New Music for Violin and Piano Miranda Cuckson, violin Ning Yu

Performance Penthouse, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
03.02.14
New Music for Violin and Piano
Miranda Cuckson, violin
Ning Yu, piano
SOFIA GUBAIDULINA
Dancer on a Tightrope
GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS
da terrae fine for solo violin
UNSUK CHIN
Three selective etudes for solo piano
MARIO DAVIDOVSKY
Duo Capriccioso
JAE-GOO LEE
Nol-i(I) for solo violin
IANNIS XENAKIS
Dikhthas
Photography is prohibited.
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
21
PROGRAM NOTES
the Louisville Orchestra (1989), String
Quartet No. 4 by the Kronos Quartet (New
York, 1994), Dancer on a Tightrope by
Robert Mann and Ursula Oppens
(Washington, DC, 1994), the Viola Concerto
by Yuri Bashmet with the Chicago
Symphony conducted by Kent Nagano
(1997), Two Paths (“A Dedication to Mary
and Martha”) for two solo violas and
orchestra, by the New York Philharmonic
conducted by Kurt Masur (1999), and Light
of the End by the Boston Symphony
SOFIA GUBAIDULINA
Orchestra under Masur (2003) — the
b.1931
accolades of American critics have been
Dancer on a Tightrope (1993)
Sofia Gubaidulina was born in Chistopol in
the Tatar Republic of the Soviet Union in
About Dancer on a Tightrope, the
composer writes:
1931. After instruction in piano and
The title stems from a desire to break away
composition at the Kazan Conservatory, she
from the confines of everyday life,
studied composition with Nikolai Peiko at
inevitably associated with risk and danger.
the Moscow Conservatory, pursuing
The desire to take flight, for the exhilaration
graduate studies there under Vissarion
of movement, of dance, of ecstatic
Shebalin. Until 1992, she lived in Moscow.
virtuosity.
Since then, she has made her primary
residence in Germany, outside Hamburg.
Gubaidulina made her first visit to North
America in 1987 as a guest of Louisville’s
“Sound Celebration.” She has returned
many times since as a featured composer
of festivals — Boston’s “Making Music
Together” (1988), Vancouver’s “New
Music” (1991), Tanglewood (1997) — and
22
ecstatic.
A person dancing on a tightrope is also a
metaphor for this opposition: life as risk,
and art as flight into another existence.
In this piece what interested me was to
create the circumstances for the play of
contrasts, where the precise dance rhythm
of the violin overcomes its inclusion in the
eventful course of the piano part.
for other performance milestones. From the
For example, this is achieved by the
retrospective concert by Continuum (New
deformation of this rhythm by playing on
York, 1989) to the world premieres of
the strings of the piano with a glass
commissioned works — Pro et Contra by
tumbler; by the gradual transformation of
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
these transparent harmonic sounds into
In spite of all the contrasts that can be felt
aggressive fortissimo on the bass strings by
in the music of Georg Friedrich Haas, the
the serrated bottom of the tumbler; by the
composer’s central focus is the sensual
menacing sound of this rhythm when it is
stimulus of the sound and an interest in a
performed by the pianist using metal
live instrumental tone, while still
thimbles and, finally — the main event in
maintaining and not contradicting the more
the form of the piece by the transition by
conceptual aspects of his compositions.
the pianist from strings to keyboard.
Born in Graz in 1953, he pursued his studies
All these events are overcome by the
violinist in an ecstatic dance that ascends
finally to the upper register of the
instrument to tremolo double harmonics;
risk, overcoming, the flight of fantasy, art,
dance.
both in his home town with Gösta Neuwirth
and Ivan Eröd, and later in Vienna with
Friedrich Cerha. Already as a student, he
investigated different concepts of
microtonal systems, consulting the oeuvre
of composers like Wyschnegradsky, Hába,
Tenney, Nono and Grisey.
Microtonality thus became an important
denominator in his work early on, as in his
chamber opera Nachtwhich was premiered
with great success at the Bregenz Festival
in 1996. After initial experiments with
quarter tones he began to explore sound as
a set of iridescent intermediate values in
the mid-eighties. In pieces such as his first
string quartet (1997) he worked intensively
with overtone constellations — a process
that culminated in his ensemble piece in
vain (2000).
GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS
b.1953
de terrae fine for solo violin (2001)
I don’t trust relationships that become
apparent only in the score and not through
the immediate sensual perception. I hope
that in my music, intuition and rational
control are balanced.
