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Program
INTRODUCTIONElsa Jean Davidson, Dean of StudentsJIN SUN PARK (b. 1979) Letter from a FriendBenjamin Kim, Cello (South Korea)Kazuki Ueki, Guitar (Japan)ØISTEIN SOMMERFELDT (1919-1994) Excerpts From Kathleen Raine’s Poetry, Op. 55
I. Amo Ergo Sum
II. Rock
III. Love PoemMargrethe Fredheim, Soprano (Norway)Brett Klaus, Piano (United States)ALEXANDER “SACHA” ARGOV (1914-1995) ElifeletGuy Mintus, Piano (Israel)MAGNUS LINDBERG (b. 1958) Acequia MadreTaavi Oramo, Clarinet (Finland)Ritva Koistinen, Piano (Finland)Arranged by Xinyang Wang (2013)Dance of the Yao PeopleYitong Guo, Viola (China)Ruiqi Fang, Piano (China)SIMON BETHELL (b. 1990) Prelude in CModular Scale PreludePrelude for PianoJane Yu, Piano (South Africa)PEDRO ITURRALDE (b. 1929) La Pequeña CzardaAna Garcia Caraballos, Saxophone (Spain)Nhamin Lee, Piano (South Korea) -
Program Notes
Letter from a Friend
Benjamin Kim
Letter from a Friend is a representative of current trends in music for Korean film. It was composed for the movie “Let’s play, Darma”, a comedy about a group of gangsters seeking refuge in a Buddhist monastery. This music evokes an appreciation of nature and happiness.
Excerpts From Kathleen Raine’s Poetry, Op. 55
Margrethe Fredheim
Sommerfeldt has a dew-like freshness of tonal language, partly based on free tonality and folk music rhythms. About his nationality there is no doubt. In the words of Sommerfeldt himself: “Many composers today feel the pressure from society to compose in a specific way. I too feel this inner pressure that forces me to write the way they do. Besides, originality can be found in C Major.”
Lyrics
I. Amo Ergo Sum
Because I love
The sun pours out its rays of living gold,
Pours out its gold and silver on the sea.Because I love
The earth upon her astral spindle winds
Her ecstasy-producing dance.Because I love
Clouds travel on the winds through wide skies,
Skies wide and beautiful, blue and deep.Because I love
Wind blows white sails,
The wind blows over flowers, the sweet wind blows.Because I love
The ferns grow green, and green the grass, and green
The transparent sunlit trees.Because I love
Larks rise up from the grass
And all the leaves are full of singing birds.Because I love
The summer air quivers with a thousand wings,
Myriads of jeweled eyes burn in the light.Because I love
The iridescent shells upon the sand
Take forms as fine and intricate as thought.Because I love
There is an invisible way across the sky.
Birds travel by that way. The sun and moon
And all the stars travel that path by night.Because I love
There is a river flowing all night long.Because I love
All night the river flows into my sleep.
Ten thousand living things are sleeping in my arms,
And sleeping wake, and flowing are at rest.II. Rock
There is stone in me that knows stone.
Substance of rock that remembers the unending, unending simplicity of rest,
While scorching suns and ice ages pass over rock-face, swiftly as days.
In the longest time of all come the rock’s changes.
Slowest of all rhythms, the pulsations that raise from the planet’s core.
The mountain ranges and weather them down to sand on the seafloor.There remain in me records of rock’s duration.
My ephemeral substance was still in the veins of the earth from the beginning.
Patient for its release.
Not questioning, when, when, will come the flowering, the flowing.
The awakening, the taking wing.
The long longed-for night of the bride-groom’s coming.There is stone in me that knows stone,
Whose sole state is stasis.
While the slow cycle of the stars whirls a world of rock.
Through light years, where in nightmare I fall crying.
Must I travel fathomless distances forever and ever?
All that is in me of the rock replies:
Forever, forever if it must be.
Be and be still.
Endure.III. Love Poem
Yours is the face that the earth turns to me.
Continuous beyond its human features lie
The mountain forms that rest against the sky.
With your eyes, the reflecting rainbow, the sun’s light
Sees me; forest and flower, bird and beast
Know and hold me forever in the world’s thought,
Creation’s deep untroubled retrospect.When your hand touches mine it is the earth
That takes me–the green grass,
And rocks and rivers; the green graves,
And children still unborn, and ancestors,
In love passed down from hand to hand from God.
