Bienen School of Music warms up winter with a range of new music
Line-up includes special guests and world premieres by the Institute for New Music
- Link to: Northwestern Now Story
- Guest artist Aiyun Huang performs music for percussion and live electronics
- Alumnus Stephen Andrew Taylor (’87) visits as guest composer
- February 2 concert features regional premiere from composer and Bienen School Dean Jonathan Bailey Holland
EVANSTON, Ill. --- This winter, the Institute for New Music at the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music presents a full slate of events featuring works by contemporary artists, including special guest performances and world premieres.
The institute is helmed by director Alex Mincek and associate director Ben Bolter and serves as the central hub for all contemporary music activities at the Bienen School.
“It’s wonderful to collaborate with such a talented and creative group of faculty,” said Mincek, who is in his first year as director and looks forward to his continued work with the institute.
This quarter, the institute welcomes two guest artists: multi-hyphenate musician Aiyun Huang, who presents a program for percussion and live electronics, and Bienen School alumnus Stephen Andrew Taylor (’87), who joins the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble as a guest composer for a world premiere of one of his works.
“Taylor’s piece is tentatively titled ‘Only yes,” said ensemble conductor Andrew Megill. “It is an a cappella choral setting of a text by the poet Ranier Maria Rilke.”
The concert on Feb. 2 also includes the regional premiere of “The Mystery” by Bienen School Dean Jonathan Bailey Holland. “Designed to be a companion piece to J. S. Bach’s Cantata 4, ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden,’ it draws on the text and melody of ‘Victimae paschali laudes,’ a traditional Gregorian chant,” Megill said.
The Contemporary Music Ensemble debuts additional new works under the direction of Bolter, with the world premieres of “Asphyxiation” by Jonah Keoun and pieces by Apsara Balamurugan and Oliver Mann, all Bienen student composers. The Saxophone Ensemble, led by Taimur Sullivan, also premieres a work by student saxophonist and composer Isaac Boone.
Tickets may be purchased online, by phone at 847-467-4000 or by visiting the Bienen School Ticket Office at 50 Arts Circle Drive on the Evanston campus.
Program details follow:
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble: Bach and the Dance of God
7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2
Galvin Recital Hall, 70 Arts Circle Drive
Tickets are $8 or $5 for full-time students with valid ID
The Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble and a guest ensemble of period instruments collaborate in two cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, “Christ lag in Todesbanden” (BWV 4) and “Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht” (BWV 105). Other works on the program include selections from Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” and a companion work to Cantata 4 by Bienen School of Music Dean Jonathan Bailey Holland.
7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9
Galvin Recital Hall, 70 Arts Circle Drive
Tickets are $8 or $5 for full-time students with valid ID
The ensemble’s first concert of the winter quarter features the Chicago premiere of Nina Shekhar’s “Turn Your Feet Around.” In the composer’s words, the work “brings the nightclub to the concert hall. Using deconstructed and warped fragments of the ever-fabulous Gloria Estefan’s ‘Get On Your Feet’ (1989), musicians have a chance to reconnect with their own physicality by dancing to wild reimagined grooves and ‘80s-style drum-beats.” Wang Lu’s “Cross-Around,” commissioned by the Montreal-based group Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, explores the intersections of the many types of events in the universe and the ways in which they play off each other. Also on the program are two world premieres by Bienen student composers Apsara Balamurugan and Oliver Mann.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28
Galvin Recital Hall, 70 Arts Circle Drive
Tickets are $6 or $4 for full-time students with valid ID
The Northwestern University Saxophone Ensemble presents a wide-ranging concert showcasing the expressive capabilities of the saxophone. Included will be works by ground-breaking 20th-century composers Julius Eastman and Terry Riley, a world premiere by saxophonist and student composer Isaac Boone and a new arrangement by Joanne Metcalf.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 6
Regenstein Master Class Room, 60 Arts Circle Drive
Free admission
First Prize and Audience Award winner at the 2002 Geneva International Music Competition, Aiyun Huang enjoys a career as a soloist, chamber musician, researcher, teacher and producer. Her recent performance highlights include engagements with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, St. Lawrence String Quartet and Aventa Ensemble. She has collaborated on new works with composers Roland Auzet, David Bithell, Vivian Fung and Nicole Lizée. An expert in percussion theater, her work on the subject has been published in the “Cambridge Companion to Percussion” and the video project “Save Percussion Theater.” She currently serves on the faculty of the University of Toronto. Her program features music for percussion and live electronics.
7:30 p.m. Friday, March 8
Galvin Recital Hall, 70 Arts Circle Drive
Tickets are $8 or $5 for full-time students with valid ID
The ensemble’s second winter-quarter performance features Israeli composer Yotam Haber’s “Estro-poetico Armonico III” for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, inspired by recordings from the 1950s and ‘60s of liturgical traditions, stemming back centuries, from Jewish communities in Italy. The composer pairs portions of these recordings with poetry addressing the realities of modern life in Israel, while simultaneously grappling with its history. Also on the program is Stacy Garrop’s “Frammenti” — in the composer’s words, “a set of five miniatures in which each movement is based on one or more musical fragments”—and the world premiere of Bienen student composer Jonah Keoun’s “Asphyxiation.”
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble: Terrifying Angel—Choral Explorations of Rilke
7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 9
Galvin Recital Hall, 70 Arts Circle Drive
Tickets are $8 or $5 for full-time students with valid ID
The Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble presents an evening of choral settings of poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke, whose beautiful and powerful words explore the human experience of transcendence. Paul Hindemith’s “Six chansons’ elegantly set the poet’s miniature French poems, which vividly depict fleeting moments of truth via their descriptions of the natural world. “Die erste Elegie” by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara transforms one of Rilke’s most complex poems (and one of the poet’s own favorites) into a dramatic work for virtuoso choir. Also on the program is a commission from guest composer and Bienen school alumnus Stephen Andrew Taylor (’87), and the American premiere of Rilke settings by Canadian composer Ramona Luengen.
Artist Bios
Multi-hyphenate artist Aiyun Huang enjoys a musical life as soloist, chamber musician, researcher, teacher and producer. She was the First Prize and Audience Award winner at the Geneva International Music Competition in 2002. Her recent performance highlights include engagements with L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, St. Lawrence String Quartet and Aventa Ensemble, and collaborations for new works most recently include Roland Auzet, David Bithell, Vivian Fung and Nicole Lizée. Huang currently serves as associate professor and head of the percussion program at the University of Toronto. She is committed to creating a vibrant new music community for the next generation and is the artistic director for soundSCAPE, an annual festival for contemporary music and performance exchange in Italy.
Stephen Andrew Taylor composes music that explores boundaries between art and science. His first orchestra commission, “Unapproachable Light,” inspired by images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the New Testament, was premiered by the American Composers Orchestra in 1996 at Carnegie Hall. Taylor also works with live electronics in pieces such as “Inspiral” for contraforte and 4-channel surround sound, premiered by Henry Skolnick in South Korea in 2019; and “Ocean of Air” (2017) for Detroit Symphony principal trombonist and Bienen school alumnus Kenneth Thompkins (’89). He conducts the Illinois Modern Ensemble and has also appeared as conductor with Sinfonia da Camera, the Nouveau Classical Project and the Arizona Chamber Music Festival. His music has won awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau and many more. Among his commissions are works for Northwestern University, the Jupiter Quartet and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Taylor is Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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