José García-León, Dean
new music new haven Aaron Jay Kernis, Artistic Director
Natacha Diels guest composer
Thursday, November 2, 2023 | 7:30 p.m. Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall
Program Kyle Rivera b. 1996
Black Body Collage Charlie Lovell-Jones, violin Laurel Gagnon, violin Katie Liu, viola Ben Lanners, cello Hector Ponce, bass Sophia Jean, flute Nicole Martin, clarinet
Dayton Hare b. 1996
Pressure System Matthew Cone, violin Sung Chi Dorson Chang, violin Katie Liu, viola Ben Lanners, cello Hector Ponce, bass Jillian Coscio, flute & alto flute Amy Kim, oboe Tianyi Shen, clarinet & bass clarinet
Arseniy Gusev b. 1998
Tianyi Shen, clarinet William Sands, horn Timothy Jay Maines, trombone Connor Higley, tuba Robert Levinger, piano Michael Yeung, percussion Samuel Hollister, conductor
Crossroads Emma Meinrenken, violin Arseniy Gusev, piano
intermission
Anjali Pillai, bassoon Gretchen Berendt, horn Eric Evans, trumpet Jude Morris, trombone Yun Chai Lee, harp Chad Beebe, percussion Stefano Boccacci, conductor
Lily Koslow b. 2001
smokefall Daniel Fletcher, piccolo Sophia Jean, flute Nickolas Hamblin, bass clarinet Julia Hwang, violin Feiyi Liao, piano Jessie Chiang, percussion Samuel Hollister, conductor
Zihan Wu b. 2001
SoUL G Julian Seney, viola
Natacha Diels b. 1981
The Bridge Has No Train Tracks (2021) Molly McGuire, voice Michael Huerta, flute Yuki Mori, trombone Albert Steinberger, violin Makana Medeiros, snare drum Forrest Eimold, keyboard
Diels
here is the promise from the wild psyche to all of us (2018) Chad Beebe, percussion Han Xie, percussion Mingyu Son, percussion
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.
Artist Profile Natacha Diels, guest composer Natacha Diels’s work combines choreographed movement, improvisation, video, instrumental practice, and cynical play to create worlds of curiosity and unease. Recent work includes Papillon and the Dancing Cranes, for construction cranes and giant butterfly (Borealis Festival 2018); a 6-part TV-style mini-series with the JACK quartet (TimeSpans Festival 2020), and a collaborative work for shadowed audience with Ensemble Pamplemousse (Darmstadt 2020). With a focus on collage, collaboration, and the ritual of life as art, Diels’s compositions have been described as “a fairy tale for a fractured world” (Music We Care About) and “the liveliest music of the evening” (LA Review of Books). Diels is a founding member of the composer/performer collective Ensemble Pamplemousse (est. 2003). Pamplemousse specializes in unique aspects of new music composition, from complex virtuosic instrumental performance to experimental theatre to electronic and robotic performance. Notable commissions include those from Borealis Festival for the aforementioned crane opera; the Fromm Foundation for a work for Talea Ensemble (2021); Nadar Ensemble for Darmstadt International Summer Institute (performed installation: I Love Myself Fully and Unconditionally, 2018); the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the Green Umbrella Series (Laughing to Forget, 2018); and Deustchland Radio Kultur in Berlin for Ensemble Adapter (Sad Music for Lonely People, 2019). Other major activities include being chosen as artist-in-residence for Harvestworks
in partnership with MATA festival (summer 2019) and a release by Ensemble Pamplemousse on which Diels is featured as composer, performer, and video producer (Lost at Sea, TAK Editions 2019). Diels’s work has been performed globally by Ensemble Adapter, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Nadar Ensemble, hand werk, Ensemble Decoder, TAK Ensemble, Quatuor Impact, JACK Quartet; and soloists Jay Campbell, Laura Cocks, Samuel Favre, Ross Karre, Rane Moore, and Charlotte Mundy, among others. She has created several short films and music videos which have been screened in Denmark, NYC, Chicago, Budapest, and Hungary. Diels holds degrees in performance, digital media, and composition from New York University and Columbia University.
