May 4, 2021 6:00 pm

MSM resident ensemble, Windscape, and the Composition Department present, “You Give Us 26 Minutes…”, featuring 13 fascinating two-minute premieres for wind quintet and video by 13 of MSM’s own student composers. In Composition Department Chair Reiko Fueting’s words, “I’m very proud to see the strong desire to create music that’s relevant, that celebrates diversity, and that distinctly connects to current social issues. By being ready to be inspired in all kinds of different ways, our students themselves inspire.” Following the event, all are invited to a Zoom Chat with Windscape, Professor Fueting, and our 13 Composers, to chat about the genesis and realization of this exciting project!

Zitian An (MM ’22), Classical Composition
Alexandros Darna (BM ’22), Classical Composition
Nicolas Farmer (MM ’22), Classical Composition
Euna Joh (MM ’22), Classical Composition
Jaegone Kim (BM ’21), Classical Composition
Erik Larsen (MM ’21), Jazz Composition
Yaxin Liu (MM ’22 ), Classical Composition
Wookhyun Lacey Kwon (MM ’22), Classical Composition
Jace Mankins (MM ’22), Classical Composition
Tian Qin (BM ’22), Classical Composition
Logan Vranković (MM ’21), Classical Composition
Zizhan Wu (BM ’23), Classical Composition
Yuqin Strucky Yi (MM ’21), Classical Composition

Alexandros Darna Olukumi
Euna Joh Croquis
Nicolas Farmer Contraption
Jaegone Kim For Woodwind Quintet #3
Logan Vranković Vignette
Wookhyun Lacey Kwon Let out your breath
Yuqin Strucky Yi Six microludes for wind quintet (VI)
Jace Mankins Voyage
Zizhan Wu Nightmare…?
Yaxin Liu Resistance
Zitian An Man and Large Dog
Tian Qin Songs for Children
Erik Larsen Return to This

Alexandros Darna Olukumi

Alexandros Darna (b. 1998) is a Cypriot-Cuban composer based in Nicosia, Cyprus and New York City. Alexandros’ works have been performed in Cyprus, Greece and the United States. His recent chamber work Minnaloushe – for Violin, Piano and Percussion, commissioned by the Cypriot chamber ensemble Trio Ostinato, was recently performed by the group at the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Athens, Greece. His mixed quartet Popular Renaissance received the 1st prize in the 2^nd student composition contest Solon Michailides (2016). Alexandros is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Classical Composition at Manhattan School of Music in NYC, where he studies with Dr. J. Mark Stambaugh. Alexandros is honored to have been the recipient of the Manhattan School of Music International Advisory Board and the Makarios (Cyprus Children’s Fund) scholarship awards.

“The expression Olukumi comes from the Yoruba language, the language of the Yoruba people who inhabit West Africa. It literally means “my friend.” I first came across this expression while learning about the Santería religion of Cuba, which is also known as Regla Lucumí or simply Lucumí. This is probably owing to the fact that, in Cuba, the African slaves of Yoruba origin were called Lucumí, perhaps because they addressed each other as Olukumi, meaning “my friend”. In this piece, I intended to exhibit an amiable character with a modest reference to the terrible action of enslavement.”

Euna Joh Croquis

Euna Joh (b. 1995), a native of Seoul, South Korea, is a composer and a pianist. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Composition at Manhattan School of Music studying with Reiko Fueting. Her compositions have been performed throughout the United States and South Korea. In 2019, her work Love Languages was selected to be performed by internationally-renowned JACK Quartet. She has received several awards and scholarships including KU Young Musician Academy scholarship, the 1st prize from Chun University Music Competition, and a full scholarship from West Virginia University. Euna holds her Bachelor of Music degrees in Piano Performance and Composition from West Virginia University, where she studied piano with Peter Amstutz and composition with David Taddie and Yu-Chun Chien.

“Croquis means “sketch” in French refers to a quick drawing of a live subject. Since croquis drawings are usually made in a few minutes, it forces the artist to concentrate on the very essential elements of the moment. When I was writing this piece, I thought about what means the most to me as a person and as a musician and about my priorities. I realized my priorities have changed over time and that they will keep changing as I get older.”

