IANNIS XENAKIS –“PERSEPHASSA”
STEVEN SCHICK and RED FISH BLUE FISH, percussion
“I AM A CLASSICAL GREEK LIVING IN THE 20th CENTURY.” – IANNIS XENAKIS
Sketch for Persephassa by Iannis Xenakis (1969)
TICKETS:
Seating in MICA will be General Admission.
PATRON Seating will be marked as “Reserved” and will be located at the front / center of the venue's seating area.
Seniors, as well as any folks with limited income are welcome to purchase tickets at the $10 amount.
If you or a guest has any special seating needs or requests, please contact us. We will be happy to help!
PROGRAM:
Rand STEIGER – FOR ROBERT ERICKSON (2024) [20'] *
for quarter-tone vibraphone and live electronics
Iannis XENAKIS – DIAMORPHOSES (1957) [7']
for electronic sounds
Iannis XENAKIS - PSAPPHA (1976) [15']
for percussion solo
Iannis XENAKIS – CONCRET PH (1958) [3']
for electronic sounds
Iannis XENAKIS – PERSEPHASSA (1969) [28']
for spatialized percussion sextet
PERFORMERS:
Steven SCHICK, solo percussion
Red Fish Blue Fish, percussion ensemble:
Mitchell Carlstrom
Wesley Fowler
Yun Koo
Kosuke Matsuda
Camilo Zamudio
Steven Schick, director
* World Premiere
Rand STEIGER – FOR ROBERT ERICKSON (2024) [20'] *
for quarter-tone vibraphone and live electronics
Iannis XENAKIS – DIAMORPHOSES (1957) [7']
for electronic sounds
Iannis XENAKIS - PSAPPHA (1976) [15']
for percussion solo
Iannis XENAKIS – CONCRET PH (1958) [3']
for electronic sounds
Iannis XENAKIS – PERSEPHASSA (1969) [28']
for spatialized percussion sextet
PERFORMERS:
Steven SCHICK, solo percussion
Red Fish Blue Fish, percussion ensemble:
Mitchell Carlstrom
Wesley Fowler
Yun Koo
Kosuke Matsuda
Camilo Zamudio
Steven Schick, director
* World Premiere
DESCRIPTION:
Monday Evening Concerts is elated to welcome Steven Schick as its newest Artist in Residence. A legendary percussionist hailed by The New Yorker as “one of our supreme living virtuosos, not just of percussion but of any instrument,” Schick first performed with MEC with a series of groundbreaking solo concerts in 1999. His return as an Artist In Residence marks a significant moment in the series' history.
This concert will spotlight Schick’s profound and lifelong connection to Iannis Xenakis, whose groundbreaking compositions have profoundly influenced his musical path. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to experience Schick’s exceptional artistry and his celebration of one of the 20th century’s most innovative composers.
This concert will spotlight Schick’s profound and lifelong connection to Iannis Xenakis, whose groundbreaking compositions have profoundly influenced his musical path. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to experience Schick’s exceptional artistry and his celebration of one of the 20th century’s most innovative composers.
ABOUT PERSEPHASSA:
« Xenakis, the architect of sound, was firmly convinced that there was no justification for sound to come from only one direction.
According to him, the usual arrangement of a concert, where the music comes from the front, is only one possibility among others. » Guildo Fischer
According to him, the usual arrangement of a concert, where the music comes from the front, is only one possibility among others. » Guildo Fischer
Persephassa has established itself as a definitive classic in the percussion repertoire. It was premiered in 1969 at the Shiraz Festival in Iran by its dedicatees, the Percussions de Strasbourg.
The title Persephassa refers to the goddess Persephone, or Kore, personification of the telluric forces and transmutations of life. These are linked to the cosmic cycles of living species and to man in particular, the basis being period, iteration, the very essence of number theory and mathematics. This is the underlying reason for the role of percussion, which also symbolized telluric and celestial activities.
At the time of its creation, Xenakis proposed new instruments, the wooden or metal simantras, already used in his opera Orestia and whose original idea can be found in the simandres of the Greek convents, «real nests of an ancestral rhythm not yet destroyed by Radio, Television or invasions.»
The six percussionists are placed in a ring around the audience, which is thus enclosed in these currents carried by the music. The trajectories cross or evolve according to a sound choreography staged by the composer. Before a game of increasing and decreasing waterfalls, rhythms twirling in space and chaotic clouds of sound unfolds, the sextet’s timpani rolls call Persephassa in an incantation. Through a progressive acceleration, the music will transport the audience in a gigantic whirlwind. If this «tourniquet» evokes the dance of whirling dervishes, Xenakis does not aim at trance: sudden cuts, brief but unpredictably distributed, bring the listener out of his torpor at the end.
