BRIGHTWORK NEWMUSIC

Falling: a program of vertiginous new music

BRIGHTWORKS ENSEMBLE

Yuri Inoo, percussion
Aron Kallay, piano/keyboard
Maggie Parkins, cello
Sara Parkins, violin
Brian Walsh, clarinets
Sarah Wass, flutes

Anthony Parnther, conductor
Stacey Fraser, soprano
Faith Jensen-Ismay, dancer/choreographer

CREATIVE TEAM

Jason Mann, lighting and projection design
Andre Harrington, costume design
Savanah Moore, stage manager (Falling)
Jordan Curcuruto, electronics
Colin Horrocks, sound

The PROGRAM

Falling is based on a James Dickey poem of the same name that traces a flight attendant’s fall from an airplane (based on an actual New York Times article). This piece integrates an old LP recorded reading of the poem by the author. The interwoven recorded and sung text and accompanying music kaleidoscopically detail the flight attendant’s intense and transformative psychological and physical journey to the ground.

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The Artists

Brightwork is a classical new music sextet based in Los Angeles, California. A flexible and fearless group of world-class musicians, Brightwork consists of piano, violin, cello, flute, clarinet, percussion (an instrumentation which is often called “Pierrot + percussion,” and which is to modern chamber music what the string quartet was to earlier centuries), and champions the best of the music that’s being written today, while continuing to play the classics of “new” music from the last hundred years. We play the music we love, whether this is one of our favorite masterworks of the 20th century, or the latest dazzling score from a composer whose music we just discovered.What the listener can expect at a Brightwork concert–at the very least–is exciting, emotionally engaging music presented in state-of-the-art performances. Brightwork seeks to draw the audience into the creative process.

Sara Andon
Flutist Sara Andon is an international soloist and recording artist known for her ravishing tone and deeply engaging musical interpretations. A versatile performer in many music genres including solo, chamber, symphonic, opera, ballet, new music, jazz and Broadway, she has performed all over the world in major music festivals and concert venues including NYC Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, on TV/radio broadcasts, as well as in the Hollywood studios for countless documentaries, video games and movie soundtracks. She is a graduate from USC and Yale and has performed with many new music ensembles on several contemporary music series, including Green Umbrella, Ojai Music Festival, Hear Now, New Music New Haven and People Inside Electronics, as well as with other elite ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. She is also the Principal Solo/Flutist with the Redlands Symphony and is the Artist Teacher of Flute at the University of Redlands School of Music and Idyllwild Arts Academy. She can be heard on numerous live concerts in the United States, Europe, and China and has recorded music of J.S.Bach, Mozart, Debussy and Schoenberg as well as some of the most current contemporary composers on the new music concert scene. In addition to performing traditional classical concerto repertoire, she has performed Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky´s brilliant Double Flute Concerto with renown flutist Ransom Wilson at Zipper Hall in Los Angeles. She is also premiering many new concert suites for solo flute and orchestra of classic film scores of legendary composers such as Elmer Bernstein, Alex North, Lee Holdridge and Henry Mancini that many current film composers are writing for her. In addition, she has also recorded with several incredible artists ranging from Placido Domingo to pop duo Daft Punk for their 2014 Grammy-winning album “Random Access Memories,” as well as Grammy-winning artists, composer/ jazz pianist Billy Childs and cellist YoYo Ma. She can also be currently heard as the solo flutist on the blockbuster “IT MOVIE” and  the new Star Trek Discovery. For more info on this artist, please visit:  www.facebook.com/sara.andon.3

Aron Kallay
Aron is the director of Brightwork newmusic. Described as a “modern renaissance man,” (Over the Mountain Journal) Grammy® nominated pianist Aron Kallay‘s playing has been called “exquisite…every sound sounded considered, alive, worthy of our wonder” (LA Times).  “Perhaps Los Angeles’ most versatile keyboardist,” (LaOpus) Aron has been praised as possessing “that special blend of intellect, emotion, and overt physicality that makes even the thorniest scores simply leap from the page into the listeners laps.” (KPFK) Aron’s performances often integrate technology, video, and alternate tunings; Fanfare magazine described him as “a multiple threat: a great pianist, brainy tech wizard, and visionary promoter of a new musical practice.” Aron has performed throughout the United States and abroad and is a fixture on the Los Angeles new-music scene. He is the co-founder and board president of People Inside Electronics (PIE), a concert series dedicated to classical electroacoustic music, the managing director of MicroFest, Los Angeles’ annual festival of microtonal music, and the co-directer of the underground new-music concert series Tuesdays@MONK Space. He is also the co-director of MicroFest Records, whose first release, John Cage: The Ten Thousand Things, was nominated for a Grammy® award for Best Chamber Music Performance. Aron has recorded on MicroFest, Cold Blue, Delos, and Populist records. In addition to his solo work, Aron is currently a member of the Pierrot + percussion ensemble Brightwork newmusic, the Varied Trio, and the Ray-Kallay Duo. He is on the faculty of Pomona College. All professional projects of Aron Kallay are fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, and all donations are tax deductible.  Click here to make a donation.

