The Music

Show Credits : Wires

Posted by SoundBox

February 22, 2019

Born in Cincinnati, OH, curator and composer Bryce Dessner is known to many as a guitarist with Grammy Award-winning band The National. His orchestral, chamber, and vocal compositions have been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Metropolitan Museum of Art (for the New York Philharmonic), Kronos Quartet, BAM Next Wave Festival, Barbican Centre, Edinburgh International Festival, Sydney Festival, Eighth Blackbird, Sō Percussion, New York City Ballet, and many others. He has worked with some of the world’s most creative and respected musicians and visual artists including Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Johnny Greenwood, Justin Peck, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Matthew Ritchie, among others. His Murder Ballades is featured on Eighth Blackbird’s album Filament—an album on which he also produced and performed; it won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. In fall 2015 Mr. Dessner, along with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto,  composed music for Oscar-winning director Alejandro Iñárritu’s film, The Revenant, which received a 2016 Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score and a 2017 Grammy Award nomination in the Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media category.

Now residing in Paris, Mr. Dessner has been increasingly active composing for major European ensembles and soloists. Last fall he premiered a new piece entitled Wires commissioned for the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Matthias Pintscher, as well as recent solo works for violinists Pekka Kuusisto and Jennifer Koh, and a concerto for renowned pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque. May 2016 saw the release of Day of the Dead, a follow-up to 2009’s charity album Dark Was the Night. A tribute album to the Grateful Dead, Day of the Dead was created, curated, and produced by Bryce and his brother Aaron. All profits help fight for AIDS/HIV and related health issues around the world through the Red Hot Organization.

In May 2015, Mr. Dessner was tapped to curate Mountains and Waves, a weekend-long celebration of his music at the Barbican in London. In September 2015, he curated Sounds from a Safe Harbour, a weekend of performances at the Cork Opera House in Ireland. MusicNOW, the Cincinnati-based contemporary music festival he founded in 2006, has featured Tinariwen, Justin Vernon, Joanna Newsom, David Lang, Grizzly Bear, Perfume Genius, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, among others. In 2015, MusicNOW celebrated its ten-year anniversary. To mark the occasion, an album titled MusicNOW: 10 Years, comprised of the festival’s best live performances, was released.

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American conductor Case Scaglione assumed the post of Chief Conductor with the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn in September 2018. He has worked with such artists as Johannes Moser, Sharon Kam, Håkan Hardenberger, Leticia Moreno, Joshua Bell, Yulianna Avdeeva, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Behzod Abduraimov, and Khatia Buniatishvili. This season Mr. Scaglione makes his Belgian debut with Flanders Symphony Orchestra and returns to Orchestre national d'Île de France, the Dallas Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Brno Philharmonic, and Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, he has worked with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, and Bilkent Symphony Orchestra.

Formerly associate conductor with the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Scaglione was previously the music director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra of Los Angeles (2008-11) and was the driving force behind the artistic growth and diversification of the organization, founding their educational outreach initiative 360° Music. His eclectic programming included music by Ligeti, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and the Los Angeles premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic Symphony.

Mr. Scaglione studied under David Zinman at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, where he won the James Conlon Prize. He was awarded the Aspen Conducting Prize in 2010 and 2011 received the Conductor’s Prize from the Solti Foundation US. He was one of three conducting fellows at Tanglewood in 2011, chosen by James Levine and Stefan Asbury. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and his postgraduate studies were spent at the Peabody Institute where he studied with Gustav Meier.

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L.A. Dance Project (LADP) is a platform for the development, creation, support, and presentation of world-class dance in Los Angeles. Comprised of an internationally acclaimed dance company, a performance space in L.A.’s Arts District, and a program of media initiatives, LADP seeks to foster dance-centered artistic collaborations across all disciplines, cultures, and communities in Los Angeles and around the globe. Since its founding, the LADP has performed and conducted masterclasses at prestigious venues and festivals in approximately 100 cities around the world, including the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Théâtre du Châtelet, the Holland Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, La Maison de la Danse, the Saitama Arts Center, and the Shanghai, Beijing, and Dubai Opera Houses. In the US, the company has performed at venues including Jacob’s Pillow, the Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Joyce, New York City Center, the Shubert Theatre at the Boch Center, and the Vail Dance Festival. In its home city of Los Angeles, the company has performed at the Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, MOCA, Union Station, the Theatre at Ace Hotel, and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

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Iva Bittová was born in 1958 in Bruntál in northern Moravia in what was then Czechoslovakia  (now the Czech Republic). Her father Koloman Bitto was a musician strongly influenced by the land of his birth, southern Slovakia. His main instruments were string bass, cimbalom, guitar, and trumpet. Ms. Bittová attended drama pre-school, specializing in violin and ballet. She gained admittance to the Music Conservatory in Brno, graduating in drama and music. During her studies, she took part-time engagements as an actress and musician in Brno’s Divadlo Husa na provázku (Goose on a String Theater). Around this time she also featured as an actress in radio, TV, and movie productions. While working full time in theater, she re-kindled her interest in playing violin, an instrument she had set aside in her youth. After her father’s early death, she decided to follow in his professional footsteps as an instrumentalist and by composing her own music.

