2021/22 SEASON JESSIE MONTGOMERY MEAD COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE Monday, May 23, 2022, at 7:00 Harris Theater for Music and Dance at Millennium Park
CONCERTO Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Jeffrey Milarsky Conductor Gabriel Cabezas Cello Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson Flute James Moore Guitar
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 program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Theater rental and services have been underwritten through the support of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. Media partners:
Jessie Montgomery
Overture (2022) for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, and strings
Jessie Montgomery on Overture Overture is a one-movement orchestral tutti steeped in harmonic textures inspired by a fusion between jazz and American classical harmonies, baroque rhythmic gestures, and polyphonic tension.
Joan Tower
Rising (2009) for flute and string orchestra
Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson Flute Joan Tower on Rising I have always been interested in how music can “go up.” It is a simple action, but one that can have so many variables: slow or fast tempos, accelerating, slowing down, getting louder or softer—with thick or thin surrounding textures going in the same or opposite directions. For me, it is the context and the feel of the action that matters. A long climb, for example, might signal something important to come (and often hard to deliver on!). A short climb, on the other hand, might be just a hop to
another phrase. One can’t, however, just go up. There should be a counteracting action which is either going down or staying the same to provide a tension within the piece. (I think some of our great composers, especially Beethoven, were aware of the power of the interaction of these “actions.”) The main theme in Rising is an ascent motion using different kinds of scales—mostly octatonic or chromatic—and occasionally arpeggios. These upward motions are then put through different filters, packages of time, and varying degrees of heat environments, which interact with competing static and downward motions.
Alyssa Weinberg
Caligo (2019) for cello and chamber orchestra (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, percussion, and strings)
Gabriel Cabezas Cello Alyssa Weinberg on Caligo In Latin, “caligo” translates roughly to mist, darkness, obscurity, or a dizzying fog. I wanted to create a piece that felt like it hovered in this endless
mist, infinitely suspended, floating ethereally through the vast and cavernous haze. Caligo is a single-movement meditation through this imagined space, fixating on an almost hallucinatory texture that ebbs and flows throughout the piece. The solo cello line leads us through the texture like a beam of light coming in and out of focus, hinting at a path through the fog.
James Moore
Sleep is Shattered (2021; orchestrated 2022) for electric guitar and chamber orchestra (flute, doubling alto flute; oboe, doubling english horn; clarinet, doubling bass clarinet; bassoon, doubling contrabassoon; horn; timpani; percussion; and strings)
James Moore Electric Guitar James Moore on Sleep is Shattered As a guitarist who specializes in contemporary music, I have spent a good chunk of my career navigating the challenges of bringing the electric guitar to the classical concert stage. Although we guitarists are often seen as outsiders in this setting, we bring to the table an exceptional ability to traverse between acoustic and electronic sound worlds. We can conjure sonorities which lurk and bubble beneath the surface, mingle as peers within the orchestral texture, and tear through the ensemble with explosive energy.
The title Sleep is Shattered is taken from Dante’s Divine Comedy. I often look to poetry for inspiration in my compositions, and the task of writing my first piece for orchestra required similarly lofty source material. As narrator in his epic poem, Dante is an outsider exploring the wild and fantastical worlds of the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Throughout his journey, he frequently collapses into sleep from fatigue or faints from overwhelming emotion, and in these moments, he is often transported between worlds. These passages were my guiding metaphor for the piece. Sleep is Shattered was written for the renowned guitarist and improviser Marc Ribot, with whom I continue to develop this piece. I am honored to take the helm as soloist for this performance.
Composer and Artist Profiles jessie montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator whose works interweave 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. 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 PH OTO S BY TO DD RO S ENBERG, P E TER KONERGA
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.
j e ffr e y mil a r s k y is a highly sought-after interpreter of contemporary music, celebrated for his adventurous programming and passionate advocacy for living composers in the realms of orchestral, opera, and chamber music. He works regularly with ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, MET Chamber Ensemble, Bergen Philharmonic in Norway, and Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, in notable venues such as Carnegie, Zankel, Davies Symphony, Alice Tully, Boston’s Symphony, and Walt Disney Concert halls, and at IRCAM in Paris. Milarsky has a long history of premiering, recording, and performing American composers and throughout his career has collaborated with John Adams, Milton Babbitt, John Cage, John Corigliano, George Crumb, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Steve Reich, Ralph
Shapey, Morton Subotnick, and many others. In 2013, he was awarded the Ditson Conductor’s Award for his commitment to the performance of American music. An educator for more than twenty-five years, Milarsky is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and Columbia University in New York and is the music director of AXIOM. Also in demand as a timpanist and percussionist, he has performed and recorded with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony.
Galway International Flute Festival in Lucerne; and BBC Radio 3’s In Tune program in London. He also regularly performs as a concerto soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Höskuldsson studied at the Reykjavík School of Music in his native Iceland under Bernhard Wilkinson, and later attended the Royal Northern College of Music as a student of Peter Lloyd and Wissam Boustany. His debut solo album, Solitude, was released on the Delos label in 2015. Höskuldsson holds the Erika and Dietrich M. Gross Principal Flute Chair.
j o a n t o w e r is widely regarded as one of the most important American composers living today. During a career spanning more than sixty years, she has made lasting contributions to musical life in the United States as a composer, performer, conductor, and educator. Major ensembles, soloists, and orchestras have commissioned her, including the Emerson, Tokyo, and Muir quartets; soloists Evelyn Glennie, Carol Wincenc, David Shifrin, Paul Neubauer, and John Browning; and the orchestras of Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Washington (D.C.), among others. In 2021, the New York Philharmonic premiered 1920/2019, honoring the 2020 centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—which guaranteed women the right to vote—and recognizing the growing strength of the #MeToo movement. Her tremendously popular six Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman have been played by over 600 different ensembles. Tower was pianist and founding member of the Naumburg Award–winning Da Capo Chamber Players. Recent awards include Chamber Music America’s Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, Musical America’s 2020 Composer of the Year, and the League of American Orchestras’ highest honor, the Gold Baton. She is Asher Edelman Professor of Music at Bard College, where she has taught since 1972.