(Program notes excerpted and edited from the website of Les Percussions de Strasbourg)
The title Persephassa refers to the goddess Persephone, or Kore, personification of the telluric forces and transmutations of life. These are linked to the cosmic cycles of living species and to man in particular, the basis being period, iteration, the very essence of number theory and mathematics. This is the underlying reason for the role of percussion, which also symbolized telluric and celestial activities.
At the time of its creation, Xenakis proposed new instruments, the wooden or metal simantras, already used in his opera Orestia and whose original idea can be found in the simandres of the Greek convents, «real nests of an ancestral rhythm not yet destroyed by Radio, Television or invasions.»
The six percussionists are placed in a ring around the audience, which is thus enclosed in these currents carried by the music. The trajectories cross or evolve according to a sound choreography staged by the composer. Before a game of increasing and decreasing waterfalls, rhythms twirling in space and chaotic clouds of sound unfolds, the sextet’s timpani rolls call Persephassa in an incantation. Through a progressive acceleration, the music will transport the audience in a gigantic whirlwind. If this «tourniquet» evokes the dance of whirling dervishes, Xenakis does not aim at trance: sudden cuts, brief but unpredictably distributed, bring the listener out of his torpor at the end.
(Program notes excerpted and edited from the website of Les Percussions de Strasbourg)
ARTIST BIOS:
IANNIS XENAKIS:
Iannis Xenakis (May 29th 1922 - February 4th 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers. Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic music.
Among his most important works are Metastaseis (1953-4) for orchestra, which introduced independent parts for every musician of the orchestra; percussion works such as Persephassa (1969), Psappha (1975) and Pleiades (1979); compositions that introduced spatialization by dispersing musicians among the audience, such as Terretektorh (1966); electronic works created using Xenakis's UPIC system; and the massive multimedia performances Xenakis called polytopes. Among the numerous theoretical writings he authored, the book Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition (1971) is regarded as one of his most important. As an architect, Xenakis is primarily known for his early work under Le Corbusier: the Sainte Marie de La Tourette, on which the two architects collaborated, and the Philips Pavilion at Expo 58, which Xenakis designed alone.
Among his most important works are Metastaseis (1953-4) for orchestra, which introduced independent parts for every musician of the orchestra; percussion works such as Persephassa (1969), Psappha (1975) and Pleiades (1979); compositions that introduced spatialization by dispersing musicians among the audience, such as Terretektorh (1966); electronic works created using Xenakis's UPIC system; and the massive multimedia performances Xenakis called polytopes. Among the numerous theoretical writings he authored, the book Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition (1971) is regarded as one of his most important. As an architect, Xenakis is primarily known for his early work under Le Corbusier: the Sainte Marie de La Tourette, on which the two architects collaborated, and the Philips Pavilion at Expo 58, which Xenakis designed alone.
Steven Schick in his office at UC - San Diego. Photo by John Francis Peters (New York Times).
STEVEN SCHICK:
Percussionist, conductor, and author Steven Schick was born in Iowa and raised in a farming family. Hailed by Alex Ross in the New Yorker as, “one of our supreme living virtuosos, not just of percussion but of any instrument,” he has championed contemporary percussion music for more than fifty years. In 2014 Schick was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.
As conductor, Schick was Music Director of the La Jolla Symphony and Artistic Director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the Breckenridge Music Festival, and Co-Artistic Director with Claire Chase of the Banff Centre’s Summer Classical Music program. In 2020, he was awarded the Ditson Conductor’s Award, given by Columbia University, for his commitment to the performance of American music.
Schick’s publications include a book, “The Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams,” and numerous recordings including complete collections of the percussion music of Iannis Xenakis and the early percussion works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. His most recent project, “Weather Systems,” a multi-part retrospective of solo percussion music released on Islandia Music Records, was listed among the best recordings of 2023 by both The New York Times and The New Yorker.
In 2019, he and his wife Brenda began The Brenda and Steven Schick Commissions to foster new creative work that embraces qualities of optimism in themes dealing with community or the environment.
Steven Schick is Distinguished Professor of Music and the inaugural holder of the Reed Family Presidential Chair at the University of California, San Diego.
