Department of Music Concert and Event Listing

“A blazing, larger-than-life performance.”—Washington Post

Distinguished by its virtuosic playing and impassioned interpretations, the Ariel Quartet has earned its glowing international reputation. Formed in Israel nearly twenty years ago, the Quartet was recently awarded the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award. The Ariel serves as the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, where they direct the rigorous chamber music program and perform their own annual series of concerts in addition to their busy touring schedule.

In honor of Beethoven’s sestercentennial in 2020, the Ariel Quartet will perform the complete Beethoven Cycle. This concert marks the second of a five-concert series.

Program:
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in E-flat Major;op. 127; String Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 18, no. 6; String Quartet “Rasumovsky,” op. 59, no. 3

Two new works of electronic music:

- All sorts

- conscientiousness

Two synths were programmed to have internal dynamic mechanisms, where the musician can mix what processes co-occur and couple together creating rhythmic vibrations. Timbres reach into heavy saturation and unexpected resonance shapes via containing high volume signals with power-preservation.  Signals are projected to higher-dimensions and rotated with other signals or oscillators, altering and adding to the psychedelic sound of the instrument.  

Coupling helps multiple processes find a central tendency, a rhythmic voice coupled to a chaotic process gives the chaotic process inflections of pulse timing and due to bi-directionality the rhythm is perturbed by the chaotic process creating phase changes. Demarcations as decelerations form among processes, the consistency of decelerations in terms of its resonance can mask or reveal activity depending on the relations and the actions of the musician.   

______

The titles of the two works All sorts and conscientiousness signal to the old and new problematics of power and follow from these sentences lifted from instructional documentation of IBM’s Watson-based Personality Insights service:  “You need text written by the person whose personality you are interested in. It should contain words about everyday experiences, thoughts, and responses.  This service applies linguistic analytics and personality theory to infer attributes from a person’s unstructured text. Gain insight into how and why people think, act and feel the way they do.” **

**A new IBM service providing micro-targeting capability -- or the antidemocratic identification and persuasion of consumers and voters alike by personality metrics. The Watson system it is based on is general purpose and generates responses to questions using methods of web-based inference. The founder of IBM Thomas J Watson started the corporation up on the technology of census processing, developing punch-card machines to automate sorting and tabulation of populations into grouped types.  Before punch-card technology the census would take 10 years to tally and after only 3 months.  Watson would later work closely with the Nazi party through subsidiary branches in Germany to furnish nazi officials with as many as of such machines with single-use punch-cards that were in the exact shape of the dollar bill as he could, keeping 90% of the profits.  IBM employed workers went door to door to collect population data in search of Jewish people throughout Europe to later abduct and work to death.  The IBM punch-card machine served as an enabling technology for the high-speed realization of Hitler’s idea. It is a haunting example of capitalism and fascism becoming indistinguishable. 

First-year graduate students studying composition and performance will present their winter jury concert at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, January 24th in the Conrad Prebys Concert Hall.

The evening will feature five world premiere performances by Erin Graham, Douglas Osmun, Janet Sit, Jonathan Stallings, and Alexander Taylor.

The program will feature performances by Mariana Flores (voice, piano), Peter Ko (cello), 
Miguel Zazueta (voice), Erin Graham (percussion), and Alexander Taylor (voice, percussion, and violin). 

Discussion session with faculty response to the 1st Year Composition Jury Concert on Friday, January 24th.  Open to the public.

24th Annual Concert to Benefit the Lytle Scholarship at UC San Diego

Featuring: Cecil Lytle

Program: Music of Remembrance

Please join us as we raise scholarship funds for promising students.

The notion of art for art's sake is a misnomer: every sculpture, painting, dance, poem, or piece of music is a conscious act of principle and intent. Though the purpose may not be literal, and indeed its genesis may be quite obscure, art stems from individual experience and memory. This year's program presents classical compositions in memory of a person, idea, or an occasion.

For more information, please visit rels.ucsd.edu.

PROGRAM:

Alan Berg (1885-1935) - Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano (1913) 

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) - Keyboard Sonata in E-flat Major Hob. XVI/49 (1790)

Zden?k Fibich (1850-1900) - Quintet in D Major, Opus 42 (1893)

PERFORMERS:

Cecil Lytle, piano

Robert Zelickman, clarinet

Mari Karamura, piano

Cecilia Kim, cello

Päivikki Nykter, violin

Jane Zwerneman, French horn

Prebys Chair Concert featuring Karis, Schick, Steiger, Terrazas and Kanasevich

Compositions by Rand Steiger, Anqi Liu and Alex Stephenson
Conducted by Steven Schick

Conrad Prebys (1933-2016) was an extremely generous philanthropist who made the largest and most important gift to the UC San Diego Department of Music that we have ever received, enabling us to complete the Conrad Prebys Music Center in 2009. His subsequent gifts enabled us to establish an endowment for graduate student support (and name our concert hall in his honor) and to establish the Conrad Prebys Presidential Chair in Music. To honor the memory of Mr. Prebys, and to commemorate the establishment of the Endowed Chair five years ago, the Department of Music presents a concert of the music of Rand Steiger, the current holder of the Chair. The program will include the premiere of a new work for solo piano Simple Gifts, Variations for Conrad Prebys, performed by Professor Aleck Karis, along with Beacon (2015), for flute and electronics, performed by Professor Wilfrido Terrazas, and Cyclone (2013), for clarinet and electronics, performed by clarinetist Gleb Kanasevich. The program will conclude with Steven Schick conducting Palimpsest in a performance of Steiger’s innovative composition Ecosphere in a new version with revised electronics. Steiger’s work broke new ground in the use of realtime digital signal processing of musical instruments when it was commissioned and premiered by IRCAM and the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2002. Schick will also lead the premiere of two new works written for the occasion for the same 16-piece ensemble by graduate composers Anqi Liu and Alex Stephenson.

