CCRMA presents "In Search of Lost Beauty..." by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė
“In Search of Lost Beauty…” (2016) is a sequence of audiovisual novellas for violin, cello, piano, electronics and video on the elusive subject of beauty. Here the experience of time is slowed down as to transport us into an alternate dimension where the commonly apprehended reality is inverted into the otherworldly mystique of reflections and shadows. The amplitude of this ephemeral search for beauty encompasses phenomena found in nature, everyday life and art. The piece consists of 10 sections, which are woven into one structural entity of suggestive coherence.
Concept, music and video by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė
Performers:
Karen Bentley Pollick, violin
Monica Scott, violoncello
Marja Mutru, piano
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Fri | Oct 25 | 7:30pm
CCRMA Stage, The Knoll
FREE and open to the public
ccrma.stanford.edu/about/directions
music.stanford.edu/venues/ccrma-stage/ccrma-accessibility
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Described by WQXR as a “textural magician”, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė is a New York- based Lithuanian composer whose works explore the tensions and longings of identity and place. In her chamber and orchestral compositions, she creates sonic environments where musical gestures emerge and disappear within transparencies and densities of sound layers. It’s music that slides on the very blades of emotions.
Having started her creative career in Europe after graduating from the Lithuanian Music Academy, for the last decade Žibuoklė’s activity has been rooted in the USA. In 2008 the MATA festival commissioned her to write the piece “Polarities” for the Knights Chamber Orchestra. She received commissions from the Barlow Endowment (2012), “Look+Listen” festival (2017), Volti (2018), a fellowship for the Other Minds festival (2011) and the New Works residency at Harvestworks, New York (2016). Her first USA orchestral performance of Horizons took place at the Composers Inc. concert in Berkeley, California (2015). In 2017, she was granted the Copland House Sylvia Goldstein award and the Composers Now award for residency at the Pocantico Center, NY. She received several fellowships for creative residencies at the MacDowell Colony (2009, 2011, 2019), Aaron Copland house (2010, 2019), Millay Colony (2012), The Blue Mountain Center (2015), Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France (2015), Djerassi Artists Residency (2017) and Willapa Bay residency (2018).
Martinaitytė studied composition at the Lithuanian Music Academy (BM, MA) with Bronius Kutavičius and Julius Juzeliūnas. Constantly attempting to broaden her horizons and advancing her compositional technique after completing formal studies, Martinaitytė has been taking part in various composition workshops and courses in Europe. She attended the Darmstadt New Music Summer Courses, Centre Acanthes/Ircam, Royaumont, the 6th International Academy for New Composition and Audio Art in Schwaz, Tirol and Stavanger studying with Brian Ferneyhough, Boguslaw Schaffer, Magnus Lindberg, Tristan Murail and Jonathan Harvey. In 2001, she was granted her first creative residency at Künstlerhaus Lukas der Stiftung Kulturfonds, Germany.
Martinaitytė’s music has been performed throughout Europe, The USA and Asia by Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Canada), The Smith Quartet (UK), ERGO Ensemble (Canada), The Orchestra of Mons Royal Conservatoire (Belgium), The Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and others.
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Karen Bentley Pollick (violin) has performed as violinist with Paul Dresher’s Electro Acoustic Ensemble since 1999 and performs a wide range of solo repertoire and styles on violin, viola, piano and Norwegian hardangerfele. A native of Palo Alto, California, she studied with Camilla Wicks in San Francisco and with Yuval Yaron, Josef Gingold and Rostislav Dubinsky at Indiana University where she received both Bachelors and Masters of Music Degrees in Violin Performance. She has several recordings of original music, including Electric Diamond, Konzerto & Succubus, and Ariel View, for which she has received three music awards from Just Plain Folks, including Best Instrumental Album and Best Song. On her own record label Ariel Ventures she has produced Dancing Suite to Suite, , Homage to Fiddlers, Russian Soulscapes, and Peace Piece. She filmed Dan Tepfer’s Solo Blues for violin & piano in Shoal Creek, Alabama, in June 2009.
Pollick was concertmaster of the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 1983 and 1984 and has participated in the June in Buffalo and Wellesley Composers Conferences. She has appeared as soloist with Redwood Symphony in the world premiere of Swedish composer Ole Saxe’s Dance Suite for violin and orchestra, the Alabama Symphony, and orchestras in Panama, Russia, Alaska, New York and California. She has performed in recital with Russian pianist/composer Ivan Sokolov at the American Academy of Rome, Seattle and New York City, throughout the Czech Republic with cellist Dennis Parker at the American Spring Festival, and in England at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Along with choreographer Teri Weksler and percussionist John Scalici, Pollick received a Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham 2008 Interdisciplinary Grant to Individual Artists. Pollick received a grant from the Alabama State Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts for her March 2010 Solo Violin & Alternating Currents concerts in Birmingham, Seattle and at Music Olomouc 2011. She launched Violin, Viola & Video Virtuosity with New York video artist Sheri Wills in November 2012 in Brooklyn and Seattle. She has toured with the Paul Dresher Double Duo since 2009. Pollick performs on a violin made by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume in 1860 and a viola made in 1987 by William Whedbee.
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Marja Mutru (piano) received her Master’s degree in piano performance from the Sibelius Academy in her native Finland. In 1995, she participated in the European premiere of John Adams’ opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, which toured extensively through Europe, and recorded the piece for Nonesuch Records with Finnish ensemble Avanti! Since settling in the San Francisco Bay Area, Marja has worked with local chamber music ensembles, such as Earplay, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the Kronos Quartet. She has also performed solo piano repertoire by local composers, including John Adams, Richard Felciano, Paul Dresher, Mark Grey, and Erling Wold, and has recorded Wold’s two chamber operas, as well as his Albrecht’s Flügel for solo piano. She joined the Paul Dresher Ensemble in 1998. In addition, Marja has worked as a vocal repertory coach at San Jose State University and the California Institute of the Arts, and most recently participated in the world premiere of Sheli Nan’s chamber opera The SAGA of the 21st Century Girl.
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Monica Scott (‘cello) has performed throughout the United States, in almost every European country, Argentina, Canada and South Korea, engaging audiences with her energetic, eloquent playing. After an artist residency at the Banff Centre (Canada) in 1994, Monica performed for four seasons with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa in Portugal, with whom she also appeared as concerto soloist. Since moving to the Bay Area in 1998, Monica has been actively promoting new music, as a member of the composer/improviser collective sfSound, and performing with Composers’ Inc., the Composers Alliance, and in numerous chamber music groups; she was the cellist of the award-winning San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet from 2001-2005. In 2006, Monica formed the cello-piano duo martha & monica with pianist Hadley McCarroll. They perform regularly throughout the region, presenting ambitious programs of masterworks and challenging contemporary repertoire – recent projects included a year-long residency at Old First Concerts offering pre-concert moderated discussions with novelist Sylvia Brownrigg, art historian John Zarobell and composer Thomas Adès – a mini-series at Z-below that showcased 11 contemporary works, including Morton Feldman’s 100-minute Patterns in a Chromatic Field, and a 10th anniversary program at Berkeley Chamber Performances featuring a commissioned work by Omid Zoufonoun and Thomas Adès’ Lieux retrouvés. Monica is also a devoted teacher, serving on the faculty of the Crowden School (cello, chamber music and music history), coaching for the Chamber Musicians of Northern California, and maintaining a large private studio.
Cost: FREE