Exhibition-cum-Concert-and-Lecture-Series

CREATIVE COUPLES – TRANSCULTURAL MEDIA

Books by Gunnar A. Kaldewey and Music by Bun-Ching Lam

Detailed Concert Program:

Concerts:

Opening Concert  October 26th , 6 p.m.

Chamber Music for Asian and European Instruments

This concert features a set of vocal and instrumental musics attempting to translate poetic or artistic sentiments into sound. It presents the many different cultural traits, from Heine to Hiroshige, from Europe to Asia, that have merged in the musics of Bun-Ching Lam.

***

Run (1993)*
for pipa solo 
Min Xiao-Fen, pipa

***

Nachtgesänge (2000)
Text by Friedrich Hölderlin
for soprano, koto, baritone sax, trombone & marimba

I. Hälfte des Lebens
II. Der Winkel von Hahrdt
III. Lebensalter

Susanne Serfling, soprano
Naoko Kikuchi, koto
Willi Fischer, saxophone
Cfaba Asboth, trombone
Bernd Mallasch, percussion

Friedrich Hölderlin–Nachtgesänge

I. Hälfte des Lebens
Mit gelben Birnen hänget
Und voll mit wilden Rosen
Das Land in den See,
Ihr holden Schwäne,
Und trunken von Küssen
Tunkt Ihr das Haupt
Ins heilignüchterne Wasser.

Weh mir, wo nehm ich, wenn
Es Winter ist, die Blumen, und wo
Den Sonnenschein,
Und Schatten der Erde?
Die Mauern stehn
Sprachlos und kalt, im Winde
Klirren die Fahnen.

II. Der Winkel von Hahrdt
Hinunter sinket der Wald,
Und Knospen ähnlich, hängen
Einwärts die Blätter, denen
Blüht unten auf ein Grund,
Nicht gar unmündig.
Da nämlich ist Ulrich
Gegangen; oft sinnt, über den Fußtritt
Ein groß Schicksal
Bereit, an übrigem Orte.

III. Lebensalter
Ihr Städte des Euphrats!
Ihr Gassen von Palmyra!
Ihr Säulenwälder in der Ebne der Wüste,
Was seid Ihr?
Euch hat die Kronen,
Dieweil ihr über die Grenze
Der Othmenden seid gegangen,
Von Himmlischen der Rauchdampf und
Hinweg das Feuer genommen;
Jezt aber siz’ ich unter Wolken (deren
Ein jedes eine Ruh hat eigen), unter
Wohleingerichteten Eichen, auf
Der Heide des Rehs, und fremd
Erscheinen und gestorben mir
Der Seeligen Geister.

***

Lotosträume (2009)**
Text by Heinrich Heine
for baritone & harp

Thomas Buckner, baritone
Isabelle Courret, harp

Heinrich Heine–Lotosträume
(Buch der Lieder, Lyrisches Intermezzo, IX)

Auf Flügeln des Gesanges,
Herzliebchen, trag’ ich dich fort,
Fort nach den Fluren des Ganges,
Dort weiß ich den schönsten Ort.
Dort liegt ein rotblühender Garten
Im stillen Mondenschein;
Die Lotosblumen erwarten
Ihr trautes Schwesterlein.
Die Veilchen kichern und kosen,
Und schau’n nach den Sternen empor;
Heimlich erzählen die Rosen
Sich duftende Mährchen ins Ohr.
Es hüpfen herbei und lauschen
Die frommen, klugen Gazell’n;
Und in der Ferne rauschen
Des heiligen Stromes Well’n.
Dort wollen wir niedersinken
Unter dem Palmenbaum,
Und Liebe and Ruhe trinken,
Und träumen seligen Traum.

