Vancouver Inter~C-ultural Orchestra proud!Jpresents Imagined Worlds: INTERTWINE Featuring the music of Joel Bons Dr. Stephen Chatman Coat Cooke Moshe Denburg Saturday March 31, 2012 8:00 pm Norman & Annette Rothstein Vancouver, BC Theatre Celebratin9 10 Years of lHusical Innovation THE MUSICIANS Vancouver Inter-Cultural WELCOME ... Orchestra Every culture can be understood as a world unto itself; where musical traditions are concerned indeed, people live and breathe them; they represent the distinct voices of people, each with a history, a language, a shared experience - in fact, a unique definition of humanity. These worlds can be intertwined as well, by dint of conscious efforts and a generous sharing of ideas. This is what we, the musicians and administrators of the VICO, work at - a sound (and sound!) integration of distinct musical cultures. It is not that these intertwinings are meant to take the place of the cultures that comprise them; this would be hubris, and it is the polar opposite of what we are attempting. The intercultural project continues to be a noble endeavour, and in our experience, a completely natural one, in that all hands are willing of their own accord. We believe that the human being is so constructed that the desire to share one's cultural ideas is spontaneous; and this desire is today shared by many, especially those who are the greatest exponents of the arts of the world. Coat Cooke, Lars Kaario, Jin Zhang - Conductors Ali Razmi (Tar), Arjang Ataollahi (Daf), Bic Hoang (Danbau), Charlie Lui (Dizi/Xiao), Geling Jiang (Zheng), Guillan Liu (Pipa), Hamin Honari (Tombak), Hossein Behroozinia (Barbat), Jun R~ng ~Erhu/Gao~u), Lan Tung (Erhu/Zhonghu), Jonathan Bernard (Marimba/Percussion/Darabuka), Martm Fisk (Percussion), Navid Goldrick (Santur/Oud), Niel Golden (Tabla), Reza Honari (Kamanche), Sina Ettehad ( Kamanche) Domagoj Ivanovic (Violin I/Concertmaster), Janna Sailor (Violin I), Kathryn Lee (Violin I)'. Susan Cosco (Violin II), Zuzanna Uskovitsova (Violin II), Manti Poon (Viola), Sarah Kwok (Viola), Stefan Hintersteininger (Cello), Finn Manniche (Cello), Tim Stacey (Bass), Paolo Bortolussi (Flute), Lauris Davis (Oboe), Johanna Hauser (Clarinet), Mike Dowler (Bass Clarinet) * * * * The hallmark of a great artist, and great art, is authenticity. The VICO strives to nurture this authenticity in a new untested sphere - the sphere of a future where the many worlds are imagined anew. We are grateful to our friends and collaborators Laudate Singers, for their ongoing ,villingness to join us on this journey; to our funders and donors, without whose contributions our future as an ensemble would be in serious doubt; and finally to you, our audience, for your support over the past ten years and counting. Thank you! * Laudate Singers Lars Kaario, Director Margaret Hill, Accompanist Linda Lysack, General Manager - Moshe Denburg Co-Artistic Director, VICO Soprano: Heidi Ackermann, Catherine Crouch, Elyse Kantonen, Jenny Vermeulen, Maureen Nicholson, Yasmine Bia , Marina Bennett Alto: Elspeth Finlay, Intan Purnomo, Mavis Friesen, Miriam Davidson, Tami Copland Tenor: Chris Robinson, Hilary Cro-vvther, Kristopher Benoit, Paul Jungwirth, Sam Elgar Bass: Adam Turpin, Charlie Louie, Dheni Walsh, Elliot Harder, George Roberts, Troy Martell * * * * ABOUT THE VICO The VICO, founded in 2001, was one of the first concert orchestras in the world devoted specifically to performing new intercultural music on a grand scale. It is currently the only such professional orchestra in Canada. Described by The Georgia Straightas "music that sounds like Vancouver looks", the orchestra involves VANCOUVER musicians and composers from many cultural and artistic communities in the INTER-CULTURAL Lower Mainland including Chinese, Taiwanese,Japanese, Indian, Persian (Iranian) ORCHESTRA and Middle Eastern, Latin and South American, Vietnamese, African, North American and European. Since its inaugural performance in 2001, the VICO has commissioned and performed over 35 new intercultural pieces by respected, ground-breaking Canadian composers such as Elliot Weisgarber, Jin Zhang, Mark Armanini, Farshid Samandari, Trichy Sankaran, .lviichael O'Neill, John Oliver, Grace Lee, Neil \"Iv' eisensel, Joseph "Pepe" Danza, Moshe Denburg, Coat Cooke, Ed Henderson, Larry Nickel, Rita Ueda and Niel Golden. www.v1-co.org I * PRODUCTION CREDITS VICO Staff Moshe Denburg and Mark Armanini, Artistic Directors Melanie Thompson, Administrator Jess Zhang, Sales Manager Stefan Hintersteininger, Personnel Manager Don Xaliman, Graphic Design & Audio-Visual Technician Mel Roth, Graphic Design & Webmaster Helen Yagi, Publicist Evon Zhao, Production Assistant THE ROAD TO THREE WORLD PREMIERES Composers Joel Bons, Stephen Chatman and Coat Cooke have worked closely with the VICO to create their new pieces, in a ground-breaking commissioning and development project funded by Arts Partners in Creative