Building Bridges

[caption id=“attachment_801” align=“alignright” width=“230” caption=“Akimi Fukuhara”][/caption] Metropolis pianist Akimi Fukuhara recently gave the world premiere of Ryan Francis's Tri Cantae in Tokyo. Akimi is quickly becoming a truly international artist. Dividing her time between New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo, she has set a clear goal for herself: “My hope as an artist is to become a ‘bridge’ between the artistic communities in the U.S. and Japan.” Part of encouraging dialogue between her native Japan and the U.S. has its roots in her interest in contemporary music. “The connections between music, politics and culture are very fascinating to me; working with living composers has been an incredible way to create dialogue between different musical communities.” Among her numerous performances over the past several years, her strong advocacy of Metropolis composer Ryan Francis’s music in Japan stands out. Fukuhara and Francis have been friends and colleagues for the better part of a decade, and she has been actively championing his compositions in Japan since 2009. One such work she gave the Japanese premiere of is Francis's Wind-Up Bird Preludes. Francis’s set of preludes was actually inspired by the novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, one of Japan’s most preeminent writers, who has become one of the most internationally recognized authors alive today. Although the Wind-Up Bird Preludes were completed in 2009, it took Fukuhara’s dedication to Francis’s music to bring the new work to a Japanese audience. Fukuhara even took steps to reach out to Murakami himself about the piece, and received an enthusiastic acknowledgement.

“It is really liberating to work on Francis’s music. It has taken me beyond my background of generally standard repertoire, and for Japanese audiences, hearing American new music just fresh off the page from New York is really unusual! It is especially encouraging that younger audiences I have played for are responding to contemporary music like his.”

[caption id=“attachment_803” align=“alignright” width=“300” caption=“Akimi performing in Sumida Triphony Hall.”]

[/caption] This shared interest of her and her audience in Japan ultimately lead her to commission an entirely new piece by Francis for her latest recital in Japan. This past December, she gave the world premiere Francis’s newest piano work, 

Tri Cantae

 in Sumida Triphony Hall, Tokyo. Listen to the performance: [wpaudio url=“http://metropolisensemble.org/media/afukuhara_tricantae.mp3” text=“Ryan Francis - Tri Cantae”]

“Playing Tri Cantae is like a meditation, and it requires a deep calmness and a great sense of space for its effect to come across. The whole piece consists of three voices spread across the entire range of the piano, but I wanted to play it without moving my upper body at all. The piece gave me a whole new perspective about pianistic sound, and it was really challenging to find a way of expressing each line in the piece.”

Fukuhara’s performance schedule is not exclusive to Japan however, and the Metropolis Ensemble community counts itself lucky to have had occasion to work with her. You might recognize her from her most recent appearance with the group during their appearance on last year’s

MATA Festival

. Hopefully her busy schedule will bring her rare artistry back to New York again soon!

Deutsche Grammophon Signs Avi Avital

We are pleased to hear that Metropolis artist Avi Avital will be signed in an exclusive recording agreement with Deutsche Grammophon as the first mandolinist to be signed by the label. The complete press release follows below.

Recognized by the New York Times for his “exquisitely sensitive playing” and “stunning agility”, Grammy®-nominated mandolinist Avi Avital is one of the most exciting young musicians on today’s scene — deeply committed to building a fresh legacy for the mandolin through virtuosic performance and refreshing new repertoire.

Israeli-born Avi Avital has won many competitions and received awards including Germany’s Echo Award — and is the first mandolin player to receive a classical Grammy® nomination for “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance” in 2010.

Avital’s debut Deutsche Grammophon recording will be an all-Bach album — including transcriptions of concertos for harpsichord and violin in arrangements for mandolin and orchestra — with Kammerakademie Potsdam.

Michael Lang, President of Deutsche Grammophon, says: “Avi Avital is a remarkable virtuoso, completely at home in his instrument’s traditional repertoire, but also an extraordinarily communicative pioneer of new music. We are very pleased to welcome him to the Deutsche Grammophon family.”

On signing the contract Avi Avital remarked: “I am honored to join a label which has recorded so many legendary instrumentalists — and I look forward to bringing traditional and contemporary music for mandolin to audiences around the world — starting with the greatest traditional-modernist of all, J. S. Bach!”