Before long, Georg Friedrich Haas’ works
were being performed at the most
prominent contemporary music festivals.
He garnered much attention at the Salzburg
Festival 1999 as the featured Next
Generation composer. The Bregenz Festival
commissioned another chamber opera (Die
schöne Wunde) which was premiered in
2003 by Klangforum Wien. In the same
year, the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
23
PROGRAM NOTES
performed his work Natures mortes in
Charles Ives’ cycle 114 Songs, which were
Donaueschingen, where in 2006 Hyperion.
performed by baritone Thomas Hampson
Concerto for light and orchestra also met
and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under
with great acclaim. In the 2010/2011
Kent Nagano. Shortly afterwards, his large
season, Haas‘ music was once again
orchestral work Tetraedrite was premiered
featured in Donaueschingen with the
at the Festival Klangspuren Schwaz. In
performance of his work limited
2013, the Osterfestival in Tirol and the
approximations for six pianos and orchestra.
Klangraum Krems Minorite Church will have
Many renowned symphony orchestras have
performed works by Haas, including the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and
Vienna Philharmonic (Cello Concerto, 2004),
Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg (Sieben
Klangräume, 2005), Cleveland Orchestra
(Poème, 2006), Munich Philharmonic
the great success of his opera Bluthaus,
the collaboration between the Schwetzinger
SWR Festspiele, Haas and librettist Händl
Klaus will continue with a new chamber
opera, due to have its world premiere in
May 2013.
(Bruchstück, 2007), Vienna Radio Symphony
Georg Friedrich Haas received numerous
Orchestra (Piano Concerto, 2007), WDR
composition awards and was honoured
Radio Symphony Orchestra Cologne
with the Grand Austrian State Prize in 2007.
(BariSaxophone Concerto, 2008), the
He has been a member of the Austrian
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (Traum in
Kunstsenat since May 2011.
des Sommers Nacht, 2009) and the Munich
Chamber Orchestra in a co-commission
with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Orchestra (chants oubliés, 2011). His opera
Melancholia has been performed in various
opera houses since its successful premiere
at the Opéra National de Paris in 2008.
Haas’ second opera Bluthaus, featuring a
libretto by Händl Klaus, had its highly
acclaimed world premiere at the
Schwetzingen Festival 2011.
24
a focus on the composer’s music. Following
de terrae fine (at the end of the earth)
Haas wrote the piece at a house in
southwest Ireland, looking out at the
Atlantic, but the sense of the title is more
than geographical. The violinist, and the
violin, are under limit conditions, pressed to
extremes. Intervals involving quarter-tones
are the norm; there are also sixth-tone
intervals and even eighth-tone fluctuations,
as well as intervals to be played in just
intonation. Meanwhile, the music sets out
The start of the 2012/2013 season saw the
within cramped spaces. There is a line that
Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra premiering
budges at first just within the instrument’s
Haas’ composition ... e finisci già?,
bottom register, and occasional alternations
commissioned by the Salzburg Festival. For
to pizzicato do not widen the scope. High
the opening concert of the Musikfest
harmonics seem no more than punctuation
Berlin, Haas re-arranged five songs from
marks, and a sudden luminous sound — a
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
just-tuned major third — soon gives way to
1988. Her music has attracted international
intense discords of a seriously inor second
conductors including Simon Rattle, Gustavo
(i.e. two notes a quarter-tone apart).
Dudamel, Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen,
However, more light comes from arpeggios,
David Robertson, Peter Eötvös, Neeme
and the line starts to rise and goes on
Järvi, Markus Stenz, Myung-Whun Chung,
rising. There are now new events, including,
George Benjamin, Susanna Mälkki, François
about two-thirds of the way through the
-Xavier Roth, Leif Segerstam and Ilan
seventeen-minute piece, a flow of
Volkov, among others. It is modern in
just-tuned thirds, “as if coming from
language, but lyrical and non-doctrinaire in
another world,” as the marking has it. The
communicative power. Chin has received
intervals tighten as before, but the music
many honours, including the 2004
has been set in a new direction, and there
Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition
is no stopping it — not even with a noisy
for her Violin Concerto, the 2005 Arnold
recollection of its original line — until it is
Schoenberg Prize, the 2010 Prince Pierre
done.
Foundation Music Award, and the 2012
— Program Notes by Paul Griffiths
Ho-Am Prize.
