The Louisville Project

Shevet Achim (Brothers Dwell) by Meira Warshauer Featured on New Richard Nunemaker CD Project – Work Has Special Relevance for Today

Clarinetist Richard Nunemaker has released a new CD “The Louisville Project”, which features Meira Warshauer’s “Shevet Achim (Brothers Dwell).”

The piece, for two bass clarinets, is a response to the troubled relationship between the descendants of half-brothers Yitzchak and Yishmael (sons of Abraham), now Israelis and Palestinians. Written in fall, 2000, the piece roils with the conflict between the two peoples, expressing both intense animosity and common identification. It has been observed that the most strongly felt conflicts are between peoples whose lives and histories are intertwined on many levels.

The composition exploits the acoustic properties of the bass clarinet. Color trills, tremolos, flutter tongue, glissandi, quarter tones, and extreme registers help express the confrontation. In contrast, the audible overtones in the low register, two voices contained in one, represent resonance, mutual recognition. As the piece progresses, the moments of recognition become longer, softer; the possibility of another path emerges, even though the conflict does not yet completely recede.

The title recalls Psalm 133, vs. 1: “Hinei ma tov u’ma nayim, shevet achim gam yachad (How good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together as one).” The composer comments: “As we send out this CD announcement, we are painfully aware of the current fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and the destruction in Lebanon and Israel and elsewhere. It is my hope and prayer that this music can in some small way help point all of our hearts --the children of Israel and of Ishmael, the children of Abraham, the children of Adam and Eve, the hearts of all who dwell on earth--towards a path of peace and life.”

Performers for this recording of “Shevet Achim” are Mr. Nunemaker and fellow bass clarinetist Timothy Zavadil. Mr. Nunemaker describes his feelings about the composition: “I love ‘Shevet Achim.’ Every time I perform ‘Shevet Achim’ I well up at the sheer beauty and emotion that it evokes. It is music for our time and music for humankind. A wonderful and beautiful work of art.”

The Louisville Project (AUR CD 3127) is music that was commissioned by Richard Nunemaker and premiered by him in performances in Louisville, Kentucky and Chicago, Illinois with the composers present. This CD was recorded in Louisville, Kentucky immediately following performance on the campus of the University of Louisville. For more information, including how to order this CD from Arizona University Recordings, please visit http://www.aurec.com/louisville_project.htm.

For more information about Meira Warshauer, including a complete catalog of her works, visit her website at http://home.sc.rr.com/meirawarshauer/.

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Rothko Landscapes was composed after the success of two earlier works, Multiplicities for solo clarinet and Magical Place of My Dreams for two clarinets. Both works written for the clarinetist Richard Nunemaker use extended techniques for the instruments, most notably multiphonics. Dick wondered about the possibilities of four clarinets using the same methods. He also suggested using the paintings of the great abstract expressionist, Mark Rothko, as a theme for the new work.

The first two movements are meant to be a musical realization of Rothko’s paintings, Maroon on Blue and Number 7. The last movement, Abstract Expressions, summarizes the musical events heard earlier. — Jody Rockmaker

A native of New York City, Jody Rockmaker studied at the Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, Princeton University, and the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. His teachers have included Erich Urbanner, Edward T. Cone, Milton Babbitt, Claudio Spies, Malcolm Peyton, and Miriam Gideon.

Dr. Rockmaker is the recipient of numerous awards including a Fulbright grant (1985-1987), a Barlow Endowment Commission (1995), two BMI awards for young composers, an ASCAP grant, the George Whitefield Chadwick Medal from New England Conservatory, and a National Orchestral Association Reading Fellowship. He taught at Stanford University prior to accepting his position as Associate Professor of Composition and Theory at Arizona State University in 1997.

Dr. Rockmaker’s music is published by American Composers’ Edition. Recordings of his music are available on the Centaur, Red Mark, and Master Musicians’ Collective labels.

The Clarinet Quintet was written at the request of Richard Nunemaker. As is so often the case in the classical music world, Richard and I have a convoluted set of mutual friends and associations, including the fact that he is a graduate of the University of Louisville School of Music, where I am on the composition faculty. He is also a good friend of my composition teacher, John Eaton. In fact, we met for the first time in John’s Chicago home.

Richard was named a Distinguished Alumni Fellow at the University of Louisville and returned to campus for the first time in many years in 2002, on which occasion he gave the premiere of Las viudas de Calama. We had been discussing the idea of a piece for clarinet and string quartet anyway, so he went ahead and commissioned a piece to be played sometime in 2003. As he is a remarkable performer on the bass clarinet, we decided to have the clarinet double on bass clarinet.

I started out to write a relatively conventional four-movement piece, but after the end of the third movement, I found I had nothing further to say, so I ended it there.

The first movement is approximately in rondo form, with a couple of very loud and aggressive passages alternating with more lyric ideas. The second movement is a brief scherzo, in which the instruments scurry around quietly for the outer sections, but are a bit bolder in a contrasting center section. There is a very irreverent reference to a famous 20th-century violin concerto in the middle, suggested by the use I had been making of the open strings of the quartet.

The last movement is an elegy, in which I attempt to spin out something like the sort of long, non-repeating melodies that Ravel was so good at. (It also has perhaps a reminiscence or two of Shostakovich, which I somehow didn’t realize until I heard the piece played live for the first time.) Although the bass clarinet is the principal melodic instrument in this movement, each of the instruments takes its turn as soloist before the somber ending.

