Items

• Gabriela Ortiz

  Latin Grammy-nominated Gabriela Ortiz is one of the foremost composers in Mexico today and one of the most vibrant musicians emerging on the international scene. Her musical language achieves an extraordinary and expressive synthesis of tradition and the avant-garde by combining high art, folk music and jazz in novel, frequently refined and always personal ways. Her compositions are credited for being both entertaining and immediate as well as profound and sophisticated; she achieves a balance between highly organized structure and improvisatory spontaneity. Gustavo Dudamel, the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, called her recent work Téenek “one of the most brilliant I have ever directed. Its color, its texture, the harmony and the rhythm that it contains are all something unique. Gabriela possesses a particular capacity to showcase our Latin identity.” Ortiz has written music for dance, theater and cinema, and has actively collaborated with poets, playwrights, and historians. Indeed, her creative process focuses on the connections between gender issues, social justice, environmental concerns and the burden of racism, as well as the phenomenon of multiculturality caused by globalization, technological development, and mass migrations. She has composed three operas, in all of which interdisciplinary collaboration has been a vital experience. Notably, these operas are framed by political contexts of great complexity, such as the drug war in Only the Truth, illegal migration between Mexico and the United States in Ana and her Shadow, and the violation of university autonomy during the student movement of 1968 in Firefly. Based in Mexico, Ortiz’s music has been commissioned and performed all over the world by prestigious ensembles, soloists and orchestras, such as: the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel and Esa Pekka Salonen, Zoltan Kocsis, Carlos Miguel Prieto, the Kroumata and Amadinda Percussion Ensembles, the Kronos Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, Sarah Leonard, the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Pierre Amoyal, Southwest Chamber Music, the Tambuco Percussion Quartet, the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Malmo Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Simón Bolivar, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Recent premieres include: Yanga and Téenek, both pieces commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, Luciérnaga (Firefly, her third opera) commissioned and produced by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Únicamente la Verdad (Only the Truth, her first opera) with Long Beach Opera and Opera de Bellas Artes in Mexico. Ortiz has been honored with the National Prize for Arts and Literature, the most prestigious award for writers and artists granted by the government of Mexico, and has been inducted into the Mexican Academy of the Arts. Other honors include: the Bellagio Center Residency Program, Civitella Ranieri Artistic Residency; a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; a Fulbright Fellowship; first prize in the Silvestre Revueltas National Chamber Music Competition; first prize in the Alicia Urreta Composition Competition; a Banff Center for the Arts Residency; the Inroads Commission (a program of Arts International with funds from the Ford Foundation); a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation; and the Mozart Medal Award. Born in Mexico City, her parents were musicians in the renowned folk music ensemble Los Folkloristas, founded in 1966 to preserve and record the traditional music of Mexico and Latin America. She trained with the eminent composer Mario Lavista at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música and Federico Ibarra at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. In 1990 she was awarded the British Council Fellowship to study in London with Robert Saxton at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1992 she received a scholarship from the UNAM to complete her Ph.D. studies in electroacoustic music composition with Simon Emmerson at The City University in London. Ortiz currently teaches composition at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City and as a Visiting Professor at Indiana University. Her music is currently published by Schott, Ediciones Mexicanas de Música, Saxiana Presto, and Tre Fontane.
• Sound from Autumn Mountain

  Liu Li
• Liu Li

  Li Liu, Chinese young composer, was born in Sichuan province. In 2004, he was admitted to Central Conservatory of Music with excellent marks and was offered scholarship at the same time. Under the tutelage of professor Xiaogang Ye, his composition was awarded in contest. In resent years, he often accept commissioned work including symphony, chamber music, Chinese traditional music, solo piece and other movie music.
• Opus Brevis

