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Alan Pierson and Ben Bolter, conductors
Jason Gluck, graduate assistant conductor
Cassandra Miller, guest composer
Cassandra Miller, O Zomer! (US premiere)
Mya Vandegrift, you do not have to be good (world premiere)
Gérard Grisey, Partiels from Les espaces acoustiques
Cassandra Miller, Perfect Offering
Personnel
Alan Pierson and Ben Bolter, conductors
Jason Gluck, graduate assistant conductor
Evan DeRicco, personnel manager
Yun Qu Tan, production manager
Violin
Lucy Kim
Chen-Han (Hannah) Hsu
Viola
Rebecca Miller
Tristin Saito
Cello
Andre Plackis
Canon Shibata
Double Bass
Lance Gaupp
Flute
Holly Venkitaswaran
Haylie Wu
Oboe
Ezequiel Navarro
Clarinet
Casey Li
Minghao Liu
Bass Clarinet
Alvin Chen
Bassoon
James Smelley
Baritone Saxophone
Ila Gupta
Horn
Kyle Cho
Samantha Strickland
Trumpet
Isaac Brown
Trombone
Holden Welch
Percussion
Cameron Marquez
Christian Santos
Piano
Yuan-Hua Chang
Jasmine Meyer
Accordion
Hope Arthur*
*Guest Artist
Cassandra Miller, O Zomer!
O Zomer! was inspired by the Dutch poet and children’s writer Toon Tellegen—for no other reason than that he simply and plainly says what he means. There is no irony or hiding in his work, and what remains is a deep sense of awe, playfulness, love and tragedy.
—Cassandra Miller
In the beginning there was tumult.
Someone called for silence,
for diligence
and then for love.
A man stood up and said:
“How can I ever make it clear that I really,
really . . . ”
“What?” the people around him cried. “What?”
“ . . . do not despise you?”
and that man kissed children falling from the sky,
women flowing past in slow muddy streams,
mothers in their glistening cocoons,
and among the people loneliness erupted,
like thunder in summer.
O summer!
—In het begin was er tumult by Toon Tellegen,
translated to English by Judith Wilkinson.
Mya Vandegrift, you do not have to be good
In my parents’ house, there is an out of tune upright with a lone hymnal on the stand. The piano faces a wall, a window to the right. Geese fly over the fields across the street, they wait in my grandfather’s pond. She sings gospel songs to me while we shuck corn on the porch. We read together, a poem she doesn’t agree with but reminds her of her mother, as it begins,
“you do not have to be good...”
This work samples a melody from the hymn "Be Thou My Vision," based on a 6th-century poem by Irish poet Dallán Forgaill, "Rop tum o Baile."
“I ever with thee and thou with me one”
—Mya Vandegrift
Gérard Grisey, Partiels
Partiels is part of the cycle Les espaces acoustiques comprising successively: Prologue, for solo viola, Periodes for 7 musicians, Partiels for16 or 18 musicians, Modulations for 33 musicians, Transitoires and Epilogue for a large orchestra.
The title is understood as a moment of a larger work but also in the acoustic sense of components of the sound. Two beacons mark the sonorous development: the recurrence and the spectrum of overtones. These moments, easily identifiable, allow a continuity and a dynamic of musical discourse, which marries sensibly the cyclic form of human respiration: Inspiration-exhalation-rest, or if you prefer: tension-separation-relaxation-restoration of energy.
Numerous sequences of Partiels announce a new technique: that of an instrumental synthesis. Analogous to the additional synthesis used in electronic digital music programs, this writing uses the instrument (microsynthesis) to explain the different components of sound and to elaborate a global (macro-synthesis) sonorous form. As a result of this treatment, for our perception the different instrumental sources disappear to the benefit of a totally invented synthetic tone. These different fusions allow to articulate and organize a whole range going from the overtone series to a white noise, while passing through different spectrums of inharmonious partials.
— Program note provided by publisher; translation from French by Diane Lindsey
Cassandra Miller, Perfect Offering
I wrote the first drafts of music for this piece during a long period of convalescence, at a time when I felt pretty useless (ok, deeply useless). I discovered that even when I didn’t have the will to do much at all, I could lie in bed and push notes around (laptop sitting on my chest as we all do), in sweaty pyjamas. It was all a bit gross. This time overlapped with the early days of lockdown, depressing and very confusing.
At that time, I had the quote in my head "ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering" (Leonard Cohen), and the piece began to be about bells somehow—how they swing, and how they mark passing time. The piece is not at all about Leonard Cohen, but with this mantra-like quote in mind, the process of composing became a meditation on the imperfect perfection of this tiring body and all the uselessness of plans.
