Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents
Trains Of Thought
Performing New Works by:
Louis Andriessen
Viet Cuong
Donnacha Dennehy
Pascal Le Boeuf
Matt McBane
Jason Treuting
Dmitri Tymoczko
Performed by:
Trains of Thought
Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Start time: 8:00 pm
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PSK presents TRAINS OF THOUGHT, various artists and ensembles performing new works by Princeton composers Louis Andriessen, Viet Cuong, Donnacha Dennehy, Pascal Le Boeuf, Matt McBane, Jason Treuting, Dmitri Tymoczko at Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall on Tuesday, December 15, 2015, 8pm.
Preceded at 7pm by:
A CONVERSATION BETWEEN LOUIS ANDRIESSEN AND SIMON MORRISON
A public discussion between two of today's most respected icons in music. Illustrious Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, who has served this semester as a visiting Belknap Fellow in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University this semester as his work was being premiered by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, performed at the Barbican by the BBC Symphony in London, and staged at the Dutch National Opera at the Holland Festival, will be interviewed by esteemed musicologist and Guggenheim Fellow Simon Morrison of the Princeton University Department of Music. A half hour discussion will be followed by a Q&A with the audience before Andriessen's work is performed at 8pm at the Princeton Sound Kitchen.
PROGRAM
PASCAL LE BOEUF: Alpha
MATT MCBANE: New work to be announced
JASON TREUTING: New work to be announced
DONNACHA DENNEHY: Paddy
– INTERMISSION –
LOUIS ANDRIESSEN: La voile du bonheur
VIET CUONG: Trains of Thought
LOUIS ANDRIESSEN: Hout
DMITRI TYMOCZKO: i cannot follow
THE COMPOSERS
Born into a musical family, LOUIS ANDRIESSEN received the early influences of Stravinsky and jazz from his older brother Jurriaan. He studied with Luciano Berio in the mid-60s and wrote pieces that drew on the styles and techniques of European modernism, before he began responding to American minimalism in the 1970s. He creates music of great energy and unusual color from spare materials, often exploring political and social issues, as well as aspects of physics, such as time and velocity. Since the Minimalist Jukebox festival in 2004, he has been closely associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which has commissioned and premiered a number of works from him, including a new opera, Theatre of the World, coming in May 2016. He won the 2011 Grawemeyer Award for his opera La Commedia, which the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented in its U.S. premiere in 2010. He is the Belknap Fellow in Music visiting professor at Princeton University during the Fall 2015 semester.
VIET CUONG has had works performed on six continents by a number of soloists and ensembles including the PRISM Saxophone Quartet, Sō Percussion, the Music From Copland House Ensemble, American Modern Ensemble, Dolce Suono Ensemble, London’s Nash Ensemble, Anthony McGill, Mimi Stillman, and over fifty conservatory and university wind ensembles. His music has been featured in diverse venues including Carnegie Hall, the Aspen Music Festival, International Double Reed Society Conference, Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music, Boston GuitarFest, US Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium, Midwest Clinic, and multiple CBDNA conferences. Awards include the ASCAP Morton Gould Award, Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Award, Theodore Presser Foundation Music Award, Walter Beeler Memorial Prize, Boston Guitarfest Competition, Dolce Suono Ensemble Competition, and Prix d'Été Competition, as well as honorable mentions in the Harvey Gaul Memorial Competition and two ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prizes. Viet has held artist residencies at the Copland House, Yaddo, Ucross, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and was a scholarship student at the Copland House’s CULTIVATE Institute and the Aspen, Bowdoin, and Lake Champlain music festivals. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, he is currently a Naumburg and Roger Sessions Ph.D. Fellow at Princeton University. vietcuongmusic.com
DONNACHA DENNEHY is a composer on the faculty at Princeton University. His recent opera The Last Hotel premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2015. Subsequent runs included stints at the Dublin Theatre Festival, and at the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London. It will receive its American premiere at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn in January 2016, as part of the Prototype Festival.