***

Omi Hakkei (2000)*
for flute, viola, harp, xiao/dizi, erhu & zheng

I. Night Rain at Karasaki
II. Awazu on a Fine Breezy Day
III. Wild Geese Descending in Katata
IV. Autumn Moon at Ishiyama
V. The Evening Glow of Seta Bridge
VI. Sails Returning to Yabase
VII. The First Snow of Mt. Hira
VIII. The Evening Bell of Mii Temple

Angelika Bender, flute
Mariette Leners, viola
Isabelle Courret, harp
Wolfgang Wendel, xiao/dizi
Zhang Zhenfang, erhu
Xu Fengxia, zheng
Bun-Ching Lam, conductor

*European Premiere
**World Premiere

The Performers (in order of appearance)
Min Xiao-Fen, pipa
Pipa player and composer Min Xiao-Fen is known for her fluid style. She is a world recognized virtuoso in both orchestral and underground music projects. Ms. Min was a pipa soloist with the Nanjing Traditional Music Orchestra in China, winning the Jiangsu National Pipa Competition and eventually becoming a first class artist in China. She came to the United States in 1992 and was invited by Jazz at Lincoln Center to play a solo set of the music of Thelonious Monk. Her Blue Pipa Trio was invited to perform at the JVC Jazz Festival in 2006. She received a commission, “Return of the Dragon,” from The Kitchen, followed by a performance with her Asian Trio. She was a featured composer and performed her solo piece, “Blue Pipa” for the American Composers Orchestra’s Composer Out Front series. In 2009, Min performed “Return of the Dragon” with her Asian Trio for the opening of Chinese Cultural Week at Millennium Park in Chicago. She was a featured soloist at the Macao Arts Festival, the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival and the Great Mountains International Music Festival in Korea. Min is also the founder of Blue Pipa, Inc. (www.bluepipa.org). She currently lives in New York City.

Susanne Serfling, soprano
Susanne Serfling initially received classical ballet training before she began to study at the Hochschule Hanns Eisler in Berlin. She attended the ‘Lied’ class of Wolfram Rieger and the master class of Julia Varady. Guest engagements took her, the winner of numerous scholarships and competitions, to the Berlin Staatsoper, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Salzburg Festival and the Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma, where she performed under Ricardo Muti as Iphigénie. She has participated as a concert singer in Mahler’s 8th Symphony, “Seven Early Songs” by Alban Berg and in world premieres of works by Johannes Wallmann.
From 2002 to 2005 she was engaged at the Theater Erfurt.. Since 2005 she belongs to the Opera Ensemble at the Staatstheater Darmstadt. Here she sang, among others, Nannetta, Poppea, Iphigénie, Evita, and was also involved in The Diary of Anne Frank and as Rachel in La Juive. In the 2009/2010 season, she will be heard as Katja Kabanova, Pamina and Liu.

Willi Fischer, saxophone
Willi Fischer studied saxophone with Linda Bangs (Raschèr Saxophone Quartet), and is a member of the South German Saxophone Chamber Orchestra and the Saxophone Trio “trioSAXissimo”. He teaches at the Heidelberg School of Music and the Musikhochschule Mainz.

Naoko Kikuchi, koto
Born in Sendai, Japan, Naoko studied koto since she was a child, first with her grandmother and mother. Starting in 1989 she took lessons from Tadao Sawai and Kazue Sawai.
At Sophia University, Tokyo, she joined the Sawai Kazue koto Ensemble world tour (Austria, Ukraine, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, France and middle and south America) and participated in recordings. (d’c records).
Naoko graduated from the NHK (Japanese National Broadcasting Company) School for Performance of Traditional Japanese Instruments and received a master’s with highest score, she also received honor prizes in several competitions. Subsequently, she was selected as a cultural internship student by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Naoko has been active as a musician commissioning new works for koto from composers and collaborating widely with artists in other fields (dance, drama and art). She has a large repertoire, which includes classical koto and chamber music, as well as modern, contemporary compositions and improvisation. In 2007, she received a year-long fellowship from the Japanese Government’s “Overseas Study Programs for Artists” to work in Frankfurt, Germany, where she currently is a member of IEMA (International Ensemble Modern Academie). From this experience she has been expanding her skills in contemporary and ensemble music. Naoko performs and teaches regularly in Tokyo (Japan) and Frankfurt (Germany).

