Minnesota Orchestra Composer InstitutePresented by the Minnesota Orchestra and the American Composers Forum
in cooperation with the American Music Center
Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Fred Child and Steve Seel, hosts
Aaron Jay Kernis and Beth Cowart, co-directors, Composer Institute
ComposersAntonio Carlos DeFeo • Ted Hearne • Wang Lu • Andrew McManus
Justin Merritt • David Schneider • Ming-Hsiu Yen
* These works receive world premiere performances in this concert. The remaining works are receiving their first performance by amajor orchestra.
Additional information on the composers is found on page 32; more detailed profiles and program notes are provided in theComposer Institute booklet.
The audience is invited to stay in the auditorium after the concert for a Q&A with the composers, Aaron Jay Kernis and OsmoVänskä. A reception will follow in the lobby.
Patriot ca. 10'
Four Portraits: por los ojos de los niños ca. 9'
Identity* ca. 10'
Yun ca. 10'
Wailing* ca. 8'
Automation* ca. 13'
River of Blood* ca. 10'
The 2008 Composer Institute is made possible in part by funding from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music,Amphion Foundation, Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, The ASCAP Foundation Joseph andRosalie Meyer Fund, BMI Foundation, Jack and Linda Hoeschler Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation, HellaMears and Bill Hueg Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation, Daniel and Constance Kunin, F. Bruce and DianaLewis, the National Endowment for the Arts, David and Judy Ranheim, and Frederick E. and Gloria B. Sewell.
thank you
I N T E R M I S S I O N ca. 20'
Minnesota Orchestra concerts are broadcast live Friday evenings on stations of Minnesota Public Radio. The concerts are also
featured in American Public Media’s national programs, SymphonyCast and Performance Today. Regional broadcasts are
supported by the Minnesota Orchestra; by Patterson, Thuente, Skaar and Christensen, P.A.; and by UBS.
31N OVE M B E R 200 8 M I N N E S OTA O R C H E STRA
Osmo Vänskä Conducts Future Classics! nov 7
WE’RE DELIGHTED that you’ve chosen to attend
tonight’s performance of new works by seven of the
country’s most talented emerging composers. This
marks the third annual Future Classics! Concert,
the exciting culmination of this season’s week-long
Composer Institute, the Orchestra’s award-winning
orchestral immersion program for up-and-coming
composers from across the nation.
It’s a rare treat to hear a major orchestra bring to life
an entire concert’s worth of very new works. As Jorja
Fleezanis said of the first Future Classics concert in
2006: it’s “something extraordinary…like revisiting or
rediscovering something about the kind of experience
that a new piece gives you when you listen to it—the
silence, the raptness, the participation from the
listener, as well as the electricity that’s coming off the
stage when there’s not one shred of familiarity.”
With that spirit of exploration and discovery, we salute
you, our audience, as well as the seven composers here
tonight. We invite you to look through the booklet
handed out at tonight’s performance to see the wealth
of experience brought by professionals from the music
business world and orchestral world, convening here
this week to give these composers what may be one of
the most exhilarating experiences of their lives.
Aaron Jay Kernis and Beth Cowart, co-directors
Aaron Jay Kernis,founder and co-director
Aaron Jay Kernis is theMinnesota Orchestra’s new
music advisor, which involves advising on the commissioning ofand support for contemporary music as well as writing new works.He took this post in 1998, the year he won a Pulitzer Prize for hisString Quartet No. 2. His many distinctions have includedreceiving a Grawemeyer Award for the cello-and-orchestra versionof Colored Field. Kernis’ compositions are written for many ofAmerica’s foremost artists, orchestras and music organizations—including current commissions for the Seattle Symphony,Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and New York Philharmonic—andare featured on orchestral, chamber and recital programs aroundthe world. They are also heard on CDs from Cedille, Koch,Nonesuch, Phoenix, New Albion, Argo and CRI. More: minnesotaorchestra.org, schirmer.com.
Fred Child, host
Fred Child, host of AmericanPublic Media’s PerformanceToday, is also commentatorand announcer for Live fromLincoln Center. He previouslyhosted and directed programsat WNYC in New York andwas a public radio host for tenyears in his native Oregon. His musical backgroundincludes studies in piano.More: publicradio.org.
