NEC Contemporary Improvisation + Lautaro Mantilla: Tradition

Ernesto Nazareth | Odeon (c. 1909), Brazilian Tango

NEC Choro Ensemble
     Amir Milstein, coach

Sarah Matsushima, voice, piano
Amir Milstein, flute
Nikita Manin, clarinet
Catherine Byrne, violin
G Korth-Rockwell, banjo, guitar, mandolin
Mattias Kaufmann, accordion
Miguel Landestoy, piano, keyboard
Caleb Duval, double bass
Joseph Seo, percussion       

Program note

Odeon, named after a famous Rio de Janeiro theater, where celebrated pianist and composer Ernesto Nazareth played regularly, was originally a piano solo composition and represents the early stage of the Choro genre.
        European polkas and mazurkas, as well as the piano and other western instruments, were introduced in Brazil during the early 1800s by the Portuguese royal court. These popular dance tunes met the Afro-Brazilian Samba rhythms and Lundu dances, to create the Maxixe and Brazilian Tango, which later evolved into Choro – the musical essence of Brazil’s cultural diversity.                
– Amir Milstein

R. L. Burnside (arr. Roman Barten-Sherman) | Miss Maybelle

Roman Barten-Sherman, guitar, voice
 

Program note

This tune comes out of the North Mississippi Hill Country Blues tradition, a rich and hypnotic style of blues music that is highly rhythmic and often functions in open tunings. In my arrangement of Miss Maybelle (originally from R. L. Burnside), I am incorporating phrases and ideas inspired by my time studying with Kenny Brown and Robert Befour as well as verses from Jimmy "Duck" Holmes.
– Roman Barten-Sherman

Olivia Wilkins-Becker | It was a Blip

Lyra Montoya, flute
Nikita Manin, clarinet
Raef Sengupta, alto saxophone
Miranda Agnew, trumpet
Catherine Byrne, violin
Olivia Wilkins-Becker, guitar
Hannah Dunton, double bass
James Paul Nadien, drums
 

Program note

I started writing this piece in May 2020 when it felt like the billboard of everyday life had lost its scaffolding, from supply chain shortages to overburdened healthcare infrastructure, to the absolute failure of the government to support the communities most vulnerable to complications and fatalities from the virus. The pandemic brought structural inequities into stark relief, and these inequities stem from the same traditions that I experienced growing up in a mostly white middle-class suburb: traditions that celebrate the idea of the soldier, the pioneer, and the worker as figures of American exceptionalism while erasing the ongoing histories of US imperialism, genocide, and exploitation.
        I want to belong as much as anyone else, but not at the expense that these traditions bring. This piece is an expression of the queasy feeling of watching the false reality that you grew up within deconstruct itself to near collapse, only to re-establish itself again as the “new normal.” Did it even really happen? It was a blip!
– Olivia Wilkins-Becker

Henry Purcell/Traditional Shetland | Fantasy in E Minor, Z. 741/Up Da Stroods

Carson McHaney, Kaitlyn Knudsvig, violin
Kathleen Wallace, viola
Benjamin Roberts, cello 

Program note

Purcell's Fantasy in E Minor, originally written for four viols, is number 4 of 7 fantasies hurriedly composed in the summer of 1680. The use of viol in the Western Classical tradition was falling out of fashion at the time as the instruments of the violin family came to the forefront.   This particular fantasy oscillates sonically between the Franco-Flemish motet style of an English chorale and lively dance steps popular in the French and Italian court of the time.  The members in our ensemble have a deep connection to the western classical tradition, having devoted a large part of our training and music making to the specific craft.  However, like the disappearance of the viol in four-part writing, we've all found ourselves abandoning the traditional mold of a classical string player and updating our ideas of virtuosity and total musicianship.  We've separately been on our own paths discovering different musical styles, mostly steeped in the fiddle tune tradition, before meeting this year and finding our shared interests. 
        We are passionate about the idea of dance music in its ability to create community, and we search for this as a unifying feature in the many genres we explore.  Community and tradition exist symbiotically, and as we transition into the Shetland traditional fiddle tune, Up Da Stroods, the dance step of the reel is clear in the rhythmic literacy and integral to the quality of the tune.  This element of stylistic groove is also key to the success of the Purcell Fantasy.  Up Da Stroods, sometimes called Up Da Stroods the Sailor Goes, translates to “up the ropes” depicting the rigging of a ship. Most of Shetland's tunes share this same trope of labor at sea, as that reflects the day to day lives of the Shetland people. The fiddle tune entwined in dance and the natural settings of the blue collar Shetland people is a classic example of Folk Art, and sets an excellent foil to the Purcell, which was and is certainly considered “high art.”  We hope to preserve and celebrate the traditions of both by marrying these disparate classes of art in this performance.             
– Kathleen Wallace

Traditional Chinese Folk Song/Bobby Timmons | Guessing Tune/Dat Dere

Maggie Ruochen Zang, Yannick Changrong Yan, Maggie Yifan Yue, Edward Xiao Sun, voice
Yoona Kim, ajaeng
Anwei Wang, guzheng
Mingchen Du, electric guitar
Skyler Lim, piano
Jiangcheng Guan, drums

Program note

This piece combines two songs from different cultures. The Chinese song “Guessing Tune” is a traditional folk song and nursery rhyme that originated from Yunnan, China, in which the central theme is children guessing everything around them. The song Dat Dere is a jazz standard by Bobby Timmons which kindly jokes about what kids are saying. We want to combine these two “kids” elements, making this piece unique. 
– Maggie Ruochen Zang and Edward Xiao Sun