PROGRAM:  
Simple Gifts (Variations for Conrad Prebys) - Rand Steiger (Aleck Karis, piano)
Cyclone - Rand Steiger (Kleb Kanasovich, clarinet)
How Light Arrives… (premiere for Ecosphere ensemble) - Anqi Liu
Cantus  (premiere for Ecosphere ensemble) - Alex Stephenson 
Beacon - Rand Steiger (Wilfrido Terrazas, flute)
Ecosphere - Rand Steiger [DSP]                      

Beethoven turns 250 this year.  He was a great composer, as everybody already knows. But in the midst of what will certainly be a mind-numbing hagiography, I can’t help but think that he would feel misunderstood by us. After all, he was much more in spiritual league with the flame-throwing radicals of the Jacobin rather than the cultural mainstream. What would the person who turned his back on princes and emperors say about today’s cultural worship of his music in the form of a well-heeled gala crowd at a symphony orchestra concert?

We propose another kind of birthday present.  Building on the classical notion of interpolation to shed light on Beethoven’s impact on 20th and 21st music, we will nest among the movements of Beethoven’s mercurial First Symphony (1800) newer work that contains 20th and 21st century echoes of Beethoven’s mind. Webern’s Symphony, Dallapiccola’s Una Piccola Musica Notturna, and new music by PamelaZ and Anna Thorvaldsdottir help reveal the often unseen Beethoven: his formalism, his penchant for lyricism, and his wicked sense of humor.  We hope to afford insight into parallel moments of cultural and political peril.  From the turn of the 19th century in post-revolutionary Europe to the volatile time between world wars in the 20th century to our early 21st century michigas, these works, taken together, demonstrate the necessity for an artist to react to her or his time.

PROGRAM:
Pamela Z - Heiligenstadt Lament
Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony #1, First Movement
Anton Webern - Symphony 
Beethoven - Symphony #1, Second Movement 
Luigi Dallapiccola - Una Piccola Musica Notturna 
Beethoven - Symphony #1, Third Movement 
Beethoven - Symphony #1, Fourth Movement
Anna Thorvaldsdottir - Aequilibria 

The concert will be preceded by a conversation with Steven Schick and a distinguished panel including: Pamela Z, Lilian Faderman, and Henry Torres Blanco, entitled: "How do we as artists working in different genres use (or abuse) classic works?"

Composer Felipe Rossi presents his dissertation recital in support of his Ph.D. defense.

Program:

Entrelignes for violoncello and live electronics

Saturation for violin and live electronics

h2enh1 for bass flute and live electronics

Quartet in five scenes for clarinet, viola, double bass and piano

Featuring:

Teresa Diaz de Cossio, bass flute

Mark Dresser, double bass

Peter Ko, violoncello

Dimitrios Paganos Koukakis, piano

Päivikki Nykter, viola

Ilana Waniuk, violin

Robert Zelickman, clarinet

suddenly drenched with dawn

Soprano Susan Narucki will present an evening of music that celebrates the human voice in its most intimate, lyrical and exuberant. The recital takes place at UC San Diego Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall on February 5, 2020 at 7 p.m. Narucki, will be joined by guest artists Aleck Karis (piano), Pablo Gomez (guitar), Kirsten Ashley Weist (soprano) Teresa Diaz-de-Cossio (flute) and Sean Dowgray (percussion).

The concert includes two distinctive works of modern vocal chamber music: Kaija Saariaho’s Adjo? for voice, flute and guitar and Karin Rehnqvist’s Puksa?nger/Lockrop for two voices and percussion. Saariaho’s work is an exquisite setting of Solveig von Schoultz’s poem celebrating the return of the sun after months of darkness; Rehnqvist’s extended work incorporates Finnish proverbs about women, and traditional folk texts, and utilizes a traditional (and spectacular) vocal “herding-call” technique.

Two elegaic works for voice and guitar are included on the program: Hosokawa’s Renka I and songs by the English composer John Dowland. Both works speak to parting and loss through unique and elegant compositional styles separated by centuries.

Francis Poulenc’s lyrical masterwork for voice and piano, Tel Jour, Telle Nuit, is the other connecting thread of the program. Composed in 1937 with texts by surrealist poet Paul E?luard, the cycle of nine songs traverses a landscape of the unusual and beautiful, describing a journey less to a specific destination than to a place within, suddenly drenched with dawn.

Susan Narucki is a Professor of Music at UC San Diego and leads the Arts and Community Engagement Initiative for the Division of Arts and Humanities. Her most recent recording “The Edge of Silence: Vocal Chamber Music of Gyo?rgy Kurta?g” has been nominated for a 2020 Grammy Award as Best Classical Vocal Album.

Part of the Festival of New Trumpet Music West, http://extension.ucsd.edu/fontwest

Steven Schick, conductor

Anahita Abbasi - New Work *BRENDA AND STEVEN SCHICK COMMISSION
Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 3
Michael Pisaro - Concerto for Amplified Percussion & Orchestra

Soloist: Greg Stuart, percussion

Brahms’ mighty Third Symphony manages also to be his most intimate and–some would say–his most beautiful symphony.  The La Jolla Symphony has not played it for over a quarter of a century–come, listen fresh, and rediscover the wonders of this glorious music. We premiere two commissioned works: a new piece by emerging Iranian composer Anahita Abbasi, known for her electric and electro-acoustic works; and Michael Pisaro’s Concerto for Amplified Percussion, featuring extraordinary percussionist and frequent Pisaro collaborator, Greg Stuart.

