Get to Know...Paul Elwood ![]() Our second Colorado-based finalist, Paul Elwood is Associate Professor of Music Composition at the University of Northern Colorado. Paul was a finalist in 2014 for his flute duet, Marfa Lights (flute 2 doubling piccolo). Q&A with Paul … What about new music for flute appeals to you? I love the timbral diversity of the instrument from diverse rich tones that the instrument produces to a wide variety of extended techniques available. I like the fact that many flutists with whom I've worked tackle a variety of techniques, rhythms, and compositions with an open mind. Who are your favorite “new” music composers and why? Thomas Adès for his inventive use of the instruments, and his complexity of writing at the micro- and macro-level; Augusta Read Thomas for not only musical construction but beauty of orchestration; Sean Friar and Andrew Norman ("Nouveau LA School Composers") for their youthful energy, virtuosic technique, and musicality, and Caroline Shaw for her unbridled and inspired writing. What are your favorite new music pieces and why? "Concentric Circles," violin concerto by Adès, a colorful, energetic composition; "Partita" by Caroline Shaw, for reasons cited above, and "Fighting Words" by Sean Friar using text from a variety of political speeches. There are a host of others from "classics" including Crippled Symmetry by Morton Feldman that uses beautiful, if random, combinations of colour between flute, glockenspiel, and piano, Stockhausen's early electronic work for their sheer monumental invention, and Messiaen's "Oiseaux Exotiques," an early strong influence on my work. Do you have any upcoming events that you would like our friends and followers to know about? I'm finishing a double concerto for violin and cello for the University of Northern Colorado orchestra, beginning a work for electric guitar and chamber ensemble commissioned by French experimentalist Jean Marc Montera, and working on an ongoing abstract multi-media homage to silent film actress Louise Brooks. She never compromised her intellectual integrity for fame - which ultimately cost her her career in film; there never seemed to wallow in self-pity after she made her last film (one of John Wayne's first) and ended up selling shoes in NYC for a spell. "Marfa Lights," the composition selected as a finalist in the FNMC competition, will be performed in November in Iowa City with the University of Iowa Percussion as part of my evening-length concept presentation titled "Strange Angels: exploring the paranormal." What advice can you give to flutists about approaching new music in practice? Listen to a lot of new music (listening to "old" music is a given) and keep an open mind to as much of it as you can. More About Paul… Paul Elwood’s music has been featured at festivals in Moscow, Sofia, Mexico City, Marseille, Wollongong (Australia), Edinburgh, Darmstadt, Madrid (July 2015), Strasbourg, and all over the U.S.A. Performers that have played his music include pianist Stephen Drury, percussionist Stuart Gerber, the Bent Frequency Duo, Zeitgeist (Minneapolis), the Callithumpian Consort (Boston), the North Carolina Symphony, the Charleston Symphony, the Wichita Symphony, Tambuco (the Mexican Percussion Quartet), saxophonist Jon Gudmundson, and Ensemble Signos (Mexico City). Recent recordings are on Innova Recordings as composer/banjoist with percussionist Famoudou Don Moye of the Art Ensemble of Chicago (titled Nice Folks, January 2015), Misfit Toys (2013, featuring drummer Matt Wilson, percussionist Dan Moore, and reed player Robert Paredes) and his own chamber and folk music, Stanley Kubrick’s Mountain Home (2011), with bassist Bertram Turetzky (2008), and Electric Cowboy Cacophony (2008). He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and of the Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France), and he has won fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Artists Foundation, the Ucross Foundation, and Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain. In 2000 he won the Sigma Alpha-Iota Inter-American Music Awards and was awarded a 2007 commissioning grant from the Jerome Foundation to compose for Zeitgeist. Elwood’s compositions are published by C.F. Peters, Smith Publications, and his own Western Wear Music Publishing. Elwood is an active five-string banjoist in both the realms of experimental and bluegrass music. In 2015 he played on the premiere of “Hanover” by Alvin Lucier, a composition using three banjos played with EBows with chamber ensemble. He is working on a new composition for solo banjo written for him by Christian Wolff And he has collaborated with guitarist Jean-Marc Montera, guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, cellist Hank Roberts, the Callithumpian Consort of the New England Conservatory, famed banjoist Tony Trischka, Zeitgeist, bluegrass legend John Hartford, percussionist Eddie Prévost, and pipa player Min Xiao-Fen, among many others. For more information visit his website: www.paul-elwood.com or blog http://soundchoice.typepad.com If you enjoyed Marfa Lights check out Paul’s other works with flute… A Vast Ocean of Promise Instrumentation: solo bassoon with flute, clarinet, piano, two violins, viola, and five-string banjo Duration: 18:00 Year of Composition: 1999 Along the Mystic Thruway Instrumentation: flute, piano, cello Duration: 9:00 Year of Composition: 1996 Alters Altered Instrumentation: flute and piano Duration: 6:00 Year of Composition: 1998 Blue Prairie