Interview with Emi Ferguson, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music Flute Performance at UB

Emi Ferguson, a flute player dedicated to expanding the boundaries of contemporary performance, has been hailed by critics for her "tonal bloom" and "hauntingly beautiful performances." Emi's unique approach to the flute can be heard in her use of the silver flute, historical flutes and auxiliary flutes to play repertoire stretching from the Renaissance to today.

Emi was a featured performer alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon, and James Taylor at the 10th Anniversary Memorial Ceremony of 9/11 at Ground Zero, where her performance of Amazing Grace was televised worldwide. Her playing can be heard live in concerts and festivals around the world as well as in her adopted hometown, New York City. Extremely passionate about championing new flute works by contemporary composers, she has premiered pieces by Wayne Oquin, Kendall Briggs, Elliott Carter, and even CPE Bach to name a few. Emi has been a featured performer at the Marlboro Music and Lucerne Festivals, and this past summer, performed and taught with Juilliard Global, PianoSonoma in California, Juilliard Baroque in Germany, and Les Arts Florissants in France. In addition, she was awarded 1st Prize at the National Flute Association's prestigious Young Artist Competition. 

Emi is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School and was recently appointed to the faculty of the University of Buffalo where she teaches flute and ear training. She was the first person to have graduated from Juilliard with Undergraduate and Graduate degrees with Scholastic Distinction in flute performance, as well as a second Graduate degree in Historical Performance as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow.

Please tell us about yourself. Bonus points for an insider's view of Emi, delightful tidbits not covered in a standard bio.

Well, I guess the most important things are that I hate cheese, but absolutely love Japanese food which I blame on my being born in Japan. If anyone wants a partner in crime for Japanese dinner in Buffalo let me know! I also have a serious weakness for English candy since I grew up there. :)

I also play the flute ... I started when I was six and haven't stopped yet! I seriously considered studying epidemiology instead of music but decided to stick with music and sneak in articles and studies about various diseases on the side. Boston is my hometown in the US but I have lived in New York City for the past eight years and love it there!

How did you become interested in contemporary music?

I started really playing contemporary music while as a student at Juilliard.  I worked with a lot of composers there, played in the New Juilliard Ensemble and AXIOM Ensemble (Juilliard's contemporary music ensembles) where I fell in love with the music and the challenges posed and was lucky enough to be surrounded by people who were incredibly enthusiastic about it as well. All of this was solidified for me my junior year where I was so fortunate to work with some of the titans of new music – Elliott Carter, James Levine, and Pierre Boulez – both in New York and at the Lucerne Festival Academy.

Do you still have a strong relationship as a performer and listener with traditional/classical music?

Absolutely! In addition to my work with contemporary music I also play early music on historical instruments, a lot of Baroque and Classical music on those with various groups around the world. I'm also a huge fan of late Renaissance music, which unfortunately doesn't usually have flutes, so I'm just a listener there.  Of course the core of the modern flute repertoire comes from the romantic period onwards so I'm always searching for new gorgeous pieces from that time period to play.

What brought you to Buffalo/UB?

I was contacted by the Department of Music this past summer and the rest is history! I'm so thrilled to be here.

Do you have a "mission" as a performer/musician/artist(/human)? If so, please share.

I believe it's incredibly important for musicians to make sure that they do not live or perform in a vacuum.  It's so easy for us to get caught up in the details of our craft as we strive for perfection, but it is so important to take a step back and see that the most important things are often communication and the power that we have to truly affect people with our music.

What new and exciting things do we have to look forward to this year from Emi Ferguson?

Well, I'll be in Buffalo for one! I'll be playing the October 28th concert with the Slee Sinfonietta, the November 8th birthday concert for David Felder, and will be joining my former teacher Carol Wincenc, a Buffalo native, on her April 15th recital. I also recently finished a record of composer Kendall Briggs' flute music, much of which was written for me, which should be available sometime this year.

For performance listings, audio and video recordings and more, please visit: emiferguson.com.

Interview with Yuki Numata Resnick, Assistant Professor of Music, Violin & Viola Performance at UB

Yuki Numata Resnick is rapidly gaining attention as a charismatic virtuoso, having performed as a soloist with the New World Symphony, the University at Buffalo's Slee Sinfonietta, the Wordless Music Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra. With a penchant for performing new music, she is a member of the Talea Ensemble and performs frequently with Alarm Will Sound and Ensemble Signal. Yuki has appeared at numerous summer festivals including Music in the Vineyards, Tanglewood, Music Academy of the West, the Banff Centre and in recent summers, she has been teaching and performing at the Wellesley Composers Conference and UB's Summer String Workshop. Having been a New York freelancer for several years, in addition to her new music and classical playing, Yuki has also had the pleasure of performing and recording for bands and artists including Passion Pit, The National (where she met her husband), Grizzly Bear, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, and John Cale.

