nF Presents – Alexandria Smith

Alexandria Smith

Program

(tap/click each work title to expand program notes)

Hearing Vision (2023) - Alexandria Smith

Improvisation

Exhale 2 for Alexandria Smith and Byron Asher (2023)

breathe; get intune with the rhythm of your body.
once you find body tempo, make eye contact.
explore cells and improvise in between.
try to observe the rhythm of your breath without controlling it.
leave space where desired.
Play to the length of your breath.

Exhale 2 is an exploration of sound, listening, and breath. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros’ Sonic Meditations and performing with Byron, this piece features cells of instructions and melodies that the performers can visit between improvised material.

Heart Music, for Milford Graves (2023) - Alexandria Smith and Daniel Meinecke

Graves’ stated that his research:
“…[O]riginate[d] from a belief that music is a universal language, and a curiosity to define the primary building blocks of that language…Exploring these universals led me to what believe is the common denominator: the human heartbeat. ” (https://www.milfordgraves.com/pageab)

Inspired by the musical and medical research of Milford Graves, Daniel Meinecke and I will perform improvisations that explore the healthy unevenness of heart rhythms.

Voices in the Skin 3 for Alexandria Smith and Erin Demastes (2023)

Dr. Barbara B. Brown, a research psychologist that popularized the use of biofeedback and first president of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback stated in her text New Mind, New Body (1974):

“Emotional judgements expressed by the skin and those expressed by words are often at great odds. And more often than not the voicing of the skin cut through convoluted language and the pressures of consciousness with a remarkable accuracy about the nature of reality. Has man been so inordinately proud of his conscious mind that he has abnegated the beauties and extraordinary abilities of the subconscious? Is it possible that the genuine evolution of mind has taken place below the level of a consciousness busy with applying socially created brakes to the natural development of the psyche?” (88)

Throughout this piece, Erin and I will explore alternative methods of ensemble communication and communicate through the voices inside our skin. This piece is my 3rd exploration improvisation exploring these ideas, and the first time I will be performing them with a duo partner.

Subaqueous (2019, revised 2023) - Alexandria Smith

Subaqueous is defined as existing, formed, or taking place underwater. This piece is a multimedia exploration of the literal definition of the word – water is abstracted into patterns, textures, and unnatural time and the deeply personal, musical expression of embodying music and being present in a space. This piece was one of my first experiments making musical environments that could help me channel affect and explore ideas that often felt too vulnerable for me to express in front of an audience. Originally written for processed flugelhorn, projections, and 4 channel audio, this revision will be performed with trumpet and my wearable electronics.

Our Full Selves (2023)

Our Full Selves is an improvisation for quartet that was added to the set the day of the concert. A celebration of the individual and collective vision, energy, and talent of our four performers, we hope that Our Full Selves will provide to be a memorable send off for the end of nienteForte’s 13th season.


Artist Bios

Praised by The New York Times for her “appealingly melancholic sound” and “entertaining array of distortion effects,” Alexandria Smith is a multimedia artist, audio engineer, scholar, trumpeter, and educator that enjoys working at the intersection of all these disciplines. Her creative practice and research interests focus on building, designing, theorizing, and performing with wearable electronics that translate embodied, biological data into interactive sonic and visual environments. To explore how electronic music is embodied through practice, she has been experimenting with ways to integrate biofeedback training and sensor observation into her electronic music, build controllers that go beyond keyboards and drum pads, and perform with interactive visual environments. Her research in this interdisciplinary area was recently published in Arcana Musicians on Musicians X and presented at MOXsonic. She is currently on faculty at Loyola University New Orleans and will be joining the faculty of the School of Music at the Georgia Institute of Technology in August 2023.

Byron Asher is a saxophonist and clarinetist and composer based in New Orleans. Raised in Maryland, he has performed across Europe and the US at major festivals and art centers including the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival as well as at dive bars and DIY spaces. He is a 2022 OneBeat Fellow, a program of the US State Department. As a composer, Byron’s work has been supported by MacDowell, South Arts, and A Studio In The Woods (New Orleans), among others. He leads Skrontch Music, an experimental large ensemble, and Basher, a “free jazz party band,” and is an equal collaborator in Flaxan, a brass and woodwind chamber quartet, among many other projects. Also an educator, Byron is adjunct faculty in the music department at the University of New Orleans.

