This season’s popular Sonata Series event goes virtual with YouTube premieres showcasing solo and duo performances.

Sonata Series Event #3 brings you works by fresh contemporary voices from around the globe. Violin fellow Lara Madden shares George Benjamin’s spare yet evocative “Three Miniatures for Solo Violin” and Mario Carro’s luminous “About Escher” written for Violin and Marimba. Joining Lara for the Carro is CMW’s estimable Program Coordinator and percussionist extraordinaire, Piero Guimaraes.

For the second half of the program, Piero is joined by his wife and former CMW fellow violinist EmmaLee Holmes- Hicks (Class of ’13). This dynamic duo brings us two newly commissioned works by Kareem Roustom and Kirsten Volness.

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Two compositions, commissioned, composed, and performed during the pandemic. These are singular times that call upon unique collaborations and unorthodox approaches to the process of imagining and performing music.

During the pandemic, my husband and percussionist Piero and I have used these unusual circumstances to develop our repertoire as a duo. Living in the same house, with no commute time and a few more free hours than before, we have been given a rare opportunity to explore new collaborations and new ways to communicate through our music.

For years we have admired Kareem Roustom’s compositions for their depth and integrity, and for the folk elements, rhythmic intricacies and evocative qualities. But we had been hesitant to ask him to write a piece for us because he is a busy composer with many important commissions to tackle. But the pandemic has refashioned our perspective and taught us to seize the moment. So we decided we should just ask. And he said YES!

After an exchange of emails about the inspiration for the piece, desired length, instrument possibilities for Piero, premiere date and other details, we had a plan. In late November we received Kareem’s email with the first draft, and Piero and I were so excited to open this musical surprise and start unwrapping the layers of meaning and expression.

Kareem creates depth in his compositions through tiers of harmony, form, rhythm and inspiration. This new piece, “Gnizo,”  requires a freedom in phrasing and sound, yet a precision in the notes, motives, dynamics, form and structure. Because of the simplicity of the notes, Kareem suggests that the focus should be on tone production and the awareness of the form.

This piece requires a very specific state of mind, almost a meditative approach in the performer, to get to the heart and to evoke a contemplative frame of mind in the listener. A quiet cry, a yearning for comfort, feelings of aloneness, an attitude of prayer and meditation–all things we can relate to right now more than ever. The composition should be played as if the performer were in a place of worship. For Kareem, he imagines entering a stone church within a convent in Syria. I try to transport myself there through imagery so I can invite the listener to travel with me.

The process with Kirsten Volness’ commission was similar, except that we have commissioned her work before, so we are more familiar with her process. As a good friend, Kirsten is able to tap into what she knows about Piero and me as musicians and people. Because of this connection and the clarity of Kirsten’s compositions, I can picture what it will take as a performer to breathe life into the notes. I can imagine the feelings she wants to evoke and what kind of sound, articulation and color it will take to create the characters and emotions she pictures.

In “The Pathless Woods,” Kirsten combines live electronics with our own instrumental sounds and adds effects. Piero recorded some of the electronic effects using actual percussion sounds. This creates a fun and mysterious combination of live and pre-recorded sounds.

Because the electronics are ‘live’, they become almost like another musician in our ensemble. There are cues in the score that indicate different effects from the electronics and these cues are triggered by a foot pedal that one of the musicians operates. In that way, we are in essence playing chamber music with the electronics as the third member of the trio, except that we control that member.

Another unique element of this piece is the secondary instrument that I get to play–the kick drum. Kirsten knows I enjoy learning new tricks and incorporating different techniques and instruments into my music-making, so she has written in a section where I play the kick drum with my foot while playing the violin.

The title of this work, “Pathless Woods,” resonates deep within me. Growing up on a farm, rimmed with woodland, I explored and discovered the nooks and crannies of those seemingly limitless acres. That special connection with the woods and fields travelled with me to Rhode Island and, during the pandemic, I have spent hours wandering and getting lost in the woods by Carr Pond. The beauty and quiet there infuses me with both energy and peace.

