Enchanted Circle: Stockhausen, McCormack

Karlheinz Stockhausen | Kontakte (1960)

Program note

As in Gesang der Jünglinge and also in Kontakte known sound events are connected with unknown ones; sound events for which we have names with those we cannot name. In Gesang der Jünglinge, they are sung tones, syllables, words in the context of electronic sounds; here, they are piano and percussion sounds in all shades with many degrees of more or less definable pitches, timbres, envelopes, durations. The familiar sounds give the orientation, the perspectives of the listening; they function as traffic signs in the unlimited space of the newly discovered electronic sound world. Also the electronic sounds sometimes come very close to the familiar sounds—to the point of confusion; they then sound “like darabuccas”, “like a marimba”, “like huge tam-tams”, “like antique cymbals”.
        The encounter with the familiar and nameable, in regions of the unknown and nameless, makes the unknown even more mysterious, fascinating; and conversely, the known, also the banal and old—that for which we hardly still had an ear— becomes completely fresh and alive in the new surrounding of the unknown.
          After having passed through the “abstruct”, “informal”, “non-figurative” experience, after long expeditions in microcosmic and macrocosmic layers, this new awareness becomes ever clearer from work to work: Gesang der Jünglinge, Gruppen, Kontakte, Carr, Momente, Mixtur, Mikrophone I and II, Telemusik, Prozession, Hymnen, Stimmung, Kurtzwellen, etc.                                 
– Karlheinz Stockhausen
 

Described as having “consummate virtuosity” by The New York Times, Stuart Gerber has performed extensively throughout the US, Europe, Australia, and Mexico as a soloist an chamber musician. He is associate professor of percussion at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
        As an active performer of new works, Dr. Gerber has been involved in a number of commissions and world-premiere performances. He gave the world premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s last solo percussion work Himmels-Tür in Italy, as well as his percussion trio Mittwoch-Formel at the annual Stockhausen-Courses in Kürten, Germany. He has also given the US and Australian premieres of Stockhausen’s duo version of Nasenflügeltanz for percussion and synthesizer, and the US premiere of his solo percussion work Komet. Dr. Gerber has been the faculty percussionist for the Stockhausen-Courses since 2005 and has recorded a number of pieces for the Stockhausen Complete Edition released by the Stockhausen-Verlag. In addition to his work with Stockhausen, Stuart has worked with many other notable composers, such as Kaija Saariaho, Steve Reich, Tristan Murail, Frederic Rzewski, George Crumb, Tania Léon, Michael Colgrass, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and John Luther Adams. Recent performances include: solo performances at the Gulbenkian Center in Lisbon, Portugal and the South Bank Centre in London; a performance at the Savannah Music Festival with Stewart Copeland (the legendary drummer for The Police); a solo performance at the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin; as well as an appearance at the Spoleto Festival. He also is featured on the world-premiere recording of John Luther Adams’ Strange and Sacred Noise with the percussion group Cincinnati (Mode Records) and Adams’ Qilyaun released by Code Blue Records. Dr. Gerber has extensive recording experience and can be heard on recordings released by Bridge Records, Capstone Records, Telarc, Wesleyan University Press, Albany Record, and Vienna Modern Masters.
       As pedagogue Dr. Gerber has recently presented a lecture-recital at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) and a scholarly paper at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Honolulu. He has given numerous masterclasses at conservatories and universities around the US and abroad. Recent masterclasses include: the Eastman School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, University of Texas-Austin, University of Florida, University of South Florida, University of Montreal, Southbank Centre (London), and the Sydney Conservatory and Victoria College of Arts in Australia.
        Dr. Gerber is a founding member of the Atlanta-based new music group Bent Frequency, performs internationally with the Australian pianist Michael Fowler in ENSEMBLE SIRIUS, and is regularly heard as extra percussionist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin College Conservatory, where he studied with Michael Rosen, and was awarded a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music (CCM). His teachers at CCM were Allen Otte, Russell Burge and James Culley of the Percussion Group Cincinnati. He has also done advanced studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany, with Professor Andreas Boettger.

