Pacific Percussion Ensemble
Jonathan Latta, director
Maddie Karzin, student conductor
Brittany Trotter, flute
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
7:30 pm
Faye Spanos Concert Hall
(2023)
Matt Moore (b. 1985)
Catherine Likhuta (b. 1981)
Allison Loggins-Hull (b. 1982)
Steve Reich (b. 1936)
Moves (2024) (World Premiere) Andrew Conklin (b. 1984)
Maddie Karzin, student conductor
Brittany Trotter, flute
Heu Me Domine (1553/2024)
Juri Seo (b. 1981)
Triangle Trio (2013/2016)
Vicente Lusitano (1520–1561) trans. Andrew Conklin
Mallet Quartet (2009)
PROGRAM NOTES
Prior to joining University of the Pacific in 2018, Andrew Conklin held teaching positions at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and Stony Brook University. Conklin's work has received critical acclaim in blogs such as Pitchfork and The Line of Best Fit and has been supported by grants from organizations including the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Among his current projects is Site: Yizkor, an ongoing collaboration with the multimedia artist Maya Ciarrocchi. The project was presented in part at the Bronx Museum of Art in 2020 and was premiered in full in 2022 at the Sichów Educational Foundation and Roza Centre, Poland. A versatile musical collaborator, Conklin earned a 2017 Grammy Award nomination for Best Bluegrass Recording for his contributions to The Hazel and Alice Sessions as a core band member of Laurie Lewis and The Right Hands. His guitar and bass playing can be heard on multiple other recordings and he has toured extensively with indie rock bands, bluegrass groups and improvising combos. As a composer, Conklin has enjoyed fruitful partnerships with musicians from some of today's most inquisitive new music ensembles, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, Ensemble Mise-En, Spektral Quartet, Ensemble Connect, Tala Rasa Percussion, the Calidore String Quartet, Splinter Reeds, the Microcosmos Quartet, Hub New Music and Earplay. Conklin is also a published writer on the theory, composition, and pedagogy of music.
Andrew Conklin: Earth Moves
I first heard the music of Vicente Lusitano in 2020, which marked the beginning of one of the driest three-year periods in California’s history. The rain and snow returned three years later with a vengeance, and we rejoiced, even as we quietly feared it was too much—all at once—for the parched earth to absorb.
Vicente Lusitano’s radiant vocal music sounds like something beamed in from a distant time and place, which, in a sense, it is. The African-Portuguese composer lived in 16th-century Europe, where he wrote motets and music theory treatises before falling into obscurity for roughly 400 years. The recent ripple of attention around Lusitano reminds me of the anomalous wetness
PROGRAM NOTES
we Californians enjoyed in 2023. I am glad to see more performances and recordings of his music, yet I sense the brief buzz surrounding the stunning music of this composer may already be receding.
For my part, I seem unable to let go of my fascination with Lusitano’s music, which has seeped into my most recent compositions in different and unexpected ways. The title of this piece for eight percussionists, Earth Moves, comes from the final words of one of Lusitano's best-known motets, Heu me Domine: “Free me, Lord, from eternal death on the awful day when heaven and earth move.”
At the basis of Earth Moves is a cyclical chord progression that rotates through various permutations, musical contexts, and color combinations. I hope the music conveys a hint of that very particular blend of hope, awe, longing, and inevitability that accompanies the inexorable passage of time.
— Andrew Conklin
Jonathan Latta is an associate professor of practice in percussion and program director of ensembles at University of the Pacific. He has also maintained an active performing career as a percussionist, having performed with the Stockton Symphony, Modesto Symphony, and Sacramento Philharmonic and serving as principal for the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra in Durango, Colorado. Prior to moving to California in 2014, Latta was director of percussion studies for six years at Fort Lewis College in Durango, teaching applied percussion, percussion ensemble, non-Western music, orchestration, and jazz. Latta was chair of the University Pedagogy Committee for the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) for six years as well as a member of the PAS Education Committee.
From 2002 to 2006, Latta was a member of the United States Air Force Band of the Golden West, performing in over three hundred performances on percussion/timpani for the Concert Band, drum set for the Commanders Jazz Ensemble, marching percussion for the Ceremonial Band, and drum set for the Golden West Dixie Ramblers. These performances included the 2003 Tournament of Roses Parade, the 2004 Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, and the interment of former President Ronald W. Reagan. Latta has performed as a chamber musician in the Durango Chamber Music Festival, the Animas Music Festival, and at the Percussive Arts Society International Conference. In 2019 Latta performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall with Pacific’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Most recently, Latta has been heard as a soloist and helped produce the Pacific Wind Bands’ recording, From a Deep Blue Sky (2024).
Prize-winning flutist Brittany Trotter leads a diverse career as an educator, soloist, and collaborator. She is assistant professor in flute and the Chair of the Woodwind Program at University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music.
Trotter has been awarded first prize in numerous national and regional competitions including the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition in Woodwinds in West Virginia (2017, 2016), Wyoming (2015, 2014), and Mississippi (2009). She has also competed as a semi-finalist in the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Since moving to California in 2021, Trotter has performed with such central
valley regional orchestras as the Stockton Symphony Orchestra, Modesto Symphony Orchestra, and Auburn Symphony Orchestra.
Equally versed in post-classical contemporary and experimental music as well as electro-acoustic music and interdisciplinary works, Trotter has performed with the San Francisco Contemporary Players and premiered new works for the flute nationally.
Trotter regularly performs, teaches, and serves as a guest lecturer across the United States. Recent appearances include Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of the Performing Arts, Slippery Rock University, and the University of Memphis. Additionally, she has performed and presented at regional and national flute conventions such as the Kentucky Flute Fair, Florida Flute Association Convention, Rochester Flute Fair, Mid-Atlantic flute convention, and the National Flute Association Convention where she was a featured soloist in the 2020 virtual summer series celebration concert series.
Recipient of the NFA’s 2020 Graduate Research Competition for her dissertation entitled, Examining Music Hybridity and Cultural Influences in Valerie Coleman’s Wish Sonatine and Fanmi Imen, Trotter continues to actively study the merging of western classical music, diverse culture, and modern popular music. She has also presented a lecture recital entitled Flute and Hip Hop at several music conferences.
A native from Laurel, Mississippi, Trotter has received degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi (BM, BME), University of Wyoming (MM), and West Virginia University (DMA, Certificate of University Teaching).
Madison Karzin is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in music education and a single subject teaching credential in music at University of the Pacific. She expects to graduate in May 2025. As a graduate assistant, she works closely with Dr. Ruth Brittin in music education courses, and is currently studying instrumental conducting with Dr. Vu Nguyen and percussion with Dr. Jonathan Latta. Karzin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music history, theory, and ethnomusicology from UC Davis.
Pacific Percussion Ensemble is open to students of every major at University of the Pacific. Under the direction of Jonathan Latta, students are presented with a wide range of percussion literature that represents diverse composers, showcases unique chamber music settings, and exposes audiences to dynamic performances of the percussive arts.
Hunter Campbell
Ryan Eads
Maddie Karzin
Casey Kim
Matthew Kulm
Daniel Lopez
Robert McCarl
Peter Norman
Jonathan Latta, director
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