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NoExit N
ew
Music E
nse
mble
from left to right; Jam
es Praznik, James Rhodes, Luke Rinderknecht, Eric G
onzalez, Timothy Beyer,
Nicholas U
nderhill, Sean Gabriel, N
ick Diodore and Cara Tweed.
12
Since it’s inception, the idea behind NoExit has been to serve as an outlet for the com
mission
and performance of contem
porary avant-garde concert music. N
ow in our eighth season and
with well over sixty comm
issions to date, NoExit is going strong in our efforts to prom
ote the m
usic of living composers and to be an im
petus for the creation of new w
orks. We have strived
to create exciting, meaningful and thought-provoking program
s; always w
ith the philosophy of bringing the concert hall to the com
munity (not the other w
ay around) and by presenting our program
s in a manner w
hich allows for our audience to really connect w
ith the experience......... free and open to the public in every sense.
For NoExit’s 2016-2017 concert season w
e’ve expanded our programm
ing to include more
than twice the num
ber of concerts than in previous years! We w
ill continue to participate in the N
eoSonicFest and produce our successful series of exchange concerts with the St.Paul,
Minnesota based new
music ensem
ble Zeitgeist, who w
e will be perform
ing with in C
leveland this January. And of course, unveiled before your very eyes, m
ore newly com
missioned pieces
will see their w
orld premiere this season than you can shake a stick at.
NoExit is grateful to have such an enthusiastic and engaged audience. W
e have so many
extraordinary things in store for you, so keep listening!
Thank you for your support.
Program
Friday, January 12 at Wolfs G
allery
Duo No. 2 - Bohuslav M
artinů G
od Bless the Child - Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr.Tzim
tzum “W
orld Premiere” - Joshua M
usikantow
Intermission
Suburb - Colin HolterThe grace of presence - Jennifer Higdon
Varied Trio - Lou Harrison
Saturday, January 13 at Heights Arts and Sunday, January 14 at SPACES
No Exit for Zeitgeist “W
orld Premiere” - Nicholas Underhill
Spiral XIV “NIm
itta” - Chinary Ung
Intermission
Tzimtzum
“World Prem
iere” - Joshua Musikantow
Found Again, Secure in Migration - Eric M
. C. Gonzalez
Blurred - Bill Ryan
God Bless the Child - Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog Jr.
Duo N
o.2 - Bohuslav M
artinů
34
Corey Rubin (b.1983)Tzim
tzum - Joshua M
usikantow
Duo N
o.2 for Violin and Cello opens w
ith the fast paced, high energy of the Allegretto and m
oves to the evocative, haunting and at tim
es ethereal Adagio, and ends with the visceral, Bartok-tinged
Poco allegro. This piece epitomizes so m
uch of what is unique and
wonderful about M
artinu’s work.
The word ‘prolific’ is an understatem
ent when applied to M
artinů’s body of work. He wrote quickly - com
posing Duo N
o.2 in four days - and has an extensive catalogue of m
ore than 400 opus numbers
to show for it. Even being diagnosed w
ith stomach cancer in 1958 didn’t seem
to slow dow
n his output. M
artinů composed around thirty pieces in the year preceding his death. W
ritten in June - July of 1958, D
uo No.2 is am
ong his final works.
Widely considered to be the greatest C
zech composer of his tim
e, Bohuslav M
artinů (b.1890 - d.1959) w
as born in the small Bohem
ian-Moravian border tow
n of Policka. Because of his father’s position as the tow
n’s fire watchm
an and bell ringer, Martinů spent his early years living
with his fam
ily in cramped quarters situated at the top of a church bell tow
er. A popular anecdote states that as a result of his unusual childhood surroundings, a listener can hear a ‘bell sound’ in all of M
artinu’s pieces. You can still visit the room w
here he grew up w
hich has since been turned into a m
useum.
Despite periodic visits to the C
zech Republic, M
artinů spent most of his adult life as an
expatriate, calling both Paris and the United States hom
e for a time. This is no doubt largely due
to the Nazi occupation of the C
zech Republic follow
ed by the Soviet presence in his homeland.
I’ve always thought that part of M
artinu’s brilliance as a composer w
as his ability to write in
so many varied m
ediums and his rem
arkable aptitude to assimilate and adapt a w
ide range of genres and styles of m
usic into his own com
positions. Whether he incorporated Baroque
counterpoint, neo-classicism, C
zech folk melodies, im
pressionism, jazz or took a page from
D
ebussy’s, Stravinky’s or Bartok’s book, his works alw
ays clearly resonated in his own singular
voice. Who else w
ould compose a C
harleston to be performed w
ith kitchen utensils?
Classic songs have an ability to resonate in one way or another with every thoughtful listener. Billie H
oliday’s song God B
less the Child, created by her and Arthur Herzog Jr. following an
intense ght Holiday had w
ith her mother over m
oney, is a classic that inspired an impressive
list of composers and perform
ers to put their own creative spin on her w
ork. Eric Dolphy’s
interpretation, a bass clarinet solo from his 1963 album
“Here and There”, perfectly accentuates
the original’s representation of both the “sacred and profane” and adds a fragile intensity that m
agni es everything great about the 1939 original.
This version, transcribed by Roger Janotta, gives a 21 st century audience the unique ability to experience the em
otional impact of D
olphy’s creation in a live setting.
Tzimtzum
, Hebrew
for “contraction”, is a concept in the Lurianic Kabbalah that states that in order for G
od to create a space for lesser spiritual and physical planes to exist, G
od must contract,
or conceal his/herself. The expanding of creation is thus a divine w
ithdrawal. Each new
creation emerges from
the space created in G
od’s wake. H
owever, traces of the divine still rem
ain, surrounding everything.
