One Work
Our artists each select one work that connects most strongly with their artistic vision for the future.
Anthony McGill
Anthony Davis: "You Have The Right To Remain Silent"
Concerto for clarinet/contra-alto clarinet, Kurzweil synthesizer, and ensemble in four movements (26')
I. Interrogation
II. Loss
III. Incarceration
IV. Dance of the Other
In the mid-1970s, more than 40 years before he won the Pulitzer Prize for music, pianist and composer Anthony Davis was driving with his wife to Boston for a concert when a police officer pulled them over.
"He had put his siren on when he stopped me," Davis recalls. "And I was going to say, 'Well what is going on? I'm going to be late for my concert.'" His wife looked back at the police car, and told Davis to be careful and not to leave the vehicle — that the officer had his gun drawn.
The couple learned, eventually, that someone matching Davis' description had robbed a bank. "That could have gone left very easily," Davis reflects. "Because mistaken identity is a reality. We've seen what happened recently in Louisville, you know?"
In 2010, Davis turned this experience and others into a piece called "You Have the Right to Remain Silent." Davis chose a solo instrument to be the heart of the work: "The idea that the orchestra is interrogating the clarinet."
Hailed for his “trademark brilliance, penetrating sound and rich character” (The New York Times), clarinetist Anthony McGill is one of classical music’s most recognizable and brilliantly multifaceted figures. In addition to his dynamic international solo and chamber music career, McGill is principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic—the first African-American principal player in the organization's history. In 2020, he was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize, one of classical music’s most significant awards given in recognition of soloists who represent the highest level of musical excellence.
McGill was honored to take part in the inauguration of President Barack Obama, premiering a piece written for the occasion by John Williams and performing alongside violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Gabriela Montero.
In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, McGill launched a powerful musical protest video urging people to #TakeTwoKnees in demonstration against the death of George Floyd and historic racial injustice. His video went viral, and hundreds of artists and citizens amplified the message and responded to the protest with their own videos using the hashtag #TakeTwoKnees.
Miró Quartet
Kevin Puts: Home
The Miró Quartet and Kevin Puts have enjoyed an extremely long musical collaboration together starting in 2007 and most recently with "Home." From the beginning, we have always enjoyed hearing and playing Kevin's emotionally vivid musical language, but what really draws us to him as a person and an artist is that he is indeed an activist who cares deeply about the world around him. He pursues his passion for change through what his music says emotionally. There is an immediacy to Kevin's voice as well, since his works are almost always inspired by real life events going on now in the world around us, and he communicates so poignantly in his music how these events affect him.
The concept of "Home" is something everyone identifies with: a place of security, love, and belonging. And leaving home, whatever that may mean for you, is also a universal experience. Home is something we each carry inside of us, a feeling of identity and belonging that is not wholly dependent on physical place. No one ever truly loses the desire to return back someday to that original safe haven, away from life's stormy seas, where we feel unconditionally loved, safe, and secure...the place where we each truly belong.
Composed right before the pandemic of 2020, the concept of home took on an even deeper and more charged meaning as millions of us were trapped in isolation in our own homes. Although islands of safety and security, our homes also could become prisons from which we all at times yearned to break free. Just like the narrative of the work itself, in real life this string quartet struggled to find a "home," an appropriate place where it could be heard, be appreciated and belong due to many of the premiere in-person performances cancelled and finding new life online.
Kevin has a compelling vision of what the world and the humanity in it could be, and his music aims to inspire us to come together, believe, and create it together.
The Miró Quartet is one of America’s most celebrated and dedicated string quartets, having been labeled by The New Yorker as “furiously committed” and noted by the Cleveland Plain-Dealer for their “exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity.” Based in Austin, TX, and thriving on the area’s storied music scene, the Miró takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music.
Rachel Barton Pine
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk (2001)
When I’m asked to name some of my favorite composers, I always include Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson in the list. He’s not just one of my favorite American, favorite 20th Century, or favorite Black composers, but he’s one of my all-time favorites, period. I find his music to be absolutely addictive! I’ll listen to a recorded track of one of his works (for example, Cavalry Ostinato for solo cello) and have to repeat it 10 or even 20 times before I feel satiated.
Named after the legendary Afro-English Victorian-era composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, “Perk” (as he was known to his friends) ended his career in my hometown of Chicago as music director of the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble at the Center for Black Music Research. This institution and performing group played a pivotal role in my awareness of so much overlooked repertoire, and caused me to fall in love with numerous amazing composers.
In the early 2000s, I was very lucky to get to work with Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson on his music for unaccompanied violin. He explained his idea of distilling a jazz ensemble down to a single violin playing multiple roles at the same time, and made sure that I was swinging the beat properly. I was especially delighted when he attended a unique recital of jazz-inspired classical music that I gave at Chicago’s famous Green Mill jazz club.
