For Immediate Release: Del Sol contact: Dominique Pelletey
November 1st, 2005 (510) 595-8448
dominique@delsolquartet.com
The Del Sol String Quartet proudly presents the works of six Korean women in a concert featuring chamber music for string quartet and piano. Joined by Swiss pianist, Eva-Maria Zimmerman, Del Sol String Quartet recently traveled to Seoul, Korea, for an intensive meeting with all six composers, working towards an intimate understanding of the musical language and unique melding of the traditions of Eastern and Western music.
Alive with the captivating rhythms of traditional Korean folk music, and a subtle use of typical scale patterns, the six works as a whole present a varied and encompassing view of modern Korean artistry.
The program progresses from the eloquently romantic works of Kyung-Won Lee and Sa-Eun Hong for piano trio and viola/piano duo respectively, to the evocative, almost mystical sounds of San Francisco-based Hyo-Shin Na’s string quartet. Ok-shik Shim, also currently residing in the United States, provides a delightful, up-beat, jazzy side to the program in her piano quintet (based entirely on an ancient, traditional melody), while the two other string quartets span the area between contemplative beauty (Hye-Rie Han) and shimmering complexity (Hae-Sung Lee). The Del Sol offers a rich and diverse sound palette, hailed by Korean audiences as “ideally suited and authentic.”
Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - 12noon
Program: Hyo-shin Na
Koret Auditorium at San Francisco Main Public Library.
100 Larkin Street (@Grove), Civic Center, San Francisco
Friday, December 9, 2005 - 8pm
Program: Han Hye Rie, Lee Kyungwon, Lee Hae-Sung, Na Hyo-shin, Hong Sa-eun, Shim Okshik
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts - Forum
701 Mission Street (@ 3rd), San Francisco
Tickets: $20 general l $15 seniors l $7 students, kids
Sunday, December 11, 2005 - 4pm
Program: Han Hye Rie, Lee Kyungwon, Lee Hae-Sung, Na Hyo-shin, Hong Sa-eun, Shim Okshik
DANCE PALACE, 503 B Street, Point Reyes Station
Tickets: $20 general l $15 seniors l $7 students, kids
(Dance Palace members: $15/$13 seniors /$7 kids)
PROGRAM
1. Han Hye Rie: Towards you for string quartet
2. Lee Kyungwon: The Recollections for for Violin, Cello and Piano
3. Lee Hae-Sung: Bium II (Emptiness II) for string quartet
Intermission
4. Na Hyo-shin: Fixed Stars for string quartet
5. Hong Sa-eun: Ballade for viola and piano
6. Shim Okshik: Song of Mongkeumpo for piano quintet
world premiere
All the works were composed in 2005 for the Del Sol String Quartet.
Fixed Stars was written with support from the Zellerbach Family Fund and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Del Sol String Quartet
Rick Shinozaki, and Kate Stenberg violinists
Charlton Lee, violist
Monica Scott, cellist
The dynamic Del Sol String Quartet rose to international attention with the release of its 2002 CD, Tear, which earned the vibrant ensemble accolades including "emotionally riveting", "immediately engrossing and consuming", "passionate virtuosity" and "first rate". Tear features works by living and recent composers, and its contents exemplify the Quartet's artistic profile: to present new music for new audiences. Whether playing music "hot off the press" or delving into neglected gems of the past century, Del Sol has never sounded better, its bright mission vibrantly continuing to light the way for the future of today's classical music.
The Del Sol's Grammy-nominated 2005 CD of the complete string quartet repertory of George Antheil on the Other Minds label is the definitive recording of the composer who was among the most popular writers of the 20th century, and it has sparked a revival of interest in his chamber works. Current projects include a partnership with Melody of China, the Bay Area's internationally acclaimed traditional Chinese music ensemble, and a collaboration with ground-breaking, hip-hop inspired American composer Daniel Bernard Roumain. Presented by Other Minds, San Francisco Performances, Santa Fe New Music and Santa Fe Opera, the Del Sol String Quartet are actively performing both nationally and internationally. Their achievements were recognized by a 2004-2005 Award for Adventurous Programming, given by ASCAP and Chamber Music America.
Founded in 1992, the Del Sol String Quartet began its life in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts, followed by a residency at San Francisco State University in association with the Alexander String Quartet. Recent appointments have included the 2003 "Emerging Quartets and Composers Residency" with the Muir String Quartet and Joan Tower in Park City, Utah; Quartet-in-Residence at the Hot Springs Music Festival, Arkansas (2004 and 2005), Quartet-in-Residence at the Composer's Symposium, University of New Mexico, and an upcoming residency at the Walden School, New Hampshire in 2006.