Steven Schick, conductor

Anahita Abbasi - New Work *BRENDA AND STEVEN SCHICK COMMISSION
Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 3
Michael Pisaro - Concerto for Amplified Percussion & Orchestra

Soloist: Greg Stuart, percussion

Brahms’ mighty Third Symphony manages also to be his most intimate and–some would say–his most beautiful symphony.  The La Jolla Symphony has not played it for over a quarter of a century–come, listen fresh, and rediscover the wonders of this glorious music. We premiere two commissioned works: a new piece by emerging Iranian composer Anahita Abbasi, known for her electric and electro-acoustic works; and Michael Pisaro’s Concerto for Amplified Percussion, featuring extraordinary percussionist and frequent Pisaro collaborator, Greg Stuart.

David Borgo celebrates his half-century birthday in musical style, inviting friends old and new to collaborate on an improvised suite of epic proportions, 
transforming the worldly sounds of brass, wind, wood, voice and skin through otherworldly electronic means into a metamodern masterpiece.

David Borgo - saxophones, winds, electronics
Jeff Kaiser - quartertone trumpet, voice, electronics
Kjell Nordeson - percussion

let the crazy out
let the weirdness shout
let the unconscious loose
release inner recluse
let the automatic sing
let the gibberish ring
let the heart guide
let the energy preside
let the mind wander
drifting over yonder
into the hills
let the spontaneity spike
let it be 
the free roaming psych
(poem by Andy Cappricorn)

Camera Lucida is a chamber music collaboration between four musicians with diverse backgrounds. Camera Lucida is a unique project matching masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire with a group of world-class instrumentalists who happen to call San Diego home.

PROGRAM:

Ravel, Sonata for Violin and Cello
Beethoven, String Quartet in c minor, Op. 18 Nr. 4
Brahms, Clarinet Quintet in b minor, Op. 115

No late seating.

For additional program information, please visit Camera Lucida's website: sdcamlu.org

Subscription and single tickets available at the UC San Diego Box Office. Ticket information: (858) 534-TIXS (8497). 

Additional Description:

Under the artistic directorship of UC San Diego distinguished professor and cellist Charles Curtis and anchored by regular featured performances by San Diego Symphony Concertmaster Jeff Thayer, Formosa Quartet violist and UCLA professor Che-Yen Chen, concert pianist Reiko Uchida, UC San Diego performance faculty and occasional guests, Camera Lucida has established a tradition of challenging, musically ambitious programs performed with the assurance of an established ensemble, with the added flexibility of changing instrumentation and guests from the international chamber music world.

Wilfrido Terrazas and Tasha Smith Godinez present an evening of work for flute and harp featuring a new piece by UC Santa Cruz graduate student Pablo Rubio Vargas (WP), a version of Cynthia Martínez Lira’s beautiful graphic score Marcos (2016-17), Mariana Villanueva’s seldom performed classic Canto Nocturno (1985), for bass flute, and two works of by Terrazas: Jaspe (2014) and Ifigenia en (2013).

Extending their prior 2016 collaboration to a new level of immersive audio-visual design, in February, 2020 an intercultural team of artists presents Changing Tides II, an intercultural music collaboration responding to the climate crisis, featuring renowned improvisers in Seoul and San Diego performing together via cutting-edge technologies. With audiences at both locations, the event links 10 musicians in a stunning scenic environment created by visual artists, including Korean director Jungung Yang who conceived the design in relation to a Korean shamanic ceremony to simultaneously evoke sorrow and the recirculation of new life. Blending live collaborative performance, pre-recorded materials, visualizations of climate data, and original compositions integrating Korean music, jazz and beyond, Changing Tides II addresses our urgent need for global collaboration and blends past and future artistic expressions in a unique act of collective imagination.

Co-directed by Jungung Yang, Mark Dresser, and Michael Dessen
Scenic design at UC San Diego by Victoria Petrovich
Musicians in San Diego: Stephanie Richards, Mark Dresser, Wilfrido Terrazas, Michael Dessen and Joshua White
Musicians in Seoul: Yoon Jeong Heo, Jean Oh, Aram Lee, Min Wang Hwang, Bae Il Dong and Jungpyo Lee

Soirée for Music Lovers: A tradition continues
In 1987, renowned virtuoso violinist János Négyesy established a series of Chamber Music concerts called the “Soirée for Music Lovers.” These programs were intended to be a musical counterpoint to the experimental music that characterized the music department at the University of California, where Professor Négyesy was a long-time faculty member. The quarterly concerts, featuring chamber music from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, grew to be a popular and elegant part of the musical life of San Diego. The tradition continues this year on Friday, February 14th, at the Conrad Prebys Concert Hall on the UC San Diego campus. Päivikki Nykter, the late Professor Négyesy’s wife, musical partner and a featured performer in every previous Soirée, has taken up the mantle in presenting a program worthy of the Négyesy legacy. The program begins at 7 p.m., and admission is free. 

The post concert reception will feature a customary toast to Professor Négyesy.

Remembering Chou Wen-chung

One of the 20th century’s most important musicians, Professor Chou Wen-chung died at the end of October, leaving behind a wealth of extraordinary music, and a legacy of stewardship.  He paved the way for many young composers, especially those with roots in Asia, and his abiding devotion to the music of his mentor, Edgard Varèse, changed the way many of us heard this great composer of the 20th century. 

