from JiB alum David Smooke

We're taking a short break from introducing this year's senior faculty to offer some reminiscences from a former June in Buffalo participant, composer David Smooke (JiB '99). Says David, who's now a member of the composition faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, "My June in Buffalo experience was one of the formative moments of my compositional career. I made friendships among my compositional peers that remain strong over a decade later and enjoyed hearing music from many different styles over the course of the festival. The music and masterclasses with the guest composer Jukka Tiennsu made an especially strong impression on me, opening my ears to musical ideas that remain quite dear to me.

"At the festival, I encountered recent experiments in microtonality and in the utilization of natural sounds in compositions in ways I had never before considered. In addition, June in Buffalo was the first opportunity that I had to work closely with professional performers, and some of these performers remain friends and advocates to this day."

At David's website, www.davidsmooke.com, you can hear samples of his beautifully-crafted and engaging scores, and view some videos involving his music. Here are two, one lyrical and reflective (blades, for whistling and singing cellist) and the other funky and playful (Four Score, for toy piano and two violas).





Do you have June in Buffalo stories and memories to share? Drop us a note at c21cmusic [at] the mail with the 'G' and we may just post them in this blog. Doesn't matter if they're serious, trivial, life-changing, or funny...bring them on!

Augusta Read Thomas

June in Buffalo's senior faculty members are not only distinguished composers, but dedicated teachers. Augusta Read Thomas, returning to June in Buffalo for 2010, is a case in point. She is one of the most widely performed composers of her generation, with no fewer than 36 commercial recordings to her credit. Her music has been championed by conductors Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Oliver Knussen, Seiji Ozawa, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, and Christoph Eschenbach.

At the same time, Thomas describes teaching as a deeply felt commitment, and an integrated part of her creative existence. She taught composition at the Eastman School of Music from 1993-2001, and from 2001 until 2006 was the Wyatt Professor of Music at Northwestern University. She frequently undertakes residencies in colleges, universities, and festivals across the country and in Europe; in the summers she often teaches at the Tanglewood Music Center, and was the Director of the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood in 2009. For 2009-2011 she is teaching and mentoring 10 high school-aged composers in the state of Connecticut. Each composer will have his or her new piece premiered by the New Haven Symphony in May 2011.

Here is Rachel Barton Pine in Augusta Read Thomas's dramatic and moving Caprice for solo violin.  

Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds, another frequent member of June in Buffalo's senior faculty, returns for this year's festival. His music will be performed by the Slee Sinfonietta on June 2 and by the Arditti Quartet on June 5. An influential teacher, his students include Michael Daugherty, Paul Dresher, and the Center's own David Felder.

Born in 1934 in Detroit, he studied music and science at the University of Michigan - a background that foreshadowed his subsequent explorations of advanced musical technology.  His aesthetic outlook was jointly shaped by the American Experimental tradition and - through his teachers Ross Lee Finney and Roberto Gerhard - also by the Second Viennese School. Reynolds refuses categorization, responding to the variety of the contemporary world with a uniquely diversified output - music now increasingly concerned with myth, text and space-ranging from the purely instrumental and vocal to involvements with computers, video, dance and theater. He is a member of the faculty at the University of California, San Diego, where he was the founding director of the Center for Music Experiment (now CRCA). Writing in The New Yorker, Andrew Porter called him "at once an explorer and a visionary composer, whose works can lead listeners to follow him into new regions of emotion and imagination." Among numerous other awards and commissions, he won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for his Whispers Out of Time for string orchestra.

Reynolds's music is widely recorded. Among the items in his discography is a portrait disc titled Three Circuitous Paths to the Music of Roger Reynolds, performed by the June in Buffalo Ensemble under Harvey Sollberger and Jesse Levine, and released in 2005 on the Neuma label. It includes Transfigured Wind III (flute, tape, and orchestra), Ambrages (solo flute), and Mistral (orchestra). Sadly, it's out of print, but you might find a copy if you're lucky.

Above: Roger Reynolds at June in Buffalo, 2004. Photo by Irene Haupt.

