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January 19 Program, The University of North Florida, Recital Hall, 7:30 PM. Free admission

 

Nebojsa Macura, Six Year Interlude for flute, viola, piano

Eduardo Soutullo, As The Spirit Wanes for flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano

Eun Young Lee, *12*, for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano, violin, viola, and cello

Gary Smart, Song of the Holy Ground for piano quintet

Giulia Monduci, Marbles for string quartet and flute

Zack Browning, Sol Moon Rocker for flute/piccolo and vibraphone

Ian Ng, Hop Out and Shuffle Away for violin, cello, and piano

Lansing McCloskey, Whirl, for clarinet and saxophone

Daniel Musselman, Mesophase, Mvmt. 3, Twisted Light for alto saxophone, clarinet, and flute

Piotr Szewczyk, Spring Forward, for violin and piano

Everett Minchew, Two Sketches for Hokusai, for flute and alto saxophone

 

Join the Bold City Contemporary Ensemble for an evening of all-new music from their first international Call-For-Scores featuring music by living composers around the world.  Modular in design, BCCE ranges in size from 2-13 players, accommodating instrumentation for a variety of newly composed works.  Their flexiblity is an asset as they travel both locally in the southeast and nationally to serve communities that are under-exposed to new music.  If you're an avid classical music fan, or not so much, come to experience what classical music can be--recent, relevant, and engaging. Read about the program below!


 

Eduardo Soutullo

 

Bio

 

His works have been achieved international prizes such as the Honourable Mention in  LUTOSLAWSKI AWARD 2007, (Warsaw, chairman of the jury, Zygmunt Krauze), Finalist at INTERNATIONAL PROKOFIEV COMPETITION (St. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, april 2008 chairman of the jury, Rodion Shchedrin),  Third Prize International Composition Competition ITALY 150  (president of jury, Magnus Lindberg), Third Prize International Composition Competition AUDITORIO NACIONAL de ESPAÑA –Fundación BBVA (President of jury, Tristán Murail), Finalist at GESAMT projetc organized by filmaker LARS VON TRIER, Finalist at  XXVI QUEEN SOFIA PRIZE  (Madrid, october 2009), FIRST PRIZE in "CIUTAT DE TARRAGONA" INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR MUSICAL COMPOSITION 2005 (member of the WFIMC - World Federation of International Music Competitions). He has been one of the three composers selected to represent Spain at the WORLD MUSIC DAYS 2009  SWEDEN ( ISCM / International Society of Contemporary Music). His orchestral works have been performed by orchestras such as Swedish Radio Symphony Orch, St Petersburg Symphony Orch. Orchestre National de Lorraine (France), Spanish National Symphony Orch. etc

 

Program Notes, As The Spirit Wanes

 

This work is inspired by Charles Bukowski quote, “as the spirit wanes the form appears”. (I take this to mean the best writing comes from a hot centre in us, a feeling or spirit that forces us to write). The music is not descriptive and uses modal scales, an element present in all cultures, from Japanese gagaku music, gamelan or the music of much of black Africa. After the premiere by Chamber Orchestra of the Zaragoza Auditorium (Enigma Ensemble) in Zaragoza Auditorium (11/13/2012),  this work was performed also  in Madrid (Teatros del Canal, 11/18/2012), Sevilla (Joaquín Turina Auditorium, 11/18/2017), Barcelona Auditorium (12/14/2012), and by Sonido Extremo ensemble in Modern Art Museum (Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 10/17/2015). Music critics found influences from Olivier Messaien and Toru Takemitsu.


 

Nebojsa Macura

 

Bio

 

Nebojsa S. Macura is a Serbian-American composer, conductor, and multi-instrumentalist residing in Wisconsin. He holds degrees in music composition from the University of Cincinnati (DMA), University of British Columbia (MM), and University of Wisconsin-Madison (BM). His music has been performed in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.  

 

In addition to composing and working a day job at a state government agency, Nebojsa plays viola in the Middleton Community Orchestra and fretted strings in the folk bands Karavay and Blue Accordion & Friends.  He is a member of the Balalaika and Domra Association of America.

 

Program Notes, Six-Year Interlude

 

In 2011, I was unexpectedly reunited with someone who had been very dear to me. Although we had promised to keep in touch after graduating from university in 2005, life got in the way until a chance encounter at our alma mater brought us back together. This composition is my reaction to that event and its impact on my life.


