Contempo: the Young and Brilliant

CONTEMPO: THE YOUNG AND BRILLIANT

Talea Ensemble returns for performances of young international talent

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 29, 2017

PHOTOS

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PRESS CONTACT

Amy Iwano

Executive Director

University of Chicago Presents

773.702.8068

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CHICAGO — Contempo, the University of Chicago's renowned contemporary music collective, opens its 53rd season with The Young and Brilliant, performed by Talea Ensemble.The concert will take place on Friday, October 27, 2017, in the Performance Hall of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.

The program showcases works by composers from five different countries under the age of 40 whose music has already been performed at major international contemporary music festivals.

There will be a talk with the artists and Seth Brodsky, Assistant Professor of Music and the Humanities, at 6:30 PM.

Contempo: THE YOUNG AND BRILLIANT

10.27.17 FRI

6:30 PM – pre-concert talk with the artists and Seth Brodsky

7:30 PM - concert

Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts

915 E. 60th Street| University of Chicago campus

Talea Ensemble

Alice Teyssier, soprano

James Baker, conductor

Vito ŽurajFramed(2011)

(b. 1979, Maribor, Slovenia)[flute, oboe, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello]

Justyna Kowalska-LasonA Light exists in Spring(2005)

(b. 1985, Katowice, Poland)[string quartet plus electronics]

Nicolai WorsaaeWaWV (2014)

(b. 1980, Copenhagen)[soprano, clarinet, percussion, double bass, electronics]

Christian MasonNoctilucence(2009)

(b. 1984, London)[flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, two violins, viola, cello]

Ondřej AdámekÇa tourne ça bloque(2007)

(b. 1979, Prague)[flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, percussion, piano/sampler, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, electronics]

Powerful and meticulously crafted compositions, tailor-made for the performers and often including scenic elements and spatial sound concepts, are characteristic of VitoŽuraj’s work. Born in Maribor, Slovenia, in 1979, his works have quickly gained recognition at major concert halls and festivals, interpreted among others by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, and the RIAS Kammerchor.

Žuraj has been honored with several prizes, including the city of Stuttgart’s composition award and the Prešeren Award, the highest decoration for artists in Slovenia. In 2014 he was invited to be a fellow at the Villa Massimo in Rome, the Berlin Academy of Arts and the ZKM Karlsruhe. He was awarded the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize in spring 2016 by the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Orchestra Academy. The prize includes a commission for a work for soprano, piano and instrumental groups that will be premiered in November 2017.

Composer, flutist, pianist, and improviser Justyna Kowalska-Lason recently completed her studies with the highest distinction at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. Throughout her work, she collaborates with others to investigate the possibilities of linking music and art.Her works have been honored with numerous awards and nominations, including the prestigious Polish Public Media OPUS Award and the Artur Malawski Composition Competition prize, and she has received commissions including from the Mozarteum and Festival of Harps in Salzburg and the 5th Festival of Polish Music in Krakow. Her music has been performed during the II International Days of Young Composers and Performers in Kraków, at the Polish-Lithuanian open air fine arts-compositional meeting in Istebna, at the Summer Music Festival in Rycerka Górna (Poland), during the ‘Dialogues’ International Festival in Minsk, Belarus, in the Kiev International Festival of Young Composers, during the Festival of Premiers in Katowice, Festival of Harps in Salzburg, Festival of Polish Music in Kraków, and others.

As an improviser, Kowalska-Lason collaborates with instrumentalists, composers, improvisers, and jazzmen such as Matthias Mainz (with Ensemble realtime research from Germany) and composer Richard Ortmann. In 2006 she co-founded the electronic-improvisation music group, AI Players.

Nicolai Worsaae studied composition from 2002-2010 at The Royal Danish Academy of Music with professor Bent Sørensen and Hans Abrahamsen and further studies abroad at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz with professor Beat Furrer from 2008-09. Nicolai Worsaae’s music has been performed by some of the finest ensembles specialized in contemporary music such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Recherche, Arditti string quartet, London Sinfonietta, Oslo Sinfonietta, and he worked as composer in residence for the Danish Ensemble Figura from 2013-15. He is one of the founders of the composers collective Dygong and Pliiingg. Both groups work with alternative ways of curating and making concerts, searching after new and experimental forms in order to present contemporary music in an always surprising context.

Christian Mason defines composition as “searching in sound for fleeting solidifications of intangible experiences;” his music, which combines an emotional aspiration to radiance with a sensitivity to natural resonance, has been commissioned, performed and broadcast internationally. His work, Open to Infinity: a Grain of Sand, was co-commissioned for Pierre Boulez’s 90th birthday by the Lucerne Festival and the BBC PROMS. Current commissions include a percussion sextet for the opening season of the Asian Arts Theatre in Gwangju, South Korea; music for ensemble with audience participation co-produced by the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Asko/Schönberg and Remix Ensemble; works for the Münich Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra, and an opera organized by the Royal Opera House.

Christian was previously a Resident-Composer at the Lucerne Festival Academy. His works have been performed as part of the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, and his music has been heard in Tokyo, Paris, Freiburg, London, Amsterdam, and Madrid, performed by Carolin Widmann, Midori, Jean-Guihen Queyras, the London Symphony, and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestras, to name a few.

A Composer in Residence at Eton College in 2014/15, Christian previously worked as Composition Assistant to Sir Harrison Birtwistle and continues to teach on the LSO Panufnik Young Composers Project. He read Music at the University of York before pursuing a Ph.D at King’s College London with George Benjamin, 2008-12. Christian is the founding co-Artistic Director of the Octandre Ensemble.

