SPLICE Festival V 2023 Concert 2 Program
Friday November 3, 2023
11:00am EDT
David Friend Recital Hall, Berklee College of Music
921 Boylston Street Boston, MA 02115
Mofan (Amber) Dai : immersed imprint
Mofan (Amber) Dai, horn
Heather Stebbins : Form 6
Heather Stebbins, electronics
Michael Flynn : Squint Skyward and Listen—
Justin Paul Ortez, piano
Michael Flynn, electronics
Tao Li : Tres Aurorae
Zhi-Yuan Bruce Luo, clarinet
Eric Chasalow : The Wings That Bear The Night Away
Julia Glenn, violin
Ciyadh Wells : Detras Nuvo Canción
Ciyadh Wells, guitar
Dan VanHassel : Aftershock
Angela Kim, piano
Notes
Mofan (Amber) Dai : immersed imprintimmersed imprint is a piece exploring the fine line between the sounds of horn and voice with elements of improvisation and randomness.
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Heather Stebbins : Form 6
My musical output in the last decade or so consists largely of notated music for instruments and electronics. That process involves a great deal of planning, revisions, and introspection. The music on my recent albums is a complete shift from this process- very little planning went into developing the tracks. Instead, the process was more about following my musical intuition. I began exploring semi and fully modular synthesis in 2021. I approached learning new techniques and gear methodically; about 4 or 5 times a week, after my children went to bed, I would start up my gear and try to make something. I always recorded these sessions, and while most nights the result wasn't anything worth keeping I would occasionally stumble upon a patch that generated musical results that I could work with. As weeks went on the ratio of frustration:usable material shifted and I felt more in control of the gear and how I wanted to use it musically.
Though I'm primarily a composer, my background is as a performer, and working with synthesis in this way has been like finding this liminal space between composition and performance that I really connect with. I also thrive in the immediacy of the sonic experience: unlike with notated music, being able to hear and react to my output in real time helps drive my process forward. I also palpably feel the impermanence of working with synthesis; the patch I generate will likely not be able to be recreated in the exact way, so I have to experience it deeply in the moment. I've always felt like when I compose, I am discovering rather than creating. This sentiment is even stronger when I am working with my synthesizers.
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Michael Flynn : Squint Skyward and Listen—
Squint Skyward and Listen— is a work for solo piano and electronics, written for—and dedicated to—my good friend Justin Ortez. The piece draws its harmonic material from two songs: “Emily” by Joanna Newsom and “A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell. Justin is arguably the biggest fan in the world of both of these artists—I doubt he would dispute this—so it felt fitting to draw from their music when writing a piece for him.
Newsom’s lyrics in “Emily” inspired the structure of the work, with each section of the score being marked with a different lyrical excerpt. Imagery of staring up at the sky—either a bright blue expanse with a blazing sun or a vast night sky full of stars—appears throughout the song, and served as inspiration for the rising musical gestures that occur throughout Squint Skyward. At multiple points in the piece, the performer strums chords on the strings inside the piano, meant to evoke the chords Joni Mitchell strums on a mountain dulcimer at the beginning of “A Case of You.”
Electronically, the sound world of the piece is quite similar to much of my recent electronic work, featuring glittering bells, sparkling synths, and the occasional thumping bass line. By marrying my personal electronic sensibility to piano writing evocative of Justin’s favorite artists, Squint Skyward and Listen— is a musical tribute to one of the most significant friendships of my life.
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Tao Li : Tres Aurorae
This piece draws inspiration from the sculpture Bust by Nevine Mahmoud. The surrounding auroras created by light diffused through the many complex surfaces of Bust immediately drew my attention and lead to the title of this piece Tres Aurorae. The human subject of the work and the abstract light effects create a strong contrast of real and surreal. These abstract auroras, represented by electronic textures “surrounding” the acoustic clarinet, symbolize the feminine power and its inclusivity and strength. In this way, Tres Aurorae adopts this concept of contrast between live acoustic sounds from solo clarinet and processed electronic sounds also derived from clarinet.
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Eric Chasalow : The Wings That Bear The Night Away
The Wings That Bear the Night Away is the latest in my long series of works for instrument and fixed media. Each piece seeks some new way of expanding upon the live instrument(s) to modulate its sound and the sense of space. At times, the media adds metamusical meaning by layering modulated text. This latest piece, for violin and fixed media, uses string quartet recordings, which have been processed using granular synthesis, to explore the boundaries between our perception of rearticulated and jittery string harmonies and those that we perceive as modulated and extended. Our sense of the changing pace of the harmonic rhythm is part of what drives the narrative of the piece.
- Eric Chasalow
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Ciyadh Wells : Detras Nuvo Canción
Drawing on the songs from the Nueva Canción movement from the 1950s and 1960s, Detras Nuvo Canción takes inspiration from the movement’s most famous activists to create a modern protest music using live electronics and video projections.