The premiere performance was given by Richard Nunemaker and the Louisville String Quartet at the University of Louisville in October of 2003. — Marc Satterwhite

Marc Satterwhite is a graduate of Michigan State University and Indiana University. He spent several years as a professional orchestral double bassist before switching his musical emphasis to composition. His compositions have been performed in diverse venues all over the United States, as well as in England, Europe, Japan, Australia, Latin America and South Africa. He is published by Southern Music Company and the MSU Press, and recorded on the Summit, Coronet, KCM, Crystal and Centaur labels.

Among the groups and individuals who have commissioned, performed and recorded his works are the Boston Symphony, the Utah Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the Verdehr Trio, the London Composers Ensemble, eighth blackbird, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Core Ensemble, Tales & Scales, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, new music ensembles at Indiana University, the University of North Texas, and the University of Texas, Chicago Symphony tubist Gene Pokorny and Houston Symphony clarinetist Richard Nunemaker.

He is Professor of Music at the University of Louisville School of Music, where was the winner of the President’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activity in 2002. In addition to his teaching duties, he is the Director of the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

Just A Line From Chameleon was composed in 2001 for Richard Nunemaker. Mr. Nunemaker requested a quiet piece that would demand a great deal of instrumental control from the performers. The music is almost always very soft, soft and moderately soft and, at times, in registers of the instrument that are difficult to control at a soft dynamic level.

The title Just a Line From Chameleon refers to my harpsichord composition “Chameleon.” The first movement of that piece is a short, “perpetual motion” set of four variations, almost always in 16th notes, where each variation becomes more chromatic. The fourth variation loses its key movement, from E to Bb, while keeping its tonal movement from E to Bb. It is the pitch content from that fourth variation (measures 32 to 40) that serves as the pitch reservoir for this piece. The music is in two parts. The first contains a predominance of long note values. It begins with a melody which is played by one clarinetist at a time. The rest of the first part consists of a sectional duet. The second part introduces two very similar rhythmically active sections. The first section is interrupted by a melody in octaves and unisons. The second part is followed by a short chorale, which ends the piece. — M. William Karlins

M. William Karlins 1932-2005. He earned his B.M. and M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music, and went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1965. Among his principal teachers were Frederick Piket, Philip Bezanson, Richard Hervig, Stefan Wolpe, and Vittorio Giannini. He was the Harry N. and Ruth F. Wyatt Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Northwestern University, where he served on the faculty from 1967-2004. Karlin’s extensive compositional catalog, embraces all forms, from large orchestral and chamber works to solo and choral pieces. His saxophone music in particular, which he often combines with other individual instruments and ensembles, is widely performed in the United States and abroad.

Karlins was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, American Chamber Symphony, Fox Valley Symphony, Westminster Chamber Orchestra, The Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, Camerata Woodwind Quintet, Arizona State University, Northwestern University School of Music, Chicago Saxophone Quartet, Music in Our Time, Media Press, Sigma Alpha Iota, and WFMT (Chicago) among other groups and soloists. His Impromptu for saxophone and keyboard was a Consortium Commission from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In addition to performances by the Chicago Symphony, some of the other groups that have played his music include the Dallas, Albany, Nuremberg and Grant Park Symphonies, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, New Art Ensemble, Chicago Chamber Players, The Fine Arts, Lydian, Vermeer, Gaudeamus, Pacifica, Somogyi and Boston Composers String Quartets, Vision, Wytko, Vienna and other saxophone quartets, Quintet of the Americas, Rembrandt Chamber Players, CUBE (Chicago), Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Musica Moderna (Lodz, Poland), West German Radio, Canadian Broadcasting Co., WNYC (New York), WNIB and WBEZ (Chicago) and other radio and television stations, outstanding soloists and ensembles throughout the world.

Karlins’ music has been recorded on CRI, Brewster, Advance and Golden Crest Records, Arizona University Recordings, as well as Centaur, Hungaroton, Opus One, ACA Digital Audio, Music from Northwestern, Soundwind, Equilibrum, RIAX & Arktos compact discs.

Karlins was a member of BMI and the American Music Center. He was a member of the American Composers Alliance where he served on their National Advisory Board and Board of Governors. He was a National Arts Associate of Sigma Alpha Iota.

Improvisation on “Lines Where Beauty Lingers” for solo bass clarinet was composed in 2002, as a gift for my friend, clarinetist Richard Nunemaker. The jazz composition Lines Where Beauty Lingers was composed by my friend, composer/pianist Ron Thomas, and is included on the compact disc recording The House of Counted Days, featuring the Ron Thomas Quartet (Vectordisk HCD066691).

The beginning of the piece presents the Ron Thomas theme played without vibrato or rubato. During much of the improvisations, vibrato and performance in a “cool jazz” or easy swing style is encouraged. The term improvisations refers to the manner of composition. The performer, while encouraged to perform in jazzy styles, is not asked to improvise. All the pitches, rhythms and dynamics are indicated on the score. The performer should alter those things in agreement with the jazz style s/he has chosen. — M. William Karlins

Las viudas de Calama (The Widows of Calama) — after a poem by Marjorie Agosín

The vast Atacama Desert (two thirds the size of Italy) in northern Chile was a favorite dumping ground for the terrorist regime of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and 80s. Thousands of people were kidnapped by the police or military and executed without trial, their bodies left in the desert. Their families were never officially informed of their fate. This became so commonplace that the verb desaparecer, to disappear, took on an entirely new grammatical function, and it became possible to say, for example, “Lo desaparacieron” (they disappeared him).

