Composers Centennial Concert: Program Notes

The following are notes on some of the selections.

Crossing by Ryan MacEvoy-McCullough

Ryan MacEvoy-McCullough

A 4-channel piece utilizing sounds that are either pre-recorded samples from a piano (playing anything but the keys), a mason jar, a mason jar used on the piano, and a simulated analog synthesizer. All the material has been digitally edited as if I were writing this using tape reels.

Reflections in Time (2013/14) by Brian Post
performed by Elisabeth Harrington (voice) and John Chernoff (piano.)

 1. Trees - Poetry by Eric Barker
 2. Blue Heron - Poetry by Reg White
 3. Revenant – Poetry by Reg White
 4. A Firmer Grasp Of The Obvious - Poetry by Jim Dodge
 5. The Way Things Work - Poetry by Jorie Graham

Composed to commemorate the Humboldt State Centennial. The poems were chosen to reflect elements of Humboldt State University and Humboldt County that were important to many people who have lived here for the last century and will continue to be drawn here in the future.

Caged Bells #2 (2013/14) by J. Brian Post
performed by Daniela Mineva (carillon)
 Written specifically for a miniature carillon designed by John Cage and built by HSU music technicians, this piece is performed with an electronically enhanced recording of chanting Tibetan monks. The recordings represent the pursuit of enlightenment and the carillon represents the achievement of enlightenment.

Piano Rhubarb for violin, alto saxophone and piano by Halim Beere
Mr. Distinguished for violin, alto saxophone, piano and pre-recorded electronics by Dante De Silva
Nocturne by John Chernoff. 

Vipisa Trio

These three pieces will be performed by the Vipisa Trio: Cindy Moyers (violin), Virginia Ryder (saxophone and clarinet) and John Chernoff (piano.)

Halim Beere is an HSU graduate in violin performance and composition.  He is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois.
John Chernoff is the staff accompanist at HSU.
Dante De Silva studied composition at HSU for his B.A., UC Santa Cruz for his M.A. and UCLA for his Ph.D. He was the composer-in-residence with the Definiens Project (2005-2007) and the Tonoi Ensemble (2006-2007).

Three Dot Flourish (2002) by Gil Cline
performed by members of the Humboldt Bay Brass Band.
 “Everyone knows the genre “fanfare” so I’ve had some fun devising my own “mini-genre,” the “Flourish.” Whereas a fanfare usually kicks off some event, a flourish has potential not only for that but also for ending some segment, or even as an encore. The short, snappy Three Dot Flourish was written and performed by Brass Consort von Humboldt in 2003 in San Francisco at Grace Cathedral for Herb Caen Days. BCvH specialized in the early brass, including the true natural trumpet of the baroque. We have acquired a set of copies of the 1667 London trumpet by Simon Beale, which we use tonight. Using modern quartal/quintal tones, the music includes a three-dot motif inspired by Caen’s musings in his weekly columns.

 Clok Tok (2007) by Gil Cline
 “Clok Tok” was written for The HSU Commencement Brass Choir, responding to the need for “stretch / filler” while waiting to play the processional Pomp & Circumstance. We accomplish that via improvised, jazz soloing over a straight-beat groove, while using the performance technique, so well-suited to brass, called “bell tones.” The clock reference is partly to passing the time, and also to the talking of the crowd; but mainly to the HSU Quad clock chimes. Everyone on campus knows the hourly clock bell tower theme, that of Big Ben, sounded throughout the day!

INTENTIONS for Percussion Trio (1983/1990) by Eugene Novotney
 Mvt. I. Assumption
 Mvt. II. Proposal
 Mvt. III. Function
Mvt. IV. Design
Performed by Neil Bost, Tyler Burkhart, Hector Diaz.

Composed in 1983 at the University of Illinois while I was a composition student of Ben Johnston, and dedicated to the Percussion Group of Cincinnati. The skills demanded by this composition require the performers to spend many hours expanding their technique on auxiliary percussion instruments that are often considered to be only instruments of coloration. The composition was intended to defy the pre-conceived limits and expose the extended techniques and timbral possibilities of three of my favorite instruments - the triangle, the tambourine, and the piatti.

