Category Archives: concert

Tufts Composers: Memory Leaves – Pages Present and Past

From Tufts Music Events page:

A Concert Honoring Lois Anderson and TJ Anderson, Jr., Austin Fletcher Professor of Music, Emeritus took place on Friday, December 3, 2021 evening.

Tom Adams has sensed and appreciated Lois and TJ Anderson through the generous gesture of a donation to the Tufts Music Department directed toward supporting the new work of Tufts Composers. Memory Leaves celebrates Tom’s gift by featuring TJ’s newest works alongside music by young artists who are inspired by Anderson’s achievements. Tom understands that by mentoring and celebrating the achievements of aspiring artists/composers as part of this unique concert program, he is tapping into the lifeblood that nourishes Lois and TJ.

The Memory Leaves concert, inspired initially by the August publication of Memory Book, a collection of short TJ Anderson pieces sponsored by American Composers Alliance in honor of TJ’s 93rd birthday, will thus contain the premieres of Anderson’s 2021 pieces Serenade (solo cello; celebrating Lois Anderson’s 91st birthday with music for her favorite instrument); In Memoriam Randy Wilson (solo double bass, remembering this Canterbury Court Retirement Community friend), and Weightless (solo flute). Other related Anderson works to be performed will be In Memoriam Peter Gomes (solo viola), In Memoriam Lerone Bennett, Jr. (solo violin), and two renditions of the 1979 solo piano piece Play Me Something. Threaded through these performances will be substantial pieces by Tufts composers Jackson Carter and Alan Mackwell and Tufts alumnus Trevor Weston and Jeannette Chechile. Current students Matthew Diamond, Hunter Harville-Moxley, Katianna Nardone, and Phillip Wright will infiltrate the proceedings in solo appearances and in an “intermission manifestation” where they will be played simultaneously as an ensemble occurrence.

The celebration features faculty and student performers Emmanuel Feldman, cello; Anna Griffis, viola; Annie D. Kim, violin; Hunter Harville-Moxley, double bass; John McDonald, piano; Thomas Stumpf, piano; Samantha Tripp, flute; and Phillip Wright, clarinet.

This concert has been made possible by a gift to Tufts from Tom and Anita Adams

New@Noon 2: Can’t Help It

Tufts Composers presented their second concert of music by Tufts faculty and student composers on Friday, November 13, 2020 at noon

The concert, focusing on “spontaneous Sounds that necessitate response,” was streamed live from Distler Hall through Tufts Music YouTube channel.

Featuring John McDonald, piano; Julia Moss, viola; Katianna Nardone, violin;
Nate Shaffer, piano; Stephany Svorinić, voice and electronics.

Watch New@Noon 2: Can’t Help It.

Program

Caleb Martin-Rosenthal: Courses (2020)

Leia Levi: Monsoon (2020)
Bird Sounds—Close—Song—Monsoon

Stephany Svorinić: Justine Takes a Walk (2020)
A Hawk Assails a Squirrel at a Nearby Cemetery While Justine is on a Walk

Her reflection:
I am the squirrel.
If nature comes for me, then I can’t run.
I am the hawk.
If I am sent to do it, then it’s done.
I’m taken and sent.
What’s over has begun.
I’m the squirrel and the hawk.
I’m one.
[Justine Buckley]

C. Martin-Rosenthal: Blue Light (2020)

Joseph Rondeau: Swerve (Another Accident; Piano Poem No. 9 from Ten Piano Poems) (2020)

Katianna Nardone: Springtime in November (2020)

Max Luo: Largo And Waltz, Op. 15 (2020)

Nate Shaffer: Two or Three moments for piano (2020)
These short(er) pieces were written with an imagined piano, then revised in the midst of a real one.

N. Shaffer: Trace (2020)
Sometimes, they leave a big trace: an outline of – you

Brought to you by Peter Atkinson, Granoff Music Center Studio Manager, and the Musical Events Technical Staff. Publicity and Programs by Anna Griffis, Event Direction by Jeffrey Rawitsch, Granoff Music Center Manager

New@Noon #1: Add Or Remove A Stone: [Building and Re-Building Your Own Sonic Cairn]

Tufts Composers presented a concert of music by Tufts faculty and student composers on Friday, October 30, 2020 at 12:00 pm, featuring “vertically-organized” music by Tufts student and faculty composers suggested by cairn-building.

Featuring Asher Cohen, vibes; Iverson Eliopoulos, cello; Samuel Golub, guitar; Annie D. Kim, violin; John McDonald, piano; Julia Moss, viola; Doug Poppe, electric bass, voice, production; Nate Shaffer, marimba and electronics.