 

Gary Smart

 

Bio

 

Gary Smart's career has encompassed a wide range of activities as composer, classical and jazz pianist, and teacher. Educated at Indiana University (BM ’67, MM ’69), Yale University (DMA ’79) and the Hochschule fur Musik Cologne (Germany 1970) Smart studied composition with Bernard Heiden, Yehudi Wyner, Robert Morris and Toru Takemitsu; and did seminar studies with Elliot Carter, Donald Martino, Yannis Xenakis, Luciano Berio and John Corigliano. Always a musician with varied interests, he may be the only pianist to have studied with Yale scholar/keyboardist Ralph Kirkpatrick, the great Cuban virtuoso Jorge Bolet, and the master jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.

    

A true American pluralist, Dr. Smart composes and improvises a music that reflects a freewheeling, abiding interest in world musics, Americana and jazz, as well as the Western classical tradition. His work has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Music Educator's National Conference, the Music Teacher's National Association and the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

Smart’s music has been performed in major venues in the US, including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, as well as venues in Europe and Asia. Dr. Smart has spent two residencies in Japan, in residence at programs at Osaka University and Kobe College and has taught and performed in Indonesia as "Distinguished Lecturer" under the auspices of the Fulbright program. Gary Smart is currently a Presidential Professor of Music at the University of North Florida.

 

www.garysmart.net

 

Program Notes, Song of The Holy Ground

  

Song of the Holy Ground  for piano and string quartet was inspired by my reaction to an Apache chant recorded in 1953 by musicologist John Donald Robb. The original recording, sung by a young girl, was short, simple and direct, clear, delicate and charming at first hearing. The text is a song of consecration, the blessing of a place. In approaching this material I first made a detailed transcription of the chant and became fascinated with the intricacy of its motivic and rhythmic repetitions. I was surprised and moved by its unique musicality.  My composition is a fantasy, an abstracted music that at times spins out a music which freely develops pitch or rhythmic motives taken from the original chant and at other times directly “sets”  statements of the chant.

I wrote this quintet as an act of artistic homage.  Song of the Holy Ground was the winning entry to the John Donald Robb Musical Trust Composers Competition sponsored by the University of New Mexico. It was premiered in Albuquerque, NM by the Chamisa Players in 2009.


 

Ian Ng

 

Bio

 

Ian Ng writes concert, theatre and film music. The New York Times describes his music as "invigorating" with "intricate rhythms”. He won the American Prize, Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and Robert Avalon International Music Composition Competition. His works have been performed in Canada, Australia, Spain, Israel, Brazil, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and all over the US. In the Spring of 2017, he presented his first opera with the support of NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.


 

Program notes, Hop Out and Shuffle Away

 

"When caught in a massive landslide, hop out of your car and shuffle away."



 

Zack Browning

 

Bio

 

Bio (131 words)

Zack Browning (b. 1953) is a composer whose music is described as “way-cool in attitude…speed-demon music” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and “propulsive, giddy, rocking… a rush of cyclic riffs and fractured meters” (The New York Times). The Irish Times proclaimed he is “bringing together the procedures of high musical art with the taste of popular culture”. His solo CD “Banjaxed” on Capstone Records has been called “the aural equivalent of the pinball machine.  Imagine sassy, brilliant bumpers with each slam of the ball sending a glitter of lights and mechanical twitters through your chest.” (American Record Guide). His recent solo CDs “Secret Pulse” and “Venus Notorious” are available on Innova Recordings.  Browning is an Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois and director of the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award. (www.zackbrowning.com)

 

Program Notes, Sol Moon Rocker

 

Sol Moon Rocker (2013) was commissioned by the A/B Duo (Meerenai Shim, flute and Christopher Jones, percussion) and examines the harmonies and disharmonies between woman and man as represented by yin and yang and the Moon and the Sun. The composition is in three large parts. Part I is freely composed on ideas associated with the Moon (Woman) and the Sun (Man).  Part II applies fung shui to the birth dates of Meerenai (Woman) and Chris (Man) to produce its 18 sections. Each of these sections contains different themes including “Meerenai’s Moon Flight” (rhythms derived from Meerenai’s birth date and pitches from the Magic Square of the Moon) and “Sol of Chris” (rhythms derived from the birth date of Chris with pitches coming from the Magic Square of the Sun).  Additional themes include “It’s a Man's World” by James Brown, “Ladies’ Night” by Kool & the Gang, and “The Sun and Moon Have Come Together” by The Fourth Way.  Part III offers the spiritual, physical and universal union of the male and female energies into one inseparable whole.

