GUEST RECITAL:
JAY CAMPBELL, CELLO
'CROSS/COLLAPSE'
works by J.S. BACH and CATHERINE LAMB
Friday, April 12, 2024 | 8 PM
First Congregational Church of Los Angeles (Shatto Chapel)
540 S Commonwealth Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90020
First Congregational Church of Los Angeles (Shatto Chapel)
540 S Commonwealth Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90020
TICKETS:
$50 - PATRON / FIRST FEW ROWS
$25 - GENERAL ADMISSION
$10 - STUDENT / FIXED INCOME
Seating will be a combination of chairs and floor pillows. Please let us know if you would like any special accommodation.
PROGRAM:
J.S. BACH - Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major (BWV 1007) (ca. 1720) [20']
Catherine LAMB - cross/collapse (2010) [45']
J.S. BACH - Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major (BWV 1007) (ca. 1720) [20']
Catherine LAMB - cross/collapse (2010) [45']
DESCRIPTION:
Monday Evening Concerts is thrilled to welcome back our dear friend, the brilliant cellist Jay Campbell. Since first appearing at MEC as a guest performer on Rolf Riehm's Pasolini in Ostia in 2013, Campbell has become recognized as one of the pre-eminent string players working in classical music today. This program features Campbell performing two iconic works for solo cello - separated by nearly three centuries.
If Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite No. 1 in G major for solo violoncello (BWV 1007) serves as perhaps the single most recognizable work in the solo cello canon, then Catherine Lamb's 'cross/collapse' (for solo viola or cello with electronics) serves as an exquisitely disorienting counterbalance. Lamb's psychoacoustically mesmerizing work, which lasts approximately forty-five minutes, comes from a series of work for solo string instruments 'coalescing with various forms of (spectral) oscillators.'
If Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite No. 1 in G major for solo violoncello (BWV 1007) serves as perhaps the single most recognizable work in the solo cello canon, then Catherine Lamb's 'cross/collapse' (for solo viola or cello with electronics) serves as an exquisitely disorienting counterbalance. Lamb's psychoacoustically mesmerizing work, which lasts approximately forty-five minutes, comes from a series of work for solo string instruments 'coalescing with various forms of (spectral) oscillators.'
Perhaps the experience is best summed up by a post about Lamb's work from a performance in Brooklyn back in 2019:
"FEEL THE INFINITE HARMONIC TOPOGRAPHY BETWEEN 120-225HZ.
ENTER [SPRING] WITH THE POWER OF 15:8 (!)"
We look forward to sinking into this gorgeous experience with you all :)
"FEEL THE INFINITE HARMONIC TOPOGRAPHY BETWEEN 120-225HZ.
ENTER [SPRING] WITH THE POWER OF 15:8 (!)"
We look forward to sinking into this gorgeous experience with you all :)
ARTIST BIOS:
JAY CAMPBELL:
Jay Campbell is a cellist actively exploring a wide range of creative music. He has been recognized for approaching both old and new music with the same curiosity and commitment, and his performances have been called “electrifying” by the New York Times and “gentle, poignant, and deeply moving” by the Washington Post.
The only musician ever to receive two Avery Fisher Career Grants — in 2016 as a soloist, and again in 2019 as a member of the JACK Quartet — Jay made his concerto debut with the New York Philharmonic in 2013 and in 2016, he worked with Alan Gilbert as the artistic director for Ligeti Forward, part of the New York Philharmonic Biennale at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2017, he was Artist-in-Residence at the Lucerne Festival along with frequent collaborator violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, where he gave the premiere of Luca Francesconi’s cello concerto Das Ding Singt. In 2018 he appeared at the Berlin Philharmonie with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He has recorded the concertos of George Perle and Marc-Andre Dalbavie with the Seattle Symphony, and in 2023/2024 will premiere a new concerto, Reverdecer, by Andreia Pinto-Correia with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Portugal, and in Brazil with the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo. In 2022 he returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic as curator and cellist for his second Green Umbrella concert, premiering two concertos by Wadada Leo Smith and inti figgis-vizueta.
Jay’s primary artistic interest is the collaboration with living creative musicians and has worked in this capacity with Catherine Lamb, John Luther Adams, Marcos Balter, Tyshawn Sorey, and many others. His close association with John Zorn resulted in two discs of new works for cello, Hen to Pan (2015) and Azoth (2020). Deeply committed as a chamber musician, he is the cellist of the JACK Quartet as well as the Junction Trio with violinist Stefan Jackiw and pianist Conrad Tao, and multidisciplinary collective AMOC.
