NOISE: soundON Festival of Modern Music 2009




NOISE c/o San Diego New Music PMB 316 9700 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093-5010 (858) 232-3388 sdnm@yahoo.com musical excerpt: Illuminaciones, by Juan Campoverde Q. photos by Supeena Insee Adler
		Presented by the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library and San Diego New Music June 18-20, 2009 The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library 1008 Wall St., La Jolla, California downloadable festival program (coming soon)
		In their day, the music of Mozart, Beethoven, even Brahms was considered avant-garde; strange, alien and dissonant. Many devoted music lovers eschewed the new sounds in favor of the comfortably familiar. Others accepted the challenge, accessing and familiarizing themselves with music that would become classics for the ages. So it remains today, as we approach the often difficult and seemingly alien music of 20th and now 21st century composers. Without challenge there is little reward; accept it, and a new world of sensual, aural pleasure may be yours. San Diego New Music and the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library join to present just such a challenge with their annual soundON Festival of Modern Music, held each summer in the Athenaeum's intimate concert venue. Three days of workshops, seminars and concerts, featuring vibrant, young virtuosi with special guest soloists and composers, will offer a broad and accessible view of today's music; music written of and for our time. Sounds you have never known, music never imagined will be yours to discover and discern, including personal interaction with the festival's distinguished composers and musicians in the intimate setting of the Athenaeum. We are proud to present soundON 2009 and hope you will join us as we sound off to soundON. The 2009 festival features the works of composers Stuart Saunders Smith and Christopher Burns, along with a newly commissioned composition by Nathan Brock. These guest composers will be joined by the winners of our international call for scores, Stefan Weisman, Jeff Herriott and Peter V. Swendsen. NOISE welcomes its newest member, cellist and composer Franklin Cox, who will perform his solo masterpiece Recoil, and we are joined by guests artists Mark Menzies (violin), Pablo Gomez (guitar), performance artist Phillip Skaller, and conductor Nicholas Deyoe.
		Thursday, June 18 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm Open rehearsals NOISE rehearses the works of featured guest composers. A unique opportunity to peek behind the curtain at the making of new music as composers and performers work together to bring new works into being. 7:00 pm pre-concert talk with guest composers 7:30 pm Chamber Concert "Music for a New Century" NOISE performs the most exciting new concert music being written by living composers today. These composers unite infectious grooves, evocative soundscapes, harmonious textures and thrilling dissonances, boldly declaring entrance to a new century of music. Christopher Burns, Misprision Stuart Saunders Smith, Flight Peter V. Swendsen, Bright Days of Little Sunlight # Stefan Weisman, SuperSoft # Trevor Grahl, Oranges and Lemons Elliott Carter, Duettino Stuart Saunders Smith, Notebook * world premieres # Winner of 2009 International Call for Scores + commissioned by San Diego New Music and NOISE Friday, June 20 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm Open rehearsals NOISE rehearses the works of featured guest composers. A unique opportunity to peek behind the curtain at the making of new music as composers and performers work together to bring new works into being. 7:00 pm pre-concert talk with guest composers 7:30 pm Concert: "Composers Unleashed" The members of NOISE are joined by guest performers to dazzle with the daring and improbable demands of the modern virtuoso solo. What happens when composers throw caution to the wind? All the members of NOISE and the guest performers are outstanding soloists in their own right. Don't miss this chance to see them at their best. Christopher Burns, Triangulation * Christopher Burns, Second Language Stuart Saunders Smith, Light in Each * Alex Mincek, Stems Brian Ferneyhough, No Time (at all) Franco Donatoni, Algo II Elliott Carter, Two Diversions Stuart Saunders Smith, Strays * world premieres # Winner of 2009 International Call for Scores + commissioned by San Diego New Music and NOISE Saturday, June 21 10:00 am - 12:00 pm Exploring the art of performance making with Lisa Cella A workshop for the young and old, the curious and adventurous non-musician. NOISE flutist leads a workshop exploring the art of performance making and finding music with everyday objects in everyday places. 12:15 - 12:45 pm Lunchtime concert Members of NOISE and workshop participants present a free indoor concert featuring a sampler of works from the evening concerts and community workshop participants in the performance of experimental music. 