INTERMISSION

Timothy McCormack | mine but for its sublimation (2022)

Program note

mine but for its sublimation is about resonance, register, and touch. It is about where we lead ourselves when we trust ourselves. It is experiencing trust as a chain of clearings, a sequence of becomings, openings, centerings. It is about letting go; othering; finding presence through evaporation. Obliteration.    
– Timothy McCormack
 

Timothy McCormack writes haptic, viscous music which makes audible the tactile, physical relationship between a performer and their instrument. Sometimes ecstatic, sometimes hermetic, his music embeds pitch within dense walls of noise to create strangely affecting sonic ecologies which alter one’s perception of time.
        He has been commissioned by ensembles and organizations such as the ELISION Ensemble, Ensemblekollektiv Berlin, Klangforum Wien, the JACK Quartet, musikFabrik, Curious Chamber Players, the [Switch~ Ensemble], the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, the impuls Festival, and ON – Neue Musik Köln. His music has also been performed by Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Talea Ensemble, Ensemble Nikel, and ensemble mosaik, and programmed on the MATA, Wien Modern, Darmstadt, Huddersfield, Maerzmusik, and TRANSIT festivals. His work can be heard on the Kairos and Huddersfield Contemporary Records labels.
        McCormack is the recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Composers’ Prize (2018). He won the Impuls International Composition Competition (2019) which resulted in a new work for Vienna’s Klangforum Wien. He was also awarded the George Arthur Knight Prize (2014) for his piece you actually are evaporating, as well as the John Green Fellowship (2017) for his “demonstrated talent and promise as a composer,” both from Harvard University.
        McCormack currently teaches at Boston Conservatory at Berklee where he is an Assistant Professor of Composition. He received his PhD from Harvard University (2019), where he studied with Chaya Czernowin and Hans Tutschku. He also studied at the University of Huddersfield with Aaron Cassidy and Liza Lim, as well as at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Lewis Nielson and Randolph Coleman. He has participated in the Schloss Solitude Sommerakademie (2009) and the Tzlil Meudcan Summer Courses (2012). From 2014-17 at Harvard University, he was the director of the Harvard Group for New Music, organizing concerts and residencies with ensembles such as Ensemble Dal Niente, the JACK Quartet, Ensemble Recherche, musikFabrik, the ELISION Ensemble, and many others. In addition to music, McCormack has also studied contemporary dance with Jill Johnson and has worked in masterclass or choreographic settings with William Forsythe, John Jasperse, Christopher Roman and Riley Watts.

Jack Yarbrough is a pianist working in the fields of contemporary and experimental music. Largely devoted to the solo piano recital as a means of temporal and perceptual expansion, Jack has commissioned several large scale works with the goal of revitalizing piano repertoire in the face of its increasing obsolescence. He has collaborated closely with composers including Timothy McCormack, Bunita Marcus, Richard Barrett, Marti Epstein, Victoria Cheah, Jack Langdon, John Eagle, Kory Reeder, and Bahar Royaee. Active as a chamber musician as well, he has performed with and alongside ensembles including Ensemble intercontemperain, Yarn/Wire and Ensemble X. Jack has received recognition from journalists including Alex Ross, Tim Rutherford-Johnson and Steve Smith. As a member of Alinéa, he has received press coverage as well as a nomination for the Royal Philharmonic Society awards. Born outside of Birmingham, Alabama, Jack currently resides in Ithaca, NY. He holds a Master of Music degree in contemporary chamber music performance from the Boston Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Kansas. Jack is currently completing a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in performance practice at Cornell University, where he is a Sage fellow and teaches an active piano studio. Jack’s teachers include Stephen Drury, Xak Bjerken, Michael Kirkendoll and Jack Winerock. Future projects include a CD release of Timothy McCormack’s mine but for its sublimation as well as a reconstruction of Maryanne Amacher’s Petra with Thomas Feng. His recordings can be heard on Sawyer Editions.