On Tuesday 3-26 8PM the UT trumpet studio under the direction of Prof. Cathy Leach premiered Polychromatic resonances for trumpet octet.
Here a blurb of the piece. Polychromatic resonances explores the idea of “composed” reverberations, where simple triadic sonorities intertwine to form complex harmonies alla Bob Brookmeyer.
Super happy to have been part of this year’s Big Ears Festival in the Triptych production at the Tennessee Theater. Music by Bryce Dessner featuring Roomful of Teeth. What a wonderful experience!
Super excited for our performance this upcoming Thursday 7:30 PM at the Organ Hall UNC Greensboro. Among our concert repertoire, we will premiere two works written for us by UNCG composers. “Blanking” by Indira Everett and “Sublimation” by Isaac Ward. On Friday morning we will lead a workshop on original works by Julian Ward, Treya Nash and Yunfei Li. Can’t wait!
Concert program:
Recontextualizations (J. Variego)
Purple ego (J. Variego)
Sublimation (* premiere by Isaac Ward)
Blanking (* premiere by Indira Everett)
Lydia (G. Faure, arr. J Variego)
Lo mismo que no es igual (J. Variego)
Memorias del pago (J. Variego)
Glove assault (J. Variego)
Finale (A. Tansman, arr. J. Variego)
Mark Boling (guitar), Keith Brown (drums), Scott Swanberg (double bass), Jorge Variego (clarinets and compositions)
Concert of new music this Tuesday 1-22 8 PM UT Powell Recital Hall. Here the program that will feature guest violist Hillary Herndon.
Epidermis (2017) marimba, bass clarinet and electronics by Dan Van Hassel
Abby Fisher – marimba
Jorge Variego – bass clarinet
Inner blues (2014) solo vibraphone by Jorge Variego
Abby Fisher – vibraphone
De Kooning Movements (2001) marimba and clarinet by Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
Abby Fisher – marimba, Jorge Variego – clarinet
Thread and Frey (2006) viola, marimba and bass clarinet by Sarah Kirkland Snider
Abby Fisher – marimba, Hillary Herndon – viola, Jorge Variego – bass clarinet
Program Notes:
Epidermis
In Epidermis the bass clarinet and marimba merge into a single machine-like entity playing funky rhythmic patterns made up of percussive sounds with electronics forming a noisy protective layer around the players. At the beginning of the piece the acoustic and electronic sounds are closely aligned, but as the piece progresses they begin to move apart. Repeating melodic patterns begin to appear in the bass clarinet and marimba, while the electronics become noisier and more abrasive. This piece was commissioned by Transient Canvas and premiered in November 2017 with funding provided by the Johnstone Fund for New Music. – Dan Van Hassel
Inner blues
Inner blues is a jazz ballad in sulfuric acid. – Jorge Variego
De Kooning Movements
Lately, I have been looking at the work of an immigrant artist, Willem De Kooning, who came to the United States from his native Holland and later became one of America’s most representative 20th-century artists. I have always been impressed by the brutality, the energy, dynamic forms, and the synthetic power of de Kooning’s work, and have now composed a piece that, through its exploration of the dramatic power of rhythm and bold instrumental gestures, seems to conjure that experience of flipping through the pages of a printed catalog of de Kooning’s paintings. A journey that allows me to savor with each stop a graphic, perfectly assimilated and electric concoction of Matisse, Picasso, German expressionism, Abstract Expresionism and total abstraction. – Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
Thread and Fray
Thread and Fray, commissioned by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble of the Aspen Music Festival, weaves a single, middle-register melody through an increasingly fragmented musical landscape. – Sarah Kirkland Snider
The book offers a vast selection of original new works for solo viola that address specific technical difficulties through musically appealing short compositions. The table of contents contains a detailed description of the technical challenges per etude. The first 18 etudes in the book are roughly ordered with an increasing level of difficulty, always having in mind a violist of intermediate level. The etudes labeled with a “+” present some more advanced challenges. Take a look at the sample images on Amazon!
Here the live recording of the outstanding performance by the IU Guitar Ensemble of December 1st 2018. Piece Shumba (for 12 guitars).
Classical guitar music is always special. A classical guitar ensemble with 12 musicians playing guitars that range from high soprano to low contra-bass guitars, ukuleles and mandolins is very special indeed.
That’s what the Indiana Guitar Ensemble brought to the University of Tennessee School of Music Saturday afternoon.
Composed of both undergraduate and graduate students at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, the ensemble played a program of all 20th-century works, with several of the pieces written for them.
As in much new music, the performance techniques went beyond the traditional fingers strumming or plucking strings to using the guitar body as a drum, making eerie sounds by sliding the fingers up the strings on the fret board, and stomping feet.
The ensemble’s director and founder, Daniel Duarte, arranged several of the pieces, including his charming arrangement of three movements from Heitor Villa-Lobos’ 1951 “Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra.” Eleven of the guitarists played 11 different orchestra parts, with the solo guitar part moving around the ensemble.