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Composers and Performers in Dialogue The soundON festival is a cherished opportunity for composers, performers and their audience to get to know one another. Our Dialogues reach beyond the usual the pre-concert fare and reveal the passion and clarity of today's musical thinkers. The guest composers and performers will be joined by members of NOISE for a roundtable discussion probing the joys and challenges of devotion to modern music and the international state of contemporary music today. An intimate and invigorating discussion is expected and the audience will be welcome to participate. 7:00 pm pre-concert talk with guest composers 7:30 pm Chamber Concert Finale NOISE is joined by guest performers in the performance of the most exciting new concert music being written today. We are proud to enrich the future of music by commissioning composers to create the classics of tomorrow. Tonight we feature newly commissioned ensemble works by festival guest composers Christopher Burns and Nathan Brock, as well as the work of NOISE's newest member and composer-in-residence, Franklin Cox. His legendary and terrifying Recoil may be the most difficult work for solo cello in the history of music. Don't be late, because he won't play it twice. Christopher Burns, resolution +* Stuart Saunders Smith, Asleep in Thorns Franklin Cox, Recoil Nathan Brock, Geworfenheit +* Jeff Herriott, Trio # Stuart Saunders Smith, Notebook * world premiere # Winner of 2009 International Call for Scores + commissioned by San Diego New Music and NOISE GUEST COMPOSER AND PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES Guest composers Nathan Brock Nathan Brock (b. 1977) is an emerging composer of contemporary concert and chamber music. His works have been performed by some of the most talented performers of new music in venues across North America, Europe, and Latin America. Brock received his doctorate from the University of California, San Diego in 2007, where he studied with Roger Reynolds. His interests include dramatic development, reconceptualizations of language, literary source material, expressions of personal identity, and explorations of musical style. Noted musical influences include post-war modernism, American experimental traditions, and lyrical gestures derived from Romantic and Expressionist traditions. Brock currently teaches at the University of San Diego and is a post-doctoral researcher at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology; he can be found on the internet at www.nathanbrock.org. Christopher Burns Christopher Burns is a laptop improviser and a composer of instrumental chamber music. His works explore simultaneity and multiplicity: textures and materials are layered one on top of another, creating a dense and energetic polyphony. Both electronic and acoustic music are influenced by Christopher's work as a computer music researcher. The gritty, rough-hewn sonic materials of his laptop instruments are produced through custom software designs, and the idiosyncratic pitch and rhythmic structures of his chamber music are typically created and transformed through algorithmic procedures. In 2002, Christopher's piece The Location of Six Geometric Figures was awarded the First Prize and Audience Prize in the International Composition Competition for Chamber Music at the Hitzacker Sommerliche Musiktage in Germany. His work has been performed by groups including ensemble recherche, NOISE, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Gageego!, the Contemporary Keyboard Society, and ensemble courage, and soloists including Mark Menzies, Griffin Campbell, Chris Froh, and Matthew Burtner. Christopher is an avid archaeologist of electroacoustic music, creating and performing new digital realizations of classic music by composers including John Cage, György Ligeti, Alvin Lucier, Conlon Nancarrow, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. His other research interests include the application and control of feedback in sound synthesis, the design of complex signal-processing networks for emergent sonic behavior, and the study and preservation of sketch materials produced by electroacoustic composers. A committed educator, Christopher teaches music composition and technology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Previously, he served as the Technical Director of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University, after completing a doctorate in composition there in 2003. He has studied composition with Brian Ferneyhough, Jonathan Harvey, Jonathan Berger, Michael Tenzer, and Jan Radzynski. Christopher is also active as a concert producer. He co-founded and produced the strictly Ballroom contemporary music series at Stanford University from 2000 to 2004. He currently directs the Unruly Music concerts in Milwaukee, and is a co-curator of sfSoundGroup, a contemporary music ensemble in residence at ODC Theater in San Francisco. Jeff Herriott As a composer, Jeff Herriott uses recording and computing technology to enhance and augment the natural sounds of instruments, with a goal of creating inviting