The Miller Theatre Concludes Its 2014-15 Bach, Revisited Series with SOFIA GUBAIDULINA + BACH, 5/8

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts presents the 2014-15 Bach, Revisited series finale SOFIA GUBAIDULINA + BACH on Friday, May 8, 2015, 8:00 p.m., featuring:

Ensemble Signal
Kristian Bezuidenhout, harpsichord
Kelli Kathman, flute
Courtney Orlando, violin
Daniel Pesca, piano
Brad Lubman, conductor

Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)
Tickets: $25-35 • Students with valid ID: $15-21

From Miller Theatre Executive Director Melissa Smey:
"This is a perfect pairing of two masterful composers with which to end Miller Theatre's 2014-15 Season. Bach has been a major influence for Sofia Gubaidulina, and her admiration of his work lends a natural harmony to this program. Her own works are breath-taking. I am thrilled that we can bring together this all-star roster of performers for the perfect end to an amazing season."

BACH, REVISITED

Past and present collide in the current iteration of Miller's long-running Bach series. Each living composer in the 2014-15 series has a different affinity for Bach: Michael Gordon admires his structural innovation; Helmut Lachenmann continues his quest to re-define performers' technical boundaries; Sofia Gubaidulina mirrors Bach's spirituality in her transcendent compositions. A variety of soloists join Signal, this year's ensemble-in-residence, for these performances, including the celebrated harpsichordist Kristian Bezuidenhout.

Bach, Revisited

Friday, May 8, 2015, 8:00 p.m.
Sofia Gubaidulina + Bach

Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)
Sofia Gubaidulina shares a special affinity with Bach: both artists' music is influenced by their faith, and they share a unique blend of emotional transcendence and compositional rigor. Gubaidulina's Chaconne for piano directly reflects her interest in Baroque forms, while her Meditation is both literally based on a Bach cantata tune and formally inspired by numerology, the practice of using spiritually or otherwise significant numbers - a technique Bach himself employed. Signal will be joined by the "vigorously intelligent" harpsichordist Kristian Bezuidenhout, praised for his "extraordinary new ideas about old music" (Boston Globe).

Sofia Gubaidulina

Sofia Gubaidulina was born in Chistopol in the Tatar Republic of the Soviet Union in 1931. After instruction in piano and composition at the Kazan Conservatory, she studied composition with Nikolai Peiko at the Moscow Conservatory, pursuing graduate studies there under Vissarion Shebalin. Until 1992, she lived in Moscow. Since then, she has made her primary residence in Germany, outside Hamburg.

Gubaidulina's compositional interests have been stimulated by the tactile exploration and improvisation with rare Russian, Caucasian, and Asian folk and ritual instruments collected by the "Astreia" ensemble, of which she was a co-founder; by the rapid absorption and personalization of contemporary Western musical techniques (a characteristic, too, of other Soviet composers of the post-Stalin generation including Edison Denisov and Alfred Schnittke); and by a deep-rooted belief in the mystical properties of music.

Since 1985, when she was first allowed to travel to the West, Gubaidulina's stature in the world of contemporary music has skyrocketed. She made her first visit to North America in 1987 as a guest of Louisville's "Sound Celebration." She has returned many times since as a featured composer at festivals-Boston's "Making Music Together" (1988), Vancouver's "New Music" (1991), Tanglewood (1997)-and for other performance milestones.

She has been the recipient of prestigious commissions from the Berlin, Helsinki, and Holland festivals, the Library of Congress, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and many other organizations and ensembles. A major recent triumph was the premiere in 2002 of the monumental two-part cycle, Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ according to St. John, commissioned by the International Bachakademie Stuttgart and the Norddeutschen Rundfunk, Hamburg.

Ensemble Signal

signalensemble.org

Ensemble Signal, described by The New York Times as "one of the most vital groups of its kind", is a New York-based ensemble offering the broadest possible audience access to a diverse range of contemporary works through performance, commissioning, recording, and education. Since its debut in 2008, the Ensemble has performed over 100 concerts, has given the New York, world, or U.S. premieres of over 20 works, and co-produced five recordings.

Signal was founded by Co-Artistic/Executive Director Lauren Radnofsky and Co-Artistic Director/Conductor Brad Lubman. Lubman, one of the foremost conductors of modern music and a leading figure in the field for over two decades, is a frequent guest with the world's most distinguished orchestras and new music ensembles. A "new music dream team" (Time Out New York), Signal regularly performs with Lubman and features a supergroup of independent artists from the modern music scene. Signal is flexible in size and instrumentation - everything from solo to large contemporary ensemble in any possible combination - enabling it to meet the ever-changing demands on the 21st century performing ensemble.