As conductor, Schick was Music Director of the La Jolla Symphony and Artistic Director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the Breckenridge Music Festival, and Co-Artistic Director with Claire Chase of the Banff Centre’s Summer Classical Music program. In 2020, he was awarded the Ditson Conductor’s Award, given by Columbia University, for his commitment to the performance of American music.
Schick’s publications include a book, “The Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams,” and numerous recordings including complete collections of the percussion music of Iannis Xenakis and the early percussion works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. His most recent project, “Weather Systems,” a multi-part retrospective of solo percussion music released on Islandia Music Records, was listed among the best recordings of 2023 by both The New York Times and The New Yorker.
In 2019, he and his wife Brenda began The Brenda and Steven Schick Commissions to foster new creative work that embraces qualities of optimism in themes dealing with community or the environment.
Steven Schick is Distinguished Professor of Music and the inaugural holder of the Reed Family Presidential Chair at the University of California, San Diego.
Composer Rand Steiger. Photo by Erik Jepsen.
RAND STEIGER
Rand Steiger was born in New York City and lives in San Diego, where he draws inspiration from the natural landscape and the long history of experimental music in Southern California.
Many of his compositions combine orchestral instruments with digital audio signal processing. They also propose a hybrid approach to just and equal-tempered tuning, exploring the delicate perceptual cusp between a harmony and a timbre that occurs when tones are precisely tuned. Some examples include: Ecosphere, developed at Ircam and premiered by the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris; Traversing, premiered by the Southbank Sinfonia in London; Cryosphere, premiered by the ACO at Carnegie Hall, A Menacing Plume, premiered by the Talea Ensemble, and the Coalescence Cycle, premiered on a Miller Theater Composer Portrait Concert by the International Contemporary Ensemble. In 2016 he was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to collaborate with Yuval Sharon to create Nimbus, an installation that embedded 32 loudspeakers in clouds hanging in W.D. Concert Hall that played a series of compositions throughout the day for the entire season. Currently he is completing a trilogy of string quartets with electronics for premiere by the JACK Quartet at the 2025 Time:Spans Festival in New York City.
Steiger was also active as a conductor specializing in contemporary works until deciding in 2010 to concentrate entirely on composition. He led a series of critically acclaimed concerts with the Ensemble Sospeso in New York City in the early 2000's, and with the California EAR Unit at the Los Angeles County Museum in the 1980's and 90's. Among other groups he conducted were the Aspen Chamber Ensemble, La Jolla Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, New York New Music Ensemble, and the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (Switzerland). Among his recordings as conductor are operas by Anne LeBaron, Hilda Paredes and Anthony Davis, and chamber works by Elliott Carter, George Lewis, Mark Osborn, Roger Reynolds, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morton Subotnick, Iannis Xenakis and Wadada Leo Smith. He has also conducted many world, New York and California premier performances, including works of Muhal Richard Abrams, Louis Andriessen, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez, Henry Brant, Elliott Carter, Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Gordon, Jonathan Harvey, Aaron Kernis, Scott Lindroth, James Newton, Luigi Nono, Augusta Read-Thomas, Roger Reynolds, Terry Riley, Poul Rudders, Frederick Rzewski, Kaija Saariaho, Giacinto Scelsi, Elliott Sharp, Julia Wolfe, Toru Takemitsu, Jon Tavener, and Erki-Sven Tuur.
His compositions and performances are recorded on the Centaur, CRI, Crystal, Einstein, Koch, Mode, New Albion, New Dynamic, New World, Nonesuch, Tundra, and Tzadik labels. Recent works for instruments and electronics are available on Coalescence Cycle Volume 1, on Tundra/New Focus (featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble), A Menacing Plume, on New World Records (featuring the Talea Ensemble), and Ecosphere, Music for Instruments and Electronics on EMF (featuring the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Southbank Sinfonia). The JACK Quartet will release a new disc of his complete string quartets in 2024.
A former Guggenheim and Rome Prize Fellow, he also served as Composer-in-Residence at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology and as a Visiting Professor at Harvard University where he will return in 2025 as the Fromm Distinguished Scholar.
Many of his compositions combine orchestral instruments with digital audio signal processing. They also propose a hybrid approach to just and equal-tempered tuning, exploring the delicate perceptual cusp between a harmony and a timbre that occurs when tones are precisely tuned. Some examples include: Ecosphere, developed at Ircam and premiered by the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris; Traversing, premiered by the Southbank Sinfonia in London; Cryosphere, premiered by the ACO at Carnegie Hall, A Menacing Plume, premiered by the Talea Ensemble, and the Coalescence Cycle, premiered on a Miller Theater Composer Portrait Concert by the International Contemporary Ensemble. In 2016 he was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to collaborate with Yuval Sharon to create Nimbus, an installation that embedded 32 loudspeakers in clouds hanging in W.D. Concert Hall that played a series of compositions throughout the day for the entire season. Currently he is completing a trilogy of string quartets with electronics for premiere by the JACK Quartet at the 2025 Time:Spans Festival in New York City.