Nicolas Farmer Contraption

A native of College Station, Texas, Nicolas Farmer is a composer pursing his masters degree at the Manhattan School of Music and completed his undergraduate studies in composition and horn performance at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Besides composing, he also has research interests in the study of timbre and orchestration, and gave a presentation titled “Seeing New Colors: Devices of Scriabinian and Post-Scriabinian Orchestration” at the first Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration Project conference at IRCAM in July 2019.

“Contraption is more of a musical one than a literal one that would come to mind given what the word typically means. It consists of a handful of motifs that subtly evolve over two minutes. Nevertheless, it retains a somewhat mechanical quality with its quick, sparse bursts of activity, and the auxiliary bass flute and basset horn provide unique colors (I was grateful for the opportunity to hear these two instruments at the same time). The piece builds to a miniature, Webernesque climax at the end and dissipates even more quickly.”

Jaegone Kim For Woodwind Quintet #3

Jaegone Kim was born in Daejeon, South Korea in January 1999. He explores paradox, dilemma, absurdity, and distortion of perception in his artworks. He has been interested in chemistry from a young age, hence logic and mathematics are still inherent in his musical works.

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Logan Vranković Vignette

Logan Vrankovic is an award-winning composer, pianist, conductor, and multi-instrumentalist from New York City. His repertoire and writing style is varied and genre-inclusive by rule, as Logan is a musician that finds his greatest fulfilment by exploring all the different kinds of music the present day has to offer.

“Vignette was inspired by walking through the parks of New York City during a pandemic, being unable to interact with the people around me yet sharing a moment together regardless. The scenes that would appear before me are very similar to what Dyami Vieira, the videographer, captured in this imagery – life continuing on.”

Wookhyun Lacey Kwon Let out your breath

Wookhyun Lacey Kwon was born in Uijeongbu of South Korea and is currently living in New York. She studied composition at Kookmin University in Seoul and is now pursuing her Masters degree with Marjorie Merryman at Manhattan School of Music. She has won ‘Eumak Journal of Music Competition’ (1st prize) in 2019 and was offered a chance for her solo violin piece to be performed in ‘Echo Chamber: Sound Effect Seoul 2019’ by Hwaum ensemble. She is currently working on her next work, a large ensemble piece which will be premiered in Weimar and Magdeburg in Germany and two additional times in New York City in November 2021.

“Before I started to compose this work, there were two “rules” specified for this project: the duration and the instrumentation of wind quintet. I considered these two inspiring concepts: limitation and breath. These of course happen to be two of the most interesting keywords in the world of 2020-21. Below is the way I depicted these two ideas.

Limitation:

-Duration should be about two minutes.

-The total number of measures has to be 49. (The number 49 has a kind of meaning related to death in Korea. Currently, death is unfortunately another serious keyword in our world.)

-All the musical materials should follow specific limited rules.

Breath:

-It is a piece for 5 wind instruments.

-Breathing sounds (Puuhh-) are expressed audibly at the end of phrases where a
“▲” notehead is indicated for the players.

-Second accents on tied notes indicate breath accents, with additional air pressure.

-Square noteheads indicate inhaling sounds through the lips, like sipping through a straw.

In this way, my piece draws on diverse kinds of breath within these  limitations. I would like for our breath to overcome limitations not only in music but in the world.

Yuqin Strucky Yi Six Microludes for Wind Quintet (VI)

Yuqin Yi (Strucky) is a classical composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer who graduated from the school of art, South China University of technology, and now studies at the Manhattan School of Music for his Master of Music degree in classical composition. Widely influenced by various music genres, his works are not only the crystallization of classical music but also from rock, jazz and soul music. With his unique and colorful musical taste, his method of composition reflects the fullness and possibility of contemporary music. Meanwhile, his music is acclaimed for freshly processing timbre, harmony and rhythm, profound literary conception, and philosophical narration of life experience.

“Six Microludes for Wind Quintet was inspired by Gyorgy Kurtag’s “12 Microludes for String Quartet,” and written in 2018. I was aiming to imitate the life cycle of all species, from pregnancy to the death, in this piece. Each individual microlude is very different from each of the others: some focus on the development of the textures and notes, some focus on rhythmic material (Euclidean rhythm, interlocking rhythm, polyrhythm, etc.), some focus on timbre and microtonal writing.

