CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Three Generations: Bryce Dessner and Nico Muhly
Part of Three Generations, curated by Steve Reich.
Performers
Pekka Kuusisto, Violin
Nadia Sirota, Viola
Nicolas Altstaedt, Cello
Adam Marks, Piano
Nico Muhly, Piano
Chris Thompson, Percussion
Program
BRYCE DESSNER Tuusula
BRYCE DESSNER Skrik Trio (World Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)
NICO MUHLY No Uncertain Terms (World Premiere, commissioned by Carnegie Hall)
Performance includes a discussion with Steve Reich, Bryce Dessner, and Nico Muhly
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately 90 minutes without intermission, followed by a discussion with Steve Reich, Bryce Dessner, and Nico Muhly.Lead support for the 125 Commissions Project is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Public support for the 125 Commissions Project is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional funding is provided by members of Carnegie Hall's Composer Club.
Public support for Three Generations is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Steve Reich is the holder of the 2016–2017 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall.
Three Generations: Changing the Direction of Concert Music
The first generation to initiate those changes are now in their 70s or 80s and include Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt, and John Adams. The music of these composers then interested a younger generation now approaching their 60s, including Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, who formed the Bang on a Can collective. In turn, a still younger generation, now approaching their 40s, took up both of these earlier generations and carried all these ideas even further. This very large generation is represented here by Bryce Dessner and Nico Muhly.
In addition to the performance of their music by several outstanding ensembles—including Ensemble Signal, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and the JACK Quartet—many of these composers will discuss their music after the concerts.
—Steve Reich
Bios
Pekka Kuusisto
Pekka Kuusisto is internationally renowned for his fresh approach to the violin
repertoire. This season, he performs a series of prestigious concert dates, including
debuts at the BBC Proms in London with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, as well as at
the Edinburgh International Festival as part of the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä's
European tour. He also returns to the Seattle Symphony, tours with the Junge Deutsche
Philharmonie,play-directs the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and premieres Daníel
Bjarnason'sViolin Concerto, written especially for him, with the Los Angeles
Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel.
An advocate of new music, Kuusisto gave the world premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund's Violin
Concerto, leading to a critically acclaimed release of the work with the Finnish
Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2015. He also collaborates frequently with composers Daníel
Bjarnason and Thomas Adès, and premieres a new work by Anders Hillborg this season with the
Swedish Chamber Orchestra.
A keen chamber musician, Kuusisto has recently performed recitals at London's Wigmore
Hall, Dortmund's Konzerthaus, and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. His chamber-music partners
include Nicolas Altstaedt, Anne Sofie von Otter, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Alexander
Lonquich, and Olli Mustonen. He is also the artistic director of the award-winning Meidän
Festivaali, which takes place annually in Sibelius's hometown of Tuusula.
Pekka Kuusisto plays a fine Stradivari violin kindly loaned to him through the Beare's
International Violin Society.
Nadia Sirota
Violist Nadia Sirota's varied career spans solo performances, chamber music, and
broadcasting. In all branches of her artistic life, she aims to open up classical music to
a broader audience. Sirota's singular sound and expressive execution have served as muse to
dozens of composers, including Nico Muhly, Donnacha Dennehy, Bryce Dessner, Missy Mazzoli,
and Marcos Balter. Recently, Sirota won a 2015 Peabody Award, broadcasting's highest honor,
for her Q2 Music podcast Meet the Composer, which deftly profiles some of the most
interesting musical thinkers living today.
This season, Sirota releases two new records, one featuring Muhly's Viola Concerto with
the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin, and one featuring Dennehy's
groundbreaking work for viola and microtonal viola da gamba consort, Tessellatum,
with gambist Liam Byrne.
Sirota is a member of the chamber sextet yMusic and the chamber orchestra Alarm Will
Sound, and has lent her sound to recording and concert projects by such artists and
songwriters as Anohni, Jónsi, and Arcade Fire. In 2013, she won Southern Methodist
University's Meadows Prize, awarded to pioneering artists and scholars with an emerging
international profile. She received her undergraduate and master's degrees from The
Juilliard School, studying with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Hsin-Yun Huang.
