Pomona College Department of Music
Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music
Saturday, October 30, 2021 at 12:00 p.m.
Fête musicale
Faculty and Guest Artist Recital
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TABLEAU I |
LILI BOULANGER (1893–1918)….. Nocturne (1911)
ELLEN TAAFFE ZWLICH (b. 1939)..... Sonata in Three Movements (1973–4)
Liberamente – Tempo giusto
Lento e molto espressivo
Allegro vivo e con brio
Jin-Shan Dai, violin and Jennie Jung, piano
* * * * * * * * *
EVAN CHAMBERS (b. 1963)….. Fisherstreet Duo (1997)
Lament for JaFran
The Barnacle and the Nautilus
Cynthia Fogg, viola and Tom Flaherty, cello
* * * * * * * * *
ADRIENNE ALBERT (b. 1941)….. Serenade (2020)
DANIEL ROTHMAN (b. 1958)….. May I have this dance? Happy Birthday Waltz (2021)
for modern or baroque bassoon
REENA ESMAIL (b. 1983)….. Zinfandel (2010)
Carolyn Beck, bassoon
In the sensitive acoustic environment of Bridges Hall, your neighbors can hear you! Please be considerate to fellow audience members and the performers by silencing all electronic devices. Recording equipment and cameras may not be used during the performance. It is customary to hold all applause until the end of a piece or set of pieces.
Audience members desiring to enter the hall after the performance has begun will be seated at an appropriate break.
Pomona College requires masks to fully cover nose and mouth while indoors, including during concerts.
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PROGRAM NOTES for some selections in TABLEAU I
Fisherstreet Duo
The name of the town of Doolin, County Clare, Ireland is still shown on some maps simply as Fisherstreet. When I first visited the place there did indeed remain some confusion as to whether or not it was a small village or merely a road from the ferry dock inland, with a few houses, a couple of shops, and three pubs along it. Now, of course, it has become a famous destination for lovers of traditional music.
The first movement, “Lament for JaFran,” was written in memory of my friend and teacher JaFran Jones, who directed the gamelan at Bowling Green State University. The second movement, “The Barnacle and the Nautilus,” consists of two jigs with nautical titles: the first one is a slow jig evocative of some crusty old soul (with a blues slant), and the second is a more self-consciously angular, tightly wound, and circular fast tune. –EKC
Evan Chambers’s compositions have been performed by the Cincinnati, Kansas City, Memphis, New Hampshire, and Albany Symphonies; he has also appeared as a soloist in Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra. His work has been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Luigi Russolo Competition, Vienna Modern Masters, NACUSA, the American Composers Forum, and the Tampa Bay Composers Forum. He has been a resident of the MacDowell Colony, and been awarded individual artist grants from Meet the Composer, the Arts Foundation of Michigan, and ArtServe Michigan. His recordings have been released by Albany Records, the Foundation Russolo-Pratella, Cambria, Clarinet Classics, Equilibrium, and Centaur. Chambers is currently professor of composition at the University of Michigan.
