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Department of Music and Theatre University at Albany presents:
Ensemble 518 Performs Chamber Music by Max Lifchitz
Concert made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts administered by North/South Consonance, Inc.
Monday, February 28, 2022 at 7pm
Recital Hall UAlbany Performing Arts Center
Program Chamber Music by Max Lifchitz Song of Ourselves (2018)
I. Prelude II. The Educator III. If (Addendum) IV. Elegy V. Song of Ourselves
Yellow Ribbons No. 51 (2016) Yellow Ribbons No. 46 (2009) Beethoven’s Moods (2021)*
I. Pathetic Beethoven II. Beethoven Vacationing in the Caribbean III. Beethoven, Ives and Glass on ZOOM IV. Beethoven Quarreling with the Immortal Beloved * First Performance
Ensemble 518
Hilary Walther Cumming, violinist David Bebe, cellist Duncan Cumming, pianist Max Lifchitz, pianist
Meet the Performers Pianist Duncan J. Cumming graduated from Bates College and New England Conservatory before earning the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University. In 2006 joined the faculty at the University at Albany, where he hosted the first Youth Movements Festival in 2008. His book The Fountain of Youth: The Artistry of Frank Glazer was published in 2009. He received the 2010 College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Award for Outstanding Teaching and the 2018 President’s Award for
Exemplary Public Engagement. His recordings include a solo recording for Centaur (CRC 3125) including music of Brahms, Debussy, Satie, and Chopin and a historical instrument recording for Centaur (CRC 3231) featuring the music of Carl Maria von Weber as performed on Weber’s own 1815 Brodmann fortepiano Violinist Hilary Walther Cumming has appeared as soloist with the Reading Symphony Orchestra, the Concord Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Before moving to New York, she served as concertmaster of the Cape Cod Sinfonietta and the Andover Chamber Orchestra. Upon earning a graduate degree in performance at Indiana University she was awarded a Fulbright grant to further her training in Copenhagen and Paris. Principal influences for her style and discipline are Joseph Silverstein, Franco Gulli and Shmuel Ashkenasi on modern violin, Stanley Ritchie on Baroque violin, and Seamus Connolly on Irish traditional fiddle. Her recordings can be found on Albany Records, Meridien and AFKA Records. Also active as an educator, she teaches violin and chamber music for the UAlbany Music Program. Cellist David Bebe serves as Director of Education for the Empire Youth Orchestra as well as Music Fellow for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. A graduate of the University of Miami and Indiana University, Dr. Bebe took part in masterclasses offered by among others, Orlando Cole and Janos Starker. He has appeared as soloist at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall; UAlbany’s 250-Year Beethoven Celebration; the Miami Bach Society Orchestra; Project Copernicus; and the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts. For over a decade, Dr. Bebe served as the College of Saint Rose’s Director of Orchestras, and String Program Coordinator. The co-founder of the Academy for Strings in Albany, he has also been on the faculties of the Indiana University String Academy, the String Academy of Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Young Musicians and Artists Festival in Oregon, the Gem State String Boot Camp at Idaho State University.
Pianist Max Lifchitz has appeared on concert stages throughout Europe, Latin America, and the US. THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE described him as "a stunning, ultrasensitive pianist" while THE NEW YORK TIMES praised him for his "clean, measured and sensitive performances." A graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University, Lifchitz was invited to join the University at Albany’s teaching staff in 1986. He received the University at Albany Award for Excellence in Research in 2005 and the 2012 Distinguished Professor Award from Fuerza Latina – the University at Albany’s Latino Student Association. During the fall of 2006 Lifchitz served as the Elena Díaz-Verson Amos Eminent Scholar in Latin American Studies at Columbus State University’s Center for International Education in Columbus, GA. His many recordings are widely available through iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube and other commercial music streaming services.