Described as “sleek, new” and “hyper-fluent” by The New York Times, PASCAL LE BOEUF is a pianist-composer and electronic artist whose interests range from modern improvised music to cross-breeding classical with production-based technology. As a keyboardist, Pascal has opened for Dangelo (Black Messiah ’15 tour), British electronic group Clean Bandit (Rather Be ’15 tour), and regularly performs with the piano trio Pascal’s Triangle featuring bassist Linda Oh and drummer Justin Brown. Le Boeuf’s most recent awards include a 2016 FROMM Commission, the 2015 ASCAP Foundation Johnny Mandel Prize, a 2015 New Music USA Grant in collaboration with RighteousGIRLS, Independent Music Awards in “Jazz,” “Eclectic,” and “Electronica” categories, and a 2015 New Jazz Works Commission from Chamber Music America in collaboration with JACK Quartet. He composed music for the 2008 Emmy Award-winning movie King Lines, and won first place in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Music Composition at Princeton University as a Naumburg Doctoral Fellow.
MATT MCBANE is a composer whose music ranges from visceral rhythms and complex grooves to delicate melodies and rich textures, freely and intuitively incorporating a wide array of influences including minimalism, avant pop, experimentalism, European classical music, art rock, jazz, film music, fiddle music, and electronic music. He is the composer and violinist for his band Build which received widespread critical acclaim for its two albums (Place, 2011 and Build, 2008) on New Amsterdam Records. In 2015, his five-movement suite for bluegrass string band, Drawn, was released on the Jake Schepps Quintet’s album Entwined. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Carlsbad Music Festival, a festival of “adventurous music by the beach” nationally noted for championing the next generation of composers and instrumentalists since 2004. Matt is a first year composition Ph.D. student at Princeton University. mattmcbane.com
JASON TREUTING has performed and recorded in venues as diverse as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Walker Art Center, the Knitting Factory, the Andy Warhol Museum, Zankel Hall, Lincoln Center, DOM (Moscow), and Le National (Montreal). As a member of Sō Percussion, he has collaborated with artists and composers including Steve Reich, David Lang, John Zorn, Dan Trueman, tabla master Zakir Hussain, the electronic music duo Matmos, and choreographer Eliot Feld. In addition to his work with Sō, Jason performs improvised music with Simpl, a group with laptop artist/composer Cenk Ergün, Alligator Eats Fish with guitarist Grey McMurray, Little Farm with guitarist/composer Steve Mackey, QQQ (a quartet consisting of hardinger fiddle, viola, guitar and drums), and Big Farm (a foursome led by Rinde Eckert and Steve Mackey). His many compositions for Sō Percussion include Sō’s third album, Amid the Noise, and contributions to Imaginary City, an evening-length work that appeared on the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2009 Next Wave Festival. Recent commissions for other ensembles have included Oblique Music for 4 plus (blank), a concerto for Sō Percussion and string orchestra for the League of Composers Orchestra; Circus of One, music for a video installation in collaboration with Alison Crocetta; and Diorama, an evening-length collaboration with the French choreographers in Projet Situ. Jason is co-director of the Sō Percussion Summer Institute, an annual intensive course on the campus of Princeton University for college-aged percussionists. Jason has taught percussion both in masterclasses and privately at more than 80 conservatories and universities in the USA and internationally, and with the other members of Sō Percussion, is an Edward T. Cone Performer-In-Residence at Princeton University. Jason received his Bachelors in Music and Performer’s Certificate at the Eastman School of Music where he studied percussion with John Beck and drum set and improvisation with Steve Gadd, Ralph Alessi, and Michael Cain. He received his Masters in Music along with an Artist Diploma from Yale University where he studied percussion with Robert Van Sice. Jason has also traveled to Japan to study marimba with Keiko Abe and to Bali to study gamelan with Pac I Nyoman Suadin.
