Miller Theatre Will Presents a Composer Portrait of Dai Fujikura

The works of Dai Fujikura are performed with regularity by conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel and by some of the most acclaimed orchestras and ensembles in the world. As one of the leading voices of his generation, his signature "high octane instrumental writing" (The Guardian) will be exhibited in this Portrait featuring International Contemporary Ensemble, longtime champions of Fujikura. A selection of recent chamber works provide a glimpse into his unique soundworld, including Minina-inspired by the birth of his daughter-and abandoned time written for electric guitar and ensemble.

PROGRAM:

Gliding Wings (2019) world premiere, Miller Theatre co-commission
Minina (2013)
silence seeking solace (2013)
secret forest (2008)
abandoned time (2004, rev. 2006)

ARTISTS:

Alice Teyssier, soprano
Daniel Lippel, guitar
International Contemporary Ensemble
Daniela Candillari, conductor

With this season, Miller Theatre celebrates the 20th season of its influential Composer Portraits series, called "indispensable" earlier this year by Alex Ross in The New Yorker. For twenty years, Miller Theatre's flagship series has fostered the creation of new work, served as an incubator for emerging artists and a champion of those not yet well known, and created a community of adventurous listeners.

daifujikura.com

Born in 1977 in Osaka, Japan, Dai Fujikura moved to the U.K. when he was fifteen years old. He was the youngest composer ever to win the Serocki International Composers Competition in 1998. Since then, he has been awarded many other prizes including the Ivor Novello and Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, the Internationaler Wiener Composition Prize, the Paul Hindemith Prize, the 19th Akutagawa Composition Award, the Silver Lion from Venice Biennale, and the WIRED Audi Innovation Award.

Fujikura's first opera Solaris, co-commissioned by the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra de Lausanne, and the Opéra de Lille, had its world premiere in Paris in 2015 and has since gained a worldwide reputation. He has also received numerous international co-commissions from the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, BBC Proms, Bamberg Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, among others. Fujikura's works have been conducted and played by artists internationally including Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Jonathan Nott, Martyn Brabbins, Gustavo Dudamel, Christian Arming, Alexander Liebreich, Kazuki Yamada, Kazushi Ono, Viktoria Mullova, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Claire Chase, Akiko Suwanai, and Yu Kosuge.

Recent highlights include the premiere of Shamisen Concerto at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival and the creation of his first dance project, Sounding Seven Senses, with dancer Koichi Omae in 2019. During the 2018 season, his second opera The Gold-Bug (commissioned by the Theater Basel) was premiered and the concert version of Solaris was performed in Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre for the first time. Fujikura's orchestral piece Glorious Clouds (co-commissioned by the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, and Orchestre national d'Île-de-France) and his third piano concerto, Impulse, (co-commissioned by Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre de Suisse Romande) were also premiered. This year, his fourth piano concerto, Akiko's Piano, will be premiered by Martha Argerich. He is currently composing his third opera.

Fujikura has been Composer-in-Residence of Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra since 2014 and held the same post at the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France in 2017-18. Since 2017, he has also been the Artistic Director of the Born Creative Festival at Tokyo Metropolitan Theater.

Alice Teyssier, soprano

aliceteyssier.com

Hailed as possessing an "ethereal and riveting" (The Flute View) voice with "unusual depth" (Badische Zeitung), soprano Alice Teyssier's mission is to share lesser-known masterpieces and develop a rich and vibrant repertoire that reflects our era.

a??A core member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Teyssier has premiered with the group new large-scale works by Wojtek Blecharz, Ann Cleare, Natacha Diels, Vijay Iyer, George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Sabrina Schroeder, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, and Monte Weber, among many others. Teyssier has appeared as a soloist with the San Diego Symphony, Talea Ensemble, the San Francisco New Music Players, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, the 21st Century Consort, Bourbon Baroque, and the Bach Collegium San Diego, among others. Recent performances include a program of French Baroque gems with Bach Collegium San Diego, Dai Fujikura's Silence Seeking Solace with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Tyshawn Sorey's Perle Noire at the Théâtre du Chatelet, and George Lewis' p. multitudinis at NYU's Skirball Center. In 2007, she performed in the U.S. premiere of Olga Neuwirth's opera Lost Highway, after the David Lynch film, at Miller Theatre at Columbia University and subsequently presented many modern operas by composers such as Anthony Davis, Esteban Insinger, Pauline Oliveros and Ione, and Viktor Ullman.

