SPLICE Institute 2021 Concert 3 Program
Wednesday June 30, 2021
7:30pm EDT
https://youtu.be/nP6yixUj8yQ
Luigi Nono : ...sofferte onde serene... (1976)
Keith Kirchoff, piano
Jeonghyeon Joo : sanjo (2021), world premiere
Sam Wells, trumpet
Elainie Lillios : After Long Drought (2016)
Von Hansen, vibraphone
Michael Laurello, audio mastering
Carter Rice, video mastering
Adam Vidiksis and Christopher Biggs : Parenting, Summer Storms (2021), world premiere
Adam Vidiksis, drum set
Christopher Biggs, electronics
Adam Vidiksis and Christopher Biggs, audio and video mastering
Notes
Luigi Nono : ...sofferte onde serene...Composed in 1976 and written for Maurizio Pollini, ... sofferte onde serene ... seeks to honor the death of the composer's parents, and evokes the sounds of Nono's hometown of Venice. The tape was recorded at the Studio di fonologia della Rai, in Milan, with Pollini and sound technician Marino Zuccheri. back to program
Jeonghyeon Joo : sanjo
sanjo for solo trumpet and electronics is a piece that explores a collective way of making sanjo. Sanjo, literally meaning scattered melodies, known as the virtuosic solo instrumental genre in Korean music, is an ongoing performer-composer practice. I view sanjo as a musical practice that reflects the nowness of an individual and the community/environment surrounding the individual.
The performer improvises with a pre-recorded audio score including a mash-up of some recent video clips he and I watched, some pieces from my musical background, excerpts from his recent improvisation, my response to his improvisation, etc. The electronic part, made with some sound from Sam Wells' personal sound and room noise serves as a gosu (an accompaniment to the solo performer) occasionally emphasizing rhythmic shape. This piece is conceived and written for Sam Wells. - J.J.
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Elainie Lillios : After Long Drought
After Long Drought for vibraphone and live, interactive electroacoustics takes its inspiration from a poem with the same title by Wally Swist:
The sky rips open
after days of grinding heat,
waves of meadow grass
shift in the blowing rain,
and floating on the breadth
of its extended wings,
as bright as a vision,
the great blue heron
strokes through the storm.
The percussionist’s virtuosic foray through Swist’s evocative work conjures images of an aggressive summer squall, with its torrential driving rain and gusting wind reflecting life’s unpredictability and tumult. As the piece progresses, the storm fades into the background as our focus is directed to a peaceful calm discovered amidst the storm – a heron majestically gliding through the gale. After Long Drought was commissioned by Scott Deal. "After Long Drought" appears with the author’s permission and is published in Winding Paths Worn through Grass (Chicago, IL: Virtual Artists Collective, 2012). back to program
Adam Vidiksis and Christopher Biggs : Parenting, Summer Storms
This improvisation was recorded on June 4, 2021 in Adam and Chris’s homes in Wilmington, Delaware and Kalamazoo, Michigan. Sessions leading up to the recording were heavily peppered by outbursts, comments, questions, and music-making by our children. Our discussions frequently turned to the joys and struggles of parenthood, especially during the pandemic. The cries, laughter, and discussions of children could be heard throughout the sessions. While recording an early summer storm passed over the Greater Philadelphia Region—Chris’s childhood hometown and Adam’s current one—like the love of a small child: gentle, fearless, immediate, urgent, inexorable, and heartbreakingly brief.
Bios
Luigi Nono achieved prominence after World War II as an uncompromising modernist seeking to revolutionize music in Europe. Along with fellow Italians Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna, Nono attended the influential Darmstadt Summer Courses and became associated with other young modernists such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In many ways, Nono was the most radical of them all, choosing to combine a keen political engagement with a musical orientation that mixes austere beauty with fierce intensity.Nono grew up in Venice as part of a reasonably well-to-do family. He studied composition with Gian Francesco Malipiero as an auditor but he graduated with a law degree. While he never practiced, his political interests were likely sharpened during that period. In 1946, just out of university, Nono met two important figures: Luigi Dallapiccolo, the first Italian to compose 12-tone music, and Maderna, the innovative composer and conductor who became his friend and mentor. In 1948, the two young musicians attended a conducting course with Hermann Scherchen, whose discipline and questing spirit were energizing. Around this time, Nono was introduced to the writing of Federico García Lorca, whose poetry he would set on a number of occasions, and whose political engagement would ignite his interest. He joined the Italian Communist Party in 1952.