Originally from Vancouver, BC, Yuki holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. Her primary teachers include Zvi Zeitlin, Andrew Jennings and Gwen Thompson. She also spent three years living in the sunny paradise of South Beach where she was a fellow at the New World Symphony. Having happily traded her cozy one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn for an entire floor of a house in Buffalo's Elmwood Village, she is very excited to be starting a new life here in town. Yuki shares her three-bedroom palace with her husband Kyle Resnick, both of whom are thrilled to be welcoming their first baby around Thanksgiving of this year.

How did you come to be interested in contemporary music?

I first became interested in contemporary music when I went to the Eastman School of Music for my undergraduate degree. There was always much excitement and energy surrounding the new music scene there so it was an undeniable draw. In a curiously dorky way, it was almost as if all the "cool kids" were playing new music!

I had a lot of terrific experiences at ESM when it came to experimenting with contemporary music. I played with the student-run ensemble, Ossia, which collaborated with Alarm Will Sound in a recording of Steve Reich's Desert Music. I also played with conductor, Brad Lubman's school-based group, Musica Nova, which performed regularly throughout the year. It was through Musica Nova that I had my first run-ins with the music of John Zorn and Charles Wuorinen and I haven't looked back since!

Do you still have a strong relationship as a performer and listener with traditional/classical music?

Definitely. With the violin in particular, there is a such a sense of history with its large traditional repertoire and the many great violinists who have come before, that when I was a student, I treated this historical connection as baggage. It was – and can still be at times! – intimidating to play older music. I never had a real answer for why the world needed my version of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto when so many others before me had played it with such great technical and musical prowess. With the confidence that I have built through playing new music which has none of those intimidating historical ties, I find that I can return to playing traditional classical music with a renewed sense of self.  I have a greater appreciation for the traditional concepts of beauty of sound and tonality. And the technical challenges of playing new music have only served to solidify my technique in approaching the performance of "old music." Vice versa, I find that I can also bring older concepts of melody and line to my performance of new music. So both inform each other in a positive way.

What brought you to Buffalo/UB?                                                

My position as Assistant Professor at UB was the main reason for coming to Buffalo, though I've had a connection to the school for much longer. My first experiences with the Slee Sinfonietta were back in the early 2000s when I was still a student at Eastman. I also remember coming to play Steve Reich's Triple Quartet  at the June in Buffalo Festival in 2003. After I moved away from Rochester, my connection with Buffalo diminished, but it resumed in 2007 when I came back to play Charles Wuorinen's Spin Five. Since then, I've been in Buffalo regularly about 4-5 times a year to perform. I taught one year as an Adjunct Instructor in 2010, and for the last three years I've been teaching at UB's Summer String Workshop alongside Prof. Jonathan Golove. I'm happy to be able to say that, rather than traveling to and from Buffalo every few months as I did for the last six years, I am now a proud Buffalo resident!

Do you have a "mission" as an  performer, musician, artist?

I find that my goals are always evolving as I myself evolve, although they generally center around two aspects of my musical life: the first my desire to use new music as a way to reach new audiences, and the second my dedication to using teaching as a way to impact people on a very personal basis. As exhilarating and rewarding as being a performer in the spotlight can be, it can also be a lonely world, with an invisible barrier between the stage and the audience. So I find that my relationships with my students is a direct way for me to see how all of my training and experiences can affect and hopefully benefit other human beings.

With regards to my first mission, it is becoming more and more obvious that the tried and true model of classical music training and concert presentation is no longer sufficient for the current musical and social climate. It is my hope that new music can be a way of attracting listeners who are hungry for new sounds and ideas. I strongly believe that as daunting as new music can be, if it is presented in a way that is less intimidating – whether it be in more intimate and casual venues like Professor Jon Nelson's art space, Pausa Art House, or by juxtaposing new music with old music – it is an excellent way for us musicians to reach people who are just waiting to have their ears opened in a way they've never been opened before.

What new and exciting things do we have to look forward to this year from Yuki Numata Resnick?