She has been commissioned by leading
performing organisations and her music has
been performed in major festivals and
concert series in Europe, the Far East, and
North America by orchestras and
ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic,
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic
Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Boston
Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre
Philharmonique de Radio France, Los
Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, London
Sinfonietta, Ensemble Intercontemporain,
UNSUK CHIN
b.1961
Ensemble Modern, Kronos Quartet and
Arditti Quartet. In addition, Unsuk Chin has
been active in writing electronic music,
Three selective etudes for solo piano
receiving commissions from IRCAM and
(1995–2003)
other electronic music studios.
Unsuk Chin was born in 1961 in Seoul,
In 2007, Chin’s first opera Alice in
South Korea, and has lived in Berlin since
Wonderland was given its world première
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
25
PROGRAM NOTES
at the Bavarian State Opera as the opening
etudes, they are more strongly geared
of the Munich Opera Festival and released
toward the piano music of classical
on DVD by Unitel Classica. Her second
modernism — specifically modern piano
opera Alice Through the Looking Glass is
technique. The titles of the second and forth
commissioned by The Royal Opera in
etudes (Sequences and Scales) illustrate
London for premiere in the 2018/19 season.
their compositional and technical challenges
Since 2006, Chin has overseen the
exactly. Scherzo ad libitum, on the other
contemporary music series of the Seoul
hand, is a character piece, and forms a
Philharmonic Orchestra, a series which she
striking contrast to the other etudes.
founded herself. Since 2011, she has
served as Artistic Director of the ‘Music of
Today’ series of the Philharmonia Orchestra
in London. Portrait CDs of her music have
appeared on Deutsche Grammophon,
Kairos and Analekta.
No.1 : it is based on the overtone series of
the note C. Yet the concept that underlies
Toccata is entirely the opposite of the first
etude. Instead of static, as the title
suggests, this etude is a very dynamic and
Unsuk Chin’s works are published
forward, a pronounced virtuoso piece.
exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.
Toccata starts from very simple, almost
About these etudes, the composer writes:
trivial, musical cells that assume
increasingly complex and denser forms. The
The author Oscar Bie wrote, in reference to
music is polyrhythmic when viewed
Chopin, that music “realer” than a piano
horizontally, contrasted against the
etude “does not exist”, that “the essence of
block-like turning points of the vertical.
the piano has arrived in the etude.” I am of
the same opinion, not only when it comes
to Chopin’s works, but also the etudes
other great composers: Liszt, Debussy,
Bartok, Messiaen, and also their precursors
— Essercizi Scarlatti, Bach’s Well-Tempered
Clavier and his piano exercises ... I
especially value border-crossing,
“transcendental” (Liszt) aspects: all
important etudes are based on the idea that
the pianist is ready to go to the edge of —
or beyond — her borders.
26
Toccata, the fifth etude, refers to the Etude
The sixth etude, Grains, was commissioned
by London’s South Bank Centre on the
occasion of Pierre Boulez’s 75th Birthday.
The formative influence for this piece was
granular synthesis, with which I have
worked in electronic studios, and for which
I had used Boulez’ Notations XI as the
source tape. In electroacoustic music,
‘grains’ are defined as elementary particles
whose lengths are 1 to 50 milliseconds.
These ‘sound grains’ are obtained by
decomposition of recorded sounds, and are
The etudes 2-4 (Sequences, Scherzo ad
recomposed with granular synthesis to
libitum, Scales) were conceptualized as a
create new sounds. This process makes it
group in 1995. Compared to the other
possible to generate synthesized sounds of
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
great detail in terms of pitch, speed and
to participate in the Berkshire Music Center
volume. Grains adapts this concept to the
at Tanglewood, where he studied with
keys of the piano: single notes and other
Aaron Copland. Mr. Davidovsky’s interest in
isolated sound events are intercepted
the fledgling field of Electronic Music was
during their potential movement towards
further encouraged by meeting Milton
development. Musically varying
Babbitt, a faculty member, that year.
polyrhythms and contrasting fragments are
Learning of the imminent opening of the
generated from these particles, and they
Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music
push against each other directly. This piece
Center in 1959, he joined the early group of
is very far from traditional piano music in
composers there and later became the
terms of technique, and also in terms of
Center’s director.
musical structure.
Translated from the French by Ted Gordon.