  Vache Sharafyan
• Vache Sharafyan

  One of the major composers in Armenia, but also internationally Vache Sharafyan is the author of more than ninety compositions including symphonic works, chamber music, choral, vocal music including the opera "King Abgar", ballets "Another Moon", "Ancient Gods", "the bride of the deserrt". Sharafyan's music is widely performed in his native country but also in the most prestigious international halls in USA, Italy, Israel, Russia France Canada, Ukraine, Georgia, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Thailand, Lebanon, Hungary, Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, Japan, Scotland, Mexico, Poland, Ireland, England, Iceland, Latvia, Greece, Cyprus, Poland and Sweden. It is also invited many contemporary music festivals whether in the US or Europe. Praised as " stark, mysterious and ultimately majestic " by The New York Times, " complex, deliberate, ultimately captivating " by Boston Globe, " ingenious... , kaleidoscope of iridescent timbres..., magical " by The Strad, "fascinating and expressive" by David Harringtone /Kronos Quartet/, the works of Sharafyan were commissioned - performed by outstanding musicians such as Yo- Yo Ma and "Silk Road Ensemble", Yuri Bashmet and The Ensemble "Soloists of Moscow", The Hilliard Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Gil Rose, Suren Bagratuni, Mario Brunello, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Alexander CHaushian, Movses Pogossian, George Pehlivanian, Dresdner Sinfoniker, Andrea Molino, Premil Petrovic, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts (2018), OSS, Karen Durgaryan, Mansfield Symphony, Rostok Philharmonics, Thuringer Symphony, Soli Deo Gloria Psalm project, NCOA, APO & Eduard Topchjan, , Sion Festival to mention a very few.
• Three Bagatelles from China West: Flute and Guitar

  Chen Yi
• Fantasia Ritmica

  James Lee III
• Prelude and Toccata

  Chu Wanghua
• Namtso (The Sky Lake)

  Xiaogang Ye
• Alley at Night

  Gao Ping
• Gao Ping

  Gao Ping is a composer-pianist, born in Chengdu, in the Sichuan province of China. He studied in the USA in the 1990s. In demand as a composer, he has received commissions and performances from musicians around the world. The Beijing-based musicologist Li Xi’an has referred to Gao Ping as a leading member of the “sixth generation” of Chinese composers after the “fifth generation” of composers such as Tan Dun and Qu Xiaosong. Many prestigious venues have presented Gao Ping's works such as the Aspen Music Festival, Dresdener Musikfestspiele, Hibiki Hall Festival (Japan), New Zealand International Arts Festival (Wellington), and the Beijing-Modern International Music Festival. In Europe, his music has been commissioned or performed by groups including the Berlin Piano-Percussion Ensemble, the Zurich-based Ensemble Pyramide, and the Gaudeamus International Music Week in Amsterdam. While completing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, Gao Ping won the 2003 Auros Compostion Prize (Boston) and was resident at the MacDowell Colony for Artists. In New Zealand, his music has been presented by Michael Houstoun, John Chen, Christchurch International Arts Festival, New Zealand String Quartet, and NZTrio. Gao was the recipient of the 2010 CANZ (Composers Association of NZ) Trust Fund Award. As a pianist, Gao Ping’s repertoire is extensive; he has performed to acclaim all over the world. In 2008, Gao Ping premiered his Piano Concerto with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mr. Kenneth Young. The Listener enthusiastically acclaimed the two-movement work as “a major concerto”. Gao Ping’s two albums released on the Naxos label were critically acclaimed and described as “music which wants to be heard with the ears of a child, full of wonder and amazement…. deep and vulnerable.” Gao is currently a Professor in Composition at the Conservatory of Music-Capital Normal University as well as a guest professor at the China Conservatory of Music. He previously taught at Canterbury University and Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music.
• Variations on the Theme of "Mu Lan Poem"

  Yao Henglu
• Yao Henglu
• Variations on the "Transposed Gong Note"

  Li Yinghai
• Li Yinghai

  Li Yinghai (1927-2007) was born in Sichuan, and in 1948 graduated in composition from Nanjing National Conservatory. He moved to Shanghai, and from 1949 taught at the Shanghai Conservatory and China Conservatory, of which he subsequently became Vice President. He wrote instrumental works and songs, and also books on music theory.
• Hallucination

  Polina Medyulyanova
• Polina Medyulyanova

  Polina Medyulyanova (Russian: Полина Медюлянова) is an Uzbek classical composer of chamber, choral and vocal works, which are often of a religious nature. She is also active as a performer, playing piano, organ, chang (Uzbek dulcimer), and is an orchestra conductor. She was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on April 4th 1974 as part of a musical family. She is the daughter of conductor Viktor Medyulyanov and pianist Natalya Gienko, and granddaughter of the composer Boris Gienko and pianist Tatyana Gienko. After graduating in Tashkent she moved to Amsterdam, where she is associated with the Sweelinck Conservatory. In 2006 she founded two active duos, one with singer Antje Siefert of Germany, and the other with violinist and composer Tania Sikelianou of Greece. Both ensembles are busy performing classical and modern music.
• Vita

