Mark Zaki

Hubert Howe

[Nancy Bogen, video]

Magdalena Kress

Howie Kenty

[Lynn Bechtold, violin]

Aaron Krister Johnson

Melissa Grey

[Angela Grauerholz and Réjean Myette, film]

[Miolina Violin Duo (Mioi Takeda & Lynn Bechtold)]

Building on his many diverse interests, composer and violinist Mark Zaki’s work ranges from historically-informed and traditional chamber music to electroacoustic music, mixed-media composition, and music for !lm. In 2012-13, Mark was a visiting professor at the University of She$eld as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award to the United Kingdom. Currently on the faculty at Rutgers University-Camden, he is the director of the Music Program and the Rutgers Electro-Acoustic Lab (REAL). He also has recently served as the president of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS).

reFRACTion is an object that reflects its own history. Revealed through iterations of fragmented material, its final form is realized through the accretion of layered sound over time. From a simple and transparent opening statement, a foundation is derived which subsequently remains below the surface. Fragments are captured, processed, and added to a slowly evolving fabric. There’s no attempt to apprehend any musical narrative directly, the piece only does so in retrospect. "e ear chooses between current and past events as histories begin to emerge and compete with one another – often productively, but also in ways that can be unresolved. To a certain extent, reFRACTion could be viewed as metaphor – a palimpsest of existence, where the past is covered up but continues to visibly influence the present.

Hubert Howe was educated at Princeton University, where he studied with J. K. Randall, Godfrey Winham and Milton Babbitt, and from which he received the A.B., M.F.A. and Ph.D. degrees. He was one of the !rst researchers in computer music, and Professor of Music at Queens College of the City University of New York. He also taught at the Juilliard School from 1974 to 1994. From 1989 to 1998, 2001 to 2002, and Fall 2007, he was Director of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. He is currently the Executive Director of the New York Composers Circle and Director of the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival. Recordings of his computer music have been released by Capstone Records (Overtone Music, CPS-8678, Filtered Music, CPS-8719, and Temperamental Music and Created Sounds, CPS-8771) and Ravello Records (Clusters, RR 7817).

Nancy Bogen (b. 1932) is an American author-scholar, mixed media producer, and digital artist. Bogen has to her credit three serious novels of ideas: Klytaimnestra who Stayed at Home (1980); Bobe Mayse: A Tale of Washington Square (1993); and the space satire Bagatelle * Guinevere by Felice Rothman (1995). Distinguished literary critic John Gardner made a spirited defense of Klytaimnestra when a reviewer in Library Journal relegated Bogen’s novel to the “popular !ction rack” with his own work. Also of note is Bogen’s Be a Poet! (2007), a winner of numerous small press awards. In 1997, Bogen began to fashion works in which she rhythmically synchronized her digitized photos to readings of poetry or performances of New Music. To date, she has 16 works in this genre to her credit. All, including Licorice Moments, can be found on Vimeo. Half a dozen new works are in progress, as are full-screen and stand-alone tv presentations.

Licorice Moments: This video uses the piece Clusters by Hubert Howe, for which the program notes are as follows: Most sounds that we hear in music consist of a spectrum of harmonic partials or overtones, and sometimes these also include some inharmonic components. In Clusters, the overtones are all clusters of 5-note chords, reflecting the harmony of the passage, duplicated through three to four octaves above the note; they are not harmonic partials. In other words, harmony becomes spectrum. For most sounds, the amplitudes of these components are varied so that they have a kind of “shimmer” moving up and down the spectrum. "ere are five different kinds of instruments used in the piece: the basic cluster itself, a “sparkle” or variegated cluster, a “whoosh” sound that attacks each of the components separately, a “gong” sound, and a cluster glissando. "e piece begins in the middle range and proceeds through several short passages, each emphasizing a combination of the instruments, until in reaches a climax, where all instruments are used, and concludes quietly, much as it began.

Magdalena Kress (b.1990) is a composer and double bassist from Toledo, OH. She received her master’s degree in Music Composition from Bowling Green State University in 2014, where she studied with Dr. Christopher Dietz and Dr. Marilyn Shrude. Her music has been performed in Ohio, New York, and Alabama. Recently, she has had her work read by the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and premiered on Vox Novus’ Circuit Bridges concert series.

King of Broken Strings: Imagined lament of discarded piano strings.

