CAL STATE FULLERTON
SYLVIA A. ALVA
President, California State University, Fullerton
AMIR H. DABIRIAN
Provost and VP for Academic Affairs
ARNOLD HOLLAND, EDD
Dean, College of the Arts
CSUF SCHOOL OF MUSIC
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
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music.fullerton.edu
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
Drones, Improvisations, Refrains (2023)
John M. Kennedy
#2020…Covid1984 for Nicholas I. Aleksandra Bilińska for male voice and electronics (2022)
Pierre’s Dissertation on Crystals (2016/2024)
Pamela A. Madsen (from Luminosity: The Passions of Marie Curie)
CAPRICORN for bass and electronics (1977)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)
Drones, Improvisations, Refrains (2023)
JOHN M. KENNEDYDrones, Improvisations, Refrains for bass-baritone voice and fixed media is a soundscape where the soloist uses their own improvisation skills to enhance the audio track. In a sense the track acts as a lead sheet for the soloist to improvise over. The soloist is free to choose a text or use abstract phonemes and sibilants to create the vocal sounds and textures they feel complements the audio track. As the title suggests, the structure of the piece relies on three elements to create the soundscape, and allows for the performer to interact as much or as little as seen fit.
The idea came to me through my recent work as a double bass improvisor, and feedback pieces that I have encountered through the Intelligent Instruments Lab in Reykjavik where researchers have developed instruments for real-time improvisation over drones created through feedback. The audio track of Drones, Improvisations, Refrains does not use feedback techniques in any direct way, but does attempt to capture the sustaining and static qualities that those works and instruments produce.
The work was written for Nicholas Isherwood and the title purposely reflects one similar to that of George Crumb’s, a work Mr. Isherwood has recorded and which stands as among the best recordings of the American avant-garde.
- John M. Kennedy Woodland Hills, CA#2020...Covid1984 for Nicholas I. for male voice and electronics (2022)
ALEKSANDRA BILIŃSKA
It was a bright cold day in January, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
I have a concert
The Ministry of Truth gave us fake news
I have a concert
The Ministry of love gave us social media and social distance It is posponed
The ministry of justice gave us masks and disinfection gel
It is rescheduled for
The Ministry of plenty gave us toilet paper and water
Cancelled
We got onlines, streaming
But I had hardly felt the absurdity of those things, on the one hand, and the necessity of those others, on the other (for it is rare that the feeling of absurdity is not followed by the feeling of necessity), when he felt the absurdity of those things of which he had just felt the necessity (for it is rare that the feeling of necessity
is not followed by the feeling of absurdity). I can
And I forgot to be Forgot to be
I can But I was But I forgot to be I can
I forgot not only I can
Who I was But I was And I had to live I can
I forgot not only who I can
I forgot not only who I I can
I forgot not only who I was I can
I forgot not only who I was but that I was forgot to be Like an answer, the three slogans came back to me: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. on coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrappings of a cigarette Packet — everywhere. Always the eyes
watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed — no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.
I can
And I forgot
Am I
I was
I can but I forgot
Who I was
I have and I had to live
But I was
I can
I can
But I - G. Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four - A. Bilińska, Covid 1984, inspired by and based on Orwell’s novel
Pierre’s Dissertation on Crystals (2016/2024) (from Luminosity: The Passions of Marie Curie)
PAMELA MADSEN
Luminosity: The Passions of Marie Curie is a multi-media opera about the passions of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Marie Curie, the discover of Radium for voices, flute, percussion, piano, electronics and electronicscommissioned and premiered in part by soundSCAPE, Tony Arnold, soprano and Either/OR Ensemble, composed by Pamela Madsen with projected images and video Quintan Ana Wikswo. The opera explores the concept of the invisible in life and death. This opera ponders the ephemeral fleeting nature of things beyond one’s grasp-That which is beyond seeing, but is felt, and focuses on the question posed by Marie Curie: “Are you there?” This quest for the invisible was at the heart of Marie and Pierre Curie’s work—in their discovery of radium, radioactivity, and their exploration of spiritualism, and the quest of quantify life beyond death. From Poland to Paris, a visionary young chemist transcends the frontiers of her era, redefining physics, chemistry, and the role of women in science and society. Her pursuit of
radioactive elements brings her as close as humanly possible to both creation and destruction – a legacy of her work that continues to resounds across time and space.
