EMERGE Coalition Digital Program

Celebrating local dance, theatre and art in the Dallas Arts District.

EMERGE Coalition, Inc. Presents

Featuring members of The Julius Quartet and Guest Artists

May 23 – 25, 2024

A NEW ERA OF LEGROOM AND LUXURY FOR ALL

The Dallas–Fort Worth Lexus dealers are proud to be the O cial Vehicle Sponsors of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and its resident companies. Through this dynamic partnership, Lexus is committed to supporting the Center and its Dallas Arts District neighbors in establishing Dallas as one of the world’s premier destinations to experience the performing and visual arts.

THE THREE-ROW LEXUS TX

Dallas Fort Worth

SEWELL LEXUS

Plano

Grapevine

PARK PLACE LEXUS

PROGRAM

A SONG OF OUR WARMING PLANET – Daniel Crawford for Solo Cello

SUMMER DANCES (VASARAS DEJAS) – Pēteris Vasks for two violins

I. Plasi, Skanigi

II. Razkuru Izcelot

III. Nesteidzot

IV. Energiski

V. Skumji

VI. Priekpilni

VII. Plasi, Skanigi

INTERMISSION

FEET OF CLAY [RE] THE FOUR SEASONS – Jesus J. Martinez

*World Premiere* for String Quartet and Clay Pots

I. Clay and Dust

II. Spring

III. Summer

IV. Autumn

V. Winter

THE EVERGREEN – Caroline Shaw for String Quartet

I. Moss

II. Stem

III. Water

IV. Root

PROGRAM NOTES

A SONG OF OUR WARMING PLANET

Daniel Crawford turns 133 years of climate change data into a solo cello work. Crawford based his composition on surface temperature data from NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies. The temperature data were mapped over a range of three octaves, with the coldest year on record (–0.47 °C in 1909) set to the lowest note on the cello (open C). Each ascending halftone is equal to roughly 0.03°C of planetary warming.

In Crawford’s composition, each note represents a year, ordered from 1880 to 2012. The pitch reflects the average temperature of the planet relative to the 1951–80 base line. Low notes represent relatively cool years, while high notes signify relatively warm ones. - Todd Reubold, writer – Ensia, June 28, 2013

(Published at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment). Ensia is a solutions-focused media outlet reporting on our changing planet.

FEET OF CLAY

World Premiere

Commissioned by EMERGE Coalition, Inc. and The Julius Quartet for their program, EVERGREEN [to grow] as part of the 2023-2024 season of the Elevator Project at the AT&T Performing Arts Center, May 23 – 25, 2024.

Feet of Clay is a piece is in five movements, composed for string quartet and tuned clay pots. Each quartet member will have four hanging clay pots that they will strike throughout the 20-minute work. Feet of Clay is a reimagining of Antonio Vivaldi’s quintessential work for strings The Four Seasons , and features four of its most well-known themes and quotes throughout the work. Feet of Clay is a modernized arrangement and composition based on those themes. The term “Feet of Clay,” refers to a weakness or character flaw by someone or something we greatly admire.

As EMERGE’s third season We Make the World closes with EVERGREEN [to grow], it was my thought that Feet of Clay is a reference to humanity’s inner weakness towards our handling of the earth’s climate.

- Jesus J. Martinez, March 2024

THE EVERGREEN

Commissioned by Third Angle New Music

Bravo! Vail Music Festival

Ragazze Quartet

Coretet

with generous underwriting from Robert and Barbara Bragonier

Judith Farmer and Gernot Wolfgang

Sherrilyn January and Eric Johnson

Diane and Craig Martin

Donna Morton

Grace Morton

Jess Morton

Laura and James Myers

Andrew Paroczai

Robin and Jim Paterson

Laureen Primmer

David Quadhamer

Justus and Elizabeth Schlichting

Irene Steinman

Mike Vaccaro

Red Winter

Yarlung Artists

Akiko Kimura and Brian Wild

Lewis Morton and Pirjo Syväoja

David and Julie Machado

One day in January 2020, I took a walk in an evergreen forest on Swiikw (Galiano Island), British Columbia, Canada. I found myself slowing down. My steps were shorter, less frequent. I stopped trying to get to my destination with any real intention or speed. Eventually I stopped moving altogether. I looked, and listened, and felt and smelled and breathed. Like a thousand thousand creatures before me there, some of them also human, I paused and wondered and thought, “There’s wisdom in these trees.” It’s been said before in ways more eloquent and complex than my little story here. Still.

