UPCOMING EVENTS – September
(* Starred events are REQUIRED for IU composition students.)
* GUEST COMPOSER LECTURE (FH) – John Luther Adams (Five Friends Master Class Series – Honoring Robert Samuels)
Wednesday, September 24, 4:00pm, Ford Hall
* GUEST COMPOSER LESSONS – John Luther Adams
Thursday, September 25, 2:00pm, JS 311
2:00-3:30 – TBD
3:30-5:00 – TBD
* NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE (AH) – David Dzubay, director; John Luther Adams, guest composer
Thursday, September 25, 8:00pm, Auer Hall
Lee Hyla: Pre-Pulse Suspended (1984)
Ryan Chase: Ghost of the Machine (2014; dissertation)
John Luther Adams: The Light Within (2010)
FACULTY RECITAL (AH) – M. Dee Stewart, bass trombone; Kimberly Carballo, piano (featuring a premiere by Tony Plog)
Monday, September 29, 7:00pm, Auer Hall
* STUDENT COMPOSITION RECITAL (AH)
Tuesday, September 30, 8:00pm, Auer Hall
NEWS – CURRENT STUDENTS
Grant Luhmann Wins 2014 BMI Student Composer Award
Undergraduate student Grant Luhmann was awarded a 2014 BMI Student Composer Award for his percussion trio The Triumvirate last May. Read more…
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Louis Goldford Receives National and International Performances
Louis Goldford received a world premiere of his Travertine Hybrid #3 for Violin and Electronics at the Composit New Music Festival in Rieti, Italy. Violinist Marco Fusi gave the premiere performance. Additionally, Louis performed his 初生態 Chū Shēng Tài (Nascent States) for Sopranino Saxophone and Electronics at the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at New England Conservatory, as well as Grand Sepia Taksim at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival in June.
Yie-Eun Chun’s Game of Fives to be Premiered by the Breakout Ensemble
Yie-Eun Chun’s piece Game of Fives has been selected for performance by the Breakout Ensemble for their 2014/2015 concert series. It will be performed in October, 2014 in Munich, Germany. Another work of Yie-Eun’s Misty Sunrise (for SATB) has also been selected as a finalist for Chanticleer’s Student Composer Competition. The Chanticleer LAB Choir will be learning and playing her piece in San Francisco during October and November.
Texu Kim Wins 2014 SCI/ASCAP Commission Competition
Texu Kim’s Toccata Inquieta has been selected as the Graduate category winner of 2014 SCI/ASCAP Commission Competition. As the winner of this competition, Texu will receive a $1500 commission to compose a new work. Read more…
Solo Piano Works by Will Rowe and Jihyun Kim to be Featured on World Oceans Tour
Will Rowe’s Waiting Room and Jihyun Kim’s Three Etudes will be performed by pianist James Gibson on his World Oceans tour. The tour will take place in the spring of 2015 and will yield performances across North America and Europe.
Jihyun Kim’s String Quartet to be Performed in Italy
Jihyun Kim’s string quartet, Extempore Anamnesis, has been chosen in the Florence String Quartet’s Call for Scores. The performance will take place in Salone Luca Giordano in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, via Cavour n° 3, Florence, at 6.00 p.m. It will also be professionally recorded and published on the CD label Sheva Contemporary and the score will be published by Editro Sconfinarte.
Curtis Smith Awarded Commission by 2014 Barlow Endowment for Music Composition
Doctoral Candidate Curtis N. Smith was awarded a commission by the 2014 Barlow Endowment for Music Composition and will be collaborating with IU Jacobs violist Bryan Lew (MM) on a new work. The piece will receive its premiere as part of Lew’s Master’s viola recital, spring 2015.
NEWS – ALUMNI
Keith Fitch (BM ’89, MM ’92, DM ’95) Completes Copland House Residency
Keith Fitch (BM, ’89; MM, ’92, DM, ’95) spent the month of July in residence at The Copland House (Rock Hill), in Cortlandt Manor, NY, Aaron Copland’s longtime home. He was one of eight composers chosen for 2014 from a pool of 99 applicants. While there, he worked on a piano quartet to be premiered in February 2015 by members of The Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Institute of Music faculty. Recent performances of his music include his guitar and harp duo Knock on Wood, performed by Jason Vieaux (guitar) and Yolanda Kondonassis (harp) to great acclaim on their Spring 2014 West Coast tour and subsequently recorded by them for Azica Records (Fall 2014 release); In Memory (chamber orchestra) performed by the League of Composers Orchestra (NY), the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, and the Berkshire (MA) Symphony; and Midnight Rounds, performed several times in the last two seasons (including an East Coast tour) by Ars Futura, a Cleveland-based new music ensemble. Keith currently heads the Composition Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music and can be found on the web at www.keithfitch.com.
