Rewrite

12 instrumentalists total; 60 minutes of music, no intermission

In a program that explores recreation, iteration, and inspiration, two tectonically important contributions to music and two equally original responses. Songs by British indie-rock phenom Radiohead frame the program, and iconic American composer Steve Reich, responds with Radio Rewrite, in which he weaves the music of Radiohead into his own inimitable musical voice. The dazzling outer movements contrasted with the deeply heartfelt central movement make J.S. Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto one of his most beloved works. Gabriella Smith shows her love for the piece in her Brandenburg Interstices, which also draws on American folk music, the blues, Ligeti, and more.

Radiohead, arr. David Bloom: Jigsaw Falling Into Place (2007) (4’)
fl, cl, 2 vib, 2 pno, e-bass, strings (1.1.1.1.0)

Gabriella Smith: Brandenburg Interstices (2012) (13’)
Solo flute, solo violin and solo harpsichord | strings (1.0.1.1.1)

Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 (1721) (20’)
Solo flute, solo violin, and solo harpsichord | strings (1.0.1.1.1)

Steve Reich: Radio Rewrite (2012) (19’)
fl, cl, 2 vib, 2 pno, e-bass, strings (1.1.1.1.0)

Radiohead, arr. John Tanner & Eric Segnitz: Everything In Its Right Place (2007, arr. 2019) (4’)
fl, cl, 2 vib, 2 pno, e-bass, strings (1.1.1.1.0)

darker

Live visual artist + 12 string players total; 90 minutes of music plus intermission

Two Pulitzer Prize winning co-founders of the legendary new music powerhouse Bang on a Can are featured in this program of works for chamber strings. In her piece Cruel Sister, Julia Wolfe traces the dramatic arc of an Old English ballad about two sisters: one bright as the sun, the other cold and dark. In David Lang’s darker, artist Suzanne Bocanegra creates swirling colors and shapes live in water and projects them on a screen above the ensemble.

Julia Wolfe: Cruel Sister (2004) (30’)
Strings (4.3.2.2.1)

— Intermission —

David Lang: darker (2010) (60’)
Live artist | 12 solo strings (4.3.2.2.1)

Go, My Love

Solo vocalist (Iarla O’Lionaird) + 12 players total; 61 minutes of music plus intermission

The sensational vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird, is as sensational as he is chameleonic, brings his voice to a program of music from his native Ireland. Composer Dan Trueman has arranged sean-nós songs from the Irish tradition for Ó Lionáird and ensemble, bringing to the stage a living tradition in a modern light. Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás (trans: Love and Death), also inspired by sean-nós tradition, navigates an emotional palate ranging from timeless bliss to devastating terror. Ó Lionáird, for whom the work was written, is the beacon on this uniquely powerful journey of ecstasy and destiny that makes an unforgettable impact. Music by Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurðsson and Irish composer Emma O’Halloran round out the program.

Valgeir Sigurðsson: Past Tundra (2011, arr. 2013) (5’)
fl, cl(=bcl), trbn, pno, perc, vln, vla, vlc, cb

Dan Trueman: Three Sean-Nós Songs (2013) (23’)
Solo voice | fl, cl(=bcl), tpt, tbn, perc, pno, gtr, 2 vln, vla, vlc, cb

— Intermission —

Emma O’Halloran: Endless Deeps (2015) (8’)
fl, cl, tbn, perc, pno, e-gtr, vn, vc, cb

Donnacha Dennehy: Grá agus Bas (2007) (25’)
Solo voice | fl(=picc), cl(=bcl), tpt, tbn, perc, pno, e-gtr, vln, vla, vlc, cb | electronics

Walls We Build

Mezzo-soprano + 16 instrumentalists total; 66 minutes of music plus intermission

In her one-act monodrama Mary Motorhead, Irish composer Emma O’Halloran brings to life an idiosyncratic but ultimately empathetic character who ponders the conditions that led her to prison. Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, a minimalist production by director Jennifer Williams includes live closed-circuit camera work evoking surveillance.

A poignant comment on immigration, composer Huang Ruo’s The Sonic Great Wall is an immersive ensemble work that calls the audience to participate. Seated in parallel lines, the audience communicates with the musicians and one another with words and movement while the ensemble, playing selections from memory, moves about the space.

