Event Calendar
Alllentown Symphony New Music Chamber Concert #2
Tuesday, March 28, 2023, 7:00 pm
It's the second of two concerts of New Music composed for Chamber ensembles.
Join us for an intimate evening of new music written for chamber ensembles by area composers and performed by musicians of the Allentown Symphony.
The performance will be at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts
321 E 3rd St, Bethlehem, PA.
PARKING: Guests may park in the school faculty lot; entrance off Columbia Avenue one block west of the school. Overflow parking is available at the Steelstacks campus. Guests will enter the building through the 3rd street doors.
The program is juried by the ASO Composer in Residence, Chris Rogerson.
MUSICIANS
Eliezer Gutman, violin | ASO Concertmaster
Inna Eyzerovich, violin | ASO Associate Concertmaster
Pamela Jacobson, viola | ASO Viola
Jameson Platte, cello | ASO Assistant Principal Cello
PROGRAM
String Quartet No. 4, Fugue CHRIS ROGERSON
Integration No. 1 TOM MAHER
World on Fire: Movement I SUSANNA PAYNE-PASSMORE
Elegy KIRK O'RIORDAN
Appassionata RYAN ANDERSON
Denouement AVA BLOOMFIELD
Dinner Party GRACE YOUNG
Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout, VI. Coqueteos GABRIELA LENA FRANK
COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES
Chris Rogerson studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, and Princeton University with Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis, Martin Bresnick, and Steve Mackey. He is represented by Young Concert Artists, Inc. and served as YCA Composer-in-Residence from 2010-2012. He also is one of two composers on the roster of Manhattan Chamber Players. In 2012, he co-founded Kettle Corn New Music, a new music presenting organization in New York City, and currently serves as its co-artistic director. In 2016, Mr. Rogerson joined the Musical Studies Faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he lives full-time. He is currently the Composer in Residence for the Allentown Symphony Orchestra.
Susanna Payne-Passmore (they/them) is a composer from Philadelphia, PA currently pursuing doctoral studies in music composition as a Benjamin Franklin Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, studying with Tyshawn Sorey. In their music, Susanna experiments with harmony to find new patterns from familiar sounds, integrating intuitive expansion of traditional tonality with new harmonic constructs. Recently, they have collaborated to create new works with Yarn/Wire, the lutist Abigail Sperling, and the Chyornii & Dorado duo, and they are currently working on a new piece for TAK Ensemble. Their current research focuses on live-processing in electroacoustic environments, feedback synthesis, and integrating their harmonic practice within a semi-improvisatory framework.
Tom Maher is a musician and educator centered in the Lehigh Valley and Southeastern PA. A native of the Philadelphia region, he holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education and Jazz Studies from Temple University. He teaches in the Music Department at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In addition to his role as Orchestra director, Mr. Maher directs the Jazz Lab Band, coaches the brass studio, and teaches coursework in Harmony, Composition, and Film Music. He is excited to work with young artists of all calibers on fostering their talents and creativity through the craft of music composition.
Kirk O'Riordan’s music has been referred to as “unapologetically beautiful” and is often praised for its uniquely “visual” qualities that depict a wide range of striking moods. His music was praised by Audiophile Audition as “one of the most impressive and beautiful collections of chamber music I have heard in a while....This is all just so lovely and invokes exactly the emotions that good music should be able to induce in all of us." Gramophone Magazine described O’Riordan as “a composer for whom imagery is a defining inspiration....[he] is a deeply sensitive composer who savours going gently into the night.” According to the Morning Call, O’Riordan “possesses that rare quality of capturing a vivid musical landscape with Webern-like e ciency.”