Your love comes from the creation of the world,
From those paternal fingers, streaming through the clouds
That break with light the surface of the sea.Here, where I trace your body with my hand,
Love’s presence has no end;
For these, your arms that hold me, are the world’s.
In us, the continents, clouds and oceans meet
Our arbitrary selves, extensive with the night,
Lost, in the heart’s worship, and the body’s sleep.Elifelet
Guy Mintus
*This performance is dedicated to Shmuel Mintus.
This is a memorial song written and composed during the 1960s in Israel.
Alongside its exuberant and multicultural middle eastern spirit, the young country of Israel carries a burden of bereavement and loss. Throughout its 65-year-long existence, Israel had to fight for survival many times. Thus, memorial ceremonies and songs for fallen soldiers take a substantial part in the Israeli culture. Despite its musical and textual complexity, the song Elifelet is a key song in the Israeli memorial songbook. It’s been sung in memorial ceremonies all over the country every year. Elifelet is a somewhat unusual memorial song. In it, Elifelet, whose name is taken from the Bible (one of King David’s heroes), is not portrayed as the classic heroic soldier figure we would expect, but as a funny, odd and almost autistic figure who laughs and smiles without reason. At the moment of truth, Elifelet bravely crawls in front of the live fire to save his friends, losing his own life. The song leaves a lot of question unresolved regarding the heroic figure, memorialization, the value of sacrificing your life in war and of treatment of society’s dead soldier. A key moment in the song is the sudden and brief change from E minor to E major accompanying the description of sounds of flutes and strings surrounding Elifelet’s character. This special moment leaves a strong effect of exaltation and almost recreates Elifelet’s dead spirit.
Song text by Nathan Alteman
Translated by Guy MintusWe shall sing now the song of Elifelet,
and shall say all of us out loud,
ever since he was just a child,
he was already very odd.All the neighbors have spoken of his fault,
and would say that nothing would help,
Elifelet is a child with no character,
he has no character at all.If you stole a toy from his hands,
he would remain confused and smiling,
smiling without knowing why,
or how or what for and where?And it seems like around him, it’s strange,
Something of music and joy arises,
without a rhyme or a reason,
without knowing why, how and wherefore?
without a goal, without a way,
without knowing how much or when?
for around him sounds of flutes and strings,
a lightning beautiful melody,
if we shall explain to you, what good will it bring?
what kind of child are you Elifelet?And at night under the thunders of battlefield,
among the division the message went by:
the front lines were cut off,
They’d been out of ammunition for a while.Then Elifelet felt as if
he must renew their supply,
and since he had no character at all,
he crawled right in front of the wild fire.And as he returned wounded, in shock,
he collapsed smiling,
he had smiled without knowing why
or how or what for and where?And in the hearts of his friends, it’s strange,
Something of music and joy arises,
without a rhyme or a reason,
without knowing why, how and wherefore?
without a goal, without a way,
without knowing how much or when?
for around Elifelet sounds of flutes and strings,
a lightning beautiful melody,
if we shall explain to you, what good will it bring?
what kind of child are you Elifelet?And at night, wearing a steel helmet,
The angel Gabriel from the sky descended,
he approached the cot of Elifelet,
who was on the battlefield dying.He said to him: Elifelet, fear not,
Elifelet, fear not at all.
in the sky we are very pleased with you,
although you have no character at all.This is a simple and strange song,
With no beginning or ending or future,
We’ve been singing it without knowing why
or how or what for and where?We’ve been singing it just like that, it’s strange,
Something of music and joy arises.Acequia Madre
Taavi Oramo
Acequia Madre was composed at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival the summer of 2012. It continues the path that Lindberg has tread from the hard-core modernism of his youth towards music synthesized from the tonal tradition.
Dance of the Yao People
Yitong Guo
Yao, a government classification for various minorities in China, have very distinct and fascinating cultural characteristics (especially in religion, handcraft and, of course, music). The original Yao people are basically peasants who have to live on farming; luckily, their creativity colorizes their daily work with numerous songs and dances that are extremely Yaoist. Dance of the Yao People was originally one famous Chinese orchestral piece composed by Mao Yuan and Liu Tieshan in the 1950s. The piece was based on the materials from the Long Drum Song of the Yao. It shows three different scenes: dancing slowly accompanied by the profound long-drum song in the fields; dancing passionately in the festival; and singing a song of love for lovers, friends and families.