Since he passed away in 2004, I’ve continued to perform his music on regular rotation and recorded all of his solo violin music on my 2018 album “Blues Dialogues.” Unaccompanied works can be brought everywhere: recitals, concerto encores, radio and television appearances, school visits, private soirees, and more. As the work of my RBP Foundation’s Music by Black Composers project has become ever more visible, Louisiana Blues Strut has become my go-to demonstration piece. In just over three minutes, it provides a shining example of compositional sophistication, instrumental virtuosity, and sheer exuberant appeal. Beyond its important meaning musicologically, it’s a perfect piece for dark times, as it fills you with joy and optimism. But I must confess, the real reason I keep performing it over and over again, is just because it’s one of my favorites and I can’t stop playing it!
The dazzling violinist Rachel Barton Pine has an extraordinary ability to connect with people and has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world including the Chicago, Montreal, Atlanta, Baltimore, San Diego, Dallas, and St. Louis symphonies. Her recently released recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas was called “one of the best of this set of peerless works…” (Gramophone) and her performance of the same works at the National Gallery were deemed “...as astonishing and joyful a performance as I’ve ever heard” by The Washington Post.
Sphinx Virtuosi
Phillip Herbert: Elegy
We perform this work in Remembrance of Stephen Lawrence, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others who have been taken from this world unjustly.
Sphinx Virtuosi is comprised of eighteen of the nation’s leading Black and Latinx classical soloists - primarily alumni of the internationally renowned Sphinx Competition - dedicated to increasing racial and ethnic diversity in classical music. Their thoughtfully crafted programs highlight works by a diverse array of composers and always include a newly commissioned work by a major living composer specifically for the ensemble. The Sphinx Virtuosi perform annually at Carnegie Hall and at the New World Center. They appear regularly for major series throughout the United States.
Parker Quartet
Vijay Iyer: Mozart Effects
We've always loved the old and the new, and our challenge has always been not to simply juxtapose but to build thoughtful and meaningful bridges between the two. Vijay Iyer's Mozart Effects is a perfect vehicle to capture this. It takes a Mozart fragment and spins from it a playful and virtuosic improvisation that thrillingly transforms into a whole new musical voice of our time.Various software programs are used to color the drawings and simulate camera movement and effects.
The Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet, renowned for its dynamic interpretations and polished, expansive colors, has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation. The Parker serves as Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University where they curate their own series and have served on faculty since 2014. Their most recent album on ECM Records features the music of Kurtag and Dvorak together with violist Kim Kashkashian. Recent seasons have included an annual residency at the Banff Centre, as well as performances at the Wigmore Hall, 92nd Street Y, Schubert Club, and the University of Chicago.
William Hagen
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Every time someone asks me, “what’s your favorite piece to play?,” my answer is always the same: “It’s absolutely impossible to say, but…Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.” Impossible to say, because the variety of the violin repertoire itself is so extraordinary.
The short and simple answer is that there is no other piece that creates such an intensely positive experience in the concert hall.
I am from Salt Lake City, Utah, the middle of three sons in a baseball-obsessed family that has no other professional musicians. My parents wanted my brothers and me to take music lessons, in the same way that they wanted us to be involved in sports and academics. My obsession with the violin and classical music was a surprise, and my success in this field has come as an unexpected gift, not the fulfillment of any expectation. My wife, Andrea, is also a violinist, and her family are the same.
This means that the closest people in our life have only an entry-level knowledge and interest in classical music; they are the people we are trying to reach.
Tchaikovsky himself was someone who was reached—Mozart and Italian opera inspired him to leave a career in civil service at the age of 22 to pursue a career in music. Those of us in the music world are in a bubble, where people have heard all of the Beethoven symphonies multiple times and have strong opinions on tempos and textures, where people know the difference between historically informed performances and modern style and can easily identify that difference.
In our bubble, many people have heard Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto enough to tire of it and take it for granted when the audience leaps to their feet after the first movement.
I have yet to tire of it! In fact, I cannot get enough of it. Every single time I play Tchaikovsky, after I finish the opening cadenza and begin the main theme, I cannot believe the beauty of the atmosphere the orchestra creates. It is beyond the word beautiful - it is the sound of comfort, love, and kindness, and it is the privilege and thrill of my life that I get to play the beautiful theme on top of that sound. As the piece continues, there is a clear narrative line that winds through the sorrow, hope, and fireworks of the piece. It is incredible to me that a human being could conceptualize and realize something so perfect.
I am still the wide-eyed kid from Utah who is absolutely overwhelmed by music. When I would attend concerts as a little kid, I used to get giddy and struggle to stop laughing out of sheer joy for what I was experiencing! It is deeply important to me that I keep that perspective.
My attitude as an artist is one of gratitude; pieces like Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto have enriched my life beyond words, and I am beyond grateful to have found it. I am determined to share my own joy for music and invite the audience to feel that joy with me every time I take the stage.