Student Profiles
Staff
Kyle Rivera ’24MM Student of Martin Bresnick » kyleriveramusic.com
general manager Jeffrey M. Mistri
Dayton Hare ’24MM Student of Martin Bresnick
assistant manager & music librarian Samuel Bobinski
Luke Haaksma ’24MM Student of Aaron Jay Kernis
office assistant Lucas Zeiter
Arseniy Gusev ’24MM Student of David Lang Lily Koslow, ’25MM Student of Katherine Balch Zihan Wu, ’25MM Student of Katherine Balch
Program Notes by the composers Black Body Collage kyle rivera
smokefall lily koslow
Black Body Collage is a collection of personal identities, experiences, and emotional states. Often, I get confused about who I think I am and who I want to be in the eyes of others. At times, it even feels like others will project an identity onto me that feels inherently dissonant. Throughout the music, I search for a sense of agency that allows me to either accept or reject certain parts of my percieved identity and gives freedom to the person I really am.
In his poem “Burnt Norton” from Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot reminds readers that “all time is unredeemable.” smokefall for instrumental sextet grasps at time and memory, traversing jittering textures and moments of gentle repose. I invite you to contemplate Eliot’s words:
Pressure System dayton hare When I was a child in Boulder, Colorado, thunderstorms that felt at once terrifying and entrancing used to roll down off the mountains. My fascination with them was reinforced by elementary school field trips to NCAR — the meteorological and climate research facility nestled at the edge of the nearby the Rocky Mountains — where I learned the rudiments of how changes in atmospheric pressure result in the weather we experience. These memories resurfaced in me as I wrote Pressure System, which tracks the movement of a storm from afar, inhabiting its shifting clouds and changing colors.
Time past and time future Allow but a little consciousness. To be conscious is not to be in time But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden, The moment in the arbour where the rain beat, The moment in the draughty church at smokefall Be remembered; involved with past and future. Only through time time is conquered. SoUL G zihan wu The piece celebrates the expressiveness of the unique sound quality and structure of the viola by elaborating on the interrelationship of pitch G and the G string. The title SoUL has dual meanings: one can be interpreted as the soul of Sul G, and another possibility of “o” inside the “Sul” refers to the nature harmonics. By exploring the natural beauty of the viola, distinctive musical events came into my mind intuitively and hopefully with my elaborate execution of the materials, the music itself prompted the personal interpretation of the performers.
The Bridge Has No Train Tracks natacha diels Commissioned by Darmstadt Ferienkürse 2020 (2021). This is a bridge. This bridge is not your typical “cable” bridge. This one does not go to nowhere. It is much stronger, and it is made with little pieces of metal in it. It is sturdy, but it takes time and it does not always hold. Like anything else, it can break. Sometimes people will drive onto the bridge, and jump over the side. Some people will jump right into water. Some people will jump right onto the train tracks on the other side of the river. The bridge has no train tracks. It is the train tracks that make the bridge. here is the promise from the wild psyche to all of us natacha diels This piece uses drum rudiments as the primary musical material, coupled with musings on self-help and low-level personal achievements. The text is inspired by YouTube tutorials and meditation videos, and is partially generated by GPT-3.
Upcoming Events nov 3
Fred Hersch, piano Ellington Jazz Series 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $26, Yale faculty/staff start at $19, Students start at $11
nov 5
Wendy Sharp, violin Faculty Artist Series 3 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Free admission
nov 8
Boris Berman, piano Horowitz Piano Series 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $17, Yale faculty/staff start at $12, Students start at $8
nov 9
Yale Schola Cantorum with Danish National Vocal Ensemble Institute of Sacred Music 7:30 p.m. | Woolsey Hall Free admission
nov 10
Carol Jantsch, tuba Faculty Artist Series 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Free admission
nov 12
William Purvis, horn Faculty Artist Series 3 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Free admission
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