the university of texas new music ensemble · trumpet, trombone, glockenspiel, ... violin concerto...
TRANSCRIPT
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE
Wednesday, April 25, 7:30 PM
Bates Recital Hall
DIRECTOR
Dan Welcher
VISITING COMPOSER
David Gompper
CLARINET SOLOIST
Jonathan Gunn
This concert will last approximately two hours with one intermission
Keith Allegretti Elegy and Tarantella (2018)
(b. 1989)
Russell Pinkston Off Leash—A Celebration of Life with Dogs (2016)
(b. 1949) Little Dog
On the Trail
Home Alone
Eddie and Thelma
Sleeping Dogs
At the Beach
Old Friend
Letting Go
Remembering
Intermission
David Gompper Butterfly Dance (2001)
(b. 1954)
David Gompper Traceur II (2016)
Jonathan Gunn, clarinet
PROGRAM
PLEASE SILENCE YOUR ELECTRONIC DEVICES
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Elegy and TarantellaKeith Allegretti
Born: 1989, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Composed: 2018
Premiered: Tonight’s performance is the premiere
Duration: 9 minutes
Instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, trumpet,
trombone, percussion, piano, violins, viola, cello, bass
A native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Keith Allegretti is a composer and pianist
who enjoys working comfortably in many genres, including chamber,
orchestral, vocal, and electronic music, and even musical theater. His music
has been performed in Santa Fe, Houston, Berlin, Ann Arbor, New York
and elsewhere by professional and amateur ensembles, including Santa Fe
New Music, Quartetto Indaco, the Rice University Chorale, the University of
Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Circuit Bridges, and the Santa Fe Community
Orchestra.
From the composer:
While composing Elegy and Tarantella, I began to conceive of an
extramusical connection between two seemingly unrelated genres.
Elegies, typically sung or played at funerals, have potentially grotesque
associations, simply through their reference to the dead. The Tarantella,
meanwhile, similarly confronts our morbid fascination with the macabre,
as this frenzied, ritualistic dance was traditionally associated tarantism in
15th to 17th century Italy, a psychological condition of “dancing mania”
believed to arise from the bites of spiders. Elegy and Tarantella juxtaposes
these two musical sections of wildly different moods: a slow, flowing,
dirge-like opening followed by an extended, energetic dance. The
transition between the two is gradual and seamless, so that the listener
cannot tell precisely when one ends and the other begins, effectively
creating a single accelerating trajectory from beginning to end.
Off LeashRussell Pinkston
Born: January 1, 1949, Brooklyn, New York
Composed: 2016—commissioned by Texas Performing Arts and The
University of Texas New Music Ensemble
Premiered: September 9, 2016 in McCullough Theatre at The University of
Texas at Austin by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble
Duration: 25 minutes
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, vibraphone, percussion, piano, violins, viola,
cello, double bass
Russell Pinkston is a composer, teacher, and sound designer who currently
lives in Austin, Texas. He has composed music in a wide variety of styles and
genres, from choral, chamber, and symphonic works, to electronic music
for modern dance. In recent years, he has specialized in writing interactive
compositions for acoustic instruments and electronic sounds, and he has
developed a number of software tools for real-time audio processing and
score following. About Off Leash, the composer writes:
In her book Dog Songs, the poet Mary Oliver writes, “of all the sights I
love in this world—and there are plenty—very near the top of the list is
this one: dogs without leashes.” It is a sight that I love, as well. Dogs are
always in the moment, experiencing life in a way that most of us haven’t
been able to do since we were very young, if ever. And when they are
off leash, able to run and play and explore the world without the usual
restraints we impose on them, we get to see dogs as the free spirits they
truly are, and that we might like to be. They hurl themselves headlong
into life, completely comfortable in their own skin, unconcerned with
the past or the future, holding nothing back, running until they drop
with exhaustion, then getting up and running some more. When writing
these pieces, I wanted to capture a few classic dog behaviors, as well
as some memories I have of specific dogs I have known—their unique
personalities, the arcs of their lives from beginning to end, and some of
the feelings I have had while sharing all that with them. I hope this music
will evoke similar images and memories in the minds of other dog lovers,
and remind them of the many great joys of sharing life with dogs.
