Hailed by The Chicago
Tribune
for “powerful virtuosity and striking razor-sharp ensemble playing,”
ANTARES
was named First Prize Winner of the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International
Competition, where the ensemble was also awarded the Victor and Sono Elmaleh
Award, the WQXR Prize, and numerous performance prize engagements. Comprised of four virtuoso
instrumentalists, Antares draws from an extensive and colorful repertoire for
the piano-clarinet quartet formation, as well as its various trio and duo permutations. This versatility allows Antares to
create programs which span the traditional eras of classical music from the 18th
century through the music of today, and the group has quickly gained a stellar
reputation for its dedication to the commissioning and promotion of music by
living composers.
In January 2004, Antares
received its second ASCAP/CMA Award for Adventuresome Programming. Since its
founding in 1996 in New Haven, CT, (originally using the name, Elm City
Ensemble, which
changed to Antares
in 2002), the quartet has won top prizes in four national chamber music
competitions (Fischoff-grand prize, Coleman, Yellow Springs, and Carmel Chamber
Music Competitions.) The New
York Times
accurately described Antares’ approach to performing: “The four
musicians play with superb technical polish and, equally important, a sense
that they not only are comfortable with this music but also understand its
vocabulary and syntax.”
Engagements have included
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, the
Krannert Center at the University of Illinois, the Aspen School of Music, the
Raleigh Chamber Music Guild, Friends of the Arts (NY) and the Newtown Friends
of Music (CT). In April 2004, the
ensemble’s distinctive sound was featured on a nationwide broadcast of
Minnesota Public Radio’s ever-popular program “St. Paul
Sunday.” (saintpaulsunday.org)
Since winning the Concert
Artists Guild competition, highlights have included the ensemble’s highly
praised New York debut at Weill Recital Hall, and their critically acclaimed
recital at The Kennedy Center, presented by the Washington Performing Arts
Society, as well as concerts and residencies at the University of Iowa’s
Hancher Auditorium (possbile with a CMA residency grant,) the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, Market Square Concerts (PA), Brooklyn Friends of Chamber
Music, and the La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s Discovery Series, where
the quartet’s performance was described by The San Diego Reader as, “exciting,
expressive, nuanced and captivating.”
Antares’ numerous
festival appearances include a three-part series at the International Festival
of Arts and Ideas (CT), the Chautauqua Institution (NY), the Great Lakes
Chamber Music Festival (MI), the Norfolk Contemporary Music Seminar and the Norfolk
Chamber Music Festival (CT). For
the summers of 2002 and 2003, Antares was Ensemble-in-Residence at the Festival
Eleazar de Carvalho in Fortaleza, Brazil, and in August 2003, they performed at
the Tuckamore Festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Actively involved in
commissioning new music, Antares has premiered works by such critically
acclaimed composers as Ezra Laderman, Stefan Freund, Kevin Puts, and members of
the Minimum Security Composers Collective. More recent commissions are by John
Mackey, as a collaboration with the Parsons Dance Company at New York’s
Joyce Theater, a work by Oliver Schneller through a Meet the Composer grant,
and Carter Pann’s Antares, which was commissioned for the ensemble by CAG
and premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In addition, the BMI Foundation has
awarded Antares a grant to commission a young composer to write a new work for
premiere during the 04-05 season.
Antares has recorded Ned Rorem’s Summer Trio on the Newport Classics
label, Fred Lerdahl’s Marches for Bridge Records, as well as works by Ezra
Laderman and David Schiff.
Antares has had
residencies at Columbia University, NY and Wesleyan University, CT and is on
the Touring Roster of the Connecticut State Commission, which provides partial
funding for various programs throughout Connecticut and New England.
[May 2004]
The Works
Breakdown Tango* (2000) by John Mackey
Breakdown Tango, completed in May 2000, was commissioned by the
Parsons Dance Company, with choreography by Robert Battle. The work was written in collaboration
with the Elm City Ensemble (now Antares.)