Joshua Musikantow
(b.1981) is a twin-cities com
poser, author, and percussionist w
hose music has been perform
ed in concerts and festivals in England, France, Sw
eden, the Czech R
epublic, and across the United States. H
e has written com
missioned w
orks for N
oriko Kawaii, Zeitgeist, N
o Exit, Strains New
Music Ensem
ble, Duo G
elland, Without Fear
of Wind or Vertigo, The Spitting Im
age Collective, The G
regorian Singers, the Artemis Vocal
Ensemble, m
embers of the C
hicago symphony orchestra, Jam
es Dillon’s C
ontemporary M
usic W
orkshop, among m
any others. He has been a recipient of the M
cKnight Artist Fellowship,
the JFund award, the Zeitgeist call for scores, the FCA emergency grant, and is one of the
central figures and founding mem
bers of 113, a small, independent new
music organization that
champions underperform
ed, cutting edge music by living com
posers. He w
as a former editor of
the Tropos literary magazine, form
er editor-in-chief of the Wit literary m
agazine, and runner-up for the H
icks prize in poetry.
He earned his BM
in Music C
omposition and BA in English at Law
rence University, his M
A in M
usic Com
position at the University at Buffalo, and his PhD
in Music C
omposition at the
University of M
innesota. His dissertation advisor w
as the acclaimed Scottish N
ew C
omplexity
composer, Jam
es Dillon. H
e also studied with C
ort Lippe, Jeffrey Stadelman, Phillip Bodin,
Joanne Metcalf, Alex Lubet, Douglas G
eers, and Jason Hoogerhyde.
Cleveland-based and M
innesota ex-pat Colin Holter serves as the G
eneral Manager of the N
orthern Ohio Youth O
rchestra and the M
anaging Editor at 113 Com
posers Collective. Suburb is a
reflection on the complex, contradictory feeling of the com
poser’s return, after fifteen years in urban apartm
ents, to a tract house w
ith vinyl siding. The piece is dedicated to Patti Cudd and Stuart
Saunders Smith, tw
o inspirations.
65
Corey Rubin (b.1983)Varied Trio - Lou Harrison
Alternate tuning systems have been a hallm
ark of his musical language through out his
career. He has been especially involved in an em
erging tuning paradigm know
n as Regular
Temperam
ent Theory. Many of his w
orks also feature original text. Scores to his w
orks, Gespensterfelder, Lisp, and Autochrom
e Lumière are currently available at
113collective.com.
Varied Trio was w
ritten in 1987 for the Abel- Steinberg-Winant
Trio. The five movem
ents demonstrate a num
ber of compositional
concerns exhibited by Harrison throughout his career, including the synthesis of world m
usic traditions, use of Renaissance and Baroque m
usical forms and the use of new
ly invented or found instrum
ents.
Lou Harrison was one of the most inventive and individual of
American com
posers. His m
usic is noted for it’s pervasive integration of N
ative American and Asian m
usical in uences and its emphasis on m
elody and rhythm
, often avoiding harmony altogether. His fam
ily moved
from O
regon when he w
as nine, and continued to move frequently around the San Francisco
Bay area. The very diverse musical atm
osphere of San Francisco was the prim
ary formative
force in his life. He could hear C
antonese opera; Gregorian chant; Spanish, M
exican, and Native-
American m
usic; and jazz and classical music. The San Francisco Public Library, w
ith its strong m
usic department, enabled him
to take armloads of m
usic home to study. H
e studied jazz piano, G
regorian chant, and conducting while in high school. H
e took Henry C
owell’s course on «M
usic of the W
orld’s Peoples,» further studying counterpoint and composition w
ith Cow
ell.
He and John C
age both wrote percussion-dom
inated music and found new
percussion instrum
ents in automobile junkyards and im
port shops; one of their discoveries was the w
onderful pitched ringing sound produced by brake drum
s. Harrison eventually w
ent to the University of
Suburb - Colin Holter
The grace of presence - Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon is a major figure in contem
porary Classical m
usic, receiving the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in M
usic for her Violin Concerto and a 2010 G
ramm
y for her Percussion Concerto. H
igdon enjoys several hundred perform
ances a year of her works, and blue cathedral is one
of America’s m
ost performed contem
porary orchestral works, w
ith m
ore than 600 performances w
orldwide since its prem
iere in 2000. H
igdon’s most current project is an opera based on the best-selling
novel, Cold M
ountain by Charles Frazier. It w
as premiered by the Santa
Fe Opera in August of 2015 and w
ill travel to Opera Philadelphia, M
innesota Opera and N
orth C
arolina Opera. H
igdon holds the Rock C
hair in Com
position at The Curtis Institute of M
usic in Philadelphia. H
er music is published exclusively by Law
don Press. The grace of presence was w
ritten for percussionist Evelyn Glennie as part of her 50 for 50 com
missioning project.
California at Los Angeles to w
ork with its dance departm
ent. While there, he
was a com
position pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. Harrison had already developed a love of
Renaissance and earlier m
usic. He adopted the old dance form
“estampie,” a w
ord he translates as “stam
pede” for his own stam
ping, highly rhythmic fast m
ovements.
In 1943, he moved to N
ew York w
here he worked as a m
usician and writer. It w
as the unhappiest period of his life; he did not like the place, and found it dif cult to m
ake a living, although he did w
rite some 300 m
usic reviews for the H
erald Tribune from 1944 to 1947. H
e developed a stomach
ulcer and finally had a nervous breakdown. D
uring this period, he made the acquaintance of
Charles Ives and assisted the aged com
poser by editing and preparing for performances. Ives’
Third Symphony, w
hich Harrison conducted at its prem
iere. Ives assisted Harrison financially
when needed and, when the Third Symphony w
on the Pulitzer Prize in Music, Ives gave H
arrison half the m
oney.
The 1947 nervous breakdown resulted in H
arrison deciding to change his compositional style.
He began to im
itate the sounds of gamelan orchestra, w
hich he had rst heard at the 1939 Golden
Gate Exposition. H
e studied Harry Partch’s theoretical book G
enesis of a Music (a gift from
Virgil Thom
son) and was convinced to adopt various form
s of just-intonation rather than the standard 12-note scale. (H
e says he wishes m
usicians were num
erically trained, so that he could say, for instance, “C
ellos, you gave me a 10/9 there; please give m
e a 9/8 instead.”)