The city of Calama is located in the heart of the Atacama Desert, and was the location of one of the early atrocities of the regime. Only a few weeks after the coup that brought Pinochet to power, he dispatched a group of his minions to several cities, including Calama, to summarily execute known or suspected leftists. They traveled in a Puma helicopter, which later became known as the “caravan of death.” The victims of Calama were killed in an especially brutal fashion and their bodies were never returned to their families, despite repeated promises by the government.

In Calama and other places, the families and friends of the desaparecidos would search the desert for the remains of their loved ones, hoping to achieve a measure at least of closure and peace.

Chilean poet and essayist Marjorie Agosín has dealt with these events many times in both her verse and prose works, from the unique perspective of a Jewish feminist in a Catholic, male-dominated culture.

I quote below Celeste Kostopolus-Cooperman’s translation of the first and last stanzas of The Widows of Calama:

I want to talk to you about them.
I dream about them on the shoreline,
beyond the narrow pass.
They are hollow women,
cracked pieces of clay
in a waterless sea.
I see them move alone
as in whispers.

…

The widows danced with a feather of
of the silent sand.
That is what the desert widows did.
They made paper flowers
to fill the empty shoes.
One of them gave me the hand of
a dead child,
and as I took it, it changed
into a flower of the wind.

The entire poem may be found in Agosín’s book, Lluvia en el desierto (Rain in the Desert). The stanzas are quoted with permission from the author. More information about Marjorie Agosín can be found at http://www.justbuffalo.org/media/pdf/Agosin_Resource.pdf.

The composition begins with a slow introduction, dramatic and dissonant, which gives way to a sort of valse triste, ranging through many shades of emotion until the violent conclusion. This waltz represents not only the dance described in the poem, but also the dance of so many women in Chile, Argentina and other countries, who go to the central plazas of their towns to demand justice. There they dance alone, sometimes clutching pictures of the husbands or lovers who have “been disappeared.” In Chile this dance has been given the name cueca sola. The cueca, the national dance of Chile, is normally a romantic waltz-like dance for couples, so the irony is quite clear.

La viudas de Calama was commissioned by the extraordinary contrabassoonist, Susan Nigro. The contrabassoon, like my own instrument, the double bass, is often typecast as a comic character. While it is very effective in this role, I have attempted in this piece to use a very broad range of this underused instrument’s capabilities, both technical and expressive. This performance on bass clarinet is an alternate version of the original and was given its premiere at the University of Louisville on September 11, 2002 by Richard Nunemaker and Krista Wallace-Boaz. September 11 is, as it happens, the date of the coup that brought Pinochet to power, as well as the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the USA in 2001. — Marc Satterwhite

Shevet Achim (Brothers Dwell) for two bass clarinets is a response to the troubled relationship between the descendants of half-brothers Yitzchak and Yishmael (sons of Abraham), now Israelis and Palestinians. Written in fall, 2000, the piece roils with the conflict between the two peoples, expressing both intense animosity and common identification. It has been observed that the most strongly felt conflicts are between peoples whose lives and histories are intertwined on many levels. A news photograph of a confrontation between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian is emblematic: the two men are eyeball to eyeball a direct encounter of wills. Inherent in this encounter is an intimacy which, if allowed to soften slightly, could lead to recognition of commonality, of shared ancestry and the possibility of reconciliation.

The composition exploits the acoustic properties of the bass clarinet. Color trills, tremolos, flutter tongue, glissandi, quarter tones, and extreme registers help express the confrontation. In contrast, the audible overtones in the low register, two voices contained in one, represent resonance, mutual recognition. As the piece progresses, the moments of recognition become longer, softer; the possibility of another path emerges, even though the conflict does not yet completely recede.

The title recalls Psalm 133, vs. 1: “Hinei ma tov u’ma nayim, shevet achim gam yachad (How good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together as one).” May these brothers and sisters, these two peoples, soon dwell together in harmony and the unity of peace. — Meira M. Warshauer

Meira M. Warshauer’s works have been performed and recorded to critical acclaim throughout the United States and in Israel, Europe, South America, and Asia. Critics have described her music as “spiritually ecstatic, beautifully-felt...representation of (the) mystical creative process.” A graduate of Harvard University (B.A. magna com laude), New England Conservatory of Music (M.M. with honors), and the University of South Carolina (D.M.A.), Warshauer studied composition with Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, William Thomas McKinley, and Gordon Goodwin. She has received numerous awards from ASCAP as well as the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, and the South Carolina Arts Commission. She was twice awarded the Artist Fellowship in Music by the S.C. Arts Commission, in 2004 and 1994; and in 2000, received the first Art and Cultural Achievement Award from the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina. Her composition, Yishakeyni (Sweeter than Wine) received the first place Miriam Gideon Award from the International Association of Women in Music call for scores, 2004. Warshauer is a Visiting Lecturer at Columbia College, Columbia, SC.