Watch New@Noon #1: Add or Remove a Stone

Program

Caleb Martin-Rosenthal: Cairn Song (2020) for piano

Niki Glenister: Zesty (2020) for viola, marimba, and piano

Claire X. Freeman: Crisscross (2020) for violin, cello, and vibraphone
Lost and found, but not necessarily in that order. A cairn of unbalanced stones that together hold, a lightless path that leads you home. (C.X.F.)

Samuel Golub: Sam’s Journey of the Cairn (2020) for solo guitar
Inspired by the harmonic stylings of the contemporary Japanese composer, Toru Takemitsu, this piece takes a literal interpretation of stacking rocks to form a cairn. One ever-present theme represents the base of the cairn and each chord is supported by this theme. As the rock stack grows, it becomes more unstable until it collapses and is restructured…This is the journey of the cairn. (S.G.)

Jacquelyn Hazle: Kenosis (2020) for mixed quartet
Kenosis, meaning “self-emptying” in Greek, explores the inspiration of a cairn and stacked musical structures through timbre and texture. The music begins with a single, strong unison attack that is “emptied”, then unfolds and reveals itself as the music progresses. Like Stonehenge, a great pyramid, or a simple garden cairn, its true sum is more than a series of stacked stones (or tones) and the total number of rocks. The music portrays the appreciation of a thing in observing both the smaller pieces that make it up and the object as a whole, especially in temporality. (J.H.)

Doug Poppe: Annelise (2020)
Annelise wasn’t written as a cairn piece per se, but I think it works well as one, with the imagery of a shaky tower of stones complementing the instability and nervousness of the song. I hope I don’t mess up! Just kidding, the song will be played as a pre-recorded track.

The wind in the courtyard is wrapped in the trees
The kids in the schoolyard all catch the disease
The sun isn’t racing across the blue sky
And time isn’t waiting but passing you by
Play on my team
Annelise, Annelise
To lie at a distance from farness away
Surpassing the difference and seeing the same
The ships in the dockyard are lost out at sea
The kids in the schoolyard learn days of the week
Play on my team
Annelise, Annelise
(D.P.)

Aaron Wong: Underpinnings (2019) for piano

Andrew Daetz: What’s Left Behind Never Stays the Same (2020) for piano
What’s Left Behind Never Stays the Same chronicles the arc of a journey away from home, what-ever “home” may mean. A broad, stable chord opens the piece, gradually fading in volume until it essentially disappears. As the piece unfolds, the home chord continues to return, but the top notes successively tumble down to the bottom, like the gradual collapse of an unsteady cairn. This symbol-izes the idea that when one sacrifices something comfortable for a new opportunity—perhaps this means giving up a relationship for a job or leaving childhood friends to go to school far away—the things left behind will continue to evolve and shift on their own. Relationships may change, or they may crumble altogether in ways which cannot be restored. There is no turning back the clock. (A.D.)

Nate Shaffer: Process for Marimba and Room 21 (2020) for video recording & live marimba
The product and the process are one. Time is an illusion, albeit a persistent one. What did you do with your time? What do you think you did? Who are they? Who plays the music? (N.S.)

 

Announcing Tufts Composers PractiCast 2020

Live from Distler Hall at the Granoff Music Center
Web-streamed every Thursday, 3:15-3:50 PM

A Production of Music 119: Composition Practicum

September 10 PractiCast 1:
Raptae-Piano Suite by Jaquelyn Hazle
John McDonald, Piano

And forthcoming:

September 17 PractiCast 2: Keyboard Aphorisms
Some Fives; Nocturne by Samuel-Graber-Hahn
Thank-You Fours; High Fives by John McDonald

September 24 PractiCast 3:
Violinist Anna Griffiths plays Anderson, McDonald, Shaffer & others

October 1 PractiCast 4:
“Variety Show 1.” Selections TBA

October 8 PractiCast 5:
Pianist John McDonald plays a piano tetraptych by Julia Moss

October 15 PractiCast 6:
Cellist Emmanuel Feldman plays Ghodsi and Rifkin. Details TBA

And save the dates for  PractiCasts 7-13:
October 22 & 29;
November 5,12, & 19;
December 3 & 10

Brought to you by Peter Atkinson, Granoff Music Center Studio Manager,
and the Musical Events Technical Staff
Publicity and Programs by Anna Griffiths
Event Direction by Jeff Rawitch, Granoff Music Center Manager

On Tufts Composing and Composers’ Concerts

I was happy to see two Tufts music composing programs that I teach featured, apropos the concert held at Distler Hall on October 16, 2019, in an article  written by Sam Heyman for the Tufts Daily (October 17, 2019): ‘How to Fall Slowly’ showcases student compositions

The programs mentioned are Contemporary Composition (MUS-0118) and Composition Practicum (MUS-0119) for graduate and undergraduate students with performance experience and musical fluency.