Serenade
Composed for bassoonist Christin Schillinger during the COVID-19 quarantine, the composer writes, “I wanted to compose a piece that was lyrical yet interesting for the performer and the audience.” –CB
May I have this dance? Happy Birthday Waltz
This work was dedicated to Carolyn Beck by her wonderful friend, composer Daniel Rothman on August 5, 2021. The inspirations are self-evident in the title (noting that he wrote it to be performed on either the modern or baroque bassoon), and it provided a welcome lift during the late pandemic shutdown. The piece is brief but sweet, and is marked “Light, with a gentle swing.” –CB
Zinfandel
One of my very first pieces of music was a solo flute piece called Chardonnay, written in 2000. Ten years later, when the commission came for this piece, it was with the stipulation that it be called Zinfandel ...This piece was written at an inflection point in my life: I had just begun my journey into studying Indian classical music, and this piece was one of the first in which I tried to get a sense of the incredible music that ultimately became a major influence on my style. The beginning section just starts to bend toward the idea of a raag, both in its unique, characteristic pitch collection and in its development of melody, just barely hinting at a Hindustani aalap [sic]. While writing the fast section, I held an image in my mind: a glimmer of light reflecting and refracting off the surface of the dark, rich wine. It reflects in one place, pauses momentarily, then flits asymmetrically to appear in another place. The liquid is silent and still, but the surface is moving very delicately. Zinfandel was commissioned by Bruno and Norma Repp for Tariq Masri. –RE
TABLEAU I PERFORMERS
Jin-Shan Dai has performed extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. He joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2010 and became member of the faculty at Occidental College in 2020. Prior to his career in Los Angeles, Mr. Dai was a member of the Toronto Symphony and made his Toronto Symphony solo debut playing The Four Seasons in 2008. Mr. Dai is the recipient of numerous prizes and accolades, among them top prizes in the 2000 Emerson International Chamber Music Competition and the 2000 Van Rooy National Violin Competition. Mr. Dai performs frequently as a chamber musician, and has collaborated with such artists as Mstislav Rostropovich, Lowell Liebermann, Osvaldo Golijov, and members of the Emerson Quartet. Mr. Dai plays on a violin made by Giovanni Francesco Pressenda in 1830 (previously owned by Jack Benny), which is on loan from the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Jennie Jung made her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the age of eleven and has since been active as both a soloist and chamber musician in North America. She received many awards and prizes as part of the Jung Trio, including Grand Prize at the 2002 Yellow Springs and Bronze Medal at the 2002 Fischoff Chamber Music competitions. Ms. Jung has performed in North America, Asia, Africa, and Europe, and has been on staff at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria; the Aspen Summer Music Festival; the Gregor Piatigorsky Seminar for Cellists; and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Ms. Jung attended the University of Toronto (B.M.), Yale University (M.M., A.D.), and The Juilliard School (D.M.A.). She is a member of the faculty at Pomona College, Scripps College, and Center Stage Strings. She performs frequently in the Los Angeles area and lives in Claremont with her husband and daughter.
Violist and violinist Cynthia Fogg has performed extensively in the United States and Europe. She has played with various orchestras including the Pasadena Symphony, Pasadena Chamber Orchestra, and New Hampshire Symphony. She has appeared as guest violist with the acclaimed Kronos and Alexander Quartets, and has performed at the Ojai and Monadnock music festivals, and in the Monday Evening Concerts series. She and her husband, composer/cellist Tom Flaherty, perform together as the duo Celliola, often premiering new solo and duo repertoire. Celliola has commissioned over 30 new works and has performed at the New England Conservatory, Indiana University, University of Michigan, and the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, as well as in festivals in Austria and Romania. Ms. Fogg has recorded chamber music for Albany, Naxos, Opus One, Cambria, Klavier, Innova, and Bridge Records, and soundtracks for motion pictures and television. She teaches at Pomona College and the Pasadena Conservatory of Music.
Tom Flaherty has received grants, prizes, awards, and residencies from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Music Center, the Pasadena Arts Council, Meet the Composer, and Yaddo. He earned a B.A. from Brandeis University, M.A. and M.M. from SUNY Stony Brook, and a D.M.A. from the University of Southern California. Published by Margun Music, Inc. and American Composers Editions, his music has been performed throughout Europe and North America, and is recorded on the Albany, Klavier, Bridge, Capstone, SEAMUS, and Advance labels. Recent pieces include music for Volti, Speculum Musicae, Mojave Trio, Quartet Euphoria, Genevieve Feiwen Lee, Gwendolyn Lytle, and Lucy Shelton. A member of Quartet Euphoria, he is currently John P. and Magdalena R. Dexter Professor of Music at Pomona College and is an active cellist in the Los Angeles area.