Mr. Davidovsky is widely recognized for his
seminal contributions in the realm of
electro-acoustic music. His Synchronisms
No. 6, for piano and electronic sounds, won
the Pulitzer Prize in 1971. He has received
commissions here and abroad from various
organizations including: the Philadelphia
Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony,
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Juilliard
and Emerson String Quartets, Speculum
Musicae, the Parnassus Ensemble,
NYNME, Chamber Society of Lincoln
Center, and many others. He has also
received numerous grants and awards
including Guggenheim and Rockefeller
Fellowships, The Kaske Prize (Germany),
MARIO DAVIDOVSKY
b.1934
Duo Capriccioso (2003)
Naumburg Award, Asociasion Wagneriana,
and Asociasion Amigos de la Musica
(Argentina), to name a few.
Mr. Davidovsky is the Fanny P. Mason Prof.
Mario Davidovsky was born on March 4,
Emeritus at Harvard University, former
1934 in Medanos, a town in the province of
MacDowell Professor of Music at Columbia
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
University, and the director of the
His main teacher was the composer
Guillermo Graetzer. In 1958 he was invited
Composers Conference and Chamber
Music Center at Wellesley College. He is a
member of the American Academy of Arts
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
27
PROGRAM NOTES
and Letters, the American Academy of Arts
left-handed pizzicato. The next attack is a
and Sciences, and the Academia Nacional
regular pizz., the next bowed, and finally,
de Bellas Artes (Argentina). He has been
the same A is played as intensely as
recorded by Columbia Records, CRI, New
possible, tripled on three of the violin’s four
World Records, Wergo, Nonesuch, Finnadar,
strings. With all of this timbral insistence on
Turnabout, Bridge Records, DDG, Albany
one pitch, the piano is able to sneak in
Records; and published by C.F.Peters Corp.,
softly, playing the very same A, as if it were
E.B.Marks Corp., and McGinnes & Marx.
simply part of the violin. As the music
About Duo Capriccioso, Eric Casalow
writes:
continues, the piano adds its share of
mercurial changes in timbre, including
notes “stopped” by touching and muting
Davidovsky describes combining the violin
the piano strings and pizz, plucking inside
with the piano in this recent composition as
the piano.
his attempt to make two totally different
instruments work together acoustically
without the benefit of the harmonic
blending that would be automatic in tonal
music. According to Davidovsky, the violin
is by nature “a fly” and the piano “an
elephant.” To compose each moment within
each phrase then he must find the pieces
of sound that will “embed one instrument
into the other.”
One kind of counterpoint in Davidovsky’s
music thus consists of the simultaneity of a
melodic/rhythmic idea and a timbre/
dynamic idea (what Bulent Arel like to call
“timbre melody”). In the opening of the
JAE-GOO LEE
Duo Capriccioso, the timbre line consists of
b.1977
an opening midrange violin tremolo-like
motive which, as it opens out, adds
28
Nol-i (I) (2012)
harmonics that create, at once, abrupt
Jae-Goo Lee was born in Seoul, Korea.
shifts in timbre and leaps in register. This
After receiving his B.A. degree in Biological
violin music sets up the piano entrance by
Science from Sungkyunkwan University, he
increasing the energy and focusing ton the
graduated Summa Cum Laude with his B.M
pitch “A”. As the violin reaches the “A”, the
in Music Composition from Kyungwon
number of timbres explodes. The first A is a
University. At Queens College, CUNY he
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
earned his M.A., studying composition with
term fantasia refers in the Baroque and
Bruce Saylor, computer music with Hubert
Classical eras to a piece that alternates
Howe and theory with Jeff Nichols.
sections of rapid passagework with slower,
Jae-Goo Lee is currently a doctoral student
more melodic passages.
at the University of Chicago where he is
studying composition with Shulamit Ran
and Marta Ptaszyńska and transformational
theory as his minor field with Steven Ring.
I have designed the formal structure of Nol-i
based on two contrasting ideas —
animated/percussive/agile and static/calm/
melodic. While my previously compositions
Jae-Goo’s music has been awarded for
intended to use the contrast in timbre and
excellence at the Seoul Contemporary
color among musical materials as my
Music Festival (2005, 2006) and the Korean
compositional idea, Nol-i focuses more on
Art Song Festival (2006), Third Prize at the
employing various sonic gestures
33rd Joong-Ang Music Competition (2007),
generated from the instrument’s various
and the Presidential Scholarship from
techniques as my primary idea.
