The Seattle Chamber Players

 

Laura DeLuca, clarinet

David Sabee, cello

Mikhail Shmidt, violin

Paul Taub, flute

 

Elena Dubinets, Artistic Advisor

 

With guests:

 

Duane Hulbert, piano

, viola

 

Program

 

Winter Serenade (1997)

Onute Narboutaite (b. 1956)

 

flute, violin, viola

 

 

Island (1993)

Helena Tulve (b. 1972)

 

clarinet, violin

 

Architectonics VII, Version 2 (1993)

Erkki-Sven Tüür (b. 1959)

 

flute, bass clarinet, piano

 

Intermission

 

 

The Magic Flute (1996)

Antanas Kucinskas (b. 1968)

 

flute and tape

 

Episodi e Canto Perpetuo (1985)

Peteris Vasks (b. 1946)

 

violin, cello, piano

 

Crescendo

Misterioso

Unisoni

Burlesca I

Monologhi

Burlesca II

Canto perpetuo

Apogeo e Coda

 

Program and composer notes

 

Onute Narbutaite (b. 1956, Lithuania) graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music in 1979. In 1997 she was awarded the Lithuanian National Award in Culture and Music for her oratorio Centones meae urbi. Her works have been commissioned by many international festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Helsinki Festival, A-Devantgarde, Kaustinen XX Chamber Music Week, and others, and they have been performed at Warsaw Autumn, Internationales Festival für neue Musik (Heidelberg), De Suite Muziekweek (Amsterdam), and at many other venues and festivals.  The majority of Narbutaitė's music is for instrumental chamber ensemble; here the composer’s individuality, intellectual scope, and mastery manifest themselves most clearly. Narbutaitė's works show two principal trends that often coexist in one piece: an inclination towards inventive construction and references to different styles from the past, apparently in response to the post-modern epoch.

Audrone Ziuraityte

 

Winter Serenade (1997) for flute, violin, and viola is a tiny Hommage à Schubert. The piece is woven from the motives of "Gute Nacht," the first song in Schubert's Winterreise cycle. However, signs from Schubert‘s other works are also apparent, including Schubert's sadness and anxiety on the freezing winter road: "Fremd bin ich eingezogen, Fremd zieh ich wieder aus . . ." 

Onute Narbutaite

 

Helena Tulve (b. 1972, Estonia) studied composition at the Tallinn Secondary Music School and then, from 1989-92, she was the only student of Erkki-Sven Tüür at the Tallinn Conservatory. Thereafter Tulve continued her composition studies at the Paris National Regional Conservatory under Jacques Charpentier; she graduated with the Premier Prix in 1994. From 1993-96 she studied medieval church chant and traditional music at the Paris National Higher Conservatory of Music and Dance. She has participated in summer courses on new music held by György Ligeti and Marco Stroppa. In 1998 Tulve won second prize at UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers Competition in Paris in the category reserved for composers under 30. She was selected by a jury at IRCAM in Paris to take part in their computer music course in 2001. Since autumn 2000, she has been a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Music. Her music has been performed at the NYYD Festival (Estonia), BIG Torino (Italy), Warsaw Autumn, Vancouver New Music (Canada), Gaida Music Festival (Lithuania), Music of Friends (Russia), Musica Nova (Poland), Les Boréales (France), Maerz Musik (Germany), and Klangspuren (Austria). – Dr. Elena Dubinets

 

Island

This word has several, perhaps contradictory, associations--isolation, a refuge, a goal, or a departure--all of which inspired me during the process of composition. Later, though, this piece brought me a very different memory, of R. M. Rilke’s grave, next to the Raron church in Switzerland.

Helena Tulve

 

Erkki-Sven Tüür (b. 1959, Estonia) completed his studies in flute at the Tallinn Music School in 1980; after graduating from the Tallinn Conservatory as a composer in 1984, he embarked on a self-study course in electronic music in Darmstadt. At the beginning of his career, when he was the vocalist for the rock ensemble In Spe (1979–83), he composed vocal music that blended elements of rock with Renaissance polyphony and Baroque rhythms. After completing his studies, he became interested in diatonic polyphony and the repetitive quality of minimal music. In the mid-80s he began to combine repetitive procedures and coloristic textures reminiscent of the 1960s avant-garde. The tension between tonal and atonal spheres has been an important dramatic feature of his style. Most of his works since the early 1990s make use of 12-note techniques in their atonal sections.

