ANA
Milosavljevic
Reflections
Innova
776
1.
Ana Milosavljevic: Reflections (2009) for violin and piano
Ana
Milosavljevic, violin
Terezija
Cukrov, piano
Recorded
and mixed at the Sonic Arts Center, New York City
Engineer:
Joseph Carman
Producer:
Ana Milosavljevic
2.
Aleksandra Vrebalov:
The
Spell III (2008)
for
amplified violin and computer
Ana
Milosavljevic, amplified violin and programmed looping
Brian
Mohr, Max/MSP Programming
Recorded
and mixed at the Sonic Arts Center, New York City
Engineer:
Joseph Carman
Assistant
engineer: Brian Mohr
Producer:
Ana Milosavljevic
3.
Katarina Miljkovic: White
City (2008) for amplified
violin,
electronics, and video
Ana
Milosavljevic, amplified violin
Recorded
at the Sonic Arts Center, New York City
Engineer:
Joseph Carman
Mixed
and produced by Katarina Miljkovic
4.
Margaret Fairlie-Kennedy:
Undertow (1997) for violin and piano
Ana
Milosavljevic, violin
Terezija
Cukrov, piano
Recorded
at Patrych Sound Studios, Bronx, NY
Produced
and engineered by Joseph Patrych
5.
Ana Milosavljevic: Untitled (2008) for violin and dancer
Ana
Milosavljevic, violin
Recorded
and mixed at the Sonic Arts Center, New York City
Engineer:
Joseph Carman
Producer:
Ana Milosavljevic
6.
Eve Beglarian: Wolf
Chaser (1995) for
amplified and processed violin, wolf chaser, electronics, and optional video
Ana
Milosavljevic, amplified violin and wolf chaser
Eve
Beglarian, live electronics
Recorded
live at The TimesCenter, New York City
Live
recording produced and engineered by David Merrill
7.
Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols: Before
and After the Tekke
(2006) for amplified violin, electronics, and voice
Ana
Milosavljevic, amplified violin
Svjetlana
Bukvich-Nichols,
synthesizers, piano and voice
Recorded,
mixed, and produced by Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols at Purple Mountain studio, New
York City
REFLECTIONS represents my dual musical citizenship through the sonic experiences of
my native Serbia and my current hometown, New York City, where I have lived for
more than a decade. Each work results from collaborations with dance and visual
artists, composers, performers, and technicians whoÕve made similar journeys.
We consider our artistic creations platforms for processing and making sense of
our life changes, bridging the old and the new as we move from one location to
another. A number of works merge traditional Eastern European influences and
21st century boundary-stretching techniques into uncharted yet somewhat
familiar musical languages.
The CD title refers to both the mental act of reflection
— of contemplation, meditation, self-discovery — and the physical
act of reflection, what you reflect out to the world after having taken it in.
Through this music I aim to reflect and to share thrilling and unforgettable
moments of love, happiness, sadness, regrets and no regrets, hope, peace,
harmony, gratitude, and, most importantly, how I came to find my home in my
heart.
1. REFLECTIONS
Ana: In late 2008, a
colleague of mine asked me to write a new work for violin and piano, to be
premiered by the two of us at CarnegieÕs Weill Recital Hall. The inspiration
for the piece came about organically. I was reflecting on my life as a whole as
well as specifically my family and friends. Reflecting on the past, present and
future, I felt a sense of both sadness and hope, which informed my composition.
In Reflections, the violin line is inspired
by the melody of the traditional Serbian folk song ÒDjurdjevdan.Ó Since its Carnegie premiere, I adapted Reflections
into music for an off-Broadway play. Also, a solo piano
version of Reflections
is used in FLIGHT
by the New York City-based contemporary dance company TAKE Dance.
2. THE SPELL III
Ana: I
have a very personal relationship to this piece, which was written for me by my
former teacher and good friend Aleksandra Vrebalov. It incorporates parts of a
folk song from an area in Eastern Serbia where my mother is from, which tells
the story of a fairy who loses her powers after
falling in love with a mortal. AleksandraÕs music is colorful and expressive;
it has a mystical, elegiac quality befitting the fairytale. When performing The Spell III, adding each new layer (loop) allows me to create my own
magical world as I play it.
Aleksandra: In The
Spell III my intention
was to create a complex sonic ambience by layering seventeen minimal musical
patterns in various combinations. All violin sounds are played, captured,
recorded, and looped live using the loop pedal by the performer on stage.
Voices are prerecorded and are quoting the material from a folk song performed
by Moba, a female vocal group from Serbia. The piece was written for my friend
Ana Milosavljevic. Special thanks to Brian Mohr, who created the Max/MSP patch
for the piece.
ALEKSANDRA VREBALOV (aleksandravrebalov.com) is a Serbian composer based in New
York City. She has written numerous solo, orchestral, chamber and vocal works.
A recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives
Fellowship, Aleksandra has had her works commissioned by Kronos Quartet,
Carnegie Hall, Belgrade Philharmonic, and Providence Festival Ballet, among
others.
3. WHITE CITY
Ana: I
asked Katarina to create a piece for my multimedia concert at The TimesCenter
and she came up with the idea of working around the sounds and sights of
Belgrade, the capital of our native Serbia. I was excited to have this work
written for me, both because of its subject and its highly experimental nature.
This colorful work also incorporates ideas of proportion and time flow from
physics and mathematics.
Katarina: White City, written for Ana, is dedicated to the city of Belgrade (ÒBelÓ
means white, ÒgradÓ means city). Its backbone is an uninterrupted, 12-minute
documentary recording of Terazije, an area of downtown Belgrade, and follows a
non-directional, random flow of street sounds including traffic, speech,
clapping, and bells, all blended with pre-recorded violin. This soundscape
evolves with the entrance of the live violin part, which is based on Serbian
Orthodox chanting, uniting the spiritual with the everyday sounds of the city.
A video was created for the piece by Katarina Miljkovic and Milan Popovic, shot
from the point of view of an observer of street life.
KATARINA MILJKOVIC (katarina-miljkovic.net) is a Boston-based composer who
investigates the interaction between generative music, video, and live
performance. Her work, which has been presented at international festivals, is
often based on collaboration with video artists, computational scientists,
dancers, and music performers. She is currently working on mapping cellular
automata to sound.
4. UNDERTOW
Ana:
Several years ago I received Undertow in response to a call for scores issued by New
York Women Composers, who awarded me a grant to produce a concert featuring
music by its members. Sifting through dozens and dozens of pieces, Undertow stood out for its emotional power. I always imagine grey
skies when I play it, which erupt toward the end and then leave a quiet space
for resurrection.
Margaret:
The title Undertow is open to various interpretations. My own is
that of an analogy between the treacherous, invisible but powerful drag beneath
the tideÕs eternal ebb and flow and the subversive, destructive elements within
our global societies which threaten human tides seeking survival and,
ultimately, transcendence.
MARGARET FAIRLIE-KENNEDY (composers.com/margaret-fairlie-kennedy) is an American
composer who writes for chamber groups, voice, orchestra, contemporary dance,
and mixed media. SheÕs received numerous commissions, awards and grants, and
served as Composer in Residence at Bennington College and Cornell University. Her music extends the usual sonorities
of the instruments and has been described by the New York Times as Òeloquent,
atmospheric, and dreamy.Ó
TEREZIJA CUKROV is a Croatian-born and U.S.-based pianist and educator, and
a cofounder of the Terra Magica Music Festival, which takes place in Poreč, her hometown. She holds a masterÕs degree from
Mannes College The New School for Music and a doctorate from Rutgers University,
and has performed in significant venues throughout Europe, North America and
Asia.
5. UNTITLED
Ana: I
wrote this piece for a collaboration with
choreographer Takehiro Ueyama, and we premiered it at The (New York)
TimesCenter in 2008. Like much of my work, it is rooted in Serbian folk
traditions, but I also incorporate a repetitive motif inspired by Buddhist
chant. The work is a wordless prayer expressed in music and, when performed
live on stage, movement.
6. WOLF CHASER
Ana:
When Eve sent me a recording of Wolf Chaser, I was instantly hooked on its spiritual, meditative
qualities and knew I had to perform it.
For The TimesCenter concert, Eve mixed the electronics components live,
and our music was accompanied by the world premiere of a powerful video,
created by Vittoria Chierici and Phil Hartley especially for the piece,
depicting oil rigs amidst the Alaskan wilderness.
Eve: In the early summer of 1995, the
violinist Robin Lorentz gave me a wolf chaser — a tool made of whale
baleen for scaring wolves in the Arctic. It had been a gift, in turn, from the
man who made it, James Nageak. I sampled the wolf chaser and made a recording
that slowed the sound down so far that you can hear the sampling rate as a
rhythm (sort of the audio analog to the jaggies you see when displaying curves
at low resolution on a computer.) That recording is the bed for this piece for
acoustic wolf chaser, and amplified and processed scordatura violin.
EVE BEGLARIAN (evbvd.com) is an American composer and performer described
by the LA Times as Òa humane, idealistic rebel and a musical sensualist.Ó
Commissions include the American Composers Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Bang on a Can All-Stars, among
others. She has worked extensively with noted artists in theater, dance, video,
and visual arts.
7. BEFORE AND AFTER THE TEKKE
Ana:
In 2006, I was looking to expand my repertoire with works by composers from the
former Yugoslavia. Hearing samples of SvjetlanaÕs work, I was captivated by her
combination of modern and traditional sounds, and that year I commissioned Before and After the Tekke. Since then, IÕve played and premiered it in
North America, Europe and Asia, often joined by Svjetlana. In 2008, Jessica Lee
added a new dimension to live performances of the piece, creating animated
abstract paintings that are projected on the stage and the performers.
