Brightwork New Music
Part of the 23rd Annual New Music Series
February 22, 2024
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FULLERTON CSUF SCHOOL OF MUSIC
SYLVIA A. ALVA
President, California State University, Fullerton
AMIR H. DABIRIAN
Provost and VP for Academic Affairs (Interim)
ARNOLD HOLLAND, EDD Dean, College of the Arts
DR. RANDALL GOLDBERG Director, School of Music
KIMO FURUMOTO
Assistant Director, School of Music
BONGSHIN KO
Assistant Director, School of Music
SCHOOL OF MUSIC FULL-TIME FACULTY AND STAFF
Faculty
Conducting
Kimo Furumoto – instrumental
Dr. Robert Istad – choral
Dr. Dustin Barr – instrumental
Jazz and Commercial Music
Bill Cunliffe* – jazz piano; arranging; Fullerton Jazz Orchestra, Fullerton Big Band and combo director
Rodolfo Zuñiga – jazz studies, jazz percussion, and music techology; Fullerton Chamber Jazz Ensemble director
Piano, Organ, Piano Pedagogy
Ning An – piano
Bill Cunliffe – jazz piano
Alison Edwards* – piano, piano pedagogy, class piano
Myong-Joo Lee – piano
Dr. Robert Watson – piano
Music Education, Teacher Training, and Teaching Credential
Dr. Christopher Peterson – choral
Dr. Gregory X. Whitmore* – instrumental
Music in General Education
Dr. John Koegel*
Dr. Katherine Reed
Music History and LIterature
Dr. Vivianne Asturizaga – musicology
Dr. John Koegel* – musicology
Dr. Katherine Powers – musicology
Dr. Katherine Reed – musicology
Strings
Kimo Furumoto – Director of Orchestra Studies and University Symphony Orchestra conductor
Bongshin Ko – cello
Dr. Ernest Salem* – violin
Theory and Composition
Dr. Pamela Madsen – composition, theory
Dr. Ken Walicki* – composition, theory
Vocal, Choral, and Opera
Dr. Robert Istad – Director of Choral Studies and University Singers conductor
Dr. Kerry Jennings* – Director of Opera
Dr. Christopher Peterson – CSUF Concert Choir and Singing Titans conductor
Dr. Joni Y. Prado voice, academic voice courses
Woodwinds, Brass, and Percussion
Dr. Dustin Barr – Director of Wind Band Studies, University Wind Symphony, University Band
Jean Ferrandis – flute
Sycil Mathai* – trumpet
Dr. Gregory X. Whitmore
University Symphonic Winds conductor
Staff
Michael August – Production Manager
Eric Dries – Music Librarian
William Lemley – Audio Technician
Jeff Lewis – Audio Engineer
Chris Searight – Music Instrumental Services
Paul Shirts – Administrative Assistant
Elizabeth Williams – Business Manager
* denotes Area Coordinator
Welcome to the Spring 2024 Performing Arts Season at Cal State Fullerton’s College of the Arts. Whether you are a first-time or long-time patron, a friend, or parent to one of our exceptional students, thank you for joining us. Your support makes all the difference to their success.
I am pleased to present another semester of programming powered by the incredible gifts of our Art, Dance, Music, and Theatre students. This spring, the School of Music starts the season with a trio of concerts February 16–18 by artists-in-residence Talich Quartet; faculty artist Damon Zick and his Quarteto Nuevo featuring fellow faculty artist Bill Cunliffe; and University Symphony Orchestra. In May, University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus will close the concert season with a performance of Mozart’s emotionally charged “Requiem.” Begovich Gallery presents the Begovich Visual Arts Lecture Series with visiting artists’ talks throughout the semester, including multidisciplinary artist Hings Lim on February 22, whose work will also be exhibited at Grand Central Art Center. The Department of Theatre and Dance begins their season in March with “Marisol,” a darkly comedic fantasy where the title character must find hope in a post-apocalyptic Brooklyn where angels are taking up arms and coffee is extinct. Hilarious, multiple Tony award-winning modern musical send-up “Urinetown” closes the theatre season just as CSUF’s dancers and choreographers take to the stage for “Spring Dance Theatre.”