In addition to the composition presented on this recording, Warshauer has received commissions from violinist Daniel Heifetz, flutist Paula Robison, the Dayton (Ohio) Philharmonic, the South Carolina Philharmonic (four orchestra works), Western Piedmont Symphony, the Zamir Chorale of Boston in consortium with the Rottenberg Chorale (NYC), Zemer Chai (Washington, DC), Gratz College (Philadelphia), and Kol Dodi (New Jersey); Mak’hela and Temple Sinai (Amherst and Springfield, MA); the Wilmington (NC) Choral Society, Congregation Children of Israel (Augusta, GA), Temple Israel (Natick, MA), Columbia College, University of South Carolina, Upton Trio, and the Cantors Assembly. Her CDs include the soundtrack to the documentary Land of Promise: The Jews of South Carolina and Spirals of Light, chamber music and poetry (by Ani Tuzman) on themes of enlightenment, on the Kol Meira label; Revelation for orchestra, included on Robert Black Conducts, MMC, and Bati l’Gani (I entered My Garden) recorded by Paula Robison and Cyro Baptista on Places of the Spirit, distributed by the Pucker Gallery, Boston. YES! for clarinet and orchestra, written for and recorded by Richard Stoltzman and the Warsaw Philharmonic, is scheduled for release by MMC in 2006. Warshauer’s music is published by Oxford University Press, MMB, World Music Press, and Kol Meira Publications.

Richard Nunemaker has been clarinetist, bass clarinetist, and saxophonist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra since 1967. As saxophone and clarinet soloist with the Houston Symphony Nunemaker has given the Houston Symphony premieres of works by Ingolf Dahl, Pierre Max Dubois, Alexander Glazunov and Heiter Villa-Lobos. He has appeared as soloist with such conductors as Lawrence Foster, Jorge Mester, Sergiu Comissiona, William Harwood, Toshiyuki Shimada, Stephen Stein, David Allen Miller, Thomas Wilkins and Mariusz Smolij. Richard Nunemaker has also recorded with the Houston Symphony Orchestra as soloist in tributes to Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw with Newton Wayland, conducting. He has appeared in live Houston Symphony Orchestra television broadcasts as soloist with Newton Wayland, Sergiu Comissiona and David Allen Miller, conductors.

In addition to being a member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Richard Nunemaker is also past president and music director of the Houston Composers Alliance (HCA). HCA presents and commissions new works for several annual concerts in the Houston area. Richard Nunemaker is an artist in residence and master teacher for The Las Vegas Music Festival. Richard Nunemaker is a founding member of Airmail Special, a quartet of Houston musicians that performed original material for student and family concerts in the Houston area. During its 16-year existence, Airmail Special presented approximately 350 live performances in the Greater Houston area schools for approximately 70,000 children. Following the 1993 release of Nunemaker’s solo CD, Golden Petals (MMC 2005), he toured Austria as soloist) with bassist Peter Herbert and the Camerata Bregenz. In 1994 he was featured in the New and Improvised Music Concert with composer William Thomas McKinley at Carnegie Hall.

Richard Nunemaker is a graduate from the State University of New York at Fredonia with a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education (1964) and was awarded a Performer’s Certificate in Clarinet. Nunemaker also graduated from the University of Louisville (1966) with a Master of Music degree in clarinet. In 2002 Richard Nunemaker was honored as an outstanding alumnus from the University of Louisville and presented with the permanent title of Alumni Fellow. Richard Nunemaker has commissioned over 20 composers for more than 50 original works or arrangements. Richard Nunemaker has studied with Allen Sigel, William Willet, Clark Brody, Jerome Stowell and James Livingston.

Other Recordings by Richard Nunemaker:

Between Silence and Darkness Arizona University Recordings, LLC, AUR CD 3119
Magical Place of My Dreams Arizona University Recordings, LLC, AUR CD 3118
Multiplicities Red Mark CD 9213
Golden Petals MMC 2005
From The Great Land, with Suzanne Summerville, Mezzo Soprano
Arts Venture, University of Alaska
Logo I, New World Records 80382-2
America Swings, Pro Arte Records CDP 4351
Stompin’ At The Savoy, Pro Arte Records CDP 420

Dallas Tidwell has served as Associate-Principal Clarinetist with the Louisville Orchestra from 1970 through 1996. He has also served as Principal Clarinetist with the Kentucky Opera, Lake George New York Opera, and the Louisville Bach Society. Mr. Tidwell is a founding member of the Kentucky Center Chamber Players, a resident chamber music ensemble committed to performing some of the world’s best but least known music. The programs are lively, informative and highly entertaining.

Mr. Tidwell has been on the faculty of the School of Music for more than twenty years but only recently became a full-time faculty member. In addition to teaching clarinet, Professor Tidwell is actively involved in faculty and student chamber music productions. He has served as coach for numerous 20th Century chamber music ensembles.

Mr. Tidwell is a graduate of the University of Louisville School of Music, receiving both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in clarinet performance. His clarinet study has been under James Livingston, George Silfies, and most recently, Larry Combs, Principal Clarinetist with the Chicago Symphony.

Timothy Zavadil has been the Assistant Principal / Second / Eb Clarinetist of the Louisville Orchestra since 1998. From 1994 - 1998, he was the Assistant Principal / Bass Clarinetist of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and, prior to that, was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Mr. Zavadil has also performed with the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, under such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Sir George Solti, Zubin Mehta, and Christoph Eschenbach. Summer festival appointments have included the Spoleto (Italy) Festival Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, and the Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Zavadil holds degrees from Northwestern University (M.M.) and De Paul University (B.M.) and is currently a Lecturer in Clarinet at the University of Louisville.

Andrea Levine, principal clarinet of the Louisville Orchestra is a native of Queens, New York, 25-year-old Andrea Levine comes to the Louisville Orchestra by way of the New World Symphony, where she was a fellow for a year. Levine holds a professional studies diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music (2001) and a bachelor of music degree from the Eastman School of Music (1999). Her teachers have included Daniel Gilbert, Kenneth Grant, Franklin Cohen, Mitchell Estrin and Lawrence Sobol.

