NEW@NIGHT: McGill, Goodyear & Catalyst
This dynamite program of new music by a diversity of composers leaps to the moment with Ad Anah? (How Long?) by James Lee III, and Adolphus Hailstork’s The Blue Bag—a piece dedicated to clarinetist Anthony McGill, and inspired by jazz greats Nancy Wilson, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, and Aretha Franklin. The evening leads with Catalyst Quartet, McGill, and pianist Stewart Goodyear, and ends in the fireworks of the Catalysts playing 11 new miniature string quartets!
The Armory, at Portland Center Stage
Wednesday, 7/12 • 6:00 pm PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- STEWART GOODYEAR Piano Sonata (1997)
STEWART GOODYEAR Piano Sonata (1997)
I.
II.
III.I premiered my piano sonata, composed when I was 18, at my graduation piano recital at the Curtis Institute of Music. As my Callaloo suite for piano and orchestra was composed in response to my first Carnival, the piano sonata was inspired by my high school prom and the music of my age group. As this was a teenage work, my youthful exuberance also wanted to pull out all the stops and create the most difficult piano work ever composed. This sonata is therefore a combination of piano virtuosity, a paean to the sonata form, and the popular music I heard in 1996.
The first movement sonata-allegro combines tonality and atonality, 12-tone techniques and techno music. The slow second movement is another ballad, this time inspired by the smooth pop music I heard while slow-dancing with my date. The third movement Rondo is a celebration of Toronto, and incorporates rock, Canadian folk song, Indian singing, and Latin infused music.
- Stewart Goodyear
- ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK “The Blue Bag” (2011)
ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK The Blue Bag (2011)
A recent work from 2011, The Blue Bag was composed for no less a light in the clarinet world than Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic. Says Hailstork, “In the back of my mind, I carried the images and music making of four classy-sassy ladies of song: Nancy Wilson, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, and Aretha Franklin.”
- JAMES LEE III “Ad Anah? (How Long?)” (2015)
JAMES LEE III Ad Anah? (How Long?) (2015)
James Lee III was born in Michigan in 1975. His major composition teachers include William Bolcom, Susan Botti and James Aikman. He was a composition fellow at Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2002, where he studied with Osvaldo Golijov and Kaija Saariaho. Mr. Lee’s works have been performed by orchestras including The National Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Lee, who earned a DMA in composition at the University of Michigan in 2005, is a Professor of Music at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.
This beautiful composition, Ad Anah? means “How Long?” It is based on a Hebrew Prayer, and in the words of Anthony McGill before a recent performance, this short song reflects “...what we’re going through in this time…the struggle.”
—Friends of Chamber Music, Denver
- CQ MINUTE: 11 new miniature string quartets (2022)
CQ MINUTE: 11 new miniature string quartets (2022) (19’)
The Catalyst Quartet believes that art can thrive in the digital age, and be a continued source of inspiration and innovation. In commemoration of our 10th anniversary we commissioned nine diverse composers and held a national competition focused on promoting new and emerging talent. The submissions were so good that we picked two winners in the spirit of looking ahead. These pieces exist both as stand alone compositions and as a collective, and will be featured as ten individually unique music videos comprising one Video Album— better representing the way most people experience music today. The CQminute collection is also presented in a full length program that celebrates the String Quartet and the journey of our first decade together, featuring the works of Papa Haydn, Terry Riley, Anton Webern, and John Cage.
1. Con Brio - KISHI BASHI (b. 1975)
2. The Face of Past Regret - BILLY CHILDS (b.1957)
3. Build - JESSIE MONTGOMERY (b.1981)
4. But, Just a Minute?! - PAQUITO D’RIVERA (b. 1948)
5. Presidio - ANDY AKIHO (b. 1979)
6. Emerge - KEVIN PUTS (b. 1972)
7. A short flight - JOAN TOWER (b.1938)
8. Lo infinito - ANGELICA NEGRÓN (b.1981)
9. Bittersweet synonym - CAROLINE SHAW (b. 1982)
CQ Minute Competition Winners
10. Time Capsule - NICK REVEL (b.1986)
11. A future in process - PAUL MEKAILIAN (b. 1998)
Artists
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Stewart Goodyear
Composer & Piano
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Proclaimed “a phenomenon” by the Los Angeles Times and “one of the best pianists of his generation” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished concert pianist, improviser, and composer. Mr. Goodyear has performed with, and has been commissioned by, many of the major orchestras and chamber music organizations around the world.
Last year, Orchid Classics released Mr. Goodyear’s recording of his suite for piano and orchestra, Callaloo, and his piano sonata. His recent commissions include works for violinist Miranda Cuckson, cellist Inbal Segev, the Penderecki String Quartet, the Horszowski Trio, the Honens Piano Competition, and the Chineke! Foundation.
Mr. Goodyear’s discography includes the complete sonatas and piano concertos of Beethoven, as well as concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, and Rachmaninov, an album of Ravel piano works, and an album entitled For Glenn Gould, which combines repertoire from Mr. Gould’s U.S. and Montreal debuts. His recordings have been released on the Marquis Classics, Orchid Classics, Bright Shiny Things, and Steinway and Sons labels. His newest recording, Adolphus Hailstork’s Piano Concerto with the Buffalo Philharmonic under JoAnn Falletta, was released in March 2023 on the Naxos label.
