ArtPower at UC San Diego presents performing arts that engage, energize, and transform the diverse cultural life of the university and San Diego.
Through vibrant, challenging, multi-disciplinary performances, ArtPower seeks to develop more empathetic students and community members who are better prepared to engage in the world around them through their participation in highquality artistic, educational, and engagement programs that broaden thinking and awareness, deepen understanding, and encourage new dialogues across UC San Diego and the community.
OUR IMPACT
• ArtPower brings artists from around the world into UC San Diego classrooms
• ArtPower provides students with free artist master classes
• ArtPower integrates artist-led discussions into on-campus curricula.
ArtPower presents
Leilehua Lanzilotti and Argus Quartet
March 9, 2023 at 8 pm
Mandeville Auditorium
Argus Quartet
Program
Leilehua Lanzilotti (b. 1983)
ko'u inoa (2017)
solo viola
Lanzilotti the space in which to see (2019)
string quartet
inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993)
mayu: the great river (2021)
string quartet
Lanzilotti
ahupua'a (2022)
string quartet
Mariel Roberts (b. 1987) circumvolution (2023)
string quartet
figgis-vizueta
talamh (land) (2020)
string quartet
Lanzilotti
beyond the accident of time (2019) five voices/percussion
About the Program
ko'u inoa (2017) by Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti
Described as "a homesick bariolage based on the anthem Hawai'i Aloha," ko'u inoa exists in several forms. Lanzilotti began composing the original solo viola work by playing the anthem in Germany to feel closer to home, taking time to explore the soothing melody, and feeling the resonant vibrations of home through the fingers on strings. Since premiering the work in 2017, ko'u inoa has found continuing international life in solo violin and solo cello incarnations, often in the hands of fellow Hawai'i-born artists who also feel the homeward calling. The orchestra version on this program is scored for flute, English horn, bassoon, horn, timpani, and strings.
The work extensively uses bariolage, a string technique where notes rapidly alternate between fingered pitch and open strings, creating subtle shifts in timbre, an effect of creating different vowel sounds. . . . the bariolage alternates between the open C-string and its fingered octave. Immediately meditative and focused, the music embraces stasis, being rooted.
ko'u inoa translates from 'ōlelo Hawai'i to "my name is" and frames a perspective and statement to absorb the meaning of identity. Melody is the most substantial element to impart musical distinction and identity. A succession of pitches is the equivalent of letters to a name. Even when the rhythm is altered, the original melody lingers and is recognizable. This connection between pitch, melody, time, and personal identity is one of many metaphors at the heart of this music.
Gradually, Hawai'i Aloha (in the key of C-major) ebbs and flows from and through the texture, then recedes into an oceanic bariolage. . . . The anthem's presentation is not immediately recognizable. Lanzilotti removes the melody's rhythm, extracting just the pitch (not including repeated notes), and spaces them widely apart across the bariolage, a musical quilt of sorts; the tune sewn into the fabric. Lingering on each note, there is a comfort to be taken, a curated sonic pool to explore, feel, and embrace the meaning of these individual notes to the whole, at first far apart, then closer together.
For five minutes, ko'u inoa invites us to listen on three planes: to listen closely (focus on immediate changes), listen broadly (connect changes over time), and listen metaphorically (distill meaning from sound). If there is an allegory in music, this is a well-spring; Lanzilotti offers the awakened Hawaiian consciousness, a journey of one distantly far from home but connected with resounding clarity.
Hawai'i Aloha, usually performed at the end of concerts, offers the audience a parting gesture of farewell to sing as one, to be a community connected. When ko'u inoa is performed as a concert opener, the anthem becomes a welcoming gesture rooted in the Kanaka Maoli protocols of first contact; to introduce who you are. . . . As listeners, the invitation stands to meditate on our identity, discover meaning in the melody of our name, and feel rooted and connected to the place we call home.
— Program notes by Michael-Thomas Foumai, originally written for the orchestral premiere of ko'u inoa, April 2022
the space in which to see (2019) by Lanzilotti
the space in which to see draws from a text by Layli Long Soldier. Long Soldier, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work often explores her own indigenous identity. The way Long Soldier uses the concept of “place” and “space” resonated with me as I turned the poem around in my hands and my head. Each movement takes one edge of the poem and presses up against it, amplifying the text or reacting to it. I am grateful to Long Soldier and Graywolf Press for letting me use her text in this work. — Lanzilotti
Commissioned by Johanna Lundy for the Borderlands Ensemble
Excerpt from “He Sápa” from WHEREAS. Copyright © 2017 by Layli Long Soldier. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, www. graywolfpress.org.
mayu: the great river (2021) by inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993)
mayu (the great river) is inspired by Andean cosmologies and the complex, regenerative relationships between the Yana Phuyu (dark cloud constellations inside the Great Rift) and their earthly counterparts. The seasonal appearances of these celestial animals such as the serpent, partridge, and toad, in silhouette against the Milky Way, reflect their appearances and behaviors in the Andes. Inspired by this interconnectivity of the heavens and earth, mayu (the great river) works as a set of dynamic ecosystems whose overlapping transformations, shared musical materials, and constellatory notations facilitate the creation of a living, breathing music. — figgis-vizueta
ahupua'a (2022) by Lanzilotti [ world premiere tour ]
The subject of the new work is the Hawaiian concept of ahupua'a—land division centered around community needs. — Lanzilotti
This performance was supported by a National Performance Network (NPN) Artist Engagement Fund, with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit www.npnweb.org.