The piece is in a basic A-B-A form, with the outer, virtuosic, driving sections
serving to bookend a somewhat sleazy, Klezmer-flavored tango. An orchestrated version of the work,
"Redline Tango," was commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic and
premiered in 2002, and subsequently performed by the Symphony under the
direction of Andrew Litton. A
version of the work for wind ensemble was commissioned in 2003, and has
received performances throughout the country. The original is still my favorite, though, as only Antares
can play with both the rhythmic precision and humor that the work requires. I also love what Vessko does with the
cadenza, although I can't take credit for whatever notes he chooses at any
given performance! ~
JM
John Mackey
www.ostimusic.com
John Mackey holds degrees from The Juilliard School and the
Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Corigliano and Donald
Erb, respectively. Mr. Mackey particularly enjoys writing music for dance, and
he has focused on that medium for the past few years. Mr. Mackey has
received numerous commissions from the Parsons Dance Company, as well as
commissions from the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth
Orchestra, New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, the Dallas
Theater Center, the Alvin Ailey dance company, the Juilliard School, the New
York Youth Symphony, and many others. Mr. Mackey has been Composer-In-Residence
with orchestras in Minneapolis and Seattle, and at the Vail Valley Music
Festival in Colorado. Mr. Mackey was Music Director of the Parsons Dance
Company from 1999-2003.
Eclipse (1995) by George Tsontakis
A 1995 lunar eclipse, which I was able to observe from my Shokan,
NY home, inspired both a short story as well as the title of this quartet for
clarinet, violin, cello and piano. Whether consciously made or not, the
beginning, and mirroring ending of the work -- a broad clarinet solo
accompanied by dark piano chord voicings -- reminds me of the eclipsing shadow
of the full moon's light as it softly invaded the hazy, luminescent circle and,
later, the shadow leaving the sphere just as quietly as it first entered.
Between these two lunar poles lie music of very different levels of intensity,
from a hyper-kinetic dance-like movement, through aquatic, melodic tremolos
suggesting, perhaps, a rather large (and alliterative) metaphorical
Mediterranean mandolin to dense textures of a Jazzy nature -- alternately skipping,
pouncing and driving.
Eclipse was commissioned by Music in the Mountains in New Paltz,
NY and premiered there on July 15, 1995. A revised, expanded version was first
performed by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble (which I founded and directed,
from 1991-1999). The work is dedicated to my friend, Aspen colleague and
inspirational composer, Christopher Rouse. ~
GT
George Tsontakis
www.presser.com/composers/tsontakis.html
George Tsontakis has become an increasingly prominent figure in
American music over the last two decades. Works such as his Fourth String
Quartet, Ghost Variations (which received a Grammy Nomination for Best
Classical Composition) and Four Symphonic Quartets are now considered to be
essential contributions to the modern repertoire. Several important works from
his prolific catalogue have been rediscovered as contemporary masterworks
through recent publications, performances and excellent recordings. He has
composed a myriad of arresting works for America's finest soloists, chamber ensembles
and orchestras. Born on October 24, 1951 in Astoria, New York, he studied first
with Hugo Weisgall and later, for five years, with Roger Sessions at Juilliard.
Through his experiences in Europe--first, as a Fulbright student of Franco
Donatoni and more recently, as a Vilar Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin
-- he was able to weigh the pros and cons of European aesthetics and musical
thinking and his personal conclusions have helped inform his own creative
inventions. He has been an influential teacher, guiding many of the country's
most promising young composers through his teaching at the Aspen Music Festival
-- where he was also founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble --
and most recently, at Bard College. He has lived in Shokan, NY for the past
fifteen years, within the quiet environs of the Catskill Mountains. His music
is recorded on the Koch, Hyperion, New World and CRI labels, among others and
is published exclusively by the Theodore Presser Company.