Grounded in his instrument’s Baroque tradition, Avi Avital’s performances regularly include concertos by Vivaldi, Paisiello, and Bach — as well as works by many contemporary composers, including Avner Dorman, David Bruce, and Josef Bardanashvili. His 2011 concert dates have included appearances in Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA — with dates scheduled in Germany, France, UK, China, and Taiwan.

Avi Avital is internationally regarded for performances at venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall in London, and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. He has also been featured at the Tanglewood, Lucerne, Spoleto, and Ravenna summer music festivals.

“Avital has the gift of transforming the seemingly impossible into reality. His magical fingers arrange, shape, and twist the melodious phrases so evocatively that they take on a vocal quality, sounding even more vibrant than the music many violinists or cellists coax from their instruments.” (Jesko Schulze-Reimpell, Donaukurier)

“Avital’s playing, which can be defined as ‘everything you never dreamt a mandolin could do’, was truly breathtaking in virtuosity and dedication.” (Noam Ben Ze’ev, Haaretz Daily)

New Metropolis Recordings: Documenting the Process

[caption id=“attachment_724” align=“alignright” width=“300” caption=“Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall”][/caption] Big news: Metropolis Ensemble is releasing two new albums—one for Nonesuch featuring works by Timothy Andres, and the other for Naxos with works by Vivian Fung. Both composers were presented in Metropolis’s latest Renderings concert at the Angel Orensanz Center on September 15. Musicians got together for an intensive week of rehearsals, followed by a weeklong recording marathon at the Tanglewood studios in Massachusetts. Timo played piano for his own pieces: Homestretch (concerto for piano and small orchestra), Paraphrase on Themes by Brian Eno (for chamber orchestra), and Piano Concerto No. 26, “Coronation” (an adaptation of Mozart’s incomplete concerto). Vivian’s pieces—Dreamscapes (for prepared piano and orchestra), Violin Concerto, and Glimpes (for solo prepared piano)—were performed by soloists Conor Hanick on piano, and Kristin Lee on violin. There are some pretty obvious factors that make recording sessions different from rehearsals and performances, but not all in ways that you might expect. Timo explains:

“Most of my job as composer was accomplished during rehearsals, where I talked about interpretation and mood. The recording session was about the fine details: balance, intonation, tempo. One thing that happens when you have different takes is you wind up with different tempos. It requires a level of precision that I find to be great for musicianship.”

Vivian had a much different rehearsal and recording experience than Timo, as she was hearing her pieces for the first time being played by musicians. “We were figuring out the kinks during rehearsal, like the tricky spots, tempo changes, coordination of Kristin’s part with everyone else,” Vivian explains. “It’s hard when you’re rehearsing the piece for the first time to get a handle on what it sounds like. You have to get familiar with the sound world.” During the recording process, Vivian was sitting in the control room making notes on what needed to be worked on, adjustments to the dynamics, marking which takes were best; she even rewrote orchestra parts to make some transitions smoother. Vivian remarks, “It would be different if it were for a performance, but this was going to be etched in a recording forever! I wanted it to sound exactly how I meant for it to be.” The whole process was a unique experience for the musicians to have the composers present for the rehearsals and recording session, offering minute-to-minute feedback and adjusting the piece as they played. Conor, who performed solo piano on Vivian’s

Dreamscapes

and

Glimpses

, commented on the experience:

“While we were rehearsing, Vivian sat next to me and wrote notes and suggestions. You definitely can’t cut any corners when a composer’s sitting next to you! It definitely ups the ante for playing the music as accurately and brilliantly as possible.”

Kristin, who played both the solo part of Vivian’s

Violin Concerto

and the orchestra part in other pieces, had to pace herself during the intense week. She compares her approach to the recording sessions and performance, which took place one week later:

“During the recording session, the priority was clarity of tone, exaggerated dynamics, clean playing—it was very focused on the technical aspects. The performance was more musical. I let loose and had a good time. I didn’t necessarily care if I missed a note, I really went over the top and was much more flexible with my interpretation.”

Despite the stressful rehearsal and recording process, Kristin comes out of it asserting, “It was really more fun than anything.” Conor also agrees that despite the grueling 9-hour recording sessions everyday, the group had an amazing time:

“The group was so positive and supportive that any time the attention span or enthusiasm dipped, there were people that brought us back. This was the smoothest sailing recording I’ve ever experience—it had a lot to do with Andrew Cyr being so organized, calm, levelheaded, and precise about what he wanted.”