The riveting 29-year-old American violinist William Hagen has appeared as a soloist with many of the world's great orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, San Francisco Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and many more. Already a seasoned international performer who has won friends around the world, William has been hailed as a “brilliant virtuoso…a standout” (The Dallas Morning News) whose playing is “… captivating, floating delicately above the orchestra” (Chicago Classical Review). He was the third-prize winner of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, one of the highest-ranking Americans ever in the prestigious competition. William performs on the 1732 ‘Arkwright Lady Rebecca Sylvan’ Stradivarius, on generous loan from the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation.
Jessie Montgomery
Montgomery: Five Freedom Songs for voice, percussion, and string orchestra
Co-commissioned by: Sun Valley Music Festival, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Grand Teton Music Festival, Kansas City Symphony, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the Virginia Arts Festival
Five Freedom Songs was conceived in collaboration with Soprano Julia Bullock between 2017-2018. We wanted to create a song cycle that honors our shared African-American heritage and the tradition of the Negro spiritual, while also experimenting with non-traditional stylistic contexts.
Each of the five songs in this cycle are sourced from the historical anthology Slave Songs of the United States (originally published by A. Simpson & Co., New York, 1867), which categorizes each song based on origin and social context.
For example, “My Lord, What a Morning” is actually the original lyric to the more popular spiritual “Stars Begin to Fall”, which also originated in the Southeastern slave states. “I Want to Go Home” also originates from the Southeastern states, and my setting is inspired by the simple way it was transcribed as a simple seven-note melody without an indicated rhythm, which inspired me to write it in a hybrid Gregorian chant/spiritual style. “Lay dis Body Down”, a funeral song said to originate from the region surrounding South Carolina, is set in an improvised style, wherein each part of the ensemble chooses their own pacing of the line to create a swirling meditation. “My Father, How Long?” contains the refrain “We will soon be free, we will soon be free, De Lord will call us home”, the words of which reflect the dual meaning between spiritual salvation and freedom from oppression. It is a song that emerged from a jail in Georgetown, S.C. at the break of the Great Rebellion, and accompanied by percussive sounds in the strings evoking the chain gang. “The Day of Judgment” originates from the region surrounding Louisiana and is set as an uneasy celebration over the refrain of a traditional West African drumming pattern.
Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Berstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21st century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post).
Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated to the hotbed of artistic experimentation and community development. Her parents – her father a musician, her mother a theater artist and storyteller – were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy.
Karen Slack
John La Montaine: Songs of the Rose of Sharon, Op. 6
Songs of the Rose of Sharon is a magnificent work that is a vehicle for a soprano to expressively use her instrument, delivering the sensual text of the Song of Songs over soaring voluptuous melodies.
From the moment I heard the piece I knew I had to not only sing it but be the voice that brings this great American work back in the repertoire.
As a Black woman and an artist, I am hungry to tell relevant timely stories that reflect my personal beauty, strength, and sexual liberation. I am committed to bringing pieces to the concert stage that speak on social justice, womanism, and female empowerment.
Song of songs does this brilliantly, telling the passionate story of a women’s life from HER perspective.
American soprano Karen Slack has garnered international renown for her artistic versatility, charisma, and entrepreneurial endeavors, receiving critical acclaim for her dynamic and passionate performances in both lead operatic roles and on the concert stage. Known for her leadership and advocacy as a curator and artistic advisor, and her ground-breaking approach to engagements, she is a sought-after collaborator.
Hailed for possessing a voice of extraordinary beauty, a seamless legato and great dramatic depth, Ms. Slack has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, and San Francisco Opera. In recent seasons, she has been seen as Alice Ford in Falstaff, Leonora in Il trovatore, and Tosca with Arizona Opera, as Aïda at Austin Opera, Emelda Griffith in Champion with New Orleans Opera, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Nashville Opera, and Violetta in La Traviata with Sacramento Opera; Sister Rose in Dead Man Walking with Minnesota, Atlanta, and Vancouver Opera and made her Scottish Opera debut as Anna in Puccini’s Le villi. Additionally, Ms. Slack portrayed a featured role as the Opera Diva in Tyler Perry’s movie and soundtrack “For Colored Girls.”
Ms. Slack is an Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera, Co-Director for the 2020-21 Opera Program at the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts, and Co-Chair of the Women’s Opera Network with Opera America.
Jon Kimura Parker
Florence Price: Piano Concerto in One Movement
In 1933, Florence Price became the first Black woman to have her music performed by a major American symphony orchestra. It was the Chicago Symphony no less, the performance resulting from a competition win. Price faced the dual challenges of racism and gender bias; only through persistence did her music get played at all. After Price died in 1953, her music gradually disappeared. During a conversation with a colleague during lockdown, I heard that the original version of her piano concerto had just been published. Knowing nothing of this concerto, I was intrigued and quickly obtained a score.