Well, I suppose the biggest news is that my husband and I are expecting our first baby around Thanksgiving of this year! Musically speaking, I'm looking forward to an all-Brahms program that I'll be playing in March with my colleagues, Professors Eric Huebner and Jonathan Golove, as well as a Berio Sequenza evening at Kleinhans Hall in April, organized by Professor Huebner. With this being my first year in official teaching capacity at UB, there's a bit of a learning curve to settling in here and discovering all of the terrific things UB and Buffalo have to offer. I'm really looking forward to see how my presence can make a positive impact both at school and in the community.

For more about Yuki, please visit: yukinumata.com.

2013-2014 Calendar of Events

I am very happy to announce the 2013–2014 Calendar of Events for The Robert & Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music. We've put together an outstanding set of musical events this season. Adventurous listeners are sure to be both delighted and challenged by the rich selection of pieces, performers, and venues. We look forward to seeing you in the avant-musical trenches! – David Felder, Director

Slee Sinfonietta

Music of Boulez, Ravel and Varèse

Case Scaglione, conductor, and Julia Bentley, mezzo soprano

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Music of Martino, Milhaud, Revueltas, and Stravinsky

Robert Treviño, conductor

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Music of Reynolds and Varèse

James Baker, conductor, and Laura Mercado Wright, mezzo soprano

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

June In Buffalo 2014

Faculty Composers: David Felder, Joshua Fineberg, Philippe Hurel, Hilda Paredes, Bernard Rands

Resident Ensembles: Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Court-Circuit, Ensemble Signal, Meridian Art Ensemble, Norrbotten Neo, Slee Sinfonietta

Special Guest: Irvine Arditti

Monday, June 2 – Sunday, June 8, 2014

Wednesday Lecture Series

Ensemble Son and Either/Or

Monday, September 30 – Thursday, October 3, 2013

Wilhem Latchoumia, pianist, and Franck Bedrossian, composer

Wednesday, October 16 – Thursday, 17, 2013

Composer/Choreographer Workshop Presentations

Monday, December 9, 2013

Arditti Quartet

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Third Coast Percussion Residency

Monday, March 24 – Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Roger Reynolds

Monday, April 7 – Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Cosponsored Events

A Musical Feast

Burchfield Penney Art Center

Friday, October 11, 2013

Birthday Concert for David Felder

Burchfield Penny Art Center

Friday, November 8, 2013

Music in Buffalo’s Historic Places

Christopher Guzman, pianist

Greatbatch Pavilion, Darwin Martin Complex

Sunday, December 15, 2013

UB faculty performs Berio’s Sequenzas

Kleinhans Music Hall, main stage

Thursday, April 3, 2013

For well over forty years, the Music Department at the University at Buffalo has maintained and nurtured a commitment to creative and performing artists at the forefront of contemporary music. The Center for 21st Century Music is built on this legacy, featuring the internationally renowned “June in Buffalo” festival, the Slee Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra concert series, The Wednesday Series of performances, lecture presentations, and workshops, and the performance activities of the Hiller Computer Music Studios. The Center for 21st Century Music is dedicated to the creation and production of new work upholding the highest artistic standards of excellence while simultaneously fostering a complementary atmosphere of creative research.

The activities of the Center are made possible through funds from Robert G. Morris and Carol L. Morris, the Cameron Baird Foundation, the New York State Music Fund, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Ditson Fund, the Birge-Cary Chair in Music, the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo and other generous supporters.

For more information please visit www.music21c.org.

Maestro Case Scaglione conducts works by Boulez, Ravel, and Varèse

The Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music's fall concert season opens with a program of works by three seminal 20th century French composers, Maurice Ravel, Edgar Varèse, and Pierre Boulez. The compositions will be performed by the Slee Sinfonietta, conducted by Case Scaglione and featuring mezzo soprano Julia Bentley. The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 10 in the Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall on the University at Buffalo's North Campus in Amherst. Tickets are available at the Slee Hall box office, (716) 645-2921.

