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Trio III (1996)
Christian Wolff:
"Trio III was written at William Winant's suggestion for the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio in 1996. It's also dedicated to Lou Harrison. In the first of four parts durations are determined by the time it takes the resonating of individual sounds to become inaudible. This rhythm is also overlayed and juxtaposed with a regularly measured one. The second part is made out of material drawn from John Cage and Lou Harrison's Double Music (1941) for percussion ensemble. The third part stitches together four sections of music, each lasting longer than the previous one. Part four is a double canon on made-up scales."
Christian Wolff (b. 1934) has described the bulk of his musical output as "variously indeterminate ... allowing performers space and freedom in the use of notated material and, at the same time, interdependence ... requiring them to play in some specific way." (Wolff) His experiments with aleatoric techniques stem from his association in the 1950's with John Cage, Earle Brown, and Morton Feldman, a group of composers now referred to as the New York School. Since the early 1970's Wolff, like his former Harvard classmate Frederic Rzewski, has also written music of a political nature.
Wolff was born in Nice, France, and has lived in the United States since 1941. A mostly self-taught composer, he studied piano with Grete Sultan, composition briefly with John Cage, and classics at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1970 he has taught classics and music at Darmouth College in New Hampshire.
Awards Wolff has received include those from the American Academy and National Institute for Arts and Letters, Asian Cultural Council, DAAD Berlin, and the John Cage Award for Music. Commissions include the Concord String Quartet, Wesleyan Singers, West German Radio, and pianist Ursula Oppens. In addition to his compositional work, Wolff has performed as an improviser with Kui Dong, Takehisa Kosugi, Steve Lacy, Christian Marclay, and Larry Polansky, among others. His music is recorded on the Centaur, Columbia, CRI, EMI, Mode, Hat Hut, Koch International Classics, Opus One, Tzadik, Vox, and Wergo labels.
related websites
http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/Wolff.shtml
Pianist, conductor, and teacher Stephen Drury has performed throughout the world with a repertoire that stretches from J. S. Bach to the music of today. In 1985 Drury was chosen by Affiliate Artists for its Xerox Pianists Program, performing in residencies with symphony orchestras across the US. He was also selected by the United States Information Agency for its Artistic Ambassador Program through which he toured Europe, Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Japan. A champion of contemporary music, Drury has worked closely with Luciano Berio, John Cage, Lee Hyla, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Olivier Messiaen, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, and John Zorn, and commissioned many new works with funding from Meet the Composer. He has appeared at new music festivals across the US and Europe; between 1988-1989 he organized a yearlong festival of the music of John Cage which led to a request from the composer to perform the solo piano part in Cage's 101 (1988), premiered with the Boston Symphony Orchestra that year. In 1999 he was invited by choreographer Merce Cunningham to perform onstage with Cunningham and dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. Drury is on faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he directs the Callithumpian Consort and Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP). He was educated at Harvard University and New England Conservatory, with principal teachers including Claudio Arrau, Patricia Zander, William Masselos, Margaret Ott, and Theodore Lettvin. Drury's work can be found on the Avant, BMG/Catalyst, Cold Blue, mode, MusicMasters, Neuma, New Albion, New World, and Tzadik labels.
Violinist Jennifer Choi studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and Juilliard School of Music in New York. She has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician, and has toured in the US and Europe with the John Zorn Ensemble. Choi has had residencies at the Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta, Canada and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut. She is the winner of competitions including the Artists International Presentations Audition and, as a co-founding member of the Miró String Quartet, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Her performances may be heard on the Tzadik label.
William Winant has collaborated with a wide variety of artists including Anthony Braxton, Keith Jarrett, Kronos Quartet, Joan LaBarbara, Yo-Yo Ma and Mark Morris Dance Group, Mr. Bungle, Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, Sonic Youth, Steve Reich and Musicians, Cecil Taylor, Iannis Xenakis, and Frank Zappa. Composers who have written works for him include John Cage, Lou Harrison, Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma, Terry Riley, Wadada Leo Smith, and John Zorn. Winant is principal percussionist for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and John Zorn Ensemble, and has also performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and at many festivals and recitals worldwide. He has made over 100 recordings on labels including Avant, Centaur, Music & Arts, Musicmasters, New Albion, and Tzadik. He is currently on faculty at the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Cruz, and is artist-in-residence at Mills College in Oakland, California with the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio.
related websites
http://www.stephendrury.com
http://www.williamwinant.com
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