Nominated for the 2022 Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year

Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra (2018) 

Incantata
Inquieto
Maestoso
Brioso; Cantabile
        Movements 3 & 4 are performed without interruption.

PROGRAM NOTE

Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra was commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University. Scored for solo violin and six percussionists, and conceived as a companion piece to the eponymous work by Lou Harrison, my concerto is cast in four contrasting movements that flow into one another to make an eighteen-minute trajectory; the last two movements are played without pause. The first movement, marked “incantata” (enchanted), conjurs an exotic, pure sound world by way of a lyrical violin barcarolle with ringing pitched percussion, including a pair of vibraphones, as the accompaniment. The second movement, “inquieto” (restless), is a fast dirge that highlights two xylophones in close conversation both with one another and with the violin. The third movement, majestic in tone and tempo, is a recitative and aria that showcase the warmth and mysterious colour of a pair of marimbas. The recitative features the solo timpani in dialogue with the violin; chromatic inflections of the aria’s lyrical violin line embody the drama (and sense of melting) of flying too close to the sun.  The final movement, “brioso” (spirited), creates a dialectic between a wild, exotic dance and a bittersweet anthem (“cantabile”). All mallet percussion instruments now join in a melodic role, building to a “wall of sound” with the return of the brioso theme.  After a brief violin cadenza, the skins (drums) rise energetically to the foreground for the first time. Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra is dedicated with gratitude and appreciation to Frank Epstein, Nicholas Kitchen, and the New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble.

-	Kati Agócs

RECORDING CREDITS

Frank Epstein, Conductor
Nicholas Kitchen, Violin
New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble: Doyeon Kim, Jackson Rowles, David Uhlmann, Shan Wang, Tennison Watts, Leigh Wilson
Recording Engineer: Jeremy Sarna
Mixing and mastering: Eric Engler
Run time: 19:06
Recorded on February 14, 2020, Jordan Hall, Boston

Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra (Solo Violin & Six Percussionists)

Sheet music available at: https://www.iandeterling.com/witch-of-november
The “witch” in Witch of November is a personification of the prevailing winds that blow across the Great Lakes region in late autumn. Beginning with impressionistic wind chimes, the vibraphone evokes the approaching tempest. The ‘Witch’ appears as descending tritones (tuba, measure 21) and begins to conjure the destructive power of Lake Superior with its churning melody. After a harrowing storm, the winds drift away, leaving behind a calm lake under a clear, frosty night. 
Commissioned by Dr. Derek Bromme, tuba

Witch Of November

mr. Gnome's fourth full-length album release, The Heart of a Dark Star, available November 18, 2014 on El Marko Records.

©2014 El Marko Records
ASCAP

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For Ten Musicians: Three Female Singers, Three Percussionists, Piano, Harp, Violin, and Cello 
From the album: 'The Debrecen Passion'
Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Sonja Tengblad, Margot Rood, and Katherine Growdon, vocal soloists
Year of Composition: 2011
Commissioned by Meet the Composer for Metropolis Ensemble, New York
Score available at:
https://www.tfront.com/p-474121-vessel-for-ten-musicians-2011.aspx#474121

A recording of Vessel is featured on "The Debrecen Passion", an album released on the BMOP/Sound Label in January 2016.

Vessel's three female voices each embody different sides of a lover addressing her beloved. The result is a polytextual motet -- in the spirit of Renaissance macaronic motets that used simultaneous settings of texts in multiple languages, often to mask hidden meanings. Each voice sings a distinct text in a distinct language, and each text is a different manifestation of the idea of a Vessel.  Let us imagine that the beloved is from another culture; in an attempt to forge a rapprochement, one adopts the beloved’s language, or learns to speak in his tongue. The three poems in Hebrew, English, and Latin each complement each other and enlarge each other’s resonances. The setting of each text has its own rhythmic metabolism and intervallic palette. In the well-known Cummings text ‘i carry your heart(i carry it in)’ the poet becomes a physical vessel; the Jehuda Halevi text functions as a vessel itself, rhapsodically enticing the beloved into a garden, and culminating in a Song of Songs quote (‘my beloved is mine, and I am his’). The Latin text, a fragment from a Catullus poem, boasts about the speed and reliability of a sea vessel - a boat which can be viewed as a symbol of love and prowess as it carries the man back from faraway foreign lands.  

-Kati Agócs

Vessel (Ten Musicians)

A Dream of Spring

A short Trailer Style piece written with epic battle in mind.

The Black Legion

Show number 4 in my 'Classical Moments' series on Gateway 97.8 in the UK.  Listen live every Sunday at 3pm or catchup here on soundcloud.  This week's show features 6 year old composer and piano pupil Arun Dutta-Reynolds

Classical Moments Show 4

16th century. The Spanish Golden Age, the British rise to power. Strict Catholic childhood a perfect «Christian lord» should receive, and his thirst for the beyond — all the needed ingredients for the man Indians will believe to be the incarnation of Tezcatlipoca, the god creating and destructing the world.

The track is a part of "Tezcatlipoca y el Fuego" universe by Franz Wertvollen. Discover this story through La Alegría music video: youtube.com/watch?v=gpPU8mmnyD0

Full album coming soon.

La Alegría

Pianists Xenia Pestova and Pascal Meyer at contemporary music festival Ars Musica, Brussels, Belgium, 2018.

Textile 1 (2006) for two pianos came into being when Egidija Medeksaite discovered the technique of mapping the patterns she was using in her textile work onto musical structures. The initial formula for a composition is fixed in the form of a geometrical textile pattern; the white and black elements of the grid convey musical microformations of the same nature but in opposition (for example, the ascending or descending directions of the movement of sounds), as if they were warp and weft of a textile. What is important for pianist here is to achieve the smooth, flowing, encompassing flow of sounds, as if they were the play and sparkle of small crystals. 

Linas Paulauskis, Music Information Centre Lithuania

Textile_1

April 1945

Improvisational Harp Duet recorded and edited on Logic Pro X

Improvisation on Two Harps

As a composer and arranger, I strive to find a balance between making a work aesthetically intriguing while accessible for musicians of varying skill levels. My works have been performed by educational ensembles at high schools and colleges as well as amateur community bands, orchestras, and ensembles all around the world. More demanding works in my portfolio have attracted the attention of members from prestigious organizations such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the São Paulo State Symphony, and the San Antonio Symphony.

I carry not only a passion for creating, but a devotion to sharing my work, ideas, and unquenchable thirst for knowledge. In pursuit of a deeper understanding of everyday life, I teach students to approach their education with enthusiasm and to always reach for deeper insight. I guide them to overcoming their fear of failure and self doubt - especially those that are transitioning into college for the first time. I live by the principles I teach and strive to maintain relevance as an instructor in my field through frequent performances of my works, my creative portfolio, and my professional network. As a lifelong learner, I am continuously experimenting with new techniques, approaches, and ideas.

Witch Of November

Ian Deterling

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