Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

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Title: S.E.M. Ensemble: Upcoming Feb Workshop & Concert

S.E.M. Ensemble, Inc. 2015 Workshop Press Release

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The S.E.M. Ensemble presents:

February 2016 WORKSHOP & PERFORMANCE

NEW WORKS BY EMERGING COMPOSERS

The S.E.M. Ensemble
Petr Kotik, Conductor

Workshop:
Monday, February 8 1:00PM – 5:00PM
Tuesday, February 9 4:00PM – 7:00PM

Performance:
Tuesday, February 9 @ 7:30PM

Location:
Willow Place Auditorium
26 Willow Place, Brooklyn Heights
Free Admission (contributions are appreciated)

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The S.E.M. Ensemble’s Reading of New Compositions was initiated in 1997 and has continued, every season, to the present. During the two-day workshop each composer is provided with time and space to work directly with the conductor and musicians. The workshop culminates in a reading-performance, open to the public. This year’s reading includes works by an international group of composers who reside in the Northeast, the Midwest, and the United Kingdom: Tai-Kuang Chao, Chang Seok Choi, Anthony Donofrio, David Louis Zuckerman, and James Falzone.
 
David Louis Zuckerman       Per Diem

Tai-Kuang Chao                   a story about an auction/the corners of the world

James Falzone                    Helical Cannon
Anthony Donofrio                Piano Trio
Chang Seok Choi               Animus

David Louis Zuckerman (b. 1978, New Haven, CT) is a composer and artist working in experimental opera, theater and film. He is a company member of New York City Players and an alumnus of the Skowhegan Residency and the Labyrinth Theater Ensemble. His multi-media opera projects have shown at Untitled Miami, David Lewis Gallery, JOAN Los Angeles, Disjecta, Anthology Film Archives, Thomas Duncan Gallery, Kunstverein Cologne. He studied composition at Berklee College of Music and holds a BFA from The School of Visual Arts and an MFA from Bard College. Zuckerman has contributed articles to Film Comment and Bomb magazines and is a 2015 Rema Hort Mann Grant Nominee. His work has been covered in Art in America, LA Weekly, Artforum, Cahiers du Cinema, Purple Magazine, Hyperallergic, and The New Yorker.
 
Per Diem (For Jeffrey Reinhardt)

To play your instrument is a joy. Even in the face of musical complexity, to play is not complex. To feed, clothe and house yourself by your playing is complex. Per Diem is structured around a series of valleys and plateaus. From a technical standpoint it is easy to move between the one and the other, but if interpreted right, the path should feel like a matter of life and death.


Tai-Kuang Chao (b. 1984, Changhua, Taiwan) is a composer living in New York City. He is currently pursuing his PhD in composition and theory from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His principal teachers include Erin Gee, Reynold Tharp, Erik Lund, Kyong Mee Choi, Ching-Wen Chao, Christopher Roberts, and Wan-Jen Huang. Mr. Chao composes with an idea of being storyteller and sonic painter. He employs notes fused with acoustic timbres to create an image within the realm of fantasy. Chao often composes for dance, with lighting and costume design, creating an integrated sonic/visual performance.
 

a story about an auction/ the corners of the world: a refrigerator that makes people want to stock romance
- Preface -
auction off a corner of the world
- Interlude -
i know… i owe you a word, goodbye
- Coda -
a void corner of someone’s death is filled by another’s death


James P. Falzone (b. 1986, Worcester, MA) is a composer and musician living in Providence, Rhode Island.  He is an Artist-Fellow of the RISD Museum for the 2016 year.  He was a student-resident at the Ostrava Days Festival in the Czech Republic this past summer. Falzone studied organ under Carlton Russell of Wheaton College in Massachusetts.  He is essentially self-taught as a composer. In recent years, Falzone has directed his attention to the promotion of his work and of other composers through the formation of The Providence Research Ensemble.  He is currently in the process of preparing a recording of his ensemble pieces.

Helical Canon embodies a conceptual approach to musical line.  A sort of expanding cantus firmus extends gradually from a central pitch, as if spiraling out from a point of origin.  This piece is a canon at eight voices, at unisons and octaves.  Mensural variations are employed, as well as retrograde motion.


Anthony Donofrio (b. 1981, Cleveland, OH) teaches composition, theory, and new music at the University of Nebraska - Kearney. He is very interested in fusing techniques found in literature and painting with his own approach to composing music. His primary musical interests are evening-length works, the relationship between music and time, and the works of Stuart Saunders Smith and Morton Feldman. His music has been featured at festivals and conferences such as Omaha Under the Radar, the Deep Listening Institute, and the Vox Novus Festival, among others.

Piano Trio was initially written in the winter of 2012/13. In order to pursue his original intention of sparsity, Donofrio returned to the piece in 2015, stripping away almost 3 minutes of music. The result is a fragile conversation between the two string instruments and the piano. 


Chang Seok Choi (b. 1969, Jangsu, South Korea) is a composer and conductor, currently pursuing a PhD in Composition at the University of York, UK. His music, often associated with traditional Korean musical elements, expresses an unfailing hope and light through ever-changing fragments that yield vivid, colorful sounds and timbres. The inspiration for his music often comes from nature and poetry. His recent commissioned work, Hwangmuji (The Waste Land), will be premiered at the Poznan Spring Festival 2016 (Poland). He studied Orchestral Conducting with Maestro Maurice Peress, and Composition with Bruce Saylor, Jun-Pok Lee, Seongho Ji, and Sungjin Kim.
 
Animus for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano (2015) is a musical realization of finite characteristics of existence, molded and sculptured as sounds and timbres. Animus sings of an unfailing hope for a new sound world despite the present sufferings and troubles.

S.E.M. Ensemble’s 2015/16 Season has been made possible with the generous support of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Phaedrus Foundation; Virginia Dwa; Low Road Foundation; Rackstraw Downes; and Noni Pratt.

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Contact information:
Jon Myers, Coordinator

(718) 588-7659

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