                                       photo by David Fung

Ryan’s Return to HSU: Ryan MacEvoy McCullough in Benefit Concert


Fresh from playing Rhapsody in Blue with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and being named the University of Southern California Thorton School of Music’s outstanding graduate of 2011, North Coast favorite son Ryan MacEvoy McCullough returns to HSU for a solo piano concert on Friday, May 27.

“It's my first solo concert at HSU in several years,” he said, “and I'm really excited to be playing at home.”

With an audience likely to include people who have known him since childhood or as an HSU student, McCullough looks forward to displaying his progress as a pianist. “I've worked very hard these six years I've been living outside Humboldt, so even if playing at home represents the lowest pressure professionally, it means the most to me personally.”

In addition to works by Beethoven, Debussy and Franz Lizst, his concert will include a piano sonata by another HSU graduate and his good friend, Dante De Silva. It is subtitled “Arcata,” because it is the composer’s response to moving there from southern California. “He wrote a large chunk of this piece while renting the downstairs living space at my mom’s house in Bayside,” McCullough noted. At HSU both Ryan and Dante were students of pianist and professor Deborah Clasquin.

As the concert finale, pianist and HSU professor Daniela Mineva will join McCullough for a two-piano piece by contemporary composer John Adams called Hallelujah Junction. “It's a fantastically joyous piece,” McCullough said, “and a great way to end what I think is going to be a fun and interesting program.”

Proceeds from this Fulkerson Recital Hall concert will go towards bringing other guest pianists to HSU. This past year the piano program hosted celebrated artists Natalya Antonova, Pamela Mia Paul and Fang Zhang. Additional contributions are also gratefully accepted.

Ryan MacEvoy McCullough performs a rare local solo piano concert on Friday May 27 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. $10/$5 from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Produced by HSU Music Department.


Media: Humboldt State Now, Tri-City Weekly, Arcata Eye, North Coast Journal, Humboldt Beacon.



                                                 photo by David Fung


Artist's Commentary

As sometimes happens, this program assumed a unique theme, which always pleases me. The theme of this recital is different kinds of travel.

The program begins with a work by the 19th century piano virtuoso Franz Liszt: his Sonetto 123 del Petrarca (or the 123rd sonnet after Petrarch), transcribed for piano from a song for baritone and piano he had written in the 1830s. It was included in a set of works called the Years of Pilgrimage, which was essentially a travelogue of his life as a touring performer. This piece was specifically included in the set about Italy, which is probably the most well known of the three (each "book" is about a different place).

Next is a work by Claude Debussy-- Estampes, a set of three "prints" (literally, "stamps") was written in 1905. This work is also a sort of travelogue, though more an imagined kind. Debussy never really travelled outside France.  He never even made it to Spain, yet the second movement from this set is probably the most famous example of Spanish music written at that time. The first movement is about Southeast Asia, so you can imagine how much of a stretch that would have been for this isolated Frenchman. Travel here is approached more as an abstract idea, without any obvious emotional connection to the composer's own life.

Concluding the first half of the program is Dante De Silva's Piano Sonata no. 1, appropriately subtitled "Arcata." Dante is a good friend of mine.  He wrote a large chunk of this piece in 2007 while renting the downstairs living space at my mom's house in Bayside. As a stark contrast to the emotional abstractness of the Debussy, this piece is intensely personal, and was almost a cathartic outpouring for the composer's feelings leading up to his move to Arcata. He had just gotten engaged to his girlfriend of 7 years, and had never lived apart from her, but was suddenly offered this temporary job teaching at HSU that he couldn't refuse. So the piece is in three stages: the first movement depicts the anxiety and anticipation of leaving for something new, unknown, and potentially life-changing. The second movement expresses a feeling of loneliness and isolation in the new place, and then the third movement depicts the return home and all its clangorous excitement (incidentally, the third movement is meant to sound like calypso music, which is of course a big part of cultural life in Arcata).

I start the second half with Beethoven's piano sonata no. 28 in A major, op. 101. This work doesn't fit into the travel theme explicitly, but more in a musical sense. Late in his life, Beethoven became interested in Eastern philosophy, and became acquainted with Buddhism and Hinduism. His later works became more cyclic. This piece is a good example of this, sort of like a snake eating its own tail, the opening movement returning at the end to make you feel like the journey you've been through has changed you for the better. Basically, I programmed this piece because it's amazing and I love playing it.

