Visual & Performing Arts

“I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener”

—Arvo Pärt

 

Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) was trained in the school of 12-tone serial composition and achieved early success in the medium. However, as for many of his generation, it became crucial in time for him to break free from this compositional technique, so much so that he stopped composing altogether in the late 1960’s. At this time, Pärt turned to medieval chant; melodies which are monophonic, meaning they had no harmony. He studied them obsessively and gradually began to write his own melodies, eventually writing so many that he filled entire cabinets with them. 

Finally, in what would become Fur Alina and his return to composition, he took one of these monophonic melodies but added the harmony of the triad using a new process which he has called “tintinnabuli,” meaning “little bells.” This process varies a great deal through his works, but it is always created through marvelous conceptualization and can affect the listener in profound ways. Briefly speaking, the technique can be characterized by a pairing of melody, or “M voice” with a triad, or “T” voice.” The result is a tonal architecture which contains the purity of the major and minor triad which accompanies the melody, creating a complex weave of both consonances and dissonances.

Vater unser (2005) is a setting of the Lord’s prayer performed here on cello.

Spiegel im spiegel (1978) is structured as it is named, in mirror image. The piano accompaniment follows tintinnabuli technique via arpeggiated triads based on the F major chord, which contain M and T voices which at times are unexpected and dissonant. The solo part mirrors around the note A, the center of the F major triad.

Für Alina was written in 1976 for a young person leaving home (Alina) as well as her mother experiencing this transition. It contains both the mother’s experience and the daughter’s. This piece is based on one of Pärt’s monophonic melodies composed during his sabbatical from composition, surrounded by a B minor triad. The composer writes “It was the first piece that was on a new plateau. It was here that I discovered the triad series, which I made my simple guiding rule.”

Fratres (1977/1980) was originally written for open instrumentation in three voices based on the D minor harmonic minor scale. This original composition is contained entirely in the piano part. The cello part is a virtuosic elaboration upon it. Every episode is brought to a state of rest. 

Pari intervallo (1976) is another strictly composed piece using the tintinnabuli technique. Pärt’s music is often created from scripture. He has said that in these cases, all of the musical material is taken from the text such that nothing is added or removed. In the case of Pari intervallo, he has indicated in his score that this music is created from Romans 14:8: 

“If we live, our life belongs to the Lord, and when we die, then especially we die into him. In life or in death we belong to the Lord.” 

Mozart-Adagio was written in 1992 in memory of Pärt’s long time friend and collaborator violinist Oleg Kagan. The composition is, as the name implies, pulled directly from the adagio movement of Mozart’s Sonata in F Major, K. 280, with somber additions by Pärt.

Variations for the Healing of Arinushka was composed in 1977 for Pärt’s daughter who was recovering from an appendix operation. The piece begins in minor and transforms to major in a gentle, levitating way. 

Spiegel im spiegel is performed here again, with a different interpretation, projecting the mirrored musical structure of this piece onto our program.

Estonian Lullaby is a charming rendition of Pärt’s Christmas Lullaby, Eesti hällilaul, scored for violin with piano.

Ukuaru Waltz was composed for an extremely popular 1973 Estonian film by the same name.

When American composers are described as “native” the definition is not usually as accurate as when applied to Brent Michael Davids, an American Indian and enrolled citizen of the Mohican Nation. He has consciously and deliberately focused on his indigenous heritage, honoring its unique qualities in a contemporary setting. He blends Eurocentric techniques of classical music with Native musical traditions in a way that is never glib or facile, but rich in resonance. The Last of James Fenimore Cooper, written for Zeitgeist, is a musical tale of forgiveness, transformation, and redemption. It combines the story of "The Last of the Mohicans" by James Fenimore Cooper with that of a much older Mohican story about the Snow Monster of the North. 

