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2023 Online National Concert II

June 3, 2023 (15:00 EDT)

(click the date above to view this concert on YouTube)

Program selected and performed by Madeleine LaFollette (soprano) and Michael McAndrew (piano):

Of Peace  by  Jane K (Evgeniya Kozhevnikova)

Unfinished list of the Things I Love  by  Derek M. Jenkins

Silent Music of Infinity  by  Ingrid Stolzel

Autumn Moves  by  Seolhee (Snow) Kim

Program selected by the 2023 SCI Online National Conference Adjudication Committee
(Melissa D’Albora, Han Hitchen, Joshua Mallard, Robert McClure, TJ Milne, Selena Ryan, and Andrew Martin Smith):

Dialectic  by  Daniel Adams

In Memoriam for Oboe and Piano  by  Mark Dal Porto

Wrought Iron for Flute and Percussion  by  Andrea Reinkemeyer

String Samba  by  Filipe Leitão

Strata  by  Christopher Chandler

Guest Performer Bios:

MADELEINE LAFOLLETTE recently received her Master of Music in Vocal Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studied with Metropolitan Opera soprano, Yvonne Gonzales Redman. Originally from Fairmont, West Virginia, she received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from West Liberty University, studying with Dr. Linda Cowan. While there, she was a member of Hilltop Opera and West Liberty University Choirs. LaFollette also performed with the Voces Solis Chamber Choir in Pittsburgh, under the direction of Dr. Ryan Keeling. At the University of Illinois, she performed with Lyric Theatre @ Illinois in Lyric Under the Stars and as the Governess in Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. She also was a Teaching Assistant for Allen Hall/Unit One and was active as a soprano section leader at Faith United Methodist Church. She was also featured in Deus Ex Musica in Champaign, IL and Petoskey, MI, where she performed contemporary settings of the Psalms. She currently sings as soprano section leader at Trinity United Methodist Church in Beaumont.

MICHAEL N. MCANDREW maintains an active schedule as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach, currently as music staff with Lyric Theatre at Illinois, coaching staff for Songe d’été en musique in Quebec, Canada, pianist for Central Illinois Youth Chorus, and DuoMotive with flutist, Michelle Li. He has also played with the Summer Harmony Men’s Chorus, Tri-Cities Opera, Binghamton Community Orchestra, Penn State Scranton Chorale, the Foothills Opera Experience, and has premiered several new works by student composers. He has worked with artists such as Phil Woods, Randy Brecker, Bob Dorough, the Momenta Quartet, Michelle DeYoung, Julian Ovenden, Joshua Glasner, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, Jeffrey Wahl, Julie and Nathan Gunn, Ricardo Herrera, Audrey Vallance, Marc Webster, and Maryte Bizinkauskas. Michael was also founder and director/pianist of the Night of Stars concert series, which fundraised for several organizations in the Southern Tier area of New York.

As a composer, he has been hailed as “harmonically gorgeous”, with a desire “to hear more from him”. He has had pieces premiered by the DeMarina Trio, Plexus Collective, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, ModernMedieval, the Bel Canto Children’s Chorus, and the Momenta Quartet in various venues such as the Crane School of Music, the Beleura House and Garden (Victoria, Australia), Zoellner Arts Center, ICA’s Clarinet Fest, and at the renowned Christmas Vespers at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, PA. He was selected as the winner of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s 2nd Annual Young Composer Competition in 2012, and recently was finalist in the 2019 NATS Art Song Competition for his cycle of the element and in the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies Call for Scores for his orchestral work Sandcastles of Yesterday. The first act of his opera, [i am a city], based on a libretto by Bogdan Mynka, premiered in workshop format in March of 2020.

Dr. McAndrew recently defended his DMA thesis “From Obscurity to New Relevancy: A More Accessible Approach to Samuel Barber’s Vanessa”, a re-orchestration of Vanessa for fourteen musicians, thus satisfying all requirements for his Doctorate of Vocal Coaching and Accompanying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While there, he also studied collaborative piano with Casey Robards and Michael Tilley, and composition with Carlos Carrillo. He was also a double recipient of the Nancy Kennedy Wustman Award in Vocal Accompanying in 2019 and 2021. While at UIUC, Michael was assistant conductor for The Rape of Lucretia, and music directed Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World at the Allerton Barn, which saw a repeat performance in January of 2020 after much acclaim. As music staff, he has also taken part in productions of La Bohéme, Crazy for You, Cunning Little Vixen, Cabaret, A Little Night Music, Vanessa, The Turn of the Screw, and The Last American Hammer. He was also Chorus Master for Sinfonia da Camera’s performance of H.M.S. Pinafore.