87
No Exit for Zeitgeist - Nicholas Underhill
No Exit for Zeitgeist w
as written in 2017 to celebrate the collaboration of the tw
o new m
usic ensem
bles, Zeitgeist and No Exit. If the title is a little threatening, just rem
ember that in N
o Exit w
e’ve had to live with that title for 10 years and nobody has gone really over the edge yet. The
combined ensem
ble has unusual redundancies, with 3 percussionists and 2 clarinets and 2
keyboards, as well as the m
ore usual single flute and strings. I wanted to highlight the particular
abilities of the talented players in the groups. There are indirect references to pieces by Saariaho and Andy R
indfleisch, in particular, as well as other solo pieces I have heard played in our
concerts.
The piece is based on a single scale, a hybrid of Mixolydian and H
armonic m
inor. At the beginning, the scale is used as a m
elodic idea, spread out over multiple octaves. As it progresses,
it becomes a chord. The first statem
ent of the chord is thoughtful, but becomes gradually m
ore rhythm
ic and insistent. In the middle section of the piece, there are solos in the cello, duos and
trios with the clarinets and flute, bow
ed cymbals and vibraphone, solos on viola, piano joined by
keyboard on celeste setting, and solo violin. Then the phalanx of percussionists starts to take over. It is joined by a reiteration of the original spread out scales and chords. At the very end there is sort of a ‘holiday leftover’ soup in w
hich the solos are all mixed together. It all ends in a
glorious crash.
See Personnel for Bio
Harrison subsequently resum
ed his high productivity, returned to the West coast in 1951 to
settle for life in Aptos, California and continued to w
rite music sounding prim
arily “Pan-Paci c” in style, often for unusual com
binations of instruments. He rst visited Asia in 1961 at a world
music sym
posium, afterw
ard, he became interested in establishing gam
elan orchestras in North
America, and devised an “Am
erican gamelan” m
ade by his partner William
Colvig from
readily obtainable m
aterials. He w
ent on to write hundreds of com
positions, and his works are often
recorded. Harrison developed a system
of musical organization based around m
elodic shapes he calls “m
elodicles” and analogous rhythmic patterns (“rhythm
icals”) and durations (“icti controls”). Lou H
arrison died in 2003 en route to an Ohio festival dedicated to perform
ances of his works. -
- Joseph Stevenson
ubin (b.1983)Spiral XIV “ Nlm
itta” - Chinary Ung
A Cam
bodian-American com
poser, Chinary Ung combines traditional
Cam
bodian and Western elem
ents in his works. It is a hallm
ark of C
hinary Ung’s m
usic to refer to Southeast Asian traditions insofar as the sound w
orld often contains similar figurative gestures (like
microtonal bends) and m
odal scales. Spiral XIV invokes ensemble
traditions such as the Khmer Pinpeat and Balinese G
amelan through
its use of mallet instrum
ents and bells in the two percussion parts.
In some w
ays, these are the surface aspects that align this music w
ith Ung’s native C
ambodia,
but the deep structure lies in the spiritual association of the voice. As musicians perform
their instrum
ents and vocalize they engage in two sim
ultaneous threads of inquiry associated with a
single character, each of equal weight and im
portance. The challenge of inhabiting these multiple
simultaneous dim
ensions is akin to a transcendental spiritual exercise. In Pali the word N
imitta
means a sign or im
age received through meditation. This im
age could be of the future or the past, or it m
ay be a manifestation of ultim
ate consciousness. Nim
itta is the result of a practice, or discipline, not unlike that w
hich is required to perform the m
usic.
ubin (b.1983)Found Again, Secure in M
igration - Eric M. C. G
onzalez
Found Again, Secure In M
igration consists of three short pieces about monum
ental life transitions. A
Recent D
istant Past (mvt 1) is about the consistency and reliability of hom
e, the fam
iliarity of life, and reminiscing on separation. A Forw
ard Moving Pilgrim
age (mvt 2) is
filled with a sense of w
onder at new opportunities, w
hile questioning our fortitude in the face of im
pending brutal winter clim
ate. Fortunate Com
panions (mvt 3) applauds our connection and
support for each other as we cross and traverse geography w
ith love and confidence, ready and eager to contribute to our new
comm
unity. We know
where w
e came from
, and we can see
clearly where we are headed.
See Personnel for Bio
910
ubin (b.1983)Special G
uest - Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist’s mission is to bring new
ly created music to life w
ith performances that engage and
stimulate. A quartet of m
usicians animated by a spirit of adventure and collaboration, Zeitgeist
presents works of substance w
ith passion and integrity, and strives to forge new links betw
een m
usicians and music lovers through concerts, com
missions, recordings, and dialogue with our
audience.
Ensemble Biography
Lauded for providing “a once-in-a-lifetime experience for adventurous concertgoers,” Zeitgeist
is a new m
usic chamber ensem
ble comprised of tw
o percussion, piano and woodw
inds. One of
the longest established new m
usic groups in the country, Zeitgeist comm
issions and presents a w
ide variety of new m
usic for audiences in the Twin C
ities and on tour. Always eager to explore
new artistic frontiers, Zeitgeist collaborates w
ith poets, choreographers, directors, visual artists and sound artists of all types to create im
aginative new w
ork that challenges the boundaries of traditional cham
ber music. The m
embers of Zeitgeist are: H
eather Barringer, percussion; Patti C
udd, percussion; Pat O’Keefe, w
oodwinds; N
icola Melville, piano.
Zeitgeist has maintained a fierce dedication to the creation of new
music for the past three
decades, comm
issioning more than 400 w
orks and collaborating with em
erging composers and
some of the finest established com
posers of our time, including Frederic R
zewski, Terry R
iley, John C
age, Pauline Oliveros, Paul D
resher, Mark Applebaum
, Arthur Kreiger, Scott Lindroth, Pam
ela Madsen, Edie Hill, Libby Larsen, John Luther Adam
s, Jin Hi Kim, M
ary Ellen Childs, M
artin Bresnick, Harold Budd, La M
onte Young, Guy Klucevsek, and C
hinary Ung. Zeitgeist’s
upcoming com
missioning projects include new
works by M
ary Ellen Childs, D
avu Seru, Andrew
Rindfleisch, and Pam
ela Z.