Last on the program is John Adams' Hallelujah Junction for two pianos, written in 1998. Daniela Mineva joins me on this piece. It is literally named after a place, a small truck stop on the Nevada-California border, and the title is a double pun. The word "hallelujah" becomes the motivic material for the piece ("le-luuuu-jah, le-luuuu-jah"), and is used in full later on, Messiah-style ("hal-le-LUUU-jah.") "Junction" can also refer to the fact that the two pianos are always slightly offset, so they sound like echoes of each other, constantly intersecting. It's a fantastically joyous piece and a great way to end what I think is going to be a fun and interesting program.

The Program

Sonetto 123 del Petrarca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Franz Liszt

Estampes (1905) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Claude Debussy
I. Pagodes

II. La soirée dans Grenade

III. Jardin sous la pluie

Piano Sonata no. 1 “Arcata” (2007) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Dante De Silva
I. Moderato ritmico

II. Largo – Poco animato

III. Toccata agitato

– intermission –

Piano Sonata no. 28 in A major, op. 101 . . . . . Ludwig Van Beethoven
I. Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung
Allegretto ma non troppo

II. Lebhaft. Marschmassig
Vivace alla Marcia

III. Langsam und sehnsuchtvoll
Adagio, ma non troppo, con affetto

IV. Geschwinde, doch nicht zu sehr, und mit Entschlossenheit
Allegro

Hallelujah Junction (1998) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  John Adams
with Daniela Mineva, piano



photo by Terry McNeill


Born in Boston and raised in northern California, pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough is beginning to develop a diverse career as soloist, collaborator, and proponent of new music. In a recent performance of Chopin, “his virtuosity was evident and understated, his playing projected a warmth... that conjured the humanity of Artur Rubinstein.” (Eli Newberger, The Boston Musical Intelligencer) Later, in a performance of contemporary music, his playing was described in the New York Times as having “found a perfect balance between the gently shimmering and the more brittle, extroverted strands... and left you eager to hear the rest.”

He has appeared as concerto soloist with numerous orchestras throughout the United States, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, World Festival Orchestra, Colburn Conservatory Orchestra, San Francisco State University Orchestra, Eureka Symphony, Inland Valley Symphony, and Coachella Valley Symphony. In addition to concerto engagements, he has also performed in collaboration with contemporary music ensemble eighth blackbird and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

He is the laureate of top prizes at the Milosz Magin competition in Paris, the World Piano Competition, Virginia Waring Piano Competition, and Bronislaw Kaper Awards in Los Angeles. He has performed at such festivals as the Music Academy of the West, Montecito Chamber Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, and Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, and has presented solo and chamber recitals at the 92nd St. Y in New York, UNESCO Hall in Paris, Zipper and Walt Disney Concert Halls in Los Angeles, and the Eli Broad Stage in Santa Monica.

An avid interpreter of new music, he has collaborated with composers John Harbison, Andrew McPherson and Dante De Silva, and has most recently entered into a commissioning project for a brand new solo piano work by the American composer James Primosch. In 2008, Mr. McCullough released a CD of solo piano music by 20th century Polish-French composer Miłosz Magin on the Polish label Acte Prealable. This recording was praised in the Polish music journal Ruch Muzyczny as displaying “exceptional skill and precision combined with intelligence and sense of design... [slowing] for parts of reflection and very evocative Polish reverie.”

Mr. McCullough holds degrees from Humboldt State University, the Colburn Conservatory, and the University of Southern California, where he has just been named the Thornton School of Music's outstanding graduate of 2011. His primary teachers have been Dr. Deborah Clasquin and John Perry.

North Coast Musicians Combine in Deborah Clasquin Memorial Scholarship Benefit

HSU Music Department colleagues, North Coast friends and former students combine to honor Deborah Clasquin, the much-beloved pianist and teacher who passed away last March, with a concert to benefit the newly established Deborah Clasquin Memorial Scholarship Fund, on Saturday, October 26 in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus.