Butterfly DanceDavid Gompper
Composed: 2001
Premiere: Moscow on April, 24, 2001 in Rachmaninoff Hall at the
Moscow Conservatory of Music by the ensemble Studio New Music,
Vladimir Tarnopolski, director
Estimated duration: 9 minutes
Instrumentation: for clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano
From the composer:
This is work is based on an American Hopi Indian tune of the
same name (recorded in the 1950s on Canyon Records CR-7053),
and consists of two parts: the first as a preparation although
aesthetically removed but motivically based on the second part,
a more straightforward rendition of the tune itself. The idea was
to suggest an experience, as a non-native American, witnessing
an Indian dance, outside, in a semi-circle, at dusk. For only with
time and patience does one find they enter into the dynamic and
rhythmic pacing of the celebratory dance.
Traceur II David Gompper
Born: 1954, San Diego, California
Composed: August 31, 2016. Recorded January 17, 2017 with the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, Cadogan Hall, Emmanuel Siffert conductor,
Michael Norsworthy, soloist.
Premiere: The premiere of Traceur II (sinfonietta version) took place at
Boston Conservatory, Doug Perkins, conductor, on February 9, 2018, and
tonight’s concert
Duration: 22 minutes
Instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, French horn,
trumpet, trombone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, percussion, celesta, piano,
solo clarinet, violins, viola, cello, bass
From the composer:
This composition, an orchestrated expansion of Traceur for clarinet
and piano, is based on a series of sketches that were generated at the
MacDowell Artist Colony in New Hampshire in December and January
of 2013-2014, ideas generated from the descending order of fractions
(1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, etc.) that create interesting symmetrical properties
(the Farey series).
While this trench work served as a somewhat obtuse structural
foundation, the surface and expression of the music is very much
related to the experience—mostly imagined—of the art of Parkour,
and the person known as a traceur, who as a skilled runner and jumper
often performs acrobatic feats of flight (always choreographed). This
work is about the idea of tracing a path, a person trying to run as fast
as possible into (but not around) rails and obstacles with minimal
energy and without slowing down.
This work was made possible by a grant from the Fromm Music
Foundation.
ABOUT JONATHAN GUNN
Jonathan Gunn is a versatile artist with a varied
career as an educator, soloist, chamber musician,
and orchestral performer. Currently, Mr. Gunn
serves as the assistant professor of clarinet at the
Butler School of Music at The University of Texas
at Austin. Appointed by Maestro Paavo Järvi
to the position of associate principal and E-flat
clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in
2004, Mr. Gunn served as principal clarinet from 2011 to 2016 before
joining the faculty at the Butler School of Music. Prior to joining the
Cincinnati Symphony, he was the principal clarinetist of the Fort Wayne
Philharmonic, and has performed as guest principal clarinet with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra on multiple occasions and has performed
with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh, and Colorado Symphony
Orchestras.
Committed to the education of the next generation of clarinetists, Mr.
Gunn gives master classes and recitals around the country, and has
served on the faculties of the Buffet-Crampon Summer Academy, the
Aria International Summer Academy and the National Youth Orchestra of
the USA. Prior to joining the faculty at The University of Texas, he served
on the faculties of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of
Music, Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Goshen College, Andrews
University and Seton Hill University.
Born in Sheffield, England, Mr. Gunn started his musical career playing
violin and piano and began studying the clarinet after moving to the
United States at age eleven. He received a bachelor of music from the
Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and a master of music from
the Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University. Jonathan is
married to Jennifer Gunn, who plays piccolo and flute with the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Gunn is a D’Addario artist and musician advisor, a Buffet Group USA
Performing Artist and plays exclusively on Buffet-Crampon clarinets.
ABOUT DAVID GOMPPER
David Gompper has lived and worked professionally
as a pianist, a conductor, and a composer in New
York, San Diego, London, Nigeria, Michigan, Texas
and Iowa. He studied at the Royal College of Music
in London with Jeremy Dale Roberts, Humphrey
Searle and pianist Phyllis Sellick. After teaching in
Nigeria, he received his doctorate at the University
of Michigan, taught at the University of Texas,
Arlington, and since 1991 has been Professor of Composition and
Director of the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa. In
2002-2003 Gompper was in Russia as a Fulbright Scholar, teaching,
performing and conducting at the Moscow Conservatory. In 2009 he
received an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters in New York City.
