MIT Wind Ensemble, Frederick Harris, Jr. conductor

1. Peter Child Concertino for Violin and Chamber Winds (2002)

Young-Nam Kim, violin

2. Brian Robison The Congress of the Insomniacs (2003)

Gunther Schuller Song and Dance (1990)

for solo violin and large wind ensemble

3. I. Quiet Music

4. II. Fiddle Music

5. Evan Ziporyn Drill (2002)

for solo bass clarinet and wind ensemble

Evan Ziporyn, bass clarinet

It is a little-known fact that the arts flourish at MIT, the world’s preeminent science and technology based university. Visual art, theater, and, in music, the large and small performance ensembles, all thrive, fed equally by a large and demanding body of talented students and a strong faculty of professional artists. The performances of the MIT Wind Ensemble on this CD are fine examples of what the two together can accomplish.

Better known aspects of MIT are its commitment to excellence and its entrepreneurial spirit. These, too, are evident in this recording. Since Frederick Harris took over the MIT Wind Ensembles in 1999 he has inaugurated an innovative and daring series of performances and commissions. The violin concerto of Gunther Schuller recorded here is surely one of the most challenging works in the wind ensemble repertory. The three other pieces are only a sample of the music that Harris has commissioned for the MIT Wind Ensemble from composers on the MIT faculty and elsewhere.

It is hard to summarize Gunther Schuller’s contributions to music, but a simple list gives an idea of their scope: master horn player, composer, conductor, author, administrator, publisher, jazz pioneer and a leader of the ‘third stream’ in music. There is a quality of synthesis in some of his later works, however, and Song and Dance (1990), a concerto for violin and large wind ensemble, is a good example. As a conductor and writer Schuller has championed the diverse musics of Babbitt, Ellington and Mahler. In Song and Dance the elegantly modulated sonorities of the big band mix with the sensibilities of high modernism and heartfelt romanticism in an affecting blend. The tone is dark, not just in the interior, ruminative first movement but in the frenetic second movement as well. The piece, untypically, is cast in two movements. They contrast starkly in terms of the extreme introversion of the first and extroversion of the second, whose manner derives from what Schuller has called “good old country fiddle music,” but whose tone has the feel of a frantic danse macabre. The juxtaposition of the lonely violin against the amassed winds and percussion has a compelling philosophical flavor, emphasized by the soulful melodic writing for the soloist in the first movement (‘Quiet Music’). The uncommon instrumentation evokes the individual versus the mass, and the inner versus the outer, evocations that are, I believe, intrinsic to the poetry of the piece. So is the element of risk, even danger, in the difficult balance between soloist and tutti. It takes guts, conviction and considerable skill to perform Song and Dance. It was commissioned by the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble under the late conductor Frank Bencriscutto, who initiated a consortium with 34 other wind ensembles. To date, however, only two ensembles have dared take it on, Minnesota and MIT, both with the intrepid Young-Nam Kim as soloist.

The history of my own Concertino for violin and chamber winds (2002) is linked to the Schuller work; I wrote it for Young-Nam Kim and the MIT Wind Ensemble to accompany their second MIT performance of Song and Dance in 2002. Otherwise, however, the two pieces could scarcely be more different. Against the enormity of Schuller’s orchestration Concertino juxtaposes a lean instrumentation of ten players, and against the Romantic fatalism of its tone Concertino juxtaposes a cheerful, out-of-doors Classicism. It is in three short movements, fast-slow-fast, compressed into one. The music for the string soloist is etched in sharp relief from that of the wind ensemble, though soloists from among the winds frequently step forward as collaborators in the melodic unfolding.

The concerto principle pervades the remaining works on this CD too. Brian Robison’s The Congress of the Insomniacs (2003) is essentially a concerto grosso, replete with ‘ritornello’ (returning theme) associated with the tutti ensemble, interspersed with episodes presented by eight soloists: flute, two clarinets, alto and tenor saxophones, trumpet, trombone, and vibraphone. But there the comparison with its Baroque forefather ends. The ritornello theme, an ascending stepwise motive, has a funky, irregular rhythm that is at odds with the common-time meter. The soli episodes vary dramatically in character, evoking free, improvisatory jazz, pointillistic fragmentation, a sostenuto canon, and a host of other manners. The octatonic scale (alternating whole steps and half steps) permeates and unites the whole. There is a quirky, eccentric quality to much of Robison’s best music, and this piece is no exception.