Thomas Buckner, baritone
For more than 40 years, baritone Thomas Buckner has dedicated himself to the world of new and improvised music. Buckner has collaborated with a host of new music composers including Robert Ashley, Noah Creshevsky, Tom Hamilton, Earl Howard, Matthias Kaul, Leroy Jenkins, Bun-Ching Lam, Annea Lockwood, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, Wadada Leo Smith, Chinary Ung, Christian Wolff and many others. He has made appearances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Herbst Theatre, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Ostrava Days Festival, the Prague Spring Festival, and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Buckner is featured on over 40 recordings, including 6 of his own solo albums. His most recent solo recording  “New Music for Baritone & Chamber Ensemble” includes works by Annea Lockwood, Tania Leon, and Petr Kotik. He also appears in the newly released CD/DVD “Kirili et le Nymphéas (Hommage à Monet).” This recording documents the latest in his ongoing series of collaborations between the sculptor Alain Kirili and improvising musicians and dancers. For the past twenty years, Buckner has co-produced the Interpretations Series in New York City. He also created the Mutable Music record label to produce new recordings and reissue some important historic recordings, previously unavailable in CD format.

Isabelle Courret
The harpist began studying harp in Bordeaux, her birthplace. She entered the Paris National Conservatory of Music at the age of 14, working with Jacqueline Borot, then Marie-Claire Jamet for the harp, and Christina Larde for chamber music. She received the 1st Prize in harp unanimously at the age of 17 and she began an international career, playing recitals, concertos and chamber music in France and Europe and in Seoul. In addition to the above, she has studied with Marielle Nordmann and Suzanna Mildonian. In 1991, Ms. Courret joined the La Scala of Milan Orchestra as 1st harp soloist, working under the direction of Ricardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, and Semyon Bychkov. In 1993, she was finalist of the Lily-Laskine International Competition. Isabelle Courret has given concerts throughout France, and has made several solo harp CD recordings, including her most recent entitled, Isabelle Courret: Harp Recital on the Pavane label. She plays in concerto and recitals all over the world: in Paris, Monaco, Echternach, Luxembourg, the United-States, London, Cairo, Athens, Bratislava, Palo Alto, Moldavia.

Wolfgang Wendel, xiao/dizi
born in 1962 in Germany, Wolfgang Wendel studied flute in German Conservatories such as Darmstadt, Karlsruhe and Freiburg (with Hans-Peter Schmitz, Berlin and Robert Aitken, Toronto). As a freelancer he played concerts and made CD recordings with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden/Freiburg and the Opera house Orchestra Karlsruhe. He gave master classes and solo recitals mainly of contemporary music throughout Germany (i.e. with the German Flute Society in Frankfurt), Australia, Taiwan (National Concert Hall, Taipei 2005), Austria, Russia (Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, St Petersburg), the Ukraine and the U.S. (National Flute Convention Las Vegas, 2003 and New York, 2009). Furthermore, he has composed pieces like Wind for Bass flute (1999), Indian Dream for flute (2000),“Quo vadis, Elise?” for Piccolo, Flute and Alto flute (2007) or Reflections on TamSui for Chinese dizi (2008).
He also is a current member of juries like the “International Evgeni Mrawinski” contest in St Petersburg/Russia or the Final contest of “Jugend musiziert” in Germany.

Xu Fengxia, zheng
Ms. Xu was born in Shanghai/China. She began to play Chinese string instruments when she was 5 years old. Because of her exceptional talent she was accepted to study at the renowned Shanghai Conservatory where she learnt the guzheng, sanxian, guqin and liuqin, and performed all these four instruments in solo concerts of traditional Chinese music. After her graduation she joined the famous Shanghai Orchestra for Traditional Chinese Music. In the meantime Xu Fengxia also got involved in Rock music when she played the guitar in Shanghai’s first Lady Rockband. 
After her move to Germany in 1991 Xu Fengxia began to discover new musical ideas and material. She started a second career as an improvising musician and a third career as a soloist in contemporary classical music. A main influence for her was the cooperation with the late Peter Kowald, a world famous bass player and improvising artist. Xu has developed her own personal style: a mixture of everything from traditional sounds all over the world to more abstract and avantgarde material.
Xu Fengxia has performed contemporary compositions with some renowned European orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the  Ensemble Recherche, the Nieuw Ensemble Amsterdam, and the Neue Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
 Ensemble Phorminx
The Ensemble Phorminx (www.ensemble-phorminx.de) was formed in 1993 by a group of musicians and composers in Darmstadt. In their work they prefer intensive cooperation with composers.
They have performed about 100 world premieres in recent years. Ensemble Phorminx has performed in several festivals (Frankfurt Feste, Schleswig-Holstein  Musikfestival,  Internationale Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Festival Luxembourg, Heidelberger Frühling, Contemporary Music Week Seoul)
Ensemble Phorminx offers three concert series in Frankfurt/M, Darmstadt and Tübingen. They have taken part in many productions with major German radio stations. Some CD’s are available. One of them was awarded the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
In 2009 two further CD´s have appeared with works of Helmut Lachenmann and a book with CD with works of Adriana Hoelszky, Nicolaus A. Huber, Volker Blumenthaler, Benjamin Schweizer and Jan Kopp