“Contemporary Composition is a seminar course which blends composition projects with lectures, musical analysis, visits from guest musicians and more. Composition Practicum takes a more collaborative approach, asking students to share their compositions with classmates and provide feedback on one another’s works.”

Sam interviewed two students, whose works were played in the concert, about the impact the programs have had on them.

For graduate student and experienced musician Bo Konigsmark, they are an opportunity to hone existing skills and cultivate areas of expertise, “the liberated creative environment at Tufts sets it apart from other programs … It’s a judgement free zone. You can bring forth your music, and however you do it … if it’s real and you are showing that you have a genuine, you know, pursuit and purpose in what you’re getting after, then nobody cares if it’s tonal or not tonal … I think in a lot of other places it’s like, ‘This is the system, and you will write this way, and if you do not, we will cringe.’ You don’t get that at Tufts.”

On the other hand, these programs helped introduce undergraduate Sam Graber-Hahn to composing. “I thought I would be pretty bad at composing, … but [Professor McDonald] is just a very encouraging guy and helped me a lot … He’s very good at noticing how you’re restricting yourself and broadening that … So he’ll give you lots of ideas for how to vary things and make stuff more expressive.”

Both remarked at how varied the student compositions turn out, and how it helps them learn. The Tufts Composers concerts give students a space to hear their work performed in public by professionals as well as their peers. “You’ve got world-class performers playing student music … [and] all your friends are [at the concert] listening to their music, and you get to talk to each other about what you’ve written.”

Sam Graber-Hahn especially credited the composition program and the concert series with renewing is interest in classical music “…  if it weren’t for the [Tufts] Composers concerts, I would be doing no classical music and very little violin.”

Tufts Composers: Extra Extra Read All about it

2019-fall-tufts-composers

Tufts Composers Concert Series is an outgrowth of two composition courses: Music 118 and 119, Contemporary Composition (Seminar) and Composition Practicum. These advanced, project-based courses open to both graduate and undergraduate students assume musical fluency, familiarity with forms of notation, and a practical level of performance experience in a variety of styles and techniques.

If your interest is to create your own musical work, and/or to play new music by your peers and colleagues, then please consider Tufts Composers as your possible outlet. Our Fall 2019 concert schedule appears below. Contact Professor and Composer/Pianist John McDonald for more information. john.mcdonald@tufts.edu

Fall 2019 Tufts Composers Events: All at Distler Hall, 20 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA 02155

Tuesday September 24, 2019 at 8 pm, — Guest Ensemble!
Ludovico Ensemble: Rhythm and Myth (Music by J Aylward; M Salkind-Pearl; J Werntz)

Wednesday October 16, 2019 at 8 pm
How to Fall Slowly. Ease into Autumn with a varied program of new works by Tufts Composers— students, faculty, and alumni. With music by Samuel Graber-Hahn, Jacquelyn Hazle, Mark Bolan Konigsmark, guest composer Ryan Vigil (Tufts MA 2004), and others.

Friday October 25, 2019 at 12 pm
New @ Noon #1: How To Finish. How do pieces of music end? Whimpers? Screams? Static? Tufts Composers provide possible answers with new chamber works.

Monday November 4, 2019 at 8 pm
Nova November. Undergraduate and graduate Tufts Composers start a new month with some novel musical audacity.

Friday November 15, 2019 at 12 pm
New @ Noon #2: How To Let Things Fall Apart. And not put them back together. Music by Tufts Composers highlighting unexpected approaches to structure

Tuesday December 3, 2019 at 8 pm
ROBERT BLACK, Guest Artist and Double Bass Virtuoso, presents Insomniac Do’s and Don’t’s, a recital featuring Philip Glass’s The Not Doings of an Insomniac, commissioned by Black. Betwixt each of its 7 parts, Black recites poetry by Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Yoko Ono, David Byrne, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, and Arthur Russell. Featuring several works made for Black by Tufts Composers alongside an improvised dialogue with guest bassist Andrew Blickendorfer.