Beginning with one of his most ambitious pieces, Echoes from the Gorge for percussion quartet, red fish blue fish pays tribute to Chou Wen-Chung.  We will also perform music by two of his most important students, our colleagues, Chinary Ung and Lei Liang.  Edgard Varèse, paterfamilias of American experimental music, will also make an appearance.  Through this and other music, we will hear the many ways that Chou Wen-chung lives on. 

PROGRAM: 
Part 1: Echoes - Roger Reynolds, comments from the stage

Chou Wen-Chung - Echoes from the Gorge
Steven Schick, James Beauton, Fiona Digney, and Garrett Mendelow

Chinary Ung - Cinnabar Heart 
Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, marimba

Lei Liang - Trans (Quartet Version)
Michael Jones, Rebecca Lloyd Jones, Matthew LeVeque, and Steven Schick

Consulting artist, Yao Lu

Part 2: Rain - Steven Schick Comments from the Stage (5-8’)

Michael Pisaro - ricefall   

Edgard Varèse - Poème Electronique

Over the past ten years musicians from Korea and the United States have been collaborating on virtual concerts centered around common themes of peace, climate change, and shared artistic values. Following "Changing Tides 2, a Virtual Concert on February 13th/14th between Seoul Institute of the Arts and UC San Diego, the distinguished ensemble from Korea, Black String and their UC collaborators, Professor David Borgo-moderator,  Professors Mark Dresser, Michael Dessen, Stephanie Richards and Wilfrido Terrazas will have conversation on February 25th about common themes of cross cultural collaboration and those artistic values that are permeable those that are not." 

Aleck Karis leads the Palimpsest Ensemble in a program honoring Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Mario Davidovsky.  In 1959, the Argentine born composer emigrated to America at the behest of Aaron Copeland, with whom studied at the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood). There he met Milton Babbitt, who encouraged Davidovsky’s move to New York City where he eventually became director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.  In honor of Davidovsky, who passed away last August, Aleck Karis has chosen a program including: Flashbacks, Sefarad, Pennplay, and Biblical Songs, featuring Susan Narucki, soprano.  The program will also highlight Milton Babbitt’s Composition for 12 Instruments, from which a new “palimpsest” composition with the same ensemble will be created by UC San Diego graduate composer Yi-hsien Chen.

Bassist Kathryn Schulmeister brings radiant energy and rigorous expression to her musical performance ranging from classical to experimental. With a fearless curiosity for collaborative environments, Kathryn’s enthusiasm for seeking opportunities to integrate improvisation, movement and theatre into her creative practice have led her to thrive as an active performer in festivals and venues around the world.  

Kathryn is one of the newest members of the renowned ELISION Ensemble. She also currently performs as a guest with Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Dal Niente, Fonema Consort, and various others. 

Equally passionate and experienced as an orchestral musician, Kathryn served as a core member of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra for three consecutive seasons from 2014-2017, and has performed with the Phoenix Symphony, the California Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Lyric Opera, the Maui Chamber Orchestra, and Hawaii Opera Theater.

Kathryn is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Contemporary Music Performance at the University of California San Diego, studying with internationally acclaimed bassist/improviser/composer Mark Dresser. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and completed her Master of Music degree at McGill University in Montréal.

Pianist Ricardo Descalzo presents an evening of solo piano, performing Lei Liang's 1996 composition, Garden Eight, and works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Karen Tanaka, and UC San Diego graduate composers.

About Ricardo Descalzo:

Ricardo Descalzo is a contemporary pianist who has performed at many important concert venues such as the Lérida Auditorium, the Zaragoza Auditorium, the March Foundation in Madrid, the Palau de la Música and the Auditorium in Barcelona, the Carré Saint-Vincent in Orleans, the CNSM in Paris, the Palau de la Música in Valencia, the Manoel Theatre in Malta or the Benaroya Hall in Seattle. He has also played at many of the music world's most prestigious festivals, such as the International Festival in Ibiza, the "Quincena Musical" in San Sebastián, the Forfest Festival in the Czech Republic, the International Contemporary Music Festival in Alicante and the Ensems Festival in Valencia, and with the Barcelona Sinfonietta, the l'Empordá Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra Ciutat d'Eix, the Grup Instrumental de Valencia and the Orleans Symphony Orchestra. Descalzo has received many different prizes at specialist international music competitions, such as: first prize at the “Xavier Montsalvatge” in Gerona, first prize at the “Valentino Bucchi” in Rome, second prize at the International Contemporary Music Competition in Sitges, third prize at the “Ettore Pozzoli” in Milan, three special prizes at the Orleans Competition and special prize for contemporary music at the ”José Iturbi” in Valencia and “Jaen International Piano Competition," and first prize at the international piano competitions of Ibiza and “Ciudad de San Sebastián”.

Directed by Ken Anderson, the choir combines hundreds of voices to fill the auditorium with the uplifting sound of African American spirituals, blues, traditional songs, and gospel.

The Duo of Dresser Davis performs a wide range of music from the lyrical to the political. It features the music of both celebrated composers, pianist Anthony Davis and contrabassist Mark Dresser.

The music is a commentary on today from the political and dramatic, with works like “The Central Park Five” to the whimsical, “I Can Smell You Listening” and “Heil Twitler.” Informed by four decades of collaboration, these two master improvisers engage the full spectrum of Jazz and Improvised music.
 

Under the direction of James Beauton, the UC San Diego Wind Ensemble will present their Winter concert in Mandeville Auditorium.

