FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2012
Contact: Paula Mlyn
RANDOM ACCESS MUSIC PRESENTS STORYBOOK,
AN EVENING OF NEW VOCAL MUSIC
ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 8 PM, AT
GREENWICH HOUSE MUSIC SCHOOL
Program features music by member composers David Fetherolf, Stefan Weisman, Manly Romero, Gilbert Galindo, Jonathan Pieslak, and Wang Jie
NEW YORK, NY–On Sunday, November 18, 8pm at the Greenwich House Music School (46 Barrow Street, New York, NY), the New York-based composers’ collective Random Access Music presents Storybook, an evening of new vocal music by composers Gilbert Galindo, David Fetherolf, Stefan Weisman, Manly Romero, Jonathan Pieslak and Wang Jie. Tickets are $20, and may be purchased at this link, http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/284001 or via the ram-nyc.org website.
The program features the world premiere of Gilbert Galindo’s Xochitl Cuicatl: Aztec Flower Songs (poetry by Anonymous and Ayocuan Cuetzpaltzin—classical Nahuatl poetry), featuring Ulises Solano, tenor, and Karl Larson, piano. Other works include David Fetherolf’s Nostalgia (poem by Tahereh Saffarzadeh), featuring mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Mondragon and Wang Jie, piano; a scene from Stefan Weisman and David Cote’s new opera, The Scarlet Ibis, Mila Henry, piano, featuring Brenda Patterson, mezzo-soprano and Eric S. Brenner, countertenor; arias from Manly Romero’s opera, Dreaming of Wonderland, featuring Nadia Petrella, soprano, Mila Henry, piano; Jonathan Pieslak’s Banchetul with Hannah Pohlmann, mezzo-soprano and piano; and Wang Jie’s A Prayer—Lord? Please Don’t Let Me Die In a Funny Way (libretto by Paul Sims) featuring soprano Mary Mackenzie.
Random Access Music was founded in 2005 to help composers establish collaborative experiences and long-term relationships among artists, and the support and interaction among fellow composers. The composer-members include Allen Schulz (President), Manly Romero (Artistic Director), Andrew McKenna Lee, David Fetherolf, Gilbert Galindo, Jonathan Pieslak, Stefan Weisman, and Wang Jie.
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
A native of west Texas, Gilbert Galindo’s music has been heard at diverse venues across the US and Europe and by organizations including the Bard Institute Orchestra, the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Midland Odessa Symphony, Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, among others. Galindo’s music has been featured programs at music festivals including the American Composers Alliance Festival of American Music, the Brevard Music Festival, the Cortona Sessions for New Music, the Etchings Festival of Contemporary Music, Make Music New York, and the Sonic Fusion Festival. Recent commissions include the Chicago Fine Arts Society, Duo Petrarca, and the Lone Star Brass. Galindo was a 2008 recipient of the Van Lier Fellowship from Meet The Composer, two BMI Student Composer Awards, first prize from the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs 2006 Young Composers Contest, and Northwestern University’s first orchestral competition in 2004. Additionally, he received the Cacavas Award, two awards from the Chicago Union League Civic & Arts Foundation 2003 Music Composition Contest, and Northwestern’s William T. Faricy Award for Creative Music. While at Northwestern University (BM), where he studied with William Karlins, Augusta Read Thomas, Amnon Wolman, and Jay Alan Yim, Gilbert Galindo co-founded EXPOSURE: musicians for new music. At the Cleveland Institute of Music (MM), Galindo studied with Margaret Brouwer and Zhou Long, where he also conducted the New Music Ensemble. Galindo resides in New York City and is a co-founder and co-coordinator of NYsoundCircuit, an evening-length multimedia salon series of new music and visual arts that showcases the work of composers, ensembles, and artists. His music is available from Cuicatl Publications (BMI) in New York.
David Fetherolf’s music has been premiered and played throughout Europe, the United States, and Central and South America. He has received awards and grants from the American Music Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Helen F. Whitaker Fund, the Mamaroneck Schools Foundation and the Chase Manhattan Bank as well as several private grants and fellowships. His works have been premiered at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, at St. John’s, Smith Square, London, and have been selected to represent his country by the United States Information Agency. Fetherolf has been involved with five of the International Festival of New Music for Orchestra programs in the Czech Republic and has received commissions from groups as diverse as The Mamaroneck Schools Foundation (USA) and the Gamavilla Quartet (CZ). More information on Fetherolf may be found at Skeeter Press. Recordings of several of his orchestral works are available on Vienna Modern Masters (in America from CDeMUSIC or directly from VMM). A CD of some of his chamber works for strings is available from Albany Records (Troy932).