Steiger was also active as a conductor specializing in contemporary works until deciding in 2010 to concentrate entirely on composition. He led a series of critically acclaimed concerts with the Ensemble Sospeso in New York City in the early 2000's, and with the California EAR Unit at the Los Angeles County Museum in the 1980's and 90's. Among other groups he conducted were the Aspen Chamber Ensemble, La Jolla Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, New York New Music Ensemble, and the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (Switzerland). Among his recordings as conductor are operas by Anne LeBaron, Hilda Paredes and Anthony Davis, and chamber works by Elliott Carter, George Lewis, Mark Osborn, Roger Reynolds, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morton Subotnick, Iannis Xenakis and Wadada Leo Smith. He has also conducted many world, New York and California premier performances, including works of Muhal Richard Abrams, Louis Andriessen, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez, Henry Brant, Elliott Carter, Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Gordon, Jonathan Harvey, Aaron Kernis, Scott Lindroth, James Newton, Luigi Nono, Augusta Read-Thomas, Roger Reynolds, Terry Riley, Poul Rudders, Frederick Rzewski, Kaija Saariaho, Giacinto Scelsi, Elliott Sharp, Julia Wolfe, Toru Takemitsu, Jon Tavener, and Erki-Sven Tuur.
His compositions and performances are recorded on the Centaur, CRI, Crystal, Einstein, Koch, Mode, New Albion, New Dynamic, New World, Nonesuch, Tundra, and Tzadik labels. Recent works for instruments and electronics are available on Coalescence Cycle Volume 1, on Tundra/New Focus (featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble), A Menacing Plume, on New World Records (featuring the Talea Ensemble), and Ecosphere, Music for Instruments and Electronics on EMF (featuring the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Southbank Sinfonia). The JACK Quartet will release a new disc of his complete string quartets in 2024.
A former Guggenheim and Rome Prize Fellow, he also served as Composer-in-Residence at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology and as a Visiting Professor at Harvard University where he will return in 2025 as the Fromm Distinguished Scholar.
RED FISH BLUE FISH:
The New York Times calls red fish blue fish a “dynamic percussion ensemble from the University of California.” Founded more than 25 years ago by Steven Schick, the San Diego-based ensemble performs, records, and premieres works from the last 85 years of western percussion’s rich history. The group works regularly with living composers from every continent. Recent projects include the world premiere of Roger Reynolds’ Sanctuary and the American premiere of James Dillon’s epic Nine Rivers cycle with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). In the Summer of 2011, red fish blue fish collaborated with George Crumb, Dawn Upshaw and Peter Sellars to premiere the staged version of The Winds of Destiny. Eighth Blackbird invited red fish blue fish to join them in performances of works by American icons John Cage and Steve Reich at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. The New York Times called their “riveting” John Cage performance the “highlight” of the program. In 2012 red fish blue fish presented four concerts of percussion music alongside Percussion Group Cincinnati at the John Cage Centennial Festival in Washington, D.C., where they performed highlights from Cage’s collection of percussion works.
Recordings of the percussion chamber music of Iannis Xenakis and Roger Reynolds on Mode Records have been praised by critics around the world. Their recording of the early percussion works of Karlheinz Stockhausen received Deutscheschallplattenkritikpreis for the best recording of contemporary music in 2015.
red fish blue fish has had impact on new music percussion both by virtue of their many performances and acclaimed recordings, but also through their commitment to research and pedagogy as a resident ensemble at the University of California, San Diego. The numerous alumni of red fish blue fish now hold major teaching and artistic positions throughout the world.
Recordings of the percussion chamber music of Iannis Xenakis and Roger Reynolds on Mode Records have been praised by critics around the world. Their recording of the early percussion works of Karlheinz Stockhausen received Deutscheschallplattenkritikpreis for the best recording of contemporary music in 2015.
red fish blue fish has had impact on new music percussion both by virtue of their many performances and acclaimed recordings, but also through their commitment to research and pedagogy as a resident ensemble at the University of California, San Diego. The numerous alumni of red fish blue fish now hold major teaching and artistic positions throughout the world.