I was stunned! Here is a work combining the great romantic European style in which she was trained, brimming with African American musical traditions. Written one year after her competition triumph, Piano Concerto in One Movement does in fact have three traditional sections, woven together with orchestra interludes. It features an opening piano cadenza (think Grieg), scintillating octave passages (think Tchaikovsky), and a stunning slow movement solo featuring the oboe (think Brahms). Yet, this original concerto is also built on traditions including call and response, elements of spirituals, and the juba, a jaunty plantation dance that hints of ragtime and the rhythms of tap dancing. No European composer could have written it.
To me, one of the most rewarding aspects of being a performing musician is burrowing deeply into musical styles out of our comfort zone. For a pianist originally from Vancouver, Canada, a Chopin mazurka or a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody encourages familiarity with dance forms rooted thousands of miles away. Through Florence Price I’m learning of new rhythms, harmonies, and musical traditions far removed from my upbringing.
Thankfully, Florence Price’s music is being rediscovered and reassessed. At just under twenty minutes, it stands on its own but would also pair beautifully with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, another uniquely American work. I find the Price Piano Concerto exhilarating to play, and I immediately programmed and performed it on opening night of my first summer as Creative Partner with the Minnesota Orchestra in July 2021, with Osmo Vänskä conducting. The audience reception to the concerto was rapturous. I look forward to sharing this masterpiece again!
The pianist Jon Kimura Parker is known for his charisma, infectious enthusiasm, and dynamic performances. He appears regularly with top orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and many more. He serves as the Creative Partner for the Minnesota Orchestra's Summerfest, Artistic Director for the Honens International Piano Competition, Artistic Advisor for the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and longtime faculty member of Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. He's a member of the Montrose Trio and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and collaborates regularly with artists such as Cho-Liang Lin, James Ehnes, the Miró Quartet, and Stewart Copeland.
Pacifica Quartet
Florence Price: Quartet in G major
Following a year of shared challenges and near-universal hardships, we are grateful to forge connections again with audiences by exploring and giving voice to music from the past and present that inspires, encourages, and speaks to the human condition.
Playing Florence Price’s rich and glowing music, unjustly neglected during her lifetime and in the almost 70 years since her death, has been an illuminating experience for us. Her compelling story and ravishingly soulful compositions go straight to the heart of listeners, who often tell us how moved they were after hearing this touching quartet. Directly connecting with our audiences, through the shared humanity of her heartfelt and honest music, reminds us of the wondrous healing and communicative powers of chamber music and live concerts.
As we explore music of composers whose works are being rediscovered and performed again, in addition to new and vital pieces being written today, we have fresh inspiration to look deeper and wider into all the music we play, to celebrate our wonderfully large and diverse repertoire, and to tell our musical stories with even broader meaning and perspective than before.
For more than twenty five years, the multi-Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet has achieved international recognition as one of the finest chamber ensembles performing today. Known for their daring repertory choices, as the preeminent interpreter of string quartet cycles, and for their incredibly committed performances, the Pacifica serves in residence at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music and at the Aspen Music Festival. Recent collaboration include projects with Anthony McGill, Marc-André Hamelin, Johannes Moser, Karen Slack, and Sharon Isbin.
Jacomo Bairos
Kishi Bashi: Improvisation on Executive Order 9066
Kishi Bashi’s Improvisation on Executive Order 9066 is a multi-media work that explores the history of the executive order which spurred the incarceration and relocation of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII.
Combining multiple genres, styles, cultures, traditional and non-traditional composers and soloists, along with the treasured masterpieces we all love, is paramount for engaging and attracting new and diverse audiences to experience the modern, multi-faceted orchestra institution.
Multi-instrumentalist, singer-song writer, composer, indie artist, and close friend Kishi Bashi is a musician and collaborator who blurs the lines of tradition while creating engaging and challenging art that invites a fresh openness for audiences to experience the beautiful and transformative world of an orchestra.
His work, Improvisations on Executive Order 9066 which we at Nu Deco commissioned in 2018 , marries so many of the qualities and values I feel the future of symphonic music must embrace to stay relevant, speak to society today, while also creating more unity and enrichment within our communities. Featuring beautifully written music for the orchestra, Kishi’s gorgeous singing, poetic narration, improvised violin, as well as powerful visual elements, this work sheds light on a relevant subject that continues to hold parallels today.
After Kishi’s first performance with Nu Deco in 2016, he was inspired to write something new that brought attention and awareness to a historical past of the United States that still echoes 80 years later in today’s America with regards to race, assimilation, tolerance and acceptance in the American Asian communities.
The beauty of this commission, beyond shedding light, and attracting awareness to an often under told story, Kishi’s work ultimately gifts us with more humanity and hope. A great joy for me, is watching how this piece has gained more attention nationally, and orchestras around the country are now presenting this work on major subscription series to include the St Loius, Seattle, Oregon and Virginia Symphonies. These performances have not only been met with critical acclaim, as they were in Miami, to me, they represent the best aspects of the orchestra institution that has the power to transform and enrich our lives in immeasurable ways.