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Dan VanHassel : Aftershock
Aftershock was commissioned by pianist Angela Kim as part of her multimedia program “Chaos Magick” and was premiered in January 2020. The video was created by Michael Boswell and Peter John Kearney. The music was inspired in part from re-reading Charles Rosen’s "The Classical Style," one of my all-time favorite books about music. This piece is an attempt to imagine a version of sonata form based on timbre rather than pitch. The electronics are a fixed track made up of short samples taken from various recordings ranging from Lachenmann to Rage Against the Machine, along with piano samples that extend the piano with fast rhythmic loops. Ideally the electronics and piano should merge together into one hybrid-organism with the pianist at the center, in control of everything.
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Bios
Mofan (Amber) Dai (b. 2000) is a composer, horn player and recorder enthusiast based in Boston, Massachusetts. They were exposed to a wide variety of musical genres throughout their career, with contemporary wind ensemble music being the most profound influence to their style. After earning their degree in music composition from St. Olaf College, they continued by pursuing masters degree in composition at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Throughout the years, Amber worked with teachers such as Dr. Timothy Mahr, Mary Ellen Childs, Dr. Eun Young Lee and Mischa Salkind-Pearl. As a composer performer, Amber’s writing balances practicality while pushing boundaries of conventional techniques throughout the creative process of each piece, and each of these processes influences how they perform as well. They view art holistically and take inspiration from visuals of nature, celestial bodies and landscapes. By painting scenes with music, they discuss difficult topics that resonate with others, but also uplift positive emotions that build bonds and communities.back to program
Heather Stebbins is a composer, technologist, synthesist, and educator based in Washington, DC, where she is Assistant Professor of Electronic and Computer Music at George Washington University. She works with sounds created by instruments, found objects, nature, and voltage to generate musical experiences ranging from notated works for chamber ensembles to improvised performances on modular synthesizers. Really wonderful people and ensembles have performed her music in a lot of neat places, and she is grateful for that. Her recent album, At the End of the Sky (Superpang, 2023), is available on Bandcamp and streaming platforms. Other recordings are available on New Focus Recordings, Not Art Records, SEAMUS, and Coviello labels.
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Michael Flynn is a composer of acoustic and electronic music whose works present familiar musical ideas in inventive sonic and structural contexts. To this end, his music juxtaposes timbral exploration and metric complexity with pop-music-inflected harmony and beat-driven groove. Drawn towards bright, sparkling timbres, Michael strives to create works that feature vividly colored, dreamlike sound worlds. Michael’s music has been featured at events such as the SPLICE Institute and Festival, the CHIME Festival, SICPP, NSEME, the Northwestern University New Music Conference, Electronic Music Midwest, NYCEMF, and the SEAMUS National Conference. He has written for performers and ensembles including the Chicago Composer's Orchestra, Sonic Hedgehog, the Found Sound New Music Ensemble, the Vital Organ Project, the PRISM Saxophone Quartet, HINGE, and SpacePants, among others. Michael is a recent graduate of the DMA program in composition at the University of Georgia, where he studied under Dr. Peter Van Zandt Lane.
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Justin Paul Ortez is a pianist, composer, and songwriter based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, whose work across disciplines centers emotional intimacy, sonic experimentation, and the integration of poetics and language. Most frequently a performer of contemporary music, he has given dozens of premieres and performances of solo and chamber music in the United States and Canada. He has been praised for thoughtful and detailed performances of avant grade repertoire, his careful handling of dynamic extremes, and his sense of poise and comfort when performing on the inside of the piano. He has conducted the bulk of his studies at Western Michigan University, where he obtained both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in performance; his piano studies were completed under Lori Sims, alongside composition studies with Dr. Lisa Renée Coons. He has also held fellowships at a number of summer festivals such as SICPP at the New England Conservatory, the Cortona Sessions for New Music, soundSCAPE Composition & Performance Exchange in Italy, SPLICE Institute, and the Toronto Creative Music Labs.
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Award winning composer Tao Li was born and raised in Beijing, China and currently based in Eugene, Oregon working on her second Doctoral degree in Intermedia Music Technology at the University of Oregon. The philosophy, literature, and spirituality of the ancient East play a formative role in the aesthetic of Tao’s work. Her music consists of vivid soundscapes, colorful timbres, and interdisciplinary elements that often lead her audiences on a multi-dimensional journey full of imagination. As an Asian female musician, Tao is devoted to promoting gender equity and cultural diversity through her music as well as through collaboration with other artists. Tao’s music has been performed at concerts and music festivals throughout the world including China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Ireland, Ukraine, Brazil, and the U.S.A. Her primary interests include acoustic and electroacoustic composition, performance practices, and analysis of compositional techniques, aesthetics, and intercultural dialogues. For more information, please go to taolimusic.com.