While the new arrangement for viola and piano uses more Western compositional techniques than the orchestral piece, it retains the spirit and originality of Yao music.
Prelude in C
Modular Scale Prelude
Prelude for PianoJane Yu
Simon Bethell was born in 1990 in Cape Town. He matriculated from Bishops Diocesan College in 2008 and studied Composition at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, graduating at the end of 2012. He was awarded the Nicholas Abbott Prize for Composition, the Peter Klatzow Prize and the Meyere Levinson Prize for Best Original Composition during his time at University. He is currently teaching music at Herzlia High School in Cape Town as well as teaching and composing privately.
Simon writes in a mix of styles, primarily Romantic/Modern with influences encompassing Bach, Grieg, Britten, Sibelius and many Russian composers, as well as several jazz and pop influences such as Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd.
Prelude in C – This light harmonic prelude, slightly reminiscent of Brahms’ Intermezzo Op. 119, No. 1, emphasizes the use of non-chordal notes at the end of the bar as well as the use of the minor dominant seventh resolving to the tonic.
Modular Scale Prelude – This prelude is based on a repeated 1+1+1+3 interval pattern beginning on C: all harmony is derived from this scale. The slow, introspective melody is driven by the underlying rhythm of the accompaniment. The prelude is, overall, quite temperamental, with a short cadenza near the beginning, an ethereal account of the melody in high octaves, and one last outburst that winds down to silent rest.
Prelude for Piano – This prelude has a slight Spanish influence in its inspiration. It begins with two interspersed characters – one boisterous and the other quiet and melodic – leading up to a joyous outburst of melody. A quiet middle section follows based around the melodic character. The accompaniment here maintains a pedal point in the middle voice in a time-signature of 6/8 against the right hand’s 3/4. The boisterous character leads us into another melodic outburst that winds down to the end.
La Pequeña Czarda
Ana Garcia Caraballos
This prelude has a slight Spanish influence in its inspiration. It begins with two interspersed characters – one boisterous and the other quiet and melodic – leading up to a joyous outburst of melody. A quiet middle section follows based around the melodic character. The accompaniment here maintains a pedal point in the middle voice in a time-signature of 6/8 against the right hand’s 3/4. The boisterous character leads us into another melodic outburst that winds down to the end.
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Student Biographies
Ana García Caraballos is a Spanish pianist and saxophonist who received her Bachelor Degrees with Honors in Piano Performance, Saxophone Performance, and Pedagogy in both Piano and Saxophone from the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. She also received her Chemistry Degree from the Universidad de Navarra. Miss García has been granted numerous awards and scholarships in both Spain and the United States. She has performed as solo pianist and saxophonist, as well as with various orchestras including the Manhattan School of Music Orchestras, the MSM Nu Art Ensemble, the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Navarra Wind Ensembles, and several jazz and classical chamber groups. She is a member of the New York City-based ensemble Symphony Z, and the MSM Saxophone Quartet. In addition, she has attended and worked at the New York Summer Music Festival as a teaching assistant for Dr. Paul Cohen, and at the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. She has been featured in several recordings and she has collaborated with different emerging composers and premiered new works. She is currently pursuing her Master of Music degree in Classical Saxophone at the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Paul Cohen, and will graduate this May.Born in China, pianist Ruiqi Fang has performed as both soloist and chamber musician throughout her homeland, giving recitals in major concert halls, including Beijing Concert Hall, Zhongshan Concert Hall, National Theatre Concert Hall, Taipei National Concert Hall, and Xi’an Qujiang Concert Hall. After her concerto debut with Xi’an Conservatory of Music Youth Orchestra in 2006, performing Chopin’s First Piano Concerto in E Minor, she was acclaimed as a “talented young pianist with brilliant technique and great sense of the style.” – (Xi’an Huashang Newspaper). Ms. Fang has successfully participated in numerous piano competitions, including the Zhujiang Youth Piano Competition (second prize), the First Kawai Piano Competition (sixth prize), the Second Steinway Piano Competition (Second Prize), Xi’an Conservatory of Music Concerto Competition (First prize and Bach Performance Prize), Taipei Chopin International Piano Competition (finalist), Warsaw International Chopin Piano Competition (qualified). Beginning her piano studies at the age of five, Ms. Fang gained favorable attention performing in national concerts and competitions, including her first solo recital at Xi’an Concert Hall in 1998. She continued her piano training at the Xi’an Conservatory of Music, under the instruction of Russian Professor Inoyatova Gulchekhra (student of Tatiana Nikolayeva) for six years. In 2007, Ms. Fang was accepted at the Central Conservatory of Music and pursued her Bachelor of Music degree with Professor Chun Pan. She was a national scholarship recipient in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Other musical influences include master classes with Bernd Goetzke, Klaus Bassler, Barry Snyder, Seymour Lipkin, Manaheim Pressler, Chengzong Yin, Zhong Xu. Ms. Fang is currently pursuing her Master of Music degree at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Professor Solomon Mikowsky. 
