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Mead Witter School of Music Guest Artist Series

The Spektral Quartet presents nine new string quartets by Laura Schwendinger, Larry Axelrod, Kyong Mee Choi, Timothy Edwards, Casey Ginther, Martha Horst, Timothy Ernest Johnson, and Betsy Start. Following the Madison premiere of Bernard Rands’ new quartet.

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Guest artist statement

“Chicago is lucky to call the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands one of its own, and we are tenacious in our admiration for his artistry and ingenuity. So when the Chicago Composers’ Consortium approached us about a celebration of–and tribute to–his music, we eagerly jumped on board. But the real coup is that the creatives behind C3 are writing us 9 brand-new works, all inspired by–or actively mining–elements of Bernard’s new quartet.”

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Program

String Quartet Music       Bernard Rands

Meditation on a theme of Bernard Rands        Lawrence Axelrod

Falling Leaves       Kyong Mee Choi

with Pause for Reflection       Timothy Dwight Edwards

quartetto in ombra      Kathleen Cecilia Ginther

Rabbit Hole       Martha C. Horst

For the Love of Home     Timothy Ernest Johnson

una breve canzone senza parole     Laura Schwendinger

Conclusions     Elizabeth Start

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Multi-Grammy nominees, the Spektral Quartet actively pursues a vivid conversation between exhilarating works of the traditional repertoire and those written this decade, this year, or this week. Since its inception in 2010, Spektral is known for creating seamless connections across centuries, drawing in the listener with charismatic deliveries, interactive concert formats, an up-close atmosphere, and bold, inquisitive programming.

With a tour schedule including some of the country’s most notable concert venues such as the Kennedy Center, Miller Theater, Library of Congress, and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, the quartet also takes great pride in its home city of Chicago: championing the work of local composers, bridging social and aesthetic partitions, and cultivating its ongoing collaborations and residencies in the Chicago region. For the 20/21 Season, Spektral is pleased to announce it’s Digital Artist Residency at University Musical Society (UMS) with Lebanese-born Afro-Tarab/jazz innovator Tarek Yamani.

Named “Chicagoans of the Year” by the Chicago Tribune in 2017, Spektral Quartet is most highly regarded for its creative and stylistic versatility: presenting seasons in which, for instance, a thematic program circling Beethoven seamlessly coexists with an improvised sonic meditation at sunrise, a talent show featuring Spektral fans, and the co-release of a jazz album traversing the folk traditions of Puerto Rico.

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One of the leading composers of the last one hundred years, Bernard Rands‘ work Canti del Sole, was the winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize, which was premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic. Through a catalog of more than a hundred published works and many recordings, Bernard Rands is established as a major figure in contemporary music. His large orchestral suites Le Tambourin, won the 1986 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. His work Canti d’Amor, recorded by Chanticleer, won a Grammy award in 2000.Born in Sheffield, England in 1934 his 80th birthday has been marked internationally by upward of one hundred concert performances, radio and television broadcasts of his music. Rands emigrated to the United States in 1975, becoming an American citizen in 1983. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004 and into the Illinois Lincoln Academy in 2014.

Conductors including Barenboim, Boulez, Berio, Davis, Eschenbach, Maazel, Marriner, Mehta, Muti, Ozawa, Rilling, Salonen, Sawallisch, Schiff, Schuller, Schwarz, Silverstein, Slatkin, Spano, von Dohnanyi, and Zinman, among many others, have programmed his music. Rands served as Composer in Residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra for seven years. Through this residency, Rands, working with Riccardo Muti, made a wonderful and dedicated contribution to the music of our time. Rands’ most recent large-scale work, Concerto for Piano & Orchestra, commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the composer’s 80th birthday, received its premiere performances in Boston in April 2014 with Jonathan Biss soloist, conducted by Robert Spano. The European premiere performances were in May 2014, in Leipzig by the Gewandhausorchester — also Biss — conducted by Sir Andrew Davis followed by a performance at the BBC Proms, London in August 2014 with the BBC Scottish Orchestra conducted by Markus Stenz.

Bridge Records released, in December 2013, a cd of fifty years of Rands’ piano music: “Bernard Rands – Piano Music 1960 – 2010,” performed by Ursula Oppens and Robert Levin.

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The Chicago Composers’ Consortium is a grass-roots organization of composers dedicated to creating new music in Chicago. We are a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization formed in 1988 and incorporated in 1989. Since then c3 has organized scores of concerts, invited many distinguished composers, and collaborated with several musicians and ensembles, creating unique musical events. What has set the consortium apart from other contemporary music organizations has been its composer-generated collaborative projects.

As a presenter of contemporary music in the Chicago area, the consortium has found new ways to introduce Chicago to what is new in music.

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This event is generously supported by the Anonymous Fund.