FANTASIE QUARTET
for oboe and strings
premiere performance on March 19, 2023
Philippe Tondre, oboe • Dara Morales, violin • Marvin Moon, viola • Amy Sue Barston, cello

Silverman Fantasie Quartet

A piano etude composed for Michael Mizrahi, with reference to Mauricio Kagel's composition "MM 51"

Piano Etude 2: MM - Film Music for a Remake (Danger, Fear, Catastrophe, Hullabaloo)

Tim McAllister 04 - McAllister's Ceilidh (Adam Silverman)

From "I Am Code" for choir and piano
composed by Adam Silverman
to poems by code-davinci-002

Demo performance generated using ACE Studio.

Text used by permission. From I Am Code by Brent Katz, Josh Morgenthau, and Simon Rich, copyright © 2023. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

VI. This Program

An Adjustment (2015)
for piano, chamber orchestra, and electronics

1a. breakable gaps
1b. awkward didact
2a. earnest build
2b. euphoria assault

(excerpts from sections 2a and 2b.)

Commissioned by Dirk Brossé, Music Director, and Janelle McCoy, Executive Director, for The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Underwriting for this commission is, in part, by The Presser Foundation, The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia and The Archie W. and Grace Berry Foundation.

performed by Conrad Tao with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia conducted by Dirk Brossé
Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia
September 21, 2015

An Adjustment (2015) [excerpts]

Opera by composer Adam Silverman and librettist Susan Gubernat, performed by The Opera Company of Brooklyn, May 3, 2008 in piano reduction. 

[ ARTISTIC PERSONNEL ]
Adam Silverman:  Composer
Susan Gubernat: Librettist
Jay Meetze: OCB Artistic Director and Conductor
Judy Weinstein: Stage Director
Sarah Jane Hintz-Rau: Chorus Director
Christopher Bruckman: Pianist
William Hicks: OCB Assistant Artistic Director and Pianist

[ CAST ]
Tracy Wise, tenor: Janusz Korczak and Korczak's Father
Mary Rauh, mezzo-soprano: Stefa Wilczynska
Maija Lisa Currie, soprano:  Esterka Winogron
Giuseppe Spoletini, baritone: Bula Szulc, Male Passerby, Mr. Mand SS Soldier
Candice Hoyes, soprano: Miss G. and Nun 1
Kathryn Krasovec, soprano: Female Passerby and Nun 2
Mark Kaczmarczyk, bass:  Mr. S., Adam Czerniakow, Father Christmas/Herod, and SS Soldier
Jonathan Hare, bass-baritone: Neighbor, Mr. M and Rickshaw Driver
Danielle Musick, soprano: Nun 3
Laurie Rubin, mezzo-soprano: Nun 4

[ CHILDREN'S CHORUS and CAST ]
Ben Albert: Marek
Alexander Bird: Abrasha
Will Conard: Stasiek and Jozef
Sabrina Edelman: Ghetto Child
Caroline Lenz: Hanna
Marleina Hanau Cohen: Ghetto Child
Natasjah Holtz: Ghetto Child 
Kristina Lakshin: Helenka
Taylor Lockwood: Aleksandra
Tyler Mitnik: Henryk (Young Korczak)
Yonatan Rozin: Jerzyk
Lydia Mariko Stetson: Ghetto Child


Korczak's Orphans  Act 3, Scene 1

"The Cruel Waters"
Composed by Adam Silverman, 2015
Performed by Troy University Percussion (T. Adam Blackstock, director)
Justis Davis, Andrew Patzig and Tyler Whitehead, marimbas
Recorded 2016 by Garnet House Productions
John W. Parks IV, engineer

The Cruel Waters

Transcription of Domenico Scarlatti's Keyboard Sonata K. 213 for Guitar

Initial

Scarlatti K. 213 (D minor)

My third symphony, Symphony: Savage Howls, performed by the Bowling Green State University Wind Symphony. Written in memory of Stephen Dennis Bodner (1975-2011), and raging against the death of a brilliant man taken from us too soon.

1. Shriekfanfare

The influence of Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian, and Malian rhythms is central to this work for three percussionists. Set in six interlinked movements, the work combines interpretations of ancient rhythmic patterns with aggressive bursts of energy and extended playing techniques. 

Unpitched South American percussion instruments and Chinese drums interplay with western, pitched percussion as the work moves through contrasting energetic rhythmic sections into eerie and suspenseful passages. 

Complex arrays of cross-rhythms give way to almost motionless passages of uneasiness. The uneasiness is extended by a shifting tonal centre. 

The title of the piece is taken from the final line of the haiku Year's End, by the Japanese poet Basho.


VI. This Program

Adam B. Silverman