Furthermore, Kishi’s musical journey and deep study spiraled into a broader look at the complexities of humanity and ultimately spurred a documentary movie that is currently garnering critical acclaim on the indie film circuit and premiered at the SXSW Film festival last March entitled Omiaryi: A Song Film
Many classical composers, as far back as Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms borrowed ideas, music, folk melodies and inspiration from other cultures and used different genres than their own to tell stories and paint compelling musical landscapes. This is prevalent through out all of music history, and as technology has improved and orchestras have diversified, it is now time to take our next Great Leap Forward. Orchestras must always reinvent themselves. Adapting, changing and constantly creating new material to stay relevant. The universality and intimacy of live music, the craftsmanship of the orchestra ensemble and musicians performing, has the ability to transform and change lives.
We as artists can be a bridge to deeper parts of our soul in the most meaningful of ways. It is my goal as an artist to be a conduit to help spur creativity, deliver compelling performances and enrich all who can participate in the performance. Kishi’s work celebrates the humanity in all of us. He represents the best of what can happen when we don’t look at boundaries or musical genres as separate from one another. In this spirit of engaging, enriching and inspiring us, and I am eternally grateful for his vision, collaborative spirt and musicianship that now can be shared with the world even more deeply.
Ariel Quartet
Matan Porat: “Four Ladino Songs for String Quartet”
I. Floating - Meno mosso
II. Scherzando
III. Variation I - poco piu mosso, Theme, Var. II - nervous, piu mosso, Var. III - Var. IV - calmer, Var. V - Var. VI - slow, almost timeless, Var. 7 - Theme
Four Ladino Songs for String Quartet by Matan Porat was originally commissioned for our 20th anniversary which was to take place in 2020.
Ariel Quartet
Matan Porat: Four Ladino Songs for String Quartet (2020)
Four Ladino Songs for String Quartet by Matan Porat was originally commissioned for our 20th anniversary which was to take place in 2020.
With the pandemic raging through the world during the entire 2020-2021 season, our thoughts went from celebration to retrospection, and the work was left unperformed, awaiting better times.
During this year, the civil unrest following George Floyd’s murder, the effects of the pandemic on already marginalized groups, as well as open and covert aggression towards various minority communities led us to reflect on our own mixed identity and our particular place within the American society.
There is always an ambiguity in being an immigrant – on one hand fitting in a society while on the other being acutely aware of one’s own foreignness. The pandemic and the current events have made us aware that there are so many American identities that are different from ours while still sharing the same sentiments. Through this lens, Matan Porat’s work has acquired a new life and meaning, turning from a celebratory work to reckoning with our cultural past and our place as artists in the US.
The work is based on four songs in Ladino, the language of Spanish Jews that were uprooted from their native communities in 1492 and sent to wander the foreign lands in search of a new home. It simultaneously symbolizes both, a sense of belonging to a community, and remaining forever a foreigner.
At the same time, the songs themselves deal with subjects of love, pain, longing and wit, which are sentiments that are deeply human, and shared regardless of one's nationality or heritage.
We feel that through this piece, which is a story of our personal heritages – Jewish, European as well as our shared journey as immigrants in the US, we are reflecting on the personal and cultural heritage of other communities of foreigners, literal or cultural and the beauty we find in the variety of cultural and historical influences that are woven into the fabric of the American society and its culture.
The Ariel Quartet - which just celebrated its 20th anniversary - serves as Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Formed when the members were just teenagers studying at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance in Israel, the Ariel was named a recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award and has collaborated recently with Alisa Weilerstein, Daniil Trifonov, Alexander Fiterstein, and Menahem Pressler.
Gabriel Kahane
Gabriel Kahane: emergency shelter intake form for mezzo-soprano, amplified vocal trio, community chorus, and full orchestra
In researching this piece, I learned that my conception of homelessness was deeply skewed: the unhoused population that we see on the street— many of whom struggle with mental illness and substance abuse— are, despite their visibility, not necessarily representative of the vast majority of those facing homelessness. Instead, it’s the invisible population— those doubled up with family and friends, living in shelter, living in hotels or motels or temporary housing—who reflect the broader texture of housing insecurity. Many of these people have lost their housing due to sudden unemployment, exorbitant medical bills, and wages insufficient to match rising costs of living. If there’s any agenda in emergency shelter intake form, it’s to shrink the conceptual distance between those who have and those who have not, and to remind those of us who enjoy varying degrees of economic privilege that precarity is nevertheless waiting around the corner should we experience some unexpected trauma in our lives.
Gabriel Kahane is a singer-songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist who works at the blurred edges of journalism, ethnography, storytelling, and music. Gabriel has collaborated with a diverse array of artists, including Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, the Danish String Quartet, Chris Thile, Natalie Joachim, Phoebe Bridgers, Punch Brothers, and Paul Simon. As a composer, Gabriel has been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He also serves as Creative Chair for the Oregon Symphony.