Erin Demastes is an experimental composer, performer, and instrument maker whose research combines sound and technology with humor, drama, and absurdity. She uses everyday, household objects and hacked electronics for her installations and performances and subverts their use and perception with play and experimentation. Erin received an M.F.A. in Experimental Sound Practices and Integrated Media from California Institute of the Arts, a B.M. in jazz studies and piano performance from Loyola University New Orleans, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in experimental music and digital media at Louisiana State University. She worked as an audio technician, artist, and educator for five years in Los Angeles and as a jazz and classical pianist, composer, and arranger for ten years in the New Orleans area.

Daniel Meinecke is a pianist and composer currently living in New Orleans. Mr. Meinecke was one of the recipients of the Detroit Jazz Festival’s New Voices Series in 2016. At that performance he premiered his Big Band project where he brings his original voice to a large ensemble format. Mr. Meinecke received his Masters of Music from Wayne State University in 2016. Mr. Meinecke’s original composition “In The Clouds” was featured by the Pan-American Detroit Big Band at the 2016 Panama Jazz Festival featuring Danilo Perez as a soloist. He now teaches piano skills, ensembles and private piano lessons at Loyola University and has found success performing around the world with Quiana Lynell an award-winning jazz vocalist. He also performs his own original music in the New Orleans area as the Daniel Meinecke Ensemble.


nF Acknowledgements

nienteForte would like to give heartfelt thanks to our Season 13 donors and sponsors. We would also like to acknowledge the following people and organizations who have offered their time and resources to make this season possible:

  • Michael Batt
  • Kari Bersharse
  • Sophia Blessinger
  • Maxwell Dulaney
  • Ray Evanoff
  • Chelsea Hines
  • Lisa Hooper
  • Megan Ihnen
  • Dylan Koester
  • Kyle Peeples
  • Heather Penton
  • Phillip Schuessler
  • Daniel Sharp
  • Rick Snow
  • Andrew Szypula
  • Alan Theisen
  • Hotel Peter and Paul
  • Kappa Kappa Psi Rho Chapter
  • Tulane University’s Music and Science Technology Program
  • Versipel New Music

Join the nF Community with a tax-deductible charitable donation!


nF Presents – Collective Lovemusic

Program

(tap/click each work title to expand program notes)

Mouthpiece 38 (2022) - Erin Gee

dedicated to Emiliano Gavito

In her series of pieces (more than 30) entitled Mouthpiece, composer and vocalist Erin Gee uses the voice in hushed nonverbal sounds supported by subtle instrumental effects to project an intimate sound world, as if she were revealing her innermost but inscrutable feelings. The result is original, powerful, and haunting.

In the Mouthpieces, the voice is used as an instrument of sound production rather than as a vehicle of identity. Linguistic meaning is not the voice’s goal. The construction of the vocal text is often based on linguistic structure—vowel-consonant formation and the principle of the allophone—and is relatively quiet, with a high percentage of breath.

The Mouthpieces presuppose a state of listening. They engage physiology rather than psychology. The construction of the vocal text is relatively quiet, with a high percentage of breath: „lightness, and merging, about formlessness.“

The sounds that she uses are often remnants or artifacts of phonemes, however, when placed in a non-semantic context, they float in a liminal space with no overt connection to a language.

Merging the voice with both the instruments and with breath, and repeatedly returning to formlessness through “a more (or less) pronounced utterance of the mouth”. Degrees of pronounced utterance.  This has been the main idea behind the entire Mouthpiece series, which began in 2000 and consists of about 30 works for solo voice, voice and ensemble, choir, voice and orchestra, string quartet, opera and other combinations.  Not pre-meaning, simply never in the direction of meaning.

After working with lovemusic on Mouthpiece 37, commissioned by the collective, Erin Gee wrote Mouthpiece 38 for their flautist, Emiliano Gavito, incorporating and condensing elements from two previous ensemble mouthpieces that use the bass flute in very effective and original way amalgamating its sound with that of the performers voice.

