The poet Pablo Picasso (yes, that Picasso) intrigued Viet (b.1990) with a line written in 1936: “an electric aroma, a most disagreeable noise”. Perhaps Viet thought to himself, “Well then, let’s make disagreeable noises, shall we?” Like that electric aroma, he colors the instruments using extended techniques that sizzle and snap, such as tin foil in the vibraphone, metals buzzing on an upside-down snare drum, and wind players rudely playing two sounds at the same time. Viet likes having fun. All of us are doing things the rules say we’re not supposed to do.

10 october XXXVI (ii) “...and if the weather is clear listen to the crack when in my chest breaks the perfume of the stick the arrow painted on the fan tossed on the bed the luminous alarmed panther sheen of her regard with an electric aroma a most disagreeable noise spreading a dreadful odor of stars crushed underfoot”.
- Pablo Picasso

This piece was commissioned by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting for the 2017 Blackbird Creative Laboratory, 8BB’s annual professional development immersion program.

- program note by the composer

Described as “alluring” and “stirring” by The New York Times, the music of Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong (b. 1990) draws upon sincerity, wonder, and the spirit of invention to create works that resonate emotionally, embrace the unexpected, and celebrate our shared humanity. Grounded in a belief that craft and communication are inseparable, Cuong shapes every phrase in service of expressive clarity, inviting listeners into spaces that feel at once deeply personal and broadly shared. His music is brought to life through vibrant instrumental colors, rhythmic vitality, and inventive orchestration, all hallmarks of a voice cultivated by many fascinations—including the contrapuntal rigor of earlier traditions, the timbral imagination of electronic music, and the immediacy of contemporary pop music—as well as work across diverse concert music communities. Rather than treating these communities as separate, Cuong draws them into conversation, fostering curiosity and exchange across them.

Cuong’s music has found homes with acclaimed chamber ensembles like Eighth Blackbird and Sandbox Percussion, orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and premier wind ensembles including the Dallas Winds and U.S. Navy Band—all while remaining a familiar presence in university music programs and high school band rooms. Working across such varied musical worlds has produced an iterative process in which ideas discovered in one setting naturally invite further inquiry in another. Driven by a painterly instinct for sustained exploration, Cuong follows these ideas across new works and performing forces until they reach their full artistic and expressive potential. Over time, this process has created a body of work shaped by overlapping networks of echoes where continuity takes on many forms: reimagined versions of the same work for alternate instrumentations, new compositions that share underlying musical DNA, and entirely different pieces connected by a common artistic question.

Composer Marc Mellits is one of the leading American composers of his generation, enjoying hundreds of performances throughout the world every year, making him one of the most performed living composers in the United States.  From Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, to prestigious music festivals in Europe and the US, Mellits’ music is a constant mainstay on programs throughout the world.  His unique musical style is an eclectic combination of driving rhythms, soaring lyricism, and colorful orchestrations that all combine to communicate directly with the listener.  Mellits' music is often described as being visceral, making a deep connection with the audience.  “This was music as sensual as it was intelligent; I saw audience members swaying, nodding, making little motions with their hands” (New York Press).  He started composing very early, and was writing piano music long before he started formal piano lessons at age 6.  He went on to study at the Eastman School of Music, Yale School of Music, Cornell University, and Tanglewood.  Mellits often is a miniaturist, composing works that are comprised of short, contrasting movements or sections.  His music is eclectic, all-encompassing, colorful, and always has a sense of forward motion.

Mellits' music is widely played across the globe and he has been commissioned by groups such as the Kronos Quartet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Holland), Duo Assad, Bang On A Can All-Stars, Eliot Fisk, Canadian Brass, Nexus Percussion, Debussy Quartet, Third Coast Percussion, New Music Detroit, Four-In-Correspondence (National Symphony Orchestra), Musique En Roue Libre (France), Fiarì Ensemble (Italy), Percussions Claviers de Lyon (France), Talujon, the Society for New Music, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and the Albany Symphony's Dog's Of Desire.  Additionally, Mellits’ music has been performed, toured, and/or recorded by members of the Detroit Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Minneapolis Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, eighth blackbird, Akropolis Reed Quintet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New Millennium Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, and the American Modern Ensemble, among many others.

hyd(e)r0sion is inspired by the lines and shapes formed in soil and clay formed by the detachment and removal of soil by water. There are many types of erosion, including splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion and gully erosion. Water erosion wears away the earth’s surface, and this removal of topsoil—the layer of soil with the greatest amount of organic matter, biological activity and nutrients---restricting its ability to sustain future uses.