Gabriel has written pieces about his work, political activism, and commentary on modern society for The New Yorker and The New York Times. He has been a regular guest on American Public Media’s Live from Here.
Arod Quartet
Maurice Ravel: String Quartet in F major
I. Allegro moderato – très doux
II. Assez vif – très rythmé
III. Très lent
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Arod Quartet, we wanted to recharge our batteries by devoting ourselves to the French repertoire.
We particularly appreciate this sensitivity, these subtle rhythmic impulses and this impressionistic transparency. In a world that is compartmentalized by the health crisis, it seems important to us to share our French culture and sensitivity throughout the world.
The Arod Quartet, based in Paris, has captivated the chamber music world, performing more than eighty concerts a season at such prestigious venues as the Philharmonie de Paris, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Verbier Festival. The Arod is one of just a very few ensembles with a major label recording contract. They record exclusively for Warner Classics and has released three critically acclaimed recordings: Mendelssohn (2017), The Mathilde Album (2019), and Schubert (2020).
The Arod first came to international attention when they won the coveted First Prize of the 2016 ARD International Music Competition in Munich and went on to join the BBC New Generation Artists’ roster. Fantastically, the Arod Quartet takes its name from Legolas’s horse in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings trilogy – in Tolkien’s mythic Rohirric language, Arod means ‘swift’).
Orion Weiss
Rachmaninoff: Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39
Rachmaninoff's Nine Etudes-Tableaux Op.39 were the last pieces he wrote before escaping Russia in 1917. They are among his darkest works: ominous, wild, tumultuous and terrifying. In them one can hear the violence of WWI and the October revolution, the Bolshevik fires that engulfed his family’s estate, marching footsteps, trains, sleighs, winter landscapes — but above all one hears his emotional state.
Rachmaninoff was always more interested in the narrative of emotions than in landscapes or dramatic action. In these tremendous pieces, written right before he fled his country and plunged into exile, his uncertainty and anxiety runs like a constant thread. But even more prominently, one hears passion, courage and resistance. The music is ultimately redeemed and exalted by the drive to persevere that enabled him to escape such desperate circumstances.
For me, they are essential music for our time, for all time.
One of the most sought-after soloists in his generation of young American musicians, Orion Weiss has performed with the major American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic. His deeply felt and exceptionally crafted performances go far beyond his technical mastery and have won him worldwide acclaim. He collaborates regularly with James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Shai Wosner, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Quatuor Danel
Weinberg: The Complete String Quartets
Between 1994, when for the first time, thanks to the Belgian musicologist Frans Lemaire, we first heard the name of Mieczysław Weinberg, and now, when we are asked more and more to play these wonderful masterworks all over the world, 25 years have gone by.
Why and how did our interest in Weinberg begin? First of all, Russian music has always been at the heart of our career. The man who advised us to become a professional string quartet was Valentin Berlinsky, the cellist and founder of the Borodin Quartet. We learned and performed all 15 quartets of Shostakovich under the guidance of the Borodin Quartet in the early stage of our career, when we had the opportunity to meet people who advised us to play Weinberg: Frans Lemaire and Valentin Berlinsky, but also Irina Shostakovich, Manashir Yakubov (the Russian musicologist), and the composer Alexander Raskatov, who was very close to Weinberg. In a way, working on this cycle seemed to be almost natural after spending years on the cycle of Shostakovich quartets, and the insistence of Valentin Berlinsky made us feel it almost as a mission.
In 1994, when we started our adventure with Weinberg’s music, the quartets were known very insufficiently. The Borodin Quartet had played six of them, we had parts for only two of them, and a very limited number were recorded (the 8th and the Piano Quintet by the Borodin Quartet, Nos. 1, 10 and 17 by the Gothenburg quartet, and Nos. 7, 8, 9 by the Dominant Quartet, plus an old Soviet recording of the 12th.
Our first task was to find the scores. For this we had tremendous help from Valentin Berlinsky, Manashir Yakubov and Alexander Raskatov, but, as the quartets Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 were missing, we had to ask the help of Olga Weinberg, the widow of the composer. I will never forget that day, in the Russia of the nineties, in the Moscow Metro with my wife, holding to our hearts the manuscripts of these four quartets, before copying them as quickly as possible and giving them back to Olga.
Once we had the scores, we naturally needed parts to play from, which each of us did in his own way. In my case, the parts were copied by hand, which took an enormous amount of time, but was a very good occasion to start to know the pieces. I copied ten of the quartets that way, plus the Aria and Capriccio, and still use my “self-made parts.”
Naturally the most important part was the work of learning and rehearsing the quartets, which we had to do with no reference to guide us, since most of the quartets, especially the early ones, had been played quite rarely. Remarkably, sixty years after they were written, we gave the world premieres of the 3rd and 6th quartets, and the Aria and Capriccio.
