Sergio Assad
Three Greek letters, Psi-Pi-Sigma

It was in the Cuarnevaca Fesstival in Mexico back in 1999, when over a glass of wine during a croweded festival dinner, I asked Sergio Assad to write a piece for the occasion of my upcoming concert for the Aranjuez series in Carnegie's Weill Hall. He smiled and that was it. The idea was that the sourse of inspiration would be drawn from Greece but it would be filtered and expressed through Sergio's unique and original language. Sure enough, the result is a substantial composition in three contrasting movements,where a modal East Mediteranean opening prepares the ground for intriguing harmonies, brazilian rythms and beautifully mastered melodies.
The premiere was given In Weill Recital Hall on March 10, 2001.
It was the first but certainly not the last perfromance. The work has travelled with me through Europe and USA stealing in many cases the whole show.

I will say no more. I will only quote Sergio's own words on the piece.
"As is well known, the classical language of the Greeks has deeply influenced Western language and thought. These symbols can represent simple concepts such as the alphabet, derived from the first two letters Alpha and Beta, to the most complex ideas in Western thought from abstract mathematics (the irrational and fascinating number Pi) and interactions in nature (such as the particle named Sigma) to the deepest human secrets often characterized by Psi. The trilogy "Three Greek Letters" written for solo guitar and dedicated to Antigoni Goni, is a musical free association of the sounds Psi, Pi and Sigma. The letter Psi, which seems to be a blend of the sounds Pi and Sigma, is the first piece of the set. "Psi" is a three-part musical piece blending two contrasting themes, which are going to be fully developed later in the other two sections characterizing "Pi" and "Sigma." These pieces combine tonal and Lydian modes, slightly spiced with chromaticisme".

Stanley Silverman
"...Eridos"

Dawn
Wedding Party
Minerva
Juno and Venus

"Eridos" by Stanley Silverman was comissioned on the occasion of the International Festival of Music Drama and Danse in Delphi-Greece. The theme of the Festival that year was the influence of the Greek Myths in the performing arts..
Since my concert was the only solo instrumental concert I thought it would be necessary to include a work, possibly created for the ocassion, based on one of my most favorite myths. The myth of the golden apple. Since I was a child I enjoyed the wittiness, the farse like intrigue and the power of feminity of this particular myth. The comission was made possible by the kind support of the Niarchos Foundation. The work was premiered July 7, 1999 in the Dionisus Theater in Delphi, Greece.
Since then I have being enjoying performing it all over the world and for a variety of audiences. Stanley Silverman notes of this work:
"Eridos is based on the Greek myth of the Golden Apple, in which the goddess of discord sets up a competition between the goddesses to determine which one is the most beautiful. The work celebrates femininity through a set of dances, variations, and chorales based on Elizabethan lute styles, mixed with modern folk/popular acoustic guitar techniques. The acoustics of the concert hall determine the length and dynamics of much of the sounds of the piece."

Dan Coleman
Chanson Balladee

Chanson Balladée came as a result of .... a Juilliard School friendship.The occasion appeared when I was invited to participate in a series of concerts at Weill Recital Hall, celebrating Canada's Banff Center for the arts. It was then that violonist Juliette Kang and myself asked Dan to compose a duet for us to perform escaping this way from the overplayed Paganini duets.
The piece was premiered at Weill recital Hall in 1996 The composer says of his work:
" I've been devising ways of integrating poetry and music at various levels. Chanson Baladée is different in that there is no specific poem that the piece mirrors. Rather, I tried to compose a musical form analogous to a villanelle (roughly, A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1 abA2 abA1A2 where A1 and A2 denote different, rhyming refrain lines). The form in music becomes more of a scheme for repetition than anything else, and the effect is a bit like a complicated rondo. But I vary the material each time it returns. My friend Jeffery Cotton utilizes a similar form in many of his own pieces. He's also written a lot for guitar. I was obviously inspired by him when I wrote this piece."

DAN COLEMAN(bio)

Born in New York City in 1972, Dan is currently Composer-in-Residence with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, an association which began during the 2002-2003 season, as part of a national residency program of the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet The Composer.

The Dallas Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, Orpheus, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, and the Cypress String Quartet are among the leading ensembles to have commissioned and performed Dan Coleman’s music.

Dan has received various honors for his music, including the Marilyn K. Glick Young Composers Award from the Indianapolis Symphony, the Beyer Chamber Music Award, the Haddonfield Symphony Composers’ Competition, the Auros Group for New Music Competition, an Arizona Commission on the Arts Fellowship, an Aaron Copland Award, the Victor Herbert/ASCAP award, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a FirstMusic commission from the New York Youth Symphony, a Presser Foundation Grant, a Carlisle Project Composer/Choreographer Grant, fellowships to the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo, and numerous grants from Meet The Composer, including the prestigious Commissioning Music/USA award in 1996.