Steve Reich at June in Buffalo

Steve Reich has been a frequent presence at June in Buffalo ever since the festival's second iteration in 1976, when five of his works were performed. It's fitting, then, that June in Buffalo 2010 opens on May 31 with an evening of his music. Signal, under the direction of Brad Lubman, will perform Reich's Sextet (1984-85) and its successor, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet (2007). Reich considers the score "one of the better pieces I've done in the past few years."

Here's Steve Reich talking about the genesis of the work:

about Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands, a returning member of JiB's senior faculty, was born in Sheffield, England in 1934, he has been an American citizen since 1983. He is a dedicated teacher, both at Harvard, where he is the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music, and at summer festivals such as Aspen, Tanglewood, and June in Buffalo.

His work Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic, won the1984 Pulitzer Prize in Music. His large orchestral suite Le Tambourin won the 1986 Kennedy Center Freidheim Award.

Conductors who have championed his work include Barenboim, Boulez, Berio, Maderna, Marriner, Mehta, Muti, Ozawa, Rilling, Salonen, Sawallisch, Schiff, Schuller, Schwarz, Silverstein, Sinopoli, Slatkin, von Dohnanyi, and Zinman, among others.

His 20-minute score Chains Like the Sea, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, was given its premiere by the orchestra in October 2008. Wrote Steve Smith in The New York Times, "Mr. Rands... creates pieces filled with technical demands that make them gratifying to the performer, as well as sufficient sensual beauty to appeal to listeners. Poetry has provided the spark for some of his strongest creations; Chains Like the Sea, an instrumental work about 20 minutes long, was inspired by Dylan Thomas’s Fern Hill. Certain phrases, Mr. Rands explained in a program note, conjured memories of early years spent in Wales.

"True to its title, The Sabbath Rang Slowly, the first of two sections, was a broadly paced sequence punctuated with bell tones made from stacked notes that shimmered and rippled in combination. Patches reminiscent of Debussy seascapes and early Stravinsky lullabies floated in a dreamlike drift, meant to evoke the tedium of slow, pious Sundays. A more animated second part, Rivers of the Windfall Light, repeatedly surged with chattering gusts of horns, brass and percussion.

Mr. Rands has an unerring knack for lucid orchestration; here, scintillating details regularly pricked through an overall melancholy tone. A brief, gentle duo for solo violin and muted trumpet midway through the second part, for instance, seemed to leave behind a humid, bluesy wilt in its wake."

In this video, Rands describes the genesis of Chains Like the Sea.

June in Buffalo: a rather distinguished list

For emerging composers, one of the vital attractions of June in Buffalo is the opportunity to attend seminars and master classes with the festival's senior faculty. Over the years, eminent composers from around the globe have taken part -- a veritable roll call of leading 20th- and 21st-century compositional giants. The list includes Milton Babbitt, Henry Brant, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Jacob Druckman, Morton Feldman, Lejaren Hiller, Lukas Foss, Otto Luening, Conlon Nancarrow, Pauline Oliveros, Bernard Rands, Steve Reich, Poul Ruders, Frederic Rzewski, Ralph Shapey, Leo Smit, Virgil Thomson, and Charles Wuorinen. 

Along with David Felder, this year's senior faculty members include Steve Reich, Roger Reynolds, Bernard Rands, Augusta Read Thomas, and Olivier Pasquet. Each brings an invaluable compositional perspective to the festival. Over the next several weeks, we'll be introducing each of them a little more fully.

Left: John Cage (photo by Irene Haupt)

June in Buffalo 2010: watch this space

Applications for June in Buffalo 2010 have been received and the participants are now being chosen. Watch this space for a list of the lucky composers who will have the opportunity to take part in a week of seminars, lectures, master classes, workshops, professional presentations, participant forums and open rehearsals, as well as afternoon and evening concerts open to the general public and critics. Each of the invited composers will have one of his/her pieces performed during the festival.