Number VI, “Solemn,” the last one, is closest to common practice period music. I wanted to illustrate the ambience of death and funeral. It’s composed with one steady pattern (only long notes and chords), one instrument (oboe) playing the melody, and only one page, since I always believe that the most sorrowful part of death is not only isolating individuals’ lives but exposing the nothingness of life itself.”

Jace Mankins Voyage

Jace Mankins is a native of Kilgore, TX. He holds a BM degree in Composition from Texas Christian University and is currently pursuing a MM in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music. Jace has over 15 years of experience playing piano, cello and organ. He studied piano with Sylvia Bolding and Harold Martina, studied cello with Tristan Roberts, and has studied organ with Lorenz Maycher, Founding Director of the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival. Jace is a former piano and cello instructor at Arlington School of Music and currently serves as a piano instructor at Edgewater Performing Arts and Closter Performing Arts. He is also the Director of Communications for the Roy Perry American Classic Organ Foundation.

“Voyage is a piece that represents a journey from separation to unity. This is expressed with the entry of each instrument. At first, they are detached, and melodies flow from one instrument to another. When listening, it should be somewhat difficult to follow which instrument is playing. As the piece progresses, the texture thickens as two or more instruments share important melodic lines until the climax, where, for the first time, all five instruments sound simultaneously.”

Zizhan Wu Nightmare…?

Chinese composer Zizhan Wu finds his unique voice through the obstacles he has encountered throughout his life. Muisc is not only a language for him to express his personal growth but also a medium he employs to hearten others with similar experiences.

“Think of seeing a panorama composed of terrifying, diabolic images and gradually immersing in a deep slumber.”

Yaxin Liu Resistance

Yaxin Liu was born on April 16, 1997. She lives in China now. In September 2015, she enrolled in the Minzu University of China as a Composing and Composing Technique Theory major, and studied with Dr. Yang Yu. In 2020, she was admitted to Manhattan School of Music for the Master of Music Program in Classical Composition, and studied with Dr. J. Mark Stambaugh. Yaxin Liu’s compositions derive from what she hears and feels in her daily life, as well as from her travels and the books she reads. These become her sources of inspiration.

“There are many people suffering from indifference, prejudice and discrimination. They really need someone else to speak for them.

This world is closely related to each of us. We cannot feel that we have nothing to do with everything around us. If no one speaks up to remind indifferent people of the effects of their indifference, the world will finally become a dark, cold and horrible hell.

Don’t keep silent. Language is a powerful weapon of resistance.”

Zitian An Man and Large Dog

Zitian An studied art and technology at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and was exposed to different types of media, working on interdisciplinary art and combining sound/music with other art forms. “Despite my interest in visual and olfactory art, music is my favorite subject and I feel the urge to compose and dedicate my life to music composition.

“I would like to continue working on building my musical language and further explore synesthetic experience and communication between living organisms, as well as incorporating visual art such as hologram and virtual reality art into my musical practice.

“Man and Large Dog is originally a paint and pencil painting by Bill Traylor, a Black artist born in 1854 who was born into slavery on the plantation of a white cotton grower. Traylor witnessed some significant economic and personal changes, including the Confederacy’s loss to the Union. Self-trained, his art works are highly original. His intuitive approach and primitive symbolism express his suffering from the conflicts among classes, war, hierarchy and races.

This wind quintet piece, Man and Large Dog, is inspired by and dedicated to Bill Traylor. I sought to interpret the art work by applying its structure (dividing the image into four parts) and content (height in relation to pitch), the horizontal and vertical elements of the painting, to my music piece. The tension accumulates and finally reaches the outburst on the leash of the large, menacing but powerless black dog, held by the smirking, nonchalant white male.”

Tian Qin Songs for Children

Tian Qin is a junior at the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Dr. Marjorie Merryman. She studied in the Music Middle School Affiliated with Shanghai Conservatory of Music for six years with composition professor Din Ying. Her vocal piece “The Moon” won the second prize in the Li Ming Chun Xiao Composition Competition in 2015. Her trio, “Obsessed,” comprised of traditional Chinese instruments, won the second prize of the Yinzhong National competition in 2016. This piece was selected to be performed at the 34th Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. In 2020, she was invited to write background music in the podcast 话室 Chat Room.

“I have always wanted to write music for children —vivid and imaginary music with humorous melodies, interesting rhythms, and dramatic contrasts. I composed this piece as a gift to my two-year-old nephew who loves music very much.”

