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 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.

We are pleased to present, from deep in the �ֲ���ý archives, a Frank Glazer solo piano concert. This performance, which took place on the Olin stage and at the same Steinway that still lives there, was for �ֲ���ý Parents’ weekend, 1991. During the first half, he begins in Germany with Mozart and Schumann. After the intermission he takes us to France for Satie and Ravel before finally ending in Poland with Chopin. Please enjoy this sentimental, sonic tour of the great European classical composers with Frank Glazer.

Saxophonist and composer Titus Abbott brings a very personal approach to improvised music. Over the past 25 years Titus has presented music that although steeped in the history of jazz pushes the limits and finds a place of unique expression. Titus was born in Canada in 1960 studying jazz saxophone and jazz and classical composition in Ottawa, Toronto and London, UK completing a degree in composition from the University of Montreal. His groups Delawareness, The Titus Abbott Collective and the Happenstance Quintet have performed at venues and festivals in the US, Canada and Europe. Notable collaborations include performing with pianists Frank Carlberg, Curtis Clark, Mary Anne Driscoll, Mike Effenberger – drummers Luther Gray, Noel Brennan, RJ Miller, Michael Sarin – bassists George Koller, Jim Lyden, Pascal Niggenkemper, Ross Gallagher and the late Oud master Al Gardner. Titus combines his own performance and composition with a dedication to teaching at college, high school and middle school levels.

Brian Shankar Adler is a multidisciplinary drummer, percussionist and composer.

Using rhythm to tell stories, Adler transcends the terrain between genre and geographic region. His music: “flows organically in pursuit of mystery, movingly existing in an ultimate state of fluidity,” according to Jordan Richardson of Canadian Audiophile.

Adler grew up in an ashram, in the mountains of upstate New York and began his rhythmic studies on a tabla style mridang at the age of five. He received a jazz percussion scholarship to attend New England Conservatory and in Boston, collaborated with Korean vocalist, Sunny Kim, releasing three albums and touring the northeast and Europe.

In 2005, Adler moved to New York City where he has worked with: Benedikt Jahnel, Bomba de Tiempo, Bombay Rickey, Cochemea, Sheila Jordan, Guillermo Klein, Michael Leonhart, Frank London, Kate McGarry, Raga Massive, Kamala Sankaram and Elizabeth Swados, among others.

Brian Shankar Adler has been recorded on over thirty albums including his most recent works, “For a Gallery on the Moon” (Chant Records, 2020) and “Fourth Dimension” (Chant Records, 2019). His music video, “Mantra” won best music video at Transcinema International Film Festival in Peru and official selection at Quiet City Film Festival in New York City. Adler has also been featured in Jason Bivin’s book “Spirits Rejoice,” Newsweek, JazzTimes, NPR, Downbeat and Modern Drummer Magazine. Other projects include Human Time Machine, Helium Music Project and Prana Trio.

Chiharu Naruse has performed as a soloist and a chamber  musician throughout the United States, Germany, France  and Japan. Her broad range of orchestral repertoire includes  performances of Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Mozart and  Schumann piano concertos with multiple orchestras.  Naruse has also performed with the Da Ponte Quartet,  Portland String Quartet, Venti Cordi and the Portland  Ballet. Her musical projects range from German classical  repertoire to regular collaboration with contemporary  composers in the interpretation and performance of their  compositions. Naruse is frequently contracted by recording  companies to record contemporary music. To date, she has  several recordings with Navona Records and, most recently  in 2018, released a solo album of compositions by Kenneth  Kuhn from Big Round Records. 

In addition to maintaining a regular performance schedule,  Naruse is also a well respected teacher, chamber music coach  and competition adjudicator with many of her students  receiving competition awards and gaining acceptance to  major music conservatories. Naruse is currently a member  of the �ֲ���ý College applied music faculty and the faculty  of the Portland Conservatory of Music. 

Naruse is a graduate from Hochschule für Musik “Hanns  Eisler” in Berlin, Germany where she studied piano with  Klaus Bäßler, art song collaboration with Wolfram Rieger and chamber music with Suzanne Glützmann. In addition  to her European studies, she is also a former student of  Frank Glazer.

Momenta Quartet will join �ֲ���ý’ Department of Music as Artist-in-Residence for the 2019-2020 academic year. The quartet has performed for, and worked with, our students numerous times over the years, and we are delighted that they have agreed to step into this role.