Meanwhile, the evening concert schedule for the festival -- a fabulous array of programs by the Arditti Quartet, Signal, the Slee Sinfonietta, and other leading ensembles -- can be viewed here.  As is customary, June in Buffalo ends with a concert by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, heard this year under the baton of JoAnn Falletta in works by David Felder, Augusta Read Thomas, and Bernard Rands. 

New honor for David Felder

The Center's Director, David Felder, has just been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is one of sixteen recipients of this year's awards in music, which total $170,000. The winners were selected by a committee of Academy members:  Robert Beaser (chairman), Bernard Rands, Gunther Schuller, Steven Stucky, and Yehudi Wyner. Candidates for music awards are nominated by the 250 members of the Academy.

Felder is one of four composers to receive a $7500 Academy Award in Music, which honors outstanding artistic achievement. Each composer will receive an additional $7500 toward the recording of one work. The other winners were Daniel Asia, Pierre Jalbert, and James Primosch; the awards will be presented at the Academy's annual Ceremonial in May.

A Musical Feast

On February 14, 2010, celebrate Valentine's Day with "A Musical Feast". The 23-day Lecture on the Weather-John Cage in Buffalo showcase will conclude with an afternoon concert (2:00pm) by "A Musical Feast" at the new Burchfield Penney Auditorium.  The program will include Bohuslav Martinu's Duo No. 2 for violin and cello, a sampling of Eric Satie's piano pieces, Jacob Druckman's Animus III for clarinet and tape, as well as a presentation of Shamayim, a film by Elliot Caplan and David Felder.

Shamayim is a work for solo bass voice, 8 channels of electronic sound made or modeled upon bass singer Nicholas Isherwood's vocal instrument, with video created by Elliot Caplan. The work is an extended meditation inspired in part by close readings of the Book of Formation (Sefer Yetzirah), the writings of thirteenth century mystic Abraham Abulafia, and descriptions of states of consciousness that accompany prophetic experiences. The work is in three sections titled respectively:

1. Chashmal  (speaking silence) 2006-7

2. Sa'arah (stormy wind) 2007-8

3. Black Fire / White Fire 2008-9

This work is designed to exist in two complementary versions: the first, is a conventional live performance, with or without image, in concert halls with live amplification, processing, and 8 channels of sound; the second, a version for installation or home theater presentation in surround 5.1 and with a specially prepared image presentation. The latter was released October, 2009 by Albany Records (see previous post for more details).  

The "A Musical Feast" concert series is organized by former concert master of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Charles Haupt, and features established new music advocates like Claudia Hoca (piano), Jonathan Golove (cello), and Jean Kopperud (clarinet). "A Musical Feast" is co-sponsored by The Center for 21st Century Music.

For more information, visit the Lecture on the Weather-John Cage in Buffalo and "A Musical Feast" websites.

TALUJON Residency at the Center for 21st Century Music

On Friday, March 19, 2010, the Talujon Percussion Quartet comes to the University at Buffalo’s Lippes Concert Hall performing a concert of contemporary percussion music.

Thoroughly committed to the expansion of the contemporary percussion repertoire as well as the education and diversification of its worldwide audience, their residency at the Center for 21st Century Music and the Department of Music also includes master-classes on Friday, March 19, 2010 at 1pm and a composer workshop with the UB graduate composers on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 4pm. All master classes and workshop sessions are free and open to public and will take place in Lippes Concert Hall.

Described by the New York Times as an ensemble possessing an "edgy, unflagging energy", the Talujon Percussion Quartet has been mesmerizing audiences since 1991. Based in New York City, Talujon performs regularly for highly regarded organizations such as the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, Bang on a Can, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Harvard University, and the Percussive Art Society.

More information about the ensemble can be found at their website:

http://www.talujon.com/

For tickets to Talujon's concert visit the Lippes Concert Hall website.


