PERFORMANCES

Shortly after they record it, the Gloriosa Trio (Eric Silberger, Violin; Kevin Bate, Cello; Yoonie Han, Piano)  will perform my Vinea Gloriosa - composed for them - on a popular lunchtime series.  Also on the program, music of Karen LeFrak, Piazzolla, and Saint Saens.  I wish I could be there!  

Nonghyun - a string quintet embedding a traditional Korean gayageum in a Western string quartet - will have its Korean premiere, presented by Ensemble TIMF, in Seoul.  With all the instruments playing pizzicato for the most part, the ensemble becomes a giant gayageum.  Ji Aeri, the gayageum virtuoso for whom I composed the piece, will play, following her premiere of the work last October, on the Pacific Rim Music Festival with the Borromeo String Quartet.  

Mudang was the first of my works embracing the influence of Korean gugak music, and a traditional gugak instrument, the piri.  I composed it in two versions simultaneously - for piri with string quartet, and for piri with cello.  The latter version, heard before in Europe and Korea, makes its US debut on the venerable Washington Square Contemporary Music Society series.  Gamin, the incomparable artist for whom I composed Mudang, will perform with the redoubtable cellist Chris Gross.

I'm thrilled to return to West Virginia, after last spring's performances of my Sinfonietta by the West Virginia Symphony, for the Montclaire String Quartet playing my String Quartet No 2, Intimations and Incarnations.  Composed in 2000 and revised in 2014, inspired by a mural by John LaFarge,it's among my most passionately spiritual pieces.  And it's sandwiched between Mozart and Brahms.  Promises to be quite an afternoon!  

Pianist Kris Carlisle is touring with a program called "The American Evolution: Programmatic Music for Piano," featuring among many recent American works, my Fumee d'amber-gris - the middle of three pieces in my suite Sargent's Women, inspired by the painting shown below.  Kris is the first pianist other than Yoonie Han - for whom I composed the suite - to play this piece.  One of his recitals will be at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, which takes place January 10-12, 2019.  The exact date and time of the concert will be announced in December.  

In a powerful educational and musical experience, the South Dakota Symphony Youth Orchestra, led by conductor Thomas Fortner, will perform a movement of my Sinfonietta with the first-chair string players of the South Dakota Symphony sitting in.  They will play the fourth movement (of five) titled "The Lantern," inspired by an image from the Sufi poet Hafez: a lantern with galaxies blooming inside!  The SDSO co-commissioned and premiered my Sinfonietta in 2017, but this is the first time the youth orchestra - or any youth orchestra - has attempted any of it, and I can't wait!  This is all part of my Music Alive residency with the SDSO, which extends through June 2019.

A milestone in my Music Alive Residency with the South Dakota Symphony will be the premiere of Wind of Many Voices  in the summer of 2018.   The new work is inspired by the lands and peoples of South Dakota, especially by the weeks I have spent on reservations working with young Native American composers. I have had many meals and adventures with members of the South Dakota Symphony.  I look forward with humble admiration to realizing this work with them and with visionary music director Delta David Gier.  

Chimera - a mythical beast combining different animal parts into something monstrous - is the title of my new work for haegeum and cello.  It's my third chamber work combining gugak instruments, from traditional Korean music, with Western instruments.  I composed it for two superstars - Soo Yeon Lyuh and Ashley Bathgate - and it's become the cornerstone of a new repertory, as they have recruited more composers to the cause.  This concert will mark the premieres of five new works, including Chimera, and I'm thrilled that it's taking place at the Freer Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, which focuses on Asian art.

Yoonie Han brings her signature performance of my piano suite Sargent's Women to the Sacramento State Piano Series.

Yoonie Han brings her signature performance of my piano suite Sargent's Women to the Morgan Library and Museum to mark the exhibition John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal.  I will join her onstage to discuss the alchemical process through which visual art - three of Sargent's images of iconic women - can become music. For the occasion, Ms. Han's outstanding group the Gloriosa Trio will also perform - music of Faure and Debussy.  It promises to be a magical evening.