Emma O’Halloran: Mary Motorhead (2019) (31’)
Mezzo; fl, cl (=bcl), tsax, perc, kbd, e-gtr, vln, vla, vlc, cb | electronics

— Intermission —

Huang Ruo: Resonant Theater No. 1: The Sonic Great Wall (2016) (35’)
1.1.1.1 | 1.1.1.0 | perc | strings (1.1.1.1.1)

for us and them

17 instrumentalists total; 71 minutes of music, no intermission

Grouped in three sets of unbroken performances, this program draws seamless and intricate connections among music from disparate eras, time-traveling back and forth between the 18th and 21st Centuries, with one stop in the 20th, to uncover the journey of the concerto grosso through the ages.

The first set opens with the plaintive strains of one of Handel’s most beloved instrumental works, continues with gorgeous music by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, and journeys back to virtuosic music of Afro-French composer, violinist, soldier, and fencer, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. A story of soloists relating to the whole ensemble begins to emerge: soloists united as leaders like beacons in a storm, soloists pitted against one another, soloists in easy prominence over the ensemble, soloists subsumed into the mass.

To start the second set, George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, written in the months following the Second World War, gives voice to the sorrows of a generation. From the incredibly tender ending of the Walker erupts Samuel Carl Adams’ Movements (for us and them), a high-octane, post-millennial concerto grosso that takes the listener on a stunning emotional journey.

The final set opens with the first movement of a harpsichord concerto by Wilhelmine von Bayreuth, who was not only a composer but also a princess of Prussia whose duties included infrastructure planning, diplomacy, and governing the kingdom in the absence of her brother, Frederick the Great. The emphatic conclusion of her piece launches the aggressive opening of Christopher Cerrone’s concerto grosso High Windows, which soon gives way to some of the most transcendently beautiful music written this century.

Set 1 (performed without pause):

Handel: from Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No. 6 (1739) (5’): I. Largo affettuoso & II. A tempo giusto
2 solo violins | harpsichord | strings (3.3.3.3.2)

Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte (2011, arr. string orch 2014) (11’)
Strings (4.4.3.3.2)

Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Symphonie Concertante in G, Op. 13: I. Allegro (1777) (10’)
2 solo violins | harpsichord | strings (3.3.3.3.2)

Set 2 (performed without pause):

George Walker: Lyric for Strings (1946) (6’)
Strings (4.4.3.3.2)

Samuel Carl Adams: Movements (for us and them) (2018) (18’)
Solo string quartet | strings (3.3.2.2.2)

Set 3 (performed without pause):

Wilhelmine von Bayreuth: Harpsichord Concerto in G minor: I. Allegro (year unknown) (7’)
Solo harpsichord | strings (4.4.3.3.2)

Christopher Cerrone: High Windows (2013) (14’)
Solo string quintet | strings (3.3.2.2.1)

Street Scenes

19 instrumentalists total; 73 minutes of music plus intermission

This program of music inspired by artistic traditions from around the world kicks off with an instrumental transcription of a stunning performance by Gambian kora virtuoso Alhaji Bai Konte. Composer Kareem Roustom contributes his piece Dabke, a memorable take on a traditional Syrian dance. With music about the composer’s childhood memories of street theater performances in the suburbs of Seoul, Unsuk Chin’s Gougalōn is an epic journey of its own. The piece would be thrilling with an original choreography, should spaces allow.

In response to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, musical polymath Vijay Iyer evokes India’s chaotic and colorful spring celebration of Holi in his RADHE RADHE. The work was created along with filmmaker Prashant Bhargave, whose video paired with the music contains gorgeous and compelling imagery from the celebration itself.

Alhaji Bai Konte, arr. David Bloom: Alla l’aa Ke (1973, arr. 2018) (7’)
1.1.1.1 | 0.1.1.0 | 2 perc, 2 pno | strings (2.2.2.2.1)

Kareem Roustom: Dabke (2014) (7’)
Strings (2.2.2.2.1)

Unsuk Chin: Gougalon (Scenes from a Street Theater) (2009/2011) (24’) — potentially with choreography
1(=picc,afl).1(=CA).1(=Ebcl,bcl).0 | 0.1.1.0 | 2 perc, pno (2 players) | strings (1.1.1.2.1)

— Intermission —

Vijay Iyer: RADHE RADHE: Rites of Holi (2013) (35’) — with film by Prashant Bhargava
1.0.1(=bcl).1(=cbsn) | 0.1.0.0 | 2 perc, 2 pno | strings (2.1.2.1.1) | electronics

Shelter

3 sopranos + 17 instrumentalists total; 65 minutes of music, no intermission

Co-composed by the founders of Bang on a Can, Shelter is created by composer supergroup Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe along with librettist Deborah Atman and filmmaker Bill Morrison. Shelter mines the myriad connotations of the work’s title — physical structures, intimate personal exchanges, a metaphoric home for our beliefs — ultimately questioning whether what we build can protect us against the destructive power of the world around us.

Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe: Shelter (2005) (65’)
3 sopranos | 1.1.1.1 | 1.1.1.1 | perc, pno, e-gtr, e-bass | strings (1.1.1.1.1)

On the Way

22 instrumentalists total; 83 minutes of music plus intermission

A leading composer of his generation, Andrew Norman sets his labored compositional process to music in his intense and dramatic work Try. With false-starts, mulligans, stumbles, and chaotic rewinds, this deftly constructed piece depicts its own creation. Shelley Washington’s Middle Ground is inspired by her home in the center of America and how, though she may be thousands of miles away, her heart has never left the heartland. In his Son of Chamber Symphony, the iconic and ever-youthful composer John Adams pulls the audience along a dangerously exhilarating journey like a puppeteer in a rush of airborne riffs and rhythmic edginess.

The program concludes with Dylan Mattingly’s Atlas of Somewhere (on the Way to Howland Island), an epic and beautiful emotional depiction of Amelia Earhart’s final journey. You can hear Earhart’s journey in the music: her engine revving, crossing the endless blue, a stop in Tahiti, elegy at the tragic end to the flight, and an overwhelmingly jubilant climax that sends Amelia’s spirit out into the stars.

Andrew Norman: Try (2011) (14’)
1.1.1.1 / 1.1.1.0 | 2 perc, pno | strings (2.2.2.2.1)

Shelley Washington: Middle Ground (2016) (10’)
Strings (2.2.2.2.1)

John Adams: Son of Chamber Symphony (2007) (23’)
1(=picc).1.1+bcl.1 | 1.1.1.0 | 2 perc, pno(=cel) | strings (2.2.2.2.1)

— Intermission —

Dylan Mattingly: Atlas of Somewhere (on the Way to Howland Island) (2011) (36’)
1.1.1+bcl.1 | 1.1.1.0 | 2 perc, pno, kbd(=toy pno) | detuned harp | strings (2.2.2.2.1)

And Flowers Showered

Mezzo-soprano and solo pianist + 21 instrumentalists total; 100 minutes of music, no intermission

Latvian composer Krists Auznieks’ And Flowers Showered is an immersive concert-length exploration of the self through music, movement, and design, inviting the audience to examine the question of what makes us each an individual. With projection and space design by Danish artist Magnus Pind, the work unfolds in three parts:

Part I: Musicians and ushers guide blindfolded audience members into the performance space one-by-one, and they are engulfed in expansive music.

Part II: The audience is invited to remove their blindfolds, and they see that they are surrounded by plantlife, projections, and musicians. In this part, a mezzo-soprano sings fragments from Wallace Stevens.

Part III: Joyous music erupts, and the audience is served a small bit of dried fruit. The music surges in an optimistic vision of a communal self.

The piece is intended to take full advantage of the space in which it is performed, therefore requiring some adaptation for each performance. Accommodations can easily be made for social distancing, or audience members may be invited to move throughout a space.

Krists Auznieks: And Flowers Showered (2018) (100’)
Solo piano and mezzo-soprano | 1(=afl).1.1.1+asax(=tsax) | 1.1.1.0 | 2 perc, e-gtr | strings (2.2.2.2.1) | electronics

Love Lost

2 singers + 22 players total; 63 minutes of music plus intermission

Arnold Schoenberg represents a critical link in the continuum of music. His knowledge of and reverence for the repertoire, his undeniable ingenuity as an artist, and his genuine interest in pedagogy amplify his contributions to culture immeasurably. Schoenberg created a great tradition of music for large chamber ensemble, both with his own music and with his chamber reductions of large symphonic works for the medium.

In the tradition of these chamber reductions, this program is headlined by Azerbaijani composer Faradzh Karaew’s arrangement of Schoenberg’s monument of modernism: the one-act opera Erwartung, with a libretto by Marie Pappenheim. The omnipotent music delves into the psyche of opera’s sole character as she desperately searches for her lost husband, and the chamber arrangement allows for a fresh experience to the singer’s vulnerability and the audience’s voyerism.