Bun-Ching Lam, composer, conductor
Described as “alluringly exotic” (The New York Times), and “hauntingly attractive” (San Francisco Chronicle), the music of Bun-Ching Lam has been performed worldwide by such ensembles as the Macao Orchestra, American Composer’s Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, The Vienna Radio Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Albany Symphony. Born in Macao, Lam has recently been appointed composer-in-residence of the Macao Orchestra. She began her studies of the piano in her native city, and further pursued her music education in Hong Kong and the United States. She holds a B.A. degree in Piano Performance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California at San Diego. She has taught at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, and served as Visiting Professor at the Yale University School of Music and at Bennington College.
She has been recognized by numerous awards including a Rome Prize, the highest award at the Shanghai International Composers’ Competition, two NEA grants, fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has received commissions from the American Composers Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Macao Orchestra, Chamber Music America, CrossSound Festival, Bang On a Can Festival, Sequitur, Continuum, Ursula Oppens and the Arditti String Quartet. She also served as the Music Alive! Composer-in-Residence with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Bun-Ching Lam’s work has been recorded on CRI, Tzadik, Nimbus, and Koch International. She now divides her time between Paris and New York.

2. Concert   October 27th, 8 p.m.

Mixing Media–Carpets, Clouds and Books:
Vocal Music featuring poetry by Dickinson, Beckett and Kaldewey

This concert is devoted to the multiple qualities of Bun-Ching Lam’s vocal oeuvre which weaves many different media and cultures into one musical tapestry.

***

Wolken (1986)*
Text by Gunnar Kaldewey
For Soprano, narrator, alto flute & piano

Sylvie Robert, soprano
Thomas Buckner, baritone
Angelika Bender, flute 
Thomas Wellen, piano
Gunnar Kaldewey, narrator

Gunnar Kaldewey–Wolken
To float in the clouds is man’s oldest dream. But even today only a few attain it. In airplanes you want to escape the alluminum shell in order to touch them, those friends and playmates of one’s oldest memory.
Noiseless and endlessly moving, clouds and sky escort us through our lives.
Visible limits of the everyday. But they are only a part of our universe,this universe, whose limits are thinkable but not visible.
Beyound the compression of water into ice, there is an airless space where movement does not exist.
Unfixed eternity, the farthest, and the freeest, that we are able to imagine.
All of men’s works are small above the clouds. There only Sun and light. Mere particles of water that radiate timelessness.
Clouds decorate us with all colors of fantasy. We all see clouds but each of us has their own cloud. Imagination give you what they are: movement, tranquillity, light, heat, vitablity and life.
They are a work of art, always mobile, with plastic and painterly faces, setting the origins and limits of thought, inspiring emotion. The particles form landscapes, that resemble the ones in our dreams. Their essential color imparts to them tranquillity and abstraction. Always the same, over months and years, from the beginning and end of the world. From the mass of water they contain, their shape is formed; through temporature and wind they move, these movements are the dreams of painters and poets. For centuries they were unreachable, the visible signs of eternity.
In the blue cloud chambers there are innumerable stories filled with poetry of times gone by. Even a small portion is delightful.
Units of water shifting in directions whose meaning is unrecognizable.
Clouds pass, one on top of the others in never repeated shapes. Accidental cloud myriads everyday. Without airplanes, the clouds would still be in the hands of a few mountain climbers who had reached the peak.
One knows how dangerous clouds can be with all this sentimentality and triteness, but their attraction for men will not cease. Everyday cloud diaries record new formations. In particular, reports of toxic yellow clouds increase.
Cold air prevents man from climbing higher, the desperate winds press downwards. Above the life protecting ozone are only shooting stars, northern lights and meteors from the Cosmos.
The landscape of the air has not yet begun to be destroyed.