In the 1990s, it was extremely difficult to get promoters to accept Weinberg in concert programmes, and many people told us (though with good will): “why do you spend so much time on this second-rate music?” Nevertheless, we had the chance, through our residency at Manchester University, to often play Weinberg, which occasioned a close and rich collaboration with our colleague David Fanning, Weinberg’s first biographer. Manchester was also where the first-ever complete cycle of Weinberg quartets was heard in concert, from the 17th to the 20th of November 2009, ten years before the centenary of the composer.
This brings up a story that shows how Weinberg was a territory still to be discovered at that time. The cycle was just finished when we went to Liverpool for the premiere of Weinberg’s Requiem. We were shocked when we heard that one of the movements of the Requiem, sung by a children’s choir, is literally the 8th movement of the 15th quartet. Now, if any of our students were to work on Weinberg’s 15th quartet, we would tell them that they absolutely have to know the Requiem before they work that piece, but at the time we recorded it, the Requiem had never been performed.
2006 to 2009 was a very intense and very moving period of making the recordings for cpo. We had an amazing three years, so filled with emotion. I will always remember the emotion with which our sound engineer Barbara Valentin said, at the end of a movement, just the word "Herrlich" (marvelous) – expressing that she was also discovering the music during our recording. For us it was a revelation to discover the quartets "from the outside" when we received the first edit, as most of them had never been recorded.
We had unbelievable luck to be able to live this adventure. To rediscover these quartets, some of which apparently never been performed before, is comparable to an archeologist coming upon a lost civilization by chance.
When I remember the promoters answering "Moshe Who?" when we wanted to play one of these quartets in the 1990s, and so many musicians thinking that to spend time on Weinberg would be a waste of time, I am so happy that this unbelievable music is part of the repertoire of many musicians now, and that for the generation of our students, it starts to be standard repertoire.
The Quatuor Danel has been at the forefront of the European music scene for twenty years, and is known for its bold, concentrated interpretations as well as for its polished, expansive sound and mesmerizing stage presence. Longstanding relationships include the Philharmonie de Paris, Wigmore Hall, The Phillips Collection, Ottawa Chamberfest, and Kuhmo Chamber Music in Finland. The Danel was the first to record all 17 of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's stunning string quartets, single-handedly leading the revival of this Polish Jewish composer's music, long silenced due to its "degenerate" designation by the Nazi regime.
Shanghai Quartet
Tan Dun: Feng Ya Song
The words Feng, Ya, Song are three different sections from Shijing, also known as The Classic of Poetry. It is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry dating from the 11th century BC. It has influenced numerous extraordinary people including the great Confucius.
Academy Award- and Grammy-winning composer Tan Dun was deeply inspired by this poetry, and composed Feng Ya Song in 1983. Tan perfectly illustrates several ancient Chinese melodies using Western compositional techniques in this piece. The work won the Weber Prize from Dresden, making Tan the first Chinese composer to win an international prize since the communist Revolution of 1949. Coincidentally, the Shanghai Quartet was founded in the same year.
Our relationship with Tan Dun goes back more than four decades. We commissioned a new version of the Feng Ya Song in 2019, and it holds a very special place in our heart.
The piece itself is a perfect example of embracing multiculturalism by combining both Eastern and Western styles together in a single piece. It is the one work that best represents the identity of the Shanghai Quartet, and our dedication to building bridges between the east and the west for the last 38 years.
Over the past thirty-five years the Shanghai Quartet has become one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles. The Shanghai’s elegant style, impressive technique, and emotional breadth allows the group to move seamlessly between masterpieces of Western music, traditional Chinese folk music, and cutting-edge contemporary works. Formed at the Shanghai Conservatory in 1983, soon after the end of China’s harrowing Cultural Revolution, the group came to the United States to complete its studies. The Quartet was based in the United States for over thirty years before returning to China last year to serve as the inaugural quartet-in-residence for the Tianjin Juilliard School. They maintain a robust global touring schedule at leading chamber music series throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
Rodolfo Leone
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit
Whenever I play this piece I know I have to let my imagination run free and go with the flow. It is one of those pieces that demands both an absolute control of the instrument, while simultaneously requiring complete abandonment to the music. It is only in this apparent contradiction that I can hope to communicate the wild breadth of emotions that are expressed on the page of this masterwork.
I always considered this suite to be one of the most incredibly written pieces for piano. It evokes vivid images of love, horror, solitude and the grotesque, in one of the closest musical equivalents to poetry that has ever been achieved.
While one of the most challenging pieces of the repertoire, I personally find it to be one of the most artistically fulfilling.
The way Ravel uses the instrument to create certain effects and sonorities, especially in Ondine and Scarbo, is unprecedented and requires a sort of stoic detachment in order to convey the immense contrasts and quick dynamic changes that are ultimately needed to evoke the “demon” from the page, to the stage. Finishing off the suite in between the two aforementioned pieces is Le Gibet, a description of an hypnotic and desolate landscape, punctuated throughout by a distant bell ever present and inevitable.