Michael holds additional degrees from Binghamton University (MM), where he studied composition with Daniel Thomas Davis and collaborative piano with Joel Harder, and Moravian College (BM), where studied composition with Larry Lipkis and Sean O’ Boyle, piano with Barbara Thompson, and collaborative piano with Graeme Burgan. He is active as the collaborative pianist for the Central Illinois Youth Chorus, and is the full-time Director of Music at Faith United Methodist Church in Champaign. Recent engagements include the re-orchestration of Verdi’s La Traviata and Puccini’s La Bohemé for the Bay View Music Festival in Petoskey, Michigan and as head vocal coach for Pirates of Penzance with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (OH). This summer, Michael joins Opera Saratoga for their 2022 Summer Season, is a featured artist with Deus Ex Musica at the Bay View Music Festival, and returns to the Songe d’été en musique/Midsummer Music Festival in Quebec for 2022. Michael also joins the faculty at Lamar University as a full-time Instructor of Collaborative Piano.

Bios and Program Notes:

Jane K (Evgeniya Kozhevnikova) is a composer, pianist, and educator. Her works have been performed at regional, national, and international events. She composes in various styles and genres, from classical to jazz and tango, tastefully blending them. In 2020, she released a jazz-tango album Tango Avenue with her original works and in 2022 an album of her art songs Lift Up Your Hearts.

In 2019, Jane received a DownBeat Magazine Outstanding Performance award in the Latin jazz category with her original jazz-tango compositions. In 2019, she became one of the winners of the “Music Now” contest, a part of Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival. Jane became a runner-up at the University of North Carolina Greensboro Call for Scores and Competition. Her choral works were awarded the 1st Prize and a Special Prize at the 2020 International Composers’ Competition Opus Ignotum (Czech Republic). In 2021, she was awarded 2nd Place of the American Prize in Chamber Vocal Composition (student division).

Jane holds two master’s degrees, in Music Composition and Music Performance, from Western Michigan University. She is working on her doctorate degree in Music Composition at the University of Florida.

Written by Jane K (Evgeniya Kozhevnikova) in 2022 for Angela Jonas, “Of Peace” is a setting of Drew McQuade’s poem, for soprano and piano. The piece was premiered on February 27, 2023 at the University of Florida.

Derek M. Jenkins (b. 1986, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) is an American composer, whose music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada by the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra; the Fountain City Brass Band; the Czech National Concert Band; the Seattle Wind Symphony; the U.S. Army Materiel Command Band; the Youth Symphony of Kansas City Symphony Orchestra; Mid America Freedom Band; the Carinthia, Joseph Wytko, and Saxophilia Saxophone Quartets; Ensemble for These Times; Songeaters; and university bands, honor bands, and honor orchestras around the country. Jenkins has received recognition from WASBE, The Dresdner Bläserphilharmonie, The American Prize, National Band Association, MMTA/MTNA, Missouri State University Composition Festival, Red Note New Music Festival, MACRO, and at conferences and festivals across the U.S. and abroad, including the Midwest Clinic, the WASBE International Conference, Brass in Concert, the International Trombone Festival, CBDNA Divisional Conferences, SCI National and Regional Conferences, the USF New-Music Festival and Symposium, the LGBA National Conference, the NASA Biennial National Conference, the Florida State University Biennial Festival of Music, the Ball State University Festival of New Music, and CMS Regional Conferences.

Jenkins serves as Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Music Theory and Composition at Arkansas State University, and he holds degrees from the UMKC and Rice University. His music can be heard on ABLAZE Records, Mark Custom Records, and World of Brass, and is available through BrookWright Music, Murphy Music Press, and Veritas Musica Publishing.

More information can be found at: www.derekmjenkins.com.

