On Nov. 13–14, the Unheard-of//Ensemble will hold its second residency at Oberlin College and Conservatory. The Brooklyn-based contemporary chamber music quartet is on a tour across Ohio, previously playing both Ohio University and Ohio State University. The quartet, which consists of clarinetist Ford Fourqurean, violinist Sofiya Levchenko, cellist Iva Casian-Lakoš, OC ’13, and pianist Daniel Anastasio, is renowned for their repertoire of solely contemporary composers and use of electronic instrumentation.
Another key part of the group’s mission is community engagement and supporting new composers — the group organizes the Collaborative Composition Initiative, an annual workshop for emerging composers. Their ethos is on full display in this residency: prior to tonight’s evening performance in David H. Stull Recital Hall, on Thursday, the quartet workshopped pieces written by Oberlin Conservatory’s composition majors, and then recorded them this morning in Clonick Hall. Some of these pieces were written for the whole quartet and some for a piano, violin, and clarinet trio to accommodate for the recent pinky injury of cellist Casian-Lakoš.
Michael Frazier, assistant professor of Composition and organizer of the quartet’s residency, explained how the workshops fit into the residency’s programming.
“Each composer is given 45 minutes to work with the ensemble on their pieces, addressing any finer details, answering questions, and getting a sense of how the works sound when realized by the ensemble live,” he wrote in an email to the Review. Frazier also noted that this isn’t the first time Unheard-of has performed at Oberlin; a similar residency took place three years ago, which also gave student composers opportunities to get feedback on pieces and have them performed by a professional quartet.
One person in the audience three years ago was Aaron Nichols, a current Conservatory fourth-year and one of the four composition majors who enthusiastically volunteered to write a piece for the ensemble this year.
“I saw them do a massive piece by Christopher Stark that was a multimedia piece with live electronics and fixed media and video,” he said. “It was really amazing. It really stuck with me.”
As a TIMARA minor, Nichols felt like his compositions lent themselves well to Unheard-of’s workshop.
“I knew that doing a work with electronics would be an option, [so] I decided to go for it,” he said. “[It] really seemed like Unheard-of//Ensemble was like the best possible ensemble to try this [piece] with.”
Nichols’ compositions feature live instruments processed by Max MSP, a common music programming software that allows live manipulation. Its digital effects lend themselves well to this particular ensemble. His piece is based on an A.E. Housman poem, “Bredon Hill,” which was set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams soon after its publication. With this composition, Nichols evokes imagery of church bells and the emotional strain of the Housman poem through digital ring modulation.
“In the clarinet, I have moments where they’re playing melodic material that I ripped straight out of the Vaughan Williams setting, except they play some of it wrong,” Nichols said. “There are some moments where they have to execute these rather fast interjections and they’re supposed to almost sound like glitches. The clarinet, I think, is a very good instrument to do that with, and I know that Ford, the clarinetist, is an extremely good player.”
Conservatory second-year Gabriel Fulton also discussed the unique opportunity of working with a touring contemporary ensemble.
“I’m super excited to get their comments because normally when I get comments from new musicians, they’re regular collegiate musicians, but these are new music professional specialists,” he said. “Their technique and their tone color will be different from the musicians that I’ve already worked with because they specialize in very contemporary music.”
Fulton’s piece features complex polyrhythm and utilizes prepared piano, placing bolts at specific nodes on the piano string to create new timbres and pitches. For their residency, Unheard-of was not able to gain access to a piano primed for preparation, so Fulton’s piece was performed on a traditional piano.
The composers acknowledge that they’re working on a serious time crunch, with just 45 minutes of workshopping on Thursday followed by another 45 minutes of recording the following day. Fulton noted that this is the norm for contemporary composers.
“We’re all practiced in getting things in very quickly, and part of what that means is being able to concisely detail our ideas,” he said. “I do wish that we had more time, although I’m very grateful that we sent them our pieces early and they’ve had the time to look at them.”
Nichols shared the same sentiment.
“I think this piece … has enough logistic complications that getting the exact desired result in the time crunch might not be feasible, but … it’s really more of a workshop for these things anyway,” he said. “I think it’s set up very well and … seems very likely to yield a recording that I’m very happy with.”
The Unheard-of//Ensemble’s guest recital will take place at 7:30 p.m. in David H. Stull Recital Hall tonight, featuring five works composed this year by contemporary artists. One of these five is the world premiere of Professor of Composition Jesse Jones’ piece, “Quartet (For Ye Old of Tyme).”