If at first it sounded like rain (2019) - Santiago Díez Fischer

lovemusic have been working in close collaboration with Santiago Díez Fischer since the collective was founded. Later this year a monographic CD of the works the collective has created with the composer will be released on the NEOS label. This duo for bass clarinet and electric guitar is based on a poem Seated Figure with Red Angle (1988) by Betty Goodwin (by Anne Carson). The poem consists of a series of open-ended conditional clauses numbered from 1 – 72 creating a weightless and ethereal atmosphere. Here is a an excerpt with the numbers surrounding the section of the poem which the composer choose for the title of the piece:

12. If interrogation is a desire to get information which is not given or not given freely.
13. If buried all but traceless in the dark in its energy sitting, drifting within your own is another body.
14. If at first it sounded like rain.
15. If your defense is perfect after all it was the trees that walked away.
16. If objects are not solid.

Cove B-side (2023) - David Bird

As a descriptive or metaphorical title, Cove seemed to encapsulate a broad set of colors, themes, and concepts explored in the work. Just as its coastal recesses amass driftwood and oceanic material over time, my experience in writing Cove reflected a fluid creative environment which collected and fused many disparate musical ideas. As the initial premiere of the work was postponed due to the pandemic, I took advantage of the fluid timeline to gather new materials and shape the work in an entirely different fashion from how I initially intended it. The activity explored in the piece depicts a dense and symbiotic one, with performers often playing in strict relationship with one another, much like the symbiotic relationships found in coastal ecosystems or the intricate biological art of Ernst Haeckel. The balance between system and expression also seemed to be a common theme, with many features of the work structured around a distinct tone row. Despite being a reasonably active piece, Cove draws its most significant inspiration from themes of seclusion, intimacy, and memory, as well as my experiences of exploring tide pools as a child and the feeling of being isolated from my family in Southern California due to the pandemic.

Commissioned by lovemusic

Eyes On (2019) - Kelley Sheehan

Within eyes on the trio is asked to be staged closely to each other and within close proximity to a variety of small electronics to become, as I think of it, an interconnected “machine.” In this “machine” each performer engages with each other in new and compelling ways. By blending sound from electronics with instruments, use of mimicry, tape playback, and purposeful obfuscation,
the impression of one cohesive unit rather than three individual performers arises. Yet, importantly, each performer keeps their individual identity,
often giving agency to improvise and make decisions regarding the overall soundscape.

This, to me, forms an environment that is at once mechanical but avoids the methodic and encroaches on wonder. Overall, this “machine” merges lo-fi technology with acoustic instruments to form new sound worlds, controlled
unpredictability, and a tape cassette that, by the double bar, will be entirely warped and brand new.

Due to the nature and fragility of the feedback and lo- electronics incorporated in this work, the entire performance hinges on acoustics, prescribed proximity, discovery, and connection. With these aspects at play each action and sound of the trio can be predicted but not assured.

Second Nightmare for Kiku (2014) - Natacha Diels

Fairytales for performers:

Descent into the nightmare’s urn
Heads bobble as assistants churn
a cup of fullsome wholesome song-
the terror near the end forgotten

Wistful falling delicate screech
Possess the nightmare’s careful essence!
A troubled unison assistants find-
deeper through the nightmare reach.

The lady learns each gesture slowly
absorbs and tears the notes asunder
Shortly she will be abandoned
to the nightmare’s terrific thunder.

Dedicated to Kiku Enomoto

The Hyacinth Garden (2023) - Finbar Hosie

The Hyacinth Garden grew from themes explored within T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land: the author’s apparent disillusionment with British society, is mournful, yet at times a derisive critique. The poem was written soon after WWI and while the Eliot was recovering in a sanatorium, following a nervous breakdown experienced during his work as a clerk in London’s financial district. Vignettes of the 1922 poem punctuate the work: an incompetent clairvoyant, references to the myths of Hyacinthus and Tristan and Isolde, and the recurring theme of water as a mark of regeneration as well as drought.
Finbar Hosie’s new work invites us on a political and sensuous exploration through wastelands and gardens, in search of togetherness and separation in space and sound

lovemusic is:

Emiliano Gavito – flutes

Adam Starkie – clarinets

Emily Yabe – violin/viola

Christian Lozano – guitar

Finbar Hosie – composition, electronics, and lights


'ensemble bio

lovemusic is a collective of musicians specialised in new music based in Strasbourg.