Levine has garnered a variety of orchestral experience, playing with the Cleveland Orchestra (section substitute and extra,) Akron Symphony (principal,) Cleveland Pops Orchestra (substitute principal,) Cleveland Ballet Orchestra (substitute principal,) Wheeling Symphony (substitute principal,) and Eastman Wind Ensemble (co-principal.) She has also performed in the orchestras of several noted music festivals, including the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra (co-principal,) Heidelberg Festival Orchestra (principal,) Sarasota Festival Orchestra and Chautauqua Festival Orchestra. Also active as an educator, Levine previously served as an adjunct professor of clarinet at Hiram College and maintained a studio of private students.

Krista Wallace-Boaz holds a master of music in piano performance and pedagogy from Northwestern University, where she studied pedagogy with Elvina Pearce and Frances Larimer, and piano with David Kaiserman. Mrs. Wallace-Boaz completed a bachelor of music in piano performance from the University of Louisville where she studied piano with Lee Luvisi and Naomi Oliphant. She holds three certificates from the St. Petersburg Russian Piano Institute, completing summer studies in piano and pedagogy at the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory of Music. At the University of Louisville, Mrs. Wallace-Boaz is instructor of class piano and pianist for the opera program. She is currently completing a Doctor of Music in piano performance and pedagogy at Northwestern University.

Mrs. Wallace-Boaz has taught students of all ages in the preparatory and keyboard skills programs at Northwestern University and Indiana University Southeast in both a private and group setting. In 1994, she was awarded the Baldwin National Fellowship in Teaching, an award to recognize gifted young teachers in America.

In addition to here teaching career, Mrs. Wallace-Boaz maintains an active performing career as a soloist and chamber musician, and has appeared in concerts across the United States and in Europe, including recent concerts in Belgium and appearing on Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess national radio concert series.

The Louisville Quartet

Founded in 1946, the quartet has had many illustrious members, including Sidney and Teresa Harth, Paul Kling, Grace Whitney, Virginia Schneider, Michael Davis, David Updegraff, Guido Lamell, Guillermo Helguera, Susannah Onwood, Peter McHugh and others. Since its formation, the quartet has presented hundreds of performances for audiences of all ages. With the appointment of cellist Paul York, violist Christian Frederickson, and violinist Marcus Ratzenboeck to the string department at the University of Louisville School of Music, the quartet was reformed by first violinist Peter McHugh in 2001, after a hiatus of 11 years. The quartet has quickly established itself as one of the finest ensembles in the region, receiving enthusiastic and critical acclaim. Listeners are overwhelmed by the quartet’s energy, excitement, and youthful vigor. The freshness they bring to standard and new repertoire alike is truly unique, and their performances leave audiences uplifted and enthralled.

Peter McHugh is the Distinguished Professor emeritus of Violin at the University of Louisville School of Music. He has been concertmaster and soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Nashville Symphony and the Oklahoma Symphony. He has also played with the Dallas Symphony, World Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The New Century Chamber Orchestra, and the famous Casals Festival Orchestra in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Mr. McHugh has played for such notable conductors as George Szell, Charles Munch, Rafael Kubelik, Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and Sixten Ehrling, and has played with such artists as Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Arthur Rubinstein. Mr. McHugh has recorded for RCA, New Albion Records, and Louisville First Edition Recordings.

Marcus Ratzenboeck has served on the violin faculty at the University of Louisville since 2001. Marcus is the Principal second violin of the Louisville Orchestra and the second violinist of the Louisville String Quartet. Marcus has a Masters in Violin Performance from Indiana University where he studied with Henryk Kowalski and Yuval Yaron. He also holds a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Florida State University where he studied with Eliot Chapo. While at Indiana University he served as concertmaster of the IU Symphony Orchestra and co-concertmaster of the Columbus Philharmonic. Marcus has been a performer with several symphonies including Nashville Symphony, Florida West Coast Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic, and Tallahassee Symphony. He has participated in numerous festivals including Sarasota Music Festival, Tanglewood Festival, Bear Valley Music Festival, and has served as concertmaster and soloist of the Spoleto Festival and most recently concertmaster of the Indiana University Festival Orchestra.

Christian Frederickson is currently the viola instructor at the University of Louisville, where he is a member of the Louisville String Quartet. He maintains an active performance schedule in Louisville, Kentucky, performing with the Kentucky Center Chamber Players, and the Louisville Bach Society as well as frequent recitals. He graduated from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and The Juilliard School, where his principal teachers were Paul Coletti and Eugene Becker.

He is the founding member, violist, and composer in Rachel’s, an instrumental ensemble with five albums released by Quarterstick Records of Chicago. He has performed throughout Nor America and Europe, with Rachel’s. His performances have been featured on NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” the BBC, BET TV, WNYC, and the national radio networks in Italy and Belgium. He has worked as an arranger with the bands Shipping News, The For Carnation, and shannonwright.

From 1994 to 1996 he was the first music director and principal conductor of the Turtle Bluff Orchestra, an innovative, community-based orchestra in his hometown of Port Townsend, Washington.

Cellist Paul York is a member of the music faculty at the University of Louisville and cellist for the resident faculty ensemble, the Louisville String Quartet. He maintains an active teaching and performing schedule and has appeared with numerous orchestras as a guest soloist, including the Kyung Bok Symphony (Korea), the Abilene Philharmonic, and the Sewanee Festival Orchestra. Recent solo appearances include a performance of Vivaldi’s Double Concerto in G Minor with internationally acclaimed cellist Yo Yo Ma.

