Catch up With...Cherise Leiter For those who follow our composer spotlights, Cherise Leiter may be a familiar face. She was a finalist in 2014 for her beautiful work for flute/alto flute and cello, Chroma. We loved the timbres she created in that duo and we were pleasantly surprised when it was revealed that she was the winner of this year’s chamber music category for The Life in the Day for flute/alto flute, guitar, and cello. Again, she deftly creates unique and beautiful timbres and beautiful melodies, this time adding the guitar to the ensemble she so skillfully composed for in Chroma. We're pleased to share that Cherise will be meeting with Nicole Riner, our wonderful Membership and Communications chair, in 2018 and we look forward to sharing their conversation, but in the meantime we wanted to give you all an opportunity to catch up with Cherise. We look forward to hearing two works Cherise completed recently, a duo for two flutes entitled Vignettes and a work for flute and fixed electronics, Penitence and Praise. We’re also really pleased to learn that Chroma has been recorded. There are more details about all of these exciting announcements in the Q&A below! Q&A with Cherise… What about new music for the flute appeals to you? One of the things I love about the flute is that despite its ancient and glorious lineage and the tremendous body of literature written for it, we can still discover new sounds, new techniques, and new effects. That is what appeals to me so much when writing for the flute. I play just enough flute to be a danger when writing for it, and I love experimenting with techniques, fingerings, etc. While my chamber piece "The Life in a Day" is in the more traditional vein, I still had fun exploring meter and tone color. I also love the fact that flutists really dig new music and are not the least bit scared of it! That is VERY attractive from a composer's point of perspective. Describe your musical background and current activities. I have a Bachelor’s degree in music theory, and was perfectly content in my Common Practice literature and analysis, until I had to take a class that was intended to introduce theory majors to the art of composing. I entered it kicking and screaming (at least internally), and left it headed to graduate school as a composition major. I have composed a number of pieces for flute in the past few years—primarily in chamber settings—and have enjoyed it very much. I now have a piece for flute and fixed electronics (Penitence and Praise) that was a commission from Colleen White, which pushed me into a new area. I also recently finished a flute duo which was commissioned and premiered by Naomi Seidman and Cristina Ballatori at the most recent NFA conference. Outside of the flute world I am finishing up a piece for wind ensemble (although it does have flutes in it!) and also working on a piece for solo piano—a set of etude variations on the folk song written by the female outlaw, Belle Starr. Do you have any upcoming events that you would like our friends and followers to know about? I am thrilled that “Chroma,” a piece I composed for flute and cello (and that was an FNMC finalist in 2014), has been recorded by the Jano Duo on their recent CD “Dreaming in Color.” They did an AMAZING job with it, and with the pieces of five other composers—all recent pieces! What advice can you give to flutists about approaching new music in practice? Advice to flutist when approaching new music: don't be afraid to play around and try new sounds and timbres, even if they are not what we traditionally think of as 'pretty' sounds. As a composer I love all the colors the flute can produce! More About Cherise… Born in Florida, Cherise Leiter received a B. M. in Music Theory and an M. M. in Composition from the University of Florida where she studied with Dr. Budd Udell. She is currently Professor of Music at Metropolitan State University of Denver, teaching music theory and composition. A composer whose output includes works for choir, piano, voice, band, orchestra and assorted chamber ensembles; her compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, Scotland, France, Italy, Romania, and Japan. She was a featured composer at the New Music Symposium, the University of Central Missouri’s New Music Festival, the Aspen Composer’s Conference, the Women Composers Festival, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, June in Buffalo, and Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts. In her spare time, Ms. Leiter is an avid knitter, hiker, swimmer, cook, and bibliophile. She also has a vested interest in anything made of chocolate. She can be reached at [email protected], or www.cherisedleiter.com. If you liked The Life in a Day… American Folk Suite Instrumentation: flute and soprano Duration: 11’ Chroma Instrumentation: flute/alto flute and cello Duration: 9’ Chromaticity Instrumentation: flute/alto flute, clarinet and bassoon Duration: 9’ Penitence and Praise Instrumentation: flute and fixed electronics Duration: 9’ Prelude and Fugue Instrumentation: flute choir Duration: 7’15” Sacred Harmony Instrumentation: flute choir The Life in a Day Instrumentation: flute, guitar, cello Duration: 18’ Vignettes Instrumentation: flute and alto flute Duration: 6’
0 Comments