Soprano Margrethe Fredheim is a first-year Master of Music degree candidate under the tutelage of Cynthia Hoffmann. Previous opera credits include Die Zauberflöte (Pamina) with Oslo Operafestival. Scene work includes Eugene Onegin (Tatyana), Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna), La Cenerentola (Clorinda), Der Freischütz (Ännchen) and Cosi fan tutte (Despina) with the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo, Norway. Upcoming engagements include Die Zauberflöte (First Lady) with the International Lyric Academy in Rome. She is currently studying as a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship.Yitong Guo, from Lanzhou City, China, is a Bachelor of Music student of Ms. Patinka Kopec at Manhattan School of Music. Last summer, Mr. Guo was invited to record the classical music program, “From the Top”, which is produced by National Public Radio. Mr. Guo also appeared as a soloist with orchestra at the Beijing Concert Hall. Yitong Guo graduated first place with his high school diploma from The Music School affiliated with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He was awarded the “Outstanding Student Award” every year during high school. After winning first prize at the 8th Great Wall International Music Academy Concerto Competition, Yitong had the honor to perform for the German Ambassador to China. Concentrating on chamber music from 2010 to 2012, Yitong and his string quartet received instruction from Mr. Guenter Pichler, 1st violinist of the Alban Berg Quartet. He has also received instruction from Pinchas Zukerman, Kim Kashkashian, Roberto Diaz, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Matthias Buchholz.Cellist Benjamin Kim recently had solo recitals and concerto performances in concert halls in London, Paris, and Rome. In his recent Carnegie Hall Debut, Kim’s performance was described as having given “a daringly rapid, refreshing romp, its irresistible momentum carrying all before it…..dazzlingly dispatch…….employing a very personal and rhapsodic approach, while revealing an uncommonly rich and resonant tone.” Kim has also performed as a co-principal cellist at the TMF Orchestra in Houston and has participated in Kurt Mazur’s seminar orchestra. Kim joined the Great Mountains International Music Festival & School and Texas Music Festival of Houston as a full scholarship fellow. He has also participated in the Festival of the Gulf in Italy, Pablo Casals Festival in France, as well as, the Kronberg Academy of Germany. Benjamin Kim was ranked first among 530 applicants for the entrance audition and general study exam for Busan Arts School. He has won more than 40 Korean music competitions including Seoul International, Taegu Broadcasting, Cheongju Broadcasting, CBS, Eumyun Journal and Managing Company. Kim has had masterclasses with Alto Noras, Bernard Greenhouse, Francois Salque, Llouis Claret, and Markus Nyikos. Since moving to New York, Kim has performed at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and has won prizes in NYC music competitions. Kim performed for the Pablo Casals Legacy Concert at the New York Spain Society, celebrated by cellists of Manhattan school of Music and The Juilliard School. He also performed at the “Shining Stars” Debut series in Weill Recital Hall, the Columbia University Musical Theatre, and the Society of Emerging Artists. Benjamin also appeared at Alice Tully Hall for the “CMS Chamber Music Society” at Lincoln Center. At Manhattan School of Music, Benjamin Kim studies with Marion Feldman, and studies chamber music with Mr. Wolfram Koessel of the American String Quart.Brett Klaus, a St. Louis native, is currently a Professional Studies Certificate candidate at Manhattan School of Music studying with Thomas Muraco. Mr. Klaus previously received his Master of Music degree in piano performance from the Boston Conservatory studying with Max Levinson. There, he was a two-time consecutive winner of both the Conservatory Piano Honors Competition and the Chamber Music Honors Competition. He has performed in concert halls across the United States, Canada, Italy, and Mexico and appeared as a solo artist with the Columbia Chamber Orchestra, Missouri Symphony, and Sinfonia Perusina, among others. Mr. Klaus was formerly a staff accompanist at the Boston Conservatory and former piano faculty member at the New School of Music (Cambridge, MA) and the Brookline Music School. This summer, Mr. Klaus will be a vocal coach at the Tanglewood Music Festival.Finnish pianist, Ritva Koistinen, began her musical studies at the Conservatory of Joensuu with