Development and the Canada Council for the Arts. "Intercultural music-making involves combining instruments, musical traditions, techniques and aesthetics from all over the world into a cohesive, artistically effective whole," says the VICO's founding Artistic Director Moshe Denburg. "We are one of the only ensembles in the world doing this work on an orchestral scale. Thus, our work is not only to commission and perform new repertoire but also to develop the techniques necessary to perform that repertoire." VICO rehearsals and performances involve not only preparing repertoire that has often never been performed before, but also dealing with widely varying musical traditions and styles, different systems of notation, the challenges of tuning instruments that are rarely heard together and of achieving balance and harmonic blend between them, the fact that many of our musicians are trained in aural traditions Qearning and performing entirely by ear) while others read sheet music, and so on. Over the past several years, the orchestra has evolved an innovative, interactive workshop format, through which musicians, singers, conductors and composers work together to address artistic and logistical challenges, and "test drive" new ideas. Board of Directors Jeff Pelletier (President) Naomi Arney (Past President) Lan Tung (Vice-President) Ian Migicovsky (Secretary-Treasurer) Mark Fenster (Director) Diana Stewart-Imbert (Director) Melody Yiu (Director) Boaz Av-ron (Director) Advisory Board: Nancy Mortifee, Ellie O'Day, Richard Marcuse, Ron Stuart 2 3 ---PROGRAMME: Imagined Worlds - Intertwined (continued) PROGRAMME: Imagined Worlds - Intertwined Wei Shui Qing, traditional -for Featuring Guillan Invocation for S'Unduda by Coat Cooke -for solopipa Liu (pipa) Baad (Wind), traditional -for interculturalorchestra **World Premiere Coat Cooke, conductor Featuring Bic Hoang (danbau) Persian small ensemble Featuring Hossein Behroozinia (barbat), Sina Ettehad (kamanche), Reza Honari Ali Razmi (tar), Hamin Honari (tombak) and Atjang Ataollahi (daf) Green Dragon by Joel Bons -for The word S'Unduda is a coined word meaning "the best of all possible times". This can refer to an evening spent with best friends eating a great meal, drinking the finest wine, listening to incredible music and engaged in meaningful conversation. It can also refer to the aspiration to live in a better world with real meaning and love between people and nations. This composition is an invocation for closer friends and a better world for our progeny. The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra is the embodiment of this ideal in that we have musicians from different backgrounds and training working together to find new ways to express that which we must. \'(! e explore tempered and non-tempered values, varied cultural harmonic and rhythmic perspective, conventional and non-conventional notations, composed and improvised musical traditions. It has been my honour to be associated with the VICO for many years now and I'm grateful to work with the wonderful musicians in this ensemble to find new musical possibilities to explore. Many thanks to Moshe Denburg and Mark Armanini for this great opportunity. - Coat Cooke (kamanche), interculturalensemble **World Premiere Jin Zhang, conductor GreenDragon is written for four Chinese, two Persian and four western instruments. The ensemble is divided in two gr,oups: plucked string instruments (whose sound decays after the attack) and bowed string instruments (which can sustain their tone). The first group consists of tar (Persian lute), santur (Persian zither), zheng (Chinese zither) and pipa (Chinese lute), the second of two erhus (Chinese fiddles), violin, viola and cello. The composition could be described as a conversation, between the individual instruments as well as between the two groups. The whole work has organically grown out of one small seed, the motif which is introduced at the start by the tar. Characteristic for the identity of this piece are a restricted number of rhythms, syncopes and accents and the use of a fixed scale of pitches (mode). The plucked instruments have a modified tuning. GreenDragon has been commissioned by and is written for the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra. I would like to thank co-artistic directors Mark Armanini and Moshe Denburg for this fantastic opportunity and the musicians for all their dedication. - Joel Bons El Ginat Egoz (Into the Walnut Garden) by Moshe Denburg -for Lars Kaario, conductor Laudate Singers Featuring Lan Tung (erhu), Geling Jiang (zheng) and Jonathan The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam by Dr. Stephen Chatman -for choirand interculturalorchestra **World Premiere Lars Kaario, conductor Laudate Singers Featuring Heidi Ackermann and Catherine Crouch (soprano soloists) Given the nature of Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, my