Alex Garde, percussion

PROGRAM NOTE
Ramification is the final panel of my Triptych, coming after Negative Capability, for electric guitar, and Whispering lunar incantations, for prepared harp. All three pieces focus on the creation of an idiosyncratic, (relatively) unpitched sound world and emphasize gesture within a developing and evolving structure. Ramification is most concerned with different types of surfaces and branching paths/connections (ramifications) between them. Sometimes materials develop linearly along these paths, while jumping suddenly from one to the next at other times. My hope is that listening occurs on multiple levels of detail for both the performer and audience. Similar types of gestures (dragging vs scratching vs striking) occur on vastly different surfaces (gongs vs floor tom vs wood plank vs guiro vs chimes) with different implements (mallet vs superball vs mallet shaft vs brush vs nails), resulting in a range of drastically different sound qualities that seek to unify themselves, but may not always do so.
Ramification was composed for percussionist, Alex Garde, as part of the 2021 Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice. — HAB

Ramification (2021)

(2021) viola duo

An animated and emotionally-charged conversation between two individuals who are so thrilled to be reunited that they struggle to avoid talking over and interrupting one another. 

Motormouth & Chatty Kathy was awarded 3rd Prize in the 2021 Tallā Rouge International Composer Competition.

This recording (rough draft) is performed by Tallā Rouge (Lauren Spaulding & Aria Cheregosha).

www.TallaRouge.com

FREE sheet music available: http://www.jennyjacksoncomposer.com/motormouth-chatty-kathy

Motormouth & Chatty Kathy

Nathalie Joachim, Composer
Jaki Shelton Green, Librettist
Yvonne Lam, Viola

Blood Sister

Buy it here!
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/equaeverpoise

Written and performed by a Light Sleeper:

Maria Elena Hernandez - alto and tenor saxophones
Traci Huff - viola
Matthew Jung - drums, keyboard
Dheeru Pennepalli - guitar

A LIGHT SLEEPER "Chrysanthemums" from "Equaeverpoise"

THIS AUDIO RECORDING IS ARCHIVAL AND UNPUBLISHED. 

World premiere performed live on August 18, 2022 by Timothy McAllister (alto saxophone) and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra.

Scores - Recordings

For Wadada Leo Smith (Adagio)

Retro-future for viola solo

LE PLI Concert 17 Juillet 2015 Avec ANTONIN LE FAURE ( Alto),  NOE NILLNI ( Trompette)

Pointed toe for Viola and Trumpet

Boston premiere, performed by Mark Berger, March 2016

Chasalow - The Fundamental Object For Viola And Electronic Sounds

Michael Hall, viola
Inara Zandmare, piano
Michael Burns, composer
World Premiere
Guest Recital
University of North Carolina Greensboro (2/2017)

Michael Burns – Moods–Modes (2017) viola and piano. World Premiere

Written for Kurt Rohde's Farewell Tour.  Premiered in Davis, CA by Kurt Rohde and Jared Redmond in May, 2018.

Kurt Rohde

Hammer for Viola and Piano

FOR PARIS, for viola and wordless choir
Featuring Sally Chisholm and the UW Choir Choir
Music by Laura Schwendinger

FOR PARIS, for viola and wordless choir

Michael Hall has performed and taught across Europe, Asia and the United States. Described by the New Music Connoisseur as “utterly masterful,” and Chamber Music Today as having “superb technique,” he recently made his Chicago Orchestra Hall solo debut and concluded a recital tour to Vienna, Austria and Udine and Tolmezzo, Italy. Hall has been a featured performer at the Thailand International Composition Festival in Bangkok, the Positano Chamber Music Festival in Italy, the Vianden International Chamber Music Festival in Luxembourg and the Composer’s Concordance Series in New York City. 

Twice he has presented world premieres at International Viola Congresses at Minneapolis and Reykjavik, Iceland, performed at the 2014 Primrose International Festival in Los Angeles, and presented to critical acclaim the North American premiere of Chen Yi’s, Xian Shi, the first viola concerto written by a Chinese composer, with the Chicago Composers Orchestra, and earlier with the Chiang Mai Philharmonic in Thailand. 

Upcoming performances include the inaugural Ear Taxi Festival in Chicago, 2016 New Music Gathering, Bandung String Festival in Indonesia, Northwest Symphony, 2016 UMKC Summer Composition Workshop, 2016 Thailand Int. Composition Festival in Bangkok. 

Additional works written for Hall by renowned composers include Jim Mobberley, Mara Gibson, Narong Prangcharoen, Eric Moe, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Adam Greene, Matthew Burtner, Marta Ptaszynska, Yu Pengfei, Christian Ellenwood, Seth Boustead, Michelle McQuade Dewhirst, Eric Malmquist and David Kirtley. 

Composers currently writing for Michael Hall include Katherine Bergman, Amy Williams, Rob Deemer and Ilya Levinson. 

Michael loves hiking in the Grand Tetons and Wind River Ranges, chocolate ice cream, great literature, collaborating with friends and working with students in outreach settings in underfunded schools on Chicago's South Side. 

Michael Burns – Moods–Modes (2017) viola and piano. World Premiere

Michael Hall - Viola

Related tracks