Program:

Pierre Boulez – Dérive 2, for 11 instruments (1988/2006)

Maurice Ravel, orchestrated by Boulez – Frontispice, for orchestra (1918)

Maurice Ravel – 2 Mélodies hébraïques, for voice and orchestra (1914)

Edgar Varèse – Un Grand Sommeil Noir, for voice and piano (1906)

Maurice Ravel – Un Grand Sommeil Noir, for voice and piano (1895)

Written for Elliott Carter's 80th birthday, Dérive 2 by Boulez is scored for eleven instruments: two trios (woodwinds, strings), two duos (percussion, harp/piano), and solo horn. The piece was the result of Boulez's research into periodicity. “When I reflected on some of Ligeti’s compositions, I felt the desire to dedicate myself to some almost theoretical research into periodicity in order to systematically examine its overlays, its shifts and its exchange.” The derivations are fragments of pieces by Carter and Ligeti. Boulez uses them isorythmically, in the manner of a 14th Century composer, complete with hockets.

In 1918, at the end of World War I, Ravel was in a state of deep creative despair after having witnessed the nightmare of combat firsthand. He wrote only one new piece that year, Frontispice for two pianos, five hands, a work which  lasts all of two minutes. Frontispice first appeared in a magazine in 1919 as a musical frontispiece to Sonate pour un jet d’eau (Sonata for Water Jet), a poem by Ricciotto Canudo. The piece has a numerological component in its systematic use of threes and fives: three pianists, five hands, fifteen (3x5) measures, five staves, and so on. As conductor John Kennedy remarked, Boulez's 1987 orchestration of Frontispice brings out the “novel-in-a-sigh” quality of each gesture in an almost Webernesque way.

Ravel wrote two versions of Deux mélodies hébraïques (Two Hebrew Songs), one for voice and piano, the other for voice and orchestra. The Slee Sinfonietta will play the latter. Interestingly, the dates of the piano version and the orchestral version coincide almost perfectly with the beginning and end of World War I: 1914 and 1919. The texts for both songs are from the Bible. Ravel wrote each in two languages: The first, Kaddisch, a hymn of praise to God, in Aramaic and French, and the second, L'Énigme éternelle (Eternal Mystery), in Yiddish and French.

It's always interesting to hear two accomplished composers set the same text to music. In 1895, after completing his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, Ravel composed Un grand sommeil noir (A Deep Black Sleep), a setting for voice and piano of a short poem by Paul Verlaine. This piece marks the beginning of a gloomy and macabre note in Ravel's music, born out in such later works as Le Gibet from Gaspard de la nuit and La Valse. In 1906, while still a student of organist and composer Charles-Marie Widor, Varèse wrote his Un grand sommeil noir, a setting of the same Verlaine poem. Those who know Varèse as radical experimenter and electroniste will be fascinated to hear the hauntingly lyrical melodies and tonal harmonies he wrote in this song.

Bios

In September 2011, American conductor Case Scaglione began his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. During the 2012/13 season, Mr. Scaglione worked with Sir Andrew Davis on the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Strauss’ Elektra, and appeared as a guest conductor with the St. Louis Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Palm Beach Opera. He finished his season in China with the Guangzhou Symphony and China Philharmonic, and  at the Siena Music Festival in Siena, Italy with a production of Britten’s Turn of the Screw.

Since completing apprenticeships with the Santa Fe Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera, mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley has appeared in leading operatic roles (Carmen, Rosina, Dorbella, Despina, and both Rossini and Massenet Cinderellas) from Anchorage to New York, and has been featured as a soloist with orchestras led by George Manahan, Raymond Leppard, Oliver Knussen, Robert Shaw and Pierre Boulez. She currently teaches voice at Concordia University and the DePaul University School of Music, as well as the graduate Art Song Seminar at North Park University.

The Slee Sinfonietta is the professional chamber orchestra in residence at the University at Buffalo and the flagship ensemble of the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music. The Sinfonietta presents a series of concerts each year that feature performances of challenging new works by contemporary composers and lesser-known works from the chamber orchestra repertoire.

Slee Sinfonietta

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall

Case Scaglione, conductor

Julia Bentley, mezzo soprano

Ticket information can be found here. 

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra finish off June in Buffalo 2013!

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

We’re excited about the final concert of June in Buffalo 2013 with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, which will conclude the festival on Sunday, June 9th, at 2:30 p.m. in Slee Hall at the University at Buffalo. This year’s festival has been especially inspiring, not only because of the great mix of faculty and participant composers, but also because of the inauguaration of the June in Buffalo Performance Institute, which helped finish off the festival with concerts on both Friday and Saturday. Music journalist Daniel J. Kushner recently published an insightful and enthusiastic review of Friday night’s concert under the title “Eclectic Performance Institute is a fine fit for June”, which can be found in the Buffalo News. We've also received some great recent press from Jan Jezioro, who has published a nice write-up on the BPO at June in Buffalo at the Artvoice, which includes a fantastic quote by Alex Ross, “Having appeared in Spring for Music [at Carnegie Hall], the Buffalo Philharmonic will return home for June in Buffalo, which this year presents a particularly fascinating lineup of resident composers as well as a new, contemporary-oriented Performance Institute under the direction of Eric Huebner.” Read Jezioro's full piece here.