The title of Evan Ziporyn’s concerto movement for bass clarinet and wind ensemble Drill (2001)is a puzzle until you realize that it is meant to characterize the relationship between soloist and ensemble. It is the idea of the drill sergeant that it evokes, one who leads but always participates in the maneuvers of the troops. Clarinets, other woodwinds, and eventually the entire ensemble periodically shadow the brisk, athletic lines of the soloist in unison, octaves, or strictly parallel intervals. The texture is fresh, dense, and transparent. Ziporyn’s background is a mixture of jazz, concert music, clarinet performance, and the gamelan music of Bali. The influence of Balinese music, in particular, is never far off. In this piece it is reflected in the cycling modal figures (the pentatonic scale at the beginning evolves additively into other modes, but it is alluded to throughout) and in the percussion writing. Loud, autonomous, scintillating, percussion provides the rhythmic foundation, at once metrical and mercurial, to this bracing, exuberant work.

-Peter Child April 4, 2004

BIOS

Violinist Young-Nam Kim has appeared widely in the United States and Europe in summer festivals, recitals and as a soloist with orchestras including the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and in such venues as Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center. In addition to the standard repertoire, Mr. Kim has premiered more than a score of works by important composers of today. He also served on the jury of many competitions including the Lipizer International Violin Competition in Italy.

Mr. Kim, who soloed with the Seoul Philharmonic while still in his early teens, moved to the United States in his high school senior year and studied primarily with Louis Krasner in Syracuse and Boston. His other teachers include Felix Galimir in New York and Zino Francescatti in Switzerland.

Founder and Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, which is celebrating its 12th season, Mr. Kim appeared in concerts with such distinguished artists as Leon Fleisher, Gilbert Kalish, Felix Galimir, Robert Mann, Joseph Silverstein, Samuel Rhodes, David Shifrin Yo-Yo Ma and others.. His live performances and recordings are heard frequently on National Public Radio and recently Mr. Kim recorded Chen Yi’s “Ning” with Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man. He also was a long time duo partner with pianist-composer Paul Schoenfield.

For over a decade Mr. Kim was head of chamber music activities at Gunther Schuller’s Festival at Sandpoint in Idaho and in 2002 he founded the Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute held annually in August in Ely, Minnesota. Currently on the faculty of the University of Minnesota, Mr. Kim was named as a Distinguished McKnight Scholar in 1999 and received the Presidential Outstanding Community Service Award in 2000. In December 2001 Mr. Kim received an honorary citation as “Artist of the Year” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Yong-Nam Kim resides in St.Paul with his violinist wife and three children.

Brian Robison is Assistant Professor of Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his doctorate at Cornell University, where he studied with Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, and Karel Husa. Previously, he studied composition with Burt Fenner at the Pennsylvania State University, where he graduated with highest distinction in 1986, and with Tristan Murail and Philippe Manoury at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, where he was awarded the Maurice Ravel Prize in 1991. In July 2000, the American Composers Orchestra named him the winner of the 2000 Whitaker Commission; the new work, In search of the miraculous, received its world premiere performance by the ACO in Carnegie Hall in March 2003, under the baton of Steven Sloane. Other recent premieres have included Imagined Corners (MIT Symphony Orchestra, John Harbison conducting, March 2003) and The Congress of the Insomniacs (MIT Wind Ensemble, Frederick Harris conducting, May 2003). He has also received commissions from the Sidney Cox Library of Music and Dance at Cornell University, the Cayuga Chamber Winds, the Paterson Duo, and the Empire State Youth Symphony String Ensemble. Current and upcoming projects include The bonfire of the civil liberties for Boston Musica Viva, A leaf driven for the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Illustrate hedonistic calculus for the Locrian Chamber Players (New York, NY), and O astucioso caçador for the Boston Horns.

Frederick Harris, Jr. is Director of Wind Ensembles at MIT where he serves as Music Director of the MIT Wind Ensemble and MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble. He has also served as an Acting Music Director for the MIT Symphony Orchestra. Since 2001 he has served as the Assistant Conductor of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Wind Ensemble.