Magaret Parkins
An uncommonly versatile musician, cellist Margaret Parkins is in demand as both a performer and a teacher. Based in Los Angeles, Parkins is equally at home in chamber music, orchestral music and the avant-garde, and has performed throughout the Americas and Europe. Her current work ranges from recitals and chamber music to multimedia, multi-genre collaborations. Always an advocate for new and experimental music, Parkins with the Eclipse String Quartet, has commissioned or premiered numerous works from composers throughout the US and Canada. The Eclipse String Quartet released its first CD in 2005 on John Zorn’s Tzadik label and as also released CDs on the Bridge and New World labels. Eclipse has held residencies at Mills College and Villa Aurora. Parkins is also a member of the Mojave Piano Trio based in Los Angeles focusing on repertoire from classical to contemporary and is also in Brightwork newmusic, an instrumental sextet performing music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her interest in music outside the classical tradition has led her to perform with groups including the Jazz Passengers, the Anthony Braxton Ensemble, backing up singers Bjork, Enya, Caetano Veloso and in ensembles with Alex Cline and Nels Cline.

Parkins received her B.M. from the Eastman School of Music and her D.M.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her principal teachers include Louis Potter, Steven Doane and Timothy Eddy. A dedicated educator, Parkins was cello professor and led chamber music activities at UC Irvine for 19 years. She is visiting professor of cello at Pomona College in the Fall of 2016.

Dr. Yuri Inoo
A native of Kanagawa, Japan, Dr.Yuri Inoo is musician and educator in the Los Angeles area.  She has studied percussion under David Rosenthal at San Francisco State University, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree, graduating summa cum laude, and receiving the Most Outstanding Senior Award. Yuri has received her Master of Music and Doctorate in Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance at the University of Southern California, studying under Erik Forrester, minoring in Music Education, Instrumental Conducting, and Music Industry. During the years at USC, she has performed and collaborated with artist such as Yo Yo Ma, John Williams, Steve Reich, Donald Crockett, Stephen Hartke, Morten Lauridsen, Paul Chihara, Evelyn Glennie, and members of NEXUS.  An advocate for new music, she held the teaching assistant for USC’s award-winning Contemporary Music Ensemble under the direction of Donald Crockett, where she has performed Micro-Concerto written by Steven Mackey.

Yuri is currently the percussion instructor at Occidental College, University of Redlands, Idyllwild Arts Academy, the Principal Percussionist with the Redlands Symphony in Redlands, California, and an active freelancer with other regional orchestras and chamber ensembles in Southern California.

Brian Walsh
Brian Walsh is a musician who is interested in sound and communication, regardless of the genre. Mr. Walsh specializes in performance on the clarinet and bass clarinet, and is fluent in many styles of music. He is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts (MFA, BFA), and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Mr. Walsh frequently performs with such diverse groups as Inauthentica, The New Century Players, The Industrial Jazz Group, PLOTZ!, The Doug McDonald Brass and Woodwind Coalition, and the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble. Mr. Walsh also leads Walsh Set Trio, a jazz ensemble focusing on the performance of his own compositions. Performances have taken him to Japan, Canada, Italy, England, the Netherlands, Iceland, and all over the United States. He has premiered pieces by Luigi Nono, Girard Grisey, James Newton, Rosalie Hirs and many others. Past collaborators have included Peter Maxwell Davies, Gavin Bryars, Bobby Bradford, Nels Cline, Money Mark, Bright Eyes, James Newton, Larry Koonse, Muhal Richard Abrams, the Henry Mancini Orchestra, and the Riverside Philharmonic. Mr. Walsh is also an active private teacher and clinician. He is an instructor at Baxter-Northup Music, the Oakwood School, and the Academy of Creative Education.