Howie Kenty, occasionally known by his musical alter-ego, Hwarg, is an award-winning Brooklyn-based composer. His music is stylistically diverse, encompassing ideas from contemporary classical, electronic, rock, sound art, and everything in between, sometimes using visual and theatrical elements. Throughout all of his creations runs the idea that the experience of a piece is more than just listening to the music; he strives for a wholeness of vision and an awareness of environment that attempts to fully draw the audience into his works. Besides regularly premiering his pieces at numerous international forums and venues with amazing performers, helping organize the NYCEMF and other concerts, teaching, and working with artists like DJ Spooky and Amanda Palmer, Howie plays guitar in the progressive rock band The Benzene Ring. Having recently earned his MA in Composition from the Aaron Copland School of Music, he is beginning PhD studies at Stony Brook University. Online: hwarg.com | soundcloud.com/hwarg | youtube.com/hwargbot

Violinist/composer Lynn Bechtold has appeared in recital throughout NA and Europe, and has premiered solo/chamber works by composers such as Gloria Coates, George Crumb, John Harbison, Alvin Lucier, and Morton Subotnick. She is a member of groups including Zentripetal Duo, Bleecker StQ, Miolina, SEM, and the NY Symphonic Ensemble, and her performances have been broadcast on various TV and radio, including WNYC, 30 Rock, "e CBS Morning Show, and Good Day NY. An active performer of all genres of music, she has appeared at diverse venues, from Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall to LPR and Joe’s Pub. Her electroacoustic compositions have been performed around the city and she is currently working on a piece for solo violin and electronics based on the sounds of Kendo (Japanese fencing). She holds degrees from Tufts University, New England Conservatory, and Mannes-The New School for Music, where she was a student of noted violinist Felix Galimir.

We Have Less Time !an You Think, deals with the fact that we humans do not really have long: on the smaller-scale, in terms of the things we attempt to immediately accomplish, and on relatively larger scales, in the time we can spend with each other, the duration of our individual existences, and the collective lifespan of the human race. One of the truer clichés, time passes in a blur, fluidly and easily escaping attempts to stop or slow its flow, with certain events standing out in hindsight as demarcations of structural points. In my own experience, the longer I have existed, the more the passage of time seems to speed up exponentially; I certainly feel like I have less time than I thought I did. All of the electronic elements in this piece were generated using only violin (and vocal) samples.

A multi-faceted pianist, keyboardist, and composer, Aaron Krister Johnson is also the founder and creative/artistic director of UnTwelve, an organization dedicated to the exploration and promotion of the sonic possibilities of new and historical tuning systems and microtonality. His experience ranges from the Western classical keyboard tradition, to folk music and to modern electro-acoustic free improvisation. The Chicago Sun-Times called his composition ‘evocative’, and his keyboard improvisations have been hailed by Keyboard Magazine as “challenging and creative”. His work has been hailed by Chicagocritic.com, the Chicago Tribune, the Windy City Times, and the online music journal Tokafi.com

He has collaborated with the Fine Arts Chamber Players, The Artistic Home, Lyric Opera, Lira Ensemble, Chicago Children’s Choir, Kiltartan Road Ensemble, Lakeside Shakespeare, and the International Music Foundation, among others. Other appearances include Chicago Irish Fest, Milwaukee Irish Fest, and the Old Town School of Folk music. From 1998-2012, he was the pianist, organist, and choir director at Temple Sholom of Chicago, the largest Reform Jewish congregation in Chicago, and home of a historic 4-manual Wurlitzer organ. In 2003 he started writing music and designing sound for theatrical productions. His score for "e Artistic Home’s production of ‘Peer Gynt’ was nominated for a 2005 Joseph Jefferson award for outstanding original incidental music for a play. Other credits with AH include ‘Petri!ed Forest’, ‘Clash by Night’, ‘Madwoman of Chaillot’ and ‘Natural Affection’, and Lakeside Shakespeare of Michigan’s productions of ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Julius Ceasar’. His education includes the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory division, SUNY Purchase (BFA Magna Cum Laude) and Northwestern University (MFA Magna Cum Laude) for his graduate studies.

Satiesque was inspired by the evocative music and textural style of Erik Satie’s music, but by necessity and perhaps unavoidably, also touches on the spirit of Debussy and Ravel. However, the 21st century twist I wanted to explore was the question of what happens when I use the available harmonic resources of some other tuning system, in this case 46-edo (“46 equal division of the octave”, or 46 equally spaced microtones per octave), that has more accurately tuned intervals from the overtone series that constitute the harmonic palette typical of Impressionist and jazz-type harmonies. Not only are these harmonies “purer”, but since there are many more notes available, the number of possible paths through this space explode, a feature I also touched upon.

