Eastern Inspirations
Eastern musical traditions have had a profound and exciting impact on classical music. Experience Japanese-inspired music by Ravel, the Persian and Balinese flavors of Henry Cowell, and Indian-American Reena Esmail’s integrative style in this concert of cultural connections.
COME EARLY to picnic beforehand at Reed—BYOP or pick up nosh on-site from Bon Appétit.
Sponsor: Reed College
PSU, College of the Arts, Lincoln Performance Hall
Sunday, 7/17 • 4:00 pm
Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Monday, 7/18 • 8:00 pm PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- REENA ESMAIL ‘Darshan: Bihag’ (2021)
REENA ESMAIL(b. 1983)
Darshan: Bihag (2021)Darshan means ‘seeing’ in Hindi. In the Hindu religion, to give ‘darshan’ is to see and worship God. As Vijay Gupta and I worked on this music together over three years, we began to see the divine in one another.
This movement, in Raag Charukeshi, is the first movement of five, which will be written over a span of five years. It explores grief, in its many facets and forms.
— © Reena Esmail- KAIJA SAARIAHO ‘Nocturne’ (1994)
KAIJA SAARIOHO (b. 1952)
Nocturne (1994)In February 1994, Kaija Saariaho learned Polish composer Witold Lutosławski had died. Saariaho put the violin concerto she was writing aside to compose a Nocturne for solo violin. This haunting tribute to her colleague expresses Saariaho’s grief using a variety of violin techniques. It opens with a scratchy, breathy tone that slowly morphs into a full-voiced note. We hear achingly slow glissandos, double stops, trills, harmonics, pizzicato, sul pont (playing near the bridge of the violin to produce a thin, nasal sound) – in between silence-filled pauses. After completing Nocturne, Saariaho returned to the concerto, incorporating the Nocturne into its opening measures.
—© Elizabeth Schwartz
- REENA ESMAIL ‘When the Violin ’ (2020)
REENA ESMAIL (b.1983)
When the Violin (2020)As a companion piece to Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria’s O Vos Omnes, I chose to set a beautiful text by the 14th-century Persian poet Hafiz. The text of O Vos Omnes is asking, simply, to be seen in a moment of sorrow – to be beheld through suffering and darkness. Hafiz’s text responds in such a beautiful way – it moves through that darkness and begins to let those very first slivers of light in.
When the Violin is about that first moment of trust, of softening, about the most inward moments of the human experience, of realizing that ‘breakthroughs’ often don’t have the hard edge, the burst of energy that the word implies, but that they can be about finding tender, warm, deeply resonant spaces within ourselves as well.
This piece is based on a Hindustani raag (or raga) (p/d) called Charukeshi.
This version of When The Violin was created for Vijay Gupta as part of the 2020 Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy, given by Americans for the Arts. Because the lecture was given remotely, due to COVID-19, the original piece was adapted for solo violin.— © Reena Esmail
- HENRY COWELL ‘Set of Five,’ HC. 779
HENRY COWELL (1897 - 1965) Set of Five, HC. 779 (18’)
I. Largo sostenuto
II. Allegro
III. Andante
IV. Presto leggiero
V. Vigoroso
Why aren’t we more familiar with the music of Henry Cowell? Even classical aficionados are largely unacquainted with his work. The answer may lie in Cowell’s insatiable curiosity; Cowell once declared, “I have never deliberately concerned myself with developing a distinctive ‘personal’ style, but only with the excitement and pleasure of writing music as beautifully, as warmly, and as interestingly as I can.”
Beginning in the 1920s, Cowell, along with other California avant-garde composers, including John Cage and Cowell’s student, Lou Harrison, expanded the sonic possibilities of Western classical music by incorporating instruments, scales, and aesthetics from Asian cultures.
Set of Five fuses Baroque and Classical idioms with percussion timbres and instruments from outside the Western tradition. Oregon Arts Watch Senior Editor Brett Campbell, reviewing a performance in the Bay Area, writes, “An American classic, Set of Five seamlessly embraces elements from throughout Cowell’s career, from tone clusters to American hymnody to non-Western techniques, and … does so in a completely organic and universally appealing way.”