Some Quotes:
"The Del Sol String Quartet gives the kind of performance a composer loves to hear!" -- Joan Tower, composer
"Seizing the senses form the first downbeat, immediately engrossing and consuming." -- Tamara Turner, CD Baby editor
"The Del Sol plays like gangbusters throughout." -- Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
“Clearly making a name for themselves as a fresh and vibrant voice for new music in the Bay Area, the ensemble is also rising into position as a premier string quartet. Young and energetic, adventurous and all the while convincing, the quartet, comprising Rick Shinozaki and Kate Stenberg on violins, Charlton Lee, viola, and Monica Scott, cello, has done much to support young composers and to expose little-performed contemporary music.” -- David Bithell, San Francisco Classical Voice
Eva-Maria Zimmermann
Swiss Pianist Eva-Maria Zimmermann maintains a career on two continents through performances that are “breathtakingly intense” (Der Bund, Switzerland) and “brilliant and sensitive” (Berner Oberländer). Her solo appearances include recitals as well as concerto performances with major symphony orchestras such as in Swisszerland the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Her musical studies led her to such distinguished musicians as Leon Fleisher, György Sebök, Leonard Hokanson and Dominique Merlet. She graduated with highest honors from the Conservatory of Geneva, and has appeared at international festivals in Israel, the US and Europe. Ms. Zimmermann currently lives in San Francisco where she performs with the Stone-Zimmermann violin-piano duo, teaches at the Nueva School (founded by Sir Yehudi Menuhin) and is raising a family.
Delos
Delos, an association of composers based in Seoul, Korea, was founded in 1992 by Young-ja Lee and a core group of nine composers, all of whom were alumni of Ewha Women's University. Membership has since grown to 14 and includes composers writing in a wide variety of styles. Delos has presented more than 20 concerts of members' music in Korea alone, often featuring special performances of music by guest composers. Their workshops with performers are unique in that they combine both traditional Korean and western instruments, developing a distinct new direction for East-West interaction. Delos is actively involved with Korean new music groups and, since 2004, has widened its scope of activity to include concerts with the Continuum Consort of Canada and the San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet.
This performance is funded, in part by Ewha Womans University Alumnae Association of Northern California, the Linneaus Thomson Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Office of the Korean Consulate in San Francisco, the San Francisco Arts Commission, Zellerbach Family Foundation and the Del Sol Performing Arts Organization donors.
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Press Release: "XX05"
January, 2005 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dominique Pelletey, (510) 595-8448 dominique@delsolquartet.com
The Del Sol String Quartet announces a program of contemporary music titled “XX05”
Who: Del Sol String Quartet
What: Keyla Orozco (1969, Cuba), Para Variar (2002) US premiere
Julia Wolfe (1958), Dig Deep (1998)
Joan Tower (1938), Night Fields (1994)
Gabriela Ortiz (1964, Mexico), Quartet No.1 (1990)
Amy Beach (1867), Quartet for Strings (in One Movement), Opus 89 (1929)
Variety and experimentation, energy and intensity are the threads that connect the five women composers featured on this program. From 1929, when Amy Beach was creating an American style for the first time by incorporating Inuit melodies into her music, to Keyla Orozco’s Cuban rhythms infiltrating her work at the end of the century, this program delights the audience with its sheer range of sounds and styles. From Joan Tower’s contemplative moments to Julia Wolfe’s impassioned outbursts, the Del Sol String Quartet present an exciting concert celebrating the achievements of women of the Americas.
When and Where:
Wednesday, February 16 - 8pm
ASHBY STAGE, 1901 Ashby Avenue @ MLK, Berkeley
Friday, February 18 - 8pm
GREEN ROOM, San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center
401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco
Saturday, February 19 - 8pm
DANCE PALACE, 503 B Street, Point Reyes Station
Sunday, February 20 - 4pm –
TATEUCHI HALL, Community School of Music and Arts at Finn Center
230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View
How much: Tickets: $21 general l $14 seniorsl $7 students, kids
Info: http://www.delsolquartet.com
info@delsolquartet.com
tel: (415) 831-5672
Del Sol String Quartet
778 32nd Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94121
The program:
Variety and experimentation, energy and intensity are the threads that connect the five women composers featured on this program. From 1929, when Amy Beach was creating an American style for the first time by incorporating Inuit melodies into her music, to Keyla Orozco’s Cuban rhythms infiltrating her work at the end of the century, this program delights the audience with its sheer range of sounds and styles. From Joan Tower’s contemplative moments to Julia Wolfe’s impassioned outbursts, the Del Sol String Quartet present an exciting concert celebrating the achievements of women of the Americas.