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Born and raised in Taiwan, 30-year-old clarinetist, Zhi-Yuan is an educator, soloist, and orchestral musician. Mr. Luo is a multiple award-winning clarinetist. He was the winner of the 2014 Tunghai University Concerto Competition, the 2017 Soochow University Concerto Competition, and runner-up of the 6th Magic Clarinet Quartet Competition in Taiwan, where world renowned French Clarinetist Michel Arrignon spotted and hand-picked Zhi-Yuan to play as a soloist at the solo recital. In 2020, he won the 1st prize of the 1st World Clarinet E-Competition in Italy and was awarded the 12th Stars of Tiding in Taiwan. In 2021, Mr. Luo was not only awarded Honorable Mention in the Peter Tannenwald Competition organized by the Philharmonic Society of Arlington, but also won the 4th place in the Thailand International Clarinet Competition and the 3rd place in the 15th LISMA International Music Competition. As a soloist, he has performed with the Tunghai University Wind Ensemble, the Soochow University Symphony Orchestra, and the Conroe Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Luo has performed as a Guest Clarinet with the National Taiwan Orchestra, Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Opera, Eugene Concert Choir, Rogue Valley Symphony and Oregon Mozart Players among others. Mr. Luo is a Nymph Performing Artist exclusively playing Nymph products. For more information about Zhi-Yuan Luo, please visit his Instagram (@bruce_ channel).
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Eric Chasalow is a composer, sound artist, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, teacher, and advisor to non-profits. An album of ten new genre-bending songs, Ghosts of Our Former Selves was released in the fall of 2020. Current projects incorporate oral histories and environmental sound to comment on a number of global themes, including the cultural effects of climate change and species extinction.
He is Irving G. Fine Professor of Music at Brandeis University, and Director of BEAMS, the Brandeis Electro-Acoustic Music Studio. A product of the famed Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, he holds the D.M.A. from Columbia University where his principal teacher was Mario Davidovsky and where he studied flute with Harvey Sollberger. Among his honors are awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Fromm Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Eric Chasalow collection is in the Library of Congress.
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Boston native Julia Glenn has been hailed as "remarkable," "gripping," and "a brilliant soloist" by the New York Times and performs internationally on modern and baroque violins. She recently joined the Lydian Quartet after teaching for three years at the Tianjin Juilliard School, where she served as violin faculty and was a member of the Tianjin Juilliard Ensemble.
Ms. Glenn has appeared on stages including Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Sanders Theatre, Jordan Hall, the Beijing Recital Hall, Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts, and Shanghai Concert Hall. She has recently performed with the Shanghai Camerata, New York New Music Ensemble, ACRONYM, Cantata Profana, members of the Juilliard String Quartet, and Soloists of New England. In January of 2016 she gave the world premiere of Milton Babbitt’s violin concerto to critical acclaim; her article on the work was published in 2022 in Contemporary Music Review.
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Dr. Ciyadh Wells is a multi-talented musician who not only considers herself an artist, but also an activist and scholar. With a passion for promoting diversity and inclusivity in the arts, she firmly believes that access to such experiences is crucial for a healthy society.
Ciyadh strives to leverage the power of music, both classic and contemporary, to ignite transformative change and foster a sense of community. In addition to her many talents, Ciyadh is also an avid language learning enthusiast, always seeking to expand her linguistic horizons.
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The music of composer and multi-instrumentalist Dan VanHassel has been described as “energizing” (Wall Street Journal) and “an imaginative and rewarding soundscape” (SF Classical Voice). His compositions have been presented at top national and international contemporary music festivals, including the MATA Festival, Gaudeamus Music Week, International Computer Music Conference, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Shanghai Conservatory Electronic Music Week, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. And by ensembles such as the Talea Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, Verdant Vibes, and Transient Canvas. His work has received grants from Chamber Music America, the Barlow Endowment, the Boston Foundation, and New Music USA. Dan is the artistic director and electric guitarist of Hinge, and was a founding member of San Francisco’s Wild Rumpus (now Ninth Planet). Dan has degrees from UC Berkeley, New England Conservatory, and Carnegie Mellon University and is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
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Praised by international press as “a pianist who meets the highest standard of technique,” Angela Kim is a pianist who shows her versatility through colorful imagination, and intense musical expression. As a sought-after pedagogue, Ms. Kim was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame in Spring 2023. Ms. Kim has performed throughout the United States, South America, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Korea. Earning academic honors, Ms. Kim completed Bachelor, Masters, and Graduate Diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has finished her Doctorate of Piano Performance, and Literature, at the Eastman School of Music. Upon graduation, she held a teaching position at New England Conservatory of Music as a Professor of Theory. Currently Ms. Kim is an Associate Professor of Piano, and Director of Keyboard Area at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. In 2022-2023, Ms. Kim has served as a Visiting Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music.
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