Erik Larsen Return to This

Erik Larsen is a New York City freelance composer, instrumentalist, and educator, originally based in the Los Angeles area. He received a B.A. in Jazz Saxophone Performance from California State University, Long Beach and is currently finishing a Master’s degree in Jazz Composition at Manhattan School of Music. Along with having works performed by CSULB’s award winning Concert Jazz Orchestra in festivals and conferences around the US, Erik has performed and taught music in Kolkata, Mussoorie, and other states in northern India.

“Return to This refers to the act of returning to the breath and present moment during times of distress. The piece loosely mimics this act through varying lengths and intensities of rising and falling motions—“inhales” and “exhales.” It may not reach a state of homeostasis but projects a beauty in remaining calm in the midst of perceived disorder. I find the concept of breathing to be more than appropriate in regards to wind music, Covid and respiratory disease, fires and declining forests, and one’s basic self- expression.”

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Reiko Fueting, Composition Department Chair, MSM

Reiko Fueting was born in 1970 in Königs Wusterhausen of the German Democratic Republic.  He studied composition and piano at the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Webern” in Dresden, at Rice University in Houston, at Manhattan School of Music in New York, and at Seoul National University.  Some of his most influential teachers have been the composers Jörg Herchet and Nils Vigeland, and the pianist Winfried Apel.

Reiko joined the theory faculty at the Manhattan School of Music in 2000. Five years later, he became a member of the composition faculty and was appointed chair of the theory department.  In 2020, he was also appointed chair of the composition department.  He has taught vocal accompanying at the Conservatory of Music and Theater in Rostock, Germany, and appeared as guest faculty and lecturer at universities and conservatories in China, Colombia, Germany, Italy, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.

As a composer, Reiko has received numerous prizes, awards, scholarships, grants, and commissions.  His music has been performed in several countries in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. It is published by Edition Gravis in Berlin, Germany; most of his recordings have been released on the New Focus label in New York.  He has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, ensembles, and orchestras, with a particular interest in vocal ensembles and ensembles performing on period instruments.  He is currently working on an opera on the life of the mystic nun Mechthild von Magdeburg, which will be premiered at the reopening of the concert hall in Magdeburg, Germany in 2022.

Windscape

Created in 1994 by five eminent woodwind soloists, Windscape has won a unique place for itself as a vibrant, ever-evolving group of musical individualists, an “unquintet” which has delighted audiences throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Asia. Windscape’s innovative programs and accompanying presentations are created to take listeners on a musical and historical world tour—evoking through music and engaging commentary vivid cultural landscapes of distant times and places.

As Artists in Residence at MSM, the members of Windscape are master teachers, imparting not only the secrets of instrumental virtuosity, but also presenting a distinctive concert series, hailed for its creative energy and musical curiosity. The series offers the perfect setting for the ensemble to devise new—sometimes startling—programs and to experiment with new arrangements and repertoire combinations. Popular programs that have emerged from this process in recent seasons include “Youthful Promise,” “Portrait in Many Colors,” “The Roaring 20s,” “The Fabulous 50s,” “The Young Titan: Beethoven Comes to Vienna,” and “East Meets West: The Music of Japan and the Impressionists.”

Windscape has collaborated with the Orion String Quartet in the late flutist Samuel Baron’s brilliant transcription for string quartet and wind quintet of Bach’s The Art of Fugue, which was recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, and with the renowned Imani Winds on several occasions. Past seasons include performances at Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra, at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, and recitals in Philadelphia, Madison, Charlottesville, and Reno, in addition to other cities in the U.S. and Mexico.  Recent highlights include their Kennedy Center debut; tapings for NPR’s Performance Today and Minnesota Public Radio’s St. Paul Sunday; a performance for CBC-Toronto, “Live From Glenn Gould Studio”; and a tour of New Zealand. Windscape has given concerts and master classes in Boston, New York, San Francisco, College Park, Des Moines, Omaha, and Winter Park, Florida, among others. Esteemed chamber musicians with whom they have collaborated include the late Eugene Istomin, André-Michel Schub, Jon Kimura Parker, Jeremy Denk, and Anne Marie McDermott.