 

Giulia Monducci

 

Bio

 

Giulia Monducci was born in Italy in 1981. She graduated from the "G.B. Martini" Conservatory of Bologna (BA hons in Music for the Media) and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (BA, MA cum laude in Music Composition), and was mentored by some of the most active composers on the European music scene, including Mark Andre, Azio Corghi, Luis Bacalov, Pierluigi Billone, Michael Finnissy and Salvatore Sciarrino.

 

Her music has been performed at ABC Iwaki Auditorium (Melbourne), Ankara International Music Festival, Chigiana International Festival (Siena), Culturescapes (Basel), De Munt (Brussels), deSingel (Antwerp), Festival 5 Giornate (Milan), impuls Festival (Graz), Sheldonian Theatre (Oxford), KlaraFestival (Brussels), LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (New York), Lijubljana Music Festival, London New Wind Festival, Lviv Philharmonic, Plivka (Kiev), Royal Philharmonic Academy (Bologna), Studio D'Ars (Milan), Wratislavia Cantans (Wroclaw) and broadcasted on national radios across Europe (RTV Slovenia, Klara, Radio DRS, Magazzini Sonori).

 

Her works have been awarded at international contests including International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition (USA), John Lowell Osgood Memorial Prize (Oxford), LAbO#4 Prize for best interdisciplinary project (Antwerp), Oscar Signorini Prize for composers of experimental music videos (Milan), Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Composition Competition, The Phoenix Singers Choral Composition Competition (Shrewsbury), TIM (Paris), Unique Forms of Continuity in Space Composition Competition (Melbourne). While living in Brussels, she was nominated MusMA composer for Belgium. Eric Sleichim, chair of the jury, motivated their decision with these words: "What I love about her music is that you can feel the great mastery in her composing. She has an understanding not only of the technical aspects of the instruments but also of their identities. She is successful, for example, in drawing poetry while allowing virtuosity to resound. No small task for a composer.".

 

Based between Italy and the UK, she works on personal and commissioned projects, and is currently a PhD candidate in Music (Composition) at the University of Oxford.



 

Program Notes, Marbles

 

"Marbles" explores the multidimensionality of an object from a plurality of experiences associated to it, with special relation to perception and memory. Where I grew up, marbles were the most popular summer game among children. They were, and still are, a symbol of childhood for many generations. Here, looking through a marble as if it were a door to an imaginary universe, I portray them as memory triggers, treasure chests evoking distant places, images, and sounds.



 

Lansing Mcloskey

 

Bio

 

Lansing McLoskey has been described as "a major talent and a deep thinker with a great ear" by the American Composers Orchestra, "an engaging, gifted composer writing smart, compelling and fascinating music" by Gramophone Magazine, and "a distinctive voice in American music.” His music has been performed in twenty countries on six continents, and he has won more than two dozen national and international awards, including the 2016 American Prize, a 2018 Aaron Copland House Residency Award and commission, the 2016 Robert Avalon International Composition Competition, and two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Recent performances include concerts in Berlin, France, Cuba, Finland, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, the UK, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Miami, among others. He has been commissioned by the Fromm Foundation, N.E.A., Meet The Composer, Pew Charitable Trusts, Barlow Endowment, the International Joint Wind Quintet Project, and numerous ensembles. Recent commissions include a Barlow Commission for an 80-minute oratorio for The Crossing; ensemberlino vocale (Berlin); the New Spectrum Foundation for violinist Miranda Cuckson; Ensemble Berlin PianoPercussion; TAWA Sax (Peru); Passepartout Duo (Berlin); the Silver Duo; and oboist ToniMarie Marchioni. Professor at the Frost School of Music, he has been Composer-in-Residence at half-a-dozen festivals, and has given masterclasses/presentations at more than thirty schools and festivals, including Aspen and the Tanglewood Institute. His music is released on Albany Records, WergoSchallplatten, Capstone, Tantara, Beauport Classics, and published by Theodore Presser, American Composers Press, Subito Music, Mostly Marimba, and Odhecaton Z Music. Most importantly, he is an avid surfer, skateboarder, and cyclist.

 

www.lansingmcloskey.com


 

Program Notes, Whirl

 

Whirl was commissioned by The Silver Duo, who premiered it at the 2015 World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, France. The two instruments whirl and swirl around each other in virtuosic runs, and several passages of improvisation are interspersed throughout the piece, so no two performances are the same.