Further, Zeitgeist has earned an international reputation for superb craftsmanship, virtuosic
performance, and an innovative approach to the presentation of contem
porary music. H
ighlights include Sound Stage by Paul D
resher (2001), a music-theater w
ork featuring Zeitgeist and a 17-foot high m
usical pendulum, W
alker Art Center prem
ieres of Pine Eyes by Martin Bresnick (2006)
and The Making of Am
ericans by Anthony Gatto and Jay Scheib (2008), a 30th anniversary
celebration (2008) Glancing Back/C
harging Forward: 30 Years of G
roundbreaking Music
featuring the world prem
ieres of works by 30 M
innesota composers, For the Birds (2010), an
evening-length chamber suite w
ith narration by composer Victor Zupanc and hum
orist Kevin
Blurred - Bill Ryan
Blurred is to be perform
ed by piano and any additional instruments.
All instruments perform
from the score and play m
ostly in eight notes, deciding on their ow
n what pitches and w
hen to perform. H
owever, the
pitches they choose must be sounding in the piano part.
Rhythm
and tempo should be exact although perform
ers may anticipate
or delay pitches in the piano part. The duration of the composition can
also be free. Measures or sections m
ay be repeated as the ensemble
determines. The overall effect should be to produce a “blur” or “haze” of sound.
For the past twenty-five years Bill Ryan has been a tireless advocate of contem
porary music.
Through his work as a com
poser, conductor, producer and educator, he has engaged audiences throughout the country w
ith the music of our tim
e. He has w
on the American C
omposers
Forum C
hampion of N
ew M
usic Award, the M
ichigan Governor’s Aw
ard in Arts Education, the D
istinguished Contribution to a D
iscipline Award at G
rand Valley State University, and w
as a finalist for the M
ichigan Distinguished Professor of the Year aw
ard.
Bill’s compositions have roots in m
inimalism
, jazz and popular music. H
is music is energetic,
evocative and deeply personal, and has been described as “…constantly threatening to burst at
the seams, were those seam
s not so artfully structured...rarely has music this earthy been so
elegant.” [Gram
ophone Magazine]. H
is music has been perform
ed in major cities and venues
across the country including at le Poisson Rouge, G
alapagos, Symphony Space, and Lincoln
Center (N
ew York), W
oodruff Arts Center (Atlanta), the Atlas (W
ashington D.C
.), Constellation
(Chicago), M
OC
AD and the M
ax M. Fisher C
enter (Detroit), Initm
an Theater (Seattle), Hobby
Center (H
ouston), and internationally in Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. H
is music
has received awards from
Meet the C
omposer, ASC
AP, and New
Music U
SA.
Kling, the premiere of Spiral XIV “N
imm
itta” (2012) by Cam
bodian American com
poser Chinary
Ung, and Saint Paul Food O
pera (2016), a dining and music collaboration betw
een composer
Ben Houge and five Saint Paul chefs. U
pcoming collaborations include C
rocus Hill: A G
host Story, a m
acabre tale of a house possessed brought to life with cham
ber music, narration, and
video, by composer Julie Johnson and author C
heri Johnson.
Zeitgeist presents a full season of events for audiences in the Twin C
ities. Highlights of the
2016-2017 season at Studio Z include For the Birds (with Kevin Kling and Victor Zupanc), a
celebration of the release of a recording of this work; Saint Paul Food O
pera, a dining and music
collaboration between com
poser Ben Houge and five Saint Paul chefs; H
ere and There, featuring Zeitgeist and N
o Exit New
Music Ensem
ble (Cleveland) perform
ing music by Ann M
illikan, Tim
Beyer, Greg Theisen, Jam
es Praznik, Janika Vandervelde, and Randy Bauer; Playing it Close to H
ome, featuring w
orks by Mary Ellen C
hilds plus winning com
positions from our ever-popular
Eric Stokes Song Contest; Zeitgeist Early M
usic Festival, a four-day festival celebrating the music
of Lou Harrison; and Zeitgeist and Spitting Im
age Collective, featuring new
works by Katherine
Bergman, D
aniel Nass, and Josh C
lausen. Other perform
ances and projects include Lowertow
n Listening Sessions (a m
onthly performance/discussion series), educational residencies w
ith the Perpich C
enter for Arts Education, a residency in Cleveland, and regional tours of For the Birds
and Summ
er Rain (w
ith Nirm
ala Rajasekar). Active at hom
e and throughout the state, Zeitgeist w
ill present 40-45 performances, conduct num
erous educational activities, and carry out several w
orkshops to develop new w
ork.
Zeitgeist has developed several audience-building programs designed to create connections
with com
munities, diversify audiences and encourage individuals to participate in the creative
process of music-m
aking. These programs include the Eric Stokes Song C
ontest (amateur
composition contest), M
aking Music O
utside the Lines (new m
usic performance activities for
high school students) and A New
Music Stew
(a long-term com
position project with students
from St. Paul C
onservatory for Performing Arts). In addition, Zeitgeist operates Studio Z, a
performance space w
here audiences, composers, and new
music perform
ers can come together
to experience the music of our tim
e. Studio Z is home to m
ost of Zeitgeist’s local performances
and also hosts new m
usic performances by other local artists throughout the year.
Zeitgeist Personnel
Percussionist Heather Barringer joined Zeitgeist in 1990. She graduated from
the University of W
isconsin, River Falls w
ith a bachelor’s in M
usic Education in 1987 and studied at the U
niversity of Cincinnati-C
ollege Conservatory, studying w
ith Allen O
tte from 1988-90. In addition to perform
ing and recording w
ith Zeitgeist, she is a mem
ber of Mary Ellen C
hild’s ensemble,
Crash, and has worked with many Twin Cities organizations,
including Nautilus M
usic Theater Ensemble, The D
ale Warland
Singers, Theatre de la Jeune Lune and Ten Thousand Things Theater.
