Alexandra Grabarchuk

Alexandra Grabarchuk, a third-year graduate student in the Department of Musicology, traveled to Finland in early December to present some of her pre-dissertation work at the Sibelius Institute’s Radical Music History Symposium.  Alexandra’s project explores radical art rock of the Soviet Union from the mid-‘70s, focusing on the complicated relationships between songwriters and the official Composers’ Union.  Throughout this project, Alexandra has been guided by the mentorship of musicologist Robert Fink and Russian popular music scholar David MacFadyen. Alexandra’s travel was supported by the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music Student Opportunity Fund.

Guillaume Sutre, Professor of Music and Head of Chamber Music, has informed us of upcoming performances of the Ysaÿe Quartet. See below for a detailed listing of the performances. For more information on the Ysaÿe Quartet, check out their website.

Quatuor Ysaÿe
Manchester (GB) 14.01.2012, Sat – 19:30 h

venue

Royal Northern College of Music 124 Oxford Road
GB – Manchester M13 9RD

programme

Fauré: String Quartet op. 121
Boucourechliev: „Miroir II“ – 5 pieces for String Quartet
Debussy: String Quartet in G op. 10

http://books.google.fr/books?id=bFnkeYVJM6UC&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190&dq=manchester+ysaye&source=bl&ots=HVZu8iCv4W&sig=bonJTu4rhmjUemvxRpw0wpfWb7c&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=b2sQT_eVEMTJswbqr80R&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=manchester%20ysaye&f=false

—–

Quatuor Ysaÿe
Verona (IT) 16.01.2012, Mon – 20:30 h

venue

Teatro Filarmonico Piazza Dei Mutilati I – 37122 Verona

programme

Haydn: String Quartet in D major, op. 76 Nr. 5 Hob III: 79

Mozart: Streichquartett in B flat Major KV 458 ”Jagdquartett”

Schubert: String quintet in C Major op. 163 D 956 (1828)

——-

Quatuor Ysaÿe

Paris (FR) 21.01.2012, Sat – 11:00 h

venue

Cite de la Musique – Salle des Concerts 221 Avenue Jean Jaurès
FR – 75019 Paris

programme

Schumann: String Quartet in A Major op. 41 Nr. 3

Rihm: Quartettstudie for String Quartet

Beethoven: String Quartet in E flat Major op. 127

Direct live on Arte.fr

http://www.citedelamusique.fr/francais/evenement.aspx?id=11505
——

Quatuor Ysaÿe

Le Vésinet (FR) 22.01.2012, Sat – 16:30 h

venue

Théatre du Vésinet

Schubert: String Quartet in A minor D.804 « Rosamonde »

Debussy: String Quartet in G op. 10

Brahms: String Quartet in A minor op. 51 No. 2
http://vesinet.org/musique-classique-opera/quatuor-ysaye-dim-22-jan-a-16h30/

UCLA violinist Boryana Popova, who recently completed her DMA, and pianist Dr. James Lent performed a recital at the Pierce College on December 1, 2011. The program included pieces by Stravinsky, Kurtag, Cherkin, and Piazzolla. Both, Boryana and James shared that they had a wonderful experience.

The following article was published by Pierce College following the recital:

http://theroundupnews.com/2011/12/02/guest-artist-closes-the-season-with-an-intense-performance/

On October 29, 2011 Kevork Andonian’s arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s “Libertango” was performed by the Los Angeles Dream Orchestra at Zipper Hall as part of their debut concert.  The orchestra was founded by Daniel Suk who is also a Doctoral Candidate at HASOM. UCLA voice professor Vladimir Chernov and former UCLA vocal student Erin Wood were among the soloists at this concert.

A couple of weeks later Kevork performed some of his solo piano compositions in Ottawa, Canada at a concert organized by the Ottawa New Music Creators.  The concert held at Café Paradiso on November 14 was part the “Contemporary Revolution” series which the new music organization runs regularly.  Kevork received funding from the HASOM Student Opportunity Fund to help cover travel expenses for this performance.

The photo was taken after the Zipper Hall concert.  (From Right to Left:  Kevork Andonian, Erin Wood, Daniel Suk, and Mr. and Mrs. Don Neuen.)