Highlights for the 2024-25 season are his performances at the BBC Proms with the Chineke! Orchestra, performances at the Rheingau Musik Festival, and performances with the Vancouver and Toronto Symphonies, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, Frankfurt Museumgesellschaft, and A Far Cry in Boston.
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Anthony McGill
Clarinet
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Hailed for his “trademark brilliance, penetrating sound, and rich character” (The New York Times), clarinetist Anthony McGill enjoys a dynamic international solo and chamber music career and is principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic—the first African American principal player in the organization’s history. He is the recipient of the 2020 Avery Fisher Prize, one of classical music’s most significant awards.
McGill appears as a soloist with top orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, and the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. He performed alongside Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gabriela Montero at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, premiering a piece by John Williams. As a chamber musician, McGill is a collaborator of the Brentano, Daedalus, Guarneri, JACK, Miró, Pacifica, Shanghai, Takács, and Tokyo Quartets, and performs with leading artists including Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, Gloria Chien, Yefim Bronfman, Gil Shaham, Midori, Mitsuko Uchida, and Lang Lang.
He serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School and is the Artistic Director for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program. He holds the William R. and Hyunah Yu Brody Distinguished Chair at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 2020, McGill’s #TakeTwoKnees campaign protesting the death of George Floyd and historic racial injustice went viral.
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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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Catalyst Quartet
String Quartet
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Karla Donehew Perez, violin
Abi Fayette, violin
Paul Laraia, viola
Karlos Rodriguez, cello“Like all great chamber groups, the Catalyst Quartet is beautiful to watch, like a family in lively conversation at the dinner table: anticipating, interrupting, changing subjects.”
The New York Times, August 5, 2020Hailed by The New York Times at its Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished…playing with earthy vigor,” the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble (Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) believes in the unity that can be achieved through music and imagine their programs and projects with this in mind, redefining and reimagining the classical music experience.
Catalyst Quartet has toured widely throughout the United States and abroad, including sold-out performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., at Chicago’s Harris Theater, Miami’s New World Center, and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. The Quartet has been guest artists with the Cincinnati Symphony, New Haven Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, and served as principal players and featured ensemble with the Sphinx Virtuosi on six national tours. They have been invited to perform by prominent music festivals ranging from Mainly Mozart in San Diego, to the Sitka Music Festival and Juneau Jazz and Classics in Alaska, and the Grand Canyon Music Festival, where they appear annually. Catalyst Quartet was Ensemble-in-Residence at the Vail Dance Festival in 2016. In 2014, they opened the Festival del Sole in Napa, California, performing with Joshua Bell, and as part of the Aldeburgh Music Foundation String Quartet Residency gave two performances in the Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh, UK.
International engagements have brought them to Russia, South Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, along with regular concert tours throughout the United States and Canada. Residents of New York City, the ensemble has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where they were named Quartet-in-Residence for the MetLiveArts 2022-23 Season, City Center, Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, The New School (for Schneider Concerts), and Lincoln Center. They played six concerts with jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant for Jazz at Lincoln Center. The subsequent recording won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. They are 2023 Artists-in-Residence with Chamber Music Northwest.
Recent programs and collaborations have included Encuentros with cellist Gabriel Cabezas; (im)igration, with the Imani Winds; and CQ Minute, 11 miniature string quartets commissioned for the quartet’s 10th anniversary, including works by Billy Childs, Paquito D’Rivera, Jessie Montgomery, Kevin Puts, Caroline Shaw, and Joan Tower. UNCOVERED, a multi-CD project for Azica Records celebrates important works by composers sidelined because of their race or gender. Volume 1 with clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Stewart Goodyear includes music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Volume 2 with pianist Michelle Cann features music of Florence Price; it was nominated for “Recording of the Year 2022” by Limelight Magazine, Australia. Volume 3, released in February 2023 features music of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, George Walker, and William Grant Still. Uncovered is also the focus of live concerts performed throughout the US including Uncovered series with San Francisco Performances in 2021-22 and their Pivot festival in 2023.
Catalyst Quartet’s other recordings span the ensemble’s scope of interests and artistry. The Bach/Gould Project pairs the Quartet’s arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations with Glenn Gould’s String Quartet Op. 1. Strum is the debut album of composer Jessie Montgomery, former Catalyst Quartet violinist. Bandaneon y cuerdas features tango-inspired music for string quartet and bandoneon by JP Jofre, and Dreams and Daggers is their Grammy-winning album with Cecile McLorin Salvant.
Catalyst Quartet combines a serious commitment to diversity and education with a passion for contemporary works. The ensemble serves as principal faculty at the Sphinx Performance Academy at the Juilliard School, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Curtis Institute of Music. Catalyst Quartet’s ongoing residencies include interactive performance presentations and workshops with Native American student composers at the Grand Canyon Music Festival and the Sphinx Organization’s Overture program, which delivers access to music education in Detroit and Flint, Michigan. Past residencies have included concerts and masterclasses at the University of Michigan, University of Washington, Rice University, Houston’s Society for the Performing Arts, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, The Virginia Arts Festival, Pennsylvania State University, the In Harmony Project in England, University of South Africa, and The Teatro De Bellas Artes in Cali, Colombia. The ensemble’s residency in Havana, Cuba, for the Cuban American Youth Orchestra in January 2019, was the first by an American string quartet since the revolution.
Catalyst Quartet members hold degrees from The Cleveland Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, The Curtis Institute of Music, and New England Conservatory. Catalyst Quartet is a Sphinx ensemble and proudly endorses Pirastro strings.