He earned a Master of Music Degree from New England Conservatory and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. His teachers included Frank Battisti, Gunther Schuller, and Craig Kirchhoff. Dr. Harris has guest conducted and presented lectures at many universities in the New England region. At the University of Minnesota he conducted the Concerto Grosso Orchestra and was a guest conductor of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble. He has also served as guest conductor for the New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota.Dr. Harris is a strong advocate for the creation and performance of new music having commissioned 49 pieces since 1992.

In the spring of 2001 Meredith Music Publications released his first book, Conducting with Feeling. He is currently writing a second book entitled Seeking the Infinite, the biography of renowned conductor and composer, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. In 2004, with Kenneth Amis (Empire Brass) and John McLellan (Belmont, MA, Public Schools), he created Symbiosis New England, a non-profit Boston-based professional wind ensemble dedicated to performance, education, and the advancement of contemporary music.

Peter Child is Professor of Music and MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT, where he chaired the department of Music and Theater Arts from 1996 to 1999. He joined Reed College in 1973 through an exchange scholarship from Keele University in England and received his B.A. in music from Reed in 1975. After studying Karnatic music in Madras for a year through a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship (1975-76), he entered the graduate program at Brandeis University and earned his Ph.D. in musical composition in 1981. His composition teachers include William Albright, Bernard Barrell, Arthur Berger, Jacob Druckman, and Seymour Shifrin.

Child won the 2004 Levitan Award in the Humanities at MIT for his work on an analysis text. His music won the 2001 Music of Changes Composition Award, which culminates in a commission and a concert in Los Angeles devoted to his music. He was a recipient of a 2000 commission from the Harvard Musical Association and a 1998 commission from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University. In 1994 the Council for the Arts at MIT awarded Peter Child the Gyorgy Kepes Fellowship Prize. He has been honored by two Com-position Fellowships from the Massachusetts Artists Foundation in 1986 and 1989, as well as fellowships to the MacDowell Colony and the Composers' Conference. The Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities awarded him four 'New Works' commissions in con-junction with the Boston Musica Viva, the New England Conservatory Contemporary Ensemble, the MIT Experimental Music Studio, and the Cantata Singers. His compositions have also been awarded prizes from Tanglewood (Margaret Grant Memorial Prize, 1978), East and West Artists (First Prize, 1979), WGBH Radio (Recording Prize, 1980), New England Conservatory ('New Works' Prize, 1983), and League-ISCM, Boston (New England Composers Prize, 1983). Recordings of some of Child's music have been released on New World, CRI, Neuma, Rivoalto and Centaur compact discs. In addition to his compositional work, Child has published papers concerning music by Shostakovich and Bartok in Music Analysis and College Music Symposium.

Peter Child has written music in many different genres, includ-ing music for orchestra, chorus, computer synthesis, voice, and a wide variety of chamber groups. Ensembles that have commissioned and/or performed his music include the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the John Oliver Chorale, the Pro Arte Orchestra, the Lydian String Quartet, Col-lage, Parnassus, New York New Music, the Pittsburgh New Music En-semble, Lontano (Great Britain), Interensemble (Italy), Speak Percussion (Australia), and many others.

Evan Ziporyn (b. 1959) is a composer/clarinetist whose work draws equally from world and classical music, the avant garde, and jazz. As a member of the Bang On A Can All-stars, he has performed at international venues across the globe, collaborated with Don Byron, Meredith Monk, Henry Threadgill, and Cecil Taylor, and co-produced and arranged Bang’s acclaimed recording of Brian Eno's "Music for Airports.” He has also recorded and toured with Paul Simon, Steve Reich, Arnold Dreyblatt, Matthew Shipp and Tan Dun. In Boston, he is founder and director of the Gamelan Galak Tika, a Balinese music and dance troupe, for whom he has composed numerous works combining gamelan with western instruments and electronics, recorded on two volumes for New World Records. His recent genre-defying solo CD, "This is Not A Clarinet" (Cantaloupe), was featured on “All Things Considered,” “The World,” and appeared on numerous 2001 Top Ten lists, in both classical and jazz categories. He has also written for Wu Man, the Kronos Quartet, Ethel, Nederlands Blazers, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Orkest de Volharding, Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Sarah Cahill, the Arden Trio, Basso Bongo, and red fish, blue fish. He has received commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation, Meet the Composer, and the New England Foundation for the Arts. His works have been recorded on Sony Classical, Koch, New World, CRI, and New Tone. Most recently he received the 2004 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He received his BA from Yale University and his MA and PhD from UC Berkeley, where his principle teachers were Martin Bresnick, Gerard Grisey, and John Blacking. He is Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor at MIT, where he is also Head of Music and Theater Arts. His puppet opera,”Shadow Bang,” a collaboration with Balinese puppeteer I Wayan Wija, was recently released on Cantaloupe Music. Upcoming premieres include “War Chant” for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, a concerto for p’ipa and gamelan, and music for the American Repertory Theater’s upcoming production of “Oedipus Rex.”