  Federico García-Castells
• Piano Concerto No. 1

  Federico García-Castells
• James Lee III

  James Lee III, born 1975 in St. Joseph, Michigan cites as his major composition teachers Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Betsy Jolas, Susan Botti, Erik Santos and James Aikman. He graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 2005. As a composition fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2002, he added Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Gandolfi, Steven Mackey and Kaija Saariaho to his roster of teachers, and studied conducting with Stefan Asbury. In 2006 he premiered Beyond Rivers of Vision in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra. During his inaugural concerts as the new music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Slatkin premiered A Different Soldier’s Tale with the orchestra in Detroit on December 11 – 14, 2008. The National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Soulful Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra have performed James Lee III’s works. Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra performed Beyond Rivers of Vision on January 29 – 30, 2010. The 2009-2010 season also included the world premieres of 12 Preludes of the New Earth for piano by Daniel Lau (November), A Clean Heart for mixed chorus by the Baltimore Choral Arts Society (December), Scenes Upon Eternity’s Edge for flute, violin, cello, and piano by the Monument Piano Trio and flute (February), and a Morgan Fanfare by the Morgan State University Band with Melvin Miles directing (April). During the 2009 – 2010 season Dr. Lee won the Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City. He was also the composer-in-residence for the Ritz Chamber Players, an African-American chamber music society based in Jacksonville, Florida. Performances with that organization included the Florida premiere of The Appointed Time for string quartet. Pianist Terrence Wilson also performed Dr. Lee’s sonata for piano in Seattle, Washington on April 29, 2010. In May 2010, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performed a movement from Beyond Rivers of Vision. James Lee III was also commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to compose a work about the life of Harriet Tubman. The work is called Chuphshah! Harriet’s Drive to Canaan and it was premiered on September 23-25, 2011. He was also named the winner of the Sphinx Commissioning Consortium for the 2011-2012 season. Mr. Lee composed a new work called Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula that was premiered by Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony Orchestra on October 15-16, 2011 in Miami Beach, FL. Other performances of Dr. James Lee III’s work include performances of Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula with the Cincinnati Symphony (January 2012) and the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra (February 2012). February 1, 2012 included another performance of James Lee III’s string quartet The Appointed Time. On this particular occasion, the Harlem Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players presented it at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts at James Madison University. On February 15, 2012 the Ritz Chamber Players gave the world premiere of Mr. Lee’s Night Visions of Kippur (piano quintet) at the University of Washington Meany Hall in Seattle. On January 13, 2013 Gye Nyame for chamber orchestra was premiered by Janise White and the Afro-American Chamber Music Society Orchestra in Los Angeles, CA. Also during the 2012-2013 season Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula was performed by the Akron Symphony Orchestra in November 2012. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra also played this same work in March 2013. Later in the month of March, Mr. Lee’s newest work for band, Ancient Words, Current Realities! was premiered by the St. Olaf Band at the College Band Directors National Association Conference in Greensboro, NC. During the month of April, James Lee III also saw the premiere of his Piano Sonata No. 2 “The Remnant” premiered at the University of Illinois by pianist, Dr. Rochelle Sennet. Recently, James Lee III has been invited to be a composer among a list of internationally recognized composers to participate in the Psalms Project of the organization Soli Deo Gloria. His setting of Psalm 111 was premiered at the Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis on October 19, 2013. Other works and premieres of music by James Lee III during the 2013-2014 season include Fantasy on the Star-Spangled Banner by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on September 20 – 22, 2013, A Revelação Através do Santuário premiered by Jetro Oliveira and the choir of the Adventist University of São Paulo in Engenheiro Coelho and Americana, São Paulo, Brazil on September 22 & 24, 2013. On October 1, 2013, mezzo soprano Denyce Graves and the Sphinx Virtuosi premiered James Lee III’s arrangement of “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit.” On February 23, 2014, the Harlem Chamber Players will perform Dr. Lee’s string quartet The Appointed Time at the Brooklyn Public Library in Brooklyn, NY. On March 