Coumbia's Miller Theatre Continues Composer Portraits with Chaya Czernowin, 4/15

Composer Portraits
Friday, April 15, 8:00PM

Chaya Czernowin (b. 1957)
Delicate, beautiful, and wonderfully strange, the music of Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin is rapidly gaining international notice. She was recently appointed to the faculty at Harvard and has been commissioned by such powerhouse groups as Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Either/Or, "a new and first-rate new-music ensemble" (The New York Times), makes its Miller debut.

ARTISTS: Either/Or; Richard Carrick, conductor

PROGRAM: Seed I from Anea Crystal (2008)
Die Kreuzung (1995)
Dam schoen hachol (1992, rev. 2002)
Duo Leat (slow duo) (2010 - United States Premiere)
Anea from Anea Crystal (2008)
Winter Songs II: Stones (2003)

BIOS: Chaya Czernowin was born in 1957 in Haifa, Israel. She commenced studies in composition at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv and from the age of 25 has lived in Germany, Japan, the United States, and Austria. Thanks to her teachers and a series of scholarships and prizes, she was able to devote herself intensely to the development of her musical language. Czernowin's compositions have been performed at more than 40 festivals throughout the world including the 20th Century Music Festival in Mexico, the Wien Modern in Vienna, and the Asia Pacific Triennial in Australia. She has been in great demand as a teacher due to her profound knowledge of experimental contemporary music. She has been the director of the International Summer Academy for young Composers in Schloss Solitude near Stuttgart since 2003 and was appointed professor for composition at Harvard University in 2009.

Either/Or is a compelling new contemporary music ensemble and presenting organization based in New York City. Either/Or has recently performed to critical acclaim at Merkin Concert Hall, The Kitchen, MATA Festival, the Austrian Cultural Forum, Goethe Institut, Roulette, and with the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society. Either/Or concerts have included numerous premieres; ranging from major works of emerging American experimental music to classics from the European avant-garde. Founded in 2004 by pianist/composer Richard Carrick and percussionist David Shively, Either/Or focuses on new works for unconventional chamber ensembles and soloists rarely heard elsewhere. Rather than working from a fixed instrumentation, Either/Or is mobile and draws upon its pool of regular soloists who are all active as new music specialists in New York while simultaneously performing as improvisers, sound artists, and in other inter-disciplinary settings.

Richard Carrick is a composer, pianist, and conductor who writes music for soloists, chamber ensembles, orchestra, film, theatre, electronics, and concert music with video. His music has been performed throughout North America, Europe, and Japan by the New York Philharmonic (Ensemble Series), Vienna's Konzerthaus, ISCM World Music Days, MATA Festival, Royaumont Voix Nouvelles, Darmstadt Summer Festival, and other festivals. Carrick has received commissions by the Nieuw Ensemble, The Nouvel Ensemble Modern, JACK Quartet, the Ensemble-On-Line of Vienna, Brown University, soloists Magnus Andersson, Carin Levine, Rohan de Saram, and others. As pianist and conductor he has performed a unique repertoire of solo works and unusual chamber pieces on the Green Umbrella Series in Los Angeles, at The Kitchen, the Banff Centre, Canada and regular appearances in New York. He co-founded Either/Or in 2004 and is currently on adjunct faculty at New York University.