Eric Nathan (MM ’08) Wins 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship, Appointed Visiting Assistant Professor at Williams College
In April, Eric Nathan (MM’08) was awarded a 2014 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Musical Composition and was appointed Visiting Assistant Professor at Williams College for the 2014-15 academic year. This summer, New York Philharmonic Principal Trombonist Joseph Alessi premiered Eric’s As Above, So Below at the New York Philharmonic Biennial, and Toying for solo trumpet was performed at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. In July, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra premiered Gibellina for orchestra. This fall Eric works on a commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players to premiere in January 2015 and a new work for violinist Jennifer Koh.
Eric Lindsay (DM ’13) Receives Premiere in New York Museum of Modern Art
Members of ICE and the New Juilliard Ensemble gave the New York premiere of Eric Lindsay’s (DM ’13) Hopkin and the Wired Night as part of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Summergarden concert series. The work was performed alongside premieres from Roberto Sierra, Peter Sculthorpe and Errollyn Wallen. Eric Lindsay has also been appointed as Lecturer of Music and General Studies at the IU Jacobs School of Music.
Update from Ben Taylor (DM ’14)
Benjamin Taylor (DM 2014) enjoys an active career as a composer/performer/entrepreneur. He has recently had performances of his compositions in Sweden, Brazil, Oregon, New York, Idaho, Utah, and Indiana. He is excited to be booked solid with commissions through 2015.
Album Release Featuring David Jones’ (DM ’95) Trombone Music
The trombone music of Dr. David P. Jones (DM – ’95) is featured exclusively on Bone Moan, a CD (Summit) released in December 2013. The recording features Mark Hetzler (Faculty, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison), the Pro Arte String Quartet and several professional and student trombonists and percussionists from Wisconsin and Florida and includes most of the trombone centered works of Dr. Jones composed between 1986-2007. Three more CD’s to be released in the next six months will also include his music. PercuDuo (Paris) has recorded Gamelocity (2012) for vibraphone and marimba for the French Polymnie label. Michael Tunnell (Trumpet, Louisville Orchestra) and Meme Tunnell have recorded cOrNoPeia (commissioned in 2010) for corno di caccia and piano for release on the Centaur label. Family Dances, a work completed in 2014 (for clarinet, bassoon, violin and cello) will be recorded this fall by a faculty ensemble from Eastern Washington University. Dr. Jones continues to teach jazz, history of rock music, improvisation and music appreciation at Peninsula College (WA).
Robert Patterson (MM ’01) Wins Utah Arts Festival Commission Competition
Robert Paterson’s recent accomplishments include winning the Utah Arts Festival Composition Competition, which included the premiere of his commissioned work Hell’s Kitchen for chamber sextet, the New York City semi-staged premiere of his one-act opera The Companion, co-presented by American Opera Projects, Ear Heart Music and the American Modern Ensemble and a newly commissioned work for flute and harp entitled Pegasus for the Aletheia Duo (IU alumnus Ann Yeung, harp, and Jonathan Keeble, flute). Pegasus was premiered at the World Harp Congress International Conference in Sydney, Australia, the American Harp Society’s National Harp Conference in New Orleans and at the National Flute Association’s Opening Gala Concert at their Annual Convention in Chicago. This summer he was also composer-in-residence at the Rocky Ridge Music Center, guest composer at Point Counterpoint and on faculty at the Atlantic Music Festival.
Update from Sang Mi Ahn (DM ’14)
Sang Mi Ahn’s Metabolism was realized in a sound installation called Sound Planetarium in three different locations (Tours, Bourges, and Orléans) in France during the Arts & Science Days (JAS 2014). In July, her Convergence was performed by Theofilos Sotiriades at The 3rd International Summer Music Academy in Kavala, Greece and also performed by Lindsay Vickery at the 2014 Australasian Computer Music Conference in Melbourne, Australia.