Many of the works grew out of close collaboration between quartet and composer, with the playing style and temperament of specific musicians influencing the writing. Joan Tower was approached by the Muir Quartet to write her very first string quartet, and it was with confidence in their interpretive skills and emotional capacity that she embarked on this daunting project. Julia Wolfe has worked with some of the most imaginative ensembles in the country, including her own group Bang on a Can, Kronos and Ethel. In Dig Deep she explores the power and stamina that four people can create together. Like Tower and Wolfe, Amy Beach was also a performer and composer, with a wonderful sense of what works on stage. In this late string quartet, her only work in the medium, she foreshadows the dissonances and rhythmic complexities that later composers would explore more fully. The two Latin American composers on this program both show their indebtedness to the Western traditions of quartet writing as well as influence from their ethnic heritage. Ortiz masterfully weaves a complex tale into a concise nine-minute work, with harmonies and rhythmic influences from Bartok and Latin percussion rhythms. Orozco’s work is almost minimalist in its use of material, creating tension and energy through repetition; percussive effects using different playing techniques and the players feet hark to the Cuban drumming tradition, while harmonically Orozco has found a very personal sound.
The Pieces:
Amy Beach String Quartet in One Movement, Op. 89, (1929)
The String Quartet in One Movement, Op. 89 was sketched out in 1921 at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Inspired by the three "meagre" (Beach's word) Eskimo or Inuit tunes she used as themes, Beach created a work that is at once dissonant and chromatic yet lyrical, tonally grounded in G minor but with extended sections where the music never settles on any key. While wintering in Rome in 1929 Beach completed the String Quartet with minor revisions and had a local quartet play it for her. Back in the States there were a number of performances during the 1930s, beginning with an invitational program given in New York in January, 1931 by the Society of American Women Composers, of which Beach was a founder and the first president. Its final performance during her lifetime was at a festival of Beach's music at the Phillips Memorial Gallery in Washington, D.C. in November, 1942 to celebrate her 75th birthday. Reviewers found it a work of "unusual beauty."
Keyla Orozco, Para Variar (2002)
A sparse, percussive opening movement gives way to a set of variations that explore rhythmic gestures. Starting in a pointillistic fashion, with outbursts from each instrument solo, the work build complexity with crossing lines, gathering momentum to a frenzied unison passage and ending with driving fortissimo chords. The piece was commissioned by the Dutch Fonds voor Scheppende Toonkunst, and premiered and dedicated to the Mondriaan Quartet.
Joan Tower, Night Fields (1994)
Night Fields (1994), for string quartet, is dedicated to the Muir String Quartet. Tower’s title suggests the moods created in the piece, which she describes as “a cold, windy night in wheat fields lit up by a bright, full moon, where waves of fast-moving colors ripple over the fields, occasionally settling on a patch of gold.”
Gabriela Ortiz, Cuarteto no. 1
Ortiz’s early work shows a natural affinity for the medium, which she was to explore in profound detail in her later work Altar das Muertas, which has received performances by both Kronos and Cuarteto Latinoamericano throughout the world. In the one movement Cuarteto no. 1, Ortiz explores the emotional range of string writing, beginning with a mysterious, dark mood that breaks away into a lighter, energetic section marked by unison chords and duets of instruments playing contrasting material. The piece is circular in structure, ending in the slow, peaceful mood of the opening.
Julia Wolfe, Dig Deep(1998)
In Dig Deep the players dig deep into the strings to create a dense, thick, intense, reedy sound. The music wrestles back and forth between the deep attacks and frenzied tunes. The piece reflects a personal struggle, digging deep for compassion and understanding. Dig Deep was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet with support from Nora Norden.
Composer biographies:
Amy Marcy Beach (1867-1944)
Born Amy Marcy Cheney in Henniker, NH. in 1867, Mrs. H.H. Beach, as she styled herself after her marriage to a prominent physician in 1885, became the first woman composer to achieve wide recognition in America. A child prodigy on the piano, she made her Boston concert debut at age sixteen. Within two years she had performed Chopin's F MINOR CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA with the Boston Symphony and had begun to tour widely as a soloist. After marriage to Dr. Beach, however, she curtailed her concertizing in favor of homemaking. It was during this period until her husband's death in 1910 that Mrs. Beach first began to compose. Her FESTIVAL JUBILATE, written for the dedication of the Women's Building at Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1892, won recognition for her as a serious composer in the Romantic genre. She followed this success with a GAELIC SYMPHONY, performed by the Boston Symphony in 1896, and her PIANO CONCERTO IN C-SHARP minor in 1899, which she herself premiered with the same orchestra. As a widow, Mrs. Beach resumed her concertizing in America and Germany and increased her compositional output. In addition to her piano music and large scale orchestral works, she created more than 150 songs, almost all in the grand, operatic, heart-on-sleeve vein of the late 19th century. Settings like AH, LOVE, BUT A DAY! and THE YEAR'S AT THE SPRING became staples of the early 20th century concert repertory.