BUZZ (2001) by James Matheson
“Buzz”… ‘cause it does
James Matheson
www.bofamusic.com
Since being awarded a 2000 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship at the
age of 29, James Matheson (b. 1970) has come to the attention of many of the
nation's leading cultural institutions. Widely acclaimed, his music has
recently been programmed by such organizations as the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra Chamber Series, the American Composers Orchestra, the Albany
Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Civic Orchestra of
Chicago, and Orchestra 2001 (Philadelphia), in addition to many preeminent music festivals,
including those of Aspen, Spoleto, Santa Fe, Eleazar de Carvalho, Token Creek,
Norfolk, Bowling Green and Hartwick.
Recent commissions and awards have come from Carnegie Hall, the
Chicago and Albany Symphony Orchestras, the American Academy of Arts and
Letters, the Bogliasco Foundation, the Stott Foundation, ASCAP, and a
consortium of saxophonists. He has
held residencies at Yaddo and Italy’s Liguria Study Center, and currently
resides in New York.
SIMAKU* (1996) by Kevin Puts
I wrote "Simaku" in the summer of 1996 for the then Elm
City Ensemble, (now called Antares) while attending the fellowship program at
Tanglewood. At the time I was
interested in repetitive music in which patterns change in various ways over
time. For example, a lyrical
violin melody gradually becomes "infected" by the rhythmic bustle of
the other instruments, who in turn gradually shed the notes of their busy
patterns in favor of longer notes.
The tonality of the music is also perpetually shifting away from the
"white-key" opening and back again. The piece is named after the Albanian composer Thoma Simaku,
a friend of mine who was also in the fellowship program at Tanglewood that
summer. The piece was premiered in
Ozawa Hall with myself at the piano.
I am delighted that, since then, Antares has made the piece part of
their repertoire and truly made it their own!" ~
KP
Kevin Puts
http://www.music.utexas.edu/directory/details.asp?id=91
Hailed by the press as “one of the best American composers of his
generation”, Kevin Puts has had works commissioned and performed by leading ensembles and soloists throughout
North America, Europe and the Far East. Known for his distinctive and richly colored musical
voice, Mr. Puts has received many of today’s most prestigious
honors and awards for composition. Simaku, by Kevin Puts, was premiered at
Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall in 1996, and has been performed on several occasions by
the piano-clarinet quartet, Antares. Other
world-renowned artists and ensembles that have commissioned and performed works
by Mr. Puts include Chee-Yun, Evelyn Glennie, Japan’s Ensemble Kobe,
eighth blackbird, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Aspen and Spoleto
Festivals, and orchestras such as the Atlanta, Saint Louis, Baltimore, Boston Pops, Cincinnati, National, Utah,
Minnesota, and Belgrade symphonies, with
upcoming works to be performed by
Yo-Yo Ma and the Eroica Trio, among others.
A member of the faculty at the University of Texas at
Austin, Mr. Puts received his Bachelor's and Doctorate Degrees from the Eastman
School of Music, and a Master's Degree from Yale University.
dodecaphunphrolic* (1997) by Stefan Freund
While in a hurry to write a piece for the Norfolk Contemporary
Music Seminar, I was forced to skip Bloomington's annual carnival, the Fun
Frolic. I decided to create my own amusement through the piece with jerky
rhythms and roller coaster-like arpeggios. The piece is based on a rhythm of
2+3+4+5 groups of sixteenth notes and diatonic scales which uses all twelve
tones. This gives the work its title, which means "A Fun Frolic with
Twelve Tones." All the material of the piece is derived from the theme
that begins the piece. After some
developments that include some carnival music, the arpeggio section appears and
climaxes with an ostinato in the cello over piano clusters. A recap and brief
coda finish the piece. dodecaphunphrolic was premiered by the Elm City Ensemble (now called Antares)
at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. ~
SF
Stefan Freund
http://www.missouri.edu/~musicwww/faculty/freund.html
Stefan Freund received a BM
from Indiana University and an MM and a DMA from the Eastman School of Music.
His primary composition teachers included Christopher Rouse, Joseph Schwantner,
Augusta Read Thomas, Frederick Fox, and his father, Don Freund. He studied
cello with Steven Doane, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and Peter Spurbeck, among others.
He is presently Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri. Previously
he was Assistant Professor at the Eastman School of Music.