Whenever we perform a premiere work, the collaboration combines the performers’ and composer’s training, experiences and feelings, the current times, the performance space and the audience. In this concert, there is a special feeling in playing the piece because of our personal connections and conversations with the composers. Because we know one another, there is an added depth that plays into the composition, preparation and unveiling that couldn’t happen in the same way otherwise. Having a conversation that starts before the creative process has begunand continues through the composition and rehearsal phases creates a unique blend of contributions, like a friendship that develops over time and is a delightful combination of personalities.

Each world premiere, in its own way, is a reaction to what’s going on globally. Kareem’s piece is more of an inward, retrospective response and Kirsten’s is more of a stream of consciousness reaction to the pandemic.

Piero and I look forward to sharing these new compositions with you.

–EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks, violinist

Hear these compositions and more in our third Sonata Series Event premiering Thursday, January 28 at 7PM EST on our YouTube channel: www.YouTube.com/communitymusicworks

About Escher
Mario Carro, composer
“About Escher” is a three movement work written by Mario Carro in 2015. The work follows traditional classical structure by exploring a fast movement, a middle slow movement, and a fast finale movement. The work was commissioned by two of Mr. Carro’s friends–a husband and wife duo called Duo Escher. Mr. Carro drew on the artwork of Mauris Cornelis Escher for inspiration, and each of the movements is based on one of Mr. Escher’s drawings. The first movement, “Tower of Babel,” is characterized by chaos, noise, and confusion. Heterophony dominates this texture where a single melodic line is  built between the two different instruments. The violin and marimba fall in and out of unisions in this movement which makes the melodic line sneaky and deceiving to listeners. The second movement, “Phosphorescent Sea,” starts with the marimba alone making waves of sound followed by the violin singing an expressive melody with a tremolo section ascending up to the stars. In the closing of this movement the violin joins the marimba in a recapitulation of the opening. The third movement, “Dolphins,” is a joyful and exuberant sonic experience depicting dolphins leaping gleefully around a boat. This is one of Mr. Carro’s most successful works and has been played with over 30 duos in Europe, Asia, America, and Oceania. 

Three Miniatures for Solo Violin
George Benjamin, composer; Notes by Paul Griffiths
Benjamin’s Three Miniatures date from 2001. All were written for friends: the violinist Jagdish Mistry, whose daughter receives a lullaby; the music publisher Sally Cavender, Benjamin’s staunchest advocate; and Klaus Lauer, who presented concerts of new music at his hotel in Badenweiler, where the three pieces had their first complete performance at the hands of another friend, Irvine Arditti. According to the composer, they all explore ‘different facets of the same compositional technique’, which perhaps has to do with a modality rooted in the instrument’s tuning and with canonic processes not limited to the second piece. The first is a sombre melody with double stops and accompanying open strings, lifting off into the upper air of harmonics. ‘A Canon for Sally’, as canons will, mixes constraint and freedom. In the finale, delicate pizzicato music prefaces and accompanies the song.

Gnizo
Notes by composer Kareem Roustom
The word Gnizo, from the Syriac language meaning ‘invisible’, refers to a poetic category of sung text in the church of Antioch liturgy. Gnizo also refers to the practice, amongst some members of the Syrian Orthodox church, of “burying or . . . burning loose pages of holy writing”. Adopted from earlier Jewish practice, Gnizo was an act of reverently burning sacred text pages/papyrus when it was damaged through intensive use, or if the documents needed to be hidden from non-believers who aimed to destroy them. This work, like most musical works, is also filled with hidden meanings and, possibly, hidden texts. The first two movements are based on hymns (or in the case of the second movement a fragment of a hymn) from the Antoch liturgy as practiced in the Levant and the diaspora. (I’ve been inspired by recordings of these hymns that are available through the UNESCO Collection AUVIDIS). Listening to recordings of these hymns during our time of pandemic has given me comfort. These recordings also transport me back to the Syrian village of Saidnaya, where an old convent, founded in 547 A.D., is located. As a boy, I visited this holy place with my family a number of times and I have vivid memories of the stone church within the convent. There was a certain quiet in that church that I’ve not been able to find elsewhere. There was also an acoustic resonance that is ideal for recording vocal music of this kind. Some of the recordings that I’ve been listening to were made in Saidnaya. The presence of the ‘invisible’ was something that I felt strongly in that church. The third and last movement is not based on a hymn but uses the formal structure of one. The built in repetition of hymns must aid in the meditative aspect of group prayer. This movement is a sort of prayer. Then again much of the music that I write has an element of prayer to it.  This work was commissioned by and is gratefully dedicated to percussionist Piero Guimaraes and violinist EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks.