***

Bolts of Melody – Emily Dickinson (2003)*
for baritone & pipa

I. How Happy ….
II. The Pedigree of Honey
III. He Ate and Drank
IV. I’m Nobody
V. Because

Thomas Buckner, baritone
Min Xiao-Fen, pipa

Emily Dickinson–Bolts of Melody

I. How Happy ….
How happy is the little Stone
That rambles in the Road alone,
And does’nt care about Careers
And Exigencies never fears -
Whose Coat of elemental Brown
A passing Universe put on,
And independent as the sun,
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute Decree
In casual simplicity –

II. The Pedigree of Honey
The Pedigree of Honey
Does not concern the Bee –
Nor lineage of Ecstasy
Delay the Butterfly
On spangled journey to the peak
Of some perceiveless thing
The right of way to Tripoli
A more essential thing

III. He Ate and Drank
He ate and drank the precious Words -
His Spirit grew robust -
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was Dust -
He danced along the dingy Days
And this Bequest of Wings
Was but a Book - What Liberty
A loosened Spirit brings -

IV. I’m Nobody
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you Nobody too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! They’d advertise – you know!

How dreary - to be – somebody!
How public - like a Frog -
To tell one’s name - the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!

V. Because
Because I could not stop for Death -
He kindly stopped for me -
The carriage held but just Ourselves -
And Immortality.

We slowly drove - He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility. -

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess in the Ring -
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain -
We passed the Setting Sun -

Or rather He passed Us -
The Dews drew quivering and Chill -
For only Gossamer, my Gown -
My tippet only Tulle -

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground -
The Roof was scarcely visible -
The Cornice in the Ground -

Since then ‘tis Centuries - and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity.

***

Four Beckett Songs (1980)*
for soprano, violin, clarinet & percussion

Sylvie Robert, soprano
Mariette Leners, violin
Thomas Loeffler, clarinets
Bernd Mallasch, percussion

Samuel Beckett–Quatre Poèmes
(translated from French by the author)

I. Dieppe
again the last ebb,
the dead shingle
the turning and the steps
towards the lighted town

II.
my way is in the sand flowing
between the shingle and the dune
the summer rain rains on my life,
on me my life harrying fleeing
to its beginning to its end

my peace is there in the receding mist
when I may cease from treading these long shifting threshold
and leave the space of a door
that opens and shuts

III.
what would I do without this world faceless incurious
where to be lasts but an instant where every instant
spills in the void the ignorance of having been
without this wave where in the end
body and shadow together are engulfed
what would I do without this silence when the murmurs die
the panting the frenzies towards succour towards love
without this sky that soars
above its ballast dust

what would I do what I did yesterday and the day before
peering out of my deadlight looking for another
wandering like me eddying far from all the living
in a convulsive space
among the voices voiceless
that throng my hiddenness.

IV.
I would like my love to die
and the rain to be falling on the graveyard
And on me walking to street
Mourning the first and last to love me.

***

Intermission

***

Ein Alter Tibetteppich (2006)*
Text by Else Lasker- Schüler
for baritone & piano

Thomas Buckner, baritone
Bun-Ching Lam, piano

Else Lasker-Schüler–Ein alter Tibetteppich

Deine Seele, die die meine liebet,
Ist verwirkt mit ihr im Teppichtibet.
Strahl in Strahl, verliebte Farben
Sterne, die sich himmellang umwarben.
Unsere Füsse ruhen auf der Kostbarkeit.
Maschentausendabertausend weit,
Süsser Lamasohn auf Moschuspflanzenthron,
Wie lange küsst dein Mund den meinen wohl
Und Wang die Wange buntgeknüpfte Zeiten schon?