Woodw
ind player Pat O’K
eefe is a graduate of Indiana University, the New England Conservatory and the University of C
alifornia, San Diego. In San D
iego, he performed regularly w
ith the new m
usic ensemble SO
NOR as well as with the San Diego
Symphony, and he has perform
ed and recorded with m
any noted new
music groups around the country, including the C
alifornia EAR Unit, the Cleveland New M
usic Associates and Ensemble
Sospeso in New
York. Pat can also be heard performing
regularly with the Brazilian ensembles Brasam
ba and Batucada do N
orte (of which he is the co-founder and co-director),
the world m
usic group Music M
undial and the improvisation
ensemble AntiG
ravity. He is currently on the faculty of the U
niversity of Wisconsin-R
iver Falls.11
12
US-based N
ew Zealand pianist Nicola M
elville has been described as “having an original and intelligent m
usical mind”
(Waikato Tim
es), “a marvelous pianist w
ho plays with splashy
color but also exquisite tone and nuance” (American R
ecord G
uide), and “the sort of advocate any composer w
ould love” (D
ominion Post). H
er live performances and recordings have
been broadcast on Canadian, U.S., New Zealand, South African and Chinese radio, and she has been involved in num
erous interdisciplinary projects w
ith dancers, filmm
akers and visual artists, including perform
ances at the Kennedy Center,
Washington D
C, and W
eill Recital H
all at Carnegie H
all. Recent
performances include solo appearances and residencies in
Chile, New Zealand, Ohio, Florida, Chicago, Verm
ont and New York C
ity, and several collaborations with cellist Jeff Zeigler
(formerly of the Kronos Q
uartet), violinist Chris O
tto of the JACK quartet, and various m
embers
of the Minnesota, D
etroit, Boston, and Saint Paul Cham
ber orchestras. Upcom
ing engagements
will feature perform
ances in Birka, Sweden, H
elsinki, Wyom
ing, Arizona, Colorado, O
regon, New
York and a tour of N
ew Zealand. She is also w
orking on a multi-phased recording project w
ith the prolific N
ew Zealand/U
K composer, C
hristopher Norton, and w
ill be creating new w
orks with
Berlin-based media artist, M
ark Coniglio.
Nicola attended Victoria U
niversity School of Music, W
ellington, where she studied w
ith Judith Clark, and then earned M
asters and Doctorate degrees from the Eastm
an School of Music,
studying with R
ebecca Penneys. Nicola w
on both the National C
oncerto Com
petition and the Auckland Star C
oncerto Com
petition while in N
ew Zealand, and has been a prizew
inner in several com
petitions in the U.S., including being the w
inner of the SAI Concerto C
ompetition at
the Chautauqua M
usic Festival. While at Eastm
an, Nicola w
as awarded the Lizzie T. M
ason prize for O
utstanding Graduate Pianist, and the Perform
er’s Certificate. She has w
on grants from such
organizations as Meet the C
omposer, C
reative New
Zealand, the Argosy Fund for Contem
porary M
usic, and the Jerome C
omposers C
omm
issioning Program for the com
missioning and
performance of new
music. N
icola has recorded for the Innova and Equilibrium labels, including
a CD
of thirteen new solo pieces dedicated to her, entitled “M
elville’s Dozen.” N
icola is Associate Professor at C
arleton College, M
innesota, where she heads the piano and cham
ber music
programs, and is Artistic C
o-Director of the C
hautauqua Music Festival Piano Program
in New
York.
Dr. Patti Cudd is active as a percussion soloist, chamber
musician and educator. In addition to perform
ing with Zeitgeist,
she teaches percussion and new m
usic studies at the University
of Wisconsin-R
iver Falls and the College of St. Benedict/
St. Johns University. O
ther diverse performing opportunities
have included Sirius, red fish blue fish, CR
ASH, the M
innesota C
ontemporary Ensem
ble, SON
OR
, Minnesota D
ance Theatre and the Borrowed Bones Dance Theater. She received a D
octor of Musical Arts in C
ontemporary M
usical Studies at the University of California studying with Steven Schick, M
asters of M
usic at the State University of N
ew York at Buffalo w
here she w
orked with Jan W
illiams, undergraduate studies at the
University of W
isconsin-River Falls and studied in the soloist
1314
15
Personnel
Violinist Cara Tw
eed’s playing has been described as “dazzling” and “captivating”, finding “nuance and character in every part of the phrase”. As a m
usician, she embraces the classical
canon but eagerly explores new m
usic that spans a variety of genres. Cara is a founding m
ember
of the Cleveland based cham
ber groups noexit and Alm
eda Trio and has performed in concert
halls throughout the United States and abroad.
After throwing a tantrum in a toy store because her m
other would not buy her a Mickey M
ouse violin, C
ara began studying the violin at age five at The Cleveland Institute of M
usic’s Sato C
enter for Suzuki Studies. She holds degrees in violin performance from
The Cleveland Institute
of Music and C
leveland State University and counts D
avid Updegraff and Paul Kantor am
ong her m
ost influential teachers.
Cara w
as the principal second violinist of the Opera C
leveland Orchestra from
2004-2010 and has been a m
ember of The C
anton Symphony, C
ity Music C
leveland, red {an orchestra} and the Spoleto U
SA festival orchestra. She has performed as a violin soloist w
ith The Cleveland
Philharmonic, C
leveland State University O
rchestra, The Marion Philharm
onic and Cleveland’s
Suburban Symphony.
An avid educator, Cara has m
aintained a private violin studio for over ten years. She has been on the faculty of Cleveland State University, The Aurora School of M
usic and The Music Settlem
ent. Currently, Cara teaches at Laurel School in Shaker Heights, where she directs their M
usic Academ
y. Cara also enjoys conducting and coaching cham
ber music and has given M
aster Classes throughout the United States.
Cara lives in Cleveland Heights with her husband, cellist Nicholas Diodore, and their young sons.