Brent Michael Davids (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape) is a professional composer, and a music warrior for native equity and parity, especially in concert music where there is little indigenous influence. Davids places Native voices front and center. He originated and co-founded the award-winning Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP), championing indigenous youth to compose their own written music. He uses indigenous instruments, including handmade quartz flutes, and pens performable notations that are themselves visual works of art. Davids is co-director of the Lenape Center in Manhattan, and is enrolled in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. His composer career spans nearly five decades, with countless awards and commissions from America’s most celebrated organizations and ensembles. International ensembles have premiered his works globally in Austria, Bermuda, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and throughout the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Disney Concert Hall, Tanglewood Music Center’s Koussevitzky Shed and Ozawa Hall, Rothko Chapel, The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors, and The Kennedy Center. Davids is in high demand as an Educator and Consultant for Films, Television, Schools, Festivals, Seminars and Workshops. In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts named Davids among the nation’s most celebrated choral composers in its project “American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.” And In 2015, the prestigious Indian Summer Music Festival awarded Davids its “Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Davids’ most recent project is “Requiem for America: Singing for the Invisible People.” This major work tackles the genocidal founding of America, giving voice to America’s Indigenous People. “Requiem” exposes a specific genocide in each state, juxtaposing genocidal texts from America’s founding against historical letters from American Indians themselves. In addition to the Western singers and orchestra, each performance will feature Indigenous singers recruited from local tribal communities. Once completed, it is hoped that “Requiem” will tour every state in the country.

 

In Holding Patterns, written for Zeitgeist, different rhythmic patterns concatenate to form constantly shifting kinetic forms, not unlike the way a kaleidoscope continuously morphs colors and shapes. The first movement builds slowly through tight canons ("Battle Patterns"), before releasing into the main section, characterized by pulses in the highest register of the piano. Despite their persistence, the movement settles into a more troubled landscape of shifting colors ("Sorrowful Siege"). The ensemble engages in layers of simple, single-note ostinati in the second movement ("Patterns in a Warm Field"), while swirls of electronic sound envelop the texture. In the final movement, canonic techniques return as the energy builds to a frenzy; the last section, while more subdued, is carried once again by an interlocking pattern-based theme. 

RANDY BAUER is a composer and jazz musician based in Minneapolis. His works have been performed across a range of cities and venues, from Austin to Zagreb, including New York, Chicago, Washington (the Kennedy Center), Boston, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Los Angeles, St. Petersburg (Russia), Uppsala (Sweden), Berlin, Paris, Weimar, and in many other smaller cities and at universities across the United States. Premieres of his work have been given by members of the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Brentano String Quartet, eighth blackbird, Nash Ensemble of London, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Synergy Vocals, New Millennium Ensemble, MATA Micro-Orchestra with Theo Bleckmann, Network for New Music, and many others. He was named a 2013-14 McKnight Foundation Fellow in Music Composition by the McKnight Foundation of Minnesota. He also received a major fellowship in 2006 from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. His music appears on Albany and Cedille Records. 

This concert is generously supported by Xcel Energy. 

The Library of Babel is inspired by the short story by Argentine author (and librarian) Jorge Luis Borges. In the story the characters live in a universe in the form of an infinite library. Each room of this library contains shelves of books with a seemingly random series of letters. It is theorized that the endless collection of books would contain every possible combination of letters, therefore every work ever written, and everything that ever could be written, including, somewhere, the index to the library itself. While my work is somewhat more finite it does have a series of melodic cells to be performed at the musician’s discretion which are taken from an actual melody that never reveals itself.

Alaiki’ssalaam (Peace be with you) is inspired by the tragic events that occurred in the Middle East and particularly in Lebanon in summer 2006, and aims to be a testimony of Peace and Joy. It follows the theological and musical line of another work of the composer, Die Taube and echoes Pastor Hanne Margrethe Tougaard’s preface for this same work: Lad Guds melodi klinge i jer og lede jeres fødder ind på fredens vej (Let God’s melody resound in you and guide your feet into the way of peace).

Alaiki’ssalaam  is a Marian Maronite melody developed here in a set of seven variations. The first variation is a joyful melismatic ornamentation in contrasted modes. Variations two and three proceed by rhythmic ostinato or aksak rhythm (3+3+2) around harmonic frames of the theme; they are linked to a powerful and dark Marcia (Variation four). An expressive harmonization in the middle of the work (Variation five) is followed by a joyful arpeggio. Variation seven is articulated in three sections progressing from an initial habanera, through a tonal, rhythmic and dynamic gradation, to burst out in the brilliant and cheerful coda.

Jennifer Higdon’s Flute Poetic was modeled after her String Poetic, a series in which Higdon is re-interpreting the traditional instrumental sonata to reflect her less formal and more intuitive approach to composition. Movement I, "First," is structured sectionally, relying on contrasts in mood. Jan Vinci, who commissioned the work with Pola Baytelman, describes the first movement as a "frantic schizophrenic dialogue with an unpredictable opening—like a picture going in and out of focus." This description captures the unstable musical texture characterized by rapid, jarring shifts. The movement generates tension by undermining rhythmic stability through metrical dissonance and ostinato patterns. These sections contrast with brief, transparent lyrical episodes, which momentarily evoke a calmer atmosphere. This movement is interpretatively challenging, in that the players need to navigate radical shifts in dynamics and articulations to achieve the effect of Vinci’s “picture going in and out of focus.”

