mus

ic

for

a Ne

w

C

entu

ry violin concertos

by Sidney

Corbett and Christopher

Adler

Sarah Plum violin

withAkira Mori

andNicholas Deyoe

conductors

YAël For Violin and orchestra 2005

sidney corbett 1960

1 I. breath2 II. the dark3 III. shira yaël4 IV. archipelago

sarah Plum VIolIn

akira mori conductor / chamber music midwest FestiVal orchestra

VIolIn Erin lawson concErtmastEr / James Zabawa-martinez / latannia Ellerbe sarah Foster / sam rudy / alison Fahy / mark Wamma / Willie mcclellan Kevin ohrlund / maryann mori

VIola Ken Freed / Benjamin davis / laura de st. croix

cEllo roxana mendoza Guevara / cory Grossman / Baylen Wagner

Bass Zach sawyer

FlutE alysa treber

oBoE Joseph Peters

clarInEt larkin sanders

Bassoon maia Hamann

tromBonE Benjamin Bussey / david J. clovis II

PErcussIon adam rappel

HarP Elinor niemisto

Yaël was recorded at its north american premiere, June 5, 2011 at the chamber music midwest Festival

in osceola, Wisconsin, by sergei Kvitko.

VioliN CoNCerto 2013

christoPher adler 1972

5 I. sHIFt (tHE KnIFE GrIndEr)6 II. VèrElloE7 III. tEKtonIKa

nicholas deyoe conductor / san diego new music

VIolIn Isaac allen / mona tian / Emily call / Bram Goldstein / Victoria Bietz

VIola angela choong / Hunter Harris

cEllo Jennifer Bewerse / thea mesirow

Bass charles Ermer

FlutE rachel Beetz / michael matsuno

oBoE sarah skuster

clarInEt ariana Warren / robert Zelickman

Bassoon ryan simmons

Horn nicolee Kuester

trumPEt rachel allen

tromBonE Eric starr

PErcussIon dustin donahue / Jason Ginter

HarP tasha smith Godinez

recorded and mixed in september 2014 by darrell Harvey at studio West, san diego, california.

mastering by sergei Kvitko at Blue Griffin records.

in June of 2011 i had the pleasure of performing the north

american premiere of sidney corbett’s Yaël at the chamber music

midwest Festival in osceola, wisconsin with my colleague

akira mori on the podium.

the live recording of that concert was so haunting and expressive

that i decided to release Yaël on a cd. the only question was,

with what?

later that summer i played christopher adler’s violin piece

Jolie sphinx (which had coincidentally been recommended to me

by sidney who had taught christopher for a semester at duke)

on solo recitals in berlin at the Kapelltheater and Ankunft: Neue

Musik. i absolutely loved performing this piece and felt that

christopher had an original compositional voice. i asked him to

write me a concerto and was thrilled when he said yes.

i am honored to introduce these two beautiful, original and quite

striking works to a larger public. i am confident that they will enter

the repertoire and be played for many years to come.

saraH Plum

sarah Plum performing at the Berlin main train station with sidney corbett. Photo: Jens Boje Hansen

Yaël is a biblical figure as well as the title of a volume of Edmond Jabès’ Book of Questions which is the primary inspiration for this concerto. Iris radisch described Jabès’ work as “multi-voiced telegrams in the desert and mini monologues on the eternal questions which are always ultimately the same: on absence, memory, exile and being Jewish.” the violin line is Yaël’s spirit as she travels among the ruins of a Judaic culture which God has abandoned, ruins full of questions, Hebrew letters and books. Yaël often hangs above the polyphonic voices but other times joins them in dances or sings into an echoing void. the first movement, breath, represents Yaël’s breath: which in gentle harmonics softly blows over the desert. the whole piece is a constant questioning back and forth and in breath the entire orchestra ultimately answers the violin. the second movement, the dark, is a dance in the dark. the solo violin and steel drum play a colla parte line and are surrounded by invisible spirits that spin around in the dark, all in their own tempo and with changing partners, but always with the solo violin in the lead. the title of the third movement, Shira Yaël, means Yaël’s song. the fourth movement, archipelago, refers to Jabès’ idea of the letters of the alphabet as islands or perhaps an oasis in the middle of an empty desert. sIdnEY corBEtt

Yaël is dedicated to Kolja lessing and was commissioned by the Bürgerstiftung Stuttgart

the world premiere took place on march 18, 2005 in stuttgart with violinist Kolja lessing and concertino Basel under the baton of anton Zapf

Yaël is published by Edition nova Vita, Berlin and distributed worldwide by c.F. Peters, leipzig/london/new York

special thanks to clare Harmon whose tireless work as the visionary behind cmm initiated the Yaël premiere and in turn, this cd.

thank you also to Barb Erickson and Jerry stebbins, neil and Ellen Johnson and Vicki and Bill Harmon.