Stefan Weisman is a composer living in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City. He has recently been specializing in vocal pieces which explore odd and compelling topics. Among his commissions are works for eighth blackbird, Sequitur, the Minimum Security Composers Collective, the Gay Gotham Choir with the Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Battell Chapel Choir, and the Oregon Bach Festival Composers’ Symposium, which commissioned a piece in honor of George Crumb on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Other performances of his music have included So Percussion, the Locrian Chamber Players, the New Millennium Ensemble, DaCapo Chamber Players, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, among others. Weisman has participated in theater, dance and video collaborations at venues including the Knitting Factory, Collective Unconscious, WAX, the HERE Theater, the Most Significant Bytes Multimedia Festival, and Barb’s. Darkling, commissioned by the American Opera Projects, was included in the Guggenheim Museum’s “Works & Process” series, and premiered at the Classic Stage Company Theater in 2006.
After receiving a bassoon performance diploma from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), RAM artistic director Manly Romero turned his focus to composition. Studies at SFCM with David Conte and Conrad Susa led to his first serious compositions, including Concertino for Violin and Orchestra, premiered by Artea, and The Legend of Chang’Er, premiered by the San Francisco Symphony. Under the mentorship of William Albright, Michael Daugherty, Susan Botti, Betsy Jolas, and particularly William Bolcom at the University of Michigan, Romero completed a DMA while composing orchestral works such as Spirals (recorded on the Klavier Gold label); Cortège; Blanco, Azul, Rojo; and his opera, Dreaming of Wonderland. His compositions have garnered awards and commissions from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Composers’ Orchestra, The Ragdale Foundation, American Music Center, San Francisco Camerata Americana, NYFA, and most recently the Hoeffer Commission from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Romero’s compositions have been performed by New York City Opera, the Memphis Symphony, American Composers’ Orchestra, San Francisco Camerata Americana, Artea, City Winds, the Alban Duo, Quintessence, Ursula’s End, Lost Dog, Round Rock Symphony, and others. Upcoming performances in the 2010-11 season include the premiere of Doppelgänger (a quadruple concerto for 2 solo trumpets, 2 solo violins and double ensemble), and a new work for Ursula.
Jonathan Pieslak, Ph.D., graduated from the University of Michigan in 2003 where he also received Master of Music degrees in Music Theory (1999) and Composition (2002). His music has been performed and broadcast throughout the United States and internationally. Recent collaborations include the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra, Las Sirenas Women’s Choir, Kiev Philharmonic, and North/South Consonance. He has been recognized with recent awards and commissions from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Jerome Foundation, American Composers Forum, and American Music Center. In addition to these compositional activities, Pieslak is an active performer and scholar. He has performed as an electric bassist in ensembles under the direction of John Zorn and Ben Whiteley (Cats, Winter Garden) and is currently bassist for the ambient metal band, half (www.halfmusic.com). As a scholar, Pieslak has presented papers at numerous international musicology associations and conferences and has been published in Theory and Practice, Popular Music, and Journal of Musicological Research. Pieslak studied composition with Michael Daugherty, Susan Botti, Andrew Mead, Erik Santos, and Kevin Korsyn.
Wang Jie was born and raised in Shanghai, beginning studies on piano at age five. A scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music brought her to the US in 2000, where she studied composition with Nils Vigeland and Richard Danielpour. Her work has been performed across the United States, Asia, and Europe. She has received honors and awards from ASCAP, the BMI Foundation, the American Music Center, Opera America, and the Manhattan School of Music, amongst others. Her tragic opera, Nannan, was showcased by the New York City Opera’s VOX Contemporary Opera Lab. Flown, a chamber opera meditation on two lovers who must separate, was produced by the Music Theatre Group, and the Emily Dickenson-inspired song cycle I Died for Beauty was featured at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Modern Music Festival. Her piano trio, Shadow, which dramatizes the inner life of an autistic child, was performed by the New Juilliard Ensemble at the Museum of Modern Art’s Summergarden concert series. As the first composer awarded the Milton Rock Fellowship prize, she was commissioned to compose the environmentally-aware ballet Five Phases of Spring for Philadelphia’s Rock School for Dance Education, and her Death of Socrates won the Northridge Composition Prize. Her Symphony No. 1 (Awakening) was featured by the Minnesota Orchestra at the 2010 Future Classics concert, and a new work is in process for the 45th anniversary celebration of Continuum at Lincoln Center.
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