Program Notes, March 13, 2025
Daniel Pesca (b. 1985)
Daniel Pesca has been hailed as “the perfect composer-virtuoso pianist” (All about the Arts) and “equally talented as pianist, composer and advocate of his peers’ works” (Fanfare). The common theme in Daniel’s myriad activities is his passion for collaboration. His partnerships with a variety of ensembles, individual musicians, and fellow composers have cultivated a prolific body of work.
Among Daniel’s most recent compositions are Walk with me, my joy for Constellations Chamber Concerts in Washington, D.C., and New Examples of Confusion for the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition at University of Chicago. Other recent works have been commissioned with support from national granting organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts and New Music USA, for ensembles such as the American Wild Ensemble and the Oberlin Contemporary Ensemble, and for artists such as guitarist Dieter Hennings, tenor Zach Finkelstein and flutist Sarah Frisof. His music has been heard at festivals and venues across the United States and in Europe.
As pianist, Daniel has premiered over 150 works, is a founding member of the Grossman Ensemble and co-director of the Zohn Collective, appears on a dozen commercial recordings (including a solo album, Promontory), and has performed as soloist with orchestras in works by Messiaen, Bernstein, Berg, Carter, and others.
Daniel is currently assistant professor of composition at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He was on faculty at University of Maryland, Baltimore County from 2019 to 2023, and prior to that taught at University of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Ithaca College, and Syracuse University. He holds degrees in composition and piano from Eastman and University of Michigan.
New Examples of Confusion (2022)
New Examples of Confusion borrows its title from a sequence of stories by Lydia Davis called “Examples of Confusion.” Davis’s works are remarkable for their concision: every sentence is integral to the whole, and every word is precisely chosen and placed. Her observations about the world are frequently quizzical, often ironic, and unexpectedly poignant. Most of these stories are about quotidian experiences such as momentary optimical illusions, misheard phrases, or misperceived perspective. The longer final story elliptically suggests that these various “confusions” might not be confusions at all, but little tears in the fabric of reality that provide glimpses of a more fantastical realm.
My piece is in five short sections — each a small, contained peek into another world, tightly framed and strongly characterized. Different contingents of the ensemble dominate the texture in each section: for instance, the alternately nervous and playful wind solos of the first section give way to the weighty, lugubrious string chords of the second section. The five sections follow each other without break, joining together to form a single continuous arc, something like a chamber symphony. The high point is the swirling, fragmented fourth section. The broad, lyrical last section is like an epilogue.
I am honored to be the first member of the Grossman Ensemble to write for the group. My years playing alongside the musicians of the ensemble informed every stage of my writing process. I designed the structure to spotlight individual musicians, and I imagined each individual’s way of playing and personality as I shaped their part. The way these parts come together and converse is a reflection of our working process as an ensemble, and New Examples of Confusion is thus a celebration of friendship and collaborative art-making. It is dedicated, with fondness, to Augusta Read Thomas, Tim Weiss, and the musicians of the Ensemble.
Daniel Cui (b. 1998)
Daniel (Jingyang) Cui, a Chinese-born composer, draws inspiration from his rich Chinese heritage, encompassing culture, history, and contemporary social issues. Having spent considerable time abroad, he passionately shares his unique perspectives on China through his musical compositions. His creativity is not confined to grand themes alone, as he finds inspiration in the subtleties of daily life, be it the charm of animals or a whimsical anecdote. Cui’s diverse body of work spans from chamber pieces to orchestral compositions, reflecting the breadth of his artistic expression. Cui is currently pursuing his PhD in composition at University of California San Diego.
Daniel Cui is a recipient of several prestigious honors, including the Artzenter Institute Emerging Composer Grant, the American Composers Earshot Fellowship, the Jacobs School of Music Georgina Joshi Commission Prize, and the NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble Student Composition Contest, among others. His compositions have been performed by renowned ensembles such as Wild Up, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Tacet(i) Ensemble, Hub New Music, Prism Quartet, ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Vinola Trio, Texas New Music Ensemble, NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, Indiana University Concert Band, and the Sydney Conservatorium Clarinet Ensemble. Cui’s work has also been featured by orchestras, including the Indiana University Chamber Orchestra and the Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra. Additionally, he has participated in multiple residencies at prominent music festivals such as the TUTTI Festival, CAMPGround, and Connecticut Summerfest, among others.
Prior to his current pursuits, Cui completed his master’s degree at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he studied under the mentorship of David Dzubay and Aaron Travers. During this time, he was honored with the JSOM Fellowship and the Irving & Leno Lo Scholarship Fund. Cui earned his bachelor’s degree in composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia, where he was awarded the Board of Governors’ Scholarship under the guidance of the esteemed Australian composer Carl Vine.
