The Center for New Music hosts

Iowa Composers Forum Winter Festival

Saturday, February 10, 2018 at 7:30p in the
Voxman Music Building Concert Hall

 

 Program

Charlottesville,  for solo piano

Brooke JOYCE

Brooke Joyce, piano
 

We are out of water,  for fixed media

Jonah ELROD

 
 

Thaw,  for two marimbas

Lisa NEHER

Michal Brauhn and Andrew McDonald, marimbas
 

Aus tiefer Not,  for solo organ

Jeremy MAAS

Becca Swanson, organ
 

Intermission

 

Shimmer,  for 16 instrumentalists

Ben HIPPEN

 
Marissa Flemming, flute
Matthew Goulding, oboe
Mauricio Silva, clarinet
Alex Widstrand, bassoon
Katelyn Halbert, horn
John Kenneth Gorder, trumpet
Bjorn Swanson, trombone
Wiatt Cariveau, tuba
Peter Naughton and Travis Newman, percussion
Nicha Pimthong, piano
Yixue Zhang, violin I
Luciana Hontila, violin II
Tyler Hendrickson, viola
Hui-Hsuan Su, violoncello
Will Yager, double bass
Zachary Stanton, conductor

Half murmur (2017)  for 16 players

Christine BURKE

 
Marissa Flemming, bass flute
Mauricio Silva, contrabass clarinet
Alex Widstrand, contrabassoon
Katelyn Halbert, horn
Bjorn Swanson,  trombone
Pamela Weest-Carrasco, harp
Peter Naughton and Travis Newman, percussion
Nicha Pimthong, piano
Yixue Zhang, violin I
Luciana Hontila, violin II
Tyler Hendrickson, viola
Hui-Hsuan Su, violoncello
Will Yager, double bass
Zachary Stanton, conductor

Ghosts Before Breakfast (2017)  for chamber orchestra and fixed electronics

Jonathan WILSON

 
Marissa Flemming, flute
Matthew Goulding, oboe
Mauricio Silva, clarinet
Alex Widstrand, bassoon
Katelyn Halbert, horn
John Kenneth Gorder, trumpet
Robert Parker, trombone
Wiatt Cariveau, tuba
Pamuel Weest-Carassco, harp
Peter Naughton and Travis Newman, percussion
Nicha Pimthong, piano
Yixue Zhang, violin I
Luciana Hontila, violin II
Tyler Hendrickson, viola
Hui-Hsuan Su, violoncello
Will Yager, double bass
Zachary Stanton, conductor
 

 Program Notes

 

Brooke Joyce

Charlottesville

On August 11 & 12, groups of mostly white men gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, to march with torches and shout declarations of white supremacy. In the ensuing counter-protest, many were injured, and one young woman and two Virginia state troopers were killed. I have lived in Charlottesville, my wife grew up there, and our family has visited many times. This tragedy shook us to the core. For some reason, Oscar Peterson's great Civil Rights Era anthem, "Hymn to Freedom," repeatedly played in my mind as I read about the events of the weekend and saw photos. I decided to compose a piano solo based on Peterson's music; it is a tribute to those who stand up to hatred and fearmongering.
Brooke Joyce’s music has been described as “vividly pictorial” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “exceptionally gripping” (Los Angeles Times) and has been performed by soloists and ensembles around the world, including the Indianapolis Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, the Brentano Quartet, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Nash Ensemble, and tenor James Gilchrist. He is the recipient of the Joseph Bearns Prize, the Wayne Peterson Prize, the Darius Milhaud Award, and many citations from the National Federation of Music Clubs and ASCAP. Brooke is the Composer-in-Residence at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, chair of the Iowa Composers Forum, and a founding faculty member of the International Music Festival of the Adriatic.
 
 

Jonah Elrod

We are out of water

The title We are out of water has a double meaning. First, the potential situation in which we have literally run out of clean water and the trouble that would create for us. Second, in that we no longer live in water, but out of our ancestral home. The tolling bells heard through the piece also have a double meaning, signifying a call to meditation, but also serving as an alarm. The short agitated sounds represent the activities of human beings that can potentially save or destroy our clean water.
Jonah Elrod is a composer who researches different cycles and signals from the Earth and incorporates them into his music. His compositions have won awards and have been performed at numerous new music festivals. He recently worked as an Associate Lecturer of Music Composition and Theory at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) and was the administrator of the Computer Music Center. He is currently a PhD candidate in music composition at the University of Iowa where he served as an Associate Director of the Electronic Music Studios. For more information, visit www.jonahelrod.com.
 
 

Lisa Neher

Thaw

Winters are very long in the Midwest. From November through March or even the first few weeks of April, the landscape is painted in browns and grays as the bare limbs of trees meet skies thick with clouds. Crisp white snow turns to dirty slush as it mixes with sand and hardens to mounds of solid ice on the sides of walkways. Then, quite suddenly, the sun emerges, temperatures rise, ice melts, plants send young shoots up through the tender earth, and trees explode with bright green leaves and colorful blossoms. Thaw captures this time of transition. Shimmering tremolo chords and an ascending C major scale represent the warmth of the sun’s rays kissing the earth. Surging descending and ascending lines express rivulets of melting ice feeding streams and rivers. An energetic, asymmetrical dance builds, rejoicing in the arrival of spring and the abundance of life.
Composer and mezzo-soprano Lisa Neher writes theatrical, story-driven music for instruments and voices. Trained as a stage actress, her compositions are shaped by her keen sense of dramatic timing and feature aching, lyrical phrases, energetic rhythmic motives, and intense harmonies. Her instrumental works often draw inspiration from the natural world. Recent premieres include her tornado-inspired Twister for Durward Ensemble, Icy Celestial Bodies, a solo marimba work about comets for Matt Andreini, and Thaw, a marimba duo for Mayumi Hama and Chris Froh. Lisa spends her free time distance running, watching science fiction movies, and baking delicious treats involving copious amounts of chocolate. For more information, visit her website, www.lisanehermusic.com.
 