***

An Antique Book (2008)
Text by Emily Dickinson
for baritone & harp

Thomas Buckner, baritone
Isabelle Courret, harp

Emily Dickinson–An Antique Book

A precious mouldering pleasur ‘tis -
To meet an Antique Book
In just the Dress his Century wore -
A privilege - I think -

His venerable Hand to take -
And warming in our own -
A passage back or two to make -
To Times when he was young -

His quaint opinions to inspect -
His thought to ascertain
On Themes concern our mutual mind -
The Literature of Man -

What interested Scholars most -
What Competitions ran 
When Plato was a Certainty
And Sophocles a Man -

When Sappho was a living Girl -
And Beatrice wore
The Gown that Dante deified -
Facts Centuries before

He traverses familiar -
As One should come to Town -
And tell you all your Dreams were true -
He lived where Dreams were born -

His presence is enchantment -
You beg him not to go -
Old Volumes shake their Vellum Heads
And tantalize just so -

***

Lotosträume (2009)
Text by Heinrich Heine
for baritone & harp

Thomas Buckner, baritone
Isabelle Courret, harp

Heinrich Heine–Lotosträume
(Buch der Lieder, Lyrisches Intermezzo, IX)

Auf Flügeln des Gesanges,
Herzliebchen, trag’ ich dich fort,
Fort nach den Fluren des Ganges,
Dort weiß ich den schönsten Ort.
Dort liegt ein rotblühender Garten
Im stillen Mondenschein;
Die Lotosblumen erwarten
Ihr trautes Schwesterlein.
Die Veilchen kichern und kosen,
Und schau’n nach den Sternen empor;
Heimlich erzählen die Rosen
Sich duftende Mährchen ins Ohr.
Es hüpfen herbei und lauschen
Die frommen, klugen Gazell’n;
Und in der Ferne rauschen
Des heiligen Stromes Well’n.
Dort wollen wir niedersinken
Unter dem Palmenbaum,
Und Liebe and Ruhe trinken,
Und träumen seligen Traum.

***

Le Vin des Amants (2008)*
for soprano, clarinet, violin and piano four hands

I. Effervescent
II. Molto espressivo e legato
III. Majestique (text: Charles Baudelaire)
IV. With Turbulence
V. Très Lent

Sylvie Robert, soprano
Thomas Loeffler, clarinet
Mariette Leners, violin
Thomas Wellen, Bun-Ching Lam, piano

Charles Baudelaire–Le Vin des Amants

Aujourd’hui l’espace est splendide!
Sans mors, sans éperons, sans bride,
Partons à cheval sur le vin
Pour un ciel féerique et divin!

Comme deux anges que torture
Une implacable calenture,
Dans le bleu cristal du matin
suivons le mirage lointain!

Mollement balancés sur l’aile
Du tourbillon intelligent,
Dans un délire parallèle,

Ma soeur, côte à côte nageant,
Nous fuirons sans repos ni trêves
Vers le paradis de mes rêves!

*European Premiere

The Performers (in order of appearance)
Sylvie Robert, soprano
Sylvie Robert lives in Argentina where she performs regularly with local orchestras and chamber music ensembles. During her studies at the  Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMP), she received Marmande and Ales first prizes and studied with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth Söderström, Phyllis Bryn-Julson and D. Fisher Dieskau. She recorded the songs of Nadia Boulanger with Emile Naoumoff (piano) for the Naxos label and sang the world premier of “Les Djinns” by H. Schubnel and “Matisse parle” by Jonathan Berger. In 2008, she performed in New York improvisations around Sissi’s poetry at the Renée Weiler Hall, sang the works of Marcel Duchamp with Petr Kotik from S.E.M., performed the complete Webern music for voice and piano from the new edition of Sacher Stiftung two years ago when it was just published, made a “walk with Picasso” in the Schirn Frankfurt during the exhibition Picasso und das Theater, and Matisse: invitation au voyage in the Thyssen of Madrid more recently; in Argentina, among more classical concerts,she performed Bun-Ching Lam’s Dada songs in a DADA program in the Goethe institut of Buenos Aires, including works by Schwitters, Lachenmann and Ravel and gave the world premiere of Lambertini’s and Panisello’s latest songs, as well as Latin American premieres of Scelsi, Pintcher, Jarrel, Philippe Leroux, Dalbavie, Saariaho etc and the Lieder of Bornemisza and the Attila Joszef Fragment for solo voice from Gyorgy Kurtag with whom she studied. She performs regularly with Jeanne Marie Conquer.