The musicians and composers all agree that it was an exhausting, but totally rewarding process; Vivian shares a final reflection on the experience:

“I felt so good about the whole process because everyone was so invested in the project. For me, the pieces took on a life of their own; Conor and Kristin really owned the pieces. It’s like giving birth to a baby—it’s something that’s yours that grows into something that you share with other musicians.”

Be on the lookout for these two new Metropolis albums in 2012!

WQXR: Loops, Ladders and Wind-Up Birds

Metropolis composer Ryan Francis introduces his new album, Works for Piano on back-to-back broadcasts for Hammered! on WQXR’s online station, Q2, hosted by Metropolis artist Conor Hanick, from April 25-29, 2011.

“On this specially curated week of Hammered! we spotlight a new album of piano music by New York-based composer Ryan Anthony Francis. The record features Bang On A Can pianist Vicky Chow, who, with Francis, joins Hammered! throughout the week with insights on this exquisite new body of piano music. Among the diverse cast of characters looking over Francis’s compositional shoulder are author Haruki Murakami, artist M.C. Escher and poet Wilhelm Muller. You can hear their whispers: Escher’s interlocking motivic infinities in Francis’s Jacob’s Ladder, Murakami’s polished elegance in the Wind-Up Bird Preludes, and Muller’s prophetic solemnity in Consolations.”

Six Etudes for Piano (function(){var s=function())(); Consolations (function(){var s=function())(); Wind-Up Bird Preludes (function(){var s=function())(); Moonlight Fantasy (function(){var s=function())(); Read the full article…

Sequenza 21: Phat Beats from Princeton

Sequenza 21 featured Metropolis composer Elliot Cole’s new album release on April 21, 2011.

“Some of you might know Elliot Cole as a composer of concert music, Contributing Editor here at Sequenza 21, or as a doctoral student at Princeton. But do you know Cole as a… rapper? De Rerum, Elliot’s debut EP as a fast-talking MC, under the project moniker Oracle Hysterical, tackles lofty subject matter. According to Cole, "It’s a verse history of the world as I understand it (to c.2000BCE, after which, I discovered, history is mostly redundant), and also a general synthesis of, well, most every (nonfiction) book I’ve read in the last decade. The EP is available for free download via his website. If you enjoy this taste of Oracle Hysterical, you can check out their performance of a retelling of the Rake’s Progress alongside the Metropolis Ensemble at the MATA festival in NYC on May 12.”

Read the full article…

Chicago Classical Review: Substantial New Works

Chicago’s Fulcrum Point New Music Project premiered a new work by Metropolis composer Vivian Fung on March 22, 2011. Lawrence Johnson of Chicago Classical Review lauded the premiere and performance:

“The main event of the night—and the clear audience favorite—was the world premiere of Yunnan Folk Songs by Vivian Fung. The composer has mined several folksongs from various dialects in the Yunnan province in southwestern China, home to more than 25 nationalities and languages. Yunnan Folk Songs is an engaging and delightful work crafted with great flair, with Fung’s skillful writing and scoring for voices and orchestra avoiding both pastiche and the stolid, overly respectful treatment of so many world-music inspired works.”

Read the full article…

Sequenza 21: Vivian Fung and Composing Collaborations

Ilona Oltuski talked with composer Vivian Fung about her work in gamelan and new music for Sequenza 21, including her new Violin Concerto.

“I invited Andrew Cyr to join me and we both were blown away by her performance. Andrew invited Kristin to join the Metropolis Ensemble, where she also became the concertmaster for the performance of my Piano Concerto in 2009. She loved it, enough so, that she sent me an email after a rehearsal and asked me to write a violin concerto for her. The relationship I have fostered with Kristin resulted also in her accompanying me to Bali, this past summer of 2010, while I was touring with Gamelan Dharmaswana, in residence here at the New York Indonesian Consulate. The trip made our musical friendship grow deeper. The cadenza was a collaborative effort, it will be a tour de force,” says Fung”, as she invites me to preview the performance of mentioned cadenza, at its inaugural benefit performance at Riverpark, with the Metropolis Ensemble on March 8th, 2011. The world premiere of the violin concerto in its entirety is planned for sometime in the fall of 2011.

Read the full article…