In 1950, Nono attended the summer course in Darmstadt, where his first orchestral composition, Variazioni canoniche sulla serie dell'op. 41 di Arnold Schoenberg, was premiered. He returned every year until 1960, meeting several influential personalities, giving lectures, and having several works premiered. His interest in electronic music developed in 1952, through lectures and demonstrations given by Werner Meyer-Eppler in Bonn. His most important composition during this period is probably Il Canto Sospeso (1956), for soloists, choir, and orchestra. One innovation was his fracturing of the text to distribute the syllables across the subdivided voices.
During a trip in 1954 to attend the premiere of Arnold Schoenberg's unfinished opera, Moses und Aron, Nono met the composer's daughter, Nuria. They married the following year. The first professional association Nono developed was with the Studio di Fonologia in Milan. Directed by Berio and Maderna, Nono carried on working there after the others had left, producing a whole series of pieces, both prerecorded and mixed (instruments/voices and tape), into the 1970s.
Nono's first stage work, Intolleranza 1960, was presented at the 1961 Venice Biennale. Collage-like, with a large collection of political texts, this "azione scenica" provoked a great deal of controversy. But Nono was unrelenting in his commitment to combining radical texts with revolutionary music. In 1964, he put his beliefs to the test by beginning a series of lecture-concerts in factories and other locales all over Italy. By far, the majority of Nono's compositions use voice, the "message" being of critical importance. A second stage-work, again with a mix of radical texts, Al Gran Sole Carico d'Amore, was presented in Milan in 1975, though it began as a collaboration at the Taganka Theater in Moscow. His last large-scale operatic work, Prometeo, was premiered in 1984, in Venice.
In the 1980s, Nono began a fruitful collaboration with the Experimentalstudio der Heinrich Strobel-Stiftung in Freiburg, developing elaborate schemes for transforming the sounds of live instruments. Outstanding pieces include Omaggio a György Kurtág (1983) and A Pierre: Dell'azzurro silenzio, inquietum (1985). At the same time, his style began to change, a shift attributed in part to the influence of Giacinto Scelsi, a mystic Italian composer. A number of Nono's late pieces explore variations on an individual pitch, such as No Hay Caminos, Hay Que Caminar...Andrej Tarkowskij (1987), for seven spatially separated orchestral groups. back to program
Pianist and composer Keith Kirchoff has performed throughout North America, Europe, and the Pacific Southwest. A strong advocate for modern music, Kirchoff is committed to fostering new audiences for contemporary music and giving a voice to emerging composers, and to that end has premiered over 100 new works and commissioned over two dozen compositions. Specializing on works which combine interactive electro-acoustics with solo piano, Kirchoff's Electroacoustic Piano Tour has been presented in ten countries, and has spawned three solo albums. Kirchoff is the co-founder and a director of SPLICE and the founder and Artistic Director of Original Gravity Inc. Kirchoff has won awards from the Steinway Society, MetLife Meet the Composer, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and was named the 2011 Distinguished Scholar by the Seabee Memorial Scholarship Association. He has recorded on the New World, Kairos, New Focus, Tantara, Ravello, Thinking outLOUD, Zerx, and SEAMUS labels. back to program
Jeonghyeon Joo is an award-winning haegeum performer, composer, improviser, and researcher who is an ardent advocate for new and experimental music. Joo draws a narrative through an exploration of a somatic, corporeal relationship between instrument and body. Her compositions also frequently borrow a specific musical or sociocultural concept from Korean traditional music.
Recently, Joo's projects have been supported by Arts Council Korea and Seoul Foundation for Arts. Joo has frequently given lectures and presented her works at notable conferences and institutions such as the International Computer Music Conference, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Korean Music Educators Society Annual Conference, Seoul National University, San Francisco State University, University of California-Riverside, San Diego State University, and Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles. She received a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Music from Seoul National University with a research focus on the development of contemporary études for the haegeum and is currently pursuing a DMA at the California Institute of the Arts. She is on faculty at the California Institute of the Arts and Seoul Institute of the Arts. [www.jeonghyeonjoo.com] back to program
Sam Wells is a Los Angeles-based trumpeter, composer, and improvisor who creates evocative and narrative multimedia performances.
Sam has performed throughout North America and Europe, as well as in China. He is a recipient of a 2016 Jerome Fund for New Music award, and his work, stringstrung, is the winner of the 2016 Miami International Guitar Festival Composition Competition. He has performed electroacoustic works for trumpet and presented his own music at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar, Electronic Music Midwest, Electroacoustic Barn Dance, NYCEMF, N_SEME, and SEAMUS festivals. Sam and his music have also been featured by the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) and Fulcrum Point Discoveries. He has also been a guest artist/composer at universities throughout North America.
