2021/22 SEASON JESSIE MONTGOMERY MEAD COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE Monday, November 1, 2021, at 7:00 Orchestra Hall, Symphony Center
HOMECOMING Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Michael Lewanski Conductor Whitney Morrison Soprano
Major support for CSO MusicNOW is generously provided by the Zell Family Foundation, Cindy Sargent, the Sally Mead Hands Foundation, and the Julian Family Foundation. This concert is part of 2021: Year of Chicago Music
Elijah Daniel Smith
Scions of an Atlas (2021) World premiere, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through the Helen Zell Commissioning Program for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, two violins, viola, cello, and bass
Michael Lewanski Conductor Elijah Daniel Smith on Scions of an Atlas Scions of an Atlas exists somewhere on the historical continuum of the concerto form, but where exactly it is on that continuum is deliberately unclear. Similar to a baroque concerto grosso, musical material and themes are passed between various subgroups of the ensemble; but more akin to a twentieth- or twenty-first century concerto for orchestra, each of the piece’s three movements highlights a different subgroup within the
ensemble. The piece has also adopted the prototypical fast-slow-fast attacca structure which is often associated with a traditional concerto for soloist and orchestra. However, rather than focusing on any one player’s technical and musical virtuosity (although there is plenty to be found here), the work focuses on the ensemble’s collective virtuosity paired with the remarkable impression that a group of musicians playing aggressive yet precise material leaves on one’s memory. During the process of composing this work, I had a collection of books covering instrumental techniques, woodwind multiphonics, harmonic spectra, and tuning systems constantly strewn across the floor of my workspace. This image bears subtle resemblance to the practice of consulting atlases and maps prior to embarking upon a journey, and I came to regard these books as musical descendants of atlases, helping me plot a course through my own creation.
Jessie Montgomery
Loisaida, My Love (2016) for soprano and cello
Whitney Morrison Soprano Jessie Montgomery on Loisaida, My Love I have recently been writing music that is inspired by my upbringing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Bimbo Rivas was a Puerto Rican–born poet, activist, and community builder who became a hero of the Lower East Side as a leader in the affordable
housing development projects that shaped our community in the 1970s and ’80s and brought it out of the ashes of neglect and decay that had taken over in the previous decades. Loisaida, My Love is an ode to the community he loved and fought for throughout most of his adult life. I have set this poem to music in tribute to Rivas, who fostered my upbringing in immeasurable ways. Permission to use the text is courtesy of Bimbo Rivas’s daughter, Sandra Rivas.
Jessie Montgomery
Lunar Songs (2021) for soprano, violin, viola, cello, and bass
Whitney Morrison Soprano
Jessie Montgomery on Lunar Songs Lunar Songs was commissioned by ASCAP for the Leonard Bernstein Centennial in 2019. The text by poet and writer J. Mae Barizo pays tribute to Bernstein’s iconic persona, his love for New York City, and his desire for human progress. The music is inspired by German art song and features polyrhythmic overlays and tone painting.
Nathalie Joachim
Seen (2021) for woodwind quintet
Nathalie Joachim on Seen This work, commissioned by the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., is inspired by the Kin series of visual artist Whitfield Lovell, which depicts beautiful individual portraits of unknown African Americans with ordinary, everyday objects. Written for the renowned woodwind quintet Imani Winds, this piece draws inspiration from ordinary objects
in those musicians’ own lives, past and present. Much like Lovellʼs drawings, the work—a series of five short musical portraits—strives to present each player and object on the basis of their immediacy. What you hear is what they each offered me in conversation, which also plays into a double language, literally and figuratively. Each portrait alludes to a secondary consciousness. My hope is to give every listener an opportunity to make sense of a small piece of a stranger’s past.
Ted Hearne
Authority (2019, rev. 2021) for flute (doubling alto flute), oboe, clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), horn, harp, piano, electric guitar, percussion, violin, viola, cello, and keyboard
Michael Lewanski Conductor Ted Hearne on Authority This piece is played without pause. Some movements are overlaid on top of one another; at times different groups of instruments may be playing two movements simultaneously, and at times groups of musicians may be playing at different tempi. The conductor may attempt to control the flow of activity by setting tempi and cueing entrances and other significant events, but some sections of music will need to be played without assistance from the conductor. The control over how and from whom this
music moves should be passed back and forth like a dance. This music is inspired by: - the impulse to strive for or achieve authority - the impulse to conflate authority and power - the belief in objectivity that would make the existence of true authority possible - any claim toward authority or objectivity - systems of control and subjugation of viewpoints that are founded on such claims, from the governmental to the pedagogical to the musical - multiple viewpoints, multiple realities Authority was written for Ensemble Dal Niente in a commission made possible by the Barlow Endowment, and premiered in 2019 at Constellation in Chicago.
