Other Minds Festivals ➔ Other Minds Festival: OM 4: Concert 2, 3 of 3
Digital Audio
Event Type
MusicOrigin
Other MindsIdentifier
OMF.1997.11.11.CProgram Series
Other Minds FestivalProgram Length
83 minPart
3 of 3Dates
| broadcast| 1997-11-11 | created
Description
Other Minds, Inc., in association with the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and with the In Performance Series at the Cowell Theater in Fort Mason Center, presented Other Minds Festival IV at the Cowell Theater, at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, November 10-12, 1997.The second concert on November 11, featured a diverse palette of works from performing composers Carl Stone, Hafez Modirzadeh, and Henry Brant. Additional performers included the Chromodal Consort and The Onyx Quartet.
Program:
Hafez Modirzadeh: Voices Unveiled (1997) (World Premiere)
Hafez Modirzadeh with the Chromodal Consort
“Voices Unveiled” is a five-song cycle that take their texts and musical influences from Mexico, India, Iran, Korea, and America. All music by Hafez Modirzadeh, except for Raga Mishra Gara (Path of Love) by Rita Sahai, arranged for consort by H. Modirzadeh, and Satira Filosophica, a musical adaptation of Flamenco and Son Huasteco ("El Gustito") melodies by Claudia Gomez and H. Modirzadeh.
1. Satira Filosophica (Philosophical Satire) by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1649-1695) Sung by Claudia Gomez (vocals, guitar)
2. Raga Mishra Gara (Path of Love) by Rita Sahai. Sung by Rita Sahai (vocals, tambura)
3. Tas-e Falak (Caraf of Life) by Mahsati (c. 11th century). Sung by Parinaz
4. Mindullae (Dandelion) by Lee Hae-In. Sung by Donna Kwon (vocals, changgo)
5. Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou (1978). Sung by Linda Tillery
INTERMISSION
Carl Stone: So Kong Dong (1997) (World Premiere)
So Kong Dong was composed in the late summer of 1997 and is the first composition I have written where all sounds are emitted directly from my computer, and not from external MIDI devices such as samplers or synthesizers. All of the textures heard are generated by real-time processing applied to one short sample, which is thus the basis for the entire soundworld of the piece.
Henry Brant: Homeless People (1997) (World Premiere)
Henry Brant and The Onyx Quartet
"As the 20th Century concludes, there is scarcely anyone on the planet who is not in some significant way a member of the universal human species, Homeless People. As such, this multi-layered phenomenon offers an over-powering subject for musical treatment. The venue of spatial chamber music seems especially appropriate. The four quartet-players are stationed in the corners of the hall; the piano, alone onstage, played directly on the strings, and the accordion at the back of the hall have no communication with the quartet or with each other."
About the Performers:
Chromodal Consort
Hafez Modirzadeh - soprano saxophone; Francis Wong - tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet; Kevin Frey - horn; Rob Burger - accordion; Mark Izu - doublebass; Eliott Humberto Kavee - cello, percussion
The Onyx Quartet
Anna Presler, Violin; Phyllis Kamrin, Violin; Kurt Rohde, Viola; Leighton Fong, Cello.
The Onyx Quartet was formed in 1995 as a group devoted to playing and promoting excellent music with an emphasis on new music. They made their debut playing George Crumb's Black Angels at the Oregon Bloch Festival and ever since have been performing new music to rave reviews. Of the quartet, the East Bay Express wrote, "All four make their instruments sing with a glorious tone", and 20th Century Magazine wrote, "[The Onyx Quartet] can play anything, and at this stage is as accessible as Kronos was before it began to orbit the earth."
Richard Yaus, Accordion
Born in 1965 in Munich, Germany, Richard Yaus is prizewinning accordionist who has enjoyed a successful career both as a soloist and as a member of one of the most famous accordion orchestras in Europe, the Akkordeonorchester Georg Schwenk. In addition, he has performed accordion solos with several major symphony orchestras and opera companies, including the acoridon solo in Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the city theater in Augsburg, and solos in various operettas at the Bavarain State Theater in Munich. For four years he was a member of 5-phonie Ensemble Georg Schwenk, a well-known accordion quintet in Germany with whom he appeared in several radio producitons and on compact disc. Since moving to San Francisco, Mr. Yaus has given several performances for the the popular Bay Area Accordion Club.