16
Violist James Rhodes is a sought after perform
er and music educator. H
e has performed in
concerts throughout the United States and Europe. H
e has studied with teachers D
r. David
Dalton (BYU
), Dr. M
inor Wetzel (Los Angeles Philharm
onic), and Mark Jackobs (C
leveland O
rchestra, Cleveland Institute of M
usic). He holds a bachelor’s degree from
Cal State Fullerton,
and a master’s degree in viola perform
ance from the C
leveland Institute of Music. W
hile attending C
IM, Jam
es received his Suzuki training with Kim
berly Meier-Sim
s. He currently
preforms as a freelance violist and as a m
ember of the C
leveland based BlueWater C
hamber
Orchestra, and N
oExit, Cleveland’s prem
ier new m
usic ensemble. Jam
es is a co-founder of D
adBand, a two-viola tw
o-cello crossover string quartet. As a music educator, Jam
es has served on the faculty of Tim
berline Middle School in Alpine, U
tah where he directed the orchestra
program and he has also been a faculty m
ember of The C
leveland Music School Settlem
ent where he taught viola/violin, and directed youth orchestras. He currently is the m
usic director at Hudson M
ontessori School in Hudson, Ohio where he directs the Conservatory of M
usic, teaches Suzuki viola and violin, directs ensem
bles, coaches chamber m
usic, and teaches classroom
music to students ages 3-14. H
e is the co-founder of the Western R
eserve Cham
ber Festival, also located in H
udson, Ohio. Jam
es enjoys sports, the outdoors, history, and spending tim
e with his w
ife Carrie, and their four children R
ebecca, James, D
avid, and Isaac.
17
Cellist Nicholas Diodore was born in M
arion, Indiana to a musical fam
ily and quickly established a reputation as a very talented cellist. H
e won several com
petitions and was the recipient of
many awards before attending high school. He received his early m
usical instruction from
Geoffrey Lapin of the Indianapolis Sym
phony.
Mr. D
iodore attended high school at Interlochen Arts Academy in M
ichigan. There, as a student of C
rispin Cam
pbell, he excelled in the study of 20th century compositions as w
ell as in cham
ber music. D
uring the time he spent there, M
r. Diodore w
as a prize winner at the Fischoff
International Cham
ber Music com
petition and the Grand Prize w
inner of the Dow
nbeat Magazine
Cham
ber Music C
ompetition. H
e graduated in 1995 with the highest honors in both m
usic and academ
ics. In 1996 Mr. D
iodore attended the Cleveland Institute of M
usic where he w
as a student of Alan H
arris. While at C
IM he also studied w
ith Merry Peckham
of the Cavani Q
uartet and w
ith Richard W
eiss, assistant principle cellist of the Cleveland O
rchestra. He perform
ed in the m
aster-classes of Paul Katz and Gary H
offman.
Mr. D
iodore participated in several well-know
n summ
er music festivals. H
e was one of the
youngest participants in the Quartet Program
at Bucknell University. From
1996 to 1999 he spent his sum
mers at the Aspen M
usic Festival where he held third chair in the Aspen C
hamber
Orchestra. In 2000 and 2001 he w
as accepted to participate in the Caym
an Islands Music
Festival. Currently M
r. Diodore holds a faculty position at the Aurora School of M
usic and the C
leveland Music School Settlem
ent. In addition to maintaining a large private studio his duties
include regular performances of solo and cham
ber music. H
e also serves on the board of directors of the Cleveland Cello Society.
18
Pianist/composer Nicholas Underhill holds a M
asters Degree in Piano from the New England
Conservatory of M
usic. His teachers include Konrad W
olff, Katja Andy, Edmund Battersby and
Russell Sherm
an. Well know
n in Boston, New
York City and C
leveland as a champion of new
m
usic for the piano, he has performed solo recitals in C
arnegie Recital H
all, Weill R
ecital Hall
and Merkin C
oncert Hall. H
e was featured in the prestigious D
ame M
yra Hess M
emorial concerts
in Chicago in 1991. H
is collaborative recitals include programs w
ith his wife, M
ary Kay Fink. He
has taught piano at Mount U
nion College and H
iram C
ollege, and has performed on num
erous occasions w
ith the Cleveland Ballet O
rchestra, the Cleveland C
hamber Sym
phony and the Cleveland Cham
ber Collective.
As a composer, U
nderhill’s music has been perform
ed by the Cleveland O
rchestra, the Ohio
Music Teachers Association, The Fortnightly M
usical Club, The Cleveland Flute Society, The G
ramercy Trio, C
leveland Orchestra players M
ary Kay Fink, Takako Masam
e, Lisa Boyko, R
ichard King, and pianist Randall H
odgkinson.
19
Flutist Sean Gabriel earned perform
ance degrees from the Baldw
in Wallace C
onservatory of M
usic and the Indiana University School of M
usic, his principal teachers being William
H
ebert and James Pellerite. Sean began his perform
ing career in the 1980s with the O
hio C
hamber O
rchestra and Cleveland Ballet O
rchestra. Currently, M
r.Gabriel is the principal
flutist of the Blue Water C
hamber O
rchestra and the Cleveland C
hamber Sym
phony, C
leveland’s award-w
inning new m
usic ensemble. W
ith this group he has taken part in dozens of w
orld premiere perform
ances and recordings including a Gram
my Aw
ard-winning
recording of Olivier M
essiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques featuring pianist, Angelin C
hang. M
r.Gabriel has been a m
ember of the Erie Philharm
onic Orchestra of Pennsylvania for two
decades and was the principal flutist of the O
pera Cleveland O
rchestra from 2002 to 2010.
He has also been a m
ember of the Akron Sym
phony and performs regularly w
ith the Bach Festival C
hamber O
rchestra of Baldwin W
allace University.
Sean Gabriel serves on the m
usic faculties of Baldwin W
allace University and the C
leveland State U
niversity, where he is a frequent recitalist in both solo and cham
ber music program
s. H
e enjoys bringing rarely heard repertoire to the concert stage and has been an eager supporter of local com
posers in premiering new
works. Sean is proud to be a m
ember of the
noexit ensem
ble, to further the promotion of new
music in the C
leveland area and beyond. Sean’s strong interest in m
usic history has led to his appointment on the advisory board of
the Riem
enschneider Bach Institute at Baldwin W
allage University w
here he has presented a series of recitals featuring the com
plete flute sonatas of J.S.Bach. Mr.G
abriel has also given lectures on m
usic history at Cleveland-area high schools.