© Elizabeth Schwartz
- MAURICE RAVEL Piano Trio in A Minor, M. 67
MAURICE RAVEL (1875 - 1937) Piano Trio in A Minor, M. 67 (25’)
I. Modéré
II. Pantoum. Assez vif
III. Passacaille. Très large
IV. Final. AniméUnlike much of Maurice Ravel’s music, known for its beauty and craftsmanship rather than personal revelations, the Piano Trio in A Minor, M. 67 brims with intimacy. Ravel wrote the Trio over a six-month period beginning in March 1914, just months before WWI began. “Yes, I am working with the certainty, the lucidity of a madman,” Ravel confided to a friend that summer, “but sometimes depression is at work as well and suddenly there I am sobbing over my sharps and flats.”
After war broke out in August 1914, Ravel was devastated. In addition to not knowing the fate of his friends who had gone to war, Ravel was obsessed by “this nightmare…the horror of this fighting which never stops for a second.” In March 1915, after repeated attempts to enlist, the 40-year-old Ravel became a private, driving a truck in the Thirteenth Army Regiment.
Ravel’s affinity for Javanese music is clearly audible in the Trio, which uses a pentatonic (five-note) scale found in Indonesian gamelan music as its foundation. Ravel combines this non-Western scale with rhythms commonly found in the Basque music of his heritage. The Modéré, which Ravel characterized as “Basque in color” features 8/8 time (eighth notes in 3+3+2 groupings). As a result, the phrases float through the modal harmonies in a liquid manner, even when rhythmically intense. In the Passacaille, Ravel pays homage to J. S. Bach. The austere repeating bass line anchors some of the Trio’s most personal, impassioned music—we can indeed hear Ravel “sobbing over his sharps and flats.”
—© Elizabeth Schwartz
Artists
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Ian David Rosenbaum
Percussion
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Praised for his “spectacular performances” (Wall Street Journal), and his “unfailing virtuosity” (Chicago Tribune), Grammy-nominated percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum has developed a musical breadth far beyond his years.
As a passionate advocate for contemporary music, Mr. Rosenbaum has premiered over one hundred new chamber and solo works. He has collaborated with and championed the music of established and emerging composers alike.
Mr. Rosenbaum was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 2021 for his performances on albums of music by Andy Akiho and Christopher Cerrone, including two nominations for Seven Pillars, an album by Sandbox Percussion released on Aki Rhythm Productions, a record label that Mr. Rosenbaum and Mr. Akiho founded in 2021.
In 2012, Mr. Rosenbaum joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two) as only the second percussionist they have selected in their history, and has performed regularly with CMS since then.
Mr. Rosenbaum is a founding member of Sandbox Percussion, the Percussion Collective, and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. He has recorded for the Bridge, Innova, Naxos, and Starkland labels, and is on faculty at the Mannes School of Music and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Mr. Rosenbaum endorses Pearl/Adams instruments, Vic Firth mallets, and Remo drumheads.
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Gloria Chien
Piano & Artistic Director
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Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters. The following year she was appointed director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a position she held for the next decade.
In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became artistic directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon in 2020. They were named recipients of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021 for their efforts during the pandemic.
Most recently, Gloria was named Advisor of the newly launched Institute for Concert Artists at the New England Conservatory of Music. Gloria released two albums—her Gloria Chien LIVE from the Music@Menlo LIVE label and Here With You with acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill on Cedille Records.
Gloria received her bachelor, master’s, and doctoral degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
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Benjamin Beilman
Violin
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Benjamin Beilman is one of the leading violinists of his generation. He has won international praise for his passionate performances and deep, rich tone which The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence”, and The Strad described as “pure poetry.“ Le Monde has described him as “a prodigious artist, who combines the gift of utmost sound perfection and a deep, delicate, intense, simmering sensitivity”.
Benjamin’s 2024/25 season includes his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko on tour in the US, and returns to the Chicago, Cincinnati, and Antwerp symphonies. He also makes his debut with the Belgian National Orchestra the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony. He will also tour with pianist Steven Osborne across the US.
In recent seasons, Beilman’s commitment to and passion for contemporary music has led to new works written for him by Frederic Rzewski, Gabriella Smith, and a concerto by Chris Rogerson. He has also given multiple performances of Jennifer Higdon’s violin concerto, and recorded Thomas Larcher’s concerto with Hannu Lintu and the Tonkünstler Orchester.
He has received many prestigious accolades including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a London Music Masters Award. He has also recorded works by Stravinsky, Janáček, and Schubert for Warner Classics. In 2022, he became one of the youngest artists to be appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music.