Working with composers on new and exciting works that will enrich the musical world is at the heart of what we do. This means collaborating with artists who wish to create new music together in which both the composer and musicians are actively involved in the creative process. We have had the pleasure of working with Santiago Diez Fischer, Michelle Agnes Magalhaes, David Bird, Erin Gee, Jesse Broekman, Michele Abondano, Finbar Hosie, Annette Schlünz, Jérôme Combier, Malin Bång, Philip Venables, Kelley Sheehan, Raphael Languillat, Maria Laura Dissandro…

We want to dismantle the patriarchal and hierarchical systems engrained in the new music world, creating a safe and inclusive environment in which musicians can decide for themselves how they contribute to each project, the music they want to perform and the composers they wish to work with.

The members of lovemusic have diverse backgrounds and tastes which nourish the choices of the music we perform. We welcome the multiplicity of aesthetics that new music today offers and our programmes are the result of extensive research which allows us to programme creatively, bringing new voices to new audiences. Diversity is important and we strive to programme music that takes into consideration ethnicity, gender and sexual identity.

The way in which we present music on stage is always taken into consideration. We perform un-conducted, which creates not only intimate bonds between the musicians but also an active and exciting connection with the public. We like working with lighting, video and scenography which contribute to creating an immersive listening experience. lovemusic concerts are colourful, fun and innovative drawing the public into our diverse musical world.

collectivelovemusic.com


nF Acknowledgements

nienteForte would like to give heartfelt thanks to our Season 13 donors and sponsors. We would also like to give acknowledge the following people and organizations who have offered their time and resources to make this season possible:

  • Michael Batt
  • Kari Bersharse
  • Sophia Blessinger
  • Maxwell Dulaney
  • Ray Evanoff
  • Chelsea Hines
  • Lisa Hooper
  • Megan Ihnen
  • Dylan Koester
  • Kyle Peeples
  • Heather Penton
  • Phillip Schuessler
  • Daniel Sharp
  • Rick Snow
  • Andrew Szypula
  • Alan Theisen
  • Hotel Peter and Paul
  • Kappa Kappa Psi Rho Chapter
  • Tulane University’s Music and Science Technology Program
  • Versipel New Music

Join the nF Community with a tax-deductible charitable donation!


nF Presents: Matthew Wright

Program

the love light is beaming through and gassing the whole scene

the love light is beaming throguh and gassing the whole scene

Matthew Wright (trombone)

with: mendel lee, kyle peeples, hayden outlow, heather penton, sydney rust, samuel tyree

and dakota wilburn as “the bass trombone player”


in and out of the game (2010) – eve belgarian

the hip gan (2007) – mw

mauf (2022) – mw

yonder (1995) – jane ira bloom

i have something to tell you – mw

in the silver forest (1983) – yehuda yannay

sol (1972) lr


Artist Bio

Matthew Wright:

plays trombone

performer/composer/pedagogue 

joined the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011. previously held a position with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and was a soloist with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra on their 2022 summer tour. performed with numerous orchestras, big bands, and chamber ensembles from Birdland to Beijing to New Orleans. made Carnegie Hall debut turning pages in recital. was in the first horn section to play with the band CAKE. recorded with Bela Fleck. recorded for Tyler Perry. recorded for Verve records. once shook Sparky Lyle’s hand. command performance for Solange Knowles. opened for the Gypsy Kings. opened for Jim Gaffigan. soloist with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra while dressed as Santa Claus. premiered pieces by a few Pulitzer finalists, the fastest guitarist in the world, and some real jerks. does a mediocre JJ impression. played in orchestras backing James Moody, Andy Williams, Yo Yo Ma, Randy Newman, and Placido Domingo. as a composer, writes and arranges many pieces for solo recitals and for Versipel New MusicEagle Scout. caught a foul ball at mlb game. Michael Jordan’s former roommate. saw Jimmy Carter’s bible study. smoked a cigarette with Fred Rzewski. teaches privately online and as an adjunct at Loyola University New Orleans, the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, the University of New Orleans, and at Tulane University. primary teachers are Jeannie Little, Matthew Vaughn, Per Brevig, Steve Norrell, and Scott Hartman. as seen on Wrestlemania 30 (40:50).