About the Music Song of Ourselves for violin, cello, and piano was written to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the University at Albany’s College of Arts and Sciences. It was premiered by the Capital Trio on October 5, 2018, as part of a concert celebrating the occasion held at the Recital Hall of the University at Albany’s Performing Arts Center. The work consists of five contrasting, self-contained but interrelated movements inspired by the poetry of Leonard A. Slade, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at UAlbany. A brief, fanfare-like opening movement for solo piano introduces the motivic and rhythmic material heard throughout the work. The second movement (The Educator) makes use of the ancient Greek Skolios of Seikilos – one of the oldest western melodies dating to the year 200 B.C. A scherzo like movement (If, Addendum) follows, featuring a lively repartee among the ensemble members eventually giving way to a stylized version of the negro spiritual By an’ By. A mournful, somber solo cello peroration serves as fourth movement
(Elegy). The final movement (Song of Ourselves) recasts materials previously heard throughout the work concluding with a quotation of the UAlbany alma mater melody composed in the 1920’s by A. W. Lansing. Lifchitz’s Yellow Ribbons consist of a series of works written in homage of the former American hostages in Iran. These compositions represent a personal way of celebrating the artistic and political freedom so often taken for granted in the West. The tragic events that occurred on September 11, 2011, in New York City convinced the composer that returning to work on this series begun in the early 1980’s was both appropriate and worthwhile. Yellow Ribbons No. 51 for violin and piano was written with great urgency and in a flurry of activity as news of the tragedy that befell Orlando, Florida on June 12, 2016, saturated the news media. In response to what was considered the deadliest mass shooting in US history, Pulse – the name of the night club where the misfortune unfolded – might be an appropriate subtitle for the piece. The ear-piercing piano gesture that launches the work is immediately followed by a ghostly violin pizzicato passage. An array of paraphrases on the opening harmonic and melodic materials ensues. Ranging from the lyrical to the arrestingly dramatic, the constant transformations of the opening materials build gradually piloting the music to a moment of extreme tension. At this climactic moment the two instrumentalists branch out and start moving at their own speed or tempo while recapping the most salient gestures heard previously. As the tension subsides, a quiet passage based on the opening ethereal pizzicato melody brings the work to its serene closing. The musical discourse of Yellow Ribbons No. 46 for cello and piano, is built around the timbric and registral qualities available in the solo instrument. Subtitled Song Without Words -- its opening features a lyrical melody accompanied by a rhythmically throbbing keyboard ostinato. A dramatic middle section ensues giving way to a virtuosic cello cadenza. The closing section of the work recalls the opening lines while
exploring the contrasting high and low registers of the featured instruments. Being heard in public for the very first time this evening, Beethoven’s Moods for violin, cello, and piano, was written at the request of The Capital Trio. Originally scheduled to be performed as part of the ensemble’s concert series marking the 250th anniversary of the ever-popular German master, the pause on public concert activities during 2020-21 forced the postponement of the work’s premiere. The title of the composition alludes to the notorious and unpredictable temper outbursts endured by contemporaries of one of the greatest musical figures of all time. Melodic and harmonic materials derived from the Pathétique Sonata - one of Beethoven’s most famous piano pieces published in 1798 - are easily recognizable in the chiaroscuro permeating the first movement. The brighter second movement features infusions of Afro-Caribbean rhythms into themes found in Beethoven’s First Symphony, the Piano Sonata Op. 31 No. 3, the Archduke Trio Op. 97, and the Piano Concerto Op. 19. The third movement is an imaginary ZOOM session among Beethoven and American composers Charles Ives and Philip Glass. A quote from Beethoven’s “short-short-short-long” motive that opens the Fifth Symphony appears throughout alongside fragments of The Alcotts movement of Ives’ Concord Sonata; an excerpt from the religious hymn Fairest Lord Jesus; and a “minimalist” reinterpretation of the first movement of the opening arpeggios of the Moonlight Sonata. The refrain around which the fourth movement is built is based on the opening melody of the bagatelle Fur Elise. Shadowing the Rondo design of Beethoven’s bagatelle (A-B-A-C-A), the refrain is surrounded by contrasting episodes based on quotations from the first movement of the String Quartet Op. 18 No. 3, C minor Piano Concerto, Appassionata Sonata, Ghost Trio, Egmont Overture, Kreutzer Sonata and Cello Sonata Op. 69. Lifchitz hopes that listeners will be pleasantly surprised discovering the striking and innovative outcomes that result from the “sampling” of vintage Beethoven’s themes when mingled with newly minted musical gestures.
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER HOUSE POLICIES Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the management and its staff. . The use of photographic or recording devices of any kind during this performance is strictly prohibited. . There is no food or drink allowed in the theatres, nor is smoking allowed in UAlbany buildings. . To avoid disrupting the performance, kindly disable any noise making electronic devices you may have with you. . Please take time to note the location of the fire exits nearest to you. In the event of an emergency, please proceed to the nearest exit in an orderly fashion and follow the directions of our staff.
Created and produced by the University Art Museum, NYS Writers Institute and UAlbany Performing Arts Center in collaboration with WAMC Public Radio, this popular series features leading figures from a variety of artistic disciplines in conversation about their creative inspirations, their craft and their careers. “Roundtable” host Joe Donahue conducts live on-stage interviews followed by a Q&A with the audience.
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