James Webb’s Pillars draws on many aspects of the life contained within the James Webb Space Telescope image; the joy and beauty of the stars, the silence that the stars and dust exist in, and the new life and violent collisions that create the beauty of the photograph.

John Zorn’s Cobra is a groundbreaking “game piece” that blurs the lines between composition and improvisation. Rather than a traditional score, it uses a system of cues and signals controlled by a prompter, allowing performers to make real-time decisions within a set of rules. The result is a dynamic, unpredictable performance that can range from chaotic to meditative, shaped entirely by the ensemble’s choices. Cobra emphasizes collaboration, conflict, and spontaneity—hallmarks of Zorn’s radical, genre-defying approach to music-making.

danza, con alarido (dance, with shriek) explores a dramatic contrast between the instrument's intimate lowest octave and its more brilliant upper register. A clave-like rhythm creates a dancelike mood that is continually interrupted by high, sustained notes, dramatizing the tension between registers until a kind of reconciliation takes hold.

Homeland is a work for solo flute that questions the meaning of home when it is in political turmoil, devastated by a natural disaster or a human disaster.

Argoru III (1971) is the third in a series of solo works by Alvin Singleton, with “argoru” meaning “to play” in the Ghanaian Twi language. Singleton draws on a wide range of influences—“from Mahler toMonk, Bird to Bernstein, James Baldwin to Bach, Santana to Price” (Philadelphia Inquirer). Argoru III reflects this fusion of styles, balancing bursts of kinetic energy with moments of spacious lyricism. Composer and author Carman Moore writes in his performance notes: “Quicksilver runs and leaps alternate with cantabile moments, like light falling through trees in a forest.”

Aubade (1982) by Libby Larsen takes its title from the French word for “dawn,” derived from auba (morning) and albus (white). She writes that “the word means morning music, as opposed to the serenade, or evening music. It is a song, or a poem to greet the dawn and usually denotes music of a quiet, idyllic nature. It is also seen as a morning love song, or song or poem of parting lovers at dawn. In the17th century noblemen held gatherings, feasts in the mornings for which aubades were composed. They were played in the open air just as the sun began to break the horizon.” The result is a meditation on renewal—music that listens as much as it sings.

In her Sonatina (1978) for solo flute, Sofia Gubaidulina uses breath marks of varying lengths to shape the work’s dramatic pacing, creating moments of tense silence. A deeply spiritual composer, Gubaidulina explored themes of transcendence and constraint, a reflection of the political repression she faced in the USSR, where her music was criticized for its avant-garde tendencies. Her use of silence as a structural element is perhaps a metaphor for artistic expression within constrained societies, where sound and silence are both acts of resistance and revelation. Other works for flute, such as Sounds of the Forest and The Deceitful Face of Hope and Despair, further demonstrate her philosophical and literary influences, drawing inspiration from poetry, mysticism, and nature.

Euterpe’s Caprice (2008) by Augusta Read Thomas and unruly clock etude (2025) by Paul Novak are paired here as short reflections on collaboration and community. I first met both composers at the Aspen Music Festival, where I was a fellow with the Contemporary Ensemble and premiered Read Thomas’s Abracadabra (Suncatchers) and Novak’s Seven Dreams About My Body, both written with my flute playing in mind. I perform their music as a thank-you to ongoing relationships that sustain new music’s ecosystem of connection and exchange between composers and performers.

Dedicated to Claire Chase, Euterpe’s Caprice is a vibrant and playful tribute to Euterpe, the muse of flute playing and lyric poetry in Greek mythology. The piece sparkles with dance-like energy, weaving rapid flourishes, rhythmic vitality, and shimmering expressivity into a display of color and motion. A prolific and highly acclaimed composer, Thomas is known for her bold, lyrical style and masterful handling of instrumental color—qualities that shine through in Euterpe’s Caprice, where the flute’s agility and brilliance are on full display.