Benito de Jesús | La Copa Rota

Sarah Matsushima, voice
Emily Mitchell, guitar, voice   
Mattias Kaufmann, accordion

Program note      

While La Copa Rota is itself a traditional piece of music that has been covered by countless Latin-American artists, its plot is also a dark twist on one of the oldest, most universal traditions: the love story. La Copa Rota narrates deep heartbreak and anguish that leads our protagonist to insanity. It is also worth noting that the lovesick, irrational character is a man, rather than a woman, going against typical romantic tropes.                                                        
– Sarah Matsushima

Hussein Alizadeh | Sobhgahi: In (mode/Dastgah) Chahargah

NEC Persian Music Ensemble
     Nima Janmohammadi, coach

Nikki Naghavi, violin
Yoona Kim, ajaeng
Francesca Ter-Berg, cello
Roman Barten-Sherman, banjo
Nadav Friedman, percussion

Program note

There is a saying in Farsi that “Someone tells you the secret but does not reveal it.” A true secret never reveals itself; it transforms, disappears and appears again and again. It is the art of alchemists, poets, and artists to touch the mysteries in the liminal moments of their transition. A melody that has passed through the breathing of thousands of people in centuries is a mystery, a DNA that contains so much information. It is nuanced in every note, gesture, intonation, sound envelope, and in its many ways of recurrence. To play it, one must traverse boundaries of time, to touch the breathing of someone singing it in the past or future.  Tradition survives in its disappearance, when it abandons its authenticity in order to touch a heart.
        My students have spent months learning the piece you hear tonight, all by ear. At times we had to spend hours playing only one phrase of approximately six seconds, almost like building a sculpture, looking at its shadow, echo, resonance, to figure out how it emerges and fades, and to have a physical sense of the weight of every note it contains. They learned it with so much reverence and in the most elegant way. May the light of angel of sound shine upon their hearts in infinite moments of enchantment.                                                                       
– Nima Janmohammadi

Traditional American | Tennessee Mountain Fox Chase

G Korth-Rockwell, banjo
Patrick M'Gonigle, fiddle
Eden MacAdam-Somer, dancer

Program note

This piece comes from the American old-time fiddle tradition, a sound that would be heard in various formations across the Appalachians.                             
– G Korth-Rockwell

Cumbia House Band | Cumbia Colombiana

Homage to José Barros, Lucho Bermúdez, and Los Pirañas

Cumbia House Band
     Lautaro Mantilla, director

Nikita Manin, clarinet
Daniel Hirsch, trumpet
Catherine Byne, violin
Miguel Landestoy, piano
Rihards Kolmanis, Olivia Wilkins-Becker, guitar
Anna Abondolo, double bass
James Paul Nadien, drums
 

Program note

Cumbia has been adopted as a common language for the whole continent and, as a folk music tradition, has been in constant flux since the beginning. In the last 15 years, a vibrant scene in South America has seamlessly taken tropical music, specifically Cumbia, to the 21st century by filtering it with an experimental and innovative approach to find a place where tradition and innovation meet. This “tropicalismo supremo”or “tropicanibalismo” is set to continue the search for the present and future sound of Cumbia, and it doesn’t seem to stop being in motion. The piece we are playing tonight presents our take on this search.    
– Lautaro Mantilla

Adrian Chabla | Create

Adrian Chabla, piano, voice
Jahnvi Bela Madan, clarinet
Isaac Dubow, trumpet
Kabir Adhiya-Kumar, drums, sample pad
Sam Reiss, double bass      

Program note

“I insist on my right to be multiple.
I insist on my right to be multiple.
Even more so, I insist upon
The Recognition of my inherent multiplicity”     
-       Taiye Selasi

To create 1 is to create other.
the borders of a finite creation, where things begin & end
they aren't puzzle pieces, they
overlap, split off, conjoin, leave space between each other

i find that in most spaces i
am in, i don't really land anywhere.
i am oscillitory
& when
u trace these
paths of motion, pendulous, between 1 & another
u carve into them, they become deeper
&

i think they become bigger than you.

over time u imprint
a canyon
it has a gravity &
pulls other things in.

this is an homage to
the loved ones, people & places, that i have met within myself.
(& within them too)
& the pendulums we swing from
& all of the beautiful canyons we create

 dedicated to vivian jess ean mac noga mati & lotem
& queens nyc
thank u <3

*Special thank u to everyone in their compositional & improvisation genius, we created dis together y'all <3 thank u for bein u

– Adrian Chabla

Traditional Latvian | Visi Ceļi Guņiem Pilni

(often used in war or as a gathering song for communities in Latvia)

NEC Survivors Breakfast
     Anthony Coleman, coach, vocals

Lyra Montoya, clarinet, bass clarinet, voice
Yoona Kim, ajaeng, voice
Francesca Ter-Berg, jaw harp, voice
Rihards Kolmanis, guitar, voice
Olivia Wilkins-Becker, guitar, voice
Henry Wilson, percussion, voice
Ari Chais, piano, voice
Brooks Clarke, electric bass, voice
Hannah Dunton, double bass, voice
James Paul Nadien, drums, voice

CI Chorus
Stuart Ryerse
Solomon Caldwell
Mingchen Du
Yannick Changrong Yan
Henry Wilson
G Korth-Rockwell
Adrian Chabla
Mattias Kaufmann
Emily Mitchell

Text

Visi ceļi guņiem pilni
Visi ceļi guņiem pilni
Visi ceļi atslēgām
Visi ceļi atslēgām

Jāš būt iesi visam cauri
Jāš būt iesi visam cauri
Ar dieviņa palīdzīb
Ar dieviņa palīdzīb

– Rihards Kolmanis