03.21.2019 ENS New Music

New Music, Old Stories 1st Annual Collaborative New Music Concert NOW Music Society and the New Music Ensemble Nadine Silverman, music director Dr. Van Stiefel and Dr. Jacob Cooper, directors Thursday, March 21, 2019 Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building 8:15 PM

PROGRAM Judith ............................................................................................................... Christina J. George b. 1996 Nightmare ................................................................................................................. ZhiYong Tan b. 1998 One Winter Morning in Chelm ............................................................................ Max Halperin b. 1999 Iphigeneia et Aulis ................................................................................................. Marlene Miller b. 1996 LaumÄ—.................................................................................................................... Rebekah Henry b. 1993 Cosmos and Calliope ............................................................................................... Audrey Rake b. 1997 Momus ................................................................................................................Isaac J. Duquette b. 1997

The New Music Ensemble: Jessica Lynch and Christina J. George, flute Tess Pierontoni and Zachary Stola, clarinet Hanna Choi and Benjamin Brubaker, violin Hyewon Jo and Lia Criscuolo, cello Anthony Saddic, Colin O’Malley, and Audrey Rake, piano Haley Cowan and Christopher Carlson, percussion Cameron Davis, conductor

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ABOUT THE NOW MUSIC SOCIETY The NOW Music Society has performed one student-run, student-written new music concert every year. Our mission is to integrate new music into the Wells School of Music, bring performance opportunities to our composers and performers, and promote the study and practice of contemporary music of all styles. These concerts not only give performers the opportunity to work with living composers on a new work, but they give composers the rare opportunity to have their work rehearsed and performed while they are present to give feedback.

As a society, we support diversity and equality in music, and we go to great lengths to ensure equal representation wherever possible. We are proud to present you this program of diverse compositional styles and equal representation of men and women composers and performers.

NOW Music Society Executive Board:

Marlene Miller, president Christina J. George, vice president Nadine Silverman, music director Anthony Saddic, treasurer Audrey Rake, secretary

ABOUT THE NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE This ensemble was created with flexible instrumentation to give rise to a unique opportunity for the members of the NOW Music Society and a group of performance majors in the Wells School of Music. This concert is somewhat experimental in nature, but the instrumentation and concert theme was voted on by the members of the NOW Music Society, and, together, we have executed the 1st annual Collaborative New Music Concert.

UPCOMING NEW MUSIC EVENTS Friday, April 12th 6:00pm – Audrey Rake, senior composition recital Friday, April 26th 6:00pm – Nadine Silverman, senior composition recital

PROGRAM NOTES Judith, Christina J. George Fear paralyzes us. It holds us hostage amidst the swirling voices of doubt and mistrust. So often, we do not have the courage to stand up to fear. We let it rot us from the inside out. But what if we were brave enough to let it scream so loudly it became silent?

Fear owns us until we stare it in the face and say, “You are not me.”

This work was inspired by Artemesia Gentileschi’s painting, Judith Slaying Holofernes, which depicts this Biblical allegory of the same name. Judith’s city is under siege of the Assyrian army. Her people are losing faith in God’s will to save them. For Judith, surrender is not an option. On God’s word, Judith and her maidservant enter the army’s camp in the middle of the night. They arrive at the tent of Holofernes, the army general, who lies defenseless in a drunken stupor. Judith takes the sword of the general from his own belt and severs his head from his body. Leaderless, the army retreats. The city is liberated from its oppressors by the hands of Judith, her maidservant, and their unshakable faith.

In Gentileschi’s telling of this tale, her women are strong. Their hands are clenched in fists as they unify to save their people. Suspended in this climactic moment, their faces are determined, not frightened. Fear is left at the door to be consumed by the sky. In its wake lies courage, and in courage lies freedom.

The only way to come into our power is to release the fear that keeps us weak.

Nightmare, ZhiYong Tan Imagine you are lying on a soft bed, and slowly falling asleep. You feel comfortable, but never know what is going to be in your dream; tonight you have a nightmare, one that you cannot wake up from. The more you try to run away, the scarier it becomes.

This piece was written using minimalism techniques in which every instrument has only one single eight-note melody. The melody is built up slowly, and it gets shorter and louder until the end.

— "It is not in the notes, but in the silence between."

One Winter Morning in Chelm, Max Halperin In Jewish folklore, Chelm is a town of fools. In this particular story, we meet the Shammes, a synagogue attendant, who would knock on the townspeople’s doors in order to wake them up for morning prayer. When it snowed, the townspeople complained to the elders that they couldn’t enjoy the pristine white landscape, as the Shammes had left footprints. After meeting for seven days and seven nights, the elders came up with a solution. Whenever it snowed, the Shammes would be directed to sit on a table that four men would carry from house to house. The Shammes never made a footprint in the snow again!