Freund is the recipient of
prizes from BMI, ASCAP, and the National Society of Arts and Letters. He has
received commissions from the Phoenix Symphony, the New York Youth Symphony,
the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and other ensembles. His music has been
performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Weill Recital
Hall, Tivoli Theater (Denmark), Queen's Hall (Denmark), and the National
Gallery of Art.
Active as a performer and
producer of new music, Freund is principal cellist of the new music ensemble
Alarm Will Sound and serves on its production board. In the summer he is a
faculty member of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. In addition, Freund was
recently appointed music director and principal conductor of the Columbia Civic
Orchestra.
ANTARES* (2004) by Carter Pann
ANTARES (2003/4)
was commissioned for Antares by Concert Artists Guild with generous support
from Mr. Jim and Ceci Tripp. The
piece is cast in a way different from most of my previous works—four mini
concertinos surrounded by a main, culminating movement at the beginning and the
end. Each inner movement showcases
a member of Antares (and comes with a very personal title). This backward notion of pinpointing a
specific player and moment in time (as opposed to presenting a piece into a
timeless compendium) has attracted me before—Rags to Richard: a clarinet concerto for Richard Stoltzman.
The
“Antares” movement (at the front and back) places the four-member
group in a picture frame. All
players are equal here. There is a
stellar/cosmic element about the movement, harkening to both the super-giant
star from Scorpius and Olivier
Messiaen's, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. There is a measured
stagnancy to these bookends with a very grounded E-flat major key center
throughout—a secured valence protecting the whims within.
I. Eric (pianist), pulls away from the world of the first movement immediately. He is charged with unrelenting ribbons
of 32nd notes like a finger study on the verge of a manic ragtime
two-step. Precision is of utmost
importance.
II. Rebecca (cellist), plays a haunted cradle song. Her lyric never wanders below the treble staff and peers
above it often. The others provide
a lilting ostinato in 6/8.
Rebecca’s tone color is the primary feature here.
III.
Garrick
(clarinetist), plays an
invention driven by scales and broken arpeggios set in F major. The center of the movement turns
suddenly to A major, further decorating previously-introduced material. Garrick is backed by a very involved,
contrapuntal accompaniment throughout.
IV.
Vessko
(violinist), like Eric,
swings back to emblazoned bravura.
This tarantella is riddled with actual spider bites coming from
Rebecca's cello pizzicatos.
Vessko's job is to survive these stings and get to the last bar. A real drama ensues as he shuttles back
and forth between almost operatic moaning and running for his life.
The
return of “Antares” abides by the law of things cyclical throughout
the universe. -CP
Carter Pann
www.presser.com/Composers/info.cfm?Name=CARTERPANN
In the last ten years Carter Pann’s music has become known
for its blend of crafty, popular-sounding idioms, and both subtle and unabashed
humor. His music has been
performed and recorded around the world by clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, The
Ying Quartet, pianist Barry Snyder, and many symphony orchestras including the
London Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra,
Vancouver Symphony, the National Symphony of Ireland, and various Radio
Symphonies. In 2000 he received a
Grammy nomination for his Piano Concerto and in 2001 his SLALOM was chosen for
the Masterprize finals in London.
As a pianist he has performed and recorded upwards from fifty premieres
by composers living in the United States.
Pann currently scales the balance beam between writing concert music and
TV commercial jingles.
* written for Antares
www.antares-music.com
Funded in part by the Aaron Copland Fund
for Music, Inc.
Antares, by
Carter Pann, commissioned through Concert Artists Guild
with generous support from Mr. Jim and Ceci Tripp
Recording engineer: Eugene Kimball
Recorded on March 15 and 17, 2004
Morse Recital in Sprague Memorial Hall at
the
Yale University School of Music, Robert Blocker,
Dean
Photos: Fran Collin
www.francollin.com
Design:
www..org
Antares thanks Philip Blackburn, Richard Weinert,
Syoko Aki, Mr. Jim and Ceci Tripp,
George, James, John, Stefan, Kevin, Carter,
Polina Mann, Gene Kimball, and Fran Collin.