 

Jeremy Maas

Aus tiefer Not

Originally written for a concert commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, “Aus tiefer Not” draws upon the tune and text of a hymn written by Martin Luther. The first line of the German hymn, “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir,” translates roughly to “From deep affliction I cry out to you.” While I intend the music to create a space for contemplation or prayer, I also seek to express the voice of the text: a desperate call to a distant God.
Jeremy Maas (b. 1994) is a composer living in Iowa City. He is currently pursuing his Master’s degree in Music Composition at the University of Iowa while working as a graduate assistant in Music Theory. He previously completed a Bachelor’s degree in Music from Luther College. His music has been performed by the JACK Quartet, Sybarite5, as a part of the Midwest Composers’ Symposium, the Exchange of Midwest Collegiate Composers, the Iowa Composers’ Forum, IMFA (Italy), and on MPR. Jeremy has studied composition with Josh Levine, Stefano Sacher, Steve Smith, and Brooke Joyce.
 
 

Ben Hippen

Shimmer

The details are not the details. They make the design.—Charles Eames
Composer, songwriter, and keyboardist Ben Hippen grew up in Decorah and, after a long series of adventures, recently returned. In December he was in the studio in New York City mixing his third album, slated for release in early 2018. His music is available for streaming and purchase on most major online music services. Links to Ben’s recordings and videos are available at www.benhippen.com.
 
 

Christine Burke

half murmur

half murmur is a situation constructed through loosely structured rules. Performers alternate between several layers throughout the piece: a foundation made of low and noisy sounds, duets/quartets that happen as a result of conditional relationships between performers (requiring a specific visual or aural connection), solos that are limited in frequency, and silence (a state of listening or waiting). Some elements (the constancy and balance of the foundational layer, and the tam-tam player’s control over sound and silence) are planned with a degree of certainty, but there is a great amount of leeway in considering the possible outcomes of a performance of half murmur. As with much of my recent work, I am most interested in the experiencing the unpredictable and unknown within the context of the expected.
Christine Burke is a composer from Iowa City, IA, whose music has recently been recognized by the Earle Brown Music Foundation’s International Summer Academy, Talea Ensemble, Chicago Civic Orchestra Composer’s Project, UC Davis “Revision/s” Festival, and the JACK Quartet. She received a Master’s Degree from the University of Iowa, where she studied with Nomi Epstein, Larry Fritts, and Josh Levine. She was previously a student of David Stock at Duquesne University.
 
 

Jonathan Wilson

Ghosts Before Breakfast

Ghosts Before Breakfast is a metaphor for the phantoms that linger in a composer’s mind before an early act of composition. Phantoms in this context are metaphors for musical phenomena (e.g., melodies, harmonies, textures, timbres, etc.) floating around in a composer’s mind before they are realized from abstraction to concretion. In this composition I am interested in creating unity between the ensemble and the electronics in the vertical, horizontal, and structural dimensions. I organized this composition into three large sections, where each section contains different harmonic collections. The first section is primarily atonal from overlapping chromatic lines, the second section uses quintal harmonies, and the final section has mostly tertian harmonies. To create unity between the ensemble and the electronics, I considered an integration of the electronics vertically by gradually assimilating them into the ensemble, first texturally and later through a shift from inharmonic to harmonic partials in the source materials used. Horizontally, the relationship is deepened through gestures that unify both ensemble and electronics between adjacent subsections, either through common textures, rhythmic ideas, or swells. Structurally, the electronics are part of a higher-level structural pattern that can be described as a growth-decay pattern. In most instances a crescendo in the ensemble part leads to the entrance of the electronics at the ensemble’s peak in dynamic level, which is followed by an overall decay of the electronics and a subset of the entire ensemble beginning a new subsection.
Jonathan Wilson is Adjunct Faculty at St. Ambrose University and a recent graduate of the University of Iowa in music composition. His works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, European Media Art Festival, the Experimental Superstars Film Festival, the Big Muddy Film Festival, the 2015-2017 SEAMUS National Conferences, the New York City Electronic Music Festival (NYCEMF), the National Student Electronic Music Event, the Iowa Music Teachers Association State Conference, and the Midwest Composers Symposium. He is the winner of the 2014 Iowa Music Teachers Association Composition Competition and a runner-up for the 2014 Donald Sinta Saxophone Quartet National Composition Competition. With a Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees in music composition from Western Illinois University, Jonathan has studied with Lawrence Fritts, Josh Levine, James Romig, James Caldwell, Paul Paccione, and John Cooper. In addition to composition, Jonathan has studied conducting under Richard Hughey and Mike Fansler. Jonathan is a member of the Society of Composers, Inc., SEAMUS, the Iowa Composers Forum, and the American Composers Forum.