1, the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra will premiere Alas! Babylon’s Final Sunset in Shriver Hall on the campus of Johns Hopkins University. From August to December 2014, James Lee III was a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor to the State University of Campinas in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. He taught composition, composed, and researched the music of 20th and 21st century Brazilian composers. Highlights of the 2015-2016 for James Lee III include the premiere performances of Piano Trio No. 2 “Temple Visions” by the Montrose Trio in Portland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Detroit, and the world premiere of Thurgood’s Rhapsody commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for their centennial season celebration. Other works that will be premiered include Hallelu Yah! for the Baltimore Choral Arts Society in March 2016, Concerto for Piano and Winds for pianist, Dr. Rochelle Sennet in April 2016, and Mother’s Lament for soprano, boys choir, men’s chorus, and orchestra on September 17, 2016 in Baltimore at Morgan State University. Dr. Lee is also an associate professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. His Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula was performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on October 20 & 22, 2016 in Atlanta, GA and his Night Visions of Kippur was performed at a contemporary music festival in Havana, Cuba on November 15, 2016. Since Dr. Lee’s graduation with a D.M.A. in composition from the University of Michigan in 2005, his orchestral works have been commissioned and premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony Orchestra, and the orchestras of Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Omaha, Pasadena, Memphis, Grand Rapids, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Akron, and have been conducted by such artists as Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, Juanjo Mena, David Lockington, Thomas Wilkins, and others. During the 2019-2020 season, Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula is scheduled to be performed by the Louisiana Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. James Lee III’s Concerto for Piano and Symphonic Band was premiered by Dr. Rochelle Sennet and the Morgan State University Symphonic Band in April 2016. His Concerto for Clarinet and Symphonic Band was premiered in Córdoba, Argentina by Nicolás Panatteri and the Symphonic Band of the Province of Córdoba in September 2016. Dr. Lee is also a winner of a Charles Ives Scholarship and the Wladimir Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Chamber organizations such as the Montrose Trio, Ritz Chamber Players, and the Harlem Chamber Players have performed and premiered music by James Lee III. Pianist Dr. Rochelle Sennet recorded his piano music on the Albany Label in 2014. Dr. Sennet and her husband Igor Kalnin premiered his second violin sonata on March 16, 2019 at Luther College in Decorah, IA. Dr. Lee’s works have been premiered and performed internationally in Brazil, Argentina, Russia, and Cuba. Soprano Alison Buchanan also premiered a new song cycle composed especially for her in Jacksonville, FL and London, England in January and February 2019. In May 2019, Dr. Lee will see the premiere of his Sinfonia de Esperanza in Lima, Peru as part of the University of the Peruvian Adventist Union’s centennial celebrations. During the 2019-20 season the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed Dr. Lee’s Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula in September, October, and November. During the 2021-2022 season, Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula will be performed by the New World Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in October. Also in October, world premieres of new works include Amer’ican, which will be premiered by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. Niiji Memories, a flute concerto will be premiered by Julietta Curenton and the Columbia Orchestra. In November the Calyx Piano Trio will premiere Dr. Lee’s Tones of Clay at Tanglewood. Later in November, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra will perform his Emotive Transformations. Other world premieres in early 2022 include Freedom’s Genuine Dawn to be premiered by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in January, Arukah Symphony to be premiered by the Maryland Symphony Orchestra in February, Hold On, America, Hold On! to be premiered by the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra and Violin Concerto No. 2 “Teshuah” to be premiered by violinist Carla Trynchuk and the Andrews University Symphony Orchestra in March. In April, Tethered Voices will be premiered by the University Symphony Orchestra at the University of Michigan and a new work for soprano and string quartet that will be premiered by Karen Slack and the Pacifica String Quartet at Carnegie Hall in New York and Shriver Hall in Baltimore in May. James Lee III is a Professor of Music at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD.
• Afro-Cuban Concerto

  Valerie Coleman
• Piano Etude No. 4: Scalen

  Unsuk Chin
• Piano Etude No. 3: Scherzo ad libitum

  Unsuk Chin
• Piano Etude No. 2: Sequenzen

  Unsuk Chin