When our students demonstrate their talents on stage and in the studio, their creative energy is undeniable, but the sacrifice and struggle it took to get there is often less perceptible. We can’t see the hours spent creating, the days of rehearsals, and the years of practice. For many students, the sparks of innovation and artistry that drove them to pursue the arts are often diminished by the high cost of an education. The Dean’s Fund for Excellence provides support for students in need through scholarships, artist residencies, and other financial assistance, ensuring them the opportunity to thrive in the arts. If you believe in their sparks of brilliance, please consider a donation of any amount to the Dean’s Fund for Excellence.
Thank you again for joining us this season and for championing the arts in higher education. I hope to see you at one of the college’s many performances and events this spring.
Sincerely,
Arnold Holland, EdD Dean, College of the Arts
SCAN THIS QR DONATE TODAY TO THE DEAN’S FUND FOR EXCELLENCE
The Garden Song (2023) .......................................................... Jonathon Grasse
I Mary, Mary By Herself for piano, cello, and voice (2024) ........ Pamela Madsen
The Illusion of Permanence (2020, arr. 2023) ...................... Rajna Swaminathan ***** Intermission *****
Scorpio (2016) .............................................................................. Adam Borecki
A Prayer For My Daughter (2022) ............................................. Pamela Madsen for piano, strings, and voice)
The Glam Seduction (2001) ................................................................. D.J. Sparr
Stacey Fraser, soprano
Nick Terry, percussion
Aron Kallay, piano
Maggie Parkins, cello
Shalini Vijayan, violin
Brian Walsh, clarinet
Sarah Andon, flute
Brightwork Ensemble is a classical new music septet based in Los Angeles, California. A flexible and fearless group of world-class musicians, Brightwork consists of piano, violin, soprano, cello, flute, clarinet, and percussion (an instrumentation which is often called “Pierrot + percussion,” and which is to modern chamber music what the string quartet was to earlier centuries), and champions the best of the music that’s being written today, while continuing to play the classics of “new” music from the last hundred years.
We play the music we love, whether this is one of our favorite masterworks of the 20th century, or the latest dazzling score from a composer whose music we just discovered. What the listener can expect at a Brightwork concert–at the very least–is exciting, emotionally engaging music presented in state-ofthe-art performances. Brightwork seeks to draw the audience into the creative process.
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
Adam Borecki
In his music, Adam seeks to compose with a balance of theoretical processes and intuitive musicality. His works frequently utilize electronics, and his music is stylistically diverse from a wide array of influences.
Awards include the Gluck Foundation Fellowship (USC), Conservatory of Music Award & Summa Cum Laude (Chapman University), Second Place in the Boston GuitarFest Composition competition, and a commission for the Third Angle New Music Ensemble in Portland, Oregon.
Adam’s music has been performed in southern California, across the United States, in Italy (at the Cortona Sessions) and in Paris (European American Musical Alliance).
As a guitarist, he regularly performs at private events & receptions in Los Angeles & Orange County. He has performed for figures such as Elie Wiesel (Nobel Laureate), George Argyros (U.S. Ambassador to Spain), and at the home of the President of Chapman University. He continues to study guitar at USC and regularly performs outreach concerts at hospitals & senior homes across Los Angeles.
Adam graduated from Chapman University with top honors, studying both music composition and guitar performance. His primary composition teachers include Vera Ivanova, Jeffrey Holmes, Sean Heim, Sean Friar, & Stephen Hartke, and he is currently studying with Donald Crockett.
Adam also teaches composition at the Sunset Chamber Music Festival and works as a recording engineer for LA new music groups (Tuesdays@MONK Space, People Inside Electronics) & at the Aspen Music Festival.