Dr. O'Riordan joined the faculty of Lafayette College in 2009, and now serves as Associate Professor of Music and Director of Bands, teaching courses in music theory, and composition. In addition, he conducts the Lafayette College Concert Band and Contemporary Music Ensemble. Previously, he served on the faculties of Bucknell University and Susquehanna University where he taught music theory, composition, music appreciation, and (English) writing. He has also served on the faculties of Lock Haven University, Colorado Christian University, Chandler-Gilbert Community College, and Paradise Valley Community College. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University (the first recipient of that degree from ASU); the Certificate of Performance in Saxophone from Northwestern University; and three Master of Music degrees (composition, saxophone performance, and conducting).
Kirk has studied composition with Rodney Rogers, Randall Shinn, James De Mars, Glenn Hackbarth, Jay Alan Yim, Burton Beerman, Marilyn Shrude, and Donald M. Wilson. He has studied saxophone with Frederick L. Hemke, John Sampen, Eugene Rousseau, and Iwan Roth.
Ryan Anderson A rising composer in the Lehigh Valley, Ryan Anderson is a composer that brings an evocative and profoundly passionate approach to the art of composing music. Ryan Anderson is a composer from the Lehigh Valley studying Music Composition under Dr. Larry Lipkis, and Dr. Scott Watson at Moravian University. In terms of achievements, Ryan won the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia composition competition, where he later conducted a choral work he composed at a Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia concert in the Fall of 2022. Ryan has also had a work named “And Yet, The Sunflower’s Still Standing ” performed by Allentown Symphony’s first New Music Chamber Series concert.
Grace Young is a senior Music Composition major and German minor from Blairstown, New Jersey. She studies composition under Dr. Larry Lipkis and electric and upright bass under Paul Rostock at Moravian University. While at Moravian, she has participated in a number of music ensembles including the Moravian University Community Orchestra, Moravian University Choir, Chorale, Women’s Chorus, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Combo I, Jazz Combo II, Jazz Vocal Ensemble and BIG Band. She works on campus as an A/V Event Technician and as the Senior Resident Advisor of Main & Clewell Residence Halls. In her spare time, Grace enjoys crocheting, attending concerts with friends, thrift shopping, and going to amusement parks. Grace has performed with numerous pit bands throughout the years and hopes to achieve a similar career in musical theater, either conducting or playing, in the future.
Ava Bloomfield is a 19-year-old composer, pianist, and piano teacher from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts in Bethlehem, PA in 2021. Her interest in music began at a young age, but after discovering a passion for classical music in her early teen years, Ava's study of piano and composition became more concentrated. She never would've expected the positive impact it would have on her life! In the years following, Ava has been a part of many performances and events. Some of these include honors recitals, the Piano Guild auditions, and Achievement Awards auditions. In addition, her works have been performed and premiered at local universities and symphony halls. Most recently, Ava won 1st place in the Friends of Music's "Outstanding Young Artists" competition. Ava first wrote smaller compositions for solo piano, but the more she exposed herself to bigger works, the more she wanted to branch out in instrumentation and presentation. Ava isn’t done learning and experimenting but considers it a joy to share her progress. As of September 2021, Ava is enrolled with Berklee College of Music's online program. She is studying composition, orchestration, and more while continuing to take and teach private piano lessons from her home studio.
Gabriela Lena Frank Currently serving as Composer-in-Residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra and named one of the most significant women composers in history by The Washington Post (2017), award-winning composer and pianist Gabriela Lena Frank is one of the most celebrated living composers and an advocate for composers of color and young composers who come from disadvantaged economic and educational systems.
Born in Berkeley, California to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Gabriela explores her multicultural heritage through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Gabriela has traveled extensively throughout South America in creative exploration. Her music often reflects not only her own personal experience as a multi-racial Latina, but also refract her studies of Latin American cultures, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own.
In 2020, Gabriela received the prestigious 25th anniversary Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanity category. The award recognized Gabriela for breaking gender, disability, and cultural barriers in the classical music industry, and for her work as an activist on behalf of emerging composers of all demographics and aesthetics. She’s also a winner of a Latin Grammy and holds a Guggenheim Fellowship and a USA Artist Fellowship.