Thomas Buckner, baritone
For more than 40 years, baritone Thomas Buckner has dedicated himself to the world of new and improvised music. Buckner has collaborated with a host of new music composers including Robert Ashley, Noah Creshevsky, Tom Hamilton, Earl Howard, Matthias Kaul, Leroy Jenkins, Bun-Ching Lam, Annea Lockwood, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, Wadada Leo Smith, Chinary Ung, Christian Wolff and many others. He has made appearances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Herbst Theatre, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Ostrava Days Festival, the Prague Spring Festival, and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Buckner is featured on over 40 recordings, including 6 of his own solo albums. His most recent solo recording  “New Music for Baritone & Chamber Ensemble” includes works by Annea Lockwood, Tania Leon, and Petr Kotik. He also appears in the newly released CD/DVD “Kirili et le Nymphéas (Hommage à Monet).” This recording documents the latest in his ongoing series of collaborations between the sculptor Alain Kirili and improvising musicians and dancers. For the past twenty years, Buckner has co-produced the Interpretations Series in New York City. He also created the Mutable Music record label to produce new recordings and reissue some important historic recordings, previously unavailable in CD format.

Bun-Ching Lam, piano, composer
Described as “alluringly exotic” (The New York Times), and “hauntingly attractive” (San Francisco Chronicle), the music of Bun-Ching Lam has been performed worldwide by such ensembles as the Macao Orchestra, American Composer’s Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, The Vienna Radio Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Albany Symphony. Born in Macao, Lam has recently been appointed composer-in-residence of the Macao Orchestra. She began her studies of the piano in her native city, and further pursued her music education in Hong Kong and the United States. She holds a B.A. degree in Piano Performance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California at San Diego. She has taught at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, and served as Visiting Professor at the Yale University School of Music and at Bennington College.
She has been recognized by numerous awards including a Rome Prize, the highest award at the Shanghai International Composers’ Competition, two NEA grants, fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has received commissions from the American Composers Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Macao Orchestra, Chamber Music America, CrossSound Festival, Bang On a Can Festival, Sequitur, Continuum, Ursula Oppens and the Arditti String Quartet. She also served as the Music Alive! Composer-in-Residence with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Bun-Ching Lam’s work has been recorded on CRI, Tzadik, Nimbus, and Koch International. She now divides her time between Paris and New York.

Min Xiao-Fen, pipa
Pipa player and composer Min Xiao-Fen is known for her fluid style. She is a world recognized virtuoso in both orchestral and underground projects. Ms. Min was a pipa soloist with the Nanjing Traditional Music Orchestra in China, winning the Jiangsu National Pipa Competition and eventually becoming a first class artist in China. She came to the United States in 1992 and was invited by Jazz at Lincoln Center to play a solo set of the music of Thelonious Monk. Her Blue Pipa Trio was invited to perform at the JVC Jazz Festival in 2006. She received a commission, “Return of the Dragon,” from The Kitchen, followed by a performance with her Asian Trio. She was a featured composer and performed her solo piece, “Blue Pipa” for the American Composers Orchestra’s Composer Out Front series. In 2009, Min performed “Return of the Dragon” with her Asian Trio for the opening of Chinese Cultural Week at Millennium Park in Chicago. She was a featured soloist at the Macao Arts Festival, the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival and the Great Mountains International Music Festival in Korea. Min is also the founder of Blue Pipa, Inc. (www.bluepipa.org). She currently lives in New York City.