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Tim Day is Principal Flute of the San Francisco Symphony, occupying the Caroline H. Hume Chair. He served as principal flute with the Baltimore Symphony for twelve seasons, has been acting principal flute with the Minnesota Orchestra, and was guest principal flute with the Boston Symphony. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, Mr. Day is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

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Jerome Simas joined the San Francisco Symphony as bass clarinet in 2012. He has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony, and Naples Philharmonic of Florida. He was a fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, FL, and has held principal clarinet positions with the California Symphony, Oakland Symphony, and IRIS Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he performs with the Sierra Chamber Society in Walnut Creek, and as solo clarinetist with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble in San Francisco. He won Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, First Prize at the International Clarinet Association’s Young Artist Competition, and was a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. As a music educator, he is a member of the collegiate faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has taught master classes in the US, Canada, and China. He is currently a coach with the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, a mentor and coach with various Bay Area community ensembles, and serves on the board of the Amateur Music Network. He previously taught clarinet at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, Stanford University, UC Davis, and the University of Akron. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Cleveland Orchestra principal clarinet, Franklin Cohen.

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Jacob Nissly was appointed Principal Percussion of the San Francisco Symphony in 2013. Previously, he was principal percussion of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony. He also served as a member of the New World Symphony. He is on the percussion faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory and is currently a coach for the SFS Youth Orchestra. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Mr. Nissly holds a Bachelor of Music and Jazz Studies from Northwestern University and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School. He began his percussion studies with Woody Smith in Iowa. For more on Jacob Nissly, visit sfsymphony.org/jacobnissly.

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Marc Shapiro is Principal Keyboard of the California Symphony, and from 1984 to 2003 he was SFS Chorus accompanist. With the SFS he has toured Europe, Asia, and the US, and performed Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Saint Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals, Martin’s Petite Symphonie Concertante, and James P. Johnson’s Yamekraw. In 1998 he accompanied the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus on tour in the US and Canada. Mr. Shapiro frequently performs with Composers, Inc., Chamber Music Sundaes, Sierra Chamber Music Society, Mainly Mozart Festival (San Diego), and the Mohonk Festival. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and is on the faculty at Mills College.

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Wyatt Underhill joined the SFS as Assistant Concertmaster in 2018. He was previously assistant concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony, substitute concertmaster with the New Haven Symphony, and associate concertmaster of Symphony in C. He has won top prizes in the Irving M. Klein International Competition for Strings and the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, and has performed as soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony, Concord Chamber Orchestra, and the Oberlin Orchestra, and in recital at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and the Gualala Arts Center in California. An avid chamber musician, he is the founding first violinist of the award-winning Blue Hill String Quartet, with whom he has been a fellow at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and the Juilliard School, Mr. Underhill is a recipient of the Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant and was awarded the William Schuman Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music upon his graduation from Juilliard.

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Margaret Tait joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1975 and currently occupies the Lyman & Carol Casey Second Century Chair. A Virginia native, she holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and she previously served as principal cellist with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Tait was a founding member of the Aurora String Quartet, in which she performed with SFS colleagues for twenty-two years.

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Luke Kritzeck has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds in theater, dance, music, circus, and opera on stages around the world. Prior to joining New World Symphony as the Director of Lighting in 2014, Mr. Kritzeck spent six years working for Cirque du Soleil on its touring production TOTEM and in Macau, China on its resident show ZAiA. He also served as the lighting director for featured Cirque performances, including the Venetian Macau Tennis Showdown and the International Indian Film Awards. Mr. Kritzeck’s design credits include Chautauqua Opera Company, Cincinnati Ballet, Cedar Fair Entertainment, Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Lafayette Ballet Theatre, and the San Francisco Symphony.

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Musical genius Adam Larsen is a documentary filmmaker and designer for live performance. Designs for the San Francisco Symphony include Le martyre de Saint Sébastien, Peer Gynt, Peter Grimes, On the Town, Das klagende Lied, Michael Tilson Thomas’s Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind, and most recently Boris Godunov. Mr. Larsen is also Resident Projection Designer for SoundBox. Other works include Hal Prince’s LoveMusik on Broadway; Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking The Waves at Opera Philadelphia and Prototype; Lee Breuer’s The Gospel at Colonus at the Athens, Edinburgh, and Spoleto festivals; Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at the Singapore and Edinburgh festivals; Kaija Saariaho’s Maa with Atlanta Symphony; Janáček’s From the House of the Dead at Canadian Opera; The Pelleas Project at the Cincinnati Symphony; Jonathan Dove’s Siren Song, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann at Hawaii Opera Theatre; John Adams’s A Flowering Tree and Handel’s Agrippina at Opera Omaha; Handel’s Semele with Pacific Musicworks; Cage’s Second Hand and Foss’s Phorion with New World Symphony; Dove’s Flight at Juilliard; Bora Yoon’s Sunken Cathedral at Prototype; and Mascagni’s Iris at Bard Summerscape. Mr. Larsen’s documentary about autism entitled Neurotypical aired on the PBS series POV.