DMITRI TYMOCZKO teaches composition and music theory at Princeton University
THE PERFORMERS
Multi-percussionist HARUKA FUJII has become one of the most prominent solo percussionists and marimbists of her generation. She has won international acclaim for her interpretations of contemporary music, having performed premieres of works from composers including Franghis Ali-Zadeh, Tan Dun, Nico Muhly, Joji Yuasa, and Maki Ishii. Since 2010, Ms. Fujii has performed as a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, joining a group of international musicains for several tours. She has frequently collaborated with composer Tan Dun, performing his Water Percussion Concerto, Paper Percussion Concerto, and opera Tea in major venues across the world. Ms. Fujii’s passion for introducing audiences to new percussion music has put her on stage with diverse orchestras and ensembles. She has appeared as a soloist with the Munich Philharmonic, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Nationale de Lyon, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. She is also a member of Flexible Music and the Line C3 Percussion Group, two New York City-based ensembles that actively commission new compositions from young composers. Her first solo recording Ingredients was released in 2013 on the New Focus Recordings label, and she has recorded with ensembles for Kosei, ALM Records, and Deutsche Grammophon. In addition to her career as a performing artist, Ms. Fujii directed the percussion department at the University of Connecticut from 2009 –2011, and has been a frequent guest instructor at Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar and several international percussion festivals. Born in Saitama, Japan, Ms. Fujii began her musical studies on the piano at the age of three. Influenced by her mother, marimbist Mutsuko Fujii, she developed interest in percussion instruments. She studied music at the Tokyo National University, The Juilliard School, and the Mannes College of Music.
Called “a sensitive performer” by The New York Times and “especially impressive” by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, JAMES JOHNSTON is an American musician who enjoys an active and varied career as a pianist, keyboardist, composer, and arranger. A graduate of the Juilliard School and Yale University, James applies his varied skills to a wide variety of projects. Recent performance highlights include premieres of Tyondai Braxton’s Central Market with the London Sinfonietta and LA Philharmonic, a Centennial performance of Pierrot Lunaire with the Proteus Ensemble at the Five Boroughs Music Festival, and performances of John Adams’ Gnarley Buttons and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 at the 2014 Vail Festival. Recent concerto appearances include Mozart K. 453 (with original cadenzas) with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Elliot Carter’s Double Concerto (on Harpsichord) and John Adams’s Grand Pianola Music with the Manhattan School of Music orchestra. A winner in both the Yellow Springs and Fischoff National Chamber Music Competitions with the Proteus Ensemble, James is very active as a chamber musician. A founding member of the Proteus Ensemble, Newspeak, Le Train Bleu, Trio Chimera, and Electric Kompany, he has also performed with eighth blackbird, the Orion Quartet, the Ethel Quartet, Zephyros Winds, Either/Or, the Wordless Orchestra, Oneida, PNME, the Artemis Ensemble, and the Fireworks Ensemble. His concert schedule has included performances in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Whitney Museum, the Ford Theater, The Library of Congress, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Heinz Hall, Disney Hall, and The Walter Reade Theater as part of the Great Performers at Lincoln Center series. An active promoter of new music, James served as the pianist of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble from 2001 – 2003 and has worked with Poul Ruders, Jacob TerVeldhuis, David Rakowski, David del Tredici, and Marc Mellits on new works. James’s own compositions include Step Circles for cellist Brian Snow, Pecking Order for flutist Liz Jenzen, Tongue Tied for violinists Melissa Tong and Esther Noh, and Twixt for violinist Patti Kilroy, as well as electronic tracks as part of De Snakes. For his ensembles, James has arranged works including Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faune, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Webern’s transcription of Bach’s “Ricercar” from The Musical Offering, Eric Dolphy’s Hat and Beard, and We Won’t Get Fooled Again by the Who. James recently received his doctoral degree at the Manhattan School of Music and currently lives in New York City.
Guitarist DANIEL LIPPEL, called an “exciting soloist” (The New York Times), and a “modern guitar polymath” (Guitar Review) enjoys a diverse career that ranges through solo and chamber music performances, innovative commissioning and recording projects, and engagements in diverse stylistic contexts. Highlights of his recent solo performances include the Sinus Ton Festival in Germany, University of Texas at San Antonio, and the Tangents Guitar Series in San Francisco. He has performed as a guest with many ensembles, and has been the guitarist for the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) since 2005 and Flexible Music since 2003. Lippel is the co-founder and director of New Focus Recordings, and has also recorded for Bridge, Kairos, Albany, and Tzadik. He received his DMA from the Manhattan School of Music, under the guidance of David Starobin.