Gompper’s compositions have been performed in such venues as
Carnegie, Lincoln Center and Merkin Halls (New York), Wigmore
Hall (London), Konzerthaus (Vienna) and the Bolshoi Hall (Moscow).
Wolfgang David and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recorded his
Violin Concerto for a Naxos CD, and his song cycle The Animals, based
on the poetry of Marvin Bell, was released on an Albany disc in June
2012. His Double Concerto, written for Wolfgang David, violin and
Timothy Gill, cello and Principal of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
(RPO), was premiered in March 2013. He received a 2013 Fromm
Commission to write a Clarinet Concerto for Michael Norsworthy and
BMOP (Boston Modern Orchestra Project), Gil Rose, director, which
will be premiered in the spring of 2016. During the fall of 2014, he
completed a work for clarinet and piano called Traceur, which was
recorded with Michael Norsworthy for a CD to be released fall of 2015.
Finally, he is working on a Cello Concerto to be premiered in the fall of
2016, and recorded by the RPO in January of 2017.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE
FLUTE
Zach Warren
OBOE
Madison Pregler
CLARINET
Nick Brown
BASS CLARINET
Josh Barker
BASSOON/CONTRABASSOON
Katia Osorio
FRENCH HORN
Ash Fulkerson
TRUMPET
Matthew Harper
TROMBONE
Eric Gomez
PERCUSSION
Kellen King
Jordan Walsh
Gilbert Garcia
PIANO
Timothy George
Andrew Q Langman
CELESTE
Andrew Q Langman
VIOLIN
Sara Sasaki
Sean Riley
VIOLA
Ruben Balboa
CELLO
Kelvin Lee
DOUBLE BASS
James Tabata
ASSIST. DIRECTOR
Alex Johnson
UPCOMING BUTLER OPERA CENTER PRODUCTION
Falstaffby Guiseppe Verdi
CONDUCTOR
Kelly Kuo
DIRECTOR
Robert DeSimone
Friday, April 27, 7:30 PM
Sunday, April 29, 4:00 PM
All performances in
McCullough Theatre
ABOUT THE OPERA
Falstaff revolves around the farcical (and generally thwarted)
efforts of the “fat knight,” Sir John Falstaff, to seduce two
married women to gain access to their husbands’ wealth. Shining
with originality and composed when Verdi was nearly 80, this
opera is proof that age took nothing from the master.
TICKETS
music.utexas.edu/concerts
QUESTIONS?
UPCOMING SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONCERT
The University of Texas Symphony OrchestraMonday, April 30, 7:30 PM
Bates Recital Hall
CONDUCTOR
Gerhardt Zimmermann
SAXOPHONE SOLOIST
Calvin Wong
W.A. MozartSymphony No. 40 in G minor
Henri TomasiConcerto for Alto Saxophone
Edward Elgar“Nimrod” from Enigma Variations
Hector BerliozRákóczi March
TICKETS
music.utexas.edu/concerts
QUESTIONS?
UPCOMING CONCERTS AND EVENTS
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN • COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS
Douglas Dempster, Dean
SARAH AND ERNEST BUTLER SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Mary Ellen Poole, Director
For more information about Butler School of Music concerts and events, visit our online
calendar at music.utexas.edu/calendar.
Become a member of The Butler Society and help us successfully launch tomorrow’s
brightest performers, teachers, composers and scholars. Make a gift today at
music.utexas.edu/giving
The University of Texas Butler Collage SeriesThursday, April 26, 7:30 PM
Recital Studio, MRH 2.608
The University of Texas Wind EnsembleSunday, April 29, 4:00 PM
Bates Recital Hall
The University of Texas Harp EnsembleSunday, April 29, 7:30 PM
Bates Recital Hall
The University of Texas Symphony OrchestraMonday, April 30, 7:30 PM
Bates Recital Hall
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