Season

Friday, October 16, and Saturday, October 17, 2009
8 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall

Derek Bermel, clarinet
Christopher Taylor, piano

Composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel is the current Artist-in-Residence at the Institute.  "There doesn't seem to be anything Bermel can't do with the clarinet," said the Boston Globe said, "...the consistency and coherence of Bermel's musical language is particularly impressive."

Bermel was joined by pianist Christopher Taylor, whom the New Yorker calls "...a pianist of equally nimble intelligence and imagination."  Taylor is the winner of the William Kapell International Piano Competition, a finalist in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and currently Associate Professor of Piano in the School of Music of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. 

Their performance traced the history of works for clarinet and piano, taking the audience on a journey beginning with Brahms and moving through the 20th and 21st centuries with Milhaud and the American composers Leonard Bernstein, Paul Moravec, Sebastian Currier, and Bermel, who will be represented by three works — SchiZm, Thracian Sketches, and Turning.

Concert Talks

On Friday, there was a Concert Talk following the performance, featuring New York Times Chief Music Critic Anthony Tommasini in discussion with the musicians.

On Saturday, Tommasini discussed his role as a music critic in a Concert Talk held prior to the concert, at 6:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall. 


 

 

 


Derek Bermel

 

 

 


Christopher Taylor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anthony Tommasini

 
       

 

 


William Bolcom


    

 

 

 

Joan Morris

Friday, December 4, and Saturday, December 5, 2009
8 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall

The Music of William Bolcom
Featuring William Bolcom, piano; Joan Morris, mezzo-soprano; and special guests Kevin Deas, bass/baritone; Timothy Fain, violin; Carla Jablonski, mezzo-soprano; Joshua Roman, cello; and Howard Watkins, piano

Named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America, and honored with multiple Grammy Awards for his groundbreaking setting of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Bolcom is a composer of cabaret songs, concertos, sonatas, operas, symphonies, and much more.  He was awarded the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Twelve New Etudes for piano.

With his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, he has performed in concert for more than thirty-five years throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad.

In the words of the Rocky Mountain News, "It's easy to find something to like in William Bolcom's works...[he] fearlessly juggles music styles so nimbly."

The Music of William Bolcom was divided into two sections: sonatas and songs.  It featured distinguished soloists Timothy Fain, Carla Jablonski, Joshua Roman, Derek Bermel, and Metropolitan Opera pianist Howard Watkins, along with Joan Morris, who sang Bolcom's sophisticated cabaret songs to his piano accompaniment.

Program:

Second Sonata for Violin and Piano (1978)
Sonata for Violoncello and Piano (1989)
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (1995), second movement

Intermission

A selection of Cabaret Songs (1963-96)
Mini Cabs (2005)
Ancient Cabaret (2001)

Concert Talks

On Friday, there was a Concert Talk following the performance.

On Saturday, there was a Concert Talk at 6:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall, prior to the concert.

Friday, January 15, and Saturday, January 16, 2010
8 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall

Midori, violin
Charles Abramovic, piano

Renowned violin virtuoso Midori is known for her "incisive sound and fearless sense of lyricism," according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Performing publicly since the age of seven, Midori made her first recording at fourteen. She has performed internationally with the world's most prominent orchestras and conductors. While maintaining a rigorous performing schedule, she also runs Midori & Friends, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing quality music education to inner-city children in New York. Midori also founded Partners in Performance in order to broaden the audience for chamber music by bringing high profile chamber music performances to small community-based organizations in the U.S. She is the recipient of the 1993 Suntory Music Award, designed to promote Western music in Japan, and the 2001 Avery Fisher Prize for outstanding achievement in classical music. Midori currently serves as Chair of the Strings department and holds Jascha Heifetz Chair in Violin at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music.

Charles Abramovic has won critical acclaim for his international performances as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborator with leading instrumentalists and singers. He made his solo orchestral debut at the age of fourteen with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Since then he has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, and has given solo recitals throughout the United States, France, and Yugoslavia. He serves as a Professor of Keyboard Studies at Temple University's Boyer College of Music in Philadelphia.  

To read a newsletter on Midori's New Music Recitals, click here.

Program:

Coruscation and Reflection ( 1998) by Huw Watkins
Violin Sonata No. 2 (1999) by Krzysztof Penderecki

Intermission

Vertical Time Study III (1994) by Toshio Hosokawa
After the Tryst (1988) by James MacMillan
Road Movies (1995) by John Adams

    
Midori

 

 

 

Vijay Iyer

 


 

 

 

 

Craig Taborn

Friday, March 19, and Saturday, March 20, 2010
8 pm. in Wolfensohn Hall

Radically Unfinished:
Works for Solo and Duo Piano

featuring pianists Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn

Described in the Village Voice as "the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years," Vijay Iyer is a largely self-taught musician grounded in the American jazz lexicon who draws from a range of Western and non-Western traditions.

Craig Taborn has moved from early collaborations with James Carter to work in a wide variety of settings, from acoustic trios to electronic and techno music. According to All About Jazz, "In whatever setting he appears, Taborn leaves an indelible mark."

In a recent article in Newsweek about the future of jazz, Seth Colter Walls writes, "If anything, today's jazz boasts a surfeit of excellent stylists who can speak to that splintering pop audience: pianists Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn are both brilliant, though in nearly opposite ways. Iyer is a sometimes cerebral, always impressive player of tunes, whether they be those of Stevie Wonder and M.I.A., or his own compositions (all are featured on the new album Historicity). Taborn is an enthusiastic free-form player, both on his own extended-jam albums like Junk Magic and when playing as part of the exciting, electric-based Chris Potter Underground.”

The concerts will feature the world premiere duo-recital by these two accomplished jazz pianists.

The speaker for this weekend will be jazz journalist Nate Chinen, who writes for the New York Times, the Village Voice, and JazzTimes.  There will be a concert talk following the performance on Friday and one on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Both talks will take place in Wolfensohn Hall.