YAël Program notes VioliN CoNCerto Program notes

my Violin Concerto is an homage to russian futurism and the visionary experiments that led the artistic avant-garde in the early twentieth century, and is inspired also by two of the great violin concertos of the era and my personal favorites, Prokofiev’s first and stravinsky’s. the russian futurists envisioned a technological transformation of humanity led by the visionary arts and an aesthetic of acceleration and dynamism. For a brief historical moment, artists were transfixed by a radically modern vision of the future and captivated with the notion of art as the agent of transformation. my Violin Concerto represents my imaginative inhabitation of this historical moment, with human expression struggling to bring a techno-utopian ecumene into existence. the first movement is inspired by the paintings of Kazimir malevich who froze dynamic motion into still images before cinema existed, envisioned humans as idealized conglomerations of metallic forms, and pioneered a proto-minimalist reductionism of form. the “shift” (sdvig), the sudden disruption or shearing of the visual surface that evokes dynamic motion, was an essential component of malevich’s cubist-inspired paintings, including “the Knife Grinder / Principle of Flickering” from 1913. the title of the second movement, Vèrelloe, is an invented word from the trans-rational sound poem “city spring” by Konstantin Bolshakov, written in 1913. developing from malevich’s atomization of painting, in 1922 constructivist alexei Gan unified aesthetics and marxist political action into a triumvirate of disciplines: tektonika, konstruksiia and faktura. Inspired by geology, tektonika was the violent, volcanic reconstitution of elements into new forms. In the third movement, the orchestra is atomized and reassembled into a churning chorus of machines as the soloist struggles for autonomy. cHrIstoPHEr adlEr

Published by liber Pulveris Press (ascaP)

commissioned by sarah Plum with funding from drake university

the recording was funded by the university of san diego, drake university, and christopher adler.

additional thanks to supeena Insee adler, Benjamin sabey, david Harnish, the university of san diego music department, and san diego new music.

sarah Plum began her performing career by winning the first prize at the International stulberg competition in 1984. since then she has established herself as a serious interpreter of a wide range of repertoire both old and new. as a new music specialist, Plum has tirelessly championed composers — commissioning, premiering and discovering new works while also bringing them to the attention of a larger public. this has brought her acclaim at noted festivals and Venues both here and abroad such as the luzern Festival, ars musica Brussels, new York city Electoacoustic music Festival, 3rd Practice Festival as well as at avant-garde performance spaces and series such as Quiet cue (Berlin), spectrum new York and the center for new music (san Francisco). In the past three years alone she has commissioned pieces from sidney corbett, christopher adler, charles nichols, Eric lyon, laurie schwartz, mari Kimura, sidney Boquiren, mari takano and Jeff Herriot. In addition she has crafted fresh interpretations of the standard repertory such as her new release of Bartok’s music for violin with pianist timothy lovelace. Plum’s performances have been praised as “consistently stunning with works that demanded conventional virtuosity but also great skill in unconventional techniques” (third coast journal) and “extraordinary, meaningful and magnificent music” (Berlin tageszeitung). Her long term collaborations with composers have led to projects such as her 2011 solo release Absconditus, of music for violin by sidney corbett. this cd has been called “flinty and stark yet atmospheric” by music web, “ a gem” by the American Record Guide and Gramophone Magazine said that “sarah Plum plays with a wealth of colour and a surprising range of sounds.” recently she has presented a developing program of solo recitals called Parameters of Sound on series such as Ankunft:Neue Musik (at the Berlin

SArAh PluM Violin

sarah Plum and christopher adler at the recording studio in san deigo.

sidney corbett was born in chicago in 1960, studied music and philosophy at the university of california, san diego, and continued his study of composition at Yale university, where he earned his doctorate in 1989, as well as at the Hamburg academy of the arts with György ligeti. corbett’s output includes works for the stage, orchestral compositions, instrumental chamber music and a large amount of vocal music. His works have earned him numerous national and international awards and prizes and have been performed and broadcast worldwide. corbett has received commissions from the Berlin Philharmonic, musikFabrik, West German radio, and the radio symphony orchestra stuttgart among many others. a recent compositional focus for corbett has been musical theatre with works such as X UND Y, which premiered at the Eclat Festival in stuttgart in February 2002, Paradiso for speaker and string quartet, which premiered in Basel in 2002, the large scale opera, Noach, which ran in the 2001/2002 season at the Bremen opera, Keine Stille Ausser Der Des Windes (no silence but that of the Wind), which premiered in Bremen in 2007, Ubu, which premiered at the Gelsenkirchen opera in 2012 and his most recent opera, Das Große Heft, which met with critical success in its original run at the osnabrück opera House in march of 2013. He is currently at work on a new opera for the magdeburg theatre to be premiered in march 2016. sidney corbett is the guitarist of the band Vierte Heimat and also plays in the improvisation ensemble die letzte derniere. cds featuring corbett’s music have been released on cybele, crI, mode, Zeitklang, ambitus, BIs and Kreuzberg records. corbett’s music is published by Edition nova Vita, Berlin, and distributed worldwide by c.F. Peters. sidney corbett is currently Professor for composition at the university of the Performing arts in mannheim. www.sidneycorbett.de