The poems used here in these five songs for mezzo-soprano and piano (Unfinished list of the Things I Love) were written
especially for use in this song cycle. I became close friends with Jennifer Weiman and Jordan Voth, a husband and wife pair of musicians, while Jordan and I were in graduate school together. The poet, Daniel Weller, is a friend of theirs from their undergraduate studies, and therefore this piece truly is a collaboration amongst friends.

The five poems are unified in their evocative imagery that depicts various facets of love.

Composer Ingrid Stolzel has been described as having “a gift for melody”(San Francisco Classical Voice) and creating work that is “downright beautiful.” American Record Guide). Stolzel’s compositions have been commissioned by leading soloists and ensembles, including the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, American Wild Ensemble and Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Stanislav Ioudenich. Her works have been performed in concert halls and festivals worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Kennedy Center, Seoul Arts Center, Thailand International Composition Festival, Festival Osmose (Belgium), Vox Feminae Festival (Israel), Dot the Line Festival (South Korea), Ritornello Chamber Music Festival (Canada), Festival of New Music at Florida State (USA), Beijing Modern Music Festival (China), Festival of New American Music (USA), and SoundOn Festival of Modern Music (USA).

Stolzel’s music has been recognized in numerous competitions, among them recently the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award, Red Note Composition Competition, the Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers, and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Competition. Her discography is extensive and includes a monograph album entitled “The Gorgeous Nothings,” featuring her chamber and vocal chamber music.

Stolzel was born and raised in Germany and moved to the United States in 1991. She is Associate Professor of Composition at the University of Kansas School of Music. Before joining the University of Kansas School of Music, she served as Director of the International Center for Music at Park University. For more information: www.ingridstolzel.com

“SILENCE” by Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)

(To Eleonora Duse)

We are anhungered after solitude,
Deep stillness pure of any speech or sound,
Soft quiet hovering over pools profound,
The silences that on the desert brood,
Above a windless hush of empty seas,
The broad unfurling banners of the dawn,
A faery forest where there sleeps a Faun;
Our souls are fain of solitudes like these.
O woman who divined our weariness,
And set the crown of silence on your art,
From what undreamed-of depth within your heart
Have you sent forth the hush that makes us free
To hear an instant, high above earth’s stress,
The silent music of infinity?

From Helen of Troy and Other Poems by Sara Teasdale (1911)

Seolhee (Snow) Kim has focused on representing the inspiration she finds in arts, nature, life, and the world we live in. She has exposed herself to various artistic experiences and loves collaborating with other artists. Her music has been performed professionally by artists including Contemporaneous, Finger Lake Chamber Ensemble, ModernMedieval, the Momenta Quartet, Opera Elect, Heartland Marimba Quartet, Andrew Fuchs, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, Joseph Rebman, Nicaulis Alliey, Roberta Crawford, LunArt Festival, and Music by Women Festival.
She holds an M.M. in Composition from SUNY Binghamton, where she studied composition with Daniel Thomas Davis as well as a BM in Composition and a BA in Art history from Ewha Womans University. She is currently pursuing a DMA in Composition at the University of Kansas.

(Re: Autumn Moves)
Her flame never disappears as she moves toward winter.

Daniel Adams is a Professor of Music at Texas Southern University in Houston where he has also served as Acting Department Chair. Adams holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master of Music from the University of Miami Frost School of Music and a Bachelor of Music from Louisiana State University. Adams is the composer of numerous published musical compositions and the author of articles and reviews on topics related to Twentieth Century percussion music, music pedagogy, and the music of Texas. He has received commissions from The McCormick Percussion Group, The McCormick Duo, the Robinson High School Percussion Ensemble (Tampa, FL), The Gulf Coast Community Band, The Leechburg (PA) High School Percussion Ensemble, the Louisiana State University Percussion Ensemble, the EOS flute and guitar duo, guitarist Kenneth Kam, VioLet, Lee Hinkle, Richard Nunemaker Studios, Selmer Paris, Buffet Crampon, D’Addario Woodwinds and the Texas Chamber Symphony.

Adams’s music has been performed throughout the United States, and in Spain, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Costa Rica, Turkey, Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and South Korea. His music is recorded on Capstone Records, Ravello, Navona, Phasma, Ablaze, Potenza, Albany, and Summit Records.