Acknowledgements

Matthew Wright would like to give special thanks to Mendel Lee and nienteForte.

nienteForte would like to give heartfelt thanks to our Season 13 donors and sponsors. We would also like to give acknowledge the following people and organizations who have offered their time and resources to make this season possible:

  • Michael Batt
  • Amine Beklouche
  • Kari Bersharse
  • Sophia Blessinger
  • Maxwell Dulaney
  • Ray Evanoff
  • Chelsea Hines
  • Lisa Hooper
  • Megan Ihnen
  • Dylan Koester
  • Heather Penton
  • Zachary V. Pine
  • Phillip Schuessler
  • Daniel Sharp
  • Rick Snow
  • Andrew Szypula
  • Alan Theisen
  • Hotel Peter and Paul
  • Kappa Kappa Psi Rho Chapter
  • Tulane University’s Music and Science Technology Program
  • Versipel New Music

Join our growing nF community by supporting us in our Fall Fundraiser!

nF Presents: Ji Weon Ryu

Program

Kokopeli (1990) – Katherine Hoover (1937-2018)

Self in Mind II (2018) – Jae Hyuck Choi (b. 1994)

Sequenza I (1958) – Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

Etude No. 5 (1974) – Isang Yun (1917-1995)

INTERMISSION

The Great Train Race (1993) – Ian Clarke (b. 1964)

Scrivo in Vento (1991) – Elliott Carter (1908-2012)

Sonatine for Flute and Clarinet (1961) – Andre Jolivet (1905-1974)

(with Daniel Parrette, clarinet)

I. Andantino

II. Quasi Cadentz

III. Intermezzo


Bio

Admired for her pure poetry...

Admired for her “pure poetry” and “beautiful technique and sound” (NFA Chronicle), Ji Weon Ryu holds The Mary Freeman Wisdom Chair as the Principal Flute of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra since 2019 and serves in the same capacity with the Grammy-winning Albany Symphony Orchestra since 2017. 

Over the course of her young career, Ji Weon has been a guest flutist with distinguished ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic and the Verbier Festival Orchestra and has been a featured soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. As a principal flutist of various ensembles, she has performed in venues including Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Dvorak Hall (Prague), The John F. Kennedy Center, Musikverein (Vienna), and Seoul Arts Center and has worked with many acclaimed conductors such as Alan Gilbert, David Robertson, Fabio Luisi, Matthias Pintscher, Manfred Honeck, Thomas Daasgard, Tugan Sokiev, and Valery Gergiev to name a few.

A devoted orchestral musician, her performances have been broadcasted live on Medici TV and released to an exclusive album by iDAGIO. Her captivating control of tonal palette can also be heard on the world premiere recording with solo violist Richard O’Neill of Christopher Theofanidis’ Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra, which has won the 2021 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo category.

With her unparalleled flexibility and virtuosity in a diverse panoply of musical styles, Ji Weon has won First Prize at the 2017 Artur Balsam Duo Competition, the 2016 New York Flute Club Competition, and the 38th National Flute Association Soloist Competition along with the Best Performance of Newly Commissioned Piece Award, and has received the 2017 Young Artist Award from the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation in South Korea.

Ji Weon has performed extensively as a recitalist and a chamber musician all over the US and South Korea. She regularly tours with the Frisson, an “explosive” New York City-based chamber ensemble as a founding member, and is a co-founder and the artistic committee of the Ensemble Blank, a contemporary group based in Seoul that strives to push boundaries of classical music repertoire and searches for unconventional concert venues. 

In addition to her appearance on stage, Ji Weon is also committed to teaching. She has given guest lectures and masterclasses at The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Berklee College of Music, Louisiana State University, Tulane University, and the University of Kansas. 