Teyssier received her B.M. and M.M. in Opera Theater from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, a Specialization Diploma from the Conservatoire de Strasbourg in France, and a D.M.A. from the University of California, San Diego. Currently, she is Clinical Assistant Professor of Music at NYU Arts and Science.

Daniel Lippel, guitar

danlippel.com

Guitarist Daniel Lippel, called an "exciting soloist" (The New York Times), "precise and sensitive" (The Boston Globe), and a "formidable guitarist" (Chicago Magazine), enjoys a diverse career ranging through solo and chamber performances and recordings to collaborations in diverse contexts.

Highlights of his recent solo performances include Le Poisson Rouge (New York), New York Classical Guitar Society's Salon Series, Sinus Ton Festival in Germany, University of Texas at San Antonio, Lawrence University (Wisconsin), and the Cleveland International Guitar Festival (CIM). He has been the guitarist for the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) since 2005. As a chamber musician, Lippel has performed at the Macau Music Festival (China), Teatro Amazonas (Manaus, Brazil), Ojai Festival, Acht Brücken Festival (Cologne, Germany), and the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, and as a guest with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New York New Music Ensemble, Either/Or Ensemble, and counter)induction, among others.

Lippel is co-founder and director of New Focus Recordings, and has also recorded for Bridge, Kairos, Wergo, Innova, Albany, Starkland, and Tzadik. He received his D.M.A. from the Manhattan School of Music, under David Starobin's guidance.

International Contemporary Ensemble

iceorg.org

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is an artist collective that is transforming the way music is created and experienced. As performer, curator, and educator, ICE explores how new music intersects with communities across the world. The ensemble's 35 members are featured as soloists, chamber musicians, commissioners, and collaborators with the foremost musical artists of our time.

A recipient of the American Music Center's Trailblazer Award and the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, ICE was also named the 2014 Musical America Ensemble of the Year. The group currently serves as artists in residence at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' Mostly Mozart Festival, and previously led a five-year residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

New initiatives include OpenICE, which offers free concerts and related programming wherever ICE performs, and enables a working process with composers to unfold in public settings. DigitICE, a free online library of over 350 streaming videos, catalogues the ensemble's performances. ICE's First Page program is a commissioning consortium that fosters close collaborations between performers, composers, and listeners as new music is developed. EntICE, a side-by-side education program, places ICE musicians within youth orchestras as they premiere new commissioned works together. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for ICE.

Daniela Candillari, conductor

danielacandillari.com

A native of Slovenia, Daniela Candillari's recent engagements include her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut, leading Fellow Travelers followed by An American Dream; NOVUS NY's festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein; conducting Acquanetta (PROTOTYPE), the world premiere of PermaDeath (Boston), Du Yun's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Angel's Bone (Hong Kong), and Rene Orth's Empty the House (Philadelphia). In 2019, she led the West Coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain in a new production by director James Darrah at Music Academy of the West. She also served as music director for Hannah Lash's newest chamber opera, Desire, which had its world premiere at Miller Theatre at Columbia University. Future engagements include her debuts with Arizona Opera and Cincinnati Opera.

A former Fulbright Scholar and a TED Fellow, Candillari holds a Ph.D. in Musicology from the Universität für Musik in Vienna, an M.M. in Jazz Studies from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a M.M. and B.A. in Piano Performance from Universität für Musik in Graz.

Thursday, March 5, 2020, 8:00 P.M.
Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)

Tickets: starting at $20; Students with valid ID: starting at $7