José García-León, Dean
new music new haven Aaron Jay Kernis, Artistic Director
Aaron Jay Kernis faculty composer
Thursday, February 8, 2024 | 7:30 p.m. Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall
Program Ben Webster b. 1997
Grasp Emily Rekrut-Pressey, viola Makana Medeiros, marimba
Forrest Eimold b. 1999
Creation and Salvation I. Prima Pars II. Altera Pars Forrest Eimold, voice & keyboard
Brittney Benton b. 1999
Only in Dreams II. Memories III. Grief Veronica Roan, mezzo-soprano Yuxin Yin, piano
brief pause
Aaron Jay Kernis b. 1960
Bring Me Two Beautiful Bells Melvin Chen, piano
Kernis
A Reason to Love You Juliet Papadopoulus, soprano Jonah Kernis, cello Forrest Eimold, piano
Kacper Madejek b. 1999
Emerging Aphrodite Emmett Edwards, electric guitar Han Xia, percussion Arseniy Gusev, piano
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.
Texts A Reason to Love You/Glory Box I’m so tired of playing Playing with this bow and arrow Gonna give my heart away Leave it to the other girls to play For I’ve been a temptress too long Just... Give me a reason to love you Give me a reason to be a woman I just wanna be a woman From this time, unchained We’re all looking at a different picture Through this new frame of mind A thousand flowers could bloom Move over and give us some room, yeah Give me a reason to love you Give me a reason to be a woman I just want to be a woman So don’t you stop being a man Just take a little look From our side when you can Sow a little tenderness No matter if you cry Give me a reason to love you Give me a reason to be a woman I just want to be a woman It’s all I wanna be, is all a woman For this is the beginning Of forever and ever It’s time to move over It’s all I want to be I’m so tired of playing Playing with this bow and arrow Gonna give my heart away
Leave it to the other girls to play For I’ve been a temptress too long Just... Give me a reason to love you Lyrics by Isaac Hayes, Beth Gibbons, Geoffrey Paul Barrow, Adrian Francis Utley
Artist Profile
Student Profiles
Aaron Jay Kernis, faculty composer
Ben Webster ’29DMA Student of David Lang
The music of Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis has been programmed by orchestras, chamber groups, and recitalists around the world. Kernis’s works have also been commissioned by many of America’s foremost performing artists and institutions. His music has been recorded and released by 11 different labels and is widely available on CD. At the Yale School of Music, Kernis teaches a studio of graduate-level composition students. His works are frequently featured on Yale’s New Music New Haven concert series. During the summer, he is a faculty member at the New Music Workshop at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Music. Kernis served as New Music Advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra for 10 years and as Chairman and Director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute. He currently serves as Chairman and Co-director of the Nashville Symphony’s Composer Lab. Kernis was born in Philadelphia and began his musical studies on the violin at a young age. At age 12, he began teaching himself piano and, the following year, composition. He attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and Yale School of Music, studying with such composers as John Adams, Charles Wuorinen, and Jacob Druckman.
Forrest Eimold ’24MM Student of Chris Theofanidis Brittney Benton ’25MM Student of Chris Theofanidis Kacper Madejek ’25MM Student of Katherine Balch
Staff general manager Jeffrey M. Mistri assistant manager & music librarian Samuel Bobinski office assistant Lucas Zeiter
Program Notes by the composers Grasp ben webster
Bring Me Two Beautiful Bells aaron jay kernis
Grasp is a piece that explores an intimate musical relationship between its players. The viola and marimba are closely related harmonically and rhythmically at the start of the work, and the music’s drama results from one instrument trying to, in a sense, “break free” from the other. Conceptually, the piece is a kind of musical study of the spectrum of support to control, physical embrace to physical restriction, and autonomy to dependance.
Bring Me Two Beautiful Bells was written for Melvin Chen as part of his new Diabelli Variations project. Diabelli’s melody is there, somewhere, nearly impossible to discern, and the title of this variation derives from a willful misreading of the name Diabelli.
Creation and Salvation forrest eimold “There is nothing in creation that is not ultimately destined to be lost … It is over this immemorial mass, over the unformed and immense chaos of what must be lost that … Iblis, the angel that has eyes only for the work of creation, cries incessantly. He cries because he does not know that what one loses actually belongs to God, that when all the work of creation has been forgotten, when all signs and words have become illegible, only the work of salvation will remain indelible.” Giorgio Agamben, from “Creation and Salvation” Only in Dreams brittney benton Only in Dreams is a song cycle about a person dreaming of their past and potential future. “Memories” is about reliving moments of the past, while “Grief” confronts the pain of loss.
A Reason to Love You aaron jay kernis A Reason to Love You was commissioned by Oxingale Productions for Lisa Delan, Matt Haimovitz, and Christopher O'Riley and was written in 2016. The original project paired composers with lyrics from indie pop songs (this one is Glory Box from Portishead), but never wound up seeing the light of day. It has remained in my vault until now. None of the music in it comes from their original song. Emerging Aphrodite kacper madejek Hesiod derives Aphrodite from the ancient Greek word aphrós, signifying the sea foam from which the goddess of beauty emerged into life. My music explores the alluring dichotomy of this bubbling froth, for its effervescence belies the furtive terrors from the abyss: bubbles engender the shimmering charm on the spuming surface, yet also serve as a gurgling harbinger of what lurks beneath it. This gamut collage of sonic mimesis for prepared piano, electric guitar, and percussion is a direct result of my rigorous
process of experimentation, recording, and cataloging. Aleatoric vignettes from Emerging Aphrodite foreground the ebb and flow of sound, whose image is subsequently altered through ping–pong balls, vibrating devices, textiles, player actions, and live electronics. The three players explore their instruments just like sailors traversed the seas on their ships, cradled by the beguiling vastness of the foaming waves, blithely unaware of what prowls within the depths…
Upcoming Events at YSM feb 11
Music of José Maurício Nunes Garcia & Marianne Martínez Yale Camerata & Yale Glee Club 4 p.m. | Woolsey Hall Free admission
feb 13
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Wind Ensemble Oneppo Chamber Music Series 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $31, Yale faculty/staff start at $23, Students $14
feb 17
Yale Schola Cantorum: Holy is the True Light Institute of Sacred Music 7:30 p.m. | Woolsey Hall Free admission
feb 17 & 18
Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress Yale Opera Sat 7:30 p.m. & Sun 2 p.m. | Shubert Theatre Tickets available at shubert.com or (203) 562-5666
feb 23
Samuel Hollister, student conductor Yale Philharmonia 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $13, Yale faculty/staff start at $9, Students free [ticket required]
feb 28
Lunchtime Chamber Music 12:30 p.m. | Joseph Slifka Center Free admission
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