Yale Valley performance, featuring two premieres by Tomas Svoboda

This Sunday, July 19th, we get the opportunity to return to the lovely Yale Valley Arts Festival. The program includes two world premieres by Tomas Svoboda, with Tomas performing on both pieces. The first, Farewell to Prague, is a solo piano work. The second, Trio Tranquillo, is a commission by Geoffry Bunza, in honor of his wife's birthday. Since we're also big fans of Lin Bunza, we couldn't pass on the opportunity to make this the first public performance of this piece. The third Svoboda work, Chorale in E flat, is so nice to get to play again. It's one of the first pieces of Tom's that I performed after moving to Portland in 1990. An homage to Aaron Copland, it's a gorgeous, lyrical work that evokes Copland magnificently. Other works include Zaka by Jennifer Higdon, and Four Autumn Landscapes by Chris Rogerson.

The Yale Valley Festival is directed by our dear friend Julia Stoll, an incredible supporter of the work of visual artists and composers in our area, and in the Yale Valley specifically. Her tireless commitment to this cause is incredibly inspirational, and gratefully appreciated by her neighbors in the Yale Valley, and the artists she brings to her event.

Third Angle has a long association with Tomas Svoboda, and it's our great pleasure to perform with him again. We hope that you'll join us in the glorious Yale Valley this Sunday for what will be a memorable performance!

Please click here for more details

09-10 Season announced

I've been meaning to post this since our Higdon concert.....there are more details to follow (including links to purchase tickets). In the meantime, here is the season series for 09-10:

Concert 1: China Music Now
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Portland Art Museum
As China moves from an export to a domestic economy, the implications are enormous for the emerging creative community. Our performance features works by the new generation of Chinese composers, curated by special guest Professor Xiaogong Ye, chair of the composition faculty at the Beijing Conservatory (and composer of music for the Beijing Olympics!).

Concert 2: Hearing Voices
Special Guest: Ursula LeGuin
Friday, January 22, 2010
Kaul Auditorium, Reed College
An evening of tales told to musical accompaniment, featuring Ms. Le Guin reading her lovely children’s story “Ride the Red Mare”, accompanied by Bryan Johanson’s beautiful score. The program also features the premiere of Gregory Vajda’s musical setting of “Voyage to FaReMiDo” by Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy, and a new work by Robert Kyr.

Concert 3: Chance/perchance
Friday, March 5, 2010
Venue tbd
Third Angle joins forces with the exceptional Beta Collide ensemble to present an evening of improvisation-based music. The program will feature "In C" by Terry Riley. and the premiere of David Schiff’s fantastic new concerto, “Mountains, Rivers”, in which the Beta Colliders will create solo parts on the fly…

Concert 4: Views from Cascadia
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Old Church, Downtown Portland
Of our time, of our place…we celebrate the work of artists from the Western states, with new works by Charles Nichols, Tomas Svoboda, and John Luther Adams.

Nel Centro grand opening (with Futurism)

We'll celebrate the grand opening of David Machado's latest restaurant venture, Nel Centro, this Wednesday, May 27th, at 6pm. The evening features some live jazz with the Mike Pardew trio, and a performance of Aaron Jay Kernis' wildly creative trio "Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine", with special guest narrator Michele Mariana. The evening also serves as a fundraiser for Third Angle, and will bring to a joyous close our 08-09 season with a futurist flourish.
We're asking for a $15/person $25/couple donation at the door......
Here's the first movement of Aaron's piece, with text by F.T. Marinetti, who attempted to bring Italy out of the 19th century via his crusade against pasta....Given the occaision (opening a new Italian restaurant), as well as the 1oo year anniversary of the Italian Futurists efforts, we thought this would be the perfect piece for this event...enjoy!



(Excerpt from 2004 Third Angle performance with Gray Eubank narrating)

Wrapping up an amazing week

Whew.......what a week we've had!

• Monday - received news of the largest gift ever in 3A history
• Inspiring rehearsals with Jennifer Higdon all week
• A lovely salon on Thursday night at the home of Byron and Carol Ferris, at which Susan Smith and I performed String Poetic, and Jennifer H. entertained us with tales of forthcoming opera projects
• Our performance Friday night was too much fun.....a boisterous audience, great performances by everyone (special kudos to Susan Smith and Hamilton Cheifetz)
• A lovely reception afterward hosted by Elaine Calder

And the reviews are very good indeed:
Oregonian
NW Reverb

We're whipped.....exhausted.....but gratified by the support of our patrons, and honored by the presence of Jennifer Higdon, a brilliant artist and beautiful person.....