The MUS 95JC Jazz Ensembles concert, under the direction of Kamau Kenyatta, will feature small ensembles performing a variety of exciting compositions, including some written and arranged by student musicians. The instrumentation will include vocals, violin, saxophones, a rhythm section and Afro-Latin percussion.

Steven Schick, conductor

Benjamin Britten War Requiem

Guest artists: Ariana Strahl, soprano; John Buffet, baritone; John Russell, tenor; boys choir, San Diego Master Chorale

The cathedral in Coventry, bombed into rubble during the Battle of Britain, lay in ruins for years afterward.  For its rebuilding in 1961, Benjamin Britten composed his War Requiem, which splices the poetry of Wilfred Owen–who was killed in World War I–into the Requiem Mass for the Dead.  The War Requiem was an instant classic (200,000 copies of the recording sold in the year after its premiere), and it remains an overwhelming experience.  And a gigantic undertaking: the San Diego Master Chorale joins us for this work, which calls for three soloists, boys choir, massive chorus, two orchestras, and two conductors.

Steven Schick, conductor

Benjamin Britten War Requiem

Guest artists: Ariana Strahl, soprano; John Buffet, baritone; John Russell, tenor; boys choir, San Diego Master Chorale

The cathedral in Coventry, bombed into rubble during the Battle of Britain, lay in ruins for years afterward.  For its rebuilding in 1961, Benjamin Britten composed his War Requiem, which splices the poetry of Wilfred Owen–who was killed in World War I–into the Requiem Mass for the Dead.  The War Requiem was an instant classic (200,000 copies of the recording sold in the year after its premiere), and it remains an overwhelming experience.  And a gigantic undertaking: the San Diego Master Chorale joins us for this work, which calls for three soloists, boys choir, massive chorus, two orchestras, and two conductors.

Madison Greenstone

Clarinets

Madison Greenstone is a contra/bass/clarinetist, improviser, and writer currently based in San Diego, California. Madison has been seen and/or heard performing in abandoned grain silos in Buffalo, deregulated spaces in Berlin, the Vigeland Mausoleum in Oslo, an underground bunker in Helsinki, the Royaumont Abbey in France, in front of a kelp tank in San Diego, in a granite quarry in Manitoga, in an art gallery’s darkened projection room, in art spaces at Harvard, and at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, among other locales. She maintains collaborative practices, for example, with Michelle Lou under the guise of Shy Bather, Bryan Jacobs with whom she is developing an improvisation practice using mechanical instruments, and a cellist close to home with whom she forms one half of kraam. As a writer Madison has contributed to Tempo (Cambridge University Press). Upcoming projects include a solo album featuring her own improvisations and compositions to be released in 2018 on Kendra Steiner Editions. Madison is currently a DMA student at UCSD with Anthony Burr, where has assisted in teaching courses ranging from 16th century counterpoint, to Baroque and 19th century harmony, formal analysis for composers, to J-Pop.

Declared “one of Chicago’s most adventurous chamber ensembles” (Chicago Tribune), the twice-Grammy-nominated Spektral Quartet actively pursues a vivid conversation between exhilarating works of the traditional canon and those written this decade, this year, or this week. Praised by the New York Times for its “supreme technical command that seems to come easily,” Spektral is known for creating seamless connections across centuries, drawing in the listener with charismatic deliveries, interactive concert formats, an up-close atmosphere, and bold, inquisitive programming.

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women’s constitutional right to vote, the Quartet’s SHE WILL NOT BE SILENT program is a celebration of legendary women composers throughout the course of history who followed their own path. It is dedicated to all women who have fought for their voices to be heard.

Program

Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-flat Major; Ruth Crawford Seeger: String Quartet; Eliza Brown: Quartet no. 1; Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Sigurdur Gudjonsson: Enigma

Infused by the notion that momentum is firmly associated with, and driven by intuition, Theocharis' music deals with soft, disembodied, and fragile sonic elements laid out throughout rhythmically intricate environments, all under the scope of a dramaturgical sensibility. The effort towards fragility is realized through the simultaneous application of diverse unconventional instrumental techniques, coalescing into a singular musical event. Essential to his compositional process is the intuitive musical progression through a phrase-by-phrase approach, expanding and contracting phrasal durations while thickening and scattering the density of both its rhythmical and textural profiles. The elements of surprise and freshness within the musical narrative are prioritized, avoiding any sense of long formal linearities, resulting in structurally complex trajectories with sudden tempo modulations and abrupt intra-sectional changes, amplifying the parameter of dramaturgy.

?For the past four years, Theocharis has developed a serious commitment towards electronic music, integrating an electronic component upon this delicate, friable context to more fully blend and expand the acoustic sound. The interest in electronics is related primarily to live signal processing with a particular focus on granular synthesis, which is to be related to and compatible with the philosophy and character of the instrumental writing. Incorporating prerecorded synthesized sounds is also a practice his music has been extensively focusing on. The electronics merge with the instrumental sonic landscapes, extract their most important elements (pitch/gestural behaviors), highlight them, or, in other cases, contradict them through extreme live manipulation or by playing back sound files with opposing textures. There is a strive for a wide, thick, and intricate sonic spectrum in which processed, fixed, and acoustic sounds mix and contrast, equally contributing to the outcome. His current composition projects include a work for piano and fixed media and a work for double-bass, fixed media and live electronics, and a chamber ensemble work with 3D electronics. All three will be presented as part of his dissertation defense scheduled for the end of Spring 2020.