About Momenta Quartet
Emilie-Anne Gendron and Alex Shiozaki, violins
Stephanie Griffin, viola; Michael Haas, cello

Momenta: the plural of momentum – four individuals in motion towards a common goal. This is the idea behind the Momenta Quartet, whose eclectic vision encompasses contemporary music of all aesthetic backgrounds alongside great music from the recent and distant past. The New York City-based quartet has premiered over 150 works, collaborated with over 200 living composers and was praised by The New York Times for its “diligence, curiosity and excellence.” In the words of The New Yorker’s Alex Ross, “few American players assume Haydn’s idiom with such ease.”

The quartet came into being in November 2004, when composer Matthew Greenbaum invited violist Stephanie Griffin to perform Mario Davidovsky’s String Trio for events celebrating Judaism and Culture at New York’s Symphony Space and Temple University in Philadelphia. A residency through the composition department at Temple University ensued, and the rehearsals and performances were so satisfying that the players decided to form a quartet. Through this residency, Momenta gave two annual concerts highlighting the talents of Temple University student composers alongside 20th-century masterworks and works from the classical canon, and repeated the programs at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. From the outset, Momenta treated all music equally, devoting as much time, care and commitment to the student works as to the imposing musical monuments.

Word of Momenta’s passionate advocacy for emerging composers spread quickly. Composers started inviting Momenta for similar concerts and residencies at other academic institutions, among them Harvard, Brown, Cornell and Columbia Universities; the Boston and Cincinnati Conservatories; and the Eastman School of Music. Momenta has received two Koussevitzky Foundation commission grants: for Malaysian composer Kee Yong Chong in 2009 and for Bolivian composer Agustín Fernández in 2011; a Barlow Foundation commission for Claude Baker in 2016; a Jerome Foundation grant to commission Eric Nathan in 2013, and a Chamber Music America commission for Alvin Singleton, whose new work will be featured prominently in Momenta’s 2019-20 season. Deeply committed to the musical avant-garde of the developing world, Momenta has premiered and championed the works of Tony Prabowo (Indonesia), Cergio Prudencio (Bolivia) and Hana Ajiashvili (Georgia). Upcoming adventures include a project to perform and record all thirteen string quartets by Mexican microtonal maverick Julián Carrillo (1875-1965) over the next three years.

Momenta has appeared at such prestigious venues as the Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery, Rubin Museum, Miller Theatre at Columbia University, the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Cincinnati, Louisville Chamber Music Society, Ostrava Days in the Czech Republic, and at the internationally renowned Cervantino Festival in Mexico.

Momenta’s recent and upcoming highlights include a residency at The Laredo Institute in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and closer to home: residencies at �ֲ���ý and Williams Colleges; collaborations with the Cornell University gamelan ensemble and student composers at Brown University; concerts presented by Bard College, Washington University in St. Louis, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.; and another installment of their annual member-curated Momenta Festival in NYC. Momenta also continues its collaboration with Mexican actor/director Fernando Villa Proal on “The Lost String Quartet,” a theatrical string quartet for children with an original score by Stephanie Griffin.

Momenta has recorded for Centaur Records, Furious Artisans, PARMA, New World Records, and Albany Records; and has been broadcast on WQXR, Q2 Music, Austria’s Oe1, and Vermont Public Radio. The quartet’s debut album, “Similar Motion,” is available on Albany Records.

The �ֲ���ý College Department of Music is pleased to welcome Asha Tamirisa, who will be joining their faculty beginning fall of the 2019-2020 academic year. She will be teaching courses in digital music and hardware design, music theory, and interdisciplinary courses in music and technology.

Asha Tamirisa is a time-based media artist working with sound and moving image in both performance and installation. Asha’s creative work is informed by critical studies fields such as feminist science and technology studies and media archeology. Asha has presented work at venues such as the ICA Boston, Bitforms Gallery (NYC), has given talks at the University of Michigan, Mount Holyoke College, Oberlin College, and Wheaton College, and has held residencies at The Media Archeology Lab (Boulder, CO), Perte de Signal (Montreal, CA) and I-Park Foundation (East Haddam, CT). Asha’s work has been mentioned in the Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics, the 5th Edition of Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture, and the forthcoming edition of Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking. Asha has taught courses at Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design, Girls Rock! Rhode Island, and Street Level Youth Media in Chicago. Along with many colleagues, Asha co-founded OPENSIGNAL, a collective of artists concerned with the state of gender and race in electronic music and art practice. Asha holds a B.A. in Musical Studies from Oberlin College, and recently completed a PhD in Computer Music and Multimedia at Brown University. Concurrent with her PhD, Asha completed a secondary M.A. in Modern Culture and Media through Brown University’s Open Graduate Education fellowship.