The Pathless Woods
Notes by composer Kirsten Volness
The title is taken from a quote on a tea bag– “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods”–an excerpt from Lord Byron’s poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, in which a disillusioned world wanderer marvels at the ways in which Nature’s sheer power overwhelms Humankind. Written in December 2020, amidst peak burnout and COVID spike, my piece is a stream-of-consciousness reflection on this critical moment when we have awakened to an opportunity to reimagine the world together. Our priorities have come into focus, new paths forward have been illuminated, a hopeful spirit rises, and as much as action is overdue and necessary, we must also rest and gather strength to navigate difficult times ahead. Many musical choices were inspired by my dear friends for whom it was written, EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks and Piero Guimaraes, who also graciously provided percussion samples.

Read performer and composer bios here.

Watch and Listen: Sonata Series Event #3 
Premieres Thursday, January 28 at 7pm EST

George Benjamin, composer
English composer and conductor George Benjamin made his Royal Opera debut in 2013 conducting his opera Written on Skin (text by Martin Crimp), which he returned to conduct in 2017. He returns in the 2017/18 Season with Lessons in Love and Violence, a new work co-commissioned by The Royal Opera, with which he conducts the premiere. Benjamin was born in London. He started composing at the age of seven and studied with Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire and with Goehr at King’s College, Cambridge. He made his BBC Proms debut aged 20 with Ringed by the Flat Horizon (BBC Symphony Orchestra and Mark Elder). Further compositions include At First Light (London Sinfonietta and Simon Rattle), Palimpsests (London Symphony Orchestra and Pierre Boulez) and the chamber opera Into the Little Hill, which marked the start of his collaboration with Crimp. His compositions have been celebrated through retrospectives at the Barbican, the Southbank Centre and in Paris, San Francisco, Frankfurt, Lucerne, Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh and New York, among others. He is an honorary fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society. He was appointed a CBE in 2010 and a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2015. Benjamin regularly conducts such leading orchestras as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw, London Sinfonietta and Ensemble Modern. He has conducted world premieres by composers including Chin, Grisey, Ligeti and Rihm. He regularly teaches at the Tanglewood Festival and is Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at King’s College London. George Benjamin is widely regarded as one of the leading composers of his generation. In 2017 he received a knighthood from the Queen honouring his achievements.

Mario Carro, composer
Born in Madrid in 1979, he starts his musical studies in the Escuela Municipal de Música de Tres Cantos, continuing them in the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, where he gets a degree in Piano. During this same period, he studies Composition with Jesús Torres. During the past years his music has been more and more frequently showcased in concert halls and festivals in Spain and different European and North and South American countries, through the hands of ensembles and soloists such as the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble Wien, Plural Ensemble, Ensemble Kuraia, Grupo Enigma, Alea III Boston University, Cuarteto Bretón, Dúo Gelòs-Santes, Dúo 11 Abrazos, Mario Prisuelos, Ricardo Descalzo, Adam Levin, Julián Elvira and Celia Alcedo, among others.This has been aided by the fact that his musical works have won awards in prestigious competitions: “Alea III International Composition Competition” (Boston, 2005), “Labyrinthmaker Plattform” (Wien, 2006) and “Concurso Internacional de Composición Musical Universidad de Zaragoza 2008”. He has also been a finalist on “I Muestra de Jóvenes Compositores del CDMC”, Premios Injuve (Málaga, 2005) and “Hui, Hui, Música” (Valencia, 2008). In 2009 he received the Premio del Colegio de España en París/INAEM, and a monographic concert of his music took place in the French capital. He has received commissions and grants from La Residencia de Estudiantes, INAEM, Comunidad de Madrid and Fundación Canal. He has recently written a piece under the commission of “53 Semana de música Religiosa de Cuenca”. He balances his creative work with teaching at the Escuela Municipal de Música de Tres Cantos.