About the Composers:
Hafez Modirzadeh, the Iranian-American saxophonist and inventor of the musical innovation known as "Chromodal Discourse" has collaborated with the likes of Don Cherry, Peter Apfelbaum, and Fred Ho, and has been recorded on more than a dozen releases, including the seminal 1993 "In Chromodal Discourse" and the critically acclaimed 1996 work "The People's Blues," as well as the soundtrack for the Mirimax film release of Kevin Spacey's "Albino Alligator." His ground- breaking invention of the "chromodal" method allows for a non-linear improvisational practice which is able to adapt and incorporate multiple systems of music, permitting a cross-cultural "conversation" between instruments, performers, and musical idioms. Born in 1962 of an Iranian father and European-American mother, Modirzadeh grew up in France and the U.S., identifying strongly with African-American blues and jazz as well as the rich traditions of classical Iranian music. Today, he is a renowned scholar in ethno musicology, whose writings have been published in numerous journals, as well as in his book The Chromodal Approach to Improvised Music (Spartan Books Press, 1996). He is the recipient of two NEA Jazz Fellowships as well as an Artist-in-Residence Grant from the California Arts Council.
Carl Stone, born in Los Angeles and now living in San Francisco, is a former student of Morton Subotnick and James Tenney at the California Institute of the Arts and has composed electro-acoustic music exclusively since 1972. Hailed by the Village Voice as "one of the best composers working in the country today," his works have been performed across the country and throughout the world. His most recent tour in Japan included concert, radio and television appearances. A winner of numerous awards, including the Freeman Award for his work Hop Ken, Stone was also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant for his radiophonic composition Se Jong. Stone's music has been used by numerous choreographers including Bill T. Jones, Ping Chong, June Watanabe, Katsuko Orita, and Blondell Cummings. Collaborations include those with Yuji Takahashi, Setsuko Yamada, Kazue Sawai, Aki Takahashi, Kuniko Kisanuki, Michiko Akao, Rudy Perez, Stelarc, Z'ev, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Tosha Meisho, Yoshihide Otomo, Hae Kyung Lee, Min Xiao-Fen, and Mineko Grimmer. Stone is Director of Meet the Composer/California, and a former Music Director of KPFK-FM in Los Angeles. He currently hosts a weekly program on KPFA and makes regular appearances on radio in Japan. Recordings of Stone's music can be found on New Albion, CBS Sony, Toshiba-EMI, EAM Discs, Wizard Records, Trigram, T:ME/EM:T, and New Tone labels.
Henry Brant is considered to be one of the principal pioneers of 20th Century spatial music, writing work in which the planned positioning of the performers throughout the hall, as well as on stage, is an essential factor in the composing scheme. Born in Montreal in 1913, he moved to New York in 1929, and spent the next 20 years composing and conducting for radio, film, ballet, and jazz groups, while also composing experimentally for the concert stage. In his 68 years of composing, Brant has garnered major international recognition, including numerous awards and accolades ranging from two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Prix Italia (being the first American to win this award), and the American Music Center's Letter of Distinction, to major international retrospectives of his work and the designation of a Henry Brant Week in Boston by Mayor Kevin White. Brant's work has spanned the spectrum of styles and genres from tone-poems and chamber music to ritual oratorios and symphonies. The 1984 work Fire in the Amstel is written for four boatloads of 25 flutes each, four jazz drummers, four church carillons, three brass bands and four street organs. A more recent work Millennium 2 calls for a 35-piece brass orchestra, jazz combo, percussion ensemble, gospel choir, gamelan ensemble, bluegrass group, boy's choir, three pianos, organ and ten vocal soloists. At age 83, Brant remains a dynamic and prolific figure in modern music: his 1997 spatial work, Festive Eighty, had its first performance in Central Park in July, 1997, and in Vienna's Musikverein, the Vienna Radio Orchestra performed the premiere of Brant's completion of Schubert's B minor Symphony on October 14, 1997.
[Notes from the original printed program.]
Genres
Chamber musicMusical Selections
Homeless People (1997) (27:33) / Henry Brant [World premiere]Performers
Henry Brant, pianoRichard Yaus, accordion
Onyx Quartet:
Anna Presler, violin
Phyllis Kamrin, violin
Kurt Rohde, viola
Leighton Fong, cello
Subjects
Chamber musicSpatial music
Accordion music
Piano music
String quartets
Related Event
Other Minds Festival 4Related place
San Francisco (Calif.) (was recorded at)Related Entities
Other Minds FestivalOnyx Quartet
Brant, Henry, 1913-2008
Presler, Anna
Kamrin, Phyllis
Rohde, Kurt
Fong, Leighton
Yaus, Richard