S.E.M. ENSEMBLE
WORKSHOP - READINGS OF NEW WORKS
BY EMERGING COMPOSERS
&
MAJOR NEW WORK BY SOMEI SATOH
PUBLIC PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11 at 8pm
The workshop-readings will take place at the Willow Place Auditorium in Brooklyn, NY, from Monday, February 8 through Thursday, February 11, culminating in a public performance on February 11 at 8pm.
Works by following emerging composers will be read/performed: Jason Brogan*, Chicago, IL (b. 1983); Paul Fraser*, Los Angeles, CA (b. 1982); Taylan Susam*, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (b. 1986); Ji Sun Yang, Seoul, Korea (b. 1979); David Kant*, Brooklyn, NY (b. 1986); Sam Sfirri*, Charleston, SC (b. 1987).
Also
The Passion, a new work, composed in 2009, by the Tokyo based Japanese composer Somei Satoh* will be part of the workshop-reading.
* Will be present at the workshop and performance
Program for
Thursday, February 11, 8 pm
Willow Place Auditorium
26 Willow Place, Brooklyn Heights
Free Admission (Contributions greatly appreciated)
S.E.M. ENSEMBLE
Petr Kotik, Conductor
| Jason Brogan |
some breaths |
| Paul Fraser |
zzzzz |
| Taylan Susam |
mille regretz |
| Ji Sun Yang |
Melody, notes, five |
| David Kant |
Variations for Functions and Partitions of Time |
| Samuel Sfirri |
the undulating land |
| Somei Satoh |
The Passion |
Jason Brogan is an independent composer and guitarist residing in Chicago, Illinois. An active member of the New Music Collective (Charleston, SC) since 2006, Brogan curates the concert series Silent Music: 4’33” and Beyond as well as calculations, an online audio gallery of experimental music. For more information, please visit http://www.maltedmilk.org/brogan/
Paul Fraser is based out of the Los Angeles area. He has been influenced by modern pop genres and the rhythmic complexity of post-minimalism, including computer generated programming and timbre experimentation. Fraser studied at Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Minnesota. Currently, he is a student at California Institute of the Arts. For more information, please visit http://paulfrasermusic.com/
Taylan Susam was born in 1986 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Turkish parents. He has been affiliated with the Wandelweiser group and worked with various ensembles, such as the Folds Ensemble, the Dog Star Orchestra, Ensemble Chronophonie, Asko Ensemble, Orkest de Ereprijs, Nieuw Ensemble, the Barton Workshop and the Charleston New Music Collective. Recent notable projects include a collaboration with Antoine Beuger and the Austrian poet Oswald Egger as well as a 24-hour performance in Zurich including Manfred Werder and Stefan Thut. For more information, please visit http://taylansusam.byethost4.com/
Ji Sun Yang studied composition at Sook-Myung Women’s University in Seoul until 2002 and in 2003 she moved to the Netherlands to study at the Hague Royal Conservatoire. She has worked with groups such as the ASKO Ensemble, Ensemble Klang, Orkest Erepijs and Slagwerkgroep. She has participated in Ostrava Days 2007, Apeldoorn young composers meeting and Gaudeamus music festivals. For more information, please visit http://www.jisunyang.com/
David Kant works at the intersection of science, music and mathematics. With Cameron Hu, he recently he curated MATA Interval 3.1: Architectures of Sound at ISSUE Project Room, a program attending to the relation of sound to built space. He studied music composition at Yale with Michael Klingbeil and has worked in residence with Christian Wolff, Alvin Lucier, David Dunn, Elliott Sharp, Bernhard Lang and more at Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida) and at Ostrava Days 2009 (Czech Republic). For more information, please visit http://uploaddownloadperform.net/DavidKant/Index
Sam Sfirri composes and performs in and around Charleston, SC. In a recent work, he used the transient characteristics of Charleston as material for his ideas and concepts. He also attended Ostrava Days 2009 where his piece, for Callum Innes, was performed by the Berlin-based ensemble, Phosphor. This year Sfirri will present a series of concerts featuring the music of composers including Antoine Beuger, Manfred Werder and Michael Pisaro. For more information, please visit http://uploaddownloadperform.net/SamSfirri/Index
Somei Satoh (b. 1947 in Sendai (northern Honshu), Japan) began his work as composer in 1969 with "Tone Field," an experimental, mixed media group based in Tokyo. In 1972 he produced "Global Vision," a multimedia arts festival, that encompassed musical events, works by visual artists and improvisational performance groups. In one of his most interesting projects held at a hot springs resort in Tochigi Prefecture in 1981, Satoh places eight speakers approximately one kilometer apart on mountain tops overlooking a huge valley. As a man-made fog rose from below, the music from the speakers combined with laser beams and moved the clouds into various formations. Satoh has collaborated twice since 1985 with theater designer, Manuel Luetgenhorst in dramatic stagings of his music at The Arts at St. Ann's in Brooklyn, New York. Satoh was awarded the Japan Arts Festival prize in 1980 and received a visiting artist grant from the Asian Cultural Council in 1983, enabling him to spend one year in the United States. He has written more than thirty compositions, including works for piano, orchestra, chamber music, choral and electronic music, theater pieces and music for traditional Japanese instruments. For more information, please visit http://www.newalbion.com/artists/satohs/
The S.E.M. Ensemble’s Reading of New Compositions was initiated in 1997 by a grant from the Greenwall Foundation. SEM has continued to produce these workshops every season, focusing on new pieces, or works-in-progress. In the past, readings have included works by Udo Kasemets, Philip Mantione, Alvin Singleton, Rain Worthington, Frances White, Alex Mincek, Henry Threadgill, Virgil Moorefield, Akemi Naito, James Fei, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Sinan Savaskan, Robin Haller, and Phill Niblock. During the workshop, each composer is given a chance to work with the musicians and possibly modify his/her work. The workshop culminates in a public performance, recorded for the benefit of each composer. Works initiated in these workshops have been often performed at later S.E.M. concerts in New York and Europe. For more information, please visit http://www.semensemble.org/
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This concert is possible thanks to support from New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Phaedrus Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. and individual contributions. Thanks to Noni Pratt, Milos Forman, R.H. Rackstraw Downes and Robert Amory for their donations and support. Special thanks to the Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, for his support.