The only musician ever to receive two Avery Fisher Career Grants — in 2016 as a soloist, and again in 2019 as a member of the JACK Quartet — Jay made his concerto debut with the New York Philharmonic in 2013 and in 2016, he worked with Alan Gilbert as the artistic director for Ligeti Forward, part of the New York Philharmonic Biennale at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2017, he was Artist-in-Residence at the Lucerne Festival along with frequent collaborator violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, where he gave the premiere of Luca Francesconi’s cello concerto Das Ding Singt. In 2018 he appeared at the Berlin Philharmonie with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He has recorded the concertos of George Perle and Marc-Andre Dalbavie with the Seattle Symphony, and in 2023/2024 will premiere a new concerto, Reverdecer, by Andreia Pinto-Correia with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Portugal, and in Brazil with the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo. In 2022 he returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic as curator and cellist for his second Green Umbrella concert, premiering two concertos by Wadada Leo Smith and inti figgis-vizueta.
Jay’s primary artistic interest is the collaboration with living creative musicians and has worked in this capacity with Catherine Lamb, John Luther Adams, Marcos Balter, Tyshawn Sorey, and many others. His close association with John Zorn resulted in two discs of new works for cello, Hen to Pan (2015) and Azoth (2020). Deeply committed as a chamber musician, he is the cellist of the JACK Quartet as well as the Junction Trio with violinist Stefan Jackiw and pianist Conrad Tao, and multidisciplinary collective AMOC.
CATHERINE LAMB:
In the music of Catherine Lamb (b. 1982, Olympia, Washington USA), the mathematics of harmony are explored through the physicality of the material world. Lamb gives voice to crystalline structures of the harmonic series through subtleties of friction, pressure, breath, and bow changes that shape how the idealized harmonies speak. The musical forms she constructs connect the sonic with the tactile and the visual, rendering transparent what once was opaque, transmuting flesh to bone, passing from shadow into light. These dualities and metaphors reflect Lamb’s deep interest in the fundamental nature of sound and often find themselves in the titles of her pieces: shade/gradient (2012), point/wave (2015), interius/exterius (2022).
Lamb’s approach to tuning and pacing are informed by her studies with microtonal composer James Tenney and experimental filmmaker and Dhrupad musician Mani Kaul at the California Institute of the Arts. Like her mentors, Lamb has been a champion of the music of others, an ardent collaborator, and a key figure in various vibrant musical communities. While living in Los Angeles, Lamb co-founded singing by numbers, a women’s choir that aimed to create new pedagogical approaches to microtonal singing with vocalists from a wide range of musical backgrounds. The convergence of musical explorations with feminist practices is also found in her collaboration with violinist and violist Johnny Chang, in which they “recover and interpret” the long-forgotten music of a fictitious female musician, Viola Torros. In doing so, they question and blur the origins of early European music and call attention to the exclusion of real female musicians in the historical record.
Lamb is one of the most celebrated and in-demand composers of her generation. Her work has been commissioned by premiere new music ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Dedalus, and Ensemble Musikfabrik. Her writings and recordings are published in KunstMusik, Open Space Magazine, New World Records, Another Timbre, Other Minds, Sound American, and Sacred Realism. In 2016 to 2017, she was an artist-in-residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. In 2018, she was given a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists. In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Composer’s Prize. She currently resides in Berlin where she contributes to many new-music initiatives including the experimental music label Sacred Realism and the Harmonic Space Orchestra.
(written by friends Laura Steenberge and Michael Winter, summer 2023)
Lamb’s approach to tuning and pacing are informed by her studies with microtonal composer James Tenney and experimental filmmaker and Dhrupad musician Mani Kaul at the California Institute of the Arts. Like her mentors, Lamb has been a champion of the music of others, an ardent collaborator, and a key figure in various vibrant musical communities. While living in Los Angeles, Lamb co-founded singing by numbers, a women’s choir that aimed to create new pedagogical approaches to microtonal singing with vocalists from a wide range of musical backgrounds. The convergence of musical explorations with feminist practices is also found in her collaboration with violinist and violist Johnny Chang, in which they “recover and interpret” the long-forgotten music of a fictitious female musician, Viola Torros. In doing so, they question and blur the origins of early European music and call attention to the exclusion of real female musicians in the historical record.
Lamb is one of the most celebrated and in-demand composers of her generation. Her work has been commissioned by premiere new music ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Dedalus, and Ensemble Musikfabrik. Her writings and recordings are published in KunstMusik, Open Space Magazine, New World Records, Another Timbre, Other Minds, Sound American, and Sacred Realism. In 2016 to 2017, she was an artist-in-residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. In 2018, she was given a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists. In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Composer’s Prize. She currently resides in Berlin where she contributes to many new-music initiatives including the experimental music label Sacred Realism and the Harmonic Space Orchestra.
(written by friends Laura Steenberge and Michael Winter, summer 2023)