Joshua Fishbein, a 2nd-year PhD student in music composition at UCLA, has recently won the Raymond W. Brock Memorial Student Composition Contest of the American Choral Directors Association. This contest is an opportunity for young composers to showcase their talents and have their work presented at an ACDA conference. Selected nationally, Fishbein’s work will be premiered at the 2012 ACDA Western Division Conference, taking place from February 29 to March 3 in Reno, Nevada. Additionally, he will receive a $1,000 cash prize and conference registration.

This is the fourth composition contest won by Fishbein since enrolling at UCLA in the fall of 2010. The others include The Esoterics’ POLYPHONOS Competition (2010 – 2011), the National Lutheran Choir’s 25th Anniversary Choral Composition Competition (2011), and the Guild of Temple Musicians’ Young Composer’s Award (2011 – 2012). Recordings of Fishbein’s award-winning music by the Seattle-based Esoterics and the Minneapolis-based National Lutheran Choir can be heard at the following links:

The Esoterics Recording (10/9/2011): http://www.joshuafishbeinmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/14+With+a+greeting.mp3

The National Lutheran Choir Recording (5/16/2011): http://www.joshuafishbeinmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/01-May-the-Words-of-My-Mouth.mp3

For more information about Joshua Fishbein, visit his website at http://www.fishbeinmusic.com

Roméo et Juliette photos by Robert Millard

Music Department professors Vladimir Chernov and Michael Dean (Chair of the Music Department) will be appearing in the L.A. Opera’s upcoming production of Charles Gounod’s tale of the famous star-crossed lovers, Roméo et Juliette. The conductor for this production will be Placido Domingo.

Professor Dean, as an “L.A. Opera debut artist” will be featured in the role of Gregorio, and Professor Chernov will have the role of Count Capulet.

More information about the cast and production, can be found at: http://www.laopera.com/season/romeo/index.aspx.

This production will run from November 6th through November 26th.

Professor Vladimir Chernov

Chair Michael Dean

Photo credit: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times

For those who missed the great article in the Los Angeles Times about Prof. Cheng’s recent concert:

The late composer Luciano Berio called his small but potent book of Harvard lectures “Remembering the Future.” And that seemingly paradoxical phrase informed Gloria Cheng’s nearly all-British Piano Spheres program Tuesday night at the Colburn School’s Zipper Hall.

In the first half, the pianist offered the United States premiere of Bernard Rands’ 12 Preludes. An impressionistic, emotionally draining 40-minute work, it’s the first of 15 premieres planned this season by the venerable recital series, now in its 18th year.

Before the performance, the English-born Rands, based in the United States since 1975 (he became a citizen in 1983), touchingly told the audience that he owed “much of what I am as a musician” to Berio, his mentor and friend. And a Berio-like sense of music history and lyricism pervaded Rands’ Preludes. Dedicated to the pianist Robert Levin, who performed the world premiere in 2007, the score conjured a sound world that Debussy would recognize. At the same time, the melancholy cast of many of the pieces was Rands’ own.

Cheng’s precision, warm tone and sensitive, resonant pedaling conveyed enough variety to put the largely elegiac work across, whether in the fourth Prelude, Elegia (In memoriam Luciano Berio), the introspective eighth, Lamento, or the haunting concluding Notturno (In memoriam Don Martino).

After intermission, Cheng offered the U.S. premiere of Gavin Bryars’ “Ramble on Cortona,” summoning waves of sound from the keyboard and lending coherence to the seemingly improvisatory 10-minute piece. Then Cheng announced a reordering of her program, wisely saving the shorter dance pieces for the end. She gave a playful rendition of George Benjamin’s darkly comic “Relativity Rag,” or as Cheng called it, “the little rag that couldn’t.” And in Oliver Knussen’s poignant “Ophelia’s Last Dance,” composed in memory of his wife Sue, who died in 2003, Cheng caught the intimate, hallucinatory quality of grief without sentimentality.
Delightful readings of Harrison Birtwistle’s “Betty Freeman: Her Tango,” and Samuel Barber’s “Hesitation Tango,” from his suite “Souvenirs,” followed. Her encore was Don Davis’ tongue-in-cheek “Illicit Felicity.”

Review by Rick Schultz