Get to Know...Till MacIvor MeynThe flute and accompaniment category has traditionally been a category in which there are tons of really strong pieces and 2017 was no exception. We often find ourselves interested in performing all of the finalists works! Forces of Nature for flute and piano was a finalist work in this year’s flute and accompaniment category. Today, we’re featuring the composer, Till MacIvor Meyn! We were pleased to see that Till has more flute pieces available for us to play! Members with flute ensembles will be pleased to see he has three works for flute ensemble (a quartet and two flute choir pieces). There are recordings of Urban Ragas and Preludio Y Tango easily accessible on YouTube. His newest work, Nordic Spirits, which was premiered at NFA this summer is not recorded at this time, but we’re sure it will be recorded and posted soon! He also has a beautiful and accessible solo flute work Big Kahuna, there is a recording available on SoundCloud. We encourage you to check them out! Q&A with Till… What about new music for the flute appeals to you? New music for flute, as with new music in other genres, is really taking off today. By that, I mean that there are so many composers and new pieces out there now than there were a generation ago. Finding new music can be a very rewarding experience: You'll come across compositions that can touch you in a personal way, either through their lyrical qualities, their virtuosic elements, or combinations of those and other aspects. Happy hunting! Who is/are your favorite “new music” composer/s and why? I have many favorite living composers, and a varied musical palette of tastes. I find the music of Eric Ewazen to exhibit well-constructed melodies contained within classical-style forms that help us, as listeners, keep it all together. Frank Ticheli and Jennifer Higdon, though very different in style, are able to create dissonant, virtuosic passages that reside within tonal frameworks, and both composers write beautiful lyricism as well. Magnus Lindberg crafts monumental works with lots of jagged edges, but his music is goal-oriented, and so we have something to keep hanging onto. Describe your musical background and current activities. My own musical background is that of a singer, but as a composer and theory professor, I use the piano quite a bit as well. I grew up listening to classical music that my parents played in the home, and as I became a teen in the 1980s, I had a voracious appetite for rock and pop music. I was introduced to jazz through my choir in high school, especially the arrangements of standard tunes performed and recorded by the Manhatten Transfer. I believe that my exposure to all of these disparate genres made me the composer I am today, which is quite an eclectic mix of primarily tonal materials. What advice can you give to flutists about approaching new music in practice? My advice to flutists when approaching new music is to have an open mind. You never know what the next big thing out there will be (a composer, a style, a certain sound), and so it could be very rewarding to stretch your comfort zone a bit and work on something that you might otherwise not have tried. I also feel that communication between the composer and performer(s) is a very beneficial aspect of understanding the music; I enjoy Skyping with ensembles to work with them in rehearsal, which helps to bring the music to life--it's really fun for me and for the musicians! Do you have any upcoming events that you would like our friends and followers to know about? I have a new flute choir piece called Nordic Spirits which was recently premiered at the NFA Convention; my flute sonata (flute and piano) is called Force of Nature, and features a very modern sound with virtuosic and lyrical passages; I have a flute quartet called Urban Ragas which flute players tell me they enjoy, and I have a short tango called Preludio Y Tango for flute choir that really spices things up! I'm happy to hear from you about any of these pieces that you'd like to play. More About Till… Till MacIvor Meyn is Professor of Theory and Composition at Texas Christian University. He earned degrees from U.C. San Diego, Indiana University, and USC’s Thornton School of Music. Till’s music has had international performances in France, Italy, Cuba, China, Spain, Ukraine, and Slovenia. Performances of his music in the United States include those at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall); Clarinet Fest in Oklahoma City, MO and in Lincoln, NE; the Biennial Saxophone Congress in South Carolina; the Florida State University Festival of New Music; the SCI/CMS National Convention in San Antonio; the National Flute Association Conventions in Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Diego, and Pittsburgh; at the Manhattan School of Music; and at the Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses National Seminar at Harvard. Till was recently commissioned to compose a work for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s Kinderconcerts Series; he was a finalist in the Areon Flutes Commissioning Project for 2016; he was a featured composer at the 2015 Cliburn at the Modern series; he was a finalist in the NFA Newly Published Music Competition for ‘Urban Ragas’ (2013); and he earned first prize in the NACUSA Texas 2011 Composition Contest for Celestial Mechanics. Till’s music is published by Alliance Music Publications, GIA Publications, ECS Publishing, C. Alan Publications, and Alry Publications. He is a member of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Board since 2015. For further information about Till’s music, please visit tillmeyn.squarespace.com or on Facebook: Composer Till MacIvor Meyn. If you liked Force of Nature… Nordic Spirits—9’15” 2 piccolos, 4 flutes, 2 altos, 2 basses The piece features