Steve Seel, host
Steve Seel was a ClassicalMinnesota Public Radio hostfor six years and is now aweekday afternoon host on89.3 The Current. Hepreviously hosted programs inTampa and Buffalo andcreated and produced ashowcase for experimentalmusic. He has a broadknowledge of music and is a composer himself. More: mpr.org.
Wang LuWang Lu studied music at China’s Xi’anConservatory and Beijing CentralConservatory of Music before arriving inthe U.S. to pursue her doctoral degree atColumbia University. Her music, whichranges from jazz to chamber to fullorchestra, has been performed at venuesin China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, France,Switzerland and the U.S.
Andrew McManusAndrew McManus, currently pursuing amaster’s degree at the Eastman Schoolof Music, earned his bachelor’s degree atYale College. His compositions havereceived numerous awards, including the2008 Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize,Beekman Cannon Friends of Music Prize,Abraham Beekman Cox Prize andBranford College Arts Prize.
Justin MerrittJustin Merritt is assistant professor andcomposer in residence at St. OlafCollege in Northfield, Minnesota. Hisworks have been performed across NorthAmerica and Europe and have garneredmany awards. In 2001 he became theyoungest-ever winner of the ASCAPFoundation/Rudolph Nissim Award.
Antonio Carlos DeFeoAntonio Carlos DeFeo’s compositionshave been performed at prestigiousinstitutions from Tanglewood to Salzburg.He writes music for dance, theater, filmand the concert hall, and often integrateslive acoustic instruments withprerecorded sounds. He attended theBerklee College of Music and ManhattanSchool of Music.
Ted HearneTed Hearne is active as a composer,conductor and performer. A master’sstudent at the Yale School of Music, he iscomposer in residence with the ChicagoChildren’s Choir, resident conductor ofthe Red Light New Music Ensemble, andartistic director of Yes is a World, anonprofit organization that promotespeace and social change through music.
David SchneiderDavid Schneider has earned degreesfrom the University of Southern Californiaand Indiana University. He has woncomposition awards from the New WestSymphony, Cambridge Madrigal Singersand Indiana University Jacobs School ofMusic, among other institutions. Inaddition to his work in composition, hehas performed as a singer.
Ming-Hsiu YenMing-Hsiu Yen is currently pursuing adoctorate in composition at the Universityof Michigan. She holds dual degrees incomposition and piano performance fromthe University of Michigan and EastmanSchool of Music. Her compositions havebeen performed in numerous venues inthe U.S., China, Japan and her nativeTaiwan.
The November 2008 Composer Institute is made possible in part by funding from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Amphion Foundation, Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, The ASCAP Foundation Joseph and Rosalie Meyer Fund, BMI, BMI Foundation, Jack and Linda Hoeschler Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation, Hella Mears and Bill Hueg Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation, Daniel and Constance Kunin, F. Bruce and Diana Lewis, the National
Endowment for the Arts, David and Judy Ranheim and Frederick E. and Gloria B. Sewell.
Aaron Jay Kernis (foreground, center) leads a Q&A session after the inaugural Future Classics! concert. Behind him (from left) are Dan Visconti, Alejandro Rutty, Missy Mazzoli, Beth Cowart, Osmo Vänskä, Garrett Byrnes, Ashley Nail, Anna Clyne, Stephen Gorbos, Kurt Erickson and Gregg Wramage.
Photo: Greg Helgeson
Please refer to the November 2008 issue of Showcase, pages 16 and 30-32, for full details of the Future Classics! concert program and profiles of Osmo Vänskä and Aaron Jay Kernis.
Next seasON: the 2009-10 Composer Institute will be held November 15 to 22, 2009, with a Future Classics! concert performed saturday, November 21, at 8 p.m.
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Introduction and Welcome from the co-directorsThis evening marks the third annual Future Classics! concert, the exciting culmination of this season’s week-long Composer Institute, the Orchestra’s eighth annual program of performances of new orchestral works and advanced training seminars for emerging composers from across the nation.
This combination of public performance and broad training program is utterly unique, the only program of its kind. The seven visiting composers will expand their understanding of orchestral writing as their works come alive through the artistry of the Orchestra’s musicians. Intensive workshops with musicians, one-on-one mentoring sessions, meetings with Osmo Vänskä and seminars with leaders in the music business will advance the composers’ awareness of their own music. Through this unique collaboration, we provide a means to connect with the professional world in ways that all too often are out of reach for most young, aspiring composers.