Windscape has recently recorded new works by Paul Lansky, Fred Lerdahl and Richard Festinger, as well as the late MSM faculty composer Ursula Mamlok’s Quintet on Bridge Records. Other recent critically acclaimed releases include an all-Dvořák CD, with guest artists Jeremy Denk and Daniel Phillips, and The Music of Maurice Ravel, both on the MSR Classics label.

Tara Helen O’Connor, flute

Tara Helen O’Connor is a charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique, and colorful tone spanning every musical era. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and a two-time Grammy nominee, she is now a Season Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A Wm. S. Haynes flute artist, Ms. O’Connor regularly participates in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, Spoleto Festival USA, Chamber Music Northwest, Mainly Mozart Festival, Music from Angel Fire, the Banff Centre, the Great Mountains Music Festival, Chesapeake Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.  Along with her husband Daniel Phillips, she is the newly appointed Co-Artstic Director of the Music From Angel Fire Festival in New Mexico.  She is a member of the legendary Bach Aria Group and a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble. She has premiered hundreds of new works and has collaborated with the Orion String Quartet, St. Lawrence Quartet, and Emerson Quartet. Ms. O’Connor has appeared on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts and PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Bridge Records.

A member of the faculty of Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program, Ms. O’Connor is also Associate Professor of Flute, Head of the Woodwinds Department, and Coordinator of Classical Music Studies at Purchase College School of the Arts Conservatory of Music; a member of the Bard College Conservatory of Music faculty; and a visiting artist, teacher, and coach at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She lives with her husband, violinist Daniel Phillips, and their two miniature dachshunds Chloé and Ava on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Randall Ellis, oboe

Randall Ellis attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he studied with Ronald Roseman. He served as principal oboist of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra from 1988 until 2016. He is principal oboist of the Little Orchestra Society and the Mozart Orchestra of New York and is solo English horn in the New York Pops Orchestra. Randall is a member of the Emmy award-winning All-Star Orchestra under the music directorship of Gerard Schwarz. Mr. Ellis is principal oboist and faculty member of the Eastern Music Festival. He was principal oboist of the New York Chamber Symphony and received two Grammy nominations, including one for his recording of Howard Hanson’s Pastorale. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and the American Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Ellis has appeared as a guest artist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has concertized and recorded with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has been a soloist with the New England Bach Festival, the International Bach Festival of Madeira, the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, and Chamber Music at the 92nd Street Y. Mr. Ellis has freelanced with the Ensemble Wien-Berlin, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Philomusica and the Orchestras of the Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, and the American Ballet Theatre dance companies. He has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CBS’s Sunday Morning, and many times on PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center. His performances have been heard on National Public Radio, European radio, and NHK Radio and TV in Japan. Mr. Ellis has recorded for EMI/Angel, Columbia, Sony, RCA, Vox, Nonesuch, CRI, Pro Arte, Delos, and Deutsche Grammophon. He has performed with Wynton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center and on Broadway in the orchestra for the musical Wicked. He teaches oboe and chamber music at Skidmore College and coaches in the graduate orchestral performance program at the Manhattan School of Music.

Alan R. Kay, clarinet

Praised by the New York Times for his “spellbinding” performances and “infectious enthusiasm and panache,” Alan R. Kay is Principal Clarinetist and a former artistic director of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as Principal Clarinet of New York’s Riverside Symphony and the Little Orchestra Society. He also appears as principal with the American Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Mr. Kay’s honors include the 2015 Classical Recording Foundation Samuel Sanders Chamber Music Award, the C.D. Jackson Award at Tanglewood, a Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award, Juilliard’s 1980 Competition, and the 1989 Young Concert Artists Award with sextet Hexagon later featured in the prizewinning documentary film, Debut. Mr. Kay is a founding member of Windscape and of Hexagon. Summer festivals include Yellow Barn, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, the Bowdoin Festival, and The Netherlands’ Orlando Festival. His innovative programming for the New York Chamber Ensemble was a regular feature of the Cape May Music Festival for 26 years. Mr. Kay has recorded with Hexagon, Windscape, the Sylvan Winds, Orpheus, and numerous other ensembles. His recent solo CD, Max Reger: Music for Clarinet and Piano, on Bridge Records, was released recently to critical acclaim and received a feature in the November/December 2016 issue of Fanfare magazine. His arrangements for wind quintet are available from Trevco Music Publishing and International Opus.

