Piece Maker

For Godfrey Reggio's acclaimed films Koyaanisqatsi (Life Out of Balance) and Powaqqatsi (Life in Transformation), Philip Glass has sometimes been a perverse composer. He has revved up the musical energy for some placid scenes, and let it slack off when Reggio's camera lurched into high-speed imagery. Now Glass has committed the ultimate musical perversity in Reggio's newly released Naqoyqatsi, the last in a trilogy of surreal travelogs that explore man's relationship to nature, spirituality, and technology. The Hopi-derived title of the latest installment means "War as a Way of Life," yet Glass' score gives prominent, songful voice to that least combative of musicians, Yo-Yo Ma.

The cellist's participation wasn't Glass' idea, but one the composer happily agreed to. "I had already sketched out most of the music," says Glass, during a phone interview from his New York studio, "when I was talking to Peter Gelb at Sony Music—which wanted to release the soundtrack album—and he said, 'Wouldn't it be wonderful if Yo-Yo would play on this?'"

Glass readily accepted the suggestion and regarded it as much more than a way for Sony to get extra mileage out of one of its most popular classical artists. First, Glass already had written prominent passages for an ensemble of cellos and was considering working in a solo line for a bass vocalist. Revamping the material for solo cello, Glass says, "was just a question of looking at the score in a somewhat different way."

More than that, Glass was eager to work with Ma, whom he calls "this generation's one master cellist, who's set the sound of the instrument for everybody else.

"The special quality of Yo-Yo's playing is that he is able to articulate the music he's playing as if he were vocalizing it," says Glass. "I wanted the cello to be the voice of the music, and I mean that in a literal way: You hear the cello and it sounds like a voice."

Glass is most often associated with the keyboard, but he's no stranger to stringed instruments. He wrote one of the most significant violin concertos of the 1990s and has penned eight string quartets, only five of which are in his official canon. "As a Juilliard student I took up the violin," he recalls. "I was terrible, but that wasn't the point; I was trying to understand how the instrument works."

At press time, Ma was mum on the subject of the Naqoyqatsi score; he hadn't yet been able to see the finished production, but the composer and cellist informally have discussed turning the film score into a concert piece.

—James Reel

New York State of Mind

"As a musician, learning new music and working with composers is something that you're always interested in," says Jennifer Koh (pictured above), 25, when asked about her upcoming showcase of contemporary New York composers. "I view it as a natural part of being a musician—part of a larger process of being a complete musician is working with living composers."

On December 5, at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University, Koh—widely regarded as one of the leading violinists of her generation, but best known for standard repertoire—and pianist Reiko Uchida will perform a program billed as New York Hardcore. The adventurous concert will comprise works by living New York avant-garde composers, both uptown and downtown. Those composers include John Zorn (the world premiere of a new work written for Koh), Steve Reich (Violin Phase), Elliot Carter (Four Lauds), Charles Wuorinen (Fantasia), and Ornette Coleman (Trinity).

"This music is a reflection of who we are right now as a people," says Koh, during a phone interview from her New York apartment. "One of the most amazing things that I find about music in general is that it's such a visceral, human experience and not necessarily defined by cultural boundaries or language barriers. It really is a kind of universal language. One of the things that I find so compelling about new music is that it's a reflection of the times and the experiences that as a whole we are having now."

For Koh, a New York transplant born and raised in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, the Miller Theatre concert was inspired by her breakthrough performance last year of Zorn's violin concerto "Contes des Fées" just three days after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. When flight cancellations prevented Georgian violinist Elisabeth Batiashvili from leaving Europe for her scheduled appearance at the National Symphony Orchestra's 2001 Beethoven Festival at the Kennedy Center, Koh filled in and performed the composer's violin concerto. Afterward, the Washington Post raved about Koh's "incandescent power and strong bow," as well as her "radiant nobility."

"Last year was so overwhelming as a New York resident," says Koh, who studied with Jaime Laredo and graduated in May from Oberlin Conservatory. "It was a time to look at who we are and how we respond to an event like that. Before I was asked to perform at the Beethoven Festival, I remember that everyone was in a total state of shock. None of us knew quite how to respond. But one of the most amazing things that happened was that we came together and continued to do what we do. And, in a sense, I found that music is the soul of who we are—it's a way to communicate when you can't find those words and a way to speak when words are no longer able to express what we're thinking and feeling. When words cease to communicate who we are and what we're thinking, that's when music begins.

"All these experiences came together as a part of creating the New York Hardcore program."

—Greg Cahill

Hahn Joins the LACO

Grammy-nominated violinist Hilary Hahn (pictured above), recently named by Time magazine as America's best young classical musician, is scheduled to record four Bach concertos with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, under music director Jeffrey Kahane, for the Deutsche Grammophon label. Hahn, 22, was scheduled to preview Bach's Violin Concerto, No. 2 in E Major and Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins (with concertmaster Margaret Batjer) at the LACO season opener on September 28 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California, and on September 29 at Royce Hall, UCLA. Hahn will preview the remaining two concertos—Violin Concerto No. 1 and Concerto for Violin and Oboe—at A Baroque Fantasy on January 25 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, look for Hahn—who entered the Curtis Institute at age 10—to perform a program of Bach, Bloch, and Debussy on November 22 at the venerable Oberlin College Artist Recital Series.