“With her extraordinary gift for teaching, and her passion for the arts, Deborah transformed the way people listened to music,” said Brian Post, HSU Music professor and coordinator for the event. “Performers for this concert have chosen their material to reflect Deborah’s love of the arts and passion for good music.”

The concert features Clasquin’s best-known student, pianist Ryan MacEvoy-McCullough of Eureka, who will play “Shibui--A dirge in memory of my mentor, Deborah Clasquin,” composed by another of Clasquin’s students, Dante de Silva.

MacEvoy-McCullough, who now performs internationally, will also play Chopin’s “Nocturne in B major,” one of the last pieces he played for Deborah Clasquin as her student, and one of his own favorites.

Pianist Valerie Reed, also a Clasquin student, will perform a piece by Henri Ribauld with HSU Music professor Paul Cummings on clarinet.

Other HSU Music Department colleagues performing Saturday include Eugene Novotney, playing his own composition on snare drum, Kenneth Ayoob on clarinet and John Chernoff on piano playing a rhapsody by Debussy, and soprano Elisabeth Harrington, Cindy Moyer on violin, David Davis on cello and Daniela Mineva on piano, performing songs by Roger Quilter. Mineva, who joins the HSU faculty this year, also performs her own piano transcription of Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faun.”

In addition to the classical selections, a jazz quartet combining HSU faculty members Brian Post and Shao Way Wu with North Coast musicians Susie Laraine and Jill Petricca, will play an original piece by Shao Way Wu.

Deborah Clasquin joined the HSU Music Department faculty in 1985. She won many awards for both her performances as a pianist and for her teaching. Locally she appeared with the Eureka Symphony and the Humboldt Symphony. She performed internationally, and even after her diagnosis and treatment for cancer, she performed in Paris. Her last solo performance at HSU was last October. Deborah Clasquin died in March, at the age of 52.

The Deborah Clasquin Memorial Scholarship Benefit is Saturday, September 26 at 8 PM. Tickets are $20, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. The HSU Music Department will gratefully accept additional donations to the scholarship fund.

Media: HSU Now, Eureka Times Standard, North Coast Journal, Arcata Eye, KHSU ArtWaves.

The Program

Solo de Concours, opus 10 by Henri Rabaud
performed by: Paul Cummings, clarinet; Valerie Reed, piano.

Piano Quartet in C minor, op 60 (Adagio) by Johannes Brahms
performed by: Cindy Moyer, violin; Karen Davy, viola; David Davis, cello; John Chernoff, piano.

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune by Claude Debussy (Transcription for solo piano by Daniela Mineva)
performed by: Daniela Mineva, piano.

Coconino by Shao Way Wu
performed by: Jill Petricca, flute, saxophone; Susie Laraine, flute, saxophone; Brian Post, piano; Shao Way Wu, bass.

A Minute of News (1990) for Snare Drum by Eugene Novotney
performed by: Eugene Novotoney, snare drum.

Premiere Rhapsody for Clarinet and Piano by Claude Debussy
performed by: Kenneth Ayoob, clarinet; John Chernoff, piano.

Three Pastoral Songs by Roger Quilter
performed by: Elisabeth Harrington, voice; Cindy Moyer, violin; David Davis, cello; Daniela Mineva, piano.

Shibui by Dante de Silva (A dirge in memory of my mentor, Deborah Clasquin)
Nocturne in B major, op. 62 no. 1 by Frederic Chopin
performed by: Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, piano.

Concert Notes by Brian Post

Members of the HSU Music Department and North Coast music community will be performing on Saturday, September 26 at 8pm, in Fulkerson Recital, to honor Deborah Clasquin with a Memorial Concert benefiting a newly established scholarship in her name. With her extraordinary gift for teaching, and her passion for the arts, Deborah transformed the way people listened to music.

Performers for this concert have chosen their material to reflect Deborah’s love of the arts and passion for good music. One work titled “Shibui--A dirge in memory of my mentor, Deborah Clasquin, “ composed by Dante de Silva, a student of Deborah’s from the late 1990’s, will be performed by Ryan MacEvoy-McCullough, another student of Deborah’s who is now performing internationally.