Instrumentation: yodeler with flute, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello Duration: 15:00 Year of Composition: 1990 Circo De Montes, Teatro De Las Nubes Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello Duration: 9:30 Year of Composition: 2001 Deirdre’s Lament Instrumentation: flute, two percussion, piano, two violins, cello and banjo (Ballet) Duration: 50:00 Year of Composition: 2010 Entre Irse Y Quesdarse Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello Duration: 13:00 Year of Composition: 1990 Four Directions Instrumentation: flute (wearing Velcro-soled shoes) Duration: 6:00 Year of Composition: 1991 Pilot Jack Knight: Aviator Instrumentation: flute, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello Duration: 4:30 Year of Composition: 1987 Road of Darkness, Distant Moon Instrumentation: double bass, flute/piccolo, percussion, five-string banjo Duration: 11:00 Year of Composition: 2003 Snow Falls Ceaselessly Instrumentation: flute, cello, percussion, piano, and audience players Duration: 15:00 Year of Composition: 1984 Stanley Kubrick’s Mountain Home Instrumentation: soprano, Appalachian instruments (fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar) flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello Duration: 25:00 Year of Composition: 2001 Strange Angels: Exploring the Paranormal An evening length collection of works that includes Marfa Lights Year of Composition: 2010 The Eternal Sky Instrumentation: flute and piano Duration: 9:30 Year of Composition: 2008 The Vault of Heaven, The Crystal Sea Instrumentation: solo cello with flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, and violin Duration: 20:00 Year of Composition: 1995 The Void Beneath The Coffee Table Instrumentation: solo banjo, flute, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello Duration: 15:00 Year of Composition: 1989 Two Extremities Instrumentation: soprano, piano, bowed five-string banjo, flute, violin, and wine glasses Duration: 7:30 Year of Composition: 1998 Under the Table Instrumentation: soprano, flute, cello, and banjo Duration: 10:30 Year of Composition: 2012 Usher Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello Duration: 40:00 Year of Composition: 1988 Verbum Salutis Instrumentation: flute, bass clarinet, cello, percussion, and hand signer Duration: 8:00 Year of Composition: 1985
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Get to Know...Panayiotis Kokoras ![]() Cycling for solo flute has proved to be one of the most popular FNMC contest works. FNMC members have performed Cycling at the Florida Flute Association Convention, Great Plains Regional CMS Conference, and the Kentucky Flute Society Flute Fair. In this week’s Composer Spotlight we learn more about the composer of Cycling, Panayiotis Kokoras. Greek born and raised, Kokoras now lives in Denton, Texas where he is an Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of North Texas. Q&A with Panayiotis… Who/What are your favorite “new” music composers or pieces and why? There are several pieces and composers I like a lot. However, my favorite ones are these that offer an uncompromising, imaginative, intellectual yet emotional listening experience that transcends my consciousness and changes me a bit after listening to it. I like music that pushes the boundaries of musical expression and experience, introduces new ways of music appreciation, it is mysteriously beautiful, creates high impact drama, and discovers unknown musical worlds that seem familiar to me. Fortunately, there are plenty of pieces that fulfill my likes. What advice can you give to flutists about approaching new music in practice? In sound-based compositions like Cycling, where the flutist "makes sounds" and doesn't "play notes", the relationship between performer and instrument is deliberated upon from the limitations of the traditional classical constraints of “idiomatic” playing or writing. When performing sound, one explores sound possibilities of the instrument beyond its classic sound. It establishes a musical culture where traditional flute training in the West has been forgotten or ignored. The flute is challenged out of its long historical context, its repertoire and its traditional training methods. For a flutist to touch the essence of sound composition, one should totally deliberate oneself from the past and completely redefine the relationship between performer/instrument, present/past, right/wrong, beautiful/ugly, stable/unstable, predictable/unpredictable. Do you have any upcoming events that you would like our friends and followers to know about? I just completed a piece for flute and electronics written for flutist Elizabeth McNutt to be premiered in 2017. For full score preview, please visit: http://panayiotiskokoras.com/en/works.html I am also looking forward to the performance of my piece Connotations for string orchestra and electronics. The piece will be performed in France in 2017 by l'Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier. https://youtu.be/2yIkL1kYozY More about Panayiotis… Kokoras is an internationally award-winning composer and computer music innovator, and currently an Associate Professor of composition at the University of North Texas. Born in Greece, he studied classical guitar and composition in Athens, Greece and York, England; he taught for many years at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Kokoras's sound compositions use timbre as the main element of form. His concept of "holophony" describes