Jonathan Grasse
Composer/ethnomusicologist Jonathon Grasse received his Ph.D. from UCLA in music composition with the cognate in ethnomusicology, where he taught in the music and ethnomusicology departments from 1999-2005. His 2012 composition “Triptych” for string trio won the 2012 American Composers Forum - LA Chapter competition. His 2017 album Six Compositions (CD Baby) is available on all major streaming services. Jonathon produces CSUDH’s Festival of New and Improvised Music, featuring festival residency of the LA New Music ensemble Brightwork. His compositions have been performed throughout California, and in New York, Europe, China, and Mexico. He has received grants from the American Composers Forum. In 2011, Centaur Records released his CD Chamber Music.
Jonathon’s ethnomusicological work on Minas Gerais, Brazil focuses on regional identity, Afro-mineiro traditions, and the Clube da Esquina popular music movement. His forthcoming book Hearing Brazil: Music in Minas Gerais will be published by University Press of Mississippi in 2020. Jonathon is also authoring the forthcoming book The Corner Club by Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, part of Bloomsbury publishing’s series 33 1/3 Brazil. His recent journal articles on Brazilian music include: “Vissungo’s Chant of the Earth,” forthcoming in Columbia University’s Current Musicology (Winter, 2019); “Musical Spaces and Deep Regionalism in Minas Gerais, Brazil” Musicology Research/UK (Summer, 2018); “Calundu’s Winds of Divination: Music and Black Religiosity in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Minas Gerais Brazil,”
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
Yale Journal of Music and Religion (Fall, 2017). Further publications include articles and reviews on Brazilian music topics, and a book chapter on American composer Lou Harrison’s works for Indonesian-inspired gamelan. An electric guitarist specializing in solo and group improvisation, he has performed and recorded with, and composed for, several Los Angeles area ensembles, including his group the Native Plant Society. https://www.csudh.edu/music/faculty/grasse-jonathon
Pamela Madsen
Pamela Madsen is a composer, sound artist, performer, and curator of new music. From her massive landscape inspired projects and intimate chamber music creations to her multi-media collaborations, and organization of new music events she has created a body of work with a profound breadth of vision. With a Ph.D. in Composition from UCSD, doctoral studies in Music Theory at Yale University, post-doctoral studies in Music Technology at IRCAM in Paris, and Deep Listening with Pauline Oliveros, her work encompasses a vast sphere of interest. Her multi-media operas/music dramas and site-specific environmental works have been commissioned and premiered by such new music performers and ensembles as: soundSCAPE, Zeitgeist, Ethel, Tony Arnold, Aiyun Huang, Jane Rigler, Trio Solisti, Verdehr Trio, ICE flutist Claire Chase, New York New Music Ensemble, California Ear Unit, JACK and Arditti String Quartet, multi-media collaborations with IMAX filmmaker Greg MacGillivray, TED Fellow photographer Camille Seaman, video artist Quintan Ana Wikswo and visual artist Judy Chicago. Selected as an Alpert Award Panelist for 2010, she is a frequent guest lecturer, performer and invited scholar at festivals and universities world-wide. Currently, she is curator of the Annual New Music Festival, World Electro-Acoustic Listening Room Project, and Film as Collaborative Art Series at Cal State Fullerton where she is Professor of Music Composition.
D.J. Sparr
Composer & Electric guitarist D. J. Sparr, who Gramophone recently hailed as “exemplary,” is one of America’s preeminent composer-performers. He has caught the attention of critics with his eclectic style, described as “pop-Romantic…iridescent and wondrous” (The Mercury News) and “suits the boundary erasing spirit of today’s new-music world” (The New York Times). The Los Angeles Times praises him as “an excellent soloist,” and the Santa Cruz Sentinel says that he “wowed an enthusiastic audience…Sparr’s guitar sang in a near-human voice.”
He was the electric guitar concerto soloist on the 2018 GRAMMY-Award winning album with JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2011, Sparr was named one of NPR listener’s favorite 100 composers under the age 40. He has composed for and performed with renowned ensembles such as the Houston Grand Opera, Cabrillo Festival, New World Symphony, Washington National Opera, and Eighth Blackbird. His music has received awards from BMI, New Music USA, and the League of Composers/ISCM. Sparr is a faculty member at the famed Walden School’s Creative Musicians Retreat in Dublin, New Hampshire. His works and guitar performances appear