The Institute is an outgrowth of Perfect Pitch, a program of orchestral reading sessions and composer mentorship in which the Orchestra collaborated with the American Composers Forum for six seasons, beginning in 1995-96. Each year brought growth, as the Institute developed from a program for Minnesota composers to one including those from surrounding states. The Institute’s scope and impact increased greatly in 2001, when focus broadened to encompass a rich array of seminars and national participation. The program attracts numerous applicants annually, and this year’s seven composers, selected by a panel of established composers, were among a pool of 162 submissions from 32 states. At the conclusion of the 2008 Institute, we will have presented 93 works by 86 composers over the past 14 seasons.
Time and again, alumni tell us how important the Institute has been in the development of their music and their careers. The growing list of their subsequent achievements suggests that we are providing something of lasting value for the composers and, in turn, for the future of orchestral music. Many composers who have taken part in the program in previous years have gone on to receive major commissions, awards and grants, and they tell us repeatedly that the Institute has played a crucial role in their professional education.
It also makes a difference for the Minnesota Orchestra. Two Future Classics! works have been performed on Sommerfest and subscription programs, and for the last six years, Institute alumni have been commissioned to write new works for our Young People’s concerts.
We’re thrilled that our audience will share in the adventure of discovering new orchestral music from some of the country’s most talented emerging composers, and we’re delighted to have such a bounty of new works to explore together. We are deeply grateful that Osmo Vänskä is so keenly and fundamentally involved in the Institute and its future. Conducting seven new works in one evening is no small task, and this concert, under Osmo’s baton, will be a thrilling end to the week’s events.
Please join us in thanking the staff and musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as our partners—the American Composers Forum and the American Music Center—all of whom offer help and well-considered advice that continually shape the Institute. Our friends at ASCAP, BMI and Minnesota Public Radio also lend invaluable support and assistance. Thanks as well to the funders who make this possible, and to you, our friends in the audience, for joining us tonight.
Aaron Jay Kernis Beth Cowart
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seminar and event schedule (aLL at ORCHestRa HaLL)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1 7 pm Cargill RoomComposer Institute Introduction*Aaron Jay Kernis and Beth Cowart provide welcome and introduction
8 pm Orchestra Hall AuditoriumMinnesota Orchestra concert*
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29:30-11:00 am Cargill RoomComposer-to-Composer I*Composers DeFeo, McManus and Merritt present their additional works
11 am-1 pm Cargill RoomComposer Video Interviews*
1-2 pm Cargill RoomComposer-to-Composer II*Composers Wang Lu and Schneider present their additional works
2:30-4 pm Cargill RoomCracking the Code: Getting Your Work PerformedEvans Mirageas, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra/Cincinnati Opera
4:30-6 pm Cargill RoomGrant-Writing for Composers SeminarMary Ellen Childs, composer
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 310:00-11:30 am Osmo’s StudioComposer Meetings with Osmo Vänskä*
11:45 am-12:30 pm Green RoomMeet the American Composers ForumJohn Nuechterlein, Craig Carnahan, ACF
1-3:30 pm Green RoomUpper Strings SeminarJorja Fleezanis, violin; Thomas Turner, viola
4-5:30 pm Green RoomSelf-Publishing SeminarBill Holab, Bill Holab Music
6-8 pm Green RoomComposer-to-Composer III* with Crescendo ProjectComposers Hearne and Yen present their additional works
9:30 pm Green RoomListening on the EdgesFrank J. Oteri, American Music Center
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 49-11:15 am Rehearsal RoomA Better Score:How to Produce Exceptional Scores and PartsBill Holab, Bill Holab Music
11:40 am Orchestra Hall Auditorium Minnesota Orchestra Young People’s ConcertInstitute alumnus commission
1:15-3:15 pm Rehearsal RoomPercussion SeminarBrian Mount, Kevin Watkins, percussion
3:30-5 pm Rehearsal RoomHarp SeminarKathy Kienzle, harp
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 510 am-12 noon Rehearsal RoomEvery Composer’s Business I:Copyrights, Licensing, Commissioning ContractsJames Kendrick, attorney; Frank J. Oteri
1-1:30 pm Rehearsal RoomLegal Q&A Session
1:30-3 pm Rehearsal RoomEvery Composer’s Business II:Publishing Contracts, NegotiatingJames Kendrick; Frank J. Oteri