Iphigeneia et Aulis, Marlene Miller In order to sail to Troy, the Greeks must first make a sacrifice to Artemis because she is withholding the wind. Agamemnon, leader of the Greek delegation, is expected to sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigeneia, and is pressured by the entire army to do so.

To get Iphigeneia to Aulis where the Greeks are stationed, Agamemnon sends his wife, Clytemnestra, a message that he has found Iphigeneia a husband, Achilles. Both mother and daughter are overjoyed by this news and hurry to Aulis to meet Achilles.

When they arrive, they meet Achilles and he clearly knows nothing of any marriage, so Clytemnestra confronts her husband. The confrontation leads to heartbreak as Iphigeneia discovers the real plan, but she nobly agrees to allow the sacrifice to continue so that the army can go to war and retrieve Helen.

Euripides wrote this play to question the culture of war in his society – he wanted to show that the most innocent lives are destroyed by wars. Young men die in war for their country and leave families and loved ones behind with only a memory. My piece incorporates quotations from the play and from the professor who taught me this play in a way I hope will convey the tragedy of Iphigeneia’s story. Not only did he have nothing to do with the war, but the war itself was unnecessary and fuel by masculine pride. Iphigeneia says, “if it means that one man can see the sunlight, what are the lives of thousands of women in the balance?” to justify her sacrifice, but her death only leads to the deaths of more Greeks.

PROGRAM NOTES CONTINUED Laumė, Rebekah Henry In Lithuanian mythology, the Laumės are a group of beings created by the god of thunder, Perkūnas, from birch trees which fall in the forest. They are tasked with constantly weaving the sky and earth together as they drift apart, as well as regulating all the cycles of nature: the seasons, tides, constellations, moon cycles, and so forth.

Unfortunately, because they are wooden, the Laumės cannot feel any kind of emotion and perform their jobs ruthlessly, sometimes causing strife among humanity by weaving a child into the fabric of the forest, killing it, or stealing precious stones to light the night sky with more stars. They are simultaneously essential to humanity’s existence and destructive.

Cosmos and Calliope, Audrey Rake According to the ancient Greeks, the creation of the universe occurred when the heavens and the Earth began to separate–the Cosmic Gap. Millenia have passed, and humans remain in awe of the night sky and the unseen phenomena that the everexpanding universe holds or keeps hidden. Cosmos and Calliope is a call to a closer relationship between the arts and the sciences–because we as humans are endlessly discovering and creating. In the words of engineer, physician, and NASA astronaut Mae Jamison, “Sciences provide an understanding of a universal experience. Arts are a universal understanding of a personal experience…they are both a part of us and a manifestation of the same thing…the arts and the sciences are avatars of human creativity.”

Momus, Isaac J. Duquette This work is a recreation of the shenanigans that Momus gets into up on Mount Olympus. His antics keep Zeus and the rest of the Divine Council in their place; be it through harmless practical joke or literally starting the Trojan war to limit the human population as he is claimed to have done. In this work, I envisioned Momus changing the text of Zeus’s stone tablets before giving a speech to the Divine Council and being cartoonishly chased away like a scene from Tom and Jerry. I like to think of the triple meter section as Momus mimicking Aphrodite to trick unsuspecting men in the streets only to terrorize them once in private.

UPCOMING WELLS SCHOOL OF MUSIC EVENTS For full event details visit www.wcupa.edu/music or call (610) 436-2739 Tuesday, March 26, 2019, 8:15 PM New Music Concert Van Stiefel & Jacob Cooper, directors Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building Wednesday, March 27, 2019, 7:00 PM Guest Artist Recital: Staff Sergeant Hiram Diaz, euphonium Jonathan Fowler, faculty liaison Philips Autograph Library Philips Memorial Building Thursday, March 28, 2019, 7:30 PM Guest Artist Recital: PEN Trio Karen Dannessa, faculty liaison Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building Friday, March 29, 2019, 4:00 PM Senior Recital: Benjamin Brubaker, piano Carl Cranmer, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building Friday, March 29, 2019, 6:00 PM Senior Recital: Casey Dziuba, percussion Ralph Sorrentino, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building *Tickets required for this event.

Steinway & Sons Piano Technical, Tuning and Concert Preparations by Gerald P. Cousins, RPT A majority of performances are available to watch via live stream at Facebook.com/ArtsAtWCUPA and LiveStream.com/wcupa.

Mr. Robert Rust, Audio & Visual Technician Events at the Wells School of Music are often supported by individual sponsors and organizations.

Contributions to the Wells School of Music may be made out to: West Chester University Foundation 202 Carter Drive, West Chester, PA 19382

For further information, please call (610) 436-2868 or contact Dr. Christopher Hanning, Dean.

If you do not intend to save your program, please recycle it in the baskets at the exit doors.

The Wells School of Music | West Chester University of Pennsylvania Dr. Christopher Hanning, Dean