At home in concert halls, clubs, and international festivals alike, Signal has performed at Lincoln Center Festival, Ojai Music Festival, Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, Miller Theatre, (le)Poisson Rouge, The Tanglewood Music Festival of Contemporary Music, Cleveland Museum of Art, The Wordless Music Series, and the Bang on a Can Marathon. Signal has worked with artists and composers including Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Irvine Arditti, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Oliver Knussen, Hilda Paredes, and Charles Wuorinen. Signal's recording are available on Philip Glass's Orange Mountain, New Amsterdam Records, Mode, and Cantaloupe.

Recent highlights include a headliner performance of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musiciansand Radio Rewrite at the 2014 BIG EARS Festival in Knoxville, TN. Upcoming highlights include the co-commission of a new work for large ensemble by Steve Reich, the performance of Steve Reich's video opera Three Tales, as well as David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe's video opera Shelter, on the LA Philharmonic's series at Walt Disney Concert Hall in May 2015.

Kristian Bezuidenhout

Harpsichordist Kristian Bezuidenhout was born in South Africa in 1979. He began his studies in Australia, completed them at the Eastman School of Music, and now lives in London. Bezuidenhout is a frequent guest artist with the world's leading ensembles, including The Freiburger Barockorchester, Chicago Symphony, and Collegium Vocale Gent, in many instances assuming the role of guest director. He divides his time between concerto, recital, and chamber music engagements, appearing in the early music festivals across Europe; the festivals of Salzburg, Edinburgh, Schleswig Holstein, Tangelwood, Luzern, and Mostly Mozart Lincoln Center; and at many of the world's most important concert halls including the Berlin and Köln Philharmonie, Suntory Hall, Symphony Hall, Konzerthaus Vienna, Wigmore Hall, and Carnegie Hall.

Recent recordings include three volumes of the complete keyboard music of Mozart (prizes include Diapason D'or, a Caecilia Prize, and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik); Mendelssohn piano concertos with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and Schumann Dichterliebe with Mark Padmore (both won Edison Awards).

Kelli Kathman

Flutist Kelli Kathman is an active soloist and chamber musician in the New York scene. Best known for her thoughtful interpretation and energetic performance of music from the 20th and 21st centuries, Kathman enjoys commissioning and premiering new works by young and established composers from diverse musical backgrounds and styles. Kathman has performed across the United States and Europe with eighth blackbird, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Alarm Will Sound, the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center, and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. Additionally, Kathman has performed with the Zankel Band, the Steve Reich Ensemble, and the Martha Graham Dance Company. Her festival appearances include Tanglewood, Chamber Music Northwest, Bang on a Can Marathon, Wordless Music Series, and June in Buffalo. Kathman currently teaches flute as at Sarah Lawrence College and is a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center. She received her Bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music and her Master's degree from Yale University.

Courtney Orlando

Heralded by The New York Times as a violinist of "tireless energy and bright tone,"Courtney Orlando specializes in the performance of contemporary and crossover music. She is a founding member of the acclaimed new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, which has premiered works by and collaborated with some of the foremost composers of our time, including John Adams, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Michael Gordon, and David Lang. Performances with AWS include those at Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center Festival, Amsterdam's Holland Festival, and a tour of Moscow and St. Petersburg. She is also a member of Ensemble Signal. Courtney serves on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory, where she teaches Ear Training and Sight Singing. Prior to her appointment at Peabody, she received her doctorate from and taught at the Eastman School of Music.

Daniel Pesca

Daniel Pesca has been a guest performer at many university venues across the country, as well as at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Library of Congress, the New Hazlett Theatre (Pittsburgh), the Megaron (Athens, Greece), and the Chicago Cultural Center. Daniel has performed as a featured soloist with the Orchestra of the League of Composers, the Eastman BroadBand, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Slee Sinfonietta, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble. An avid proponent of new chamber music and an enthusiastic ensemble pianist, Daniel has appeared with Chicago's Dal Niente, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Michigan Chamber Players, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. His playing is featured on recordings from Block M Records and Urtext Classics, including a performance of Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez's piano concerto,Diaries, written for Daniel. His latest recording, with flutist Sarah Frisof, will appear on Centaur Records in 2015.

Brad Lubman

Brad Lubman, conductor/composer, is founding co-Artistic Director and Music Director of Ensemble Signal, hailed by The New York Times as "one of the most vital groups of its kind." Since his conducting debut in 1984, he has gained widespread recognition for his versatility, commanding technique, and insightful interpretations.

His guest conducting engagements include major orchestras such as the DSO Berlin, Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie, Residentie Orchestra Den Haag, WDR Symphony Cologne, NDR Symphony Hamburg, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Deutschland Radio Philharmonie, American Composers Orchestra, and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, performing repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary orchestral works. He has worked with some of the most important ensembles for contemporary music, including London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, musikFabrik, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, and Steve Reich and Musicians.

Photo Courtesy of The Miller Theatre

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