Described as “a fearless player ... as well as a musician with a keen sense of phrasing and color” (Gramophone), bassoonist Carolyn Beck is the principal bassoonist with the Redlands and San Bernardino Symphonies. A champion of new music, she has commissioned and performed many new solo and chamber works for bassoon. She is also passionate about early music and plays the baroque bassoon. Recent solo performances include playing the concertos of Mozart with the Redlands Symphony, of Joan Tower with the Pomona College Orchestra, and that of Christopher James (world premiere) in New York City with North/South Consonance. Her performance of the James piece is available on the North/South Consonance, Inc. recording Brightness Aloft, and her solo album Beck and Call is available on Crystal Records. Beck teaches at the University of Redlands, Pomona College, and the Idyllwild Arts Academy.
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TABLEAU II |
RAYMOND DAVID BURKHART (1961–2020)….. Elegy, in memoriam Vic Steelhammer (2008)
ROBERT SPILLMAN (b. 1936)….. Concerto (1959)
Allegro
Vivace
Andante
Stephen Klein, tuba and Gayle Blankenburg, piano
* * * * * * * * *
KARL KOHN (b. 1926)….. Paronyms (1974)
III. for bass flute
IV. for flute
Rachel Rudich, flute and Gayle Blankenburg, piano
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PROGRAM NOTES for some selections in TABLEAU II
Elegy
Elegy’s opening solo cadenza precedes a stirring, and finally uplifting, lyrical tone poem for tuba with piano. Composed in 2006 to memorialize a friend of the composer, Los Angeles bass trombonist Vic Steelhammer. –RDB
This performance is dedicated to the memory of Raymond David Burkhart, a valued friend and colleague who served Pomona College for many years. –STK
Karl Kohn was born in Vienna in 1926 and was educated in New York and at Harvard. He was a Fulbright Research Scholar in Helsinki, Finland, and has held fellowship grants from the Guggenheim, Howard, and Mellon Foundations, as well as four fellowship grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He taught several summers on the faculty of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. He taught at Pomona College from 1950 to 1994, and is Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence, Emeritus.
TABLEAU II PERFORMERS
Stephen Klein has taught tuba and euphonium at Pomona College since 1979, and for the last 12 years he has also been associate director of the Pomona College Band. He has also been on the faculty of California State University campuses in Long Beach and Fullerton, as well as at Cerritos College and Biola University. He has performed with Pacific Symphony, Opera Pacific, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and on many television and movie soundtracks. He studied at University of California, Berkeley (A.B.); the Eastman School of Music (M.A.); and the University of Southern California.
Gayle Blankenburg has performed extensively to great critical acclaim as a solo pianist, chamber musician, and vocal accompanist. She was a roster artist with Southwest Chamber Music from 1996 to 2003, with whom she recorded over a dozen award-winning albums. She has performed in venues such as the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; at Cooper Union, the Tenri Institute, the DiMenna Center and the National Opera Center, all in New York City; the Schoenberg Institute in Vienna, Austria; the Hongtai Concert Hall in Xiamen, China; and the Canterbury Performing Arts Center in Christchurch, New Zealand. Her recording of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Los Angeles-based ensemble inauthentica has received the highest critical acclaim from Gramophone Magazine, Opera News, and The American Record Guide. She has been on the Pomona College faculty for nearly 30 years.
The New York Times has written “Miss Rudich plays very beautifully, producing a smooth, silken tone, phrasing with spirited elegance, and operating with a crucial sense of linear continuity that characterizes a polished artist.” Rachel Rudich is an internationally known flutist specializing in contemporary music. She has premiered hundreds of new works and performed extensively throughout the world as a soloist. Ms. Rudich has received numerous recording grants and can be heard on over 25 albums on 15 labels. She received her D.M.A. from the Manhattan School of Music and is currently a faculty member at CalArts and Pomona College. The piece being performed today is one of 14 pieces on Rudich’s latest recording, a double album entitled Complete Works for Flute by Karl Kohn, to be released in 2022 on Bridge Records.