Get Your Head in the Game!! (2024)
There often seems to be a wide divide between sports and art. While sports tend to be part of everyday enjoyment for the masses, art can sometimes feel distant or unapproachable. Terms like “high art” only deepen this divide. However, I am particularly interested in the intersection of these two worlds. Sports create unity; they bring people together. Yet, this communal aspect is sometimes overlooked in the artistic realm. I am not claiming that my work bridges these two worlds, nor does it aim to. I am simply someone who has had some musical training and happens to love sports. This piece is the result of that personal passion. Whether it falls under the category of ‘high’ or ‘low’ art is up for interpretation.
This composition is inspired by the intense and passionate nature of basketball coaches including how they passionately direct players, yell when mistakes are made and argue with referees over seemingly unfair calls. The role of the coach is represented by the baritone, whose texts are a combination of my own words, personal observations, and paraphrased quotes from some of the greatest basketball coaches in history.
The piece mirrors the flow of a basketball game. The baritone plays the role of the coach, while the ensemble replicates the sounds and energy of a live game. The conductor takes on an additional role as the referee. Musical motifs derived from game noises are developed and dramatized, reflecting various aspects of the game including, defense, offense, timeouts, and even ejections. In the end, I’m just someone who loves both music and sports, and this piece is an honest expression of that dual passion. Through the dramatic interplay of instrumental textures and the impassioned shouts of the baritone, I hope to
convey the excitement and intensity from the intersection where sports meet art.
Robert Wente, Baritone
Praised by Graz’s Kleine Zeitung for his “velvet baritone” and a “powerfully trumpeting performance of Gianni Schicchi,” Baritone Robert Wente is a versatile and passionate performer of opera and song in every form. He made his professional debut in January 2025 at The Dallas Opera, performing several excerpts as Escamillo from Carmen and Diego Rivera from Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego in the HIWC showcase concert. He is currently pursuing an M.M. in Vocal Performance while studying with Heidi Grant Murphy at Indiana University, where he completed his Bachelor of Science in Music with an outside field in Astronomy in Spring 2023 under the tutelage of Wolfgang Brendel. He recently attended The American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, where he performed the roles of Papageno and Gianni Schicchi in concert, scenes from Anna Bolena and La Traviata, and was rewarded first place in the Meistersinger competition. With IU Jacobs Opera Theater, he performed as Nardo in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera, Masetto in Don Giovanni, and Bob Becket in H.M.S. Pinafore. In addition to opera, Robert has also performed several Oratorio works, as the bass soloist of Beethoven’s Mass in C and the baritone soloist of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Stephen Hartke (b. 1952)
Winner of the 2013 GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, Stephen Hartke is widely recognized as one of the leading composers of his generation, whose work has been hailed for both its singularity of voice and the inclusive breadth of its inspiration. Born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1952, Hartke grew up in Manhattan where he began his musical career as a professional boy chorister, performing with such organizations as the New York Pro Musica, the New York Philharmonic, the American Symphony Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Opera. Following studies at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California at Santa Barbara, interrupted by stints as advertising manager for several major music publishers, Hartke also taught in Brazil as Fulbright Professor at the Universidade de São Paulo. From 1987 to 2015, he taught at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, retiring as Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He now serves as Professor and Chair of Composition at Oberlin Conservatory.
Hartke’s output is extremely varied, from the medieval-inspired piano quartet, The King of the Sun, and Wulfstan at the Millennium, an abstract liturgy for ten instruments, the blues-inflected violin duo, Oh Them Rats Is Mean in My Kitchen, and the surreal trio, The Horse with the Lavender Eye, to the Biblical satire, Sons of Noah, for soprano, four flutes, four guitars and four bassoons, and his recent Symphony No. 4 for Organ, Orchestra, and Soprano, commissioned for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has composed concerti for renowned clarinetist, Richard Stoltzman, and violinist, Michele Makarski, and his collaboration with the internationally-celebrated Hilliard Ensemble has resulted in three substantial works, including his Symphony No. 3, commissioned by Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic. Other major commissions have come from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Harvard Musical Association, the IRIS Chamber Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony, the Library of Congress, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Barlow Endowment, Chamber Music America, the Fromm Foundation, the Institute for American Music at the Eastman School of Music, Meet The Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, among others.
