New Music New Haven, with Thomas Newman, guest composer, February 7, 2019

Robert Blocker, Dean

NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN Hannah Lash, Artistic Director

Featuring music by

Thomas Newman and Yale School of Music graduate-student composers Thursday, February 7, 2019 | 7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Alexis C. Lamb b. 1993

Kenai Alexis C. Lamb, hammered dulcimer Nicoletta Todesco, guitar Tanner Porter, cello

Tanner Porter b. 1994

Time-Lapse Tanner Porter, voice Miles Walter, piano Alexis C. Lamb, percussion Drake Duffer, guitar Janice Lu, harpsichord

Miles Walter b. 1994

Variations on a Theme by Flying Lotus Miles Walter, piano

intermission

Paul Mortilla b. 1995

Animal Brain-ad infinitum perplexus confixium Sasha Yakub, violin soloist Bel Ben Mamoun, medieval bagpipes Grant Luhmann, English horn Tyler Rhodes, electric guitar 1 Nicoletta Todesco, electric guitar 2 Nate May, synthesizer/harpsichord Frances Pollock, soprano Tanner Porter, alto Paul Mortilla, tenor Miles Walter, baritone Kohl Weisman, bass Projection Designers: Yaara Bar, Elena Tilli, Paul Mortilla

Thomas Newman b. 1955

Three for Pianos I. Speak So I Can Hear You II. Simple Intervals III. Simple Rhythm Gabriele Strata, piano Hilda Huang, piano Thomas Newman, electronics

As a courtesy to others, please silence all devices. Photography and recording of any kind is strictly prohibited. Please do not leave the hall during musical selections. Thank you.

Guest Profile Thomas Newman, composer Thomas Newman is widely acclaimed as one of today’s most prominent composers for film. He has composed music for more than fifty motion pictures and television series and has earned fourteen Academy Award nominations and six Grammy Awards. He is the youngest son of Alfred Newman (1900–1970), the longtime musical director of 20th Century Fox and the composer of scores for such films as Wuthering Heights, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Diary of Anne Frank, and All About Eve. Newman studied composition and orchestration at USC with Professor Frederick Lesemann and noted film composer David Raksin, and privately with composer George Tremblay. He completed his academic work at Yale University, studying with Jacob Druckman, Bruce MacCombie, and Robert Moore. Newman also gratefully acknowledges the early influence of another prominent musician, the legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, who served as a great mentor and champion.

In addition to his work in film and television, Newman has composed several works for the concert stage, including the symphonic work Reach Forth Our Hands, commissioned in 1996 by the Cleveland Orchestra to commemorate their city’s bicentennial, as well as At Ward’s Ferry, Length 180 ft., a concerto for double bass and orchestra commissioned in 2001 by the Pittsburgh Symphony. His latest concert piece was a chamber work entitled It Got Dark, commissioned by the acclaimed Kronos Quartet in 2009. As part of a separate commission by the Los Angeles

Philharmonic, the work was expanded and adapted for symphony orchestra and string quartet, and premiered at Walt Disney Concert Hall in December of 2009. In October, 2014, Newman and musician Rick Cox released 35 Whirlpools Below Sound, an evocative, contemporary collection of avant-garde electronic soundscapes which the two collaborators developed over a period of twenty-five years, and which constitutes a fascinating departure from Newman’s work in film music.

Student Profiles

Staff

Alexis C. Lamb ’20MM Student of Hannah Lash alexislamb.com

Manager Jeffrey M. Mistri

Tanner Porter ’19MM Student of Hannah Lash, Christopher Theofanidis, and Aaron Jay Kernis tannerporter.com Miles Walter ’20MM Student of Christopher Theofanidis and Aaron Jay Kernis concert setting.

Paul Mortilla ’20MM Student of Martin Bresnick soundcloud.com/aulortilla

Music Librarian Samuel Bobinski Office Assistant Kristy Tucker

Program Notes Alexis C. Lamb

Thomas Newman

This piece is dedicated to my Uncle Dave, for being the first person to introduce me to the hammered dulcimer. When my uncle gifted me his hammered dulcimer a few years ago, I knew I wanted to honor this gift with a unique composition. My goal for this piece was to playfully highlight the slight differences between duple and triple rhythmic patterns, as well as explore the combined wide range and nuanced sounds of the cello, guitar, and hammered dulcimer.

Uncle Dave, I hope someday you are able to move up to the Kenai Peninsula, your dream home.

Three For Pianos represents an effort on my part to combine live pianos and sonically manipulated piano playback with further accompaniment of live electronic processing.

The compositional tools of the second and third pieces, Simple Intervals and Simple Rhythm, are mostly mosaic. That is, an amalgam of phrases and patterns that are first improvised and then reorganized. The opening piece, Speak So I Can Hear You, is in simple song form. The object, ultimately, is to find a reasonable blend of electronic color with instrumentalists in a concert setting.

Paul Mortilla To describe Animal Brain in 100 words is an impossible task. Three simplified solutions may provide insight: that it is 1. a guided noise music improvisation, 2. a kinetic sound sculpture, or 3. an attempt to understand the collective, unconscious ‘soup’ of the modern brain. My primary source of inspiration was the Yale Art Gallery, which I visited many times throughout the compositional process.

As when a visual artist attempts to create beauty out of fracture and distortion, I hope to audially refract and warp the boundaries of temporal mapping.

Tanner Porter Time-Lapse is the fifth song from the upcoming cycle, “Circle, Retrace.”

Upcoming Events feb 10 Ransom Wilson, flute and Friends

Faculty Artist Series

Faculty flutist Ransom Wilson is

joined by guitarist Rene Izquierdo ‘99MM ‘01AD and percussionist

Joseph Murfin.

3 pm | Morse Recital Hall

Free

feb 15 Eugene Onegin feb 16 Yale Opera feb 17 Yale Opera presents a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with the Yale Philharmonia.

fri & sat 8 pm | sun 2 pm

Shubert Theatre Tickets start at $19 • shubert.com

feb 13 Roberto Prosseda, piano

Horowitz Piano Series A performance by guest artist Roberto Prosseda, whom Gramophone has said “has a fiery and fluent technique.”

7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall

Tickets start at $23, students $11

feb 22 Philharmonia in Sprague Yale Philharmonia

The Yale Philharmonia performs its annual concert in the intimate Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall.

7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $12, Yale faculty/ staff $8, students $5

feb 14 Yale in New York Preview Concert Yale in New York

Music for clarinets, with David

Shifrin, and YSM students and alumni.

4:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall

Free

feb 26 Jordi Savall: Tous les Matins du Monde

Oneppo Chamber Music Series Viola da gamba virtuoso Jordi Savall leads an ensemble in a program of music from film Tous les Matins du Monde.

7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $28, students $13

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