20
Clarinetist Gunnar O
wen Hirthe hails from
Green Bay, W
isconsin and is currently a doctoral candidate studying new
music for clarinet at Bow
ling Green State U
niversity’s Doctoral Program
in C
ontemporary M
usic under the mentorship of M
r. Kevin W. Schem
pf. This distinguished program
is focused on the artistic specialization of music from
the 20th and 21st centuries from
traditional to experimental and avant-garde to electronic. H
e is currently working on his
dissertation titled Identity in the Clarinet M
usic of Michael Finnissy and Evan Ziporyn. This
research aims to bring further understanding to the w
orld of music inspired by cultures other
than what w
e experience in the Western art m
usic tradition and what these intersections m
ean to these com
posers, the performer and their audiences.
Gunnar has had the privilege to perform
with professional cham
ber, wind, orchestral and
faculty ensembles in W
isconsin, Kentucky, Ohio, M
ichigan, Pennsylvania and Indiana; with Arlo
Guthrie at C
arnegie Hall in N
ew York; and for contem
porary classical composers such as D
avid M
aslanka, David Lang, Steven Stucky, Sean Shepherd, N
ils Vigelund, Michael Q
uell, Kieran M
cMillan, Am
y William
s, Roger Zahab, M
ikel Kuehn and John McC
owen. H
e was a soloist w
ith the G
reen Bay Youth Symphony, The O
hio State University Sym
phony Orchestra in C
olumbus,
OH
, the Suburban Symphony O
rchestra in Cleveland, O
H, the Pittsburgh N
ew M
usic Ensemble,
and has recently been appointed solo clarinetist with the N
o Exit New
Music Ensem
ble in Cleveland, O
H.
Gunnar currently holds the position of C
larinet Faculty at the Flint Institute of Music. H
e has taught individuals from
beginners to retirees and music students from
elementary to college.
During his tim
e at the Cleveland Institute of M
usic, he performed and taught individual and group
lessons via high-definition internet connection to various venues throughout the United States
as part of their nationally recognized Distance Learning Program
. While at The O
hio State and Bowling G
reen State Universities, Gunnar was a teaching assistant for the clarinet studios,
teaching applied clarinet to music m
ajors and non-majors of all levels and coaching w
oodwind
chamber m
usic ensembles. H
is current assignment is teaching Exploring M
usic: A Social
2221
Percussionist Luke Rinderknecht has performed as percussion soloist w
ith The Cleveland
Orchestra (Paul C
reston’s Concerto for M
arimba), C
ityMusic C
leveland (Avner Dorm
an’s Uzu and
Muzu from
Kakaruzu), and the Cleveland Youth W
ind Symphony (Jam
es Basta’s Concerto for
Marim
ba). Equally at home in cham
ber music and orchestral settings, he has prem
iered dozens of new
works w
ith the New
Juilliard Ensemble, M
etropolis Ensemble, and in recital. H
e was
recently appointed principal percussion of CityM
usic and is excited to join noexit, Cleveland’s new
m
usic ensemble. Last season he appeared w
ith Alarm W
ill Sound, Ensemble AC
JW, M
etropolis Ensem
ble, Glank, the C
leveland Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharm
onic Orchestra, and the W
est Virginia Sym
phony. In previous seasons he has also appeared with the M
etropolitan Opera, Q
atar Philharm
onic, Dirty Projectors, Festival C
hamber M
usic, St. Luke’s Cham
ber Orchestra, Virginia
Symphony, and in the pit of Broadw
ay’s Legally Blonde.
He can be heard w
ith The Buffalo Philharmonic O
rchestra on their double Gram
my aw
ard-winning
recording of John Corigliano’s M
r. Tambourine M
an, as well as with The Knights on three albums
from Sony C
lassical. He com
pleted Bachelor and Master of M
usic degrees at Juilliard, where he
studied with Daniel Druckman, G
ordon Gottlieb, and G
reg Zuber, and received the Peter Mennin
Prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in m
usic. In the summ
ers he is a faculty artist at the Bow
doin International Music Festival in Brunsw
ick, Maine, and has also perform
ed at the M
arlboro, Castleton, Verbier, Barbican Blaze, BBC Proms, and Seoul Drum
festivals. Luke grew up in Shaker H
eights and is delighted to call the Lomond neighborhood hom
e once again.
Experience where the focus centers on connecting non-m
usicians with the sounds and m
usic they encounter everyday and providing a perspective to understand m
usic in a social context both historically and currently.
Gunnar has earned Bachelor’s D
egrees in Music Education and Perform
ance from the U
niversity of Kentucky w
ith Dr. Scott J. W
right; a Master’s D
egree in Music Perform
ance from The O
hio State U
niversity with M
r. James M
. Pyne; and has a Professional Studies Diplom
a from the
Cleveland Institute of M
usic where he studied w
ith world-renow
ned clarinetist and former
Principal Clarinet of the C
leveland Orchestra, M
r. Franklin Cohen.
23
Artistic director/composer and Cleveland native, Tim
othy Beyer has been active as both a com
poser and performer in an eclectic range of m
usical medium
s. He has com
posed for a variety of concert m
usic genres, has scored for film, dance, and has produced m
any works in the
electronic music idiom
, which have garnered him
acclaim. As a perform
er, he was the
founding mem
ber and trombonist of C
leveland’s innovative Jamaican jazz band Pressure D
rop. H
e received his Masters of M
usic degree in music com
position from C
leveland State University.