Tüür’s musical language is full of meaning, resonating with contrasts and a rich aural landscape and  governed by a deep intellectuality. Tüür has collaborated with leading performers including cellist David Geringas, The Hilliard Ensemble, percussionist Peter Saldo, and the Cabasa Quartet. Tüür’s music has been performed at festivals in many countries, including Musica Nova in Helsinki, Bang On A Can in New York, Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, and Wien Modern.

 

[no notes right now, perhaps when Elena returns]

 

Antanas Kucinskas (b.1968) graduated from the Vilnius Conservatory (1988) where he studied music theory and composition. He continued composition studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music with Prof. Vytautas Barkauskas, graduating in 1993. His Ph.D. research on "The Principles of Composition in the Works of Contemporary Lithuanian Composers" was completed and defended in 2001 at the same institution. In 1995 he participated in the workshop for young composers in Apeldoorn, Holland. From 1991 to 1999 he taught modern music history at the Vilnius Conservatory. For five years since 1993 he has been sound director and, since 1998, head of the music department of the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre. Antanas Kucinskas has organized several conferences of music theory, and appeared in a piano duo with the musicologist Tomas Ziburkus. In the beginning of 2003, the composer resided and worked in the Visby International Centre for Composers and the recently founded electro-acoustic music studio 'Alpha' (Gotland, Sweden).

 

His "Magic Flute" for flute and tape was awarded the 4th prize of the Music Fund of the Lithuanian Composers' Union (1995) and 'Very Highly Commended' in the Kathryn Thomas International Flute Composition Competition (London, 2000).

 

His works were performed at various festivals and concert venues in Lithuania and abroad: "Gaida" (1991, 2003), "Jauna muzika" (1992, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2004), Musical Action Festival (1993) in Vilnius, "Kopa" in Klaipeda (1997), "Zuvys" in Siauliai (1996), "Kamerton" in Pescara (Italy, 1999), "Pianissimo" in Sofia (Bulgaria, 2000), Minsk (Belarus, 1988), Apeldoorn (Holland, 1995), and elsewhere.

 

The creative output of Antanas Kucinskas is not so much abundant in number as in diversity of style. His works often display a combination of tendencies related to the instrumental theatre and those of the new simplicity. To achieve this, the composer employs various techniques of modern composition, such as modal and serial, mixing them with the patterns of repetitive development. Lately, he became interested in the method of re-composition, that is, remaking of certain historically and stylistically recognizable musical material by using techniques 'alien' to its nature. Antanas Kucinskas also writes incidental music for theatre (to date, he wrote music for 16 stage productions) and cinema. – Lithuanian Music Information Center

 

Peteris Vasks Episodio e Canto Perpetuo

 

 

The Latvian composer Peteris Vasks writes traditional music of soulful  beauty that both laments the sufferings of his country and celebrates its  enduring spirit. As David Vernier writes "his music is not afraid of expressing human emotion and passion. It reaches listeners by touching them in the right places --the places where memory and experience meet modern  concerns and emotions."

 

The son of a Baptist minister, Vasks was born in April 1946 in Aizpute, Latvia, at that time part of the Soviet Union. The paths to a musical education and career were not readily open to him, and although he attended conservatories in Riga and in neighboring Lithuania, he was largely self-taught. Early influences included Lutoslawski, George Crumb and Penderecki, but by the early 1980s he had found his own characteristic style.

 

Robert Reilly describes Vasks' attractive music as contrary to our century's predominant esthetic of ugliness in art to reflect ugliness in  life.Vasks feels the urgent need to combat that ugliness. The unalloyed beauty he creates springs from a deep spiritual need for it; he chooses it  over darkness. He asks "Is there any point in composing a piece that only mirrors our being one step away from extinction?"

 

Vasks' language of affirmation and faith through beauty was his only weapon in facing Soviet totalitarianism. Through the days leading up to Latvia's breakaway from the USSR, Peteris Vasks was a leading artistic dissident, his music capturing the grief of an oppressed people. In his compositions, he says that "fast music has always been a negative sign of evil, aggression, destruction."

 

Tonight's work for piano trio dates from 1985 and is dedicated to Olivier Messiaen. The composer writes "It describes a difficult journey through realms of distress, disappointment and the suffering of love which forms the central point of the canto." There are eight episodes, briefly described below:

 

Episodio I (crescendo) An even dynamic buildup slowly leading to an atmosphere of tension.

Episodio II (misterioso) A glance at the sleeping earth in a soundless night.