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TABLEAU III |
BILL ALVES (b. 1960)….. Show Attachment (2020, world premiere)
LOU HARRISON (1917–2003)….. Suite (1995)
Moderato
Elegy
Allegro
Maggie Parkins, cello and Aron Kallay, piano
* * * * * * * * *
TRADITIONAL/arr. Kim Robertson….. Selections from Shady Grove (2009)
Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair
Do You Love an Apple / Streets of Laredo
BERNARD ANDRÉS (b. 1941)….. Espices, no. 1 (1992)
II. Vanille
III. Pistache
RIMA SNYDER ’79 (b. 1957)….. Vermillion, Crimson, Azure (2014)
MARCEL TOURNIER (1879–1951)….. Jazz-band, op. 33 (1926)
Alison Bjorkedal, harp
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PROGRAM NOTES for some selections in TABLEAU III
Show Attachment
I wrote Show Attachment at a time of collective isolation, when the human relationships that make us whole often seemed less substantial than the smoky air outside. The instruments journey along their own paths and yet find reassuring points of connection. Show Attachment is dedicated to my beloved wife Lynn. –BA
Suite
Harrison’s Suite began as a request from a piano-playing physician who wanted a piece he could play with a cello-playing colleague. Harrison found two melodies in his notebooks from the late 1940s that he began to develop at once. As the suite was still being completed, the doctor who had initiated the piece died; and the Elegy movement is composed in his memory. –LH
TABLEAU III PERFORMERS
Maggie Parkins is a cellist, teacher, and enthusiastic chamber musician with a passion for new music, which she performs with the Eclipse Quartet, Brightwork newmusic, and the Mojave Trio. As an improviser/collaborator she has worked with the Jazz Passengers, Anthony Braxton, Caetano Veloso, Björk, Zeena Parkins, Billy Childs, Alex Cline, Nels Cline, and The Smudges. As an orchestral performer, she has performed with conductors Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, Simon Rattle, Oliver Knussen, and André Previn. Maggie has performed at prestigious festivals around the world including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Banff Centre, Festival Internacional de Música de Cadaqués (Spain), Heidelberg Castle Festival (Germany), Spoleto Festival (USA and Italy), Taktlos Festival (Switzerland), Scarlatti Festival (Naples), Tanglewood Festival, Bach Aria Festival (New York) and Wels Festival Unlimited (Austria). Maggie attended Eastman School of Music and has a doctorate from SUNY at Stony Brook. She was a professor at UC Irvine for 19 years and currently teaches cello at Pomona College.
Described as a “modern renaissance man,” (Over the Mountain Journal) Grammy®-nominated pianist Aron Kallay’s playing has been called “exquisite ... every sound sounded considered, alive, worthy of our wonder” (Los Angeles Times). Aron has been praised as possessing “that special blend of intellect, emotion, and overt physicality that makes even the thorniest scores simply leap from the page into the listeners laps” (KPFK). Aron’s performances often integrate technology, video, and alternate tunings; Fanfare magazine described him as “a multiple threat: a great pianist, brainy tech wizard, and visionary promoter of a new musical practice.” Aron has performed throughout the United States and abroad and is a fixture on the Los Angeles new-music scene. Aron is the founder and artistic director of Brightwork newmusic, a non-profit dedicated to the creation and promotion of new art music. He is on the faculties of Pomona College and Scripps College.
Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as an “excellent player” and “a force field unto her own, yet joined in something bigger,” Alison Bjorkedal is a passionate ambassador for the harp, with a focus on new music. Alison has recorded albums for Sia, Madonna, and Kid Cudi, as well as for the motion picture and television industry. She has performed with the San Diego Symphony, Pasadena Symphony/Pops Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony, and Wild Up. Notable chamber music and solo performances include world premieres of works by William Kraft, Anne LeBaron, Wadada Leo Smith, and James Tenney. Alison studied at University of Oregon (B.M.) and University of Southern California (M.M., D.M.A.). She is harp faculty at California Institute of the Arts, Pasadena City College, and Pomona College. Alison also plays the kithara, an instrument created by Harry Partch for his unique microtonal music.
