Department of Music Concert and Event Listing

Charles Ives: The Complete Sonatas for Piano
Stephen Drury, piano

First Sonata

• Adagio con moto
• Allegro moderato; “In the Inn”
• Adagio
• “not for the lilies lying back in soft dress-circle cushion to lap up pretty velvet sound with their soft ears”; Allegro
• Andante maestoso

Three Page Sonata

* intermission *

Sonata #2, “Concord, Mass. 1840 – 1860”

• Emerson
• Hawthorne
• The Alcotts
• Thoreau

Pianist STEPHEN DRURY, in concert

Pianist and conductor STEPHEN DRURY has performed throughout the world with a repertoire that stretches from Bach to Liszt to the music of today. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Barbican Centre and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and from Arkansas to Seoul. A champion of contemporary music, he has taken the sound of dissonance into remote corners of Pakistan, Greenland and Montana.

In 1985 Stephen Drury was chosen by Affiliate Artists for its Xerox Pianists Program, and performed in residencies with symphony orchestras in San Diego, Cedar Rapids, San Angelo, Spokane, and Stamford. He has since performed or recorded with the American Composers Orchestra, the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Boston Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the Springfield (Massachusetts) and Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestras, and the Romanian National Symphony. Drury was a prize-winner in the Carnegie Hall/Rockefeller Foundation Competitions in American Music, and was selected by the United States Information Agency for its Artistic Ambassador Program and a 1986 European recital tour. A second tour in the fall of 1988 took him to Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Japan. He gave the first piano recitals ever in Julianehaab, Greenland, and Quetta, Pakistan. In 1989 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Drury a Solo Recitalist Fellowship which funded residencies and recitals of American music for two years. The same year he was named “Musician of the Year” by the Boston Globe.

Stephen Drury's performances of music written in the last hundred years, ranging from the piano sonatas of Charles Ives to works by György Ligeti, Frederic Rzewski and John Cage have received the highest critical acclaim. Drury has worked closely with many of the leading composers of our time, including Cage, Ligeti, Rzewski, Steve Reich, Olivier Messiaen, John Zorn, Luciano Berio, Helmut Lachenmann, Christian Wolff, Jonathan Harvey, Michael Finnissy, Lee Hyla and John Luther Adams. Drury has appeared at the MusikTriennale Koln in Germany, the Subtropics Festival in Miami, and the North American New Music Festival in Buffalo as well as at Roulette, the Knitting Factory, Tonic and The Stone in New York. At Spoleto USA, the Angelica Festival in Bologna and Oberlin Conservatory he performed as both conductor and pianist. He has conducted the Britten Sinfonia in England, the Santa Cruz New Music Works Ensemble, and the Harvard Group for New Music. In 1988 - 1989 he organized a year-long festival of the music of John Cage which led to a request from the composer to perform the solo piano part in Cage's 1O1, premiered with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in April, 1989. In 2009 Drury performed the solo piano part in the Fourth Symphony of Charles Ives, again with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under Alan Gilbert. In 1999 Drury was invited by choreographer Merce Cunningham to perform onstage with Cunningham and Mikhail Barishnikov as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Drury has also appeared in New York at Alice Tully Hall as part of the Great Day in New York Festival and on the Bargemusic series, in Boston with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players and as soloist with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and with the Seattle Chamber Players in Seattle and Moscow at the International Music Festival “Images of Contemporary American Music”. In 2003 he performed and taught at the Mannes College of Music’s Beethoven Institute; in 2005 he returned to Mannes to play and teach at the Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance. That summer he was also the piano faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute. In 2006, Drury’s performance of Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!” at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival was a sensation; he was invited back in 2008 to premiere Rzewski’s Natural Things with the Opus 21 Ensemble at the Gilmore Festival in Michigan and Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in New York as part of the composer’s 70th birthday. That same summer Drury appeared at Bard College’s SUMMERSCAPE Festival, and at the Cité de la Musique in Paris for a week-long celebration of the music of John Zorn. In 2007 he was invited to León, Mexico to perform music by Rzewski, Zorn and Cage at the International Festival of Contemporary Art.

