Comprised of men representing many of Maine’s Wabanaki people (including the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Mic Mac tribes), the members of the Burnurwurbskek Singers have been drumming together for almost 25 years. They perform traditional northeast woodland songs that date back to time immemorial, as well as more contemporary, intertribal songs.

Bedlam & Eunoia: Genre-bending jazz mixed with world music, odd meters, classical, and film score influence. Ranging from the tender to the fervorous; intimate, emotional music.

Formed in April 2017, the group draws on Michael Beling’s unique compositional style, jazz training, and ability to play pedal bass and piano simultaneously, paired with Eric LaPerna’s extensive knowledge of Middle Eastern percussion, and Barry Saunder’s serious jazz and classical experience on clarinet and saxophone. The musicians demonstrate a highly symbiotic and sensitive rapport, and their history and ease of playing together is readily apparent.

Bedlam /ˈbedləm/

noun

1. a place, scene, or state of uproar and confusion

2. an asylum for the mentally ill

Eunoia /juːˈnɔɪ.ə/

noun (From the Ancient Greek: εὔνοιᾰ, lit. ‘well mind; beautiful thinking’)

1. (rhetoric) Goodwill towards an audience, either perceived or real

2. (medicine, psychology) A state of normal adult mental health.

Michael Beling- piano, bass pedals, composer

Barry Saunders- clarinet, saxophone

Eric LaPerna- hand percussion

The shamisen, a three-stringed Japanese instrument for whom many Westerners’ closest point of reference will be the banjo, is long past its gestation. Since the mid-16th century, when it became a staple in accompaniments to theatre, dance, and song, the shamisen has looked more or less the same: historically, players have held the instrument while sitting on their knees, striking string and soundboard with a bachi, a plectrum or large pick, for a stark, percussive sound.

Shamisen virtuoso Hidejiro Honjoh has performed with the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Krasnoyarsk Chamber Orchestra, Baltic Neopolis Virtuosi, and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, and was the first shamisen player to be featured as a solo recitalist at London’s Wigmore Hall.

He has also collaborated with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain Soloists, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble NOMAD, and the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. He has played chamber music with Kari Kriikku, Claire Chase, Norio Sato, and Souju Nosaka, and collaborates with dancer Motoko Hirayama and designer Leeroy New. Mr. Honjoh has commissioned new pieces from composers including Vijay Iyer, Gabriel Prokofiev, Toshi Ichiyanagi, and Yuji Takahashi, and has recorded with composers Ryuichi Sakamoto and Dai Fujikura. He was the recipient of the 70th Arts Festival New Face Award by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and was the first shamisen performer to receive the prestigious Idemitsu Music Award in 2014 and the Kyoto Aoyama Music Award in 2018.

In 2016, Mr. Honjoh was chosen as the Japan-United States Arts Program/Asian Cultural Council Kimpei Nakamura Fellow. He currently serves as a part-time lecturer at Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music.

Hidejiro Honjoh began playing the piano in childhood and the shamisen at age 15. He graduated from Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music and the Institute of Japanese Traditional Music. He studied under Hidetaro Honjo, the head of Honjo School, and was approved to use the name Hidejiro Honjoh; he also studied Tsugaru shamisen under Yusho Hasegawa and shamisen under the late Katsuyoshika Kineya.

Program:

Tsuna wa Jōi (Tsuna’s Command) – traditional

Neo – Dai Fujikura (1977-)

Tori mo Tsukaika (Could the bird be a messenger?) – Yuji Takahashi (1938-)

Improvisation – (featuring Annabelle Plum, voice; Hiroya Miura, piano)

Mikrokosmos No.52, Book II – Béla Bartók (1881-1945)

Knights’ Crossing – Hiroya Miura (1975- )

Yoru no Ame (Night Rain) – traditional

The �ֲ���ý archived are opened up yet again, this time featuring a selection of works from the Alice Esty collection at the Muskie Archives!

Featuring Joëlle Morris, Mezzo-Soprano, Malinda Haslett, Soprano and Chiharu Naruse, Piano.

On the shelves of the Muskie Archives at �ֲ���ý College, lie the original manuscripts of some of the greatest musical composers of the 20th Century, including Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Germaine Tailleferre, Ned Rorem and Marc Blitzstein. These priceless works were commissioned by a 1925 �ֲ���ý graduate, Alice Swanson Esty (1904-2000), one of the notable patrons of the arts that the United States has ever produced. She is known to few by name, yet her commissioned works have become essential canon of the classical music repertoire.