Co-commissioned by Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, sponsored by Leslie Tolbert & Paul St John; and as a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project by Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Newman Center for the Performing Arts at University of Denver, ArtPower at UC San Diego, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org // The audio & video recording, as well as costuming for “Storytelling Ahupua'a” is a National Performance Network (NPN) Documentation & Storytelling Fund Project supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Circumvolution (2023) by Mariel Roberts (b. 1987)
Circumvolution explores the deep way a string quartet communicates, and how interconnected and fused it can be as a sonic unit. The word circumvolution describes the winding (and unwinding) of one thing around another- this can be a material, a personal relationship, a harmony, or a timbre. The piece is built on two types of this dynamic. One most closely resembles waves on the ocean, in that the players move in seemingly regular rhythmic and melodic motion, yet this always creates a slightly (or dramatically) different harmonic result. In the second type of winding the players move in pairs, taking different paths, but continue to end up in the same place. Circumvolution was written for Argus Quartet and premiered at Miller Theatre at Columbia University in January 2023
talamh (land) (2020) by figgis-vizueta
Talamh (land) comes from old Irish and is one of the three fundamental spaces of their cosmology: nem-talamh-muir : the sky, the earth, the sea. This work explores distinct and connected sonic landscapes, using structure and ensemble interactivity to foreground individual choices in pitch, registration, and timbre. It’s a way for me to connect to home and recall many of the rich and magical mountains, streams, and forests I walked through
with my papa, Peter, in Ireland since very young. — figgis-vizueta
beyond the accident of time (2019) by Lanzilotti
This work honors Isamu Noguchi’s never fully-realized Bell Tower for Hiroshima, 1950 (partially reconstructed 1986). The original bell used for the first movement is Noguchi’s Bell Image (1956–57). The original bells used in the last movement are custom-made oversized sleigh bells—Slay Bells by Adam Morford of Morfbeats—two 6”, two 5” and one 4” in diameter.
The premiere was part of a concert in celebration of the exhibition Changing and Unchanging Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan. As a whole, the works on the concert titled Changing and Unchanging Sound, considered being open or closed, amplifying the sentiment of Noguchi and Hasegawa’s conversations about cultural exchanges. In working through sonic and visual forms of how things break up and how they’re put back together, the works on the concert all explore questions about what it is to be human, living in uncertainty and growing after destruction. “Lanzilotti’s score brings us together across the world in remembrance, through the commitment of shared sonic gestures.” (Cities & Health)
This score was created for the premiere to give the performers specific guidelines for the bells chosen for this musical reconstruction. Noguchi imagined the bells for Bell Tower for Hiroshima coming from all over the world. In my piece, I interpret the sculpture not as a physical object that would be built in Hiroshima, but as a sonic concept that could be recreated by bells around the world. As we listen and recreate this space for reflection, we honor and remember what the sculpture represents. This score is only a starting point. — Lanzilotti
Commissioned by The Noguchi Museum
About the Artists
The Argus Quartet’s “vivacious foursome” (New Yorker) is committed to bringing thoughtful and personal programs to both seasoned listeners and audiences new to classical music. The Quartet enjoys projects that celebrate collaboration, community, and risk-taking in venues of all shapes and sizes. Praised for playing with “supreme melodic control and total authority” and “decided dramatic impact” (Calgary Herald), Argus has quickly emerged as one of today’s most dynamic and versatile ensembles. Formed in Los Angeles in 2013, the Quartet has performed in some of the country’s most prestigious venues and festivals, including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Chamber Music Society of Detroit, the Ravinia Festival, the Albany Symphony’s American Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West. In 2017, Argus won First Prize at both the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition.
inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993) is a New York-based composer who captures the sounds of the magically real, braiding a childhood of overlapping immigrant communities and Blackfounded Freedom schools—in Chocolate City (DC)—with direct Andean & Irish heritage and a deep connection to the land. inti is the recipient of the National Sawdust Hildegard Award, The ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award, and fellowships from Dumbarton Oaks,
the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and the American Composers Orchestra. Upcoming ‘23–24 commissions include a new piano concerto for Conrad Tao & the Cincinnati Symphony, conducted by Matthias Pintscher; ensemble works for Roomful of Teeth, New World Symphony, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, Ensemble Reflektor, and string quartets for the Kronos Quartet, Cramer Quartet, and The Rhythm Method. The Washington Post says “her music feels sprouted between structures, liberated from certainty and wrought from a language we’d do well to learn.”
Leilehua Lanzilotti is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) composer/sound artist dedicated to the arts of our time. A "leading composer-performer" (New York Times), Lanzilotti’s work is characterized by explorations of timbre and an interest in translating everyday sounds to concert instruments using nontraditional techniques. Her musical voice is grounded in experimental practices, both through influences as part of the network of musicians / artists in the Wandelweiser collective, and her own explorations into radical indigenous contemporaneity. Lanzilotti was honored to be a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her string orchestra piece, with eyes the color of time, which the Pulitzer committee called, “a vibrant composition . . . that distinctly combines experimental string textures and episodes of melting lyricism.”
Mariel Roberts is widely recognized not just for her virtuosic performances, but as a “fearless explorer” in her field (Chicago Reader). Her ravenous appetite for collaboration and experimentation as an interpreter, improvisor, and composer have helped create a body of work which bridges avant-garde, contemporary, classical, improvised, and traditional music. Roberts is widely recognized for her “technical and interpretive mastery” (I care if you listen) and for performances which seethe with “excruciating intensity” (The Whole Note). Roberts' compositions have been performed at venues such as Merkin Hall and Miller Theater in New York City. Roberts’s 2017 album Cartography (2017), solidified Roberts' position as “one of the most adventurous figures on New York’s new music scene—one with a thorough grounding in classical tradition but a ravenous appetite for and tireless discipline in new work.” (Bandcamp).
