Symposium of Contemporary Music, November 2016

Illinois Wesleyan University School of Music PR E SE N T S

:

David Vayo, Director

2016-17

Featured Guest

Eve Beglarian Composer/Vocalist

November 10, 2016

Symposium of Contemporary Music 4:00 pm

School of Music 258

Panel Discussion The Arts Outside of the Boxes Eve Beglarian Rebecca Gearhart-Mafazy, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair, Sociology/Anthropology Dani Snyder-Young, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts/ History and Theory Michael Theune, Professor of English David Vayo, Fern Rosetta Sherff Professor of Composition and Theory This program was made possible with the support of the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

This program is presented as part of the IWU New Music Series.

To receive email notifications of future New Music Series events, contact David Vayo, Series director: dvayo@iwu.edu.

The New Music Series Facebook address is https://www.facebook.com/IWUNewMusicSeries/

•

8:00 pm

Westbrook Auditorium

Music of Eve Beglarian I am really a very simple person Members of Collegiate Choir: Thomas Bravos, Emily Brink, John Fegan, Cody House, Aaron Kahn, John McHugh, Miranda Mhoon, Blake Miller, Crystal Muro, Kelly Riordan, Grace Sheley

Mark Anderson, guitar J. Scott Ferguson, conductor

Farther from the Heart

Elisabeth Williams, soprano

Aejin Kim, piano 13one

Michael Olson, Jacob Taitel, tuba The Siren of Old Shanghai

Miranda Mhoon, vocal

Amy Clapp, tenor sax

Paul Johnson, piano

Mitchell Galgan, bass

Robby Kuntz, drums What Justice Looks Like

Ingrid Kammen, soprano Robin Redbreast

William West, piccolo

Eve Beglarian, voice Intermission

Light Up Your Face

Thomas Quinn, actor

William Hudson, tenor

Thomas Bravos, piano On the Battlefield

David Vayo, keyboard harmonica

Eve Beglarian, narrator Testy Pony

Chaepter Negro, violoncello

Eve Beglarian, narrator Einhorn

Jessica Pearce, horn Night Psalm

David Vayo, piano The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Alexa Letourneau, flute Michael Minarcek, percussion Ryan Donlin, electric guitar Stephanie Gerace, oboe Mark Mathison, bassoon Shireen Hassan, soprano sax Mitchell Galgan, bass Andrew Voelker, piano Celia Williams, soprano Lev Ivanov, conductor

• Following the program, the audience is invited to a reception in the Presser Hall reception room, courtesy of Sigma Alpha Iota This program was made possible with the support of the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

Special thanks to Thomas Quinn Chair, School of Theatre Arts Greta Franklin, Director, Office of Diversity and Inclusion Mario Pelusi, Director, School of Music Jay Langhoff, Physical Plant Michael Limacher, Thorpe Digital Center Ed Risinger, Technical Coordinator, School of Music School of Music Stage Crew and Recording Crew Cady Williamson, clerical assistant to the New Music Series director This program is presented as part of the IWU New Music Series.

To receive email notifications of future New Music Series events, contact David Vayo, Series director: dvayo@iwu.edu.

The New Music Series Facebook address is https://www.facebook.com/IWUNewMusicSeries/

A Note from the Symposium Director

I met Eve Beglarian three decades ago, when we both took part in June in Buffalo, a long-lived and life-changing program for young composers at SUNY Buffalo. As soon as I heard Eve’s music, it struck me that here was a composer whose music corresponded directly with her personality: both were friendly, funky, intelligent and good-humored.

In the intervening years Eve has steadily produced a wealth of music reflecting an open-minded and open-hearted involvement with the world. Tonight’s concert is a product of Eve’s wide-ranging curiosity and appreciation, qualities that a liberal-arts school like Illinois Wesleyan considers to be the core of a truly educated person. The program demonstrates Eve’s engagement with poetry, video art, theatre, history, and social justice, just a few of the many fields of endeavor with which her music interfaces.

A versatile musician, Eve has expertise in composition, singing, and electronic media, all of which will be highlighted onstage. So will her inspiring fearlessness: in her use of whatever style or aesthetic best serves the artistic end, and in her willingness to be artistically vulnerable (whether through unguarded expressiveness or great simplicity, neither of which leaves anything to hide behind). That same commitment to opening up our humane essence drives Eve’s work to expand the reach of concert music beyond the traditional “boxes” (concert halls, theatres, galleries) and into the larger world; we’ll hear more about her work in this area, with discussions of parallel developments in other arts, during the afternoon panel discussion.

— David Vayo

Eve Beglarian

According to the Los Angeles Times, composer and performer Eve Beglarian “is a humane, idealistic rebel and a musical sensualist.” She has been awarded the 2015 Robert Rauschenberg Prize from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for her “innovation, risk-taking, and experimentation.”

