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Press Releases
Emerging Composers from China, Mexico, Singapore and the US
North/South Consonance, Inc. continues its 30th consecutive season of free admission concerts with a special program featuring the North/South Consonance Ensemble under the direction of Max Lifchitz performing recent works by five emerging young composers.
The event will take place on Tuesday June 8 at 8 PM at the auditorium of Christ & St. Stephen’s Church (120 West 69th St) in Manhattan. Admission is free – no tickets necessary.
Brief information about the pieces and composers included in the program follows:
The Poems to Come by the San Francisco based John G. Bilotta was inspired by the writings of e.e. cummings. Commissioned by the Music Teacher’s National Association and the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, the music of the two movement work is eminently lyrical and accessible. Born in Waterbury, CT. Bilotta has spent most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area where he studied with Frederick Saunders. He has received multiple commissions, grants, and awards, and his works have been performed around the world by such outstanding soloists and ensembles as Rarescale, the Kiev Philharmonic, Earplay, Chamber Mix, the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, the Talea Ensemble, the Avenue Winds, San Francisco Cabaret Opera, the Bluegrass Opera, and VocalWorks. His works are available on the Capstone, New Music North Recordings, Beauport Classical, Navonna Parma and ERMMedia media. He is the Music Director of the San Francisco Chamber Wind Festival, and co-directs the Festival of Contemporary Music.
S.O.S. by the young Mexican composer Enrico Chapela. Born in Mexico City in 1974, Chapela began his musical career as a guitarist turning his attention to composition a few years ago. His unique style is an amalgam of elements derived from jazz, rock n’roll and avant-garde techniques. His works are published by Boosey & Hawkes and have been performed by many important ensembles throughout his native country, Europe and the US.
The three dots, three dashes and three dotes implied in the Morse code symbol S.O.S.(a cry for help meaning “Save Our Ship”) are interpreted by Chapela to generate the musical motives heard throughout the piece. Using an intricate mathematical formula, Chapela generates pitch and rhythm equivalents to the word HELP in six languages – Spanish, Italian, French, German, English and Portuguese – and uses these motives throughout the piece. The writing employs multiphonics in the winds as well as many coloristic effects in the strings and piano. The music progresses gradually through a series of metrical modulations progressing from the moderate opening tempo to an agitated middle section and back again to the opening material.
Where Rivers Bend by the Los Angeles based John Frantzen, is a work inspired by the Makoqueta River near the composer’s hometown in Iowa. Commissioned by the Oakwood Chamber Players in Madison, WI, the music of the single movement work portrays “the winding bends and channels of the ever flowing river that resemble the winding bends and channels in the ever flowing time of life.”
Frantzen studied at with Richard Danielpour at the Manhattan School of Music and has written music for several films, documentaries and shorts including Suavecita premiered at the New York International Latino Film Festival, Dumgrot premiered at Columbia University, Auction Day ; and Portrait of Maquoketa.
Aurora (2008), by the young Chinese composer Joyce Wai-chung Tang, is a work inspired by the swirling streamers of reddish and greenish light that appear in the sky over the North and South poles. The composer skillfully combines layers of melodic lines in the flute and clarinet against a background of constantly changing timbres provided by the strings and keyboard to represent the swirls of light. The work was commissioned by the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild and is dedicated to the victims of the natural disasters that struck China during May of 2008.
Based in Hong Kong, Tang obtained master’s degrees in both composition and electro-acoustic music at the Hong Kong Baptist University and earned a PhD in musicology at the University of Hong Kong. Many of her works have been jury-selected for performance at major contemporary music festivals and conferences including the International Society for Contemporary Music World Music Days in the U K and Hong Kong; the International Computer Music Conference in Hong Kong, Michigan and Beijing; the Journées d’Informatique Musicale in Paris; the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Nashville, USA; the Asian Composers’ League Contemporary Music Festivals in Seoul; and the International Alliance for Women in Music Conference in Beijing.
Five Elements by Peiying Yuan, the winner of the 2010 Libby Larsen Prize from the Interntaional Alliance of Women Composers. The composers states that in Five Elements she “sought to express the inter-connectedness and generative cycle of interaction between the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) through the use of a flexible, cyclical form.”
Born in Singapore in 1984, Yuan began her studies with Kawai Shiu, and Ho Chee Kong at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. She recently earned her Masters degree at the University of Kansas, Missouri Conservatory of Music and Dance, where her teachers included James Mobberley and Chen Yi, and will be attending the doctoral program at Cornell University starting this fall. Yuan’s works have been performed as part of the 2009 Asian Composers League Festival in Korea; the International Alliance of Women Composers Annual Conference at the University of North Texas; and the Wellesley College Composers Conference (Wellesley, MA) where she was the 2009 Christoph and Stefan Kaske Fellowship Award winner. She received a 2009 SCI/ASCAP Composition Commission award.
The composers will be on hand to introduce their works and meet with the audience during intermission and after the concert. All participants in the event are available to the press for interviews and may be contacted through our office at ns.concerts@att.net
North/South Consonance’s 2009-10 season is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; grants from the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, the Music Performance Funds of Local 802 and the Zethus Fund for Contemporary Music. Contributions by many generous individuals are gratefully acknowledged.