Stephen Hartke has also won the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, two Koussevitzky Music Foundation Commission Grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Stoeger Award from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Charles Ives Living from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Deutsche Bank Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin. In 2008, Hartke’s opera, The Greater Good, commissioned and premiered by Glimmerglass Opera, received the first Charles Ives Opera Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2009, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Most of Hartke’s music is available on commercial CDs released by Albany, BMOP, Bridge, Cedille, Chandos, CRI, Delos, ECM New Series, EMI Classics, Genuin, Naxos American Classics, New World Records, and Soundbrush Records.
SHIP OF STATE (2017)
The metaphorical comparison of the perils and tribulations of government to that of a ship at seain a storm may be as old and persistent as Western Civilization itself, from the 6th century BCE Greek poet, Alcaeus, to Sophocles, and later the Roman odist Horace. In Plato’s Republic, Socrates most notably invokes it in a parable on the dangers of mob rule. In 1849, the American poet and ardent abolitionist Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote The Building of the
Ship, a long poem on the shipwright’s craft that in its peroration christens the ship with the name “Union” and shifts into allegory. The beginning of this section is well-known, frequently quoted, having famously shored up the resolve of such figures as Lincoln, Roosevelt and Churchill:
Sail on, O UNION, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all its hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
Interestingly, Longfellow’s original draft ended with fears of the ship being “wrecked upon some treacherous rock” or “rotting in some noisome dock,” but he thought better of it, changing the final lines to:
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o’er our fears,
Are all with thee – are all with thee!
My one-movement chamber concerto for piano and twenty players, Ship of State, offers its own such sea voyage, each of its four main sections bearing a heading taken from Longfellow’s poem. These are, with their tempo markings:
1. “Hanging breathless” (Foundering)
2. “In spite of false lights on the shore” (Edgy, potentially explosive)
3. “The anchors of thy hope” (Gently – a rueful lullaby)
4. “What Workmen wrought” (Lively, resurgent)
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Jeffery Meyer has captivated audiences throughout North America, Europe, Russia, and Asia with a passion for championing contemporary orchestral music and groundbreaking collaborations.
He is professor of music in orchestral conducting at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as well as Artistic Partner with the Northwest Sinfonietta, one of the Northwest United States’ most dynamic orchestras. Artistic Director of the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic for two decades, his work with the orchestra was noted for its breadth and innovation. Praised as “one of the most interesting and creatively productive conductors working in St. Petersburg” by Sergei Slonimsky, the orchestra’s American debut with three performances at Symphony Space’s Wall-to-Wall Festival in New York City were described by The New York Times as “impressive”, “powerful”, “splendid” and “blazing.” His programming has been awarded multiple prizes including three ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming and two Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Awards in Orchestral Programming.
Recent projects and appearances include a newly-developed multi-media performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Petrushka with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong with soprano Dawn Upshaw, a world premiere of Carlos Simon’s Graffiti performed and recorded alongside internationally renowned graffiti artists, a theatrical symphonic concert focused on themes of social justice developed in collaboration with Daniel Bernard Roumain and Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the world premiere recording of Laura Kaminsky’s Piano Concerto with pianist Ursula Oppens, nearly one dozen world premieres of new works, and engagements with the Sichuan Symphony, Xalapa Symphony Orchestra, and the Grossman Ensemble in Chicago.
Xak Bjerken, Piano
Pianist Xak Bjerken has appeared as soloist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Glinka Hall in St Petersburg, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, and St. Cecilia in Rome. He was for many years a member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet, and has held chamber music residencies at Tanglewood, Avaloch, the Spoleto Festival, and the Olympic Music Festival, and taught and performed at Kneisel Hall, Icicle Creek, and the Kfar Blum festival in Israel. Bjerken performs regularly with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestras, and for over twenty years, he has directed Ensemble X, the new music group founded by Steven Stucky. Xak has worked closely with composers Győrgy Kurtag, Sofia Gubaidulina, Steven Stucky, and George Benjamin, and has premiered piano concertos by Stephen Hartke, Elizabeth Ogonek, and Jesse Jones, a recording of which was released by Naxos in September, 2021. He recently recorded two albums of original compositions with the bluegrass ensemble EZRA and has recorded solo, chamber, and concerto repertoire for CRI, Bridge Records, Koch International, Chandos, Cantaloupe Music, Albany Records, and Open G Records. He is Professor of Music at Cornell University where he co-directs the international chamber music festival Mayfest with his wife, pianist Miri Yampolsky. He studied with Aube Tzerko at the UCLA and received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees from the Peabody Conservatory as a student of and teaching assistant to Leon Fleisher. Xak is the proud father of Misha (bassist), Anna (singer), and Maya (athlete and star-gazer).