This piece, The Evergreen , is my offering to one particular tree in that forest. I started writing music years ago as gifts for people (whether they knew it or not), or as companions to a piece of art or food or idea. It was a way of having someone hold my hand through the writing process, a kind of invisible friend to guide me through. This tree is towering, craggy, warped and knotted, wrapped in soft green, standing silently in a small clearing where the shadows are more generous to the narrow streams of sunlight that try to speak up in late morning. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure that it’s still alive, or that it’s not actually an ancient deciduous tree that has tacitly agreed to be covered in moss. But still, it feels like an evergreen friend, and so I wrote some music for it and called it The Evergreen. For the soft moss that covers it, for its strong stem that reaches up, for the gentle chaos of dripping water that surrounds it, and for the roots below, ever seeking and nourishing and building. – Caroline Shaw, March 2020

ARTIST BIOS

Eleanor Dunbar, Violin

Violinist Eleanor Dunbar is a versatile and commanding artist with experience as a chamber musician, soloist, and concertmaster. A graduate of Southern Methodist University, she earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance under the direction of Emanuel Borok, longtime concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops. During her time at SMU,

Eleanor was awarded the prestigious Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award given to an outstanding music major each year.

A native of California, Eleanor started her studies young. Under the tutelage of Gail Gerding Mellert, she began competing locally and nationally. At sixteen, she began her undergraduate studies at SMU in Dallas. During her time there, she founded a string quartet with whom she regularly continues to play today, nearly a decade later. The Cézanne Quartet went on to be the first recipient of the Peak Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence at SMU, a two-year residency presenting concerts and community outreach. Eleanor has been honored to share the stage with incredible artists such as Andrés Diaz, Roberto Diaz, Emanuel Borok, Glenn Dicterow, Escher String Quartet, Chee-Yun Kim, Lucille Chung, Aviram Reichart, David Benoit, Vanessa Williams, and more. She continues to perform throughout the country presenting solo recitals and projects, and performing alongside her Cézanne colleagues. Eleanor plays a Joseph Anthony Chanot instrument made in London, England 1896.

David Do, Violin

David Do is the second violinist of The Julius Quartet and has appeared as an international soloist at the Chichibu International Music Festival in Japan, performing with the Chichibu Festival Orchestra. Furthermore, he has also performed as a soloist with various orchestras in the Northern California region, including in a commissioned work by Kerry Lewis with the San Jose Youth Chamber Orchestra where he also served as concertmaster. As a passionate chamber musician, David has participated in various chamber music festivals and concerts such as St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, McGill International String Quartet Academy, Banff Centre Chamber Music Residency Program, Tanglewood String Quartet Seminar, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, and the Worcester Chamber Music Society Summer Festival.

Do is a graduate of The Boston Conservatory where he studied with Markus Placci and received an Artist Diploma from the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University (New Jersey) where he worked with Yi-Wen Jiang, the renowned second violinist of the Shanghai Quartet. Prior to his conservatory career, David began his formal training at San Francisco Conservatory’s Preparatory Division studying with Doris Fukawa. Most

recently, as part of the Peak Fellowship, David served as an Assistant Chamber Music Coach at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.

John Batchelder, Viola

Praised for his “persuasively emphatic and engaging” performances (Boston Musical Intelligencer), violist John Batchelder has captivated audiences as a passionate chamber musician, educator and administrator deeply committed to the values of chamber music. He has performed as soloist with numerous ensembles such as the Hemenway Strings, Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Arlington, Garland Symphony Orchestra and Worcester Bach Consort, as well as participated in various summer festivals and masterclasses, such as McGill International String Quartet Academy, Banff Centre Masterclasses, St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, Meadowmount School of Music, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, and Music from Salem (Salem, NY). As a member of the award-winning The Julius Quartet, John has performed in venerated venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Bargemusic, Moss Arts Center, Shalin Liu Performance Center, and Bing Concert Hall.

