Miller Theatre to Present a Composer Portrait of Thomas Meadowcroft
Thomas Meadowcroft makes orchestral and chamber music for the concert hall, as well as music for theater and radio.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Mar. 16, 2022
The intrepid Yarn/Wire, longtime champions of the composer, performs the world premiere of a pair of commissioned works, in which Thomas Meadowcroft pulls from an array of influences to create his own unique take on pop songs.
Program:
Another Children's Television (2021) world premiere, Miller Theatre commission
Forward Through Circles (2021) world premiere, Miller Theatre commission
These commissions are made possible with lead support from Mark H. Jackson and Karen L. Hagberg. Additional support was provided by the Australian Performing Rights Association - Art Music Fund.
Artists:
Yarn/Wire
(Sae Hashimoto and Russell Greenberg, percussion;
Laura Barger and Julia Den Boer, piano)
Thomas Meadowcroft
Thomas Meadowcroft makes orchestral and chamber music for the concert hall, as well as music for theater and radio.
"It is the resulting distance of the country of the composer's birth that informs several of his projects, in which memory is coming at us from several different removes," writes music critic Paul Griffiths, as evidenced by Meadowcroft's two radio plays for German Radio and ABC RN, Song Buslines (2013) and Moving Homes (2016), fictional music soundscapes set in the composer's home state of Queensland, as well as the 2008 sound installation for QAGOMA, Monaro Eden, which features recordings of his cousin's V8 hotrod. Along with examining cultural memory in early twenty-first century Australia, Meadowcroft's music also addresses the political economy of music as part of each work's realization. The 2017 work for live symphony orchestra, The News in Music examines TV news music and orchestral media in the service of power, whereas Die Kinder über dem Informationsmeer / Children over a Sea of Information (2019), commissioned by BASF Ludwigshafen and HKF Berlin for children's choir and string orchestra, sees children reciting texts culled from YouTube user threads, while accompanied by 'chamber pop' string arrangements.
Meadowcroft's orchestral music has been performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, and the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg. His chamber music has been performed internationally by ensemble recherche, Eklekto Percussion Collective, Either/Or Ensemble, Ensemble Offspring, Speak Percussion, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Third Coast Percussion, and Yarn/Wire, among others, and presented at various international festivals and concert series including Acara Festival Salihara (Jakarta), Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center (New York City), Lucerne Festival, Maerzmusik (Berlin), Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Rainy Days Festival (Luxembourg), and Ultima Festival (Oslo). As a performer, Meadowcroft has appeared at the Holland Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (HCMF), Issue Project Room (Brooklyn, NY), KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, and the Hawler International Theater Festival (Erbil, Iraq). His music and arrangements have been released on Skirl, Mikroton, Telos, and Universal labels.
Meadowcroft has undertaken artist residencies at the Villa Aurora Los Angeles (courtesy of the German Foreign Office), Cité des arts, Paris (courtesy of the Berlin Senate for Cultural Affairs), the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers' House Sydney, and the Golden Vale residence NSW (courtesy of the National Trust of Australia NSW and the Bundanon Trust). He studied composition with George Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania, and Brian Ferneyhough at the University of California, San Diego.
Yarn/Wire
Yarn/Wire is a New York-based percussion and piano quartet (Sae Hashimoto and Russell Greenberg, percussion; Laura Barger and Ning Yu, piano) dedicated to the promotion of creative, experimental new music. Pianist Julia Den Boer is a guest artist for the 2021-2022 season. Described by The Brooklyn Rail as "fascinating and exciting, with playing that is precise and full of purpose," the ensemble is admired globally for the energy and precision it brings to performances of today's most adventurous compositions. Founded in 2005, the ensemble seeks to expand the representation of composers so that it might begin to better reflect our communities and experience new creative potential.
Yarn/Wire appears internationally at prominent festivals and venues including the Lincoln Center Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall, Rainy Days Festival (Luxembourg), Ultima Festival (Norway), Transit Festival (Belgium), Dublin SoundLab, Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Contempuls Festival (Prague), Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York's Miller Theatre at Columbia University, River-to-River Festival, La MaMa Theatre, Festival of New American Music, and London's Barbican Centre. Their numerous commissions include works from composers such as Enno Poppe, Michael Gordon, George Lewis, Ann Cleare, Raphaël Cendo, Peter Evans, Alex Mincek, Thomas Meadowcroft, Misato Mochizuki, Tristan Murail, Sam Pluta, Tyondai Braxton, Kate Soper, and Øyvind Torvund. The ensemble enjoys collaborations with genre-bending artists such as Tristan Perich, Ben Vida, Mark Fell, Sufjan Stevens, and Pete Swanson.
Through the Yarn/Wire International Institute and Festival and other educational residencies and outreach programs, Yarn/Wire works to promote not only the present but also the future of new music in the United States. Their ongoing commissioning series, Yarn/Wire/Currents, serves as an incubator for new experimental music.
Yarn/Wire has recorded for the WERGO, Northern Spy, Distributed Objects, Black Truffle, Populist, and Carrier record labels in addition to maintaining their own imprint.
COVID POLICIES AND GUIDELINES
The safety of audiences, staff, and musicians is important to Miller Theatre and to Columbia University. Miller Theatre will act to protect the health and safety of all personnel by following Columbia University guidance and policies. All Miller Theatre events this season will be 75 minutes or less with no intermission to reduce congestion in lobby areas. We have added a mobile ticketing option to provide a seamless, contact-free entry. Beginning March 14, masks are optional and no longer required for entry.
In order to return to Miller Theatre, audiences must:
Provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination along with an accompanying ID
Stay home if you don't feel well
Read the complete details of Miller's COVID-19 policies.
All ticket buyers must agree to adhere to these policies during the ticket-buying process.
Photo credit: Katrin Streicher
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