Apart from sharing classical music with audiences, Ji Weon enjoys arranging and performing pop tunes at the popular Instagram/YouTube channel, JHM Jams. One of the videos she featured has over 52k views and has been recognized by entertainment studio, Lionsgate and fashion magazine, Glamour.


Ji Weon holds a Master of Music degree in orchestral performance from Manhattan School of Music and both a Bachelor of Music degree and an Accelerated Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. Her principal teachers include Robert Langevin, Carol Wincenc, and Young Ji Song.


Join nF in our mission to champion contemporary music in New Orleans!

nF Presents: Ensemble Linea (Concert 2)

Program:

Ensemble Linea’s Thursday Night program will showcase four new works by Tulane University Student Composers.

Permeation – Carli Knight (b. 1999)

Spoof – Jonathan Freilich (b. 1868)

Ever What – Cory Diane (they/them) (b. 1987)

Noon Blue Apples – Dylan Hunter (b. 1986)

Personnel:

Jean-Philippe Wurtz – conductor

Keiko Murakami – flutes

Andrea Nagy – clarinets

Carolina Santiago Martínez – piano

Ernst Spyckerelle – violin

Laurent Camatte – viola

Johannes Burghoff – cello

nF Presents: Ensemble Linea (Concert 1)

Program:

Ensemble Linea’s Wednesday night program features two multi-movement works whose movements will alternate throughout the concert. The concert is approximately 70 minutes long and will be performed with no intermission.

Vortex Temporum (1996) - Gérard Grisey (1946-1998)

Gérard Grisey completed Vortex Temporum – his magnum opus for six musicians – in 1996. His
meditation on sound and time served as a testament, as Grisey died two years later. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker takes on Grisey’s polyphony with a danced counterpoint for six dancers. How can you visualise polyphony by dancing it? And how can a dancer embody a counter voice to polyphonic music? Inevitably the choreographer probes the issue: what is time? Dancing the question is in itself a kind of answer.
As the early Christian philosopher Saint Augustine wrote, time is self-evident – until, that is, one attempts to put into words what it is exactly. Time, as perceived by human beings, can shrink, expand, stand still or jump forward, depending on what is unfolding upon its canvas. In Vortex Temporum, Grisey has turned time into something tangible by listening to how sound, as a physical phenomenon, behaves in space, much in the same way air may only be perceived when the wind chases leaves through it. A short motif of four notes – an arpeggio from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé – snowballs from simplicity to complexity and back. Grisey makes the trembling of molecules –sound’s matter – perceivable by examining it on three different scales: with human eyes, through a molecular microscope, and by zooming out on it through a telescope – something Grisey calls it the time of ‘humans, insects and whales’.
De Keersmaeker laid out her choreography measure for measure, second by second against Grisey’s complex score. As she explains: ‘Grisey’s Vortex is an astonishing achievement: at once raw and refined, rigorously structured and wildly organic, primitive even. Just like Grisey, I have submitted a very simple dance phrase to a series of transformations, closely following the music but with an autonomous logic proper to dance.’
De Keersmaeker has chosen to stage an intricate intertwining of sound and movement. Each dancer is linked to one of the six musicians, and colours his or her dancing with patterns of movement proper to every instrument. Both the dancers and musicians travel around the stage following a pattern – a vortex – of swirling circles.
The piece is De Keersmaeker’s danced attempt at answering the unanswerable question, what is time?: ‘Time can be thought of as both linear and cyclical. That which we call ‘now’ – the crack between the present and the future that we live in – is in fact a permanent tipping point, a balancing act between memory and anticipation, leaning back and forth between the ghost image of the past and a desire towards the future.’


Rokh (2012) - Raphaël Cendo (b. 1975)

By avoiding almost anything resembling convention, Cendo practically redefines what music is, turning it on its head. The extended techniques used by Cendo cease to seem “extended” and instead become the most basic and fundamental — even obvious — ingredients for the intensely focused, self-referential entity that is Rokh I. The work’s point of inspirational origin is the terrifying mythological bird of prey found in Indian, Persian & Asian literature (perhaps most memorably in the One Thousand and One Nights). Cendo establishes the sonic credentials of the creature in the most dazzlingly vivid way, a counterpoint of violence formed from a myriad gestures, slides, twangs, thwacks, ruffles, slaps,
heavily compressed pitches, grindings, pops, clusters & whooshes. It’s as though we’ve become the miniaturized inhabitant of the great creature’s nest, confronted by activity on a massive and potentially very destructive scale.