Mr. Beyer’s m
usic has been performed throughout the U
.S. and Europe by artists such as clarinetist Pat O
’Keefe, flutists Carlton Vickers and Sean G
abriel, cellists David R
ussell and C
raig Hultgren, pianist Jenny Lin and contem
porary music ensem
bles Zeitgeist, the Verge Ensem
ble, the Cleveland C
hamber C
ollective and the Cleveland C
hamber Sym
phony. His
works have also been featured at the Aki Festival and the Utah Arts Festival in addition to many
radio broadcasts throughout the country. He is currently w
orking on several recording projects including a vocal/electronic collaboration w
ith composer Andrew
Rindfleisch, and a C
D project
featuring his “Amputate” series of electroacoustic w
orks.
The Washington Post has declared Tim
othy Beyerʼs music to be “as m
uch poetry as it was
music”. – Stephen Brookes [ The W
ashington Post, Apr. 2011]
24
Associate director/composer Jam
es Praznik is a composer, conductor, and pianist w
hose work
has garnered acclaim am
ong his peers as well as audiences. As a com
poser of highly expressive m
usic, James has com
posed music for concerts, stage productions and com
mercial videogam
es. H
e has participated in the Interlochen Com
poser’s Institute and the Cleveland State C
omposer’s
Recording Institute, and received honors such as the U
niversity of Akron Outstanding C
omposer
Award on two occasions the University of Akron Outstanding Pianist Award, and the Bain M
urray Award for M
usic.
James has been a guest com
poser, arranger, pianist and conductor for the “Monsterpianos!”
concerts in Akron, Ohio, and through the C
leveland Contem
porary Players workshops he
received recordings of his pieces made by som
e of today’s leading virtuosi. He has been
comm
issioned by the new music ensem
ble “noexit”, and N
ASA in conjunction with the C
leveland Ingenuity Festival. H
is music has been perform
ed at E.J. Thomas H
all, Cleveland State
University, The U
niversity of Akron, The Cleveland M
useum of C
ontemporary Art, The C
leveland Ingenuity Festival, Brandeis U
niversity and Wellesley C
ollege. As a pianist and a proponent of other com
posers’ music, Jam
es has performed on The O
hio State University new
music concerts,
the Kentucky New
Music Festival electro‐acoustic concerts, and as a m
ember of the Akron N
ew
Music Ensem
ble. He is an associate director of “noexit”, a C
leveland based new m
usic ensemble,
and is an original mem
ber of “Duo Approxim
ate”, a group that performs live soundtracks to silent
films. R
ecently James created sound effects for the film
“Shockwaves” by m
edia artist Kasumi.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in com
position and theory from the U
niversity of Akron where he
studied compostion w
ith Daniel M
cCarthy and N
ikola Resanovic (as w
ell as piano under Philip Thom
son) , and has recently received a master’s degree in com
position at Cleveland State
University w
here he studied with Andrew
Rindfleisch and G
reg D’Alessio. C
urrently James is
aPhD canidate at Brandeis University where he studies with Eric Chasalow, David Rakowski and Yu-H
ui Chang.
25
Assistant to the artistic director/composer Eric M
. C. Gonzalez is a com
poser of solo works,
chamber pieces, electroacoustic, electronic m
usic and works for film
and theater. Eric is the director and cellist of the string ensem
ble Forest City C
hambers. Eric studied com
position with
Andrew R
indfleisch and Greg D
’Alessio, cello performance w
ith David Allen H
arrell of The C
leveland Orchestra, and film
music w
ith Michael Baum
gartner at Cleveland State U
niversity.
Ensembles Eric has com
posed for include Cleveland State U
niversity Cham
ber Orchestra, the
Cleveland State U
niversity Experimental Ensem
ble, the JACK Q
uartet, The Genkin Philharm
onic. In 2011 and 2012, the w
orks Elliptical and A Priori Music N
o. 3 were recorded by engineer David Yost at the C
leveland Com
posers’ Recording Institute at C
leveland State University.
In 2014, Eric performed, arranged and com
posed music for the avant-garde m
ixed-genre m
usical Tingle Tangle, which consists of works for cello, electronics, guitar, vocals and percussion. Eric has com
posed music for plays w
ith the Cleveland Theater com
pany Theater N
injas, and Cleveland Public Theatre.
Eric won the noexit new
music ensem
ble Com
mission C
ompetition in 2011 and 2013, for w
hich he com
posed PILLS for solo piano, and Late Spring for piano quartet. In 2013, Eric was the
recipient of the Bain Murray Aw
ard for Com
position.
26
Art director Edwin W
ade is a modernist printm
aker and painter. Edwin designs all the print and
web m
aterials and is responsible for the visual aesthetic of noexit. An avid M
id-Century M
odern collector M
r. Wade lives w
ith his wife M
ary, son Jackson and their dog Pablo in Cleveland H
eights Edw
in’s work has been featured on H
GTV’s D
esign Star and NBC
’s Extreme H
ome Builders.
His w
ork can be found on Etsy, Minted and Just M
odern Hom
e Decor in Palm
Springs, CA
https://ww
w.etsy.com/shop/Edw
inWade
27
Act one begins
... WIT
H IN
VE
ST
ME
NT
BY
CU
YA
HO
GA
AR
TS
& C
ULT
UR
E
Cuyahoga A
rts & C
ulture (CA
C) uses public dollars
approved by you to bring arts and culture to every corner of our C
ounty. From grade schools to senior
centers to large public events and investments to
small neighborhood art projects and educational
outreach, we are leveraging your investm
ent for everyone to experience.
Visit cacgran
ts.org/impact to
learn m
ore.
Your Investment:
Strengthening C
omm
unity
Beck C
enter for the Arts
28
3029
31
Our fans and supporters
Michael W
olfW
olfs Gallery
Heights ArtsRachel BernsteinChristina Vassallo
Marilyn Ladd-Sim
mons
SPACES
Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, The Amphion Foundation and The Bascom
Little Fund for their generous support w
hich helped make this concert series possible.
noexit w
ould like to thank
noexitnewmusic.com
noexitnewmusic
32
The best way to let us know
that you like what w
e’re doing is w
ith your generous support.noexit is a 501(c)(3) organization so any donation that you m
ake is tax deductible.
Please visit our newly designed website to donate and stay informed
33
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