aural spaces. His pieces have been performed and commissioned by notable players including bass clarinetist Michael Lowenstern, clarinetist Guido Arbonelli, The Knights ensemble, Toronto's Arraymusic ensemble, the Syracuse Society for New Music, and Holland's Electronic Hammer, at festivals and venues including ICMC, SCI National Conference, Visiones Sonoras (Mexico), UK Microfest, and the Royal Ontario Musuem. Jeff has received honors and awards including a McKnight Visiting Composer Residency through the American Composers Forum, a MATA Festival commission, an American Composers Forum Commission through the Jerome Composers Commissioning Program, and copying support through the American Music Center Composers Assistance Program. He is currently Associate Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. jeffherriott.com Stuart Saunders Smith Stuart Saunders Smith's compositions fall into four areas of creative research: 1) Inventing music of extreme rhythmic and melodic complexity, 2) Making musical mobiles where there is no fixed musical score but rather instrumental parts that freely interact, 3) Composing for spoken texts, 4) Creating trans-media systems for groups of performance artists (dancers, mimes, actors, etc.). Smith's music is regularly performed throughout North America, Western Europe, and has had notable performances in Asia. His music is recorded on O.O. Discs, Capstone Records, and on European labels in Austria, France, and Germany. He has received the East/West Artist Award, the Maryland State Artists Fellowship, the Pittsburgh Film Forum Grant, the National Endowment for the Arts Composer's Fellowship, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts Master Artist Award. Smith's music is published by Sonic Art Editions. Articles on Stuart Saunders Smith's music have appeared in Percussive Notes Research Edition, Perspectives of New Music, Interface, and Ex Tempore. In 1997 The Music of Stuart of Saunders Smith, by John Welsh, was published by Excelsior Press, NYC, NY. Peter Swendsen Peter V. Swendsen is Assistant Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. His music has been called "highly skillful" by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and "marvelous" by the San Francisco Chronicle. He studied at Oberlin, Mills College, and the University of Virginia, and was recently in residence at the NoTAM studios in Oslo as a Fulbright Fellow. His creative work, which is based in electroacoustic music and often involves live instrumental performance, dance, and digital media, has been presented throughout the United States, much of Europe, and also in South America and Asia in recent years. His research focuses on soundscape composition, interdisciplinary performance practice, and interactive technologies, and has been presented and published by SEAMUS, ICMC, NIME, EMS, and others in the US and Europe. Stefan Weisman Stefan Weisman creates playful and brooding soundscapes described by Anthony Tommasini (The New York Times) as "personal, moody and skillfully wrought." His works include chamber, orchestral and choral pieces, and he has specialized in vocal pieces that explore edgy and compelling topics. He was recently commissioned by Second Movement for a one-act opera which premiered in London in 2008. His opera Darkling, commissioned by American Opera Projects, was included in the Guggenheim Museum's Works & Process series, premiered to great acclaim at the Classic Stage Company and toured Europe in 2007. Among his other commissions are works for Bang on a Can, Sequitur, and the Empire City Men's Choir. A graduate of Bard College and Yale University, he is a PhD candidate at Princeton University. His composition instructors include David Lang, Joan Tower, Martin Bresnick, Steven Mackey, and Paul Lansky. Presently, he is on the faculty of the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, and the Music Department of the City College, CCNY. Guest performers Mark Menzies, violin Residing in the United States since 1991, Mark Menzies has established an important, world-wide reputation as a new music violist and violinist. He has been described in a Los Angeles Times review, as an "extraordinary musician" and a "riveting violinist." At 39 years, his career as a viola and violin virtuoso, chamber musician and advocate of contemporary music, has seen performances in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and across the United States, including a series of appearances at New York's Carnegie Hall. Mark Menzies is renowned for performing some of the most complex scores so far written and he has been personally recommended by composers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Roger Reynolds, Michael Finnissy, Vinko Globokar, Philippe Manoury, Jim Gardner, Elliott Carter, Liza Lim, Christian Wolff, Richard Barrett and Sofia Gubaidulina for performances he has given of their music. An early success was performing at the Lutoslawksi Festival in London (1989) and subsequent highlights have included appearances at the Ojai Festival 2000, at the