The piece itself is a rather conservative take on form and substance, with the exception of the pitch space used. The intention was to create a wholly agreeable and pleasant and relaxing atmosphere, but one with enough developmental tension and novelty to keep the listener engaged. Hopefully that intention shines through for the average listener.

Composer Melissa Grey’s projects include concert works, electroacoustic performances, installations, food + music events, and collaborationswith artists and architectural designers. Recent works have been published by THe MIT Press and exhibited or performed at Parsons The New School for Design, Gallery MC, National Gallery of Canada, Goethe-Institut Montréal, "e Stone, Spectrum, Corridor at BolteLang, Radiauteur, Dorsky Gallery, Judson Church, Whitney Museum of American Art (with Antenna International), Alphabet City Festivals 2010 AIR and 2009 WATER, Cinesonika: First International Film and Video Festival of Sound Design, Reno Interdisciplinary Festival of New Media, and others. She has curated and presented the following concerts: Circuit Bridges Concert 3: Sonic Currents (2014), 60x60 New York Minutes Mix (2012), Transrevelation (2007), and Sonic Channels (2006). In addition to her work as co-artistic director of the monthly electroacoustic concert series Circuit Bridges (Vox Novus), Grey has taught Sound Studies at The New School for Public Engagement, NYC.

Artist/photographer and graphic designer, Angela Grauerholz is Full professor at the École de design at the Université du Québec à Montréal where she has taught typography and photography since 1988, and where she has recently completed a four year mandate as director of the Centre de design. Her photographic work has been exhibited and collected widely (Canada, USA, Europe) and she has participated in many important international events including the Sydney Biennale (1990), Documenta IX (1992), the Carnegie International (1995) and the Montréal Biennale (2004). In 2006, she was awarded Québec’s Prix Paul-Émile Borduas for her ccomplishments in the arts, and in 2014 she received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. Along with her purely photographic work, she has worked on different types of photographic archives, addressing notions of memory, of space and place, as well photographic representation.

Miolina was formed in 2012 when artistic director/violinist Mioi Takeda decided to form a violin duo with longtime collaborator, violinist/composer Lynn Bechtold. To date, the duo has had successful performances in NYC at The Church of the Trans!guration, Gallery MC, Greenwich House Music School, "e Morbid Anatomy Museum, Parsons School of Design, Queens Library, Spectrum, St. Mark’s Church, and Turtle Bay Music School, as well as at Monk Space in Los Angeles. Miolina specializes in violin duo music that employs the natural beauty and sound of the instruments, with or without electronics and video. "ey enjoy collaborating on new compositions with composers, as well as discovering hidden gems of the past. To date, they have worked with composers Melissa Grey, Takuma Itoh, Debra Kaye, Dary John Mizelle, Je% Myers, Milica Paranosic, and Eric Tanguy, among others. Miolina’s future productions include a performance at the Electronic Music Midwest Festival in Chicago this October; creating music for the 1928 !lm “Jujiro” by Teinosuke Kinugasa; and a collaborative performance with composer Martin Phelps in Paris, France. Both violinists are longtime advocates of new music, and have performed with various new music groups, including the American Symphony Orchestra, Composers Concordance, Glass Farm Ensemble, North/South Consonance, SEM Ensemble, & VIA.

Mioi Takeda has performed with new music groups including North/South Consonance as concertmaster, SEM Ensemble, and Composers Concordance, giving countless premieres. She has also performed with the Orchestra of St. Lukes, American Symphony Orchestra, Washington Square Festival, Scandia Symphony, Stamford Symphony, Strathmere Orchestra, "e Japan Philharmonic, and "e New Japan Philharmonic. Her performances can be heard on North/South and Naxos recordings. She was a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki at the Juilliard School and she earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts from "e City University of New York under the guidance of Itzhak Perlman. Ms. Takeda performs in a violin-duo group, Miolina, with Ms. Lynn Bechtold. miolinanyc.wix.com/miolina

Appassionata is a !lm collage and musical composition. Artist Angela Grauerholz invited composer Melissa Grey to interpret a fragment of music that Ludwig Wittgenstein had scribbled down in his journal in 1931. Accompanying this music, he wrote: “That must be the end of a theme which I cannot place. It came into my head today as I was thinking about my philosophical work and saying to myself, I destroy, I destroy, I destroy.” Wittgenstein’s attempt to consider the implications of the limitations language places on human experience is reflected in this piece where the meaning remains open, and several sensibilities and forms of expression are merged into one. The film collage, byGrauerholz and Réjean Myette, was constructed as a response to Grey’s resulting composition, in a dialogue that reconsiders image-sound hierarchy.