3-3:30 pm Rehearsal RoomLegal Q&A Session
4-5 pm Rehearsal RoomMeet the American Music CenterJoanne Hubbard Cossa, Frank J. Oteri, Deborah Horne, AMC
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 610 am-12:30 pm Orchestra Hall AuditoriumOrchestra RehearsalOsmo Vänskä, conductor
1:35-3:35 pm Orchestra Hall AuditoriumOrchestra RehearsalOsmo Vänskä, conductor
3:45-4:30 pm Green RoomMeeting with MacPhail and Perpich Center composition students*
6-7 pm Green RoomCreating Music and Conducting Business*Frances Richard, ASCAP
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 710 am-12:30 pm Orchestra Hall AuditoriumOrchestra RehearsalOsmo Vänskä, conductor
1:30-3 pm Osmo’s StudioFeedback: Composer Meetings with Osmo Vänskä*
1:30-6:30 pm Cargill RoomMentoring Sessions with Aaron Jay Kernis*
8 pm Orchestra Hall AuditoriumConcert: Osmo Vänskä Conducts Future Classics!(adults $20-40; students and youth $10)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 810:30 am-1 pm Rehearsal RoomEyes to the Future: An Exchange of PerspectivesJenny Bilfield, Stanford Lively Arts; Libby Larsen, composer; Evans Mirageas; Michael Steinberg, musicologist
1-2 pm Cargill RoomWrap-Up Session*Aaron Jay Kernis, Beth Cowart
*These events are open only to the seven composer participants. All other events are open to ACF members and to students and faculty of the University of Minnesota.
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ted Hearne: Patriot Program Note:
In Patriot, little musical motifs circle in and around themselves—not giving up, but not blossoming into a developed whole. The music begins with the trombones: forceful, heroic, but rushed. Families of instruments follow, with flutes driving forward in pockets of tightly packed figures that collapse into single pitches, and oboes singing out with a clarity that becomescorrupted. There is no space to breathe, only a restlessness which lives in the rhythm. A distorted military sound is theskeleton of this American music, a resonance always justbelow the surface, as we are barely conscious of anunconscionable war waged in our name. The final trumpet music is an echo of some old blues, sinking and fading.
—Ted Hearne
Bio:
Ted Hearne (b. 1982) is active in the New York and Chicago areas as a composer, conductor and performer. His major works include the hour-long Katrina Ballads, which premiered to acclaim at the 2007 Piccolo Spoleto Festival and has been recorded for New Amsterdam Records. He is currently composer in residence of the Chicago Children’s Choir and resident conductor of New York’s Red Light New Music Ensemble.
Hearne is artistic director of Yes is a World, a nonprofit organization working to promote peace and social change through musical collaboration. He recently traveled to South Africa to create a performance for Yes is a World exploring the ways in which traditional choral music is being used in the struggle against HIV-AIDS.
Hearne has studied composition with Julia Wolfe, Nils Vigeland, Aaron Jay Kernis and Martin Bresnick, and is now pursuing a master’s degree at the Yale School of Music. He recently sang the role of Justin Timberlake in the premiere of Timberbrit by Jacob Cooper, a 2007 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute participant.
More: tedhearne.com.
Program Note:
This piece was inspired by artwork about the four seasons created by children from New York’s Westchester County. I conjured a narrative from the artwork and composed fourmovements based on that narrative, played with little or no pause between them.
The work begins playfully with the cascading leaves of Autumn, the season associated with a new school year. The second movement, Winter, portrays a lonely snowman left outside after children return indoors. His yearning voice is answered by angels of ancient snowmen hovering above.
In Spring we hear a ray of sunlight, the murmur of melting snow and ice, a rain shower and the fluttering of returning birds and bees. The placid, pastoral last moment of this section leads into the roar of a thunderstorm, as brass and wind sections announce the arrival of Summer and the end of school. This final movement was inspired by a general sense of fun, freedom and glory, culminating in a portrayal of fireworks. The work ends with a splash—and a hint of the return of fall.
—Antonio Carlos DeFeo
Bio:
New York native Antonio Carlos DeFeo (b. 1973) is equally comfortable writing music for dance, theater, film or the concert hall. His compositions have been performed at such prestigious institutions as the Tanglewood Music Center, Salzburg Music Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Central City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Westchester Performing Arts Center and the Dreikönigskirche Festival.