Sam is a member of Arcus Collective, Kludge, and SPLICE Ensemble. Sam has performed with Contemporaneous, Metropolis Ensemble, TILT Brass, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, and the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra. Sam has recorded on the New Amsterdam/Nonesuch, New Focus Records, SEAMUS, and Ravello Recordings labels.
Sam is currently enrolled in the Performer-Composer DMA program at the California Institute of the Arts. He has degrees in both performance and composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and graduate degrees in Trumpet Performance and Computer Music Composition at Indiana University. He is on faculty at SPLICE Institute, Molloy College, and the California Institute of the Arts. back to program
Acclaimed as one of the “contemporary masters of the medium” by MIT Press’s Computer Music Journal, Elainie Lillios creates works that reflect her fascination with listening, sound, space, time, immersion, and anecdote. Her compositions include stereo, multi-channel, and Ambisonic fixed media works, instrument(s) with live electronics, collaborative experimental audio/visual animations, and installations. Her work has been recognized internationally and nationally through awards, grants, commissions, and performances. Her music is published (primarily on CD) by Emprientes DIGITALes, Centaur, Innova, MSR Classics, Ravello, StudioPANaroma, Musiques et recherches, La Muse en Circuit, New Adventures in Sound Art, SEAMUS, Irritable Hedgehog and Leonardo Music Journal Elainie serves as Director of Composition Activities for SPLICE (www.splicemusic.org) and as Professor of Creative Arts Excellence at Bowling Green State University in Ohio (USA). elillios.com
Von Hansen is a performer, composer, educator and multi-media artist. He is strongly focussed on developing new music and specializes in works combining percussion and electronics. Von believes in engaging with people through composition, performance, commissioning new works, creating interactive musical video games, and collaborating with musical and visual artists. As the President of the Kansas Percussive Arts Society and a member of the Percussive Arts Society’s Technology Committee, Von is committed to increasing the educational opportunities for percussionists. He has presented concerts and masterclasses at various universities and conferences including The Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Electronic Music Midwest, The Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance, The Kansas and Oklahoma Days of Percussion, The National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy and SEAMUS. Von frequently performs with the Wichita Symphony, Wichita Chamber Chorale, The Wichita Grand Opera, and local jazz and theatre gigs. He is a member of the Great Plains Percussion Group and MapMusik, a collective of musical and visual artists presenting works that engage communities around Kansas. Von is currently the Assistant Director of Bands and Director of Percussion at Washburn University. Dr. Hansen is sponsored by Vic Firth Sticks and Black Swamp Percussion back to program
Adam Vidiksis is a composer, conductor, percussionist, improviser, and technologist based in Philadelphia whose music often explores social structures, science, and the intersection of humankind with the machines we build. Critics have called his music “mesmerizing”, “dramatic”, “striking” (Philadelphia Weekly), “notable”, “catchy” (WQHS), “magical” (Local Arts Live), and “special” (Percussive Notes), and have noted that Vidiksis provides “an electronically produced frame giving each sound such a deep-colored radiance you could miss the piece's shape for being caught up in each moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer). His work is frequently commissioned and performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in recitals, festivals, and major academic conferences. Vidiksis’s music has won numerous awards and grants, including recognition from the Society of Composers, Incorporated, the American Composers Forum, New Music USA, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and ASCAP. His works are available through HoneyRock Publishing, EMPiRE, New Focus, PARMA, and SEAMUS Records. Vidiksis recently served as composer in residence for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and was selected by the NEA and Japan-US Friendship Commission to serve as Director of Arts Technology for a performance of a new work by Gene Coleman during the 2020 Olympics in Japan. Vidiksis is Assistant Professor of music technology at Temple University, President and founding member of SPLICE Music, which includes the annual Institute, Academy, and Festival, a Resident Artist at the Renegade Theater company, and a founding member of the Impermanent Society of Philadelphia, a group dedicated to promoting improvisation in the performing arts. He performs in SPLICE Ensemble and the Transonic Orchestra, conducts Ensemble N_JP, and directs the Temple Composers Orchestra and the Boyer College Electroacoustic Ensemble Project (BEEP). He produces real-time generative improvised electronic music (a.k.a 4EA and Circadia of Circadia & Currency). [www.vidiksis.com] back to program
Christopher Biggs is a composer and multimedia artist residing in Kalamazoo, MI, where he is Associate Professor of Music Composition and Technology at Western Michigan University. Biggs’ recent projects focus on integrating live instrumental performance with interactive audiovisual media. Biggs is the Director of SPLICE Institute. His first album, Decade Zero, was released on Ravello Records in the fall of 2017. back to program