- program note by the composer

Emily Koh is a Singaporean composer and recovering bassist living in Atlanta, Georgia. Other-worldly yet grounded in raw intensity and grit, her work frequently explores binary states such as extremities and boundaries, activity and stagnation, and the tensions that exist between them. A multi-faceted creator, Emily thrives in collaborative environments and especially enjoys working alongside artists, technologists, and creatives from diverse disciplines. She is Associate Professor of Composition and Area Chair of Music Composition and Theory at the University of Georgia.

Memento Mori was composed in May 2018 and is slow and reflective, expressing an atmospheric and evocative sound world. The solo line is simple and sustained, with a gently moving accompaniment which reflects the mood of the piece. Memento Mori is dedicated to the master luthier, Martin Penning, who was present for the premiere.

- program note by the composer

David Heyes studied double bass with Laurence Gray and Bronwen Naish, later at the Royal College of Music in London, and completed his post-graduate studies in Prague with František Pošta (Principal Bass, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra).

David began to compose in 2013 and has had music performed and recorded in 27 countries across five continents. He is a D'Addario Performing Artist and has recently commissioned a solo double bass from British master-luthier Martin Penning. 

Excerpt from an interview with Jennifer Higdon: “[This] summer I was out in Santa Fe, so I got a chance to really experience O’Keeffe, touring the O’Keeffe museum, also her house, one of her houses is in Abiquiu, where she worked. They still have the canvases there. They still have the studio she worked in. And being around the landscape where she painted so much out there, it made a real impression on me.

And I’ve read the biographies of all of these painters, so I feel fairly versed, and the way they thought about what they put on the canvas, and also the way they would sometimes come back to certain subjects.

Pollock is mostly known for those splatter paintings. And of the three artists, he had the fewest canvases, because he had the shortest life.

Andrew Wyeth is actually the person who lived the longest.  And, I find everything he’s ever painted just incredible to look at. And they’ve recently opened his studio down at the Brandywine. So, probably about a year ago, I went down there and took a tour of it;  just a regular tour, and I loved seeing where he worked. Looking at the floor, the boards, they have all of the paints around, you know, empty egg cartons. It’s just completely fascinating. You know, I think there was a movie -  Ed Harris did it at some point - that was on his life, and I read the biography on him as well.

But because they were all different, and their canvases were all so striking and they made quite a mark on American visual artistry, I thought those three would be perfect together.” The piece is originally written in this order: O’Keeffe, Pollock, Wyeth, but the composer gave permission to have the movements performed in whatever order best suits the players.

Jennifer Higdon was born on New Year’s Eve, 1962 (Brooklyn, NY). She didn’t start playing an instrument until she taught herself to play the flute at the age of 15 and began formal studies at 18 when she entered college. Despite this late start, the Pulitzer Prize and three-time Grammy winner has become a major figure in Classical music and is one of the few individuals in the U.S. who makes her living from commissions. Higdon averages 300 performances a year of her works, in many genres within classical music: from opera to chamber, symphonic to band, solo works to concerti. She has even written works in forms not tackled before: a bluegrass/classical hybrid concerto, a concerto for the entire low brass section of an orchestra (at the request of Maestro Ricardo Muti), and one that features 6 soloists (for Eighth Blackbird).

After receiving the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for her Violin Concerto, Higdon also won a Grammy for her Percussion Concerto...a singular feat which no other classical composer has ever managed: two of the biggest major awards for two different pieces in one year. Additionally, she was awarded one of the largest and most prestigious composition prizes in the world, The Nemmers Prize in Music from Northwestern University. She has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, two awards from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Koussevitzky Foundation Fellowship, the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, an Independence Foundation Grant, and funding from the NEA. A winner of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition’s American Composers Invitational, her Secret & Glass Gardens was performed by the semi-finalists in 2005. Her first opera, Cold Mountain, sold out its premiere run in Santa Fe, as well as in North Carolina, and Philadelphia (becoming the third highest selling opera in Opera Philadelphia’s history). Cold Mountain won the prestigious International Opera Award for Best World Premiere in 2016; the first American opera to do so in the award’s history.

Her music has been hailed by Fanfare Magazine as having “the distinction of being at once complex, sophisticated but readily accessible emotionally”, with the Times of London citing it as “…traditionally rooted, yet imbued with integrity and freshness.” The Chicago Sun Times recently cited her music as “both modern and timeless, complex and sophisticated, and immensely engaging in a way that both charms and galvanizes an audience craving something new and full of urgency, yet not distancing.” John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune called her writing, “beautiful, accessible, inventive, and impeccably crafted.”