Mr. York is a former member of Trio Mississippi, the resident piano trio at the University of Southern Mississippi where he was a member the music faculty from 1995 to 2000. He was also a founding member of The Logsdon Chamber Ensemble, a Texas Commission on the Arts Touring ensemble and ensemble in residence at Hardin-Simmons University. He has held principal cello positions for numerous regional orchestras and has performed with the Saint Louis Symphony under the direction of Leonard Slatkin.

In the summer months, Mr. York is a member of the faculty at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival where he teaches cello and chamber music, performs solo and chamber works, and serves as principal cello of the Festival Orchestra. He has also performed at Strings in the Mountains, the Abilene Chamber Music Series, and has served as principal cello with the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra.

As an undergraduate student, Mr. York was chosen to participate in the Piatigorsky seminar at the University of Southern California, where he received his bachelor of music. He received his Master’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara where he studied with Ronald Leonard. Other principal teachers include Gabor Rejto, Owen Carmen and Louis Potter.

Mr. York can be heard on the CRS record label and has recorded a CD of French Baroque chamber music with the University of Southern Mississippi faculty ensemble, Promenade.

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Read all the reviews on this amazing CD
Below is the review by The New Music Connoisseur
Review by The Clarinet
Review by Record Box

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The New Music Connoisseur
Barry L. Cohen

Winds Dancing Across the Fields
BLC ©2006

‘RICHARD NUNEMAKER: THE LOUISVILLE PROJECT.’ Jody Rockmaker: Rothko Landscapes (2000) l Marc Satterwhite: Clarinet Quintet (2002); Las Viudas de Calama (2001) l M. William Karlins: Just a Line from Chameleon (2001); Improvisation on “Lines Where Beauty Lingers.” (2002) l Meira M. Warshauer: Shevet Achim (2001). Mr. Nunemaker, B  and bass clarinets; members, Louisville [wind] quartet; guest artists. Arizona University Recordings, AUR CD 3127. (TT=not given)

A challenge to those who posit that liner notes are not needed to understand new music: don’t try that with this CD! How can you even begin to judge the opening work of Jody Rockmaker until you are made aware that its seemingly mysterious murmurs and sudden multiphonic shrieks have a visual theme underlying the piece and a commissioner’s special intentions in terms of its scoring? Maybe the latter fact will prove merely incidental to the listener, but the reference to paintings by a major American painter has to arouse the imagination. There is a long tradition behind this creative choice, encompassing the likes of Granados (Goya) and Mussorgsky (Hartmann) in the 19th century and Gunther Schuller (Klee), Einojuhani Rautavaara (Van Gogh), Morton Feldman (Pollock), Pink Floyd (Dali) and surely many others in the 20th. Occasionally, the individual phenomenon of synaesthesia (the mental appearance of colors produced when hearing specific musical tones) asserts itself, leaving the non-participant in the dark, so to speak. But for the most part composers have successfully created works with musical contours out of their impressions of an inherently static art form. So perhaps in that sense Mr. Rockmaker’s landscapes are unsuccessfully drawn. On the other hand, if his intention was simply the evocation of a mood, that is perfectly valid. Unfortunately, we confess an ignorance of these paintings, which disqualifies us from making a reasoned judgment.

Except for Mr. Satterwhite’s Clarinet Quintet, the remaining selections on this program are also inspired by cross-aesthetic ideas. But even the quintet, after two movements with dynamically contrasting sections, becomes in the end an elegiac statement with an emotionally rich and fully melodic part for each instrument, especially the bass clarinet, leaving one to wonder whom the composer might have had in mind. He does not say.

The quintet is an ambitious 19-minute work. There is a struggle in the first movement between polite and brash elements that remains unresolved. The second movement is delicate and scherzo-like. We think the third movement ends this work satisfyingly, and that Mr. Satterwhite wisely chose not to go on to a previously planned fourth movement.  This decision brings to mind Schubert’s two-movement “Unfinished Symphony,” which many critics consider one of the most complete works ever written.

The Widows of Calama is based on a poem by Marjorie Agosin. From the excerpts quoted and translated into English, we sense it is a touching and perhaps painfully beautiful statement dedicated to the women whose husbands were taken from them (“disappeared”) to be slaughtered in the desert by a cruel Chilean dictator.  The stanza that grabbed us by the throat is this:

The widows danced with a feather
of the silent sand
That is what the desert widows did
They made paper flowers
To fill the empty shoes
One of them gave me the hand of
a dead child
And as I took it, it changed
Into a flower of the wind.

The dance she refers to is the cueca sola, which these widows are said to perform in their anguish in the town’s central square as they cry out for justice. It is the major section of this near-ten-minute work. The dance is designed as a valse triste, and it is terrifyingly grotesque music which is not at all in three-quarter time. When it cannot be played out any longer, the pleading, the awful distress of the dance seems to subside and the dance simply comes to an end. Injustice has prevailed.

We have criticized composers before for venturing into territory that should not be trespassed, i.e., the very personal ideas expressed in poetry whose vocal music is already there. But to underline the sentiments of poetry with instrumental music is quite another matter, and we can see that Mr. Satterwhite was truly moved to write such music. It most powerfully commemorates a horror and the poetic chronicling of that horror, and we applaud him for it.