Novak’s unruly clock etude (2025) adapts a soprano saxophone piece premiered in October 2025 in Chicago by Phil Pierick. Compact yet restless, it compresses rhythmic play, mechanical precision, and bursts of color into a miniature study of motion. The result is a witty and virtuosic exploration of pulse and elasticity. This short piece also points toward future collaborations, reflecting the trust and ease that come from a shared musical language. Paul Novak is a flutist himself, and that closeness of perspective shapes the way he writes for the instrument.

Liza Lim’s music forms an interconnected world in which each piece evolves from the materials, techniques, and poetic ideas of earlier works. As with other composers, close collaborations with performers shape how the music sounds and behaves, creating a shifting ecosystem of breath and motion. One recurring gesture in her flute writing is a technique adapted from Salvatore Sciarrino’s “double trill,” in which finger motions combined with embouchure and air-pressure oscillations produce a flickering effect. Lim also makes extensive use of multiphonics, which is the production of more than one simultaneous pitch, an intensely personal process that reveals the unique physical and sonic identity of the player.

Bioluminescence (2019) takes its title from the natural phenomenon of living organisms producing light. Lim writes that the piece “explores flickering, shimmering qualities. Bioluminescence is the emission of light by organisms such as fireflies, fungi, algae and many sea creatures.” The work draws on two vivid depictions of illumination. Charles Darwin, describing his voyage on the Beagle, wrote: “While sailing in these latitudes on one very dark night, the sea presented a wonderful and most beautiful spectacle. There was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which during the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light… As far as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright, and the sky above the horizon, from the reflected glare of these livid flames, was not so utterly obscure, as over the rest of the heavens.”Lim pairs this with a line drawn from Sappho: “Pick any path of concrete or crock to this spirited place whose orchard-body belongingly offers that flickering, altered aroma— groves on fire.” The flute becomes both observer and participant in this luminous environment, tracing fragile lines that pulse, flare, and dissolve.

Lucid Dreaming (2022) extends the sound world of Bioluminescence while exploring new techniques for notating repetitions, interpolations, and temporal loops that subtly shift with each recurrence. Lim writes that “the musician may experience a kind of dissociation from a unitary flow of time or reality.” Like the state it describes, the music exists in a space between awareness and illusion, where one recognizes the shape of a dream yet cannot fully control its logic. Familiar gestures return altered, as if refracted through shifting light. The work bends and folds musical time into loops that are never identical.

Unanswered Questions (1995) by Tristan Murail shares its solo flute material with Ethers (1984–85) but stands apart in character and intention. He writes, “In vain one might seek a reference to the work with a similar title by Charles Ives, and these questions remaining unanswered find a musical characterisation in the ‘modest, unfinished melodies’ stemming from the flute harmonics.” The result is an introspective work of fragile color and quiet restraint. The music’s questions remain suspended, shaped by the breath of the instrument and the harmonic overtones that fade into silence.

Lluvia de Toritos (1984) by Javier Álvarez takes inspiration from Francisco Goya’s etching Lluvia de Toros, which depicts bulls floating surreally through the air. Álvarez transforms this imagery into sound, blurring the line between dream and reality to evoke an aural “rain of bulls” that immerses the listener in a vivid, otherworldly landscape. The title may also allude to the Toritos de Pucará—small Peruvian bull figurines traditionally placed on rooftops for protection and prosperity. A Mexican composer with an expansive and eclectic career, Álvarez integrated folk instruments into experimental music, composed electroacoustic works, and engaged with a wide range of styles. His fascination with sonic texture and spatial movement animates Lluvia de Toritos, a playfully surreal and immersive sound world.

Vespro della B. Vergine | Music by Claudio Monteverdi | Text derived from Latin Liturgy

Domine ad adiuvandum

(O Lord, make haste)

Dómine ad adiuvándum me festina.

(O Lord, make haste to help me)

Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spiritúi Sancto.

(Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit)

Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper,

(As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be...)

Et in sæcula sæculórum.

(...without end)

Amen.

Alleluia.

 

Funeral Ikos | Music by John Tavener | Text from the Order of Burial for a Priest

Why these bitter words of the dying, O brethren, which they utter as they go hence?

I am parted from my brethren. All my friends do I abandon, and go hence.

But whither I go, that understand I not, neither what shall become of me younder;

Only God, who hath summoned me knoweth. But make commemoration of me with the song:

Alleluia.

 

But whither now go the souls? How dwell they now together there?

This mystery have I desired to learn, but none can impart a right.

Do they call to mind their own people, as we do them?

Or have they forgotten all those who mourn them and make the song:

Alleluia.