DeFeo’s music often combines live acoustic instruments with prerecorded voices and electronic or acoustic sounds. He has implemented this “audio collage” technique in his orchestral, chamber and vocal works, resulting in unusual, kaleidoscopic textures and ambience.
DeFeo has won awards and recognition from the JeromeFoundation, Turner Classic Movies, Westchester Millennium Commission, John Lennon Songwriting Competition, American Composers Forum, National Association of Teachers ofSinging and ASCAP. He received training first at Berklee College of Music and then at the Manhattan School of Music.
More: antoniocarlosdefeo.com.
antonio Carlos DeFeo: Four Portraits: por los ojos de los niños (through the eyes of the children)
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andrew McManus: Identity Program Note:
Identity is a highly dramatic and intensely personal work of questioning, circuitous introspection. The composition’sepisodes explore tensions between opposing musicalelements—triadic tonality and serial atonality; dense textures and moments of clarity; ambiguous rhythms and the mechanical—but Identity can offer no solutions to these conflicts.
At the work’s opening, the unusual, diffuse sound of heavilydivided strings forms a hazy backdrop to isolated percussive gestures. As this texture approaches controlled chaos, a harsh rhythmic inflexibility emerges. The strings emerge out of this incessant cacophony, finally united on one pitch. As the mechanical music slowly relents, three muted solo violins surface and elide into a slow string chorale. The string texture expands incrementally as it intensifies, eventually reaching ultimate division as a soft, dissonant cloud. The tonal cataclysm that follows is violently cut off—the winds and brass yank their instruments away from their mouths—and Identity closes with nothing but a fading string haze.
—Andrew McManus
Bio:
Andrew McManus (b. 1985) is a master’s candidate at the Eastman School of Music, where he has studied with Robert Morris, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Allan Schindler and Yehudi Wyner. He has received numerous awards, including the 2008 Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize from Eastman, as well as the Beekman Cannon Friends of Music Prize, Abraham Beekman Cox Prize and Branford College Arts Prize, all from Yale University. He has also received two ASCAPlus awards. His work Di Tre Re: Homage to Honegger was featured on Czech Radio 3 as a winner of the Musica Nova 2006 electronic music competition.
In both 2007 and 2008 McManus attended Cincinnati’s MusicX Festival, where he participated in master classes with eighth blackbird, Michael Nyman and Jack Body. In June 2006 he was an Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellow at the Norfolk Contemporary Music Workshop, where he studied with Martin Bresnick and Alejandro Viñao. His other past teachers include Kathryn Alex-ander, John Halle, Mark Dancigers, Michael Klingbeil, Matthew Suttor, Michael Gandolfi and Rodney Lister.
More: andrewmcmanus.net.
Program Note:
The Chinese word Yun is used to describe several ideas: sounds in music, rhymes in poetry and the meaning ofelegance. In my piece, I have transferred these definitionsinto different musical gestures and textures, and developed them in various ways.
The primary musical ideas are the wild, improvisational-likemelodic lines presented by solo instruments and the recurring accented two-note figures, which contrast with the graceful and lyrical middle section. Structurally, the composition is through-composed rather than following a certain form; however, new materials are developed from the old ones. Although Iincorporated theoretical thoughts in developing motivic ideas,I tried to let the music itself lead throughout.
—Ming-Hsiu Yen
Bio:
Ming-Hsiu Yen (b. 1980) is currently pursuing a DMA in composition at the University of Michigan. She is the winner of numerous competitions in the U.S., China and her native Taiwan, and has received commissions from the Hanson Institute for American Music, PRISM Saxophone Quartet and New Music Project.
Yen’s compositions have been heard at such venues asCarnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Kitara Hall (Japan) and National Recital Hall (Taiwan), and have been presented at festivals in Aspen, Brevard and Sapporo (Pacific Music Festival) by such ensembles as the Yinqi Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Brave New Works, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, Society of Chromatic Art, Ossia and Composers’ Sinfonietta. Yen holds dual degrees in composition and piano performance from both the University of Michigan and Eastman School of Music. She has studied composition with Bright Sheng,William Bolcom, Betsy Jolas, Tania Leon, Michael Colgrass, David Liptak, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Christopher Rouse and Steven Stucky.