After making a few drafts with my own ideas of what swinging bells might sound like (and the patterns they might make together), I realised I needed instead to understand more about bells in reality. I then worked with closely with a recording of a peal of bells from a convent in France, from which the composition now derives all of its material. In particular, there was magic to be found in slowing the recording down, hearing and singing along to hidden melodies that emerged as bell-resonances combined like interleaving lines in Renaissance polyphony.
This piece exists thanks to the theatre De Link, who commissioned this piece and in challenging times organised the live premiere by the Ives Ensemble (October 2020). Heartfelt thanks the Explore Ensemble for giving first light to a revised version here in March 2021.
—Cassandra Miller
Alan Pierson
See Full BioAlan Pierson
CloseDMA, EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Alan Pierson has been praised as “a dynamic conductor and musical visionary” by the New York Times, “a young conductor of monstrous skill” by Newsday, “gifted and electrifying” by the Boston Globe, and “one of the most exciting figures in new music today” by Fanfare. He is the artistic director and conductor of acclaimed ensemble Alarm Will Sound, which has been called “the future of classical music” by the New York Times and “a sensational force” with “powerful ideas about how to renovate the concert experience” by The New Yorker. Pierson served as the artistic director and conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The New York Times called Pierson’s leadership at the Philharmonic “truly inspiring,” and The New Yorker‘s Alex Ross described it as “remarkably innovative, perhaps even revolutionary.”
Pierson has also appeared as a guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Steve Reich Ensemble, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble ACJW, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the Silk Road Project, among other ensembles. He is principal conductor of the Dublin-based Crash Ensemble and has been a visiting faculty conductor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Eastman School of Music. He regularly collaborates with major composers and performers, including Yo-Yo Ma, Steve Reich, Dawn Upshaw, Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Augusta Read Thomas, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Donnacha Dennehy, La Monte Young, and choreographers Christopher Wheeldon, Akram Khan, and Elliot Feld.
Ben Bolter
See Full BioBen Bolter
CloseMM, INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Ben Bolter made his orchestral conducting debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at age 25, with the Washington Post praising his performance: “Bolter spotlighted the showiest aspects...and made it look easy.” As part of Chicago’s acclaimed Ear Taxi Festival, his world premiere of Drew Baker’s NOX was named Chicago’s Best Classical Music Performance of 2016 by the Third Coast Review. John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune remarked: “[Drew Baker’s] NOX made an altogether striking close to an absorbing, eclectic program, quite the best of the Ear Taxi events...”
Bolter is a regular conductor and collaborator with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). He has also worked with contemporary groups and soloists including Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Third Coast Percussion, Spektral Quartet, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Square Peg Round Hole, Claire Chase, Vijay Iyer, Kater Soper, and Tony Arnold. In fall 2018, he led the Grossman Ensemble in their inaugural performance as part of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition at University of Chicago and gave world premieres by composers Shulamit Ran, Sam Pluta, Tonia Ko, and David Rakowski. He has also given premieres by acclaimed composers Marcos Balter, Anthony Cheung, Drew Baker, Matthew Peterson, and Clint Needham, among others, and has worked closely with composers such as Steve Reich, John Luther Adams, David Lang, Nathalie Joachim, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ashley Fure, Hans Thomalla, and Andrew Norman. Bolter holds a bachelor of music degree in oboe performance from the New England Conservatory. He received a master of music degree in orchestral conducting from Indiana University, where he also served as adjunct faculty for four years. Bolter has also been recognized for his work with youth orchestras. For six years, he served as music director of the Conservatory Orchestras at the Merit School of Music, where his Philharmonic Orchestra was regularly featured live on WFMT and in Chicago Symphony Center. He is also the former artistic director of The People’s Music School Youth Orchestras and former music director of the New England Conservatory Youth Festival Orchestra. Additionally, he has worked with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual Chicago Youth in Music Festival, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, Oakland Youth Orchestras, and the 2014 MMEA Senior District Orchestra Festival in Boston. In addition to his work as a conductor, he is an active singer/songwriter and keyboardist. Performing under the stage name Boltah, he has appeared in venues across Chicago, Indiana, Boston and more. Additionally, he released his first full length album, Time Flies, in September 2019, and it is available on all streaming platforms.