Talujon performing Julia Wolfe's Dark Ride at CD Release Party

(part 3 of 3)

David Felder: new CD and DVD

David Felder, director of the Center and Birge-Cary Professor of Composition at UB, is widely known as a leader in his generation of American composers. His music has been heard at major international new music festivals worldwide, including those in Holland, Huddersfield, Darmstadt, Brussels, Geneva, Ravinia, Aspen, Tanglewood, Bourges, and Vienna, to name a few. Commissions include works for the New York New Music Ensemble, Arditti Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, American Brass Quintet, and many others. His work has been broadly characterized by its highly energetic profile, through its frequent employment of technological extension and elaboration of musical materials (including his “Crossfire” video series), and its lyrical qualities.

Two brand-new recordings offer a superb introduction to his compelling work. Shamayim, released October 1 (Albany 1137), is a DVD documenting a film collaboration between Felder and filmmaker Elliot Caplan. December 1 brought BoxMan (Albany 1153), a composer portrait CD compiling works written for the Arditti Quartet, New York Virtuoso Singers, New York New Music Ensemble, and trombonist Miles Anderson. Together, the two releases reveal a composer at the height of his powers.

Shamayim began with Felder’s work with Nicholas Isherwood on a piece for voice and electronic sounds and Caplan’s interest in a series of images having to do with nature. Shamayim uses Hebrew letters as the base structure for the music, while Caplan uses the numeric values of these letters as inspiration for the images. In some cases, Caplan attempted to be as close to the sound as possible in creating the images and in others Felder would compose based on the images. The results are strikingly beautiful: meditative yet rich in incident. Isherwood's resonant, sometimes eerily deep voice is set against an everchanging electronic backdrop that evokes the mysterious workings of the natural world. 

The Italian website MusicalNews.com called Shamayim "A DVD not to be missed: a masterpiece of our times. The music of Felder looks to the future with deep roots in the past in a spiral of sounds that envelop the viewer."

At first glance, the four compositions on the BoxMan disc might seem very disparate: Stuck-Stücke, an aphoristic string quartet; Memento mori, an elegiac piece for unaccompanied choir; partial [dis]res[s]toration, a sextet with electronic ambience; and finally the title track, a theatrical trombone solo in which the electronic interventions come right into the foreground. On listening, however, the differences begin to dissolve, leaving behind them the outlines of a distinct creative personality. One feature they share is fearlessness; another is their rhythmic dynamism and another is the containment of rhythmic and harmonic tensions in small motifs.

Reviewing BoxMan in the Buffalo News, Mary Kunz Goldman wrote, "UB composer in residence David Felder has a sense of humor that runs like a live nerve through this record, adding a needed extra dimension to sounds that would otherwise be alien to the ear. The sparks and spiky texture of one of the Stuck-Stuecke—good title there—appeals when you see it is marked “Effervescent.” “Mechanically!— incessant,” “Chorale-still,” “Bubbly”—the evocative words sum up the sounds brilliantly. [Felder] seems to be trying to put something into music that cannot be put into music. A string quartet has to make a sound like murmuring, or dancing, or breathing, or bouncing off the walls. In “Memento Mori,” a chorus takes up the challenge and it sounds otherworldly, like the sounds picked up by ghosthunters at the Iron Island Museum. I kept visualizing the changing harmonies like rays of light passing through a prism."

From Copland's house to ours, part II

As noted below, Music from Copland House came to the Center in November for a well-received concert, preceded by a session in which the distinguished ensemble played through a trio of works by UB students. Michael Boriskin, the ensemble's pianist and Executive Director of Copland House, had this to say about the experience:

"All of us in the Music from Copland House ensemble had a really rewarding and enjoyable visit to UB for our all-too-short mini-residency in mid-November.  Besides our public concert celebrating the legendary Nadia Boulanger and her American students (including, most prominently, Copland himself) and several performance master classes for UB piano, wind, and string students, our activities on campus included our public reading of three strong new works by UB students:  (Dis)tenzione for clarinet and piano by Paolo Cavallone, the String Quartet No. 2 by Moshe Shulman, and Spate (Resonantia Machina) by Ethan Hayden. 