“Pierre’s Dissertation on Crystals” occurs at the beginning of the opera—when Marie Curie first appears in the Curie lab and encounters Pierre Curie, deep in thought, uttering the text of his Doctoral Thesis: Propriétés magnétiques des corps à diverses temperatures (Curie’s dissertation, 1895). For the libretto for the text of this work, I used key word from his thesis—compression of crystals in Piezoelectricity, ferromagnetism, paramagnetism, diamagnetism and his the effect of temperature on magnetic fields, the Curie law, scale, constant, and Curie point and extraterrestrial magnetic fields. At the end of Pierre’s Aria, he becomes aware that Marie Curie is in the room, and this leads him to the discovery of the Curie Dissymmetry Principle-a physical effect of a dissymmetry in a gravitational field. For the projected images and sounds, I worked directly at the Curie Lab, and amongst the streets where the Curie’s lived in Paris. Quintan Ana Wikswo’s installations of projected film, video and photography explore the chemistries of expired and altered film stocks, infrared, and alternative optics and lenses. For the audio for the electronics, I used actual sounds of piezoelectricity from crystals, and sounds of electricity-ominous Geiger counters predicting the plight of radiation poisoning. The electronics are fixed media with projected images/video playback, images by Quintan Ana Wikswo, electronics by Pamela Madsen/ Eric Dries.
http://www.quintanwikswo.com/projects/ luminosity-the-passions-of-marie-curie/
CAPRICORN for bass voice and electronic music
KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN
This work derives from the large-scale music-theatre composition SIRIUS, which is for electronic music and four soloists: bass, soprano, trumpet and bass clarinet, representing Capricorn (winter), Cancer (spring), Aries (summer) and Li-
bra (autumn), respectively.The composer (from the booklet to Stockhausen-Verlag CD 59 that contains the work, p. 18): “In the composition SIRIUS the basso profundo is NORTH, earth, man, night, seed, winter. I have arranged a solo version for bass and electronic music, which begins, following the wind at the end of autumn – with the CAPRICORN melody of ZODIAC. The winter section lasts circa 13 ½ minutes, this leads into the Bridge after CAPRICORN (circa 5 ¾ minutes) and ends in the ANNUNCIATION (circa 7 minutes). «The sung texts of the three winter melodies, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces, are reprinted in the CD booklet (both English and German; they are sung in both languages). The recording on Stockhausen-Verlag CD 59 features Nicholas Isherwood as soloist. It is divided into 51 tracks (20–70) that follow one another without breaks.
General characteristics of the music
The melodic material in CAPRICORN, as in SIRIUS from which the work is derived, comes from TIERKREIS (Zodiac). It is supplemented by variations and transformations. There are also inserts of material that is more oriented towards speech-song, as well as singing in declamatory tone that is mainly rhythmbased, such as in the run-up to the great climax. The melodies are mostly the ones of Winter, which are Capricorn (the main melody), Aquarius and Pisces. Later on the Aries melody (Spring) will feature prominently during an extended period of decrescendo following the great climax. The dramatic, impressive part for bass voice includes extended passages of long-stretched notes sung at elevated volume, both during presentations of the Capricorn melody and during rhythm-based singing. Yet it features quite tender moments as well, such as in the presentation of the Aquarius and Pisces melodies. The inserts of speechsong display an engaging vividness.The
electronic music was composed on the large analog synthesizer Synthi-100 that had advanced sequencing capabilities remarkable for its time. The instrument allowed for extensive transformations of the music, such as gradual conversions of rhythm from one melody to another, pitch compressions along a continuous scale, presentation of pitch melody as mainly timbre melody, and vast accelerations of melodic material. Stockhausen, as ever, also here proves his sophistication in composing and realizing electronic music that breaks new grounds in sound texture and enables him to create novel musical structures.
Given that CAPRICORN, the season of winter, is assigned to the bass singer in SIRIUS, over vast stretches the electronic music is grounded in the bass register. Yet it also extends towards the high register, such as in ‘bell’ tones. These appear after the first climax (“Night of Christ”), as the electronic music plays alone for a while, and will continue until much later. The electronic presentation of the Aries melody in the last third of the work is in high register as well.There are also ‘roof tones’ accompanying the fundamental tones of melody in lower register; they are in separate timbral strata that are disconnected from the fundamental tone that they overlaid on. At times they detach from the fundamental tones and perform their own melodic excursions around them. Stockhausen would later on further explore, in an extended manner, the concept of ‘roof tones’ in WELTRAUM, the electronic music of the opera FREITAG aus LICHT.
