UIC PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE Recital Hall L280 1040 W Harrison St Chicago, IL Friday December 3, 2021 7:30pm Jordan Kamps director
Epilepsy & Seizure Warning
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This performance contains rapidly flashing lights that may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy.
Land Acknowledgement Statement
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The UIC School of Theatre and Music sits on the traditional homeland of the original peoples of the area: the Three Fires Confederacy (the Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe Nations) as well as the Menominee and Ho-Chunk who—along with many Indigenous people—were among its first inhabitants. With respect and gratitude, The School of Theatre and Music honors the many Native Americans who have, do, and will call this land their home. STM acknowledges that we have benefitted from the repeated attacks on Native Americans that forced tribal representatives to sign the 1816 Treaty of St Louis, relinquishing to the U.S. all claims of the land from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. This land seizure led to the era of economic development and rapid growth that made Chicago the metropolis that it is today. We have an obligation to our students and the nearly 65,000 Native Americans now living in Chicago to do no further harm, to amplify Native voices, and to fight for equity and inclusion by engaging in anti-racism policies and practices. For us, this work begins with this statement, and must be followed by actions that immediately affect our work and life on campus. STM therefore commits to the following initiatives: / The creation of an Antiracism Action Plan and Committee / Antiracism training for all STM faculty and staff / Annual Recruitment workshops and on-site special events for Native high-schoolers. / An annual master class or talk with Native musicians and/or theatre artists. / Free tickets to STM performances and concerts, provided through UIC’s Native American Support Program. / Increased representation of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) voices and perspectives in STM pedagogy, classrooms, and performances. This is only the beginning of our work. We look forward to expanded and sustained STM programming that addresses ignorance, systemic racism, and white dominance. Developed by STM Theatre Faculty 08.25.2020
Repertoire Natajara Taxidermy Sequences
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Tetsuya Takeno Caroline Shaw Bruce A. Russell
World Premier Death Wish
Gemma Peacocke
Scavenger Music
Christopher Deane
My Empty Hands
Igor C Silva
U.S. Premier Blur
Cesar Gonzalez
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Personnel Josue Avila
Special Guest
Hayley Balen
Melissa Reeves
Nicholas Casas Janna Elsen Jenny Eng Caleb Fetzer Marienne Go Matthew Greenberg Adrian Knight Nikki Minerva Mia Peric Hannah Shaikh
Program Notes
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Tetsuya Takeno - Natajara Notes by composer Nataraja, by Tetsuya Takeno, was originally written as a marimba solo with a conga player and was originally entitled Arabian Dances. In the form presented here, Takeno employs four individual players on an expanded instrumentation: two marimbas, a vibraphone, bongos and a kick drum, to musically depict the dancing form of the Hindu god, Shiva. The musical material twists and turns through a variety of tempi, meters, rhythmic motives, and bases its melodic material on Indian and Middle Eastern inspired scales. The music also depicts a variety of moods throughout.
Caroline Shaw - Taxidermy Notes by composer Originally written in 2012 for the percussion group So Percussion, Taxidermy employs flower pots along with traditional keyboard instruments to create a quite introspective piece. From the composer: “Why 'Taxidermy'"? I just find the word strangely compelling, and it evokes something grand, awkward, epic, silent, funny, and just a bit creepy — all characteristics of this piece, in a way. The repeated phrase toward the end (“the detail of the pattern is movement”) is a little concept I love trying (and failing) to imagine. It comes from T.S. Eliot’s beautiful and perplexing Burnt Norton (from the Four Quartets), and I’ve used it before in other work — as a kind of whimsical existentialist mantra.” Sequences (2000, rev. 2020) is scored for percussion and two marimbas. The title refers to sequences both in the sense of a musical phrase that repeats with a variation in pitch each time (in this case, with a variation in rhythm as well), and in the sense of an arrangement programmed electronically using a sequencer (a device prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s during my early years in music). Four chords are used exclusively: D dominant, C major, G major and A minor, i.e., V – IV – I – ii in the key of G, while there is a hint of the relative E minor in the bridge. Parameters vary within a relatively narrow range: harmony, rhythmic phase, register (expanding or contracting symmetrically from pattern to pattern); and interval quality, i.e., one pattern may feature predominantly small
Program Notes
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intervals and another, widely spaced ones. In the latter half of the piece, new sets of patterns emerge on the same four chords.