Keyla Orozco (b. 1969)
Keyla Orozco studied piano and music theory in Santiago de Cuba and later in Havana at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) with Ileana Bautista . After that she studied composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana with Harold Gramatges (1988-93). She continued her composition studies as a post-graduate student in The Netherlands with Theo Loevendie at the Royal conservatory in The Hage and Amsterdam Conservatory (1995-98).
Orozco has won several awards and prizes, including a Guggenheim Latin American & Caribbean fellowship Award in New York (2000), the Cintas Fellowship for creative arts, awarded by the Institute of International Education in New York (2003) and Two prizes from the International composition competition René Amengual in Santiago de Chile (1994).
She has received numerous commissions from organizations and ensembles in Holland like: the Nederlands Kamerkoor, Nederlands Fluitorkest, Asko ensemble, VPRO television, Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst, De Ereprijs, Nieuw Ensemble, Amsterdam fonds voor de Kunst and others. Her works has been performed in Festivals and events around the world including Cuba, the Netherlands, USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Ukraine, Austria, Aruba, Venezuela and others. Some of her pieces are published by Donemus (publisher of muziekgroup Nederland), Amsterdam, and six works have been released on cd's in Holland, Mexico and Aruba, including Extremes (1998) and Perpetuumm (1999) by Combustion Chamber ensemble and The New ensemble, both conducted by Rutger van leyden (Ned.). Besides composing, Orozco has been since her studying years an active organizer of music projects to promote contemporary music in Cuba and The Netherlands. See event Q-ba Música 2004 at www.perpetuumm.com. In 2002 Orozco became assistant of Theo Loevendie in Composition at the Amsterdam's conservatory
Joan Tower
Even as she prepares for her 70th birthday in 2008, Joan Tower's career is as much about looking forward as it is about looking back on a career that already spans over five decades.
Hailed as, "One of the most successful woman composers of all time" in The New Yorker magazine, Joan Tower was inducted in 1998 into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was the first woman ever to receive the Grawemeyer Award in Composition in 1990, and she was inducted into the Academy of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University in the fall of 2004.
Since 1972, Tower has taught at Bard College where she is Asher Edelman Professor of Music. She continues as composer-in-residence with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, a title she also held for eight years at the Yale/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Tower's other accolades include the 1998 Delaware Symphony's Alfred I. DuPont Award for Distinguished American Composers and the 2002 Annual Composer's Award from the Lancaster (PA) Symphony. "Tower has truly earned a place among the most original and forceful voices in modern American music" (The Detroit News).
Joan Tower's bold and energetic music, with its striking imagery and novel structural forms, has won large, enthusiastic audiences. From 1969-1984, she was pianist and founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her most popular works. Her first orchestral work, Sequoia, quickly entered the repertory, with performances by orchestras including St. Louis, New York, San Francisco, Minnesota, Tokyo NHK, Toronto, the National Symphony and London Philharmonia. A choreographed version by The Royal Winnipeg Ballet toured throughout Canada, Europe, and Russia. Ms. Tower's tremendously popular five Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman have been played by over 400 different ensembles. Her 1993 ballet Stepping Stones was commissioned by choreographer Kathryn Posin for the Milwaukee Ballet.
Gabriela Ortiz Torres was born in Mexico City, where she studied composition with Mario Lavista at the National Conservatory of Music, and Federico Ibarra at the National University of Mexico. In 1990 she was awarded The British Council Fellowship to study in London with Robert Saxton at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1992 she received the University of Mexico Scholarship to complete Ph.D. studies in electroacoustic music composition with Simon Emmerson at The City University in London. She currently teaches composition at the Mexican University of Mexico City.
She is considered one of the best of the group of young Mexican composers that have worked towards building a personal musical language that could be based on both musical tradition and the avant-garde; that could combine high art, folk music or jazz in novel, sometimes precious and especially personal ways; and that could be both entertaining and immediate as well as profound and sophisticated. Ortiz Torres’ music achieves a balance between highly organized structure and improvisatory spontaneity.
