Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue 40.66755 N, 73.96275 W
Birds is inspired by bird sounds and their rhythmic sense. This concept reimagines the life of a bird from its morning rise to its last call. The bird seems to have a natural progression in which that happens, and allowing each section of this piece to flow into the next is the key to bringing this piece to life. All sections are meant to be repeated until the material is fully internationalized by listeners. This may mean repeating 4-5 times per section, the only section played 1 time is the last call. There must be at every performance a natural leader cueing each section and fermatas. The idea is to be musical interpreting those held notes to create a building effect leading up to the last call.
This work was inspired by the calls and sounds of six different birds - Western Meadowlark, House Wren, Hermit Thrush, Black Rail, Eurasian Nightjar, and Night Heron. Each of the four movements of this piece combines elements from several of the sounds or patterns that one or more of these birds produce and has them work together.
Trent Ransom is a graduate student at the DePaul University School of Music studying violin performance. Trent currently studies with I-Hao Lee. He previously studied with Cyrus Beroukhim and Teri Einfeldt. Trent has attended Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, I- Hao Lee Program (China), Round Top Festival Orchestra, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Preludio Program for Advanced Violinists at the Ithaca College Suzuki Institute. Honors include winning the Connecticut Youth Symphony concerto competition, and winning the Hartford Musical Club Competition.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Shao-Che (Sean) started playing the violin from the young age of five in a local music classroom. Growing up, Sean participated in many national music competitions, and often as prize winners. Sean moved to New York City at the age of thirteen to pursue a career as a violinist, he studied under both Mr. I-Hao Lee and Mr. Hyo Kang in The Juilliard Precollege…
I Cheng Liu has appeared across Taiwan as an outstanding soloist and as a chamber musician. Born in Changhua, Taiwan. I Cheng began his cello lessons at the age of thirteen. After attending Municipal Datongguomin Junior High School and Taichung Municipal Cingshuei Senior High School, I Cheng started to participate in many music contests and earned great results…
Fengwan Chen currently studies at The Juilliard School under the guidance of Joseph Lin. Fengwan has worked with Lewis Kaplan, Boris Kuschnir, Regis Pasquier, Midori Goto, Mayuko Kamio, and Ning Feng, among others. As an avid musician, she won the fellowships of Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Music Academy of the West. Fengwan also performed at Juilliard ChamberFest and Seiji Ozawa Music Academy in Japan.
Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue 40.66753 N, 73.96231 W
the rhythm in the birds came about from two moments: while on tour and after discussing the parameters of this commission, a band member suggested that I look for the ‘silence in the birds’
following that conversation, I went and sat outside to observe and listen to birds every so often. what struck me in the midst of that silence were the rhythms being communicated and the way that they were being expressed.
each individual bird had its own personal rhythm, personal melody, and personal flight path. yet there were always constantly at least two or three birds, generally in the same vicinity, seemingly working together for the same goal.
their flights, rhythms, and songs weren’t always accurately expressed altogether or in unison; but when brought together, they created beautifully layered textures that moved and flowed together.
The piece Migration Before the Storm is inspired by two common and fascinating bird behaviors: Migration and the group dynamic right before a drastic weather change, such as a storm. Both of these specific behaviors can happen in large groups and in this piece are represented by 4 tonal centers that appear in different shapes, dynamics and tempos
Will Yager is a bassist/improviser committed to experimental music, improvisation, and collaborating with living composers. He is a founding member of the chamber duo LIGAMENT and improvising trio Wombat. Performance highlights include the High Zero Foundation’s Red Room in Your Room, ESS Quarantine Concerts, 2021 International Society of Bassists’ Convention, Oh My Ears Festival, Big Ears Festival, Feed Me Weird Things, New Music on the Point, Cortona Sessions for New Music, and the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival.