For further information about North/South Consonance’s activities please visit http://www.northsouthmusic.org
To stream and/or download the more than fifty albums comprised in the North/South Recordings catalogue go to
http://www.classicsonline.com/North_South_Recordings/
The event will take place on Tuesday June 8 at 8 PM at the auditorium of Christ & St. Stephen’s Church (120 West 69th St) in Manhattan. Admission is free – no tickets necessary.
Brief information about the pieces and composers included in the program follows:
The Poems to Come by the San Francisco based John G. Bilotta was inspired by the writings of e.e. cummings. Commissioned by the Music Teacher’s National Association and the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, the music of the two movement work is eminently lyrical and accessible. Born in Waterbury, CT. Bilotta has spent most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area where he studied with Frederick Saunders. He has received multiple commissions, grants, and awards, and his works have been performed around the world by such outstanding soloists and ensembles as Rarescale, the Kiev Philharmonic, Earplay, Chamber Mix, the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, the Talea Ensemble, the Avenue Winds, San Francisco Cabaret Opera, the Bluegrass Opera, and VocalWorks. His works are available on the Capstone, New Music North Recordings, Beauport Classical, Navonna Parma and ERMMedia media. He is the Music Director of the San Francisco Chamber Wind Festival, and co-directs the Festival of Contemporary Music.
S.O.S. by the young Mexican composer Enrico Chapela. Born in Mexico City in 1974, Chapela began his musical career as a guitarist turning his attention to composition a few years ago. His unique style is an amalgam of elements derived from jazz, rock n’roll and avant-garde techniques. His works are published by Boosey & Hawkes and have been performed by many important ensembles throughout his native country, Europe and the US.
The three dots, three dashes and three dotes implied in the Morse code symbol S.O.S.(a cry for help meaning “Save Our Ship”) are interpreted by Chapela to generate the musical motives heard throughout the piece. Using an intricate mathematical formula, Chapela generates pitch and rhythm equivalents to the word HELP in six languages – Spanish, Italian, French, German, English and Portuguese – and uses these motives throughout the piece. The writing employs multiphonics in the winds as well as many coloristic effects in the strings and piano. The music progresses gradually through a series of metrical modulations progressing from the moderate opening tempo to an agitated middle section and back again to the opening material.
Where Rivers Bend by the Los Angeles based John Frantzen, is a work inspired by the Makoqueta River near the composer’s hometown in Iowa. Commissioned by the Oakwood Chamber Players in Madison, WI, the music of the single movement work portrays “the winding bends and channels of the ever flowing river that resemble the winding bends and channels in the ever flowing time of life.”
Frantzen studied at with Richard Danielpour at the Manhattan School of Music and has written music for several films, documentaries and shorts including Suavecita premiered at the New York International Latino Film Festival, Dumgrot premiered at Columbia University, Auction Day ; and Portrait of Maquoketa.
Aurora (2008), by the young Chinese composer Joyce Wai-chung Tang, is a work inspired by the swirling streamers of reddish and greenish light that appear in the sky over the North and South poles. The composer skillfully combines layers of melodic lines in the flute and clarinet against a background of constantly changing timbres provided by the strings and keyboard to represent the swirls of light. The work was commissioned by the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild and is dedicated to the victims of the natural disasters that struck China during May of 2008.
Based in Hong Kong, Tang obtained master’s degrees in both composition and electro-acoustic music at the Hong Kong Baptist University and earned a PhD in musicology at the University of Hong Kong. Many of her works have been jury-selected for performance at major contemporary music festivals and conferences including the International Society for Contemporary Music World Music Days in the U K and Hong Kong; the International Computer Music Conference in Hong Kong, Michigan and Beijing; the Journées d’Informatique Musicale in Paris; the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Nashville, USA; the Asian Composers’ League Contemporary Music Festivals in Seoul; and the International Alliance for Women in Music Conference in Beijing.
Five Elements by Peiying Yuan, the winner of the 2010 Libby Larsen Prize from the Interntaional Alliance of Women Composers. The composers states that in Five Elements she “sought to express the inter-connectedness and generative cycle of interaction between the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) through the use of a flexible, cyclical form.”
Born in Singapore in 1984, Yuan began her studies with Kawai Shiu, and Ho Chee Kong at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. She recently earned her Masters degree at the University of Kansas, Missouri Conservatory of Music and Dance, where her teachers included James Mobberley and Chen Yi, and will be attending the doctoral program at Cornell University starting this fall. Yuan’s works have been performed as part of the 2009 Asian Composers League Festival in Korea; the International Alliance of Women Composers Annual Conference at the University of North Texas; and the Wellesley College Composers Conference (Wellesley, MA) where she was the 2009 Christoph and Stefan Kaske Fellowship Award winner. She received a 2009 SCI/ASCAP Composition Commission award.
The composers will be on hand to introduce their works and meet with the audience during intermission and after the concert. All participants in the event are available to the press for interviews and may be contacted through our office at ns.concerts@att.net
North/South Consonance’s 2009-10 season is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; grants from the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, the Music Performance Funds of Local 802 and the Zethus Fund for Contemporary Music. Contributions by many generous individuals are gratefully acknowledged.
For further information about North/South Consonance’s activities please visit http://www.northsouthmusic.org
To stream and/or download the more than fifty albums comprised in the North/South Recordings catalogue go to
http://www.classicsonline.com/North_South_Recordings/
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