Julia Wolfe
Born in Philadelphia, Julia Wolfe's music has been performed by a prestigious cast of characters: San Francisco Symphony, Bang on a Can All-Stars, American Composers Orchestra, Piano Circus, Newband, the California EAR Unit, Margaret Leng Tan, Orkest de Volharding, the Cassatt Quartet, the Lark Quartet and Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Crossing over into the worlds of theater and dance, her works have been choreographed by Eliot Feld, Doug Varone, and the Dusseldorf Ballet; she also composed music for Anna Deveare Smith's most recent play House Arrest. She was recently awarded a 1999 Academy Award by the American Academy for the Arts and Letters. Julia Wolfe's appetite for music is wide-ranging and voracious: her enthusiasm for late Beethoven rivaled only by her passion for Led Zeppelin, or perhaps her love of traditional American folk music. These influences and many others can be heard subtly but clearly in her work, yet in no way is her work a pastiche of styles. What then marks Julia Wolfe's musical 'style'? There is not any single identifiable element but, rather, a focus on the act of making sound; sound not for its own sake but as a product of human endeavor, as a beautiful and powerful abstraction that people create, contemplate, imbue with and derive meaning from. Sound is for Julia Wolfe a metaphor for human activity in general, and she approaches it with care and attention to detail that is both masterful and highly respectful. Her work makes this evident in a variety of ways. In her first string quartet Four Marys, the ballad of the same name is not referred to literally, but instead evoked through a minute examination of a sound quality that is culled from Appalachia. It is as if the sound of the dulcimer is put under a microscope, examined with loving detail, and transformed into a music of rare, strange beauty. On the opposite end of the same spectrum lies Window of Vulnerability, written for the American Composers Orchestra, in which the massive sonic universe of rock serves as a source; the music takes this relatively recent musical possibility - sheer volume - and reinvents its function and use These titles - and others such as Arsenal of Democracy, Dig Deep, Amber Waves of Grain and Believing - are evocative but unpolemical, and are thus indicative of Ms. Wolfe's work as a whole. They make their points effectively without harangue or grandstanding. Instead they deliver subtle, powerful messages, allowing the listener to make connections between the music and other, perhaps larger concerns. This highly humanistic message is emblematic of Julia Wolfe's artistic work - a wonderful example of humanly organized sound, working towards a soundly organized humanity.
The Del Sol String Quartet
Since 2001, the San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet has immersed itself in the recording and performance of music of the Americas. Their critically acclaimed 2002 CD Tear includes masters of the twentieth century Ruth Crawford, Alberto Ginastera, Earle Brown, Silvestre Revueltas, Astor Piazzolla and Lou Harrison alongside recent works by Gabriela Ortiz, Ronald Bruce Smith, Adriana Figueroa Mañas, Keeril Makan and John Harbison. DSSQ have made a special commitment to include women composers in their programs, juxtaposing premieres of works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Hyo-Shin Na, and Keyla Orozco, with Joan Tower, Julia Wolfe and early twentieth century composers, Amy Beach and Ruth Crawford. Recent works commissioned for the Del Sol String Quartet include those by award-winning composers Keeril Makan and Daniel Bernard Roumain. Upcoming projects that highlight the wealth of cultural diversity in the arts include collaborations with composers Chinary Ung and Reza Vali, as well as a partnering with Melody of China (traditional Chinese ensemble) to premiere a new piece by Kui Dong. Hailed for their "passionate and committed" and "emotionally riveting" performances, the Del Sol String Quartet aim to present music of the twentieth century and beyond with the naturalness of classics. Having won various prestigious grants, and with invitations to perform in festivals throughout the United States, DSSQ is emerging as one of the major proponents for contemporary string music in North America. The Del Sol String Quartet was recognized for its achievements with a 2004 Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.
Contact: Dominique Pelletey, (510) 595-8448 dominique@delsolquartet.com
The Del Sol String Quartet announces a program of contemporary music titled “XX05”
Who: Del Sol String Quartet
What: Keyla Orozco (1969, Cuba), Para Variar (2002) US premiere
Julia Wolfe (1958), Dig Deep (1998)
Joan Tower (1938), Night Fields (1994)
Gabriela Ortiz (1964, Mexico), Quartet No.1 (1990)
Amy Beach (1867), Quartet for Strings (in One Movement), Opus 89 (1929)
Variety and experimentation, energy and intensity are the threads that connect the five women composers featured on this program. From 1929, when Amy Beach was creating an American style for the first time by incorporating Inuit melodies into her music, to Keyla Orozco’s Cuban rhythms infiltrating her work at the end of the century, this program delights the audience with its sheer range of sounds and styles. From Joan Tower’s contemplative moments to Julia Wolfe’s impassioned outbursts, the Del Sol String Quartet present an exciting concert celebrating the achievements of women of the Americas.