Beglarian’s current projects include Lighten Up, a multimedia musictheater piece about visionary visual artists in America; the long-term undertaking A Book of Days, text/music/visuals, one for each day of the year; and Brim, the ensemble and repertoire she has created in response to her 2009 journey down the Mississippi River by kayak and bicycle.

Beglarian’s chamber, choral, and orchestral music has been commissioned and widely performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the American Composers Orchestra, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the California EAR Unit, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Relâche, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Sequitur, loadbang, the Guidonian Hand, Newspeak, the Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble and individual performers including Maya Beiser, Sarah Cahill, Lauren Flanigan, Marya Martin, and Mary Rowell.

Highlights of Beglarian’s work in music theater includes music for Mabou Mines’ Obie-winning Dollhouse, Animal Magnetism, Ecco Porco, Choephorai, and Shalom Shanghai, all directed by Lee Breuer; Forgiveness, a collaboration with Chen Shi-Zheng and Noh master Akira Matsui; and the China National Beijing Opera Theater’s production of The Bacchae, also directed by Chen Shi-Zheng.

She has collaborated with choreographers including Ann Carlson, Robert LaFosse, Victoria Marks, Susan Marshall, David Neumann, Megan Williams, and Take Ueyama, and with visual and video artists including Cory Arcangel, Anne Bray, Vittoria Chierici, Barbara Hammer, Kevork Mourad, Shirin Neshat, Matt Petty, Bradley Wester, and Judson Wright.

Performance projects include Brim, Songs from a Book of Days, The Story of B, Open Secrets, Hildegurls’ Ordo Virtutum, twisted tutu, and typOpera.

Recordings of Eve’s music are available on ECM, Koch, New World, Canteloupe, Innova, Naxos, Kill Rock Stars, CDBaby, and Bandcamp.

For more information about Eve Beglarian, please visit www.evbvd.com.

Symposium of Contemporary Music Guest Composers • Performers • Scholars 1952-2016 1952: Earl George, Grant Fletcher, Burrill Phillips 1953: Anthony Donato, Homer Keller 1954: Normand Lockwood, Robert Palmer 1955: Wallingford Riegger, Peter Mennin 1956: Hunter Johnson, Ulysses Kay 1957: Ernst Krenek, William Bergsma 1958: Aaron Copland 1959: Paul Pisk, George Rochberg 1960: Roy Harris 1962: Robert Erickson, George Rochberg, Glenn Glasow 1963: Robert Wykes, Alabama String Quartet 1964: Robert Wykes, E. J. Ulrich, Salvatore Martirano, Herbert Brün, Ben Johnston 1966: Louis Coyner, Edwin Harkins, Philip Winsor, Edwin London 1967: Frederick Tillis, George Crumb 1968: Iain Hamilton 1969: The Loop Group, DePaul University 1970: Halim El-Dabh, Olly Wilson 1971: Edward J. Miller 1972: Stravinsky Memorial Concert 1973: Courtney Cox, Phil Wilson 1974: Scott Huston 1975: David Ward-Steinman 1976: Donald Erb 1977: Lou Harrison, Ezra Sims 1978: M. William Karlins 1979: Leonard B. Meyer 1981: Walter S. Hartley 1982: David Ward-Steinman 1983: George Crumb Concert 1984: Robert Bankert, Abram M. Plum, R. Bedford Watkins 1985: Michael Schelle 1986: Jean Eichelberger Ivey 1987: Jan Bach

1988: John Beall 1989: Hale Smith 1990: Karel Husa 1991: Alice Parker 1993: (Spring) Alexander Aslamazov 1993: (Fall) Leslie Bassett, John Crawford (Society of Composers, Inc. Region 5 Conference) 1995: David Diamond 1996: Morton Gould Memorial Concert 1997: Joseph Schwantner 1998: Arvo Pärt 1999: John Corigliano 2000: Libby Larsen 2001: William Bolcom, Joan Morris 2002: Present Music 2003: Mario Lavista, Carmen Helena Téllez 2004: Louis Andriessen, James Quandt, Monica Germino,Cristina Zavalloni 2005: Vince Mendoza 2006: New York New Music Ensemble 2007: Stephen Paulus 2008: (Spring) Roderik de Man,

Annelie de Man (Amsterdam) 2008: (Fall) John Sharpley,

Orchid Ensemble 2009: ONIX (Mexico City) 2011: Yang Xiaozhong, Song Mingzhu, Zhou Tianli (Sichuan Conservatory of Music) 2012: (Spring) Shulamit Ran 2012: (Fall) Chinary Ung, Susan Ung, Adam Greene, Stacey Fraser, Jocelyn Chang 2014: John Daversa 2015: Fifth House Ensemble 2016: (Spring): Kyle Gann 2016: (Fall): Eve Beglarian