"If the ancient and unassuming viola is having a renaissance in contemporary music, it's
thanks largely to Nadia Sirota, who specializes in, well, anything a composer can throw at
her" (New York magazine).
Nicolas Altstaedt
German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is renowned for his creativity and versatility in
his captivating performances of repertoire on both gut and modern strings.
Awarded the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2010, Altstaedt performed Schumann's Cello
Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne
Festival. Since then, he has performed worldwide with orchestras that include the
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra,
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and all of the BBC orchestras, working with conductors Sir
Roger Norrington, Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Andrea Marcon, among
others.
Orchestral highlights of this season include debuts with the Deutsche Sinfonie-Orchester
Berlin and Martyn Brabbins, Kammerorchester Basel and Giovanni Antonini, NDR
Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Thomas Hengelbrock, and NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
(Hannover) and Andrew Manze. Altstaedt will perform Esa-Pekka Salonen's new concerto this
summer at the Helsinki Festival with the composer conducting. In future seasons, Altstaedt
will work with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre
Symphonique de Québec, and Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, in addition to being the
artist-in-residence with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, where he will work with Sakari
Oramo and Krzysztof Urbanski.
At the invitation of Gidon Kremer, Altstaedt became artistic director of the Lockenhaus
Chamber Music Festival in 2012. In 2014, he took over the artistic direction of the Haydn
Philharmonie, with whom he regularly performs at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Esterhazy
Festival, and on tour.
Altstaedt was a BBC New Generation Artist (2010-2012) and a recipient of the
Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2009. He plays a violoncello by Giulio Cesare Gigli,
Rome, from around 1760.
Adam Marks
Praised as an "excellent pianist" with "titanic force" (The New York Times), Adam
Marks is an active soloist, chamber musician, and educator. Highlights of his 2016-2017
season include celebrations of Steve Reich with the San Francisco Symphony, a tour of
Australia with eighth blackbird, a collaboration with filmmaker Jenny Perlin at the Whitney
Museum of American Art, and continued touring and residency work as part of the duo
Albatross. He has appeared as soloist with the Mission Chamber Orchestra, Manchester
Symphony Orchestra, and National Repertory Orchestra, and at notable venues
that include the Salle Cortot, Carnegie Hall, Miller Theatre, Logan Center for the Arts,
Millennium Park, and Ravinia. He was a laureate of the 2008 Orléans Competition for
contemporary music in France. Recent international solo performances include recitals in
Brazil, Singapore, and Croatia.
Marks holds an undergraduate degree from Brandeis University, a master's from the
Manhattan School of Music, and a doctorate in piano performance from New York University
with research in works for the vocalizing pianist. His teachers include Sara Davis
Buechner, Anthony de Mare, Donn-Alexandre Feder, Evan Hirsch, and Lois Banke. Marks proudly
plays Yamaha pianos and Schoenhut toy pianos.
Chris Thompson
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area,
percussionist Chris Thompson has enjoyed collaborations with dozens of performing artists,
composers, bands, and ensembles. His work spans a range of musical genres, and has resulted
in the world premieres of more than 100 new works and the release of 25 studio
albums.
Since 2008, Thompson has been a member of Alarm Will Sound, known for its versatility in
presenting music of a wide variety of styles, from arch-modernist to the pop-influenced. He
is also a member of the New York-based ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble), Line C3
Percussion Group (of which he is a founding member), and Chamber Orchestra of New
York.
As a guest, Thompson has performed or recorded with an eclectic mix of ensembles and
musicians, including Antony and the Johnsons, Björk, Tyondai Braxton, Brooklyn
Philharmonic, Dirty Projectors, Doveman, Efterklang, GLANK, The Knights chamber orchestra,
Lang Lang, Mark Morris Dance Group, The Metropolitan Opera, Oklahoma and Vermont Mozart
Festival orchestras, Stamford Symphony, They Might Be Giants, and Wordless Music
orchestra.
Thompson has recorded numerous solo and chamber music projects on the Bedroom Community,
Cantaloupe, Innova, Naxos, New Amsterdam, New World, New Focus, Nonesuch, Sono Luminus, and
Sony Classical record labels. He studied classical and contemporary percussion at UCLA with
Mitchell Peters and The Juilliard School with Daniel Druckman.