Played relatively softly in the orchestral parts, the first two movements created an effect akin to standing in the middle of a flower bed while musical bees hummed tunes as they buzzed around one’s head moving from flower to flower, especially in the “Andantino” second movement. The third movement was bold and assertive.
UT faculty composer and clarinetist Jorge Variego joined the ensemble for a performance of Duarte’s arrangement for clarinet and guitar ensemble of the “Aria” from Villa-Lobos “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, written over a span of seven years, 1938-1945.
Originally written for soprano and cellos, Variego’s clarinet had mellow vocal qualities that were smooth and lyrical.
One of the most interesting pieces on the program was Craig M. Davis’ “Floating Cities,” commissioned by IU Guitar Ensemble. Duarte encouraged the audience to move around the auditorium during the piece to get different listening perspectives on the music.
The players on one side of the group initiated a phrase, followed by the players opposite them playing a kind of echo, producing the effect of a dynamic sense of depth.
The sound flowed in wave patterns with the sound level rising and lowering while at the same time the voices moved from one side to the other. It was a magical experience of pulsing, ebbing and flowing.
In three movements from Alberto Ginastera’s 1941 “Danzas” from his ballet “Estancia,” again arranged by Duarte, the first movement featured aggressive staccato chords, knocking on the instrument bodies, snapping and slapping the guitar strings and foot stomps.
In sharp contrast, the second movement was a slow dance with lush, flowing phrases, trills on the mandolin and atmospheric harmonics played up on the necks of the guitars, which produced a transparent sound cloud.
The closing work, “Shumba,” was written last year by Variego for the ensemble. It featured two electric guitars. Basically a tango, the piece boasted the electric instruments producing mysterious wah-wahs and slurs set against violent, choppy notes on the acoustic guitars.
At moments the wobbles on the electric guitars faded into tango rhythms that emerged from sounds that were somewhere between wind blowing and a hinge slowly creaking.
On December 1st 4PM the Indiana University Guitar Ensemble will present a show at the Powell Recital Hall at the University of Tennessee. Under the direction of Mtro. Daniel Duarte, the Jacobs Guitar Ensemble performs fundamental repertoire related to the Classical Guitar tradition and various other styles while featuring original works for Guitar Ensemble and arrangements that aim to expose students to practical elements of music performance that often appear in the Guitar repertoire. The Jacobs Guitar Ensemble also provides an opportunity for its members to explore new instruments of the Guitar Family such as seven string guitars, requinto, cuatro, cavaquinho and other non-traditional instruments that are part of Guitar’s Historic development and fundamental for elements of ensemble and chamber music practice.
Indiana Guitar Ensemble
presented by
Knoxville Guitar Society & University of Tennessee School of Music
Fantasia brasileira* (2017) ……………………………………………………………….. Marcos Vieira Lucas (born 1964)
Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra (1951) …………………………………… Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
(arr. Daniel Duarte)
Allegro preciso
Andantino
Andante Allegro non troppo
From Bachianas No. 5 (1938-45) ……………………………………………………. Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Ária (cantilena)
(arr. Daniel Duarte) Soloist Jorge Variego, Clarinet
Ginastera’s Dream* (2016) ……………………………………………………………………. Chrystian Dozza (born 1983)
(ed. Daniel Duarte)
Floating Cities * (2017)………………………………………………………Craig M. Davis (born 1990)
From Danzas del ballet “Estancia,” Op. 8a (1941) ………………………………….. Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)
(arr. Daniel Duarte)
Los trabajadores agrícolas
Danza del trigo
Malambo
Shumba* (2017) ……………………………………………………………………………………….. Jorge Variego (born 1975)
* Dedicated to the IU Guitar Ensemble
Daniel Duarte, Director, Indiana Guitar Ensemble
Members of the Guitar Ensemble: Grace Elmer, Matt Wherley, Joshua Hurt, Thomas Jackson, YunZhe Lin, Josephine Macdougall, Peter Pendowski, Mike Reardon, Caleb Samland, Eli Hudson, Brendan Sullivan, and Anton Von Sehrwald
My new work Urban Haiku (for viola, bandoneón, bass clarinet and electronics) was premiered on November 24th at the International Viola Congress in Rotterdam. Hillary Herndon (viola), Matias Pedrana (bandoneón) and Jorge Variego (bass clarinet).
More information about the event, concerts and guests can be found here: https://ivcrotterdam2018.nl/
Video recording of the world premiere:
Under the direction of Keith Aleo, the Interlochen Center for the Arts Percussion Ensemble (Jonathan Lucke marimba, Eva Machado marimba and Ruyi Yuan vibes) will perform my piece Le Grand Bolonqui on November 2nd. Here is the concert program, I couldn’t be happier to be part of this event!