Born in 1925 on the Day of St. Cecilia, the Patron Saint of music, Gunther Schuller is now one of the elder statesmen of both post-war jazz musicians and 20th Century American composers. An inaugural member of the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and winner of the DownBeat Lifetime Achievement Award, his careers as composer, conductor, educator, historian, and music advocate have each changed the face of contemporary music as we know it.

Schuller’s musical odyssey began in 1942 with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony when he was chosen as an extra French horn player for the maestro’s American premiere of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7. After six months with the American Ballet Theater Orchestra, under Antal Dorati in 1943, Schuller was named principal French horn of the Cincinnati Symphony. It was in Cincinnati that Schuller would first meet Duke Ellington and recognize the compositional potential of jazz. Two years later he joined the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, playing bebop licks during warm ups and frequenting jazz clubs at night. Soon he was playing on seminal jazz albums such as The Birth of the Cool and Porgy and Bess with Miles Davis and Gil Evans, and combining jazz and classical forms in his own compositions. By the time he retired his French horn to focus on composing in 1963, Schuller had laid the foundation for the Third Stream movement with collaborators like Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and John Lewis. Schuller’s compositions have been premiered by esteemed orchestras, wind, jazz, and chamber ensembles around the world and recognized with many honors, most notably the Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Genius Award.

His work as an educator, at institutions such as the Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, and the landmark Lenox School of Jazz, culminated in ten years as President of Boston’s New England Conservatory (1967-77). He also served nearly twenty-five years as Artistic Director of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. Always an advocate for composers and their music, he ran Margun Music and GunMar Music for many years, publishing over 1000 works by diverse artists. Schuller’s GM Recordings, independent label, has produced over 120 jazz and classical recordings including many world premieres, debuts, and historical performances. He has authored five books including the seminal jazz histories Early Jazz and The Swing Era, and The Compleat Conductor. Currently Schuller is writing his autobiography while continuing to fulfill commission and guest conduct all over the world.

Producer: Frederick Harris, Jr.

Recording, Post-Production, Mastering Engineer: Patrick Keating

Post-Production for Song and Dance: Gunther Schuller & Dave Locke

Concertino for Violin and Chamber Winds & Song and Dance were recorded on May 4, 2002 at Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory. The Congress of the Insomniacs was recorded on May 7, 2003 at Kresge Auditorium at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Drill was recorded on March 12, 2003 at Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory.

MITWE photos: Thomas Maxisch

Cover & Back Photos: Rebecca Harris.