As a fervent chamber musician, John has collaborated with numerous artists such as Aaron Boyd, Joseph Silverstein, Andrés Cárdenes, Andrés Díaz and members of the St. Lawrence, Escher, Shanghai, Baumer, and Lydian Quartets. In 2011, he was a winner of the Davis Projects for Peace Grant for his program designed to help, encourage and teach music to the young children of the favelas of Natal, Brazil. Beginning his musical education in Boston, John is a graduate of Boston Conservatory at Berklee (Boston, MA) where he studied with Lila Brown, and of the John J. Cali School of Music Graduate String Quartet in Residence program where he studied with Honggang Li of the celebrated Shanghai Quartet. During the quartet’s tenure as the Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence at the Meadows School of Music at Southern Methodist University, he served as an Assistant Chamber Music Coach at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. In addition to his work as a performer and educator, John now serves as Executive Director of the Dallas Chamber Music Society, celebrating 79 years of presenting the world’s most esteemed chamber music ensembles. John performs on a viola crafted

by Michele Deconet (Venice, 1780) that was previously played by Boris Kroyt of the Budapest String Quartet, loaned to him in memory of Boris and Sonya Kroyt.

SaiSai, Cello

Born in Shanghai China, SaiSai studied with Mr. Song Xie and Ms. Zhou Yi at the age of 6, and performed with both the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Saratov Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Russia at the age of 9.

After living in the US for 2 years, he held his first recital during the summer of 2014 in Richardson, TX. During this time, SaiSai studied with Ko Iwasaki. In 2015, He received the grand prize of the Collin County Young Artist Competition, the Vernell Gregg Young Artists Competition, the Fort Worth Symphony Young Artist Competition, Schoenfeld International String Competition Best Commission Prize and, in turn, had the privilege of playing solos with all of the Orchestras. He was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in 2019.

Upon graduation, SaiSai, who believes in paying it forward, was excited and honored to play 12 additional solos with the Plano Symphony Orchestra at the Eisemann Center for over 12,000 children from the DFW Metroplex. SaiSai is a graduate student at Southern Methodist University, and studying with Andrés Diaz.

Jesus Martinez, Resident Composer and Executive Director

A Texas native with a master’s degree in Music Composition from Southern Methodist University, Jesus Martinez has served as Composer-in-Residence for both the Alabama Orchestra Association and the Irving Symphony Orchestra. He has scored award-winning films and the Texas State Legislature issued a resolution in his name to honor his world premiere of Threnody for 9/11 for Mixed Chamber Ensemble.

Martinez previously composed The Sixth Floor, which premiered at the 30th anniversary of The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on February 18, 2019. In November 2019, Martinez was commissioned by The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza to compose a film score for the 16-minute film compilation of familiar and seldom seen footage. The score 3 Hours in Dallas, was performed live to the film by the Sam Houston High School

Percussion Ensemble on the eve of the 56th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Jesus’s work The Monarch Migration was commissioned and premiered by The Julius Quartet in February 2023 with three performances at the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s 2022-2023 season of the Elevator Project series.

Jesus recently premiered Echoes from a Memory, commissioned by The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. The two-night premiere was performed on November 16 and 18, 2023 on the 7th floor of The Sixth Floor Museum.

Jesus is a three-time quarterfinalist for the GRAMMY Music Educator Award presented by The Recording Academy/Grammy Awards. Jesus is a member of TMEA, PAS, CMA, and ASCAP and serves on the PAS Composition Committee. Jesus’s work, The Sixth Floor, was released on The Julius Quartet’s album Unspoken in October 2023. Jesus is the co-founder and Executive Director of EMERGE Coalition, Inc. a 501(c)(3) nonprofit performing arts organization in Dallas, TX, dedicated to the performance and expansion of contemporary music across the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Jesus is also a Vic Firth education artist. Jesus resides in Lewisville, TX with his wife Sarah and son Aiden.

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