Drury has commissioned new works for solo piano from John Cage, John Zorn, John Luther Adams, Terry Riley, and Chinary Ung with funding provided by Meet The Composer. He has performed with Zorn in Paris, Vienna, London, Brussels, and New York, and conducted Zorn's music in Bologna, Boston, Chicago, and in the UK and Costa Rica. In March of 1995 he gave the first performance of Zorn's concerto for piano and orchestra Aporias with Dennis Russell Davies and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. Later that same season he gave the premiere of Basic Training for solo piano, written for him by Lee Hyla. Drury has recorded the music of John Cage, Elliott Carter, Charles Ives, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Colin McPhee, John Zorn, John Luther Adams and Frederic Rzewski, as well as works of Liszt and Beethoven, for Mode, New Albion, Catalyst, Tzadik, Avant, MusicMasters, Cold Blue, New World and Neuma.

Stephen Drury has given masterclasses at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Mannes Beethoven Institute, and Oberlin Conservatory, and in Japan, Romania, Argentina, Costa Rica, Denmark, and throughout the United States, and served on juries for the Concert Artist Guild, Gaudeamus and Orléans Concours International de Piano XXème Siècle Competitions. Drury is artistic director and conductor of the Callithumpian Consort, and he created and directs the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at New England Conservatory. Drury earned his undergraduate degree for Harvard College, and has also earned the New England Conservatory's select Artist Diploma. His teachers have included Claudio Arrau, Patricia Zander, William Masselos, Margaret Ott, and Theodore Lettvin, and conducting with Donald Thulean. He teaches at New England Conservatory, where he has directed festivals of the music of John Cage, Steve Reich, and (in 2010) Christian Wolff.

VOICES: A pop-up festival of 20th/21st Music for the singing voice

UC San Diego Music alumni TIFFANY DU MOUCHELLE, soprano, with STEPHEN SOLOOK, percussion.

Soprano Tiffany Du Mouchelle is known for her fearless performances of contemporary repertoire and her commitment to bringing commissioned works to life. Currently on faculty at the University of Buffalo and a graduate of the UC San Diego Department of Music, along with husband, the distinguished percussionist Stephen Solook, they will present a program of works that celebrate stylistic diversity in contemporary musical languages, and the expressive capacity of the singing voice.

Program to include:

• Lonh, Kaija Saariaho
• The Mussels (voice and percussion), Carolyn Chen
• Bird Songs, Susan Botti

Tiffany Du Mouchelle, Soprano

Soprano, Tiffany Du Mouchelle is praised for her musical versatility, an electric stage presence and exceptional dramatic sensibilities. Most recognized for her fearlessness in exploring new and challenging repertoire, she ushers the voice into new realms of expressivity, including a vast array of musical styles and languages, featuring over 100 different languages and exploring the genres of classical, world, contemporary, cabaret, and theatrical works. Recipient of the prestigious Richard F. Gold Career Grant for American Opera Singers, Du Mouchelle has performed with the  Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Center for Contemporary Opera, Yellow Barn Music Festival, Skålholt Summer Music Series in Iceland, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and American Composers Alliance, and in such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center, Disney Hall, The Consulate of the Republic of Poland, The New York Historical Society, The Ukrainian Institute, the residence of the United States Ambassador in Cairo, and the Acropolium in Carthage. Recent collaborations include the AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE of Stockhausen’s Sirius with Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, the MODERN PREMIERE of Karl von Seckendorff’s Proserpina (1777) combined with the WOLRD PREMIERE of Paul Botelho’s electro-acoustic mono-opera Proserpina (2016), the WORLD PREMIERE of Roger Reynolds’ JUSTICE: The Songs (Clytemnestra), the WEST COAST PREMIERE of Pasqual Dusapin’s To Be Sung (Voice Two), along with residencies at Yellow Barn and Songfest.  An active chamber musician, she is the co-founder of Aurora Borealis, a voice and percussion duo with her husband, Stephen Solook.  They frequently commission and perform new works, expanding the repertoire  for this unusual combination. A frequent collaborator with the cultural diplomacy organization Cultures in Harmony, she has served as an instructor of voice, musical outreach specialist, and performer for projects in Cameroon, Tunisia, Egypt and Papua New Guinea. In fall 2015, Du Mouchelle moved to Buffalo, NY, joining the faculty at University at Buffalo, where she serves as the director of the vocal performance program. 