"Two things struck us about all three compositions, despite the fact that they were very different works, reflecting highly diverse idioms, objectives, character, and creative approaches.  They all had very distinctive musical profiles and artistic personalities, and were solidly, expertly crafted.  Paolo’s delicate work had a very definite European sensibility, inhabiting an ethereal, mysterious sound world.  Moshe’s wide-ranging quartet explored all kinds of musical gestures and was full of flamboyant and dramatic flourishes, sometimes complemented by the percussive sounds of tapping instruments and stamping the floor!  Ethan’s short but dramatic composition was a driving, rhythmically spiky study of massed or opposing instrumental lines and sonorities, interrupted by a brief spare, serene interlude.  Our individual and collective suggestions about these works generally involved instrumental possibilities and minor technical or expressive refinements, as well as issues regarding how composers interact (through their works) with their performers and their audiences. 

"We really wished we could have spent more time with all these works and their composers, just as we were sorry we weren’t able to stay longer at UB.  We’re very grateful to our hosts, David Felder, Carol and Bob Morris, the UB Music Department, and the Center for the Study of 21^st Century Music, for making our visit possible.  UB’s illustrious history supporting the music of our time is well known.  As performers who, both individually and representing Copland House, enthusiastically champion contemporary composers and America’s rich musical heritage, we were thrilled to see how UB’s vibrant legacy continues to thrive so impressively!"

BTW, this coming Sunday (Dec. 6), Music from Copland House is presenting a talk called "Off the Record" by Alex Ross, taking place at Copland House at Merestead, Mt. Kisco, NY.  Further information available here.

June in Buffalo 2010

Aspiring composers take note! The deadline for applying to participate in June in Buffalo 2010 is February 16, 2010.  JiB promises to be more exciting than ever in its 35th anniversary season, which also marks the festival's 25th anniversary under the direction of the Center's director, David Felder.  It will take place from May 31 - June 6 at the University at Buffalo, with the usual panoply of seminars, lectures, master classes, workshops, professional presentations, participant forums and open rehearsals as well as afternoon and evening concerts open to the general public and critics. Each of the invited composers will have one of his/her pieces performed during the festival. Evening performances feature faculty composers, resident ensembles and soloists renowned internationally as interpreters of contemporary music.

In addition to Felder, the senior faculty will also include Steve Reich, Roger Reynolds, Augusta Read Thomas, and Olivier Pasquet. Equally impressive are the resident ensembles: the Arditti Quartet, Signal, Ensemble Laboratorium, Ensemble SurPlus, and as always, the Slee Sinfonietta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Application information can be found here.

From Copland's house to ours

Praised by the New York Times for performances that are "all exuberance and bright sunshine," Music from Copland House -- the resident ensemble at Aaron Copland's National Historic Landmark home in New York's lower Hudson Valley, comes to Lippes Hall on Friday, November 13 with a program titled "Afternoons in Paris: Boulanger, Copland, and the Americans." In addition to pieces by the eponymous composers, music by Stravinsky, Astor Piazzolla, Paul Chihara, and Irving Fine will be heard. Clarinetist Derek Bermel -- an estimable composer in his own right -- and noted pianist Michael Boriskin will be joined by violinists Tim Fain and Harumi Rhodes, violist Danielle Farina, and James Wilson on cello.

In addition, the gifted musicians of Music from Copland House will bring its expertise and insight to bear on works by graduate students Paolo Cavallone, Ethan Hayden, and Moshe Shulman in a free reading session on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 4 pm, also at Lippes Concert Hall.

Copland House is the only composer's home in the United States devoted to nurturing American composers and their work through a broad range of musical, educational, scholarly, and public programs and activities. Copland House is particularly noted for the Aaron Copland Awards, which provide residencies for six to eight mid-career composers each year at the house, situated on three secluded acres in the Hudson Valley. Idyllic? You be the judge. More information at www.coplandhouse.org. 

For tickets, visit the Lippes Concert Hall website.