Composer Profiles Chicago native elijah daniel smith is quickly establishing himself as one of today’s leading young composers. From orchestral compositions to multimedia and interdisciplinary collaborations, Smith’s affinity for dense and complex textures, rhythmic ambiguity and fluidity, and rich gravitational harmonies shines through in all of his creations. His music has been premiered and performed by world-renowned ensembles such as Mivos Quartet, Sō Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, Contemporaneous, Ensemble Linea, Ecce Ensemble, Fuse Quartet, and Earspace. Upcoming commissions include new works for the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Bergamot Quartet, saxophonist Julian Velasco on behalf of Luminarts Cultural Foundation, and a collaboration with New York–based electric guitar quartet DITHER. Elijah Daniel Smith is currently pursuing his doctorate in music composition at Princeton University as a President’s Fellow. He earned a bachelor of music degree in music composition from the Boston Conservatory in 2017 and a master of music degree in music composition from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in 2020. elijahdanielsmith.com
jessie montgomery is an
acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator whose music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of twenty-first century American sound and experience. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works have been hailed as turbulent, wildly colorful, and exploding with life. Recent highlights include Five Freedom Songs (2021), a song cycle conceived with and written for soprano Julia Bullock; Shift, Change, Turn (2019), commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; and Coincident Dances (2018), written for the Chicago Sinfonietta. Since 1999, Montgomery has been affiliated with the Sphinx Organization, which supports young African American and Latinx string players. She has also served as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and a former member of the Catalyst Quartet, Montgomery holds degrees from the Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a doctoral candidate in music composition at Princeton University. She is professor of violin and composition at the New School. In July 2021, she began her three-year appointment as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence.
n ath a lie joachim is a Grammy Award–nominated flutist, composer, and vocalist. The Haitian American artist is cofounder of the critically acclaimed urban art pop duo Flutronix. Upcoming world premieres include Joachim’s first-ever symphonic and choral work, commissioned by the St. Louis Symphony and the In Unison Chorus; new chamber works for Roomful of Teeth and Sō Percussion; a youth education piece for Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute; and a work for vocalist Pamela Z with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Joachim’s debut solo album, Fanm d’Ayiti with the Spektral Quartet, received a Grammy Award nomination for Best World Music Album, and in 2020, she released the album Transformation, a collaboration with students at Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School High School. Joachim is a United States Artist Fellow, an artistic partner with the Oregon Symphony, and a creative associate at the Juilliard School. nathaliejoachim.com
Chicago native ted hearne is a composer, singer, bandleader, and recording artist. Inspired by the overlay of different viewpoints and their sonic possibilities, he creates multi-dimensional works that often explore unconventional interactions of text and music, and are rooted in a spirit of inquiry. Hearne’s Sound From the Bench, a piece for choir, electric guitars, and drums about corporate personhood that sets texts from U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments, was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. His work Place, written with poet Saul Williams and director Patricia McGregor, was nominated for two 2021 Grammy awards and named a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize. Hearne’s ongoing collaboration with legendary musician Erykah Badu pairs new music with arrangements of Badu’s works for orchestra, most recently presented with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. His album The Source sets the words of former U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning alongside classified documents from U.S. Department of Defense cables that she was responsible for leaking to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Upcoming collaborations include a new work with poet Dorothea Lasky to be presented at Carnegie Hall, a new theatrical piece with Daniel Fish for Komische Oper Berlin, and a new orchestral project with performance artist and singer-songwriter Taylor Mac. tedhearne.com
jessiemontgomery.com PH OTO S BY CO L IN M O HR, TOD D ROSENBERG, JOSUÉ A ZOR, JEN ROS EN STEI N
Artist Profiles Conductor, educator, and writer michael lewanski is a champion of new and old music. His work seeks to facilitate engaged connections between audiences, musicians, and the music that is part of their culture. Based in Chicago, he is conductor of Ensemble Dal Niente and associate professor of instrumental ensembles at the DePaul University School of Music. His work fosters a critical perspective towards the classical music industry’s historical injustices with hopes for collective, systemic change. He is curatorial director of Ear Taxi Festival 2021, which celebrates twenty-first century Chicago music. His guest-conducting has included work with Lyric Opera of Chicago (Lyric Unlimited), Civic Orchestra of Chicago, CSO MusicNOW, the Toledo Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Turkmenistan, Ensamble CEPROMUSIC (Mexico City), and Mocrep, among others. He was resident conductor of the soundSCAPE Festival in 2017 and 2019. Lewanski’s extensive discography includes recordings with Ensemble Dal Niente and others. A native of Savannah, Georgia, he studied piano and violin; he began conducting at age thirteen. At sixteen, he was the youngest-ever student in the legendary Ilya Musin’s class at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He attended Yale University, and subsequently studied conducting with Cliff Colnot and Lucas Vis.