The Rubaryat of Omar Khqyyam for Laudate Choir and VICO is, inevitably, a synthesis of various cultures, aesthetics and musical styles. Rather than emulating Eastern styles and traditions, my approach, as a Western Canadian composer, was to expand, not change my creative palate. In this work, West meets East somewhere in the middle, culturally and stylistically. The six movement piece is a setting of selected quatrains of the Persian text in translation, beautifully rendered into 19th century English verse by Edward Fitzgerald. It not only incorporates my typical panoply of choral and orchestral ideas and styles but also features unusual combinations of styles and instruments. This medium is the perfect vehicle for the exploration of contrasting or juxtaposed styles and performing traditions, a concept which fascinates me. For example, the second movement features Chinese, Persian and Western instruments -with voices singing and playing ragtime; the fifth movement features solo Eastern instruments rising above a traditional chorale. Although the work includes some Eastern musical gestures and languages, the unifying element is Western diatonic or pan-diatonic harmony. - Stephen Chatman choirand interculturaltrio Bernard (marimba) The words of the biblical book, the Song of Songs, have for thousands of years served as a wellspring of musical composition. The texts here were chosen for their very forthright exposition of love as a reflection and inspiration of the natural world. The music attempts to paint a picture of longing, of rapture, and of passion expressed, and sometimes even misplaced. The overall material belongs in a ]\,fiddle Eastern context, especially that of the music of Israel. El Ginat Egoz is the fourth of a suite of pieces initiated by the Orchid Ensemble. The entire suite, still a work in progress, is meant to be a musical journey from one end of the Silk Road to the other, and is called Wan L' Xin (The Journey of Ten Thousand J\:lilcs).Needless to say, El Ginat Egoz belongs to the western end of the Silk Road, by the shores of the Mediterranean. See next pagefor text in translation. Text: Song of Songs, Chapter VI. v. 11; Chapter VII. v. 12-13. 6:11 I went down into the walnut garden to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded. 7:12 Come my beloved let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. 7:13 Let us get up early to the vineyards;let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there I will give you my loves. (transliteratedHebrew) 6:11 El ginat egoz yarad'ri,lir'ot b'ibei hanakhal,lir'ot hafar'kha hagefen, heineitsu harimonim. 7:12 L'kha dodi netsei hasade nalina bakfarim. 7:13 Nashkima lakramim, nir'e im par'kha hagefen, pitakh has'madar, heineitsu harimonim; sham eten et dodai lakh. INTERMISSION 4 5 TEXTS IN TRANSLATION ABOUT THE COMPOSERS Joel Bons is an internationally-recognized, award-winning intercultural composer and artistic The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam Translated by Edward Fitzgerald I. Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night IV. Why, whence, whither Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night Into this Universe, and why not knowing, Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight: And Lo! The Hunter of the East has caught Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing: And out of it, as Wind along the Waster, The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light. And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky, I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing. What, without asking, hither hurried whence? Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die, And, without asking, whither hurried hence! Lift not thy hands to It for help-for It Another and another Cup to drown Rolls impotently on as Thou or I. The Memory of this Impertinence! Ah, Moon of my Delight who know'st no wane, The ·Moon of Heav'n is rising once again. For "IS" and "IS-NOT" though with the Rule and Line And "UP-AND-DOWN" without, I could define, I yet in all I only cared to know, II. A Magic Shadow-show For in and out, above, about, below, 'Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show Play' d in a Box whose Candle is the Sun, Round which we Phantom Figures come and go. 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays. III. Dreaming Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry, "Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry." Was never deep in anything but-Wine. V. Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose! Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose! That Youth's sweet-scented Manuscript should close! The Nightingale that in the Branches sang, Ah, whence, and wither flown again, who knows! Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, Before we too into the Dust descend; Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie, Sans \'v'ine, sans Song, sans Singer, and-sans End. With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man's knead, And then of the last Harvest sow'd the Seed: Yea, the first Morning of Creation wrote What the last Dawn of Reckoning shall read. VI. The Dawn of Nothing One Moment in Annihilation's Waste, One Moment, of the \'v'ell of Life to tasteThe Stars are setting and the Caravan Starts for the Dawn of Nothing-Oh, make haste! "How sweet is mortal Sovranty!"-think some: Others-"How director, embodying high European musical standards and a forward-thinking aesthetic out on the cutting edge of contemporary classical music. Based in Amsterdam, he is the founding Artistic Director of the internationally-acclaimed Nieuw Ensemble and the Atlas Ensemble, which describes itself (very similarly to the VICO) as "a unique chamber orchestra uniting brilliant musicians from China, Central Asia, the Near East and Europe, presenting a previously unheard soundworld of western and non-western instruments." For his work with the Atlas Ensemble Joel was granted the prestigious Amsterdam Prize for the Arts 2005. In the same year he was appointed lector/ guest professor of composition at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, where he is now artistic director of the composition department. At the request of the Festival d' Automne a Paris Bons was curator of the music programme of 'Scene artistique du Moyen-Orient', for which he traveled to Damascus and Tehran in the spring of 2007. In 2009 he founded the Atlas Academy, a laboratory for the creation of intercultural music, which takes place every August in the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Stephen Chatman is Professor and Head of Composition at the UBC School of Music, and one of Canada's most prominent composers. He has received many commissions and composition awards, including three Western Canadian Nlusic Awards, three BJ\IIIAwards (New York), multiple Juno nominations, the Dorothy Somerset Award, Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2001 BBC Masterprize short-list. His 100+ published works have sold 400,000 printed copies. His pieces have been recorded by the Vancouver Chamber Choir, UBC Singers and others on a variety of labels including Centrediscs, Naxos, Crystal, Skylark and CRI. His orchestral music has been commissioned and performed by the BBC Symphony, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles throughout the world. www.drstephenchatman.com Coat Cooke is a saxophonist, improvisor, composer and bandleader who has toured Canada, the USA, Nlexico and Europe to great acclaim, whether playing in the acoustic Coat Cooke Trio or one of his electric bands, leading the legendary NOW Orchestra, or collaborating in one of many memorable projects with spoken word, dance and mixed media artists. He has performed with many of the world's great improvisors, including: George Lewis, Nlarilyn Crispell, Barry Guy, Wadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myers. Many of Coat's compositions have been recorded; his work also appears on CDs by his bands Lunar Adventures and the NOW Orchestra. Coat's highly personal musical language comes from a hunger to find and express innovative sounds and ideas in new contexts of word, movement, electronics and cultural perspectives from around the world. www.coatcooke.com Moshe Denburg (b. 1949) grew up in Montreal, in a religious Jewish family. His musical career has spanned four decades and his accomplishments encompass a wide range of musical activities, including Composition, Performance, Jewish Music Education, and Piano Tuning. He has travelled worldwide, living and studying music in Canada, the USA, Israel, India, and Japan. From 1986-90 he studied composition with John Celona at the University of Victoria, Canada. Since 1987 his compositions have reflected an ongoing commitment to the principle of intercultural music making works that bring together the instruments and ideas of many cultures. To this end, in 2001 Moshe established the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, a vehicle for the realization of his, and other Canadian composers' intercultural work. He is an associate composer of the Canadian :Music Centre. blest the Paradise to come!" Ah, take the Cash in hand and waive the Rest; Oh, the distant Music of a fateful drum! 6 7 u (- :::..._ -1-----J r~·, ..__,; _Q -1-----J r ACI:-:.r,·<·r J,l]/-~~/ CITY OF .Z{tf: .:..,vc,, ¥'.?nc:,:;,a:·li:r - VA C UVER Arts Partners in Creative Development FONDS PODIUM KUNSTEN PERFORMING ARTS FUND NL FIND THE VICO ONLINE Official website: www.vi-co.org I™ On Facebook: www.facebook.com I VancouverinterCulturalOrchestra DIVERSITY TELEVISION ~ DUTCH LAI\IGUAGE TELEVISION On YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/vicovideo1 Come and tell us whatyou thought ef the music! WWW.LAU!JATESINGERS.COM 'II; :-.\ • .:;;~• ff&(·...,;;:.-n,y ~ ~ 10 11