Heralded by The New York Times as a violinist of “tireless energy and bright tone” and The Washington Post as “dangerously gifted,” COURTNEY ORLANDO specializes in the performance of contemporary and crossover music. She is a founding member of the acclaimed new music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, which has premiered works by and collaborated with some of the foremost composers of our time, including Hans Abrahamsen, John Adams, John Luther Adams, Donnacha Dennehy, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, and Augusta Read Thomas. She is also a member of Ensemble Signal and Trio Chimera, and performs regularly with Dublin’s Crash Ensemble. Performances include those at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center Festival, Disney Hall, the Kimmel Center, BAM, the Royal Opera House, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Barbican Theatre, and in Germany, Poland, Italy, Korea, and Russia. Crossover projects include those with jazz musicians Theo Bleckmann, Uri Caine, Michael Formanek, Medeski, Martin and Wood, and Joshua Redman. Other performances include those with Björk, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Sigur Rós’s Jónsi, and Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. Courtney has recorded for Bridge, Cantaloupe, Chandos, ECM, Harmonia Mundi, New Amsterdam, Nonesuch, Tzadik, and Winter and Winter. Courtney is currently on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory, where she is the artistic director of the school’s new music ensemble, Now Hear This. She currently resides in Princeton, New Jersey, with three lovely Irish lads.
The POULENC TRIO is the most active touring piano-wind chamber music ensemble in the world. Since its founding in 2003, the Trio has performed in more than 45 U.S. states and at music festivals around the world, including the Ravello Festival in Italy, the San Miguel de Allende Festival in Mexico, and the White Nights Festival in Russia, where the group toured with and premiered two new works with violinist Hilary Hahn. In a recent review, The New York Times praised the trio for its “elegant rendition” of Piazzolla’s tangos. The Washington Post said the trio “does its namesake proud” in “an intriguing and beautifully played program” with “convincing elegance, near effortless lightness and grace.” A recent performance in Florida – for which the Palm Beach Post praised the group’s “polished loveliness” and the Palm Beach Daily News said the “potent combination” of oboe bassoon and piano had “captured the magic of chamber music” – is regularly rebroadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today, the nationally-syndicated radio program. The Trio has garnered positive attention in full-length profiles by Chamber Music magazine, and by the Double Reed Journal. The group has been called “virtuosos of classical and contemporary chamber music” in one profile for Russian television. The Poulenc Trio has a strong commitment to commissioning, performing and recording new works from living composers. Since its founding, the trio has greatly expanded the repertoire available for the oboe, bassoon and piano, with 25 new works written for and premiered by the group, including three triple concertos for trio and full orchestra. The trio has also made a commitment to explore and promote music that reflects its members’ African, Pan-American, Eastern European, and Jewish roots. Recent concerts have featured works by Afro-Cuban jazz great Paquito D’Rivera, Mexican-American composer Carlos Medina, Russian-American composer Nataliya Medvedovskaya and Yiddish Lexicon, an exploration of Jewish culture by composer Jakov Jakoulov, and the group has recently premiered new works by Spanish-American composer Octavio Vazquez and Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong. Starting in 2004, the trio launched a pioneering concert series called Music at the Museum, in which musical performances are paired with museum exhibitions, with special appearances from guest artists and curators. As part of the series, the trio has collaborated with the National Gallery in Washington DC, the Walters Art Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Hermitage State Museum in Russia. Guest artist collaborators have included violinist Hilary Hahn, the Thibaud Trio of Berlin, soprano Hyunah Yu, and clarinetists Alexander Fiterstein and Anthony McGill. The Trio is deeply engaged in musical and educational outreach programs, including Pizza and Poulenc, an informal performance and residency series for younger audiences around the United States. The Trio regularly conducts masterclasses, with recent engagements at New York University, Tulane University, the University of Ohio, San Francisco State University, Florida State University, and the University of Colima in Mexico.
