A CUBE performance from March 30, 2001 at Columbia College, Chicago

Leaving, Arriving (2001)---Russ Grazier
	for violin and ensemble (World premiere)

Guillaume Combet, violin
Caroline Pittman, flute
Patricia Morehead, oboe
Teresa Reilly, clarinet	
Greg Flint, horn
Lewis Kirk, bassoon	
Jon Johnson, percussion
Sebastian Huydts, piano	
Philip Morehead, conductor

A chamber concerto for violin and chamber ensemble, Leaving, Arriving was composed in New Hampshire between November 2000 and February 2001. It is a single movement piece in two primary sections that are connected by a violin cadenza at the center of the piece. For several years prior to the composition of this piece I had been interested in writing a chamber work that featured violin, specifically a work in which the violin would be the only string instrument. The idea of a supporting cast that primarily consisted of wind instruments intrigued me. The ensemble I decided upon is a woodwind quintet plus a percussionist and pianist. This combination offers a wide range of instrumental qualities to play off the violin within a relatively small cast. The slow opening section of the work is filled with a recurring motif – descending half-steps which are often accompanied by half-step trills in the winds. These half-steps become an integral part of the fast-paced second half of the piece in which the violin trades frantic riffs with the ensemble. The piece was written for and dedicated to both CUBE and this evening’s guest soloist, Guillaume Combet.

Russ Grazier, Jr. is a Co-Founder of the Portsmouth Music & Arts Center (PMAC) and its Executive Director. A native of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Russ is a composer and saxophonist who has taught saxophone, composition, and music theory for over 25 years.
He earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Composition with Saxophone Concentration at Boston Conservatory and a Master’s degree in Composition at Peabody Conservatory. Additionally, he studied graduate-level composition at the University of Chicago.
He has taught at some of the most prestigious music schools in the country, including Boston Conservatory, Roosevelt University (Chicago), the University of Chicago College, the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and the Merit School of Music (Chicago). Russ has been composer in residence with Chicago’s CUBE Ensemble, and his music has been performed by the Contemporary Chamber Players of Chicago, the West End String Quartet, CUBE, Voices from the Heart, and many other ensembles and soloists. In 2011, he won the Duo Fujin one-day composition competition and his winning work, analecta for flute and saxophone, was performed by the duo on their tour of the Southeast U.S. in Spring 2012.
He is past president of Art-Speak, the cultural commission for Portsmouth, where he lives with his wife, Katie, and their two sons, Max and Jake.

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Leaving, Arriving (Russ Grazier)

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