Carnegie Hall Presents The American Composers Orchestra In THE NEW VIRTUOSO: BORDERS

On October 30, 2024 at 7:30 PM, Carnegie Hall presents the American Composers Orchestra (ACO) in The New Virtuoso: Borders, led by Mei-Ann Chen in Zankel Hall.

The program includes works that use a new kind of virtuosity to shed light on the effect of political and ecological borders, in addition to featuring soloists that are virtuosos on their instruments, uncovering new technical territory and thereby innovating compositionally as well.

The program includes a world premiere of a new bass concerto commissioned from CoLABoratory Fellow & The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow Kebra-Seyoun Charles and an ACO-commissioned work by Curtis Stewart, both with the composers as featured soloists; the world premiere of Paul Novak's forest migrations, an EarShot commission; the NYC Premiere of The Bell by Victoria Polevá, co-commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and American Composers Orchestra, featuring cellist Inbal Segev, and a work by Michael Abels featuring guitarist Mak Grgić. The New Virtuoso is a series of programs featuring works that defy genre expectations for a solo instrument, and in doing so carve out novel textures, effects, and techniques in symphonic composition. 

Michael Abels describes Borders as inspired by a museum exhibit about graphic artist Ismet Berbic and his family. He shares, “The exhibit details the Berbics' struggle to preserve individuality, family and cultural identity in the face of losing country and community. Guitarist Mak Grgić, soloist in this performance, was a friend of the Berbic Family, and experienced the Balkan War firsthand as a child. In the first movement of this concerto, the guitar is a protagonist that is repeatedly confined by sonic bars or walls created by the orchestra. The second movement depicts a child running, sometimes joyfully, but also sometimes in fear.”

Grgić adds, “When Michael and I first started talking about the narrative of the new guitar concerto, we couldn't help but notice that we both came from turbulent backgrounds and that music had provided a safe haven for us. It was a sheer coincidence that around the same time, my friend Amir Berbic had an exhibit in Pomona, California about his family's experience as refugees during the Balkan War in the 1990s… Constant runs and movement up and down the fretboard, seeming restlessness accented by moments of deep repose, mimic the continuous struggles of the Berbic family, and really anyone in such a position. As is typically the case when working on a new piece, Michael and I communicated back and forth about each section of the score as I tried it on guitar for the first time. Working through the nuances with Michael was a joy. I am beyond thrilled that we chose to present music as something that supersedes life's obstacles, and that the Berbic family's story of persistence and perseverance has been told so well.”

A 2024-2025 CoLABoratory Fellow and The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow, Kebra-Seyoun Charles's commissioned work Bass Concerto (Nightlife) was commissioned by ACO and developed via its EarShot CoLABoratory program. Charles said, “The piece combines multiple styles and genres; a language I call counter-classicism. Mirroring the way people listen to music today, I seamlessly move between genres and rhythms, a quality that likens this piece to a playlist. I compose on the train often where I listen to music from Korngold, Mahler, and Bach. Then upon entering any concert venue, I'm met with music from SZA or Frankie Knuckles. My Bass Concerto, subtitled Nightlife, is an exploration of the core tenet of music: dance. Throughout history, music has been used for dance, with classical music no exception. I take forms like the French Baroque Overture and infuse them with modern genres like house music, jazz, and especially gospel.” In addition to their solo career as a bassist, Kebra-Seyoun Charles is a passionate chamber musician, having played with groups like East Coast Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, Palaver Strings, and the Sphinx Virtuosi. 

This performance marks the debut performance of a newly restored, rare late-18th-century double bass, attributed to Luigi Alosio Marconcini, recently loaned to Charles by Dr. Jess Ting, MD, a leading pioneer of gender-affirming surgery at Mount Sinai and double bass graduate of The Juilliard School, as well as the lead commissioner of the new Charles Bass Concerto. The connection was made thanks to the American Composers Orchestra CEO Melissa Ngan, who heard about Ting's collection of valuable instruments. Ting says, “When I was at Juilliard, I played a broken, decrepit instrument that I had taken (shhh…) from the music room at Stuyvesant High School. At 15, I taught myself to restore it. It was a Frankenstein of an instrument—lacking varnish because I had to sand it off to remove the ‘Property of Board of Ed' stamps all over the bass, and it even had a missing scroll volute, ending in a sharp point instead. While it sounded great, its ridiculous appearance made it hard for others to take me seriously. The absence of a decent instrument was one of the reasons I eventually gave up pursuing a career in music. In a way, it feels like I'm lending a younger version of myself an instrument, compensating for the deprivations of my own youth. And being able to provide the commission for the bass concerto on top of that? That's just the icing on the cake!”

Curtis Stewart's Embrace, an ACO Commission for violin and orchestra featuring Stewart on violin and electronics, was his GRAMMY-nominated album of Love.'s first single. The performance incorporates spoken clips from an interview with Stewart's late mother, Elektra Kurtis-Stewart, a violinist and composer herself. Stewart uses sounds from outside the concert stage to elevate concert music, saying “in sampling music and words from communities where the work is performed, Embrace spins the idea of ‘outreach' on its head.” The story collection process will include video and audio captured in student workshops at NYC's WHIN Academy on the nature and power of music in people's lives, along with audio from ACO's Compose Yourself! programs and featured composers and musicians. All the audio and video will be spliced into the original audio from of Love.

