Music

Norway Invades June in Buffalo Festival from June 6-11

By JAN JEZIORO

Norwegian composers and performers make their first appearance at JIB

The Mivos Quartet

This year’s edition of the long running June in Buffalo Festival marks the culmination of an exchange project between composers and performers in Buffalo and Oslo, Norway. Organized by June in Buffalo director and UB distinguished professor of composition David Felder, Norwegian Academy of Music professor of composition Henrik Hellstenius, Norwegian Academy of Music associate professor of percussion Kjell Tore Innervik, and UB PhD candidate in composition Colin Tucker. The project will bring two Norwegian ensembles, the Cikada Trio and the Bifröst Ensemble to the June in Buffalo Festival, alongside faculty composers, Henrik Hellstenius and Eivind Buene, from the Norwegian Academy of Music.

Percussionist Kjell Tore Innervik

Percussionist Kjell Tore Innervik is well known, both in Norway and abroad as an artist who is not afraid to explore contemporary music and new, and often humorous ways, of communicating through music. Other performers include the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of associate conductor Stefan Sanders; the critically acclaimed New York City based Ensemble SIGNAL, who are frequent visitors to UB; the Mivos Quartet, which has been described as “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles” (The Chicago Reader), and is devoted to performing the works of contemporary composers and presenting new music to diverse audiences; the Ensemble Dal Niente, a Chicago-based contemporary music collective, and members of UB’s Slee Sinfonietta. Of special note, virtuoso violinist Irvine Arditti, universally acknowledged as an unsurpassed interpreter of contemporary music, will offer a solo recital on Thursday evening.

Violinist Irvine Arditti

June in Buffalo is a unique music festival that is recognized worldwide for its focus on contemporary composers. Established composers assemble every year on the UB Amherst campus for a week of musical activity that includes creative interactions with young emerging composers. Add in some of the finest musicians specializing in contemporary music, and the result is the kind of musical synergy that existed during the now almost legendary period of Lukas Foss and the UB Creative Associates. For this year’s event, festival founder and artistic director David Felder will be joined by his fellow senior composers Eivind Buene, David Dzubay, Brian Ferneyhough, Henrik Hellstenius and Jeffrey Mumford.

All the evening concerts, and the BPO Sunday afternoon concert will take place at Slee Hall, except for the Thursday evening performance by violinist Irvine Arditti which will take place in Baird Recital Hall. All Slee Hall concerts and Irvine Arditti’s solo recital are ticketed events, except for the Tuesday performance by the Bifröst Ensemble, which is free. The concerts in Baird Recital Hall at 4pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday feature the works of emerging composers, and are free.

Monday June 5

4pm: The Slee Sinfonietta Soloists, featuring pianist Eric Huebner and percussionist Tom Kolor in a program of solo works by JIB participant composers.

UB Faculty composer Henrik Hellstenius

7:30 pm: The Cikada Trio, made up of Anne Karine Hauge, flute, Rolf Borch, clarinet and Kenneth Karlsson, piano, will present two world premieres’: Unfolded as it were by Henrik Hellstenius, and ohne Titel. London 1985 by Asbjørn Schaathun, along with another of his works, Stravinsky goes Bach and Schaathun goes Frescobaldi.  Landscape with Ruins and Study No. 3, both by Eivind Buene and Maja Ratkje’s Two small pieces for Arnold S. are also featured on the all-Norwegian program.

Tuesday June 6

4pm: Ensemble SIGNAL, Brad Lubman conductor

7:30 pm: The Bifröst Ensemble: Ingeborg Elisabeth Moe, clarinet, Simen Kiil Halvorsen, trumpet, Sara Esturillo, harp, Gina Bordini, violin, Johannes Borchgrevink, cello and Kjell Tore Innervik, percussion perform works by June in Buffalo participant composers.

Wednesday June 7

4pm: Slee Sinfonietta Chamber Musicians

7:30pm: The Mivos Quartet, Olivia De Prato and Lauren Cauley, violins, Victor Lowrie, viola and Mariel Roberts, cello perform music for string quartet including Jeffrey Mumford’s the promise of the far horizon; Eivind Buene’s Grid; Henrik Hellstenius’ Rift and Brian Ferneyhough’s String Quartet No. 2.

Thursday June 8

4pm: The Ensemble Dal Niente: Michael Lewanski, conductor, Emma Hospelhorn, flutes, Andy Nogal, oboe, Katie Schoepflin, clarinet, Mabel Kwan, piano, Eric Derr, percussion, Hanna Hurwitz, violin; Mira Luxion, cello.

7:30pm: Irvine Arditti, first violin and founder of the eponymous Arditti Quartet, whose members have gained a well-earned, worldwide reputation as the preeminent interpreters of both 20th century and contemporary music written for string quartet will present a not-to-be-missed recital of music for solo violin in Baird Recital Hall. Works to be performed include The Argonaut, by Henrik Hellstenius; imAge, by Roger Reynolds; Unsichtbare Farben, by Brian Ferneyhough; Chorals, by John Cage and Another Face by David Felder.

Friday June 9

4pm: Mivos Quartet

7:30pm: The Ensemble Dal Niente performs David Felder’s Partial [dist]res[s]toration; Brian Ferneyhough’s Coloratura and In Nomine a 3; Jeffrey Mumford’s a garden of flourishing paths; Eivind Buene’s Ultrabucolic Studies and David Dzubay’s Nine Fragments.

Saturday June 10

7:30pm: The Ensemble SIGNAL, with guest soloist violinist Irvine Arditti will perform Brian Ferneyhough’s Terrain; David Dzubay’s Kukulkan III; Eivind Buene’s Nature Morte and David Felder’s Violin Concerto preview.

Sunday June 11

2:30pm: BPO Associate conductor Stefan Sanders will lead the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in a Slee Hall concert featuring works by JIB senior faculty composers, including two works, Incendio and Canzona by David Felder; Siren Song by David Dzubay; and symphonies of deepening light… expanding… ever cavernous, by Jeffrey Mumford.

Tickets: $15/10 seniors, students; free for UB students. Information: www.slee.buffalo.edu