June in Buffalo 1996/9 and 2000 festivals, the Mirror of the New Festival in Hawai'i 1997, and as featured guest soloist in the 09/03 International Festival (of new music) in Auckland, New Zealand, 2003. In October of 2005, with bassoonist John Veloz, he performed a duo recital of new music for the ‘New Spaces’ festival at the American Academy in Rome, Italy, a recording of which will be released on the nine-winds label. There has been considerable international critical applause for Mark Menzies' leadership in ensembles formed to perform contemporary and twentieth century, such as the Bloomington-based New Vienna Ensemble, Los Angeles's Southwest Chamber Music, San Diego's Sirius Ensemble and the New York-based Ensemble Sospeso. It was with Ensemble Sospeso that he organized a joint venture with the California Institute of the Arts to present the first professional concerts in the US dedicated to Brian Ferneyhough’s music in December 2002. Mark Menzies has a considerable reputation as a chamber music performer. He is the director of a new collective ensemble based in Los Angeles, called inauthentica; with members drawn from the Southern California area, including young musicians and recent graduates from CalArts, inauthentica has been featured on an innova CD release of Mark Applebaum’s recent compositions. inauthentica’s recording of Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire has recently been released on MSR Classics label. In the spring of 2007, he led a newly formed string quintet belArtes Quintet (formely Ensemble du Monde) in a rapturously received tour in Germany, France and Poland, which featured the Ravel Duo Sonata with renowned Los Angeles cellist John Walz, along with quintets by Schubert and Boccherini. Mark Menzies is featured on a large number of CD recordings. This includes Process and Passion, a Pogus label release of chamber music by Roger Reynolds, as well as the world premiere recording of ...above earth's shadow by Michael Finnissy to be released shortly. Mark Menzies is a National Recording Artist of Radio New Zealand for whom he has made numerous studio recordings and he is featured on a further dozen chamber and contemporary music releases. Mark Menzies is currently viola and violin professor at the California Institute of the Arts where he also coordinates their chamber orchestra, new music ensembles and conducting studies. Drawing from his innovative professionalism and artistic leadership, he initiated a successful collaborative series called Chamber Music Wednesdays that has contributed to the programming content of concerts presented by CalArts at their new theatre RedCat at the Disney Hall complex. He currently curates a series called Classics at CalArts, a chamber music series presented annually at the Valencia campus. Pablo Gomez, guitar Phillip Skaller, performance art Nicholas Deyoe, conductor Nicholas Deyoe was born in 1981 in Boulder, Colorado and attended the University of Northern Colorado from 1999 – 2006, receiving a B.M. in Music Theory/Composition and an M.M. in Orchestral conducting. In Colorado, Nicholas studied composition with John McLaird, conducting with Russell Guyver, and guitar with Jonathan Leathwood. In 2004, Nicholas spent four months in Oldenburg, Germany studying composition with Violeta Dienscu. He now lives in San Diego where, after completing an M.A. in 2008, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition from UCSD, studying with Roger Reynolds. At UCSD, Nicholas has also studied conducting with Rand Steiger and Harvey Sollberger and is currently acting as an assistant conductor for the La Jolla Symphony under Steve Schick. In 2008, Nicholas was a winner in the 56th annual BMI student composer awards for his piece fifteen players. Also in 2008 Nicholas received a conducting scholarship to the 44th Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany where he studied with Lucas Vis and conducted world premieres by Marta Gentilucci and Marco Momi (a recipient of the Kranichsteiner Prize). Nicholas has conducted Red Fish Blue Fish, Ensemble Ascolta, The Darmstadt Preisträgerensemble; The University of Northern Colorado Symphony, Chamber, and Sinfonietta Orchestras, and several ad hoc ensembles in Colorado, California, and Germany, with recent performances including Gérard Grisey’s Vortex Temporum and Helmut Lachenmann’s “…zwei Gefühle…”.
		TICKETS AND LOCAL INFORMATION One day admission (includes all events on a given day): $20 / $15 Athenaeum members and students with ID Festival pass for all events $50 / $40 Athenaeum members and students with ID To reserve tickets call (858) 454-5872 Accomodations in San Diego Empress Hotel 7766 Fay Avenue, La Jolla, CA 92037 (888) 369-9900 www.empress-hotel.com La Jolla Village Lodge 1141 Silverado Street La Jolla, CA 92037 Free:(877) 551-2001 www.lajollavillagelodge.com The 2009 soundON Festival is supported in part through Meet The Composer's MetLife Creative Connections program, the Music Department at the University of California, San Diego, and the generosity of our private donors.