Written for solo piano, this piece has an austere quality combined with underlying feelings of joy and loss, resulting in a truly poignant musical statement by Mr. de Silva that pays homage to his mentor. Mr. MacEvoy-McCullough will also be performing “Nocturne in B major,” op. 62 no. 1 by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849). This was one of the last pieces he played for Deborah as her student. It is also of one his most favorite piano pieces to perform in public.

Other performances will include a piano transcription performed by pianist Daniela Mineva of Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faun.” This is probably one of Debussy’s most loved and popular pieces and was inspired by the poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune by Stephane Mallarmé (1842-1898). The transcription was created by Ms. Mineva and will be having its world premiere at this concert.

Eugene Novotney will be performing a piece that he composed titled, “A Minute of News.” This work has been used as the test piece for numerous snare drum competitions, including the Concours International de Caisse Claire - Conservatoire National de Region de Paris 2004 & 2007; Paris, France. The piece is meant to be an alternative to the standard approach of composition for the snare drum. It also acts as a tribute to the fine percussionists of the Afro-Cuban tradition, who are often asked to gain many sounds out of very limited instrumentation.

Clarinetist Dr. Paul Cummings will be performing with pianist Valerie Reed on “Solo de Concours (Contest Solo)” by Henri Ribauld. Written for clarinet and piano this piece has been popular ever since its composition in 1901. It is so entirely in the idiom of the instrument, and is as endearing as any piece of music ever written for the clarinet. It was composed for the graduation and solo competition of the Paris Conservatory, and was used again for the competition in the years 1908, 1915, 1925, and 1937.

Inkling, a local jazz quartet featuring Susie Laraine, flute, Jill Petricca, flute, Shao Way Wu, bass and Brian Post, piano, will perform themes from “Coconino Suite,” composed by Shao Way Wu. This piece offers a somewhat open ended approach for performers to creatively express their reflections of the American archetype: Krazy Kat.

Other works and performers on this special evening will include; Andante from the “Piano Quartet in C minor, op 60”, by Johannes Brahms, “Three Pastoral Songs” by Roger Quilter (1877-1053), and “Premiere Rhapsody for Clarinet and Piano” by Claude Debussy 1862-1918 with performances by Kenneth Ayoob on clarinet, John Chernoff on piano, Karen Davy on viola, Cindy Moyer on violin, Elisabeth Harrington, voice and David Davis on cello.

The concert will be held in Fulkerson Recital Hall on September 26 at 8:00 pm. and tickets are $20. Also, any and all donations towards the scholarship fund will be gladly accepted. Please join the HSU Music Faculty, and members of the North Coast music community in celebrating the life and creative spirit of Deborah Clasquin.

Ryan MacEvoy McCullough. Photo: family.

Ryan MacEvoy McCullough

Prior to his Carnegie Hall debut, pianist and Eureka native Ryan MacEvoy McCullough will perform in the HSU Department of Music Guest Artist series on Saturday, November 4 at 8 PM at the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. The program includes selections by Beethoven and Schubert. The concert is a fundraiser for a master piano class taught by Menahem Pressler, a leading chamber pianist. Tickets are $10 general, $5 students/seniors, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Produced by HSU Music Department: 826-3531.


How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Besides practicing, pianist and Eureka native Ryan MacEvoy McCullough will warm up with a performance on Saturday, November 7 at Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata.

Before his debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall in the spring, McCullough returns to the campus where he graduated last year, summa cum laude with a B.A. in music from the studio of Dr. Deborah Clasquin, at the age of 18.

McCullough will play Beethoven’s Sonata (Opus 101), Franz Schubert’s Impromtus (Opus 142), and Sonata #1 by modern Polish composer, Milosz Magin. The concert, part of the HSU Department of Music Guest Artist series, will begin at 8 PM.

Since leaving HSU, McCullough has appeared as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and other orchestras, and has won many top prizes, including the Silver Medal at the World Piano Competition. He has played for European audiences, and has been heard on National Public Radio. He currently studies under the tutelage of John Perry at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

He has been praised in the CAPMT Communique, the official publication of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, for "...thrilling playing that dazzled the audience...displaying technical and musical prowess."

Tickets for this November 7 performance are $10 general, $5 students/seniors. They may be purchased from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.


Media

The Lumberjack

Eureka Times-Standard