Jennifer Higdon and Susan Smith on KBOO tomorrow (Tues)

Check out Jennifer and Susan on Dmae Roberts great show on KBOO tomorrow (Thu) at 11:30am...click here for more info

News flurry

We've been busy at team 3A:

• Yesterday, Hamilton Cheifetz, Anna Shaum, and I spent the day in Eugene performing and recording Rob Kyr's epic cantata "A Time for Life" with the wonderful Cappella Romana singers. It's always a treat to play in Beall Hall at the U of O. I'd give my left arm for a hall like that in PDX.....
• Last week, we received news of a $25,000 grant award from the Miller Foundation for our ongoing capacity building effort.
  
• The Collins Foundation has awarded us a $4,000 project grant for this Friday's Jennifer Higdon concert.
• And the piece de resistance........a very generous donor has left 3A a bequest of $40,000, the largest gift we've every received in our 25 years! To say that we're humbled, gratified, ecstatic, thrilled, would be an understatement. This doesn't just make our day....it is a deeply moving tribute to the hard work and dedication of everyone associated with our group. Thanks to all who make it possible for us to follow our bliss.....

Higdon concert - Zaka

za ka (zo ko) v. To do the following almost simultaneously and with great speed: zap, sock, race, turn, drop, sprint. See also: eighth blackbird

Fast Zaka:



Slow Zaka:


We hope you'll join us on May 15th for Zaka and other works by Jennifer and her friends. Please click here for ticket information

Higdon concert - String Poetic

Poetic songs sung in the voice of violin & piano…each contributes to the story…

Jagged Climb
Jagged run…rise, running, sidle up the side of the climb-jagged-climb


Nocturne…that piece of night-night of peace


Blue Hills of Mist—in the glaze of light between dawn…sunset, blue hills have mist - a covering of song and mystery that belongs not to any person, but to other places


Maze Mechanical
Amazing maze; maze that is mad; mechanical machine…putzing and stalling
along…made to chug; amazed at the maze; steaming forward; stalling; racing;
maniacal…lost in the maze?…mechanical maze


Climb Jagged
Rise above, in jagged climb…climb, arise, in jagged run…running, rise, jagged fun


We hope you'll join us on May 15th for String Poetic and other works by Jennifer and her friends. Please click here for ticket information

Higdon concert - Celestial Hymns

Our May 15th concert begins with Jennifer's gorgeous work, Celestial Hymns.
"While working on another work, I came upon a book with some wonderful paintings by Monet, which turned out to be studies of cathedrals. I started thinking about the way painters often will do many studies of one scene or subject. This fascinated me, because composers don’t really use this process in composing. So I decided to try replicating this process through music. I took musical materials for a work of mine called blue cathedral and created a new work using some of those materials. And I decided that I would focus my attention on a visual detail, from the overall picture that I imagined while writing the earlier work. I wanted to create the beauty and intensity of what I imagined to be the stained glass windows that one might find in a glass cathedral in the sky. I pictured the figures in the window singing [a heavenly music], and that became the basis for Celestial Hymns."

Here is an excerpt from the opening of blue cathedral. The sparkles of light are beginning to gain more momentum, building to the first ecstatic climax of the piece:


And here is an excerpt from the beginning of Celestial Hymns, using the same material to generate a similar ecstatic feeling, this time in the intimate context of chamber music.


We hope you'll join us on May 15th for Celestial Hymns and other works by Jennifer and her friends. Please click here for ticket information

Composer spotlight - Chris Rogerson

The final composer featured on our May 15th concert is Chris Rogerson, currently a student of Jennifer Higdon's at the Curtis Institute. Todd Kuhns and Susan Smith will perform Chris' duo, "Four Autumn Landscapes".
Click here to hear an excerpt from this piece



Chris is currently a third-year student of Jennifer Higdon at the Curtis Institute of Music. Chris has won awards for his work from ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, the Society of New Music, the National Association for Music Education, and the New York State Schools of Music Association. His work has been performed across the United States and abroad, including by ensembles such as the Curtis Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.