JoAnn Falletta

The final concert on Sunday, with the BPO under the baton of JoAnn Falletta, will begin with David Felder’s Linebacker Music, originally written for the BPO in 1993. You can sample the beginning of Linebacker Music on the Center’s soundcloud.

The second piece of the concert will be by composer Augusta Read Thomas, described in October 2012 by the New Yorker as “a true virtuoso composer”. The BPO will perform her recent work Aureole, which was just given its world premiere by the DePaul Symphony Orchestra only a week ago.

The final piece of the concert, which will follow without an intermission, will be Yehudi Wyner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Piano Concerto Chiavi in Mano, and will feature soloist Geoffrey Burleson. We recently blogged about Chiavi in Mano, read more about it here. 

Ticket information can be found here. We look forward to seeing you at Slee Hall!

Link to this post here.

June in Buffalo Performance Institute concert June 7th!

Eric Huebner, JiB Performance Institute Director

The June in Buffalo Performance Institute has been going strong since last Thursday, May 30th, when the JACK Quartet inaugurated the Institute with a gorgeous performance of Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No. 1 at the beautiful M&T Bank in downtown Buffalo. Since then Performance Institute participants have been working closely with the JACK Quartet, Eric Huebner, and Tom Kolor and members of the Talujon Percussion Ensemble preparing for Friday (June 7th) night’s concert at 7:30 p.m. in Baird Recital Hall at the University at Buffalo.

The full list June in Buffalo Performance Institute participants:

Ross Aftel, percussion

Hangyu Bai, piano

T.J. Borden, cello

Jade Conlee, piano           

Nicholas Emmanuel, piano

Matthew Geiger, percussion

Manuel Laufer, piano

Michiko Saiki, piano

Friday night's concert will also feature a guest appearance by violinist Irvine Arditti, who will perform Brian Ferneyhough's Intermedio alla Ciaconna, the full program is below.

June in Buffalo Performance Institute Concert, June 7th, 7:30 p.m., UB Baird Recital Hall

Chinary Ung:  Spiral no. 1                                               

Ross Aftel, percussion, T.J. Borden, cello, and Nicholas Emmanuel, piano                                                                                                      

Anton Webern:  Bagatelles, op.9                                               

members of the JACK Quartet with T.J. Borden

Brian Ferneyhough:  Intermedio alla Ciaconna                                   

Irvine Arditti, violin

                                               

                                             ---  intermission ---

Ralph Shapey:  Gottlieb Duo                          

Matthew Geiger, percussion, Manuel Laufer, piano

Anton Webern:  Two Pieces (1899), Three Little Pieces op. 11   

Hangyu Bai, piano, and Jonathan Golove, cello

                       

Charles Wuorinen:  Fifty-Fifty                                                 

Jade Conlee and Michiko Saiki, pianists           

The next day, on Saturday, June 8th, JiB Performance Institute faculty and participants will perform works by JiB composers Clint Haycraft and Megan Buegger, and works by Zimmerman, Cage, Babbitt, Carter, Stockhausen, Sciarrino, and Rivas. The concert will begin at 3:45 p.m. in B1 Slee Hall for the first piece by Megan Beugger, and then move up to Baird Recital Hall at 4:00 p.m. for the rest of the program. Check out the Performance Institute website, like their page on facebook, or follow the Center for 21st Century Music on twitter for more updates.

Link to this post here.

Yehudi Wyner's Piano Concerto "Chiavi in Mano" at June in Buffalo 2013

We’re enjoying having Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner on the Composition Faculty of June in Buffalo 2013, and looking forward to hearing his music this week. On Wednesday, June 5th, Talea Ensemble will give a concert featuring Wyner’s Refrain, and on Saturday, June 8th, SIGNAL's concert will feature Wyner’s Passage, which will be conducted by Brad Lubman, and feature soloists Irvine Arditti on violin and Ken Radnofsky on saxophone. Both concerts will be at 7:30 p.m. in Slee Hall.