Ondřej Adámek has received commissions for orchestral, choir, ensemble, and vocal works from prestigious ensembles and festivals of contemporary music in Europe including the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Diotima string quartet, Donaueschingen Festival, Warsaw Autumn, among others. The winner of many composition prizes, Adámek was composer-in-residence in Villa Medici Rome in 2014-15. He works as a conductor with Ensemble Moderne, Oslo Sinfonietta, among others.

Adámek seeks out special playing techniques for classical instruments, creates new original instruments, and obtains a very specific sound color that, together with a powerful rhythmic and solid formal architecture, results in very personal music with strong dramatic aspect.

TICKETS

Tickets are $25 reserved seating / $20 under 35 / $10 students.

Contempo subscriptions and single tickets are available at UChicago Arts Box Office, Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street. Call 773.702.ARTS or visit tickets.uchicago.edu.

Go to contempo.uchicago.eduto learn more about Contempo events and history.

ABOUT TALEA ENSEMBLE

The Talea Ensemble is committed to promoting new, groundbreaking music through innovative programming thereby communicating the distinctive voices of composers that deserve to be heard. By commissioning and programming these progressive works alongside the established literature of modern and contemporary repertoire, the ensemble creates a dialogue that challenges the boundaries of music and fosters a greater understanding of the works of today. Additionally, the Talea Ensembles wishes to support and advance familiarity with contemporary American works by bringing it to concert halls and venues not in only in New York but also abroad. By developing an interactive relationship between the composers, performers and audience, the Talea Ensemble builds an environment of reciprocal inspiration that sparks the imagination of all.

Essential to the Talea Ensemble is not only the process of introducing new work to the world of new music, but also introducing new music to the world. As advocates for this canon of music, the Talea Ensemble aims to increase the awareness and understanding of contemporary music through academic residencies, outreach concerts in addition to performances, projects and workshops for broad audiences. The ensemble believes that bringing people of diverse backgrounds to a common place fuels rich discourses of the arts and creativity while creating a platform for a greater understanding of each other.

Born in Australia to French parents and a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music as well as the Conservatoire de Strasbourg, soprano Alice Teyssierhas appeared as a soloist with the San Diegeo Symphony, International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, the San Francisco New Music Players,Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the Bach Collegium San Diego (among others). She is a regular guest to theMonday Evening Concertsseries in Los Angeles, where she has premiered numerous works - from Salvatore Sciarrino to Cassandra Miller. Performing on all continents, her mission is to share lesser-known masterpieces and develop a rich and vibrant repertoire that reflects our era.

ABOUT CONTEMPO

Dedicated exclusively to the performance of new music, the University of Chicago’s Contempo—formerly known as the Contemporary Chamber Players—is one of the most successful new music collectives in the nation, with an enviable reputation for outstanding performances of music by living composers.The 2017/18 season marks Contempo’s 53rd seasonand its third underartistic director Marta Ptaszyńska.

ABOUT THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Marta Ptaszyńska is one of the best internationally-known Polish composers today. She is the author of such works as the Concerto for Marimba, Winter’s Tale, Sonnets to Orpheus, and Moon Flowers, as well as numerous compositions for percussion (Siderals, Graffito, Spider Walk, Space Model, Letter to the Sun) which have been performed frequently around the world. Ptaszyńska has received commissions from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Polish Chamber Orchestra, and Sinfonia Varsovia, from the National Opera in Warsaw, Polish television, and from chamber ensembles including the Pacifica and Wilanow string quartets, Warsaw Wind Quintet, Motion Trio, and from artists such as Ewa Podles, Keiko Abe, and Evelyn Glennie. She is the composer of four critically acclaimed operas – Oscar of Alva, Mister Marimba, Magic Doremik, and The Lovers of the Valldemosa Monastery, the latter having been commissioned by the Grand Opera Theatre in Lodz, Poland, for the 2010 Chopin Bicentennial. Her Holocaust Memorial Cantata gained international recognition from several performances in 1993 under the baton of Lord Yehudi Menuhin.

Ptaszyńska has been honored with many prizes and awards, including from the Guggenheim Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fromm Music Foundation, Union of Polish Composers, and the Polish Ministry of Culture. In 1995, she received the “Officer Cross of Merit” of the Republic of Poland. Her music has been performed at prestigious international festivals, including the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Salzburg Festival, Warsaw Autumn International Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and others.

She holds Master of Arts degrees in composition, music theory, and percussion performance from the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland, and an Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music.

She has taught composition at many educational institutions including the Chopin Academy of Music, Bennington College, the University of California in Berkeley and in Santa Barbara, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, and Northwestern University. In 1998 Ptaszyńska was appointed a Professor of Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago. Since 2005 she holds an endowed chair and is Helen & Frank Sulzberger Professor in Composition.

Her music is published by PWM (Polish Music Publications) in Poland and by Theodore Presser in the U.S. Her works are recorded on many various labels around the world (CD Accord-Universal, Muza Polish Records, Olympia, Chandos, Dux, ProViva, and Bayers Records.

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We are grateful to all of our supporters and partners, including:

UChicago Presents

Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts

UChicago Arts

Piccolo Mondo

Contempo and its artist residencies are generously supported by the Catherine L. Dobson Music Fund, the Amy and David Fulton Fund, the Claire Dux Swift Music Endowment Fund and the Lowell and Elita Wadmond Endowment in Music.

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