teachers,Tuulikki Lehtinen and Janne Mertanen. At the Sibelius Academy she studied with Juhani Lagerspetz, Ilmo Ranta and Hanna Aho and graduated in 2009. Since August 2011, Ritva has held a teaching and accompanying position at the Palmgren Conservatory in Pori, West-Finland. She is currently on a study leave and is pursuing a Master of Music degree in piano at Manhattan School of Music as a student of Phillip Kawin.Nhamin Lee, a native of Korea, is an award-winning concert pianist. She has won top prizes at the Society of Korea piano competition. She was also chosen as a young artist featured at the Eumag Chunchu Organization, and has appeared as a soloist with the Jinju Symphony Orchestra. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alexander Girardi Hall and Win Art Hall. She performs a broad range of repertoire from Bach and Beethoven to Debussy and Prokofiev, as well as, music by contemporary composers such as Fisher and Copland. Her playing has a programmatic quality, telling stories fueled by her imagination and intellectual curiosity. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with a variety of vocalists and instrumentalists. Her long collaboration with saxophonists began with Concerto for saxophone and orchestra by Glazunov, and has accompanied under the baton of Maestro Philippe Entremont. This year, she performed the rare Sonatina by Avery Fisher for trumpet, saxophone and piano and Quiet City by Aaron Copland. Ms. Lee holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Hanyang University in Seoul, and is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music where she studies with Phillip Kawin.Guy Mintus, Israeli born pianist and composer, is a recent recipient of the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award by ASCAP and of two Down Beat Magazine Student Awards for Outstanding Jazz Performance and Arrangement. In New York, he has been featured with a large variety of jazz ensembles, both as leader and as a sideman. He recently participated in the recording of Funky Dervish, the new album of the Israeli-Turkish world music artist, Yinon Muallem. Guy has produced and arranged the project “Yoni Bloch & the Big Band” for the Israeli top rock artist, Yoni Bloch, and has given solo classical piano recitals. Guy graduated with honors from the prestigious Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts and served The Israeli military under the status of “Outstanding Jazz Musician.” Guy has performed on many important stages and festivals around the world, including the Villa Carpegna Jazz Fesitval, Rome, SAJE International Jazz Conference in Capetown, South Africa, Red Sea Jazz Festival, Israel Festival, Berklee Performance Center, Boston, Zappa Tel Aviv, Beit Avichai Center for Jewish Culture and won numerous awards such as a full tuition scholarship to the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, two full tuition scholarships to the Berklee College of Music, and four scholarship awards from the America -Israel Art Scholarship Foundation. Mr. Mintus also received the Dean’s Award from the Buchman Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv University, and was winner of the “Ran Baron” Jazz Competition of the Israeli Conservatory, and the Young Jazz Ensembles Competition of the Red Sea Jazz Festival. Guy currently resides in New York City, studying at the Manhattan School of Music on a full scholarship.Taavi Oramo has studied clarinet at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki since 2008. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician widely. In addition to playing the clarinet, Mr. Oramo also studies voice. This past year, Mr. Oramo studied with Charlie Neidich at Manhattan School of Music as an exchange student.Japanese guitarist, Kazuki Ueki, began playing the classical guitar when he was 11 years old. While taking lessons, he was studied South Asian culture at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Japan. After graduating, he began to focus on the study of music. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree at Manhattan School of Music and studies with David Starobin.Jane Yu was born in Cape Town and started playing piano at the age of ten. She studied with Franklin Larey at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree with distinctions in piano performance and chamber music, and was awarded the class medal for that year. She is currently in her first year of the Master of Music program at Manhattan School of Music and studies with Nina Svetlanova.
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