Piero Guimaraes, percussionist
Percussionist Piero Guimaraes stands at the forefront of a new generation of international performers specializing in orchestral and contemporary music. A native of Brazil, Guimaraes presented the Brazilian premiere of several pivotal works by influential composers including Iannis Xenakis, Steve Reich and Peter Eotvos. Guimaraes concertizes extensively, having made his mark in halls across the United States, Brazil, Austria, Germany, Spain, and Holland. A versatile player, Guimaraes is a frequent participant in orchestral and contemporary music festivals including The World Orchestra, International Ensemble Modern Academy, Pommersfelden Summer Akademy and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. He has collaborated extensively with living composers, working with John Luther Adams, Heinz Holliger, and Kaija Saariaho to name only a few. Additionally, Guimaraes performs regularly with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva, the United States Coast Guard Band and the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra and has performed under the baton of many world-renowned conductors including Maestro Kurt Masur. Guimaraes earned his bachelor’s degree from Sao Paulo State University in Brazil and holds a Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University in New York. Guimaraes has performed at such prestigious venues as Merkin Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, and Roulette and serves as a core member of the Iktus Percussion and Providence based new music ensemble, Verdant Vibes. Guimaraes and Iktus frequently perform world premieres and have presented master classes in the elite music departments of Oberlin Conservatory, Michigan State University. the University of Michigan, Eastman School of Music, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Piero serves as percussion coordinator and faculty member at the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School and faculty at Rhode Island College and Stonehill College.

EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks, violinist
EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks grew up on an organic farm where as a young girl she presented her first violin performances to a very attentive audience—her flock of merino sheep. As that violin grew from quarter- to a full-size, EmmaLee, with that expressive instrument in hand, made her way onto the stage as soloist with symphonies and then on to Carnegie Hall as a member of the Pangea String Quartet. Armed with a performance degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a doctoral degree from SUNY Stony Brook, EmmaLee serves as principal second violinist of the New Bedford Symphony and as a busy chamber player she performs with Verdant Vibes New Music Collective, South Coast Chamber Players, Sycamore Hill Duo and more. She is on faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and the Birch Creek Summer Performance Center. A firm believer that music can move people, quite literally, EmmaLee takes the lead in string bands across New England and in the Midwest where her lively fiddle music drives the spirited old-time dancing. She has played fiddle with the Rusty Pickup String Band since she was ten years old and she has taken many a championship prize at fiddle competitions.

Lara Madden, violinist
Violinist Lara Maria Madden has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Central America and Asia. A dedicated orchestral, chamber, and solo musician, Lara received her formal training at Indiana University and DePaul University. Originally from River Forest, Illinois, Lara began studying the violin at the age of three, and attended Merit School of music during her childhood and teen years. During the summer months she attended festivals including the Meadowmount School of Music, Aspen Music Festival and School, and Music Masters Course Japan. Always musically curious and open to learning, Lara has performed in yoga classes, Baroque operas, musical theater productions, orchestra and chamber concerts, and solo recitals. A committed educator, Lara received her training with Mimi Zweig at Indiana University, and this summer participated in the Summer Music Educators Workshop through Carnegie Hall. Lara is a firm believer in music fostering individual and community wellness, and seeks to spread the joy of music with those around her. 