?Theocharis Papatrechas is a Greek composer, born in 1988, currently a PhD candidate in composition at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) under the supervision of Rand Steiger.

He holds degrees in composition from the Ionian University (Bachelor’s) and the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester (Master’s). In 2010-11, he attended the composition program at the Sibelius Academy as part of the Erasmus program. For his studies, Theocharis has received scholarships from the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association, and the Onassis, Lilian Voudouri, Samuel Adler and Gerondelis Foundations.

Theocharis has participated in several renowned international composition venues and master-classes such as ManiFeste l’Academie 2018 & 2019 at IRCAM with ensemble Intercontemporain, FORUM with Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, SEAMUS, ICMC-NYCEMF, Shanghai New Music Week with Mivos Quartet, Workshop for Young Composers in Tchaikovsky City with Moscow Contemporary Music Players, Etchings Festival with East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, IDEA Young Composers Workshop with Divertimento ensemble, receiving instruction from Chaya Czernowin, Georg Friedrich Haas, Brian Ferneyhough, Rebecca Saunders, Philippe Leroux, Franck Bedrossian, Stefano Gervasoni, Beat Furrer, and Fred Ledahl.

?

Theocharis's music is published by Babel Scores.

The California Electronic Music Exchange Concerts (CEMEC) form a series of events designed to strengthen the connections between the various California educational institutions that maintain computer and electronic music programs. These events are run and curated by the graduate students and faculty of each participating institution. The 2020 CEMEC series will be held at the campuses of CalArts, Mills, UCSD, UCSB, UCI, and Stanford throughout April.

Camera Lucida is a chamber music collaboration between four musicians with diverse backgrounds. Camera Lucida is a unique project matching masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire with a group of world-class instrumentalists who happen to call San Diego home.

PROGRAM:

Francis Poulenc, Clarinet Sonata
Samuel Barber, Cello Sonata, Opus 6
Franz Schmidt, Quintet in G major

No late seating.

For additional program information, please visit Camera Lucida's website: sdcamlu.org

Subscription and single tickets available at the UC San Diego Box Office. Ticket information: (858) 534-TIXS (8497). 

Additional Description:

Under the artistic directorship of UC San Diego distinguished professor and cellist Charles Curtis and anchored by regular featured performances by San Diego Symphony Concertmaster Jeff Thayer, Formosa Quartet violist and UCLA professor Che-Yen Chen, concert pianist Reiko Uchida, UC San Diego performance faculty and occasional guests, Camera Lucida has established a tradition of challenging, musically ambitious programs performed with the assurance of an established ensemble, with the added flexibility of changing instrumentation and guests from the international chamber music world.

Hailed as musician with “flair and fury,” Shaoai Ashley Zhang is a concert pianist performing throughout the US and Europe. An advocate of contemporary music, Ashley’s recent performances include the Boston premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Die Pilger and Franco Donatoni’s Rasch II, as well as collaborations with Georg Friedrich Haas, Unsuk Chin, Vinko Globokar, and John Zorn. A graduate of New England Conservatory, Ashley is currently a doctoral student at the University of California, San Diego where she studies with Aleck Karis.

Anthony Burr has enjoyed a distinguished career as an exponent of contemporary music. He has performed in this repertoire with many leading groups, including Elision, Either/Or, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Sospeso, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As a soloist, Anthony has worked with many leading composers in presenting their music, including Alvin Lucier, Helmut Lachenmann, Chaya Czernowin, Liza Lim and Brian Ferneyhough. He has played extensively outside of classical music with major figures including Jim O'Rourke, John Zorn and Laurie Anderson. His ongoing projects include a duo with Icelandic bassist and composer Skúli Sverrisson, the Clarinets (a trio with Chris Speed and Oscar Noriega), a series of recordings with cellist Charles Curtis and a series of live film and music performances with experimental filmmaker Jennifer Reeves. Anthony also maintains an active career as a recording engineer and producer. At UC San Diego, he has taught graduate seminars on musical aesthetics, undergraduate classes in music theory and popular music, and regularly performs classical repertoire with the Camera Lucida series.

Sameer Patel, guest conductor

Claude Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Lili Boulanger D’un matin de printemps
Anton Webern Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
Toru Takemitsu Requiem
Arthur Honegger Symphony No. 3

Guest conductor Sameer Patel returns with works from France, Austria, Japan, and Switzerland in a program that shows the many currents that shaped music in the early twentieth century. Both Debussy and Lili Boulanger died in March 1918: his Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun may be the most revolutionary music ever written, and her gentle evocation of a spring morning shows the promise of what might have been, had she not died at 24. Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra are supremely disciplined and expressive music, as is Toru Takemitsu’s Requiem for Strings, proclaimed “a masterpiece” by Stravinsky. The concert concludes with Honegger’s moving Symphonie Liturgique, a search for faith in the aftermath of World War II.

An Evening with J.S. Bach
Takae Ohnishi and Friends Department of Music's Conrad Prebys Concert Hall

• Sec A: $35
• Sec B: $25
• UCSD Student: $9

UC San Diego lecturer Takae Ohnishi teams up with friends from the San Diego Symphony—principal flautist Rose Lombardo and associate principal cellist Chia-Ling Chien—in an evening of some of Bach’s most beloved pieces. It will include Sonatas for the Viola Da Gamba, Flute and Basso Continuo, as well as selections from Bach’s solo cello suite and the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue for Harpsichord.