Tamika Gorski is a percussionist currently based in New York City. An avid performer and supporter of contemporary music, she has commissioned and premiered numerous solo and chamber works by composers such as Molly Joyce, Elliot Cole, and Phong Tran…
Nate Jasensky is a guitarist, composer, producer, arranger, and music educator born and raised in sunny Tucson, Arizona, and currently living in Brooklyn, New York. Nathan first started his music education at the age of three, when he was enrolled in regular music classes with musicians in the local symphony orchestra. Learning how to read music before written english, Nate quickly became proficient in the guitar and the saxophone…
Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue 40.66810 N, 73.96220 W
yes you are this much I wrote this while listening to the spring birds. In the village where I live, there are thousands of them, and they are my favorite meditation music. I wish to be like a bird, expressing myself without inhibition and with great purpose.
Inspired by the Flightless Cormorants. These birds are an endemic species to the Galapagos Island, and just like their name implies, they cannot fly. Because of this they are confined to the shoreline they inhabit. Although these birds have lost their ability to fly, they are impressive swimmers, and important underwater predators. Flightless is a musical ‘slice of Flightless Cormorant life’ piece. Each performer represents ad individual bird. How much time do these birds spend on land vs. water? How many dives do these birds take? How will these birds interact when their paths cross?
Milena Casado is a composer, flugelhorn and trumpet player from Spain. She has performed with acclaimed artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Jorge Rossy, Kenny Werner, Bill McHenry or Francisco Mela, among others…
Maya Keren is a pianist, vocalist, composer, and songwriter from Philadelphia. They are interested in the process of environing people, voices, instruments, and sounds in ways that invite connection with one’s erotic instinct, embody compassionate and queer relations with the self and the collective, and destabilize learned systems of domination…
Julian Miltenberger is a drummer and composer from Philadelphia, currently attending the Harvard/Berklee dual degree program in Boston. With roots in Philadelphia's swing, R&B, and avant-garde music traditions, Julian seeks to explore broader musical lineages throughout the Atlantic world with his work…
Eden Girma is a multi-instrumental musician, singer, and composer. Hailing from Madison, WI but of no particular home; grown at the nexus of many artistic traditions, drawing from it all to create and perform music that not only resonates with individual hearts, but brings people closer together in a spirit of intimacy and empathy.
Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue 40.6687163 N, 73.9630636 W
Commissioned by the Metropolis Ensemble for the premiere in Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Twelve Miniature Etudes is inspired by the different techniques, music elements and timbre that can be produced by various instruments. Colors I is a movement of long holding notes that build chords. Bullet Notes are melodic lines produced by fast running notes connected from one instrument to the other. Ostinato Rocks are ostinatos with polyrhythms. Imitation You and I is created by musicians imitate each other’s sound, melody, and rhythms. Funky Chords is a movement with three sets of harmonic progressions that musicians use to improvise. In Scale Plays, players use octatonic scale(s) to build a three-part structure. The sound in Duets is produced by paring of instruments. In Unison Tuning, everyone starts by playing a single melodic line and then alternates after that. Composite Hockets is created by rhythmic hockets with different groups. In Chain II, short melodic lines are created and passed around musicians using eye contacts. Rhythm Blocks builds on single note chosen by each player and rhythmic patterns created by them. Colors II is an echo of Colors I.
Xavier Del Castillo is a saxophonist and composer based in Brooklyn, New York. He has performed with numerous Jazz, New Music and Folk ensembles including Adam O'Farrill's Stranger Days, Cat Toren's Human Kind, Inti and the Moon, Los Guachinangos, Ben Rosenblum's Nebula Project, Tim Rachbach's Under One Moon and Alec Goldfarb's Laughing Coffin…
Marina Kifferstein (she/they) is a violinist and generative artist based in NYC. Equally comfortable in major international venues and DIY performance spaces, Marina enjoys a diverse career that encompasses contemporary chamber music, improvisation, composition, and classical performance…
Pablo O’Connell (he/him) is an NYC-based oboist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. Pablo’s varied musical life includes composing and interpreting contemporary concert music, improvising, performing music of the European Baroque on period instruments, writing and recording indie folk songs, studying traditional Andean music, and more…
Alec Goldfarb is a Brooklyn based guitarist, composer, and Hindustani classical musician. Active in the NYC improvised and new music communities, Alec directed the chamber ensemble “Laughing Coffin” and served as Jonah Bokaer Choreography’s inaugural Composer in Residence for 2018...
