Chamber Music
Live taping for Roulette TV
“the relentless energy of her finely honed pieces can prove thrilling – the musical equivalent of white-water rafting.” ~ The New Yorker
Selections and performers for this concert include Ms. Vierk’s Manhattan Cascade , with accordionist Guy Klucevsek and 3 recorded accordions, Demon Star , performed by Jody Redhage, cello and Matthew Gold, marimba, Words Fail Me (1st movement), with Jody Redhage, cello and Sachiko Kato, piano and Io , performed by flutist Margaret Lancaster, electric guitarist Larry Polansky and marimbist Matthew Gold. All of these works were written between 1984 and 2005.
Lois V Vierk is known for high energy developmental music, which often reaches a climactic ending. The Village Voice has written of her, “rare musical intelligence.” She is from the generation after the minimalists, both chronologically and artistically. The concentration on sheer sensuous beauty of sound, especially in some of the “long tone” works of minimalist composers in the 70’s and 80’s, has always been arresting for her. In her own music, this pure sensuous beauty is often a starting point. She works with emotional expressiveness and with many kinds of sound relationships as well, and builds form and structure. She composes music for many kinds of ensembles, from solo piano to chamber group to orchestra, from 18-trombone ensemble to Gagaku (ancient Japanese court music) orchestra to tap dance/live electronics.
Ms. Vierk received her BA (major in piano and ethnomusicology) from UCLA in 1974. She then studied composition at the California Institute of the Arts with Mel Powell, Leonard Stein and Morton Subotnick, receiving her MFA in 1978. For ten years, she studied gagaku (Japanese court music) with Suenobu Togi in Los Angeles, and for two years, in Tokyo with Sukeyasu Shiba, the lead ryuteki flautist of the Imperial Court Orchestra.
Ms. Vierk has spent most of her career in New York City. Her music has achieved an impressive international reputation, and has been performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet, electric guitarists Seth Josel and David Seidel, cellist Ted Mook, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the Reigakusha Ensemble of Tokyo, and the Relâche Ensemble, among others.
Among the many performers who have commissioned Ms. Vierk are cellist Maya Beiser, accordionist Guy Klucevsek, pianists Ursula Oppens, Frederic Rzewski, Aki Takahashi, and Margaret Leng Tan, and percussionist Steven Schick. The Bang on a Can Festival, Ensemble Modern, l’Art pour l’Art, Music from Japan, and the Paul Dresher Ensemble have also commissioned works from her. Co-creations with tap dance choreographer Anita Feldman have been commissioned by the American Dance Festival, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Meet the Composer, and others.
Ms. Vierk’s music has been performed at major venues worldwide, including the Adelaide Festival, Carnegie Hall, Darmstadt, the Edmonton New Music Festival, Glasgow, the Huddersfield Festival, Lincoln Center, Radio Bremen, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Suntory Festival (Tokyo). Her music is available on CDs from CRI, OOdiscs, Sony Classical, Starkland Records, XI Compact Discs, and most recently, Tzadik.