Personnel:

Jean-Philippe Wurtz – conductor

Keiko Murakami – flutes

Andrea Nagy – clarinets

Carolina Santiago Martínez – piano

Ernst Spyckerelle – violin

Laurent Camatte – viola

Johannes Burghoff – cello

nF Presents: Black Meridian by MIATp

Black Meridian is approximately 70 minutes long and is performed without intermission and without applause breaks between compositions (although applause at any time during is welcomed)

Program

Part One: Event Horizon

Prelude: Once Upon Another Time – Sara Bareilles

Constant – Jeremy Valley & Alan Theisen *

Quand le bleu rencontre le vert – Scott Johnson *

The Clockmaker’s Doll – Mara Gibson *

Dark Star – Garrett Schumann *

||: Pop, Chew, Swallow :|| – Neil Anderson-Himmelspach

Part Two: Singularity

ein ton, eher kurz, sehr leise. – Antoine Beuger

Postlude: Outside of Space and Time – David Byrne & St Vincent

* composed for MIATp


Artists' Statement and Listening Guide

Black Meridian is a theatrical recital of new music for voice, saxophone, and electronics. The show takes as its central theme the distortion of space and time around the presence of black holes; a metaphor is drawn between this astonishing cosmic phenomenon and the inevitable tragedy of relationships marred by miscommunication and disastrous personal choices.

Part One, “Event Horizon,” shares its name with the boundary defining the region of space around a black hole from which nothing (not even light) can escape. Once an object crosses the threshold of the event horizon, it is doomed to be pulled into the black hole. Part One consists of six compositions arranged to parallel such a gradual, inexorable trajectory.

Singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles’ Once Upon Another Time functions as Black Meridian’s prelude, a memory of optimism, autonomy, and purpose. Constant (music, lyrics, and track production all co-created by songwriting team Jeremy Valley and Alan Theisen) is the “thesis statement” of the show, dramatically presenting the statement you are reading now. Quand le bleu rencontre le vert by Scott Johnson acts as a playful vocalise – a sultry, bluesy, flirty exchange between the two characters. This is the calm before the storm.

The Clockmaker’s Doll by Mara Gibson (after a poem by Rebecca Morgan Frank) flashes us backward a few centuries to examine Descartes’ grief after the death of his daughter. Gibson’s work is the motivating trauma behind the narrative tension of Black Meridian. Garrett Schumann’s Dark Star, on the other hand, is its responsorial rage aria. One envisions the protagonist invoking supernatural forces to cope with suffering articulated in Clockmaker’s Doll. Through this necronomicon heavy-metal demon-summoning phantasmagoria we are thrust headlong toward the event horizon. ||: Pop, Chew, Swallow :|| pushes the listener over that edge. Neil Anderson-Himmelspach’s composition is a deeply personal confession of the pleasures of opiates, the fury toward corporate exploitation, and the determination to break the cycle of addiction. The piece accelerates to a breakneck, breathless velocity. Annihilation appears inescapable. For some, a black hole is an abstract concept of physics; for too many others, it materializes in the shape of a small round pill.

At the center of every black hole exists a “Singularity” (the title of Part Two), a one-dimensional point in which gravity becomes unlimited and space-time curves infinitely. Here, the laws of physics as we know them cease to operate.

Music by the Wandelweiser Group is characterized by sparse, quiet soundscapes and ein ton. eher kurz. sehr leise. by member composer Antoine Beuger is no exception. Lasting at least twenty minutes, two performers alternate sounding a single tone (in this case the G above middle C) within the confines of their own 30-second time span. One of the performers will eventually choose permanent silence, leaving the other in bare isolation. When the still-questing partner abandons hope and embraces silence as well, the piece has concluded. The dimensions of time and space have been shattered for performers and audience alike.