Yehudi Wyner

The final concert of June in Buffalo 2013 will be on Sunday, June 9th, at 2:30 p.m. in Slee Hall, when the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra will perform works by JiB Faculty composers that will conclude with Wyner’s Piano Concerto, Chiavi in Mano, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. Our guest Geoffrey Burleson will join JoAnn Falletta and the BPO as the piano soloist on Chiavi in Mano – Burleson’s playing has been described as “vibrant” and “compelling”  by the New York Times, who also praised his “command, projection of rhapsodic qualities without loss of rhythmic vigor, and appropriate sense of spontaneity and fetching colors.”

A recent 55-minute audio interview with Yehudi Wyner, by Christopher Lyon, is available at the Huffington Post. For a little more information, we’ve excerpted a small bit from Wyner’s biography and reproduced it below, the complete bio can be found at the Milken Archive:

“For nearly a half century Yehudi Wyner has been recognized as one of America’s most gifted composers. Although born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he grew up in New York City. His father, Lazar Weiner (1897–1982), was a leading exponent of Yiddish high musical culture, both as a choral conductor and as a composer, and is now the acknowledged avatar of the Yiddish art song medium. Throughout his youth, Wyner was exposed to his parents’ Yiddishist intellectual milieu, and their home was frequented by literati and artists from the Yiddish cultural orbit. (His father had the spelling of his children’s surname changed—though not his own—to preclude a common mispronunciation.)

“By the age of four or five, no doubt inspired by the music he heard in that environment, Wyner began improvising short pieces that had an eastern European Jewish folk or Hassidic character. He started his formal musical life as a pianist, although he never studied with his father—who was himself a brilliant pianist. While a piano student of Loni Epstein at The Juilliard School, Wyner became increasingly attracted to composition, which he then studied at Yale with Richard Donovan and Paul Hindemith, and at Harvard with Randall Thompson and Walter Piston. After completing his undergraduate work, he spent a summer in residence at the Brandeis Arts Institute in Santa Susana, California, a division of the Brandeis Camp, where the music director was Max Helfman (1901–1963), one of the seminal figures in Jewish music in America. That program brought together college-age students as well as established Jewish—and especially Israeli—composers, in an effort to broaden the Jewish artistic horizons of young musicians. There, Wyner came into contact with some of the most creative and accomplished Israeli composers and other artists of that period, and he was introduced to new artistic possibilities inherent in modern Jewish cultural consciousness.”

Check out the video below of Yehudi Wyner's Quartet for Oboe and String Trio, performed by the Mimesis Ensemble at Fenway Park:

Link to this post here.

Charles Wuorinen receives honorary doctorate from UB, conducts Slee SInfonietta at June in Buffalo 2013!

Charles Wuorinen

We’re looking forward to Tuesday, June 4th, when University at Buffalo President Satish K. Tripathi will present June in Buffalo 2013 Faculty Composer Charles Wuorinen with an honorary doctorate from UB. The brief award ceremony will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Slee Hall, after which two recent works by Charles Wuorinen will be performed. First will be Wuroinen’s Piano Quintet, to be performed by the JACK Quartet and pianist Eric Huebner. Wuorinen will then pick up the baton and lead the Slee Sinfonietta in his It Happens Like This, a dramatic and sometimes jocular cantata in which the composer has set text from seven poems by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Tate. It Happens Like This will feature 12 members from Slee Sinfonietta, who will be joined by four vocalists: soprano Sharon Harms, alto Laura Mercado Wright, tenor Steven Brennfleck, and bass Ethan Herschenfeld.

The Slee Sinfonietta performing Ligeti's Piano Concerto

Charles Wuorinen has been a friend to the Center for 21st Century Music for many years now – his full biography can be found on our new webpage: Slee Sinfonietta Artist Bios, which includes full biographies and pictures of all of the composers, performers, and staff that make up the Slee Sinfonietta.

The Sinfonietta presents a series of concerts each year that feature performances of challenging new works by contemporary composers and lesser-known works from the chamber orchestra repertoire. Founded in 1997 by composer David Felder, and comprised of a core group including UB faculty performance artists, visiting artists, national and regional professionals and advanced performance students, the group is conducted by leading conductors and composers. More can be found on the history of the Sinfonietta at their program archives. 

Like us on Facebook and/or follow us on twitter for more updates on the Slee Sinfonietta and June in Buffalo 2013. 

Link to this post here.

JACK Quartet, Eric Huebner, Jonathan Golove, Talujon, kick off opening weekend of June in Buffalo 2013!