Kyungwon University (2005). From Queens
College, CUNY, he received the Marvin
Hamlisch Composition Award (2009) and
the Luigi Dallapiccola Composition Award
(2010). His compositions have been
performed by various musicians in South
Korea and the U.S.A. and he is currently
working on his new composition for quintet
for clarinet and string quartet with the
Pacifica Quartet and his first concerto for
percussion and chamber ensemble with
conductor Cliff Colnot and Contempo.
About Nol-i (I), the composer writes:
Nol-i (I) for solo violin, the first piece in my
IANNIS XENAKIS
series of works for solo instruments, was
b.1922
written in the winter of 2012 and premiered
by Italian violinist Marco Fusi. As the title of
Dikhthas for violin and piano (1979)
the piece (loosely translated as “play”)
Iannis Xenakis is one of the leaders of
implies, Nol-i is characterized by the
modernism in music, a hugely influential
fantasia-like or improvisatory play of
composer, particularly in the later 1950s
musical “ideas,” whose initial materials I
and 1960s, when he was experimenting
have elaborated mostly by intuition. The
with compositional techniques that soon
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
29
PROGRAM NOTES
entered the basic vocabulary of the
compositions. These stochastic, or random,
twentieth-century avant garde.
procedures were based on mathematical
Xenakis was born, not in Greece, but in
Braïla, Romania, of Greek parents, on 29
computers for their realisation.
May 1922. His initial training, in Athens,
But for all the formal control in their
was as a civil engineer. In 1947, after three
composition, Xenakis’ scores retain an
years spent fighting in the Greek resistance
elemental energy, a life-force that gives the
against the Nazi occupation, during which
music an impact of visceral effectiveness:
time he was very badly injured (losing the
works like Bohor for electronics (1962),
sight of an eye), he escaped a death
Eonta for piano and brass quintet (1963-64),
sentence and fled to France, where he
Persephassa for six percussionists, placed
settled and subsequently became an
around the audience (1969), and the ballet
important element of cultural life.
Kraanerg, for 23 instrumentalists and tape
Xenakis was first active as an architect,
collaborating with Le Corbusier on a
number of projects, not least the Philips
Pavilion, designed by Xenakis, at the 1958
Brussels World Fair. It was in the 1950s,
too, that Xenakis’ compositions began to be
published. In 1952 he attended composition
classes with Olivier Messaien, who
suggested that Xenakis apply his scientific
training to music.
The resulting style, based on procedures
derived from mathematics, architectural
principles and game theory, catapulted
(1969) all exhibit a primitive power that
belies the complexity of their origins. The
Sydney Morning Herald said of Kraanerg,
for example, that it “remains staggeringly
powerful and clamorous, an essay in
constantly renewed energy that shows not
the least sign of faltering.” Married with this
primordial power is the composer’s
fascination with ritualism, most often that
of ancient Greece, finding fullest theatrical
form in his setting of the Oresteia (1966).
Iannis Xenakis is published by Boosey &
Hawkes.
Xenakis to the front ranks of the avant
Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey &
garde — although there was never any
Hawkes
suggestion that he was a member of a
clique or group: he was always his own
30
principles and were later entrusted to
About Dikhthas, the composer writes:
man. He never, for example, embraced total
Dikhthas was commissioned by the City of
serialism, and he also avoided more
Bonn at the request of Hans-Jürgen Nagel,
traditional devices of harmony and
cultural adviser of the City of Bonn, for the
counterpoint; instead, he developed other
30th Beethoven Festival of 1980. It was
ways of organising the dense masses of
premiered on June 4, 1980 at the Festival
sound that are characteristic of his first
by Salvatore Accardo (violin) and Bruno
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
Canino (piano). Dikhthas is dedicated to
Hans-Jürgen Nagel.
This piece is like a personage made up of
two natures; it is like a dual entity
(dikhthas). Indeed these two natures
contradict each other although sometimes
they merge in rhythm and harmony. This
confrontation is realized in a variable
dynamic flux which exploits the specific
traits of the two instruments.
Gilbert & Sullivan’s
H.M.S.
Pinafore
or The Lass That Loved A Sailor
R
evel in the canonic comic operetta that
sets adrift aristocratic airs in honor of true
love. The satirical Victorian tale features lively
dancing and familiar songs that will have you
singing from the masts!