Gemma Peacocke - Death Wish Notes by composer I wrote Death Wish after watching a short film featuring New Zealand survivors of sexual assault. One of the survivors, Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan, spoke about the out-of-control spiralling of her life for many years and how she developed what she called a death wish. In the piece I thought about the spooling and unspooling of energy and how we are all bound and driven by forces both within and beyond ourselves. With the greatest of respect for Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan who has used her life to create art and music and to help survivors of abuse and those who have perpetrated abuse. I ōrea te tuātara ka patu ki waho. Aroha nui. The original video that inspired the piece can be found here: https://youtu.be/yjt-ubpX42o
Christopher Deane - Scavenger Music Notes by composer Scavenger Music requires the performers to “scavenge” their instruments from common everyday junk. This piece includes pipes, pans, wood planks, Amazon boxes, mixing bowls, key, bolts, and a variety of other junk. The piece features rhythmic motives that are passed around and paired with different instrumental timbres. The UIC Percussion Ensemble is performing this piece as a memorial to Christopher Dean who lost his battle with cancer on October 9th 2021. Dean was an influential percussion educator, performer, and composer. He’s written many pieces for solo percussion and percussion ensemble that have become standards in the repertoire. In 2019 he was awarded the Percussive Arts Society Lifetime Achievement Award. His music and
Program Notes
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passion for percussion will continue to influence new generations of percussionists for years to come. Igor C Silva is a composer who hails from Portugal. He creates music where “performers, computers, and many noisy and psychedelic things happen on stage, creating a multi-sensorial experience.” In his piece My Empty Hands, the performers and their actions control the video. This piece is scored for a wide variety of “sounds”. Instruments aren’t explicitly give rather the composer calls for a sounds that may be “pitched sound – short (completely or partially pitched)” for example. The performers choose instruments based on matching the sounds and visuals of the piece. Part of the visuals and audios are also created by the performer through audio recordings and text files. Blur was commissioned for the Winston Churchill High School Percussion Ensemble from San Antonio, Texas, under the direction of Colton Bean who premiered the piece at the 2019 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. Written for ten percussionists, it is designed to be colorful and rhythmically driven throughout. The work centers around several rhythmic motifs and flourishes of harmony and texture creating a wash of musical sonorities.
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Biographies
Jordan Kamps Jordan Kamps is a Chicago based percussionist currently teaching Percussion Ensemble, American Popular Music, Fundamentals of Music Theory, and Applied Percussion at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Outside the university, Jordan actively teaches high school marching bands in Wisconsin. He has taught groups in both the WSMA fall circuit and the MACBDA summer circuit. As a performer, Jordan has performed with such varying groups as the Extra Crispy Brass Band, Milwaukee Bucks NBA Drumline, and Chicago Arts Orchestra. Recent recordings include "Joy" and "Life" by the artist Sleeping At Last, the premier recording of Music for 5 Musicians by Marc Mellits, and the premier recording of Festiduous Notes by Jay Kawarsky with the Chicago Arts Orchestra. Jordan performed as a member of the backing orchestra for parts of the international tours of Evanesence, Celtic Thunder, Lindsey Stirling, Hanson, and Streetlight Manifesto. Jordan holds a Bachelors of Music in Percussion Performance from the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater and a Masters of Music in Percussion Performance from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Jordan currently performs with Cream City Percussion, a percussion quartet from Milwaukee, WI; Callaloo, a jazz-world fusion percussion group; and the Four Star Brass Band, a New Orleans style brass band in Chicago. While being an active performer, Jordan stays connected to new works for percussion. He has been active in several commissions and premiers of new works for both percussion and chamber music. In 2016, Jordan premiered Architecture of a Dream by Kevin Bobo, a marimba concerto for Wind Ensemble. Jordan has also been a part of the premiers of works by Ivan Trevino, John Henneken, Dan Forrest, and Marc Mellits. Jordan Kamps plays Marimba One and is proud to support them as a Premier Artist. Jordan is also a Black Swamp Percussion Educator
UIC Music Concert Series Fall 2021 Saturday, December 4 UIC Orchestra UIC Theatre L280 1040 W. Harrison St. 3pm Saturday, December 4 UIC Wind Ensemble UIC Theatre L280 1040 W. Harrison St. 7:30pm
Our student concerts are free and open to the public. Dates are subject to change. Visit us at theatreandmusic.uic.edu for a full listing of events. Please RSVP your attendance registration link coming soon. For accessibility and accommodations contact our box office at (312) 996-2939 or email nealmac@uic.edu
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Mission
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The School of Theatre & Music provides innovative, rigorous, and comprehensive academic and performance programs as part of our diverse, urban context. Our programs develop practical knowledge, cultural sensitivity, intellectual resourcefulness, and imaginative daring in emerging artists and scholars. We connect students to Chicago's abundant, vibrant theatre culture and to the city's dynamic jazz and classical music networks.
Thank you for being a dedicated member of our community! When you make a gift of any size to the School of Theatre & Music, you invest in the future of our students and encourage them to discover and nurture their passions and talents. The School has funds that support a wide range of areas and programs: Theatre & Music Scholarship Fund Theatre & Music Annual Fund Music Ensembles (jazz, wind bands, orchestra, choir, etc.) Youth Programs (Summer Camps, etc.) Theatre & Music Facilities and Equipment