We’re looking forward to the opening weekend of June in Buffalo 2013! The festival will kick off with a concert by the JACK Quartet on Thursday, May 30, at 6:30 p.m., at One M&T Plaza, a special historical building in downtown Buffalo which was designed and built in 1966 by Minoru Yamasaki, the architect for the World Trade Center in New York City. In addition to opening JiB 2013, the concert is also part of the Center for 21st Century Music’s Music in Buffalo’s Historic Places series (more on the event and the series here), and will open with a brief presentation by UB Professor of Architecture, Brian Carter, who recently published M&T Bank, a book detailing the history and design of the building. 

The concert, which starts at 7:00 p.m., will consist entirely of Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No. 1, performed by the JACK Quartet. There will be a nice reception with wine and light snacks before the concert, hosted by M&T Bank, and it’s likely the concert will sell out, so we recommend you RSVP.

Eric Huebner

Jonathan Golove

The concert on the following day will be held here at UB in Slee Hall on Friday, May 31st, at 7:30 p.m., and will feature soloists Eric Huebner on piano, and Jonathan Golove on cello and Theremin cello. The program will include Iannis Xenakis' Kottos for solo cello (1977), Roger Reynolds' imAge/E and imagE/E (2007), Edgard Varése's Density 21.5 (1936, revised 1946) arranged for Theremin cello by Jonathan Golove, the world premiere of Eric Wubbels' Psychomechanochronometer (2013), which was commissioned with support from the Mikhashoff Trust for New Music, Elliott Carter's Sonata for cello and piano (1948), and some selections from György Ligeti's Études (1985-94).

Saturday, June 1st, boasts another concert of virtuosic contemporary music in Slee Hall, this time performed by the Talujon Ensemble. Their concert will feature Brian Ferneyhough's Fanfare for Klaus Huber (1987), Charles Wuorinen's Marimba Variations (2012), Marc Mellits' Gravity (2013), Ross Bauer's Echometry (2013), and Iannis Xenakis' Okho (1989).

Talujon Ensemble

RSVP here for the inauguration of the June in Buffalo Performance Institute on Thursday, May 30th, at 6:30 p.m., with the JACK Quartet -- we'll be keeping everyone updated on June in Buffalo 2013 at the Center for 21st Century Music, as well as through facebook and twitter. Also, stay tuned for more on our finale concert on Sunday, June 9th, at 2:30 p.m. with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of JoAnn Falletta, with pianist Geoffrey Burleson, featuring the work of JiB faculty composers at the University of Buffalo in Slee Hall.

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Ensemble Signal returns for June in Buffalo 2013

Ensemble Signal 

We’re looking forward to Ensemble Signal joining us for June in Buffalo 2013 – we just recently enjoyed hosting them for the world premiere of David Felder’s recent Koussevitsky commission Les Quatre Temps Cardinaux, where they assembled an orchestra of 35 musicians and were joined by soprano Laura Aikin, bass-baritone Ethan Herschenfeld, and 12 channels of electronics. Check out more on the premiere from our friends at the Buffalo News, Artvoice, and Sequenza21.

More recently, Signal celebrated the release of their Helmut Lachenmann DVD on Mode Records, which features a performance of Zwei Gefühle with Lachenmann himself, which they performed here at Slee Hall back in 2010. Other recent projects of Signal’s include a staged production of the NY Premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s It Happens Like This at the Guggenheim Museum, performing the music of Brian Ferneyhough at The Tanglewood Festival of Comtemporary Music, and the recent premiere of Señales by Hilda Paredes, written for Signal and Irvine Arditti.

Signal will be rehearsing and performing the works of June in Buffalo composer participants on June 4th, and on June 8th they will offer a concert of June in Buffalo faculty composers, including Brian Ferneyhough’s Terrain (1992), Charles Wuorinen’s Big Spinoff (2011), Augusta Read Thomas’ Carillon Sky (2005), and Yehudi Wyner’s Passage (1983). Brad Lubman will be wielding the baton and will be joined by Irvine Arditti on violin and Kenneth Radnofsky on saxophone.

Enjoy the excerpt below of Signal’s recent Lachenmann release on Mode Records:

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Composer Brian Ferneyhough at June in Buffalo 2013

We’ve been profiling some of the June in Buffalo 2013 ensembles and faculty composers, and thought we’d take a quick look at composer and longtime friend of the Center for 21st Century Music, Brian Ferneyhough.