Alice Esty: The Legacy Effect will present an overview of the collection, featuring original manuscript repertoire found in the Muskie Archives.

Pre-concert lecture by Chris Schiff, �ֲ���ý College Librarian.

PROGRAM

Mostly about Love (Songs for Alice Esty)                                                     Virgil Thomson (1896-1989)I.Love Song, II.Down at the Docks,  III.Let’s Take a Walk, IV.Prayer to St. Catherine

Le Sable du Sablier                                                                                         Claude Arrieu (1903-1990)I. Fête, II.Adieu, III.Le géranium, IV.La fête publique, V.Oh! Mes amours

Four Songs from Six Significant Landscapes                                                Claire Brook (1925-2012)
Le Travail du Peintre                                                                                  Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)I.Pablo Picasso, II.Marc Chagall, III.George Braque, IV.Juan Gris, V.Paul Klee, VI.Joan Miro, VII. Jacques Villon

For Poulenc                                                                                                                Ned Rorem (b.1923)

The �ֲ���ý Gamelan Ensemble will be joined by visiting professor Maho Ishiguro (Director of the �ֲ���ý Gamelan Ensemble), �ֲ���ý’ Artist-in-Residence Darsono along with Phil Acimovic (from Smith College) and Anne Stebinger (NY Indonesian Consulate).

Emily Carty ‘22

Owen Ferguson ‘25

Caroline Norman ‘24

Zane Rahabi ‘22

Jeremy Schrieber ‘24

Christine Murray ‘22

Directed by Maho A. Ishiguro, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music

Gamelan: The term gamelan refers to musical ensembles from the islands of Java and Bali in the Republic of Indonesia, and by extension to the music that is played on them. Javanese gamelan consists primarily of bronze percussion instruments—various sizes of gong and gong-chimes, suspended either vertically or horizontally, as well as various types of metallophones. The ensemble also includes bamboo flutes (suling), wooden xylophone (gambang), a string instrument (rebab) and drums (kendhang).

Tuning Systems: Javanese gamelan normally includes two sets of instruments in each of the two tuning systems, laras pelog (7 notes per octave, used pentatonically) and laras slendro (5 notes per octave). Within each tuning system, there are three modes in which gamelan pieces are written. Tonight’s concert only uses the pelog set.

The ensemble: the ensemble comprises three groups of instruments, the framework instruments, balungan instruments and elaboration instruments. The balungan instruments (the family of saron and slenthem) play the core melody. The elaboration instruments (gender, suling, gambang, rebab, and bonang) are played semi-improvisatory, elaborating the core melody. The framework instruments (gong, kempul, kenong, kethuk and kempyang) give the form of gamelan pieces. A set of drums (kendhang) controls the tempo of the whole ensemble.

The Instruments: The �ֲ���ý College Gamelan Ensemble comprises two sets of instruments, representing two regional musical traditions from the island of Java. Gamelan Mawar Mekar (“Blossom of Inspiration”) is a Central Javanese iron/brass set built by Mulyadi in Solo, Java in 1997, acquired by �ֲ���ý in 2001, under the directorship of prof. Gina Fatone. In 2007, a 7-piece bronze chamber ensemble from West Java known as gamelan degung was generously donated to the �ֲ���ý Music Department by David Lydgate of Kaua’i, Hawaii.

This year, �ֲ���ý Javanese Gamelan Ensemble is blessed to have Darsono Hadiraharjo, Artist in Residence at �ֲ���ý, and lecturer at Yale University’s Department of Music. Darsono has taught gamelan all over the world, traveling and performing in Europe, Asia and the US. He has been an artist in residence at Wesleyan University and �ֲ���ý College (currently and formerly) and has performed and given workshops at Emory University, Tufts University, Smith College, and Brown University to name a few. Darsono is a leading musician at the Mangkunegaran Court in Solo, Indonesia.

This concert is blessed with the presence of our guest musicians: Phil Acimovic from Smith College Gamelan Ensemble and Anne Stebinger from Kusumo Laras, Javanese gamelan ensemble at the Indonesian Consulate in New York.