March 14-16
Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th Street
Present by the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company
and the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra
TICKETS AND INFORMATION
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
31
ticketsweb.uchicago.edu | 773.702.ARTS (2787)
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Piston’s concerto with the American
Symphony Orchestra and Leon Botstein.
Her first CD recording was a disk of
concertos by Erich Korngold and Manuel
Ponce with the Czech National Symphony,
on Centaur Records. She subsequently
made four recital CDs of American music:
music by Ralph Shapey, Donald Martino and
Ross Lee Finney. Vanguard Classics
released her CD “the wreckage of flowers”,
music by Michael Hersch, with pianist Blair
McMillen. Upcoming releases include a CD
MIRANDA CUCKSON
violin, Elliott Carter’s Duo and a duo by
Violinist and violist Miranda Cuckson is
Jason Eckardt; and “Melting the Darkness”,
acclaimed for her performances of a wide
solo microtonal and electronics pieces by
range of repertoire, from early eras to the
Xenakis, Haas, Bianchi and others. Her
most current creations. Praised for her
Urlicht Audiovisual recording of Luigi Nono’s
“undeniable musicality” (The New York
”La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura”
Times) and “unbridled depth of character”
for violin and electronics, with Christopher
(Seen and Heard International), she is in
Burns, was named a Best Classical
demand as a soloist and chamber musician,
Recording of 2012 by The New York Times.
appearing in major concert halls, as well as
at universities, galleries and informal
spaces. She performs at such venues as
the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, the
Library of Congress, Miller Theatre, the 92nd
Street Y, Guggenheim Museum, Austrian
Cultural Forum, Museum of Modern Art,
Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles,
and the Marlboro, Bard, Lincoln Center,
Bridgehampton, Portland and Bodensee
festivals.
32
comprising Roger Sessions’ Sonata for solo
Miranda has in recent years earned a
reputation as one of the foremost
performer-interpreters of contemporary
music. She has collaborated with such
composers as Henri Dutilleux, Elliott Carter,
Thomas Adès, Salvatore Sciarrino, John
Adams, Pierre Boulez, Lee Hyla, Steven
Mackey, George Crumb, Michael Hersch,
Helmut Lachenmann, Kaija Saariaho,
Magnus Lindberg, Mario Davidovsky,
Phillipe Hurel, Derek Bermel, Yehudi Wyner,
She has made lauded appearances as
Georg Friedrich Haas, Jason Eckardt, Tristan
soloist with orchestras in the United States,
Murail, Charles Wuorinen and Sebastian
Europe, the Middle East and Asia, including
Currier. In 2012, she performed a new work
her recent Carnegie Hall debut in Walter
by Harold Meltzer commissioned for her by
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
the McKim Fund, at the Library of Congress
With the same vigor and dedication to
in honor of Fritz Kreisler. She is a member
traditional and avant-garde repertoire of the
of counter) induction and director of the
20th and 21st century, Ning takes on some
not-for-profit organization Nunc, which she
of the most demanding music ever written
founded in 2007.
for piano, including pieces that incorporate
Miranda studied at The Juilliard School,
where she received her BM, MM and DMA
degrees and won the Presser and Richard F.
French Awards. Her teachers included Felix
Galimir, Robert Mann, Dorothy DeLay,
Shirley Givens and Nathan Milstein, and for
extended techniques, multi-media and
improvisation. Ning is the winner of the
Boucourechliev Prize at the 2010 Ninth
Concours de Orléans in France — a
competition devoted to piano repertoire
from 1900 to today.
chamber music, Fred Sherry and members
Ning has performed dozens of world
of the Juilliard String Quartet. She is on the
premieres including the works of Terry
violin faculty at Mannes College the New
Riley, Michael Gordon, Tristan Perich, Cenk
School for Music.
Ergün among others. As a chamber
musician, Ning has performed with leading
new music ensembles such as Bang on A
Can All Stars and Signal Ensemble. Ning is
a member of the percussion and piano
quartet, Yarn/Wire, a Queens based group
that has been the forerunner in promoting
and commissioning new works by today’s
young composers.
In theater, Ning performed the music of
Edvard Grieg in more than 100
performances of Mabou Mines’ Dollhouse,
an OBIE-winning production directed by
Lee Breuer. She records and appears in the
NING YU
play’s feature-film version, produced by
ARTE France. Ning has also collaborated
New York-based pianist Ning Yu brings
with director Moisés Kaufman and the
virtuosity and an adventurous spirit to a
Tectonic Theater Project on the
wide range of music, both in solo
development of his Tony award-nominated
performances and in collaborations with
play 33 Variations.
some of today’s most distinguished
creative artists.