Update from David Vayo (BM ’80, MM ’82)
Winter Into Spring by David Vayo (BM ’80, MM ’82) was premiered on September 1, 2013 at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. Pipa soloist Yang Wei performed with the Taipei Liuqin Ensemble. During the summer of 2014, Vayo took part in Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers new-opera showcase, which included excerpts from his Fertile Ground; conducted the premiere of Sandlot for two trumpets and percussion at the International Trumpet Guild conference in Valley Forge, PA; and attended the Sound Symposium festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where Stations for violin, piano and electronics was premiered. Vayo’s participation in Sound Symposium also included improvising onstage with other guest musicians, and writing a piece for ships’ horns as part of the festival’s Harbour Symphony project.
Justin Merritt (MM ’99, DM ’03) Featured on New Releases
Justin Merritt (MM ’99, DM ’03) has 3 new CDs of his music available: American Lyricism by pianist Christ Atzinger, Blender by pianist Matthew McCright, and Norge Mitt Norge by the St. Olaf Choir.
NEWS – FACULTY
John Gibson on Sabbatical in France
John Gibson is on sabbatical this fall. He will be in residence at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France (outside of Marseille). He will be working on a large piece for chorus and electronics, based on texts by Linda Allardt, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Bishop, Ted Kooser, Derek Walcott, and Williams Carlos Williams.
New Performance and CD Release of Jeff Hass’ Three Etudes for Piano and Electronics
Three Etudes for Piano and Electronics were released on Music from SEAMUS Vol. 23 compact disc. Three Etudes were performed at the 2014 New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival in June along with works by IU students and alums Iddo Aharony, Nicolas Chuaqui, Christopher Cook, Louis Goldford, Bruce Hamliton, Mark Phillips, Samuel Wells, and Jinghong Zhang.
In addition, Prof. Hass visited the CIES-IRCAM Music program in Paris sponsored by CECM, where he met with IU students Miles Friday, Jinghong Zhang, Aaron Smith, Christopher Poovey and Hiram Rivera during their summer computer music studies. Other performances this year included LotusSounds Electronic Music Festival, Festival of American Music and the Studio 300 Festival.
Two New Publications of David Ward-Steinman’s Music
David Ward-Steinman had two new publications last month (E.B. Marks Music Co., New York): GEMINI—Three Pieces for Two Guitars and DAYUNG SAMPAN (Rowing to Singapore) for Wind Ensemble or Concert Band. Also on rental or print-to-order (Marks Music) is SINGAPORE SONORAMA for Wind Ensemble or Concert Band, which received its American premiere last year by the IU Wind Ensemble with director Stephen Pratt. Ward-Steinman’s JAZZ CONCERTO FOR TWO PIANOS and Rhythm Section was performed July 30 at the Bay View Music Festival in Bay View, Michigan, by Casey Robards and Anthony Patterson (pianos), Charisse Tietjen (bass), and Fred Marderness, drumset. Upcoming performances of Ward-Steinman’s music include:
Oct. 29, TAJ MAHAL, IU Concert Orchestra, David Effron conducting.
Nov. 11, RAGA FOR WINDS, IU Wind Ensemble, Stephen F. Pratt conducting.
The Music of David Dzubay Featured Nationally and Internationally
David Dzubay’s summer began with three performances in May of Snake Alley with Carlos Kalmar and the Oregon Symphony. This closely followed the April premiere of It is Above That You And I Shall Go for two percussion and two pianos by Berlin PianoPercussion in the Berlin Konzerthaus. After teaching composition and conducting at IU the first six weeks of summer, Dzubay returned to the Brevard Music Center for a fourth year of teaching composition and conducting readings with two of the orchestras and wind ensemble. Two current iU composition majors and two incoming majors were among the 14 student composers at Brevard. The final Saturday night orchestra concert at Brevard included another(!) performance of Snake Alley, led by Maestro JoAnn Falletta. Rounding out the summer activity was a stellar performance (reviews) by The New Fromm Players of String Quartet No. 1 “Astral” during the annual Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, curated by John Harbison and Michael Gandolfi.
For interested IU students and possible visiting students, David Dzubay will be teaching G550 New Music Conducting during the first six weeks of summer in 2015 (approx. May 13 – June 19), with an enrollment cap of six.