Design:Umod007 for Alliedchemical.com

MIT Wind Ensemble

Frederick Harris, Jr. Conductor

Piccolo

Rachel Finck 3

Catherine Matlon 3

Flute

Sarah Bissonnette *, 4

Jessica Chiafair 3

Rachel Finck 3, 4

Erin Foti 3, 4

Tina Heish 3

Allison Horst 1

Adora Lin 3

Catherine Matlon 2, 4

Daniel Stein 3

Alto Flute

Allison Horst 3

Oboe

Diana Lo 2, 4

Jamie Lui 3

Melaine Pohlman 1, 3

Jessica Young 2, 4

English Horn

Jaleen Hall 3

E-flat Clarinet

Wendy Gu 2, 3

Clarinet

Brett Boshco 3

Dexter Chan 2, 4

Emily Cheng 2, 4

Igor Ginzburg 2, 4

Wendy Gu 4

Pey-Hua Hwang 2, 3, 4

Daniel Koster 3

Daniel Kwon 3

Ryan Lang 3

Steve Lee 1

Erik Olsen 3

Jason Pelc *, 4

Daniel Steele *, 4

Jaimie Sylman 3

Terence Ta 2, 4

Diane Yang 2, 3, 4

Colette Wiseman 3

Bass Clarinet

Rick Henrickson 2, 4

Steve Lee 3

Daniel Yu 2, 4

B-flat Contrabass Clarinet

Alex Mekelburg 2, 3

Bassoon

Ariya Darautana 2, 3, 4

Andrew Henrich 2, 4

Jennifer Stokes 3

Contrabassoon

Bradley Balliett 4

Adam Trussell 3

Soprano Saxophone

Jordan Fabyanske 4

Alto Saxophone

Tanya Cruz Garza 4

Jordan Fabyanske *

Michael Mandel 3

Raudel Rodriguez 2, 4

Tenor Saxophone

Tanya Cruz Garza 2

David Greenhouse *, 3, 4

Baritone Saxophone

Arshan Gailus 2, 4

Matthew Willmott 3

French Horn

Peter Broggi 3

Justin Cohen 2, 4

Tom Hsu 2, 4

Allison Lewis 2, 3, 4

Shefra Spiridopoulos 1, 3

Scott Stransky 2, 3, 4

Trumpet

Andy Arizpe 2, 3, 4

Adrian Bischoff 3, 4

Christina Bonebreak 2, 4

Nicholas Bozard 2, 4

Robert Foster 2

Rahul Sarathy 1, *, 3, 4

Tarik Ward 3

Trombone

Daniel Halperin 3

Benjamin Ingram 1, 3

Jonathan Kennell 3

David Newell *, 4

Kenneth Schrock 2, 4

Bass Trombone

Matthew Abrahamson 2, 4

Ethan Fenn 3

James Monaghan 4

Euphonium

Daniel Benhammou 3

James Monaghan 4

Thomas Walker 2, 4

Tuba

Nicholas Cordella 2, 4

Mark Fabulich 3, 4

Andrew Thomas 3

Timpani

Peter Broggi 4

Jeremy Nimmer 1, 3

Percussion

Anna Marie Bohmann 3

Peter Broggi *

Meisha Bynoe 2, 3, 4

Steven Crawford 3

Ryan Dilisi 3

Meiling Gao 2, 4

Jesse Greene 2, 4

Adam Kaczmarek 2, 4

Christopher Wurts 3

Piano & Celeste

Mary Farbood 3

Harp

Sarah Fuller 3

String Bass

Douglas Balliett 4

Thomas Lada 1, 3

1 Concertino for Violin and Chamber Winds

2 The Congress of the Insomniacs

3 Song and Dance

4 Drill

* Soloist on The Congress of the Insomniacs

Producer: Frederick Harris, Jr.

Recording, Post-Production, Mastering Engineer: Patrick Keating

Post-Production for Song and Dance: Gunther Schuller & Dave Locke

Concertino for Violin and Chamber Winds & Song and Dance were recorded on May 4, 2002 at Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory. The Congress of the Insomniacs was recorded on May 7, 2003 at Kresge Auditorium at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Drill was recorded on March 12, 2003 at Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory.

This recording is dedicated to the memory of John D. Corley, Jr. who served MIT for 51 years as conductor of the MIT Concert Band

This recording is made possible by the generous support of Mr. Richard D. Nordlof

Special Thanks to Richard Nordlof, Patrick Keating, Matthew Agoglia, MIT Concerts Office, Peter Child, Brian Robison, Gunther Schuller, Evan Ziporyn, Charles Peltz, William Drury, Kenneth Amis, John Harbison, Elena Ruehr, Clarise Snyder, Lowell Lindgren, and Rebecca Harris.

The MIT Wind Ensemble is comprised primarily of MIT undergraduate & graduate students studying a variety of fields including: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Biology, Mathematics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Civil Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Management, Architecture, and Materials Science & Engineering. The central mission of the MIT Wind Ensemble is the enhancement of the musical education and artistic sensitivity of its members through performance in large and small ensembles of music of diverse styles from the 16^th century to the present day. A secondary mission is the creation and nurturing of new music for the wind ensemble medium.

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