SiDNeY Corbett

Hauptbahnhof), Elias- Kuppel Saal (Berlin), the Cube of the moss arts center at the Institute for creativity and technology at Virginia tech, Unruly Music at the marcus center (milwaukee) and Sonic Landscapes at california state university Fullerton among others. In addition Plum has created residencies at universities such as uc davis, Virginia tech, unc Greensboro, and san Francisco state where she performs, gives master classes and workshops student compositions. Plum is associate Professor of Violin and Viola at drake university in des moines, Iowa. Plum has been heard in numerous tV and radio broadcasts on Wdr, ndr, deutsche Welle, BBc and Iowa Public radio. she has recorded on the Bluegriffin, Bridge, BmG, albany, arte nova and capriccio labels. Plum is a graduate of the Juilliard school where she received a Bm and mm and sunY stony Brook where she received a dma. Her major teachers were Joyce robbins, szymon Goldberg, dorothy delay, david cerone and lyman Bodman. www.sarahplum.com

christopher adler’s compositions encompass cross-culturally hybrid forms drawn from contemporary concert music and traditional musics of thailand and laos, the application of mathematics to composition, and the integration of improvisation into structured composition. His works have been performed at carnegie Hall, chicago symphony center, tanglewood, merkin Hall, shanghai symphony Hall, the seoul arts center, sumida triphony Hall in tokyo, Bang on a can, the mata Festival, and at universities and new music festivals worldwide by ensembles including the silk road Ensemble, the san diego symphony, Ensemble acJW, the da capo chamber Players, the chamber cartel, contact contemporary music, the Van Buren string Quartet, the Pangaea Quartet, pulsoptional, noIsE and the seattle creative orchestra. His compositions for percussion ensemble have been performed by ensembles including red fish blue fish, third coast Percussion, Ensemble 64.8, and the nief-norf Project, and have been featured at the Percussive arts society International convention. He is internationally recognized as a foremost performer of new and traditional music for the khaen, a free-reed mouth organ from laos and northeast thailand. He is a pianist for the nief-norf Project, and director of composition for the nief-norf summer Festival. adler is also the pianist and composer-in-residence with noIsE, an affiliated artist with san diego new music, co-founder of the soundon Festival of modern music, and Professor of music at the university of san diego. His compositions appear on tzadik, Innova, rattle, and Blue leaf records, and his performances on piano and khaen appear on tzadik, Innova, pfmEntum, nine Winds, Vienna modern masters, liber Pulveris, traditional crossroads, circumvention and accretions records. www.christopheradler.com

ChriStoPher ADler AkirA Mori conductor

akira mori was born in Japan and studied in the united states, where he received his undergraduate degree in flute performance from new England conservatory and his master’s degree in orchestral conducting from Indiana university. mori also received a diploma in orchestral conducting from Wiener meisterkurse in austria. He is winner of the Hideo saito award from the tokyo International music competition conducting contest, and Best concerto accompanying award from the dinu niculescu International competition in romania. mori has conducted orchestras in the u. s., Japan, russia, Poland, romania and elsewhere. He made his london conducting debut in 2010 when he

conducted the English chamber orchestra (Eco), and returned to london in February 2015 to conduct Eco on a three-city regional tour. He has taught at Indiana university, university of minnesota, louisiana state university and tokyo college of music. mori is currently director of orchestral studies and associate Professor at drake university in des moines, Iowa. www.akiramoriconductor.com

NiCholAS DeYoe

nicholas deyoe is a los angeles based composer, conductor, and guitarist, and is the co–founder and artistic director of the wasteland concert series. His music has been called “intriguingly complex and excitedly lush” by the LA Times. drawn to sounds that are inherently physical, nicholas strives to create music that engages listeners intellectually and emotionally by appealing to their inner physicality. His compositions combine uses of noise, delicacy, drama, fantasy, brutality, and lyricism to create a diverse sonic experience. as a guitarist, nicholas strives to further the already vast sound world of the electric guitar by experimenting with microtonal tunings, preparation, bows, and beer

cans. He has received commissions from carnegie Hall, usInEsonorE Festival, the la Jolla symphony, Palimpsest, and several soloists. His music has been performed throughout north america, Europe, and Japan. as a conductor, nicholas has performed with the la Jolla symphony orchestra, red Fish Blue Fish, Ensemble ascolta, the darmstadt Preisträgerensemble, noise, the university of northern colorado symphony orchestra, and many ad-hoc ensembles in the united states and Germany. He holds a Ph.d. in composition from uc san diego where he studied with roger reynolds. deyoe’s compositions and improvisations can be heard on sono luminus, Populist, spektral, Khajila, and Eh? records. www.nicholasdeyoe.com