There is another work on this disc that grows out of strong and timely political roots. It follows the “Widows” and ends the CD.  Shevet Achim, by Meira Warshauer, is translated from the Hebrew as “Brothers Dwell” and implies an ironic observation which the composer has seized on. It is that Israelis and Palestinians are descendants of Isaac and Ishmael respectively, the sons of Abraham, the patriarch of both Judaism and Islam. And she backs that up with the words of Psalm 133: “May these brothers and sisters, these two peoples, soon dwell together in harmony and the unity of peace.” The music follows that notion faithfully, the two bass clarinets at first in a serious musical confrontation, brandishing their weapons – multiphonics, quarter-tones, flutter-tonguing, tremolos, extreme register leaps, raspberries that seem to shout profanities – before finding the overtones in the low end [sic] of the instrument so that the struggle comes to an end and the music transcends into a harmonious mode. Ah, were it so that music could resolve our political dissonances.

The titles of the two compositions by Mr. Karlins are actually drawn from other musical compositions of his. Just a line from Chameleon derives from a piece called Chameleon by Karlins. It has two contrasting sections, one more or less slow and long lined, the other much more staccato and rhythmic.  The music has a few nice touches.

We found his other piece far more interesting, however. The “Improv” starts out with music that has no vibrato or rubato, a kind of blah prelude to the jazzier section to come. Although the composer makes it clear he wants everything to be played as written, he also throws in a sort of mixed signal, that the player is free to stylize his passages. With the music getting very rhythmically quirky this gives Mr. Nunemaker an opportunity to really shine and then some. This is not solo music for someone seated comfortably on a bandshell; this is music for a tightrope artist, for a world-class player who knows only too well that the slightest slip will send him crashing down into ignominy. None of that! Nunemaker’s bass clarinet playing here is simply breathtaking.

And so was his playing elsewhere, as well as that of all the musicians. We should cite the on-target piano performance of Krista Wallace-Boaz in “Widows,” the unwavering partnership between Nunemaker and Timothy Zavadil in the Warshauer piece, and the playing of the Louisville Quartet in the Clarinet Quintet, especially in those final soft solo turns.

It is a worthy project that Mr. Nunemaker has undertaken with his longtime associate Paul English and should be recognized by every devotee of contemporary American music as such. Some will no doubt contend that documents like the Louisville Project come much too late in the game, that the musical elements and styles used here are now passé. But wasn’t it Beethoven who brought Classicism to its highest art? Weren’t the Romantics pretty much wrapped up in themselves until Wagner, Bruckner and Mahler and the Gurrelieder of Schoenberg brought the movement to its ultimate lofty state? If they say it’s time to move on we may agree. But move onto what? We happen to believe that in the late 20th century dodecaphony, atonality, dissonance, multiphonics and those other modern practices were not the problem at all but rather how they were misused. Listening to this disc should convince that those approaches have been resurrected to great effect, and we heartily recommend this CD.

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The Clarinet
Volume 34 Number 2
March 2007

by Dileep Gangolli

The Louisville Project. Richard Nunemaker, clarinet and bass clarinet; with Dallas Tidwell, clarinet; Timothy Zavadil, clarinet and bass clarinet; Andrea Levine, clarinet; Krista W allace-Boaz, piano; and The Louisville Quartet (Peter McHugh and Marcus Ratzenboeck, violins; Christian Frederickson, viola; and Paul York, cello). Jody Rockmaker: Rothko Landscapes; Marc Satterwhite: Clarinet Quintet and Las viudas de Calama; M. William Karlins: Just a Line From Chameleon and Improvisation on "Lines Where Beauty Lingers"; Meira M. Warshauer: Shevet Achim. ARIZONA UNIVERSITY RECORDINGS CD 3127. Total time 75:08. (available from Web site: www. aurec.com or tel. 520-749-9895/fax 520-749-9893)

I have a great admiration for Richard Nunemaker. Rather than settling into a well respected career as the bass clarinetist of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Nunemaker has embarked on expanding the clarinet and bass clarinet repertoire by commissioning and performing works by leading composers of our time. These works are usually quite challenging, requiring fervent dedication and inordinate amounts of practice time to bring to gestation. Accomplishing this feat is not easy, especially while holding down a fulltime orchestral position with one of the leading orchestras in the United States.

Nunemaker's fifth solo CD, titled The Louisville Project, is a joyful collaboration with several colleagues, consisting of music he commissioned and premiered in Louisville and Chicago. It was recorded in Louisville in 2003 with musicians based in Louisville, including clarinetists Dallas Tidwell, Timothy Zavadil, and Andrea Levine - all members of the Louisville Orchestra. Most of the compositions were recorded under the supervision of the composers.

The first selection heard is by Jody Rockmaker (b. 1961), entitled Rothko Landscapes. Written in 2000 and inspired by two abstract paintings by the famous painter Mark Rothko, this composition, for four clarinets, employs extended techniques including an emphasis on multiphonics. The performance by clarinetists Nunemaker, Tidwell (on Bb clarinets) and Zavadil, Levine (on A clarinets) is accurate and refined. The performers approach the music with a keen sense of blending and texture—as important in this musical composition as it is in Rothko's visual masterpieces. This threemovement work shows off the dynamic possibilities of the clarinet, especially its ability to play in the softer dynamic range. With an emphasis on suspension, tight harmonies, and parallel melodic lines, Rockmaker, who teaches at Arizona State University, has added an interesting and inspired work for clarinet quartet.

