Karl Larson — Piano
Pat Swoboda — Bass
Matt Evans — Percussion
Program:
Shelley Washington — Silk (2017)*
Kristina Wolfe — Near Sky (2017)*
Adam Roberts — happy/angry music (2017)*
Scott Wollschleger — American Dream (2017)*
* NYC Premiere
Fresh off the release of their 2017 album Trios, Bearthoven performs three NYC premieres by a collection of America’s strongest upcoming compositional voices — Kristina Wolfe, Adam Roberts, Shelley Washington, and Scott Wollschleger.
Bearthoven [ \’bâr-toh-vən\ ] is a piano trio creating a new repertoire for a familiar instrumentation by commissioning works from leading young composers. Karl Larson (piano), Pat Swoboda (bass), and Matt Evans (percussion) have combined their individual voices and diverse musical backgrounds to create a versatile trio focused on frequent and innovative commissioning of up-and-coming composers. Bearthoven is rapidly building a diverse repertoire by challenging composers to apply their own voice to an instrumentation that, while common amongst jazz and pop idioms, is currently foreign in the contemporary classical world.
Shelley Washington writes music to fulfill one calling- to move. With an eclectic palette, Washington tells sonic stories with a range of direction and change. Her major body of work is written for saxophone and large or small chamber ensembles. Besides composition, Washington is an active baritone saxophonist and vocalist.
Adam Roberts writes music that takes listeners on compelling journeys while drawing on a vivid array of sonic resources. Roberts’ music has been performed by ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet, the JACK Quartet, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Callithumpian Consort, Earplay, andPlay duo, Transient Canvas, Ums ‘n Jip, Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, the Association for the Promotion of New Music, violist Garth Knox, Guerilla Opera, and at festivals such as Wien Modern (Vienna), Tanglewood, the Biennale Musique en Scene (Lyons), and the 2009 ISCM World Music Days (Sweden).
Kristina Wolfe spent many of her formative years wandering through the forests of Mols Bjerge (near the city of Aarhus) in Denmark listening to the sounds of space and place. This environment, rich with neolithic graves, stone markers, and ancient roadways cultivated her imagination and creative focus on the spirits of the past, and has inspired her composition and listening practices up to the present day.
Scott Wollschleger is a Brooklyn-based composer of solo, chamber, and dramatic music. His music has been highly praised for its arresting timbres and conceptual originality. His distinct musical language explores themes of art in dystopia, the conceptualization of silence, synesthesia, and creative repetition in form. His music has been described as “evocative” and “kaleidoscopic” (The New York Times) and Alex Ross recently noted that Wollschleger “has become a formidable, individual presence” (The Rest Is Noise). His concert works can be heard across the US and the world, most recently featured at MATA Festival Interval Series, the International Music Institute at Darmstadt, and the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento.
Support through New Music USA’s NYC New Music Impact Fund is made possible with funding from the Scherman Foundation’s Katherine S. and Axel G. Rosin Fund.
happy/angry music commissioned by the Johnstone Fund for New Music, Columbus, Ohio.