Episodio III (unisoni) A masked dance before the background of a fantastic landscape.Episodio IV (burlesca I) A powerful and aggressive theme with a bitterly  ironic contrasting section.

EpisodioV (monologhi) An attempt to recognize and to understand the entire development.

EpisodioVI (burlesca II) The gloomy climax of the work with the tableaux of Episodio IV returning with increased aggression and intensity.

Episodio VII (canto perpetuo) A broad melody for violin, then cello and finally in duo.

Episodio VIII (apogeo e coda) The emotional climax of the work ending in decreasing intensity and increasingly higher and softer tonal color.

--Dennis Glauber

 

Group Statement

 

Hailed for its daring and intelligent programming with uncompromising artistic and spirited performances, the Seattle Chamber Players enjoys a growing international reputation. For fourteen years, SCP’s four core members—Laura DeLuca, clarinet, David Sabee, cello, Mikhail Shmidt, violin, and Paul Taub, flute—have been passionately dedicated to introducing a wide range of composers whose styles and influences broaden the language of contemporary chamber music. In January 2004 the ensemble’s work was recognized with the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming.

 

DeLuca, Sabee and Shmidt are key members of the Seattle Symphony, and Taub is a Professor of Music at Cornish College of the Arts. In 2002, Dr. Elena Dubinets joined the ensemble as Artistic Advisor after guiding the group through its first international festival, Icebreaker: Voices from a New Russia. Musicologist Dubinets, currently Music Research Coordinator for the Seattle Symphony, has been a tremendous asset for the ensemble with her leadership in research and programming.

 

SCP’s history is marked by its commitment to the music of our time. From its commissioning of works by Seattle’s leading composers to collaborations with the most prominent American and international creative artists, the ensemble is in the vanguard of the contemporary music world. Past projects have included commissions from Uri Caine, Wayne Horvitz, Laura Kaminsky, Vladimir Martinov, Amy Rubin, Reza Vali, Alexandr Vustin and many others. The list of composers whose music was introduced to Seattle audiences by SCP includes Fraghiz Ali-Zadeh, Aaron Jay Kernis, Valentin Silvestrov, Peteris Vasks and John Zorn. SCP’s two international festivals—Icebreaker I and Icebreaker II: Baltic Voices (2004)—brought dozens of international guests to Seattle and contributed to the ensemble’s growing stature. Icebreaker III—music from the countries of the Caucasus Mountains and Black Sea—is planned for 2006. The ensemble has twice traveled to Eastern Europe, appearing in Moscow’s Cold Alternativa and Autumn Festivals, the St. Petersburg Sound Waves Festival, and at the Estonian Concert Hall in Tallinn. On each tour, SCP brought the latest in American contemporary music to new audiences, as well as playing Russian works commissioned by the ensemble. A tour of Costa Rica and other Central American countries is planned for spring, 2005.

 

SCP was ensemble-in-residence at Cornish College of the Arts in 2002 and 2003, where it worked with students and gave concerts of their works. The ensemble’s first CD,        Otis Spann: Music of Wayne Horvitz, is available on the Periplum label and its latest recording, Reza Vali’s Folksongs (Set No. 15), is soon to be released.

 

For more information and history of the group, visit their website at www.seattlechamberplayers.org.

 

Player Bios

 

Laura DeLuca, clarinet, joined the Seattle Symphony in 1986, and is a co-founding member of the Seattle Chamber Players. Solo appearances include performances of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto and Robert Starer’s Rikudim (Dances) movement from his concerto, Kli Zemer with the Seattle Symphony. Laura has performed extensively on dozens of recordings including more than 70 compact discs with Seattle Symphony as well as many movie soundtracks including the solo clarinet work on the Academy Award-winning feature length documentaries The Long Way Home and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport. Other chamber music activities include performances in Portugal with the Moscow Piano Quartet and a filmscore premiere by Wayne Horvitz. Seattle-area appearances include the Icicle Creek Festival and Belle Arte series. Laura received her formal training at Northwestern University where she studied with the celebrated Robert Marcellus. A committed teacher, she has taught at University of Puget Sound, Marrowstone Music Festival and MidSummer Music Retreat.