Jason Gluck
See Full BioJason Gluck
CloseJason Gluck is a conductor/clarinetist from South Florida, currently working towards his Master’s degree in orchestral conducting at Northwestern, studying under Donald Schleicher. He received his Bachelor’s degree in music performance from the Eastman school of music, studying under clarinetist Michael Wayne (Boston symphony, Kansas City symphony). While there, Jason worked with Emmy-winning composer and conductor Mark Watters and Brad Lubman, founder of Ensemble Signal and the Eastman Musica Nova ensemble. Gluck is currently assistant conductor for the Northwestern Symphony Orchestra, Northwestern University Opera Theater, and Contemporary Music Ensemble.
As clarinetist, Gluck has worked with principals of the New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Cleveland orchestra, Boston Symphony, and more. Gluck has sat principal in orchestras such as the Chautauqua summer festival Opera and orchestra, Eastman Philharmonia, Eastman wind ensemble, and the New world symphony’s side by side programs. He is also an active Klezmer soloist in both chamber and community settings.
Cassandra Miller
See Full BioCassandra Miller
CloseDr. Cassandra Miller is a Canadian composer of vocal, chamber and orchestral music, living in London, UK. Her works are published by Faber Music.
Miller’s notated compositions (About Bach, Duet for Cello and Orchestra, Philip the Wanderer, etc.) explore transcription as a creative process, through which the expressive vocal qualities of pre-existing music are both magnified and transfigured. Her non-notated compositions (So Close, Tracery) take the form of extended collaborations with solo musicians. Using an approach that combines automatic singing and mimicry, Miller creates vulnerable and hospitable spaces for deep listening.
Cassandra received of one of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s 2021 Awards for Artists, and twice received the the Jules-Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, Canada’s highest recognition for composition—for Bel Canto in 2011 and About Bach in 2016. Two recent releases by the Another Timbre label have received wide acclaim, including a four-star review in the Guardian and inclusion on New Yorker’s Ten Notable Recordings of 2018. In 2019, About Bach received a nomination for the Classical Composition of the Year Juno Award. The Duet for Cello and Orchestra written for Charles Curtis and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra was hailed as one of the ‘best classical music works of the 21st century’ (The Guardian, 2019).
Her works are often written with specific performers in mind, involving their intimate participation in the creative process. Her closest collaborators in this fashion have included soprano Juliet Fraser, the Quatuor Bozzini, conductor Ilan Volkov, cellist Charles Curtis, pianist Philip Thomas, violinist Silvia Tarozzi, violinist Mira Benjamin, and violist Lawrence Power. Pieces written expressly for them have been toured and performed across the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Norway, Uruguay, the United States and Canada.
Notable performers include the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, I Musici de Montréal, Ensemble Plus-Minus, the late great Ensemble Kore, Apartment House, Continuum Contemporary Music, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Festivals and venues featuring her music have included Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Tectonics Glasgow, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, l’Auditori (Barcelona), Angelica Festival (Bologna), Archipel (Geneva), Only Connect Oslo, Ostrava Days, World Music Days (Ljubljana), Music we’d like to hear (London), Kammer Klang (Café OTO, London), Transit (Leuven), Music on Main (Vancouver), and Núcleo Música Nueva de Montevideo, among many others.
Teaching takes a central role in her artistic life. As Associate Head of Composition from 2018 to 2020, she led the undergraduate composition program at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Her teaching philosophy prioritises inclusivity and diversity, and questions notions of canonisation. Previously, she taught composition modules at the University of Huddersfield (2014-16) and the University of Victoria (2008-09).
Miller has been invited as a visiting teacher and to give lectures about her work in the USA at Stanford University, Columbia University, and CalArts; in the UK at the Royal Academy of Music, Bath Spa University Centre for Musical Research, Birmingham Conservatoire, Centre for Research in New Music in Huddersfield, and Brunel University; in Canada at McGill University, the University of Manitoba, the Montreal Contemporary Music Lab, Winnipeg’s Cluster New Music and Integrated Arts Festival, and the Open Space Gallery of Victoria. In Europe she has taught at the Orkest de Ereprijs Young Composers Meeting (NL), and the Mixtur Workshop of Composition and Sound Experimentation.
Her doctoral research at the University of Huddersfield (supervisor Dr Bryn Harrison, 2018) explored transcription and other transformation methods as compositional processes, and compositional engagements with varied notions of voice and vocality. In 2012, she studied privately with Michael Finnissy, whose impact continues to have a deep effect on her work. She holds a Master of Music from the Royal Conservatory of the Hague (2008, Richard Ayres, Yannis Kyriakides), where she explored narratology and narrative as tools for musical analysis. She holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria (2005), where she studied with Christopher Butterfield, whose radical pedagogical inclusivity and Dada-inspired artistic insight remain crucial foundations for her work to date.