Brian Ferneyhough

Ferneyhough was here for June in Buffalo 2005, and his music enjoyed some sensitive and virtuosic performances: Ensemble SurPlus performed his chamber work Incipits, Quatour Diotima interpretted his String Quartet No. 2, and pianist Ian Pace performed Epigrams. Ferneyhough later returned here for a short residency in February of 2009 alongside composer Hilda Paredes and the Arditti Quartet, who performed a concert in Slee Hall, as well as workshopped and recorded UB student works.

More on Ferneyhough can be found through his publisher Edition Peters, on his wikipedia article, and at the guardian.

Ferneyhough will be giving daily master classes to June in Buffalo composers during June in Buffalo 2013, as well as give a lecture on his recent projects. His music will be featured throughout the evening concerts during the week, including his chamber work Terrain, to be performed by Ensemble Signal, and Mnémosyme, for bass flute and tape, to be performed by Ensemble Linea.

Check out the video of below of Ensemble Linea interpretting Ferneyhough’s 2008 ensemble piece Chronos Aion:

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Augusta Read Thomas at June in Buffalo 2013

Augusta Read Thomas

We'd like to welcome Augusta Read Thomas to the composition faculty of June in Buffalo 2013. We're excited to have her here for a week of masterclasses and concerts, beginning on June 3rd,  when the JACK Quartet will perform her string quartet Rise Chanting, from Sun Threads.

The rest of the week will feature several other works by her, including Caprice, for solo violin, to be performed by the Talea Ensemble, Carillon Sky for saxophone and small orchestra, to be performed by Ensemble Signal, and her recent Aureole, for orchestra, to be performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Thomas is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as an Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, and is currently the University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago.

Enjoy the video below of Thomas talking about the inspiration for her violin duet, Double Helix, commissioned for the grand opening of the Mansueto Library, and leading us through her creative process:

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Talea Ensemble at June in Buffalo 2013!

We’re gearing up for June in Buffalo 2013 and preparing to host the renown Talea Ensemble for the festival, from June 3 – 9. They’ll be traveling here from New York City with conductor James Baker, and will be rehearsing and performing pieces by June in Buffalo student composers, and offering an evening concert of works by June in Buffalo Faculty composers.

Talea has been very active recently – just last year they released an exquisite album of music by Fausto Romitelli on John Zorn’s label, Tzadik, which they recorded at EMPAC. The CD features five very thoughtfully interpretted chamber ensemble pieces: Amok Koma (2001), Domeniche alla periferia dell”impero (2000), La sabbia del tempo (1991), Nell”alto dei giorni immobili (1990), and Blood on the Floor, Painting 1986 (2000). 

Talea Ensemble

Currently, the Talea Ensemble is preparing a concert of pieces by Austrian composer Beat Furrer, which they’ll be presenting at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York City on May 14th. Two days later, they’ll give the U.S. premiere of Beat Furrer’s opera Fama, on both May 16th and 17th. More on the premiere here.

One thing we love about Talea is their indefatigable enthusiasm for the music of our time, and the tremendous energy they bring to contemporary American musical life. A bit from their mission statement below:

“In music, the term talea (literally, “cutting” in Latin) refers to collections of repeating, cycling rhythmic patterns. Most often, these patterns are associated with the ars nova period of Medieval music in which new techniques of musical composition were emerging.Talea has also been used in several other traditions including Indian classical music (tala in Sanskrit – a wonderful linguistic coincidence), and throughout the ages in Western music, from the composer Guillaume de Machaut in the 14th Century to Olivier Messiaen and Gérard Grisey in the 20th Century. This idea of a global, timeless, and cutting-edge musical practice, inventive in its construction and beautiful in its execution, is at the root of the Talea Ensemble’s artistic direction.

“The Talea Ensemble is committed to promoting new, groundbreaking music through innovative programming thereby communicating the distinctive voices of composers that deserve to be heard. By commissioning and programming these progressive works alongside the established literature of modern and contemporary repertoire, the ensemble creates a dialogue that challenges the boundaries of music and fosters a greater understanding of the works of today. Additionally, the Talea Ensemble wishes to support and advance familiarity with contemporary American works by bringing it to concert halls and venues not only in New York but also abroad. By developing an interactive relationship between the composers, performers and audience, the Talea Ensemble builds an environment of reciprocal inspiration that sparks the imagination of all.”

Below is a video excerpt of Talea offering a gorgeous interpretation of Helmut Lachenmann's Trio Fluido:

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