 

Eun Young Lee

 

Bio

 

Eun Young Lee has been working with the New York New Music Ensemble, Pacifica Quartet, eighth blackbird, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Gemini Ensemble, ECCE, Antico Moderno, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, dissonArt ensemble, and ensemble mise-en among other ensembles. Many of her works have been commissioned and have received a number of awards, including first prize at the Tsang-Houei Hsu International Music Composition Competition in Taiwan. Her compositions have also been selected for broadcasts. She earned a PhD at the University of Chicago, joined the Boston Conservatory as a faculty member in 2014 and at Tufts University in 2016 as a visiting faculty member.

 

EUNYOUNGLEEMUSIC.COM


 

Program notes, *12*

 

The title of the piece, *12* refers to the Zodiac signs, and the piece is cast in twelve movements. The character and instrumental groupings of each movement are inspired by family and friends in my life with the specific Zodiac sign. Each movement uses a subset of an ensemble of nine players, from solos to quartet, and culminates in a final movement piece using all nine players.

T​he order of the movements is set​ to end with the Zodiac sign of the date of the premiere, March 5th,  2016. *12* was commissioned by Radius Ensemble for their first CD project, Fresh Paint.

Piotr Szewczyk

 

Bio 

Piotr Szewczyk (pyo-ter shef-chick), Polish-born violinist and composer has been a member of the Jacksonville Symphony first violin section since 2007.  He is the violinist/composer-in-residence of the Bold City Contemporary Ensemble and the creator of the Violin Futura Project. As a violinist, he is the winner of FSU Doctoral Concerto Competition, the New World Symphony Concerto Competition, and other awards, and has completed a three-year fellowship at the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas where he served as rotating concertmaster. Szewczyk is the creator of Violin Futura Project, a recital series of 33 commissioned solo violin works from composers around the world, released in 2016 on Navona Records. He performed at Carnegie Hall-Weill Recital Hall and numerous festivals such as Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA and Colorado Music Festival in Boulder.

As a composer, Szewczyk has received awards from The American Prize, Project Trio Competition, Flute New Music Consortium Competition, Shuffle Concert Competition, American Modern Ensemble, Rapido! Composition Contest, Third Millennium Ensemble, American Composers Forum, Society of Composers, and others. His music was featured on NPR Performance Today, the CBS Early Show, and has been performed by Atlanta Chamber Players, Alias Ensemble, Dover Quartet, Carpe Diem String Quartet, UF New Music Ensemble, Vega Quartet, Sybarite 5, New World Symphony, Brno Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony. His chamber music album Bliss Point was released in May 2017 on Navona Records. 

Dr. Szewczyk holds the degrees of D.M. from Florida State University, B.M. and double M.M. in violin and composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He studied violin with Piotr Milewski, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Dorothy DeLay and Corinne Stillwell, and composition with Joel Hoffman, Michael Fiday, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Henry Gwiazda and Darrel Handel. Please visit www.VeryNewMusic.com for full biography and more information.

Program Notes, Spring Forward

Spring Forward, scored for violin and piano, was commissioned by Hugh Tobias as a gift to his grandson.

In this piece I wanted to capture the energy, eagerness and curiosity of a young mind, similar to the season of spring when life awakens, renews and blooms. It is full of virtuosity, bright harmonies, soaring melodies, driving rhythms and various twists and turns along the way.

Daniel Musselman

Bio

Daniel Musselman (b. 1980), an active composer in West Tennessee, currently serves as Acting Department Chair and Director of Choral Activities at Union University. He holds composition degrees from both Westminster Choir College and the University of Kansas and maintains an active schedule of commissions and related writing projects. In his writing, he seeks to balance the depth of tradition with the breadth of modern technique. His music is influenced by the works of Barber, Bartok, and Arnold among others. Over the years, he has been privileged to study with Alice Parker, James Barnes, Forrest Pierce and Joel Phillips. Daniel lives in Tennessee with his wife and their three children. 

Program Notes, Mesophase

The LCD Trio, a resident woodwind trio at the University of Tennessee at Martin, commissioned this work in 2016. Drawing inspiration from the group’s title, each movement of this work explores themes related to the marvelous technology of Liquid Crystal Displays. Today's program will feature the final movement from this piece. In a pulsating, driving snapshot, “Twisted Light” captures the simple yet profound property of liquid crystals that actually rotates light by 90˚, thus allowing the light stream to be blocked by a polarized filter. Many of the melodic lines in this final movement are distributed to the various instruments in small units and twist around each other in a whirl of color and energy.

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