Dialectic was originally published as part of Performance Studies for Two, a collection of snare drum duets by four composers. Each duet can be played individually or combined in any preferred order. In each duet, conventional snare drum techniques are combined with playing on the edge of the head, on the metal hoop, and on the lug. Other techniques include rimshots, stick clicks, and randomly engaging and disengaging the snare mechanism.

A dialectic is a discourse between two persons of differing views with the intention of arriving at a shared understanding. Dialectic begins with both players synchronized in similar rhythmic patterns. They subsequently diverge into widely contrasting figures, and eventually realign in simple patterns of synchronized brush strokes.

Dr. Mark Dal Porto has been granted numerous commissions for his works, receiving hundreds of performances by many instrumental and vocal ensembles throughout the US and abroad. In 2022, his orchestral work Bucolic Celebration was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra and released on the Grammy-award winning label Navona Records titled Sparks, Eye of London in October 2022. In 2019, he published Peace, Nature & Renewal, a Navona Records CD featuring some of his orchestral, choral, and chamber works. In the most recent CODA (College Orchestra Director’s Association) International Composition Contest, he was awarded first prize for his orchestral work Song of Eternity. He has also received certificates of excellence in band, choral, orchestral, and chamber music composition from The American Prize organization.

Dal Porto serves on the faculty of Eastern New Mexico University as Professor of Music and Coordinator of Music Theory and Composition. In 2012, he received the ENMU Presidential Award in Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities. In 2022, he received an ENMU College of Fine Arts Award for Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities. A former student of Donald Grantham, Dal Porto received degrees from California State University, Sacramento, and the University of Texas at Austin. He frequently serves as a guest composer, conductor, and pianist. Further information about Mark can be found at markdalporto.com.

In Memoriam for Oboe and Piano is a reflective, somber, yet hopeful piece in response to so many of the world’s recent changes. The plaintive oboe line depicts the individual and the challenges so many of us have experienced. As the piece continues, there are more optimistic, heart-felt, and reflective moments. The conclusion is similar to the introspective opening and represents a nostalgic looking back and forward-looking hope, desire, and expectation that life and we will continue.

The music of American composer Andrea Reinkemeyer, DMA (b. 1976, she/her) “offers a luminous glimpse of the next world” (Fanfare Magazine) as it “explores a reverent sound world that hovers just above the brink of silence” (Second Inversion), using “spare, melancholy passages to traverse a complex emotional landscape” (Eugene Weekly) “from reverence and supplication to mournfulness and despair” (textura), and praised as, “clever, funky, jazzy and virtuosic” (Schenectady Daily Gazette), “magical” (Fanfare), “enchanting” (International Choral Bulletin), and “hauntingly melodic and fun, dancing and almost running its way forward…whimsical” (Fanfare). Her musical explorations focus on intersectional feminist narratives, natural phenomena, home, and grief.

Recent commissions include: Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and League of American Orchestras with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra, Rhymes with Opera, H. Robert Reynolds and Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Rodney Dorsey, Fear No Music, Rhymes with Opera, Abigail Sperling with support of the Oregon Arts Commission, and other performers and visual artists. Murphy Press and the ADJ•ective Composers’ Collective distribute her works, which are also featured on recordings by: Idit Shner, In Mulieribus, Primary Colors Trio, A/B Duo, and Post-Haste Reed Duo. Smoulder for wind ensemble is a finalist for the 2020 National Band Association William D. Revelli Composition Contest.

Reinkemeyer is the 2022-23 Edith Green Distinguished Professor and serves as Associate Professor of Music Composition and Theory at Linfield University where she coordinates the Composers Studio and Lacroute Composer Readings Program. Born and raised in Oregon, Andrea has also lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Bangkok, Thailand. https://www.andreareinkemeyer.com/

Wrought Iron for Flute and Percussion (2012) was commissioned by the Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra as part of the Capital Region Heritage Commissions project. This piece is a musical celebration of the beautiful metal work that crowns the iconic Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The shapes found within the iron work—circles, triangles, and rectangles—dictated the shape of the percussion instruments used—cymbals, tambourine, bongos, triangle, and vibraphone. The music reflects the light, airy and beautifully ornate quality of the metal castings.