Among Schoenberg’s several reductions of the orchestral music of Gustav Mahler is Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, a song cycle the composer wrote in the wake of the composer’s unhappy love for a soprano. The extravagantly emotional poems, written by the composer, lament the speaker’s unrequited love. Schoenberg’s deft reduction of one of Mahler’s more transparent scores make for chillingly intimate statement.

The program opens with its most optimistic work: Dylan Mattingly’s Seasickness and Being (in love), which points to the destability of the self and modes of experience. Opening in a violent spasm of sonic motion sickness, the work continues exploding outwards in a kaleidoscopic opening, journeying from life as a person to life as a planet. The work is performed in its original chamber orchestra instrumentation, a flourishing medium that owes its origins to the pioneering work of Schoenberg.

Dylan Mattingly: Seasickness and Being (in love) (2015) (15’)
1.1.1.1 | 1.1.1.0 | 2 perc, pno, kbd(=cel), e-bass | strings (1.1.1.1.0)

Gustav Mahler, arr. Arnold Schoenberg: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (1893, arr. 1920) (18’)
Medium voice | fl, cl, pno, harm, perc, strings (1.1.1.1.1)

— Intermission —

Arnold Schoenberg, arr. Faradzh Karaew: Erwartung, Op. 17 (1909, arr. 2004) (30’)
Soprano | 1.1.2.1 | 2.1.1.1 | 3 perc, hp, cel | strings (1.1.1.1.1)

Yet Unheard

Solo vocalist (Helga Davis) + 8 ensemble singers; 20 instrumentalists total; 72 minutes of music plus intermission

Created by composer Courtney Bryan and poet Sharan Strange, Yet Unheard is the deeply moving emotional centerpiece of this program. The piece honors the life and mourns the death of Sandra Bland with stirring choral and instrumental music. The solo vocal part was written for and with vocalist Helga Davis, who sings to the audience in Bland's voice, urging us to relive the circumstances of her death and to seek answers to painful questions too long unasked. Among the questions in Strange’s text is, “How do we imagine something different, that centers Black people, that sees them in the future?”

Opening the program is Jessie Montgomery’s quicksilver Starburst, a work for strings that plays on imagery of rapidly changing musical colors, exploding gestures, and gentle fleeting melodies. Reena Esmail’s Avartan is inspired by a rhythmic cycle of the same name from Hindustani music and is paired with a strikingly intimate video by Neeraj Jain.

Caroline Shaw, the youngest composer ever to win a Pulitzer Prize, sets texts by poet Claudia Rankine in her work This might also be a form of dreaming. The music speaks with intimacy and clarity, amplifying the complexity and loneliness of our hyperconnected world. Shelley Washington’s A Kind of Lung bridges musical traditions to express an experience we all share — breathing together. Bringing a moment of human connection to the audience, Helga Davis’ Wanna invites the audience to look into their neighbor’s eyes and sing “Wanna be your heart and beat for you, wanna be your eyes and see for you, wanna be your lungs and breathe for you...”

Jessie Montgomery: Starburst (2012) (4’)
Strings (2.2.2.2.1)

Reena Esmail: Avartan (2016) (12’) — with film by Neeraj Jain
1.1.1.1 | 1.1.1.1 | pno | strings (2.2.2.2.1)

Caroline Shaw: This might also be a form of dreaming (2016) (22’) — text by Claudia Rankine
8 ensemble singers (SSAATTBB) | bcl, perc, pno, vla, vlc

— Intermission —

Shelley Washington, arr. D. Bloom: A Kind of Lung (2017, arr. 2018) (6’)
1.1.1.1 | 1.1.1.1 | 2 perc | pno | strings (2.2.2.2.1)

Helga Davis, arr. D. Bloom: An action, taken. and Wanna (2018) (13’) — world premiere arrangement
Solo voice | subset of the available instrumental and/or ensemble + audience participation

Courtney Bryan: Yet Unheard (2016, arr. 2017) (15’) — text by Sharan Strange
Solo voice, 8 ensemble singers (SSAATTBB) | 1.1.1.1 | 1.1.1.1 | 1 perc + timp | pno | strings (2.2.2.2.1)