Svjetlana:
Before and After the Tekke was inspired by a book about an 18th century dervish in
Bosnia, my visit to a Herzegovinian tekke
(dervish monastery) on the Buna river, idioms from Bosnian Christian Orthodox
and Islamic music, and the sounds of New York City. Strangely, if you travel to
Bosnia and Herzegovina you wonÕt find this music. Its microtones are dreamed up
from sounds that I had once known and then forgotten.
SVJETLANA BUKVICH-NICHOLS (svjetlanamusic.com) is a Bosnian-New Yorker composer and
producer whose genre-bending works range from acoustic and performer-driven to
electronic and theatrical, and often include video, voice, and tuning of her
own design. Her music has been performed widely at international festivals and
major experimental music venues.
ÒAn imaginative artist willing to think bigÓ — The
Strad
ÒVirtuoso performerÓ with Òa wonderful mix of technique,
sensitivity and passionÓ — New Music Connoisseur
ANA MILOSAVLJEVIC (anamilo.com) is an acclaimed violinist and composer who specializes in cutting-edge contemporary music informed by
various genres including traditional Balkan music, electronica, jazz, pop, and
hip-hop. Ana has fostered numerous multimedia collaborations, bringing music
together with live dance, the spoken word, electronic sounds, natural sounds,
film and visual arts. A native of Serbia, AnaÕs work unites her Eastern
European roots with the New York new music scene. Her music has been premiered
at Carnegie Hall and Off-Broadway, and has been choreographed by Takehiro
Ueyama (TAKE Dance). One of New YorkÕs most in-demand violinists, Ana has
premiered and recorded works -— some written especially for her —
by such renowned composers as John Adams, Chen Yi, Tania Le—n, Eve Beglarian,
Aleksandra Vrebalov, Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols, John Eaton, Ljubica Maric,
Milos Raickovich, and Gian Carlo Menotti, to name a few. Ana has been granted
awards from Artists International Presentations, Inc., New York Women Composers,
Inc., the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Serbian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. She has given solo recitals at Carnegie HallÕs Weill Recital Hall, the
Kennedy Center, Kolarac Concert Hall, Belgrade Philharmonic Hall, and The
TimesCenter, among other venues, and appeared at major festivals, including
Spoleto in Italy, Aspen, JacobÕs Pillow Dance Festival, the American Festival
of Microtonal Music, 2008 Beijing International Congress on Women in Music in
China, Music With a View @ The Flea, ASCAPÕs Thru the Walls showcase series,
and ComposersCollaborativeÕs Serial Underground at New YorkÕs landmark Cornelia
Street CafŽ. Ana serves on the
violin faculty of Mannes College The New School for Music, and can be heard on
the Albany, Chandos, Innova, Pitch, and Neos Classics labels. A New York City
resident, Ana performs, composes, acts, teaches, and also plays piano and the
6-string fretted Viper electric violin.
¥ Tracks 1, 2, and 5 recorded and mixed by Joseph
Carman at the Sonic Arts Center, New York City,
with additional violin recording on track 3
¥ Track 3 mixed and produced by Katarina Miljkovic
¥ Track 4 recorded, mixed, and produced by Joseph
Patrych at Patrych Sound Studios, Bronx, NY
¥ Tracks 1, 2, and 5 produced by Ana Milosavljevic
¥ Track 6 recorded live at The TimesCenter and
produced by David Merrill
¥ Track 7 recorded, mixed, and produced by Svjetlana
Bukvich-Nichols at Purple Mountain studio, New York City
Mastering by Craig Slon, with additional
mastering by Joseph Patrych
Executive producer: Ana Milosavljevic
Photos: Martyn Gallina-Jones
Photo of Ana and her mother Danica by
Dragan Milosavljevic
This recording was made possible in part through grants from
the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, New York Women Composers,
Inc., AMCÕs Composer Assistance Program through the Mary Flagler Cary
Charitable Trust, and with the support of Selig and Angela Sacks.
Thank you to all of the wonderful artists who shared their
creative talents in this project; special thanks to Muneko Otani, Margot Moser,
Silas R. Mountsier, Graeme J. Hardie, Freda and Evan Eisenberg, Aleksandra
Vrebalov, Joseph Carman, Craig Slon, Joseph Patrych, Brian Mohr, Lynda
Ciolek/Steorra Enterprises, Selig and Angela Sacks, Jed Distler, Vladimir
Pavlov, Nevena Arizanovic, Aleksandar Djordjevic; Philip Blackburn, Chris
Campbell, and all of the great people at Innova for their support of this
project; my family, and Take for his love and inspiration.
I dedicate this CD to my mother.
Innova is supported by an endowment from the
McKnight Foundation.
Philip Blackburn: director, design
Chris Campbell: operations manager
www.innova.mu