When and Where:
Wednesday, February 16 - 8pm
ASHBY STAGE, 1901 Ashby Avenue @ MLK, Berkeley
Friday, February 18 - 8pm
GREEN ROOM, San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center
401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco
Saturday, February 19 - 8pm
DANCE PALACE, 503 B Street, Point Reyes Station
Sunday, February 20 - 4pm –
TATEUCHI HALL, Community School of Music and Arts at Finn Center
230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View
How much: Tickets: $21 general l $14 seniorsl $7 students, kids
Info: http://www.delsolquartet.com
info@delsolquartet.com
tel: (415) 831-5672
Del Sol String Quartet
778 32nd Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94121
The program:
Variety and experimentation, energy and intensity are the threads that connect the five women composers featured on this program. From 1929, when Amy Beach was creating an American style for the first time by incorporating Inuit melodies into her music, to Keyla Orozco’s Cuban rhythms infiltrating her work at the end of the century, this program delights the audience with its sheer range of sounds and styles. From Joan Tower’s contemplative moments to Julia Wolfe’s impassioned outbursts, the Del Sol String Quartet present an exciting concert celebrating the achievements of women of the Americas.
Many of the works grew out of close collaboration between quartet and composer, with the playing style and temperament of specific musicians influencing the writing. Joan Tower was approached by the Muir Quartet to write her very first string quartet, and it was with confidence in their interpretive skills and emotional capacity that she embarked on this daunting project. Julia Wolfe has worked with some of the most imaginative ensembles in the country, including her own group Bang on a Can, Kronos and Ethel. In Dig Deep she explores the power and stamina that four people can create together. Like Tower and Wolfe, Amy Beach was also a performer and composer, with a wonderful sense of what works on stage. In this late string quartet, her only work in the medium, she foreshadows the dissonances and rhythmic complexities that later composers would explore more fully. The two Latin American composers on this program both show their indebtedness to the Western traditions of quartet writing as well as influence from their ethnic heritage. Ortiz masterfully weaves a complex tale into a concise nine-minute work, with harmonies and rhythmic influences from Bartok and Latin percussion rhythms. Orozco’s work is almost minimalist in its use of material, creating tension and energy through repetition; percussive effects using different playing techniques and the players feet hark to the Cuban drumming tradition, while harmonically Orozco has found a very personal sound.
The Pieces:
Amy Beach String Quartet in One Movement, Op. 89, (1929)
The String Quartet in One Movement, Op. 89 was sketched out in 1921 at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Inspired by the three "meagre" (Beach's word) Eskimo or Inuit tunes she used as themes, Beach created a work that is at once dissonant and chromatic yet lyrical, tonally grounded in G minor but with extended sections where the music never settles on any key. While wintering in Rome in 1929 Beach completed the String Quartet with minor revisions and had a local quartet play it for her. Back in the States there were a number of performances during the 1930s, beginning with an invitational program given in New York in January, 1931 by the Society of American Women Composers, of which Beach was a founder and the first president. Its final performance during her lifetime was at a festival of Beach's music at the Phillips Memorial Gallery in Washington, D.C. in November, 1942 to celebrate her 75th birthday. Reviewers found it a work of "unusual beauty."
Keyla Orozco, Para Variar (2002)
A sparse, percussive opening movement gives way to a set of variations that explore rhythmic gestures. Starting in a pointillistic fashion, with outbursts from each instrument solo, the work build complexity with crossing lines, gathering momentum to a frenzied unison passage and ending with driving fortissimo chords. The piece was commissioned by the Dutch Fonds voor Scheppende Toonkunst, and premiered and dedicated to the Mondriaan Quartet.
Joan Tower, Night Fields (1994)
Night Fields (1994), for string quartet, is dedicated to the Muir String Quartet. Tower’s title suggests the moods created in the piece, which she describes as “a cold, windy night in wheat fields lit up by a bright, full moon, where waves of fast-moving colors ripple over the fields, occasionally settling on a patch of gold.”
Gabriela Ortiz, Cuarteto no. 1
Ortiz’s early work shows a natural affinity for the medium, which she was to explore in profound detail in her later work Altar das Muertas, which has received performances by both Kronos and Cuarteto Latinoamericano throughout the world. In the one movement Cuarteto no. 1, Ortiz explores the emotional range of string writing, beginning with a mysterious, dark mood that breaks away into a lighter, energetic section marked by unison chords and duets of instruments playing contrasting material. The piece is circular in structure, ending in the slow, peaceful mood of the opening.
Julia Wolfe, Dig Deep(1998)
In Dig Deep the players dig deep into the strings to create a dense, thick, intense, reedy sound. The music wrestles back and forth between the deep attacks and frenzied tunes. The piece reflects a personal struggle, digging deep for compassion and understanding. Dig Deep was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet with support from Nora Norden.