Kareem Roustom, composer
Syrian-American Kareem Roustom is an Emmy-nominated composer whose genre crossing collaborations include music commissioned for the Kronos Quartet, conductor Daniel Barenboim & the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, the Dallas Symphony, & the Grand Teton Music Festival. Roustom is currently composer-in-residence with the Württembergische Philharmonie in Reutlingen, Germany for the 2019 – 2020 seasons, and has been the composer-in-residence at the Grant Park Music Festival (2019) and the Grand Teton Music Festival (2018).  Roustom’s music has been performed by orchestras that include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen,  and at renowned festivals & halls such as the BBC Proms, the Salzburg Festival, the Lucerne Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Verbier Festival, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, as well is in the Near East, Armenia, Jakarta, China and Japan. Roustom’s music has also been recorded by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester (Berlin), and the Philharmonia Orchestra (London). In addition Roustom has collaborated with pop-artists such as Shakira, Beyonce, Tina Turner and others. The Chicago Tribune wrote that Roustom is “a gifted and accomplished artist…one of the most prominent active Arab-American composers,” BBC Radio 3 described Roustom’s music as “among the most distinctive to have emerged from the Middle East”, and The New York Times described his music as “propulsive, colorful and immediately appealing.” The Guardian (London) wrote that Roustom’s music is “arrestingly quirky and postmodern…music with lots of personality.”  Of his Violin Concerto No. 1, composed for violinist Michael Barenboim, Der Tagesspiegel wrote ““Roustom’s Violin Concerto No. 1, an homage to Mozart’s fascination with Arabic & Turkish music, is not Mozart “alla turca”, but conversely Turkish and North African “alla Vienna”: As far as the vitality, the profound cheerfulness, the dance like  dialogue between instruments are concerned, Roustom’s work is infected by Mozart’s élan.”

Kirsten Volness, composer
Internationally recognized composer Kirsten Volness creates sublimely intimate and emotive soundscapes that inspire immersive listening. Through the refined use of electronics and modern composition techniques overlaid with jazz and pop influences, Volness’s music is both groovy and graceful, “irresistible” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “nothing short of gorgeous.” (New York Arts). Each of her compositions reveals “an exquisite sound world” (New Classic LA) with disparate, suggestive musical elements and idioms woven together to create sonic atmospheres that hold listeners in beauty and fascination. Inspired by nature, myth, spirituality, and environmental and sociopolitical issues, Volness’s music is smart, relevant, timeless, and transcendent. Volness’s work features around the world, with past performances at The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), L’Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges, The New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF), Illuminus Boston, Electronic Music Midwest, Noise Floor, Electroacoustic Barn Dance, Third Practice, Tribeca New Music, American Composers Alliance, LunART, the Montréal and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, and concerts throughout North America, Europe, and Australia. Her rich commission history includes projects with the World Future Council Foundation, ASCAP/SEAMUS, BMI Foundation, Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance, Hotel Elefant, NOW Ensemble, Transient Canvas, Opera Cowgirls, Experiential Orchestra, Cambridge Philharmonic, and Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. Volness received the MacColl Johnson Fellowship in 2017, the Fellowship in Music Composition from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts three times (2018, 2014, 2010), and the 2017 Composer-in-Residence position at the Music Mansion. Her first opera, Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices From The Great War, is in development with The American Opera Project with support from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Also an active performer, producer, and a passionate promoter of multimedia, Volness has cultivated and curated numerous festivals and series featuring the work of interdisciplinary artists. Her broad creative practice fosters hybrid genres of performance which explore modes of presenting and experiencing art that generate larger, and more diverse arts communities. A highly sought-after collaborator, she is the Co-Founder, Director and pianist for Verdant Vibes(Providence); multi-instrumentalist for Hotel Elefant (NYC); Co-Director of homeless advocacy group Tenderloin Opera Company (Providence); Composer/Performer in Meridian Project, a multimedia performance/lecture series exploring astrophysics and cosmology (Chicago/Providence); and Affiliated Artist of Sleeping Weazel (Boston). Volness is Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Reed College (2019–21), and previously taught at the University of Rhode Island with guest appearances at Brown University, University of Michigan, Johnson & Wales, Western Illinois University, and Interlochen Arts Camp. With composition degrees from the University of Michigan (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Minnesota (B.A., summa cum laude), her greatest mentors include Evan Chambers, William Bolcom, Betsy Jolas, Bright Sheng, Michael Daugherty, Karen Tanaka, and Judith Lang Zaimont.

Read Program Notes here.

Watch and Listen: Sonata Series Event #3 
Premieres Thursday, January 28 at 7pm EST