The large-scale form of the work is exciting and quite unique, building on vastly expanding arches of development. After a grand and extended presentation of the Capricorn melody, leading through temporal augmentations of parts of it to a climax, the music recedes dynamically and compresses in pitch expansion, with the electronic music for an significant time playing alone and transforming
pitch to timbre melody. After the bass singer has presented the Aquarius and Pisces melodies at lower dynamics than at the beginning of the work, slowly the music will be preparing a large climax. The masterful build-up to the climax will last almost six minutes, from track 40 where the singer intonates a drawn-out «Ca – pri – corn” to the beginning of track 56. In terms of such vast reaches of largescale architecture this music is reminiscent of the largest scales of preparation of
climaxes in Bruckner’s music, e.g., in the Adagio of the Ninth Symphony.The great climax is followed by an also unusually large-scale decrescendo, of about 2 and a half minutes, which introduces Aries The structure of the decrescendo is unusual as well. Eventually, after the ‘stopping of the wheel’ (see below) the music ends with the ANNUNCIATION followed by the departure of spacecrafts.
Narrative, process and spontaneity are at the core of the work of composer and bassist John M. Kennedy. His early roots as a rock and jazz bassist gave him the opportunity to explore a variety of styles and piqued his curiosity in experimentation, which has been a constant throughout his career. In recent years, he has dedicated much of his creative output to social justice themes including his recent work “Sidewalks” (2023) for singer, spoken word artist, instrumental ensemble and media. “Mnemonic Meditations, Book I” (2020), a set of trumpet pieces memorializing African-Americans lost to police violence, was recorded by James Ford III, trumpet, and is set for release through online audio distribution platforms in Spring 2024. In late 2024, his large-scale group improvisation called “Un Día en la Playa” will premiere. This site-specific work features two ensembles positioned on opposite sides of the border wall at El Muro en la Playa, Tijuana, Mexico, and Border State Beach, Imperial Beach, California, USA. Among the international soloists and ensembles who have performed his music are vocalists Nicholas Isherwood and Jeremy Huw Williams, saxophonists William Street and Tong Yang, flutists Rita D’Arcangelo and Marianne Gedigian, ensembles Brightwork New Music, TM+, Ensemble KammerKlang, and the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble. His work has been presented at World Saxophone Congresses in the UK, France and Croatia, the Malta International Music Festival and Competition, the Thailand International Composition Festival,
the Hong Kong International Music Festival, and as a US Fulbright Scholar at the University of Malta. Organizations such as the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, Meet the Composer (New Music USA), the American Composers Forum, Los Angeles, have recognized his work throughout his career. A faculty member of California State University, Los Angeles since 1994, he received the President’s Distinguished Professor Award in 2021. While attending the University of Michigan, he studied music composition with Leslie Bassett, William Albright and Fred Lerdahl, and double bass with Lawrence Hurst and Stuart Sankey. He lives in Woodland Hills, California, with his wife classical guitarist and painter Satik Andriassian. www.johnmkennedy.net.
Aleksandra Bilińska
Aleksandra Bilińska (PhD), composer, music theorist, improviser, ethnomusicologist, she graduated from the Faculty of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory at the Academy of Music in Katowice and the Post-Programme Ethnomusicological Studies at the University of Warsaw. She is one of the few Polish female composers specialising in modern dance theatre music. She has written music and scripts for numerous ballet productions by eminent Polish choreographers, including Ewa Wycichowska, Aleksandra Dziurosz, Jacek Przybyłowicz, Andrzej Morawiec, and Wojciech Mochniej, and has also cooperated with Ulrike Hager. Her compositions have been performed in many European countries, South America,
the United States, Canada as well as Taiwan. In addition, Aleksandra Bilińska takes part in conferences as a music theorist, conducts piano improvisation workshops, and has written articles and books on music theory. As a lecturer she cooperates with the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and the Academy of Music in Katowice. She is a member of the Polish Society for Electroacoustic Music, Open Zone Association, and ISME. Her interests include compositional techniques of the 20th and 21st centuries, electroacoustic music, correspondence of the arts, music in interdisciplinary forms, especially in modern dance, and above all works of Polish female composers, to whom she devoted her PhD dissertation Twórczość instrumentalna kompozytorek polskich XX i XXI wieku i jej kontekst kulturowy. Wybrane przykłady z lat 1945–2005 (The Instrumental Works of Polish Female Composers in the 20th and 21st Centuries and Their Cultural Context. Selected examples from 1945–2005, Katowice 2018), forthcoming as a book this year.