Composer biographies:
Amy Marcy Beach (1867-1944)
Born Amy Marcy Cheney in Henniker, NH. in 1867, Mrs. H.H. Beach, as she styled herself after her marriage to a prominent physician in 1885, became the first woman composer to achieve wide recognition in America. A child prodigy on the piano, she made her Boston concert debut at age sixteen. Within two years she had performed Chopin's F MINOR CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA with the Boston Symphony and had begun to tour widely as a soloist. After marriage to Dr. Beach, however, she curtailed her concertizing in favor of homemaking. It was during this period until her husband's death in 1910 that Mrs. Beach first began to compose. Her FESTIVAL JUBILATE, written for the dedication of the Women's Building at Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1892, won recognition for her as a serious composer in the Romantic genre. She followed this success with a GAELIC SYMPHONY, performed by the Boston Symphony in 1896, and her PIANO CONCERTO IN C-SHARP minor in 1899, which she herself premiered with the same orchestra. As a widow, Mrs. Beach resumed her concertizing in America and Germany and increased her compositional output. In addition to her piano music and large scale orchestral works, she created more than 150 songs, almost all in the grand, operatic, heart-on-sleeve vein of the late 19th century. Settings like AH, LOVE, BUT A DAY! and THE YEAR'S AT THE SPRING became staples of the early 20th century concert repertory.
Keyla Orozco (b. 1969)
Keyla Orozco studied piano and music theory in Santiago de Cuba and later in Havana at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) with Ileana Bautista . After that she studied composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana with Harold Gramatges (1988-93). She continued her composition studies as a post-graduate student in The Netherlands with Theo Loevendie at the Royal conservatory in The Hage and Amsterdam Conservatory (1995-98).
Orozco has won several awards and prizes, including a Guggenheim Latin American & Caribbean fellowship Award in New York (2000), the Cintas Fellowship for creative arts, awarded by the Institute of International Education in New York (2003) and Two prizes from the International composition competition René Amengual in Santiago de Chile (1994).
She has received numerous commissions from organizations and ensembles in Holland like: the Nederlands Kamerkoor, Nederlands Fluitorkest, Asko ensemble, VPRO television, Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst, De Ereprijs, Nieuw Ensemble, Amsterdam fonds voor de Kunst and others. Her works has been performed in Festivals and events around the world including Cuba, the Netherlands, USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Ukraine, Austria, Aruba, Venezuela and others. Some of her pieces are published by Donemus (publisher of muziekgroup Nederland), Amsterdam, and six works have been released on cd's in Holland, Mexico and Aruba, including Extremes (1998) and Perpetuumm (1999) by Combustion Chamber ensemble and The New ensemble, both conducted by Rutger van leyden (Ned.). Besides composing, Orozco has been since her studying years an active organizer of music projects to promote contemporary music in Cuba and The Netherlands. See event Q-ba Música 2004 at www.perpetuumm.com. In 2002 Orozco became assistant of Theo Loevendie in Composition at the Amsterdam's conservatory
Joan Tower
Even as she prepares for her 70th birthday in 2008, Joan Tower's career is as much about looking forward as it is about looking back on a career that already spans over five decades.
Hailed as, "One of the most successful woman composers of all time" in The New Yorker magazine, Joan Tower was inducted in 1998 into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was the first woman ever to receive the Grawemeyer Award in Composition in 1990, and she was inducted into the Academy of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University in the fall of 2004.
Since 1972, Tower has taught at Bard College where she is Asher Edelman Professor of Music. She continues as composer-in-residence with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, a title she also held for eight years at the Yale/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Tower's other accolades include the 1998 Delaware Symphony's Alfred I. DuPont Award for Distinguished American Composers and the 2002 Annual Composer's Award from the Lancaster (PA) Symphony. "Tower has truly earned a place among the most original and forceful voices in modern American music" (The Detroit News).
Joan Tower's bold and energetic music, with its striking imagery and novel structural forms, has won large, enthusiastic audiences. From 1969-1984, she was pianist and founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her most popular works. Her first orchestral work, Sequoia, quickly entered the repertory, with performances by orchestras including St. Louis, New York, San Francisco, Minnesota, Tokyo NHK, Toronto, the National Symphony and London Philharmonia. A choreographed version by The Royal Winnipeg Ballet toured throughout Canada, Europe, and Russia. Ms. Tower's tremendously popular five Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman have been played by over 400 different ensembles. Her 1993 ballet Stepping Stones was commissioned by choreographer Kathryn Posin for the Milwaukee Ballet.