Ensemble Phorminx
The Ensemble Phorminx (www.ensemble-phorminx.de) was formed in 1993 by a group of musicians and composers in Darmstadt. In their work they prefer intensive cooperation with composers.
They have performed about 100 world premieres in recent years. Ensemble Phorminx has performed in several festivals (Frankfurt Feste, Schleswig-Holstein  Musikfestival,  Internationale Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Festival Luxembourg, Heidelberger Frühling, Contemporary Music Week Seoul)
Ensemble Phorminx offers three concert series in Frankfurt/M, Darmstadt and Tübingen. They have taken part in many productions with major German radio stations. Some CD’s are available. One of them was awarded the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
In 2009 two further CD´s have appeared with works of Helmut Lachenmann and a book with CD with works of Adriana Hoelszky, Nicolaus A. Huber, Volker Blumenthaler, Benjamin Schweizer and Jan Kopp

Isabelle Courret
The harpist began studying harp in Bordeaux, her birthplace. She entered the Paris National Conservatory of Music at the age of 14, working with Jacqueline Borot, then Marie-Claire Jamet for the harp, and Christina Larde for chamber music. She received the 1st Prize in harp unanimously at the age of 17 and she began an international career, playing recitals, concertos and chamber music in France and Europe and in Seoul. In addition to the above, she has studied with Marielle Nordmann and Suzanna Mildonian. In 1991, Ms. Courret joined the La Scala of Milan Orchestra as 1st harp soloist, working under the direction of Ricardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, and Semyon Bychkov. In 1993, she was finalist of the Lily-Laskine International Competition. Isabelle Courret has given concerts throughout France, and has made several solo harp CD recordings, including her most recent entitled, Isabelle Courret: Harp Recital on the Pavane label. She plays in concerto and recitals all over the world: in Paris, Monaco, Echternach, Luxembourg, the United-States, London, Cairo, Athens, Bratislava, Palo Alto, Moldavia.

3. Concert   October 28th, 8 p.m.

Seeing Sounds–Like Water, Like Ritual: Chamber Music

The last concert in this series features chamber music by Bun-Ching Lam. Each of the pieces is an expressive painting in sound, allowing the audience a multiplicity of sensual experiences: it is not enough to hear, but one must see and smell, taste, feel and be touched by this music synaesthetically.

***

Lü Journey (1983)
for solo percussion
Gilles Durot, percussion

***

Six Phenomena (1998)*
for solo piano

I. Phantasm
II. Dream
III. Bubbles
IV. Shadow
V. Dew
VI. Lightning

Dimitri Vassilakis, piano

***

Intermission

***
Bittersweet Music II (1981)
for solo violin

Jeanne Marie Conquer, violin

***

… Like Water (1995)*
for violin, piano and percussion

Jeanne Marie Conquer, violin
Dimitri Vassilakis, piano
Gilles Durot, percussion

*European Premiere

Soloists of the
Ensemble Intercontemporain, Paris
Gilles Durot , percussions
Born in 1983, Gilles Durot is currently the youngest soloist of Pierre Boulez’s famous Ensemble Intercontemporain. He studied percussions at the Paris  Conservatory with Michel Cerutti and was awarded in 2007 with the coveted First Prize of the Superior Diploma.
After several engagements with the largest French national symphonic orchestras, he discovers contemporary music, attending the composition and electro-acoustic classes at the Paris Conservatory. As a consequence, he had the opportunity to perform with ensembles like TM+, Multilatérale, 2e2m, Squillante, Accentus, Sequenza 9.3 and Ensemble Intercontemporain, which he joined in 2007.
Today, with a passion for the music of his time, he mainly spends his energy working with young composers in order to develop the uses of percussion in the modern repertoire. He became dedicatee and first performer of several pieces for solo percussion, notably Chaostika by Yann Robin, for percussion and electro acoustics.
In 2008, along with accordion player Anthony Millet and eclectic percussionist Bachar Khalife, he founded the K/D/M Trio, involved in the mixing of contemporary musics. K/D/M will play this season new pieces by C. Roche, G. Lorieux, F. Verunelli, J.P. Beintus, P. Portejoie and P. Thilloy and will be performing as a solo ensemble with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the Orchestre National de Lorraine and the Trier Philharmonic Orchestra. Two recordings are also planned for 2010.
Gilles Durot is a scholarship prize-winner of the Association des Amis du Royaume de la Musique and of the Fondation Meyer for cultural and artistic development.

Dimitri Vassilakis, piano