A sphinxian ballad by eminent indie pop artists David Byrne and St. Vincent serves as a final reflection on our narrative. Perhaps time has reversed to the beginning of our story. Or possibly we find ourselves in a parallel universe wherein Byrne/St. Vincent’s song is the start of a new tale, much as Bareilles’ launched this one. Lessons have been learned, change has occurred, roles have been swapped, connections reformed.

Maybe it will be different this time.


About MIATp

MIATp is an avant-pop band making voice/saxophone/electronic sound worlds that are ancient and futuristic, funky and fragile. MIATp (AKA Megan Ihnen & Alan Theisen present…) had its roots as a contemporary classical duo but now combine experimental music, multiple pop genres, and theatre. With influences ranging from Björk to Sun Ra to Ligeti, MIATp shows have been praised as “a fresh look at what it means to be artists in the 21st century.” Microtones, hip hop beats, prog rock, jazz, silences, heavy metal – anything is possible at an MIATp show.

nF Presents: Lang/Rainwater Project

nF Presents: Lang/Rainwater Project

Program

for craig (were you the sonic boom) (2022, world premiere) – cory diane (they/them) (b.1987)

nowadays (2022, world premiere) – Dylan Hunter (b. 1986)

Fratres (1977) – Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)

INTERMISSION

Between Breath (2021) – Scott Wollschleger (b. 1980)

All We Could See From the Windows was Water (2020) – Alex Temple (b. 1983)

Anything You Are Attached To, Give That (2016) – Jeremy Howard Beck (b. 1984)


Artist Bios

Originally from Long Island, trombonist William Lang is an active performer, improviser, and teacher based in New York City. He can be found playing in all settings and style, from the avant-garde and classical to Broadway and indie chamber pop. He has given his signature unaccompanied recitals throughout the United States, played concertos in both America and Europe, and has also recorded with such artists as Philip Glass, David Bryne, St. Vincent, and Jonsi (of Sigur Ros.) Intensely passionate for chamber music, he is a founding member of the groundbreaking ensemble loadbang (an original and unique group of musicians interested in cutting edge music,) as well as a member of groups such as the Lang/Rainwater Project, TILT Brass, SEM Ensemble, and So Wrong it’s Right. The New York Times has called his playing “fiercely, virtuosic” and the Boston Globe has hailed him for his “superb performance” in past solo works.

Bay Area, California-based pianist Anne Rainwater is a dexterous musician known for her vibrant interpretations of works from J.S. Bach to John Zorn. Recognized for her “boldly assertive rhetoric” (San Francisco Examiner) and “bright golden honeycomb for a brain” (Roy Doughty, poet), she appears as a soloist, chamber musician and lecture artist. Anne has performed in venues and festivals throughout the US and Europe, including the Donau Festival in Krems, Austria, Kampnagel in Hamburg, Germany, the Kennedy Center, Princeton University, University of California San Diego, Louisiana State University, and Le Poisson Rouge, among others. She holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music. Anne curates a monthly musical gathering, founded in 2016, called the Vernon Salon Series, which is currently streaming online. She has released 2 solo albums – J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (2018) and Anywhere But Here (2020), featuring electronic keyboard works by Jude Traxler. Anne is a 2019 recipient of an InterMusic SF Grant. She is working on her first book, which explores the internal and external ecosystems that contribute to the understanding, practicing, and performing of music. Highlights of the Spring 2022 season include a performance on Augusta, Georgia’s Tuesday’s Music Live series and master classes and recitals at Troy University and Tulane University. When not at the piano or writing, she is running long distances, reading, or obsessively watching baseball.

nF’s COVID-19 Policy

nienteForte welcomes the public to all of our season 12 events under the following COVID-19 guidelines (updated March 2022):

All patrons must show proof of vaccination at the door in one of the following forms:

  • Tulane ID (for events on Tulane’s campus)
  • Physical or digital vaccination card
  • Negative PCR test within 72h of the event

Vaccination requirements:

  • Adults 18+, two shots of Pfizer or Moderna, or one shot of J&J. No booster required
  • Children 5-17, one shot of Pfizer, Moderna, or J&J. No booster required
  • Children under 5, no shot required

Masks are optional inside the concert venue.

For any questions, contact us