A Short Film for the End of Time

On Tuesday, October 27 (7:30 pm), the Slee Sinfonietta serves up a quartet of chamber works at Lippes Concert Hall, dating from Messaien's spellbinding Quartet for the End of Time (1941) to conductor Harvey Sollberger's 1987 original substance/manifests/traces, with new UB faculty member Barry Crawford on flute. Franco Donatoni's fleet and inventive Arpège (1986) and Toru Takemitsu's enchanting Rain Spell (1983) round out the program. Regarding the latter work, Stylus magazine noted that its "relatively rich, shimmering textures place it again in Debussy territory as sort of an atonal take on Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." Ticket information is available here.

Here's a remarkable short film that visual artist Zach Smithey and director Tristan Cook made for a performance of Quartet for the End of Time at Lincoln Center. (Note: this will not be shown at UB.) 

Slee Sinfonietta rocks Ligeti, Bach, and Bloch, part 2

Just added to the Audio page on the Center's website: excerpts from the Slee Sinfonietta's September 15 concert at Lippes Concert Hall, including works by Bach, Bloch, and Ligeti. Click the "+" sign on the music player, then choose "Slee Sinfonietta 2009" to listen.

Ancora, Roberto!

As noted below, Roberto Fabbriciani -- described by a fan on YouTube as "il pìu grande flautista al mondo" -- is visiting UB during the first week of October. He'll give a free master class for composers in extended flute technique on Wednesday, Oct. 7 (3:30 pm) at Lippes Concert Hall, followed by a concert of contemporary Italian repertoire at Baird Recital Hall on Friday, Oct. 9 (7:30 pm).

Here's a glimpse of Fabbriciani in a recent premiere for flute and live electronics by Alessandro Grego, heard at the Zagreb Music Biennale last April.

Slee Sinfonietta rocks Ligeti, Bach, and Bloch

The Center's 2009-10 season opens in style with a Slee Sinfonietta concert tomorrow evening (Sept. 15) at Lippes Hall.  The program spotlights new faculty member Eric Huebner in Ligeti's treacherous but sparkling Piano Concerto, and renowned soloist Elmar Oliveira in J.S. Bach's Violin Concerto in A minor BWV 1041.

Writer Philip Huscher has described the piano part to Ligeti's concerto as "fiendishly difficult, though not always in the conventional sense; since the piano often plays quite independently from the orchestra, and sometimes in different rhythmic patterns, coordination becomes critical." Huebner (left) comes well prepared, however: having performed the piece at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2006.  He has drawn worldwide acclaim for his performances of new and traditional music since making his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 17.  His playing has been described as “full of grace and light” by critic Paul Griffiths and he was recently referred to as “the new superstar” of the 2008 Ojai Festival by critic Alan Rich.  Here he is in an excerpt from Messaien's Oiseaux Exotiques, with the Julliard Orchestra under David Robertson.

Elmar Oliveira (right) needs no introduction to violin aficionados, having been the only American to date to win the Gold Medal at Moscow's prestigious Tchaikovsky International Competition. His fairly staggering discography includes recordings on the Artek, Angel, Sony Masterworks, Vox, Delos, IMP, Naxos, Ondine and Melodiya labels. No stranger to contemporary repertoire, his best-selling 1997 recording of the Rautavaara Violin Concerto with the Helsinki Philharmonic (Ondine) won a Cannes Classical Award and has appeared on Gramophone’s “Editor’s Choice” and other best recordings lists around the world.

With a nod to the upcoming High Holidays, tomorrow evening's program also includes Ernst Bloch's 1923 score Baal Shem.  Subtitled "Three Pictures of Hassidic Life," the piece comprises three movements: Vidui (Contrition), Nigun (Improvisation), and Torah (Rejoicing). Ticket information is available here.

Gallery show

More than 150 images from the 2009 June in Buffalo festival are now on view at the Center's searchable photo gallery. They were taken by Irene Haupt, who has been chronicling the Center's activities since its inception, and capture JiB seminars, rehearsals, concerts, and assorted candid moments. Here, David Felder looks over a score in a master class with JiB Participants Andrew Ly, Christian Gentry, Matthew Schreibeis, Todd Tarantino and Eleanor Aversa.