The brilliant Italian born pianist Rodolfo Leone was the first-prize winner of the 2017 International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna. Described as “a true sound philosopher” (Oberösterreichische Nachrichten), Rodolfo released his debut album on the Austrian label Gramola in May 2018. The all-Beethoven disc features two pillars of the piano repertoire: the “Hammerklavier” Sonata and the “Waldstein” Sonata. His playing has been described as having “impeccable style” and “absolute technical control.” (Il Nuovo Amico).
American String Quartet
Beethoven: Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131
This is a work we have been living with, studying and performing for more than four decades. It’s a masterpiece, it’s timeless, it’s long, deep and sad, but it ends in triumph.
These qualities carry a message uniquely meaningful in the challenging world to which we must adapt. And it was the composer’s favorite of all his quartets - and who are we to argue with Beethoven?
The iconic American String Quartet which is approaching its 50th anniversary continues to perform around the world. Resident quartet at the Manhattan School of Music and Aspen Music Festival for the past three decades, the American is one of the most accomplished string quartets performing today. Recent collaborations include programs with the iconic novelist Salman Rushdie, opera superstar Stephanie Blythe, and National Book Award-winning author Phil Klay.
Amy Dickson
Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 1 (transcribed by Amy Dickson)
Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto is a work which has both shaped and defined my musical life, since I transcribed it for soprano saxophone in 2007. Initially, it seemed impossible to play this technically challenging work on a wind instrument, but after having taught myself to circular breathe, I began to realize that it might be possible. Glass was supportive of my efforts, and so a long association with the work began.
This concerto has pushed me to expand my playing in unusual directions, ever since I made the transcription. It continues to challenge me with every performance, and it surprises and excites both orchestra and audiences every time.
As a saxophone concerto, new timbres emerge, giving it a very different voice than in its original format as a violin concerto. Hidden textures and voices appear, as the solo part sings with the instruments of the wind section.
It requires a stronger stamina than any other piece I’ve ever played, and so the musical and emotional elements, combined with the physical, make every performance a life-affirming event for me.
"Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto arranged for saxophone? It hardly seemed possible until I heard Australian virtuoso and this month’s cover star Amy Dickson throwing off Glass’s quick-fire semiquavers with a brilliance and panache to rival any violinist. Indeed, the haunting eloquence she brings to the central movement is expressively in a class of its own."
- Classic FM
"Dickson’s highly nuanced and skillful interpretations on this disc amply demonstrate her musical versatility extends beyond mere ‘arrangement’ of Glass’ music"
- Gramophone
Ying Quartet
Antonin Dvořák: Quartet in F major, Op. 96, "American"
From the time we moved to rural Iowa for our first job after music school, we have been captivated by the life and music of Antonin Dvořák, who spent a summer in rural Iowa exactly one hundred years before us.
We were drawn at first to his much-loved, heartfelt melodies set in rich counterpoint and lush harmonies. In the context of our musical experiences in the heart of the Midwest, we also came to appreciate the way Dvořák sought a true American aesthetic expressed through an authentic musical language. Dvořák recognized the artistic depth of African American and Native American musical idioms, and he allowed these influences to inspire his own musical voice. Moreover, he advocated—long before the current social climate—that the future strength of American music must recognize and grow from the roots of indigenous American culture.
When we play his music, we pursue not only its innate beauty but also identify with Dvořák’s awareness of his world and his desire to see music as connective fiber in the fabric of society. We are excited by our vision to harness this power to strengthen connections across the full range of string playing communities from neighborhood and after-school programs to conservatories of music.
The Ying Quartet occupies a position of unique prominence in the classical music world, combining brilliantly communicative performances with a fearlessly imaginative view of chamber music in today's world. Now in its third decade, the Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of the highest musical qualifications. Their performances regularly take place in many of the world's most important concert halls; at the same time, the Quartet's belief that concert music can also be a meaningful part of everyday life has also drawn the foursome to perform in settings as diverse as the workplace, schools, juvenile prisons, and the White House. In fact, the Ying Quartet's constant quest to explore the creative possibilities of the string quartet has led it to an unusually diverse array of musical projects and interests.
Gryphon Trio
Bruce Russell: we have lived before (2021)
As truths are revealed and acknowledged about our colonial past, the reconciliation process requires listening to those who have not had a voice, whether it be their stories, art, or music, and moving forward together. The Gryphon represents a guardian of treasures – old and new, and we seek that balance in our performing, teaching, and community engagements. Bruce Russell wrote ‘we have lived before’ in 2021 for us, taking inspiration from the Black Lives Matter movement, Beethoven’s ‘Ghost’ trio, and personal and societal issues.
The imaginative Gryphon Trio - which is approaching its 30th anniversary - has established itself as one of the world’s preeminent piano trios. With a repertoire that ranges from the traditional to the contemporary and from European classicism to modern-day multimedia, the Gryphons are committed to redefining chamber music for the 21st century.
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