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—MAKINGMUSIC: EVAN ZIPORYN—

COMPOSER AND PERFORMER EVAN ZIPORYN IN FOCUS
ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30 AT 7:30 PM IN ZANKEL HALL

Works Include the New York Premieres of Ziporyn’s Hive and Bayu SabdaIdep,
Plus Performances of His Tsmindao Ghmerto and In Bounds

Clarinets, Gamelan, and Conversation with an Innovative American Composer 

Carnegie Hall’s 2010–2011 Making Music series kicksoff on Saturday, October 30 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall with MakingMusic: Evan Ziporyn. Making Music features conversation with andperformances of music by today’s leading composers. This season’s first concertfocuses on the music of the innovative American composer Evan Ziporyn,who makes music at the crossroads between genres and cultures, East and West.In addition to composing, Ziporyn is the founding clarinetist of the Bang on aCan All-Stars.

The Making Music program illustrates how Ziporyn’s music has been shapedby his 30-year involvement with the Balinese gamelan—the percussive,traditional Indonesian instrument performed by ensemble—as well as his dualrole as composer/performer, which has redefined the clarinet as a contemporaryinstrument. A series of video interviews with Ziporyn will be released onCarnegie Hall’s blog, soundinsights.carnegiehall.org, and on Carnegie Hall’sYouTube channel in the weeks leading up to the performance. The first one isnow available at youtube.com/watch?v=an2KMA2jHDk.

Four Ziporyn works will be performed on the October 30 program: the New Yorkpremiere of Bayu Sabda Idep for gamelan and string orchestra (2007)featuring Gamelan Galak Tika and contemporary music ensemble Signalled by conductor Brad Lubman; the New York premiere of the clarinetquartet Hive (2007), performed by David Krakauer and CarolMcGonnell on clarinet and Theodore Schoen and Ziporyn on bassclarinet; the solo piano work In Bounds (2004) performed by VickyChow, pianist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars; and the solo bass clarinetwork Tsmindao Ghmerto (1992) performed by Ziporyn. Between the works,Ziporyn will discuss his music with Jeremy Geffen, Carnegie Hall’sDirector of Artistic Planning.

Carnegie Hall’s three-concert Making Music series continues in 2011 withprograms devoted to James MacMillan (March 2) and Christopher Rouse(April 15), with a number of premieres on each program.

Also in October, Ziporyn’s cross-cultural opera A House in Bali will beperformed for the first time in Boston (October 8 and 9, Cutler MajesticTheater at Emerson College) and New York (October 14, 15, and 16, BAM HowardGilman Opera House). Produced by Bang on a Can and directed by Jay Scheib, thisvisually stunning spectacle brings together the hypnotic sounds of a 16-memberBalinese gamelan with Western opera and Balinese singers, traditional dance,live video feeds, and the pulsating post-minimalism of the Bang on a CanAll-Stars. Based on the 1947 memoirs of trailblazing composer Colin McPhee, thework re-imagines first contact between cultures in 1930s Bali through the prismof the cross-cultural present.

Evan Ziporyn
Evan Ziporyn (b. 1959, Chicago) studied at Eastman, Yale, and the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley with Joseph Schwantner, Martin Bresnick, and GerardGrisey. He first traveled to Bali in 1981, studying with Madé Lebah, ColinMcPhee’s 1930s musical informant. He returned on a Fulbright Scholarship in1987.

Earlier that year, Ziporyn performed a clarinet solo at the first Bang on a CanMarathon in New York. His involvement with BOAC continues to this day: in 1992he co-founded the Bang on a Can All-Stars (Musical America’s 2005 Ensemble ofthe Year), with whom he has toured the globe and premiered over 100commissioned works, collaborating with Nik Bartsch, Iva Bittova, Don Byron,Ornette Coleman, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Thurston Moore, TerryRiley and Tan Dun. Their latest recording, of Steve Reich’s 2x5, was recentlyreleased on Nonesuch.

Ziporyn joined the MIT faculty in 1990 and is currently Kenan SahinDistinguished Professor. There he founded Gamelan Galak Tika in 1993, beginninga series of groundbreaking compositions for gamelan and western instruments.These include three evening-length works, 2001’s ShadowBang, 2004’s OedipusRex (Robert Woodruff, director), and 2009’s A House in Bali, anopera which joins western singers with Balinese traditional performers, and theBang on a Can All-Stars with a full gamelan. It received its world premiere inBali that summer and will receive its New York premiere at BAM Next Wave thisfall.

As a clarinetist, Ziporyn recorded the definitive version of Steve Reich’smulti-clarinet NY Counterpoint in 1996, and shared in the ReichEnsemble’s Grammy in 1998. In 2001 his solo clarinet CD, This is Not AClarinet, made Top Ten lists across the country. His compositions have beencommissioned by Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road, Kronos Quartet, American ComposersOrchestra, Maya Beiser, So Percussion, Wu Man, and BMOP. He received the 2007USA Artists Walker Award and the 2004 American Academy of Arts and LettersLieberson Fellowship. Recordings of his works have also been released on SonyClassical, New Albion, and New World. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, andhas two children, Leonardo (17) and Ava (10).


Program Information
Saturday, October 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Zankel Hall
MAKING MUSIC: EVAN ZIPORYN
David Krakauer, Clarinet
Carol McGonnell, Clarinet
Theodore Schoen, Bass Clarinet
Evan Ziporyn, Bass Clarinet
Vicky Chow, Piano
Gamelan Galak Tika
Evan Ziporyn, Director
Signal
Brad Lubman, Conductor
Jeremy Geffen, Series Moderator

ALL-EVAN ZIPORYN PROGRAM
Tsmindao Ghmerto
Hive (NY Premiere)
In Bounds
Bayu Sabda Idep (NY Premiere)

Sponsored by Ernst & Young LLP


Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.