They join the Center's ever-expanding library of images, which currently stretch back four seasons, with more to come.

20th-century Italian flute: a primer

The Center's 2009-10 season includes a number of concerts co-sponsored with UB's Slee Visiting Artist Series, offering topnotch performers and ensembles in a mix of 20th-century classics and current scores. Leading Italian flutist Roberto Fabbriciani comes to Baird Recital Hall on Friday, October 9 (7:30 pm), the ensemble Music from Copland House pays a visit on Friday, November 13 (7:30 pm at Lippes Concert Hall), and the NY-based Talujon Percussion Ensemble is coming in on Friday, March 19 (7:30 pm, Lippes Concert Hall).

The first visitor, Fabbriciani, has an impeccable artistic pedigree: he studied with the pioneering master Severino Gazzelloni, for whom Luciano Berio wrote his very first Sequenza in 1958. (Gazzelloni's flute students included another pioneer: jazz visionary Eric Dolphy.)

Fabbriciani himself has collaborated with a fairly staggering list of composers, including Berio, Bussotti, Cage, Carter, Donatoni, Ferneyhough, Krenek, Kurtág, Morricone, Nono, Pousseur, Rihm, Sciarrino, Stockhausen, Takemitsu, and Yun. His concert on Oct. 9 promises to offer a guided tour through the contemporary literature:

Bruno Maderna - Cadenza
Luciano Berio - Sequenza
Aldo Clementi - Fantasia su roBErto FABbriCiAni
Ennio Morricone - Cadenza
Franco Donatoni - Midi
Salvatore Sciarrino - Come venegono prodotti gli incantesimi
Luigi Nono - Das atmende klarsein, fragment

(Left: "Who's that with Roberto Fabbriciani?")

JACK plays a little Sharp

The JACK Quartet's open reading of student works on October 14 is part of a short residency that includes a concert the previous evening, Oct. 13, at Baird Recital Hall. JACK is particularly noted for its command of technically demanding avant-garde repertoire, and this program is an apt showcase for the group's skills. Their program opens with Iannis Xenakis's Tetora, also heard on JACK's new disc surveying all four of Xenakis's works for string quartet (Mode Records 209).

Next is Aaron Cassidy's String Quartet; on his website, the composer avers his "uncompromising dedication to instability and fragmentation." The world premiere of experimental composer Robert Morris's Arc follows.

After intermission, Italian master Salvatore Sciarrino's String Quartet No. 7 is heard; his music is noted for its use of extended playing techniques and sonorities that seem to skirt the edge of perception. The program closes with The Boreal by Elliott Sharp (right), an alumnus of UB's graduate composition program who has gone on to international renown in a variety of genres.

Welcome JACK

As noted below, the Center's 2009-10 season features visits by a tempting array of topnotch ensembles. On October 14, the NYC-based JACK Quartet will perform as part of the Center's Wednesday Composer Series, reading a selection of works by students in UB's composition program.

Lucky students! JACK - the name is an acronym derived from the first initials of its members, John Pickford Richards (viola), Ari Streisfeld (violin), Christopher Otto (violin), and Kevin McFarland (cello) - is rapidly gaining notice for high-energy performances of today's most demanding works for string quartet. The New York Times called the quartet's performance of Iannis Xenakis' complete string quartets one of the "most memorable classical music presentations of 2008," and in 2009, the group received an ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music.

Commissioning and performing new works for string quartet is central to the group's mission, leading them to work closely with composers Helmut Lachenmann (who'll be visiting the Center in April), György Kurtág, Matthias Pintscher, Wolfgang Rihm, Elliott Sharp, Samuel Adler, and Aaron Cassidy. Upcoming premieres include works by Caleb Burhans, Peter Ablinger, and Alan Hilario.

Here's a clip of JACK playing the opening movement of New York composer Christian Amigo's String Quartet No. 1.

The New Season!