From 2010 to 2013, she held the post of Artistic and General Director of Innovations en concert, a not-for-profit presenter of experimental chamber music concerts and festivals in Montreal. Under her directorship, the organisation championed unusual programming, commissioned major new works, and became known for its support of young freelancers, building international connections for many Quebec artists.
Alan Pierson
CloseDMA, EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Alan Pierson has been praised as “a dynamic conductor and musical visionary” by the New York Times, “a young conductor of monstrous skill” by Newsday, “gifted and electrifying” by the Boston Globe, and “one of the most exciting figures in new music today” by Fanfare. He is the artistic director and conductor of acclaimed ensemble Alarm Will Sound, which has been called “the future of classical music” by the New York Times and “a sensational force” with “powerful ideas about how to renovate the concert experience” by The New Yorker. Pierson served as the artistic director and conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The New York Times called Pierson’s leadership at the Philharmonic “truly inspiring,” and The New Yorker‘s Alex Ross described it as “remarkably innovative, perhaps even revolutionary.”
Pierson has also appeared as a guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Steve Reich Ensemble, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble ACJW, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the Silk Road Project, among other ensembles. He is principal conductor of the Dublin-based Crash Ensemble and has been a visiting faculty conductor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Eastman School of Music. He regularly collaborates with major composers and performers, including Yo-Yo Ma, Steve Reich, Dawn Upshaw, Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Augusta Read Thomas, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Donnacha Dennehy, La Monte Young, and choreographers Christopher Wheeldon, Akram Khan, and Elliot Feld.
Ben Bolter
CloseMM, INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Ben Bolter made his orchestral conducting debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at age 25, with the Washington Post praising his performance: “Bolter spotlighted the showiest aspects...and made it look easy.” As part of Chicago’s acclaimed Ear Taxi Festival, his world premiere of Drew Baker’s NOX was named Chicago’s Best Classical Music Performance of 2016 by the Third Coast Review. John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune remarked: “[Drew Baker’s] NOX made an altogether striking close to an absorbing, eclectic program, quite the best of the Ear Taxi events...”
Bolter is a regular conductor and collaborator with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). He has also worked with contemporary groups and soloists including Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Third Coast Percussion, Spektral Quartet, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Square Peg Round Hole, Claire Chase, Vijay Iyer, Kater Soper, and Tony Arnold. In fall 2018, he led the Grossman Ensemble in their inaugural performance as part of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition at University of Chicago and gave world premieres by composers Shulamit Ran, Sam Pluta, Tonia Ko, and David Rakowski. He has also given premieres by acclaimed composers Marcos Balter, Anthony Cheung, Drew Baker, Matthew Peterson, and Clint Needham, among others, and has worked closely with composers such as Steve Reich, John Luther Adams, David Lang, Nathalie Joachim, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ashley Fure, Hans Thomalla, and Andrew Norman. Bolter holds a bachelor of music degree in oboe performance from the New England Conservatory. He received a master of music degree in orchestral conducting from Indiana University, where he also served as adjunct faculty for four years. Bolter has also been recognized for his work with youth orchestras. For six years, he served as music director of the Conservatory Orchestras at the Merit School of Music, where his Philharmonic Orchestra was regularly featured live on WFMT and in Chicago Symphony Center. He is also the former artistic director of The People’s Music School Youth Orchestras and former music director of the New England Conservatory Youth Festival Orchestra. Additionally, he has worked with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual Chicago Youth in Music Festival, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, Oakland Youth Orchestras, and the 2014 MMEA Senior District Orchestra Festival in Boston. In addition to his work as a conductor, he is an active singer/songwriter and keyboardist. Performing under the stage name Boltah, he has appeared in venues across Chicago, Indiana, Boston and more. Additionally, he released his first full length album, Time Flies, in September 2019, and it is available on all streaming platforms.
Jason Gluck
CloseJason Gluck is a conductor/clarinetist from South Florida, currently working towards his Master’s degree in orchestral conducting at Northwestern, studying under Donald Schleicher. He received his Bachelor’s degree in music performance from the Eastman school of music, studying under clarinetist Michael Wayne (Boston symphony, Kansas City symphony). While there, Jason worked with Emmy-winning composer and conductor Mark Watters and Brad Lubman, founder of Ensemble Signal and the Eastman Musica Nova ensemble. Gluck is currently assistant conductor for the Northwestern Symphony Orchestra, Northwestern University Opera Theater, and Contemporary Music Ensemble.