He performs with the ex-Balaković F. X. Tourte bow (c. 1820), and plays the “Ysaÿe” Guarneri del Gesù from 1740, generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
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Efe Baltacigil
Cello
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Turkish cellist Efe Baltacigil finished his undergraduate studies in Istanbul, Turkey, before attending the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. During his last year of study, at the age of 23, he won the Associate Principal Cello position at the famous Philadelphia Orchestra.
Since 2011, he has held the position of Principal Cellist at the Seattle Symphony, and has appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony. Efe has had recital and concerto debuts in Carnegie Hall and has been a senior member of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont since 2017.
Efe performed as a soloist for Seattle Symphony’s 2022 Opening Night Gala and will play Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto with them in October 2023.
Besides music and his family, Efe enjoys windsurfing, sailing, drawing, and volleypong.
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Vijay Gupta
Violin
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Vijay Gupta is a violinist, speaker and citizen-artist dedicated to creating spaces of wholeness through music. Vijay’s work embodies his belief that the work of artists and citizens is one: to make a sadhana – a daily practice – of the world we envision. Hailed by The New Yorker as a “visionary violinist…one of the most radical thinkers in the unradical world of American classical music,” Vijay leads a protean career as a thought leader, performer, collaborator and communicator.
Vijay is the founder and Artistic Director of Street Symphony, a community of musicians creating spaces of connection for people in reentry from homelessness, addiction and incarceration in Los Angeles. Vijay is also a co-founder of the Skid Row Arts Alliance, a consortium dedicated to creating art for – and with – the largest homeless community in America. For his work in “bringing beauty, respite, and purpose to those all too often ignored by society”, Vijay was the recipient of a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship.
A riveting speaker, Vijay has shared his work with dozens of corporations, campuses, conferences and communities across America over the past 10 years, including The Richmond Forum, The Aspen Institute, Hallmark, Accenture, Mayo Clinic, US Psychiatric Congress, American Planning Association, and the League of American Orchestras, just to name a few. Vijay delivered the 33rd annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy for Americans for the Arts and his 2010 TED Talk, “Music is Medicine, Music is Sanity”, has garnered millions of views.
Vijay has performed as an international recitalist, soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician for over 20 years, playing his solo debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta. Vijay was a member of the first violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 12 years, and has collaborated with the Kronos Quartet, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Yo-Yo Ma, and appears regularly with the Strings Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
A dynamic recording artist, Vijay recently released Breathe, an album of the piano chamber music of Reena Esmail, under his own label. His solo violin album When the Violin, a solo violin album featuring the music of Esmail, J. S. Bach, and Esa-Pekka Salonen will be available on Bandcamp in June 2021. Vijay currently serves as the Senior Artistic and Programs Advisor for Young Musicians Foundation. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Marist College, and a Master’s in Music from the Yale School of Music. His principal teachers have included Ani Kavafian and Glenn Dicterow. Vijay plays a 2010 violin made by Los Angeles-based luthier Eric Benning, and can be found on Instagram @guptaviolin.
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Ellen Hwangbo
Piano
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Lauded as an “excellent pianist” (Daily Gazette) and “amazing … young talent” (Silicon Valley Insider), Ellen Hwangbo is known for her “harmony, energy and elegance” and her ability to deliver “truly potent and dramatic” experiences (Rutland Herald) that leave her audiences “wanting to hear more” (Times Union). A top-prize winner of the Music Teachers National Association’s National Young Artist Competition in 2006, she has performed to great acclaim across Asia, Europe, and North America.
As a spirited chamber musician, Ellen is renowned for her “wonderful interplay” with colleagues (Rye News), and broad range of expression from “moody sobriety” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) to “bold exuberance” (Daily Gazette). She has performed with world-renowned musicians such as Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Soovin Kim, Roger Tapping, Colin Carr, William Sharp, Eduardo Leandro, and Lucy Shelton, among others. Ellen’s passion for sparking new and exciting connections through chamber music led her to found Constellations Chamber Concerts, a DC-based concert series, where she has served as Artistic Director since 2019. As an engaged advocate for new music, she has worked directly with composers David Ludwig, William Bolcom, Stefano Gervasoni, Jörg Widmann, Brett Dean, and many others, including for several world premieres and recordings.
Ellen began her piano studies with Peter Cooper and continued with Logan Skelton at the University of Michigan, graduating summa cum laude. She received her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from SUNY Stony Brook, where she studied under luminary pedagogue Gilbert Kalish.