The Center has announced its programming for the 2009-10 season, and it's an exciting one indeed, with concerts by the Slee Sinfonietta (with Elmar Oliveira and Eric Huebner as soloists), Signal, JACK Quartet, Music from Copland House, and others. There will be visits by composers Ben Thigpen (Paris), Roberto Fabricciani (Italy), Olivier Pasquet (Paris), Robert Beaser, David Dzubay, Joshua Feinberg, and Chinary Ung (USA).

June in Buffalo (May 31 - June 6, 2010) is marking the 35th anniversary of its founding and the 25th anniversary of David Felder's stewardship. To celebrate, there will be performances by the Arditti Quartet, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Slee Sinfonietta, Signal, and an array of distinguished soloists. Festival faculty will include David Felder, Olivier Pasquet, Steve Reich, Roger Reynolds, Augusta Read Thomas, and others to be announced.

All in all, as the late author Donald Barthelme once wrote in a different context, "there's more than enough aesthetic excitement here to satisfy anyone but a damn fool." See for yourself at the Center's website.

Over the next few weeks we'll be previewing some of these events in a bit more detail. But to whet your appetite, here's a clip of Signal - recently described by The New York Times as “one of the most vital groups of its kind,” - performing Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, caught last September at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC.

Remembering Lukas

"Why do we pigeonhole and label an artist? It is a sure way of missing the important, the contradictory, the things that make him or her unique" -- Lukas Foss.

As the Center prepares to announce its 2009-10 season, we'd like to take a moment to remember Lukas Foss, who passed away on February 1 at the age of 86. Foss was undoubtedly important, sometimes contradictory, and certainly unique. The New York Times ran an extensive obituary by Allan Kozinn, who commented, "Mr. Foss preferred to explore the byways of the avant-garde, focusing at different times on techniques from serialism and electronic music to Minimalism and improvisation. But as he moved from style to style, his voice remained distinctive, partly because he distrusted rules and never fully adhered to those of the approaches he adopted, and partly because a current of mercurial wit ran through his work.”

The spirit of Lukas Foss still animates the Center for 21st Century Music. His integrity, intellectual curiosity, and his openness to a wide variety of musical languages resonate to this day. (Photo: Irene Haupt)

in a Lydian mode

The critically-acclaimed Lydian String Quartet came to UB to perform in the Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle on April 24 at Lippes Concert Hall. They also participated in a Composer Workshop the following day in Baird Recital Hall. Aubrey Byerly (left), a graduate student in composition, had the privilege of hearing her string quartet-in-progress played by the ensemble -- an outstanding perk for an emerging composer, and part of a process that began last fall with a previous visit from the group.

"My work with the Lydian Quartet has been a long, interesting, and rewarding learning experience," says Byerly. "The entire process began last fall, when I wrote two short passages of music for a reading with the intention of expanding it into complete piece. The Lydians came from Brandeis to play in the Slee Beethoven Cycle Series and graciously agreed to read the fragments of my piece. The reading was very informative, as a young composer I need experiences like this to build up a reservoir of experience to draw upon to finish this piece and for future pieces. It can be easy to slip into a compositional vacuum, so getting to hear things I have written grounds me in sonic reality. I was able to have them play several variations of passages to get a better sense of the acoustic realities of the ensemble, what voicings sound robust, gnarly, velvety, acerbic, and so on. I also learned quite a bit about how an ensemble like Lydian practices and learns pieces, which has informed the way I illuminate the ideas I am trying to convey in my score and the music. Being young and inexperienced, I feel quite timid around such accomplished musicians and need practice in trying to ask for what I want; so I also value the interpersonal aspect of working with an ensemble in this kind of setting. They have been very accommodating, have made countless helpful suggestions, and have taken great care to realize my ideas.

"Since their visit to University at Buffalo last fall, I have spent several months filling out the piece from its original fragments and revising... There have been many emails between the performers and myself, emphasizing their dedication to music and a desire to realize my ideas. I am already looking forward to the next revision, in order to integrate the knowledge and many insights they will bring with them. Through University at Buffalo's unique Center for 21st Century Music, the Lydian Quartet has provided me with a unique opportunity, which I could not have anywhere else, for which I am grateful."