Paul Novak's forest migrations, an ACO EarShot Readings commission receiving its world premiere on this concert, explores different layers of time, with active layers of surface motion always buoyed by the slow movement of the forest. Much of the material of the piece is built from tightly interwoven canons which unravel patiently throughout the ensemble like the mycelium network of a forest. Throughout the piece, the wooden instruments of the orchestra resonate in their most fundamental ways, with music built from natural harmonics, open strings, and melodies of interlocked fifths. Novak states, “My aim was to create a sound world that is patient and resilient, like the natural world this piece pays homage to.” Forests slowly move to new geographic areas across many generations in response to environmental threats such as climate change. However, Novak notes that the phrase “forest migration” also darkly alludes to the very different migration that trees undergo as forests around the world are destroyed. “I have been thinking about the great debt musicians owe to trees,” Novak says. “So many of the instruments we play are constructed from wood, and in a certain sense the creation of these instruments seems, poignantly, like a third type of migration.” EarShot Readings, operated in partnership with the American Composers Forum, New Music USA, and the League of American Orchestras, provide composers with professional working experiences with orchestras from across the Americas. ACO hosts EarShot Readings with its own orchestra in New York City each season, in addition to designing EarShot Readings with partner orchestras.

The daughter of composer Valery Polevoy (1927–1986), composer Victoria Vita Polevá was born in Kyiv, Ukraine and her work has been performed all over the world. Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Polevá has been displaced from her home and is living abroad with friends; in alignment with our nation's long history of providing refuge to those separated from their homeland by war, ACO adopts her as an honorary American composer for this performance. Polevá was moved to create The Bell, which has its New York City Premiere during The New Virtuoso: Borders, by the urgency of the present moment. She says, "For me, the idea of this music comes from the Latin bellum, which means ‘war.'” A work written during the war and by the war. A bell announcing war, a funeral bell, a victory bell…It is also associated with the name of the cellist who will be the first performer (the name Inbal Segev means “tongue of the bell”). Cellist Inbal Segev will be featured during this performance, of which she says, “I was moved to commission this new work from Victoria Polevá when I first encountered her music and her fortitude in facing the conflict in Ukraine. These are troubled times for so many of us. I hope that our performance will help bring relief to some of those who need it most in Ukraine.” A dedicated giving page hosted on humanitarian organization Direct Relief's website encourages donations to the nonprofit to support its efforts to provide emergency medical supplies to people in Ukraine. 

Program:

Wednesday, October 30, 2024 at 7:30 PM
Carnegie Hall Presents American Composers Orchestra in The New Virtuoso: Borders
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall | New York City, NY
Tickets: Tickets start at $50 ($40 + $10 fee)
Link: www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2024/10/30/american-composers-orchestra-0730pm 

Program:
Michael Abels – Borders 
     Mak Grgić, guitar
Kebra-Seyoun Charles – Bass Concerto: Nightlife [ACO EarShot Commission, developed via EarShot CoLABoratory/World Premiere]
     Kebra-Seyoun Charles, double bass
Curtis Stewart – Embrace [ACO Commission]
     Curtis Stewart, violin and electronics
Paul Novak – forest migrations [ACO EarShot Commission/World Premiere]
Victoria Polevá – The Bell [NYC Premiere]
     Inbal Segev, cello

American Composers Orchestra
Mei-Ann Chen, conductor
Mak Grgić, guitar
Inbal Segev, cello
Curtis Stewart, violin and electronics
Kebra-Seyoun Charles, bass

About American Composers Orchestra

In 1977, a collective of fearless New York City musicians came together to form the American Composers Orchestra (ACO), an ensemble dedicated to the creation, celebration, performance, and promotion of orchestral music by American composers. Over more than 40 years committed to artistry, creativity, community and equity, ACO has blossomed into a national institution that not only cultivates and develops the careers of living composers, but also provides composers a direct pipeline to partnerships with many of America's major symphony orchestras.

In addition to its annual season, presented by Carnegie Hall since 1987, the ACO serves as a New York City hub where the most forward-thinking experimental American musicians come together to hone and realize new art by developing talent, established composers, and underrepresented voices, increasing the regional, national, and international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music.
 
ACO produces national educational programs for all ages, and composer advancement programs to foster a community of creators, audience, performers, collaborators, and funders – all dedicated to American composition. 

To date, ACO has performed music by 800 American composers, including over 350 world premieres and newly commissioned works. Recent and notable commissioned composers include John Luther Adams, Andy Akiho, Clarice Assad, Carlos Bandera, Courtney Bryan, Valerie Coleman, Dai Wei, Du Yun, inti figgis-vizueta, Marcus Gilmore, Vijay Iyer, Yvette Janine Jackson, Joan La Barbara, Steve Lehman, Tania León, Paula Matthusen, Trevor New, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Ellen Reid, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Carlos Simon, Henry Threadgill, and many more.

Now encompassing all of ACO's composer advancement initiatives, EarShot is the first ongoing, systematic program for developing relationships between composers and orchestras on the national level. Through orchestral readings, CoLABoratory fellowships, consortium commissions, publishing, and professional development, EarShot ensures a vibrant musical future by investing in creativity today. Serving over 350 composers since its inception, ACO Readings in NYC began in 1991, and since 2008, national Readings have been offered in partnership with orchestras across the country in collaboration with American Composers Forum, the League of American Orchestras, and New Music USA. EarShot Readings composers have gone on to win every major composition award, including the Pulitzer, Grammy, Grawemeyer, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Rome Prizes.

ACO has received numerous awards for its work, including those from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and from BMI Foundation, Inc., recognizing the orchestra's outstanding contribution to American music. ASCAP has awarded ACO its annual prize for adventurous programming 35 times, singling out ACO as “the orchestra that has done the most for new American music in the United States.” ACO received the inaugural MetLife Award for Excellence in Audience Engagement, and a proclamation from the New York City Council. Learn more at www.americancomposers.org.