Composer alyssa weinberg crafts visceral, communicative scores lauded for their cohesive musical language and heavyweight emotional dimensions. Noted for her collaborative work with writers, dancers, and visual artists, she cofounded Duende, a series for experimental dance in Philadelphia, along with cellist Gabriel Cabezas and dancer/choreographer Chloe Perkes. Weinberg’s 2021–22 season features the premiere of Isola, an evening-length staged song cycle in collaboration with poet J. Mae Barizo and stage director Ashley Tata, and premieres of works commissioned by Lanta Horn Duo, Pathos Trio, and the Lake George Music Festival. Weinberg’s music has been performed by some of the most accomplished artists and ensembles around the world, including Eighth Blackbird, Sō Percussion, yMusic, and the Aizuri Quartet, as well as the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She has received commissions and awards from Chamber Music America, FringeArts, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Barnes Foundation, and the Curtis Institute of Music. Weinberg received her doctorate in composition from Princeton University, and also holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Vanderbilt University.
stefán ragnar h ö s k u l d s s o n is prin-
cipal flute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as a distinguished international soloist and chamber musician. He has performed widely throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan under the direction of Fabio Luisi, Daniel Barenboim, Seiji Ozawa, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Riccardo Muti. Höskuldsson has collaborated in performances and recordings with such artists as Evgeny Kissin, Yefim Bronfman, Gil Shaham, and Diana Damrau. As principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, a post he held from 2008 to 2016, Höskuldsson received two Grammy awards in the Best Opera Recording category for Wagner’s Ring cycle and Thomas Adès’s The Tempest. His extensive solo performances include engagements with the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan; Iceland Symphony Orchestra;
Cellist gabriel cabez as is a true twenty-first century musician. A prolific and sought-after soloist and collaborator, he is as skilled in interpreting new works as he is with the pillar scores of the cello repertoire. He has appeared with America’s finest symphony orchestras and has premiered dozens of new works by some of the most brilliant composers of his time. Cabezas recently released Lost Coast, a dynamic album of original music by Gabriella Smith, inspired by the composer’s reflections on the devastating effects of climate change. The album was named a favorite album of 2021 by NPR and the New York Times. Cabezas is a member of the acclaimed chamber sextet yMusic and a cofounder of Duende, a new-music and contemporary-dance collective. In 2016, he received the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, a career grant awarded to extraordinary classical Black and Latinx musicians. Cabezas studied at the Curtis Institute of Music under Carter Brey.
PH OTO S BY B E RNARD MINDIC H , TOD D ROSENBERG, ZOE P RIN DS - F L A S H, ZOE PR I N DS - F L A S H
james moore is a composer,
multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader. He is a founding member of the raucous electric guitar quartet Dither, the whimsical acoustic quartet the Hands Free, and the sloppy-math/avant-grunge rock band Forever House. Currently pursuing his PhD in music composition at Princeton University, Moore writes music for an eclectic community of players from classical, folk, jazz, experimental, and indie-rock scenes. As a chamber- and orchestral-music performer, Moore’s credits include appearances with Dawn Upshaw
and Gilbert Kalish, Alarm Will Sound, Bang on a Can, Roomful of Teeth, Sō Percussion, the Crossing Choir, the LA Phil New Music Group, and Santa Fe Opera. As a sideman, he has supported vocalists Toshi Reagon and Rhiannon Giddens, and performed with members of Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth, Wilco, and the National. Other collaborators include playwright Richard Maxwell, choreographer Susan Marshall, instrument builder Ellen Fullman, guitarist Marc Ribot, mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran, and an extensive list of composers including John Adams, Robert Ashley, Mason Bates, Anna Clyne, Eve Beglarian, Ted Hearne, David Lang, Missy Mazzoli, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, Caroline Shaw, and John Zorn.
PH OTO BY RE UB E N R ADDING
MusicNOW Ensemble
Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and guests violins
Susan Synnestvedt Simon Michal Matous Michal So Young Bae Nancy Park Hermine Gagné Florence Schwartz viol as
Weijing Michal Catherine Brubaker
cellos
bassoons
bass
contrabassoon
flute
horn
oboe and english horn
timpani
cl arinet and bass cl arinet
percussion
Calum Cook Ji-Ye Kim Jeremy Attanaseo Alyce Johnson Anne Bach
John Bruce Yeh
Miles Maner Liam Jackson Miles Maner
David Griffin Simón Gómez Gallego Cynthia Yeh
Upcoming concerts CSO MusicNOW returns to Symphony Center in the 2022/23 Season! Curated by CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery, the 25th season of MusicNOW highlights the connections between celebrated living composers and their kindred spirits—artists who have either inspired or been influenced by their visionary work.
25th Season
Season highlights include music by Richard Einhorn, Osvaldo Golijov, Carlos Simon, and Alvin Singleton performed by musicians from the CSO and an incredible lineup of guest soloists. Playing dual roles of both composer and performer, Xavier Foley, Andrea Casarrubios, and Jessie Montgomery herself join these exhilarating programs to perform world premieres of their own works.
Experience four MusicNOW evenings, reimagined in the Symphony Center space:
10/24 11/21 2/20
4/24
Get all 4 concerts for the price of 3! Subscribe to the full series now and save 25%. cso.org/MusicNOW
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.