his goal that each independent sound (phonos), contributes equally into the synthesis of the total (holos). In both instrumental and electroacoustic writing, his music calls upon a "virtuosity of sound," emphasizing the precise production of variable sound possibilities and the correct distinction between one timbre and another to convey the musical ideas and structure of the piece. His compositional output is also informed by musical research in Music Information Retrieval compositional strategies, Extended techniques, Tactile sound, Detuned Systems, Robotics, Sound and Consciousness. More information at http://www.panayiotiskokoras.com If you liked Cycling, check out these other works for flute… Conscious Sound Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, piano, and cello Year of Composition: 2014 Crama Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, and cello Year of Composition: 2006 Delirium Instrumentation: flute, piano, and cello Year of Composition: 2008 Friction Instrumentation: flute, bass clarinet, piano, and cello Year of Composition: 2001 Metasound Instrumentation: flute, trombone, percussion and double bass Year of Composition: 2002 Morphallaxis Instrumentation: flute, percussion, cello, and electronics Year of Composition: 2008 Mosaicing Instrumentation: flute and electronics Year of Composition: 2016 Get to Know...Hui Tak-Cheung ![]() Hui Tak-Cheung was a finalist in the newly composed category in 2015 for his solo work A Gleam Again, for solo flute doubling on singing bowl. A Gleam Again, under its final title, In Between II-Lu Chai, was premiered by its commissioner Chen-Yu Wu on July 16, 2015 at the Themes Star Theatre in Shanghai. Lu Chai is the second work in his In Between series. In Between II-Lu Chai has not yet been premiered in the United States. FNMC members, maybe one of you would like to give the American Premiere?! Q&A with Tak… What about new music for the flute appeals to you? Color. Like ink wash painting, a single black stroke can has a whole spectrum of color within, ranged from white, to gray. Who is/are your favorite “new music” composer/s and why? Too many to name one. Sciarrino comes to my mind at this moment (probably because I am listening to it right now). Describe your musical background and current activities. I am a composer. I love flute. I really love flute. More About Tak… HUI, Tak-Cheung is a Hong Kong-born composer. Over the course of his career, Hui has been awarded numerous prizes including the Atlas Ensemble Composition Competition 2014, Sound Icon BU/SI Composition Competition 2015 and Inter-Sections Fellowship with commission prize. His recent collaborations include 10/10 Ensemble at the Huddersfield Cotemporary Music Festival, Nieuw Ensemble at the Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ’s An Evening of Today and Looptail Ensemble at the Gaudeamus Muziekweeks. He was also the residence composer of the Ligeti Academy by Asko Schoenberg in 2011 and European Composers’ Professional Development Programme by HCMF in 2012. Hui started self-learning guitar and played in a rock band before he started his formal education of music at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and completed his masters’ degree in Composition at Conservatorium van Amsterdam under the supervision of Richard Ayres, Willem Jeths, and Wim Henderickx. During his academic years, he was awarded the Heng Seng Bank Scholarship and The Lions Music Foundation Scholarship. Currently, he was given a fellowship from Boston University Center for New Music to pursue a Doctoral degree under the supervision of Alex Mincek and Joshua Fineberg. Hui’s compositions range from a variety of solo instrumental music to orchestral works, small and large ensemble music for western or traditional music, as well as multi-media work and Chinese Opera arrangement. His works have been published by Huddersfield Contemporary Record and Hove Record. Learn more at www.huitakcheung.com More works for flute by Hui Tak Cheung… Lu Chai Instrumentation: flute Commissioned by flutist Chen-Yu Wu In Betweeen II Instrumentation: flute and video Commissioned by World within Gallery Cracks between the reflections Instrumentation: 2 fl, 2 ob, clarinets, perc, hp, pf, 2 vn, va, vc, db Commissioned by the Nieuw Ensemble Frozen In Instrumentation: Shakuhachi, flute, alto sax, cello, double bass As a fallen Leaf, on a waving stream Instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinets, guitar, mandolin, harp, piano, percussion, violin, viola, cello, contrabass Composed for the Nieuw Ensemble Tale of an old picture Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, cello Commissioned by Looptail Way to the other Shore Instrumentation: woodwind quartet, brass trio, piano, and string quartet Composed for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Magnified II Instrumentation: pipa, sheng, zheng, flute, alto saxophone, and horn Commissioned by the New Wind traditional music ensemble The Mist inside Instrumentation: recorder, flute, oboe, 2 clarients, bass clarinet, alto sax, horn, 2 violins, cello, harp, piano Composed for the Ligeti Academy Urban Hakka Instrumentation: violin, flute, oboe, clarinet piano, percussion Commissioned by the KHAPA Contemporary music ensemble Magnified Instrumentation: violin, contrabass, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, piano The Mist Instrumentation: harp, vibraphone, alto flute, bass clarinet |
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