THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Music
presents
FSU Saxophone Day Guest Artist Recital
Bent Frequency Duo Project
Jan Berry Baker, saxophone
Stuart Gerber, percussion
Friday, September 29, 2023
7:30 p.m. | Lindsay Recital Hall
2
hyd(e)r0sion (2022) Emily Koh
Of Wells and Springs (2023) Judith Shatin
À intervalles fixes (2023) Robert Lemay
Child’s Play (2015) Amy Williams
I.
II.
III. Hazy Moonlight (2017) Elainie Lillios
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
PROGRAM
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
Koh: hyd(e)r0sion
hyd(e)r0sion is inspired by the lines and shapes formed in soil and clay formed by the detachment and removal of soil by water. There are many types of erosion, including splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion and gully erosion. Water erosion wears away the earth’s surface, and this removal of topsoil—the layer of soil with the greatest amount of organic matter, biological activity and nutrients---restricting its ability to sustain future uses.
My practice is often nourished by the creativity of performers and my interactions with them. We may begin with conversations about ideas, both musical and personal as well as instrumental explorations. When Bent Frequency Duo and I first discussed this project, Jan Berry Baker mentioned that the topic of water was on her mind—ranging from its life-sustaining necessity to its potential for devastation. This resonated with me as I have long been concerned about climate change, our role in it, and the increasing severity of drouth and flood cycles.
Shatin: Of Wells and Springs
Of Wells and Springs takes its title (and the spelling of drouth) from environmentalist Wendell Berry’s poem, “Water,” from his collection, Farming: A Handbook. The poem tells of a terrible drouth, of the narrator’s mother waiting for men to bring water from distant springs, of his fear of recurring drouth and of his love of the water of ‘wells and springs.’ He closes the poem with the line ‘My sweetness is to wake in the night after days of dry heat, hearing the rain.’
My music responds to the experiences that Berry conveys so vividly—the fear of drouth and its anguish, the joy of rain and its sound, adding the potential danger it carries. Of Wells and Springs conveys emotion in a manner not unlike text, through structure, flow and tone of voice.
Of Wells and Springs was commissioned in consortium with the lead Bent Frequency Duo and saxophonists Nicole M. Roman and Drew Whiting. It has been exciting to create music for such outstanding musicians!
Lemay: À intervalles fixes
The expression “À intervalles fixes” could be translated as “At fixed intervals” or “at regular intervals”. It could be a distance of greater or lesser length between two things, between one point and another, or the space of time between two instants.
In music, the notion of interval refers to the notion of pitches, not distance or time-lapse as in the expression. But I’ve taken the notion of time from the expression and transposed it into rhythm. You’ll hear a regular pulse (regular time intervals), mainly at the hi-hat, which gradually accelerates from section to section. I superimpose an irregularity on this regularity, with off-beat or contrasting rhythms either on the other percussion instruments or at the saxophone.
The composition of this work was made possible thanks to the financial assistance of the Ontario Arts Council (francophone music program).
-ek
–JS
–RL
Williams: Child’s Play
Inspiration sometimes comes from the farthest reaches and sometimes from very close to home. In this case, I chose very small objects from my children’s toy boxes—those that I found to have a sufficient range of sonic possibilities. In the first piece, the whistles blend with the saxophone to create a fused, enhanced sound; in the second, a true duet; and the third, two contrasting, but complementary sounds. Child’s Play was written for Jan Berry Baker and Stuart Gerber.
Lillios: Hazy Moonlight
Hazy Moonlight for soprano saxophone, percussion, and electroacoustics takes its inspiration from five haiku by poet Wally Swist:
thistledown seeds the falls
a full moon shatters into stars
slipping through moonlight
a waterthrush rushes
rock to rock
cloud wisps across the moon
gusts of rain patter among piles of fallen leaves
bracing the chill moonlight rushes in the icy river
mountain laurel blossoms
a luminous moth ascends into moonlight
Swist’s vivid scenes depict the moon’s appearance across the seasons, creating an organic foundation for the work’s structure and soundscape. The instrumentalists’ virtuosic foray through Swist’s evocative work conjures varied images of the moon as a brilliant force, a mysterious beacon, and a luminous orb. Hazy Moonlight was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University for the Bent Frequency Duo. The haiku appear with the author’s permission and are published in Modern Haiku, The Silence Between Us (Taylorville, IL: Brooks Books, 2005), and The Windbreak Pine (Ormskirk, UK: Snapshot Press, 2016.)