Stephen Solook, Percussion

Critically acclaimed percussionist Stephen Solook currently resides in Buffalo, NY. As a vivacious interpreter of contemporary music Steve has worked with such composers as Pulitzer Prize winners Paul Moravec and Roger Reynolds, Chinary Ung, Bruce Adolphe, and David Loeb. With co-founder, Tiffany Du Mouchelle, of the Aurora Borealis duo (for soprano and percussion) they have performed together more then any other duo of its kind. Venturously they encourage the development of and explore equally composed works for this primal combination. Mr. Solook has performed as a soloist throughout the United States, Egypt, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, and is a sought after concerto soloist for many ensembles and composers. As an orchestral musician, Steve has served as principal percussionist/timpanist with multiple New York City ensembles, was a member of the La Jolla Symphony in San Diego, California, and performed as an substitute percussionist with the Buffalo Philharmonic. As a member of the non-profit organization Cultures in Harmony, Mr. Solook has traveled to perform, teach, and lead workshops in Cameroon, Egypt, Mexico, and Papua New Guinea. Ethnomusicological research has brought Steve to Fiji in a search to locate and document pre-colonial music, as a conservation project with Pacific Blue Foundation. Steve has performed with Bang on a Can All-Stars, Eighth Black Bird, the International Contemporary Ensemble, red fish blue fish, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Joseph Alessi, Bob Becker, David Krakauer, Steven Schick, Lucy Shelton, Socalled, Gordon Stout, Glen Velez, and the Jose Limon Dance Company.  He has had the privilege to work under such conductors as John Rutter, JoAnn Falletta, Paul Nadler, and Edwin Outwater, and in venues ranging from Los Angeles’s Disney Hall and New York City’s Lincoln Center to the legendary nightclub CBGB’s. Steve can be seen on QPTV and heard on Bridge, Vortex, and Mode labels, as well as additional forthcoming productions with Mode records. Dr. Solook is on the percussion faculty at Buffalo State University.

“Sublime Integration of Hindustani and Carnatic traditions” with World renowned
maestros of Indian Classical Music. 

Pandit Kartik Seshadri, sitar with Shashank Subramanyam, bamboo flute
Accompanied by:
Hindole Majumdar, tabla
Parupalli Phalgun, mridangam

Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Conrad Prebys Concert Hall

Pandit Kartik Seshadri is a world-renowned force in the field of Indian Classical Music. As a sitarist, he attracted widespread attention when he began performing full-length solos at the age of 6 in India. The sitar maestro is now hailed as an “amazingly accomplished” musical powerhouse noted for his music’s “expressive beauty, rich tonal sensibility, and rhythmic intricacy,” praised the Washington Post while the Times of India (2011) noted that Seshadri’s concert was “a show stopper that transported the audience to soak soul deep in his mesmerizing performance.” The prestigious Songlines Magazine (U.K.) has in its March 2012 issue declared his latest album “Sublime Ragas” as one of the “Top Ten of the World’s ” CD’s (as with his 2004 Raga:Rasa album) further citing him as one of the “world’s greatest sitar players.”

VOICES A pop-up festival of 20th/21st Music for the singing voice

Susan Narucki soprano, Donald Berman piano and more

Featuring new works by Georgina Derbez, Eve Beglarian and more

Soprano Susan Narucki and pianist Donald Berman, continue their longtime collaboration in a concert of music that celebrates music by women composers. The program features one of Mexico's most distinctive composers, Georgina Derbez. whose evocative settings of the late poems of Emily Dickinson bring the listener into an incandescent musical world. In addition, a beautifully crafted work by post-minimalist Eve Beglarian and additional works will complete the program.