Saxophonist TIM RUEDEMAN. noted for his “extreme virtuosity” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia including performances on the New York Philharmonic’s CONTACT! series, the Lincoln Center Festival, SoundScape Festival in Macagno Italy, Mostly Mozart Festival, the Kennedy Center, Late Show with David Letterman, and Bang On A Can Marathon. He has appeared as soloist with the S.E.M. Ensemble, Greenwich Symphony, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and Hanover Wind Symphony. He has appeared in orchestral and chamber performances with the New York Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, Bridgeport Symphony, International Contemporary Ensemble (I.C.E.), Absolute Ensemble, Imani Winds, Argento Ensemble, North-South Consonance, the New Sousa Band, Desshoff Choir, and Merce Cunningham Dance Company. A committed performer of new music, he has given the premieres of over sixty new works and is a member of the new-music ensemble Flexible Music and the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet. He has toured, recorded, and worked with rock and jazz legends Todd Rundgren, M. Ward, David Foster, Diana Krall, Christopher Cross, Lou Gramm (Foreigner), Denny Laine (Wings/Moody Blues), Paul Shaffer, and The Walkmen. Dr. Ruedeman is on the faculty at New York University, Long Island University, and William Paterson University, and is visiting faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory.
Pianist GEORGE (YEGOR) SHEVTSOV’s solo and chamber performances have been singled out for their “Mozartean elegance,” “perfect lucidity” (The New York Times), and “superb musicianship” (The Miami Herald). His recent recording of the piano music of Debussy and Boulez was selected by rhapsody.com as one of the top 25 classical albums of 2013. George Shevtsov’s most significant artistic associations have been with Red Light New Music, a contemporary music collective; Mark Morris, a world-renowned choreographer; New World Symphony, academy founded by Michael Tilson Thomas; American Ballet Theatre; Mischa Bouvier, an award-winning baritone; avant-garde composers Reiko Fueting, Yoav Gal, Andrew Noble, and Scott Wollschleger. He has appeared in concert with members of the American String Quartet, Mivos Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Bang on a Can, red fish blue fish, Alarm Will Sound, Argento Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, and Manhattan Sinfonietta, among others. Among the composers who have heard him perform their works are Pierre Boulez, John Luther Adams, Elliott Carter, Charles Wuorinen, Steve Reich, and George Crumb. George currently studies flamenco in the studio of Soledad Barrio. yegorshevtsov.com.
Hailed as a “fine soloist” (The New York Times) and “a stand out among unfailingly excellent performances” (The Boston Globe), percussionist BILL SOLOMON performs with Ensemble Signal, having appeared at Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, Disney Hall, Guggenheim, Miller Theatre, Big Ears Festival, June in Buffalo, and the Stone. He has worked with composers including Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Oliver Knussen, Georg Friedrich Haas, Unsuk Chin, Roger Reynolds, Brian Ferneyhough, Charles Wuorinen, and Hilda Paredes. He performed the solo vibraphone part for Pierre Boulez’s Répons in collaboration with the Lucerne Festival, IRCAM, and Ensemble InterContemporain with Mr. Boulez as conductor. Other solo appearances have included the New York City premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Double Concerto, performances at Harvard University, the Victoriaville Festival, and as a featured soloist at SEAMUS National Convention. He performed at the BAM Next Wave Festival with Dawn Upshaw, Gil Kalish, and Talujon Percussion. Mr. Solomon has also performed with Hartford Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, Talea Ensemble, American Modern Ensemble, Sound Icon, Callithumpian Consort, Yale Repertory Theatre and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. His recordings can be found on Harmonia Mundi, Mode, EUROArts, Cantaloupe, Naxos, New World, Capstone, Tzigane, and Equilibrium labels, and the film score to Philip Glass’s Project Rebirth.
JEFFREY ZEIGLER is one of the most versatile cellists of our time. He has commissioned dozens of works, and is admired as a potent collaborator and unique improviser. Described as “fiery,” and a player who performs “with unforced simplicity and beauty of tone” by The New York Times, he has given many notable premiers including works by John Adams, Damon Albarn, Derek Charke, John Corigliano, Henryk Gorecki, John King, Paola Prestini, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and John Zorn to name a few. His collaborators include Andy Akiho, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Hauschka, Vijay Iyer, Glenn Kotche, David Krakauer, Kimmo Pohjonen, and Tom Waits. Mr. Zeigler has released over three dozen recordings for Nonesuch Records, Deutsche Grammophon, and Smithsonian Folkways and has appeared with Norah Jones on her album Not Too Late on Blue Note Records. Zeigler can also be heard on the film soundtrack for Paola Sorrentino’s Academy Award winning film, La Grande Bellezza, as well as Clint Mansell’s Golden Globe nominated soundtrack, The Fountain, featuring performances with the Scottish band Mogwai.