–AW
-EL
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Founded in 2003, Bent Frequency brings the avant-garde to life through adventurous programming, the promotion of New Music, and a creative synthesis of music and media. Hailed as “one of the brightest new music ensembles on the scene today” by Gramophone magazine, Bent Frequency engages an eclectic mix of the most adventurous and impassioned players in Atlanta. Bent Frequency presents innovative programs of cutting edge works and re-contextualizes classic works of the twentieth century, embracing adventurous and socially conscious programming, cross-disciplinary collaborations, community engagement, experimentation, and activism. A champion of historically underrecognized composers, BF’s events aim to be inclusive of their diverse and dynamic community, ushering the contemporary music experience from the strict formality of the concert hall into the fresh air of artistic expression and experimentation. Bent Frequency is an ensemble in residence at Georgia State University and is run by CoArtistic Directors Jan Berry Baker and Stuart Gerber.
BF has partnered with internationally acclaimed ensembles, dance groups, and visual artists in creating unique productions ranging from traditional concerts to fully staged operatic works, to concerts on the ATL streetcar, to a band of 111 bicycle-mounted, community performers. BF’s programming, educational outreach, and community events aim to be inclusive of the diverse and dynamic communities they are a part of.
As Co-Artistic Directors of Bent Frequency, percussionist Stuart Gerber and saxophonist Jan Berry Baker are The BF Duo Project. Stuart and Jan have commissioned over 50 new works for their duo since 2013 and have given countless performances across the United States, Mexico, and Europe. They have been guest ensemble in residence at the MATA Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, Sam Houston State University in Texas, Tage aktueller musik festival in Nuremberg, Germany, Charlotte New Music Festival, The University of Georgia, and New Music on the Point. Their debut CD, Diamorpha, is available on the Centaur Label.
www.bentfrequency.com
Canadian-American saxophonist Jan Berry Baker has performed as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician on many of the world’s great stages. An advocate of cross-disciplinary collaborations, socially conscious programming, and community engagement, she is Co-Artistic Director of contemporary chamber ensemble, Bent Frequency. She and percussionist Stuart Gerber are The BF Project and together have commissioned over 50 new works for saxophone and percussion. They have given countless performances of these news works at artist residencies, international festivals, and schools of music across the US, Mexico, Germany and France.
Jan regularly performs with the LA Philharmonic and was the principal saxophonist for almost two decades with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Atlanta Ballet, and Atlanta Opera. She has also performed with the Chicago and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Jan’s recording projects include chamber music albums on the Centaur and Albany labels, as well as American Orchestral Works with the Grant Park Orchestra and Atlanta Opera’s world premiere recording of The Golden Ticket.
As an educator, Jan is Professor of Saxophone, Woodwind Area Head, and Vice Chair of the Department of Music at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. Highly sought after as a masterclass teacher and speaker, she has given presentations on contemporary music, nonprofits and grant writing, community engagement, socially conscious programming, career development and mentoring. Jan is a founding member of the Committee on the Status of Gender Equity in the North American Saxophone Alliance and the inaugural leader of the CGE Mentoring Program. She earned a Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University and is a Selmer Paris, Vandoren, and Key Leaves performing artist.
Lauded as having “consummate virtuosity” by The New York Times, percussionist Stuart Gerber has performed extensively throughout the North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. Recent engagements include: The Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video, and Music Festival, the Montreal New Music Festival, Electronic Music Malta Festival, The Eduardo MATA Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, the KLANG Festival at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Cervantino Festival in Gunajuato, Mexico, the Now Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, the Chihuahua International Music Festival in Mexico, the Gulbenkian Center in Lisbon, Portugal, the South Bank Centre in London, the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin, Germany, the Melbourne Recital Centre, Australia, the Spoleto Festival, and the Savannah Music Festival.
As an active performer of new works, Stuart has recorded for Centaur, Innova, UR-text, Aucourant, Bridge, Capstone, Code Blue, Mode, Albany, Telarc and Vienna Modern Masters labels. He is currently an artist-faculty at the Summer Institute of Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) held annually at the New England Conservatory, and has taught at New Music on the Point, the Charlotte New Music Festival, and the Stockhausen-Kurse in Germany, and has given masterclasses at many esteemed institutions in the US and abroad (including the Curtis Institute, Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and The Southbank Center).
Stuart studied at the Oberlin College Conservatory, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the Hochshule für Musik in Hannover, Germany. He is Professor of Music at Georgia State University and coartistic director of the Atlanta-based contemporary music ensemble Bent Frequency.