Higdon's list of commissioners is extensive and includes The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Atlanta Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well such groups as the Tokyo String Quartet, the Lark Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, and the President’s Own United States Marine Band. She has also written works for such renowned artists as baritone Thomas Hampson and mezzo Sasha Cooke; pianists Yuja Wang and Gary Graffman; and violinists Joshua Bell, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Jennifer Koh, and Hilary Hahn.

Her orchestral work, blue cathedral, is one of the most performed contemporary works in the orchestral repertoire and is widely considered the first work in the 21st century to have become part of the standard repertoire. Since its premiere in 2000, it has received over 850 performances.

Higdon’s works have been recorded on more than 90 CDs. She has won Grammys for her Percussion Concerto, Viola Concerto and her Harp Concerto. Her work, All Things Majestic, written for the Grand Teton Music Festival, is part of that national park’s visitor center experience. The Library of Congress has added the recording of her Percussion Concerto to the National Recording Registry.

She was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Philosophical Society (founded by Benjamin Franklin).

For up-to-date information: www.jenniferhigdon.com

Christina Smith has played Principal Flute in the ASO since 1991. Her career passions are playing in one of the most superlative American orchestras, performing chamber music with wonderful colleagues, and teaching the next generation of superstar musicians. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and two college age daughters, and her favorite place to be is the west coast of the US.

Admired for his “marvelous ringing tone” (Joseph Dalton, Albany Times Union) Bixby Kennedy is one of the most versatile clarinetists of his generation. He has performed concerti with orchestras including the Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and New Haven Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Bixby has performed throughout the US and Europe in venues including  Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Kennedy Center, Marlboro Music Festival, and is the clarinetist for the “explosive” New York City based chamber ensemble Frisson.

Luz Sarmiento is a professional clarinetist with an international career as orchestra performer and educator. She loves performing and teaching, cooking Latin American food, singing, and dancing. When she’s not making music or teaching, she enjoys spending time with her two daughters, ages five and seven, who keep life wonderfully busy. 

Violinist Robert Anemone is a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as well as an avid chamber musician and frequent collaborator with ensemble vim. When not making music, he enjoys woodworking, long distance running, and monthly discussions with his film club.

Lauren Roth-Gómez began violin lessons on her third birthday in her hometown of Seattle. A few decades later, she now holds the Assistant Concertmaster chair of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and is an Artist Affiliate at Emory University. Prior to coming to Atlanta, Lauren was Concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and an Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Arizona.

Cellist Laura Usiskin (she/her) is dedicated to enriching the world through music performance, education, and innovation. With a specialization in chamber music, Usiskin believes that the world is a more beautiful place when there is collaboration and communication through the arts. She lives in a round house in Atlanta, where she teaches, rehearses, and attempts to cook for her family.

Violist Josiah Coe performs regularly with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Opera, and Atlanta Ballet. He is a founding member of the Edgewood String Quartet and currently serves as principal violist of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. Josiah’s work as a chamber musician and orchestral player has taken him across North America, Asia, and Europe.

Emily Koh (she/her) is a Singaporean composer and recovering bassist, and is particularly committed to bass repertoire by living composers that foreground microtonality and explore the unique possibilities of the five-string bass. She is Associate Professor of Composition and Area Chair of Music Composition and Theory at the University of Georgia, and lives in Atlanta with her recording engineer husband, Jason.

Matthew Michael Brown is Director of Music at St. Luke's. He frequently performs as a concert organist and collaborative artist, including appearances in Westminster Abbey, Barcelona Cathedral, and Spivey Hall. He is honored to make his début with ensemble vim this evening.

Choo Choo Hu (pianist) has been playing the piano since the age of five. Her music has brought her to the far corners of this weird, wonderful world, and she loves nothing more than to use music to create spaces of shared community and gathering. Other loves include cooking, travel, yoga, her dog Oscar, and her husband Mike, in no particular order of importance.

Saxophonist Jan Berry Baker is a passionate advocate for contemporary music and is co-artistic director of Bent Frequency.  Jan regularly performs with the LA Phil and is professor of saxophone and woodwind area head at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

Lauded by The New York Times for his “consummate virtuosity,” percussionist Stuart Gerber has collaborated with major composers including Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Lewis, and Kaija Saariaho. He is Professor of Percussion at Georgia State University and Co-Artistic Director of Atlanta’s Bent Frequency. Stuart has spent a lot of time making very complicated rhythms look suspiciously easy.

Jeremy Muller is a percussionist, composer, and multimedia artist. He can be found making music with acoustic instruments and mobile devices. Jeremy is a Lecturer at Georgia Institute of Technology.