The Clarinet Quintet by Marc Satterwhite (b. 1954) was written in 2002 and consists of three movements. Satterwhite, a faculty member at the University of Louisville School of Music, employs the standard combination of clarinet and string quartet, but adds an unusual quirk by asking the soloist to perform on bass clarinet in the final movement. The first movement is angular, using dramatic register leaps to emphasize the wide range of the clarinet. An intense rhythmic motion powers the momentum of this movement from beginning to end. The short second movement, a scherzo marked "Presto delicato," acts as a playful bridge to the third movement. An understated atmosphere is created through the use of clarinet grace notes and string pizzicatos. In the third movement, Satterwhite demonstrates his understanding of the timbre and tenor of the bass clarinet. Rather than being obvious by exploiting the low notes of the instrument, the bass clarinet is scored in its resonant middle range, creating a haunting falsetto luster to the accompanying string quartet. Kudos to the Louisville Quartet, quartet in residence at the University of Louisville School of Music, for taking on the demanding task of learning this score with obvious dedication and enthusiasm.

Composer M. William Karlins (19322005) died while this recording was being mixed and it is dedicated to his memory, giving the project an emotional poignancy. Karlins, a longtime faculty member at Northwestern University, had compositions performed by leading international institutions, and he was especially proud of his works for clarinet and saxophone. The composer is represented by two selections on this CD, Just a Line From Chameleon (2001) and Improvisation on "Lines Where Beauty Lingers" (2002). The fIrst work is a duet for two clarinets performed by Nunemaker and Tidwell. The second work is scored for solo bass clarinet and dedicated to Nunemaker. The theme is taken from a jazz composition written by a friend of Karlins and requires the performer to interpret the piece in a "cool jazz" style while adhering to the explicit directions regarding pitches, rhythms, and dynamics indicated by the composer in the score. Nunemaker makes good use of the artistic license afforded the performer by creating an intimate jazz atmosphere evocative of Eric Dolphy or Gerry Mulligan, while maintaining a Classical sense of proportion and measured restraint. Nunemaker's flexibility on bass clarinet shines in this work.

The music of Marc Satterwhite is repeated in Las viudas de Calama (The Widows of Calama), a composition written in 2000 as a homage to the victims of the purges by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Inspired by a poem by Marjorie Agosin, this work is scored for bass clarinet and piano. As would be expected by the title and subject matter, this is a brutal and violent composition. The performance is dispatched with abandon and despair by Nunemaker and pianist Krista Wallace-Boaz.

Completing this CD is a work for two bass clarinets by composer Meira M. Warshauer (b. 1949). Based in South Carolina, Warshauer has won numerous prestigious awards and has had compositions recorded and performed by illustrious soloists such as Richard Stoltzman and Paula Robison. Mining her rich Jewish heritage, Warshauer's music draws from spiritual themes expressed in a taut, contemporary style of wliting. Her composition on this CD, Shevet Achim (Brothers Dwell), is scored for two bass clarinets and is inspired by the troubled relationship between the descendants of half-brothers Yitzchak and Yishmael (sons of Abraham) who are now Israelis and Palestinians. A soulful outpouring of resignation and hope, this composition is performed with intensity and introspection by bass clarinetists Nunemaker and Zavadil. Contemporary techniques such as glissandi, flutter tongue, and micro tones are employed to evoke both the sorrow and shared promise of the future of this chronically troubled land.

This CD is a wonderful testament to how an individual musician can make a difference in creating a body of literature for our instrument through artistic collaboration with composers and colleagues. The sound and audio quality on this recording is very good, with special emphasis on capturing the soft, pianissimo volume that the clarinet is so good at accomplishing. The performers are all dedicated to the task that such an ambitious endeavor entails. My only criticism, more a reflection of personal tastes, is that much of the music sounds too similar in aesthetic and approach, and does not display enough variety. Given that Nunemaker has selected composers whose music he champions, it is understandable that the music would lean toward similarity rather than contrast. Perhaps future CDs by Nunemaker will reflect composers whose musical voices reflect the broader spectrum of contemporary music.

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Clarinettist, bass clarinettist and saxophone player (Houston Symphony since 1967), Richard Nunemaker has long been a driving force in the expansion of the clarinet repertoire in the USA. This is his tenth recording project, the third for Arizona, and he is currently working on a sixth solo album. He has commissioned over twenty composers who have produced more than fifty works for him, work that was recognised in 2002 with a Fellowship from the University of Louisville. Here he plays in all the pieces.

This CD features the music of four composers, one of which -- M William Karlins -- died in 2005 at the age of 73. His was a quiet meditative world; Just a Line from Chameleon for two clarinets, a Nunemaker commission in 2001, is typical.

Marc Satterwhite (born 1954), a professional double bass player before devoting himself to composition, is Professor of Music at Louisville and director of the Gawemeyer Award. Las viudas de Calama is a searing ten minutes for bass clarinet and piano after a poem by the Chilean poet Marjorie Agosin, dealing with Pinochet's regime of desaparecer, the execution of thousands who disagreed with him. In contrast, his clarinet quintet inhabits fairer ground, with a light central presto and more sombre finale, now a bass clarinet weaving through the elegiac violin melody.

Meira Warshauer (born 1949) is represented with a bass clarinet duet, Shevet Achim ('Brothers Dwell') reflecting the more personal family conflicts that arise between Israeli and Palestinian families. The instruments in their lowest registers rise, entwined in turmoil.

The youngest composer is Jody Rockmaker (born 1961) who, in his Nunemaker commission of 2000, chose to explore three Marc Rothko paintings with four clarinets. Maroon on Blue begins with striking sonorities and contrasts.

Some tracks are rather dry, but the performances are, as can be expected, excellent.

Copyright © 18 August 2007 Patric Standford, Wakefield UK

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