While composing this piece, I was also drawn to another fascinating aspect of this building: architect George B. Post used metal to look like stone. In his attempt to make a European-looking building on an American budget, he fashioned a metallic exoskeleton to house a truly unique acoustic space. I have similarly paid tribute to the work of European artists who came before me, twisting elements of pieces by Beethoven and Chopin—two composers whose names grace the ceiling of the hall—into something new. Like the cast aluminum used in the 1990s renovation to replace the original iron, and the woodwind made of metal, things are not always what they seem.

Wrought Iron is the winning submission for the 2019 Flute New Music Consortium Competition, Flute Plus One category. The score and parts are available through the ADJ•ective New Music Composers’ Collective and it was recorded by the A/B Duo for their Aerocade Music release, Variety Show (2016).

Filipe Leitão is an award-winning Brazilian-born composer, music producer, and sound designer. He is Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, teaching a new interdisciplinary curriculum in Composition and Sound Design for Cinema, Games, and Motion Media. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at The University of Alabama, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Music Production and Sound Design for Visual Media at the Academy of Art University (San Francisco, CA). As an educator, he has taught composition, orchestration, music production, and film scoring.

Dr. Leitão has collaborated with many artists, creating original compositions and sound design for films and video games, as well as he has written electronic works, and concert pieces for varied ensembles. His works reflect his unique voice originated from a mix of classical music, popular music, Brazilian music, and film music, and have been recognized at both national and international levels, and obtained prizes and performances on renowned film and music festivals, including New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest, SCI Conferences, Belgian Saxophone Choir, Cannes Short Film Corner, Toronto Film Week, Anima Mundi, and WorldFest Houston, to name a few. www.filipeleitao.com

String Samba is an interdisciplinary, multimedia piece featuring three violins, viola, and digital choreography. The music uses a variety of articulations, textures, string manipulated sounds, as well as complex, syncopated rhythms to evoke Brazilian music and dance. By using rotoscoping animation techniques, a series of gestures is composed and decomposed to create a screen dance of lines, colors and movement. The visual aims to reflect the music through a layered choreography of figures dancing digitally through vibrant hues, swiftly changing with the complexity of sound.

Christopher Chandler is a composer, technologist, educator, and a co-founder of the [Switch~ Ensemble]. He is an Assistant Professor of Music at Union College in Schenectady, NY where he teaches courses in music theory, composition, and technology. His acoustic and electroacoustic works draw on field recordings, found sound objects, and custom generative software.

Chandler’s music has been performed by leading ensembles including Eighth Blackbird, the American Wild Ensemble, Ensemble Sargo, Ensemble Interface, the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. His music has received recognition and awards including a Fromm Foundation Composer Fellowship, a BMI Student Composer Award, an ASCAP/SEAMUS Commission, two first prizes from the Austin Peay State University Young Composer’s Award, winner of the American Modern Ensemble’s Annual Composition Competition, and the Nadia Boulanger Composition Prize from the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France.

Chandler received a Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music, an M.M. from Bowling Green State University, and a B.A. from the University of Richmond. His teachers include Benjamin Broening, Mikel Kuehn, Elainie Lillios, Marilyn Shrude, Robert Morris, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon.

Drawn from the field of geology and referring to layers of rock or soil, the title Strata alludes to the compositional process used for this work. At the beginning of our collaboration near the end of 2020, I gave the musicians of the [Switch~ Ensemble] various prompts of sounds, techniques, and gestures to record, which I then used to construct some fixed electronics. The musicians then recorded solo improvisations alongside these electronics, and finally, we held telematic group improvisation sessions with these materials. I composed the final version of the piece by drawing on all these materials.

I find that this multi-part asynchronous collaborative process that draws on recording, listening, reflecting, and improvising, both independently and in response to others, connects in interesting ways to the geological concept of strata. The initial electronics I composed became a kind of landscape upon which external forces act through the musicians’ improvisational responses. The landscape changed, gaining new texture, features, and depth, with each successive improvisation. My role at the end of this process became like a geologist or archaeologist, sifting through various layers to uncover and highlight novel features. The end result is a composite of music from different times and situations.