As clarinetist, Gluck has worked with principals of the New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Cleveland orchestra, Boston Symphony, and more. Gluck has sat principal in orchestras such as the Chautauqua summer festival Opera and orchestra, Eastman Philharmonia, Eastman wind ensemble, and the New world symphony’s side by side programs. He is also an active Klezmer soloist in both chamber and community settings.
Cassandra Miller
CloseDr. Cassandra Miller is a Canadian composer of vocal, chamber and orchestral music, living in London, UK. Her works are published by Faber Music.
Miller’s notated compositions (About Bach, Duet for Cello and Orchestra, Philip the Wanderer, etc.) explore transcription as a creative process, through which the expressive vocal qualities of pre-existing music are both magnified and transfigured. Her non-notated compositions (So Close, Tracery) take the form of extended collaborations with solo musicians. Using an approach that combines automatic singing and mimicry, Miller creates vulnerable and hospitable spaces for deep listening.
Cassandra received of one of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s 2021 Awards for Artists, and twice received the the Jules-Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, Canada’s highest recognition for composition—for Bel Canto in 2011 and About Bach in 2016. Two recent releases by the Another Timbre label have received wide acclaim, including a four-star review in the Guardian and inclusion on New Yorker’s Ten Notable Recordings of 2018. In 2019, About Bach received a nomination for the Classical Composition of the Year Juno Award. The Duet for Cello and Orchestra written for Charles Curtis and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra was hailed as one of the ‘best classical music works of the 21st century’ (The Guardian, 2019).
Her works are often written with specific performers in mind, involving their intimate participation in the creative process. Her closest collaborators in this fashion have included soprano Juliet Fraser, the Quatuor Bozzini, conductor Ilan Volkov, cellist Charles Curtis, pianist Philip Thomas, violinist Silvia Tarozzi, violinist Mira Benjamin, and violist Lawrence Power. Pieces written expressly for them have been toured and performed across the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Norway, Uruguay, the United States and Canada.
Notable performers include the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, I Musici de Montréal, Ensemble Plus-Minus, the late great Ensemble Kore, Apartment House, Continuum Contemporary Music, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Festivals and venues featuring her music have included Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Tectonics Glasgow, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, l’Auditori (Barcelona), Angelica Festival (Bologna), Archipel (Geneva), Only Connect Oslo, Ostrava Days, World Music Days (Ljubljana), Music we’d like to hear (London), Kammer Klang (Café OTO, London), Transit (Leuven), Music on Main (Vancouver), and Núcleo Música Nueva de Montevideo, among many others.
Teaching takes a central role in her artistic life. As Associate Head of Composition from 2018 to 2020, she led the undergraduate composition program at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Her teaching philosophy prioritises inclusivity and diversity, and questions notions of canonisation. Previously, she taught composition modules at the University of Huddersfield (2014-16) and the University of Victoria (2008-09).
Miller has been invited as a visiting teacher and to give lectures about her work in the USA at Stanford University, Columbia University, and CalArts; in the UK at the Royal Academy of Music, Bath Spa University Centre for Musical Research, Birmingham Conservatoire, Centre for Research in New Music in Huddersfield, and Brunel University; in Canada at McGill University, the University of Manitoba, the Montreal Contemporary Music Lab, Winnipeg’s Cluster New Music and Integrated Arts Festival, and the Open Space Gallery of Victoria. In Europe she has taught at the Orkest de Ereprijs Young Composers Meeting (NL), and the Mixtur Workshop of Composition and Sound Experimentation.
Her doctoral research at the University of Huddersfield (supervisor Dr Bryn Harrison, 2018) explored transcription and other transformation methods as compositional processes, and compositional engagements with varied notions of voice and vocality. In 2012, she studied privately with Michael Finnissy, whose impact continues to have a deep effect on her work. She holds a Master of Music from the Royal Conservatory of the Hague (2008, Richard Ayres, Yannis Kyriakides), where she explored narratology and narrative as tools for musical analysis. She holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria (2005), where she studied with Christopher Butterfield, whose radical pedagogical inclusivity and Dada-inspired artistic insight remain crucial foundations for her work to date.
From 2010 to 2013, she held the post of Artistic and General Director of Innovations en concert, a not-for-profit presenter of experimental chamber music concerts and festivals in Montreal. Under her directorship, the organisation championed unusual programming, commissioned major new works, and became known for its support of young freelancers, building international connections for many Quebec artists.