YCA Concerts

The Young Concert Artists series, known as a leading showcase of extraordinary talent, has announced that its 2002–2003 season will feature violinist Timothy Fain (with YCA alumni Toby Appel on viola and Fred Sherry on cello) on November 25 at the Weill Recital Hall in New York, and violinist Nicolas Kendall performing March 11 at the 92nd Street Y in New York. The Kendall show features a new work by YCA composer-in-residence Daniel Kellogg. Other highlights include a May 8 Irene Diamond Concert, featuring the New York debut of 16-year-old violinist Mayuko Kamio, performing with Welsh cellist Thomas Carroll and the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Alice Tully Hall.

Cellist Honored

Japanese cellist Akio Ueki, 28, is the recipient of the new Saito Music Award, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the renowned Japanese cellist and music educator Hideo Saito, who died in 1974. Maestro Seiji Ozawa, one of Saito's students and the newly appointed music director of the Vienna State Opera, attended the ceremony.

ISB Awards

The International Society of Bassists has announced the winners of its 2002 Composition Contest. Peter Askim of Honolulu has won the grand prize in the solo bass division. Top honors in the chamber music division went to Patrick Neher of Tucson. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin of Santa Barbara, California, earned the top prize in the bass and media division. The ISB was founded in 1967 by classical bassist Gary Karr and conducts the composition contest every two years.

Centennial Celebration

Oberlin Conservatory is marking a century of music education on November 9 with a daylong series of lectures and workshops. The first music education course at Oberlin was taught in 1902 by Professor of Singing William Jasper Horner. Nineteen years later, the college introduced a full, four-year course resulting in a bachelor of school music degree—the first such music education college-degree program in the United States. At that time, Oberlin College graduate and president of the Music Educators' National Conference (known today as MENC, the National Association for Music Education) Dr. Karl Wilson Gehrkens made his famous pledge, "Music for every child, every child for music."

Orderly Conduct

Daniel Meyer and Damon Gupton have received prizes at the 2002 American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, under music director David Zinman. Meyer, newly appointed assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, won the Aspen Conducting Prize, the oldest conducting prize at the AMFS. Gupton, a doctoral candidate at Boston University, was awarded the Robert J. Harth Prize.

Musical Chairs

James Berdahl has joined the staff of the Aspen Music Festival and School as general manager. Berdahl recently spent ten years as general manager of the Houston Symphony and worked from 1971 to 1991 with the Minnesota Orchestra. Berdahl replaces Edward Sweeney, general manager of the Aspen Music Festival and School, who has left his post after 19 years with the Colorado-based organization. Sweeney has taken a new position as vice president and general manager of the Orchestra of St. Luke's/St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble in New York.

Fiorini Tribute

Raffaele Fiorini (pictured at right) (1828–98), regarded as one of the greatest violin makers of the 19th century, will be feted at an upcoming exhibition that will include some of his best instruments as well as those of many of his disciples. Il Suono Di Bologna (the Sound of Bologna), held between December 7 and 22 at the former Church of San Giorgio in Poggiale, Italy, will feature a re-creation of Fiorini's historic workshop, plus lutherie seminars, concerts featuring Bolognese instruments, and a documentary film about Fiorini. In addition, an exhibit of contemporary instruments from Bolognese living makers will be set up at the Regia Accademia Filarmonica, via Guerrazzi 13.

—Greg Cahill

E Street Shuffle

When word came down in early August that rock 'n' roll legend Bruce Springsteen had added New Yorker Soozie Tyrell to his myth-making E Street Band, many of his most seasoned fans were a bit, shall we say, shocked. It's hard to say, though, what gave them the biggest jolt: that the addition of Tyrell swells the E Streeters to a whopping ten members, that she is only the second woman to be invited into the group, or that her instrument is not another guitar, but a violin. A violinist? In the E Street Band?

The announcement was made during Springsteen's August appearance on The Today Show, promoting the release of the 9/11 themed CD The Rising; in fact, the first note of the first song on that CD is hauntingly offered up by Soozie Tyrell's violin. While a number of other string players show up on the 14-song recording—cellists Larry LeMaster, Jere Flint, and Jane Scarpantoni appear on various songs, and Carl Gorodetsky and the Nashville String Machine play on a couple of cuts as well—it is Tyrell, a longtime friend of Patti Scialfa (Springsteen's wife and the other female member of the band) who makes an indelible impression throughout the album. In Tyrell's gifted hands, a little bit of string playing goes a long way, underlining the mournful tone of such songs as "You're Missing," "Worlds Apart," and "The Rising" while cranking the Boss' patented party sound up a joyful notch or two on "Mary's Place" and "Waitin' on a Sunny Day." There's no word on whether Tyrell will remain with the band on its next recording—but if Tyrell is this good on The Rising, one might expect she's born to run for a long, long time.

—David Templeton