Interlochen Arts Academy Percussion Ensemble – Nov 2, 2018 – 730PM
CONCERT PROGRAM:
Corporel – Vinko Globokar
Prelude (Aria I) from Threads – Paul Lansky
Extremes – Jason Treuting
Shared Space – Ivan Trevino
La grand bolonqui – Jorge Variego
Spine – Michael Laurello
Percussion ensemble
Jakob Schoenfeld
Anne Hayes
Eli Reisz
Ava Machado
Abigail Dellovade
Jaelyn Quilizapa
Jonathan Lucke
Zhaohan Pan
Ruyi Yuan
Yizhang Qiang
Kyle Skarshaug
Sophia Bondi
Program notes:
Corporel – Vinko Globokar
Trombonist and composer Vinko Globokar (b. 1934) began as a jazz musician in Yugoslavia before studying composition in Paris and later in Berlin, with René Leibowitz and Luciano Berio respectively. His work can be distinguished by a generally energetic, spontaneous, and especially experimental nature, often incorporating extended instrumental techniques and blending extra-musical elements (movement, speech, theater, politics, etc.) into performance. The relationships between and roles of composer(s) and performer(s) have also provided Globokar a great source of interest, and as a performer, one can expect a certain level of freedom (or a required amount of personal involvement and contribution, depending on one’s perspective) when approaching his compositions. ?Corporel is for a percussionist, performed on his or her body.
Prelude (Aria I) from Threads – Paul Lansky
Threads, written for Sō Percussion in 2005, is a half-hour long “cantata” for percussion quartet in ten short movements. There are three “threads” that are interwoven in the piece: Arias and Preludes that focus on the metallic pitched sounds of vibraphones, glockenspiel and pipes; Choruses in which drumming predominates; and Recitatives made largely from Cage-like noise instruments, bottles, flower pots, crotales, etc. The aim of the different threads is to highlight the wide range of qualities that percussion instruments are capable of, from lyrical and tender to forceful and aggressive, and weave them into one continuous “thread”. The movements are performed without interruption. – Paul Lansky
Extremes – Jason Treuting
With Extremes, composer Jason Treuting bypasses traditional music notation altogether, creating a system in which consonants and vowels contained in the six city names of Denver, Helena, Burlington, Brooklyn, Houston, and Cleveland receive either a short or long rhythmic duration (eighth note versus dotted-eighth, respectively). With a steady quarter note pulse shared amongst the four players, entire sections of music are developed in which the six city names are placed in cannon – recall the precise same musical process as Row) Row) Row Your Boat. In other moments, two players perform a series of chords, in 7 /8 time, atop a rhythmic ostinato established by the very opening loop of “Denver/ Helena”. Extremes is part of a larger, evening length work entitled “Imaginary City”, composed by Treuting and realized by So Percussion.
Shared Space (2015) was commissioned by McCallum High School Percussion Ensemble for their 2015 Percussive Arts Society International Convention showcase concert. The piece is scored for seven percussionists who share a setup of one 5.0 octave marimba, one vibraphone, one glockenspiel, one cajon, and toms. At times, up to five players perform on the same keyboard instrument, some standing on the opposite side of the instrument, creating a challenging and fun learning and performing experience.
The idea of community is deeply embedded in the music world. We as musicians do best when we support one another and our projects. I’ve developed this kind of relationship with McCallum High School’s music program. The school is located just blocks from my home in Austin, TX. In the fall, during my morning coffee run, I can hear the McCallum drumline warming up in the distance. We’re that close. I’ve coached their percussion ensembles; they’ve hosted my band for concerts. I’ve given clinics there; they’ve let me utilize their rehearsal rooms. It really is a shared space, a shared understanding of supporting what we do as artists.-Ivan Trevino
Le Grand Bolonqui (2018)
Triggered by the sound of Takemitsu’s Rain tree, Le grand bolonqui proposes a sonic world of rhythmic densities and sonic blocks that intertwine to create a constantly changing texture.
For moments, the three performers are in different worlds, chasing and following each other. In other sections, they play in strict synchronicity creating the illusion of a single, much larger instrument.
The work ends with an introspective melody that brings the apparent disorder to a final repose. -Jorge Variego
Spine was composed in 2014-15 for the Yale Percussion Group, featuring Yifei Fu. A single line—Yifei’s part—runs through most of the piece, and virtually all of the musical material is derived from it. This meta-line serves as the spine of the music, both in structural terms (backbone), but also with respect to the line’s perceived control over the direction and progression of the music (central nervous system). The music played by the other three members of the quartet serves to color and punctuate the main line. However, over the course of the work, players drift in and out of agreement with one another, and occasionally the primary line loses its unique identity within the texture of the ensemble. I tried to impart an almost biological sense to the way motives grow, attempting to balance intuitive—almost improvisatory—types of development with more structured patterns and processes. -Michael Laurello