 

We go forth on the path eternal, and as condemned, with downcast faces, present ourselves before the only God eternal,

Where then is comeliness? Where then is wealth?

Where then is the glory of this world?

There shall none of these things aid us, but only to say oft the psalm:

Alleluia.

 

If thou hast shown mercy unto man, O man, that same mercy shall be shown thee there;

And if on an orphan thou hast shown compassion, the same shall there deliver thee from want.

If in this life the naked thou hast clothed, the same shall give thee shelter there, and sing the psalm:

Alleluia.

 

Youth and the beauty of the body fade at the hour of death, and the tongue then burneth fiercely,

And the parched throat is inflamed.

The beauty of the eyes is quenched then, the comeliness of the face all altered,

The shapeliness of the neck destroyed:

And the other parts have become numb, nor often say

Alleluia.

 

With ecstasy are we inflamed if we but hear that there is light eternal yonder;

That there is Paradise, where in every soul of Righteous Ones rejoiceth.

Let us all, also, enter into Christ, that all we may cry aloud thus unto God:

Alleluia.

 

Alleluia | Music by Jake Runestad | Text from Fear, by Kahlil Gibran

Alleluia.

 

Almighty and everlasting God | Music by Orlando Gibbons | Text by John Milton

Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities.

And in all our dangers and necessities, stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us.

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

 

Dominus Vobiscum | Music by Sydney Guillaume | Text by Gabriel T. Guillaume

Dominus vobiscum.

(God be with you)

Gran Mètla avèk nou, Li la non mitan nou.

(God is with us, God is among us)

Li la non fon kè nou.

(God is in the depths of our hearts)

Amen, Alleluya.

Depi nan tan benbo.

(For a very long time)

Nape mache, nap chèchè, Nap mande:

(We’ve been searching, seeking, asking:)

Ki lè, ki tan; ki tan, ki jou, li mièa va leve pou vin deilivre nou?

(When will the light come, at last, to deliver us?)

Limiè lapèa, Limiè la veritea, Limiè la jwa, Limiè lespwa.

(The light of peace, the light of truth, the light of joy, the light of hope)

Limiè lanmoua, Limiè la via.

(The light of love, the light of life)

Jodia an nou chânte: “Dominus vobiscum.”

(Today let us sing: “Dominus vobiscum”)

Mache, chèchè mande: Lila nan mitan nou.

(Search, seek, ask... God is among us)

Li la nan fon kè nou.

(God is in the depths of our hearts).

Amen, Amen, Alleluya.

 

Alleluia | Music by Randall Thompson | Text derived from Hebrew Liturgy

Alleluia.

Dear fans, families, and friends of the UWL Symphony Orchestra 

Welcome to our first concert of the academic year and to our first annual Honor Orchestra. Today, we welcome high school orchestra students to perform with the UWL Orchestra after a day of masterclasses and rehearsals. I know you will enjoy their performances! 

While the pieces listed for the Honor Orchestra will be announced from the podium, I am happy to tell you a bit about the UWL Symphony Orchestra’s program today. We begin with the formidable Egmont Overture by Ludwig van Beethoven who tells the tragic story of Goethe’s Egmont, a citizen fighting against tyranny. Beethoven revered Goethe as the “German Shakespeare” of his time. The piece traverses a brooding opening to a heroic theme to close. 

We are excited to partner with the traveling exhibit, The Violins of Hope, for this concert. While there will be a brief presentation on this subject at the concert, our second piece by David Avshalomov, Elegy, is a nod to the historic events of World War II. The piece is for strings alone and was originally composed for the American conductor and composer, Leonard Bernstein. 

Next, we feature Dr. Michelle Elliott, UWL violin professor, on a classic of the violin repertoire. I know you will be amazed with her virtuosity. I invite you to give her your warmest welcome to the  stage! Afterwards, we present a new piece for the full symphony orchestra: Gala Flagello’s Bravado! You will immediately hear a bright and new sound from the stage!  

Afterwards, we welcome our Honor Orchestra members to join us on stage for a performance of Christopher Ducasse’s Lakay. This piece brings Haitian rhythms and harmonies to the stage under the guise of a tango! We hope you enjoy this performance. For our members of the Honor Orchestra, I sincerely hope you have enjoyed your time on campus, and I hope you will return to make music with us in college. There is a place for you at UWL! 

We hope to welcome you back to campus and the Annett Recital Hall on December 7 for our final concert of the fall semester.  

Sincerely, 
Martin I. Gaines, DMA