Also a conductor, Mr. Kay studied conducting at the Juilliard School with the late Otto-Werner Mueller and has conducted orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the New York City area. Mr. Kay taught at the Summer Music Academy in Leipzig, Germany in 2004 and currently teaches at Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard, and Stony Brook University, where he serves as Executive Director of the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. He has served on the juries of the Orlando Festival Piano Trio and Mixed Ensemble International Competitions in Rolduc, Holland; the International Chamber Music Competition in Trapani, Italy; Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Concert Artist Guild Auditions, and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

David Jolley, French horn

David Jolley has thrilled audiences throughout the world with his “remarkable virtuosity” (New York Times) and been hailed as “a soloist second to none” by Gramophone magazine. He has traveled extensively in North and South America, Europe, East Asia, and Japan, sustaining an active performance career. A chamber artist of unusual sensitivity and range, Mr. Jolley has frequently collaborated with such groups as the Kalichstein- Laredo-Robinson Trio, the Guarneri Quartet, the American String Quartet, the Beaux Arts Trio, Musicians from Marlboro, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is a founding member, now Emeritus, of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with whom he toured widely and made over two dozen recordings for Deutsche Grammophon.

A frequent soloist with orchestra, Mr. Jolley has appeared with symphonies across the U.S., including Detroit, Rochester, Memphis, San Antonio, Phoenix, Florida West Coast, New Mexico, and Vermont; internationally, he has appeared with the National Symphony of Brazil in Rio de Janiero, the Kamerata Orchestra of Athens, the Israel Sinfonietta, and the Israel Kamerata in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Mr. Jolley most recently performed with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra in Enschede, where he performed Joseph Swenson’s Horn Concerto, The Fire and the Rose.

Mr. Jolley’s keen interest in enlarging the solo horn literature has led to the composition of many new works for him, including Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Concerto, which Mr. Jolley premiered with Orpheus at Carnegie Hall. Others include Twilight Music by John Harbison, Dust and Shiver by George Tsontakis, and George Perle’s Duos for Horn and String Quartet, premiered by Mr. Jolley and the Orion String Quartet at Alice Tully Hall. He most recently premiered the Concerto for Horn by Lawrence Dillon with the Carolina Chamber Orchestra.

He has performed in many summer festivals, including Marlboro, Sarasota, Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Bowdoin, and the Music Academy of the West. Mr. Jolley has six solo recordings under the Arabesque label, including Mozart Concerti and Strauss Concerti with the Israel Sinfonietta. Mr.Jolley is currently Professor of Horn at Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music, Stony Brook University, and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College-CUNY.

Frank Morelli (BM ’73), bassoon

Frank Morelli (BM ’73), the first bassoonist to receive a doctorate at Juilliard, has been soloist at Carnegie Hall on nine occasions and performed at the White House for the final state dinner of the Clinton presidency. Co-principal bassoonist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Principal of the American Composers Orchestra and Westchester Philharmonic, he was Principal Bassoon of the NYC Opera for 27 years. He teaches at Juilliard, Yale, MSM, SUNY Stony Brook and The Aaron Copland School of Music of Queens College, CUNY. His more than 180 recordings include MSR Classics solo CDs From the Heart, Romance and Caprice, Bassoon Brasileiro, and Baroque Fireworks. Gramophone magazine proclaimed Morelli’s playing “a joy to behold.” The American Record Guide stated: “the bassoon playing … is as good as it gets.” Of his DG recording of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with Orpheus, Fanfare wrote that it “reset a reviewer’s standards at too high a level for comfort in a world more productive of ordinary music making.” The Orpheus CD Shadow Dances, which features Frank Morelli, won a 2001 Grammy Award. He is also heard in an accompanying role on two Wayne Shorter CDs that won Grammys: Allegria (2004) and Emanon (2019).

A prolific chamber musician, he has appeared at the most prestigious national and international festivals and is also a member of Festival Chamber Music. He compiled Stravinsky: Difficult Passages for Bassoon, the popular excerpt book, for Boosey and Hawkes and has numerous transcriptions in print. His landmark revision of the widely used Weissenborn Bassoon Method, commissioned by Carl Fischer Music, has been met with great excitement. Frank Morelli plays a Leitzinger Bassoon exclusively. Please visit www.morellibassoon.com.

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