Gabriela Ortiz Torres was born in Mexico City, where she studied composition with Mario Lavista at the National Conservatory of Music, and Federico Ibarra at the National University of Mexico. In 1990 she was awarded The British Council Fellowship to study in London with Robert Saxton at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1992 she received the University of Mexico Scholarship to complete Ph.D. studies in electroacoustic music composition with Simon Emmerson at The City University in London. She currently teaches composition at the Mexican University of Mexico City.
She is considered one of the best of the group of young Mexican composers that have worked towards building a personal musical language that could be based on both musical tradition and the avant-garde; that could combine high art, folk music or jazz in novel, sometimes precious and especially personal ways; and that could be both entertaining and immediate as well as profound and sophisticated. Ortiz Torres’ music achieves a balance between highly organized structure and improvisatory spontaneity.
Julia Wolfe
Born in Philadelphia, Julia Wolfe's music has been performed by a prestigious cast of characters: San Francisco Symphony, Bang on a Can All-Stars, American Composers Orchestra, Piano Circus, Newband, the California EAR Unit, Margaret Leng Tan, Orkest de Volharding, the Cassatt Quartet, the Lark Quartet and Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Crossing over into the worlds of theater and dance, her works have been choreographed by Eliot Feld, Doug Varone, and the Dusseldorf Ballet; she also composed music for Anna Deveare Smith's most recent play House Arrest. She was recently awarded a 1999 Academy Award by the American Academy for the Arts and Letters. Julia Wolfe's appetite for music is wide-ranging and voracious: her enthusiasm for late Beethoven rivaled only by her passion for Led Zeppelin, or perhaps her love of traditional American folk music. These influences and many others can be heard subtly but clearly in her work, yet in no way is her work a pastiche of styles. What then marks Julia Wolfe's musical 'style'? There is not any single identifiable element but, rather, a focus on the act of making sound; sound not for its own sake but as a product of human endeavor, as a beautiful and powerful abstraction that people create, contemplate, imbue with and derive meaning from. Sound is for Julia Wolfe a metaphor for human activity in general, and she approaches it with care and attention to detail that is both masterful and highly respectful. Her work makes this evident in a variety of ways. In her first string quartet Four Marys, the ballad of the same name is not referred to literally, but instead evoked through a minute examination of a sound quality that is culled from Appalachia. It is as if the sound of the dulcimer is put under a microscope, examined with loving detail, and transformed into a music of rare, strange beauty. On the opposite end of the same spectrum lies Window of Vulnerability, written for the American Composers Orchestra, in which the massive sonic universe of rock serves as a source; the music takes this relatively recent musical possibility - sheer volume - and reinvents its function and use These titles - and others such as Arsenal of Democracy, Dig Deep, Amber Waves of Grain and Believing - are evocative but unpolemical, and are thus indicative of Ms. Wolfe's work as a whole. They make their points effectively without harangue or grandstanding. Instead they deliver subtle, powerful messages, allowing the listener to make connections between the music and other, perhaps larger concerns. This highly humanistic message is emblematic of Julia Wolfe's artistic work - a wonderful example of humanly organized sound, working towards a soundly organized humanity.
The Del Sol String Quartet
Since 2001, the San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet has immersed itself in the recording and performance of music of the Americas. Their critically acclaimed 2002 CD Tear includes masters of the twentieth century Ruth Crawford, Alberto Ginastera, Earle Brown, Silvestre Revueltas, Astor Piazzolla and Lou Harrison alongside recent works by Gabriela Ortiz, Ronald Bruce Smith, Adriana Figueroa Mañas, Keeril Makan and John Harbison. DSSQ have made a special commitment to include women composers in their programs, juxtaposing premieres of works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Hyo-Shin Na, and Keyla Orozco, with Joan Tower, Julia Wolfe and early twentieth century composers, Amy Beach and Ruth Crawford. Recent works commissioned for the Del Sol String Quartet include those by award-winning composers Keeril Makan and Daniel Bernard Roumain. Upcoming projects that highlight the wealth of cultural diversity in the arts include collaborations with composers Chinary Ung and Reza Vali, as well as a partnering with Melody of China (traditional Chinese ensemble) to premiere a new piece by Kui Dong. Hailed for their "passionate and committed" and "emotionally riveting" performances, the Del Sol String Quartet aim to present music of the twentieth century and beyond with the naturalness of classics. Having won various prestigious grants, and with invitations to perform in festivals throughout the United States, DSSQ is emerging as one of the major proponents for contemporary string music in North America. The Del Sol String Quartet was recognized for its achievements with a 2004 Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.
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