Clarinettist Grace Talaski, a student of Anthony Burr, presents her second DMA recital.

VOICES A pop-up festival of 20th/21st Music for the singing voice

kallisti

A Tribute to Kaija Saariaho

Miguel Zazueta, Mariana Flores, Natalia Merlano Gomez, Andrew Crappito, Kyle Adam Blair and more.

A concert dedicated to the music of the late Kaija Saariaho, one of contemporary music's most original voices. The concert will include Quatre Instants for voice and piano, Changing Light for soprano and violin, and the rarely heard Tag des Jahrs, for vocal ensemble and others.

Join La Jolla Symphony and Chorus on May 4-5, 2024, for an ethereal voyage 'To the Stars,' guided by the artistry of our Music Director and Orchestra Conductor, Sameer Patel.

Experience the lushness and angst of Webern's Passacaglia, op. 1, Osvaldo Golijov's mesmerizing Azul, a spellbinding tapestry of sound that takes you on a celestial journey of emotions and colors.

The program concludes with  Brahms's Symphony no. 3, op. 90, a musical experience that traverses the realms of human sentiment, from introspection to exultation.

Join La Jolla Symphony and Chorus on May 4-5, 2024, for an ethereal voyage 'To the Stars,' guided by the artistry of our Music Director and Orchestra Conductor, Sameer Patel.

Experience the lushness and angst of Webern's Passacaglia, op. 1, Osvaldo Golijov's mesmerizing Azul, a spellbinding tapestry of sound that takes you on a celestial journey of emotions and colors.

The program concludes with  Brahms's Symphony no. 3, op. 90, a musical experience that traverses the realms of human sentiment, from introspection to exultation.

St. Lawrence String Quartet perfoms new works by undergraduate composers including: Kaira Hagan, Gabriel Nelson, Farhad Taraporevala, and Guantong Zhang.

Hailed by the New Yorker “not simply for the quality of their music making, exalted as it is, but for the joy they take in the act of connection,” the acclaimed St. Lawrence continues its fabled partnership with Stanford, remaining a cultural cornerstone of the University, directing the music department’s Chamber Music Program, concertizing at Stanford Live, hosting a popular summer seminar, and running the Emerging String Quartet Program.”

Program

Mozart: Quartet for Oboe (arranged for saxophone) and strings in F Major, K 370
Britten: Phantasy Quartet for Oboe (arranged for saxophone) and Strings, Op. 2
Steven Banks: Cries, Sighs and Dreams for alto sax and string quartet (2021)
An additional work TBD.

Sarah Saviet is a violinist based in Berlin and dedicated to the performance of contemporary music. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician and is a member of the Saviet/Houston Duo and Ensemble Mosaik.

Sarah’s debut solo album SPUN (Coviello Contemporary) was recently nominated for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for new music.  She has also released on all that dust and another timbre, and her recording of Liza Lim’s violin concerto ‘Speak, Be Silent,’ with the Riot Ensemble on HCR/NMC records was selected as one of New Yorker Magazine’s ‘Best recordings of 2019.’

Recent performances include duo concerts at Ultraschall and AFEKT festivals, soloist with Klangforum Wien as part of Märzmusik in the Berliner Philharmonie, and the premiere of Rebecca Saunders and Enno Poppe’s duo Taste at Witten Festival 2022. Sarah has held visiting artist positions in the composition departments of the University of the Arts Berlin, Huddersfield University, at Goldsmith University London with the Riot Ensemble, and at Harvard University with ELISION Ensemble. She has given workshops on contemporary violin technique at the Manhattan School of Music University of the Arts Berlin, Manhattan School of Music, and Darmstadt Akademie für Tonkunst, and held artist residencies at Aldeburgh Music with composers Lawrence Dunn, Jack Sheen, and artist Rowland Hill.