Tuesday Night New Music: Gao, Bettany, Engelhardt, Alvarado, Xu, I. Kim, Rosenberg, Ha, Chen, Jian, Kim, Ni, Rozen

Ying Gao | Cheering for the infinite joy (2024)

Program note

This piece contains three sections. It is written for exploring the rhythm and different sounds of percussion instruments. The middle section highlights the interlaced beautiful melody between the marimba and vibraphone. I hope the audience can immerse themselves in the energy and excitement brought by percussion music. 
– Ying Gao

Stellan Connelly Bettany | String Quartet No. 1 "Hungarian" (2024)

Program note

This piece gives voice to everything that goes on in our heads that we don’t speak about – all the racing thoughts and placid feelings that we can’t put into words. The quartet is named after The Hungarian Pastry Shop in Manhattan, a place where I happen to have had a lot of feelings I never
put into words.
- Stellan Connelly Bettany

Austin Engelhardt | Megalith (2024)

Program note

Megalith is a piece written with the hope of promoting a deeper sense of ensemble communication. The goal was to make a piece that is entirely dependent on the members of the ensemble being present and attentive to each other. To achieve this, the vocalists are each given specific graphic instructions on how to maneuver through the piece and shape each vocalization. Rhythm and dynamics are reduced to simple shape and placement, pitch is stripped away to test how the ensemble can work together as a group to navigate a harmonically driven piece when no specific pitches are notated. Megalith as a whole is meant to shine a light on communication, understanding, and trust within the ensemble. Thank you to my wonderful performers for helping to realize this work!
- Austin Engelhardt

Genie Alvarado | from Hate to Return

I.
II.

Program note

Hate to Return (2023), written for solo flute in three movements, explores feelings of being overwhelmed, and all nuances involved. In my former high school, my classmates loved to talk. Chatter would fill every corner of the school and at any hour of the day, one could never catch a break! I found that my social battery would drain quickly, and often found myself overwhelmed by all the constant noise. I wrote this piece to reflect the experience of confronting too much stimuli, and how any individual may process a similar situation.
     The title refers to the dread I experienced whenever I would have to go into one of these situations. It also references how if one manages to catch a break, whether it be through a bathroom break or an office visit, one still knows they must eventually return.
- Genie Alvarado

Yangfan Xu | In a Mellow Mood

Program note

In A Mellow Mood was written for the "THE LAB: Inspired by Bach and Beyond" hosted by violinist Jennifer Koh in 2022. The contrapuntal voicing aspects of the piece were learned from Bach's partitas and sonatas for solo violin.                      – Yangfan Xu

Ian Yoo Kim | Piano Preludes (2024)

Quinn Rosenberg | Negative Alchemy (2024)

Program note

As I have been exploring my own interests as a composer and musician, I’ve been considering the role improvisation plays when synthesizing textures in my notated music. Negative Alchemy (2024) seeks to blur the lines, incorporating improvisatory elements among precisely notated motions to abstract how material is produced within the piece’s composed framework.
- Quinn Rosenberg

Changjin Ha | 5 Threnodies (2024)

For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
Men are cruel, but Man is kind
Vocalise
Threnody

Program note

5 Threnodies is a cycle of five songs for male voice and piano that narrates five scenes in warfare. The first three pieces take their titles as the text, the fourth is a vocalise, and the fifth movement is a collage that blends elements from the previous songs. The text of the first song, “For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn,” was written by Ernest Hemingway. The second text, “Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico- volcanoconiosis,” is the name of a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust, depicting an air strike scene. The third text, “Men are cruel, but Man is kind,” is a poem written by Rabindranath Tagore. 
     These songs were sketched back in 2022 soon after the first outbreak of recent wars, and there have been only more of those tragedies since then. I hope this series of songs becomes a ritual to relieve us, regardless of which side each is on.
- Changjin Ha

Yini Chen | Maple Leaves Fying (2022)

Program note

Maple Leaves Flying is composed from the perspective of maple leaves.  At the moment this leaf floated down, it began a life of ups and downs by wind—either intense or smooth— like a person’s life. I had watched the falling leaves in Fragrant Hills in Beijing.  I accidentally found a red leaf that had been blown off by wind, undulated by the wind’s power, forced to fly violently in the capriciousness of life. That is the inspiration of this piece.
- Yini Chen

Ai Jian | 1/3 (2024)

Program note

I plan to write 3 string quartets and this is the first one. The first half of the piece is unexpected, sinuous and nonplanar, the painting “Grandes Carrières” by Joan Mitchell is the best expression of my feeling, The second half is athletic with alternating rhythms, majestic with contrasting notes in each string and in each string with the other strings. Mixed characteristics and changes of emotion can be heard in the piece, referring don’t be afraid, do enjoy.                                                              
– Ai Jian

Dohyun Kim | Butterflies (2023)

Beginning
Singing in the rain
Destiny

Program note

Yuanwei Ni | Peregrinate (2023)

Program note

While composing this work, I wished to go beyond the limit of flute techniques. I challenged myself by trying out novelties in all aspects such as range, speed, and techniques. This is a work with powerful dynamics represented by various contrasts and struggles. Quoting Camus as my muse: "There is scarcely any passion without struggle. The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a men's heart."
- Yuanwei Ni

Tomer Rozen | Two Jazzy Tunes (2023)

How Deep the Ocean
Everything Upside Down

Program note

How Deep the Ocean is based on Irving Berlin’s How Deep Is the Ocean? In Everything is Upside Down, as the name suggests, the chords, the melody, the scales and the form are all upside down.
- Tomer Rozen