Ning has performed worldwide in venues
such as the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam,
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
33
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Köln Philharmonie in Germany, Kwai Tsing
A native of Shenyang, China, Ning studied
Theatre in Hong Kong, the Walker Art
at the Central Conservatory of Music in
Center, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia,
China before moving to the United States
Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art,
at age 15. She is a graduate of Eastman
Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and
School of Music and Stony Brook
Carnegie Hall in New York, as well as at
University. She has been living and working
universities and colleges across the United
in New York City since 2004.
States. Music and theater festival
performances include Spoleto, Bang On a
Can, Edinburgh, UCLA Live, Festival de
Otoño in Spain, Athens Epidauru in Greece,
Przeglad Piosenki Aktorskiej Festival in
Poland, International Stanislavski Festival in
Moscow and others in the United States,
Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Ning’s solo album Etude +, is a solo tour de
force comprising etudes by composers
ranging from Rachmaninoff, Ligeti to Unsuk
Chin, and a live recording of her
competition-winning performance of
Archipel IV by Boucourechliev. The album
was released in April 2011 by the
International Music and Arts Center in
China.
Contempo and its artist residencies are generously supported by the Catherine L. Dobson Music
Fund, the Amy and David Fulton Fund, the Julie and Parker Hall Endowment for Jazz and
American Popular Music, the Claire Dux Swift Music Endowment Fund, the Lowell and Elita
Wadmond Endowment in Music, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music and the Amphion
Foundation. Contempo is grateful to the many individuals whose gifts support its concerts.
34
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
49TH SEASON | 2014
TUES / FEBRUARY 4 / 7:30 PM
eighth blackbird
Anubis Quartet
Anna Weesner: Lift High, Reckon—
Fly Low, Come Close
Brett Dean: Sextet (Old Kings in Exile)
Augusta Read Thomas: Twilight Butterfly
John Orfe: Leviathan for 2 clarinets and piano
Lei Liang: Yuan for saxophone quartet
SUN / MARCH 2 / 3:00 PM
Logan Center Performance Penthouse
Miranda Cuckson, violin
Ning Yu, piano
Sofia Gubaidulina: Dancer on a Tightrope
Georg Friedrich Haas: de terrae fine
Unsuk Chin: three selective etudes
Mario Davidovsky: Duo Capriccioso
Jae-Goo Lee: Nol-i(I) for solo violin
Iannis Xenakis: Dikhthas
SAT / APRIL 26 / 7:30 PM
Double Bill – 10th Anniversary
Pacifica Quartet
Lisa Kaplan, piano
Nicholas Photinos, cello
Nicholas Reed, percussion
Patricia Barber and the Ari Hoenig Trio
Marta Ptaszyn’ska:
Space Model for solo percussion
Franghiz Ali-Zadeh: Habil-Sayagy
for cello and prepared piano
Elena Firsova:
String Quartet No. 11, “Purgatorium”
Patricia Barber and the Ari Hoenig Trio
FRI / MAY 9 / 7:30 PM
FREE
Tomorrow’s Music Today I
Cliff Colnot, conductor
eighth blackbird
Pacifica Quartet
Program will include dissertation works by
Marcelle Pierson, Alican Camci, and Igor
Santos, UChicago doctoral candidates in
composition.
FRI / MAY 16 / 7:30 PM
Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University
430 S. Michigan Ave.
FREE
Tomorrow’s Music Today II
Cliff Colnot, conductor
eighth blackbird
Pacifica Quartet
Julia Bentley, mezzo-soprano
Ricardo Rivera, baritone
Chad Sloan, baritone
Program will include dissertation works by
Andrew McManus, Jae-Goo Lee, and Tomas
Gueglio, UChicago doctoral candidates in
composition.
All performances Logan Center unless noted
Performance Hall, Reva and David Logan
Center for the Arts | 915 East 60th Street
Tickets $25 / $5 students with ID unless noted
773.702.ARTS (2787)
ticketsweb.uchicago.edu
CHICAGO PRESENTS | CONTEMPO 2014
35
Contempo
5720 S. Woodlawn Ave
Chicago, IL 60637
773.702.8068
chicagopresents@uchicago.edu
contempo.uchicago.edu
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