Reelin' in the Years

Juno (2015)

For Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Percussion, Piano

For much of the world, 2015 was one of the warmest winters on record. In Boston, where I live, it was one of the coldest. By mid-January it seemed like we might get a pass from mother nature, but in the last week of January, winter storm Juno paid us a visit, launching a series of massive blizzards that brought a record breaking amount of snowfall. At the time I was holed up in a small New Hampshire cabin, fireplace and food close at hand, working on this piece, actually. For me the storms brought an eerie, magical calm: leafless trees crackling in the wind; pristine, untouched snow as far the eye could see; deep cold and an endless white horizon. At the same time my wife, eight months pregnant with our son, was alone in Boston, commuting to work on treacherous, ice-covered streets hemmed in by ten foot tall snow banks and a sea of frustrated commuters. The contrast was extreme. My piece Juno, reflects on that time: the anticipation before the first big storm; the beautiful stillness of fresh snow; the loud, dirty, struggles of an urban winter; and the feeling of heaviness as the season drags on seemingly without end. Juno was commissioned by the Mandel Foundation for the Utah Arts Festival and premiered in June 2015 by the Verge Ensemble.

Recorded 9.30.15 live at Bates Recital Hall
UT Austin New Music Ensemble
Dan Welcher, Conductor

www.roberthonstein.com

Juno

This piece explores some of the various, contrasting qualities of swarm behavior – viciousness, unpredictability, ambiguity, agitation, etc. – exhibited through the medium of a large swarm of string instruments.

SWARM (for string orchestra)

Philomel (1964) - Milton Babbitt

Liz Pearse, live voice
Bethany Beardslee, recorded voice
Mark II synthesizer, 4 channel sound
John Fielder, sound engineer


Recorded live 7/9/2015 at Bancroft Street Market as part of the Omaha Under the Radar Festival. 



Milton Babbitt- Philomel

2016

Composed at the Tanglewood Music Center

Christina Hughes, flute
Naho Zhu, bassoon
Paul Torrisi, trumpet
Addison Maye-Saxon, trombone
Claire-Chung Lim, piano
Heather Thomas, Amy Semes, violins
Leonardo Vásquez, viola
Lucas Button, violoncello
Charles Paul, contrabass
Max Grafe, conductor

La grue des sables (Tanguy Responses II)

Chamber Concerto for Trumpet, Violin & Ensemble (2016)
I.   Déjà vu (passacaglia sospeso)
II.  Rapprochement (intermezzo)
III. Détente(s) (scherzo)

IU New Music Ensemble, April 22, 2017
David Dzubay, conductor; Simin Ganatra, violin; John Rommel, trumpet

instrumentation: 
Fl/Pc, Ob/Ehn, T.Sax, Cl, Bcl, Bn/Cbsn - Hn, Trb, Tuba - 2 Perc, Pno - Va, Vc, Cb 
solo Violin and solo Trumpet (+Flugelhorn, Piccolo Trumpet)

http://pronovamusic.com/notes/chamberconcerto.html

Simin Ganatra, Violin
John Rommel, Trumpet/Flugelhorn/Piccolo Trumpet
Marco Núñez, Flute/Piccolo/Alto Flute 
Jacob Walsh, Oboe/English Horn 
Wai Ki Wun, Clarinet 
Cameron Winrow, Bass Clarinet 
Nellie Sommer, Bassoon/Contrabassoon 
Nathan Howard, Tenor Saxophone 
Chris Neiner, Horn
Kenneth Johnson, Trombone 
Sam Appleton, Tuba 
Matthew Schultheis, Piano 
Mitchell Beck, Percussion
Joel Castro-Lawicki, Percussion 
Mark Hatlestad, Viola
Alex Krew, Cello
Sharif Ibrahim, Double Bass
David Dzubay, Conductor

Chamber Concerto 1. Déjà vu (passacaglia sospeso)

SPEC. : Voice, Cello, & Live Electronics [2017]

For Orchestra.

Recorded by the Boston University Symphony Orchestra on April 23rd, 2018.

Ligament Tree

Max Grafe writes music characterized by "jagged declamations and muffled filigree" (Gramophone) with the aim of striking a distinctive balance between the stylistic immediacy of modernism and the dramatic power of romanticism. Max’s music has been commissioned and programmed by a wide range of ensembles—including the New York Philharmonic, the New York New Music Ensemble, Quince Ensemble, ensembleNEWSRQ, and Duo Entre-Nous—and has been featured at numerous music festivals across the country, including the Tanglewood Music Center, the Resonant Bodies Festival, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Current and upcoming projects include collaborations with Hypercube and pianist Benjamin Hochman. Max is a founding member of New York-based composer collective ICEBERG New Music, which recently concluded its sixth annual season in collaboration with Decoda Ensemble and poet Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz. Max’s music appears on commercial recordings by the New York Philharmonic, Quince Ensemble, Duo Entre-Nous, pianists Jenny Lin and Mika Sasaki, and harpist Emily Levin.

Max has received several of the most prestigious awards available to emerging American composers, including a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a William Schuman Prize from BMI, two consecutive Palmer Dixon Prizes from the Juilliard School, and a Morton Gould Young Composer Award from ASCAP.

Max is a member of the music faculties at Montclair State University and the Kaufman Music Center. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School in 2018, a Master of Music degree from Juilliard in 2013 and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in 2011. Further studies have taken place at Mannes College of Music, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Tanglewood Music Center.