More: minghsiuyen.com.
Ming-Hsiu Yen: Yun
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Program Note:
This piece was inspired by my experiences in a small remote town in a mountainous area of Northern China when I was five years old. I can still vividly remember a scene during that wintry season, when some robust young peasants were wailing and crying desperately while others were playing out-of-tune brass and percussion folk instruments in all ranges and with full force. They paraded past every house. I was told thatsomeone had just passed away. Later the same strikingly mournful sound echoed upon the sterile earth once again, but this time, a young girl was getting married. The young men of the village got drunk after the procession, then went back to their group and played even more wildly.
Many years later, when I recalled these experiences, I suddenly understood why they were wailing so sadly, because that was the only way peasants could set free their repressed sorrow from years and years of weariness. They sang the same tunes for both funerals and weddings, as if they were telling people that life is only a drama of birth, aging, ailing and eventually dying.
—Wang Lu
Bio:
Wang Lu (b. 1982) studied music at China’s Xi’an Conservatory and the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music before arriving in the U.S. to pursue her doctoral degree at Columbia University. Her works for a variety of Western and Chinese ensembles and orchestras have been performed at venues in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, France, Switzerland and the U.S. by such ensembles as the Shang Hai National Chinese Orchestra, Musiques Nouvelles Ensemble, Phoenix Ensemble, Columbia Composers Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, New York Miniaturist Ensemble, Momenta String Quartet and Pacific Music Festival New Sound Ensemble.
Wang Lu has received several national composition awards in China and Taiwan, and this year received the TACTUS prize. Her current projects include compositions for CounterInduction, the Beijing New Ensemble, Argento and theColumbia University Jazz Big Band. She has studied with Fred Lerdahl, Tristan Murail and Chou Wen-chung. She is particularly interested in Chinese folk songs as well as Qin opera.
David schneider: Automation Program Note:
The opening measures of Automation unfold like a vast machine coming to life. The first sounds we hear—unpitched percussion—are vividly machinelike. As other instruments enter, new processes begin, overlapping with those already in progress. From the moment this great machine is switched on, it operates of its own accord, each component coming into operation and triggering other components.
The orchestral texture is composed of several layers, each layer a component of the machine. As new layers emerge and come to the fore, others recede into the background or turn off entirely, their function completed. The energy level waxes and wanes in a series of valleys and plateaus, but the constant whir of the machine continues throughout, until just before the end. Here the orchestra plays in unison, beginning quietly and slowly, but quickly growing and accelerating to a cataclysmic peak. The vast machine, overburdened and overheated, makes a final attempt to reboot, but its meltdown is inevitable.
—David Schneider
Bio:
David Schneider (b. 1980) has written compositions for solo instruments, chamber groups, large ensembles and electronic media that have been performed at venues from his native California to the Midwest and the East Coast. He began music studies as a pianist, then started exploring composition with Miguel del Águila. He subsequently earned degrees from the University of Southern California and Indiana University, where he won the Dean’s Prize in 2008 for his orchestral workAutomation. In addition, he has received awards from theUniversity of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music,Cambridge Madrigal Singers and New West Symphony.
From 2004 to 2007 Schneider was an associate instructor in composition at Indiana University. His teachers have included Sven-David Sandström, Don Freund, P.Q. Phan, Richard Wernick, Claude Baker, Donald Crockett, Frank Ticheli and Stephen Hartke. In addition to his work as a composer, he has an avid interest in singing, history, literature, language and cooking.
Wang Lu: Wailing
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Justin Merritt: River of Blood Program Note:
River of Blood is based on a 1980 massacre of Salvadoran peasants at the Rio Sumpul by right-wing military forces armed and trained by the U.S. Six hundred civilians were killed in the attack. Women were tortured and babies were cut apart with machetes. I became aware of these events while composing a choral setting of a poem by Salvadoran journalist Jaime Suárez Quemain, who was murdered by the same junta a few months after the massacre. The poem ends:
It is then, sir, when the enemies of roofless children walk silently shadowed by the moonlight and rap on the doors of angels and take them away, bound, to dig a grave where flowers will grow.
Translation by C. Alegría and D. Flakoll
River of Blood is not a tone poem mimicking the actions of the day; rather, it is a collage of images and emotions. The music depicts not just violence, but also the bravery of Salvadoran journalists who tried to tell the world what was happening, human rights campaigners risking their lives in the face ofterror, and the faces of fishermen who found the bodies of five children caught in their fishing traps downstream from the massacre. The work ends with a prayer of mourning and a plea for forgiveness for our involvement.