Soprano whitney morrison is a champion of the African American aesthetic in classical music, embracing a style of performance that blends classical singing technique with elements of the gospel singing tradition. A recent alum of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, she has performed at the Lyric as Sister Rose in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto by Verdi, and Gerhilde in Wagner’s Die Walküre, among others. Other recent engagements include those at Chicago’s Floating Opera Company, Chicago Opera Theater, and Grant Park Music Festival. A native of Chicago, Morrison earned her bachelor’s degree at Oakwood University in Alabama and a master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music. She was also a soloist and member of the ensemble the Aeolians, with whom she toured much of the United States and abroad to Moscow, Russia. She was a 2020 National Semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, first-prize winner in the National Classical Singer University Competition, and a finalist in the Luminarts Classical Music Competition. Morrison is a two-time recipient of the UNCF John Lennon Endowed Scholarship, and also trained at the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto in Italy and the Neil Semer Vocal Institute in Germany.
michaellewanski.com
MusicNOW Ensemble
Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and guests Elijah Daniel Smith
Jessie Montgomery
Ted Hearne
Emma Gerstein Flute Anne Bach Oboe John Bruce Yeh Clarinet Keith Buncke Bassoon David Griffin Horn Tage Larsen Trumpet Charles Vernon Trombone Ian Ding Percussion Mio Nakamura Piano Susan Synnestvedt Violin Simon Michal Violin Ammie Brod Viola Katinka Kleijn Cello Robert Kassinger Bass
Whitney Morrison Soprano Qing Hou Violin Lawrence Neuman Viola Katinka Kleijn Cello Robert Kassinger Bass
Emma Gerstein Flute Anne Bach Oboe John Bruce Yeh Clarinet David Griffin Horn Lauren Hayes Harp Mio Nakamura Piano Sam Hasting Electric Guitar Ian Ding Percussion Susan Synnestvedt Violin Ammie Brod Viola Linc Smelser Cello Michael Lewanski Keyboard
Scions of an Atlas
Lunar Songs
Nathalie Joachim
Seen
Emma Gerstein Flute Anne Bach Oboe John Bruce Yeh Clarinet Keith Buncke Bassoon David Griffin Horn
Jessie Montgomery
Loisaida, My Love
Whitney Morrison Soprano Katinka Kleijn Cello
PH OTO S BY DE IDRE HUCKABAY, JAC LYN SIMP SON
Authority
2021/22 SEASON JESSIE MONTGOMERY MEAD COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE
HOMECOMING Texts and Translations Jessie Montgomery
Loisaida, My Love (2016) Lower East Side I love you You’re my lady fair No matter where I am I think of you! The mountains and the valleys cannot compare, my love to you Loisaida, I love you! I dig the way you talk I dig the way you look Me vacila tu cantar y yo me las juego fria pa’ que vivas para siempre. En mi mente, mi amada, yo to llamo Loisaida.
Your song teases me and I play the words over so you live forever. In my mind, my beloved, I call you Loisaida.
Cuando estoy lejos de ti se me acaba mi esperanza En tu calles yo me Siento muy feliz y saludable Loisaida, yo te quiero!
When I’m away from you my hope runs out In your streets I feel very happy and healthy Loisaida, I love you!
Increible una mezcla, la perfecta una gente bien decente de to ’as rasas que estiman que to adoran que no saben explicar lo que le pasa cuando ausente de tus calles peligrosas si te aman. A ti, mi hermosa, Loisaida.
Incredible a mix, the perfection a very decent people of all races that praise you that adore you they cannot explain what happens what happens when absent from your dangerous streets they still love you. To you, my beautiful Loisaida.
O what a town . . . even with your drug-infested pocket parks, playground where your young bloods hang around waiting, hoping that one day when they too get well and smile again your love is all they need to come around. Loisaida, I love you.
(continued)
Your buildings are burning up that we got to stop Loisaida, my love, Te amo. —Bimbo Rivas Reprinted with permission from Sandra Rivas
Jessie Montgomery
Lunar Songs (2021) Lunar Songs Through the evening’s floating gold I am listening There is a cold clock ticking in my mouth The moon doesn’t care Your light glows from the inside In the night a mad waltz, in the morning a cantata
Oh, Lenny Oh Lenny, the sea folds over me— anti-nuclear, the trees are infrared, oh Lenny In dreams, symphonies pour down the page, hear the subway trains slice thru the air, we are so near to Lincoln Square, the blue stripes on your socks, oh Lenny and all of this an opera almost paradoxical. Oh Lenny, we watch you in your sleep, the trees tonight, the sea which sleeps
Oceanic Oceanic what was lost Ice cannot hold back the sea All empires end; we’re empire Now. New song: disturb the peace. To our children you will be Both past and future: a seed.
—J. Mae Barizo
N O V E M B E R 1, 2 0 2 1
I love you.