Miller Theatre Composer Portraits Series with the Work of JEAN-BAPTISTE BARRIERE Today

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts continues the 2013-14 Composer Portraits series with a multi-faceted exploration of the work of Jean-Baptiste Barrière featuring Raphaële Kennedy, soprano Camilla Hoitenga, flute Margaret Lancaster, flute Aliisa Neige Barrière, violin and Nathan Davis, percussion. The show is today, March 29, 2014, 8:00 p.m at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University (2960 Broadway at 116th Street). Tickets are $20-$30 and for Students with valid ID: $12-$18.

Jean-Baptiste Barrière

Jean-Baptiste Barrière was born in Paris in 1958. His studies included music, art history, philosophy, and mathematical logic. In 1998, he joined IRCAM in Paris, directing Musical Research, Education, and Production; he left in 1998 to concentrate on personal projects focusing on the interaction between music and image. His piece Chréode (1983) won the Prix de la Musique Numérique of the Concours International of Bourges in 1983 (CD Wergo). He composed the music of several multimedia shows, including 100 Objects to Represent the World by Peter Greenaway, which premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 1997. Barrière has also composed the music of several virtual reality and interactive installations by Maurice Benayoun, including Worldskin (Prix Ars Electronica 1998). He developed Reality Checks, a cycle of installations and performances questioning the concept of identity in the digital age. He directed the CD-ROM, Prisma: The Musical Universe of Kaija Saariaho (Grand Prix Multimédia Charles Cros 2000), and regularly realizes visual concerts of Saariaho's music, including her opera L'Amour de loin, performed in Berlin and Paris in 2006 by Kent Nagano and Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin. He directed visuals for concert versions of operas such as Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise with Kent Nagano and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (which won the 24th Grand Prix du Conseil des arts of Montréal), and with Myung Whun Chung and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France in 2008; and Alban Berg'sWozzeck with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia of London in 2009. During the 2011-2012 academic year, he was a Visiting Professor in the music department of Columbia University, and this year he is the Composer-in-Residence for the music department's Computer Music Center.

Aliisa Neige Barrière

Aliisa Neige Barrière (b. 1995) was born into a French-Finnish family in Paris, where her music studies have included violin, piano, chamber music, and choral as well as orchestral conducting. She studied violin with Renee Jolles in New York at the Preparatory Division of Mannes College of Music (2011-12), and as a winner of the Concerto Competition she played the first movement of the Khachaturian concerto in March 2012 at Symphony Space, New York. Apart from her studies at Mannes, she was a member of the Face The Music ensemble, directed by Jennifer Undercofler, dedicated to performing only music by living composers. In 2012, she continued her studies in Paris, in the 'Cycle de Perfectionnement' for young performers, playing violin and piano. Her recent engagements have included solo appearances as well as conducting. Aliisa won the New School Competition in New York and was awarded a full scholarship for four years of studies at Mannes College of Music, where she has studied since September 2013 with Lewis Kaplan (violin), Michael Adelson (conducting), and Todd Philips (chamber music). She is also a member of the Mannes Baroque Players, under the direction of Nancy Wilson. She plays a 1717 violin by Claude Pierray.

Nathan Davis

Inspired by natural processes and acoustic phenomena, composer and percussionistNathan Davis makes music that elucidates essential characters of instruments and the fragile athleticism of playing them. He has received commissions from the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Calder String Quartet, the Ojai Festival (for eighth blackbird and an installation by sound-sculptor Trimpin), Meehan/Perkins Duo, TimeTable Percussion, Concert Artists Guild, and the Moving Theater Dance Company, and received awards from the Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, Meet the Composer Commissioning Music USA, Argosy Foundation, MATA, ASCAP, and the ISCM. Lincoln Center inaugurated the new Tully Scope Festival in 2011 with the premiere of Nathan's 30 minute site-specific work "Bells", performed by ICE and praised by Anthony Tommasini in the The New York Times as "an alluring and pensive musical experience."

Camilla Hoitenga

Flutist Camilla Hoitenga travels extensively, performing solo repertoire of music ranging from pre-Bach to post-Stockhausen in venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kremlin in Moskow, or Tongyeong, Korea. She has performed concertos written for her by composers Kaija Saariaho, Pèter Köszeghy, KenIchiro Kobayashi, and others with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and Royal Philharmonic of Stockholm, and with the radio orchestras of Helsinki, Paris, and Berlin. She has also specialized in the work of Japanese composers, dozens of whom have dedicated works to her. Her recordings, in particular those with Kaija Saariaho, have won awards in France, Great Britain, and in North America. Camilla Hoitenga holds degrees from Calvin College (B.A) and from the University of Illinois (M.Mus., D.M.A.). Her flute teachers were Darlene Dugan, Alexander Murray, Peter Lloyd and Marcel Moyse. Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Camilla Hoitenga now lives in Cologne, Germany.

Raphaële Kennedy

A passionate performer of early music, singer Raphaële Kennedy has worked with Jordi Savall, François Lazarevitch and les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, Jean Tubéry and La Fenice, A Sei Voci, European William Byrd ensemble, les Paladins, Le Poème Harmonique, and Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr, with whom she has made about thirty records and has given performances in festivals. She has more recently become an in-demand singer of contemporary music, sought after by composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Jean-Baptiste Barrière, Philippe Leroux, Mauro Lanza, Gianvincenzo Cresta, and Ben Foskett and by creative centers, appearing on renowned stages such as New York's Carnegie Hall and Miller Theatre at Columbia University, the Lucerne Festival, Salzburger Festspiele, IRCAM Paris, and GMEM Marseille, among others. She is a member of Solistes XXI (conducted by Rachid Safir) and an invited artist of TM+ ensemble conducted by Laurent Cuniot. Raphaële collaborates with various partners, including Sylvie Moquet, Marianne Muller, Virginie Descharmes, Stéphanie Paulet, Yannick Varlet, Jean-Luc Ho, Marc Wolff, and the organist and composer Pierre-Adrien Charpy, with whom she manages Da Pacem, an ensemble which specializes in early music in contemporary creation and in dialogue of cultures. www.raphaelekennedy.com

Margaret Lancaster

"New-music luminary" (The New York Times) Margaret Lancaster has premiered well over 100 pieces and built a large repertoire of new works composed specifically for her. Performance highlights include the Lincoln Center Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Santa Fe New Music, Whitney Museum, Edinburgh Festival and Festival D'Automne. She has recorded on New World Records, OO Discs, Innova, Naxos, and Tzadik, and was selected for Meet the Composer's New Works for Soloist Champions project. Noted for her inter-disciplinary performances, Lancaster, who also works as an actor, choreographer, dancer, and amateur furniture designer, presents solo and chamber music concerts worldwide and acts in Lee Breuer's OBIE-winning Mabou Mines DollHouse.