"icy, hollow and warm" is an exploration of color, timbre and mood.  All three words might describe either a physical state or an emotional state-- or perhaps both.  As a native of the woods of Wisconsin, I have been in situations which were physically icy and hollow, yet emotionally very warm.  As one who once tried to be a child actor in Los Angeles, I have experienced a culture which was icy and hollow, though physically warm. Sometimes the physical and emotional worlds are juxtaposed. There can be a beauty in that.

icy, hollow, and warm - Zachary Green

At the end of Henrik Ibsen's classic play "A Doll's House," Nora has an epiphany that her husband Torvald has never treated her as an equal.  As she confronts him about this, it occurs to her that this is the first "serious conversation" they've ever had in 8 years of marriage.  "Why, my dearest Nora," he says, "what have you to do with serious things?"

This is her response.  

Performed by the LUNA Duo (Jordan Roulo, soprano and Emily Sprague-Klein, piano) and Clark Carruth, viola.

what have you to do with serious things?

3 bassoons and 1 contrabassoon
played by Eleni Katz, Ian Schneiderman, Caroline Miller and Ethan Lippert at the Brevard Music Center.  August 5, 2016

go to http://www.zacharygreenmusic.com/works/jamdalf-the-cray for more information and to view/purchase the score!

Jamdalf the Cray

Performed by Emily Melendes on 3/14/16 at "Focal Point" in NYC.

Agate

for solo viola. dur: 8'.  played by the wonderful Carrie Frey, violist.

When I started this work, I initially did not have a title-- so, to amuse myself, I put in a dummy title-- "liminal rat bath."  This title is in no way relevant to the work, but I enjoyed it so much that I couldn't bear to retitle it before the premiere performance.  However, as the work lives on, it has become clear that it needs a new title-- so I'm calling on YOU, listener, to help me!  What should I title this piece?

Please leave your suggestions in the "comments" section of www.zacharygreenmusic.com/music/solo-viola, and feel free to like each others' comments to vote for your favorite title!

Program Notes: 
The music of this work was derived from rhapsodic, improvisatory variations on a single motive.  These variations coalesce as a dialogue between two narratives: one fast and insistent, and one more slow and yearning.  Over the course of the piece, these two narratives grow ever more apart until they arrive at a chorale-like section that wrangles both narratives together and eventually overtakes them.

Composer Concert 10/17/2016

sans serif

This work was written in loving memory of Brittany Musumeci, a dear friend of mine.  Brittany epitomized the spirit of music-- was someone whose life was changed by music, and who changed others' lives with her spirit.  This piece cannot hope to represent her, but is rather a letter to her expressing my feelings.  
Played by Manami Mizumoto and Adam Rothenberg, violin and piano.

For Brittany

Live Performance.  performed August 11, 2017, at the Madison New Music Festival.  Lydia Sewell, Violin; Zachary Green, Piano.

Proudly hailing from Madison, WI, composer Zachary Green is a graduate student at the Juilliard School and the founder/director of the Madison New Music Festival.  As a writer, Zachary has interviewed musicians such as Huang Ruo, Leon Fleisher, and Leonard Slatkin for The Juilliard Journal.  As a teacher, Zachary has served as an Ear Training Teaching Fellow at Juilliard, a Morse Teaching Artist Fellow in New York City’s P.S. 11, and has taught theory at the Brevard Music Center.  His compositions have been performed in New York by organizations such as Periapsis Music and Dance, The Phoenix Concerts, and The Lotte Lehmann Foundation, and around the U.S. by the harp/organ ensemble Duo Mango, pianist Robert Fleitz, and The Seasons Festival in Yakima, WA.   He currently studies with Dr. Robert Beaser, and has previously studied with Samuel Adler, Eric Ewazen, Daron Hagen, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Christopher Rouse.  He will receive his Master of Music degree in 2017.

Zachary Green

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