DAVID FALERIS – A MARTYRED VILLAGE (born 1982 / composed 2016)

A Martyred Village began as a specific reflection piece, drawn from the horrific mass slaying of the peaceful French townspeople of Oradour-sur-Glane during World War II. As I progressed through the work compositionally, current news came in day after day, relaying more stories of hatred and death from all over the world. The work shifted to reflect more broadly on such tragedies and the seemingly unending cycle of violence and hatred that appears to be alarmingly rooted within our “civilization”.

An active and versatile musician, David Faleris wears many hats as a composer, trombonist, educator, and administrator. After completing his undergraduate work at Boston College (B.A. Music), David returned to his home state of Maryland to study with James Olin at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University (M.M. Trombone Performance). He returned to Boston and served as Program Administrator for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute while teaching at Boston College and freelancing as a composer and trombonist. After eight years, David set out to pursue his long-time passion of composing for visual media by way of Berklee College of Music (M.M., Post-Graduate Fellowship, Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games) in Valencia, Spain. He currently resides with his wife Lisa in Glasgow, UK, where he is composing for both visual media the concert hall while working for Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

BEN HJERTMANN – FROM THE MORNING (born 1985 / composed 2016)

From the Morning is named after a song by Nick Drake, though it's not musically related.  The work is a kind of ode to the peaceful mornings in the mountains of North Carolina and the slow inspiration that flowed from them.  At the same time, it is a secretly challenging work for the ensemble, which requires incredible endurance as the parts overlap and weave together without many breaks.  It speaks to the power that a place holds, and the peaceful control it takes to create work therein.

Ben Hjertmann is a composer, vocalist, and songwriter currently living in Asheville, NC.  He holds a doctorate in composition from Northwestern University and was Assistant Professor of Composition/Theory at Appalachian State University from 2014-2018.  He creates experimental Rock/Pop under the name Kong Must Dead, and also creates work collaboratively Grant Wallace Band & Vinesines.  His concert music has been performed and recorded by internationally renowned chamber and large ensemble groups.  He was the winner of the 2015 Barlow Prize, among other composition awards.

AUGUSTA READ THOMAS – AVIAN CAPRICCIO (born 1964 / composed 2016)

I. Hummingbirds - II. Swans - III. Canaries

The brass quintet Avian Capriccio is typically free-wheeling in its evocation of 3 contrasting types of birds. Thus, hummingbirds set the ball rolling as the brass dart, cavort and hocket in their unpredictable, airborne games. In solemn contrast, the middle movement's swans glide in slowly exfoliating ariosi as the music, beginning quietly, grows progressively eloquent. The finale seems to initially grow out of the swans' floating stillness, but it soon kicks off in a romp of playfully be-bopping syncopations as Thomas' Charlie Parker-ish canaries take centre stage and bring this triptych to an ebullient conclusion. © Paul Pellay

The music of composer Augusta Read Thomas is majestic, elegant, lyrical, it is “boldly considered music that celebrates the sound of the instruments and reaffirms the vitality of orchestral music.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)  The New Yorker Magazine called Augusta "a true virtuoso composer." Donald Rosenberg of Gramophone wrote, “Heart and soul in the breathtaking music of a thoughtful contemporary composer. Thomas's brainy brand of modernism reveals a lively, probing mind allied to a beating heart.”

The citation, read at her 2009 American Academy of Arts and Letters induction

“Her impressive body of works embodies unbridled passion and fierce poetry.  Championed by such luminaries as Barenboim, Rostropovich, Boulez, and Knussen, she rose early to the top of her profession.  Later, as an influential teacher at Eastman, Northwestern and Tanglewood, chairperson of the American Music Center, and the Chicago Symphony’s longest-serving resident composer, she has become one of the most recognizable and widely loved figures in American Music.”

Thomas has composed over 40 works for orchestra.  She was the Mead Composer-in-Residence for Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez with the CSO from 1997 through 2006, a residency that culminated in the premiere of Astral Canticle – one of two finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

She founded and Directs the Center for Contemporary Composition at the University of Chicago.

Barenboim, Boulez, Salonen, Knussen, Ozawa, Rostrapovich, Slatkin, Roberton, Maazel, Davis, Graf, Zhang and Eschenbach have championed her music, which has been commissioned by leading orchestras and ensembles around the world.  Winner of the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize and many other international awards, currently she is composing an opera commissioned by a consortium led by Santa Fe Opera
in association with San Francisco Opera that includes: Lyric Opera Kansas City, Minnesota Opera, Opera Theatre Saint Louis, Sarasota Opera, and Seattle Opera. 

LIDUINO PITOMBEIRA – AXIOM (born 1964 / composed 2016)

I. Bossa - II. Anton - III. Barcarola

Axiom is built on intertextual procedures. The first movement, Bossa, is a systemic modeling of Lilian, a piano piece by Brazilian composer Remo Usai. The second movement is a systemic modeling of the first movement of Anton Webern’s Drei Kleine Stücke für Violoncel und Klavier, Op. 11. The last movement is based on the folk theme Barcarola da Pança, collected by Mário de Andrade from the dramatic genre called Chegança de Marujos.  The piece was commissioned by Axiom Brass in celebration of their 10th Anniversary.

