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PROGRAMS
A Shimmering Land
Discontinuity Around a Pond
Gush Katif and a Japanese Flute
Just Noticeable Difference
Quiet Strings
Subway Music
Toggle Music
A Shimmering Land
Jenny Johnson explores Cittagazze, a haunted world with no adults
Jenny Olivia Johnson is working on a PhD in composition and theory at New York University. In this profile, she talks about her piece for string quartet, Cittagazze. Cittagazze is a fictional world parallel to ours in Philip Pullman's trilogy 'His Dark Materials'. It's a sleepy sea town haunted by spectres, whose presence has chased away the entire population of adults, leaving ragtag gangs of children behind to fend for themsleves.
Music performed by: Maria Mykolenko and Mioi Takeda, violins; Lev Zhurbin, viola; Veronica Parrales, cello.
Discontinuity Around a Pond
Maria Mykolenko describes an ice skater going around a pond
Maria Mykolenko is a composer and violinist in New York City. She describes two movements of her String Quartet #1 which explores discontinuity, both in space and time.
Music performed by Mioi Takeda and Naho Tsutsui, violins; Lev Zhurbin, viola; Veronica Parrales, cello.
Gush Katif and a Japanese Flute
Ronen Landa uses a Japanese flute to convey the frustration of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict
Ronen Landa is a composer in New York City, whose family is from Israel. In this piece, he tries to convey his frustration with the conflict there. He writes, "The civil war's featured street fights are flaring inside our guts, and the best we can hope for now is a stalemate..."
Music performed by Aaron Schragge, shakuhachi and electronics; Veronica Parrales, cello.
Just Noticeable Difference
Jessica Feldman stretches the limits of performers' bodies, and of human hearing
Jessica Feldman is a composer/sound artist in New York City. JND is Just Noticeable Difference. It's a psychoacoustic term that she plays with in this piece, by pushing the limits of her performers, who are asked to perform certain techniques as slowly and gradually as is physically possible. They play louder, or faster, when they hear themselves or another cross certain thresholds with their sound.
Music performed by Mioi Takeda and Maria Mykolenko, violins; Lev Zhurbin, viola; Ella Toovy, cello.
Quiet Strings
Nomi Epstein enjoys quiet music
Nomi Epstein is a composer, concert organizer, and music educator. She is getting a PhD at Northwestern University and is an adjunct faculty member there and at the University of Illinois. In Violin and Piano, Nomi focuses on pitch and timbre, the qualities of a sound that distinguishes it from other sounds of the same pitch and volume.
Music performed by Naho Tsutsui, violin; Maya Hartman, piano.
Subway Music
Nissim Schaul is inspired by the New York City subway
Nissim Schaul is a composer in New York City who is writing a series of pieces about the New York City subway. In this piece, he talks about the Times Square movement, in which he attempts to convey the contradiction between the masses of humanity around you in a busy subway station, and the fact that there is no one to talk to or connect with meaningfully.
Music performed by Naho Tsutsui and Mioi Takeda, violins; Lev Zhurbin, viola; Ella Toovy, cello.
Toggle Music
Elizabeth Adams talks about transitions in Toggle Music
Elizabeth Adams is a composer, writer and actor. In this piece she talks about Toggle Music, which toggles back and forth between two different textures. The focus of her piece, therefore, is not the textures, but the transitions between them.
Music performed by Naho Tsutsui, violin; Ella Toovy, cello; Maya Hartman, piano.