Jon Elliot
“Friss” for flute and guitar

I have the pleasure of working with wonderful flutist and very dear friend Laura Gilbert. Apart from th elove for music we also share an imagination and curiosity that needs newly composed repertoire to be satisfied. Therefore comissioning a flute and guitar duo was not even a question. Was an assumption.
Friss arrived on time for a set of concerts in Florida and NY.
It was premiered in Brandon_Boca in February of 2001.

Augusta Read Thomas
"Dialogues" (C. 2003)

I: Soulful: Like Toru Takemitsu crossed with Bill Evans

II: Punchy, Perpetual Motion, Funky: Like Stravinsky crossed with Art Tatum

III: Resonant and Prayerful: Like Brahms crossed with Morton Feldman

AUGUSTA READ-THOMAS(bio)

Contact www.augustareadthomas.com

Augusta Read Thomas, born in 1964 in Glen Cove, New York, is the Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra until May 2006. She was an Associate Professor on the composition faculty at the Eastman School of Music from 1993-2001 and is now a Professor of Music at Northwestern University. Since 2000, Ms. Thomas has been on the Board of Directors of the American Music Center. Exclusively G. Schirmer publishes her work.

Conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Mstislav Rostropovich, Seiji Ozawa, Christoph Eschenbach, Cliff Colnot, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Robertson, Lorin Maazel, Marin Alsop, Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, Leonard Slatkin, Gerard Schwarz, Hans Vonk, Markus Stenz, Dennis Russell Davies, Jahja Ling, Lawrence Leighton Smith, Gil Rose, Bradley Lubman, and Hugh Wolff have conducted her music.

Upcoming projects include: Silver Chants the Litanies, homage to Luciano Berio, for solo horn and ensemble, commissioned by Southern Methodist University, Jack Delaney, conductor, for a premiere in February 2004 in Dallas; Tangle, for orchestra, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to be premiered with David Robertson conducting in March 2004 in Chicago; Galaxy Dances, a ballet for orchestra, commissioned by The National Symphony to be premiered with Mstislav Rostropovich conducting in May 2004 in Washington D.C.; Whispers of Summer for 3 cellos, commissioned by the Manchester International Cello Festival and premiered in May, 2004; Gathering Paradise, Emily Dickinson Settings, for solo soprano and orchestra, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to be premiered with Lorin Maazel conducting in September 2004 in New York; and Grace Notes, for orchestra, for the Pierre Boulez birthday concert in January 2005, commissioned, with Festival Présences, by The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, to be conducted by Markus Stenz in Paris.

Recent projects include: Light the First Light of Evening, for chamber orchestra, commissioned by the London Sinfonietta for the 50th birthday celebration of Oliver Knussen, premiered at Queen Elizabeth Hall in June 2002, George Benjamin conducting; Chanting to Paradise, for soprano soloist, large chorus, and orchestra, commissioned by the NDR and Christoph Eschenbach was premiered and toured through Germany in November 2002. This work received its American Premiere in January 2003 by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Eschenbach conducting. Canticle Weaving, for trombone and orchestra, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was premiered in March 2003, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting.

Past projects and premieres include: Prayer Bells, for orchestra, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and premiered in May 2001; Daylight Divine, for soprano, children's chorus, and orchestra, commissioned by John Nelson, Indianapolis Children’s Choir, the American Boy Choir and Soli Deo Gloria, premiered at the Festival Saint Denis in Paris in June 2001; Aurora: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, co-commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, premiered with Daniel Barenboim as solo pianist and conductor in Berlin in June 2000; Ceremonial, commissioned and premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim conducting in January 2000; and Song in Sorrow, for solo soprano, six additional solo female voices, orchestra, and chorus, commissioned and premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra, Jahja Ling conducting in June 2000.

Ms. Thomas' chamber-opera Ligeia, (Librettist: Leslie Dunton-Downer, based on a short story by Poe) was awarded the prestigious International Orpheus Prize (Luciano Berio: President of the jury) and was performed in Spoleto, Italy (Luca Ronconi, Director). Ligeia, commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich and Rencontres Musicales d'Evian, was premiered by Maestro Rostropovich in the 1994 Evian Festival. The American Premiere took place at the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado in July 1995.

Augusta Thomas was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University from 1991 to 1994. She was a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe College in 1990. She studied with Jacob Druckman at Yale University; Alan Stout and Bill Karlins at Northwestern University.

Augusta Thomas has received prizes and awards from: The Siemens Foundation in Munich, ASCAP, BMI, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the John W. Hechinger Foundation, the Kate Neal Kinley Foundation, The Debussy Trio Music Foundation and Thomas van Straaten, Columbia University (Bearns Prize), the Naumburg Foundation, the Fromm Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, Harriett Eckstein, Chamber Music America, a prize in the French International Competition of Henri Dutilleux, The Rudolph Nissim Award from ASCAP, the New York State Council for the Arts, a Finalist Award in the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Program, and the Indiana State University Orchestral Music Prize. She was awarded the Third Century Award from the Office of Copyrights and Patents in Washington, D.C.