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TABLEAU IV |
CARLOS SIMON (b. 1986)….. where two or three are gathered ... (2017)
JESSIE MONTGOMERY (b. 1981)….. Duo (2015)
Meandering
Dirge
Presto
Sarah Thornblade, violin and Maggie Parkins, cello
* * * * * * * * *
BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913–1976)….. Six Metamorphosis After Ovid (1951)
Pan, who played upon the reed pipe which was Syrinx, his beloved.
Phaeton, who rode upon the chariot of the sun for one day and was hurled into the river Padus by a thunderbolt.
Niobe, who, lamenting the death of her fourteen children, was turned into a mountain.
Bacchus, at whose feasts is heard the noise of gaggling women's tattling tongues and shouting out of boys.
Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image and became a flower.
Arethusa, who, flying from the love of Alpheus the river god, was turned into a fountain.
FRANCISCO CASTILLO….. Controversias no. 11 (2021, world premiere)
Francisco Castillo, oboe
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PROGRAM NOTES for some selections in TABLEAU IV
where two or three are gathered ...
I often heard the Bible scripture, “where two or three are gathered in my name I will be in the midst.” (Matthew 18:20) in my family’s small church where the attendance often was just my parents and my siblings. We would meet on every day of the week for either choir rehearsal, bible study or regular worship service. Somehow hearing that scripture meant that there was a much larger purpose to being present in the small gathering. In this piece, the intimate pairing of violin and cello join together in setting a meditative, solemn character. I imagine two people singing and moaning together in a ceremonial manner. This earnest state gradually transforms in the second movement to a jovial, energetic state that concludes in a climactic ending. –CS
Controversias
Controversias (Controversies) is a series of short pieces in one or more movement for a single instrument, duo, or trio, to a large symphonic orchestra. Each “controversia” uses the same thematic materials, in general a short motif, that might repeat at a different level (variation) on each “controversia” that is then developed, morphed and varied by the composer. The first two bars of No. 11 is the main motif that is used in all of Francisco’s Controversias. It is in one movement, intended to be performed freely and with vivacity. –FC
TABLEAU IV PERFORMERS
Sarah Thornblade is the associate principal second violin of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. The Los Angeles Times describes her playing as “rapturously winning” and the Santa Barbara News writes that “she is a marvelously versatile musician.” She is a member of the Eclipse Quartet, an ensemble dedicated to performing twentieth-century and contemporary music. They have received an Aaron Copland fund recording grant and have recorded for Tzadik, Bridge, and New World records. An avid chamber musician, she has been a grand prize winner at the Fischoff and Coleman competitions and has collaborated with artists such as Gilbert Kalish, Jeffrey Kahane, Andres Cardenes, Randall Hodgkinson, and Warren Jones. Sarah is on the faculty of Pomona College and is also an active recording musician for film and television.
Maggie Parkins – see Tableau III performers
Francisco Castillo earned his M.M. from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree and Licenciatura from the University of Costa Rica. Francisco is principal oboe with Redlands Symphony and the California Philharmonic. Francisco teaches oboe at Pomona College, the University of Redlands, Pasadena City College, Idyllwild Arts Institute, and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. As a composer, his works have been performed by different organizations and individuals. His works extend from solo music and chamber works to chamber and full orchestra compositions. Some of his pieces include Concerto for Pasadena, (full orchestra); Rhapsody for oboe, English horn, and orchestra; Divertimento for oboe, 2 English horns, 2 bassoons, and contrabassoon; Parques de mi Niñez for oboe, 4 bassoons, and piano; The Adventures of Sancho Panza for oboe, English horn, and bassoon; and Domingo 7 for two oboes, English horn, bassoon, toy percussion, and narrator.
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This concert is generously supported by the Robert C. Mitchell ’26 Memorial Fund.
Pomona College is grateful to its alumni and friends whose continuing generosity makes this and other programs presented by the Department of Music possible.