various folk-like melodies reminiscent of Scandinavian tunes, with counterpoint and some effects. Self-published—please contact the composer at [email protected] Urban Ragas—7’45” 3 flutes, 1 alto (or bass) The work uses modal melodies that were inspired by North Indian ragas, woven contrapuntally. Published by ALRY Publications Force of Nature—14’00” Flute and piano This three-movement flute sonata has virtuosic melodies, as well as lyricism. The piano accompaniment is also very active. Self-published—please contact the composer at [email protected] Preludio Y Tango—4’00” 1 piccolo, 7 flutes, 1 alto, 1 bass This two-movement piece features a short off-kilter prelude, and then a romping tango movement. Published by ALRY Publications Big Kahuna--5’45” Solo flute The composition is reminiscent of Debussy in its use of scales; it tells the story of a wave-rider in high surf. Published by ALRY Publications Get to Know...Cyrill Schürch We’ve been fortunate to get to know composers from all over the world whom we might otherwise be completely unaware of through the FNMC Composition Contest. Cyrill Schürch is just such a composer. Cyrill lives and works in his native country of Switzerland, but he studied here in the US and in London, U.K. He was a finalist in 2014 for his flute choir work, Turbulence (8 flutes). Q&A with Cyrill…. What about new music for flute appeals to you? I love composing for the flute because it is such a versatile instrument. It is almost impossible to write unplayable passages, somehow the performers always find a way to play the notes and make it sound good. It is also equally useful as a solo instrument as well as in an ensemble context. Who are your favorite “new” music composers and why? There are many I like - and a few I dislike - at the moment my playlist features Rautavaara, Dutilleux, David Matthews, Harbison and Golijov. I like to listen to many different styles and ideas. Describe your musical background and current activities. I am a composer and pianist from Switzerland, I studied in the US for my BM and MM and got my PhD in London. I have been lucky to win a number of prizes in composition contests recently and I get regular commissions from soloist, ensembles and orchestras. I've written a flute sonata as well as an flute ensemble piece ("Turbulence" for eight flutes), and most of my instrumental music features the flute in some capacity. Do you have any upcoming activities you would like our members and followers to know about? Please have a look at my website www.cschurch.net for upcoming events, recordings and sample scores. More About Cyrill… Cyrill Schürch’s most recent orchestral work, Streaks, has been performed by the State Hermitage Orchestra in St. Petersburg (Russia) with Rainer Held, and has been on tour throughout Switzerland and Germany with the Novosibirsk Chamber Orchestra in early 2015. 2015 saw two wins at compositions competitions, in May 2015, Cyrill won the first Mario Merz Prize for composition and will compose a new work for the Camerata Bern as part of the prize, and in July his piece Three Seasons received 1st prize at the music festival at Povoa de Varzim, Portugal. In the past, Cyrill was prizewinner at the Swiss Children’s and Youth Choir composition contest and in 2012 his Les Quatrains Valaisans won a 2nd prize at the Alpenchorfestival Brig competition. He has earned awards and commissions from organizations such as the UBS cultural foundation, AURA contemporary ensemble, EnsembleSpektrum, Ayre Flutes London and Europa Cantat. His music is published by EMR Editions Switzerland and Carus-Verlag Germany which has recently agreed to publish most of Cyrill’s choral works. He is also active as a pianist and chamber musician performing frequently as soloist or with pianist Daniel Vaiman in their Piano Duo. He has also collaborated with EnsembleSpektrum and plays regularly in a piano/violin duo with Leandra Wolf. Born in Lucerne, he has originally started learning to play the accordion and later also took up piano at age 10. Before starting his degrees he studied piano privately with Konstantin Scherbakov. Cyrill holds degrees with distinction in both piano and composition from the University of Houston Moores School of Music working with pianist Nancy Weems and composer Robert Nelson. During his summer at the Aspen Music Festival he studied composition with Sidney Hodkinson and George Tsontakis and piano with John Perry. Other teachers included David Del Tredici and David Olan during a year of postgraduate studies at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. In 2008, he received a PhD from King’s College London studying with Robert Keeley and attended masterclasses with George Benjamin and Silvina Milstein. He is assistant director of the Musikschule Zug where he also teaches piano and composition. If you liked Turbulence… Introduction and Dance Instrumentation: fl, cl, perc, 2 gtr, vn, vc Duration: 3’ Year of Composition: 2002 Loop Instrumentation: fl, cl, hp, 2vn, va, vc Duration: 8’ Year of Composition: 2004 Plasticity Instrumentation: fl, cl, perc, pf, vn, vc Duration: 8’ Year of Composition: 2009 Souirée Instrumentation: fl, cl, perc, pf, 2vn, va, vc Duration: 8’ Year of Composition: 2014 Sonata Instrumentation: fl, pf Duration: 13’ Year of Composition: 2000 Yoga Instrumentation: fl, cl, bn, hn, perc, pf, vn, vc Duration: 2001 Year of Composition: 5’ |
AuthorThe Flute New Music Consortium is an organization dedicated to the creation and support of new music for the flute. Archives
June 2019
Categories
All
|