 

David Sabee, cello, began his studies at age 17 with Johan Lingeman, solo cellist of the Concertgebouw Orkest and continued with Paul Olefsky and Harvey Shapiro. Called “confident and colorful” by the New Yorker, he has appeared in concert at such venues as Carnegie Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Concertgebouw and the Barbican Center. He has been a member of the Seattle Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, and the American Composers Orchestra. Instrumental in the advent of film scoring in Seattle, he produced the scoring sessions of two Academy Award winning feature length documentaries, Into The Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport and The Long Way Home. Currently, he is working on a series of pieces for kemanche, nail gun and prepared piano based on the poetry of Paul Celan.

 

Mikhail Shmidt, violin, was born in Moscow, and attended a music school for gifted children from the age of six. He was awarded first prize at the Concertino-Prague Competition in 1978, at the age of 14, and graduated summa cum laude from the Gnessin Musical Institute in Moscow. Misha’s teachers include Valentin Berlinsky of the Borodin Quartet and Khalida Akhtiamova. He has performed with the Moscow State Symphony, the Moscow Radio String Quartet, and as concertmaster of the Camerata Boccherini Chamber Orchestra. Since moving to Seattle in 1991 to join the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, he has established himself as a leading chamber musician of the Pacific Northwest. A founding member of The Bridge Ensemble, he has also been a guest artist with the Moscow Piano Quartet, touring Europe frequently, including Germany, Spain and Portugal. He has participated in the Colorado, Marrowstone, Olympic, and Seattle International music festivals.

 

Paul Taub, flute, has been on the faculty of the Cornish College of the Arts since 1979. A founding member of the Seattle Chamber Players he has had a strong musical presence in Seattle chamber music scene as a member of the New Performance Group, Sonora and Taneko. An active soloist and recitalist, he has appeared at the Seattle Spring Festival and Leningrad Musical Spring International Festival and at universities and colleges all over the United States and Canada. Trained at Rutgers University and the California Institute of the Arts, his teachers include Marcel Moyse, Samuel Baron, Michel Debost and Robert Aitken. Paul’s program of ten commissioned solo pieces was presented at Benaroya Hall in May, 1999, and in Port Townsend, Bellingham, New York and Atlanta. Oo-ee, the CD of this repertoire, has been released on the Periplum label. Paul is the Chairman of the New Music Advisory Committee of the National Flute Association. In November 2002, he was the soloist in the United States premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Brant’s Ghosts and Gargoyles.

 

Elena Dubinets received her M.A. and Ph.D. (1996) from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Russia. In Moscow, she served as Assistant Professor of Music Theory in the Moscow Conservatory. She has lived in the USA since 1996. She is currently Artistic Advisor for the Seattle Chamber Players and Music Research Coordinator for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Elena has been active in the field of musicology, publishing articles and books on contemporary music. As an authority on contemporary Russian and American musics, Dubinets is actively involved in promoting artistic exchanges between the Russian and American new music communities. She has produced three festivals of Russian music in the USA, including the Seattle Chamber Players' Icebreaker festival, and two festivals of American music in Russia. Dr. Dubinets has received supporting grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, The Soros Cultural Initiative, Nuffic Foundation (Netherlands), and others. In 2002 she spent three months as a Stipendiat at the Paul Sacher Stiftungin Basel, studying the manuscripts of Morton Feldman and Conlon Nancarrow.

 

Duane Hulbert, piano, has appeared as soloist with many major orchestras in the United States, including the Minnesota, Dallas, Rochester, Juilliard, Tacoma and North Carolina symphonies. He was featured soloist in the Seattle Symphony’s Music of our Time Series at Benaroya Recital Hall in November 2001. He has also performed in recital in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Duane received his degrees from the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. In 1980, he won the grand prize in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition and returned to judge the Competition in June 2001. He is now in his sixteenth year at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. Dr. Hulbert released the first CD in a set of recordings featuring the complete piano works of Alexander Glazunov in November 2000. The disc was nominated for a Grammy award in January 2002 in the Best Classical Soloist without Orchestra category.

 

Heather Bentley, viola, holds degrees in Chamber Music and Viola from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has also attended the University of California, Berkeley and the Indiana University School of Music. She has appeared as soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, The Northwest Sinfonietta, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra and the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, as well as several regional community  orchestras. As a chamber musician, she has performed at the Olympic Music Festival, at the Second City Series in Tacoma, the Belle Arte Series in Bellevue, ArtsWest in West Seattle, the Centrum Chamber Music Festival in Port Townsend, and with the New Performance Group at the  Cornish College of the Arts. Ms. Bentley is Principal Viola of the Northwest Sinfonietta and conducts the Northwest School Chamber Orchestra. She recently became violist of the odeonquartet, based in Seattle.