Sameer Patel, guest conductor

Claude Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Lili Boulanger D’un matin de printemps
Anton Webern Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
Toru Takemitsu Requiem
Arthur Honegger Symphony No. 3

Guest conductor Sameer Patel returns with works from France, Austria, Japan, and Switzerland in a program that shows the many currents that shaped music in the early twentieth century. Both Debussy and Lili Boulanger died in March 1918: his Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun may be the most revolutionary music ever written, and her gentle evocation of a spring morning shows the promise of what might have been, had she not died at 24. Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra are supremely disciplined and expressive music, as is Toru Takemitsu’s Requiem for Strings, proclaimed “a masterpiece” by Stravinsky. The concert concludes with Honegger’s moving Symphonie Liturgique, a search for faith in the aftermath of World War II.

kallisti

Established by Grammy award-winning soprano Susan Narucki at the University of California, San Diego in 2009,  kallisti offers San Diego audiences exceptional performances of rarely heard works for voice in an intimate setting.  Singers from UC San Diego's Graduate Program in Contemporary Music Performance and distinguished guest artists collaborate in a wide range of repertoire that celebrates the extraordinary beauty and power of the singing voice.  

kallisti has also been featured with the La Jolla Symphony (Berio:Symphony)  and on the Green Umbrella Series at the Los Angeles Philhamonic (Reich: Music for 18), both with conductor Steven Schick and in the San Diego Symphony's 2018 It's About Time Festival at Copley Symphony Hall.  In addition, kallisti has toured to Stanford University in a unique collaboration of three world premiere operas:  The Voice Machine (2016)

kallisti chamber operas bring rarely heard masterworks and world premieres to the San Diego community.  kallisti  presented the San Diego premiere of Viktor Ullman's 1943 chamber opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (2012) in a critically acclaimed production that has been viewed over 4000 times worldwide on Vimeo.

In addition, kallisti presented world premieres of  leading American composer Anthony Davis' Lear on the Second Floor (2013) , Steven Lewis' Noon at Dusk (2016) and the West Coast premiere of Pascal Dusapin's To Be Sung (2009) led by Jullian Pellicano .  In addition, innovative stagings of concert works directed by Susan Narucki have presented  pairings of masterworks by  Erik Satie and Morton Feldman, and Barbara Strozzi and Salvatore Sciarrino .  Our most recent opera project paired two one act operas by Francis Poulenc and American minimalist Tom Johnson.

Matt Kline is equally at home as a double bassist, composer and improviser. His music often combines all three of these areas and has provided him a very diverse musical career. As a double bassist, he writes extensively for the instrument using new and original techniques. In 2010, his piece Fragments for solo bass was awarded the grand prize in the International Society of Bassist’s composition competition. Recently, he performed as principal double bassist under the conductor and composer Krzysztof Penderecki. Upon the composer’s request, Matt performed his own adaptation of Penderecki’s Capriccio for Sigfried Palm. He previously was a member of the Renew ensemble, a group that specialized in contemporary improvisation.

He has received commissions and/or performances from Sandor Ostlund, Todd Meehan, Dennis Whittaker, Maggie Hasspacher, Rodolfo Morales, Thomas Bacon, Alicia Lawyer, members of the Czech Philharmonic and others. In 2008 he was a winner in the Robert Avalon composition competition. He has participated in the Academy Westfalen in Germany, CASMI program in Prague, Domaine Forget, Fresh Inc and Texas music festivals. Matt received his undergraduate in composition from Baylor University where he studied with Scott McAllister and Sandor Ostlund. In 2011, he lived in Paris, France where he studied with international bass soloist and pedagogue Francois Rabbath. He holds both performing and teaching diplomas from his institute. At UC San Diego, Mr. Kline studies double bass performance with Mark Dresser, and is the conductor of the UC San Diego Chamber Orchestra.

kallisti

Established by Grammy award-winning soprano Susan Narucki at the University of California, San Diego in 2009,  kallisti offers San Diego audiences exceptional performances of rarely heard works for voice in an intimate setting.  Singers from UC San Diego's Graduate Program in Contemporary Music Performance and distinguished guest artists collaborate in a wide range of repertoire that celebrates the extraordinary beauty and power of the singing voice.  

kallisti has also been featured with the La Jolla Symphony (Berio:Symphony)  and on the Green Umbrella Series at the Los Angeles Philhamonic (Reich: Music for 18), both with conductor Steven Schick and in the San Diego Symphony's 2018 It's About Time Festival at Copley Symphony Hall.  In addition, kallisti has toured to Stanford University in a unique collaboration of three world premiere operas:  The Voice Machine (2016)

kallisti chamber operas bring rarely heard masterworks and world premieres to the San Diego community.  kallisti  presented the San Diego premiere of Viktor Ullman's 1943 chamber opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (2012) in a critically acclaimed production that has been viewed over 4000 times worldwide on Vimeo.

In addition, kallisti presented world premieres of  leading American composer Anthony Davis' Lear on the Second Floor (2013) , Steven Lewis' Noon at Dusk (2016) and the West Coast premiere of Pascal Dusapin's To Be Sung (2009) led by Jullian Pellicano .  In addition, innovative stagings of concert works directed by Susan Narucki have presented  pairings of masterworks by  Erik Satie and Morton Feldman, and Barbara Strozzi and Salvatore Sciarrino .  Our most recent opera project paired two one act operas by Francis Poulenc and American minimalist Tom Johnson.

kallisti

Established by Grammy award-winning soprano Susan Narucki at the University of California, San Diego in 2009,  kallisti offers San Diego audiences exceptional performances of rarely heard works for voice in an intimate setting.  Singers from UC San Diego's Graduate Program in Contemporary Music Performance and distinguished guest artists collaborate in a wide range of repertoire that celebrates the extraordinary beauty and power of the singing voice.  

kallisti has also been featured with the La Jolla Symphony (Berio:Symphony)  and on the Green Umbrella Series at the Los Angeles Philhamonic (Reich: Music for 18), both with conductor Steven Schick and in the San Diego Symphony's 2018 It's About Time Festival at Copley Symphony Hall.  In addition, kallisti has toured to Stanford University in a unique collaboration of three world premiere operas:  The Voice Machine (2016)

kallisti chamber operas bring rarely heard masterworks and world premieres to the San Diego community.  kallisti  presented the San Diego premiere of Viktor Ullman's 1943 chamber opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (2012) in a critically acclaimed production that has been viewed over 4000 times worldwide on Vimeo.