Liduino Pitombeira (Brazil, 1962) is professor of Composition at the School of Music of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), in Brazil. His music has been performed by The Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet (Germany), The Louisiana Sinfonietta, Red Stick Saxophone Quartet, New York University New Music Trio, Orquestra Sinfônica do Espírito Santo (Brazil), Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), Duo Barrenechea (Brazil), The Alexander-Soares Duo, Orchestra Sinfônica de Ribeirão Preto (Brazil), Orquestra Sinfônica da Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil), The Chicago Philharmonic, and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (Brazil).  He has received many composition awards in Brazil and the USA, including the first prize in the 1998 Camargo Guarnieri Composition Competition and the first prize in the "Sinfonia dos 500 Anos" Composition Contest.  He also received the 2003 MTNA-Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year Award for his piece "Brazilian Landscapes No. 1".  Three more pieces of his series Brazilian Landscapes (No. 2, No. 6, and No. 9) were awarded first prizes in the USA. In 2019 he was awarded the Villa-Lobos Medal by the Brazilian Academy of Music. Dr. Pitombeira received his PhD in composition from the Louisiana State University, where he studied with Dinos Constantinides. He is a member of Society of Composers Inc. and Associação de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Música (ANPPOM). He has published many scientific articles on composition and theory and developed research as a member of the MusMat Research Group of the UFRJ. His pieces are published by Edition Peters, Bella Musica, Criadores do Brasil (OSESP), Conners, Alry, RioArte, and Irmãos Vitale. Recordings of his works were made by Magni, Summit, Centaur, Antes, Filarmonika, Blue Griffin, and Bis labels. 

MATT ULERY – IDA (born 1982/ composed 2017)

I. Into the World There Came a Soul - II. Vanity Fair - III. The Fleeting Nature of Time (and Beauty) -

IV. I Give My Back to the Dark - V. Wicker Party - VI. The Passage of Time can be Relentless and Unforgiving -

VII. I Have Such a Clown Face

IDA is a brand new work in seven movements for brass quintet by Chicago bassist/composer, Matt Ulery.  The first three scenes segue without pause.

This new work is inspired by the early masterpiece of aging and decay by Chicago artist/painter, Ivan Albright, in 1929-1930, titled Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida.  While this modern vanitas portrait, much like Albright's other works, is painstakingly detailed and grotesque, IDA is more of a dramatic musical score to the painting.  

"Having seen this painting many times throughout the years at the Art Institute of Chicago while growing up, I became interested in Albright's central theme and lifelong fascination of life and death and decay's inevitability and how it can be expressed in art.  Rather than trying to match the detail of the painting, I wanted to explore some of the different themes on an abstract emotional level with drama in real time.  What's more dramatic than brass wind  and silence?”  

Chicago based bassist/composer and bandleader, Matt Ulery, has developed an instantly recognizable sound. Known for his sweeping lyricism, unconventional phrase structures, expressionistic emotionalism, Ulery’s music, from small, diverse chamber ensembles to full orchestras, is informed by the entire spectrum of jazz, classical, rock, pop, and folk– specifically American, South American, Balkan, and other European folk styles. He has been performing for 25 years on upright, electric, and brass basses.

For over two decades, Ulery has been the leader of his own groups and frequent collaborator. Ulery has produced and released 9 albums of all original music under his name including three recent releases of critical acclaim, “By a Little Light,” “Wake an Echo,” and “In the Ivory,” on Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf Music record label in 2012-2014 and his most latests, “Festival” (2016), “Sifting Stars” (2018), “Delicate Charms”(2019), and “Pollinator” (forthcoming May 2020), on his own label, Woolgathering Records. 

Ulery earned a Master of Music degree in jazz composition at Depaul University and a Bachelors degree in jazz bass performance at The Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and has played in bands with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Bobby Broom, Fareed Haque, Howard Levy, Patricia Barber, Goran Ivanovic, Greg Ward, Jeff Parker, Zach Brock, Jimmy Chamberlin, Makaya McCraven, Marquis Hill, Greg Ward, Russ Johnson and countless others. As a composer, Ulery has collaborated with diverse ensembles such as Eighth Blackbird, Miami String Quartet, New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago, Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, Axiom Brass, Wild Belle, Guimaraes (Portugal) Jazz Festival, and Projeto Arcomusical. 

When not touring parts of the U.S. and Europe, Matt is extremely active in the Chicago area music scenes and has performed with his own groups at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, NYC Winter Jazz Festival, Chicago Orchestra Hall, Millennium Park Pritzker Pavillion, Chicago Cultural Center, The Krannert Center, Jazz Showcase, The Metro, Chicago Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Chicago World Music Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Guimaraes Jazz Festival, and countless other fine music listening rooms. In addition to performing, recording, and writing, Ulery is on faculty at Loyola University Chicago and gives masterclasses and clinics nationwide and beyond. 

Matt Ulery leads and composes all the music for several of his own ensembles, including Sifting Stars Orchestra (orchestral art songs), Loom Large (jazz big band), Loom (jazz quintet), Delicate Charms (jazz quintet), Pollinator (jazz brass band), By a Little Light Ensemble (chamber jazz nonet), string quintet, and various other pet projects including hosting a jazz jam session every Monday night at The Whistler in Chicago.