Tufts Sunday Concert Series – Work and Life

Thank you for these great remarks, Thomas Stumpf:

“Yesterday afternoon there was a deeply affecting concert at Tufts, beautifully curated by John McDonald on the subject of work and life. John played the piano throughout with his usual brilliance, his playing of the amazing Poulenc cycle on painters was particularly strong… Julia Cavallaro used her gorgeous mezzo sound and total emotional commitment all afternoon – and turned out to be a very fine composer with the guts to set Anne Sexton’s take on Van Gogh!! The (as usual) amazing Philipp A. Stäudlin’s alto sax matched her timbre astonishingly… And then there was the ending. A glorious performance of Schubert’s „Nacht und Träume“. And just when the last chord had faded, John started to play his P.S. on the song. Which turned out to be no post scriptum at all, but an incredibly courageous extension and exploration into emotional areas Schubert only hinted at. Philipp played his heart out all the way to the irresolute ending that left us all hanging….
All the consummate skill and immense courage and emotional thrill that was missing in the Super Bowl game (despite the fact that of course the right team won) – here it was in abundance. I’m deeply grateful.”

TJ Anderson’s 90th birthday Celebration!

I shall be travelling to Atlanta, GA, to celebrate
TJ Anderson’s  90th birthday with his friends and family.

The event is scheduled for August 17-18, 2018, and has been organized as a mini-symposium with a concert, composer session with TJ, and a banquet dinner.

The concert of works by TJ and his favorite composers is on Friday, August 17 at 7:30 pm at Canterbury Court Retirement Center in Atlanta. Artists include myself, Louise Toppin, and many others.

A mini-conference will be held on Saturday afternoon, Aug. 18, with a presentation of music by other residents of Canterbury Court, followed by a dinner/roast of TJ, hosted by the Anderson family, with Master of ceremonies Dwight Andrews and David Morrow of Morehouse Men’s Choir.

The celebration is hosted by Composers of Color Collective (CCC) and the Anderson Family.

Music for Tone Stampede 4

20160926-tone-stampede

Tone Stampede 4

I joined Arthur Levering and Marti Epstein for the fourth edition of their new music series “Tone Stampede,” performed on September 26, 2016 at Distler Hall, Tufts University. The concert featured Don Berman on piano; Sarah Brady, flute; Gabriela Diaz, violin; and Rane Moore, clarinet, as well as me, on piano. As composer my offerings were the two below:

Trio About Smoking, Op. 558 (2014-2016)                                                                                              Performed by Rane Moore, Gabriela Diaz, and Donald Berman

  1. Trying To Quit
  2. I Don’t Want To Work—I Want To Smoke (After Poulenc/Apollinaire)
  3. Trailing Off…

Two Parts, Five Participants, Op. 604 (2016)                                                                                        Performed by Sarah Brady, Rane Moore, Gabriela Diaz, Donald Berman, and John McDonald

  1. Some Fifty-Finger Phrases
  2. Best Feet Forward (Faire De Son Mieux)

Trio About Smoking

Smoking breaks can be common occurrences for busy freelance musicians and music professors alike. The members of the Zodiac Trio, for whom the piece was conceived, are no exception to this observable habit. When we have worked together, many of our best ideas came about in conversation during smoking breaks just outside concert hall lobbies. I intend this piece as both a paean to musician/smokers’ tension-relaxation possibilities and a health warning! Thankfully, tonight’s performers—Rane, Gabriela, and Donald—are all non-smokers! And so quicksilver they needed smoking-break discussions.

Cast in three brief movements, a repetitive, industrious opening piece imagines a valiant habit-breaking attempt to get the trio underway. The second piece refers to the Poulenc song Hôtel, set to an indolent poem by Guillaume Apollinaire in which the last line declares “I don’t want to work; I want to smoke.” The music alludes to Poulenc’s cloudy harmony, and is inspired by baritone Pierre Bernac’s recorded performance with Poulenc at the keyboard; it takes bits of the song as source material for a melancholy rumination. The concluding piece of the trio attempts to paint the image of a curl of smoke trailing off. Not without conflict, the work nevertheless aims for a light touch.

Two Parts, Five Participants was composed specifically for tonight’s distinctive stampede. Its two movements are small appreciations made for this group of wonderful players and colleagues. I made the piano part a four-hand endeavor so I could join them!

Initially conceived as the entire piece, Some Fifty-Finger Phrases now works as the first of two parts. Since its conceit was to make music in which every phrase requires fifty fingers to complete (a total of fifty fingers is available for use by the total ensemble of five people), it got tiring to go on too long developing new phrase strategies with this unusual limit. It was fun while it lasted, and hopefully provocative for the listener. A second part, Best Feet Forward (Faire De Son Mieux) was first composed as a piano solo for presentation at the Tufts European Center in Talloires, France where I was a Scholar-in-Residence this past summer. With this re-composition of the piece for five musicians, I sought to provide a good companion to the fifty-finger enterprise, yielding a flow of music that shows the ensemble’s elegance and flexibility. I dedicate the work to our transcendent musicians Sarah, Rane, Gabriela, and Donald.