In addition, kallisti presented world premieres of  leading American composer Anthony Davis' Lear on the Second Floor (2013) , Steven Lewis' Noon at Dusk (2016) and the West Coast premiere of Pascal Dusapin's To Be Sung (2009) led by Jullian Pellicano .  In addition, innovative stagings of concert works directed by Susan Narucki have presented  pairings of masterworks by  Erik Satie and Morton Feldman, and Barbara Strozzi and Salvatore Sciarrino .  Our most recent opera project paired two one act operas by Francis Poulenc and American minimalist Tom Johnson.

Aleck Karis has performed recitals, chamber music, and concertos across the Americas, Europe and in China. As the pianist of the new music ensemble Speculum Musicae he has participated in over a hundred premieres and performed at major American and European festivals. His appearances with orchestra have ranged from concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin to those of Stravinsky, Messiaen and Carter. His five solo discs on Bridge Records include Aleck Karis performs Schumann, Carter, Chopin; Aleck Karis: Mozart Recital; Stravinsky: Music for Piano 1911-1942; John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes; and Karis Plays Webern, Wolpe & Feldman. His two discs on Romeo Records are Piano Music of Philip Glass and Late Piano Music of Frederic Chopin. Last month, Bridge released his most recent disc, Feldman's haunting last work Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello. Karis has studied with William Daghlian, Artur Balsam and Beveridge Webster. He is a Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego, and former Associate Dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities.

Camera Lucida is a chamber music collaboration between four musicians with diverse backgrounds. Camera Lucida is a unique project matching masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire with a group of world-class instrumentalists who happen to call San Diego home.

PROGRAM:

Claude Debussy, Première rhapsodie for clarinet and piano
Arthur Foote, Piano Quartet
Beethoven, String Quartet in F major, Op. 18 Nr. 1

No late seating.

For additional program information, please visit Camera Lucida's website: sdcamlu.org

Subscription and single tickets available at the UC San Diego Box Office. Ticket information: (858) 534-TIXS (8497). 

Additional Description:

Under the artistic directorship of UC San Diego distinguished professor and cellist Charles Curtis and anchored by regular featured performances by San Diego Symphony Concertmaster Jeff Thayer, Formosa Quartet violist and UCLA professor Che-Yen Chen, concert pianist Reiko Uchida, UC San Diego performance faculty and occasional guests, Camera Lucida has established a tradition of challenging, musically ambitious programs performed with the assurance of an established ensemble, with the added flexibility of changing instrumentation and guests from the international chamber music world.

Directed by Ken Anderson, the choir combines hundreds of voices to fill the auditorium with the uplifting sound of African American spirituals, blues, traditional songs, and gospel.

The MUS 95JC Jazz Ensembles concert, under the direction of Kamau Kenyatta, will feature small ensembles performing a variety of exciting compositions, including some written and arranged by student musicians. The instrumentation will include vocals, violin, saxophones, a rhythm section and Afro-Latin percussion.

Ruben Valenzuela, conductor

John Adams The Chairman Dances
Felix Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
Gioachino Rossini Stabat Mater

Guest artists: Alisa Jordheim, soprano; Sarah-Nicole Carter, mezzo-soprano; James Onstad, tenor; Jonathan Woody, bass; Ayrton Coehlo Pisco, violin (2018 Young Artists Winner)

Our season began with Rossini, and it concludes with Rossini, as new Choral Director Ruben Valenzuela makes his LJS&C conducting debut in Rossini’s rarely heard (and somewhat operatic) Stabat Mater for four soloists, chorus, and orchestra.  The concert opens with a foxtrot for orchestra that John Adams originally intended to include in his opera Nixon in China, and our Young Artist Competition winner, Ayrton Coehlo Pisco, performs what is probably the most famous piece ever written for violin, Mendelssohn’s evergreen Violin Concerto.

Concert sponsors: Julie & Don MacNeil

Ruben Valenzuela, conductor

John Adams The Chairman Dances
Felix Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
Gioachino Rossini Stabat Mater

Guest artists: Alisa Jordheim, soprano; Sarah-Nicole Carter, mezzo-soprano; James Onstad, tenor; Jonathan Woody, bass; Ayrton Coehlo Pisco, violin (2018 Young Artists Winner)

Our season began with Rossini, and it concludes with Rossini, as new Choral Director Ruben Valenzuela makes his LJS&C conducting debut in Rossini’s rarely heard (and somewhat operatic) Stabat Mater for four soloists, chorus, and orchestra.  The concert opens with a foxtrot for orchestra that John Adams originally intended to include in his opera Nixon in China, and our Young Artist Competition winner, Ayrton Coehlo Pisco, performs what is probably the most famous piece ever written for violin, Mendelssohn’s evergreen Violin Concerto.

Concert sponsors: Julie & Don MacNeil