—Justin Merritt
Bio:
Justin Merritt (b. 1975) is assistant professor of music and composer in residence at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. His works for orchestra, band, choir and other performing forces have been heard across North America and Europe. In 2001 he became the youngest-ever winner of the ASCAP Foundation/Rudolph Nissim Award for his orchestral work Janus Mask. He has earned many other awards, including the 2006 Polyphonos Prize, the 2006 VocalEssence Essentially Chorale Competition, the 2000 Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Composition Competition Award and the 2001 Kuttner String Quartet Competition. He has also worked as composer and musical director in dozens of theater productions ranging from Shakespeare to DaDa.
Merritt earned his doctorate from Indiana University, where he studied composition with Sven-David Sandström, Samuel Adler, Don Freund and Claude Baker, and electronic and computer music with Jeffrey Hass.
More: mooneast.com.
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acknowledgementsProgram ManagementAaron Jay Kernis, new music advisor, Composer Institute co-directorBeth Cowart, artistic planning associate, Composer Institute co-director
Seminar FacultyJenny Bilfield, artistic and executive director, Stanford Lively Arts; former president, Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.Craig Carnahan, vice president of programs, American Composers ForumMary Ellen Childs, composerJoanne Hubbard Cossa, Chief Executive Officer, American Music CenterBill Holab, music engraver and owner, Bill Holab MusicDeborah Horne, director of membership and new music services, American Music CenterJames M. Kendrick, attorney and acting president, Schott Music Corp./European American Music Distributors LLCLibby Larsen, composerEvans Mirageas, director of artistic planning, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; artistic director, Cincinnati Opera; independent consultantJohn Nuechterlein, president and CEO, American Composers ForumFrank J. Oteri, composer advocate and founding editor of NewMusicBox, American Music CenterFrances Richard, vice president and director of concert music, ASCAPMichael Steinberg, musicologist, lecturer and writer
Minnesota Orchestra: Instrumental Seminar FacultyJorja Fleezanis, concertmaster Kathy Kienzle, principal harpBrian Mount, principal percussionThomas Turner, principal viola Kevin Watkins, percussion
Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra
ADDITIONAL THANKS:Minnesota Orchestra Music Director, Staff and InternsJim Bartsch, Michael Black, Sandi Brown, Emily Cain, Laura Corts, Michael Dalke, Emily Dobbs, Heidi Droegemueller, Timothy Eickholt, David Frost, Mark Gagnon, Myron Gannon, Mark Georgesen, Anna Gram, Julie Gramke, Cindy Grzanowski, Paul Gunther, Julie Haight-Curran, Steve Heitzeg, Michael Henson, Chris Johnson, Scott Kneeskern, Karen Koepp, Barry Lien, Valerie Little, Ken Lorence, Brian Mangin, Kari Marshall, Scott Mays, Laura McCarty, Dave McKoskey, Leah Mohling, Robert Neu, Penny Newstrom, Laura Nichols-Endres, Kellie Nitz, Gwen Pappas, Michael Pelton, Scott Peters, Gail Reich, Alison Roberts, Emily Sapa, Carl Schroeder, Eric Sjostrom, Joa Smeby, Cassandra Swan, John Swanson, Terry Tilley, Osmo Vänskä, Charles Yarbrough and Bethany Zenner
American Composers ForumJ. Anthony Allen
BMI FoundationRalph N. Jackson
MacPhail Center for MusicSarah Miller
Minnesota Public Radio and American Public MediaJohn Birge, Fred Child, Laura Ciotti, Steve Nelson, Brian Newhouse, Gayle Ober, Michael Osborne and Steve Seel
Perpich Center for Arts Education, Arts High SchoolJanika Vandervelde
University of Minnesota School of MusicDouglas Geers
Also:Sebastian Currier, Sarah Hicks, Shafer Mahoney and Yehudi Wyner, composer selection panelSue Sentyrz Klapmeier, Arts & Custom PublishingConnie Shuman and Katherine Johnson, Shuman Associates
Please share your comments and impressions with the composers featured in tonight’s concert: visit minnesotaorchestra.org/futureclassics.