Pamela Madsen
Pamela Madsen is a composer, performer, theorist, writer and curator of new music. From massive immersive concert-length projects, solo works, chamber music to multimedia opera collaborations her work focuses on issues of social change, exploration of image, music, text and the environment. With a Ph.D. in Music Composition from UCSD, studies with Brian Ferneyhough, Mellon Foundation Doctoral Research Award in theory at Yale University, Post- Doctoral
research in Music Technology at IRCAM, Paris, and Deep Listening Certificate with Pauline Oliveros, her creative projects and research focuses on the evolution of compositional thought, improvisation, electronic music, and women in music. Her works have been commissioned and premiered world-wide by such artists as Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Brightwork newmusic, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, Tony Arnold, Nicholas Isherwood, Stacey Fraser, Claire Chase, Jane Rigler, Anne LaBerge, Brian Walsh, Lisa Moore, Vicki Ray, Aron Kallay, Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, Ashley Bathgate, Trio Solisti, New York New Music Ensemble, Either/ Or, yesaroun’ duo, California Ear Unit, Verdehr Trio, Zeitgeist, JACK, Ethel, Lyris, Formalist and Arditti string quartets with multi- media collaborations with visual artists Quintan Ana Wikswo, Camille Seaman, Jimena Sarno and Judy Chicago. Major concert-length projects include her Opera America and National Endowment for the Arts Awarded Opera: Why Women Went West, National Endowment for the Arts and New Music USA supported Oratorio for the Earth; Luminous Etudes: Visions of the Black Madonna of Montserrat; Luminosity: Passions of Marie Curie multi-media opera; Melting Away: Gravity for orchestra, with Arctic photographer Camille Seaman; We are All SibylsEnvisioning the Future Project multi-media opera installation with visual artist Judy Chicago. Selected as Huntington Library Mellon Research Fellow, Alpert Award Panelist, Creative Capital artist “on the radar” with awards from Opera America, National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, Meet the Composer, American Scandinavian Foundation, artist residency fellowships at MacDowell Colony, UCross, Wyoming, Women’s International Studies Center, New Mexico, Wurlitzer Foundation Award, with international Russia/Siberia Concert tour, featured composer at Pulsar Festival,
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
Denmark, she is a frequent guest artist at festivals and universities worldwide. She is Director of the Annual New Music Festival, InterArts Collaborative Projects at Cal State Fullerton where she is Professor of Music Composition, Music Theory and Director of the New Music Ensemble. www.pamelamadsenmusic.com
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz
Stockhausen (born Aug. 22, 1928, Mödrath, near Cologne, Ger.—died Dec. 5, 2007, Kürten), was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundbreaking work in electronic music, having been called the “father of electronic music”, for
introducing controlled chance (aleatory techniques) into serial composition, and for musical spatialization.. Orphaned during World War II, he supported himself with odd jobs (including jazz pianist) before entering Cologne’s State Academy for Music in 1947. After hearing Olivier Messiaen’s music at Darmstadt in 1951, he began studying with the composer and experimenting with serialism. His early works include Piano Pieces I–IV (1952) and Counter-Points (1952–53). He also became involved with musique concrète, a technique using recorded sounds as raw material; his remarkable Song of the Youths (1955–56) used a highly processed recording of a boy soprano mixed with electronic sounds. His extensions of serialism continued in pieces such as Measures (1955–56) and Groups (1955–57), and he became a leading avant-garde spokesman. His Moments (1962–69) influentially applied serialism to groups of sounds rather than single pitches, and he began incorporating aleatory (chance) elements as well. From the late 1960s he conceived ever grander schemes, some incorporating literature, dance, and ritual, as in the Light series (1977–2003).
