Live performances from our March 26th, 2017 concert. 

Performing artists include Gretchen Adams, mezzo-soprano; James Brinkmann, flute; Andrew Hesse, cello; Ria Hodgson, viola; Talar Khosdeghian, piano; Laura Perkett, oboe; and Danielle Simandl, violin.

Playing off our 2016-17 Season Opener featuring The Three B's – music of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, CHAI Collaborative Ensemble presents works from the 20th century with «A Few More B's». While their last names all coincidentally start with the letter B, one common stylistic thread between Barber, Bartók, Bernstein, and Britten is their use of juxtaposition in their respective compositional voices. Samuel Barber wrote in a distinctive Neo-Romantic style with a modernist edge. Béla Bartók's works are marked by a synthesis of folk music, classicism and modernism. Benjamin Britten had an affinity for introducing themes and combining them in ingenious ways. And last but not least, Leonard Bernstein wrote in a Neo-Classical style, but with plenty of jazz influence and Broadway flair to boot.

Samuel Barber Sonata For Cello And Piano, Op. 6 - 3. Allegro Appassionato

Samuel Barber Sonata For Cello And Piano, Op. 6 - 2. Adagio

Samuel Barber Sonata For Cello And Piano, Op. 6 - 1. Allegro Non Troppo

Leonard Bernstein - La Bonne Cuisine - 4 Recipes For Voice And Piano

Benjamin Britten Phantasy Quartet For Oboe And Strings, Op. 2

Béla Bartók, Arr. Paul Arma - Suite La Paysanne Hongroise

In this work, Ned Rorem set seven of Wallace Stevens's last poems, written in the last year or two of his life. This excerpt includes the last three movements of the piece.

VI. Interlude (cello, piano only)


VII. Of Mere Being

The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze decor,

A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.

You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.

The palm stands on the edge of space.
The wind moves slowly in the branches.
The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down.


VIII. A Clear Day and No Memories

No soldiers in the scenery,
No thoughts of people now dead,
As they were fifty years ago,
Young and living in a live air,
Young and walking in the sunshine,
Bending in blue dresses to touch something,
Today the mind is not part of the weather.
Today the air is clear of everything.
It has no knowledge except of nothingness
And it flows over us without meanings,
As if none of us had ever been here before
And are not now: in this shallow spectacle,
This invisible activity, this sense.

Featuring:
Laura Perkett, soprano
Andrew Hesse, cello
Talar Khosdeghian, piano

Recorded live from First Unitarian Church in Hyde Park, Chicago, on January 25, 2020.

Ned Rorem: Last Poems Of Wallace Stevens, Movements VI-VIII

This is the third movement of Jenni Brandon's work "Found Objects: On the Beach", written for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. Inspired by Brandon's explorations by the beach near her home and the various objects she found along the way, such as tumbled stones, various colors of sea glass, seashells, and even a piece of driftwood. 

This is from a live performance by CHAI Collaborative Ensemble on October 19, 2019.

Laura Perkett, oboe
Daniel Williams, clarinet
Andrew Marlin, bassoon

Recorded by Atlas Arts Media

Jenni Brandon: Found Objects: On the Beach, Mvt. III Driftwood

This is the third movement of Jenni Brandon's work "Found Objects: On the Beach", written for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. Inspired by Brandon's explorations by the beach near her home and the various objects she found along the way, such as tumbled stones, various colors of sea glass, seashells, and even a piece of driftwood.

This is from a live performance by CHAI Collaborative Ensemble on October 19, 2019.

Laura Perkett, oboe
Daniel Williams, clarinet
Andrew Marlin, bassoon

Recorded by Atlas Arts Media

Jenni Brandon: Found Objects: On the Beach, Mvt. IV: Black Feather on the Sand - 3:12:20, 8.27 PM

PROGRAM NOTE from the Composer:
As we all know, the internet is paradoxical in that it has both facilitated connection and simultaneously made it harder for us to actually feel connected. “Call Out” is an exploration of the difficulties of finding connection online. The title is a reference to both "call out culture" and to the literal act of calling out to another person, and the piece itself follows the evolution of an online interaction. The first movement, “Call Out,” is based on two musical motives: transcriptions of dial- up modem sounds and the words “call out” spelled in binary. The second movement, “The Mountain,” contains text based on Gawker’s apology to Justine Sacco, a woman whose poorly timed tweeted joke was taken out of context, went viral, and destroyed her life and career. This piece also features a binary motive: the name Justine. The third piece draws inspiration from a series of tweets about Twitter culture, once again using the binary “call out” motive. Finally, in “The Field,” Rumi’s beautiful text asserts that there is a part of us the outside observer cannot know. The piece ends with an invitation to join him in a place “beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing” where the world is too full to talk about it. 

The Mountain (Text based on Gawker's apology to Justine Sacco)

The internet is a mountain, a mountain. And if you climb that mountain,
waiting at the top will be a person with whom you need to make peace. I climbed my mountain and a woman was there. Justine.

Justine.

Twitter disasters are a quick source of outrage. And outrage is traffic. It's natural. If we could only put one more wrong-headed head on a pike, we could heal this world. Each outrage post was the one that would make a difference.

Not knowing anything about Justine. I took her cluelessness at face value, and hundreds of thousands of people did the same: instantly hating her, because it's easy and thrilling to hate a stranger online. 

There wasn't any conversation to be had. No objective to reach. No conclusion to draw. Smashing a piñata, smashing, isn't just for candy. It feels great, it feels great to swing your arms and feel a thud.

The internet is a mountain...


Welcome to America (Texts from public tweets on Twitter)

Welcome to America.

Everything on the internet can be solved on a sticks and stones philosphy.

Many things tweeted to other humans would never be said to a person's face in the real world for fear of a thick lip.

Welcome to America.


The Field (Text by Rumi)

Study me as long as you like.
You will not know me,
You will not know me for I differ in a hundred ways
from what you see me to be.

Put yourself behind my eyes
and see me as I see myself
for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing 
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas. Language.
Even "each other" no longer makes sense.

Featuring: 
Brian Hupp, baritone
Andrew Hesse, cello
Talar Khosdeghian, piano

Recorded at Lyriq Music School, March 7, 2020

CHAI Collaborative Ensemble

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